Version 4 of the game

[Olefin]

There has been new modules released for Twilight 2000 including one new canon module - thus there are new releases for it that are "in print" - i.e. you can buy new material for it instead of having to depend on either a used bookstore or a pdf of material released years earlier

Thus technically the game was revived from the dead back in 2017

[Benjamin]

Originally Posted by CDAT

Um is Team Yankee still even a game? At least in my local area (5 games stores all with places to play) none of them even knows anything about it. We had one member of our local group pick some stuff up for it, but then they killed the forums and that killed what little interest there was in my group. But I have never seen a game played, or even heard of one being played with in at least two hours of where I live, lots of other games that I know nothing about. But if that is the definition of a popular game I think we might be in trouble. As "dead" games have more talk around here than Team Yankee. (Dead games I am talking about are like AOG Babylon 5 Wars, and even Twilight 2000).

I’m referring to the newer table top skirmish game. It just came out with a new book “Oil War” which covers armies in the Middle East.

https://www.team-yankee.com/

[swaghauler]

Originally Posted by Benjamin

This very much. I’m an international politics major/history minor with a background in research and intelligence analysis and have done contract work for the NSA but they dismissed my offers out of hand. When this attitude was brought up on (I think) Yahoo Groups they were less than courteous. I looked over the finished project and found the whole background premise somewhat laughable.

As a man who has had "boots on the ground" in a number of places including The Middle East, South America (as a Civilian tourist in the bad parts of town no less), and Africa, I almost laughed OUT LOUD when I saw the number they attributed to suicides in the intro. The people in Africa live in INHUMAN conditions and aren't killing themselves. That number would have been more realistic if it had been attributed to murder and cannibalism in order to survive. The human animal is "hardwired" to survive and only a small percentage of humans choose to end their lives through suicide. The numbers may seem large when you look at them without context, but the number TW2K13 quoted was like (and I'm guessing because I don't have my copy with me) 2 BILLION(?) who committed suicide. That is a ridiculously large number. ALSO, keep in mind I'm talking about people who actually KILL THEMSELVES NOT people who think about it and don't go through with it in the end. Two billion is a ridiculously large number of people to die by their own hand.

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by Olefin

Thats why when I wrote the East Africa/Kenya sourcebook for the canon I set it in the same time period, with mentions of multiple other modules and events (Going Home, the RDF, Kings Ransom among others) to tie it completely into the current timeline.

I'm writing the ANZAC book so it can stand alone without tying in too closely to any of the other books - the only connection really will be to Korea where I intend to send about a Brigade of Australian, New Zealand and Pacific Islander forces to join the UN mission there.
Haven't settled on the date as yet, but likely mid 2000.
Hopefully this new edition won't impact what I've already done too much, and they won't be overly protective of their edition and will actually allow the community to add quality work to the base materials. It'd be even better if they published my work and I actually got paid!

Originally Posted by CDAT

Um is Team Yankee still even a game?

I've never even seen it myself, let alone know of it being played anywhere in the whole of Australia. It's possible though I suppose....

[CDAT]

Originally Posted by Benjamin

I’m referring to the newer table top skirmish game. It just came out with a new book “Oil War” which covers armies in the Middle East.

https://www.team-yankee.com/

I knew what game you are talking about, I just did not know that it was popular game. As I have never heard of anyone playing it, any store stocking it, or anything like that. As I was saying even games that are thought of as dead (regardless of if they really are or not) are more "popular" than that active game. At least in my area after you take out the card games (Magic and such) probably the next most popular games are Warhammer, and Battletech, followed by Star Wars Armada.

[Olefin]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

I'm writing the ANZAC book so it can stand alone without tying in too closely to any of the other books - the only connection really will be to Korea where I intend to send about a Brigade of Australian, New Zealand and Pacific Islander forces to join the UN mission there.
Haven't settled on the date as yet, but likely mid 2000.
Hopefully this new edition won't impact what I've already done too much, and they won't be overly protective of their edition and will actually allow the community to add quality work to the base materials. It'd be even better if they published my work and I actually got paid!



