Twilight 2000 Fourth Edition.

Some background and a premise or two.

Over the next few months and well probably years assuming my interest holds, I hope to document the trials and tribulations of a band [s] of people [s] some who are thrown together, others who have a purpose and yet more who have a plan. The new universe depicted here is pretty dark and mostly focussed on daily survival and from what I have read of players amazing stories to date a series of events that allow ‘another days’ existence.

Which has led me to ask some questions about purpose. Why?

Why do we cling to life regardless of how tough it is? I ask this for a few personal reasons. So if I might share for a second or paragraph or two perhaps we can unpack how those personal items have influenced what I hope to write about.

My sweet mother-in-law is in ‘living hospice’ right now. One of those situations where each day is a challenge but she often bounces back and for instance attended Christmas lunch. She has congestive heart failure a function of age and sadly, poor choices when the time came to make lifestyle adjustments for quality of life. I’m sure we all have been there or will be there when we cannot see those far-reaching consequences. So I watch her and hear her struggle to breath, to do basic things like sanitary things. It’s heart breaking. This is a noble woman who gave selflessly to all and to her communities for her entire life. A true servant leader, and a bit of an icon in the town I reside in.

Yet she fights. She is afraid, but her body won’t quit and she appears to think that recovery is right around the corner. Amazing. Daily pain, labored breath, swollen limbs, slurred speech due to lack of oxygen [‘hate wearing that thing’ she says]. Difficult. My point here is she looks forward. Forward to a better day, forward to some level of recovery. Forward to more time. Over the past decade my relationship with her has become more surface and less emotional as I saw the poor choices, knowing where it would all end. A selfish, self-protection measure on my part. So, I can’t ask why. Why she chose this particular path. Why she now holds on so firmly. That ‘comfort pack’ is right there ready for the asking or prescribing. Its path is one way. Easy. Soothing. Peaceful. Final.

The other element that struck me the other day over New Years at a friend of a friends homestead was preppers. The place we stayed at was 20 months into reconfiguring into a self-sustaining farm. On 20+ acres, 2 wells, solar for outages [enough battery power to long run Freezers and priority equipment], extra-large propane gas storage, gasoline storage, wood stocked in, wheat berries by the 1,000’s of pounds and other long duration [20+ year] seed & grains. Chickens, some cattle, goats. A stunning amount of work and a full time job to run the homestead, which they balance off as he works via Zoom from home. Their local prepper community is teaching how to make poultices, canning, meat processing and smoking the whole amazing nine yards plus one!

Why? Well that gets far off into multiple conversations about the times, recent past times, and darker conspiracy that will suck the joy out of breathing. They have chosen to want to survive if their country goes to that dark place. In essence a return to Medieval scale life. They want to live, thrive and survive through that. As we spoke deep into the night, through the dinner, of home made bread [first time I ate bread after 8pm and didn’t get indigestion by the way. Yum!], through the fireplace chat, and well after the fireworks I realized that my family have no skills of value other than labour, and my meagre leadership talent. No mechanical, horticultural, or construction, electrical, or medicinal skills. Totally fucked.

Ha! All our little clan of 5 would be able to do is hunker down and ‘barter’ away scarce resources. So if we even wanted to consider ANY level of preparedness in the vein for Twilight 2000 4^th Edition, we were well behind the curve and likely unable at our age to ‘make it’. So community would be key. Which led me to asking the why question again.

Why bother though? If life and existence worldwide or here locally came to such a state do I and my wife want to partake in that struggle? I just don’t know that I do or would/could? Our 3 young men would be the ones to have to work this out. They would be the ones who would identify a path, they would have to make the harder choice. Become a survivalist? Or die hungry? They would never see the David. Never walk the avenues of Paris, sip a pint of beer in an English pub, or be battered around in a taxis weaving through Sao Paulo. They would scratch on hard clay and loam, harvest seeds, barter. That was a sad thought for me. Far fetched. But sad nevertheless.

So! Wow. You say that got weird. These two events however and my reading of T2k4e just really got the juices flowing but I was constantly coming back to why are all these characters doing what they are doing?

To what fricken end?

What is the damn point?

Civilisation is GONE. Society is gone. Means of production, energy generation, industrialized tools and manufacture gone. No fucking espresso for goodness sake! What are you holding on for?

This is what I think I want to explore. Over time. In the game. Who holds on? Who lets go? Who has hope? Who has despair? There is no winner here. Everyone already lost. The Churches lost, the mega corps lost, the billionaires, the generals the politicians they all lost. Whatever rises up out of the nuclear ashes, the bio poisoned soils, the rubble of infrastructure is a mere shadow of former wealth, power and very existence. A mere Robber baron, a simulacrum of a tatty Roman Emperor with a village for a kingdom.

Is there anything more than Serve, Suffer, Sacrifice?

Nothing. Just Dark.

Themes to explore:

All right then with all that very cheery stuff in mind I had to decide what sort of themes, and concepts to explore. Before bouncing those ideas around here is a very truncated background of the T2k new ALT history.

