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Really, the Great Plains and New Wild West are perfect for some sort of modern epic. An anarchic (not the good kind) patchwork of warlords and small communities. The aforementioned knightly orders operating out of abandoned missile silos. Raids by a distant, mysterious empire, responsible for the death of the Old Country. A great environment for adventuring.
Ten bucks says there's some young squire out there on a quest to slay the Heavenly Emperor or some shit, because a Japanese drone strike wiped out their farming village.
Ten bucks says there's some young squire out there on a quest to slay the Heavenly Emperor or some shit, because a Japanese drone strike wiped out their farming village.
No, no, and no! The silos should be inhabited by Marxist-Leninist-Maoist-Hoxhaist-Posadists.
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism: Build a socialist society that's also a nuclear power.
Hoxhaism: Build a shitton of nuclear bunkers.
Posadism: Launch a global nuclear war that'll destroy capitalism and call down the alien comrades who'll help your survivors create a communist utopia.
So, I don't suppose anyone would be willing to come up with ideas for factions within the area of Idaho, Montana or Wyoming? Apart from the Families, that part of the map is looking pretty barren. The closest factional power is Imperial Japan's holdings on the West Coast.
I have something cooked up for Montana that @PoptartProdigy has approved. It should be published in a day or two, and I can tell you what I have in mind if you want to know early.
I have something cooked up for Montana that @PoptartProdigy has approved. It should be published in a day or two, and I can tell you what I have in mind if you want to know early.
Won't say no to that. Only thing I had thought up for Montana so far was a post Collapse iteration of the Militia of Montana, who now call themselves the Sovereign Citizens Free Militia, and they're still just a concept.
Won't say no to that. Only thing I had thought up for Montana so far was a post Collapse iteration of the Militia of Montana, who now call themselves the Sovereign Citizens Free Militia, and they're still just a concept.
@Sir_Travelsalot - I've spent way more time on this than is slightly reasonable so this is heavily summarized, and I still haven't finished the final section Recently Events, due to still tossing around ideas and figuring out what California's been up to.
The Lloyd Clique is the result of Japan's attempt at creating another Menchuko after Cascadia went to hell, with the IJA having a Really Good Idea about refurbishing one of the Rocky Pass's and invading through it (Forgiveness > Permission for the win!). It ended up sorta working out for them despite the expeditionary force not going quite as successfully as imagined, due to an ambitious warlord trying to pre-empt the inevitable Russian/Victorian crackdown by forming an extremely autonomous collaborator government.
The main theme of this submission is exploring Japan's actions and influence in North America, the fate of the Midwestern Canadian peoples, the 'Right-wing' of Revivalism (something I touched upon with Zygias), and deconstructing the ideal of a "benevolent dictator," showing how even someone extremely competent and idealistic can be stymied beyond the tired trope that 'power corrupts.'
I've completely written up the background of the Clique, it's just the current state of Montana I'm still tinkering with. If people are interested, I can post that part.
Thank you. I like to think I found the right balance - she was a genuinely good person who did a brave thing, and people sincerely believe in her as a symbol, but of course her death would be politicized, because that's how it always been. But also I think we should ask, is that really bad? What major religious movement wasn't political? This is just a nice case where what's politically convenient is also politically good. If it helps shore up people against Victoria, I don't think the Bishop would mind.
Author's Note: I had to think hard before making this the final version. In the book, Lind creates a bunch of strawman beliefs that are, objectively, not Christian, to which the Bishop eagerly admits to holding. Obviously Lind doesn't know what Liberals Actually Believe, but on the other hand I figured the Victorians wouldn't be above fabricating accusations - which our version of the Bishop would of course deny. I thought the more important thing was that she refused to deny her faith, though, and the beliefs of the actual Episcopal Church are heretical enough for Victoria, so I decided to emphasize that.
Of course, this creates a narrative where Victoria realized they fucked up super bad in making a martyr out of her and invented a bunch of lies after the fact, which is kind of fitting as well.
I like the omake. I'll be so bold as to say that several denominations that don't do sainthood (surviving Assemblies of God, Baptist flavors, Wesleyan, a few others) would still hold her up as a Martyr.
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Motherfucking Silo Feudalism across the plains. American Knights and their Silo Castles.
These knights aren't a single guy in plate armour, but instead a small team of highly trained young men and women operating off of the remaining post-war material that is maintained by dedicated teams of technicians. Both groups are supported by the surrounding communities in a feudal arraignment no matter the actual specifics of how these communities run. (Some are probably just basically feudal and artistocratic, some more democratically run, but they've have thirty to fourty years of this so things have started getting ritualized and if American had just stayed dead like Alexander wants they would end up actually feudal)
The Victorians mostly let these people survive because: 1) Digging a few people out of a silo is hard work, and 2) Feudalism is pretty retroculture right? And Russia doesn't give a shit because a few bandits squatting in old ruins silos is like, America.txt to them.
These people all theoretically swear fealty to the Acting Commander of NORAD, who acts in the place of the true Commander NORAD, who waits inside the mountain and will return in the hour of the plains greatest need wielding the blades of nuclear fire.
At least a short story collection, with stories like:
-Some of Silos ensure that only men can join their security teams because sexism and Victoria. Others don't care because gun. and anyone that can pass the physical requirements and swear the oaths can join.
For the latter the Victorians have actually often not taken notice because their idea of a warrior woman is "thirsty fantasy art chainmail bikini" and not "Woman in full tactical rig and short hair that acts the same as all her male comrades" and thus clocks as "young man" because she performs their version of masculinity instead of their deluded vision of Azania.
-Some silo security teams are descendants of American military units who survived Russian action, or set up shop there. Others are just people going "oh, hey, free military fortification".
-Burns knows several of these places and has personally visited. And actually recruited from them in the period between the destruction of the Pacific Republic and his arrival in Chicago. Since the Great Lakes War a few of his people have petition to go home to spread the good news, and also canvasse for replacements for Big Red One soldiers killed in action. Naturally the Commonwealth home grown military apparatus is worried about accidentally turning the BRO into a Varangian guard.
-At least one Silo team was founded by a Californian intelligence team supported directly by California's security apparatus to get a clear picture of the area. Them going increasingly native is worrying to Californian intelligence.
-One of the silo team was founded by a few squads of Vic deserters who went fragged their CO after refusing to wipe out a community as a team building exercise and deserting from their Division. Their story is about learning how "Orcs" really are.
It's more fun if some of them are literally called Lords and Knights, because the Midwest/Plains have plenty of RenFairs, SCA types, etc who would have gone all-in on that, and then also people for whom Sheriff=Lord, etc.
Maybe the more democratically-minded folks elect the Lord/Sheriff/Whatever, but the Knights/Deputies are long-term appointments?
I like the omake. I'll be so bold as to say that several denominations that don't do sainthood (surviving Assemblies of God, Baptist flavors, Wesleyan, a few others) would still hold her up as a Martyr.
I could have also mentioned Methodists, who are another Protestant denomination that recognizes saints (though as I understand it they don't really go in for outright veneration).
What was once the state of Idaho had held within it a population of nearly 2 million people prior to the Collapse. Alone, it contributed a third of the United States annual yield of potatoes. With a population density averaging on 21 people per square mile, it was uniquely suited to become a safe haven for the refugees fleeing Victorian expansion and the encroaching Japanese puppet state that Cascadia would become.
The stream of evacuees' original source can be traced to the Eastern coast regions of what was once Canada. The divided provinces had given all available means of transportation to the refugees-to-be who would not be considered 'acceptable' under direct Victorian rule before becoming annexed. The first participants of what would come to be known as "The Long March" set off at a frantic pace in the year 2036, a daunting rush of humanity, driven forth by fear of what swelled behind them.
By the time of the New Year's Eve announcing 2037 to have begun, they had found asylum in the emerging Cascadian Republic. They set about rebuilding their lives, and they had made some amount of progress in the five years of relative peace before being set to flee the emerging Victorian-aligned government, later joined by those escaping the subsequent IJA occupation.
By 2049, they had mostly scattered across the Mountain States, those who survived eking out a mostly stable existence in the land. One notable exception to the rule were a splinter group of some 200 Quebecois refugees who had managed to stay in a mostly cohesive trail, and eventually finding a suitable destination for The Long March in the cities of Idaho Falls and Pocatello. Notable, because these refugees had once all been employed by a Quebec City biotechnology company, and had taken their work with them, unwilling to leave it for Retroculture fanatics to plunder or smash apart, having preserved them on The Long March with almost greater ferocity than their own lives.
