Twilight 2000 2.2e vs. 4e Celebrity Deathmatch

[Tegyrius]

1e for timeline and setting. It has the deepest library of official publications from which to draw and consequently is the best-developed world.

2.2 for play-by-post. Its mechanics have deeper levels of detail, but that slows me down too much when I'm trying to run a realtime game, and I've found a number of players willing to try it but none willing to master the rules.

2013 for strip-mining conceptual elements to port to the other editions. Justin Stodola's work on the ballistics model still sings. The gear library adds the fiddly "what's in his pocketses?" bits that appeal to my inner twelve-year-old poring over U.S. Cavalry catalogs. I occasionally think about returning to the initiative system to tweak it to feel more like X-Com's action points.

4e for in-person (or VTT) play. It has enough resolution to satisfy my usual groups, none of whom are particularly obsessive about tactical minutiae, and it runs smoothly and quickly enough that I can get an eight-player group through a firefight in a single session with time left over for investigation, exploration, and roleplaying on either side of the combat.

- C.