[Infinite Worlds] Running a Taft-1 natives campaign

[Michael Thayne]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Stalin is willing to kill a lot of Afghans and take a lot of losses. He also has more of a technology and logistics advantage than the British did in the nineteenth century, and doesn't have a third party supplying the Afghans in the way that the Soviets did in the 1980s. He also seems to have quite serious magic on his side.

The "quite serious magic" is the nub. What is it, exactly? The fact that Alger Hiss had to put a hexagram on the Oval Office implies Stalin doesn't have long-range lethal magic. So what does he have? And what's going to be most useful for taking Afghanistan?

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

The "quite serious magic" is the nub. What is it, exactly? The fact that Alger Hiss had to put a hexagram on the Oval Office implies Stalin doesn't have long-range lethal magic. So what does he have? And what's going to be most useful for taking Afghanistan?

We don't know what Stalin has: this is left up to the GM to define. And that means that for long-range lethal magic, the hexagram could have been a focus for long-range targeting, or a way of bypassing natural magical protections formed by the reverence that US citizens have for the institution of the Presidency, or many other things.

The most useful magic for taking Afghanistan is going to be something that makes the locals like the idea of having your troops around.

[Michael Cule]

Originally Posted by johndallman

We don't know what Stalin has: this is left up to the GM to define. And that means that for long-range lethal magic, the hexagram could have been a focus for long-range targeting, or a way of bypassing natural magical protections formed by the reverence that US citizens have for the institution of the Presidency, or many other things.

To allow the magic to sidestep the generations of Masonic protection (long since forgotten by everyone in the US) laid by the founders and their architects.

I wonder what Alger Hiss thought he was doing? I wonder what the Communist sympathisers in the West know and believe about Uncle Joe?

[Michael Thayne]

Originally Posted by johndallman

We don't know what Stalin has: this is left up to the GM to define.

Well, obviously. I'm trying to look at this from a GM's perspective in terms of what sort of filling-in-the-gaps will make the most sense—not just what can be strictly extrapolated from canon.

The most useful magic for taking Afghanistan is going to be something that makes the locals like the idea of having your troops around.

True, though if Azathothic magic plays by any kind of rules beyond "whatever the plot requires", the ability to mind-whammy an entire country isn't, I think, going to make for the most interesting plot. It's one thing for a Lovecraftian game to look pretty hopeless, and another thing to be utterly totally and obviously hopeless.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by johndallman

The most useful magic for taking Afghanistan is going to be something that makes the locals like the idea of having your troops around.

That feels wrong for the setting, though it is the "most useful".



A false flag operation might have merit. The soviets unleash their obviously inhuman forces to prey on the afghans at night and in the dark, and then offer truces and aide against the "real enemies". Meanwhile the fighting devastates the population of the area. In the end, Stalin hopes to just settle a depopulated area with gulags.

[arcanus]

Placating the locals or mass mind control isn't crawling horror, the Graveyard of Empires is facing inhuman forces at the behest of Uncle Joe.

Crawling horrors hunting the Mujahideen in ancient caves, The Black Pharoah spreading madness and death on the plains, Soviet Cultists weaving dark rituals in the alleys and shadows of Kabul and the Migo using elder technologies in their nightly raids.

Originally Posted by Michael Cule

To allow the magic to sidestep the generations of Masonic protection (long since forgotten by everyone in the US) laid by the founders and their architects.

This is really cool, centuries old Order Occultis Masonic Ritual Path Magic, reminds me of my old White Magi COC Character.

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

A criminal organization with an illegal conveyor is going to exploit it as much as possible. They are also likely to have people in Infinity to give them potentially lucrative top secret information. Smuggling military surplus from a TL11 timeline like Caliph to sell in TL7 timelines like Taft-1 would be perfect, as Infinity limits its activities on any timeline with reasonable technology to prevent them from finding out the Secret.

Caliph is a gilded cage for Infinity, Centrum and as a GM a treasure trove of extreme technology which is largely inaccessible as written.

Despite the risks its too big a temptation to just lock in down and leave it, plus neither side trusts the other to stick to this despite each others assurances.

I can see both powers setting up local proxi groups in areas where surveillance isn't as paranoid or focused, target antiquated Tech Level 9 devices less noticeable or traceable, significantly more advanced than current but but still translatable - the real challenge with TL 11 tech is its so far beyond known scientific principles to be useful once.

If a Taft traveller was lucky to arrive in a blind zone and stay hidden they'd be better to 'acquire' TL8 weapons, as someones already said museum pieces but still immensely powerful compared to 1950s.

[Michael Thayne]

Originally Posted by arcanus

Crawling horrors hunting the Mujahideen in ancient caves, The Black Pharoah spreading madness and death on the plains, Soviet Cultists weaving dark rituals in the alleys and shadows of Kabul and the Migo using elder technologies in their nightly raids.

I really like these ideas. How much do you know about Afghan history? I would think resistance to foreign invasion in 1950s Afghanistan might not be framed in religious terms to the degree it was circa 1980, but I might be wrong. My knowledge of Afghanistan is at "political news junkie" levels, mostly.

[fchase8]

Originally Posted by Michael Cule

To allow the magic to sidestep the generations of Masonic protection (long since forgotten by everyone in the US) laid by the founders and their architects.

Nice idea with the long-forgotten Masonic protection. To fight Stalinist mythos, agents have to find Masonic protections from the country's founding - maybe even steal the Declaration of Independence...

Originally Posted by Michael Cule

I wonder what Alger Hiss thought he was doing? I wonder what the Communist sympathisers in the West know and believe about Uncle Joe?

I've wondered that, too. Maybe Hiss was under magical persuasion.

Communists in the West might have both the magically-persuaded true believers (higher-ups and key plants) and the regular believers, who might think their local leaders are a little weird.

This is veering into a world where the 'Red Panic' of our world is true - there are Communist infiltrators, Stalin's crimes are still denied, and the USSR is working with (effectively) Satan.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by fchase8

Nice idea with the long-forgotten Masonic protection. To fight Stalinist mythos, agents have to find Masonic protections from the country's founding - maybe even steal the Declaration of Independence...

Stealing the Declaration of Independence would probably give a hefty bonus. It would be like having someone's placenta.

[arcanus]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

I really like these ideas. How much do you know about Afghan history? I would think resistance to foreign invasion in 1950s Afghanistan might not be framed in religious terms to the degree it was circa 1980, but I might be wrong. My knowledge of Afghanistan is at "political news junkie" levels, mostly.

A mix of Wikipedia and general cold war history (mainly Indochina).

In our timeline Afghanistan was a Monarchy until the early 70s and pre-disposed to the Soviets, the 50s, 60s and 70s saw it used as a proxy war between the Soviets and US, the latter backing the Mujahideen.

The Mujahideen dated back to the 1820s as anti Monarchist/establishment fighters.

As to why Taft-1s Stalin turns on his Afghan ally depends on his objective in securing Leng, he obeys the mad god, the inferior peoples occupying the plateau are a worthy sacrifice.

Perhaps the Delta Greenesque US Masonic Orders overtures to the new king only on the throne for 4 years have triggered his paranoia and wrath on the Afghan people, Uncle Joe has limited patience for traitors just look at how many of his Red Army Generals and heads of the NKVD received a bullet to the temple in the cold dead of night.