For it was in Idaho Falls and Pocatello that expansive greenhouses had survived the Collapse, and provided the foundations for rebuilding a production line for vaccines with the Proficia process. With universal healthcare a thing of an august past, this source for disease prevention that would not draw Victorian wrath in the guise of tobacco farming, set up the twin cities' rise to prominence in post-Collapse Idaho. A wealth of manpower flocked to the cities in search of immunization, swelling their population to more than triple it's peak before the Collapse, fed by the still plentiful arable land.
So I'm still on creative fire, but Mary is … not always something I can focus on. So, I'm bouncing between it and more fun stuff. And I got to thinking what could a revivalist sect in my area look like. Hence, I made an NC revivalist set (Special thanks to @Simon_Jester for giving this a look over). What custom advantages/disadvantages could a revivalist sect that had started in your area have?
Negaverse: Raleigh, North Carolina
Customization Rules
Congratulations, you've chosen the Southern Revivalist start! This kind of faction allows you to customize your strengths and weaknesses according to your preferred playstyle, giving a lot of control over the shape of your fate.
It also means you have some hard choices to make.
We handle customization via the distribution of customization points (CP). You start the process with a certain amount determined by the upcoming vote, and once we've handled that, you select from the below lists any combination of traits you like, as long as the final CP total is greater than or equal to zero.
Military
The blazing bonfire of the collapse of the NAC has turned to simmering resentment, but those old hatreds can reignite at a moments notice. No major State in the south lives life without conflict.
Old World Hardware (-1 CP): Much was lost in the Collapse, some of which made its way into your hands. Over the years, you have managed to maintain a small stockpile of Pre-Collapse American military hardware, and enough supplies to deploy it. Be it for eventual reverse-engineering or a tactical doomsday weapon, you have it. Can be taken multiple times. Each time grants a body of hardware large enough to auto-resolve in your favor one tactical engagement. Five uses before you can't supply it anymore. Few troops these days are trained to use this type of gear, so intense use may burn through multiple uses.
Foreign-Sourced Equipment (-1 CP): You have acquired a patron willing to source you military gear. It's the old stuff, so it's only a little superior to the stuff Victoria's masters give them, but you have a reliable source of supply. May be taken multiple times. Provides enough hardware to engage Victorian-quality forces at an advantage in one tactical engagement. Unlimited uses as long as you maintain the connection. You are indebted to a foreign power.
Old World Soldiers (-1 CP): The Country's military might have collapsed, but soldiers don't have much of a reputation for going down without a fight. Some units of the old military have survived years of being hunted by Victoria, and although their frontline soldiers are now their officers, they've ensured that standards haven't dropped. Somehow, you have won the loyalty of one of these units. Still maintaining the standards of the Old World, and the veterans of hellish survival conditions, they are the finest soldiers in the world, today. Gain the services of a U.S. Army Combined Arms Battalion, quality 5/5 (Veterans). They are large enough to deploy to a tactical engagement. They have internal standards and procedures to replace manpower but operate on your supply lines. Finally, these troops have at least the theoretical training to use Old World Hardware without burning multiple uses in intense engagements.
The South Will Rise Again (-2 CP): Somehow, you've managed to get up the beginnings of a rudimentary aviation industry. So far, you've just used them for scouting, but you have plans for more military additions. You have the beginnings of a aircraft industry, and can create and replace low-end military planes. Your pilots are well trained and start at quality 2/5. They are currently used only as scouts. Arming them up will almost certainly draw Victorian attention.
Technically Correct (-2 CP): The fighting vehicles of the Old World are not something you can hope to duplicate, yet. But you have begun to mass-produce your own military trucks and armored cars. Gain one mechanized cavalry division. This division currently consists mainly of technicals with mounted heavy weapons. In addition, your forces are largely motorized. .
Brown-Water Navy (-1 CP): While your river access is somewhat problematic in this day and age and the Atlantic Ocean is frequented by much stronger powers, your capital nevertheless rests on a major local river, as do many of the surrounding cities and potential trade partners. If you wish to secure the waterways of your territory, you will need a force up to the task. You have a navy capable of operating in rivers and along coastlines in sheltered waters. They are designed to operate with your current resource limitations. Incompatible with, "No Navy." Compatible with, "Green-Water Navy."
Green-Water Navy (-3 CP): A handful of Coast Guard and Navy vessels managed to survive both the Collapse of the old United States and the shocks of the NAC's breakup. They've been laid up in dry dock for years, but they and their crews served as a valuable source of information and insight in building your own vessels. You have a navy capable of operating along the Atlantic coast, under most sea conditions. Incompatible with, "No Navy." Compatible with, "Brown-Water Navy."
Old World Training (-2 CP): Those veterans who managed to muster out of the military are all dead or old by now, but they're still willing to serve. You've put them to work training enlisted recruits and officer candidates. The things your trainers have to say about your troops aren't fit for print, but it's better than what most successor states have. New troops start at quality 2/5 (Trained) rather than 1/5 (Green) but take somewhat longer to train. Mutually exclusive with, "Incompetent Military."
Professionals Study Logistics (-3 CP): The greatest general is as useless as their troops if they're all starving. You have made special efforts to establish a dedicated logistics corps within your military to ensure that it always has what it needs. Your military has the best logistics on the continent, which, granted, says very little. Still, the advantage is decisive. You have broad power projection and can simply outlast most opponents absent devastating defeat. Mutually exclusive with, "Shattered Logistics."
Incompetent Military (2 CP): Your soldiers are untrained; your officers are unqualified. You managed to win your home, but you have no confidence in your ability to hold it. New troops start at quality 0/5 (Worthless) rather than 1/5 (Green) but train virtually instantly.
Shattered Logistics (3 CP): You have no unified logistics structure, and all of your troops are equipped by their home constituency. The result is an unstandardized and inefficient mess with virtually zero endurance. You are utterly incapable of waging offensive war against an even slightly organized power, and even on the defensive, you tire quickly. Severely limited power projection and low strategic endurance. Mutually exclusive with, "Professionals Study Logistics."
No Navy (2 CP): You face serious landward threats. What need have you of a navy? Saving costs, you decline to establish a naval military branch. If you take neither this nor any other navy action, you default to Victorian-inspired boat technicals.
Diplomatic
Your strengths as a state in negotiating with and managing the attention of others.
SPECIAL NOTE: The Southeast is the area of the country that had the most aggressive civil war with no clear winner. As a result, there is a deep divide between states that are seen "New States" or the "Old States", though many states, especially smaller ones, attempt to claim neutrality. As a result of your choices during government creation you are viewed as a "New State", following ideals of equality and revivalism. At base, you will have mild positive interactions with other "New States" and hostility from "Old States".
Revivalist Connections (-1 CP): You have established yourself as a leader for Revivalist organization across the Southeast, and have many favors and admirers on which to call. You may lower by 30 the DC of up to three actions targeting fellow Revivalist movements across the American Southeast.
New South Connections (-2 CP): The New American Confederation was regarded by many as the last, best hope for the restoration of the United States. It failed. Still, while internal wars would lead to its destruction, many of the small nations within the South proudly trace their heritage back to the NAC. You've always maintained historical ties with other "New States", and with your recent rise, many are looking to you to rebuild what was lost. Begin play with extremely friendly relations with other major "New State" powers in the area, with trade and even joint military actions against rivals. They aren't quite willing to accept assimilation or stand with you against Victoria…yet. Mutually exclusive with, "Splendid Neutrality"
Domestic Connections (-1 CP): Your leading government has learned much of politics in the process of forming, and many officials within it hold favors they can call in to grease the gears of governance. You may bypass the need to consult the Legislature on three actions of your choice.
Established (-2 CP): You have broad recognition as the legitimate government of your region. Your neighbors and a few more distant powers recognize your legitimacy, as do your own citizens. If you do not take this, then at game start the Carolina Congress is ongoing and the Accords have yet to be signed; you control Raleigh proper and nothing else, and will need to invest actions into completing the Congress. Failure to do so has dire consequences, both for trying and failing to found a nation in the international spotlight and for making me go through government creation pointlessly.
Good Reputation (-1 CP): Your government is skilled at manipulating public opinion, and has offices specifically trained in interfacing with the media. You are insulated from public opinion loss due to failures or disasters.
Splendid Neutrality (-2 CP): Walking the fine line of neutrality is difficult in the South, but you've done so. You aren't viewed as taking a side in the hostility between those descended from the NAC and those from its killers. Start with neutral reputations with both "New State" and "Old State" factions Mutually exclusive with "New South Connections" and "Nemesis".
