T2K GPS Survey

[kato13]

Frank Frey mentioned this poll that was in the V 2.2 rule book so I thought I would post it here to see which of the potential directions you may be interested in.

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The following paragraphs are brief descriptions of some of the directions we are considering for future Twilight products.

Twilight: Planet Strike
Recently the Earth narrowly missed colliding with a planetoid, and was not aware of the event until afterwards. The possibility of a sudden unexpected meteor or planetary strike is constantly with us. Such a strike could cause considerable immediate damage, butthe longterm climatic effects could be more severe. Either a hothouse atmosphere, with melted icecaps and elevated ocean levels, or a new ice age are possibilities. In either case, the global order would be dramatically changed and survival would be difficult.

The setting would be soon after the strike, while the world was still trying to adapt to altered conditions but while those conditions (such as rising ocean levels) were still making themselves felt. Referees would have more control over the campaign situation than in the current versions of Twilight.


Twilight: Biohazard
A bio-engineered DNA-altering strain of bacteria escapes from laboratory isolation and initiates a global plague. Much of the population dies almost immediately. A significant majority of the survivors become homicidal throwbacks, and a very small minority remains uninfected. That minority fights to maintain a handful of safe enclaves and contact other bands of survivors.


Twilight: Mean Streets
In the near future, gangs have virtually taken over the cities and are increasingly invading the countryside. Players have a variety of options, from law enforcement personnel to social workers (although with a wider range of options than current social workers). Teams of players have to conduct campaigns of successive operations against gangs to reduce and eventually break their control. These operations have to have economic, social, and psychological components, not just lots of firepower. (Not that lots of firepower isn't required—this is still Twilight, after all.)


Twilight: The Iron Dream
The Twilight: 2000 system used to allow detailed roleplaying in World War II. Players can pick from a variety of nations and a variety of career types (just as in the current modern rules). Emphasis will be on commando and patrol-type actions, but participation as part of larger set-piece battle is also possible. This would, by the nature of the situation, be a more structured adventure game than any of the post-holocaust games.

Twilight: Contingency Force
Another structured adventure game, this one is set in the very near future (say 2000 AD), but there has been no global war and no major economic collapse (as in Merc: 2000). Instead, the game covers a variety of likely trouble spots for the US and casts players as members of the regular armed forces deployed to deal with the problem. Emphasis again is on commando and patrol operation, but also some civil affairs and local training missions.


Twilight: Armor 21
Europe is unified and locked in a global trade war with the US and Japan. Africa is heavily depopulated by AIDS. Parts of the Middle East are still radioactive from Iraq's abortive attempts at nuclear blackmail. The world is short of raw materials, particularly oil, and the Nigerian wells and oil reserves may mean the difference between economic survival and collapse.

This game covers conventional and unconventional warfare between the US and the EEC in central Africa over Nigerian and Angolan oil. The scenario is an excuse to explore the nature of warfare two to three decades down the road. The obsolete tanks are M1A3s with 140mm electrochemical guns. Newer vehicles mount hyper-velocity railguns and active electromagnetic armor, but the real killers are helicopters and commando teams with laser designators.

Even if it all sounds like science fiction, everything in the game will be weapons systems currently being developed or researched.

Twilight: Stay the Course
You know this one—it's the book you're holding, a game of military adventure following a nuclear war. We plan to continue to support this direction (after all, it's where Twilight began), but want to know what you think. Do you want us to concentrate on this angle, or devote more attention in other directions?


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The designers wanted a 1-10 rating for each of the above

Twilight: Planet Strike
Twilight: Biohazard
Twilight: Mean Streets
Twilight: The Iron Dream
Twilight: Contingency Force
Twilight: Armor 21
Twilight: Stay the Course

I guess this poll will reflect any option you consider above a 7

I think my results would be

Twilight: Planet Strike - 2
Twilight: Biohazard - 7
Twilight: Mean Streets - 7
Twilight: The Iron Dream - 5
Twilight: Contingency Force - 3
Twilight: Armor 21 -9
Twilight: Stay the Course -10

[StainlessSteelCynic]

I voted for Armor 21 because that was the book my friend most wanted to have, mostly because that was the direction he wanted to take the Merc: 2000 game that I had some involvement in.

[boogiedowndonovan]

Loren or Frank may be able to elaborate further, I was under the impression that Armor 21 was about to be published before GDW went under. There was a print ad in a later Challenge Magazine or V2 supplement.

Zombies, gotta have Zombies, so one of my selections was Biohazard (close enough!)

