hawke 07-24-2005, 07:52 AM Greetings all
Its been a while since I last played Twilight 2000 but I loved the story and background behind it and was wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of a game. (Probably an online one considering im in Australia)
Cheers
Scott
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ReHerakhte 07-24-2005, 11:18 PM G'Day Scott.
Where abouts in Australia are you? I'm in Perth.
Cheers,
Kevin
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hawke 07-25-2005, 04:41 AM Hi Kevin
Always good to see another Aussie. Perth here for me too.
Cheers
Scott
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Targan 10-14-2005, 02:22 AM I know the initial post was some months ago, but I have just joined these forums. I am considering starting a fresh T:2000 game, and I have already spoken briefly on-line to ReHerakhte about this. I am in Perth, too.
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ChalkLine 10-27-2005, 07:33 PM Are you guys thinking of running the game set here in Oz?
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Targan 10-28-2005, 12:04 AM Now there is a thought. Hmm. I shall ponder this idea awhile. I don't recall having run or played in any games set in Australia before, and I've been RPGing since about 1982!
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kcdusk 10-28-2005, 12:28 AM I have thought about doing this a number of times.
But ...
It always seems easier to be in Poland shooting Russions.
Call me racist, but i find it harder to "see" anarchy breaking out in australia to the point of shootings, little own full-blown fire fights. Who would we be shooting, but other Aussies?
Unless you have the Russians or some other coming in un-invited, I cant envision an australian based game. Thats why i play an australian, fighting in Poland!
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Targan 10-28-2005, 12:38 AM Yup, I hear you. I have run T:2000 games set in Poland/Ukraine/Germany/UK, the Middle East, Norway/Finland/Russia, California, the US East Coast, the Carribean, and Texas/Mexico. But never here. Jeez, some big fun could be had playing Sabre Teams from the Regiment conducting operations in the Kimberley/NT/PNG/Indonesia. And there were ANZAC troops operating in the Twilight War in Vietnam and Korea as well. Think East Timor, but with the AO expanded a hundred fold and the rules of engagement somewhat less stringent!
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ReHerakhte 10-28-2005, 05:20 AM Well you Sons Of ANZAC, Twilight did imply that Aussie and the Indos would be having a bit of a stoush so... :blueflag:
Cheers,
Kevin
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Targan 10-28-2005, 07:55 AM The yellowcake used to make the uranium for the first atomic bombs was mined in South Australia. Granted, nukes suck if you are on the receiving end, but it seems dumb for Australia to have the world's largest accessible yellowcake reserves and make virtually no use of uranium. It stands to reason that in the Twilight environment, the Indos would pose a greatly reduced threat if every island in their archipelago was uniformly flat and coated with glass. And many parts of their country currently don't even have street lighting, so it would solve that problem, too. Come to think of it, Malaysia has had a few unkind words to say about Australia in the past. And Singapore keeps looking at us funny. No, wait, I'm getting carried away.
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ChalkLine 10-28-2005, 03:56 PM Indonesia is not to be sneered at, and has many unique strengths and weaknesses, I'm not sure how well Oz would do against the Indonesians in a general engagement.
There is a LOT of them, and the army is a caste in itself with good morale. If Indonesia was secure in provinces such as Aceh it could amass a lot of seasoned, ruthless troops who have a lot of experience in dealing with insurgency. Their heavier assets are light in comparison with powers such as the US but are mobile and often well coordinated. Their command structure is extremely prone to infighting and rivallry, and this can extend far down into individual units. The army can summon large amounts of semi-trained militia that have negligible discipline but are savage in their dealings with the enemy. Second rank Indonesian troops are not known for caring for their equipment or discipline, and even elite troops sometimes treat their gear badly (I know a clearance diver that taught the Indonesian Navy, he was amazed to find that most of the men he trained were alive a year later.) The very lightness of the bulk of the army's equipment allows it to be moved quickly, and there's no saying that an Indonesian Rommel may not arise (although he'd probably get snared in the political mire that usually dissipates the army's energy)
If the restraining influence of the US and UN was removed, Indonesia is prone to sudden strange actions that seem hard to detect diplomatically that come from internal pressures (Malaysia has this facet as well). The rich resources in the Timorese gulf and the North West Shelf are an extremely tempting target, while the mainland itself isn't very appetising operations could be undertaken there to interdict Australian troops mobilising, the obvious areas of action would have to be Darwin and Broome.
