Turning the post-apoc in McWod up a notch...

[vongarr]

Alright, so I have McWod, and I like it. What I really like the post apocalypse aspect of it. It doesn't help that I just listened to "Night Marauders" by 3 Inches of Blood.

Anyway, for those of you who have read the setting book, how would you add a more nuclear post apocalypse scenario to the setting? I still want all of the cool WoD stuff (werewolves, vampires, etc.) But I don't want it to be simply "Radiation made em sustain themselves off of blood" Kind of stuff. Perhaps the conflagration was mistaken as a nuclear attack, leading the US to retaliate against, China perhaps? So a full scale nuclear war breaks out, armies clash, and two superpowers of the world are in ruins. Then, slowly, people in North America realize that they were hit by more than a nuke at first.

Any better ideas? The thought of Werewolves walking around with radiation burns is a cool one to me.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Tension between China and the USA might have been rising for a long time before the Conflagration - just before the event, a diplomatic meeting regarding an important issue was ended unsuccessfully - suddenly, the Conflagration happens and destroys a major portion of the US - immediately suspecting China, the US fires off its missiles.

But to be honestly - I don't really see how the Conflagration could be mistaken by the attack of a specific foreign country - the effect is too different from any known weapon of mass destruction, and I find it hard to believe that the US government would launch their missiles that easily. The tension would have to be _really_ high.

It could also just be that the Conflagration had the side effect of letting a lot of bombs go off unintended. The Conflagration might also have worked differently as described - maybe there wasn't a single region that was directly affected? Maybe several conflagration points came into being - in the middle of major sources of radiation (which means nuclear bombs, nuclear reactors, nuclear waste facilities and uranium or plutonium mines)*

The interesting thing is that a lot of people might think that Werewolves, Vampires, Demons or Magic are a result of mutations, making it easier for them to conceal their true purpose.

Edit:
*) This could also be used in a less apocalyptic version of the WoD if you lessen the destruction caused by the Conflagration. It also makes the primary effect affecting a lot more people world-wide directly, as suddenly a notable percentage of our energy source is destroyed, turning the world literally into darkness.

 

[vongarr]

Nuclear induced literal World of Darkness? Man, that would be sweet.

Perhaps reworking what the conflagration is the best way to go about it. I don't want to accelerate the timeline, and I don't want drastically change the political landscape.

Maybe the world ran out of oil a lot quicker than anyone expected. This would defiantly cause some tension. Nuclear war tension? Probably not. Maybe I could change some political factors, such as the EU becoming something akin to a state, and the middle east falling under a new caliphate. All of that stuff would just be window dressing though. I don't see it affecting actual game play.

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

Or one thought regarding the US "jumping the gun" and firing off missles after the Conflagaration, is that the President in office is a bit off-kilter, or his/her immediate support staff are. They assume the Conflagaration is the work of some new Chinese W.M.D. that was developed during the now-failed peace talks, and decided to immediately retaliate before they can attack again.

Or to borrow a plot idea from Deadlands: Wasted West, the President of the US was about to successfully conclude the peace talks with China when s/he suddenly goes missing, leaving their trigger-happy Vice President in charge. Things go south, the Conflag happens, and it all goes downhill from there.

If you want to "sinister agenda," perhaps agents of the Inconnu worked behind the scenes to raise the international tension levels so that the world nations were a powder keg ready to go off at the slightest spark. After all, that was the state of Europe when World War I erupted, with all the mutual defence alliances just feeding the flames.

 

[Waylander]

Or alternatively you could use the fact that the USA and China have had a (limited or devastating according to taste) nuclear war be the reason why the fabric of reality was weakened enough to allow the Iconnu to enter.

In a limited nuclear strike senario, there would be the inevitable government cover up of the Conflagaration.

 

[Stormborn]

Or the Conflagration hits and everyone recognizes it for what it is, something utterly alien and horrific. However, the nations of the world decide that there is the possibility that this needs to be 'contained' or eliminated. After all, if you were a hostile foreign power and suddenly there are monsters growing in the middle of the US would you trust that the US wouldn't begin to weaponize them ASAP? Are you going to risk werewolf paratroopers and mages turned missile platforms? So some nations want them eliminated. A major disaster in the US plays havok with the world economy and disrupts out closest allies the most, leading to a political situation where their leaders are willing to sanction "a limited tactical nuclear solution" - which of course goes wrong. The US vows retaliation, and does so to a limited extent, but meanwhile more missiles are launched from other countries than were agreed upon, or even supposed to be, and rogue elements of various goverments and terrorist organizations take this opportunity to deploy their own WMDs against their favorite targets.
The result: rather than a global war you have a chaotic patchwork of nuclear, chemical, and biological disasters, goverments and economies collapsing, invasions and mobilizations to secure resources, and with all that suffering and missery just serves to attract the attention of otherworldly things to other parts of the globe.

 

[Tetsubo]

Or the Conflagration hits and everyone recognizes it for what it is, something utterly alien and horrific. However, the nations of the world decide that there is the possibility that this needs to be 'contained' or eliminated. After all, if you were a hostile foreign power and suddenly there are monsters growing in the middle of the US would you trust that the US wouldn't begin to weaponize them ASAP? Are you going to risk werewolf paratroopers and mages turned missile platforms? So some nations want them eliminated. A major disaster in the US plays havok with the world economy and disrupts out closest allies the most, leading to a political situation where their leaders are willing to sanction "a limited tactical nuclear solution" - which of course goes wrong. The US vows retaliation, and does so to a limited extent, but meanwhile more missiles are launched from other countries than were agreed upon, or even supposed to be, and rogue elements of various goverments and terrorist organizations take this opportunity to deploy their own WMDs against their favorite targets.
The result: rather than a global war you have a chaotic patchwork of nuclear, chemical, and biological disasters, goverments and economies collapsing, invasions and mobilizations to secure resources, and with all that suffering and missery just serves to attract the attention of otherworldly things to other parts of the globe.

I can see this happening... leave it to humans to take a bad situation and make it worse...

 

[ruemere]

Alright, so I have McWod, and I like it. What I really like the post apocalypse aspect of it. It doesn't help that I just listened to "Night Marauders" by 3 Inches of Blood.

Anyway, for those of you who have read the setting book, how would you add a more nuclear post apocalypse scenario to the setting? [...]Any better ideas? The thought of Werewolves walking around with radiation burns is a cool one to me.

Hmm...

Conflagration occurs. Limited nuclear counterattack order is issued, however, due to serious system instabilities (Conflagration side effects), additional warheads are launched against traditional targets (Russia, China).

The frantic work of US government officials allows to render U.S. warheads inoperative, however, due to narrow time margin and semi-automatic systems, counterstrike warheads are launched at U.S. targets.

Around 10% of missiles explode in U.S. Due to weird interaction between technological weapons and weakened fabric of reality, conflagration spreads to most explosion sites.

Regards,
Ruemere

 

[Nuclear Platypus]

It doesn't have to be a nuclear WMD to start it off but the radiation comes from the retaliation. On 9/11, the Russians set off "The Father of All Bombs", currently the world's most powerful non nuclear weapon, previously the MOAB.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_of_All_Bombs

 

[Odhanan]

Nuclear induced literal World of Darkness? Man, that would be sweet.

Nuclear Prometheans would fit nicely in this setting...