Car Wars Reloaded

[owenmp]

While talking about automotive combat and suitcase nukes, here is a piece of old data you might find interesting.

Joe Dever, author of the "Lone Wolf" fantasy gamebook series, wrote a four-volume post-apocalyptic gamebook series titled "Freeway Warrior" in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The series had the reader drive a convoy of refugees from Texas to California.

The premise of the world was terrorists had stolen nuclear warheads and detonated them when their base was infiltrated. The resulting chain reactions of targets being destroyed (such as nuclear power facilities and other nuclear weapons sites) created a nuclear winter.

If anyone is interested in helping convert the combats of the series to Car Wars, GURPS, d20 or another game system, let me know. I was thinking of posting some conversion notes to my Web site next year.

[schoon]

I generally agree that the Car Wars history wouldn't need a complete overhaul, so much as a few tweaks here and there to get it a little more on track with events since the game came out many moons ago.

[Piecemaker]

Originally Posted by Aahz.

I won't because I don't feel you were. I think it's fairly unrealistic, at least I hope it is, for Muslim extremists to compleatly destabilize the world and the only reason it was picked is because it's a hot button issue right now. MIB0247 has a much more realistic idea.

Wow. You can read my mind? You can tell I only picked it cause it's a hot issue right now?

Please.

If you don't follow history, you might be surprised to learn that once upon a time Moslem Extremists attacked the Financial District of New York City twice- once in 1993, and again in 2001 in an obvious attempt to strike a blow against America's economic might.

Of course, they prolly swiped the idea from the Irish, who did so quite successfully in London once upon a time. I hope no Irish folks were offended by me mentioning that.

[sir-talen]

Originally Posted by Piecemaker

Wow. You can read my mind? You can tell I only picked it cause it's a hot issue right now?

Please.

If you don't follow history, you might be surprised to learn that once upon a time Moslem Extremists attacked the Financial District of New York City twice- once in 1993, and again in 2004 in an obvious attempt to strike a blow against America's economic might.

Of course, they prolly swiped the idea from the Irish, who did so quite successfully in London once upon a time. I hope no Irish folks were offended by me mentioning that.

Kindly ditch the politics, guys, or A) The mods will kill this thread eventually, or B) It's going to get posted to fandom_wank

[Piecemaker]

A) It's not politics, it's history. B) You asked how we would write the future history, I replied.

[sir-talen]

Originally Posted by Piecemaker

A) It's not politics, it's history. B) You asked how we would write the future history, I replied.

I really don't care.

Quit it.

Now.

[Piecemaker]

Quit what? Defending my proposed future history? Thank you, no.

Don't be so defensive. He disagreed- I set him straight.

You wanted some proposed future histories- you have them. Better to discuss them than to castigate me for defending mine.

Discuss them.

Now.

(Had to mock your totalitarian attempt to rehijack your own already hijacked thread. Kinda funny, you gotta admit.)

[MIB0247]

One of the things I especially like about the canonical CW setting is the "grain blight". A year or so ago I finally got a copy of "The Death of Grass" and it rekindled my interest in this kind of decline-of-civilization setting.

A disease which damages or destroys all forms of grasses, including all the corn and rice crops, and leads to mass starvation and unrest is applicable to any set of political/economic events. With the progress of DNA research and genetic modification techniques in recent years, it could even be a weapon.

One "interesting" thing about real world events since the original CW timeline, is that although the chance of a superpower thermonuclear exchange seems to have slightly lessened, there are now more ways than ever to destroy the planet. From tailored plagues, through dirty bombs to cyberterrorism and information warfare. We could easily end up with a setting as ravaged as CW without ever needing another "world war".

[Piecemaker]

And I was about to add that I thought the Grain Blights were just a silly concoction...

I do agree that the proposed future now seems unlikely as far as conventional wars go. Information/surgical strikes could cripple countries quickly.

Of course, there could be some intriguing possibilities of chemical warfare- or biological agents to reduce the population. Heck- even a good old fashioned plague!

I read one of Clancy's books- Executive Orders, I thinks, where a despot decides to attack the US in an oblique fashion, and uses Trade shows in Las Vegas to disperse biological agents. Ebola, IIRC. Pretty interesting read. It didn't destroy the population, or even a statistically significant portion, but it wreaked havoc.

A dirty bomb could do similar things, andcould definitely add to the less-urban feel of CW.

[owenmp]

Dear Piecemaker,

The Grain Blight is more plausible than most people think. The reliance on a few crops in the world for most of the planet's food, a heavy dependence on monoculture, is creating an environment for one or more pathogens to create widespread havoc, whether intentionally or accidentally released.

On a side note, agroterrorism is a very hot topic in the U.S. and is an area that is not receiving as much attention, funding or support as it should.
If a Coffee Blight was released, the coffee industry would collapse overnight, tea could take its place and the U.K. could restore the British Empire based on the resurgence of tea consumption. :o)

The 1987 ABC mini-series Amerika and the 1990s television series Dark Angel had EMP weapons used on the U.S., resulting in the collapse of the country. According to an issue of Popular Science a few years ago, a non-nuclear EMP weapon could be produced for a few hundred U.S. dollars.

Release of EMP weapons around the U.S. would be a plausible catalyst for a national collapse that would require the use of autodueling vehicles (when creating a new future timeline for Car Wars).