So... sing to me of 2300AD!

[Rhialto the Marvelous]

...while we wait, so to speak.

It looks as though I'm going to play in my first 2300AD game ever. I don't have the rules yet. So, how's it play? I hear the task system is proto-MT in some way?

Any flaws I should be on the lookout for? In chargen, combat, what have you?

Any coolio stuff I should get worked up about?

What's the coolest profession? Can I play a Ranger?

The CD-ROM is worth getting, yes? It looks as though it has *everything*.

 

[kafka47]

The CD ROM despite some of its errors (and hopefully Marc has corrected all the old ones with new shipment) would be a worthy investment - read the 2300AD not Traveller 2300AD rules first as it will better at explaining the universe and the kinks have been worked out.

Coolio stuff, lots, if you like a gritty Hard SF milieu that has a smudgen of cyberpunk thrown in. If you like exploration type campaigns, then you will really like the early stuff. Kafer war series, if you like military campaigns. Earth sourcebook would need a serious rewrite to reflect today's world but then again, it is not today's world that is presented. It is the world of Twilight Shadow - the world as it might have been.

Coolest profession? Again up to you. I usually just assume that PCs are troubleshooters as they are in Traveller. Past skills add up to adventure in any scenario. Not sure what you mean by Ranger... Army-type Ranger - sure. Park Ranger - sure. D&D Ranger - Not.

As I said the DVD ROM is worthwhile investment and if off eBay or the other places on the Internet you can get the Traveller's Digests that focus on 2300AD, it adds more to an exploration style game. Challenge articles (although, I am not sure how many are included) are also useful.

 

[kaladorn]

Wasn't there a character career for some form of law enforcement texas-rangerish character (wherever it was they wrote up the adventure with the Ebers)? That's not quite D&D ranger, but maybe not so far off. There were a fair number of Challenge articles on 2300.

My only gotchas or complaints about the system were from Traveller 2300 (vs. the later 2300 AD which may have fixed the issues). I found armour a little too deterministic for my taste (or penetration of weapons seemed pretty set). I recall that guys in partial hard armour were nearly impossible to kill with normal rifles and that was annoying. They should have been tough, I thought, but not nearly invulnerable.

Starcruiser was fun, though again very deterministic. More hide and seek would have been fun there.

 

[Rhialto the Marvelous]

That's right--not D&D Ranger, Army Ranger!! I came across a description of that supplement (I think it was actually called "Ranger") and wondered if it had an actual Ranger career path.

Exploration is one of the themes we're thinking about going for right now. It would suit me fine because I don't know the setting at all, so player ignorance = PC ignorance.

There's also talk about doing a more starship combat-focused campaign, but I can't see how all players could be equally involved. When it comes to the actual battle I'm assuming it turns into a wargame between one player and the GM? That would be unfun.

 

[Colin]

The Ranger adventure is about Texas Rangers in a Texan colony (enclave) on the homeworld of the alien Ebers. It does provide some detail on Rangers, but I think that the rangers are simply just a Law Enforcement career.

 

[TWILIGHT]

One of the best adventures written IMHO.

 

[Ganidirsii O'Flynn]

Originally posted by Rhialto the Marvelous:
That's right--not D&D Ranger, Army Ranger!! I came across a description of that supplement (I think it was actually called "Ranger") and wondered if it had an actual Ranger career path.

Yep, the Ranger profession is in there but, sorry, no Army Ranger. Texas Ranger a la the 1850's when the Rangers were a combination of law-enforcement officers and militia leaders. It's one of the better adventures of the 2300AD system, although my personal fav remains Dave Nilsen's "Three Blind Mice" from Challenge 37. If yer looking for Army Ranger, try the Ground Military career.

I wholeheartedly agree with the comment about skipping the Traveller: 2300 rules. The 2300AD edit is much, much better and includes lots more background crunchy bits than the earlier writeup.

Here is a page of Challenge listings to help you along:
http://www.geocities.com/pentapod2300/ke03000.htm

Have fun and good luck! If you happen to meet my old character, Sjt-Chef Jean-Paul 'Fast Johnny' Deladier, 1er RMLE, tell him that he still owes me a 'flashlight' from that thing with the refrigerator and TANSTAAFL driver.

 

[Rhialto the Marvelous]

Texas Ranger, even better. Drivethrurpg has previews of a lot of the supplements, and the Ranger module does look very cool.

I've been slowly processing the holdings of Pentapod's site in the past few days. The most amazing find so far: It has the 2300AD articles from Traveller's Digest, complete with authorization from R.S. Has he seen the light, or what? See endorsement at top of page--

http://members.cnetech.com/kevinc/2300ad/dgpmenu.htm

 

[kaladorn]

I liked Ranger. I liked Operation Overlord. I liked the one with the research ship (energy curve, was it?). 2300 generally had good adventures and great expansions. Cybertech Earth was awesome, as was the equipment guide and the vehicle guide.

