Info on the USSR needed for my setting...

[Mr. Draco]

Well, I'm preparing for a game I'll be running in about a month. And... I need help with the setting. It's DnD with houserules to allow it to fit a modern setting. The setting is Earth, at the year 2010, except on this Earth, the Soviet Union never dissolved, and the Cold War is still going. And... I'm stuck there...

So, if you have any ideas about what the world would be like in this setting, or any info/links about the USSR, please post.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Green Knight]

Nothing but trouble's gonna come out of this thread, I can tell you that for free, right now. You're gonna have someone post something less than nice about Communism, then you're gonna have someone who just happens to be a dyed-in-the-wool Communist defending it, blah blah blah, it all goes downhill from there.

Anyway, why not just create an all-new Evil Empire, use an existing one, or extrapolate from events currently in play to create one that seems like it'd exist in real life? China, for one, looks to be on the upswing, so if you want a Communist country as an opponent for a Cold War scenario why not use China? Maybe the European Union comes into being and turns out to be less benign than those who are pushing for it claim it will be?

Well, hope that helps.

 

[Mr. Draco]

I really hope that we can keep political preferences out of this...

Anyway, why not just create an all-new Evil Empire, use an existing one, or extrapolate from events currently in
play to create one that seems like it'd exist in real life? China, for one, looks to be on the upswing, so if you want a
Communist country as an opponent for a Cold War scenario why not use China? Maybe the European Union comes
into being and turns out to be less benign than those who are pushing for it claim it will be?

On the other hand, advice like this is great!

Thanks Green Knight!

P.S.- regarding the possibly sensitive nature of the thread (i.e.- communism & the USSR) let's keep this civilized, this isn't an argument about political systems, i just want some advice

 

[OurManMute]

You might want to look at some science fiction books written in the 1980s about the early 21st century, back then people still had the strange notion that the USSR would last . I'm thinking particularly of William Gibson and some of Greg Bear's novels, where the cold war is still going strong.

Good luck,

- Mute

 

[green slime]

What do you really need to know?

You just need to create a series of "historical" events, starting from where, in you history, the USSR stayed together.

It could be as early as Trotsky gaining power of the party, and not Stalin.
Then you need to look at and decide what happened during WWII.

Or maybe after Stalin Beria managed to keep power, killing the others, with Krustjev getting the axe first.

Perhaps Gorbachov never come to power, and instead some other hardliner.

Of course after '91 things get stickier:

Desert Storm never occured.
Jugoslavia is still in one piece, and Germany isn't unified. The EU isn't really going anywhere, again, and the Euro isn't.

Enormous forces are located around inside Europe, and you can't travel through Germany without seeing an airbase, armoured vehicles, or NATO.

The economic downturn in Europe during the early 90s is so pronounced; Germany doesn't have to pay for reunification.

The peace process in the middle east isn't. Pakistan and India still have the bomb. and still shoot at each other.

Al-qaida is not the reknown terror organisation it became, as Usama didn't get quite so upset at USA, because they never sent US troops to Saudi Arabia.

On the other hand, it is probably likely a puppet regime still sits in Afghanistan, beleaguered by mujhadeen fighters, sponsored by CIA and Iran..

South Africa probably still has a apartheid regime, and the fighting in the Congo, and Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Sudan never occured, or at least at a much lower intensity.

 

[Mr. Draco]

Thanks green slime This is good stuff! Any more ideas?

 

[Utrecht]

One of the fundamental things that you will need to decide is did they invade the west?

If they did, they you have lots of interesting things to play with - and I would encourage you to read such books as the Third World War and Red Storm Rising (both have the West winning, but you could change that easily)

Now that I think about it, you may want to read through Clancy's book Cardinal of the Kremlin to get a cheap and dirty feel for Soviet Politics.

Some other options would be that the Soviet Union was able to exploit the enormous natural resources in Siberia - allowing them to have a much stronger control of the strategic matal market than they did (South Africa, Canada and the US are the other 3 big players there)

If I have time, I will come back with more.

 

[BV210]

There's also a good novel called "Red Army" that actually has the USSR winning a war in Europe in the late 80's/early 90's. The new boundary between east and west is the Rhine River, IIRC. Also, the author has some commentary on the Red Army at the end of each chapter. A hard book to read for this USAF Captain, but it was a pretty good yarn.

 

[Synicism]

If you want some game-book references, I'd recommend GURPS: Russia (hard to find, but a good overview) and perhaps one of the GURPS: Alternate Earths books (might have a similar setting overview).

 

[JacktheRabbit]

How realistic do you want it to be?

TO make it to 2010 there has to be some sort of major war. The Soviet Union would never survive otherwise. As early as the early 80's the Soviets were spending over 50% of their entire budget on their military to keep pace with a USA that was never spending even a third that much of their budget.

This created the huge strain that pushed Gorby to try his various initiatives that caused his country to collapse.

Here is one idea for you. The USSR through various means survives to the 1990 without falling apart. Part of this is through the death of Gorby and the hardliners clamping down on the country even more.

Then Desert Storm happens, during the war the Iraqi's detonate several dirty bombs on the arabian penninsula. This results in the USA retaliating with several small nukes. The USA still wins the war but a huge portion of the worlds oil supply becomes irradiated.

This saves the USSR who have large untapped oil reserves. Soviet oil pours into the west at an unprecedented rate. The money coming in saves the collapsing Communist economy and gives it a new lease on life. By 2010 the Soviets are back down to spending 20-30% of their total ecomony on their military.