Of course, this is where Australia and the US pointedly exercise in a show of what unfortunate results may arise should anyone pop in from the north unanounced. Perhaps something clever could be undertaken to stage a premptive blow or the possibility that forces are elsewhere and the political climate has changed markedly and permanently to remove or minimilise alliances.
I'm not saying that this would happen, but as a scenario it's not farfetched and wouldn't be a bad basis for a setting.
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ReHerakhte 10-28-2005, 06:52 PM To add to what Chalkline mentioned, the port of Dampier (in Western Australia) is a major centre of iron ore exporting and considering that Western Australia generates a massive percentage of the GNP, hitting such facilities would put economic strain on the nation.
While it would be pretty pointless trying to capture or damage the facilities there in the beginning, (I've been posted there on exercises and just securing the place was a major operation - typical sabotage attempts would likely just result in annoyance damage that could be repaired quickly given the maintenance infrastructure they already have in place), sinking a loaded ore carrier or two in the harbour approaches would be a significant problem that would render the port ineffective for months.
Other areas of interest would be Port Hedland, which also has ore loading facilities and is the site of the Harold Holt Communications base, a facility used by the US for submarine communications.
The advantage the Indonesians have is massive numbers and a proven infiltration technique (illegal fishing in Australian waters, in the recent past, an Indonesian army officer was 'detained' after he was found 'wandering' in this region of Western Australia, he had water and food but he hadn't entered via any of the normal means, the consensus being that he came ashore from a fishing boat illegally in Aussie waters) while the problem the Australians have is a huge area to patrol and a small force to do it.
The few benefits the Aussies have are that the Indos at that time have no long-range aircraft besides cargo planes and their navy isn't as technically advanced as the RAN, plus the Jindalee Over-The-Horizon radar would probably be pushed forward to completion to monitor the region.
And as pointed out, the scenario is not far fetched, the Indonesians invaded East Timor shortly after the Portuguese gave the territory it's freedom, they also invaded West Papua (renaming it Irian Jaya) because they needed (as the Nazis claimed in the 1930s) 'living room' for their people and more resources. There has been talk in the past from Indonesia that they considered Singapore, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Borneo and the Phillipines as part of a Greater Indonesia.
Cheers,
Kevin
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ChalkLine 10-29-2005, 01:25 AM While I don't have any up to date info on Indonesian Military capabilities, here's a summary from the 1981 Janes 'Millitaries of the World';
AFVs:
M3A1 (USA) x100
AMX-13 (France) X150
PT-76 (USSR) x75
RVs:
Saladin (UK) x75
Ferret (UK) x55
APCs:
AMX-VCI (France) x??
Saracen (UK) x??
V-150 Commando (USA) x60
BTR-40/60/152 (USSR) x130
Artillery
122mm M1938 (USSR) x??
105mm M56 (USA) x40
76mm (USSR) x50
57mm S-60 AA (USSR) +
40mm AA (USA-Sweden) x200
AT
106mm M40A1 RCL (USA) x??
ENTAC ATGW (France) x??
Mortars
120mm M43 (USSR) +
81mm M1937 (USSR) x200
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ReHerakhte 10-29-2005, 07:30 PM By the 1990s they had dumped some stuff from inventory and replaced it with more modern equipment (typically supplied by France!) although there is little information to show if it was scrapped or put into storage.
So to add to ChalkLine's list...
AFVs
M3A1 no longer in service
RVs
AMX-10 PAC90 (France) for the Marines
Commando Scout (USA)
APCs
BTR40 modified for Internal Security duties
AMX-10P (France) for the Marines
BTR50 also in service with Marines
ACMAT VBLA (France) in Police service (police are para-military)
Commando Ranger (USA)
Condor (Germany) possibly for Internal Security duties
Artillery
76mm M48 Mountain Gun (Yugoslavia)
76mm M1942 Field Gun (the Soviet 76mm mentioned by ChalkLine)
105mm Light Gun (United Kingdom)
105mm Mk 61 SPG
105mm M101 Howitzer (USA)
122mm M1938 Howizter also in Marine service
And it's worth remembering that Indonesia has licences to manufacture or shares manufacture of, helicopters (Eurocopter) and aircraft (CASA) as well as having at one time produced their own copies of the Browning HP pistol, Beretta SMGs and some rifles. Also, some time in the 1990s they bought a massive number of the former East German naval fleet. However, most reports indicate that they didn't have the personnel to crew or maintain the vessels and whether they actually had them delivered to Indonesia or not requires a few references that I don't have! The most significant aspect of the former Volksmarine fleet for Australia is the amphibious warfare ships.
