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Old 01-14-2013, 03:51 AM   #1
Michele
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Udine, Italy
Default [IW] Tsar

TSAR, 1919

Current Affairs
Multinational, devoutly religious empires still hold sway on this world, following the example of the superpower, Czarist Russia. The progressive dissenters are hotheaded nationalists.

Divergence Point
1605; Tsar Boris Godunov survives his stroke and dies four years later. His son Feodor II remains on the throne, defeats the would-be usurpers, and turns out to be an energetic leader. Instead of the "Times of Troubles", Russia does very well.

Major Civilizations
Orthodox (Empire with satellite states), Western (Multipolar), Chinese (Empire).

Great Powers
Russian Empire (dictatorship, CR5, CR6 for serfs), British Empire (oligarchy, CR4), United States of America (representative democracy, CR3), French Empire (dictatorship, CR4), Iberian Empire (dictatorship, CR5, CR6 for slaves).

Worldline Data
TL: 6 Mana level: low
Quantum: 6 Infinity Class: P8 Centrum Zone: yellow


TSAR
When Tsar Boris had his stroke in 1605, his bright, promising son Feodor was only 16 years old, and the crown was threatened by the claim of an imposter, the self-styled "son" of Ivan the Terrible. Luckily, Boris Godunov survived and, although impaired, remained on the throne for another four years. By that time, the succession of Feodor II had been firmly established and the imposter executed. The Times of Trouble lasted only two years on Tsar, giving Feodor II a chance to prove his mettle. Some boyars died, the others bowed. The Poles and the Swedes could not exploit the weakness of Russia, and important border regions were not lost to them.
Once victory was achieved, Feodor II turned out to be an energetic leader in peacetime too. He began inviting foreign retainers, wise men and specialists. He satisfied the boyars by sending them again into Poland, with prospects of booty and conquest. By the time the first Romanov, Michael I, became Tsar in 1629, Russia was on a roll. The kingdom was expanding, the Tsar's authority had never been weakened by a succession of weaklings and imposters, the boyars were in control, the Patriarch supported the ruler, and the populace loved him.

TSAR OF ALL RUSSIAS FOREVER
With Sweden and Poland downsized, the Russians faced South and quickly turned the Cossacks into faithful vassals and valuable troopers of the Tsar. The Crimean Wars caught the Ottoman Empire on the wane, and with Austria joining in, the Turks were soundly defeated several times, leading to a spectacular collapse in 1699. At this time, most of the European possessions of the Sultan were lost to the two Christian empires.
When Peter the Great challenged what remained of the Swedish and Polish powers on the other border, there was no Ottoman distraction. Britain sided with the Tsar, and the war only lasted until 1712. Peter gained all of Finland, a big chunk of Poland and a stretch of Baltic coast. He deservedly styled himself as Tsar of All Russia.
The empire kept expanding, by now more by setting up and propping up satellite kingdoms. When these revolted against their Russian-friendly kinglets (and the Poles would try this often), the Tsar's troops could be sent in. Russian art and philosophy experienced the so-called Orthodox Renaissance, even though the Patriarchate remained firmly the church of state.
Under Catherine II the Great, hubris struck. The Ottomans were attacked again, but the "Russian Crusade" was also attempted, with support from other Christian states. The Turks were defeated, but not in Palestine; epidemics, bad logistics and the fact that the locals did not want to be liberated doomed the Russian effort there. Nevertheless, the unspoken principle was established that the Ottoman and in general the Moslem lands were up for grabs; in the following decades, France and Italy quickly took over the Southern shores of the Mediterranean, and Cyprus changed hands, becoming a strategic Russian naval base.
The Tsarina also changed the title to "of all Russias". That acknowledged the presence of Russian colonies in Western Africa and trade stations in India, and above all the existence of Russian America; a foothold taking up most of the Pacific coastline, that would never be sold out.

