[Interest Check / Development] The New Order: A Dieselpunk Nation Game

[Scrapknight]

​

It is the year 1997, but not our 1997. From the Rhine to the Ganges, the forces of the United Nations stare down the nations of the Axis Powers, locked in the fiftieth year of what has come to be called the "Cold War." Formidable wunderwaffen such as the rocket bomber, the Sentinel and the mecha are ominpresent in the arsenals of the Great Powers. Zeppelins and rocket aircraft deliver people and supplies to their destination in style and at unparalleled speeds. Swing is king and Art Deco still reigns supreme.

But not all is stable in the modern world. In Italy, the ideological heart of the fascist world, a younger generation is growing tired of the old system, and what happens there may shake the Axis to its core. Greater Germany, too, is riven between military conservatives and reformers in the DNVP. The democratic world, for its part, is on edge as fascist India asserts its growing economic and military strength. The Manchurian Soviet Republic, a ghastly and totalitarian remnant of the Soviet occupation of Japan, threatens the peace in East Asia for the Americans, the Chinese and the USSR alike. And worst of all, the Third Reich lives on in Antarctica and its secret lunar facilities, ceaselessly plotting and scheming to retake the homeland from the traitors and the untermenschen.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the new order.

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Yes, that's right, welcome to The New Order! I'm your host, Scrapknight. Inspired by the sadly short-lived The Great War and many similar nation games, I've decided to try something a little different. This game will be set in an alternate history, as you can hopefully tell by the introduction. Technology and society have developed in decidedly different directions, with the vision of the Jazz Age and the Second Great War living on. It's a world of pulp heroes and mad science, owing to media such as Indiana Jones, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and the first Captain America. However, that doesn't mean that the struggles inherent in international politics can be solved by dashing heroes swooping in to save the day. The fight against the fascist menace / struggle for national liberation from decadent society (depending on who you ask) will not be easy to win, and it will take strategy and guile to to come out on top.

I'll be using this thread to see who's interested and post basic information about the game. This is not a sign-up thread; that will come later.

This world is split into three main blocs: the (mostly) democratic United Nations, the (mostly) fascist Axis Powers, and the rogue nations, which are states that despise both blocs and want to overthrow them. Each side will have its own major powers and a few minor nations available for players; exactly what minor nations are available will depend upon what players want. Feel free to ask what countries are in what bloc if you need to know now, as it will be a little while before I come up with a map - the world is still being built at this stage.

The United Nations

Major Powers:
United States of America
United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland
French Republic
Republic of China
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Minor Powers:
State of Japan
Dominion of Canada
Kingdom of Belgium
State of Israel
etc.

The Axis Powers

Major Powers:
Greater Germany
Kingdom of Italy
Spanish State
Indian Free State
State of Brazil

Minor Powers:
Denmark
Ukranian Protectorate
Baltic State
Republic of Finland
etc.

Neutrals / The Rogue Nations
Greater German Reich (a.k.a. The Antarctic Reich)
Manchurian Soviet Republic
Union of South Africa

Much more to follow, obviously. I'll make some posts on individual nations in more detail soon.

Finally, we have an IRC channel! Join #TNO_Main on Coldfront. I will repost instructions for doing so momentarily.

This is a work in progress, so I can't wait to see what you guys think!

 

[simcull]

You already know the answer, Scrap. Yes.

 

[aedan777]

Definitely interested. Much though I would like to follow up Althine with a sane and reasonable nation, Moon Nazis are too much to pass up. Victory shall belong to the Antarctic Reich!

 

[Mikkel Glahder]

"Are you interessted?" Yes
"Would you play as a highly unstable Italy that'll collapse?" Yes

 

[Luftwafer]

South Afrika shall rise once again

 

[Tristanxh]

I'm looking forward to it, I'll be hoping to get USA.

 

[Plutonium95]

Looks awesome. I'd definitely be interested in something smaller/less important. Maybe Spain.

 

[Deaghaidh]

Why is Antarctic Reich different from German Reich?

I'm entirely interested. If nothing else, Irish Republican Airship Pirates.

 

[Tristanxh]

Why is Antarctic Reich different from German Reich?

I'm entirely interested. If nothing else, Irish Republican Airship Pirates.

Cause Germany went National Socialist while Wilhelm fled to Antarctica I assume... Just my mad reasoning, probably wrong.

 

[Deaghaidh]

Or vice versa, I guess.

Also, things that should be in this game:

 

[aedan777]

Cause Germany went National Socialist while Wilhelm fled to Antarctica I assume... Just my mad reasoning, probably wrong.

If you read the OP, you'd know that the Nazis are in Antarctica. Germany's been a military dictatorship/semi-fascist state since then.

 

[Tristanxh]

If you read the OP, you'd know that the Nazis are in Antarctica. Germany's been a military dictatorship/semi-fascist state since then.

