Game: Twilight:2000 4th Edition
Campaign: Against the Dying of the Light
Price: $12 a session (per player) via StartPlaying.games
Platform: Online on Foundry VTT and Discord
Time: Friday nights – 8:00 pm CET
Schedule: Every other Friday – Session Zero is January 5th, 2024
Duration: 3 - 4hrs
Looking for: 2 players of any experience level to complete the table
My Experience: 30 years as GM
Hi. I’m recruiting players for an 18+ beginner & LGBTQ+ friendly Twilight: 2000 campaign using the 4th edition from Free League. This is a post-apocalyptic tabletop role-playing game set in an alternate history where the Cold War between the United States/NATO and the Soviet Union turned hot. World War III started as a lengthy conventional war but soon escalated into a nuclear conflict with catastrophic outcomes. Governments and industries have collapsed. Civil rule has ceased to exist. You are survivors of the war—soldiers and civilians alike—but what kind of survivors will you be? This will be a campaign of hardship, hard choices, death, and even hope.
Campaign: Against the Dying of the Light
The campaign begins in Poland in the year 2000 in the immediate aftermath of the disastrous Battle of Kalisz and the failure of Operation Reset. When you first heard about Operation Reset, you couldn’t believe it. The first major offensive by NATO forces in Europe in over a year. The order was to link up with other U.S. forces and push your way to Warsaw, or what’s left of it. You weren’t told why. Some said it was a last hurrah, a final try to save the world as you knew it. But you knew it was a Hail Mary, a desperate gamble in the most desperate of times. It was no surprise that it went to hell. Most things have in the last few years.
Now you’re in the woods outside of Kalisz, part of a small band of survivors who fled the fighting. The cacophony of weapons fire and the cries of the wounded and the dying still echo in your ears. Nearby, a dead U.S. radioman lies propped up against a tree like a raggedy doll torn apart in the jaws of a starving dog. You’re wondering if you knew the soldier — was he a buddy? Does it even matter anymore? — when suddenly, the dead man’s radio briefly crackles to life. Someone on the other end screams that HQ is being overrun. The last order from the top to make a break for it. Like you hadn’t already done that. Then that final message that cuts through the static and hangs there in the air, like the worst news in a hospital waiting room: “Good luck. You’re on your own.”
What do you do?
The stories of this game are created by you. They are not written down beforehand. You have control over your character’s lives – and there is plenty to do:
Stay Alive
Your most immediate goal is to survive. You will need to scrounge for food, ammunition and fuel for your vehicle from day one. You’re in hostile territory surrounded by enemy soldiers and marauders who will try to kill you on sight and take what’s yours. You need to keep moving, stay alert, and be prepared to fight for your life every day.
Help Those in Need
You might be alone and on the run, but at least you have weapons to protect yourselves and the skills to use them. On your travels, you will meet people in even more dire straits than you. Starving refugees with nothing but the clothes on their backs, civilians terrorized by some local warlord. It is up to you and your conscience whether to help those in worse need than yourselves, or leave them to their fate.
Search for Information
If you want to stay alive, you’ll need fresh intel – about enemy troop concentrations, other NATO stragglers, marauders in the area, which bridges are blown and which towns have been hit by tactical nukes. Scout ahead, ask around. If you don’t know what you’re walking into, you won’t make it very far.
Find a Safe Haven
Safety is a rare thing. But there are still some places, few and far between, where a semblance of order remains. Small communities or bases, islands of civilization in a sea of chaos, fighting desperately to protect themselves against the armies and marauders roaming the land. Maybe you can find such a place, and maybe they will let you stay there, at least for a while.
Stake a Claim
Maybe one day, you can stop running. When you’ve gathered enough resources and found a location safe enough, you can create your own sanctuary – a home base. The start of something new in the ruins of the old. But be warned, enemies will come knocking and you will need to fight to defend what’s yours.
Find a Way Home
If your character is a soldier in a foreign land, you might be looking for a way to return home. It’s probably nothing but a pipe dream, but someday, somehow, maybe you can make it back.
Reset the World
The world has gone to hell, and most days are just about making it to the next alive. But what if there could be a way back? To heal the world, to re-awaken civilization as we knew it? Mad prophets preach of a new dawn, rumors by campfires whisper of mysterious plans for rebooting the world. It’s probably all fairy tales, but what if some of it is true? What if the world can still be saved?
GM Details:
I’m a novelist and writer for tabletop role-playing games. I’ve been playing and running various TTRPGs since discovering the Dungeons & Dragons basic set in grade school. Most recently, I’ve run The One Ring and Star Trek Adventures.
In my approach to tabletop role-playing games, I embrace the belief that each game serves as a platform for collaborative storytelling within the framework of its rules. My primary aim is to empower players to immerse themselves in a narrative style of play, fostering shared storytelling between them and the GM.
These games, in their essence, echo the timeless tradition of oral storytelling, a practice ingrained in our history long before the advent of written language. Stories are integral to our understanding of self and the world, often giving rise to myths and shaping our perceptions.
While I emphasize ‘theater of the mind’ as our main canvas, I do incorporate visual aids like maps and tokens when they enhance the experience. While not a professional voice actor or versed in improv theater, my passion lies in facilitating collaborative storytelling within the virtual confines of our tabletop sessions.
What you need:
- A free account at Forge-VTT.com
- A Discord account
- A good microphone (camera optional)
When We Play
Every other Friday beginning January 5, 2024 8:00 PM (CET) on Foundry and Discord. Each session is $12.
You can sign up here - Play Twilight 2000 Online | Twilight: 2000 — Against the Dying of the Light