President West of the USA/NATO and President Kryuchkov of the Soviet Union go to war. Suffice to say the alt time line all dovetails into the attempted coup in Russia, growing dissent in the Warsaw Pact and rapid escalation of tensions that end up in a bloody war. In 1997 US troops are in Czech, Slovakian and Romanian areas. But by 1998 things have gotten desperate. The Soviets nuke Poland, Sweden and more. The US retaliates, nukes hit Gdansk, Warsaw etc. US coastal cities take hits and this sets up worldwide collapse of order or centralized government. The winter of 1998/99 is a doozie and kills off vast swathes of population due to broken infrastructure, incapacitated agriculture from radiation, bio attacks and more. By the spring disease breaks out and we have in essence a real global population collapse 50%+ gone, death from disease, starvation, and cold. Tribalism, Cannibalism in Germany and worse.

Year 2000

Civilian rule is pretty much abandoned. The US has devolved to collections of states and cities doing their own thing. While President West tries for one last push. This is where we enter the Universe. Operation RESET is the NATO push to take back Poland, capture what is left of Warsaw and force….well something. RESET goes sideways and the last message is ‘you are on your own’. Our protagonists are on the run if NATO, or if Soviet also not in such great shape, but in pursuit. This ‘offensive’ is built around Divisions operating as reinforced Brigades. There is no air sea land bridge. Alcohol fuel is used, ammo is sparse and if you look at the forces arrayed in Poland most are at 10-25% of effectiveness. A true death throes kind of operation. So now higher command is gone. The game system offers up factions ranging from Formations, to religious cults and rogue upstart territorial groups built around sparse resource centers. CIA and similar groups exist also, as do KGB & GRU, neither’s intentions are clear and we don’t know everyone’s agenda. Of course, there are also those that think there is a win in here somewhere. The staunch loyalists etc.

Which at first was the first obvious thing I grabbed. How do we follow some characters around who want to facilitate the successful conclusion of a world war? Very James Bond, Mission Impossible ideas bounced around my head. None of which really make much sense and would be unrealistic in this sparse universe of survivalists. Nope. So that is out.

Is there a cabal? Is there some overarching mad evil plan for world control post Apocryphal style? Interesting. Gives the crew[s] something to fight against rather than each other or the local marauders. Can they do both? Who would that be? Mad politicians? Evil Generals conspiring, mega corps? Billionaire nut cases? Maybe that could be something to noodle on, and drop clues, ideas and indications of all of the above!

Maybe a meta theme is not needed. Maybe it is just deciding each day to get up and get after it. Another day chalked off, another small victory or defeat. One step closer to death either way.

I can see a lot of value in looking at each of the formations on the map. What a rich tapestry. What will happen to the remnants of 5^th ID? What will happen to 3ACR? 2^nd Armoured, the Soviet Corp Command? How will the various factions CIA, DIA, GRU and KGB weave into the stories and campaigns? Will they pull strings and save or hinder various units, groups of units? Will commands stay intact or dissolve into everyman for themselves? Will the actors team up? Will the Silesian Front work with the US III corps or 29^th ID to what end? Will they take on 11^th Tank in Grodkow?

Do our actors head for Krakow? Or West? Or East?

Are our actors also who they really purport to be?

Character generation

Here is our first character: Nathan Hale. I posted his opening scene earlier today. He is a 1st Lt in 5^th ID [attached] . Strong, Agile and Intelligent. Not so much Empathetic however. Nathan is an intellectual and of a scientific bent [both which he keeps low key and understated] and he is a good tactician, but was assigned at the beginning of Op RESET to the forward command as an Intel liaison sent from higher up the command chain, and thrust upon 5^th ID’s command. He was not welcome. He is a patriot. He was a family man, he wants to see the USA he grew up in restored. He knows that means living every day to the hilt, using all the resources he can gain access to and being as merciless as needed to get the job done. Hale has seen his heart harden. The people he encounters need to be used to fulfill his ultimate goal.

Exploring Nathan’s world will be done via first person and I’ll be soloing him for a while to come to grips with the system overall. I hope to use him as a tool to execute some of the above ideas as they evolve should he survive long enough.

Our other actor is Sergeant X. Cragg. A grizzled veteran. One of the few NCO’s to survive much of the war. He and his unit and upper command are situated in Opole. One could say they are doing the bidding of more than one boss, their female commander keeps orders and intel to herself. Cragg has know her for a while, he does trust her as about as much as you can given the circumstances. All he knows so far is the small stockade and plentiful supply cache [Long forgotten Polish Warsaw Pact silo of contraband goods siphoned off by some corrupt General who is long dead from Warsaw Pact deliveries over the decades] they have access to is a means of survival and allows them to take the fight to whoever they need to locally. His situation and his boss will be explored in more detail in a coming post.

The third actor will be a member of a team that opens in active combat. She is yet to be defined, but I do have her name – Mandy, we know she is a linguist and Computer whizz, who seems to always be in the wrong place at the right time. I’m considering that being a small one shot. The Last Stand of 3ACR. I’ll be working on that next.