I've never even seen it myself, let alone know of it being played anywhere in the whole of Australia. It's possible though I suppose....

I tied mine in to other books to explicitly make sure it showed it was part of the canon - i.e. it was part of the canon, just an area that hadnt been covered before - thus the events of the canon were tied in to it to show that what happened in Kenya didnt happen in a vacuum

[mcchordsage]

About Modiphius, if they are involved, in my one experience with their new (relative terms I guess that was like 2017) Star Trek game, their playtesting process was easy to get involved with. I'd like to think they'd reach out to the community for some comments but who knows.

Whatever the ultimate outcome is, as someone who only contributes even more niche fan content (such as it is), I'll wait to see what happens and vote with my money. A bad timeline can go a long ways to that being a no-buy however the mechanical end turns out. T2K is a WWIII game to me, that's kind of a key aspect over other post-apocalyptic games out there to me.

[Legbreaker]

I've reached out to Modiphius on behalf of Raellus, Olefin and myself with the aim of discussing our products and how they might tie into the new edition.
Hopefully they get back to me shortly and we can figure something out.

Noted this on their website:

WRITERS PLEASE NOTE! You must have previous experience of contributing to a published roleplaying game and working to a deadline.

Seems that they may not be all that friendly to new writers...

[Jason Weiser]

Let's consider the last "made" contributors were people who have since retired from the industry for the most part, who the hell do they think they are going to get.

Yeah, I am now quite concerned.

That said here is my POV, I am slowly writing my "Charters of Freedom" adventure. (and I do mean slowly...) but the fact is, Rae, Olefin, Leg, and maybe even me...(I only say that because we're published), could meet their standard, if they squint, but the fact remains? I am not too impressed by that.

[vihkr]

Originally Posted by CDAT

I knew what game you are talking about, I just did not know that it was popular game.

North American Nationals 2017--it's pretty big.

[Jason Weiser]

Am a little iffy on "Team Yankee", just because of the copyrights involved. Battlefront is a big enough company to kick our asses, and they're going to want to develop something inhouse. Now, I do know Shawn Carpenter over at AAG, but he's taking a hiatus right now for personal reasons. And...he's not going to want to do this without permission from Marc Miller.

In short, we're going to have to get permission from Marc to do something like this. Not saying we can't do it, but Marc has got to give his blessing.

And here's what I said on my blog: https://500twilight2000.blogspot.com...estion-to.html

[Sprocketteer]

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

A lot of the games on offer these days come across to me like some tabletop version of interpretative dance while ignoring the idea of teamwork.

You Sir, are a Poet.



I own several of the Modiphius games and really do not like their 2d20 system.

Part of what my group and I enjoyed of Twilight 2000 (& The Morrow Project), was the 'feel' of the systems. To us the mechanics of those games worked with, and were an important part of the settings - they belonged together, and worked together - and to us non military types, 'felt' a bit military (and yes, gung ho-ing over the gun porn helped too lol) - for my groups at least.
It is hard for me to imagine a twilight game that doesn't use v1/2 rules.
My groups almost always preferred percentile based systems over d20, always felt more natural to us.


My initial concern was that it might appear using the wotc 5e OGL lol.
"Sarge! The LT is hit, we need a long rest!"

[vihkr]

Originally Posted by Sprocketteer

Part of what my group and I enjoyed of Twilight 2000 (& The Morrow Project), was the 'feel' of the systems. To us the mechanics of those games worked with, and were an important part of the settings - they belonged together, and worked together - and to us non military types, 'felt' a bit military (and yes, gung ho-ing over the gun porn helped too lol) - for my groups at least.
It is hard for me to imagine a twilight game that doesn't use v1/2 rules.
My groups almost always preferred percentile based systems over d20, always felt more natural to us.

Fair point, and my feelings exactly, but I think those days are over, as far as market share goes. The notable exception would be Basic Roleplaying d100, which could make a decent, spiritual successor in terms of a system, to v1/2.2

Originally Posted by Sprocketteer

My initial concern was that it might appear using the wotc 5e OGL lol.
"Sarge! The LT is hit, we need a long rest!"

