How about a plot to restore Otto von Habsburg as Emperor? Does it seem practicable? Perhaps with Kompromat against key figures….
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Or indeed anyone with a claim? Manufactured or otherwise.
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Otto is Vice-President of the International Pan-European Movement (i.e. single state), and he is particularly interested in the Eastern European countries in that context, so he could potentially be lured in that way. In 1988 he will join the select group of people who have punched Ian Paisley. Sadly, I don’t think you can use the latter. But while I don’t think he would go for Emperor any more by this point, you might get him on “President of United Europe, and it will be a very imperial presidency” and then gradually slide it more to the latter.
I think one of the things that might make people happy about kings is the problem-solving aspect: going out and being a visible face, solving problems the government won’t for whatever reason, quite possibly by simply applying money to them.
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Also I believe De Gaulle has just vetoed the EEC membership for the uk.So, there’s an angle about political unity I guess
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Until June 1961 “Dr. Otto Habsburg-Lothringen” was still making a fuss about Austria’s insistence that he renounce his claim to the monarchy before he could come home. And I suppose that the fact that the government still thought it necessary to insist upon his abdication could lend credence to the thought that they felt they had something to fear. As late as 2011 (his death) there were well-attended requiem masses for him in four countries, and a crowd of 100,000 people turned out for his funeral, forming a cortege over a kilometre long. A restoration doesn’t seem particularly implausible.
Should I be concerned about the fact that Otto von Habsburg was a pretty decent guy, so that making his restoration a villain’s plot calumniates him as at least the dupe of a Bond villain? His only major flaw seems to have been that he believed himself the rightful monarch of south-eastern Europe, with divine right. I’m sorry to mention politics, but from my position, and I think that of my likely players (both are Americans), that is a doozy of a flaw.
So what if Karl von H had been at a secret meeting with Austrian, Hungarian, Czech, and Croatian Royalist dissidents, in the Burgkapelle of the Hofburg, and if Vera Stamp (daughter of Julian Stamp, chief of Station V) had recognised him?
Alrighty then. Let’s start with the Major Villain. And for that part let’s take Adolph Augustus von Saxe-Erfurt, member of a very obscure line of the House of Wettin, enthusiast of monarchism, and Metternich-wannabe. Saxe-Erfurt’s long-term goal is to restore the monarchial governments of Europe to the extent possible, and he has the peculiar idea that the remaining monarchies of Europe will tacitly approve, perhaps even covertly assist him if he can establish a creditable success. In this endeavour he reckons that his best chance is to restore Karl von Habsburg as Emperor of Austria (with Hungary, Bohemia, and Croatia to follow).
But he’s not going to do this in one fell swoop, His immediate operation is to obtain a large stock of arms and to deliver those to Royalist cadres across Austria. The obvious source of such arms is hidden stockpiles in Bavaria and Austria, established by the Nazis for their planned Alpenfestung.
Am I doing okay so far? Is Saxe-Erfurt basically villain enough? Will had be up to the task once I slather on the psychopathy, lack of impulse control, and odious personal habits. Is his plan nefarious enough?
With that established I think that Vienna or perhaps Salzburg has to be the second thrilling city, with the Lair being tunnels under the Berchtesgarten Alps. That means that I want the first thrilling city to be somewhere with a distinctly different glamour to it. If I want to stick with the “key SIS station chief goes squirrelly” I guess that that means the Middle East Controllerate in Cyprus, but I’m not feeling Cypriotic. I think I’ll start in Italy, perhaps making Naples the first thrilling city. And use a more conventional Apparent Mission.
That decided, I think I’ll bring the adventure forward to December '61 to Jjanuary '62 — before Otto von Habsburg renounced his claim to the throne, but after the Untersbergbahn cable car to the top of the Untersberg opened in April 1961.
An obvious S-tier victory condition for the PCs would be to recover a list of A.A.v.S-E’s monarchist revolutionary cells in Austria. And Saxony. And Bavaria…
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I think I may have been writing in excessively compressed Roger form. This process is basically the same thing I did when I was running the occult WWII game: read about a specific person, look at the things they did, and try to work out a personality model that’s broadly consistent with that. I make no claim that this is accurate, but it will match what the person did.
The impression I get for Otto is that he has been forced to give up on the idea of ruling a substantial chunk of Europe, and he has come to terms with that, but it’s still what he was brought up to do. He assumes that he is the Right Sort of Person and so should not be subject to enquiry. (The political fund-raising thing; he probably neither knew nor cared where the money was coming from.) He has a duty to his people, and “his people” might be quite broadly defined. This would certainly make him vulnerable to a bad actor who’d studied him a bit and had set up his pitch correctly.
As I see him, he is definitely the patsy rather than the motivator.