Cheers,
Kevin
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jtr 10-31-2005, 04:02 AM G'day,
A friend of mine pointed me in the direction of this thread.
I also live in Perth, Western Australia. If we have four or five people why don't we see if we can get a round-the-table game going?
I currently run several T2k PBEM campaigns over on Yahoo Groups, but I'd love to get back into face-to-face gaming.
Cheers
John
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Targan 11-01-2005, 12:06 AM Yup I'm keen, but I am a much better GM than player, and I would much rather run a game using Gunmaster than any of the Twilight systems as Gunmaster does a far, far better job of presenting realistic combat. You guys need to see it to believe it. It rocks. Just the character sheets alone are works of art, and provide levels of detail that would make most of us military minded types drool.
Having said that, I mostly use T:2000's rules for vehicle combat, and use all the setting material.
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jtr 11-01-2005, 03:16 AM G'day,
I'm a GM of LOOOONNGGGGGGG experience but I'm happy to sit back and let someone else do the work.
I personally prefer the 2.2 rules. I have a whole swag of house rules which I've developed over the years. I've never heard of the gunmaster rules but I'm certainly willing to have a look at them.
What sort of campaign were you thinking of?
I sent you a message off list, so you have my email. Please feel free to contact me to discuss times and places.
Cheers
John
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Targan 11-01-2005, 03:55 AM Hello, John. I can not access my private messages at the moment. Hopefully that will be resolved before too long. I only joined these forums recently but no doubt by now many readers will be sick of me going on about the glories of Gunmaster. It is a fantastic set of house rules developed by my friend Warflail, whose site Warflail.com has the Gunmaster rules available for download. Gunmaster is a rules extension for Harnmaster, which is the basic system I use. It is a mediaeval RPG system, but with Gunmaster makes one of the best modern day systems I have ever used. I would compare the various T:2000 rules as being about as complicated as Runequest or Call of Cthulu, but Gunmaster, while not being much slower to use in combat resolution, does a much better job of things. When you say a GM of lonmg experience, how long do you mean? I have been GMing T:2000 since I was about 14, and I am 34 now.
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jtr 11-01-2005, 04:14 AM G'day,
Sorry to hear about your email woes.
I have read the Harnmaster system. I have a friend who has it but I've never played it.
Most of my rule tweaks to T2K have been to even out the differences between PCs and NPC and make it more deadly.
As for GMing, my first RPG was the original black book Traveller. I bought it when it came out in 1977 or early 1978, just after Star Wars came out. I remember standing in line in City Arcade to go and see the movie! I was 42 last Saturday.
I've been GMing T2K since I became aware of it in the early 90s. It was and is my favourite RPG.
Cheers
John
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Targan 11-01-2005, 04:27 AM OK, you've been RPGing longer than me! I started playing when I was about 11, I think, with Basic D&D (embarassing I know). I played heaps of the original black book Traveller, absolutely loved it! Great that you have read Harnmaster, so will will already know that it is a system of great quality, even if you have not played it. You want deadly, Gunmaster is it. You tend to accept in Harnmaster and Gunmaster that if your character survives a serious injury, they will be impaired for the rest of their lives. In previous posts in these forums I have explained that my current player group depress me, because they play a bunch of psychos and half the time I spend roleplaying NPCs being tortured, and it is no fun to RP begging for your life for half an hour at a time. When I play (which is very rarely) I like to play good guys, not war criminals.
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jtr 11-01-2005, 04:59 AM G'day,
It's not really a competition, but I have been doing it a while. It seems like our generation are the roleplayers. After monopoly but before computer games. Most kids these days seem to be playing computer games or roleplaying through online games. Books and dice are more our thing.
I've still got all my Traveller stuff! I never sell anything or throw anything away. My place is packed to the gunwales with books and games and figures.
