Quote:
Originally Posted by committed hero
I have a setting question - the review suggests that Stalin is a force for antagonism in the game. If so, how does that square with the possibility of having Communist PCs?
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It's not that clear-cut - exactly like it was in the 40s and 50s before Stalin's death. Being a Communist, and even a Communist, Soviet Russian Patriot does not mean you are Stalin's friend or protégé. In fact, remember that this man probably killed more "Communists" than anybody else - especially former allies, friends and loyal members of the Party. Also remember that Stalin's own direct entourage was a nest of heavy intrigue and paranoid power games, with people like the terrifying Beria acting as Stalin's right-hand man as well as one of his main competitors in terms of raw political power (or even "terror power" as we might put it). So, to get back to our topic, it makes Stalin and his lackeys extremely interesting antagonists in Cold City - precisely because the whole RPA idea makes collaboration a necessity - so here again we enter on the territory of uncertainty, paranoia and blurred boundaries between allies and enemies, something that a lot of games claim to offer in their setting but that very few of them actually manage to deliver.