T2K Organization: The New Hanseatic League

[Raellus]

T2K ignited in me an interest in Polish history that has grown over time. I'm constantly looking for opportunities to meld history and the T2KU. I was fortunate to have visited Krakow and Auschwitz-Birkenau this past March- it was a history nerd and T2K enthusiast's dream come true. No matter how many other potential T2K milieus pique my interest, I always find myself returning to Poland.

Attached is a first draft of an organization that I created for Twilight 2000, based on the historical Hanseatic League, a loose confederation of European trading centers that flourished from the 12th to the early 16th centuries A.D. It's the culmination of many of forum discussions regarding commerce and reconstruction that have taken place here over the years.

I understand that it's a niche product, but I want to share it. Constructive feedback is invited.

[kalos72]

Nice read!

I have a similar line in my campaign in Texas, although I haven't had much time to flesh it out. Thinking something along the lines of the East Indian or something...

Thanks for sharing!

[Rainbow Six]

Looks good Rae - nice job.

My only suggestion would be to maybe add a couple of NPC's - maybe Rada member(s) working to their own agenda, a merchant in charge of a trade caravan, somone who can act as a patron type npc, that sort of thing.

[unkated]

A nice idea. To keep ensuring that it is different, I'd keep playing up the economic angle.

I don't speak Polish - Nowa or Nowy?

Other than Malbork, there seems to be a dearth of information on members, or even locations. Even if you want to provide flexibility to GMs by avoiding specifying towns, I'd think you would want to better describe the parameters of membership:

• Towns without cantonments by major military units
  
• Towns with that avoided major destruction during the war (from nuclear or conventional attack) - noting that there is a large rail yard a few blocks from Malbork Castle, and a nearby Polish AF airfield :-)). A town needs to be in decent shape in order to have a surplus to trade.
  
• Towns on access to a major road or navigable river for transportation.

Malbork is not on the sea, but is at least on a river or canal; Tczew is connected by a major road (and a river); Elblag is in the other direction; add in Nowy Dwor Gdanski, and you have a definable perimeter of decent transport links. Hmmm. I should go back and see where there are rail links. Even where rail yards may be beat-up, long stretches of track may be fine.

They would avoid adding a community too far from the edge of their patrolled territory, or without a decent transportation link - too expensive to extend protection.

(For bulk movement of grain, ie, that which backs the currency, river traffic will be easier to accomplish, IMHO.)

The nearest major seaport is Gdansk, which may not be suitable due to damage.

Additional missions, of course, can be

• outreach missions (or protecting outreach missions).
  
• protecting food storehouses (since it is the basis of currency) or
• retrieving stolen supplies raided by someone else - someone with access to several trucks and strong firepower or their raid would not have succeeded in the first place...
• tracking down traders from non-member communities and collecting taxes
• tracking down people who illegally collected taxes from traders from non-member communities

You could also describe a market, or that due to trade, the markets in the member towns have a wider variety of goods available, as if they were a larger town.

I agree that a personality or two would be helpful. The movers and shakers in this organization will be nouveau entrepreneurs, or those who were criminals under the Communists - sharp operators. Hmmm, or ex-party officials who are used to getting what they want. This organization is set up mainly so the traders can safely carry out trade...

Uncle Ted

[Raellus]

Thanks for the constructive feedback, guys. Draft #2 is well underway. As well as cleaning up the text, including some more illustrations, and adding a bit of new material, I will be incorporating some of your suggestions. I'll also be sure to mention you in the acknowledgements (which I'll add to the final draft).

@Ukated, my original draft included a chart with notable NH members and the resorts/assets that they contributed- I took it out because it was kind of repetitive (grain appearing as a resource for nearly all the members). I'm putting it back into the second draft, as well as a section on membership requirements.

[Raellus]

I don't have a lot of experience doing full write-ups for non protagonist NPCs so I'd like a little feedback. This is my first attempt at an NH NPC.

Feliks Pajak, Sitting NH Rada Representative from ____________* (insert settlement name here)
41 years old, Veteran NPC, Spades King (Deceitful); Jack 10 (Very greedy)
Level: Elite
Skills: Leadership 15, Persuasion 14, Disguise 13, Small Arms (Pistol) 7
Initiative: 2

Before the war, Feliks Pajak was a treasurer with his local chapter of the Solidarity Union. He was also a paid informant for the state security apparatus. With the outbreak of WWIII, he was drafted into the Polish Air Force, where he served on a ground crew being wounded and captured by NATO forces. During his brief captivity as a POW, Pajak saw capitalism in action first hand. He liked what he saw. He escaped from a road repair work party and fled to[*] where his intelligence and resourcefulness were recognized by the local provisional government. He spent the rest of the war working his way up through the municipal bureaucracy, achieving a leadership position which he parlayed into a seat on the NH Rada. His wartime experiences have completely corroded any pre-war idealism that he might have clung to. His charisma and intelligence have allowed him to maintain a false front as a dedicated civil servant when, in fact, the only person he seeks to serve is himself.