UNREST, REVOLUTION AND THE WORLD WAR
When the British Colonies revolted against their God-mandated ruler, a principle was born in Moscow that would shape the Russian foreign policy: the theory of the "universal birthright of monarchs". That amounted to the fact that friendly kings should help each other against mad rabble-rousers. Russia, in particular, would have the wherewithal to intervene against revolutionaries abroad, thanks to the gold and silver mines that had been and would be discovered in Siberia, North America and elsewhere. Indeed, the British crown didn't use just German mercenaries against the rebels, but Finnish and Cossack ones, too. Even so, the USA were finally born in 1782, at a heavy price. Never again, swore the Tsar.
Indeed, by the time the turmoil came to France, the Russian agents were ready. The French royal family found refuge in Russian-friendly Prussia in 1796. The Terror ensued in France, while Russia funded the counter-revolutionaries. The internecine struggle reached near-genocidal extremes in Vendée. By 1805, the experiment had permanently marred the name of republicanism, and an exhausted France welcomed the rightful King back – accompanied by units of the Russian Imperial Guard. France slowly grew strong again, and in half a century it would vie with Russia and Austria for control over the jigsaw of German and Italian statelets.
"Republican" had thus become a smear, and concepts like equality and individual freedom were dangerous ideas, to be mercilessly put down. This was done quite effectively nearly everywhere in the world. But another force grew to oppose the successful multinational empires that were Russia, Britain, Austria-Hungary and France: nationalism. Liberty was conceived now as collective freedom of an ethnic group from foreign oppression. To date, what would sound like backward, if not rabid chauvinism on Homeline, is the fare of progressive, enlightened thinkers and national leaders on Tsar.
Thus, the 1800s saw countless bloody rebellions and crackdowns, alongside with the colonial growth. Russia became more and more powerful, with the Tsar playing kingmaker in many minor allied states, and using his obvious clout to strong-arm others, for instance, forcing the Austrians out of the Ionian Islands.
The tipping point was reached in 1877, over the issue of who would really control the Bavarian kingdom. France and Austria-Hungary were allies; Britain, acknowledging that Russia was about to become the lone superpower on the continent and being traditionally opposed to any such outcome, joined in. At the same time, a war between Northern and Southern States erupted in the USA over the problem of slavery; Russia sided with the South, and the Western Alliance with the North. Understandably, the Ottomans jumped in against what seemed a finally overwhelmed empire; the Russians could rely on minor allies, such as Prussia, the Balkan states, and Denmark-Norway.
The World War lasted nine years, and the Westerners won, but by the narrowest margin and with little to show for it. The Ottomans had their final collapse in 1882, and the Alliance could do nothing for them; they signed a murderous separate peace that reduced them to Turkey only, with Russia taking control of most of their Middle Eastern territories.
Bavaria and Denmark did fall within the Austrian and French spheres of influence, respectively; and Britain gobbled most of the minor Russian colonies. Everything else remained unchanged, including North American Russia; the Union was re-established and slavery abolished, but the USA had been severely weakened, the power of the federal government watered down to bring the losers to the peace talks.
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Old 01-14-2013, 03:52 AM   #2
Michele
 
