Alternate version of New America...

[natehale1971]

Hi there everyone,

Has anyone else changed New America in their campaigns from a bunch of right-wing redneck racist christo-facsit wackos espeically since every attempt at creating these far 'right-wing' fringe racist groups to work together has aways failed (even when they are all Neo-Nazis whom only differ in their charismatic leadership).

I have changed them from this model, to a grassroots group based similarly off ACORN... They are a much more Populist group than being either 'Right-wing' or 'Left-wing'... but having embraced alot of the charismatic leadership styles used by the socialist/facist/communist tyrannies in the past....

has anyone else done this

[kato13]

I removed the overt racism to make them a little less clear of an enemy. I put them halfway from how they are presented and the what I consider to be the feelings of the average southerner. They are very anti-Mexican though due to the invasion.

I make it more like a very well organized cult. With a very charismatic leaders who manipulate a scared and hungry populace.

[natehale1971]

When i can find my notes, i'll post them. showing just how "new america' was... originally based upon the ideals of the United States Progressive Party, and their leadership that i had written up (just like i have for Cummings)

[Targan]

I have left New America in my campaign exactly as it was written in the modules. I find the racism of New America has helped in my campaign because it has left one of my main PCs, Major Anthony Po, somewhat conflicted - he agrees with much of New America's policies but he is a Chinese American. Po thinks of himself as part of America's neo-aristocracy already (before the war is was one of the top 100 most wealthy people in the USA) and is highly offended that New America would not consider him to be one of their 'Natural Aristocrats' because of his ethnicity.

[headquarters]

Ndp

I have twisted the faction into a similar entity with different wrapping -the New Dawn Party .

Its a utilatarian () ,totalitarian militant organization with a" you are a member or an enemy policy".

Its got cells and enforcers etc but it also operates overtly and at one time actually held power ..
yep- we are canon nonconformist heathen norse swine up here ,mixing good and righteous material with our own dark traditions.

[General Pain]

I have twisted the faction into a similar entity with different wrapping -the New Dawn Party .

Its a utilatarian () ,totalitarian militant organization with a" you are a member or an enemy policy".

Its got cells and enforcers etc but it also operates overtly and at one time actually held power ..
yep- we are canon nonconformist heathen norse swine up here ,mixing good and righteous material with our own dark traditions.

The good General (my character) had a wonderful and just faction going on in your campaign....It was filled with food / work / television for the masses.....the good old days.....I'll get it back you know.....I just have to estinguish some candles in the process he he

[kato13]

I have left New America in my campaign exactly as it was written in the modules. I find the racism of New America has helped in my campaign because it has left one of my main PCs, Major Anthony Po, somewhat conflicted - he agrees with much of New America's policies but he is a Chinese American. Po thinks of himself as part of America's neo-aristocracy already (before the war is was one of the top 100 most wealthy people in the USA) and is highly offended that New America would not consider him to be one of their 'Natural Aristocrats' because of his ethnicity.

That is a perfect conflict. Have they had any direct contact yet

[Targan]

That is a perfect conflict. Have they had any direct contact yet

Kind of. Po's group wiped out a CIA cell and its hired guns operating in New Jersey and during that six or seven week conflict it emerged that the leader of the CIA group and at least some of his underlings were New America members or sympathisers.
Other than that there was only the scanty information on New America in intel briefings that Po received from MilGov HQ in Norfolk when he returned from Europe.

[Rainbow Six]

To be honest, as a Brit living in the UK I never quite "got" the whole concept of New Anerica when it was first introduced in what was it, late 80's In those pre internet (and pre foreign travel) days the US in general was a whole different World that I only knew from TV shows, and I had a hard time getting my head round the idea that such an organisation could exist. So i tended to ignore them.

These days I guess I'm more worldy wise, but as my T2K attention isn't focused on the US, I've continued to disregard New America completely.

