Twilight 2013

[qstor]

Has anyone else gotten this?

http://paizo.com/store/blog#v5748dyo5laa8

I saw it was in print now. I had a bunch of the old supplements from GDW back in the 80's. I thought it was a neat game. I might get the new print version.

Mike

 

[Lhorgrim]

I'm really intrigued by this game. I played Twilight 2000 back in the 80's, and had a really fun time with it. Fighting(sneaking) across post war Europe in an effort to get back to the U.S. made for some cool game sessions.

I don't have the extra cash in the budget right now because I've been picking up some True20 stuff from Green Ronin, but this is on my list of future purchases.

 

[La Bete]

the review on rpg.net was... mixed.

RPGnet : Review of Twilight: 2013

I particularly liked "Global Geopolitics Don't Work That Way"

 

[Gort]

By mixed, you mean "scathingly derisive"

 

[thedungeondelver]

Speaking just for myself, I prefer the alt-history of TWILIGHT:2000. I live (like the rest of you) in a world edging towards peak oil, where we are two weeks away from societal breakdown in the event of a major infrastructure collapse, where we have scattered our military in tiny packets to godawful places across the world to try and contain an enemy that sifts through like sand...(stopping now lest this ping a mod's political sensor, which it surely is not intended as).

Point being, TWILIGHT:2013 dances with those things and invites us to live in a place that is only a shade away from the way things are currently.

Thanks, but no thanks.

I realize that until we all universally dispense with nuclear weapons that the chance of a nuclear war still exists, but in a large way the "future past" of TWILIGHT:2000 is a lot more fanciful than when it was first published...so I prefer that kind of "world war/world collapse" to the "You're off fighting al-Qaida when suddenly..." of the current version.

 

[Nikosandros]

the review on rpg.net was... mixed.

RPGnet : Review of Twilight: 2013

I particularly liked "Global Geopolitics Don't Work That Way"

I didn't get far reading that review... more than a review it seemed like a political rambling.

 

[thedungeondelver]

I didn't get far reading that review... more than a review it seemed like a political rambling.

Force yourself. The stupid/silly of TWILIGHT:2013 should be understood. It's a fantasy game trying to masquerade as a gritty/modern wargame, and its premise falls apart at the slightest touch because, as the author of the review put it, the people who wrote the game seem to have gotten their knowledge of How Things Work in geopolitical and military terms from the WHEEL OF TIME books.

And that just don't hack it for a game based on trigger time and getting another ten liters of fuel to keep the Humvee going.

 

[coyote6]

Yeah, that's not a real great review, IMO. I think it was supposed to be funny, maybe. The reviewer seems to have confused his preference for rules light games for some sort of Law of RPG Evolution, though. I'd hate to see his review of GURPS High-Tech or Aces & Eights.

I'm still not sure about the T:2k13 rules myself; I'd have to play a few sessions to be tell if I like 'em or not. But there's a difference between "not to my taste" and "this is wrong, the authors are wrong, and they should have used d20 (even though I don't own d20 Modern and thus don't know much about it, and admit that they'd have to change the classes, the levels, the hp, and most of the rules)".

 

[coyote6]

Force yourself. The stupid/silly of TWILIGHT:2013 should be understood. It's a fantasy game trying to masquerade as a gritty/modern wargame, and its premise falls apart at the slightest touch because, as the author of the review put it, the people who wrote the game seem to have gotten their knowledge of How Things Work in geopolitical and military terms from the WHEEL OF TIME books.

And that just don't hack it for a game based on trigger time and getting another ten liters of fuel to keep the Humvee going.

Why? As I believe even the reviewer said, the background of the world is largely academic to the game. The important bit is that the world's FUBAR, fuel/ammo/food/everything is short, trouble is plentiful, and it's a dangerous place; the wherefores and whys and how-did-we-get-to-this-poitn don't matter to the rules, at all.

I mean, I wasn't enamored of their future history, either; but it wasn't Epic Fail that makes the game Epic Fail. I'd probably just use the original T2K setting, or make up my own (and it would likely boil down to, "the world's gone to hell, nobody's quite sure why, and it doesn't really matter, because someone is trying to eat your face. Roll for initiative").

The thing that matters to me is if I can use the rules. I'm not sure about that; they seem a bit fiddly for my current tastes & the tastes of my group (the Stage III rules definitely are too much for me!).

 

[thedungeondelver]

Why? As I believe even the reviewer said, the background of the world is largely academic to the game. The important bit is that the world's FUBAR, fuel/ammo/food/everything is short, trouble is plentiful, and it's a dangerous place; the wherefores and whys and how-did-we-get-to-this-poitn don't matter to the rules, at all.

I mean, I wasn't enamored of their future history, either; but it wasn't Epic Fail that makes the game Epic Fail. I'd probably just use the original T2K setting, or make up my own (and it would likely boil down to, "the world's gone to hell, nobody's quite sure why, and it doesn't really matter, because someone is trying to eat your face. Roll for initiative").

The thing that matters to me is if I can use the rules. I'm not sure about that; they seem a bit fiddly for my current tastes & the tastes of my group (the Stage III rules definitely are too much for me!).

There is a level of interference that comes from a game's background that sometimes makes it difficult to "work around". And as someone on the rpg.net comment thread notes, "You can change that if you want to" is never, ever a valid argument for bad game design. (Paraphrasing, but still).

Hell I could ditch the 2013 timeline altogether and use the T2k setting instead, but trying to "game around" the quite frankly utterly fantastical leaps in logic that 2013's setting purports would just be an annoyance to me as a GM.

As always, YMMV.