2300AD

[Colin]

I'm curious as to what people think about 2300AD.

Should it be a contemporary Hard SF game, incorporating inspiration from the current generation of hard SF?

Or should it look to its roots, and create the same sort of experience as the original?


The oriignal did try to be contemporary, with its incorporation of cyberpunk memes and technology on top of the hard, Heinlein-esque SF. It too, took inspiration from contemporary SF, including the movie Aliens.


I would see a new version of 2300AD taking inspiration from movies like Avatar and Serenity and SF from Alastair Reynolds and Richard Morgan, on top of the Heinlein-esque hard SF.

Of course, 2300AD will go the way Mongoose and Marc Miller want it to go.

 

[rust]

In my view a touch of Jack McDevitt's science fiction would be nice, a
mixture of hard science fiction with the mysteries of an old universe.

 

[rinku]

The hard science was always the main strength of 2300AD (or, Traveller: 2300 as I still remember it.. ). I think it would be pointless for it to diverge from that, although that does not mean leaving its technology or assumptions in a time capsule.

One area that could easily be revised, for example, are the planetary generation rules; the actual mechanics of system formation are still pretty much a guessing game, but since the 2300AD game was written astronomy has uncovered most of the exoplanets known, and theories of planetary formation are a hot topic. They could increase the variety of habitable worlds or increase the chance of habitable ones from the existing rules without doing any damage to the setting. Political changes are also something that could be done, though that wasn't a popular move when they did it to the 3rd Imperium...

Avatar-style exobodies are certainly something that could be easily added.

Oh, and the star map is already well out of date, as the positions of near stars are more accurately mapped, and new ones uncovered. Plus, due to stellar motion the map is shifting around (did you know that in a mere 1.4 million years Gliese 710 is expected to pass within about a light year of Sol? Or that Barnard's Star will be nearly 40% closer in about 10,000 years time?)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nearest_stars
http://www.chara.gsu.edu/RECONS/TOP100.posted.htm

 

[Sturn]

I think the best fit would be a middle ground.

I liked 2300 AD for being harder then Traveller.

But, I don't want a game that is no longer 2300 AD. Going too far into current speculative science leads to a game like Transhuman Space. Yes, possibly more realistic for what we now know, but it wouldn't be 2300 AD anymore. Go too far, and you are creating a different game with the title 2300 AD just slapped on it.

Add in some updates for what we now know, but don't throw in the entire kitchen sink. I don't want my 2300 AD FAM-90 battle rifle to be an NPC since it now has an advanced A.I. chip. I don't want nanotech swarms to replace hover tanks on the battlefields. I do want my portacomp to be worn on my wrist (instead of held in two hands) and come with all sorts of options that used to require another device (GPS map, communicator, video camera, etc).

 

[chrisdw]

I'm with Sturn, also no Psionics, I really didn't like the adventure in the Nyotkendu source book (the source book itself was fine)

 

[GJD]

I'd skip the avatar re-sleeving - I can do that in Eclipse Phase. I love Richard Morgan, but I don't think that that meshes with 2300AD. STarship troops - I like the film tech, and the bugs are suitably PC scarifying, but not the cod politics. Serenity, again, I love, but I don't think it's 2300AD.

True to the roots, say I.

 

[SSWarlock]

I'd like it to stay pretty much as is. It's supposed to be an alternate setting rather than a simulation of reality so I don't see the benefit of making it as "hard science" as possible. The original game has just the right mix of hard science and sci fi. Stutter warp isn't reality; why mess with a good thing?

 

[kafka]

For me parts of Reynolds are too transhuman and other parts are knock on right. I always played and visualized 2300AD as taking place in the universe of Arthur C. Clarke with a dash of the SF films of the 1970s (save Star Wars, of course).

I would not mind seeing cyberpunk return to 2300AD but more akin to Blade Runner rather than netjacking and those tropes. So more of the noir aspect of cyberpunk rather than the chrome.

