Sweet old Twilight 2000

[HellHound]

All this math talk reminds me of K.A.B.A.L.

You need a scientific calculator to calculate your hit chance.

(Ok, the log of my attack value is X, the log of the monster's is Y, now turn those two logs into a ratio to determine the % chance that each of you will hit when you attack)

 

[Erratic K]

I bought a copy and read t:2000 when it came out. I didn't like it as much as AD&D, but I got a couple different people to play it. Once with the D&D group for a change of pace and a couple times with some basically non-rpg types that just like wargames.

I remember it being a really inelegant system and hacking on the rules quite abit. I'm sure it was thrown out during the great parental RPG persecution. A shame really. There was something really cool about the chrome and the different NPC mechanic was refreshing.

Nostalgia is nice though, I'll read the pdf download and see if I'm mis-remembering.

-E

 

[painandgreed]

I really liked the T2000 skill system. It's one of my favorites. Use a skill successfully, get a hatch mark. Get a number of hatch marks equal to your skill percentile divided by ten and your skill goes up one more precentile. No levels. No XP. The only skills that go up are the ones you actually use.

 

[HellHound]

It is still an XP system, just a skill-specific one.

Traveller was the first RPG in my memory that used such a system (surprise, surprise - same game company, and the original design was assisted by Mark Miller, although the game was written by Frank Chadwick) - although Traveller had you roll to improve the skill with a bonus based on the number of XP you had received in it.

 

[kigmatzomat]

IIRC RuneQuest and CyberPunk both used a variant the "successful skill check" system of XP.

 

[Monte At Home]

I liked it, but then I'm a sucker for anything even remotely post-holocaust. (Technically, I guess Twilight 2000 is 'during holocaust'.) I played more Aftermath and Gamma World than this, but my high school friends and I had a fun Red Dawn-style game using the rules for a while.

I'm going to start a post-holocaust game soon myself, but I'll be using d20 rules. They're releasing a new version of Morrow Project apparently, which I might check out at GenCon for inspiration.

 

[Banesfinger]

Played T:2k for a whole summer.

Although our group had just played in a 4-year campaign of Aftermath. It was based in the crater that was formerly San Antonio TX. It was such a grim/gritty/poor campaign that characters actually kissed each bullet before firing (they only came across maybe 50 in the entire campaign). Mainly knives and baseball bats. Each person happy to be wearing old hockey equipment for armour.

So, you can imagine when we went to T:2K, with all the starting equipment, my players thought they were invincible....
They thought wrong.

Facing tanks, HE rounds, full-automatic MGs, etc, the characters died quickly. My players perfered to go back to Aftermath, in the mud. While not as glamerous, they could at least run from a mutant who had a bigger knife than them.

 

[painandgreed]

Although our group had just played in a 4-year campaign of Aftermath. It was based in the crater that was formerly San Antonio TX. It was such a grim/gritty/poor campaign that characters actually kissed each bullet before firing (they only came across maybe 50 in the entire campaign). Mainly knives and baseball bats. Each person happy to be wearing old hockey equipment for armour.

This leads into the biggest problem that we saw with T2000, the world rebuilds. Especially playing with ex-military and college grads. The Ranger would be like "Well, I know how to reload my brass with propellant from this tank round. For that matter, I know how to make my own gunpowder in and industrial setting given materials at hand." The chemical engineer, who gave his PC similar skills, would be like "I know how to make gasoline and there are plenty of oil pumps in OK and TX where our party is. I can get one of those running (mech engineer minor) and we can make our own gasoline." Which led to "why isn't the military and civialian governments doing the same?" There's no real reason for the world not to be rebuilding to the point that in a year of game time, the setting it significantly different than when it started out. Afte a year or two of game time, the world should be back to running with many short supplies becoming available again and powers consolidating and back in charge instead of the anarchy that was presented.

 

[Raptor]

Ver 1 over complicated things but Ver 2 was a lot of fun. Thanks for the fond memories...Now if I could get my group away from 3.5 D&D and into this then I would be laughing

 

[wingsandsword]

This leads into the biggest problem that we saw with T2000, the world rebuilds.

Since Twilight 2000 eventually becomes the future of Traveller (at least one version), this makes complete sense.

This very discussion has come up in regard to post-apocalypic games in my gaming group as well (T:2000 only tangentally, since our club only has one of the suppliments for it, a weapons book i think).

Now, things that require advanced fabrication technologies, like computers, might be in short supply for quite a while until new factories for chips ect. can be made, but guns and fuel can be made relatively easily (black powder could be made with 1000 year old technology and there are other options for fuel besides gasoline, like biodiesel which can be made from vegetable oil, lye and methanol, all easily made at low levels of technology, or of course ethanol for fuel).

It's worth noting that in WWII, the Dutch resistance made simple submachine guns using just the simple machine shop they had in a bicycle repair store. The Wright brothers made the first plane mostly out of technology they had available as bicycle craftsmen too.

It wouldn't be pretty, but yes, it would be easier to rebuild than some people think.