Quote:
Originally Posted by sglancy12
Apparently having the country nuked, with 95% of the power out, two rival governments, two foreign invasions, two armies trapped overseas, and a neo-fascist insurgency just wasn't chaotic enough to provide a fun gaming environment. So they threw in the drought.
THAT is why I hate the drought. It's a deus ex machina to promote a game philosophy that I just don't like and don't believe is true.
I have yet to meet a TW2K player who told me that they would have liked the game better if only there had been less societal and economic recovery depicted and more chaos and barbarism.
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Funny, I just looked at
Howling Wilderness the other night, and had a similar thought. "Oh, yeah, the drought-- that's why I haven't (nearly) memorized this book, like all the others. It sucked the fun out of the setting.
IMO, what separated T2k from every other post-apoc. game that I had contact with, was that it was NOT "everybody but you and the roaches is dead." There were numerous pockets of civilization and the possibility of recovery, there were still soldiers doing their duty to protect the weak. There was hope, in other words-- THAT sold me on the game, vice any other game. I didn't play Aftermath or Gamma World or Morrow Project because I didn't like them, they were too dark for lil' ol' me.
Post-apocalypse fiction and games then and now allow the thought, "What would *I* do in this situation?" with the inherent possibility that it might really BE you in that situation. I was 17 in 1985 and hoped to be an Army officer, so I could count that I would be a 32-year old in 2000, maybe a Major in the wartime Army (assuming I hadn't copped it already, of course). What could I make of my life from there? When they threw a massive drought on top of everything else, the hope seemed to drain away. Again, it sucked the fun out of the setting.
Regarding Traveller:A New Era, I read in many places that the Virus in that setting, that shut down the Imperium, was also a last straw for a lot of Traveller players-- too much chaos on top of the civil war in MegaTraveller. I can't help but think it is similar to
Howling Wilderness' drought.
End detour. Schnickelfritz: it sounds like your group really did make the best of a bad situation, and should be applauded. A complete disintegration of the 43rd and its resources seems extreme, but one that sees its remnants reduced to minor players in the area seems possible.