Twilight 2000 - 2300AD

[Rainbow Six]

I don't think I've ever read a 2300 book, far less played it. Nothing against it, it just wasn't my thing.

[Tegyrius]

I have a very old boxed set and the Mongoose reboot. I feel like its particular setting and set of tech expectations is rooted in Golden Age SF and has not aged well.

- C.

[comped]

Originally Posted by Tegyrius

I have a very old boxed set and the Mongoose reboot. I feel like its particular setting and set of tech expectations is rooted in Golden Age SF and has not aged well.

- C.

Some of the fan created material especially (and occasionally the ships in the books as well) is quite nice for other games where you may need a bit more realistic space expectation (beyond the jump drive), but it's otherwise not a favorite of mine. The jump drive itself is a particular odd choice.

[Gunner]

I have the complete 2300 Cannon on CD-ROM, but I think I got it for free when I was buying other stuff on CD from Marc. I've skimmed it, but not any deep reading.

[Legbreaker]

2300 hardcopies simply were not available when I was younger. Wasn't until the mid 90's I saw one of the books in the flesh.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

2300 hardcopies simply were not available when I was younger. Wasn't until the mid 90's I saw one of the books in the flesh.

Yes indeed. Depending on where you lived in Australia, it was possible to miss entire game lines (or movies, TV series, novels, comics, plastic model kits, miniatures etc. etc.) because the local stores or the distributors believed there was no demand for that particular product in that region.
Often times, the only way you heard about a particular game was because it rated some sort of mention in some hobby magazine (and sometimes a magazine not necessarily related to RPGs). For example, the only reason I even knew about Traveller in the 1980s was because Military Modelling magazine had adds for the miniatures for the game and curiosity pushed me to find out just what this "Traveller" thing was.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

I suppose I should mention that I have played Twilight: 2000 but despite owning the boxed set and a few books plus the entire collection of 2300 AD on CD-ROM, I have never had the opportunity to play or run 2300.

[CDAT]

Originally Posted by Rainbow Six

I don't think I've ever read a 2300 book, far less played it. Nothing against it, it just wasn't my thing.

This is me as well.

[Adm.Lee]

My brother and I bought t:2300 as soon as it came out, probably very influenced by its follow-on status to T2k.

We hit the same wall in our play group that Traveller and Star Frontiers and FASA Star Trek hit: no one wanted to play sci-fi, or really anything but D&D. {Well, one other guy would play SciFi, and nearly all of them accepted my running Top Secret and then T2k.}

So, we played maybe 1 (2 at most) sessions of the RPG, and maybe as many as 8-10 games of the starship-combat game, Star Cruiser. Brother later sold off all of the 2300 stuff while I was away at college.

I re-bought Star Cruiser and a few other books for conversion to a different ruleset in the late 90s*, and then bought the Mongoose Traveller 2300AD book. I still haven't run with that yet.

*the group I was running with then was big into Dirtside II/Stargrunt II/Full Thrust for a few years, lots of fun

[pmulcahy11b]

I've never played 2300, but I do have the rules and all the modules I could find (now scanned to computer, of course).

[Vespers War]

Both for me, although briefly for each game. Somewhere on my hard drive I have most of the 2300 weapons statted out for T2k v2, although I should probably re-do them since I'm not sure I had debugged all the errors in my spreadsheets before doing their calculations.

[swaghauler]

Originally Posted by Vespers War

Both for me, although briefly for each game. Somewhere on my hard drive I have most of the 2300 weapons statted out for T2k v2, although I should probably re-do them since I'm not sure I had debugged all the errors in my spreadsheets before doing their calculations.

Great minds think alike. I converted 2300AD to the V2.2 rules as well.

[ChalkLine]

My favourite SciFi setting.

I blended it with the Cyberpunk 2020 setting (I didn't like the Earth/Cybertech Sourcebook although I use elements of it) and I ditched all the references to the Twilight War and the odd results coming from it, so instead of a French Arm I have an EU Arm for example.

The Cyberpunk 2020 stuff I use are the main book, the Maximum Metal vehicle sourcebook and the Deep Space sourcebook.

I also got rid of all the vomit-in-the-mouth Crocodile Dundee sort of Australianisms.

[swaghauler]

I did a "Twilight2000 in space" campaign where the PCs participated in a small war over the resources of a newly discovered system with French Mercs. We used the V2.2 rules conversion I mentioned above.

I went with this being a "bridge" to the Traveller universe so I also included the Varger, Aslan, and Dryonne(?) from Traveller. I also used the Jump Drive of Traveller modified to 2300 specs.

I don't have the formula handy, but Jump times were no longer just a week.
The time in hyperspace was calculated by inputing the [DISTANCE JUMPED (in light years) x 1/100th SHIP DISPLACEMENT (in tons)] divided by [MEGAWATTS (put into the Jump Drive) x DRIVE EFFICIENCY] = DAYS IN HYPERSPACE. The big issue was establishing a TRAM Line (Translight Routing & Astrogational Mapping Line). The Astrogation Skill was used to plot a Jump and there were various established JUMP POINTS that could be used based on the risk the players were willing to accept.

- A MAJOR TRAM Line Route has been jumped at least 1000 times at all times of the celestial year and is an EASY test of Astrogation. This is a basic low-risk Jump.