As for T2K I try to find a balance between playability and realism. I'm pretty happy with my version of 2.2. Unfortunately it's all in margin notes rather than written out in a document or I'd send them on. I have the character generation changes which I usually post to my PBEMs.
As for your war criminal players, I'd have to say that I'd personally blow them off. I did the chaotic evil thing when I was 17. It holds absolutely no interest for me at 42. I'd rather not play than play with a bunch of concentration camp guards. I'm not saying that my characters are all sweetness and light, or that bad things don't happen in my campaigns, but my characters see themselves as forces for good and reconstruction not perpetuators of the darkness and chaos of war.
Cheers
John
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kcdusk 11-01-2005, 05:01 AM Targan
This Gunmaster you talk about, is it Bill Gants Harnmaster site?
If not, can you post a link. I'd like to take a look?
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kcdusk 11-01-2005, 05:10 AM Answering my own question, yes, looks like it! Just downloaded GunmasterGold.
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Targan 11-01-2005, 05:20 AM Excellent! Let me know what you think of those rules. The Gunmaster rules I use are mostly like Gunmaster Gold, but I use an older version of Harnmaster than Harnmaster Gold (although I do own a copy). I think you will find my name (Geoff Semple) somewhere in the Gunmaster credits. I helped write them, as well as the old Harnmaster II house rules, and provided some of the artwork.
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jtr 11-01-2005, 05:32 AM G'day,
I shall have get my friend's Harn rules off him and go back over them.
You should have told us you had an 'interest' in the rules! :]
I'm actually trolling through the site at the moment but everytime I try to view a pdf my system freezes. Last time the whole system crashed and I had to reboot. Maybe something wrong with my system because it doesn't seem to like opening pdfs online.
Cheers
John
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ChalkLine 11-01-2005, 04:20 PM .pdf's are notoriously slow to load online, and this may be a factor.
(Hey John, it's Jim!)
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jtr 11-01-2005, 04:32 PM G'day Jim,
Thanks for the referral. We might actually be getting a face-to-face game going over here! :O
It doesn't help that this system is ancient. The keyboard is in hieroglyphics and the modem is a set of drums. We are talking ANCIENT.
Cheers
John
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jtr 11-03-2005, 11:48 AM G'day,
Reporting back on Gunmaster.
The short version is that it's a nice set of rules, lots of details, but probably more complex than I want to get. I think I'd trust the GM more to provide an accurate 'feel' to a game than sit there half the night poring over tables and rolling dice.
Maybe I'm getting old but I'm more of a ROLEplayer these days than a ROLLplayer. By the time I'm finished rolling all the dice I've forgotten what I'm rolling for! :wink:
Cheers
John
BTW I'm still hoping to get a game going here in Perth. Has the idea died along with my other hopes and dreams?
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ReHerakhte 11-04-2005, 04:13 AM Sorry John and everyone else here in Perth in regards to this. I haven't intentionally neglected the idea, I'm in the middle of planning my holiday to Egypt & UK at the moment so some things get pushed to the back burner.
Along with that I have just recently started up a post-apoc game that is a mix of Dark Conspiracy and The Morrow Project and the next session is this weekend so I have also been a bit preoccupied with that.
Having said all that, I am still interested in a Twilight game as a Player.
Also, like John I have checked the Gunmaster rules and while I appreciate the detailed tactical opportunities you can derive from the rules, my math skills are crap and it takes me 5 minutes to nut out what takes the average person 2 minutes. My big worry is that I would slow down the game trying to figure out the calculations and if I got frustrated with the math I wouldn't enjoy the game as much :confused4
Cheers,
Kevin
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Targan 11-04-2005, 04:24 AM Fear not! Virtually all the maths required in-game is either handled by the GM, or has been pre-calculated and the results written on the character sheet. The only maths required in-game involves either adding or subtracting modifiers to skills as ruled by the GM, subtracting maximum potential skill level from current skill level to determine the target number for skill improvements, or determining the multiple of a stat that a 1d100 roll result falls under. That literally is it. The rest is all on the sheet. All the player has to do is book-keep their own character sheet, and roll their dice.
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jtr 11-04-2005, 02:14 PM Fear not! Virtually all the maths required in-game is either handled by the GM, or has been pre-calculated and the results written on the character sheet.
I have to do MATHS? Oh my god!
No, sorry. I think I'll stick to the 2.2 rules, either vanilla or house rules.
