Hershey World
City: Hershey, PA
Population: 5,000
Controls: Hershey Industrial School, Hershey Park, Hershey Plant
Government: Strongman
Problem: Food Shortages
Heroic Opportunity: Legendary Treasure
City Aspect: Wary
Hershey almost did not survive the destruction of Harrisburg during the Great Collapse. The town survived, ironically, because of the plagues that ripped through Pennsylvania; while most of the town died, including Milton Hershey himself, they did considerably better than their neighbors. Hershey and Derry Township reorganized itself under Hershey President William Murray’s rule, and strove to hang on.
Hershey has been on the edge of collapse ever since. They have cows, they have farms, they have a lot of chocolate in storage; what they don’t quite have are the people to work or protect it all. The town has converted the Industrial School into the nucleus of a self-defense force, and the stocks at the plant have helped things, but the labor shortage is nigh-crippling. It’s also not getting any better.
‘President’ Murray maintains power in the middle of this, but is visibly aging under the strain. His son Robert is quietly and frantically looking for any way to save the people of Hershey. He’s currently in the process of trying to refurbish the theme park as a trading center and bizarre post-apocalyptic tourist attraction. This would be better news, except that Robert is not nearly as good at judging people as he thinks he is.
You see, the ‘security staff’ he’s currently negotiating with has every intention of just taking it over. Then they’ll seize Hershey itself, including its remaining and very valuable chocolate stores. And then they’ll use the Hershey Park to entice unwary travelers to come, get enslaved, and solve the labor shortage problem that way. The, ah, fallout from that could reverberate across the former Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for years to come.