[Interest Check / LFP] Twilight:2000 anyone?

Hey y'all-

I currently run a weekly Gurps game that's going really well and I'm also making plans to get a low-fantasy campaign using FATE Core off the ground. No matter how much work I put into these campaigns, I just can't shake the desire to get some old school post apocalypse TEOTWAWKI fun going. Maybe it's the Mayan Calendar about to turn the page, I dunno.

Anyone else?

System, environment and schedule all up for grabs right now. I'm based out of Mountain Time in the US (GMT - 7). Ideas and comments are very welcome.

I would, But I doubt many other players would be able to get into the setting/system it can be complicated at times and has a little too much fluff to point where it's like "where do I begin?"

Though another post-apocish game would be cool.

I hear you - those are two pretty big issues. I would like to include as much of the ambiance and themes of Twilight and try to keep an old school feel. For instance, I'd like to keep some sort of lifepath system.

What I was kicking around in the back of my head was to use Gurps or maybe even Spycraft 1.0 with a lifepath system jerry-rigged into it somehow. Then use an alt-history set up with World War III kicking off in 1984/85 instead of 2000.

If there was an overwhelming desire for it to be run as is, I'd keep it strictly stock, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Yeah Maybe, I'm not too familiar with gurps, I was thinking brp because it keeps the high lethality feel.

Gurps is sufficiently lethal with firearms, as 5 NPCs found out the hard way during my last session. I think the two games are pretty similar as far as intent and philosophy goes and probably the biggest difference between the two is I don't have the big gold book on my bookshelf while I do have Gurps books.

Having run Pendragon before, I'd happily play in a BRP Twilight game.

With this long weekend coming up, I'll have some time to start a rough draft of templates and think about things a little more in depth.

Yeah, though I doubt you'll find many other players unless you were to advertise it as generic post apoc, Id like to start after Christmas though(getting a new laptop)

There's no hurry on starting anything. I've got 2 campaigns going currently, so this is legwork and background stuff if/when one of them fizzles out. Given your encouragement to open it up more as a general post apocalyptic RPG, I'm going to think about which bits I want to bring over from Twilight and then open it as much as possible.

Yeah Sounds like a good idea, what system were you set on and tone I'm guessing would be gritty and realistic(Twilight 2000 staple)

Yes, the tone would be gritty and realistic, but not hopeless. I think the best parts of Twilight: 2000 involve a desire to rebuild and make things better in the aftermath of WWIII. I don't have much desire to roleplay out radiation sickness while slowly dying of starvation. On the other hand, it's not going to be an action movie without consequences either.

The system is still up in the air and I'm trying to decide between 3 alternatives. One, Gurps is the system I'm most familiar with, its sufficiently realistic and lethal when need be. I currently own all the books I would need to run it, which is a plus. Gurps Lite is freely available, which gives everyone a cheap way in. On the down side, it can be intimidating to new players and I'd need to shoe horn in a life path system.

Two, would be the 2.2 version of T2K. It fits the mood I'm going for, has everything we need in it. I would need to buy a few pdfs to get the information I'm looking for, but that's not a big deal. I've never run any version of Twilight, so there's going to be some teething problems and systems hiccoughs. The system is showing its age and kind of inelegant, also there's no free way in...its not like playing around a physical table, so there'd be issues with character creation and playing unless all the players committed to buying the core pdf.

Three (and the most out there idea) would be using 1st Edition Spycraft. Since its based on 3rd Edition D&D, a large number of people would be familiar with the system. I own most of the books we'd need and i can get pdfs of the rest fairly cheaply. The biggest drawback is that its going to feel more like an action movie of Twilight, although the VP/WP mechanic is light years better than escalating HP.

So, I'm still in the process of figuring out which way to go...now that Christmas is over, I'll be able to relax a bit and start thinking about this a bit more. I have decided on going alt-history and having the balloon go up in 1985, still working out the exact details surrounding this timeline though.

Yeah I've never played gurps 4e I own Gurps Campaign and characters though, and could re-read them.

I dunno about spycraft a lot of 3rd edition based system keep the sloppy skill system and don't run too well with guns(d20 Modern) where the fast is king

Let's go with Gurps then. I'll get started on making templates and lenses and gathering up the equipment.

I downloaded U.S. Militaries and the Soldier/Wheelman class guides and while both were good, and Spycraft itself is awesome for what it does, there starts to be a large amount of level bloat which negates the VP/WP mechanic.

What books would we be using cause I know there is some WWII and Vietnam war supplements.

Ideally, I'd like people to be able to get by with just Gurps Lite. What I've done in the past is to write out a little campaign guide that includes advantages/disadvantages/skills that Gurps Lite omits that the Basic Set has. Someone who has Campaigns and Characters would be ahead of the curve.

I'll be drawing from Campaigns, Characters, High Tech and a little bit of Tactical Shooting. I haven't bought the Seals in Vietnam pdf yet, but its on the list to check out prior to the game starting. The WWII books might or might not be useful, I haven't read them and they're written for third edition anyway.

I'd love for the next edition of Vehicles to come out soon and there's a post apocalyptic supplement rumored to be in the pipeline...but they aren't out yet, so we'll just have to manage.

So we'll just be using gurps lite?

Gurps Lite would be the minimum someone would need to play; I'd cobble together a supplement from the other books and figure out a way to bring people less familiar with the system up to speed ASAP. As good as Roll20 is, I can't just lend someone the core books for a day or two like you can in a face to face game. Finding people willing to try Gurps is hard enough without having an easy (and free!) way in.

That being said, obviously someone who already owned Campaigns and Characters would have a big advantage in knowing the system and could make a case for an advantage, disadvantage or skill that I didn't think to include in the supplement. Having a player familiar with High Tech would be a boon as well, but you wouldn't need to own it in order to play.