Hiroshima and Nagasaki

[missyfan45]

my idea for a adventure is that the "specter" of the alternate universe citizens of Hiroshima materialize in the aftermath. This would be a very emotional adventure

[Catsmate]

How about the occupying Americans discover that the simultaneous detonations of nuclear bombs on several parallel Earths (for example the airship yards targeted in The Warlord of the Air) has weakened the boundaries between worlds. People, even buildings are starting to 'leak through' and cause consternation. Sometimes buildings can be seen that were destroyed or were never constructed, or are in very different styles.

[missyfan45]

yeah like the hotel attraction and the palace of the soviets

[grinch]

I also think there's room to have a historical adventure akin to The Fires of Pompeii where the PCs have to race against the clock to get out before the bomb drops. Whether it's a fixed point in time or not is entirely up to you but naturally, this could leave room for further adventures where they land in a now alternate timeline where Hiroshima was never nuked. Of course, much likes Fires merely saving a few innocents from nuclear annihilation could be seen as a victory in itself.

[Catsmate]

Aug 29, 2021 16:17:18 GMT grinch said:

I also think there's room to have a historical adventure akin to The Fires of Pompeii where the PCs have to race against the clock to get out before the bomb drops. Whether it's a fixed point in time or not is entirely up to you but naturally, this could leave room for further adventures where they land in a now alternate timeline where Hiroshima was never nuked. Of course, much likes Fires merely saving a few innocents from nuclear annihilation could be seen as a victory in itself.

One of my favourite 'What Ifs' (and bits of historical trivia) is that Nagasaki wasn't supposed to be the target. Bockscar was supposed to attack Kokura, but poor visibility and Japanese aircraft caused that mission to be abandoned and the alternate target of Nagasaki to be attacked.
In fact the whole mission was a bit of a mess.

[senko]

Aug 29, 2021 18:01:53 GMT Catsmate said:

Aug 29, 2021 16:17:18 GMT grinch said:

I also think there's room to have a historical adventure akin to The Fires of Pompeii where the PCs have to race against the clock to get out before the bomb drops. Whether it's a fixed point in time or not is entirely up to you but naturally, this could leave room for further adventures where they land in a now alternate timeline where Hiroshima was never nuked. Of course, much likes Fires merely saving a few innocents from nuclear annihilation could be seen as a victory in itself.

One of my favourite 'What Ifs' (and bits of historical trivia) is that Nagasaki wasn't supposed to be the target. Bockscar was supposed to attack Kokura, but poor visibility and Japanese aircraft caused that mission to be abandoned and the alternate target of Nagasaki to be attacked.
In fact the whole mission was a bit of a mess.

Hmm I'm now picturing an adventure where that's the result of sabotage by the party. Such a seemingly minor thing but the difference in the city bombed has a knock on effect say the bomber gets shot down if they try to hit the original target and things get worse as a result. So the party has to sneak around, much things up and generally ensure allied command bombs the alternate target all the while knowing the horrific cost of the bombing.

No alien powers or big bad manipulation just the knowledge things are different as a result of this, then the realization as they investigate this IS the intended timeline the one they grew up in can only happen if they change history to create the events they grew up knowing.

For added pathos things aren't necessarily worse incorporate shadowrun world without dragons for the future world. If the bombs are sent against Bockscar things move forward to that world. Corporations with the status of countries, a Japanese empire, a nuclear scared germany all a result of the different timeline. From their perspective its worse but its not a horrific world and it is the one that is meant to happen. They are changing it for our world by changing the target to Nagasaki.

[Catsmate]

Aug 31, 2021 8:52:42 GMT senko said:

Aug 29, 2021 18:01:53 GMT Catsmate said:

One of my favourite 'What Ifs' (and bits of historical trivia) is that Nagasaki wasn't supposed to be the target. Bockscar was supposed to attack Kokura, but poor visibility and Japanese aircraft caused that mission to be abandoned and the alternate target of Nagasaki to be attacked.
In fact the whole mission was a bit of a mess.

Hmm I'm now picturing an adventure where that's the result of sabotage by the party. Such a seemingly minor thing but the difference in the city bombed has a knock on effect say the bomber gets shot down if they try to hit the original target and things get worse as a result. So the party has to sneak around, much things up and generally ensure allied command bombs the alternate target all the while knowing the horrific cost of the bombing.

No alien powers or big bad manipulation just the knowledge things are different as a result of this, then the realization as they investigate this IS the intended timeline the one they grew up in can only happen if they change history to create the events they grew up knowing.

For added pathos things aren't necessarily worse incorporate shadowrun world without dragons for the future world. If the bombs are sent against Bockscar things move forward to that world. Corporations with the status of countries, a Japanese empire, a nuclear scared germany all a result of the different timeline. From their perspective its worse but its not a horrific world and it is the one that is meant to happen. They are changing it for our world by changing the target to Nagasaki.

I think this has great potential, in two ways.
Firstly there's the scenario you suggest, where the PCs must meddle to return history to it's 'correct' path. Perhaps they accidentally altered events so Kokura was bombed rather than Nagasaki (shades of Curse of the Conqueror) and this cascades forward.

Then there's the premise of a small group, or even an individual, who acquires a time machine¹ and decides to rewrite history to 'improve' it. Maybe they decide to 'fix' events by preventing the nuclear bombings; with foreknowledge and stolen twenty-first century technology there are many options to disrupt events.

For example:

1. Delay the start of the Manhattan Project by removing Einstein/Szilard's letter to Roosevelt.
   
2. Assassinating central figures in the Project, Teller, Oppenheimer, Szilard, George Graves, Seaborg, von Neumann, Hornig and a few others.
3. Prevent the US obtaining the store of Congolese uranium in New York.
   
4. Sabotage the project, for example the JAN1945 laboratory fire could have been vastly worse.
5. Tamper with the Trinity test, covered here.
6. Shoot down either Enola Gay or Bockscar before they reach their targets.
7. Sink the USS Indianapolis en route to deliver the 'Little Boy' bomb to Tinian.
8. An obscure graduate student trips on a mountain, dies in a Scottish storm and the nuclear age is delayed.
   
   

You'd need to decide what happens if the nuclear weapons are unavailable or delayed. Are radiological weapons developed instead (as in 'Solution Unsatisfactory')? Do the Allies continue the aerial bombing of Japan, perhaps augmented with chemical weapons and rice fungus? Does 'Downfall' go ahead? Are the consequences better or worse?

And of course it leads into an apocalyptic sequel where the survivor(s) of the meddlers try to trigger a nuclear war.





1. I've been playing with the idea of a group of World War 2 OSS/SOE agents embittered and horrified by the events of the previous thirty years acquire a time machine and try to 'fix' the twentieth century by preventing the Great War in various ways.