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18:46, 28th March 2024 (GMT+0)

Poland in the Twilight War.

Posted by GMFor group 0
GM
GM, 49 posts
Sun 11 Apr 2021
at 13:13
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Poland in the Twilight War

This setting is more post-apocalyptic in some ways, less in others. I try and strike a balance.

The Environment

Poland and Germany share the titles of "most nuked places on earth".
While the big political, military and industrial centres of the belligerents were struck by strategic weapons due to to the setting there were less of these than in the official setting (which would have wiped out life on earth). However tactical nukes were used liberally in the European Theatre as well as the strategic strikes on several centres, Warsaw being the important one for this game. As such radiation levels are high right across the Area of Operations and quite high in sectors of Warsaw. Fallout is limited by the fact that there has been prolonged periods of heavy rains but cancer rates have skyrocketed.

Chemical weapons were used with a pervasiveness not seen since the Great War, especially in Warsaw which was where the start of the Positional Warfare Phase started. Gas attacks have been constant experiences for your PCs and your Military Experience skill can be used in a contamination situation. Note that many of the later gasses were persistent when the higher order VX and VR gasses were expended. These gasses can contaminate low lying, sheltered areas for years afterwards.

Biological weapons are vying for lethality with mother nature's homegrown nightmares. You have two major known bioweapons extant in this region; the first only has the colloquial name of The Brown Sweats which breaks down the pores of the victim, causing them to bleed in what looks like bloody sweat. This nightmare got loose 18 months ago and keeps cropping up, it has no known cure and saps community's resources of antibiotics due to the constant infections. It is highly contagious and invariably lethal. It is assumed to be contracted through contact, possibly by fomite transmission but as it has come to be a menace after the breakdown little is know about it. The second is an weaponised Viral Gastroenteritis that has a short, intense effect of about a week. While it is similar to normal Gastroenteritis it is extremely contagious through transmission and its intense effects can kill through rapid dehydration.

Due to the prevalence of nuclear and chemical weapons in the Warsaw region the fauna is almost eradicated. Large areas of the ground is contaminated to the point where crops are either unviable or dangerous. Due to this a persistent famine has swept the area, everyone is starving.

The People

Eastern Bloc Poland was very different to the West in nearly every way. The major change that might take players unaware is that Poland fully expected World War Three and expected much of it to be fought on Polish territory. The communists planned for this and expected to survive it.

The first major difference is that there is realistically no such classification as a "civilian". Poland, like many other communist nations, was committed to the concept of a People's War in that everyone was either in the military, paramilitary or supporting services. Initially many of the females were exempt but as the war ground on they were conscripted en masse.

This means The Ruins of Warsaw are going to be populated by different people than you might expect. The communities here are peopled by former soldiers, former police/rear area troops, former civil defence and former support - the last two being the bulk. Only children and the elderly, those that have survived, have fewer applicable skills and experience. Note that even the older men will be former conscript soldiers in their youth. I try not to compare this situation to the mass enlistment in late 1944 in Germany for obvious reasons but it is the same mechanism.

Finally, you are going to have to forget the Polish pre-war views of the West. That view was burned away in a nuclear fire. Hostility will be the norm and trust must be won, this last being the primary roleplaying challenge of the game. The bulk of the players are the enemy of the inhabitants of Warsaw and they have to show them that that time too has passed. Most people are ready to accept this once it has been proven.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:19, Tue 13 Apr 2021.
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