As a founding member of the NH Rada, Pajak has quietly amassed considerable wealth and power. This taste of the good life has only made him hungry for more. He's willing to risk his career and his life to get what he wants. He will offer the PCs employment, at a substantially higher rate of pay than anything else available in town. The first job will be a fairly simple fetch mission. Once Pajak feels that he can trust the PCs, and has gained their trust in return, he will give them a considerably more difficult and risky mission, asking them to assassinate his Rada counterpart (each member settlement sends two representatives to the Rada). He will tell them that his counterpart is secretly blackmailing him but, in reality, Pajak fears that he is about to be exposed by his colleague for embezzling significant sums from NH coffers. If the PCs do the job, he will pay them in NH scrip and ask them to leave town quickly and quietly (if they dally or leave and then return, he'll have them arrested on trumped up charges). If pressed, he will pay in gold instead. If the PCs attempt to blackmail him, he will concoct a cover story and have the PCs arrested by NH security forces, claiming that they are agents of a rival polity bent on sowing chaos and discord in the local NH chapter. If the PCs reveal his treachery to the local government or the Rada, providing some sort of hard evidence to support the accusations, Pajak will leave town in a hurry, attempting to flee to a rival polity to which he will offer NH secrets in return for safe haven and material comforts. If this occurs, the local government or NH Rada will try to hire the PCs to track him down and bring him back, paying a substantial bounty for his safe return, and a substantially lesser amount for his dead body.

[Raellus]

I've incorporated some suggestions, adding a bit about major NH members, membership requirements, an NH armored train (inspired by the forum thread on Trains and Steam in twilight), and a major NPC with a simple adventure hook for players.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

As a suggestion, your professor of medieval history could have come from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. The university was created in 1938 and has a bit of prestige attached to it, Toruń being the birthplace of Copernicus. It has numerous departments, most important of which in this case is the history department and as of the late 2000s, it catered to somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 students per year.
Toruń is approximately 120km south-south-west of Malbork and perhaps, more importantly, it's located on the Vistula and has several rail links, two of which can be traced to the Malbork railyards.

By way of interest, Malbork Castle has a number of cellars that maintain a constant cool to chilly temperature during summer. They're located in the courtyard in the main keep and accessed by individual wide stairs but they're modest in size. There are a few vault sized cellars under the Grandmaster's Palace. Unsurprisingly, they're ideal locations for storing large quantities of foodstuffs for the long term.

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

As a suggestion, your professor of medieval history could have come from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. The university was created in 1938 and has a bit of prestige attached to it, Toruń being the birthplace of Copernicus. It has numerous departments, most important of which in this case is the history department and as of the late 2000s, it catered to somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 students per year.
Toruń is approximately 120km south-south-west of Malbork and perhaps, more importantly, it's located on the Vistula and has several rail links, two of which can be traced to the Malbork

I love that suggestion. I was going to research possible university sites but forgot all about it. You saved me a ton of trouble. Thanks. Consider yourself added to the Acknowledgements section.

[Raellus]

Prompted by suggestions from SSC and Marc, I've made some revisions. Hopefully, this version will stand as the definitive one.

Added: A title page with a table of contents, numbered pages, a revised chart showing sitting NH member settlements and their main trade goods, and a few minor color pieces.

[Ancestor]

Wow, I didn't see this thread the first time! Awesome!

[unkated]

Elblag and Gdansk are listed in Kato13's list of nuke targets, recipients of 225 and 550 kt bombs respectively.

Uncle Ted

[Marc]

Raellus has kindly given us permission to translate to Catalan his work on the Nowa Hanza for our website, L'Argonauta.

So, for any Catalan lurker (anyone there? ) or for those who feel some curiosity, here's the link to the New Hanza main page in our site:

Nowa Hanza, L'Argonauta, rol en català

As you will see, we have added some new images with explanatory texts (following the background described by Raellus) and a map of the New Hanza. We have used our NPC sheet to make the NPC Feliks Pajak "ready to be played".

It's the second time we translate a work from Raellus. As the first time, it has been an interesting and positive experience. Thanks Rae!