I hope it's not a deal-breaker.
Cheers
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ChalkLine 11-04-2005, 02:37 PM I'm a big fan of the Harn rules, they're suprisingly quick in play although daunting to look at. I haven't played Gunmaster but if it's similiar you mightn't find them too hard.
As John can tell you, I'm a devotee of the cyberpunk 2020 rulesset and I've converted Twilight to those rules, most just port over as the Cyberpunk Rules are (Statistic [1 to 10] + Skill level [1 to 10] + 1d10) for all the rolls.
The problem with these rules is that they're lethal, players will probably be seriously messed up from a heavy calibre bullet if they don't die instantly (or loudly and messily), so it needs a less gung-ho approach.
I'm still advocating an Aussie Twilight game online, either that or I'm going to start submitting PCs to Jaeger John!
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jtr 11-04-2005, 02:59 PM G'day,
I'd rather stick to something I know, particularly if I'm going to GM.
I've played Cyberpunk for a number of years and Jim's right, you want to avoid fire-fights like the plague. The only think that keeps you alive in CP is armour and there ain't none worth speaking of in T2K!
My only quibble about an Australian game is that all the characters have to be regular military. I can't see them re-introducing conscription, though with Little Johnny you never know... I'd play a choco.
I'm not a real big fan of playing regular military because it just isn't me. Hard to get my head around volunteering to get shot at. Still, depending on the campaign and the GM it might be worth exploring. What are people's ideas?
Jim, you're always welcome in my campaigns. A character for Jaeger Gruppen would be excellent. I'm still a little light in the character department in that game so someone from you would be perfect.
Cheers
John
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ChalkLine 11-04-2005, 03:10 PM In my at-home campaign I have a RL ex-soldier from 3 Cav who specialised in M113s, Leopards and Centurions. Two other guys have reserve experience, the other three have none. I've made the 3 cav guy a sergeant, the two ex-reserves are corporals and the other guys are mobilisation-only privates.
They're in a worn out M113 in the Gulf Country of North Queensland, cut off by a landing further along the coast and without enough fuel to get out across land. They're cautiously looking for a boat right now, big enough to take the M113.
The guy who's ex-mil is showing them (and the GM!) the ropes, it's kinda fun but a strange game (lotsa beer).
Actually, I have a Bundeswehr KampfIngenieur I could modify . . .
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jtr 11-04-2005, 03:29 PM G'day,
Folks with RL military experience. It's the way to go. I think Kevin is a reservist, so he might be the information mine. I'd feel a lot more confident if we had one or more people with RL Army experience. Also, if the game is set in Oz, civilian characters could be an option. Depending how bad things are the military may or may not accept help from the locals. Most professionals get a bit windy when amateurs start popping off...
What are you thinking? An Oz game on Yahoo? I'm sure there's one or two Oz troopies on the T2K lists.
As for JG, there's just been a call for the pioneers so bring your guy on.
Cheers
John
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ChalkLine 11-04-2005, 03:47 PM A good possibility is when local military units need specialists, such as ship crewmen. A stranded section finding a fishing ship tied up with the crew not sure what to do mixes soldiers and civilians, and Oz is essentially a coastline with a dessert in the centre
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jtr 11-04-2005, 04:22 PM G'day,
Sounds fine. If people want to run civilian characters there are always ways of bringing them in.
Personally I've never bought the Indonesian threat scenario, but any excuse for a game of T2K. Hell, if you wanted you could have the Japanese, the Russians or even the Americans as the bad guys. I've always though the Americans were the bad guys anyway...
You want it online?
Who's GMing?
Cheers
John
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kcdusk 11-04-2005, 04:30 PM Chalkline
I have a PC in johns game. From what i can understand, we need some GRUNT to survive the night ... i hope your angry troopers can arrive in time ...
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jtr 11-04-2005, 04:43 PM G'day,
At present I'm answering some tactical questions from the senior members. I believe they will be asking for some pioneer assistance to prepare some pits, and I think they're also asking for some Weapons Platoon assistance in the form of HMs and/or AGLs. All prudent requests.
Both Michael and Fred are old soldiers so they know the score. They are the guys to watch and learn from.
Cheers
John
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kcdusk 11-04-2005, 05:15 PM Why the worry John?
