CITY OF ANGELS: Twilight 2000 adventure in Los Angeles

Currently, our campaign is poised to visit post-apocalyptic New York City, as laid out in the module Armies of the Night (PDF).

For contrast, lately I’ve been reading City of Angels (PDF), the Twilight 2000 adventure set in America’s other metropolis, Los Angeles. This adventure is a bit less-known than the rest, as it was an authorized release by independent games company 3W.

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Or visit my shop, where the original Twilight 2000 game books are in stock.

If you’re ready to deep-dive into Twilight 2000, the $35 official CD-ROMs from FFE are like a Twilight 2000 all-you-can-eat buffet. Great value.

Armies of the Night was released in 1986, as the original European meta-plot was coming to a close with Going Home.

Like the other early T2000 modules, Armies of the Night is a classic RPG sandbox. The party is given a few broad directives, and can carry them out as they please. Manhattan Island is controlled by a number of gangs, big and small. They are described in just enough detail for the referee to build from, and it’s clear that no two New York mini-campaigns will develop in the same way.

Los Angeles is a far more vast adventuring locale than Manhattan Island (though NYC has that interesting 3rd dimension – UP! – to explore as well). City of Angels handles the scale with a more… directed… adventure.

City of Angels was released in 1989, at the tail-end of the T2000 1st edition era. The 2nd edition rules would drop in 1990. As was common with these later modules, City of Angels has a loose plot for the party to follow in a particular sequence, with the group ping-ponging off the various gangs in the ruins of LA.

I wouldn’t call this module the dreaded R-word… “Railroad”. The author, Craig Sheeley, wrote in many “if-then” statements regarding player actions. They guide the referee in reacting to various player interactions with NPCs, allowing the plot to go forward in a number of ways without stomping on player agency.

The plot is compelling, the usual MacGuffin being in this case the search for loved-ones of a deceased party member. Refs will need to modify this for their own group to kick off the adventure.