Which edition do you play?

[pmulcahy11b]

I prefer 2.2 with the V1 timeline. (Haven't I already answered this poll before?) But I use the v2 timeline in my web site to maintain commonality (when it matters anyway).

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

I prefer 2.2 with the V1 timeline. (Haven't I already answered this poll before?) But I use the v2 timeline in my web site to maintain commonality (when it matters anyway).

Besides a few quite minor differences, there's almost no change between the various versions from 1995 onwards. The only real differences are prior to the outbreak of war, and how long it took Nato to get involved after Germany stepped over the Polish border.
http://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.php?t=3109

[Olefin]

Minor differences - hardly

V1 - North Korea and South Korea
V2- United Korea that is US Ally but somehow the US still takes losses to North Korean units (which was clearly a sign of a rushed edit and copying from the V1 US Vehicle Guide)

V1- Japan sits out the war, Soviet units in Vietnam
V2- Japan not only participates in the war but gets nuked big time. Vietnam has a US division stationed there at the beginning of the war and there is no mention of Soviet units there at all

V1 - Iran is a US ally, Iranian forces allied with the US against the Soviets
V2 - Iran has no govt at all, no mention of Iranian forces allied with US against the Soviets

V1 - no mention of Argentine or Brazilian war at all- and clearly a nuclear war of any kind isnt mentioned
V2 = Argentina and Brazil fight a nuclear war between themselves

V1 - France comes out of the war in good shape
V2 - France has the south under criminal control and the mountain areas in open revolt against the central govt - but somehow is sending troops overseas instead of trying to restore order

I would say thats more than just minor differences after 1995

[Vespers War]

v2.2 rules, but I very rarely play in any of the canon timelines. I'm either using modern equipment for TEDs in Traveller or doing historical (or alt-historical) scenarios or doing Merc or Dark Conspiracy.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Originally Posted by Vespers War

<snip> I'm either using modern equipment for TEDs in Traveller... <snip>

Colour me dumb, but TED is unfamiliar to me, what does it mean? (I haven't played Traveller and while I know of it, much of it is still unfamiliar).

[Vespers War]

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

Colour me dumb, but TED is unfamiliar to me, what does it mean? (I haven't played Traveller and while I know of it, much of it is still unfamiliar).

Technologically Elevated Dictator. New Era takes place after the collapse of the Third Imperium, and there are backwater planets where the ruler is the (descendant of the) person who hoarded the most technology, so while the peasants get by with animal-drawn wagons and maybe a bow, the ruler and his guard have assault rifles and armored cars. There are rules for randomly determining what the peak technology level was (for scavenging), what level it paused at during the collapse (for the ruler), and what level it ended up at (for the general populace).

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Ah ha!
Thanks for the explanation.

I'm familiar enough with the premise of the New Era edition, even have the main book, but as mentioned, I never played Traveller so many of the abbreviations, acronyms and such like escape me!

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by Olefin

Minor differences - hardly

A few sentences is all the difference. Yes, the later edition(s) added some information, and changed the situation in Korea, but when you look at the unit histories (not to mention most of the timeline) it's about 99% cut and pasted.

[Olefin]

As I said the differences in Vietnam, the Kuriles, Iran and France make the two timelines very different - also equipment as well - i.e. there goes the LAV-75 and the giraffe version of the M1

[pmulcahy11b]

I'm sort of in an interesting situation. The v2.3 rule set works best, but the V1 timeline works better than that contrived mess that GDW came up with for v2.2.

However...

My personal belief is that if IRL we go to a Twilight War world, it will happen sometime in the 2030-2035 timeline. (I refer to that time as the "bump in the road" -- If we can make past that, the future's probably good for another century.) I would advocate a new timeline, to go up to 2030 or so -- it's not far enough in the future that we can't project weapons and vehicle development, but more realistic than others posited here.

[ChalkLine]

I use a classless Cyberpunk 2020 modified with Twilight 2000 rules. I've adopted some version 2.2 skills and deleted or rationalised many cyberpunk skills.

I find the combat rules more realistic but quite (realistically) lethal. Players in my games find out that gung-ho individuals get hero's graves quite quickly. Due to the savage automatic fire rules and the fact that most of the player's body is unarmoured the players tend to become adept at 'fix-n'-fuck' tactics of suppressing and grenading the enemy. Fire combat is often quite wasteful of ammo, especially at short ranges.

I use a 'version one style' choose-what-you-like character generation system where everyone gets the same amount of skill points no matter what. This stops players seeking out terms in special forces for extra points and it means you don't have to do a term in support if you want to get scrounging. I also have a much lower rank table where nearly all players are privates for enlisted and lieutenants for officers, but you do occasionally get higher ranks. Rank and time in as I said has no effect on skills.

As for a setting I either play my own modified twilight 2000 (with tech up to 2010 to simulate the increased R&D and faster adoption time engendered by warfare) or present day that's become almost what I thought of as science fiction a few years back!