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2300 AD Traveller: 2300
 
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2300 AD Traveller: 2300
Publisher: Mongoose
by Timothy B. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 05/16/2022 12:35:19

Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/05/review-2300-ad-traveller-2300-1986.html

Traveller, in its first 10 years, stayed pretty consistent and took me about two weeks to work through. The next 20 years are going to be much faster.

I am going to start off with one today I only know very little about. Traveller: 2300 also known as 2300 AD.

Before getting into any books or research here is what I do know. This was supposed to be the start of a new line for GDW. It dealt with the earliest time in the Traveller Universe, specifically 2300 AD on Earth. There was a tie-in with their Twilight 2000 game line. In 1986 I was very deep into AD&D to exclusion of all else save for college prep.

So this one is 100% new for me.

2300 AD or Traveller: 2300

Ok. Let's do this one right from the start. This is not really a Traveller game. While I am sure many people worked it out so it could be the past of Traveller, my very, very limited understanding of the history of Traveller's Imperium suggests that likely isn't. But I am sure people with better knowledge than me can say for sure. Since I have a sci-fi game set more or less in the 2300s I figure why not pick this up to see what it is like.

For this review, I am only considering the PDF available from DriveThruRPG. I thought I had bought it from FFE years ago, but I can't find my copy.

PDF. 131 pages. Color cover, black & white interior art. The scan is OCRed and bookmarked. The scan of the cover is rough, but the interior looks better.

The Introduction reads like many RPG books. "This is an RPG", "here are some expectations." And so on.

Player's Manual

History covers the history of this setting with the horrible nuclear war in 2000. I must have been sleeping. I am kidding of course, RPGs are great fun but they have not been great at predicting the future really. Now I have no way of telling, but I think this is basically the same history as GDW's other game Twilight 2000. It certainly feels the same. I never played the game myself. This history section covers the fall and rise of humankind as they venture out into space by the year 2300. Wars and geo-political rivalries are also covered and how they still affect the day-to-day lives of humans on Earth and in Space. The flows into the next section.

Political Geography talks about Earth and beyond of 2300. America is split up (ok that one is not so far-fetched) with Texas as its own republic (which seems to be a reoccurring theme in a lot of things I am reading right now) and other "American" nations. Mexico is split up. Europe ie, well Europe. I think the authors overestimate the older rivalries a little. Germany reunited long before 2000 in a largely peaceful integration and the European Union has been going pretty strong if you ignore Brexit.

In space we colonies at L-4 and L-5 (LaGrange Points), Mercury (not likely, but I'll go with it), Mars, the Asteroids (much more likely), the moons of Jupiter, and just beyond Saturn. No mention of Lunar colonies at all here.

The chapter on Technology is interesting. By 1986 we had seen nearly 10 years of Moore's Law in effect for computers, so the authors of this game give computers a bit more power. I would argue it is not really enough still, but getting there. There is a bit about AIs and psychosis that feels like something I just read in Robert A. Heinlein's Friday. There is some detail on transportation and medical sciences as well.

Colonies cover the fifty-five colonies on twenty-nine inhabitable worlds. Since these colonies are largely extensions of Earth-based interests they are classified by which "Arm" they are in (American, Chinese, French) or which "Finger" of the Arm (Canadian and Latin for America or the French Frontiers). This is followed by Foundations that provide services for citizens after the collapse of the governments in 2000.

Twenty pages in we finally get to Character Generation. If you didn't know this was "not Traveller" before then you learn it here. There are four physical attributes: Size, Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, and four psychological ones: Determination, Intelligence, Eloquence, and Education. You roll a 4d6-4 (generating a score between 0 and 20) and you can re-roll one physical and one psychological attribute. Strength and Dexterity are altered by homeworld and gravity type.

Like Classic Traveller you have skills that can be determined by Background and Career. But no hint of dying in Character Gen (is this even Traveller then???).

This all takes us right to Skills and Careers.

The "Shopping sections" Equipment, Weapons, Vehicles, and Armor follow. Weapons cover all sorts of guns (as expected) and a few laser-based ones. Vehicles does not cover starships. The currency of choice is the French Livres (Lv).

We get some star charts and tables of the nations of the systems.

Referee's Manual

While this is all one file, it was obviously once a boxed set with separate books. Pages 54 to 105 cover what was the separate Referee's Manual. I will also point out that the Bookmarks in my PDF stop working well at this point. There are bookmarks, but they don't always go where they should and are indented oddly.

What would have been the back cover of the Referee's Manual has some really great insight. It credits Marc W. Miller (Traveller) and Frank Chadwick (Twilight: 2000) as two of the "big name" designers of 2300. The implication here is that 2300 was something of an in-house game combining elements of Traveller and Twilight:2k. As a designer myself, I find that fascinating. Maybe, just maybe, more fascinating than the actual game! Internally they called it The Game. And it sounds like that played it out from 2000 to 2300 in turns of 5 or 10 years to get us where we were then.