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Default Re: [IW] Tsar

TODAY
It is now 1919. Tsar Alexei I sits on the throne, notwithstanding his hemophilia, after his father was murdered by a Ukrainian nationalist. Some say he's a weak ruler and others claim he's unduly influenced by his spiritual advisor, Grigori Rasputin.
The empire is vast and powerful, but maybe it's being eaten from within. The bureaucracy is as inefficient as ever and the serfs', peasants' and workers' lots as bad as ever. Yet many of them don't complain, because they don't even know better. They venerate the Tsar and it doesn't help them that the ever-present Russian political police, the Ochrana, regularly murders thinkers like Marx and men of action like Lenin. The small Russian middle class finds a ladder to improve their lot in the fact that the empire is still expanding; there are fortunes to be made as foreign traders or plantation owners, or at least a career to be pursued in the colonial service. The economy is doing fine; the local tech level is early TL7, which means oil is the blood of wealth. Caucasian, Siberian, Romanian, Californian, Iraqi oil fields are being drilled at breakneck speed, and they all are, directly or indirectly, under Russian control. The US economy is still lagging behind, the Arabian oilfields have not been discovered yet, and South America is a hotbed of revolutions and guerrillas as the unified Iberian Empire struggles to maintain control of its Spanish and Portuguese colonies.
Indeed, the sore is, as always, in the subjugated nations. the Poles will never be content under Russian domination, the Serbians grumble against Austrian rule, the Alsatians hate the French, the Colombians are up in arms against Madrid, the Irish have just murdered a British minister, and so on. Revolutionaries, nationalist agitators, political murderers, propagandists, spies all have a field day on Tsar, every day of the week.
There seems to be a realignment of the alliances as of lately. The new British government seems ready to come to terms with the Tsar and to give Russia some former African colonies back, provided that an agreement can be reached about the spheres of influence in India and the Far East. Russia will need the Royal Navy's friendship to have undisturbed shipping, but the British seem to think they'll need the Russian-controlled markets and that there is no direct conflict of interests. If this comes to pass, France and Austria-Hungary will be in dire straits. In particular, since Vienna is no friend of Moscow, the support for foreign monarchs' rights doesn't apply in this case, and the Russians are fomenting Serbian unrest. It's hard to say which of these two empires is the more likely to see the next nationalistic flare-up, but Vienna is certainly the weaker.

OUTWORLD OPERATIONS
The Patrol isn't involved with Tsar. Some cliodynamicists maintain that the longer the multinational empires are allowed to stumble along, the worse their end will be. But others disagree, claiming that they will go with a whimper when their time comes naturally, while trying to hasten their demise might lead to bloodier civil wars. So nobody dares doing anything, even though a place where serfdom still exists in Europe and slavery in South America can only be hated by Homeline organizations that promote civil rights.
Crosstime trading is allowed. Icons, jewelry and other art in the Orthodox Renaissance style are very valuable; mining companies buy raw materials from Siberia, especially rare earth elements. Tourism is not allowed yet, but it might soon be.
There is no evidence of Centrum agents on Tsar. They could probably push the Russian Empire to world domination quite easily, but they would then have a long, arduous work both for stabilizing it against nationalist tendencies and for introducing their meritocratic ideas to the Tsarist civilization.

OTHER TSARS
NO parallel world has been discovered. Tsar remains unnumbered and unique, for the time being.
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Old 01-14-2013, 03:52 AM   #3
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Default Re: [IW] Tsar

Comments welcome!
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Old 01-14-2013, 06:00 AM   #4
Phil Masters
 
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Default Re: [IW] Tsar

The only thing that looks odd here at first glance is the tech level. This place is going to have an anti-meritocratic, conservative, mercantilist sort of economic model that would surely be seriously bad for technological progress. TL5 sounds more plausible than 7 - and low 5 at that, by my instincts. Can't have those grubby industrialists challenging the aristocracy. They tend to be nastily nationalistic, too. And what are any academics doing studying natural philosophy when they could be studying something useful, like theology or law?
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Old 01-14-2013, 07:46 AM   #5
ericthered
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Default Re: [IW] Tsar

a couple of questions:

Italy is mentioned in the 1700's as a power. It doesn't exist then, and under the current setup it will most likely be split between Spain, France, and Austria, with the pope in the middle. I'd replace Italy with Spain in that area.

If the Russians win that large of a victory vs the ottomans in the 1700's, They will take large chunks out of Anatolia, particularly the west portion (constantinople was their dream for a LONG TIME), And turkey will fall apart. That was a particularly savage rivalry. Which will probably result in an independent egypt, with the other lands split between the west and Persia.

Does spain still have all its lands in the western hemisphere? That seems to be implied but not stated. Just how much of california is russian, and how much is spainish? How does that front of the world war look?

