Are you an Uber Twilight Geek?
 

Ok I hate to admit it but back in the 80’s when I started playing the game I couldn’t help but think “wow in 2000 I will be 28…that could be me”. Lo and behold now I am a 30’ something who can’t believe 2000 was 9 years ago.

Anyway, in my tween years I created a character of myself and what I would be in 2000 as part of the Red Diamond. My T2K Avatar (so to speak) was a Captain from the Sustainment Bde of the 5th Division, somehow nominally in charge of a bunch of combat hardened bad-asses.

Any of you play the same mind game? If so I would be interested to know how you pictured yourself in Poland during the Twilight War.

Whoa. It's like you travelled back in time to the mid-late '80s and ripped the thoughts right out of my teenage brain.:eek:

I was worried about what my "cool" friends would think if I told them about T2K so I kept it to myself, working up "avatars" and daydreaming adventure scenarios. I must have read the narrative character bits and Escape from Kalisz material a hundred times.

Now, my 35th birthday is creeping up on me. Like many on this board, I just couldn't get T2K all the way out of my head and, a couple of years ago, curiosity led me to this place (or its direct predecessor). Now, I GM a T2K PbP and play in a couple of others.

When I bought my first boxed set of T2K v1, I was a sophomore ROTC cadet in college, and we really thought that World War 3 was something that we stood a good chance of being in in the near future. It was sort of weird playing T2K in that environment.

I have probably thought about the T2k world 95% of days since I bought the game. I rarely focused on myself as a character in the game though. I focused on the world. For example while out walking or driving I will look at all kinds of items and imagine what would have happened to them in T2k.

As I travel down the street. I see cars with their windows shattered and trunks and fueling caps pried open. Most trees have been chopped down for fuel. Fences have been torn down to be used for someone's improvised defenses. Occasionally I see a building I expect would be fortified and try to imagine who would be controlling it. For me it is actually, as a creative exercise, a very good stress reliever.

Also when I travel I use the game as an excuse to research the areas I will be traveling though. I try to figure what forces would have passed through and area and how they would have traveled.

For the most part the game is completely an intellectual pursuit now as my gaming group continues to drift apart. We have not even discussed playing in well over a year. It still is a good way to direct my creative energy though. That is why I keep this forum going.

Part of what this group is for me and coming up with all the T2K stuff is is therapy. For those who are new around here and don't know, I have a pretty severe mental illness only partially controlled by medication (enough to make me more or less functional, though), but I'm also largely a shut-in as I'm also a caregiver to my elderly mother and a slave to five dogs. So it helps to have an outlet. If I've never said it, thanks for being here, guys.

Paul the thanks goes right back at you. Your site was the first T2k site I found on the internet and it knocked my socks off. It led me to look online for even more inspiration to keep the T2k fire alive in me. Your dedication to the game is appreciated.

I couldn't put it better myself.

Same here...I remember the first time I found Paul's website I was blown away...

So cheers Paul...I think we all owe you...

Before finding the message board that existed before this one, i was amazed ... amazed to find the guy behind Paul Mulcahy's site actually posted on it.

Paul posts here?

And sometimes he comments on my posts!!!

I was too scared to say anything for a long time. And in the years since i have found there are allot of people out there well worth listening too. Either for equipment knowledge, ideas, inspiration, humour and even when they've had a different POV its good to hear peoples reasoning.

Would i have stuck with T2K without finding boards like this? Yeah, i reckon. But my minds been opended up too so much more by being here. And in many cases even having things confimred has been as helpful as anything.

I dont know about twilight geek. But twilight nutter might fit.

Paul, I think you've been something like a T2K God to us all over the years. The amount of work you've put in, the amount of common sense and expansion has blown just about all of us away.
If GDW still existed, I for one would think you'd be an integral part of their design team.


While T2K wasn't the first RPG I played, it is the one that's had the most impact on my life. It was due to this game that I enlisted in the army (after STUPIDLY turning down a commission). The timeline might be obsolete and many of the concepts it was based on since proven to be incorrect, but the world it's set in will never die.