Life on the Frontier covers the implied setting of the Traveller 2300 game.

Tasks and Combat are largely the same sorts of sections, with combat a special case of task resolution. Clue #2 that this is not your father's Traveller: 1d10 for task resolution and not a 2d6. Here you need to roll higher than a 7 with every 4 points above or below that as a target number difficulty. You add your plusses from skills to your roll and if needed an attribute divided by 4 (+0 to +5) range.

Both Tasks and Combat have charts of successes and failures and what you do with each.

Star Travel finally gets off of the Earth and out into the colonies. The stutterwarp is travel mode of choice to get to distant stars. There are limitations. The drives of these ships can travel great distances but have to jettison their spent radioactive fuel in the gravity well of a system. This process takes some time. So there is a limiting factor on how far a ship can practically travel. There is some detail on tinkering with your starship, but not at the level I have come to associate with Traveller. Space Combat follows right after this. What is nice about this one is there are some photos of ships on a space hex-grid.

Ship Listing is the "shopping list" of Starships. It lacks the "used cars" feel of Classic Traveller.

World Generation is next. It covers quite a lot of detail to be honest. More than I expected.

NPCs are next, followed by World Mapping and Animal Encounters.

There are some star maps, star charts, and some blank forms for Star Data, World Data, and Colony/Outpost Data.

Also included is a sample adventure, The Tricolor's Shadow. It has maps, adventure ideas and two scenarios to run.

Two alien species are introduced in the end, The Kafers and The Pentapods. They are presented as NPCs only, not as playable species.

--

Traveller 2300 is not a bad game to be honest, it just isn't really Traveller is it? I would be better with it IF I could try to figure out a way to make it work with more up-to-date history. But by that point, I could instead use it as a guide and run a Classic Traveller game and limit it to this time period and location.

There is another issue with playing this sort of game. Traveller 2300 suffers from our collective inability to really predict the future. That is no slight on the designers, that is just human nature. Compare the tech in this game to that of The Expanse RPG. Both cover humanity's first step to the solar system and beyond. Both cover roughly similar time periods (2300 vs. 2359) and both can play the same sorts of games. In Traveller 2300 you have the stutterwarp to get to extra-solar planets and int he expanse has the ring gates. The differences lie in the subtle predictions. Computers are much more powerful in the Expanse, but FTL tech is non-existent (save for the ring gate). Traveller 2300 has FTL (in a limited fashion by design). Compare both to say Star Trek of the same period, neither has anything at all like the Ambassador Class Enterprise-C.

Still this is a good game for a grittier version of Traveller, if you don't mind the system change, or for an advanced version of Twilight 2000.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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2300 AD Traveller: 2300
Publisher: Mongoose
by Paul S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/10/2018 22:40:26

I played this game when it first came out. I lost my copy during a move, but was glad to see GDW offer it on Bundle of Holding right now as a way to get it and numerous other titles at a great price. Would love to see an updated version, but until then, I will homebrew some things to mesh with how I think an updated version would look.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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2300 AD Traveller: 2300
Publisher: Mongoose
by Megan R. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 10/13/2015 08:19:51

This game, which isn't Traveller at all despite the name, came as a boxed set with a Player's Manual, Referee's Manual, an adventure (The Tricolour's Shadow) and a star chart. The basic premise is quite simple. The year is 2300AD (surprise!) and Earth is not dissimilar to the planet we know today, although they have fought another world war which went nuclear. Space exploration has burgeoned, and the game revolves around those who have sought their future out amidst the stars, colonising new planets or trading between them. Nation-states have survived as a concept, no world government or anything like that, but the landscape may be different from that which exists today.

The Player's Manual, after an introduction which presents the basics of what role-playing is, launches into History, starting back in 1700 and using sweeping eras (the Ages of Reason, of Industry, and of Technology) to paint a picture of the world up until the year 2000, which is when World War III broke out between the superpowers of America and Russia (still the USSR, the Iron Curtain did not fall in this alternate history which, it must be remembered, was published in 1986!). The Age of Recovery followed, spanning the next century and characterised by times of shortage and experiments with alternatives - by 2050, for example, oil production and consumption although much recovered was far lower than before the war due to the development of alternate power resources. The only European nation not ruined by the war was France, with the rest of Europe, North America, the Indian subcontinent and Asia also suffering devastation. Space travel resumed in the 2040s, with treaties agreeing that colonisation should be open to all. An Age of Exploration (2101-2200), in which various nations and consortia reached out to the solar system and (with the development of a practical stardrive) beyond, was followed by an Age of Commerce as colonies became established and new discoveries were made. Different nations rose and fell, and indeed wars were fought (although these were mere skirmishes rather than all-envoloping conflagrations), resulting in a collection of traditional rivalries and cooperations that colour relationships in 2300AD.