Hostile Neighborhood (1 CP): You have gained a lot of territory in a very short period of time, and your neighbors are nervous. Your presence has an admirably unifying effect on them; if only it wasn't against you. Your neighbors are suspicious of you. Neutral states will readily unite into a coalition to contain you, should you resort to military force in order to expand, and even "New" states are worried. .
Victorian Attention (2 CP): You have gained Victoria's notice, and they are aware of the threat you face. You will face Victorian intervention at some point during turns 1-4.
Russian Attention (3 CP): You have miscalculated the extent of the Bear's distraction. They know of you and the threat you pose. They are coming. You will face Russian intervention at some point during turns 1-4.
Nemesis (3 CP): Your rapid growth, and clear "New South" sympathies, have alarmed many of those who hold pride in 'community rights.' And see you as the new government come to oppress their way of life. Your "Old State" neighbors, bless their little hearts, will attempt to form a coalition against you during turns 1-4. Even in the case that you prevent an organized coalition, they will remain hostile.
Burning Crosses (3 CP): Portions of the population in the area have opted to join terrorist organizations in support of "Southern Values." Start with hostile terrorists settled within the territory outside your borders. If "Unhappy Marriage" is taken as well, start with a domestic insurgency.
Intelligence
Secrets are important in building up a nation in this setting. All the world shall be your enemy, it often seems, and if they catch you, they will kill you -- but first, they must catch you.
Ear to the Ground (-1 CP): You have made the effort to seed networks of friendly ears across the Southeast to carry rumors to your ears. It's not much, but it's something, and more than most can claim. You begin play with the beginnings of a foreign intelligence service. Mutually exclusive with, "Disastrous Start."
Good Security (-1 CP): Ever-mindful of the threat Victoria poses, you've been careful to ensure that your nation is well-protected against intrusion. Your counter-intelligence is strong and your secrets are secure. It would take focused effort from a formidable opponent to break into that you choose to secure. Mutually exclusive with, "Compromised."
Aerial Reconnaissance (-2 CP): The US Air Force, and even its NAC successor, is gone, its assets dispersed, destroyed, or largely worthless without fuel. However, the insightful may still gain inspiration from what is left behind. You, in particular, had a brainwave stemming from their Predator drones, and have turned a part of your limited industry to the task of emulating them. You have a force of electric, remote-controlled camera drones for discreet remote reconnaissance. They're short-ranged and unsubtle compared to their inspiration, and even what was once the realm of children's toys is a serious and special strain for your industry to produce, but it's significantly more than anybody else has, or is prepared for.
Resistance Contacts (-2 CP): Victoria's people have not had their spirit stamped out. Victoria does a good job of keeping their hand around their subjects' throat, but you know better. It all started with a quiet meeting on the side of a broken highway, with a young man with fiery eyes. You have made contact with the leader of the Victorian Resistance, and he at least kinda trusts you. You have a relatively secure line of contact.
Compromised (1 CP): Secrets you attempt to keep inevitably find their way into the wrong hands. It seems as though you have not been able to keep a lid on things in years' time. It's clear enough what happened. Somebody came calling; somebody talked. You have an informant or several informants in your government passing information to foreign intelligence agencies.
Disastrous Start (1 CP): You tried to establish a network of informants among your neighbors. Tried. While your name remains clear, you failed, and your neighbors are now on guard against a second attempt. Not only do you have no proper foreign intelligence service, your neighbors are highly resistant to your intelligence actions.
Unhappy Marriage (3 CP): In your founding a significant portion of your territory descends areas with "Old South" sympathies. They are currently loyal, and genuinely believe in the revivalist cause. They just think that the united South should emulate the original Confederate States of America. Start with a significant fraction of your population holding sympathy with "Old South" values. This will consistently push internal tension, and can, in the worst-case lead to them gaining domestic power, leading to a host of regressive laws
The Greatest Sin (3 CP): Suspicious deaths abound in government offices. This goes beyond simple informants. Somebody with access to the highest levels of government is or is abetting an assassin in wreaking havoc in your government. Every turn, a random government official will need to make survival rolls until you stop the assassin.
Economics
Trade has always been a vital part of any societyIt is much reduced these days as a direct result of no longer being one. With time and effort, it will be again.
Convoy System (-2 CP): Trade in the South is as much a contest of managing to get goods through without finding them destroyed by 'bandits' as they pass near hostile states. To that end, you have set up a system of guards around your caravans, allowing them to trade further and safer than other states. Commerce has not stopped entirely; your income is 50% higher at game start, and while many things are expensive, you can procure at least one of any kind of trade good. This also leaves you resistant to attacks against trade, but comes at the cost of a reduces army, if you want to fully muster, you must call your caravans back. .
Rail Companies (-2 CP): Infrastructure has broken down in the Collapse. In the absence of enough funding to focus on roads, you have turned your attention to railways. You have set up several companies responsible for constructing rail lines across your territory. Rail companies subject to strict state supervision are hard at work building rail lines across your territory, both between population centers and within the larger ones. By Turn 3, you will have a complete, albeit not comprehensive and certainly not modernized, internal rail network.
Widespread Vaccinations (-3 CP): What remains of the NC medical industry has spent its time wisely since the Collapse. Relying on the goodwill of what traders remain, a small group of doctors has devoted themselves to producing vaccinations and dispersing them as widely as possible. Your population is 60% inoculated against common diseases, and you have the (fragile, vulnerable) beginnings of a pharmaceutical industry. Requires, "Independent Merchants."
Efficient Bureaucracy (-3 CP): Cursed by many as they were, the old bureaucratic institutions of the United States were what allowed it to function as it did, and bureaucracy, in general, is essential to the functioning of a modern state. You have ensured that yours is capable of handling the challenges demanded of it by this latest expansion. Begin play with a proper census, established taxation structures, and all of the manifold other things that go on in the boring background of governance.
Outbreak (2 CP): All of your precautions have failed, and now disease runs rampant in your territory. You begin play with an active, endemic outbreak of particularly lethal influenza, source unknown.
Disunited Currency (3 CP): Dollars were worth precious little even before the Collapse. In the aftermath, local governments took to issuing their own currency or else falling back on barter, in the worst cases. In your case, Raleigh actually has a reasonably stable and healthy currency around which your nation has agreed to gather, but that's in the future. For now, you are faced with having to integrate dozens of petty currencies and a wide practice of barter. Your money situation is exceptionally bad. You have significant work ahead of you in getting things back together and functioning properly.
Population Boom (2 CP): With news of the Congress spreading, people have been flocking to the cities under your control! This is terrible. You barely had enough food to feed your population as it was! Now, you face the possibility of having had your population expand drastically, only to immediately collapse into a massive famine. Food supplies have collapsed under a population boom. Take drastic measures to address the situation or face mass die-offs.
Queen Tobacco (1 CP): With the collapse, smoking has taken hold again as a vice of choice across the US, and your farms supply much of that. You know it depletes the soil and leaves your food situation perilous, but what can you do, you need the cash. Start with a large part of your agricultural sector dependent on cash crops, resulting in necessary food imports and increasingly depleted soil until something is done.
Technology
Much was lost in the Collapse, and much was deliberately destroyed afterward by the Victorians. If America is to reclaim its place, it must recover what has been ripped away.
Libraries (-2 CP): The first repositories of knowledge are, it turns out, the last places to have fallen to the chaos of the Collapse. While many were lost, many more survived, and Raleigh, in particular, has taken a name as a haven for such institutions and the as it weathered the civil war better than other urban areas. You have collected the contents of libraries from across the continent as their keepers desperately seek a safe place for them. You have ready access to a massive amount of information, and enough books to support a large slice of your population in literacy.
Universities (-2 CP): The professors went into hiding after what that bastard Kraft did to the Ivy League. That said, with the Accords having been signed, the learned intellectuals in your region have begun to come back into the light. You have a significant population of experts on hand from pre-Collapse universities.
Well-Preserved (-1 CP): While widespread looting was an issue during the Collapse, a surprising number of samples of old technology made it through and have found their way into your hands. Reproducing them is beyond you at this point, but you do have quite a lot of old products and blueprints on hand to reverse-engineer once you have managed to properly reindustrialize. Significant caches of pre-Collapse technology have fallen into your hands. Mutually exclusive with, "Empty Spaces."
Empty Spaces (1 CP): Your lands were stripped bare during the chaos of the civil war. Much has been lost, never to be regained, and now you face a long climb back to the top without assistance. Virtually nothing survived the Collapse, and you find yourself starting from very near to scratch.
