1 – A book review (from http://www.emcit.com/emcit029.htm#Comrade) "Comrades", he said, small voice filling the vaulted arches of Union Station, ultimately filling the whole of the country, "it looks s if what we have here..." Debs looked around, unable to contain his grin. "...is a REVOLUTION!" It began in 1912 with the assassination of President Roosevelt by a Wobblie activist. Only Hammett of the Pinkerton agency saw the assassin, and he was apparently unable to run him down. A small person, he said, and obviously a fine shot with a rifle. Oh, things continued on as normal for a while. The new president, Charles Foster Kane, used his newspaper empire to good effect keeping up morale. But the greed of the Robber Barons could not be disguised forever, and the debacle of The Somme cost too many young American lives. The association between Kane's wife and the notorious British mystic, Aleister Crowley, hardly helped the establishment cause. Social unrest grew and when, in 1917, Eugene V. Debs arrived in Chicago on the famous sealed train, the United Socialist States of America was inevitable. Faintly embarrassed by the comic melodrama of it all, Zapata crouched behind the low all at the edge of the square, his detachment cradling their carbines, ready to fire. Up in the clear blue sky, the buzzing biplanes circled. Both the von Richthofen brothers were up there, jousting like the last of the Teutonic Knights, and so was their fat friend Göring. The brightly painted airplanes swooped low over the Alamo, guns chattering, and dropped smoking incendiaries. Get the idea? From the fairly simple operation of inserting Dracula into world history, Kim Newman has gone on to wholesale reconstruction of the time line. Back in the USSA is the story of the communist revolution as it happened in America. It is a world turned upside down, but a world still very much the same. Debs, for example, didn't last long, and for many years Chairman Capone held the Communist Party, and the country, in an iron grip. It is a world in which Jack Kerouac and Buddy Holly are freedom fighters, in which Lyndon Johnson is a bum riding the rails to California and Britain and Russia get embroiled in a long and painful war in Vietnam. He glanced across the stage at the men with whom he would debate. Francis Urquhart, the local MP, was talking to the bewildered Jim Hacker, a former Eden protégé serving his time as a Junior Minister. I must say that you need a fair bit of background knowledge to get all of the references. For example, a little knowledge of British TV comedies is required to fully appreciate the fact that the squad of soldiers in the Vietnam story contains The Likely Lads, Stan Butler from On the Buses, Rev. Noote and Frank Spencer, or to understand why the film based on their exploits (and instantly recognisable as Apocalypse Now) is titled It Ain't Half Hot Mum. I suspect that Kevin and I had something of an advantage because he knew a lot of the American references and I knew a lot of the British ones. You have to be careful, though. I was reading this piece of dialog that sounded strangely familiar. Who did I know that talks like that? Hmm, the character is a Russian called Colonel Ivanov. Oh yes... Except, as Kim reminded me, Yvegny Ivanov is the Russian spy who so enjoyed the company of Christine Keeler. For all we know he may also be the grandfather of Susan Andreivitch, but if Kim and Eugene had that possibility in mind it was only subliminal. A discreet row of well-dressed but dangerous men were doubtless ready to step in if trouble started. They were under the direction of a calm chap with a bowler hat, an umbrella and a carnation in his frogged lapel, and a startlingly beautiful woman with auburn hair who wore a leather jump suit. The book is divided into a number of short stories, each telling a tale of some notable event in the history of the USSA. They are very different. Citizen Ed, for example, is very black humour indeed. It tells the story of a small, rural town whose local party boss has some strange habits. Professor Lecter, the head of the State Psychiatric Institute, claims that mental illness is impossible in a Communist society. Try telling that to Sheriff Harry Truman and the people of Plainfield, Wisconsin. Abdication Street, on the other hand, is an utterly hilarious tale of the marriage of Prince Charles to the Tzar's daughter, the Grand Duchess Ekaterina. Of course it does have the benefit of Charles's favourite uncle, the Earl of