What is 2300AD?
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Father Fletch
SOC-12
A quick Google search produced the following interesting set of links
Good Overview
How the Universe was shaped
Excellent set of Articles about the 2300 AD universe
I have looked at all of these over the years and they are all well made. Check them out and you will find lots of useful info.
Good Overview
How the Universe was shaped
Excellent set of Articles about the 2300 AD universe
I have looked at all of these over the years and they are all well made. Check them out and you will find lots of useful info.
There's quite a bit of good stuff for it online. KevinC's "A Pentapod World" is a good one, sticks as close as possible to canon, and has reprints of all the magazine articles that appeared for it. The etrangre website concentrates on the military in 2300. There are some others, but thats all I can think of. Google those, and you find them.
Yahoo groups has KevinC 2300AD forum. and the etrangre discussion forum.
And there's a D20 version coming out, well, watch for it.
As to what is is, it takes its inpiration, I think, in large part, from the grittier side of science fiction. Hard SF. the only break with physics (moreorless) is the stutterwarp drive, an FTL drive that uses electron quantum tunneling, but on a macro-scale.
Guns are still guns, hovertanks roar across the open plains of alien worlds, and a nasty bug-like (in appearance only) alien called the Kafer threaten human space. Starships generate internal gravity by spinning, and space combat uses bomb-pumped xray lasers in stutterwarp missiles.
Exploration is a main thread in 2300, along with combat and trade.
Yahoo groups has KevinC 2300AD forum. and the etrangre discussion forum.
And there's a D20 version coming out, well, watch for it.
As to what is is, it takes its inpiration, I think, in large part, from the grittier side of science fiction. Hard SF. the only break with physics (moreorless) is the stutterwarp drive, an FTL drive that uses electron quantum tunneling, but on a macro-scale.
Guns are still guns, hovertanks roar across the open plains of alien worlds, and a nasty bug-like (in appearance only) alien called the Kafer threaten human space. Starships generate internal gravity by spinning, and space combat uses bomb-pumped xray lasers in stutterwarp missiles.
Exploration is a main thread in 2300, along with combat and trade.
2300 is a set of rules, plus a setting.
The setting assumes that travel is limmited to 7.7 LY, in a 3D universe, based closely upon real astrographic data (from the 70's though). This combination makes routes very specific... forming "Arms and Fingers" of systems that can be reached.
The setting was created using a gameing-simulation. The setting is tied very tightly to the asrographic and FTL assumptions.
2300 ships move through spacce in 2 modes "Slow" near planets and stars, and "Fast" in deep system through deep space. Fast is usually pretty good FTL speeds. Ships doing FTL do NOT leave the "Real universe", but aside from shipping, there is no FTL communication.
Cybernetics exist, seem to be marinalizaed socially, and tend not to be available other than on Earth (and maybe Alpha C).
Beanstalks (Elevators to Orbit) exist in 2 or three systems....
2300 lacks gravitic technologies in total, so, spin induced "Pseudo Gravity" is used to simulate gravity for human health aboard ships and stations. Most planets use shuttles (with loads of fuel expenditure) to make orbit; most starships are not landing capable.
2300 has two rules versions that were printed: Traveller:2300 which was originally reviewed in some places to be the "Prehistory of the Traveller Universe", but was announced by GDW to be a separate universe, and 2300AD which had a name change to reinforce that it was NOT the "New edition of Traveller" nor the "Traveller Prequel" implied by the earlier edition's name. The 2300 AD edition has somme subtle wording changes, which made the rules (IMSHO) much more intelligible. Mechanically, almost no changes occurred, although some things were added.
System and World design are based upon late 1970's & early 1980's understandings of how things probably occurred. It can produce the brown dwarves we've been finding orbiting other stars... but not, IME, as frequently as we've been finding them. (This last is an off the cuff)
I was a relatively latecomer to 2300AD/T2300 but I was also a Traveller Old One (started I think around 1984...whatever that is in Traveller mythology)...as I played those Challenge articles to enrich my Traveller campaign.