Technological Conservatism (3 CP): While the wonders of the old Country are a powerful motivator for your people, they have nevertheless lived decades in a world where, "old," usually meant, "completely inexplicable and prone to malfunction at odd moments." They are distrustful of new technology and will approach its adoption with caution at best. Your population has picked up an anti-tech prejudice over the years.
Crossed Wires (2 CP): At some point, somebody learned something wrong, and that wrong fact passed into common circulation. Somehow, it has avoided being challenged since, and now you do not even know that a falsehood underlies your learned class's assumptions about how the world works. The Collapse has caused your body of engineering knowledge to warp. Your current engineers have a gap in their knowledge which they backfilled with assumptions. You will not know what this is until it explodes in your face, nor will you know in any more detail than, "engineering," to what this gap pertains.
And finally:
Nuke (-5 CP): Many things were lost during the Collapse. Some have been found again. Through some working of influence, you have found something. Some-fucking-how, you have laid hands on a functional B-83 nuclear warhead, the largest nuclear weapon in the United States' arsenal. Just the warhead. It's strapped to a semi. No delivery system included with purchase. This is not a case of Schroedinger's warhead; the nuke exists. If you do not pick it up, the nuke moves on...and finds another master. Best to grab it...if you can afford to.
PS: Just to clarify, I'm not running anything, just having fun with what a revivalist sect might look like in other parts of the country.
So I'm still on creative fire, but Mary is … not always something I can focus on. So, I'm bouncing between it and more fun stuff. And I got to thinking what could a revivalist sect in my area look like. Hence, I made an NC revivalist set (Special thanks to @Simon_Jester for giving this a look over). What custom advantages/disadvantages could a revivalist sect that had started in your area have?
Negaverse: Raleigh, North Carolina
Customization Rules
Congratulations, you've chosen the Southern Revivalist start! This kind of faction allows you to customize your strengths and weaknesses according to your preferred playstyle, giving a lot of control over the shape of your fate.
It also means you have some hard choices to make.
We handle customization via the distribution of customization points (CP). You start the process with a certain amount determined by the upcoming vote, and once we've handled that, you select from the below lists any combination of traits you like, as long as the final CP total is greater than or equal to zero.
Military
The blazing bonfire of the collapse of the NAC has turned to simmering resentment, but those old hatreds can reignite at a moments notice. No major State in the south lives life without conflict.
Old World Hardware (-1 CP): Much was lost in the Collapse, some of which made its way into your hands. Over the years, you have managed to maintain a small stockpile of Pre-Collapse American military hardware, and enough supplies to deploy it. Be it for eventual reverse-engineering or a tactical doomsday weapon, you have it. Can be taken multiple times. Each time grants a body of hardware large enough to auto-resolve in your favor one tactical engagement. Five uses before you can't supply it anymore. Few troops these days are trained to use this type of gear, so intense use may burn through multiple uses.
Foreign-Sourced Equipment (-1 CP): You have acquired a patron willing to source you military gear. It's the old stuff, so it's only a little superior to the stuff Victoria's masters give them, but you have a reliable source of supply. May be taken multiple times. Provides enough hardware to engage Victorian-quality forces at an advantage in one tactical engagement. Unlimited uses as long as you maintain the connection. You are indebted to a foreign power.
Old World Soldiers (-1 CP): The Country's military might have collapsed, but soldiers don't have much of a reputation for going down without a fight. Some units of the old military have survived years of being hunted by Victoria, and although their frontline soldiers are now their officers, they've ensured that standards haven't dropped. Somehow, you have won the loyalty of one of these units. Still maintaining the standards of the Old World, and the veterans of hellish survival conditions, they are the finest soldiers in the world, today. Gain the services of a U.S. Army Combined Arms Battalion, quality 5/5 (Veterans). They are large enough to deploy to a tactical engagement. They have internal standards and procedures to replace manpower but operate on your supply lines. Finally, these troops have at least the theoretical training to use Old World Hardware without burning multiple uses in intense engagements.
The South Will Rise Again (-2 CP): Somehow, you've managed to get up the beginnings of a rudimentary aviation industry. So far, you've just used them for scouting, but you have plans for more military additions. You have the beginnings of a aircraft industry, and can create and replace low-end military planes. Your pilots are well trained and start at quality 2/5. They are currently used only as scouts. Arming them up will almost certainly draw Victorian attention.
Technically Correct (-2 CP): The fighting vehicles of the Old World are not something you can hope to duplicate, yet. But you have begun to mass-produce your own military trucks and armored cars. Gain one mechanized cavalry division. This division currently consists mainly of technicals with mounted heavy weapons. In addition, your forces are largely motorized. .
Brown-Water Navy (-1 CP): While your river access is somewhat problematic in this day and age and the Atlantic Ocean is frequented by much stronger powers, your capital nevertheless rests on a major local river, as do many of the surrounding cities and potential trade partners. If you wish to secure the waterways of your territory, you will need a force up to the task. You have a navy capable of operating in rivers and along coastlines in sheltered waters. They are designed to operate with your current resource limitations. Incompatible with, "No Navy." Compatible with, "Green-Water Navy."
Green-Water Navy (-3 CP): A handful of Coast Guard and Navy vessels managed to survive both the Collapse of the old United States and the shocks of the NAC's breakup. They've been laid up in dry dock for years, but they and their crews served as a valuable source of information and insight in building your own vessels. You have a navy capable of operating along the Atlantic coast, under most sea conditions. Incompatible with, "No Navy." Compatible with, "Brown-Water Navy."
Old World Training (-2 CP): Those veterans who managed to muster out of the military are all dead or old by now, but they're still willing to serve. You've put them to work training enlisted recruits and officer candidates. The things your trainers have to say about your troops aren't fit for print, but it's better than what most successor states have. New troops start at quality 2/5 (Trained) rather than 1/5 (Green) but take somewhat longer to train. Mutually exclusive with, "Incompetent Military."
Professionals Study Logistics (-3 CP): The greatest general is as useless as their troops if they're all starving. You have made special efforts to establish a dedicated logistics corps within your military to ensure that it always has what it needs. Your military has the best logistics on the continent, which, granted, says very little. Still, the advantage is decisive. You have broad power projection and can simply outlast most opponents absent devastating defeat. Mutually exclusive with, "Shattered Logistics."
Incompetent Military (2 CP): Your soldiers are untrained; your officers are unqualified. You managed to win your home, but you have no confidence in your ability to hold it. New troops start at quality 0/5 (Worthless) rather than 1/5 (Green) but train virtually instantly.
Shattered Logistics (3 CP): You have no unified logistics structure, and all of your troops are equipped by their home constituency. The result is an unstandardized and inefficient mess with virtually zero endurance. You are utterly incapable of waging offensive war against an even slightly organized power, and even on the defensive, you tire quickly. Severely limited power projection and low strategic endurance. Mutually exclusive with, "Professionals Study Logistics."
No Navy (2 CP): You face serious landward threats. What need have you of a navy? Saving costs, you decline to establish a naval military branch. If you take neither this nor any other navy action, you default to Victorian-inspired boat technicals.
Diplomatic
Your strengths as a state in negotiating with and managing the attention of others.
SPECIAL NOTE: The Southeast is the area of the country that had the most aggressive civil war with no clear winner. As a result, there is a deep divide between states that are seen "New States" or the "Old States", though many states, especially smaller ones, attempt to claim neutrality. As a result of your choices during government creation you are viewed as a "New State", following ideals of equality and revivalism. At base, you will have mild positive interactions with other "New States" and hostility from "Old States".
Revivalist Connections (-1 CP): You have established yourself as a leader for Revivalist organization across the Southeast, and have many favors and admirers on which to call. You may lower by 30 the DC of up to three actions targeting fellow Revivalist movements across the American Southeast.
New South Connections (-2 CP): The New American Confederation was regarded by many as the last, best hope for the restoration of the United States. It failed. Still, while internal wars would lead to its destruction, many of the small nations within the South proudly trace their heritage back to the NAC. You've always maintained historical ties with other "New States", and with your recent rise, many are looking to you to rebuild what was lost. Begin play with extremely friendly relations with other major "New State" powers in the area, with trade and even joint military actions against rivals. They aren't quite willing to accept assimilation or stand with you against Victoria…yet. Mutually exclusive with, "Splendid Neutrality"
Domestic Connections (-1 CP): Your leading government has learned much of politics in the process of forming, and many officials within it hold favors they can call in to grease the gears of governance. You may bypass the need to consult the Legislature on three actions of your choice.