Also, there are way too many habitable worlds and not enough frontier stations. Earth II makes sense if you are in Hollywood, as people find it hard to relate to life on a space/planetary station but it is not without precedent with Space 1999 or Star*Cops being great SF dramas without need of the Hollywood earth.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

"Hollywood Earth" is cheaper to film.

 

[Mark A. Siefert]

I'm curious as to what people think about 2300AD.

Beyond it being one of my favorite RPG settings that desperately needs to be converted to Traveller?

The oriignal did try to be contemporary, with its incorporation of cyberpunk memes and technology on top of the hard, Heinlein-esque SF. It too, took inspiration from contemporary SF, including the movie Aliens.

I would see a new version of 2300AD taking inspiration from movies like Avatar and Serenity and SF from Alastair Reynolds and Richard Morgan, on top of the Heinlein-esque hard SF.

I don't mind throwing in new concepts like AIs and little bit of genengeeing, but going any further than that and we're treading into the territory of Transhuman Space or Eclipse Phase at that point. While they're interesting gaming concepts a Traveller setting should explore, that's not 2300 AD to me.

It all depends on how it's written. For instance: I can imagine the Twillight War (or whatever horrific conflict occurs at the beginning of the timeline) could have made people leery of genetic engineering beyond therapeutic use, but creating "perfected" humans who can upload digitized copies of their minds into new bodies is taboo... Well, taboo for MOST people.

Your work on 2320 AD (yes, I know that Hunter owns that) was a great example of how I think you should go. I'd use that as my base and see what you can modify or salvage.

 

[justacaveman]

I kind of liked Space: Above and Beyond for a military style campaign. The tech seems to be about right. Since it was a TV show, details would need to be fleshed out (TV shows are usually vague about such things.). But I think parts of it could be interesting.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

It's the changes in societies that makes it futuristic.

So, less emphasis on military matters (yawn, more gun-porn), and far more on exploration and being a colonist in the 24th century... i.e. what it's like to be alive in the setting.

 

[Jame Rowe]

It's the changes in societies that makes it futuristic.

So, less emphasis on military matters (yawn, more gun-porn), and far more on exploration and being a colonist in the 24th century... i.e. what it's like to be alive in the setting.

I heartily agree. Though I don't mind cyber- or bio-ware in my 2300 AD, I would like to see more on the civilian side of life (e.g. lung filters or eye modifications).

 

[silburnl]

In terms of look'n'feel - 2300AD is Outland, Alien & Aliens (but not later films), Blade Runner, Avatar (the human bits).

The Kovachi Novacs books by Morgan are good for hardware and virtualities I think - but the resleeving tech isn't right (too disruptive a tech). Black Man (called Thirteen stateside) is a pretty good fit tho'.

Some of the milder Reynolds transhumanism tropes (early conjoiners say, before they go seriously space gothic) strike me as useful props and set dressing for Provolution (but then if I had my way, I'd conjoinerize the Zhodani as well) - which it would be nice if Provolution were given an agenda a bit less cartoonishly villainous in a 2300AD reboot. Plus there would be geneered pigs with an attitude problem IM2300.

The Quiet War by Paul McAuley is good idea fodder also.

Updating the near-star map is a lost cause I think. There's too much collateral invested in the 'terrain' of the old astrographic layout to change things to match our current knowledge (which is a faster moving target these days in any case). The only way I can think of to do it would be to lower stutterwarp range and then drop some brown dwarfs onto the map to restore linkages along the arms - easier to just accept that 2300AD is an alternate universe and move on I think.

Regards
Luke

 

[Colin]

One of the things I am looking at is expanding the role of DNA modifications. Setting it up so that most worlds requires some sort of DNAM for long-term settlement. For shorter-term stays, there would be surgical, pharmaceutical, and cybernetic modifications that would achieve the same result.

From a game standpoint, each set of DNAMs would provide some sort of game-level benefit, likely with some sort of tradeoff as well. Unmodified humans from earth would get some other sort of benefit to balance things out.