Its only one night :-)
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jtr 11-04-2005, 05:27 PM G'day,
If you think that you may find yourself staying far longer than just one night...
Cheers
John
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Targan 11-06-2005, 11:04 PM Chalkline, I have previously converted the ENTIRE Cyberpunk 2020 rules to Gunmaster and it was a huge job, but plays incredibly well. Let me tell you, converting the Blackhand's weapons book using Guns,Guns, Guns was a massive job! I'd love to run another campaign of that, too.
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ChalkLine 11-10-2005, 01:03 AM Australia Invaded (
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/...ralia_Invaded/)
John has started a new play by e-mail game, and the concept is Australian and friendly national soldiers and civilians fighting a desperate war in the arid north west of Australia.
You don't need to be Australian, but John would really like some Aussie people (especially with OzMil experience). The action is looking like Long Range Desert Patrol style strikes and maybe other commando style work in some of the harshest country on the planet.
Pack your sunscreen and load your weapon!
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kcdusk 11-10-2005, 01:24 AM I'm in, I aint havin no borders of mine violated.
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Badbru 11-19-2005, 03:54 PM You guys can add me to the list of Perth people interested in playing in a face to face t2k game. I mostly only got to run them back in the 90's and would love to play again.
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jtr 11-19-2005, 08:47 PM G'day,
Sorry to say the idea seems to have died a bit of a death. I'd still like to get a game going but we all have other commitments.
Cheers
John
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Targan 11-20-2005, 11:06 PM Badbru, I am still interested but my preference would be for me to GM and to use the Gunmaster rules for the campaign. I understand other players' reticence towards using rules they are not familiar with. Its just that the rules I use are so superior, once you've used them you can't go back to the original rules, 'cause they don't cut the mustard.
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Badbru 11-21-2005, 12:09 PM I'm not adverse to giving anything a go.
I've played in a couple of Harn games before though fantasy is not really my thing.
I've run T2k before using both rules sets and currently run a Traveller TNE game which uses allmost identicle rules from V2 T2k. Infact my copy of TNE is the first printing and you can easily see whole blocks of text that have merely been cut and paste inserted from T2k.
Heck I'd allmost be willing to join Po in your group of psychopaths that seem to run around torturing people though I doubt any character I could play in that game would last for long. No offense and it also sounds like you'd rather something new too.
I just really miss playing, and remember T2k games from the early 90's with much fondness.
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Targan 11-21-2005, 11:11 PM Cool, if you have played Harnmaster then I suggest you check out the gunmaster rules, available for download at warflail.com, as they will not be a complete mystery to you in terms of how they work. Yes I would like to start a new campaign, I wouldn't want to inflict Po on anyone new to the game. It could scar you psychologically. The main stumbling block to Gunmaster is the number of hours it takes to generate a character, although the end result is worth it. I will get back to you on when I might have some time to discuss possibilities.
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ReHerakhte 11-24-2005, 02:47 AM G'Day all,
Been thinking about gaming while at work today and has been pointed out earlier in this thread, the idea for a Perth face-to-face game is great but doesn't seem to be a happening event.
I have a few suggestions/questions: -
1. How many of us are interested in meeting somewhere to further discuss gaming? And as much as I would favour the pub as a meeting place, you get some strange looks from people when they hear you talking about playing a survivor of WW3... although, maybe I'm just being paranoid! I suppose if we really wanted to, we could meet at one of the gaming clubs and impose ourselves on them for a short time :-P
2. Where abouts in Perth are we all located? Probably the most important question of all if we want a venue close enough to everyone. I'm not asking for specific suburbs or anything on a public forum, just general locality (e.g. best known suburb near you and so on). I clutter up the neighbourhoods around Midland.
3. What game style do people prefer. I favour character & story development over simply rolling lots of dice, I've been involved in a number of games where PCs spent more time pursuing simple things than actively doing stuff that required intensive rules use e.g. they spent an hour trying to cultivate a friendship with a local woodseller once, because they figured he would know much of the town gossip so would be a good source of info and if they could convince him to lower his prices, the locals would regard the PCs with favour as well. I really like that sort of thing but I know other people don't necessarily get much out of it so I feel this should definately be a high priority for discussion because it will become a game-breaker for some people.
