Anyone Have Any Good Alternate Campaign Startup Ideas?

[Rainbow Six]

My memory's a bit vague concerning the detail but I seem to remember someone running an online game at one point where the characters were part of the CivGov forces in Yugoslavia.

[rcaf_777]

V 2.2 Has a Eastern European Source which has alot of good background info on Yugo

[boogiedowndonovan]

Originally Posted by Rainbow Six

My memory's a bit vague concerning the detail but I seem to remember someone running an online game at one point where the characters were part of the CivGov forces in Yugoslavia.

Yes you are correct. Max was running, or was planning to run a T2k game set in Yugoslavia. The players were part of the 76th Infantry Division's LRSD.

There is also a current game set in Yugoslavia running on yahoo groups. The is cataraft_2000, but I don't think he posts here.

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/T2K76thDiv/

[Webstral]

I have trouble designing missions for a small group. This sort of thing is at the heart of Twilight: 2000, so it’s rather a shortcoming on my part.

Nonetheless, I have the kernel of a couple of ideas. The Final Solution, which I have covered in more depth elsewhere, is set in Idaho. The PCs have to liberate hydroelectric engineers from a New American prison camp in Boise. Ideally, the PCs will also do something about the concentration camp where the New Americans are working all of the Thirds they have been able to capture to death. As if this weren’t enough, the PCs also are charged with conducting recce in preparation for an attack by 104th ID (L) to clear the Snake River of hostile forces.

One idea that came out of the original discussion of The Final Solution is for characters loyal to Milgov to acquire samples of GMO crops in Civgov hands. One can go many routes with this. Corn came to my mind first. Civgov has a genetically modified variant of corn that has some extraordinary feature built in, such as nitrogen fixing, an extraordinarily high output of oil, or some such. Perhaps they even have a couple of these which, acting in concert, have the potential to change the post-Exchange agricultural picture in the US. Nitrogen-fixing blue corn planted alongside oil-yielding white corn would fertilize itself, provide an edible product, and yield oil (or chemical feed stocks) for industry.

Several possibilities exist for hunting for materials in Phoenix. For instance, Fort Huachuca wants to make nice with Milgov. Milgov needs industrial machinery for making airbags for airships in the wake of Airlords of the Ozarks. Milgov has been unable to locate this machinery intact in Colorado, but an example exists in Phoenix. In 2001, Phoenix represents a dry version of Manhattan. PCs have to go in, get eyes on the target, and figure out how to get the machines and as much airbag material as they can to a location where an airship from Colorado can pick them up. They can’t call on Samadi forces (troops from Huachuca) because the mission has been conceived by a Milgov mole in the Huachuca command. The mole knows Thomason has an interest in acquiring the machines so he can patch up his relationship with Colorado Springs; the mole wants to prevent this because he wants Thomason hanged for his decision to halt food shipments to Phoenix in 1998. PCs therefore have some decisions to make.

Milgov has heard that a warlord calling himself the Shogun is maintaining a motorized army in Nevada without having any petroleum. PCs are to find out how this is being done. Detail such that this might be reproduced elsewhere is the goal.

PCs have to find a revered Navajo spiritual leader who has been taken by unknown parties. The Navajo have weathered the years since 1997 remarkably well. They even have taken in some non-Navajo refugees asking for shelter. The Navajo Nation could be a huge asset in the recovery of the American Southwest. New America has become aware of this and has contracted a local marauder band to kidnap a beloved public figure with the intent of blaming this on Fort Huachuca. The marauders also have committed some atrocities against the Navajo. The New American intent is to set two of the most successful groups in the region against each other. The Navajo are quite naturally Thirds and therefore unfit to do anything but serve Firsts. The Samadi are mongrels who have included Americans of every ethnicity and foreign nationals from more than a dozen nations in the power structure. Having these two groups at war serves New American interests. (The New Americans want to keep the Navajo shaman alive because he might have further value in manipulating the Navajo.)

[Sanjuro]

If you want to start a small group, badly equipped and not in good health... it messes with canon a lot of course...
Your party are the crew of a space station, and have remained in orbit many months longer than expected, providing satellite imagery and the last remaining space-based weather reports. They (barely) survived the ASAT weapons launched against them during TDM, but opted not to abandon the station using their emergency reentry vehicle.
Some time ago they debated drawing lots- all but one would kill themselves, leaving one survivor to continue broadcasting for much longer. Even when ordered by ground control NOT to do this, they continued- only when their ground controller threatened to use an ASAT to destroy the station did they agree to continue as a group.
Now they have finally used all their supplies- the station is no longer habitable. With no food, little water and only a few days of air, they must return to Earth, whether to be met by such support crews are available, or simply by picking a target area and setting out. Don't give them a shuttle- far too much space for gear; a smaller capsule such as a Soyuz or Apollo Command Module used as a lifeboat will be far more limiting (although it might be kinder to assume that by the 1990s the Apollo CM has been modified enough to allow a return to land).
After so long in space, the group will have weakened bones, terrible muscle tone and all the other medical issues expected. They will have little or no weapons, although they could conceivably have high-tech stuff invaluable to any T2k settlement- radiation hardened electronics, accurate maps of every nuclear explosion, solar panel arrays, communication lasers (make those as powerful as you like, just don't forget the electrical supply), geiger counters, recycling equipment, even a working laptop with a copy of some useful survival books and encyclopaediae...
As I say, it plays fast and loose with canon, but it would make a whole new type of campaign!
Edited to add: the biggest asset such a group would have would be their overall knowledge of what has happened to the world- only they have the big picture. Alternatively, the party could be a group sent to rescue (or kidnap) such survivors, whether for the boost to national morale, or for the knowledge they possess.

