Dogpocalypse

Introduction

Alternate future wargame setting and ruleset located in the psychically polluted US. When you ask for fluff, sometimes these things happen.

In 2012, the US managed to fuck itself over by virtue of a facility researching psychic abilities in animals since the Cold War. They succeeded with a Sandra, a Collie bitch. The success was so huge the psychic fallout leveled the States like a nuclear explosion, crippling world economy, international relations and triggering isolation policies from the world at large.

It is now 2020. Inside The Zone, where the fallout occurred, the US military is engaged in a campaign against Sandra and its Awakened animal allies, while Megacorporations push inside with private forces searching for something interesting to sell and mobs of religious fanatics refuse to leave the premises. The US is closed from the world while everyone tries to sort out their issues. In the grim darkness of the near future, there are only puppies.

Factions

Megacorp

The corporations that investigate the Zone have their own paramilitary units and system. Corporate units tend to be high-cost, but are also equipped with the newest equipment, and as its an entirely volunteer army, and the corporations can reject unsuited applicants, the average soldier is of higher quality than the draftees of the Military. However, as they tend to use a lot of systems that haven't seen extensive field-testing, Megacorp armies sometimes have reliability problems. As the corporations tend to buy and sell equipment between themselves, each has access to units the others produce, though they tend to field less of them due to cost issues.

Major subfactions of Megacorp include:

Walmart - Walmart has the edge on medical research, and controls the source of bioengineered Megacorp units like the Cyborg Panther and the Psyker. However, their recruitment and training tends to be lacking. Generally, Walmart goes into the Zone to capture research subjects from the mutants, ignoring other survivors. Lockheed-Boeing - As a defense contractor, Lockheed-Boeing is massively well funded, and their troops, using next-generation soldier training, tend to fare well on the field. Their advanced weapons, like lasers and railcannon, mean that they typically have the advantage at range. Cyberdyne - Cyberdyne is the world's leading producer of powered armor. They've designed several models, including lightly powered armor to help construction workers and other people doing heaving lifting, though their most popular model is a military design almost as well-armored as an Abrams tank.

Military

The Military is the combination of the various United States armed forces. The Navy has almost no part in the conflict in the Zone, most of their forces tied up in a blockade of the US against aggression from the rest of the world. The Air Force provides close air support for some operations, though the forces trapped in the Zone by the blockade find it difficult to get that help. Most of the Military is now made of draftees, and has little real training. Morale can be a real problem. Military units are reliable and tested, and though they lack advanced and experimental equipment, they have the best and most plentiful armor.

Major subfactions of the Military include:

Remnants - Some national guard units were trapped in the Zone by the Event. Standing orders are not to let anyone in or out, and that includes the Remnants. They tend to have two big problems - first, the Muties see them as targets, and so they suffer a lot of attacks. Second, they have little way to resupply except to beg with the military on the outside. Most are no longer actually in the military, having been dismissed the service at the same time they were abandoned. Border Patrols - These portions of the military are tasked with patrolling the edges of the zone. They're often forced into conflict with people that are trying to escape the Zone illegally. As such, they're extremely unpopular with the survivors, despite some units efforts to bring humanitarian aid into the Zone.

Muties

The Muties have two sides. The side that people see, and the real powers behind the scenes. See, Sandra's been busy. She's awoken many of the animals she's come across since the Event, and they form the psychic backbone of her army. Most people, when they think of the muties, see people with a few oddities and a profound fondness for their pets. In reality, the people are survivors who have, mostly though no fault of their own, fallen into the grip of the psychic metaminds that Sandra created. That rabbit isn't the pet, it's the master. Mutie units are low cost, but not very effective, either. Their thralls almost never pass morale checks, so commanding telempath units must travel with each group. However, as most of their forces can be put in place long before a battle, they can often turn every battle into an ambush.

Major subfactions of the Muties include:

Sandra's Chosen - These are Sandra's direct minions. They have the greatest access to psychic units, and so must rely the least on their human thralls. It's unknown what their ultimate goals are, though it's sure to be something unpleasant for the human race. Rogue Wolves - Rogues are mutants that refuse to follow Sandra. They're often the least organized and most brutal, and though they're forced to use human slaves more than Sandra's Chosen, they seem to have a grudge against humanity and treat them extremely poorly, their thralls sometimes lasting less than a week before they must be replaced. The Loyal - Mostly made up of awakened pets, the Loyal are the only faction of the Muties to want to work with humanity, and often comes to blows with other factions because of that. They sometimes work behind the scenes, but come to light when something threatens the survivors they've chosen to protect.

Militants

With the sheer number of bible-thumpers and megachurches in the area affected by the Event, it should come as no surprise that many of the survivors were deeply religious. Cut off from the rest of the nation, blaming technology (perhaps correctly) for the disaster that befell them, they try to turn back time to a simpler era. Specifically, the Crusades. As one can imagine, this doesn't make them very welcoming or friendly. They have almost no technology, but seem to have almost supernatural luck, as if they really were operating with divine guidance...

Major subfactions of the Militants include:

Purifiers - Formed from some of the worst of the ultra-conservative churches, the Purifiers seem to live only to find fault in others, and to extract it in the most painful way possible. They burn witches, heritics, and anyone they feel just doesn't believe enough. The winter is their busy season, as they consider the cold to be God's way of telling them to burn more unbelievers. God's Light - On the other hand, God's Light isn't nearly as bad. While they're still very conservative and anti-technology, it's more in the way of the Amish, and they don't press their beliefs on others. Instead, they work to unite the various survivors and to try and make the lives of others better while still spreading the Word.

Mercenaries

Your old bunch of fortune soldier. And also Nevada-Tan (seriously).