Twilight 2000 for Traveller

[AndrewW]

It is hard to imagine any Middle East without religion, the live and breath religion and die for it as well, if you could take the religion out of it, it would not be the same place.

But it does not need to be dragged all over on this forum.

 

[Rick]

What we go with will have an effect on how the game is run - a pandemic (or zombie outbreak!) will decimate the population and cause a huge breakdown in food, power and other supplies - but it will leave the infrastructure intact, allow the pc's to sort things out if they can get the skills to do so and to be in communication with groups over large distances. A nuclear war scenario will destroy key elements of the infrastructure, and irradiate others, meaning that alternative sources may need to be sorted out and communications will be localised. It all depends on the kind of emphasis you want to put on a campaign.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

What we go with will have an effect on how the game is run - a pandemic (or zombie outbreak!) will decimate the population and cause a huge breakdown in food, power and other supplies - but it will leave the infrastructure intact, allow the pc's to sort things out if they can get the skills to do so and to be in communication with groups over large distances. A nuclear war scenario will destroy key elements of the infrastructure, and irradiate others, meaning that alternative sources may need to be sorted out and communications will be localised. It all depends on the kind of emphasis you want to put on a campaign.

If you introduce zombies, it won't really be Twilight 2000, Twilight 2000 is supposed to be a realistic post World War III aftermath, if you want unrealistic, you could always go with Gammaworld. Gammaworld has mutants, it has robots, its game engine is the same as 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons. Twilight 2000 is all about survival, your victory is if you don't die, if you can rebuild some sort of political order then that is an accomplishment, the victory is returning to something approaching normal an peaceful, a community putting itself together. I figure that is hard to do if your PCs are foreigners in a foreign land, where others view you as the "other" and you may often get blamed for their misery and troubles. if I was in the Middle East as an American Soldier when World War III hit, my first objective would be to get out of the Middle East, because I figure I could do much good there anyway. I suppose if I thought I still had family alive in the states, I would try to get back there, and that is much of what Twilight 2000 was about, generally the way to do that would be to find a boat and cross an ocean, probably have to deal with pirates and other marauders along the way, and once you got home the troubles aren't ended, because home would be pretty messed up too. A place like New Zealand could be more normal as it is out of the way and in the Southern Hemisphere, and perhaps largely forgotten about and the language spoken is English a big plus. It would not be too much work to imitate a New Zealand accent and pretend to be one of them, no one would know any different, then its build a home get new job, send kids to school etc.

 

[Reynard]

What about an ecological disaster? Not Day After Tomorrow half the world destroyed but the worst case scenario of major weather catastrophes go nuts causing severe loss of food, water and or other resources such as a series of storms wrecking things like oil rigs at sea or power stations on land. Much could be in second and third world areas which may be less likely to recover on their own which the loss of food and energy in first world strain them so they can barely effect their own repairs quickly. Things begin to fray. Certain governments panic and decide they need to 'consolidate' resources because they feel the other side will do the same. The other sides become aggressive at such provocations. Troops somewhere don't back down and someone fires.

Nuclear stockpiles are reduced from previous agreement and much are stored and not ready in time so the exchanges around the world are very limited and directed at the most imminent opposition but wreck enough of the firepower of all sides to ground world wide command and control to very local and limited leaving many pockets of local powers still involved in the original conflicts.

All this isolates many theaters around the world. It could be enemy troops having crossed the open waters of the Arctic to take a hold in Canada to work south but now are cut off from reinforcements. Europe becomes the primary tabletop action in that part of the world. The Mideast could be an ecological wreck wracked by wars they can no longer handle so troops gather up their remains and head for European shores to fight there. Africa, South America and Asia could be in many no holds barred battles for supremacy or just old grudges with no one to stop them. China could be breaking up now that their national forces are severely hampered.

Many, many theaters for so many reasons to fight.

 

[Reynard]

I agree we don't go Fallout, Resident Evil or Gamma World with this particular subject, More fun right now to speculate on real world possibilities in our current age and project a post-apocalypse based on our fears.

"A place like New Zealand could be more normal as it is out of the way and in the Southern Hemisphere, and perhaps largely forgotten about and the language spoken is English a big plus. It would not be too much work to imitate a New Zealand accent and pretend to be one of them, no one would know any different, then its build a home get new job, send kids to school etc."

As to moving to New Zealand, uuh.. game over? All is well in that very little world. I hope they won't be dependent in any way for food and resources from the outside world.

How would Australia fare? What might effect them in the world disaster that they just walk out on to the stage unscathed to become the world power? Someone else thought this and had a weapon or two ready to prevent this scenario? Disease and weather could make their life hell like the rest of the world maybe more so. The loss of global economy could also be their downfall. Plus they're a big sandbox.

