With the re-issue of "Twilight 2000", GDW's post WW3 RPG approaching, I decided to review the adventures published for this game.
The game setting.
For readers who are not familiar with "Twilight 2000", here is some background on the game setting.
"Twilight 2000" was published, along with several other post-holocaust RPG's in 1984, at the height of the Cold War.
"Twilight 2000" did not use the cliche of the United States under the Soviet yoke that was used by the other games released at that time, most notably "Price of Freedom" (West End) & "Freedom Fighter" (Fantasy Games Unlimited), but rather featured a war that had ended through exhaustion on both sides.
The United States was divided between the Joint Chiefs of Staff (MilGov), a provisional Congress (CivGov) and the racist New America organisation, while the Soviet Union was wracked by a covert war between the KGB (Civil Intelligence) and the GRU (Military Intelligence).
The game sold well enough to be reissued as a second edition which updated the background to take into account the political events of the late 1980's and early 1990's, and for an alternative setting to be created, "Merc:2000", in which World War Three never happened.
The Last Submarine Trilogy ("The Last Submarine", "Mediterranean Cruise" & "Boomer").
The three books form a campaign that takes the PC's from the New England coast of the US, to Rumania and finishes in the frozen wastes of the Arctic. This review will look at each of the three books in turn and finish with a rating of the triogy as a whole.
"The Last Submarine", by Jeff Billings & John Caskey.
In the first book of the trilogy the PC's are sent to New London in Connecticut to find and retrieve the nuclear submarine City of Corpus Christi, when they reach New London they find the town in ruins and the submarine missing.
The adventure that follows requires the PC's to find out which of the factions currently existing on the New England coast has the submarine, then negotiate (if possible) with one of the other groups to gain assistance in recovering the submarine.
This is a well written adventure, which both presents the PC's with multiple paths to achive their initial goal and will in the later stages, as they negotiate for help, emphasise role playing. The background itself has at least one more campaign in it, the fight to free the New England coast from a Mafia Warlord.
"Mediterranean Cruise", by Loren K. Wiseman.
In this adventure the PC's learn why they were required to find the submarine in the previous mission. The US (Military) Government has agreed to ship weapons to a partisan leader in Rumania, along the way Defence Intelligence Agency operatives are to be collected for return to the United States. When they reach Rumania, they will find their mission betrayed and receive from the partisan leader a message, revealing an awful danger...
Unfortunatly owing to the nature of the plot, the adventure is excessivly linear, if the GM is not careful, the PC's will feel that they are simply going from one firefight to another.
"Boomer", by Loren K. Wiseman.
The final adventure concerns the players attempts to prevent the Soviets from salvaging an intact "Tpyhoon" missile sub and the three intact nuclear missiles it contains.
Like the second adventure it suffers from excessive linearity, unlike that adventure the book contains background information on the course of WW3 in Norway, providing the GM with information on another region that could provide for an exciting campaign.
Overall Opinion.
Had the last two books been up to the standard set by the first book, then I would have no hesitation in awarding the trilogy a four. As it stands, though they only deserve a three.
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