Review - Twilight: 2000

[@yegenek]

Mark Miller was an army officer and he was in Vietnam before he entered game industry. He adapted the career system he experienced to the Traveller. And when the same system was adapted in Twilight 2000 a game with characters in Nato branches it became a full circle 😅

[@WillyMuffinUK]

Stories like this are great - thanks for sharing 🙂

[@johnherkert9895]

Twilight Fourth Edition has all the classic elements of Version 2.2 with noticeable updates in the game metrics.

[@WillyMuffinUK]

And an easier time of character generation!

[@eisenhornjh]

I really enjoyed this video. Very compelling format. I was disappointed when it ended. Cheers.

[@WillyMuffinUK]

Thank-you - I'm happy you found it useful :)

[@Panzerfan93]

That was a great video! Nice audio and good editing! I look forward to more

[@WillyMuffinUK]

Thank-you 🙂

[@anna-elizabeth]

I collect T2K things, I have a mix of OG splatbooks and PDF issues, plus I have an unpunched copy of "The Last Battle" tabletop wargame. I didn't really like the 2013 version. Of the OG, I really like the RDF Sourcebook/setting and The Last Submarine trilogy. I particularly appreciate the turretless "casemate" tanks from the 1st Edition Vehicle books. To me, the theme of T2K is "What Are You, after the End?" Are you still an American soldier, what kind of human being will you choose to be? I was a child in the 80s. My father thought that the USA would have to perish in thermonuclear fire by 1984, to fulfill his particular religious beliefs. Nuclear holocaust was standard dinner table talk when I was little.

[@WillyMuffinUK]

I can't say I'm a huge fan of T2013, either - and the Last Sub sequence is a lot of fun. I'm glad whatever religious prophecy your dad was working with didn't come to pass. Nuclear war wasn't so pronounced at the dinner table for me, but it was certainly everywhere else - TV public service ads, school, and so on. As the song goes, "we who grew up strong and proud, under the shadow of the mushroom cloud".

[@anna-elizabeth]

@@WillyMuffinUK By the time I became a teenager, I had read all the available information I could find on nuclear weapons, deterrence strategy, and etc. I found that actual knowledge helped me master the fears I was raised in. "Boomer" may be my favorite adventure splatbook of any game.

[@patrickmullen9485]

Great Video, Ian. Agree on the Vistula saga. The sad part these days is: 1.) I find Free League’s system too gimmicky and limiting and 2.) I Find My nostalgia for an alternate past just doesn’t kick in. I’d love to play an apocalyptic survival game that isn’t just a rehash conceptually and in terms of a property of something already made.

[@WillyMuffinUK]

I can see what you're saying. I don't find it too gimmicky, but yes - it is gimmicky. But personally, I think it works in this case. As for post-apocalyptic - there does seem to be a lack of original ideas. Everything seems to work around Mad Max, or Zombies, or WW3. But hey ho - I just hope we never have to experience any of them for real.

[@brandonkelbe]

Really wishing they had a D20 system..

[@patrickmullen9485]

@@brandonkelbe I don’t. That’s system fits dungeons and dragons and everything else is just A bad bolt on

[@brianjohnson1985]

2.2 worked really well. Huge fan of the new era also

[@WillyMuffinUK]

I think GDW were going in a good direction with their house system. It's a shame other events ended up pulling the plug.

[@Se7enBeatleofDoom]

The game looks fun but Why play the Twilight 2000 TTRPG when you can play it in real life one day?

[@WillyMuffinUK]

That was dark 🤣

[@andyrmac7733]

An excellent review so much so m going to get a copy of 4th edition. Thank you for posting.

[@WillyMuffinUK]

Ask Free League if they do commissions 😉 Thank-you, and I hope you enjoy your foray into 4th!

[@PatriceBoivin]

Remember Viktor Suvorov? Strategy & Tactics and The General magazines. One included a WW3 game with perhaps a thousand chits, soviet tank columns, Cat A B C, NBC gear, tactical nuke rules, etc. There were a few Twilight 2000 scenarios published in Dragon Magazine if I remember correctly, one was a research facility guarded by robots. Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Two Tribes 12" single with "If any member of the family should die whilst in the shelter, put them outside but remember to tag them first for identification purposes." kzbin.info/www/bejne/pp_LaKtulrplbMk Kids now don't know how that time felt.

[@WillyMuffinUK]

I have the Pleasuredome lp! Challenge had a lot of Twilight articles, as GDWs house mag. I can't recall a lot of T2K articles in Dragon, though. I'll have to take a sift through sometime. Strat & Tac was an amazing beast. Counters galore! :)

[@MikePerry-bt9yv]

Great video Exactly what I was looking for Thank you so much

[@WillyMuffinUK]

Thank-you - I'm glad it was useful 🙂

[@Merrexz]

Wonderfully presented, thank you!

[@WillyMuffinUK]

Thank-you, I'm glad you found it useful 🙂

[@KujakuDM]

Where did you get the beginning audio?

[@WillyMuffinUK]

I made it myself.

[@brandonkelbe]

This is the video I was looking for.

[@WillyMuffinUK]

I hope it helped you.

[@brandonkelbe]

@@WillyMuffinUK Yes, I didn’t understand all the versions. This is great. It sounds amazing, and I love the idea of the setting. But I’m not crazy about all the different dice and crunch..

[@WillyMuffinUK]

@@brandonkelbe The dice can be managed using standard d6s - the crunch... yeah, no getting away from that. 4E is less crunchy, but it's there. IMO, necessary from a survivalist game perspective.

[@SergeantCurmudgeon]

Urban operations update?

[@WillyMuffinUK]

I could do that as a separate review. Probably should before Hostile Waters hits shelves!

[@martinbowman1993]

I find the concept of the game interesting, but have a hard time wrapping my mind around what a fun session would look like?

[@WillyMuffinUK]

Well, now "fun" is subjective! The ultimate goal in T2K is survival. How players approach that will differ from group to group. For me, though, a fun T2K session will start with some info of, say, potential shelter, gear, ammo, food, something that may forward the group towards a permanent haven. That info might be through their own scouting or observation methods, maybe they come across it on the road - the wreck of a courier, perhaps. Investigating and attempting to secure whatever it is they've got Intel on then follows. Usually a bit of combat - how heavy depends on the nature of "the thing". Could be marauders got their first, or "the thing" is already guarded. Hopefully the PCs were able to come up with a tactical plan ahead of time. Then finally, acquisition of "the thing" and inching that little bit closer to getting the heck out of nuclear dodge. Basically - Intel, move, action, recover, take stock. There are lots of different forms that can take. Ultimately, for me a fun session involves some thinking, some fighting, and some reward that will help my character get through tomorrow.

[@martinbowman1993]

@@WillyMuffinUK thanks. Which version do you think is the most playable?

[@WillyMuffinUK]

@@martinbowman1993 By far Free League's version (T2K 4th). I do have a soft spot for v2.2, but that's mainly because of its direct compatibility with Traveller: The New Era more than an assessment on its playability. Free League's version is also strongly supported by 3rd party authors via DriveThruRPG, so there's a lot of additional material out there beyond the core releases.

[@martinbowman1993]

@@WillyMuffinUK I like Traveller a lot. I'll check them out. Thanks

[@WillyMuffinUK]

@@martinbowman1993 Bear in mind that T2K 2.2 is specifically compatible with Traveller: The New Era. It doesn't connect to any other edition, because of how different TNE is from the rest.