- A PRIMARY TRAM Line Route has been jumped at least 100 times at all times of the celestial year and is a ROUTINE test of Astrogation skill.

- A SECONDARY TRAM Line Route has been been jumped at least 10 times at all times of the celestial year but more likely jumped much more often at SPECIFIC times of the year (such as during harvest times) so the Astrometric data is not as complete for this TRAM Line. The Astrogation test is an AVERAGE one.

- A TERTIARY TRAM Line Route has been jumped a dozen times or less. The data is certainly not complete for the entire celestial cycle. The Astrogation test for this jump is a DIFFICULT one.

- A PLOTTED TRAM Line is a Route that has been successfully jumped...ONCE. The Astrogation test for this jump is a FORMIDIBLE one.

- A CUSTOM TRAM Line is a Route that your PCs plot for themselves. It has never even EXISTED until your crew plotted it. The Astrogation test for this Jump is an IMPOSSIBLE task.


Maneuver Drives used Hydrogen Fuel PELLETS to accelerate and decelerate in G's like an Epstein Drive (even though the EXPANSE was still 20 YEARS away when we played).

The worlds were gritty and became a mashup of the Aliens universe mixed with Bladerunner and Space: Above & Beyond. It was well-liked.

[Vespers War]

Originally Posted by swaghauler

Great minds think alike. I converted 2300AD to the V2.2 rules as well.

I'm curious what you did for the small arms. I've gone with treating the binary propellant as being equivalent to ETC in Fire, Fusion & Steel, and trying to match gun lengths rather than gun weights; some of the rounds are rather energetic and end up with heavy receivers to withstand the generated pressure.

My Kafer projectile weapons from the Kafer Sourcebook end up as:

Vved Ush (Horse Pistol, TL 9 14.1x31mm straight)
Wt 3.15, Mag 6R, Dam 3, Pen 2-Nil, Bulk 2, SS 3, Rng 16

Vved Ach* (Thud Gun, TL 9 12.1x31mm necked)
Wt 12.16, Mag 66, Dam 5, Pen 2-4-6, Bulk 5, SS 4 Burst 10, Rng 51

The Vved Ach* is where the receiver issue pokes its head. The round has an average ME of 7,414.58 joules, which means that under FF&S design guidelines it has a 7.4 kilogram receiver.



The cheerfully absurd one on the human side is the 12-81:

Rockwell "Twelve-Eighty-One Magnum" (TL 10 12x81mm necked)
Wt 22.19, Mag 6, Dam 8, Pen 2-3-4, Bulk 10, SS 4, Rng 98

The range doesn't include the integral bipod, and it does have an integrated TL 9 muzzle brake, since the art appears to show one. Without the brake and with the barrel lengthened to match the stated length, it would be 22.07 kilograms, SS 5, and Rng 103. This is one heck of a hunting rifle.

I haven't debugged my gauss rifle or plasma calculating spreadsheets, so those weapons aren't ready for discussion.

[bash]

I've played 2300AD and Star Cruiser and enjoyed both. I really like the 2300AD setting but I could take or leave the rules. They're workable but that's all I can really say about them.

I tend to prefer more "realistic" sci-fi settings for games (with a few exceptions) so 2300 worked well for me. It's got enough sci-fi to give players interesting options without it being effectively magic. The aliens are also all really interesting and alien.

I got a bunch of the books used in the mid 90s. My group played the Energy Curve and part of the Bayern adventures (because those are two I had). I've gone back and used the setting or parts of it for other sci-fi games I've run. I used the setting as the background for a Aliens-with-the-serial-numbers-filed-off game.

I bought all the PDFs on a CD from FFE but I haven't played in a long time. I still find the setting cool and have kept using elements in sci-fi games.

[Adm.Lee]

Originally Posted by bash

I tend to prefer more "realistic" sci-fi settings for games (with a few exceptions) so 2300 worked well for me. It's got enough sci-fi to give players interesting options without it being effectively magic. The aliens are also all really interesting and alien.

I should have said this before, those were *really* good aliens.

[bash]

Originally Posted by Adm.Lee

I should have said this before, those were *really* good aliens.

For people that haven't read/played the game:

• Pentapods - amphibious five legged (think 5 tantacled land octopus) that are master bioengineers. Good relationship with humans and actually sell them biotech that helps fix nuclear fallout to help repair Earth. They have FTL and are friendly with humans but are a bit secretive about themselves.
• Klaxun - tree-like animals with three arms and multiple root-like legs. Discovered by accident.
• Ebers - hairy aliens with super long arms. Had an interstellar civilization during Earth's Bronze Age but it was totally destroyed. They were just back to the Steam age when discovered by humans.
• Xiang - intelligent ten legged arthropod aliens. Kept as a slave race by the Sung and freed by humans. Native of a gas giant's Moon in the Sung's home system
• Sung - picture anthropomorphic salamanders with a pair of wings in addition to their arms and legs. They have a high tech civilization and have settled their system but don't have FTL technology.
• Kafer - anthropomorphic insect looking aliens whose intelligence increases when they are stressed/angry. They have FTL and invade human space starting an interstellar war.

The Sung are the most human-like of the alien species in terms of psychology and culture. Each species looks like they came from Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials rather than Star Trek rubber forehead aliens. Contrast with Traveller's aliens where they're much more rubber forehead aliens save the Hivers.