As the original post said, yeah. I was 17 in 1985, and strongly considering a military career. In 2000, I would have been 32, and I calculated, a Captain-- Major, if I did things right or this kind of war had happened.

I messed around with a few different character options for the future-me, including Intel, infantry and armor, as well as a fighter pilot. I played the last year of high school (that final summer I ran the Poland series), and into college, when I started ROTC. Oddly, I could only convince one other cadet in our very small det to play along.

Once the Army realized I had had asthma, it was over with that career, so it all turned into fantasy.

Although, I've been almost exclusively a lurker here for the last few years (having a young son is a tad bit of a distraction), I too must give Paul my sincerest thanks. This is the guy who runs the site with stats for the Grizzly Combat Mobility Vehicle. Very, very nice!

As for the original poster. Yes, I too pictured myself as an adult living within the world of Twilight: 2000. But, having been born with a congenital heart defect I pretty much knew I could never serve in the military so I "modified my stats" so to speak and served with the 28th Infantry Division PANG.

Benjamin

Paul, you are a legend in the T2K community and most of us- myself included- owe you a debt of gratitude.

It's a shame that the orignal T2K no longer exists. If it did, a lot of you board members should be getting a paycheck from GDW for your excellent work.

It's great that this place exists, though. We gotta keep the geek dreams alive!;)

just turned 34 - still play .
 

To answer Turboswede- yes -sjalvklart !

The game is a major part of my R&R from the everyday .

I have envisioned myself as a PC from time to time .We go in another direction in our gaming though .I still do mental exercises like construe scenarios when I see something the triggers the T2K itch - a dilapidated building, a cool googled pic ,a news broadcast..

Paul has been an inspiration as many of you have also said ,and his website has influenced our group .It think its cool that so many different people out there in the world still share the interest and let the young guys we once were out from time to time .

I enjoy very much all of our collective discussions -and say proudly to any RPGer that I post on the worlds premier T2K forum.

Our next FtF is in a 11 days time ,and I just finished a stack of maps with all sorts of grit&grief for the PCs......aaahh the joys of playing out the scenarios in your head and trying to stack the odds for the imminent rumble..GMing bliss and mental shi-atsu .( I GM a T2K campaign and run a PC in another Merc campaign .)So needless to say -I am pretty stoked about the upcoming sessions .

boat drinks all round guys .

I often thought of myself as a character too, trying to survive in Twilight: 2000 Pittsburgh Area and the surrounding area. I'm 2000, I was 34 and I first got into the game in 1984, I was 17/18 then and tried to imagine what the "future" was like. When I see a lot of abandoned buildings and factories here in the area, it looks like a Twilight or Morrow Project setting to me and it gets me wheels turning.

Thanks for the kind words, guys.

Anyway, you can actually learn elementary tactics from T2K, particularly if you're using miniatures. I had more than one time when I tried something with the characters or the enemy forces as a GM, then later said, "I'll never try that in real life!"

To echo others, Paul--thanks for all you have done. You've been a tremendous contributor to the ongoing Twilight: 2000 effort for years.

Webstral

:)
 

My answer to Turbosuedes question : Yes - and damned proud of it to:)

Regarding Paul's site:
It was his site , chicko's site and Antenna's site that inspired me and HQ to make the big book of war. Those 3 have been a huge inspiration to us - thanx for all the hard work...

If I left anyone out, I'm sorry...I just came home from 4 days of Shopping and Champagne in Berlin.....ahhh KaDeWe......

http://www.kadewe.de/en/home/

the shopping part is ok but the cheese-ham-restaurant-champagne groove on the top floor it to die for....Long live Decadence hehe

So the upcomming 3-day T2K/MERC session will include....

14 types of European Cheese
10+ types of ham and sausages (including antilope and Bizon)
7 new types of whiskey (my collection is growing so I'm closing in on 30 types)
a lot of cigars from cuba,sumatra,brazil

and offcourse hours and hours of role,roll,and rule playing....yes in a group of 6-8 players over 30 years old we will have atleast one of each category.......

......10 more days.......

Sounds like you live a good life GP. You must have a well paying job.

argrgrgrglglrglrgl ( Homer slobbering sound)
 

I am going to eat you out of your house !