If anyone is ever looking for 25mm minis, I can tell you where to find matches for the M9, the LkwPzW, and LkPz and the hover jeep thingie. I can also tell you where to find some pretty good USMC, Legion Etrange, and Kafer figures. Obviously their art inspired a number of sculptors.

2300 was neat because it captured the colonial period's feel while still being in a hard-sci game with even less 'magic tech' than Traveller itself has.

 

[Colin]

The research ship adventure was "Bayern", a module that practically cried out for a campaign-style book.

Minis? Yeah, I've seen those. It's a wonder they've never been sued.
Look for Ground Zero Games, out of the UK. Good stuff, even if it skirts the edge of copyright law.

 

[Rhialto the Marvelous]

Tom, how out of sync are those cybertech supplements with the rest?

One of the "flavors" our GM is offering for the campaign is cyberpunk. Intuitively, I'm skeptical... I'm thinking, if we want to go for that, then let's play Shadowrun instead.

See, this will probably be my only chance ever to play 2300AD. And if so, I'd rather play it for what it is, not for what it might also be able to handle.

The cyber idea feels tacked on, an effort to jump the bandwagon that was then just leaving the station.

This Bayern supplement, on the other hand, now *that* I like. Deep Recon missions... Aliens... 2001... yess...

 

[Roger Calver]

The cyberpunk rules were an add on that captured the new wave going around Earth.
The rules were not that well done and quite sparse but did give you the feel of cyber, to be fair I never used any of them in my games so maybe I havent got to grips with them.

 

[Nearside]

I'm a huge fan of Bayern too, but yeah, it needed a lot of extra work to really pull the goodness out of it.

I think the 'classic' 2300 game is either something based on Kafer Dawn etc, or Mission: Arcturus - a rescue mission that has a great feel, and a wonderful storyline that would not feel out of place as a movie someday.

 

[kaladorn]

I am not going to argue with Colin about the 'skirting' issue for two reasons: 1) This always comes down to who has the best lawyer and wants to spend the most money (a lovely elitist IP law system) and 2) I'm sure that a certain amount of this is allowed. The extent to which such things are legal or not depends on jurisdiction and (as I say) lawyers. Whether any of this is a good thing, I have no idea (well, an opinion...).

But the point is, from a gamer perspective, the GZG Kravak look somewhat like kafers (which look somewhat like Predator if we're talking about skirting). The GZG Rommel AC tank looks like the German AC tank with a gun in a remote turret. The Wombat AC APC looks like the LkPzW APC of the Germans. The M9 could be modelled by the Goliath tank from GZG. The GZG Colonial Legion does a good job for French. The Free Cal Tex troops from GZG or the Denizen/Ainsty Mid-Tech Marines do a good job of US forces.

If you were a Traveller player, GZG UNSC hardsuits look a lot like Imperial Marine BD. For Zhodani, the Ainsty/Denizen Ventaurians (with helmets on... because the helmetless ones have yoda heads) make great Zhodani combat armour.I haven't found really good Hivers, Vargr, Aslan, Kkree, etc. outside of the old official traveller figure lines, much lamented in their non-production anymore.

So if you were looking for minis that may be close in ways (not so much in others), there are some good starting suggestions.

As to Cybertech Earth:
It does have a different feel. Most of 2300s early material seemed to be frontier-sy. Cybertech earth is urban, techy, developed, etc. It's like the difference between Serenity kicking around out on the fringes or visiting one of the big alliance mainworlds, for a comparison. I think both CT:Earth and the rest of 2300 can fit in the same universe, they just reflect different places. Could a cyber'd up character head to the rim? Sure, but he's outside of some of his original context. Could a frontier character visit a cybertech environment? Sure, but he'd be out of place too. This can make good RP, but it could also lead to you not really feeling like there is coherence present - it would require good GMing to pull off right.

My inclination would be to avoid CT:E if this is your first 2300 experience. If you want to play Cyber, go play Talsorian's Cyberpunk. It's definitive in my eyes on this aspect of gaming. If you want to play 2300 AD, I'd say don't throw more than a wee bit of CT in there. For the most part, it should be stuff the occasional villain has on hand or something, but that's it. The majority of 2300 ADs themes should be travelling, exploration, discovery, defense of outlying populations, and so forth - not really big CT themes.

That's just my 0.02 though.

 

[GJD]

Originally posted by kaladorn:
As to Cybertech Earth:
It does have a different feel. Most of 2300s early material seemed to be frontier-sy. Cybertech earth is urban, techy, developed, etc. It's like the difference between Serenity kicking around out on the fringes or visiting one of the big alliance mainworlds, for a comparison. I think both CT:Earth and the rest of 2300 can fit in the same universe, they just reflect different places. Could a cyber'd up character head to the rim? Sure, but he's outside of some of his original context. Could a frontier character visit a cybertech environment? Sure, but he'd be out of place too. This can make good RP, but it could also lead to you not really feeling like there is coherence present - it would require good GMing to pull off right.

