Free League Announces Twilight: 2000 4th Edition

Free League is fast catching up with Modiphius with its collection of licensed RPGs. They've just announced that the post-apocalyptic WW3-themed Twilight: 2000 4th edition boxed set will be coming to Kickstarter in August.

Here's the full announcement:

 PRESS RELEASE

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A new edition of the classic roleplaying game Twilight: 2000 was announced today by Free League Publishing, makers of the ALIEN RPG, in partnership with Game Designers’ Workshop and Amargosa Press. The new edition goes back to the roots of the franchise with a boxed set for sandbox roleplaying in the devastation of World War III. It will come to Kickstarter in August, to be released in early 2021.

The new edition of the apocalyptic RPG Twilight: 2000 will be the fourth in the series, the first being released by Game Designers' Workshop in 1984. Just like the original version, the new edition is set in a year 2000 devastated by war – now in an alternate timeline where the Moscow Coup of 1991 succeeded and the Soviet Union never collapsed.

"The first edition of Twilight: 2000 was an iconic game for me back in the '80s, and we are humbled and honored to work with Marc Miller and Game Designers’ Workshop to bring a new edition to life. The original game was really ahead of its time. Our goal is to build on the amazing sandbox survival gameplay and develop it further, making it more accessible using the tools of modern game design,"says lead game designer and Free League founder Tomas Härenstam.

"When I saw this proposal to revisit the Twilight universe, I signed on immediately. As I have seen the work proceed, I have not been disappointed, and I look forward to seeing this project become reality,"says Marc Miller of Far Future Enterprises and co-founder of Game Designers' Workshop.

Also part of the project are Amargosa Press (who have recently announced the new Dark Conspiracy 4th Edition RPG), Polish RPG publisher Black Monk Games (who will act as a consultant on the Poland in 2000 AD game setting as well as publish a Polish edition of the game), and Far Future Enterprises (who publishes the fifth edition of the Traveller science-fiction roleplaying game).

The design team is led by Tomas Härenstam (ALIEN RPG, Forbidden Lands, Mutant: Year Zero), with setting and scenario writing by Chris Lites (Conan, Over the Edge), editing by Angus Abranson (Doctor Who, The One Ring), interior art by Niklas Brant (Forbidden Lands), cover art by Martin Grip (ALIENRPG, Symbaroum), and maps by Tobias Tranell (Forbidden Lands). Several active and retired servicemen from the U.S. military are assigned to the project as consultants.

"Twilight: 2000 was a favorite of ours at school in the '80s, with many a lunch hour spent salvaging what we could as we traveled across the ruins of Europe trying to survive. I’m honored to be involved in a new edition, and being able to work with the Free League is a fantastic bonus!” says Angus Abranson of Amargosa Press.

Just like the original game, the new edition of Twilight: 2000 is set in a Poland devastated by war, but the game also offers an alternative Swedish setting, as well as tools for placing the game anywhere in the world.

In the game, players take roles of survivors in the aftermath of World War III – soldiers or civilians. Their goal, beyond surviving for another day, can be to find a way back home, to carve out their own fiefdom where they are, to find out more about the mysterious Operation Reset, and maybe, just maybe, make the world a little bit better again.

The core gameplay uses a "hexcrawling" system established in the post-apocalyptic Mutant: Year Zeroand survival fantasy Forbidden Lands RPGs (both Silver ENnie winners for Best Rules, in 2015 and 2019), developing it further to fit the gritty world of Twilight: 2000. The core rules are built on the Year Zero Engine used in those games (as well as in the ALIEN RPG), but heavily adapted to fit Twilight: 2000 and its focus on gear and gritty realism.

More information about the new edition of Twilight: 2000 will be forthcoming soon.

 

[Paragon Lost]

Kind of the same question as above, but in regards to Military vehicle combat and the depth and detail of such game rules. Can my players group operating an M1A1 Abrams be taken out from a Russian Kornet ATGM?

I would hope so since the Spriggan has taken out Leopard II's and Abrams in real world encounters. Mind you, it shouldn't be a 100% chance, but as one of the newest heavy anti tank weapons out it should be one that main battle tank commanders should be worried about. Angle of attack and various other conditions of course vary the success ratio.

 

[aramis erak]

Twilight 2000 is a singularly bleak RPG, as written. Starvation, radiation sickness, injury. I'm curious if they'll update the timeline as they did with later editions, or keep it rooted in the retro-apocalypse?

The ads for Twilight 2000 in Dragon magazine back in the day were so striking, all the moreso for the specific apocalyptic fears of the time.

The release says they're alt-universing it, and mentioning that the coup doesn't happen in 1991 divorces it from the timeline in T2K 2.2

 

[Lord_Blacksteel]

My first T2000 character never got out of the humvee

Yeah ... that could happen. Happened to one of mine ... KPV>Windshield.

