2300 AD

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For the year 2300 AD, see 23rd century.
2300 AD
Designer(s) Marc W. Miller, Timothy B. Brown, Lester W. Smith, Frank Chadwick
Publisher(s) Game Designers' Workshop
Publication date 1987 (1st edition - titled Traveller: 2300)
1988 (2nd edition - titled 2300 AD)
Genre(s) Hard science fiction
System Custom
Originally titled Traveller: 2300

2300 AD is a hard science fiction role playing game created by Game Designers Workshop, originally offered as an alternative to the looser space opera portrayed by the company's leading science fiction role-playing game, Traveller. In fact it was originally titled Traveller: 2300, but this caused confusion as the game used neither the rules system nor the setting of the original Traveller. The game was therefore renamed in its 2nd edition.

The art of 1st Edition books had an allegedly comic book feel, which was replaced by a more technical style in the second edition.

Contents

[edit] Background

2300 AD is set at the dawn of the 24th century (between 2298 and 2301 depending on the book or supplement). At the end of the 20th century, a limited nuclear exchange took place between the United States, China, the U.S.S.R. and other nuclear powers. (This is the same "Twilight War" that is depicted in the role-playing game Twilight: 2000, also produced by Game Designer's Workshop.) In the intervening three centuries, mankind has rebuilt and returned to space. A practical means of faster-than-light (FTL) travel has been discovered, leading to the exploration and eventual colonization of interstellar planets. The post-Westphalian nation-state remains dominant, and most space colonies are considered the territories of various nations back on Earth. This fin de siècle society is analogous to the European colonial era of the 18th and 19th century (indeed, this seems to have been a great source of inspiration for some of GDW's other games). The dominant power, both on Earth and in space, is the Third French Empire, which escaped the nuclear war relatively unscathed by abandoning its NATO allies at the start of the war, and thus had a head start in the technology race. Competing powers include Great Britain, Manchuria, Germany, and an alliance of America and Australia, all of which control certain extrasolar planets themselves.

Mankind has met with several alien species, all of which are decidedly strange and truly alien, from the genetically-engineered Pentapod to the vicious Kafers (The game writers coined this name based on the German word Käfer for bug, not on the Afrikaans ethnic slur "kaffir".) The Kafers are the most humanoid of the alien species, but unfortunately a quirk of their physiology makes war between Kafer and mankind inevitable. Kafer physiology features a hormone, roughly analogous to adrenaline in humans that also functions as a neural accelerant. Kafers literally become smarter once they start fighting. Consequently, their entire civilisation is dependent upon institutionalised violence, which makes them extremely warlike. In 2301 the Kafer start an invasion of human space that will be costly to both attackers and defenders and serves as one of the major dramatic events of the game line.

[edit] Technology

A faster than light device called the Stutterwarp Drive allows mankind to colonize other planetary systems. Ships can usually reach about 3.5 light years per day as a maximum speed; the real limitation of the Stutterwarp drive is that it can only propel a ship up to a maximum of 7.7 light years before it needs to enter a gravity well and discharge lethal radiation that would otherwise kill the crew. Because ships need to reach a world within this distance, the effect of this limitation is the creation of lanes along which travel and commerce are conducted and along which wars are fought. There are three major lanes through known space, called Arms, named after the nations which dominate them (thus the French Arm, The American Arm and the Chinese Arm). It is still early in mankind's expansion into space, thus exploration has reached little beyond 20-40 light years from Earth.

Overall, the technological level of 2300 AD is not terribly more advanced than the modern day. What is depicted refines or updates currently used technology, with occasional instances of breakthroughs predicted by modern science. The wonder-tech clichés of Space Opera are deliberately absent (with the notable exception of FTL). For example, most personal combat is still conducted with guns firing chemically projected rounds even though energy weapons do exist. The properties and limitations of the Stutterwarp drive and all other technologies are defined in considerable detail, to prevent the use of technological deus-ex-machina to resolve intractable situations which is so common in space opera.

[edit] Influences

The background history of 2300 AD is a continuation of the nuclear war depicted in the Twilight 2000 role-playing game by the same company. A custom strategy game called "The Great Game" was used by the authors to develop the background history for 2300 AD.

The game has some very obvious influences. In various supplements and adventures one can find characters, situations and equipment that strongly resemble items from popular science fiction movies and novels. Equipment described in the game are similar to guns and the power loader from the movie Aliens and a buggy from Silent Running, for example.

The alien Kafer (bugs) are not similar to the Bugs of Heinlein's Starship Troopers, but do suggest a less-sophisticated version of the Predator (from the movie of the same name), complete with ships and advanced weaponry. There is also (seemingly) a leaning toward Kafers being analogous to the Soviet juggernaut, with technology that is less technologically sophisticated than the West but mass-produced and effective.

Finally, the authors added a Cyberpunk campaign to the game with the publication of the "Earth/Cybertech Sourcebook" and two adventures for the same, contemporaneous with the Cyberpunk fad of the 1990s. References to such works as Neuromancer or Blade Runner inevitably appear.

[edit] Publications

[edit] New Version

  • 2320AD, from QuikLink Interactive, is currently delayed. It is a sourcebook for the Traveller D20 rules.
  • 2320AD will continue the original Twilight 2000 - 2300AD timeline, positing a limited nuclear war between the U.S.S.R., China and the U.S.A. around the turn of the 21st century.

[edit] Boxed Sets

  • 2300 AD boxed set - Basic rules
  • Star Cruiser - Ship construction and tactical boardgame

[edit] Sourcebooks

  • Colonial Atlas
  • Aurore Sourcebook
  • Nyotekundu Sourcebook
  • Invasion
  • Kafer Sourcebook
  • Earth/Cybertech Sourcebook
  • Ships of the French Arm
  • Ground Vehicle Guide
  • Equipment Guide

[edit] Adventures

  • Kafer Dawn
  • Ranger
  • Bayern
  • Beanstalk
  • Energy Curve
  • Mission Arcturus
  • Deathwatch Program (Cyberpunk subcampaign)
  • Rotten to the Core (Cyberpunk subcampaign)
  • Operation: Overlord (Kafer War adventure, published by 3W Games)


[edit] Magazine articles

Several RPG magazines carried articles for 2300 AD, but GDW's own Challenge stands out for its quality 2300 AD contributions.

[edit] External links

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