But, I know the rules got a major revamp and know the setting very well (as you can see from my collection) but one thing troubles me.
Did T2300 go through the same since of angst when the game system changed slightly toward the more cyberpunk era? As I liked the gritty hard SF that it was touted for in the beginning. Some of what I saw in Challenge no longer conformed to what I wanted anymore. And as I was able to collect the whole line for bargin basement prices, I saw the main adventures were not really changed either but it seemed like something more afoot was happening.
But, I know the rules got a major revamp and know the setting very well (as you can see from my collection) but one thing troubles me.
Did T2300 go through the same since of angst when the game system changed slightly toward the more cyberpunk era? As I liked the gritty hard SF that it was touted for in the beginning. Some of what I saw in Challenge no longer conformed to what I wanted anymore. And as I was able to collect the whole line for bargin basement prices, I saw the main adventures were not really changed either but it seemed like something more afoot was happening.
I don't particularly like those Giant Karate Robots with people in them games. Nor do I like Giant Sword swinging Samari-bots with people in them. I don't know exactly what Cyberpunk is, but the image that comes to mind is that of a Robot sporting a Mohawk Haircut and attending discos while bobbing its head back and forth like a chicken.
I suppose Cyberpunk is a game centering on Amputees with artificial limbs and built in subdermal plate armor to make them bullet proof. Would Terminator 1, 2, and 3 count as Cyberpunk?
2300 has more in common with Star Trek I think. That is a Star Trek that was originallt conceived with a greater budget, access to extensive computer graphics, nonhumanoid aliens, and a more realistic political system that the United Federation of Planets.
I suppose Cyberpunk is a game centering on Amputees with artificial limbs and built in subdermal plate armor to make them bullet proof. Would Terminator 1, 2, and 3 count as Cyberpunk?
2300 has more in common with Star Trek I think. That is a Star Trek that was originallt conceived with a greater budget, access to extensive computer graphics, nonhumanoid aliens, and a more realistic political system that the United Federation of Planets.
Some good examples of they cyberpunk genres in film and TV (some may surprise).Originally posted by Tom Kalbfus:
I don't particularly like those Giant Karate Robots with people in them games. Nor do I like Giant Sword swinging Samari-bots with people in them. I don't know exactly what Cyberpunk is, but the image that comes to mind is that of a Robot sporting a Mohawk Haircut and attending discos while bobbing its head back and forth like a chicken.
I suppose Cyberpunk is a game centering on Amputees with artificial limbs and built in subdermal plate armor to make them bullet proof. Would Terminator 1, 2, and 3 count as Cyberpunk?
Terminator (just barely, BTW), Robocop, Max Headroom, Knight Rider, Earth II (Attitude and Cybernetics), The Matrix, Blade, Blade Runner (From the novel Do Androids dream of Electronic Sheep), SpyKids (Again, just barely), The Sentinel, Jake 2.0 (Coming out soon), THX 1138. Tek War (TV Movies and Series), Earth: Final Conflict, Space: Above and Beyond,
Cyberpunk subgeneres/themes are (in print media) typically among the following:
Drug-enhancement
Cybernetic enhancement
Netrunning
Dystopia caused by megacorporations.
Clones
Man vs the machines.
AI Computers (for better or worse)
Life is cheap, Death is Free
Now, to be cyberpunk, is should explore the human condition by use of these elements... (Based upon the into to the book Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology)
The Earth/Cybertech sourcebook really only touches on Cyber enhancement, etrunning, and the Dystopian elements; the other elements are either ignored or inappropriate. ost people only think dystopia and Cybernetics, but the genre is wider than those.
2300 can have all of these elements.
[Bold]Netrunning: [/Bold] Netrunning is probably restricted to 1 planet at a time, and only a planet with a Net. A lot of frontier planets won't have much of a net to run. There is no Interstellar Net as communications are too slow. Very large Starships, might have an internal Net.
