Introduction
2300AD back in the day was an interesting concept for an
RPG. Take a post WWIII setting from
Twilight 2000 and advance it to the 24th century with a harder
militaristic bent. It still stands as one
of the most intriguing settings I have come across. However GDW has never been lacking for great
concepts that have been ruined by poor implementation and design.
Does the home world of humanity offer anything of interest
for the 2300AD setting? The
Earth/Cybertech Sourcebook (ECS) is mired with a number of problems some of
which were introduced upon publication others due to future history that did
not pan out. There are also some
interesting concepts hidden inside ECS, but may not be worth the time and
effort to dig out.
Future Earth
The premise of the 2300AD universe is that WWIII happened
and the superpowers basically nullified themselves. While the US
bounced back to be an equal, the USSR
never did. In the mean time the French
(who had no involvement in the Twilight War) consolidated terrestrial power in
the chaos after the war. Not a bad
premise, but one that is mired in events that never happens twenty years
ago. Given that ECS was published in
1989, much of the history and predictions that the setting was based upon can
be refuted, easily. Any interesting
setting has any number of reality checks that need to be over looked (like
magic, for example), but ECS makes this a bitter pill to swallow.
ECS does have good coverage of the continents in 24th
century Earth. But the problem with ECS
is like any frontier oriented setting (e.g. pirates, exploration, science
fiction, etc.) is that the really intriguing part of the setting is not where
the people are from but where they are going.
ECS does very little to provide anything interesting beyond some flavor
text to a campaign set in the 2300AD world.
It might best be used for character development, at least for characters
from Earth.
As much as I am in doubt that France
could ever reclaim its place as an influential country, ECS does a good job of
explaining France’s
hold over much of the world. Also the
breakup of China
was well done too. There are other
smaller countries that get some details and how they interact in an
interstellar society without being interstellar
themselves. The information on the
beanstalk (space elevator) is good and there are some interesting concepts
about its secondary benefits and effects on neighboring areas that might be
well applied to any game.
The bad, in particular, is the treatment of SE
Asia. The premise was that Indonesia
grabbed Malaysia
(and presumably Singapore). Even by 1989 Singapore’s
star was on the rise (given they garnered a fully developed nation status in
the early 90’s). As well I do not think
a combined Indonesia
and Malaysia
would have been as likely (given the Twilight War) as a Balkanizing effect on
both countries. The fact that Thailand
has no mention is another example of the somewhat pedestrian effort put into
this region.
Cybertech
At the time of publication for ECS cyberpunk was an
influential genre of science fiction and not really much of the 2300AD
setting. So in a needless addition to
the setting a cyberpunk overlay was added.
It is somewhat contrary to the Earth of 2300AD, as it has been generally
described as much of Earth is relatively cozy and quiet. It might have been useful as an addendum for
a RPG campaign that wanted to use a traditional cyberpunk with the GDW house
rules, but that might even be a stretch.
Best this should have been put into GDW’s
house rag and more page space been given to earth.
The Bottom Line
Like many of GDW’s games, they
have great concepts followed up by pedestrian follow through. The Earth/Cybertech Sourcebook is a fine
example of this. Even at the time of
publishing many of the concepts that the setting was built upon were simply not
possible or probable. The fact that a
slightly pedestrian and cursory scholastic effort was applied to ECS does not
help it. Neither of these problems is as
serious as the fact
that Earth is not where the action is and this book reinforces
that. If you are interested in 2300AD,
this is probably a book to pick up. If
you are only looking at it for ideas for a more contemporary written setting
(i.e. Transhuman Space) then ECS is best avoided. Better yet tie Transhuman Space Earth into
the 2300AD exploration and that might be a better opportunity for adventure and
gaming than either could give you on its own.
