Caribbean/South America Targets?

[kalos72]

So I am trying to develop some other campaigns for my team in Texas.

They really liked the "Spanish Main" story line and I was thinking about trying something like that again.

They also like story around acquiring resources for Texas at the same time...

I was thinking maybe trying to steal/buy some Mexican naval ships stuck in Tampico or maybe trade for minerals some where but have to deal with the local warlord or something.

Any suggestions for good targets?

[swaghauler]

Originally Posted by kalos72

So I am trying to develop some other campaigns for my team in Texas.

They really liked the "Spanish Main" story line and I was thinking about trying something like that again.

They also like story around acquiring resources for Texas at the same time...

I was thinking maybe trying to steal/buy some Mexican naval ships stuck in Tampico or maybe trade for minerals some where but have to deal with the local warlord or something.

Any suggestions for good targets?

Check out the Windjammer fleet based in the Caribbean. 100ft+ sailing vessels can carry a great deal of cargo pretty effectively. For smaller missions; the 40 to 60 foot long sailing vessels of companies like The Moorings Group and Sunsail Charters can be handled by just two people but can support a crew of 4 to 8. There are literally hundreds of these vessels all over the US gulf states, the Caribbean, and South America. Several very poor islands in the Caribbean now have a VERY valuable commodity- sugar. Sugar has a much higher energy output than corn or grain ethanol. This means that you can make more fuel from an equal weight of sugar than either that of corn or grain. All you have to do is secure the cane fields and sail the crop to wherever you need it.

[stormlion1]

We played a game once where we had to steal a Cuban Corvette. A Pauk class I think it was. The entire scenario became that the ship was essentially the big power in the ocean around Cuba because it had fuel while everyone else was bone dry because the Cubans early on had seized several tankers for there fleet. Went well as we stole it but then the group decided going pirate was the way to go. A month later and out came the life rafts...

[Slappy]

Venezuela is a pretty big oil producer with fairly distributed wells. Nukes may have got the refineries, but not all the oil. That's ripe ground for recovery, raiding, escort, etc.

I ran a decent campaign ages ago with the players contracted to an underdog Dutch effort out of the ABC islands to maintain a hold on some wells against a better supplied French effort coming down from the Antilles. It was fun. Definitely a Pirates of the Caribbean feel.

If you like, you can have a small UK squadron based in Barbados. Cubans, Mexicans and Americans can show up. The area is navigable by sail and pretty low tech even today. I thought it was a really fun location as a break from Europe and the US.

[kalos72]

Great ideas!

I love the "Pirates" feel to this area myself. I wonder what natural resources or maybe industrial ones would be targets?

There is still the infamous Panama Canal and the 193rd IB. :P

[Olefin]

Well we know Aruba wasnt hit as it was mentioned as a pirate target in the Caribbean module.

However you can bet that Venezuela got nailed big time - its mentioned in the canon as being nuked to take out its refineries and oil fields. Probably add in Curacao as well (with Aruba maybe being spared by a near miss or lucky hit by an ABM of some sort) and the refineries in Trinidad.

Another interesting angle that I have been looking at is the Netherlands and French going at it in the Caribbean - you have a Netherlands Marine Battalion stationed there as well as some ships and the French have forces there too - with the fighting going on in Europe between the two it could very easily spill over into the Caribbean

[kalos72]

I was even thinking like a village in Jamaica that needs diesel....and works the bauxite mine there to trade or something.

Lots of resources in the Caribbean.

[WallShadow]

As for the Caribbean module, my path would have involved getting into an amicable working relationship with the voodoo priestess/biochemist to produce some tetrodotoxin-based paralytic for use in blowgun darts for...see below.
Next, ample scouting/intelligence gathering to locate all those pesky detonation wires under the shipbuilders' families containment buildings. Using the Grey Rangers' Recon skills combined with knocking out sentries silently with fugu-toxin darts would be best here.
Then, once the families of the shipbuilders are safe, elimination of the New America-financed scumbags, with surprise attacks by raiders wearing gaudy "voodoo-esque" makeup with the technical advice of the Mamaloi.
Somewhere along here, find some sort of working truce with the Cuban unit to help eliminate those mentioned above in exchange for a ticket back to Cuba.
Did I mention salvaging the munitions on the A.B. Buzko?
Then, with the boatyards humming, and the rope-works spinning, and the experienced sailors teaching the new fish the ropes (literally), we would begin to expand our wind-driven mercantile empire!
Excelsior!

[kalos72]

I like it WallShadow!

What other areas of the Caribbean would you conquer?

[WallShadow]

Originally Posted by kalos72

I like it WallShadow!

What other areas of the Caribbean would you conquer?

-A trip to the Canal Zone to see if anything at the US-military-held areas might be available for "defensive armaments" for the ship(s).

-Puerto Rico--the Arecibo Radio antenna may have some salvageable electronics and electronic technicians. Also a thriving rum/distillery business.

-Bermuda, since not many people would be heading that way, and food might be a welcome trade good.

-Jamaica, mon, for some Red Stripe beer. (Yay, beer!) And the bauxite. And the Blue Mountain Coffee--big time luxury item!

-Then there's this little bird sanctuary off Jamaica named "Crab Cay", rumored to be home to a renegade Chinese warlord who has a fire-breathing dragon for a pet! (but that's native superstition for you.)

[kato13]

One other thing I would like to point out.

A long time ago I tried to do an analysis of just how many PC would have been in the World in 1997. I believe the number I came up with was over 600 million. This has always been my argument that even if only 1% survived globally there would be 6 million functional PCs out there.