Balham, who was one of the stars of a popular radio comedy series before getting a little too seriously involved with Princess Margaret. "There are worse prospects." [said Charles]. "I could be stuck with a blue-blooded English neurotic with a fashionable eating disorder and a brain the size of a pea." A world in which Rudolph Nureyev stars as Agent 007 of SMERSH, Yul Brynner is a hit in Russian soap operas and Isaac Asimov is a famous TV astrologer. A world in which the Grand Duchess Anastasia grew up to become Barbara Cartland and the Moscow Free Hospital is run by a chap called Zhivago. George Smiley takes care of Royal security in case that feisty little US cultural attaché, Harlan something-or-other, whom everyone knows is a Commie spy, decides to make trouble. Lady Penelope was well into her forties, but looked a sight better than her pictures. Her skirt seemed to restrict her movements, forcing her to bob in tiny steps as if she were on wires. I could go on, but why give away all the good jokes. Besides, there's far more to it than that. Sure it is funny, hilariously so, but it is also very clever and very serious. Time after time, Byrne and Newman make telling moral and political points. It is very good satire. Very good indeed. Now the hard bit. This book is hardback only and is published by Californian SF bookseller, Mark Ziesing. We are talking fairly small press here, people. Hopefully someone in Britain will have the good sense to stock it, and Justin Ackroyd knows Ziesing well so he should have copies. In the US you can get the book from Cargo Cult, 2804 Stuart Street, Berkeley, CA 94705 ($29.95 + tax). Failing all else, Amazon.com has everything. Back in the USSA - Eugene Byrne and Kim Newman - Mark V. Ziesing Books 1997 – hardcover" 2 - Overview USSA is the proposed title of my latest matrix game. Bringing together a lot of my (rather eclectic, if you're being kind ) interests e.g. Marxism, The inter war period (What EH Carr described as the 'Twenty Years Crisis') and American popular culture. USSA is the history of the world from Deb's revolution onwards. 3 - Mechanisms The game will be run in a mailing list format using Chris Engle's standard matrix game rules, available online from the Hamster press web site http://www.io.com/~hamster Players and interested parties will subscribe to a moderated mailing list. List address is ussa_mg@onelist.com All players will receive copies of every matrix argument submitted. These will, however, be anonymised. The argument will be appended with a brief results paragraph from the umpire. The mailing list will be archived and available for perusal. There are two types of players in USSA, core players and DEM players. The core players are standard involved players. Anyone who subscribes to the mailing list is de facto a DEM player and may submit arguments. More on this later. There are no set turns or time scale for USSA. Historical time will be moved on by the umpire in response to arguments from players and events within the game. Players may submit as many or as few orders as they wish. If core players do so however, Their nations will doubtless ossify and crumble… 4 - Core Players Core players are the standard matrix game players, pursuing interests not a million miles away from the standard themes of world domination. At the beginning of the game (November 1917) the core players are: USSA – Eugene Debs Britain – Lloyd George Germany – Kaiser Wilhelm I Russia - Nicholas II/Alexander Kerensky 5 - DEM Players DEM (Deus Ex Machina) players represent 'acts of god' (or murphys law) in the game. Anyone subscribing to the mailing list may enter a DEM argument, about anything. The idea behind DEM players is to both encourage 'lurkers' and 'dabblers', basically anyone who wants to know more about the matrix game system. Also, the DEM system is designed to get players familiar with the fact that their arguments can affect anything, not only forces or persons under their immediate 'control'. DEM players may also turn themselves into core players via a successful, or series of successful, argument. A good real world historical example would be Mao Zedong in China, or possibly even Bill Gates! The idea behind DEM players is to both encourage 'lurkers' and 'dabblers', basically anyone who wants to know more about the matrix game system. 