Jack Ketch
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Joined: Thu 16 Sep 2021, 23:18

Timeline

Wed 08 Dec 2021, 20:52

I'm thinking of picking up the game, but I have question. How long after "the collapse" does the game take place? I understand. That PCs are, for the most part, combatants involved in WWIII before everything went to sh*t. But how long has it been, and what sort of political and/or social structures have emerged in that time?
 
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omnipus
Posts: 742
Joined: Mon 22 Jun 2020, 20:58

Re: Timeline

Wed 08 Dec 2021, 21:55

The game takes place during/at the end of the war, roughly 3 years after it started and 2 years after nuclear weapons started being used. I think the most reasonable conclusion is that the worst might be over, but the collapse is still underway.

There's no real comprehensive guidance given on most of the political/social structures of the current day, but there are specifics outlined for a few locations, military units, and factions. Much is left up to the GM/players about what the exact setting and themes of your particular game are going to be.
Author, Central Poland Sourcebook -- now available on DriveThruRPG
 
AEB
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Joined: Sat 19 Sep 2020, 06:01

Re: Timeline

Thu 09 Dec 2021, 02:46

It is also likely that a soldier in Poland in July 2000 will have a limited understanding of what has happened back at home in particular and in most of the world in general. The disappearance of aircraft, the collapse of shipping and transport in general, and both the decline in journalism and censorship means that the characters probably haven't recieved any mail for two years, haven't seen a newspaper not put out by the military for a similar timeframe, and have been kept in an information bubble tightly controlled by the military up until they were effectively abandoned.

This gives the GM great freedom to make the world how they think it should be and you can explain away any differences from the "official" backstory as gaslighting by military censors and propaganda.
 
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ottarrus
Posts: 192
Joined: Fri 15 Oct 2021, 14:11
Location: Tacoma WA

Re: Timeline

Thu 09 Dec 2021, 04:01

The game takes place about halfway through the actual Collapse.
- Top flight tanks [Abrams, T90's, Challengers] are still in military units, but the oil distribution system has been destroyed worldwide so everybody is using ethanol for fuel, and are filtering used POL stocks for lubricants.
- The transportation grid is utterly destroyed, and local sources are being used [or stolen] for food.
- The troops haven't shot up all the pre-War ammunition yet, but nobody knows what'll happen once it's gone.
- Advanced systems [tank main guns, ATGM systems, ADA systems etc.] are on the absolute last of their respective ammo. The factories to produce more are bombed, the ships to carry them are mostly sunk, and the roads to deliver them to units are wrecked.
- Some governments still struggle to hold it together; The UK has zones of stability in England, Germany, while wrecked, still maintains an identity as a nation-state; the US has all but given up trying to enforce its territorial sovereignty... too many of its people are dead, too many of its troops are in Europe, Africa and the Pacific, its industry is destroyed, and it simply has too much ground to cover with too few assets to cover them.

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