Monk's truck is hit by an RPG! Everyone make a save vs. spells to dive out and take no damage!

[CDAT]

Originally Posted by vihkr

North American Nationals 2017--it's pretty big.

And yet I can not find a game store within two counties that will even order any stuff for it. So yes it may be big in some area, but I do not think it is as popular nation/world wide as you are trying to make it out to be (I could be wrong, as I am just going of what I can see locally). Like I said earlier one of the members of my local group (me) bought some stuff, and after checking out all the game stores around me none of them would even order it as their disputers did not carry it, so I went online. Most of the cheap sites did not have it in stock (maybe because it was popular, but looked more to me like dumping stock as did not even have all the stuff that was available for it). So I ended up having to go and buy it from the company them self. Reading the rules it is a fair to OK game but did not convey the feel I got from the books or the sandbox. Then they closed down their forums and that was the last my local group even tried to get into it. Our thought was if they do not want to support their own games, (let players talk to each other, and ask questions of the company) then we are not going to try the game out, as we assumed (incorrectly it looks like) that, that was a sign they were not going to be supporting the game.

So summing up, it may be popular in some places, it is dead before arrival in mine. Locally, no store would even order it last time I asked, and no one knows anything about it as a game even now.

[Olefin]

"Monk's truck is hit by an RPG! Everyone make a save vs. spells to dive out and take no damage!"

Ok that is funny

[Silent Hunter UK]

Just seen the news of this; be interesting to see how it goes...

[swaghauler]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

I've reached out to Modiphius on behalf of Raellus, Olefin and myself with the aim of discussing our products and how they might tie into the new edition.
Hopefully they get back to me shortly and we can figure something out.

Noted this on their website:
Seems that they may not be all that friendly to new writers...

I guess that relegates me to posting my house rules here in the forum.

[swaghauler]

Originally Posted by vihkr

Fair point, and my feelings exactly, but I think those days are over, as far as market share goes. The notable exception would be Basic Roleplaying d100, which could make a decent, spiritual successor in terms of a system, to v1/2.2



Monk's truck is hit by an RPG! Everyone make a save vs. spells to dive out and take no damage!

Caught you! There is NO save versus Spells! That would be a DEX save and you'd better have Proficiency too!

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Originally Posted by swaghauler

Caught you! There is NO save versus Spells! That would be a DEX save and you'd better have Proficiency too!

And with 5th Ed., Dex is the One Stat To Rule Them All so if Monk makes his Dex save he probably only takes half damage at worst.
Forget using the RPG on the truck, try using it on Monk with D&D rules - Monk's a Warrior class so he's got buckets of hitpoints. He could probably survive a direct hit to the torso with a PG-7 round because of this, even if he failed the Dex check.


Which is exactly the reason I don't like using rules from a fantasy game for any modern, military, sci-fi or near-future games.

[swaghauler]

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

And with 5th Ed., Dex is the One Stat To Rule Them All so if Monk makes his Dex save he probably only takes half damage at worst.
Forget using the RPG on the truck, try using it on Monk with D&D rules - Monk's a Warrior class so he's got buckets of hitpoints. He could probably survive a direct hit to the torso with a PG-7 round because of this, even if he failed the Dex check.


Which is exactly the reason I don't like using rules from a fantasy game for any modern, military, sci-fi or near-future games.

5e Is the ONLY RPG I have seen where a character can fall from low Earth orbit without a parachute, live, and be "fighting fit" the next day. It's kind of a joke to me. Give me RUNEQUEST's lethality any day!

Remember, it's NOT a real fight in BRP/RuneQuest if someone isn't suffering an amputation!

[vihkr]

>tanking RPG hits
>falling from LEO and surviving

Sounds like the perfect v5 ruleset /sarc

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

I've reached out to Modiphius on behalf of Raellus, Olefin and myself with the aim of discussing our products and how they might tie into the new edition.
Hopefully they get back to me shortly and we can figure something out.

Noted this on their website:
Seems that they may not be all that friendly to new writers...

Originally Posted by Jason Weiser

Let's consider the last "made" contributors were people who have since retired from the industry for the most part, who the hell do they think they are going to get.