[Adam F]

I personally think New America kinda worked in the eighties (with the comedy buffoonish eeevilness of them tuned down considerably), but aren't plausible as such a widespread and organised faction in a more present day or near future setting.

I'm actually giving the name to a more localised Floridan based Scientologist faction in my present campaign. The Scientologists fill the bill nicely as a wacked-out loony faction that is already armed and potentially rather dangerous in a post-apoc future.

[weswood]

What makes me wonder is that from what I remember of the 80's when the game was written, racism was on the decline. I can remember race riots in a couple schools in Georgia and Louisiana that I went to in the late 70's, but I can't remember any real problems in the 80's. And it seems that unfortuneatley that it's on the rise again, at least to a right wing conservative southern redneck

And no, I don't believe in the whole New America concept. If I ever use them, they'll be left wing comunist radicals!

[sglancy12]

Has anyone else changed New America in their campaigns from a bunch of right-wing redneck racist christo-facsit wackos espeically since every attempt at creating these far 'right-wing' fringe racist groups to work together has aways failed (even when they are all Neo-Nazis whom only differ in their charismatic leadership).

Pardon me while I attempt to resurrect this thread. Elsewhere in the forum some ideas were being kicked around regarding New America's methods and goals, and it got me thinking about how hard it would be to sell Carl Hughes "Natural Aristocracy" to the average American.

And again, it's going to be extremely difficult for most of these right-wing groups to work together. Hell, even left-wing groups constantly split over issues of nit-picky dogma and clashes over leadership (disguised as clashes over dogma) all the time. But New America is the right-wing threat to America, not the left-wing threat. The Soviets have that covered (mostly).

So back to New America. I think that for New America to grow to be a major threat to MilGov and CivGov that it needs to be more like an infiltrating conspiracy and more like a mystery cult.

As an infiltrating conspiracy New America has sent out agents during the 1980s and early 1990s to joined many of the groups that New America wants to bring under its control. This includes anything from populist anti-federal and anti-tax groups, groups that advocate the use of violence to promote a white nationalist agenda, and even groups that have moved into outright criminal activity: assassinations, bank robberies, bombings, etc.. Of course, I think NA would mostly steer clear of the groups that are actually engaging in criminal activity (like the Order) because they want to avoid the scrutiny of the FBI, ATF and other law enforcement agencies.

New America wouldn't have to bring all these groups under the NA banner before the war, but the NA agents in these diverse groups are the guys who bring in much needed resources: cash, high tech equipment and even illegal weapons. Once the bombs fall and resources run thin, it's the NA members of these groups who have all the answers. They know where the NA supply caches are. They might even arrange for a NA supply drop. They have contact with higher headquarters who can provide intelligence about everything from the movement of marauders and refugees to weather patterns and even medical advice. They might even be able to call on reinforcements from other NA cells or right wing groups controlled by NA cells. The NA agents rise through the ranks of their adopted organization until they have enough influence to sell the Michigan Militia (for example) on adopting the banner of New America. This last stage would be the most difficult and might never be accomplished, leaving a splinter group like The Order or Posse Comitatus remain merely "New America-influenced" rather than out-right controlled.

One wonders if there is a big map in NA's Country Home HQ color coded to show which groups have declared openly for NA, which groups are controlled by NA agents but remain independent, which have been infiltrated but remain independent, and even groups targeted for infiltration. That could certainly include MilGov and CivGov garrisons.

As a mystery cult, New America's agenda and goals are hidden not only from the general public, but also from the rank and file membership. In this way they resemble Scientology. If you presented the "final revelations" of Scientology to the average follower of Scientology and Dianetics on day 1 (i.e. the whole Xenu-atomic bomb-volcano-soul thing) they would walk away from a clearly ridiculous belief system. However, if New America starts out disguising it's agenda so that none of the members get the full picture until they are fully committed to the movement, then they can get more people in the front door. Once the new members are fully committed to New America, the full agenda is revealed. Now it's too late to back out, or maybe the new member has come to accept the groupthink, like any cult.

