Krug
Newshound
http://enworld.rpgshop.com/product_info.php?products_id=32398&
Hmm this looks interesting. Anybody tried this product?
Hmm this looks interesting. Anybody tried this product?
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[OT] Twilight 2000
- Thread starter Krug
- Start date
ColonelHardisson
What? Me Worry?
I have most of the Twilight: 2000 adventures and supplements GDW published, and this is just a reprint, so I can give an opinion.
It uses a pretty complex, and, in my opinion, slow and rather clunky combat system. The same system was used for Dark Conspiracy and 2300, but was trimmed back some, as I recall.
The adventures and supplements are actually generally well-written and put together.
The setting for Twilight: 2000 is one of the most grim and depressing RPG settings I've seen. It deals with the aftermath of a limited-exchange nuclear war. No mutants or goofy superpowers, just the ruins of civilization, where the PCs will be gathering the spent brass after a firefight. Twilight Nightmares is a book of adventures for the game that tossed in some scifi and horror elements, but was completly optional.
It uses a pretty complex, and, in my opinion, slow and rather clunky combat system. The same system was used for Dark Conspiracy and 2300, but was trimmed back some, as I recall.
The adventures and supplements are actually generally well-written and put together.
The setting for Twilight: 2000 is one of the most grim and depressing RPG settings I've seen. It deals with the aftermath of a limited-exchange nuclear war. No mutants or goofy superpowers, just the ruins of civilization, where the PCs will be gathering the spent brass after a firefight. Twilight Nightmares is a book of adventures for the game that tossed in some scifi and horror elements, but was completly optional.
trancejeremy
Adventurer
Well, it's sort of interesting if you like nostalgia. Basically it's what happens if a (very) limited nuclear war breaks out between the US & USSR. (This was put out back in the 80s)
Well done, for the most part. I only had the 2nd version, which had a completely different rule system. That was okay, but the first is apparently a bit weird.
There was a computer game based on this from Microprose.
Well done, for the most part. I only had the 2nd version, which had a completely different rule system. That was okay, but the first is apparently a bit weird.
There was a computer game based on this from Microprose.
BigBastard
First Post
ColonelHardisson said:
I believe you're talking about the big yellow 2nd edition rule book of Twilight 2000 that came after the two thin manuals which was a pretty easy rules system. I loved the 1st edition's tank combat rules.
I believe the reprints are of the first edition set that came in a box.
ColonelHardisson
What? Me Worry?
BigBastard said:
I believe you're talking about the big yellow 2nd edition rule book of Twilight 2000 that came after the two thin manuals which was a pretty easy rules system. I loved the 1st edition's tank combat rules.
No, I'm not, actually. I have the original boxed set. It's the only edition I've ever owned.
ColonelHardisson
What? Me Worry?
The combat system and character generation system of the edition I owned - the original boxed set - both played very clunky and slow. If they worked for others, that's cool. They just didn't work for my group.
ColonelHardisson said:
But Dark Conspiracy definitely uses the Twilight 2000 2nd edition rules, though.
The 1st edition boxed-set rules have % skills while the 2nd edition has 1-10 skills and attributes.
Also, I think the 2nd edition could come in a deluxe collector boxed set, which complicates matters.
I hated 2nd edition because you had to have a 40-something-years-old character to have any amount of skills while in 1st edition almost all characters had lots of skills and were much younger. At least it fit with the maxim that "war is a young man's game".
Dark Conspiracy had the same character creation problems, I felt.
The 1st edition is also much more deadly. You had to shoot about 15 M-16 bullets in someone's torso to kill them, in 2nd edition.
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Goodsport
Explorer
THE EVOLUTION OF THE TWILIGHT: 2000 LINE
      Twilight: 2000 First Edition (released in 1984) was much too math-heavy for my taste!
Although a fun game, the vehicle-combat rules were almost impossible to run quickly and many rules aspects weren't in place yet (recoil rules, shooting while running, aimed shots vs. area burst, etc.). And the history portion in the beginning of the book ran from 1995-2000.
      Twilight: 2000 Second Edition (released in 1990) was a complete overhaul of the system, simplifying much of it (for the better, IMO) and changing the game from % rolls to d10 rolls - I was amazed at how quickly I was able to create a character after the marathon-session chargen of the First Edition. And the history in the beginning of the book changed to 1989-2000, so at least the first year of the history was already familiar to readers (it mentioned the Panama Invasion and the Gulf War).
