So like I said in my introduction, I have a veritable plotbunny horde rampaging about in my head.

Time to toss a few of them out.

Heres one:
Its 1999, and somehow (in other words you come up with the politics behind it) World War 3 has started up between the muggle nations. The various Magical communities are trying their best to keep out of the conflict, but another Dark Wizard has sprung up in the Americas, and has revealed magic to the muggles. Already scared and confused from the war, the muggle governments quickly align themselves with their own respective magical communities and use their newfound allies (although most commanding officers consider them weapons) against their foes. Harry, being 19 and already a star on the British International Dueling team, is immediately drafted and trained as a kind of magic/muggle commando hybrid, along with roughly 150 other prodigies of around his age. Take it where you want from here, although I have a few ideas to go along with it.

Possible Sides:
"good"(aka, the side Harry is on) "bad"(no Harry)
United States China
Britain N.Korea
France a majority of the Middle East
Germany Voldemort & unnamed Dark Lords forces
Canada/Mexico anyone else you want
anyone else you want to throw in


Any takers?

 

"kind of magic/muggle commando hybrid"

One is left to wonder why a wizard would require anything muggle to be of use in a war. Magic outclasses any personal weapon available. Magic outclasses any body armour available. Magic removes the need for the majority of the stealth training, interrogation training, hell general fitness training that muggles require. You can turn invisible, read minds and apparate.

Stupid challenge, trollish even, almost inevitable restart of the wizard vs muggles debate.

 

Also, mostly obsolete...

World War Three will end on the day it starts. Let's all remember the famous Einstein quote..."I know not with what weapons World War 3 will be fought, but World War 4 will be fought with sticks and stones."

 

Meh, I just thought it would be cool to see if someone could pull it off.

 

WW3 was, arguably, the Cold War. That's the only style of World War that the human race will emerge recognisable from.

I enjoyed how your "Possible Sides" show little to no grasp of geopolitics. Here's my suggestion to add to the list: Venezuela vs Madagascar. Just throwing it out there.

 

QFT. World War 3 wouldn't even start in the first place, the wizards would make sure of that.

 

Wtf is it with Voldemort Germany? You got more stereotypes like that? And 150 other prodigies his age? Considering that there are only about 35 students per year in Hogwarts how do you get 150 people of the same age, all of whom are some kind of elite fighter?

 

That was the challenge of an idiot... Don't bother with it and move on

 

Well, it wasn't bad per se, it just isn't something that I'd be interested in reading.... Or most of DLP for that matter.

Try to think of something that doesn't involve muggles that much. As Mord said, it just seems to start up the "Tech vs. Magic" debate...

 

Before this gets thrown into the Hall of Shame, here's an idea.

WW3 doesn't have to be an all-out nuclear exchange. Let's assume, for a moment, that Wizards have developed a method of shooting down missiles, or making them disappear entirely. Not to mention the SDI in the 80s.

Anyway, this is how I'd go about it: I'm descending into alternate history.

Basically, Operation Market Garden goes off without a hitch. The Americans reach Berlin first, and VE-Day occurs on March 9, 1945. As a result, the Soviet sphere of influence in Europe is significantly lessened.

Pissed, Stalin decides to hold to his promise and declares war on Japan on June 9, 1945. Two million Soviet troops enter Manchuria, and the combined Anglo-American forces prepare for the invasion of Japan. With Germany defeated, the plans are pushed ahead. X-Day, the invasion of Kyushu, is set for August 1, 1945.

By August the Soviets have reached the Korean Strait. In coordination with the Americans, they prepare for a landing in Hokkaido to throw the Japanese off. Said landing occurs on July 31, and on the following day 500,000 men land on the beaches of Kyushu in the largest amphibious assault in human history.

All of it is rather mute, however, when less than a week later Hiroshima goes up in nuclear fire. Hirohito decides that Japan cannot go on any further, and they formally surrender on August 9, 1945. It's over.

History takes a right turn at this point. The Soviets take Hokkaido for themselves, as well as Korea and swathes of northern China. By 1950 the Chinese SSR is fully established, and puppet regimes in the Democratic Republics of Hokkaido and Korea have been set up.

America responds by propping up Chiang Kai-Shek's failing Nationalist China, and they will continue to do so for decades. In Europe, NATO faces off the Warsaw Pact; this time, the Danube is roughly the border between the two ideologies.

For forty years the Cold War simmers, until it finally goes hot on March 22, 1999. In the first hour dozens of cities go up in nuclear fire, but the efforts of the world's Ministries of Magic succeed in halting other strikes. Nonetheless, NATO forces roll into East Germany, Soviet and American ships battle around Japan, and the largest land battle in history begins on the the twin Chinese borders.

This is where Harry comes in, and his little team of Magic-Muggle users. Their role is quite simple; stop the use of WMDs and end the war, by any means necessary. However, there are other magical special forces, intent on the war continuing; both Soviet and American.

Eh. Take from it what you will, other than I have an overactive imagination.

 

Errr... Nukes are not the most powerful weapons that exist nowadays. Bio and chemical weapons are way more lethal for humans.
A deadly virus that can slowly kill an entire nation is far more severe then a nuke.

And the problem with this summary is that you will have to basically write a whole new book just to explain to the reader WTF is going on. Why there is a war going on and what were the consequences of it.

 

Unless that entire nation decides to nuke you, leaving your country completely destroyed while the virus works its course.

You could take the short summary approach, something similar to DisobedienceWriter's The Birth of Evil, and condense many years into less than a 100k words. It'll probably be very brief, but its the only way to explain WTF is going on.

 

So... dumb challenge yes or no?

 

You want the real answer or the nice one?

The nice one is: About as great an idea as the Deathly Hallows canon-compliant action/spy-thriller piece I'm writing with Hedwig as the central character.

Epic.

(I am actually working on one, just to see if it can be done. It just may come to redefine "fail").

 

lol, I can't wait.

 

I see what you did there.

 

It can be worked around this. Something like, wizards stop the first wave of missile attacks, thus revealing themselves to the world, as well as exposing their use as allies. Two flies killed with one strike.

But I agree, other than some potential in the general premise (WWIII that involves wizards in some capacity), the rest of the challenge seems pretty stupid.

 

For what it's worth, I just posted the piece. It ended up being more a military/action piece than a spy thriller, though. As far as I can tell, it's DH canon-compliant.

Check out: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4176058/1/India .

Regards!

 

I c wut u did thar.

It's definitely unique. For what that is worth.

I think there's something terribly wrong with that I read just now. Or maybe all I need is sleep.

... Sleep sounds nice.

 

You could do that, or you could just replace all that with Command and Conquer: Red Alert. Then do the crossover with Harry Potter.