Established (-2 CP): You have broad recognition as the legitimate government of your region. Your neighbors and a few more distant powers recognize your legitimacy, as do your own citizens. If you do not take this, then at game start the Carolina Congress is ongoing and the Accords have yet to be signed; you control Raleigh proper and nothing else, and will need to invest actions into completing the Congress. Failure to do so has dire consequences, both for trying and failing to found a nation in the international spotlight and for making me go through government creation pointlessly.
Good Reputation (-1 CP): Your government is skilled at manipulating public opinion, and has offices specifically trained in interfacing with the media. You are insulated from public opinion loss due to failures or disasters.
Splendid Neutrality (-2 CP): Walking the fine line of neutrality is difficult in the South, but you've done so. You aren't viewed as taking a side in the hostility between those descended from the NAC and those from its killers. Start with neutral reputations with both "New State" and "Old State" factions Mutually exclusive with "New South Connections" and "Nemesis".
Hostile Neighborhood (1 CP): You have gained a lot of territory in a very short period of time, and your neighbors are nervous. Your presence has an admirably unifying effect on them; if only it wasn't against you. Your neighbors are suspicious of you. Neutral states will readily unite into a coalition to contain you, should you resort to military force in order to expand, and even "New" states are worried. .
Victorian Attention (2 CP): You have gained Victoria's notice, and they are aware of the threat you face. You will face Victorian intervention at some point during turns 1-4.
Russian Attention (3 CP): You have miscalculated the extent of the Bear's distraction. They know of you and the threat you pose. They are coming. You will face Russian intervention at some point during turns 1-4.
Nemesis (3 CP): Your rapid growth, and clear "New South" sympathies, have alarmed many of those who hold pride in 'community rights.' And see you as the new government come to oppress their way of life. Your "Old State" neighbors, bless their little hearts, will attempt to form a coalition against you during turns 1-4. Even in the case that you prevent an organized coalition, they will remain hostile.
Burning Crosses (3 CP): Portions of the population in the area have opted to join terrorist organizations in support of "Southern Values." Start with hostile terrorists settled within the territory outside your borders. If "Unhappy Marriage" is taken as well, start with a domestic insurgency.
Intelligence
Secrets are important in building up a nation in this setting. All the world shall be your enemy, it often seems, and if they catch you, they will kill you -- but first, they must catch you.
Ear to the Ground (-1 CP): You have made the effort to seed networks of friendly ears across the Southeast to carry rumors to your ears. It's not much, but it's something, and more than most can claim. You begin play with the beginnings of a foreign intelligence service. Mutually exclusive with, "Disastrous Start."
Good Security (-1 CP): Ever-mindful of the threat Victoria poses, you've been careful to ensure that your nation is well-protected against intrusion. Your counter-intelligence is strong and your secrets are secure. It would take focused effort from a formidable opponent to break into that you choose to secure. Mutually exclusive with, "Compromised."
Aerial Reconnaissance (-2 CP): The US Air Force, and even its NAC successor, is gone, its assets dispersed, destroyed, or largely worthless without fuel. However, the insightful may still gain inspiration from what is left behind. You, in particular, had a brainwave stemming from their Predator drones, and have turned a part of your limited industry to the task of emulating them. You have a force of electric, remote-controlled camera drones for discreet remote reconnaissance. They're short-ranged and unsubtle compared to their inspiration, and even what was once the realm of children's toys is a serious and special strain for your industry to produce, but it's significantly more than anybody else has, or is prepared for.
Resistance Contacts (-2 CP): Victoria's people have not had their spirit stamped out. Victoria does a good job of keeping their hand around their subjects' throat, but you know better. It all started with a quiet meeting on the side of a broken highway, with a young man with fiery eyes. You have made contact with the leader of the Victorian Resistance, and he at least kinda trusts you. You have a relatively secure line of contact.
Compromised (1 CP): Secrets you attempt to keep inevitably find their way into the wrong hands. It seems as though you have not been able to keep a lid on things in years' time. It's clear enough what happened. Somebody came calling; somebody talked. You have an informant or several informants in your government passing information to foreign intelligence agencies.
Disastrous Start (1 CP): You tried to establish a network of informants among your neighbors. Tried. While your name remains clear, you failed, and your neighbors are now on guard against a second attempt. Not only do you have no proper foreign intelligence service, your neighbors are highly resistant to your intelligence actions.
Unhappy Marriage (3 CP): In your founding a significant portion of your territory descends areas with "Old South" sympathies. They are currently loyal, and genuinely believe in the revivalist cause. They just think that the united South should emulate the original Confederate States of America. Start with a significant fraction of your population holding sympathy with "Old South" values. This will consistently push internal tension, and can, in the worst-case lead to them gaining domestic power, leading to a host of regressive laws
The Greatest Sin (3 CP): Suspicious deaths abound in government offices. This goes beyond simple informants. Somebody with access to the highest levels of government is or is abetting an assassin in wreaking havoc in your government. Every turn, a random government official will need to make survival rolls until you stop the assassin.
Economics
Trade has always been a vital part of any societyIt is much reduced these days as a direct result of no longer being one. With time and effort, it will be again.
Convoy System (-2 CP): Trade in the South is as much a contest of managing to get goods through without finding them destroyed by 'bandits' as they pass near hostile states. To that end, you have set up a system of guards around your caravans, allowing them to trade further and safer than other states. Commerce has not stopped entirely; your income is 50% higher at game start, and while many things are expensive, you can procure at least one of any kind of trade good. This also leaves you resistant to attacks against trade, but comes at the cost of a reduces army, if you want to fully muster, you must call your caravans back. .
Rail Companies (-2 CP): Infrastructure has broken down in the Collapse. In the absence of enough funding to focus on roads, you have turned your attention to railways. You have set up several companies responsible for constructing rail lines across your territory. Rail companies subject to strict state supervision are hard at work building rail lines across your territory, both between population centers and within the larger ones. By Turn 3, you will have a complete, albeit not comprehensive and certainly not modernized, internal rail network.
Widespread Vaccinations (-3 CP): What remains of the NC medical industry has spent its time wisely since the Collapse. Relying on the goodwill of what traders remain, a small group of doctors has devoted themselves to producing vaccinations and dispersing them as widely as possible. Your population is 60% inoculated against common diseases, and you have the (fragile, vulnerable) beginnings of a pharmaceutical industry. Requires, "Independent Merchants."
Efficient Bureaucracy (-3 CP): Cursed by many as they were, the old bureaucratic institutions of the United States were what allowed it to function as it did, and bureaucracy, in general, is essential to the functioning of a modern state. You have ensured that yours is capable of handling the challenges demanded of it by this latest expansion. Begin play with a proper census, established taxation structures, and all of the manifold other things that go on in the boring background of governance.
Outbreak (2 CP): All of your precautions have failed, and now disease runs rampant in your territory. You begin play with an active, endemic outbreak of particularly lethal influenza, source unknown.
Disunited Currency (3 CP): Dollars were worth precious little even before the Collapse. In the aftermath, local governments took to issuing their own currency or else falling back on barter, in the worst cases. In your case, Raleigh actually has a reasonably stable and healthy currency around which your nation has agreed to gather, but that's in the future. For now, you are faced with having to integrate dozens of petty currencies and a wide practice of barter. Your money situation is exceptionally bad. You have significant work ahead of you in getting things back together and functioning properly.
Population Boom (2 CP): With news of the Congress spreading, people have been flocking to the cities under your control! This is terrible. You barely had enough food to feed your population as it was! Now, you face the possibility of having had your population expand drastically, only to immediately collapse into a massive famine. Food supplies have collapsed under a population boom. Take drastic measures to address the situation or face mass die-offs.
Queen Tobacco (1 CP): With the collapse, smoking has taken hold again as a vice of choice across the US, and your farms supply much of that. You know it depletes the soil and leaves your food situation perilous, but what can you do, you need the cash. Start with a large part of your agricultural sector dependent on cash crops, resulting in necessary food imports and increasingly depleted soil until something is done.
Technology
Much was lost in the Collapse, and much was deliberately destroyed afterward by the Victorians. If America is to reclaim its place, it must recover what has been ripped away.
Libraries (-2 CP): The first repositories of knowledge are, it turns out, the last places to have fallen to the chaos of the Collapse. While many were lost, many more survived, and Raleigh, in particular, has taken a name as a haven for such institutions and the as it weathered the civil war better than other urban areas. You have collected the contents of libraries from across the continent as their keepers desperately seek a safe place for them. You have ready access to a massive amount of information, and enough books to support a large slice of your population in literacy.