 

[Rick]

If you want an ecological disaster, as has been mentioned before, climate change isn't the answer - but an asteroid impact would do pretty much what you want. Nothing as big as a 'dinosaur-killer' but have a mid-sized one break up as it entered the atmosphere and you'd have a string of disasters around the world. Tsunami's, tidal waves etc for ocean impacts, earthquakes, seismic tremors and firestorms for land impacts, then huge super-storms with incredible force forming in their wake. Add in dust kicked up into the atmosphere would cause famines for a few years afterwards and you have your scenario right there, I believe.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

I agree we don't go Fallout, Resident Evil or Gamma World with this particular subject, More fun right now to speculate on real world possibilities in our current age and project a post-apocalypse based on our fears.

"A place like New Zealand could be more normal as it is out of the way and in the Southern Hemisphere, and perhaps largely forgotten about and the language spoken is English a big plus. It would not be too much work to imitate a New Zealand accent and pretend to be one of them, no one would know any different, then its build a home get new job, send kids to school etc."

As to moving to New Zealand, uuh.. game over? All is well in that very little world. I hope they won't be dependent in any way for food and resources from the outside world.

How would Australia fare? What might effect them in the world disaster that they just walk out on to the stage unscathed to become the world power? Someone else thought this and had a weapon or two ready to prevent this scenario? Disease and weather could make their life hell like the rest of the world maybe more so. The loss of global economy could also be their downfall. Plus they're a big sandbox.

The movie "Mad Max" was set in Australia, only in teh sequels was it in a post Holocaust setting, Beyond the Thunderdome http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Max_Beyond_Thunderdome
was such a setting. Do you suppose a Twlight 2000 Australia would be like that? the highways, I have to admit were in pretty good shape for all these marauders in their armored cars.

 

[Reynard]

I think Mad Max is a great example of a near future disaster. What was the story's reason for the disaster and how it affects Australia? Everything is modern but manufacturing and infrastructure is a wreck so any goods are slowly falling apart and resources such as fuel are becoming scarce especially when those gangs use it like it was the end of th.... oh yeah.

One thing to remember, our world has become super dependent on international trade and communications so a bad disaster can get horribly worst when it severely disrupts those lines. We're not the 1800s or even the early 1900s anymore. The world of Twilight will have history books stressing the Great War or the Great Plague or the Night of the Lepus saying that is what caused it all then fail to realize when local and world wide communication centers went down or ships stopped sending food from southern growers to northern markets or medicines now exclusively produced in very far foreign shores vanished it escalated far worst reducing the world into pockets of civilization that rebuild from the inside out including the little wars.

 

[Rick]

Energy crisis. That was the whole background for a breakdown in civilisation.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Energy crisis. That was the whole background for a breakdown in civilisation.

I think that's not likely to happen though, maybe a lethal virus perhaps. I'm going to work on my Triplanetary setting some more, My purpose is not to discuss politics, though politics is inevitable when discussing the potential causes of World War III.

 

[Reynard]

Why not an energy crisis? Back in the 1970s they said we would run out of oil in 20 years. They lied big time, of course, but what if it was true in the Twilight era? That would create world wide panic and panic makes the wrong people a little crazy.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Why not an energy crisis? Back in the 1970s they said we would run out of oil in 20 years. They lied big time, of course, but what if it was true in the Twilight era? That would create world wide panic and panic makes the wrong people a little crazy.

Then the Sun will enter the red giant phase as it ran out of fuel.
Naw just kidding. Yaeh we wake up tomorrow and their are no cars on the road cause they all ran out of gas, the gas stations have no gas, and we ran out of coal to power the power plants so there is no electricity.

 

[Reynard]

Not every power plant is coal fired. If we see people just coast along thinking it could never happen it just might hit them when there's drastic cutbacks without an alternate source. Remember, oil isn't just fuel. The idea is creating a situation that goes horribly wrong so the energy crisis doesn't turn out to be a lie like it was here and no real alternatives were worked out in time.

I reread the background in 2300AD and there is a description of what happened,... mostly. There was a nuclear exchange plus Infowar damage and biowar exchanges around 2020-2030. That works for me. It was a massive mess on many scales. Most of the world was in ruins or busy with their own problems. Europe is a focal point for the next half century though there is an interesting mention of a three way civil war in the US. Hmm. If we keep with 'official' 2300AD history, there are now two main choices for conflicts. My copy of Twilight confirms a bit more.

