Twilight 1900

[Raellus]

I'm reading a chapter in The Savage Wars of Peace- Small Wars and the Rise of American Power (Max Boot) on the Boxer Rebellion and the event/setting seems to me to make for a pretty interesting alternative T2K-ish campaign scenario. You have multinational military personnel (American, British- including imperial troops such as Sikhs-, Russian, German, French, and Japanese) and various civilians (diplomats, merchants, missionaries, Chinese Christians or other friendly locals) involved, and a pretty nasty set of enemies (boxers, imperial Chinese troops) as well.

There are lots of ways you could play it. The players could be part of a multinational relief/rescue force cut off from its parent units, or a small party sent out to reach an isolated outpost to rescue civilians or reinforce a garrison, or a group of civilians trying to reach the international community in Peking, or you could simply play out a bit of intrigue in one of the besieged legations. Whatever the starting point, your players would be stuck in a strange and exotic land, surrounded and outnumbered by hordes of bloodthirsty enemies.

I think it would be interesting to research period arms and equipment- it's not my area of expertise.

The one thing that makes me a little uneasy about the idea is the latent racism that is part-and-parcel of turn-of-the-century imperialism. I wouldn't feel comfortable RP'ing that and I can see how it could cause issues for a gaming group.

Still, the 1900 Boxer Rebellion seems like an interesting premise for an unconventional T2K campaign.