I wish GDW had...

[fact275]

It's fascinating to see people still posting about an RPG over 32 years old and horribly out of date in many ways. Nostalgia is powerful!

I'm 44 and my friends and I spent many hours playing Twilight. I later became a US Air Force historian and realized much of the game wasn't realistic militarily never mind the plot holes it had in its geopolitical background.

A few years ago, I bought most of the game materials in PDF and they are still entertaining reads even with the dated material and plot holes. Many of those plot holes have been discussed very well here.

What I want to write about are details that GDW did not provide--and I wish they had. Ironically, as companies are still putting out 2300 materials, Twilight's dated and often flawed backstory still lives on into the 2010s!

1. General Cummings and "President" Broward

Howling Wilderness has ZERO NPC profiles on the two biggest NPCs in the United States! My GM and I always saw Cummings as being based on General Colin Powell, who was Reagan's National Security Advisor so we just used him as inspiration. What about MILGOV's structure? Foreign relations? CIVGOV's cabinet? Popular support? Nothing, nada, zilch. But some urban mapping system? Here you go!

2. NATO

Bear's Den mentions a turned Soviet division as a "NATO" division. Say what? By that time in the game, most US forces have left Europe. France, Belgium, Italy, and Greece are not part of NATO. Where is NATO now headquartered and in what form is the alliance? Any civilian leadership? Who are the former Red Army troops reporting to?

3. Nuclear weapons

T:2000 made clear that the nuclear war was not a full exchange. So what about the other remaining warheads and delivery systems? Even if you say the latter were destroyed by conventional or nuclear methods what of the warheads? Other delivery systems could be presumably fashioned. Every so often a loose nuke or the Soviet Typhoon shows up but it never made sense why the USA would not just plaster Mexico. Really the thought that there could never be only a "limited" exchange while the war continued gains currency right?

4. TF:34

So Task Force 34 sails to Norfolk and all we ever hear later is some mentions of some troops being sent to New York. Say what? A massive--by game standards--force that could (even mainly as infantry) easily defeat New America strongholds, the Mexican invasion, or subdue CivGov just becomes an afterthought. And what of forces like the 8th Infantry Division who stay in Eastern Europe? What becomes of them? What of CivGov's troops in Yugoslavia? You have to buy 2300 to find out what happens to CENTCOM in Iran.

5. Speaking of CENTCOM...

I loved the RDF Sourcebook. You have the Ambassador who seems as good a candidate for President as any other back home. What happened to him? CENTCOM presumably are still in Iran to secure the Gulf oil fields. Why not send TF34 and whatever tankers or makeshift takers to go get some of that oil and bring it back home?

6. "That stuff we did the last time we shelled out $20 for a module"

My GM and I always complained that we'd do things in modules and it never seemed to affect the developing game narrative: Reset chip, recovered weather satellite, locating supply caches, even kidnapping the New America chief never made much difference as GDW wrote future modules. As for New America, the kidnapping was written in but only as a way of saying why NA did not take over the country in full. In reality, it should have been a major turning point against them just as Roger Caldwell intended.

That said, I have fond nostalgic memories of when everyone in our PC group was some sort of special ops member (Mine: SEAL Team 6, Delta, SAS, Special Forces, and one Armored Division veterean--all present), carried seven weapons including exotic Finnish hunting rifles that did 1/2 armor value, and had enough hit points to take 12.7mm rounds to the head and not really be phased! I fear that while latter generations have their video games, they don't have the joy of imagining out their game worlds.