This discussion is followed by one on Political Geography, which examines many different nations and charts their rise and/or fall between 2100 and 2300. It's well worth reading to get the underlying flavour of what different nations think about it other and the influence that it has on day-to-day life on Earth, in the solar system or out in the stars. Revel in it, it's quite different from the homogenity many starfaring games assume. Next comes a discussion of Technology looking at the fantastic developments that have become commonplace to people of the 24th century. Again remembering when this was written, it's amusing to note that 'computers are commonplace, ... an appliance like the telephone or running water'! This first part of the book rounds out with discussions of major colonies and foundations - the pan-national, often star-spanning, organisations with which characters might interact.

The rest of the book deals with generating and equipping the character ready for play. A character is mainly described by attributes and skills, which are given numerical ratings, but you also need to know where he grew up (Core or Frontier world) and the gravity he was born under, which affects size and shape. Attributes are rolled on 4D6-4, and although random rolls are mandated, there's an option to reroll one physical and one psychological one if you are not happy with the results. Skills, on the other hand, are purchased with points earned from career choices and other options. Each career comes with a list of skills available as well as an initial training package which you pick up automatically. (Oddly, just as I write this, the list of mandatory courses for the PhD programme I'm starting on turned up!) The gear your character might want is divided into equipment, weapons (a huge variety), vehicles and armour, all illustrated with neat line drawings, and the book ends with lists of nations, languages, and colonies, and a note on Upkeep - how to calculate your living costs.

Turning to the Referee's Manual, this begins with an essay on Life on the Frontier, which looks at issues like how people born on colony worlds view new immigrants (who provide most of the population increase) and differing views on what is 'home' - a tendency to look towards wherever they were born rather than where they are living now. It then explores some of the ways in which you can earn your keep on frontier worlds, especially those activities likely to be appealing to the characters in your game. We then move on to Tasks: here the task resolution system is explained. A formularic approach is used, the task itself must be stated along with difficulty, assets, time to complete and type. Once you've figured that out, roll 1d10 and apply appropriate modifiers, with success coming at a result determined by the difficulty of the task. Then of course you need to work out the results, from spectacular success to equally spectacular failure! There are plenty of ideas and examples and even a diagram.

Next is a section devoted to Combat. A turn sequence is used, with actions being resolved in initiative order (although an action can be held until later if desired). The standard task resolution system is used to determine if the attack succeeded, damage then depends on the weapon being used (and what armour the target has). Again, there's plenty extra detail to the process, and examples to show you how it is done. The section ends with the treatment of wounds, combat flowcharts and a hit location diagram.

The next section is devoted to Star Travel, and looks at all aspects of the subject from running, equipping and crewing your starship to power systems and crew pay... except for Space Combat, which is in the following section. For this, it is recommended that you use a hex map and markers (or models) to represent the starships involved. This is followed by a section on Ship Listings, which demonstrates how starship data is managed - much of this is needed if you are running a space combat, maybe these two sections should have come in reversed order! Several example vessels are provided.

This is followed by World Generation. There may be 30-odd existing colonies out there, but - especially if the party likes exploring - you may well need to create some more. This can get quite technical if you choose to follow the process in full, but will give rise to star systems that obey astronomical laws. Once you have your worlds sorted, it's on to Non-Player Characters and a system for determining their motivations (if their role in your plot has not already done so) by drawing playing cards.

Back to planets now with a section on World Mapping for all those occasions when the party wants to roam off, along with a section on Animal Encounters to provide some entertainment for them. Finally there's a load of forms and flowcharts for character generation and other processes, lists of stars and so on.

Finally, The Tricolour's Shadow is a short introductory adventure that sees the party given a surveying job in a remote mountain valley in a southern region of the French Continent of Beta Canum-4. They'll find a bit more than interesting geological formations... The plot is quite straightforward, but should get the whole group, referee and players alike, familiar with the game mechanics. It's probably best used as a one-off for that purpose rather than as the starting-point for a campaign, though.

Overall this is a good game with some interesting approaches to future history and the exploration of space, particularly relating to the idea of different nations from Earth all being out there exploring and colonising (and bickering) rather than some unified 'world government' - this adds an extra spin to things. Contemporary gamers may find some of the systems a bit too detail-oriented, some parts do look like you need a high level of mathematics to cope, but it's actually quite straightforward once you get to grips with it - and the most complex bits are some of the design sequences, which you can do at your leisure. Still a good game, almost 30 years after it was published!



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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2300 AD Traveller: 2300
Publisher: Mongoose
by Grant M. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/15/2007 00:00:00

This is a great game if used properly, the combat systam isn't as good as it could be but the setting and timeline are certainly interesting.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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