Universities (-2 CP): The professors went into hiding after what that bastard Kraft did to the Ivy League. That said, with the Accords having been signed, the learned intellectuals in your region have begun to come back into the light. You have a significant population of experts on hand from pre-Collapse universities.
Well-Preserved (-1 CP): While widespread looting was an issue during the Collapse, a surprising number of samples of old technology made it through and have found their way into your hands. Reproducing them is beyond you at this point, but you do have quite a lot of old products and blueprints on hand to reverse-engineer once you have managed to properly reindustrialize. Significant caches of pre-Collapse technology have fallen into your hands. Mutually exclusive with, "Empty Spaces."
Empty Spaces (1 CP): Your lands were stripped bare during the chaos of the Nazi uprising. Much has been lost, never to be regained, and now you face a long climb back to the top without assistance. Virtually nothing survived the Collapse, and you find yourself starting from very near to scratch.
Technological Conservatism (3 CP): While the wonders of the old Country are a powerful motivator for your people, they have nevertheless lived decades in a world where, "old," usually meant, "completely inexplicable and prone to malfunction at odd moments." They are distrustful of new technology and will approach its adoption with caution at best. Your population has picked up an anti-tech prejudice over the years.
Crossed Wires (2 CP): At some point, somebody learned something wrong, and that wrong fact passed into common circulation. Somehow, it has avoided being challenged since, and now you do not even know that a falsehood underlies your learned class's assumptions about how the world works. The Collapse has caused your body of engineering knowledge to warp. Your current engineers have a gap in their knowledge which they backfilled with assumptions. You will not know what this is until it explodes in your face, nor will you know in any more detail than, "engineering," to what this gap pertains.
And finally:
Nuke (-5 CP): Many things were lost during the Collapse. Some have been found again. Through some working of influence, you have found something. Some-fucking-how, you have laid hands on a functional B-83 nuclear warhead, the largest nuclear weapon in the United States' arsenal. Just the warhead. It's strapped to a semi. No delivery system included with purchase. This is not a case of Schroedinger's warhead; the nuke exists. If you do not pick it up, the nuke moves on...and finds another master. Best to grab it...if you can afford to.
Obviously, we want to do something different from how Chicago turned out. Maybe a starting position that's weak, but has excellent relations with many of its neighbors. The goal would be to re-create a southern coalition to restore the US, staying under the radar until it's time as individually we have little stopping power.
Obviously, we want to do something different from how Chicago turned out. Maybe a starting position that's weak, but has excellent relations with many of its neighbors. The goal would be to re-create a southern coalition to restore the US, staying under the radar until it's time as individually we have little stopping power.
What was once the state of Idaho had held within it a population of nearly 2 million people prior to the Collapse. Alone, it contributed a third of the United States annual yield of potatoes. With a population density averaging on 21 people per square mile, it was uniquely suited to become a safe haven for the refugees fleeing Victorian expansion and the encroaching Japanese puppet state that Cascadia would become.
The stream of evacuees' original source can be traced to the Eastern coast regions of what was once Canada. The divided provinces had given all available means of transportation to the refugees-to-be who would not be considered 'acceptable' under direct Victorian rule before becoming annexed. The first participants of what would come to be known as "The Long March" set off at a frantic pace in the year 2036, a daunting rush of humanity, driven forth by fear of what swelled behind them.
By the time of the New Year's Eve announcing 2037 to have begun, they had found asylum in the emerging Cascadian Republic. They set about rebuilding their lives, and they had made some amount of progress in the five years of relative peace before being set to flee the emerging Victorian-aligned government, later joined by those escaping the subsequent IJA occupation.
By 2049, they had mostly scattered across the Mountain States, those who survived eking out a mostly stable existence in the land. One notable exception to the rule were a splinter group of some 200 Quebecois refugees who had managed to stay in a mostly cohesive trail, and eventually finding a suitable destination for The Long March in the cities of Idaho Falls and Pocatello. Notable, because these refugees had once all been employed by a Quebec City biotechnology company, and had taken their work with them, unwilling to leave it for Retroculture fanatics to plunder or smash apart, having preserved them on The Long March with almost greater ferocity than their own lives.
For it was in Idaho Falls and Pocatello that expansive greenhouses had survived the Collapse, and provided the foundations for rebuilding a production line for vaccines with the Proficia process. With universal healthcare a thing of an august past, this source for disease prevention that would not draw Victorian wrath in the guise of tobacco farming, set up the twin cities' rise to prominence in post-Collapse Idaho. A wealth of manpower flocked to the cities in search of immunization, swelling their population to more than triple it's peak before the Collapse, fed by the still plentiful arable land.
Hm...my rule is normally, "First come, first serve," but somebody has been working on an omake for a while and touching base with me on it that would conflict pretty heavily with this, so for now I will hold off on making a ruling. Not forever, but for now.
So I'm still on creative fire, but Mary is … not always something I can focus on. So, I'm bouncing between it and more fun stuff. And I got to thinking what could a revivalist sect in my area look like. Hence, I made an NC revivalist set (Special thanks to @Simon_Jester for giving this a look over). What custom advantages/disadvantages could a revivalist sect that had started in your area have?
Negaverse: Raleigh, North Carolina
Customization Rules
Congratulations, you've chosen the Southern Revivalist start! This kind of faction allows you to customize your strengths and weaknesses according to your preferred playstyle, giving a lot of control over the shape of your fate.
It also means you have some hard choices to make.
We handle customization via the distribution of customization points (CP). You start the process with a certain amount determined by the upcoming vote, and once we've handled that, you select from the below lists any combination of traits you like, as long as the final CP total is greater than or equal to zero.
Military
The blazing bonfire of the collapse of the NAC has turned to simmering resentment, but those old hatreds can reignite at a moments notice. No major State in the south lives life without conflict.
Old World Hardware (-1 CP): Much was lost in the Collapse, some of which made its way into your hands. Over the years, you have managed to maintain a small stockpile of Pre-Collapse American military hardware, and enough supplies to deploy it. Be it for eventual reverse-engineering or a tactical doomsday weapon, you have it. Can be taken multiple times. Each time grants a body of hardware large enough to auto-resolve in your favor one tactical engagement. Five uses before you can't supply it anymore. Few troops these days are trained to use this type of gear, so intense use may burn through multiple uses.
Foreign-Sourced Equipment (-1 CP): You have acquired a patron willing to source you military gear. It's the old stuff, so it's only a little superior to the stuff Victoria's masters give them, but you have a reliable source of supply. May be taken multiple times. Provides enough hardware to engage Victorian-quality forces at an advantage in one tactical engagement. Unlimited uses as long as you maintain the connection. You are indebted to a foreign power.
Old World Soldiers (-1 CP): The Country's military might have collapsed, but soldiers don't have much of a reputation for going down without a fight. Some units of the old military have survived years of being hunted by Victoria, and although their frontline soldiers are now their officers, they've ensured that standards haven't dropped. Somehow, you have won the loyalty of one of these units. Still maintaining the standards of the Old World, and the veterans of hellish survival conditions, they are the finest soldiers in the world, today. Gain the services of a U.S. Army Combined Arms Battalion, quality 5/5 (Veterans). They are large enough to deploy to a tactical engagement. They have internal standards and procedures to replace manpower but operate on your supply lines. Finally, these troops have at least the theoretical training to use Old World Hardware without burning multiple uses in intense engagements.
The South Will Rise Again (-2 CP): Somehow, you've managed to get up the beginnings of a rudimentary aviation industry. So far, you've just used them for scouting, but you have plans for more military additions. You have the beginnings of a aircraft industry, and can create and replace low-end military planes. Your pilots are well trained and start at quality 2/5. They are currently used only as scouts. Arming them up will almost certainly draw Victorian attention.
Technically Correct (-2 CP): The fighting vehicles of the Old World are not something you can hope to duplicate, yet. But you have begun to mass-produce your own military trucks and armored cars. Gain one mechanized cavalry division. This division currently consists mainly of technicals with mounted heavy weapons. In addition, your forces are largely motorized. .
Brown-Water Navy (-1 CP): While your river access is somewhat problematic in this day and age and the Atlantic Ocean is frequented by much stronger powers, your capital nevertheless rests on a major local river, as do many of the surrounding cities and potential trade partners. If you wish to secure the waterways of your territory, you will need a force up to the task. You have a navy capable of operating in rivers and along coastlines in sheltered waters. They are designed to operate with your current resource limitations. Incompatible with, "No Navy." Compatible with, "Green-Water Navy."
