2300AD is Back!

[MongooseMatt]

The all new 2300AD, written by Colin Dunn for the Traveller system, is about to start shipping and will start appearing in stores next week.

2300AD games range from interstellar exploration and interstellar war, down to the gritty streets and the mega-cities of the human Core. This is a game about people, and their rise to the stars. Aliens are a part of the 2300AD milieu, but the focus of the game is on Humans. 2300AD strives to obey the laws of the universe as we know them. The stutterwarp drive, the technology that allows humanity to travel faster than light, is the sole departure from this. Some of the other technologies bend the laws a little, but that’s from the standpoint of the early 21st century. Three hundred years in the future is a long time. There are no blasters or laser swords in 2300AD, no magic anti-gravity or artificial gravity – just guns and helicopters, spin habitats and spaceplanes.

You can find more details at;

UK: 2300AD Core Rulebook - 2300AD - Traveller - RPGs
US: 2300AD Core Rulebook - 2300AD - Traveller - RPGs

You can also grab the PDF at Drivethru right now at;

2300ad - Mongoose | DriveThruRPG.com

Finally, if you do not have a copy of the Traveller core rules, you can snatch one in a bundle with 2300AD for just $5 more at Drivethru;

2300AD & Traveller [BUNDLE] - Mongoose | DriveThruRPG.com

 

[Plane Sailing]

I had the first two or three versions of 2300, and I loved the 'real worldness' of the settings. Probably one of the hardest sci-fi settings out there.

Do we still see Kafers, Pentapods and the other alien races in the mix?

Anway, I'll have to take a look

 

[Treebore]

I had the first two or three versions of 2300, and I loved the 'real worldness' of the settings. Probably one of the hardest sci-fi settings out there.

Do we still see Kafers, Pentapods and the other alien races in the mix?

Anway, I'll have to take a look

Yep.

"By 2300, humanity has encountered five other sentient races,
from the hostile and murderous Kaefers to the bizarre and unfathomable
Pentapods. Of these races, two had starfaring capability
at time of contact: the Pentapods and the mysterious
Kaefers, while the Ebers lost the technology, along with all their
other technology, when they bombed themselves back to the
Stone Age 4,000 years ago."

From Preview, page 109.

 

[trancejeremy]

At one time I owned most of the old GDW 2300 books. It's a good setting, tied up with a horrible game system. I imagine the new Traveller rules from Mongoose are better. Then again....

 

[Votan]

This was the system that got me to buy a scientific calculator so I could take cube roots for starship construction.

Good times!

 

[Water Bob]

At one time I owned most of the old GDW 2300 books. It's a good setting, tied up with a horrible game system. I imagine the new Traveller rules from Mongoose are better. Then again....

What are you tallking about! It had a great task system. It was a lot like what we saw with MegaTraveller (one of the most popular Traveller mechanics systems), except it used d10 instead of d6.

 

[Plane Sailing]

2300 actually had two systems from what I remember! Traveller 2300 came out with one system, and then they dropped the 'Traveller' and made it just 2300 (or was it 2300AD?) with a slightly different system. I can't remember whether they were big or small differences, but they were certainly there!

 

[Plane Sailing]

As much as I loved the old 2300, there were some aspects where the rules completely missed their mark!

I remember the claim of starship combat like being a battle between eggshells armed with hammers - which is a great image, but their actual combat resolution made it much more like tanks armed with peashooters!

Cheers

 

[jonesy]

I remember the claim of starship combat like being a battle between eggshells armed with hammers - which is a great image, but their actual combat resolution made it much more like tanks armed with peashooters!

Maybe the idea behind the toned down space war mechanics was that it would feel pretty dumb to play a mission on a planet only to have it end in one shot when trying to get to the next location. I mean, it did seem to me that they also toned down the ground combat. Resulting in a clash between what the crunch is doing and the fluff is saying.