Of course this was after two hours of setup, back story, and selecting gear. I mean, in what other game would you be arguing about how big a trailer you need to haul the still to keep your tank fueled up and running?

I think the strong rules FL manages when it comes to stress and trauma are a wonderful fit for this setting. The psychological element will be strong, which is a key for me. I'm less concerned about having a massive list of subtly differentiated modern firearms. Some detail there would be nice, but I'm not interested in pages and pages that amount to variation without much difference. (No offense to all the firearms experts out there, I know that sort of thing is very much your bag).

Well, the problem is that there weren't really any rules for any psych or trauma like that in the original game, and not a whole lot more in the second edition. It was very much in the minds of the players though, because there is no Cure Light Wounds, no potions, no "short rests", no Stim Packs, no working hospitals really. If you get wounded, it's rough and there are rules for plenty of other bad things like disease and radiation. It's a game where the first session is likely to see you in the best health and with the most/best gear you will ever have - it tends to degrade from there.

As far as hardware, well, that was a big feature in the original game too. Sometimes it mattered if you knew whose gun shot farther or how many shots they had before reloading. It was put out by a wargaming company so getting the details like that in the game and correct was a big thing for them.

It's very different than a lot of games today - and a lot of contemporary games for that matter. I'm interested in seeing how much of the old approach they retain even with new mechanics.

 

[darjr]

I had a backup character all ready to go. He was a flunky though but managed to be a survivor. All the others died. That game helped teach me about character death.

That first character was the lookout/driver and the bad guys just riddled the humvee. They didn’t even know my character was in there.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

We never needed rules for PTSD since the players all had it after a few sessions. I hope they don't go gonzo in that direction. It took one firefight to shift from D&D mode to this. Soon we were avoiding combat as much as possible, and planning the fights we had to do for hours. It was wonderful.

Honestly if they really gloss over gun rules to super simplify it I will pass. If a 5.56x45 is a 7.62x39 is a .308 that won't be good IMO. I know as a wargamer the push is continually simplify and "streamline" but TW2k benefited from the detailed rules IMO. But I realize I'm probably in the minority.

I have high hopes and will keep an eye on it. In any event it looks like we will be returning to that old Armies of the Night Campaign once that DM finishes Storm King's Thunder.

 

[Paragon Lost]

Pirates of the Vistula was a fun campaign to run back then. Our group started much further south and west along the Fulda Gap before getting to events leading us to that. The group wanted to do a fighting retreat northward towards the Channel but ended up being driven northeast. Fun, desperate campaign leading into the Poland campaign. Damn, I'm getting really excited to see Free Leagues take on Twilight 2000.

 

[Eltab]

The "What does the US look like?" module for the original Twilight:2000 is titled Howling Wilderness, for those who want to take a look.

 

[3catcircus]

I don't know about this. I liked the V1/V2/V2.2 rule set and loved the timeline and backstory. I love love love the TW:2013 rule set even though the timeline and backstory leaves a lot to be desired (child of the 70s/80s I am...)

I'm not exactly sure how their rule set will play. Anybody know?

I want to be able to have a lifepath chargen system. Be able to step up or down the rules complexity. Have combat feel dangerous with shock, bleeding out, and "good night" one shot kills possible. Be able to implement team rules/immediate action drills. Include good rules for vehicle combat, explosives, fire (being on fire needs to scare every PC as it would every player - I've never seen an RPG with rules whereby fire is as scary as it ought to be). Survival rules - foraging, vehicle maintenance, disease, CBR (NBC). And the rules need to make it such that you don't end up needing to be 40+ years old to have the skills if you are playing a SOF type of game.

PCs need to be "proficient" at their specialties even if the PC was created to be in the middle of a a single 4-year enlistment (or first couple of years at a civilian occupation) when the crazy happens, with the possibility of some being better or worse than "average." The bell curve needs to apply. Let's say you have a party of 5 PCs - 3 are US Army 11B infantrymen, one is a local politician and one is the local military equivalent of a 92W Water Treatment Specialist. It should be entirely possible that the 92W is a better shot than one of the 11Bs (perhaps he has Expert Rifle and one the 11Bs only has Sharpshooter). It may be entirely possible that the local politician has been an avid hunter for years and is just as good a shot as the average 11B infantryman.

That level of detail is what will sell me on buying this game.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I might have to get some Team Yankee 15mm stuff to use in this game. Damn. Money it was nice having you.

 

[Paragon Lost]

I might have to get some Team Yankee 15mm stuff to use in this game. Damn. Money it was nice having you.

Loved playing the old First Battle Rules and later on Team Yankee version, fun times. I need to look up the current rules to see how much they have changed.