6 – The Game Map None needed. Use an atlas. The GM may from time to issue maps showing the state of the planet after successful wars of conquest, revolutions, falls of mighty empires etc… 7 – Game Flavour and Dramatis Personae: As can be seen from the review above, the world of USSA is one where figures from 'real' history blend with literary and movie characters, and characters appear in strange and unfamiliar roles. Newman and Byrne have been (unfairly IMHO) described as "smug little pop-culture mavens with eff-all interest in history", (Phil Masters soc.history.what-if – available via ). Keeping with the spirit of the stories Matrix arguments in USSA should be built around 'characters'. The world of USSA is not structuralist. History is made by people! Players are highly encouraged (if nothing else to fill gaps in the GM's cultural knowledge) to provide supplementary emails informing the game where fictional/literary/cinematic characters were 'lifted from' . Spoof news stories, movie reviews etc around the events in USSA as they unfold are also highly welcome. I want this game to be fun! Looking at the 1920/30's in the USSA alone, how do the following characters impact (either majorly, or in walk on parts) on history? Dwight Eisenhower, Norma Desmond, Billy Mitchell, Jay Gatsby, Robert E Howard, Montgomery Burns, Bugsy Malone, Woody Guthrie, Emma Goldman, Rick Blaine, Babe Ruth, Dutch Schultz, Waldo Pepper… 8 - Sample Orders. (To give a flavour if nothing else.) 1953. The civil war in Cuba drags on. The USSA military assistance group, commanded by General Matthew Ridgway, is debating whether to recommend deployment of ground troops to support the crumbling Cuban Democratic Workers Republic of President Batista. Already covert action teams from the Peoples Intelligence Agency, under Agent Alden Pyle and his psywar ops specialist, the mysterious Dr Benway, are in position and operating in the hills… At this juncture a DEM player issues the following argument; "The USSA Central committee will refuse to commit land forces to Cuba. This will happen because; 1) The USSA does not have the spare capacity to commit troops to Cuba as well as garrisoning the Mexican and Canadian borders. 2) PIA intelligence estimates repeatedly show the war is unwinnable. The Central committee of the CPUSSA will follow their advice. 3) The rebels are growing bolder and operating with greater audacity. Agent Pyle is killed during a night attack on the USSA compound in Havana." The GM rolls the dice. A three. The CPUSSA Central Committee remains split on the Cuban issue, with hawks still wishing to export socialism despite the advice of the PIA. At midnight on August 25th 1953 approximately 300 nationalist guerrillas storm the USSA embassy in Havana. USSA marines and CDWR militia clear them out some three hours later. Agent Pyle, caught in hail of gunfire, is seriously wounded but dragged to safety by marine corporal Arthur Fonzarelli. Corporal Fonzarelli is later awarded 'Hero of the American People' for his actions in the battle and sent on a tour of factories and collective farms in the mid west to improve worker morale and productivity. He is seen off at the dockside by a crowd of heartbroken girls…." 9 - USSA Timeline 1912 - President Theodore Roosevelt assassinated by socialist activist. Vice President Charles Foster Kane sworn in as President 1913 – Kane crony Wyatt Earp becomes Governor of Illinois. Downturn in world economies and US. March 1914 – Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassinated in Sarajevo. Austria blames Serbian Nationalists. In a secret telegram to his controllers in London Inspector Dennis Nayland Smith blames the assassination on "The agents of a malevolent eastern entity seeking discord and disharmony amongst the civilised powers." Nayland Smith is summoned back to London to report further, but is found dead later, the victim of a unknown hit and run automobile accident, in the foggy streets of Limehouse. The report is never delivered. August 1914 – German troops stopped at Marne in West. Battle of Tannenberg ends indecisively with heavy losses on both sides. October 1914 – Aleister Crowley, self styled 'Great Beast', leaves England after revelations in the Daily Mail regarding 'unsavoury religious activities' at the former Baskerville manor on Dartmoor, now owned by the Order of The Golden Dawn. Arriving in America, Crowley soon ingratiates himself with both President and Mrs Kane causing considerable alarm in political circles and becoming named by the New York Times as 'The most powerful man in America'. January 1915 – Czarevitch dies in Russia. Czar Nicholas II goes into