New Reality Seeds

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by ericthered

what happens next? Do the British invade in response? Does he unite south America? Does he die of Stomach Cancer?

The British are most unlikely to invade. Chile is dependent on its export trade, and the British can restrict that far more easily than they can mount an invasion.

Uniting South America may well be possible, but is going to be quite a long job. The stomach cancer will probably kill Napoleon first.

In my Cold War Pulp campaign, set in 1950, the characters recently fled from Argentina to Chile, with no visas, advance bookings or Chilean money. They just turned up at one of the crossing points in the high Andes, in two cars, one of which had a few bullet holes and a badly wounded man. Fortunately, their face-man has decent Spanish, and got a reaction roll of 25 after modifiers.

[Astromancer]

Try this one, Catherine the Great's eldest son, Paul I, whom Catherine disliked immensely, was a sickly child. Paul's death would hardly be a major issue. Catherine could find an alternative heir, it had happened before. Have Catherine pick one of her illegitimate children to be the heir. And simply allow the new Czar be be mildly talented and very level headed. Paul I wasn't a good ruler, just switch him out for a steady hand. Russia becomes substantially more powerful in period.

It is notable that generals with common sense generally fared better against Napoleon. Part of Napoleon's military gift was simply a knack for getting his opponents to make stupid mistakes ( a major advantage in any battle). A calm opponent not given to acting rashly is a bigger threat to Napoleon.

You might trade a French Europe for a Russian one.

[Astromancer]

Try this Stalin dies in a battle early in the Russian Civil War. His replacement obeys Trotsky's orders to come to Warsaw. There is no miracle of the Vistula. Once he secured Warsaw Trotsky marches on Berlin. For the next six years the lands between Berlin and Warsaw are a chaotic battlefield.

With Lenin's death Yakov Sverdlov took over. As the early death of Stalin forced Sverdlov to stay in Moscow, he never caught the plague that killed him young. Sverdlov, a highly skilled bureaucrat and a serious Marxist (far moreso than Lenin or Stalin) kept Russia focused on a Marxist course of action. Unlike Lenin and Stalin, Sverdlov never had any serious interest in fascism nor any interest in incorporating fascist ideas into Marxism. Sverdlov was no democrat and spent little time on human rights but he no taste for needless violence.

Meanwhile, Hitler and Ernst Rohm seem to have both died in the Russo-German war of 1920-1926. Germany still has serious problems but no one seems to be able to overthrow the Weimar Republic for now.

It's 1946, the scars of both the World War and the Russo-German War seem healed on the surface. Europe has largely rejected democracy outside of France, the low countries, Denmark, the UK, Ireland, Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Switzerland. Democracy in the Weimar Republic and Czechoslovakia hangs on by inertia. The nations of Southern and Central Europe are restless and resentful. Russia is probing around the edges of Europe looking for opportunities.

Basically, a good espionage setting. If you want the Cabal involved interwar Europe was a hotbed of occultism. Recruitment would be easy and profitable. Meanwhile, L.A. in California is the Occult capital of the world in this time period.