Green-Water Navy (-3 CP): A handful of Coast Guard and Navy vessels managed to survive both the Collapse of the old United States and the shocks of the NAC's breakup. They've been laid up in dry dock for years, but they and their crews served as a valuable source of information and insight in building your own vessels. You have a navy capable of operating along the Atlantic coast, under most sea conditions. Incompatible with, "No Navy." Compatible with, "Brown-Water Navy."
Old World Training (-2 CP): Those veterans who managed to muster out of the military are all dead or old by now, but they're still willing to serve. You've put them to work training enlisted recruits and officer candidates. The things your trainers have to say about your troops aren't fit for print, but it's better than what most successor states have. New troops start at quality 2/5 (Trained) rather than 1/5 (Green) but take somewhat longer to train. Mutually exclusive with, "Incompetent Military."
Professionals Study Logistics (-3 CP): The greatest general is as useless as their troops if they're all starving. You have made special efforts to establish a dedicated logistics corps within your military to ensure that it always has what it needs. Your military has the best logistics on the continent, which, granted, says very little. Still, the advantage is decisive. You have broad power projection and can simply outlast most opponents absent devastating defeat. Mutually exclusive with, "Shattered Logistics."
Incompetent Military (2 CP): Your soldiers are untrained; your officers are unqualified. You managed to win your home, but you have no confidence in your ability to hold it. New troops start at quality 0/5 (Worthless) rather than 1/5 (Green) but train virtually instantly.
Shattered Logistics (3 CP): You have no unified logistics structure, and all of your troops are equipped by their home constituency. The result is an unstandardized and inefficient mess with virtually zero endurance. You are utterly incapable of waging offensive war against an even slightly organized power, and even on the defensive, you tire quickly. Severely limited power projection and low strategic endurance. Mutually exclusive with, "Professionals Study Logistics."
No Navy (2 CP): You face serious landward threats. What need have you of a navy? Saving costs, you decline to establish a naval military branch. If you take neither this nor any other navy action, you default to Victorian-inspired boat technicals.
Diplomatic
Your strengths as a state in negotiating with and managing the attention of others.
SPECIAL NOTE: The Southeast is the area of the country that had the most aggressive civil war with no clear winner. As a result, there is a deep divide between states that are seen "New States" or the "Old States", though many states, especially smaller ones, attempt to claim neutrality. As a result of your choices during government creation you are viewed as a "New State", following ideals of equality and revivalism. At base, you will have mild positive interactions with other "New States" and hostility from "Old States".
Revivalist Connections (-1 CP): You have established yourself as a leader for Revivalist organization across the Southeast, and have many favors and admirers on which to call. You may lower by 30 the DC of up to three actions targeting fellow Revivalist movements across the American Southeast.
New South Connections (-2 CP): The New American Confederation was regarded by many as the last, best hope for the restoration of the United States. It failed. Still, while internal wars would lead to its destruction, many of the small nations within the South proudly trace their heritage back to the NAC. You've always maintained historical ties with other "New States", and with your recent rise, many are looking to you to rebuild what was lost. Begin play with extremely friendly relations with other major "New State" powers in the area, with trade and even joint military actions against rivals. They aren't quite willing to accept assimilation or stand with you against Victoria…yet. Mutually exclusive with, "Splendid Neutrality"
Domestic Connections (-1 CP): Your leading government has learned much of politics in the process of forming, and many officials within it hold favors they can call in to grease the gears of governance. You may bypass the need to consult the Legislature on three actions of your choice.
Established (-2 CP): You have broad recognition as the legitimate government of your region. Your neighbors and a few more distant powers recognize your legitimacy, as do your own citizens. If you do not take this, then at game start the Carolina Congress is ongoing and the Accords have yet to be signed; you control Raleigh proper and nothing else, and will need to invest actions into completing the Congress. Failure to do so has dire consequences, both for trying and failing to found a nation in the international spotlight and for making me go through government creation pointlessly.
Good Reputation (-1 CP): Your government is skilled at manipulating public opinion, and has offices specifically trained in interfacing with the media. You are insulated from public opinion loss due to failures or disasters.
Splendid Neutrality (-2 CP): Walking the fine line of neutrality is difficult in the South, but you've done so. You aren't viewed as taking a side in the hostility between those descended from the NAC and those from its killers. Start with neutral reputations with both "New State" and "Old State" factions Mutually exclusive with "New South Connections" and "Nemesis".
Hostile Neighborhood (1 CP): You have gained a lot of territory in a very short period of time, and your neighbors are nervous. Your presence has an admirably unifying effect on them; if only it wasn't against you. Your neighbors are suspicious of you. Neutral states will readily unite into a coalition to contain you, should you resort to military force in order to expand, and even "New" states are worried. .
Victorian Attention (2 CP): You have gained Victoria's notice, and they are aware of the threat you face. You will face Victorian intervention at some point during turns 1-4.
Russian Attention (3 CP): You have miscalculated the extent of the Bear's distraction. They know of you and the threat you pose. They are coming. You will face Russian intervention at some point during turns 1-4.
Nemesis (3 CP): Your rapid growth, and clear "New South" sympathies, have alarmed many of those who hold pride in 'community rights.' And see you as the new government come to oppress their way of life. Your "Old State" neighbors, bless their little hearts, will attempt to form a coalition against you during turns 1-4. Even in the case that you prevent an organized coalition, they will remain hostile.
Burning Crosses (3 CP): Portions of the population in the area have opted to join terrorist organizations in support of "Southern Values." Start with hostile terrorists settled within the territory outside your borders. If "Unhappy Marriage" is taken as well, start with a domestic insurgency.
Intelligence
Secrets are important in building up a nation in this setting. All the world shall be your enemy, it often seems, and if they catch you, they will kill you -- but first, they must catch you.
Ear to the Ground (-1 CP): You have made the effort to seed networks of friendly ears across the Southeast to carry rumors to your ears. It's not much, but it's something, and more than most can claim. You begin play with the beginnings of a foreign intelligence service. Mutually exclusive with, "Disastrous Start."
Good Security (-1 CP): Ever-mindful of the threat Victoria poses, you've been careful to ensure that your nation is well-protected against intrusion. Your counter-intelligence is strong and your secrets are secure. It would take focused effort from a formidable opponent to break into that you choose to secure. Mutually exclusive with, "Compromised."
Aerial Reconnaissance (-2 CP): The US Air Force, and even its NAC successor, is gone, its assets dispersed, destroyed, or largely worthless without fuel. However, the insightful may still gain inspiration from what is left behind. You, in particular, had a brainwave stemming from their Predator drones, and have turned a part of your limited industry to the task of emulating them. You have a force of electric, remote-controlled camera drones for discreet remote reconnaissance. They're short-ranged and unsubtle compared to their inspiration, and even what was once the realm of children's toys is a serious and special strain for your industry to produce, but it's significantly more than anybody else has, or is prepared for.
Resistance Contacts (-2 CP): Victoria's people have not had their spirit stamped out. Victoria does a good job of keeping their hand around their subjects' throat, but you know better. It all started with a quiet meeting on the side of a broken highway, with a young man with fiery eyes. You have made contact with the leader of the Victorian Resistance, and he at least kinda trusts you. You have a relatively secure line of contact.
Compromised (1 CP): Secrets you attempt to keep inevitably find their way into the wrong hands. It seems as though you have not been able to keep a lid on things in years' time. It's clear enough what happened. Somebody came calling; somebody talked. You have an informant or several informants in your government passing information to foreign intelligence agencies.
Disastrous Start (1 CP): You tried to establish a network of informants among your neighbors. Tried. While your name remains clear, you failed, and your neighbors are now on guard against a second attempt. Not only do you have no proper foreign intelligence service, your neighbors are highly resistant to your intelligence actions.
Unhappy Marriage (3 CP): In your founding a significant portion of your territory descends areas with "Old South" sympathies. They are currently loyal, and genuinely believe in the revivalist cause. They just think that the united South should emulate the original Confederate States of America. Start with a significant fraction of your population holding sympathy with "Old South" values. This will consistently push internal tension, and can, in the worst-case lead to them gaining domestic power, leading to a host of regressive laws
The Greatest Sin (3 CP): Suspicious deaths abound in government offices. This goes beyond simple informants. Somebody with access to the highest levels of government is or is abetting an assassin in wreaking havoc in your government. Every turn, a random government official will need to make survival rolls until you stop the assassin.
Economics
Trade has always been a vital part of any societyIt is much reduced these days as a direct result of no longer being one. With time and effort, it will be again.