For this iteration, I plan to take a serious look at revamping the star map, while retaining the structure of the arms. Some changes will likely happen, like no habitable worlds around class M stars, as most are flare stars.

 

[Jame Rowe]

One of the things I am looking at is expanding the role of DNA modifications. Setting it up so that most worlds requires some sort of DNAM for long-term settlement. For shorter-term stays, there would be surgical, pharmaceutical, and cybernetic modifications that would achieve the same result.

From a game standpoint, each set of DNAMs would provide some sort of game-level benefit, likely with some sort of tradeoff as well. Unmodified humans from earth would get some other sort of benefit to balance things out.

What TL would they be? Personally I'd suggest TL 9-10, so most nations could do them fairly routinely (if not necessarily cheaply... :twisted: )

For this iteration, I plan to take a serious look at revamping the star map, while retaining the structure of the arms. Some changes will likely happen, like no habitable worlds around class M stars, as most are flare stars.

And a more readable map, please? The original was nice and artful but I could never figure out how to read it.

 

[middenface]

I'd be curious how you handle the Twilight War. Do you stay as an alternate history? Set the war in the future (2020? ish) - it still could happen. Please don't remove it or pc it with some catastrophe...
Keep france as a major power, but about to be eclipsed by others...
Aliens all good! Perhaps a couple more.
AI, DNAMs, great.
Cater it for civvies and military types, keep both camps happy. Making it less gun happy is pc'ness and dumbing down - so keep both sides happy, exploring, yes good idea - plenty of strange things out there...
Perhaps make ships more accessible, then you can add more about commerce and for those who like merchant games.
Of course Alien, Outland etc should be its inspiration with some of the newer scifi from the last 20 year s to add some newer stuff!

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

What TL would they be?

They'd be their own Tech Levels—very likely different to those in the rulebook (or 3rd Imperium, or other settings for that matter)... why try to match them up, they have different technological assumptions.

Actually, If I remember it correctly (off the top of my head) 2300AD's TL are called something like:

"Obsolescent"
"Old Commercial"
"New Commercial" or "Old Military"
"New Military"
"Experimental"

I'm pretty sure they don't use a numbering system. In any case, as far as I see it, TL's aren't carved in stone, they should be variable and setting dependant.

Remember, it isn't like 2300AD turns into the 3rd Imperium, or something.

 

[Colin]

Twilight. Yeah. Um... I don't know how that will be handled. There has been some discussion. Personally, I favour a war, culminating in an asteroid impact, but I've got a bee in my bonnet about asteroid impacts. One at the tail end of a world-wide-war would explain an awful about 2300's culture and technological progression.

One thing that's been discussed is a much longer recovery period, and then compressing events after star flight is achieved. It explains the tech discrepancies better.

To be honest, I think 2300 needs fewer aliens, not more. That's three star-fairing cultures within easy reach of earth, another one advanced enough to respond to radio signals, and three more non-high-tech, (or even non-tech) species as well. Plus the intelligent curtain dragon, the maybe-intelligent "little godzillas" and the place is starting to get crowded. 2320 just made it worse, really.

The game universe has to be balanced between three (OK, four) types of play: military, exploratory, agent/criminal, and corporate/mercantile. No one area can dominate.

So if there were, say, an alien invasion, it would have to be confined to a limited region, and there would have to be a good reason why it was confined. If not, then it would quickly dominate the entire game world, to the detriment of the other campaign types.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

Making it less gun happy is pc'ness and dumbing down

It's not "dumbing down", it's "raising up"!

That was one of the main problems... every other bod contributing material (back when 2300 was being published) seemed to suffer from the desire to constantly tack-on the "greatest über-weapon ever" onto their own personal nation.

Every 20th century nation (in the 24th century) couldn't be the best equipped amongst humanity... it got silly!!!

It's not being PC (and I'm certainly not), I just prefer a setting that doesn't just go for the easy tropes, but sets out to analyse cultures more deeply. Too much military focus and the temptation is often merely to slide into juvenile "kuwel".