[LINK] The Third Empire and the Mythos
May. 23rd, 2006 09:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldAlthough I don't read much fan fiction, I do make exceptions for the After-Action Repors and Fanfiction posted at the Paradox Interactive Forums by players of simulation games like Europa Universalis II and Victoria. The overly mechanistic nature of these games can produce some decidedly unlikely results--my favourite example of this is of the player who began hoping to restore Hungary's frontiers to those of the defunct Kingdom and ended up conquering Europe--but they don't have to do this. Besides, the heavily strategy-oriented nature of the game lends itself well to the sorts of timelines I'm familiar with from soc.history.what-if.
My favourite AAR report is the The Third Empire; a PDF file of some three hundred pages that excludes the comments is available here. The game begins with a France that, under a fictional Napoleon V born to the Prince Imperial, has entered the 1920s as an authoritarian Third Empire with certain fascist overtones. This France goes on to wreak havoc on a European scale, the player's last post describing the French-led invasion of the Soviet Union, accompanied by its fascist allies in Spain and Italy and its neutered Nazi German satellite.
This story is entertaining enough, but what makes it especially interesting is the author's infusion of the Cthulhu mythos into the mix--the Indochinese insects have just taken over FDR and prompted a nasty war with the British Commonwealth in alliance with Japan over old Indian ruins in Québec. I might be easily amused, but this is authentically interesting and creative stuff. I'm impressed.
My favourite AAR report is the The Third Empire; a PDF file of some three hundred pages that excludes the comments is available here. The game begins with a France that, under a fictional Napoleon V born to the Prince Imperial, has entered the 1920s as an authoritarian Third Empire with certain fascist overtones. This France goes on to wreak havoc on a European scale, the player's last post describing the French-led invasion of the Soviet Union, accompanied by its fascist allies in Spain and Italy and its neutered Nazi German satellite.
This story is entertaining enough, but what makes it especially interesting is the author's infusion of the Cthulhu mythos into the mix--the Indochinese insects have just taken over FDR and prompted a nasty war with the British Commonwealth in alliance with Japan over old Indian ruins in Québec. I might be easily amused, but this is authentically interesting and creative stuff. I'm impressed.