So they also start with space travel...

 

[Terraferma]

Interested as well

 

[Scrapknight]

OSS WORLD FACTBOOK
COUNTRY PROFILES: GREATER GERMANY

​

Official Name: Grossdeutschland
Short Form: (Greater) Germany
Capital: Berlin
Fuhrer: Otto Holzmann
Government: Totalitarian single-party fascist state under the German National People's Party (DNVP)

History:

Greater Germany has its roots in the totalitarian state of Nazi Germany, established by Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist German Worker's Party (NSDAP.) In the opening years of the Second World War, Germany conquered the entirety of Western Europe using a combination of "blitzkrieg" tactics and new weapons such as rocket aircraft and metahumans.

One month after the United Nations landed ships in Normandy, on July 20th, 1944, Colonel Claus von Staffenburg assassinated Fuhrer Hitler as part of "Operation Valkyrie," a military coup against the radical fascists in the NSDAP. After a brief period of infighting, command passed to General Frederich Fromm, who sought negotiated peace with the Allied Powers. Struggling to hold the line in France and with German forces less than one hundred miles from Moscow, the Allies agreed. The Germans would keep their gains up to the Ukraine against the USSR, while France and the Low Countries would be liberated under democratic regimes. World War II in Europe thus ended on August 11th, 1944.

Germany would not be at peace after the settlement, however. The army had been unable to force the surrender of the SS, which was still a powerful force. The German Civil War was a perhaps inevitable result. Fromm was assassinated in March 1945 on Reichsfuhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler's orders, who attempted to proclaim himself head of the Reich. The army regrouped around Admiral Karl Donitz, who rallied the Wehrmacht to firmly take control of the country and prevent another Hitlerite demagogue from rising again. The United Nations initially attempted to intervene in the aborted Operation Downfall, but concerns about control of Germany's void weaponry prevented such action. Downfall was thus delayed unless it appeared that the Nazis were likely to win and restart the European war. However, the Nazi revolt was doomed from the start. They were both outnumbered and outgunned by conventional forces, and after an attempt at decapitating the military government in its provisional capital of Hamburg failed, pockets of revolt were gradually swept up by the Wehrmacht. Under Donitz, many high-ranking Nazi officials were tried and sentenced to death for treason. Those that were too politically powerful to kill were exiled to Antarctica, including Himmler. What the military did not expect was that the fleeing Nazis would be able to smuggle some of the most advanced wunderwaffen out of the country with them to the Antarctic research stations. Over the next several years, the regime commonly known as the Antarctic Reich would form out of these exiled populations.

The military, now solidly in control, banned the NSDAP and reconstituted the DNVP to serve as the state's official party along Italian fascist lines, with the fasces and iron cross replacing the swastika as symbol of the state.

Germany remains the main rival to the American-led United Nations, possessing an utterly massive arsenal of nuclear weapons, void bombs, Sentinels, metahumans and other weapons. It is still a totalitarian and racialist fascist state, though the mass executions of the NSDAP have been discontinued. Its best days, economically speaking, are behind it; unable to keep up with UN military spending, the regime has been in a state of stagnation for the past twenty years. While Germany remains the leader of the Axis by tradition, the dynamism of the Indian economy throws that increasingly into question. Germany remains stable, but faces friction between reformist and hardline factions of the DNVP, which has become increasingly independent of the army that founded it. The military is also, according to some, beginning to lose patience with the volatility of fascist politics and ponders taking command of the country directly once and for all. Germany will have many challenges to manages if it wishes to see its dominance preserved into the 21st century.

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((OOC: This is a good a time as any to point out that this game will deal with sensitive subject matter. Please be respectful to all players as well as all identities and characteristics. In addition, please follow forum rules at all times; this includes no swastikas, no depictions of genocide, etc etc. I don't want the mods ending this before it starts because people can't handle these topics in a mature and respectful way.))

 

[Scrapknight]

Why is Antarctic Reich different from German Reich?

I'm entirely interested. If nothing else, Irish Republican Airship Pirates.

Ireland is independent and a member of the UN along with Britain. I'm going to say no to playing factions / organizations like that. Ireland is certainly open, though.

As the above profile hopefully makes clear, the Antarctic Reich is the holdout of the NSDAP, which was purged from Germany following a civil between the Wehrmacht and the Party. Germany proper is a quasi-fascist military dictatorship not too dissimilar to a harsher and more repressive Putinist Russia, whereas the Antarctic Reich is...much, much worse than that.

 

[jeeshadow]

I am in!

 

[Galren]

Interested. I will be following this.

 

[Gorganslayer]

Interested

 

[Ironhide G1]

Spoiler: Steamies are better than Diesels

LOL. Anyway, interested.

 

[Dr.Livingstone]

Interested.