Some notes on a modern action/espionage/conspiracy campaign I’ll never get around to creating.
League of Un-Nations
Throughout history, there have been proposed nations that have never come into existence. For the most part, these are curious corners of history, only of interest to historians. Until now…
Across the globe, there has been a wave of acts of sabotage, assassinations, or even more inexplicable crimes. At first, they were blamed on criminals, terrorists, or other known actors. It soon became clear they followed no known pattern or motive.
The few perpetrators who were captured and interrogated, seemed to have no background, or official records. They were essentially ghosts. They claimed to be from nations that do not, and never have existed.
It took a while, but eventually the truth was accepted. Agents of nations that never existed were somehow infiltrating our reality, and trying to change it for their own purposes. It is assumed, but not known for certain, that they are trying to alter our world to make it more likely their nation could come into being. They’re commonly referred to as Un-nations.
Most governments have agreed to keep this information from the public to avoid a panic, but the rumors are starting to spread.
Intelligence agencies have managed to piece together bits of information about the various Un-nations. They each have different agendas, but their end goal is the same; modifying our reality to make it more likely their potential nations come into existence.
It’s believed that sometimes these various Un-nations work together, while at other times they are actively hostile to one another.
Known Un-Nations
Most of these are based on actual proposed nations. Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Proposed_countries
The Golden Circle: A slave holding aristocracy controlling most of southern North America and the Caribbean.
The Intermarium: Central European Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth.
Grand Columbia: An empire consisting of most of Central and South America, all former Spanish possessions.
North American Technate: A technocratic Science-Republic controlling all of North America.
Imperial Federation: A global federal union of former British colonies.
United States of Greater Austria: A central European federation still ruled by the Habsburgs
Grand Duchy of Livonia: A German speaking monarchy, in what is now Estonia and Latvia.
Imperial Greenland: The most mysterious Un-Nation. Nothing is known of them.
What actually happens in the game?
I’m presuming the players are government agents of some kind. They could work for a national government, or perhaps the UN Security Council, say the United Nations Security Council Reality Protection Committee (UNSCRPC)
The characters would be scientists, intelligence agents, scholars, or law enforcement officials. Their goal would be as follows:
- Discover the nature of the Un-nations.
- Determine what their intentions are.
- Stop them from altering reality.
I’m presuming it would primarily be a investigation game, broken up by the occasional action scene.
What system would I use?
I think any modern espionage or mystery based RPG would work. Gumshoe is an obvious choice, but I’m also fond of DoubleZero.
Why I’m not going to create this
The main reason is time. I’ve already got a bunch of other projects I’m working on, and I don’t want to add to the pile.
The second reason is laziness. I’d have to research all of the cultures and histories of these alternate nations, and try to make them plausible. That’s a lot.
The final reason is politics. Any game involving real world nationalisms and separatist movements can be a little dicey. I don’t think RPGs necessarily have to shy away from politics, but using real world ethnicities and political struggles strikes me as insensitive at best.
I’ve deliberately chosen somewhat odd and ill known corners of history for my examples, but I don’t think in a larger setting, I could avoid current day politics.
It’s still a fun idea, and if anyone wants to take crack at it, have at it.
Polyhedral Nonsense 