4. What rules set does the majority desire? We all have our own favourites and even favourite modifications to the rules we like. This also should be a high priority for discussion before we commit to anything and should be a consensus, if we can't get a rules-set sorted out, we simply are not going to get a game happening. My personal "prejudice" is for a rules set that runs under the surface and is quick to execute. I don't favour rules that overshadow the gameplay because I don't want to play a rules-set, I want to play a part in the story (yeah, yeah, I'm a Role-Playing Snobby Wanker!), this is the main reason I favour the Twilight 2.2 rules because for my preferences, they are quick and easy to implement without bogging down the game.
5. Style of campaign. Okay, so you could argue that this is pretty closely related to style of play but I mean it more as, do we want to pursue a traditional Twilight game or go with the idea from an earlier PBEM (that some of you may have been involved in or know people from!) that had a group of Australians made up of military, police & civilian personnel serving in UN positions near Europe (e.g. Cypress) grouping together after the Twilight War started or do we want something different like a partisan/freedom fighter campaign in occupied territory or play a low-tech variant of the main game etc. Do people want a hardcore Twilight campaign or do they want some strangeness e.g. mild/strong supernatural themes or an alien invasion (either taking advantage of the war or having caused it in the first place) or even take the idea from the Harry Turtledove novels "World War" (where the aliens always intended to colonise Earth but plan for these things over hundreds of years, they expected to meet men in steel armour on horses and armed with swords, instead they ended up in the middle of WW2) and set it during WW3?
6. Timings, both session time and day of the week. I'm currently running a post-apoc techno-horror game once a fortnight so one Saturday in the fortnight is out for me. I have also hijacked Hawke into this game and unless someone lures him away :-P, he will also be unavailable on those Saturdays as well.
However, I don't have any particular objections to Friday nights, alternate Saturdays or even Sundays (during the day as I start work at 7AM weekdays - this is also the reason why I prefer the end of the week rather than weeknights). I don't have a vehicle but I am quite happy using public transport, is anyone else in the same situation?
7. Venue. There's five of us definately in Perth (don't know what part of the nation you are kcdusk and I know that transport costs twice a month will screw ChalkLine's chances of being here!) so a large venue isn't required unless we have any offsiders who we want to drag along. Unfortunately, I'm a messy bastard who collects lots of books and I share a house with an equally messy person, two cats and a dog, we don't have lot of room for gaming. I have no objection to gaming at one of the RPG clubs (if any of them still run! LOL) in town, even if it means membership fees etc.
8. What size group do we want to stop at? I know there are some of us who may be in contact with old gaming friends or, as in Targan's situation. actively run a game at the moment. So how many other people besides us, do we know who might like to get involved and when does the Player group get too large for the Referee?
And last of all...
9. With all of those considerations, who would want to Referee it? I don't particularly want to because I already run one game and don't have the patience to run two at a time particularly as I will be absent for about 6 weeks next January/February.
Cheers,
Kevin
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jtr 11-24-2005, 03:28 AM G'day,
To answer your questions:
1) Pub, restaurant, parking lot, secret location. Attendees should not wear camouflage, or tea-towels on their heads, or speak in a Middle Eastern accent. The cops around here are nervous enough...
2) Northbridge-Highgate. Under the circling black helicopters.
3) Roleplaying, character development, assorted touchy-feely scenarios. Combat is fine and useful at times but I'm not interested in playing a 40K-style dice-fest.
4) Twilight 2.2. I've got some house rules that makes combat a bit more deadly and streamlines some of the wounding process but refusal doesn't constitute a deal-breaker.
5) I prefer Twilght War & aftermath campaigns. Poland, US, Oz, doesn't really matter. But iffy about Merc campaigns because they tend to turn into combat catalogue love-ins. NOT interested in SF or Monty Haul campaigns.
6) Prefer evenings. Any evening is fine by me. I don't have a life.
7) Prefer private location rather than club. Unfortunately, I'm a messy bastard who collects lots of books and even though I live alone it LOOKS like I share a house with an equally messy person, two cats and a dog. My place is possible but I'd prefer others not to know what a pig I am.
8) Three players plus GM works pretty well, up to maybe five players. After that it can get a bit of a headache. Once played with seven players plus GM and that was too many. Not a fan of spectators.
9) I am an experienced GM of both round-the-table games and PBEMs. I'm prepared to GM if that is required but I'm prepared to let someone else GM if they want to.
Cheers
John
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