Witam!
The game is set in the Summer of 2000. The Cold War went hot in this world, and the violent 20th century closed with its third global war.
The Soviet Union has been at war with China, and then NATO since 1996. It didn’t take long for nukes to be used, but they were eye-for-an-eye exchanges in the first couple years of the war. The governments are mostly gone now, and their militaries running on autopilot, but even they too are grinding to a halt. Civilization is clinging on in a few isolated enclaves, and much in between is howling wilderness.
The characters are survivors of the US 5th Infantry Division, broken and scattered to the four winds in Poland. They are alone, in a land foreign now even to its natives, hundreds of kilometers away from nominally friendly territory. Even now, Soviet commanders are hunting for stragglers, expecting them to head west to Germany. What do you do? Where do you go? It’s a harsh world, requiring brains as well as firepower.
The group was comprised of three players: My brother, and my two older sons, playing six characters. My boys found the game too slow-paced for them, and I respected that. The party is large, but the focus is on Maks, my brother’s primary character.
Maksymilian (“Maks”) Zając (Lt. Col.) – Polish defector, leader of the group
Wojciech [“Voy-check”] Nowak – Longtime, somewhat disreputable friend of Maks
Barna Áron – Infantry. German of Hungarian descent
Grant Derek William – Sniper, and sometimes point guy
DeAngelo Pratt – Tanker, driver, mechanic
Jeff Schultz – ER surgeon who found himself drafted when war broke out
Elizka Madejowa. Joined after the aborted raid on the Guz’s HQ. Still earning her place on the crew, volunteering for the dangerous jobs. In Nov 2000, she was diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer, and requested to be left in her native Poland in good care.
Gear: They are well-equipped thus far. Notable in their equipment inventory are their two unusual amphibious vehicles, a BAV-485A and a GAZ-46 MAV… Nicknamed “BAV” and “GAZ (MAV)”.
Update: These were left behind in Europe.
Nov 2000. Maks had already accumulated 30 more Americans in his group since Summer, all looking to go home. He now took responsibility for 300 American and NATO POWs.
15 Nov 2000. Having led his 300 across Germany in a steam train, Maks joined the Operation Omega Fleet and traveled to America with the evacuation fleet.
My name is Wayne. I write these Twilight 2000 RPG session reports for the group, posterity, and because I enjoy writing.
For those that are not familiar with roleplaying games, think of it as an ongoing, cooperative adventure event created by all in the group, within a set of specific rules and background. As the gamemaster, I present the living, breathing world to the players, who decide what they’ll do based on that. And the world reacts in turn.
Twilight 2000 – borrowing a gaming term – is a sandbox. Players do a lot of the shaping of the world too. They decide where to go, their dealings with people they’ll meet… but actions have consequences. We agreed at the outset that they’d wander their way through the original Poland modules. From there, who knows? Probably find their way back to America somehow.
I’m writing my recollections of what transpired. The players will have their own memories.
In the real world, I sell books and classic, out-of-print RPGs at Wayne’s Books. And, yes, we do have the old school Twilight 2000 products in stock.
All the Twilight 2000 core and sourcebooks are detailed at our reference site. It’s a thorough catalog of what was published for the game between 1984 and 1995.
The Twilight 2000 roleplaying game is owned by Far Future Enterprises.
We carry in stock the official FFE CD-ROM compilations of literally everything released for T2000 on PDF. Very useful, reasonably-priced, and I highly recommend them. You can also find individual pdfs of Twilight 2000 books for sale cheaply at DriveThruRPG.
Links to Amazon or DriveThru are affiliate links of course.
Lastly, if you want to talk Twilight 2000 with other gamers, stop by our Twilight 2000 discussion group on MeWe. What’s MeWe? It’s a smaller social media platform that won’t invade your privacy like Facebook. Takes less than 30 seconds to start an account. Join us!
From Poland to America: Our Classic Twilight 2000 RPG Campaign 