What this boils down to is a campaign of modern warfare with a background of a devastated population and landscape. US troops have been out of touch with the US and integrate as a combined NATO force. The big war is over and it's survival against your old enemy and opportunistic warlord and uppity small gangs. you fight in burned out cities and ravaged lands. The modern world as you knew it is almost gone. You need to protect what's left so maybe a semblance of life and rebuilding can occur. Interesting scenarios.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

An energy crises requires that people be unable to adapt to it, their cars run out of gas and instead of finding alternatives they just starve. Lack of adaptability turns this into a major holocaust, but what really happens is the price of a certain fuel source goes up and people react to it, for instance our current recession began with a run up of gas prices in 2008, this triggered a housing collapse which created a recession and a stock market plunge that got Obama elected. This recession has lasted six years, and during this time people have discovered new ways of recovering oil, that is fracking, also a number of hybrid and all electric model cars have been introduced. Now in 2030, there will probably be more electric cars on the road, and then thing about electric cars is they run on whatever energy source that generates the electricity that they run on, so they could run on coal, oil, gas, hydropower, nuclear energy, solar, and some of these energy source are effectively inexhaustible, we have about 200 to 1000 years worth of coal at the current usage, hydropower will be a constant source, solar cells will get more efficient and cheaper to manufacture.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

..for instance our current recession began with a run up of gas prices in 2008, this triggered a housing collapse which created a recession and a stock market plunge that got Obama elected.

No. The housing crisis came first (you can check that-it was many years in the making), then there was a run on the banks (Northern Rock and various US banks), then a general collapse in confidence.

 

[Anonymous]

Please, discuss Mongoose Traveller and it's many forms, enough of this politics.

This is not the place.

Kindly cease and desist.

 

[Hopeless]

I tried posting this yesterday but for some reason my tablet kept redoing my password rather than posting my message.

What if someone found a way to threaten the existing nuclear weapons all around the world?

A literal way to detonate them wherever they're stored and of course this threat is doubted so the group goes ahead and activates them.

Realising the threat is real the world nations' with nuclear missiles launches them to try and get them into at least Earth orbit only they detonate in near earth orbit causing a massive EMP effect that effectively causes most technology to go down.

Planes crash, in essence the worst possible result barring what might have happened had they detonated in their silos' or launch pads, submarines, etc...

So we have worldwide outrage and a silence that's even more frightening since communication has been cut, satellites have been wiped out leaving the underwater communication lines intact, but the infrastructure of civilisation in tatters as the world tries to pick itself up.

Meanwhile we have military forces left isolated, new warlords seeking to take advantage of the situation and all behind the scenes we're still left with the mystery of who did this and what will they do next?

Governments blaming each other, literally any known nuclear arsenal has been hit any such location or vehicle that didn't launch their nukes have been wiped out as they detonated wherever they were stored or located so I ask you in this circumstance what would happen next?

Could this be used as a possible explanation for the Twilight 2000 series if brought up to today?

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

I tried posting this yesterday but for some reason my tablet kept redoing my password rather than posting my message.

What if someone found a way to threaten the existing nuclear weapons all around the world?

A literal way to detonate them wherever they're stored and of course this threat is doubted so the group goes ahead and activates them.

Realising the threat is real the world nations' with nuclear missiles launches them to try and get them into at least Earth orbit only they detonate in near earth orbit causing a massive EMP effect that effectively causes most technology to go down.

Planes crash, in essence the worst possible result barring what might have happened had they detonated in their silos' or launch pads, submarines, etc...

So we have worldwide outrage and a silence that's even more frightening since communication has been cut, satellites have been wiped out leaving the underwater communication lines intact, but the infrastructure of civilisation in tatters as the world tries to pick itself up.

Meanwhile we have military forces left isolated, new warlords seeking to take advantage of the situation and all behind the scenes we're still left with the mystery of who did this and what will they do next?

Governments blaming each other, literally any known nuclear arsenal has been hit any such location or vehicle that didn't launch their nukes have been wiped out as they detonated wherever they were stored or located so I ask you in this circumstance what would happen next?

Could this be used as a possible explanation for the Twilight 2000 series if brought up to today?

Advanced nanotechnology could seek out and destroy all nuclear arms, they multiply and cover the entire surface of the world. So the adversaries can try to destroy World civilization before it was too late, but why?

What would happen if a nation released some advanced nanotech which destroyed nuclear arms? What would happen if it succeeded in destroying them, but it didn't destroy anything else? The Nations which had their nukes destroyed might try to destroy the nation which released the nanotech which did that with tanks, guns, rifles, fighter planes, warships, missiles, whatever, if only they could figure out who released the nanotech.

 

[Reynard]

I don't think Twilight ever had such super science fiction elements as uber nanotechnology.

 

[Reynard]

One thing that I realize is the European theater will call for troopers needing to learn an extra language or two especially for Americans now stranded in foreign countries. If the game starts early after the major conflict, American forces would remain as a group, a separate community so most troops would receive orders from within their group while liaisons communicate with other NATO forces and local governments and communities. As the years move on, the local languages would slowly become absorbed just for necessity to survive. Naturally, as troopers become part of the countries they now live in and take regular lives, they'll marry into the local population and their children will probably have to help translate for their parents.

I would think one major skill acquisition/improvement will be what local language the players are regularly subjected to. As the language rules in Traveller suggest, talking to locals, reading signs and any written matter can become a challenge in gameplay.