T2K:4E Announced

[aramis]

A new edition of the classic roleplaying game Twilight: 2000 was announced today by Free League Publishing, makers of the ALIEN RPG, in partnership with Game Designers’ Workshop and Amargosa Press. The new edition goes back to the roots of the franchise with a boxed set for sandbox roleplaying in the devastation of World War III. It will come to Kickstarter in August, to be released in early 2021.

The new edition of the apocalyptic RPG Twilight: 2000 will be the fourth in the series, the first being released by Game Designers' Workshop in 1984. Just like the original version, the new edition is set in a year 2000 devastated by war – now in an alternate timeline where the Moscow Coup of 1991 succeeded and the Soviet Union never collapsed.

"The first edition of Twilight: 2000 was an iconic game for me back in the '80s, and we are humbled and honored to work with Marc Miller and Game Designers’ Workshop to bring a new edition to life. The original game was really ahead of its time. Our goal is to build on the amazing sandbox survival gameplay and develop it further, making it more accessible using the tools of modern game design," says lead game designer and Free League founder Tomas Härenstam.

"When I saw this proposal to revisit the Twilight universe, I signed on immediately. As I have seen the work proceed, I have not been disappointed, and I look forward to seeing this project become reality," says Marc Miller of Far Future Enterprises and co-founder of Game Designers' Workshop.

Also part of the project are Amargosa Press (who have recently announced the new Dark Conspiracy 4th Edition RPG), Polish RPG publisher Black Monk Games (who will act as a consultant on the Poland in 2000 AD game setting as well as publish a Polish edition of the game), and Far Future Enterprises (who publishes the fifth edition of the Traveller science-fiction roleplaying game).

The design team is led by Tomas Härenstam (ALIEN RPG, Forbidden Lands, Mutant: Year Zero), with setting and scenario writing by Chris Lites (Conan, Over the Edge), editing by Angus Abranson (Doctor Who, The One Ring), interior art by Niklas Brant (Forbidden Lands), cover art by Martin Grip (ALIEN RPG, Symbaroum), and maps by Tobias Tranell (Forbidden Lands). Several active and retired servicemen from the U.S. military are assigned to the project as consultants.

"Twilight: 2000 was a favorite of ours at school in the '80s, with many a lunch hour spent salvaging what we could as we traveled across the ruins of Europe trying to survive. I’m honored to be involved in a new edition, and being able to work with the Free League is a fantastic bonus!” says Angus Abranson of Amargosa Press.

Just like the original game, the new edition of Twilight: 2000 is set in a Poland devastated by war, but the game also offers an alternative Swedish setting, as well as tools for placing the game anywhere in the world.

In the game, players take roles of survivors in the aftermath of World War III – soldiers or civilians. Their goal, beyond surviving for another day, can be to find a way back home, to carve out their own fiefdom where they are, to find out more about the mysterious Operation Reset, and maybe, just maybe, make the world a little bit better again.

The core gameplay uses a "hexcrawling" system established in the post-apocalyptic Mutant: Year Zero and survival fantasy Forbidden Lands RPGs (both Silver ENnie winners for Best Rules, in 2015 and 2019), developing it further to fit the gritty world of Twilight: 2000. The core rules are built on the Year Zero Engine used in those games (as well as in the ALIEN RPG), but heavily adapted to fit Twilight: 2000 and its focus on gear and gritty realism.

More information about the new edition of Twilight: 2000 will be forthcoming soon.

 

[Jame]

I plan to back this when it's ready, at a level where I get the core rules.

Hopefully they acknowledge the 2300AD future of it.

 

[RandyB]

Hopefully they will offer reversible conversion rules from earlier editions to this one, so content can be converted to whichever mechanics we prefer.

 

[jcrocker]

Anyone have any experience with the 'hexcrawling' system they mention?

 

[aramis]

I doubt either of you will see those.

Unless Marc is licensing 2300 to them, which I doubt, mention would be a literal waste of page space business-wise. And, given that 2300 is licensed to Mongoose... Plus, it's of no benefit to anyone but hard-core 2300 fans to do so. Further, 2300 is pretty much direct competition to Alien.

As for conversions... the only already established fact is that it's YZE and is going to include a hexcrawl mode.