How on earth is america still standing, and how did they get "great power" status? They have two nasty empires to deal with in the west. I'm also not sure how a war about slavery in the US makes me feel. It seems too.... modern.

I agree that early TL 7 sounds way too high. I'd keep TL 6, but make it early. Or use late TL 5.

What does "The great Game" look like? I'm refering to the contest between russia and england for control of central asia. Russia will certainly have some tussels with iran, and the aisan front will be a big deal in the world war.

Whats the fate of germany? swallowed by the french? still fragmented? austrian?
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Old 01-14-2013, 09:09 AM   #6
Michele
 
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Default Re: [IW] Tsar

Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil Masters View Post
The only thing that looks odd here at first glance is the tech level. This place is going to have an anti-meritocratic, conservative, mercantilist sort of economic model that would surely be seriously bad for technological progress. TL5 sounds more plausible than 7 - and low 5 at that, by my instincts. Can't have those grubby industrialists challenging the aristocracy. They tend to be nastily nationalistic, too. And what are any academics doing studying natural philosophy when they could be studying something useful, like theology or law?
You are right. Personally, I'd say TL6, maybe early, and TL7 is certainly a stretch. It's just that I wanted modern war stuff around with this...
OK, let's say TL6.
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Old 01-14-2013, 09:31 AM   #7
Michele
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
a couple of questions:
As a general note, I'm already too wordy with these descriptions. Some details are only hinted at, or left out altogether, simply because I think people will fall asleep reading...

Quote:
Italy is mentioned in the 1700's as a power. It doesn't exist then, and under the current setup it will most likely be split between Spain, France, and Austria, with the pope in the middle. I'd replace Italy with Spain in that area.
My mistake, I meant some Italian states, which did exist and mostly had foreign patrons. Anyway it's not overly important, it just follows the policy of our world ("what'd just to South of our shores is ours"). Let's say France and the Iberians, with the French dominions going further East to take up Italian Libya. Egypt will fall under British guidance.


Quote:
If the Russians win that large of a victory vs the ottomans in the 1700's, They will take large chunks out of Anatolia, particularly the west portion (constantinople was their dream for a LONG TIME), And turkey will fall apart. That was a particularly savage rivalry. Which will probably result in an independent egypt, with the other lands split between the west and Persia.
They tried to, but failed. All or nearly all of Europe free from the Ottomans is already a big shove, and then more pieces will keep falling. But I still want some downsized Turkey around, and I think it is not terribly unlikely. Note a possible reason why the Russians didn't conquer Anatolia is their folly in Palestine. Remember, these tsars are ruthless and lucky, but they aren't pragmatical. They are strongly influenced by their religion and ideology.

Quote:
Does spain still have all its lands in the western hemisphere? That seems to be implied but not stated. Just how much of california is russian, and how much is spainish? How does that front of the world war look?
The backward concept of monarchs' rights in this world made a dynastic union of Portugal and Spain possible (details left unspecified.. I suppose not without riots in both Lisbon and Madrid, but these were put down...), and the Iberian Empire nominally controls most of those colonies... save that guerrillas and independence movements are always erupting. I left the Californian border unspecified because I didn't want too many details, as mentioned above.

Quote:
How on earth is america still standing, and how did they get "great power" status? They have two nasty empires to deal with in the west. I'm also not sure how a war about slavery in the US makes me feel. It seems too.... modern.
I think that even taking away the Pacific coast, the surface held remains very sizable. Also, while they can't dare challenge the Russians, the Iberian Empire is not that strong out there, and an American-Iberian War over Cuba or Baja California or some such is a possibility. I also believe that the USA act as a safety valve for the dissenters, much like in our history and on Pope-1, which will mean lively immigration and a push to that great power status.
As to the war about slavery, it takes place 1877 to 1886; it's only little more than a decade later than in our history. It lasts longer because it is simultaneous with imperial wars.

