Help with A Setting

[DAT]

Hi Folks,
I have an idea for a game setting, but I’d like to bounce it off some people to refine it some. If you care to help, please keep reading.

The idea for the setting came from a Scifi novel by Robert Charles Wilson called “Darwinia”. In the novel, in March of 1912, an event occurs, called the “Miracle” in the story, that causes Europe and large parts of Asia to be suddenly replaced with a land without man. All life and signs of man’s civilization is erased and replaced by strange wilderness and antediluvian monsters, while the geology remains the same. The reason the event is revealed in the story, but I don’t intend to use that reason in my game.

My idea is to have a similar “Miracle” type event occur in March of 2012. The “new land” will borrow heavily from “GURPS Land Out of Time”. The reason for the event is an underlying major campaign mystery for the players to eventually figure out. The items I wanted to get peoples ideas/feedback on are:
1) What part(s) of the world should vanish / be replaced?
2) What will be the responses of the different nations / groups left behind?
3) What do you think are the most interesting character types for this setting?
4) What ideas do you have for the why it happened?

For what part of the world are vanished / replaced, I considered:
a. North America (Canada, US, and Mexico)
b. North and Central America (dividing line in Panama)
c. All the Americas (North, Central, and South)
d. Item b plus Europe
e. Europe and Northern Asia (i.e., Russia / Siberia)
f. All of Asia
g. The Middle East and Central Asia (Between Turkey and China)
h. All except North America
i. All except Europe
j. All except China/Japan
k. All except Middle East and Central Asia
l. All except Africa
m. All except Australia and New Zealand
n. As item m, and also except smaller islands
o. All except smaller islands (Iceland, Hawaii, … )
p. All except a 100/300/500 mile radius around Jerusalem …

For responses of nations and groups left behind:
a. Remaining military forces (US Navy missile submarines especially)
b. Remaining Embassies
c. Ally governments
d. Neutral governments
e. Hostile governments

e.g., If the U.S. was replaced, would nuclear missiles be launched from missile subs at North Korea, Iran, etc.?

For character types:
a. Military
b. Embassy staff
c. Tourist with useful skills
d. Allies …

For ideas of why it happened:
a. An experiment in dimension travel gone wrong
b. An alien experiment gone wrong
c. A magic backfire
d. The world the players know is actually a computer archive of human history, and the event is a side effect of an alien computer virus attack on the archive.
e. …

Thanks for your input.
-Dan