Convoy System (-2 CP): Trade in the South is as much a contest of managing to get goods through without finding them destroyed by 'bandits' as they pass near hostile states. To that end, you have set up a system of guards around your caravans, allowing them to trade further and safer than other states. Commerce has not stopped entirely; your income is 50% higher at game start, and while many things are expensive, you can procure at least one of any kind of trade good. This also leaves you resistant to attacks against trade, but comes at the cost of a reduces army, if you want to fully muster, you must call your caravans back. .
Rail Companies (-2 CP): Infrastructure has broken down in the Collapse. In the absence of enough funding to focus on roads, you have turned your attention to railways. You have set up several companies responsible for constructing rail lines across your territory. Rail companies subject to strict state supervision are hard at work building rail lines across your territory, both between population centers and within the larger ones. By Turn 3, you will have a complete, albeit not comprehensive and certainly not modernized, internal rail network.
Widespread Vaccinations (-3 CP): What remains of the NC medical industry has spent its time wisely since the Collapse. Relying on the goodwill of what traders remain, a small group of doctors has devoted themselves to producing vaccinations and dispersing them as widely as possible. Your population is 60% inoculated against common diseases, and you have the (fragile, vulnerable) beginnings of a pharmaceutical industry. Requires, "Independent Merchants."
Efficient Bureaucracy (-3 CP): Cursed by many as they were, the old bureaucratic institutions of the United States were what allowed it to function as it did, and bureaucracy, in general, is essential to the functioning of a modern state. You have ensured that yours is capable of handling the challenges demanded of it by this latest expansion. Begin play with a proper census, established taxation structures, and all of the manifold other things that go on in the boring background of governance.
Outbreak (2 CP): All of your precautions have failed, and now disease runs rampant in your territory. You begin play with an active, endemic outbreak of particularly lethal influenza, source unknown.
Disunited Currency (3 CP): Dollars were worth precious little even before the Collapse. In the aftermath, local governments took to issuing their own currency or else falling back on barter, in the worst cases. In your case, Raleigh actually has a reasonably stable and healthy currency around which your nation has agreed to gather, but that's in the future. For now, you are faced with having to integrate dozens of petty currencies and a wide practice of barter. Your money situation is exceptionally bad. You have significant work ahead of you in getting things back together and functioning properly.
Population Boom (2 CP): With news of the Congress spreading, people have been flocking to the cities under your control! This is terrible. You barely had enough food to feed your population as it was! Now, you face the possibility of having had your population expand drastically, only to immediately collapse into a massive famine. Food supplies have collapsed under a population boom. Take drastic measures to address the situation or face mass die-offs.
Queen Tobacco (1 CP): With the collapse, smoking has taken hold again as a vice of choice across the US, and your farms supply much of that. You know it depletes the soil and leaves your food situation perilous, but what can you do, you need the cash. Start with a large part of your agricultural sector dependent on cash crops, resulting in necessary food imports and increasingly depleted soil until something is done.
Technology
Much was lost in the Collapse, and much was deliberately destroyed afterward by the Victorians. If America is to reclaim its place, it must recover what has been ripped away.
Libraries (-2 CP): The first repositories of knowledge are, it turns out, the last places to have fallen to the chaos of the Collapse. While many were lost, many more survived, and Raleigh, in particular, has taken a name as a haven for such institutions and the as it weathered the civil war better than other urban areas. You have collected the contents of libraries from across the continent as their keepers desperately seek a safe place for them. You have ready access to a massive amount of information, and enough books to support a large slice of your population in literacy.
Universities (-2 CP): The professors went into hiding after what that bastard Kraft did to the Ivy League. That said, with the Accords having been signed, the learned intellectuals in your region have begun to come back into the light. You have a significant population of experts on hand from pre-Collapse universities.
Well-Preserved (-1 CP): While widespread looting was an issue during the Collapse, a surprising number of samples of old technology made it through and have found their way into your hands. Reproducing them is beyond you at this point, but you do have quite a lot of old products and blueprints on hand to reverse-engineer once you have managed to properly reindustrialize. Significant caches of pre-Collapse technology have fallen into your hands. Mutually exclusive with, "Empty Spaces."
Empty Spaces (1 CP): Your lands were stripped bare during the chaos of the civil war. Much has been lost, never to be regained, and now you face a long climb back to the top without assistance. Virtually nothing survived the Collapse, and you find yourself starting from very near to scratch.
Technological Conservatism (3 CP): While the wonders of the old Country are a powerful motivator for your people, they have nevertheless lived decades in a world where, "old," usually meant, "completely inexplicable and prone to malfunction at odd moments." They are distrustful of new technology and will approach its adoption with caution at best. Your population has picked up an anti-tech prejudice over the years.
Crossed Wires (2 CP): At some point, somebody learned something wrong, and that wrong fact passed into common circulation. Somehow, it has avoided being challenged since, and now you do not even know that a falsehood underlies your learned class's assumptions about how the world works. The Collapse has caused your body of engineering knowledge to warp. Your current engineers have a gap in their knowledge which they backfilled with assumptions. You will not know what this is until it explodes in your face, nor will you know in any more detail than, "engineering," to what this gap pertains.
And finally:
Nuke (-5 CP): Many things were lost during the Collapse. Some have been found again. Through some working of influence, you have found something. Some-fucking-how, you have laid hands on a functional B-83 nuclear warhead, the largest nuclear weapon in the United States' arsenal. Just the warhead. It's strapped to a semi. No delivery system included with purchase. This is not a case of Schroedinger's warhead; the nuke exists. If you do not pick it up, the nuke moves on...and finds another master. Best to grab it...if you can afford to.
PS: Just to clarify, I'm not running anything, just having fun with what a revivalist sect might look like in other parts of the country.
Hm...my rule is normally, "First come, first serve," but somebody has been working on an omake for a while and touching base with me on it that would conflict pretty heavily with this, so for now I will hold off on making a ruling. Not forever, but for now.
When the chaos finally arrived in America, there were groups other than the victorians that sought to create a new and radical society in the american northeast. Contrary to popular belief, the area that would go on to spawn the stain upon mankind that is Victoria once used to be a comparatively nice and forward-looking place, with a small number of radicals residing in the forests of rural new england, most of an anarchist or radical socialist bent. When the victorian terrorists began their reign of terror to dismantle federal authority these groups decided to capitalise on the instability, establishing themselves across the rural northeast on both sides of the border as the "North American Autonomous Municipalities".
As federal and even state authority collapsed even further, the NAUM found itself swarmed with refugees, both those fleeing from the general societal instability and more specifically those targeted because of their minority status. Even so, the municipalities managed the delicate situation skillfully with what little resources they had and even approached something akin to security and self-reliance for a short while. Some even speculated that the NAUM could be the seed for a new, radical america once the dust settled.
Then, of course, Victoria arrived. The very existence of a socialist polity that openly accepted refugees and minorities was too much to tolerate within Victorian borders, or even Victorian general vicinity for that matter. Seeing the writing on the wall as the Victorian forces approached, the most hardened members of the "Municipal Defence Force" fought a ferocious rearguard action as the rest of the populace began an arduous evacuation into the forests of the Canadian shield. What remained of the towns behind them was little more than ashes and mass graves once the Victorians had finished their work.
Despite initial hopes, their place of refuge proved rather inhospitable; the collapse of industrial farming in the former united states combined with the large number of other survivors that sought to flee the ravages of Victoria soon depleted what little resources were already available; the region quickly collapsed into a patchwork of small villages, refugee camps and wandering armed gangs, all suffering through a state of near-constant famine. The few groups with anything even resembling a coordinated governance (the MDF, a proto-restorationist faction known as the US Emergency Authority and a far-right militia calling itself the True Sons of America) became embroiled in a constant conflict over the few scraps left, quickly abandoning all but the thinnest of ideological justifications for their seizing of food, fuel and shelter in order for their own group to survive.
By the time the Victorians turned their attention to the region, not even that was left. The area was now simply occupied by a few isolated villages, with everyone else having either perished, fled elsewhere or seemingly disappeared. Thought it had fought valiantly, the dream of a free, socialist northeast was dead.
Or at least, so it seemed.
Across the north, in the towns and villages living in the shadow of the Victorian death-state, there are whispers that the spirit of revolution yet lives. In hushed tones in tavern corners, there is talk of safehouses for those in Victoria seeking to escape. Of people who know people that aid those in need. That the socialist and communists, long thought extinct in the vicinity of victoria, have simply gone underground. And sometimes, like a rare bird, people encounter posters emblazoned with the black and scarlet flag:
MUTUAL AID ORGANIZATION NORTHEAST - REVOLUTIONARY LIBERATION FRONT