They were all at the secret meeting, and (being for the most part novices in the matter of skulduggery) they went out to a high-end party together afterwards. So Vera has seen all these men together, they don’t look like the usual party-going crowd, but they were buying the champagne and perhaps they were a bit loose about the lips..
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So here’s what I’m working with now.
A.A.v.S-E is a minor member of the House of Wettin, the head of a branch that hasn’t been actual graf of anything real since the Congress of Vienna, but have served as courtiers in the kingdom of Saxony. He was not old enough to be a significant opponent of the Nazis in the 1930s, but like some other German aristocratic opponents of the Nazis he fled to Romania, where he was captured by the SS in 1943 and sent to Dachau. In the course of his capture he was shot in the head with a pistol, which he survived, but his pituitary gland was injured. In the concentration camp he developed acromegalic gigantism, which was treated in America after the liberation of Dachau. Saxe-Erfurt is dependent on human pituitary extract to control his disease. He is 34 years old, 219 cm tall, and 120 kg in weight, but despite his formidable appearance is not well at all.
Returning to Germany in 1947 A.A.v.S-E found all his family’s lands confiscated by the DDR; nevertheless he produced significant funds from an unknown source and invested fruitfully in the re-industrialisation of West Germany from 1950. A.A.v.S-E is a political proponent of monarchism, and less fervently of distributism, but he has not publicly advocated for the restoration of the monarchies of Europe since 1956.
Privately A.A.v.S-E has inspired and subsidised royalist leagues in several countries, and has personal contact with many royalist politicians, leading figures of monarchist movements, and minor royalty. In secret, he is planning a coup in neutral Austria that will overthrow the Republik Österreich and restore Otto von Habsburg as Emperor of Austria. The coup is planned, the forces trained and briefed. All that is needful now is to recover a cache of arms and supplies from bunkers under the Berchtesgarden Alps (that were placed as preparations for the Nazi Alpenfestung national redoubt.
A.A.v.S-E is often accompanied by a privileged henchman, a German bloke with a Heidelburg scar who gives strong household-knight vibes, also by a right-hand-woman.
Sir Henry Methuen, Bt., M.C. is an English ultra-conservative Royalist, ex-officer (Hampshire Regt.), and failed candidate for Parliament, associated with the Monarchist League. He is a fervent admirer and self-appointed disciple of Adolphe-Augustus von Saxe-Erfurt. His family has long-established business interests in the wine trade, particularly between Southampton and Portugal. Inspired by A.A.v.S-E, Sir Henry has acquired a large quantity of British WWII-surplus small arms (No. 4 rifles and Bren guns in .303, mostly) and is shipping them to Porto to equip ar Royalist uprising against the dictatorship of António Salazar, aimed at installing the Duke of Braganza as king of Portugal. This coup is not sufficiently well-planned or supported.
(1) The British Secret Service becomes aware that Sir Henry is shipping identifiably British arms to Portugal, a country that for all it is a dictatorship is an ally and important partner in international organisations. They send the PCs to Porto to prevent HM government from being embarrassed by an unsuccessful (or worse, successful) coup.
(2) A.A.v.S-E. learns of Sir Henry’s plan, and assesses that it has no chance of succeeding. A failed coup is no good to him, and he does not want Monarchism to be associated with failure and with creating and promoting discord, violence, and civil war. At this stage. So he goes to Porto with his entourage to spike Sir Henry’s guns.
(3) The PCs encounter A.A.v.S-E., his Privileged henchman, his Beautiful foil, and his assorted agents busily scotching Sir Henry’s snake, and wonder who the hell is pre-empting their mission. They follow A.A.v.S-E. or other leads to Salzburg, where they discover the main plot.
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I like this a great deal.
In terms of loose lips, it seems very possible some of the entourage are keen to impress the charming young ladies they’ve met by hinting at how important and mysterious they are. One of these might end up as a corpse somewhere for the PCs to discover, and witness evidence mentions him flirting with a girl who looks a lot like their missing daughter.
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This sounds pretty good, certainly as plausible as any real Bond plot. I think I’d make your guy a bit older (maybe 16 in '39?), and have him have been in some anti-Nazi activity. That could have led to the head injury, explain why it didn’t kill him, and why the Americans treated him. It would also give him just enough experience to think he could do a scheme like this, and provided some plausible contacts with allied military or intelligence. Some of those men could be active in whatever government the narrative requires…
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“When I was young, and all the world was in brighter colours…”
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Hmm. I need his head injury to be before he stopped growing or he’ll get acromegaly without gigantism, but if I put it at the time of the /Anschluss/ in '38 I can wind his birth back to 1921-ish, making him 39 or so. The American’s aren’t going to be interested in treating him until 1945 in any case.
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