[Snake Eyes]

I wanted Armor XXI so bad I could taste it. I had an exchange with Dave Nilsen a few years back that led me to understand that, aside from cover art, it still existed more in his head at the time of the GDW collapse than it did on paper, but it sure sounded like it would have been made of pure awesome and win.

[Nowhere Man 1966]

I voted "Stay the Course" but I have a soft spot for Mean Streets, sort of like what would happen if there was an economic collapse and "Planet Strike" with weird earth changes.

Chuck

[pmulcahy11b]

How about T2K: Current History. I quite often world civilization is staring down the barrel of a real-life T2K scenario.

[.45cultist]

Biohazard, but at least a source book for the others. I believe we could do these easy, may be not civilized, but they are doable.

[.45cultist]

Since governments plan for such things, several could be a project called: Twilight Contingencies.

[WallShadow]

Twilight: Planet Strike--8
Twilight: Biohazard--8
Twilight: Mean Streets--7
Twilight: The Iron Dream -1
Twilight: Contingency Force --4
Twilight: Armor 21 --1
Twilight: Stay the Course --10

[ArmySGT.]

Give me "Mean Streets" . I have played "Biohazard"...... That is practically the the description for "Rogue 417" by Tri Tac Games.

"Rogue 417" is very much, "28 Days Later".

[ArmySGT.]

There needs to be a T2K "Near Earth" with the recovering nations getting into space..... Orbital habitats, militarized moon bases, joint missions to the asteroid belt. Etc. Newtonian physics and all. That gap space between T2k and Traveller 2300.

If it was like "The Expanse" I would be pretty damn happy.

[.45cultist]

Originally Posted by ArmySGT.

There needs to be a T2K "Near Earth" with the recovering nations getting into space..... Orbital habitats, militarized moon bases, joint missions to the asteroid belt. Etc. Newtonian physics and all. That gap space between T2k and Traveller 2300.

If it was like "The Expanse" I would be pretty damn happy.

Yes that would be neat. Biohazard could cover a "conventional" pandemic. This is what they did with "The Last Ship", converted from nuclear war to a post pandemic background. Since T2K has disease rules, one merely needs a bug and a background. Biohazard also needs "infected" stats whether living "Ragers" or undead "Shamblers". The International Airports are disturbingly effective to help spread the bug for starters.

[.45cultist]

Originally Posted by ArmySGT.

Give me "Mean Streets" . I have played "Biohazard"...... That is practically the the description for "Rogue 417" by Tri Tac Games.

"Rogue 417" is very much, "28 Days Later".

"Mean Streets" and "Armor 21" can be used as prequels for a "Stay the Course" or Biohazard" campaign.

[swaghauler]

I'm pretty much already playing MERC/Contingency Force anyway.

[.45cultist]

A few minutes research and soon I might have a semi-plausible "Bio-Hazard" framework, unless some one here was in AMRIID.

Research to eliminate the resistant staph infection Staphylococcus Aureus, which requires a Bio-Hazard Safety Level 2 lab. The research is to develop a Bacterio-phage, a virus that attacks the bacteria. An accident exposes some personnel to this staph culture with the phage. This seems benign and the staph even begins to succumb, but there is a mutation that increases it's lethality and makes the staph airborne. Those that survive have a prion from the phage that leaves the brains scarred.

[Tombot]

I am surprised that only one of you guys would have voted for "stay the course".
I would have loved to see more "historical simulation after ww3", instead of "you gotta have an awesome twist" (like in zombie-, or High-Tech-Mode).

About factions of people in specific locales, social and military expansion, and so on..
Something more of a mixture beetween dark-ages and the Ist/2nd world war.

And there would be a whole world of different starting-points.
F.e. starting as an US-soldier in Poland would be quiet different from starting in Australia, the FBU, or even in an Antarcitic research-station.

[.45cultist]

Originally Posted by Tombot

I am surprised that only one of you guys would have voted for "stay the course".
I would have loved to see more "historical simulation after ww3", instead of "you gotta have an awesome twist" (like in zombie-, or High-Tech-Mode).

About factions of people in specific locales, social and military expansion, and so on..
Something more of a mixture beetween dark-ages and the Ist/2nd world war.

And there would be a whole world of different starting-points.
F.e. starting as an US-soldier in Poland would be quiet different from starting in Australia, the FBU, or even in an Antarcitic research-station.

I am greedy, I want all those things! And we have a selection of people here that can deliver.