Where the Action Is

[macphersonrants]

I recently picked up a copy of Deluxe Recon. The core book includes a number of semi-fictitious nations sort of like Proof of Life's Tecala. That is, they are thinly veiled fictional nations based on real life ones. They were selected to give a good sampling of areas where special ops soldiers and mercenaries might find some action at the time the game was set (60s through the early 80s).

This got me to thinking. If you were going to create such nations for a GURPS Action or Covert Ops game, what areas would you base them on for a game set around the present? Some of these are obvious, but I'd love to hear obscure choices also. It'd be great if you could be specific. Iraq is pretty obvious, but where are the real scary parts. Ditto for Afghanistan.

Edit:

Note- What I am really looking for here is a list of contemporary hot spots. The fictional settings in Recon just sparked my thought process.

[Anaraxes]

Wikipedia has quite a list:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...onal_countries

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by macphersonrants

Iraq is pretty obvious, but where are the real scary parts.

Nowadays there's a lot of local violence everywhere, but it's more like gang activity then straight up kinetic warfare.

[macphersonrants]

We've got Somalia with its pirates.

The situation with Mexico and its drug cartels come to mind. I expect this to be more in the news over the next few years.

Yemen is probably the next big hotspot in the war on terror.

[David Johnston2]

http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/14/mos...stan-iraq.html


http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americ...rld/index.html

[rogersd]

The Caucasus region of eastern Europe around the Caspian Sea. Lots of intrigue, Russian FSB; Islamic militants and plenty of left over munitions from the two Chencen wars. Sounds like a pretty good hot spot to me.

The Central African Republic along the border with Uganda would also offer some good opportunites for semi-lawless Recon Deluxe like settings.

Dave.

[macphersonrants]

Robert Young Pelton's book would be useful, but I haven't gotten my hands on it yet. It does look like there is some useful material on his web site:

http://www.comebackalive.com/site3.p...wiki_countries