Yeah, I am now quite concerned.

That said here is my POV, I am slowly writing my "Charters of Freedom" adventure. (and I do mean slowly...) but the fact is, Rae, Olefin, Leg, and maybe even me...(I only say that because we're published), could meet their standard, if they squint, but the fact remains? I am not too impressed by that.

Originally Posted by swaghauler

I guess that relegates me to posting my house rules here in the forum.

Compare that with the approach that Clockwork Publishing took when deciding to produce a 4th edition of Dark Conspiracy... they actively asked well known members of the Dark Conspiracy fanbase if they knew people who would like to contribute to the new edition (as well as asking them if they wished to contribute).

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

Compare that with the approach that Clockwork Publishing took when deciding to produce a 4th edition of Dark Conspiracy... they actively asked well known members of the Dark Conspiracy fanbase if they knew people who would like to contribute to the new edition (as well as asking them if they wished to contribute).

And that is a great example of good marketing. They instantly gained a lot of happy and loyal customers. They didn't even need to use any of the submissions, just ask for them to make everyone feel like they were a part of the greater product.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

And that is a great example of good marketing. They instantly gained a lot of happy and loyal customers. They didn't even need to use any of the submissions, just ask for them to make everyone feel like they were a part of the greater product.

For sure. It's a smart move for exactly the reasons you mention. But they did go "all the way" so to speak and actually get some of those people involved.
People like Marcus Bone (who has been involved with ezines & a forum supporting the game as well as being part of the 2nd edition developers/writers), there's also Lee Williams (who has contributed to ezines as well as being part of the team behind the 3rd edition) are actively writing parts of the books such as character creation & development and updating equipment & gear lists and so on.

[Legbreaker]

It's good policy from a HR standpoint too. As you mentioned, a company can pick up good people at a minimal cost just by spreading the word through associated forums and the like.

We've got close to a thousand members in this forum alone, with what, about 50 or so active contributors per week give or take? I know as fact that there are quite a number of talented people in just those who are active, and many, many different and relevant skill sets. It just makes sense to look in places such as this for contributions and feedback.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

One of the other benefits is that they picked up writers who had some passion for the project, people who were invested in the game, rather than just contracting someone to write articles for something they have little/no interest in.

[therantingsavant]

So I posted this on Steph's FB group but thought it might add to some of the discussion here...

Having written as a line author for an RPG company I’d note than many require a Non-Disclosure Agreement about unreleased products but also authors we would spend time “lurking” on forums etc (often being suspiciously quiet in retrospect) to get some idea of the mood and needs of the existing fan-base.

All that being said edition change is complex and particularly when it involves a licence change from one company (usually with its preferred system) to another (likewise with it’s preferred system) - that’s just the nature of business but most successful edition changes do give some consideration to a one or two way “conversion” guide (often a free PDF) to draw on existing resources / fan base - the risk is affecting sales of subsequent supplements beyond the core rules, however a 2-way (back conversion eg v4 to v2.2 or v2013 even for T2k) can offset this in some cases.

[Jason Weiser]

Guys,
Heard back from Modiphius Entertainment....Here is the text of their note.

Hi Jason
​
Thanks for the email and reaching out. However, I've checked with the team and can confirm that we are not working on Twilight: 2000. Sorry we can't help on this occasion!

Shaun
Customer Support

Modiphius Entertainment

www.modiphius.com
www.facebook.com/modiphius

[vihkr]

Just to recap: we got news that Modiphius was working on T2K
Multi-post frenzy
>Modiphius is not working on T2K
Everything's normal here, just carry on.

[Olefin]

Ok so we know there is a version 4 being worked on, we know that Chris Lites is working on it (see multiple posts on Steph's Twilight 2000 facebook group) and that there will be an announcement on it in the fall and that Marc has confirmed that there will be a version 4

The inference that it would be Modiphius based on the fact that Chris works for them was not correct - a good educated guess but not correct based on the letter that Jason received

Thus we will have to see who it is when the announcement is made and if they are open to running it past people here on this forum at that time