Post originally by KC at 2003-10-27 19:25:55
Converted from Phorums BB System
Although I only played it briefly, 2300AD is the only RPG I still own from the old days. There were others I played and loved but the idea behind 2300AD was so much better than most. I actually never bought any of the followup source books. I took what was offered in the core rulebook and ran with it. Part of the intrigue of the setting was as a new colonial era, so it never bothered me that all we got was a historical overview of earth itself. I never intended to run any adventures on earth. If I ran the game today, I would still probably feel that way.
Anyway, I don't know how many others have read your reviews of all these old GDW rpgs and found them interesting, but I wanted you to know that at least one of us does. :-)
Post originally by Richard Wells at 2003-10-27 23:49:08
Converted from Phorums BB System
Earth was needed. All the information about the various disagreements between the various spacefaring nations were largely only relevant where they all would interact and that would be Earth. Unfortunately, the various Earth centered supplements were both weak and felt like they were set in a different universe with technology not available to the advanced military.
Ignoring Earth and all the attendant back story would have made it easy to turn the Kafer invasion into just another standard Traveller adventure set in a distant sector: Hovertanks of the Chamax if you will. But if the writers are going to waste all those pages, they had better produce some form of potential payoff for the unimportant information.
Post originally by Wes Johnson at 2003-10-28 00:16:52
Converted from Phorums BB System
I agree with you in premise, but not how ECS delivered. Some of the facts from Earth were needed, but how they were delivered probably was not the right way. The problem is whwre the action is at in the setting. After reading through ECS it is redily apparent it ain't on Earth even by the writer's admission in the beginning of the book.
The conflicts set up on the frontier (eg the Kafer War) is where the action is at, Earth is window dressing, backfill, history and not a viable setting for 2300AD. Tied into this is the very pedestrian efforts by the author for 2300 Earth.
Post originally by Wes Johnson at 2003-10-28 00:18:51
Converted from Phorums BB System
It still has a place on my book shelves also. I am glad to hear people take som interest in the classic (and sometimes not so classic) rpg reviews around here. I liked 2300AD quite a bit in concept, but like everythign else by GDW they had great ideas often mired by poor execution/design.
Post originally by Richard Wells at 2003-10-28 11:26:18
Converted from Phorums BB System
TV shows and novels set during a war frequently switch away from the primary area of conflict because all the shooting can become tiresome. My experience with RPGs has shown the same. At some point, taking a break in the action and dealing with a different issue is necessary to rejuvenate the campaign. My Fifth Frontier War campaign became much more memorable after a R&R trip to a safari world.
There were two natural automatic plots that could have been set on Earth. The obvious diplomatic one where the heroes of the frontier attempt to break heads and get all those Earther morons to work together. Also one could run a fun filled R&R romp through decadent Earth cities. Should have been an easy process to create works that handled that.
Always was a puzzling design choice to me that GDW instead created a highly derivative cyberpunk universe and then dumped it under the 2300 logo but with only the most tenous links. The fact that the cyberpunk supplements were bad didn't help matters. Bayern had only slight links to the Kafer War and would pull the PCs away from the Kafer War but Bayern provided the skeleton for a rollicking exploration campaign. Thus complaints about Cyber2300 but not some other other digressions from the Kafer War.
Post originally by Malcolm Craig at 2003-10-28 15:04:59
Converted from Phorums BB System
Totally agree with the review. Traveller 2300 (the original, even more flawed incarnation of 2300AD, for the non-2300 anoraks amongst us!) was the first RPG I ever actually went out and bought. It was one of those 2300AD supplements I couldn't really get to grips with, as it seem so much of a cash-in on the then rising star of cyberpunk. To my mind, 2300 always worked best when the characters were out on the Arms, on alien worlds and so on and so forth. The inclusion of Earth, while interesting and probably necesaary for completeness sake if nothing else, was fumbled a little bit.
As has been previously mentioned, it's nice to see someone doing reviews of this old stuff. Hats off to you, sir!
Post originally by Wes Johnson at 2003-10-28 22:32:05
Converted from Phorums BB System
Not the dominant country it once was but still influential in European circles. Also has held strong due to the Brit spirit, trade and technical expertise. Not a whole lot is covered in ECS.
Post originally by Wes Johnson at 2003-10-28 22:35:50
Converted from Phorums BB System
The cyberpunk aspect of the book is really glaring of a hey everyone else is doign this so we got to! The worst part about it is 2300AD is typically fairly far off the standard cyberpunk timeline. Secondly part of what makes Cyberpunk work well is that humanity is trapped on Earth and things spin out of control.
I am not saying Earth would be a bad place to adventure in, it is just made that way by this particular supplement. Lester Smith (who I have met and is a nice guy, so I am not picking on him), really makes Earth out to be a fairly boring, secure place to be. I think there is plenty of non-combat plots that can be explored on the fronteirs.
Linear Mode