Dibs on the best spare bed -buddy!
You know how the strenous tasking work of a GM requires a lot of sound ,blissful sleep.Leave the mattresses and sagging -too short coaches and sofas to the others !

I cant wait to get in to the imported decadence.Does a single malt top 14 cheeses?

I got a Scotch with a Galic name that is so Gaelic that it sounds like German .(I see why it hasnt reached the big markets - trying to pronounce it when you order -even after only 2-3 drinks its impossible for non -gaelic speakers.)

10 days..yeah!

I remember playing T2k back when i was in the Navy (1989-1993), and we normally played versons of ourselves trapped in the middle of Poland trying to stay alive...

T2k has become something of a... lifesaver for me at the moment.

My wife has left me, and taken my two wonderful boys to the UK. I hadn't got to see them in over a year... and that year has been hell. on 23 July 2008 i was going to see the counselors the VA had provided to help me get through all this, and it was pouring down the rain so bad that i was in a wreck that killed me, and they put me on lifesupport during a week and half coma. i had begged God that if my marrage wasn't going to work out, please dont let me wake up. and i keep thinking that he was going to let me go in my sleep because it hurts so damn much to be without emma and my boys. but i was too stupid to just laydown and die. they told me i died on the operating table, then twice more during the coma when i kept stop breathing. now i keep thinking that God was going to be merciful and let me go in my sleep, but my 'family' said no. and now i am alone in this damn apartment, surrounded by reminders of everything i have lost. i can't even go into the boys room without breaking down into tears, clutching the stuffed animals they hadnt been able to take with them.

I keep working on T2k timelines based around the 1st Edition timeline, just extending it out to the now... so T2k has been the only thing that has been taking my mind off of how much i hurt (physically and emotionally), how my legs dont work since they put them back on, amd just how much i wish they would have let me die.

Paul's site... i've always been so impressed with what he's done there. And what he's endured. I discovered it when i was taking care of my grandparents before they passed away (2001-2005), and used it alot for references for some of the things i had been working on (both T2k and other modern miltiary RPGs). I really wishi had paul's ability to endure without hurting so damn bad. he's been an inspiration of sorts.. he helped me get past my grandparents deaths, helped me find focus and be able to try and be the best husband and father I could be... but i failed, and lost the only things i had ever begged God for... my wife and kids. i realy wish that i could have been alot stronger, and alot more like Paul. but, there is only one Paul. that's the only saving grace I guess... he wouldn't be quite so amazing if we could all be like him.

Wow Nate, I'm speechless. I feel for you, I really do. Its great that you're posting here, I hope you keep doing so. Its stories like yours that remind me not to complain about my life so much. You've found a great community here. It has helped me too.

Nate my heart goes out to you. I'm glad that we can be here for you. I think the mind sometimes needs an escape valve and T2k has worked nicely for me in that respect. I hope that the work everyone has done here can help you through these times.

We all look forward to seeing anything you may wish to share with us.

I actually live as a computer/cellphone seller/repair-man with the occational DJ job...I used to arange underground tekkno/house parties in the middle of the 90s...those were the days.

Been doing the same job for 10 years and it's not a good paying job but I actually like it - I'm kind of my own boss (allmost). - On the other hand it's lot's of money in Norway ;) And after my divorce I suddenly had a lot more money hehe.

thank you Targan. if you have little ones... please hug them for me. because, when they arent there anymore... you keep looking back at all the times you could have, and should have hugged them. i miss the so damn much. i miss everything about them. i miss sleeping on the couch with zachary on my chest and the tv on, just so emma could get a full nights sleep. i miss everything about them.

I couldn't have said it Better T.

I was actually kind of speechless........

On a brighter note:

This was on of the pix I found after a google search of speechless

http://z.about.com/d/horror/1/0/5/F/-/-/speechless.jpg

Looks like a guy who had to much Jägermeister.....

@ Nate. We're all here sir. Stay safe and life will improve. You've come down, you will get back up again.

I second that
 

Hang in there .Your day will come .

I hope so. I really really do.

Hang in there mate....

one of my favourite quotes...

Everything is good in the end....if it is not good it's not the end.