[Targan]

Originally Posted by Sanjuro

If you want to start a small group, badly equipped and not in good health... it messes with canon a lot of course...
Your party are the crew of a space station, and have remained in orbit many months longer than expected, providing satellite imagery and the last remaining space-based weather reports. They (barely) survived the ASAT weapons launched against them during TDM, but opted not to abandon the station using their emergency reentry vehicle.

LOL! This doesn't mess with canon. It is already canon! (Basically). Sorry Sanj but GDW already beat you to this idea.

Challenge issue #44, the mini-module Falling Fragments of a Dream. In 1999 the crew of the Soviet Mir space station finally abandoned ship following the nuking of the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Three cosmonauts made a successful landing inside the Soviet Union (they reentered in a proper manned descent module). Three others cobbled together makeshift couches in a Progress PM-9 cargo craft and landed in Tibet. The Soviets were never sure what became of them.

The Space Shuttle Columbia was the last shuttle to make it into space during the Twilight War. It was damaged in orbit and forced to make an emergency landing in Gambia (thereby surviving the destruction of the rest of the shuttle fleet when the Kennedy Space Centre was nuked). That would be one hell of a game, playing the Columbia's astronauts trying to survive the Twilight War in the middle of Africa!

[ArmySGT.]

The last survivors of the LA Emergency Services.

A small town sherrif, construction crew, and EMS.

Wild land fire fighters.

Park Rangers.

The Secret Service detail protecting the US Constitution.

Nuclear Security Team transporting from depot, air dropped weapons to Air Force secondary recovery sites.

CDC Doctors or their Dept of Health and Human Services security detail with anti virals for bio war plagues.

Hippies going to Costa Rica. Mannnnnnnnnnnnnn.

[Legbreaker]

I've done Rastafarian's in Grenada. They grow some damn fine ganja there!

[Rainbow Six]

Originally Posted by Sanjuro

Your party are the crew of a space station...

It's a cracking good idea...I think the part I like the most if the possibility that a space station crew might be international...so you could have American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts who have been living and cooperating together on the space station and may even have become friends.

[Ronin]

Ive an idea for you fellas. Two words, "Red Dawn"

[Sanjuro]

My idea differs from canon in the existence of a viable space platform into 2000, otherwise it's a fair cop; although it's a long time since I read Challenge 44, I do have them all in a box- not to mention the cd from farfuture. Time to load them onto my Kindle for travel use I think...

[natehale1971]

I woke up at 0600 and ouldn't get bak to sleep after only... say 4 hours of sleep. these new meds either zonk me out, or make my insomia 1000% worse. Friday can't get here soon enough.

Anyway... I found this on Youtube. It's really interesting and kind of fits into day's world just as well as it did in 1984 thanks to current events.... It might work as an alterate build up for the Twilight War...

Countdown to Looking Glass (1984)
Part One:


Part Two:


Part Three:


Part Four:


Part Five:


Part Six:


Part Seven:


Part Eight:


Part Nine:

[Olefin]

Some ideas I have had or from things I am working on

A Turkish escape from Kalisz scenario where you are a party of Turks, possibly with attached US troops, that get overrun in Bulgaria in 1997 during the Bulgarian and Soviet attack and have to get back to Turkey thru an area crawling with enemy troops

A group composed of surviving Green Berets, Air Force techs and Army infantrymen, equipped with either an El Salvadoran Cashuat wheeled APC or a Guatemalan Armadillo - or an old Stuart tank - trying to get home thru the wilds of Central America and the Mexican Civil War in 2000 or 2001, possibly accompanied by a small group of Hondurans, Guatemalans or Salvadorans trying to join family in the US

A group from the 173rd, dropped into Tanzania on a mission and then not able to make the pickup aircraft and their radios dead, making their way thru country infested with the PARA and other marauders to get back to Kenya

A group of US soldiers who were assigned to Liberia to try to assist the government against pro-Soviet guerrillas, now trying only to survive in the chaos that is 2001 Liberia and get to areas controlled by the French elsewhere in Africa

NATO soldiers who bust out of either a Siberian or southern Russia POW camp and have to cross either Siberia to get to Korea or thru the Caucasus and northern Iran to get to friendly lines

US military advisors in Pakistan who have to make their way to friendly lines in Iran after the nuclear strikes of the India Pakistan War cause both nations to collapse into total chaos

A group of Special Forces operatives, survivors of an A-team dropped into Romania in one of the last airborne missions in late 1999, who hear about the US Omega operation after Med Cruise from a Romanian who was part of the group that picked up th supplies. They decide to head for friendly US lines in Yugoslavia and hope they get there while the CivGov forces are still there.

