[DRAFT] Something Amiss In The Mountains

[Kaschovia]

Inspired by the Dyatlov Pass incident, if it wasn't obvious.

Something Amiss In The Mountains

Validity: None yet that I can think of

The Issue: A week after an expedition of researchers and hikers mysteriously disappeared in the isolated @@ANIMAL@@ Mountains, devastated friends and family are enraged at the failure of the mountain rescue teams in the area after a lone survivor was found wandering the streets of a rural town, mumbling incoherently.

Option 1: "I can't explain it," mumbles the lone survivor of the expedition, still in visible shock. "One minute we were traversing a heavily forested area near base camp, and the next thing I remember was waking up two miles to the west with no memory of getting there…” An eerie silence befalls the room as your advisors look uncomfortably between themselves. “Call off the damn search. Nobody should ever go back to those mountains. Just close them off to everyone and forget about it all. What use is a 'rescue' service anyway? They left me to die out there, with whatever it is that caused all of this.”

Effect: the nation's adventurers are presumed dead almost immediately after they go missing

Option 2: "This type of reaction is expected from events like this, @@LEADER@@," asserts @@RANDOMNAME@@, the Director of Mountain Rescue for @@NAME@@, looking over imagery taken of the area on @@HIS@@ laptop, "look, we can therapize the survivor all we want, but this is ultimately the result of our underfunded and unrecognized mountain rescue teams," @@HE@@ shows the rest of the room pictures of the missing researchers, "it's quite simple, we need more funding for better, military-grade rescue apparatus if we’re ever going to find these poor souls, and the right to refuse access to expeditions through dangerous areas without explicit approval from the government."

Effect: the nation's mountains are folklore

Option 3: "Where’s your empathy for Maxtopia’s sake?" Wails @@RANDOMFEMALENAME@@, mother of a missing researcher. “Finding my boy won’t come through blank checks and empty promises! We need to mobilize a national search force capable of covering every last bit of those mountains in the next two days,” she clutches a torn up piece of clothing as the lone survivor rocks back and forth under your desk, “it’s no use closing off areas like this to the public, we need them opened for everyone and mapped thoroughly through geographical surveys so things like this never happen again.”

Effect: the nation pays for its extensive geographical surveys in piles of dead hikers

Something Amiss In The Mountains

Validity: None yet that I can think of

The Issue: A week after an expedition of researchers and hikers mysteriously disappeared in the isolated @@ANIMAL@@ Mountains, devastated friends and family have come to you for an emergency response, enraged at the failure of the mountain rescue teams in the area.

Option 1: "I can't explain it," mumbles the lone survivor of the expedition, still in visible shock. "One minute we were traversing a heavily forested area near base camp, and the next thing I remember was waking up two miles to the west with no memory of getting there…” An eerie silence befalls the room as your advisors look uncomfortably between themselves. “Call off the damn search. Nobody should ever go back to those mountains. Just close them off to everyone and forget about it all. What use is a 'rescue' service anyway? They left me to die out there, with whatever it is that caused all of this.”

Effect: the nation's adventurers are presumed dead almost immediately after they go missing.

Option 2: "This type of reaction is expected from events like this, @@LEADER@@," asserts @@RANDOMNAME@@, the Director of Mountain Rescue for @@NAME@@, looking over imagery taken of the area on @@HIS@@ laptop, "look, we can therapize the survivor all we want, but this is ultimately the result of our underfunded and unrecognized mountain rescue teams," @@HE@@ shows the rest of the room pictures of the missing researchers, "it's quite simple, we need more funding for better, military-grade rescue apparatus if we’re ever going to find these poor souls, and the right to refuse access to expeditions through dangerous areas without explicit approval from the government."

Effect: the nation's mountains are folklore.

Option 3: "Where’s your empathy for Maxtopia’s sake?" Wails @@RANDOMFEMALENAME@@, mother of a missing researcher. “Finding my boy won’t come through blank checks and empty promises! We need to mobilize a national search force capable of covering every last bit of those mountains in the next two days,” she clutches a torn up piece of clothing as the lone survivor rocks back and forth under your desk, “it’s no use closing off areas like this to the public, we need them opened for everyone and mapped thoroughly through geographical surveys so things like this never happen again.”

Effect: the nation pays for its extensive geographical surveys in piles of dead hikers.

[Verdant Haven]

At the moment this feels like it hasn't decided yet what the dilemma is – there are three issues being argued at once, based on three different premises:

1) A conspiracy theory incident – tinfoil hat stuff claiming that everybody died to mysterious powers or a government cover-up from which no rescue is possible
2) A predictable incident - people went into a dangerous area and and were already beyond help, due to natural causes, prior to rescue attempts being initiated
3) A tragic incident - rescue teams were underfunded and were unable to rescue potentially-saveable people before they perished from natural causes

All of that is occurring despite the fact that we've actually got a survivor here. Obviously they *were* rescued. They *weren't* left to die out there. Is the problem that rescue teams couldn't find people? That they gave up too quickly? That there weren't enough of them? What sort of "failure" are families upset about? Again, given the fact that there is a survivor standing here talking to you, it appears that the rescuers did as good a job as could be hoped under the circumstance. There is also a heavy subplot being brought up about the area being known to be dangerous in advance, but with little discussion or agreement about why.

Focus on identifying the logical kernel of what actually happened in the dilemma being presented, and focus the writing and the options on presenting and responding to that premise.

[Kaschovia]

At the moment this feels like it hasn't decided yet what the dilemma is – there are three issues being argued at once, based on three different premises:

1) A conspiracy theory incident – tinfoil hat stuff claiming that everybody died to mysterious powers or a government cover-up from which no rescue is possible
2) A predictable incident - people went into a dangerous area and and were already beyond help, due to natural causes, prior to rescue attempts being initiated
3) A tragic incident - rescue teams were underfunded and were unable to rescue potentially-saveable people before they perished from natural causes

All of that is occurring despite the fact that we've actually got a survivor here. Obviously they *were* rescued. They *weren't* left to die out there. Is the problem that rescue teams couldn't find people? That they gave up too quickly? That there weren't enough of them? What sort of "failure" are families upset about? Again, given the fact that there is a survivor standing here talking to you, it appears that the rescuers did as good a job as could be hoped under the circumstance. There is also a heavy subplot being brought up about the area being known to be dangerous in advance, but with little discussion or agreement about why.

Focus on identifying the logical kernel of what actually happened in the dilemma being presented, and focus the writing and the options on presenting and responding to that premise.

I've edited the description of the issue such that the lone survivor turns up in a nearby town. The issue is that rescue services didn't know anyone needed rescuing until the lone survivor showed up, highlighting their failure to monitor the area.