mourning and political seclusion. Sergei Witte becomes Russian Prime Minister. May 1915 – White star liner RMS Titanic torpedoed by German U-boat. Egged on by Crowley, President Kane declares war on Germany. Rumours begin circulating of 'unsavoury religious activities' taking place in the White House. June 1915 – US govt hands out major arms contracts, mainly to political supporters of President Kane. July 1915 – Russian general staff reorganised by Witte and new minister of War Kerensky. New land reforms announced in Russia. September 1915 – American Expeditionary Force lands in France under 'Black Jack' Pershing. November 1915 – Germans use poison gas. US field officers report back to War Dept that up to 60% of their artillery shells fail to explode due to cost cutting and shoddy construction. Defense Secretary Thomas 'Daddy' Warbucks, himself a major owner of armaments shares, quietly shelves the report. January 1916 – Wage controls announced by US government. Socialist agitators and Union leaders imprisoned. Inflation continues to rise. March 1916 – President Kane refuses to bring in food rationing or price controls. Two week National railroad workers strike put down by troops. Leon Trotsky arrives in New York, meets Eugene Debs. August 1916 – Against British and French advice Americans launch Somme Offensive. 30,000 American casualties are inflicted on the first day for no territorial gains. It is later rumoured that Pershing's lover, the exotic dancer, Mata Hari was in the pay of the Germans and passed details of the forthcoming offensive. Mata Hari disappears before a full investigation can be undertaken. The attack peters out in 3 months after 100,000 American casualties. The AEF is no longer capable of offensive action. Isolated mutinies break out in France, the most serious led by Lt Ernest Hemmingway. Hemmingway and 6 others are executed by firing squad in December. September 1916 – Anti draft riots in New York. Arrest warrant issued for Eugene Debs. Debs and Trotsky flee to Canada. October 1917 – Communist Party of the USA formed in exile in Toronto. Initial Central Committee members include Debs, Emma Goldman, Jack London and Leon Trotsky. February 1917 – Several US banks collapse in major corruption scandal. Thousands are ruined. August 1917 – Food riots break out in Chicago. Governor Earp attempts to suppress them with force using police and Pinkerton agents. Inflation continues to rise. September 1917 – Under personal instruction of Governor Earp, Pinkerton agents fire on unarmed crowd in Chicago. Forty three killed. Marcus Garvey joins CPUSA. September 1917 – Revitalised Russian army launches Brusilov offensive. Germans hold line, but with heavy losses. October 1917 – Negro workers strike following lynching in Alabama. American troops begin to refuse to embark for Europe. November 1917 – Massive demonstrations against Kane and the War in industrial cities. Police commanders report troops unwilling to fine on crowds. CPUSA central committee smuggled back into Washington on sealed train led organised by railroad workers under Cesare Bandello, the regional organiser and 'Little Caesar' of the railroad workers union. Demonstrations grip the capitol. Kane flees to Canada. Revolution…. And now, Some useful alternate timeline sites for guidance and flavour.. Edgar Governo - Historian of Things That Never Were http://www.escape.ca/~arphaxad/history.html 145 (count 'em) links to movie/TV/comic and book based timelines. An invaluable source for inspiration! The Wold Newton Universe http://members.aol.com/ufpsfwin/Pulp2.htm Based on the works of Phillip Jose Farmer, and his Doc Savage/Tarzan fetish… Alternate Universes To The Wold Newton Site Contains a list of characters from Kim Newman's 'Anno Dracula' Books and where they were 'borrowed' from. The Internet Movie Database http://us.imdb.com/ All the films, all the characters. CREDITS Kim Newman and Eugene Byrne for the stories Chris Engle, for inventing matrix games Wargames Development, for encouragement and ideas Tom Mouat, for giving me the idea for DEM players Loren Miller, for inventing the world building matrix game The Players in my three previous email games 'Save Gordon' "Thunder of Valmy" and "Fortress Malaya". And of course, God, My Manager and the Little People who made this all possible… Back to Table of Contents -- Matrix Gamer #6 To Matrix Gamer List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Chris Engle. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com