[Raellus]

How about a campaign centered around an East German unit in China, trying to make their way back home to the newly reunified and NATO-allied Germany? Talk about a hike...

[Olefin]

Originally Posted by Raellus

How about a campaign centered around an East German unit in China, trying to make their way back home to the newly reunified and NATO-allied Germany? Talk about a hike...

Now that is what I call a nice stretch of the legs!

[mikeo80]

Here is an idea I have toyed with over the years.

USA vs Canada and Mexico

How did my crazed brain come up with this one?

Economics:

IF the US takes Canada, we have access to ALL of the myriad raw materials that exist in Canada.

IF the US takes Mexico, we have MILLIONS of laborers to work in our production facilities, cuts WAY down on illegal immigration, the only land access point is Southern Mexico, a LONG way from the USA.

IF the US were to pull back from NATO and Korea, the US would have a HUGE military advantage over both countries. THe US could then become isolationish and let the rest of the world stew in it's own juices.

Just a thought from my fevorish brain. And, no, I am not on any drugs like Oxy or Tylenol 4 or anything else. Just me daydreaming....

My $0.02

Mike

[Targan]

Wow, the US forcefully annexing Canada is one of the few scenarios I can think of that would break the US-Australian alliance. Not that that would be any deterrant, I'm under no illusions about who is the (very) junior partner in the alliance. But the US invading any Commonwealth country would end any further cordial relations with the rest of the Commonwealth (with the possible exception of Pakistan and maybe some of the Caribbean and African member states which are already basket cases).

[Rainbow Six]

For UK characters you could have a campaign based on the 6th Infantry Division's retreat from the Yalu back to Hong Kong during the summer of 1997.

You could also have a Hong Kong based campaign set in the summer of 2000 where the PC's have to deal with various Chinese bandits and local strongmen.

[Olefin]

Boy talk about a long walk - the Yalu all the way to whatever is left of Hong Kong - course anyone who broke out of Kalisz didnt exactly have a short walk either to Krakow and then to Germany.

[General Pain]

Originally Posted by Cpl. Kalkwarf

Twilight 1946+. What if WWII didn't end. Hitler was assassinated and the German General staff sued for peace. The US and allies agreed but the Russians, well they wanted payback or more specifically Stalin did. It was an uneasy year from late 44 to late 45 and then the Russians started advancing again.

During that year the SS was purged and all guilty parties for the atrocities were put into prison for the crimes of genocide in the concentration camps and such.

As the Russians advanced some of them were given the oportunity to join Redemption Battalions to throw up against the Russians, some took it and fought for Germany (nationalism runs very high with the Germans at this time). They were mostly the young officers and enlisted. The senior officers and enlisted that were directly and actually guilty of crimes in the camps were not given this opportunity.

The rest of the German Soldiers and allot of British and American Troops, maneuvered to stop the advance.

The War Continues on. (have not decided about the atomic bombs). This is a bit of a chance to play around with those weapons that were not realy used much if any at the end. Also to have a bit of fun playing around of what would of been developed.

I think the people may have been re-energized with a bit of indignation and nationalism once again that the war was almost over with Germany and that Japan may have been rethinking since there only ally had dropped out of the war. At least until Russia had betrayed the rest of the allies and killed US and British troops (think of something like Malmedy massacre). A bunch of overrun troops early in the Russian advance surrendered in the confusion, but Stalin being mad had given the orders of no quarter to any SS, unfortunately for these troops there had been some SS prisoners with them and the Russian soldiers misunderstood or just didn't care and killed them all type of an incident.

I'm still working on a bunch of scribbled notes on paper with a bunch of stuff such as weapons and Vehicle development. As far as various advances and strategies, the only thing I have come up with is that Stalin has a good amount of his armies advancing to secure things like the oil fields of Ploiesti and such for his new war effort, possibly convincing china to join him in exchange for better equipment then the allies have given them to fight the Japanese and that the Japanese are in talks with US.

Its a crazy mixed up world that almost anything is possible. As far as Atomic bombs. Right now I am thinking that the powers to be are still sitting on them, not knowing just what to do with them right now that things have changed. Or weather that Russia has the capability to develop them or not at this time. Perhaps Stalin has his boys working on them at a faster pace.

Ideas are welcome.



War. War never changes

HI.

I like where this is going. www.luft46.com have a lot of drawings of aircraftprojects that never left the drawingboard, I & HQ designed a lot fo these and they are all posted for easy download @ TBBoW