The things that are very likely are are more vague. Here's the uniform elements to date of all official YZE games, plus Coriolis:

• 4 attributes
• Attributes range 2-5 for humans (some non-humans go up to 8 and down to 1)
• Skills range 0-5
• Skills are hard-linked to attributes.
• 12 or 16 core skills. A few allow specialized additional skills.
• Core Skills have no unskilled penalty
• Dice pool: stat + skill.
• Dice almost always d6's
• 6 (6+ on non-d6's) generates 1 success
• only 1 success needed for tasks. (difficulty is ±3 dice, rather than more successes)
• Extra successes can be spent by players for specific extra effects, usually by skill.
• Pushing: if one fails to obtain a success on the first roll, they can push. Pushing always has a negative consequence. Sometimes a positive.
• 1's on some types of dice have negative effects when pushing.
• dice with 1's that have negative effects not rerolled when pushing, and guarantee the push will have negative effects
• card-draw individual initiative for PC's and major NPCs, minor NPCs can share a card.
• d66 crit tables
• combat death is almost always by crits
• non-combat damage varies by game as to how it's working

Alien's a little far from the center - only two dice types (Base and Stress), and 1's on stress have effect even when not pushing - and when you push, you increase your stress rating. Everything but stress in alien is base dice with no 1's effect.

MYZ base dice are for attributes, difficulty, and help. when pushing, 1's do attribute damage but also give you Mutation Points to power special abilities.
MYZ skill dice are only for skill. No 1's effect.
MYZ tool dice are for dice from tools. On a push, those 1's become damage to the tool. Many tools have 2d, but some are up to 4d. A 0 die tool is still usable, but no benefit other than enabling a task.


Tales from the Loop: only one die type. Pushing costs you a condition. If the roll was to avoid a condition, and you pushed, you're taking two. No combat, no crits... but you're playing kids.

Vaesen: similar to TftL, but with actual combat and damage.

 

[aramis]

Anyone have any experience with the 'hexcrawling' system they mention?

Not I, but I've read them. Lots of good tables, chock full of good potential.

I've been running alien. The job tables there are excellent starting points for generating adventures.

 

[whartung]

Not I, but I've read them. Lots of good tables, chock full of good potential.

I've been running alien. The job tables there are excellent starting points for generating adventures.

So the "hexcrawling" system is not simply some set of mechanics to maneuvering and taking actions on a hex grid ala Snapshot/AHL?

 

[aramis]

So the "hexcrawling" system is not simply some set of mechanics to maneuvering and taking actions on a hex grid ala Snapshot/AHL?

Not even closely related conceptually.

Hexcrawl refers to regional or world maps, not tactical.

There are several Classic Traveller Hexcrawls:

• Mission on Mithral
• Across the Bright Face
• Nomads of the World Ocean

No edition to date of any YZE game has tactical grids; they all use zones of 25m - as I said before.
(note that CT Bk 1 is also 25m "lines")

 

[BruceEdwinMorrow]

The Kickstarter seems to be doing well. They've had to add stretch goals twice at this point. I'm recommending it to my 5e cohort, trying to bring them into the fold.

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...ing-in-the-wwiii-that-never-was?ref=user_menu

 

[Moebius]

Backed it. This will be my first Fria Ligan product, heard nothing but good about them so I'm pretty excited. I'm thinking about adding the gm screen and the Alien book add-ons.

 

[mike wightman]

I have Coriolis and Alien and they are both pretty good IMHO.

The core of the system is easily adaptable to running a Traveller game if you so choose.

 

[Tekrat04]

If anyone is looking for more information.

From Victory Condition Games:

Do you have questions about the edition of Twlight:2000? Join me tomorrow at 1PM EDT/10 AM PDT as I chat with Tomas from Free League and answer viewer questions! https://youtu.be/gq8aXbdMHtI
(This is will be available for viewing after if you can’t join us live.)

 

[AtlanticFriend]

Hopefully they acknowledge the 2300AD future of it.

I second that sentiment. What set GDW's game apart to me was this coherent chain of game settings.

Is there any hint on how the Twilight War develops this time? I was a bit disappointed with how it happened in Twilight 2013 - and maybe my not being alone feeling that way is the reason why there does not seem to be one single thread devoted to that game?