New America could also tailor its public agenda to fit the needs of the regional cells. In the Bible Belt, they could sell themselves as a movement to rebuild America as a Christian Nation. In the southwest they could present themselves as a resistance movement fighting the invasion by the Mexican Army (and advocating the expulsion of all "Mexicans" from America). The New America doctrine of Natural Aristocracy could be presented more like Ayn Rand's Objectivism, where only those who contribute are worthy of citizenship. Later, the racial component is introduced, by which time the new member is already committed or has even decided not to care because it's not his or her ox that's being gored.

It would be interesting if the players traveled across the country and encountered different groups that advocate wildly different agendas, but all of which claim to be New America. In an age without mass communications, the variations in public agenda might be overlooked. Without the ability to compare what the cell in Arizona is saying, to what the cell in Idaho is saying to what the cell in Georgia is saying, it's going to be hard for the average person to realize that New America is changing its message to tell people what they want to hear.

Through these two methods, New America can be even more of a threat to life and liberty in North America, without straining the players' credulity.

A. Scott Glancy, President TCCorp, dba Pagan Publishing

[kato13]

Pardon me while I attempt to resurrect this thread.

Thread necromancy is encouraged.

[waiting4something]

I think it would be cool just to have a secret organization of bad ass Americans that have been training and preparing for hard times whether it be from a foreign or domestic enemy. They don't have to be bible thumpers or racist people, just people that see American government as a broken down machine that is only gonna get worse. I thought the New Americans were the cooler of the 3 groups. When everyone in the USA was living in a dream land these guys were building and preparing for survival. I don't think they could be is large scale as they were in the book and kept secret, but that's just me. The book also made them out to be substandard fighters, which I found weird since they were the only ones with war on there minds the whole time since the 1970's.

[sglancy12]

I think it would be cool just to have a secret organization of bad ass Americans that have been training and preparing for hard times whether it be from a foreign or domestic enemy.

I think they called that The Morrow Project. If you are not familiar with it I suggest you check out that post-apocalyptic setting.

They don't have to be bible thumpers or racist people, just people that see American government as a broken down machine that is only gonna get worse.

That's pretty much the people New America wants to recruit, even if those people wouldn't want to be part of New America if they understood it's agenda.

When everyone in the USA was living in a dream land these guys were building and preparing for survival. I don't think they could be is large scale as they were in the book and kept secret, but that's just me. The book also made them out to be substandard fighters, which I found weird since they were the only ones with war on there minds the whole time since the 1970's.

Well, I certainly agree that the size of the organization beggars the imagination. Unless the FBI and ATF all took a collective vacation, it requires a great deal of suspension of disbelief to imagine that an organization with the money and manpower of New America could exist.

I think the reason that New America's troops are made out to be substandard (or at least sub-standard to US troops who've just spent three years fighting the Red Army), is that most New America recruits were envisioned to be arm-chair warriors. The kind of guys who read Soldier of Fortune and Guns & Ammo, but who've never been willing to give up their time to actually serve their country. Posers, in other words.

I don't fully agree with that idea since there's no reason to expect that extremists ripe for recruitment by New America couldn't also be veterans of the US military. Timothy McVeigh for instance. The authors of the original TW2K seemed to believe that the culture of the military would weed guys like that out. Personally, I think the military culture just encourages guys like that to keep their mouths shut so they are harder to identify.

Certainly there's no reason why some NA cells couldn't be as deadly as the Holonists as they were portrayed in David Brin's novel The Postman. In the novel, the average Holonist was worth something like 10 militia men from any other group. After all, just because they have an evil ideology doesn't mean they can't be courageous and talented warriors. Just look at the Waffen SS or the Taliban.

I thought the New Americans were the cooler of the 3 groups.

I'm not sure how to say this without it coming off as a cheap shot, but I'd really like to hear your reasoning behind this conclusion.


A. Scott Glancy, President TCCorp, dba Pagan Publishing