Quote:
I agree that early TL 7 sounds way too high. I'd keep TL 6, but make it early. Or use late TL 5.
I'd concede TL6, as mentioned in the previous message.

Quote:
What does "The great Game" look like? I'm refering to the contest between russia and england for control of central asia. Russia will certainly have some tussels with iran, and the aisan front will be a big deal in the world war.
Details, details... I think it will certainly be a... great game.

Quote:
Whats the fate of germany? swallowed by the french? still fragmented? austrian?
I think I hinted at that. It's a constellation of satellite statelets, with France, Austria and Russia holding sway on the ones closer to them. Prussia is a Russian minor ally, Vienna controls what happens in Bavaria, and the Rhine duchies depend from the French (like Denmark).

Thank you for your interesting questions!
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Old 01-14-2013, 09:52 AM   #8
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Default Re: [IW] Tsar

Quote:
Originally Posted by Michele View Post
TSAR, 1919
...
I could quibble on a bunch of things, but I mainly want to say "Nice! Do more of these!"

To contribute/quibble:

I. You want TL to be at least 6, and that requires an industrial revolution, which implies a surging middle class. Fitting this into the history provided requires, at least, more explanation.

II. You have a war with the UK+ vs. Tsarist Russia+. You imply the Russians lost their African colonies but really they should have suffered major setbacks on all overseas fights, and the CSA should have been isolated and smeared. Either add how Russia managed to own the Pacific (somehow) or make Iberia an explicit Russian ally with significant Naval assets.
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Old 01-14-2013, 01:43 PM   #9
johndallman
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Default Re: [IW] Tsar

Quote:
Originally Posted by Michele View Post
... the Turks were soundly defeated several times, leading to a spectacular collapse in 1699. At this time, most of the European possessions of the Sultan were lost to the two Christian empires.

...Cyprus changed hands, becoming a strategic Russian naval base.
Presumably Russia acquired the Turkish Straits at this point? That's necessary for Cyprus to last as a Turkish base, because the supply line from the Baltic is just too long to be sustainable, and the British, French, Iberians and Italians are all in excellent positions to interfere with it.

But holding the straits requires holding Constantinople - the Bosphorus goes through the middle of the city - so the Ottomans have presumably lost it.

The Russians really want those straits and Constantinople. That applies everywhere and everywhen. The geography makes it inevitable.

Last edited by johndallman; 01-14-2013 at 01:44 PM. Reason: punctuation
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Old 01-15-2013, 04:06 AM   #10
Michele
 
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Default Re: [IW] Tsar

Quote:
Originally Posted by martinl View Post
I could quibble on a bunch of things, but I mainly want to say "Nice! Do more of these!"

To contribute/quibble:

I. You want TL to be at least 6, and that requires an industrial revolution, which implies a surging middle class. Fitting this into the history provided requires, at least, more explanation.

II. You have a war with the UK+ vs. Tsarist Russia+. You imply the Russians lost their African colonies but really they should have suffered major setbacks on all overseas fights, and the CSA should have been isolated and smeared. Either add how Russia managed to own the Pacific (somehow) or make Iberia an explicit Russian ally with significant Naval assets.
Interesting, thanks.

As to I., I think an industrial revolution is possible, obviously not in Russia first. I think I should explicitly state that Britain and the USA are more advanced technologically. Russia just plays catch-up, which has its own advantages even if you're behind. The R&D has already been paid for by the first-comers.
To answer the point about "grubby industrialists" made in another post, I think the actual historical set up would work here. The industrialist sets up a partnership with an idle nobleman. The former does all the work, and pays the nobleman to provide clout in court, patronage, protection from any hostile noblemen, the imperial bureaucracy, occasional thugs.

As to II., maybe. In our WWI, the British did not defeat the last of the German generals holding out in Africa, and that was with the whole USA on their side and with Germany being a much smaller power than Russia on Tsar.
In any case, the Iberians siding with Russia is a good possibility.
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Last edited by Michele; 01-15-2013 at 04:13 AM.
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