My inclination would be to avoid CT:E if this is your first 2300 experience. If you want to play Cyber, go play Talsorian's Cyberpunk. It's definitive in my eyes on this aspect of gaming. If you want to play 2300 AD, I'd say don't throw more than a wee bit of CT in there. For the most part, it should be stuff the occasional villain has on hand or something, but that's it. The majority of 2300 ADs themes should be travelling, exploration, discovery, defense of outlying populations, and so forth - not really big CT themes.

That's just my 0.02 though.

I agree. The E/CT adventures are pretty good, and Rotten to the Core has plenty of Crunch that could have gone into the E/CT book. The Deathwatch program is also OK, with some interesting ideas on AI's. I've conerted it to Cyberpunk (swapping spaceships for passenger/fighter subs using the rules in Shockwave) and run it in 2300AD and had a blast both times.

If you do go for Cyberpunk, avoid v3. It's a pile of stinky old pants IMHO, and I've waited something like 10 years for it to come out...

G.

 

[mbrinkhues]

Adventures:

+ Bayern has a lot of potential but needs quite some work. The first encounter is quite straight forward and could be out of TOS. The second encounter is more complex and not to every players liking. Most "action oriented" groups won't like it

+ Operation Overlord (sometimes joked as Operation Overblown) is a military campaing that needs a bit of work. It is from the "integrate the US" era of 2300AD and would IMHO work better with german troops and a larger operation. Still quite nice and you can did out some of the old T2K stuff

+ Ranger is cool. Simply a great campaign outlook, even more if you also like John Wayne Western like Comancheros or the Cavalery Trilogy

+ Energy Curve is actually a T2300 adventure relabeled. So-So, more for the puzzle solver

+ Rotten to the Core and Deathwatch Program are for the Earth/Cybertech Background and needs some re-work to use

+ Kafer Dawn is a classic bughunt scenario. Again for the T2300 setting but useful. TANSTAAFL (yes, after the Heinlein phrase) has a "Wild West" feeling

+ Earth/Cybertech is a so-so sourcebook. The descriptions of the earth nations are too short and leave out some more interesting nations. The Cyberware is somewhat useful and some can be integrated into a standard game, even working well with some stuff from the Equipment Guide without overloading, others don't work. Hacking/Cyberspace rules are lousy. The terrorist organisation presented îs workabel if a bit overblown

+ All in the cards is about data cards. Some still valid concepts some outdated stuff

+ Gorgon Hunt (Challenge) is a nice scenario for fans of BOLO (The "This is UNIT HCT of the Line" Bolo)

+ One of us always stays awake (Challenge) re-visits our Cyberterrorist friends from ProVolution

+ Repo Man is a bountyhunter scenario

+ There is a dual scenario in Challenge that deals with the Invasion of a major colony and the survival of it. Dig out your Twilight, put the baggy earth-colored uniforms and flat-round steel helmets on the Kafer and have a blast

+ XWing Down has a classic "Helicopter over NAM" feeling. Always remember: Kafers don't surf

+ Three Blind Mice is less a scenario for 2300AD and more one for StarCruiser

+ The Colonial Atlas is a MUST for the game IMHO

 

[Jeff M. Hopper]

I'm more of a fan of Star Cruiser mixed into the roleplaying, so my two votes are for Dave Nilsen's adventures from Challenge magazine. "Lone Wolf" and "Three Blind Mice" are excellent mini-campaigns set during the Kafer War.

 

[Rhialto the Marvelous]

Wow, great feedback. Thanks very much, people! I've looking through the pdf previews on drivethrurpg, and the Bayern scenario does appeal... I've always been wanting to do a deep--and I mean *really* deep--recon mission.

I just won a 2300AD boxed set on ebay--I guess I'm also getting the CD from MArc.

 

[Ganidirsii O'Flynn]

It's a good one adventure. If you like recon missions (as in military recon), I'd suggest "Three Blind Mice" from Challenge Magazine 37. Take a cobbled together trio of ships, the only vessels of their class, with multinational crews, and send them behind Kafer lines in an effort to locate the main Kafer fleets. Good tense stuff! Though, I admit it's my fav scenario from 2300AD, so I'm biased.

Another adventure I'd suggest is another Challenge bit... "Operation Backdoor", an effort to find a back way into Kafer space from the American Arm of space. Again, good stuff.

 

[jcrocker]

One word about the Bayern "module" - it is *very* bare bones. If you want to run the whole thing, you'll either have long stretches of the trip where you tell the players "nothing interesting happens" or you do a *lot* of legwork to fill in the gaps.

The up side is, it would be possible to fill in portions of the gaps with on-line information in a way it wasn't when the module was written.