As far as South America goes I believe my assessment was that before any possible EMP damage there would be 35 million plus PC in South America. These PC would have been even more likely to survive that the rest of the world as a majority of the EMP would miss them due to the curvature of the earth. When you add the effects of mountains blocking EMP waves and the fact that they were not really targeted until the third round of attacks (China/Europe, US/USSR, then Neutral nations) there would have been much more time to work on shielding methods, I think the number would be much higher than 1%.

This has always made me think that Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, etc would have a leg up in post war recovery.

[Olefin]

Originally Posted by WallShadow

As for the Caribbean module, my path would have involved getting into an amicable working relationship with the voodoo priestess/biochemist to produce some tetrodotoxin-based paralytic for use in blowgun darts for...see below.
Next, ample scouting/intelligence gathering to locate all those pesky detonation wires under the shipbuilders' families containment buildings. Using the Grey Rangers' Recon skills combined with knocking out sentries silently with fugu-toxin darts would be best here.
Then, once the families of the shipbuilders are safe, elimination of the New America-financed scumbags, with surprise attacks by raiders wearing gaudy "voodoo-esque" makeup with the technical advice of the Mamaloi.
Somewhere along here, find some sort of working truce with the Cuban unit to help eliminate those mentioned above in exchange for a ticket back to Cuba.
Did I mention salvaging the munitions on the A.B. Buzko?
Then, with the boatyards humming, and the rope-works spinning, and the experienced sailors teaching the new fish the ropes (literally), we would begin to expand our wind-driven mercantile empire!
Excelsior!

actually thats pretty close to what we did - we didnt get a voodoo doctor to help us but we salvaged the Buzko for munitions and had the Cubans assist us with the pirates in exchange for boats and experienced sailors to get them home

[kalos72]

Amazing idea Kato!

Do most people have those governments collapsing still though?

Easy to trade with locals needing some diesel then a government in full control of the country.

As for the boats, we use them ourselves and use the folks there to train others to do it back home. We want to work the Cubans into a anti-Castro group and try to start a Cuban civil war.

For now, they are amicably working with the local government/ my group to keep the island safe.

[Ancestor]

What is the size and background of our PC's? Mine have historically really liked when I tailor an adventure to their strengths and/or weaknesses.

At any rate, going after any sort of fossil fuel resource always seems a good bet. In college I ran a game that started with Kalisz but ended up with the PCs (both American and non-American) accepting membership in the German military. One of their favorite missions was covertly seizing an old but functioning North Sea oil rig that the French had "appropriated". The mission involved both a maritime element and a quasi-spec ops feel that they really enjoyed. Given the plethora of options described by other posters and the innate desire of Texas to be the world's leader in petrochemical production it would be a good mission.

Another possible (although not maritime) mission for Texas based characters could be escorting a "diplomatic team" from the Lone Star State into Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, or even Kansas to seek out like minded communities who have been abandoned by MilGov/CivGov that may be interested in trade, mutual protection, or even incorporation into a potential "Lone Star Republic". If the PC's from my current campaign ever end up in TX that is going to be one of my missions, especially given their familiarity with those areas IRL.

[Ancestor]

Originally Posted by WallShadow

-Jamaica, mon, for some Red Stripe beer. (Yay, beer!) And the bauxite. And the Blue Mountain Coffee--big time luxury item!

THIS!!!-The coffee, not so much the beer. For as much as I like a good Red Stripe with shrimp or mahi, one could homebrew pretty much anywhere other than the polar ice caps. In fact, local brews would pretty much be it given the inability to transport beer effectively in a hot climate (there was a reason why I discovered African beer in HOA, that is, Miller Light does not respond well to being shipped from the US and then sitting out in 120 degree heat for weeks on end before going into the cooler at Camp Lemmonier).

HOWEVER, it is my understanding that growing coffee beans requires a specific climate that does not seem to exist in much of the US. If I was a local powerbroker with aspirations of being the President of the Texas Republic and I wanted to show that our Republic is the future of civilization, reintroducing coffee to a populace that has gone several years without it would be a big feather in my cap. Enough to pay others to kill for.

[swaghauler]

Originally Posted by Ancestor

THIS!!!-The coffee, not so much the beer. For as much as I like a good Red Stripe with shrimp or mahi, one could homebrew pretty much anywhere other than the polar ice caps. In fact, local brews would pretty much be it given the inability to transport beer effectively in a hot climate (there was a reason why I discovered African beer in HOA, that is, Miller Light does not respond well to being shipped from the US and then sitting out in 120 degree heat for weeks on end before going into the cooler at Camp Lemmonier).

HOWEVER, it is my understanding that growing coffee beans requires a specific climate that does not seem to exist in much of the US. If I was a local powerbroker with aspirations of being the President of the Texas Republic and I wanted to show that our Republic is the future of civilization, reintroducing coffee to a populace that has gone several years without it would be a big feather in my cap. Enough to pay others to kill for.

I read this post and could not help but ask a question....Why is the Rum always gone?

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by swaghauler

I read this post and could not help but ask a question....Why is the Rum always gone?

I'm a teetotaler...where do you find cold Pepsi or Root Beer in T2K?

[Olefin]

Probably Israel - they love soda there and I dont remember them getting nuked at all during the war - also France but only Coke, Coke Light (i.e. diet Coke) and Orangeina

[unkated]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

I'm a teetotaler...where do you find cold Pepsi or Root Beer in T2K?

You can make root beer easily enough. Both of my children did this as a project in grade school. Tasted all right when properly aged.

Cold enough might be a challenge....

Actually, the "Cold enough" question brings to mind the only good point about Howling Wilderness. Given a few sailing ships, New England can go back into the ice business, cutting it out of lakes, and hauling ice down south.

They probably don't need to sing while doing so, a la Frozen, though.

Uncle Ted