Editing Post-Cold War

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{{topquote|In an era of stress and anxiety, when the present seems unstable and the future unlikely, the natural response is to retreat and withdraw from reality, taking recourse either in fantasies of the future or in modified visions of a half-imagined past.|Alan Moore's Watchmen}}
After the end of the communist regimes and the implosion of the Soviet Union in 1991 ended almost half a century of [[The Cold War|Cold War]]. The ideological, political and economical clashes between different ideologies that had had its apex during World War II had finally ended.

Due to the entirety of this era being in the recent memory of our editors (as of July 2020) and the obvious fact that it hasn't ended yet (not to mention how discussion of what's gone on so far is all but certain to cause much shitflinging), we'll skip the overview of the events so far and jump straight into how you can use the Post-Cold War Era in your setting. What's the state of the world now? Well... that is something we will leave to future historians.

==Technology==
{{topquote|We're living in the age of cellphone cameras. Fuckups ain't tolerated!|Smiling Jack, ''[[Vampire:_The_Masquerade#VtM:_Bloodlines|Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines]]''}}
<!-- This is about tech that impacts storytelling or playing /tg/ stuff. We don't care about the latest gadget or discovery otherwise -->
The mass popularity of cellphones has made it increasingly difficult to write a plot that cuts characters off from the outside world. This has forced such plots to be moved further and further from civilization (which fights an uphill battle with ever increasing coverage), into massive disasters where cellphone coverage is disrupted and help won’t be coming anyways, or just straight up fiating in supernatural disruption of communications. 

The rise of mass CCTV and cellphone cameras of increasingly high quality and the ability to post the works taken with them on social media has made it increasingly implausible to keep a [[Masquerade]] going. The original [[World of Darkness]] just [[Gehenna|ends dramaticly in 2004]], the year before YouTube launched. The MCB of [[Monster Hunter International]] has all the resources of most of the worlds governments working together to censor the supernatural, but even then those in charge consider exposure an inevitability.

===Impact on /tg/===
/tg/ is, traditionally, a very low tech hobby. Despite this, it still has managed to incorporate some of the new technologies of the era.

One big thing is the rise of e-books. Rather than have a big stack of massive heavy books, you can keep all your book on a small, handy, e-reader. One particular advantage of an electronic book is that the contents can be searched through to quickly answers to rule questions. Electronics also, in theory, lower the need for wasted paper and dice. In practice however, many groups find including any electronics at the table a major distraction and disruptive of play. Also [[Wizards of the Coast|some companies]] are Luddites and refuse to release PDF versions of their books, but [[Pirate|we have a solution to that]].

Another nifty creation has been 3D printers that can create a variety of objects desired from scratch for cheap. Currently 3d printers are only able to print small, inanimate, plastic things (unless you have a very expensive and large one) and are a far cry from [[Star Trek|Replicator]] technology. Fortunately the hobby has substantial use for [[Miniature|small, inanimate, plastic things]].

<!--- Add something about play by post if you’re more familiar with the history of that than I am. --->


==The appeal of Post-Cold War world==
Do you like stories of special force operators going on incredibly risky missions to take down terrorists, insurgents, and radicals of any ideological or religious flavor? Then this setting might be right for you, due to the prevalence of the Global War on Terror and the almost-extensive use of special forces such as the Green Berets, Navy SEALs, Spetznaz, SAS, and so on.  Their chief foe is a new enemy that has largely replaced the Soviet Union in the minds of many in the West - the radical Islamic "jihadist" organizations such as Al-Qaeda, Al-Shabaab, the Taliban or ISIS and its branches (such as the West African branch, Boko Haram).  Their goals range from either kicking all foreign influence out of their country to establishing a global caliphate.  The current increasingly polarizing culture war can also be used as inspiration for stories regarding insurgents and radicals of any ideological flavor, albeit something where "handle with care" very much applies for risk of coming across as preachy or [[Skub|adding fuel to the fire]].  

Other potential foes can be found in the world of technology, serving as fertile ground for near future sci-fi stories.  This era is (currently) as close as we can get to cyberpunk, which lends itself well to the genre.  The concept of A.I. as threats or the fear of society undergoing a technological collapse can also find inspiration from here, given the Y2K problem at the turn of the millennium.  

Wargame wise, there is some appeal in recreating the various, drawn-out conflicts such as in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan (to date the longest war in American history at over 17 years if one doesn't count the Korean War, which the US never officially declared war during and has spent most of its existence cold.), pitting the well-equipped, organized, and disciplined forces of the Western powers against the zealotry, tenaciousness, and cunning of the various insurgent and terrorist groups that plague the region. Due to the rather asymmetric nature of these wars, as well as the murkiness that comes with it, it's not as popular as the more conventionally focused, more-or-less Black-And-White morality of World War 2 setting.  Similarly, the COVID-19 Pandemic can also be used as inspiration for various types of stories regarding pandemics, especially if one wants to up the stakes with things such as a zombie virus.   

[[Urban Fantasy]] and Superheroes are often set in the current Post-Cold War era. By making fictional, fantastical threats one avoids the question of what the hell is there left to fight. It also benefits from being a world that's largely prebuilt and known to players, allowing writers to focus exclusively on what's different.

{{Time Periods}}
[[Category: History]]