(2300AD) The Invasion campaign is here!

[MongooseMatt]

The much long-awaited Invasion campaign for 2300AD has landed!

You can grab your copy of Part One right here: https://www.mongoosepublishing.com/products/invasion-part-i-background-appendices



The French Arm is the most heavily-settled and best-developed segment of humanity’s extra-solar expansion, thanks to the efforts of the ESA member nations.

In 2295, a research station studying the red giant star Arcturus made contact with an unknown starfaring species. Attempts to communicate were fruitless, and the alien flotilla departed the system after a few days.

One year later they returned.

Invasion is a complete campaign covering the war against the alien Kaefers. The Travellers are swept up in this conflict, and find themselves becoming heroes.

Part One of Invasion includes descriptions of all colony worlds on the French Arm, the major outposts, new spacecraft, a compilation of animals and characters, and information on three alien species. Also included is a large section detailing Station Arcture.

All of this supports a campaign that follows the Travellers from humble beginnings as colonists on Aurore caught in the first alien assault, then across worlds of the French Arm. The focus is on the Travellers and the worlds and people they meet, showcasing the horror and heroism of an interstellar war for survival against a mysterious and terrible foe.

 

[ProfGrizzlyJon]

I just want to say "thank you" for your inclusion and integration of the Morale (MRL) stat. This is a key component (IMHO) to accurately capturing the horror and strangeness of Traveller and 2300AD.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Ok, negatives first.
I couldn't disagree with you more. The morale characteristics effectively make Invasion a different game system to Traveller and Traveller:2300. I won't be adopting it. Suggesting its use rather than making it a new core mechanic... If I want to use a game with a stress mechanic to run this then I have Alien, T2k4e, or Mothership... hmm now there is a thought.

Nor will I ever use any word other than Kafer (kaefer actually sounds more like the South African slur when spoken in my accent), I will stick to the original timeline, genders will be swapped back to their original, and some of Colin's more ridiculous politically driven inclusions will be expunged. I buy games for fun, not to be lectured to.

Not a fan of the art, the Kafer in particular lack the fear factor of the cover of the original Kafer sourcebook

PCs will not be rewarded with an entire term of service for one extended scenario, the whole point of the prior career system is that they were doing this sort of stuff in their past, standard XP for what it is worth is all they will get.

Now that I feel better.

It is a much better introduction and far better prelude scenario than I was expecting. I like the premise, the prelude adventure looks like it will be traumatic but great fun to run. I also like the set up for the future, pity the FFW hadn't adopted some of these ideas so that players and referees could feel like they were involved rather than just reading page after page of MJDs FFW after action report... now there is another thought...

so lots of useful stuff, more useful than not and some great ideas.

All in all more positives, I like it.

I am looking forward to part 2

 

[tytalan]

So this is part one of how many parts? And any ideal when the others will be released?

 

[Vormaerin]

I agree about the morale as applied to PCs and the package skills for "campaign points" systems. I'll give them more thought, but neither feels right to me at first glance. I don't have any loyalty to the original version so most of the rest of those negatives don't hit me. I didn't get any lecturing tone, at any rate.

I definitely have a more favorable view of the prelude and the apparent design of the campaign than I do anything put out for FFW. The prelude looks like it would be lots of fun to run and easily adaptable to some other colony invasion scenario one might choose to run in a homebrew. All in all, surprisingly more value in it than I was expecting. Quite pleased.

 

[Arnie1701]

This brings back memories.

 

[ottarrus]

1. We're finally back to calling them the Kafer. Yay.
2. I'm willing to see how the Morale score works out in play before I pass judgement. No matter how many times the writers of 2300 have tried to tell us, many players /fans seem to gloss over the existential threat and fear the Kafer pose to Humanity in 2300. These beings are supposed to evoke feelings our monkey troop ancestors felt when they knew they were being hunted, but everyone... EVERYONE... plays the Kafer like they're just another batch of Vargr or Aslan... a threat, but one that can be dealt with. In 2301, Humanity doesn't know how to deal with the Kafer yet. The Kafer are creatures out of nightmare and rumors follow every one of their attacks, that 'they eat humans' the least of which. All that being said, a Morale score is one mechanic that can illustrate the level of threat the Kafer pose. Again, I'm willing to see how it works at the table before passing judgement on it.
3. The naval battles of Invasion are gonna be a pain the butt using the current 2300 ship combat rules. I really do think that should have been fixed before Invasion came out.
4. I've looked forward to Invasion for awhile. I like MOST of what I've read so far. I'm looking forward to the next volume and I congratulate Colin Dunn on the obvious level of work this required.

 

[Vormaerin]

Players are rarely inclined to accept any threat as existential unless everyone's set down to play a horror game. But I just generally prefer to demonstrate that the monsters are that bad over having a "roll dice to avoid losing control of your character's decisions" mechanic. And I think the prologue gives plenty of opportunity to establish that the kafer are *that* bad between their actions and the reactions of the NPCs.

YMMV.