Twilight: 2000

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Twilight: 2000 is a 1984

Adventures in Twilight: 2000 typically involve a military unit stranded in Central Europe several years into World War III and emphasize realistic depictions of military and social systems after a nuclear war. The war, as it continues on from 1997, has aspects of the broken-backed war theory, wherein a catastrophic nuclear exchange occurs between two belligerents and is then followed by a continuation of conventional war.

The game was first published in 1984 during the Cold War and was intended to be an accurate depiction of a possible future,^{[citation needed]} but events in the world have rendered the premise of the game an alternate history.

In Twilight: 2000's version of 1995, a series of Sino-Soviet border conflicts expands into general war between the Soviet Union and China. The Sino-Soviet war rapidly escalates from conventional warfare into exchanges of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. In 1996 a cabal of East German and West German military officers seek to reunify their country. Unified German forces stage a coup d'état against the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany. The US and NATO allies initially attempt to stay out of the war, but are quickly drawn into the European conflict. France withdraws its troops from Germany and then withdraws entirely from NATO, declaring its neutrality in the conflict.

Between 1996 and 1997, a largely

In the aftermath of the nuclear exchanges, both blocs struggle to recover from the damage. The war continues, despite increasing shortages of men, equipment, and fuel. In the United States, there is a breach between the civilian government and the

To create 300 years of background history for their science-fiction RPG 2300 AD, GDW staff members participated in an in-house simulation called "The Great Game", with Frank Chadwick as referee. Starting with the world situation in 2000 following the Twilight War, players controlled one or more countries and guided them through 300 years of development, including the discovery of faster-than-light space travel, colonization of other Earthlike planets, and contact with a variety of sentient aliens. The staff member playing France, John Harshman, did exceptionally well, leading to France being the supreme superpower in 2300.

Revised setting

The Second Edition (published in 1990) and subsequent editions featured a reworked background intended to be an alternate history closer to 1990s real-world history. Version 2.2, GDW's final edition of the game, was published in 1993 and featured a background in which the

In 2017 and 2018, there were three new official modules for Twilight: 2000 released online, including a source book for East Africa/Kenya, a new standalone adventure played during the same time as the "Going Home" module and a Korean source book. These three releases were all officially approved by Marc Miller, who is the current owner of the Twilight: 2000 game, and were the first new releases for the 1st and 2nd edition since the mid-1990s.^[citation needed]

Publication history

First and Second Editions

GDW extended the timeline of Twilight: 2000 to create the background history for the science fiction game 2300 AD; by doing so, the rather depressing post-nuclear environment of Twilight: 2000 is mitigated by the outcome in which the Earth rebuilds itself and begins to colonize space.

Far Future Enterprises has reprinted the first edition of Twilight: 2000 in hardcopy (paper) format, and both the first edition and version 2.2 are available in CD-ROM format. Versions 2.0 and 2.2, both using the system that became standard for GDW's games, are currently available in watermarked PDF format online (as are the first edition rules).

Twilight: 2000's success as a game can be attributed in part to its manner of presenting a military background and setting, without hemming the players into a military's command structure.^{[citation needed]} The civilian governments of most countries in the game have been shattered (France and Belgium quit NATO and thus largely escaped war damage) with the US government splitting into the civilian and military governments, as has the military chain of command, supply lines, etc. The various military forces are presented as being much weaker than their stated sizes, occupying civilian territories and relying on civilians for food and small-scale manufacturing, and recruiting from civilian populations to some extent. This all means that the players can feel they are part of a military of some sort, without their characters being forced to submit to higher military authority. Players generally can choose whether they want their characters to try to continue the war, get back home (wherever that may be), join one of the new power groups wherever they are, simply survive as mercenaries or marauders, or some combination.

In 1990, realizing that the game's background was in danger of becoming obsolete, GDW published Merc 2000, an alternative campaign setting which revolves around mercenaries fighting brushfire wars in a time in which the Twilight War never occurred. After Merc 2000 was released, many supplements and articles printed in GDW's Challenge Magazine featured Twilight: 2000 with equipment and background conversions to Merc 2000 or were Merc 2000-only.

In 1991, GDW licensees

Supplements

GDW produced over 40 supplements for Twilight: 2000,^[2] including:

• The Black Madonna, 1985
• The Free City of Krakow, 1985
• Pirates of the Vistula, 1985
• The Ruins of Warsaw, 1985
• Armies of the Night, 1986
• Going Home, 1986
• RDF Sourcebook, 1986
• Red Star, Lone Star, 1986
• US Army Vehicle Guide, 1986
• Airlords of the Ozarks, 1987
• Allegheny Uprising, 1987
• Gateway to the Spanish Main, 1987
• King's Ransom, 1987
• Soviet Army Vehicle Guide, 1987
• Howling Wilderness, 1988
• Kidnapped, 1988
• The Last Submarine, 1988
• Mediterranean Cruise, 1988
• Satellite Down, 1988
• Small Arms Guide, 1988
• Urban Guerilla, 1988
• The Bear's Den, 1989
• Boomer, 1989
• Heavy Weapons Guide, 1989
• Return to Warsaw, 1989
• NATO Vehicle Guide, 1990
• Survivors' Guide to the United Kingdom, 1990
• Twilight Encounters, 1990
• White Eagle, 1990

Additionally, 3W produced one supplement:

• City of Angels, 1989

Third Edition (Twilight: 2013)

In 2006, 93 Games Studio announced that they had acquired the license to produce the official Twilight 2000 Version 3.0, and planned for a 2008 release with the title Twilight: 2013. According to the developers, the timeline leading to the Twilight War was completely re-written, and no longer focused on a Cold War confrontation between NATO, the Soviet Union and China.

The Twilight: 2013 core rules were released on 8 November 2008 as a PDF.^[3] A print edition was also released. In December 2010, 93 Games Studio announced it was going out of business.

Fourth Edition

In 2020,

The first expansion to the game, Urban Operations, includes rules for play in urban environments and is loosely based on the classic module Free City of Krakow from the first edition of Twilight: 2000.^[7]

Alternative settings

Merc 2000

Whereas Twilight: 2000 was set in the immediate post-World War III era, with characters representing soldiers trying to survive, characters in Merc: 2000 are mercenaries working for or against government forces in a world where the "Twilight War" involving nuclear weapons did not occur.

Merc: 2000 must be used with Twilight 2000 versions 2.0 through 2.2; the earlier first-edition Twilight: 2000 rules differ too much to be easily usable without extensive adaptation.^[