      Twilight: 2000 Version 2.2 (released in 1993) was the final, and IMO the best, version of T:2000 to date (unfortunately, GDW went out-of-business three years later ). While not the overhaul that came between the first two editions, it polished up many of the Second Edition's rought edges, and changed the system from d10 rolls to d20 rolls. This time around, the writers of the history in the beginning of the book had the benefit of hindsight... 1989-1991 went exactly as it did in real life, while in the game's history, KGB's Alpha Team obeyed the Soviet coup leaders' orders in August, 1991 and stormed the Russian White House, killing Boris Yeltsin and his fellow rebels and restoring a Stalinist rule on the Soviet Union. Surprisingly, though, most of the rest of the game history ran similarly to the Second Edition's version - so basically, they took a point in history's past (by the time Version 2.2 hit stores), changed it, and thus created a "what-if" world whose history no longer needs revising but instead simply becomes a different dimension (similiar to the "What if the Germans had won WWII?" or "What if the Roman Empire had never fallen?" type of settings). 
      Merc: 2000, Dark Conspiracy and Cadillacs & Dinosaurs all used the Second Edition ruleset (as they were released prior to Version 2.2), although Traveller: The New Era used the Version 2.2 ruleset. However, while 2300AD was set in the Twilight: 2000 universe (just 300 years later), it used its own completely different ruleset (evolved from its previous incarnation, Traveller: 2300, which contrary to what some initially believed, had nothing to do with the Traveller continuity).
      On a side-note: until GDW developed one house-rule system for all their games, it was annoying how each of their RPG's had great settings but different game-systems from one another.
      I hope this helped!
-G
      Twilight: 2000 First Edition (released in 1984) was much too math-heavy for my taste!
Although a fun game, the vehicle-combat rules were almost impossible to run quickly and many rules aspects weren't in place yet (recoil rules, shooting while running, aimed shots vs. area burst, etc.). And the history portion in the beginning of the book ran from 1995-2000.      Twilight: 2000 Second Edition (released in 1990) was a complete overhaul of the system, simplifying much of it (for the better, IMO) and changing the game from % rolls to d10 rolls - I was amazed at how quickly I was able to create a character after the marathon-session chargen of the First Edition. And the history in the beginning of the book changed to 1989-2000, so at least the first year of the history was already familiar to readers (it mentioned the Panama Invasion and the Gulf War).
      Twilight: 2000 Version 2.2 (released in 1993) was the final, and IMO the best, version of T:2000 to date (unfortunately, GDW went out-of-business three years later
). While not the overhaul that came between the first two editions, it polished up many of the Second Edition's rought edges, and changed the system from d10 rolls to d20 rolls. This time around, the writers of the history in the beginning of the book had the benefit of hindsight... 1989-1991 went exactly as it did in real life, while in the game's history, KGB's Alpha Team obeyed the Soviet coup leaders' orders in August, 1991 and stormed the Russian White House, killing Boris Yeltsin and his fellow rebels and restoring a Stalinist rule on the Soviet Union. Surprisingly, though, most of the rest of the game history ran similarly to the Second Edition's version - so basically, they took a point in history's past (by the time Version 2.2 hit stores), changed it, and thus created a "what-if" world whose history no longer needs revising but instead simply becomes a different dimension (similiar to the "What if the Germans had won WWII?" or "What if the Roman Empire had never fallen?" type of settings).       Merc: 2000, Dark Conspiracy and Cadillacs & Dinosaurs all used the Second Edition ruleset (as they were released prior to Version 2.2), although Traveller: The New Era used the Version 2.2 ruleset. However, while 2300AD was set in the Twilight: 2000 universe (just 300 years later), it used its own completely different ruleset (evolved from its previous incarnation, Traveller: 2300, which contrary to what some initially believed, had nothing to do with the Traveller continuity).
      On a side-note: until GDW developed one house-rule system for all their games, it was annoying how each of their RPG's had great settings but different game-systems from one another.
      I hope this helped!
-G
ColonelHardisson
What? Me Worry?
HeavyG said:
I guess the two editions must have somewhat similar rules; I always assumed Dark Conspiracy used a watered down/retooled version of the rules I was familiar with in T:2000.
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