[Bold] Dystopia caused by megacorporations. [/Bold] Depends if the Megacorporations have a monopoly on a certain product or not, if not, then Megacorp is competing with another Megacorp. Corporate run worlds might have this though.
[Bold] Man vs the machines. [/Bold] The machines have yet to rebel
Gallowglass
SOC-12
Both Traveller:2300 and 2300AD as originally published weren't particularly intended as cyberpunk games (Johnny Mnemonic (the short story NOT the film!) is probably the classic CP story, that or Burning Chrome, both by William Gibson), although GDW did try to add cyberpunk feel and options to the setting with the Earth/Cybertech sourcebook and the supplements / adventrues DeathWatch Program and Rotten to the Core. How successful you think they were is a matter of opinion - I was less than impressed, but I tend to think the underlying dystopianism of cyberpunk clashes a little with the 2300AD feel which IMO whilst gritty is (was) not intended to be totally depressing. Indeed it may be that 2300AD faltered precisely because it was launched at a time when gamers in general seemed to want a more nihilistic world view in settings.
Whilst Tom's comparison to Star Trek made me twitch, I think there is some truth in it. But ST:TOS was first and foremost a TV series and flagrantly re-wrote it's setting to accomodate the weeks story line with scant regard for it's own continuity, and even less for known science. 2300AD made some assumptions, but then stuk pretty hard to them. Certainly the arms have some of the Pioneer spirit that originally inspired Trek, but a better set of referants might be Outland, Aliens and CJ Cherryh's Alliance Union books (Merchanter's Luck, Down Below Station etc). Gritty, 'realistic', tough-minded human centred stories and setting. And like all those films and books I have just referred to, ultimately optimistic, although in the middle of most of them it can be very hard to believe it!
Cheers,
Nick Middleton
Whilst Tom's comparison to Star Trek made me twitch, I think there is some truth in it. But ST:TOS was first and foremost a TV series and flagrantly re-wrote it's setting to accomodate the weeks story line with scant regard for it's own continuity, and even less for known science. 2300AD made some assumptions, but then stuk pretty hard to them. Certainly the arms have some of the Pioneer spirit that originally inspired Trek, but a better set of referants might be Outland, Aliens and CJ Cherryh's Alliance Union books (Merchanter's Luck, Down Below Station etc). Gritty, 'realistic', tough-minded human centred stories and setting. And like all those films and books I have just referred to, ultimately optimistic, although in the middle of most of them it can be very hard to believe it!
Cheers,
Nick Middleton
Funny, my reading of 2300AD was that it was destined to follow a dark rotten core with a colonial worlds striking off and creating a new form of humanity amongst the stars. For instance, if you remember the first adventure in T2300, it talks about the diminishment of national loyality toward the development of a planetary consciousness.
Also, I could see colonial rebellion as being one of the sources of conflict in the future of several worlds from my recall of the Colonial Atlas not to mention, once the "Scuttlewarp" (no checking at work) barrier was broken, then worlds a plenty may yield mutinies and rebellions of all sorts, hence the convergence strategy of GDW bringing all games under one rule system could work...as the Germans would nuke their settlements trigging another chance to run a T2000 scenario forging a creating a new civilization could easily fit with a TNE mode for a pocket empire and all those colonial rivaries could easily fit S1889...
Just I have not figured where Dark Conspiracy could fit in other than a really wacked Pentapod construct when it emerges what is the real nature of the Pentapods... where they the shoggoths or the Great Old Ones?
Also, I could see colonial rebellion as being one of the sources of conflict in the future of several worlds from my recall of the Colonial Atlas not to mention, once the "Scuttlewarp" (no checking at work) barrier was broken, then worlds a plenty may yield mutinies and rebellions of all sorts, hence the convergence strategy of GDW bringing all games under one rule system could work...as the Germans would nuke their settlements trigging another chance to run a T2000 scenario forging a creating a new civilization could easily fit with a TNE mode for a pocket empire and all those colonial rivaries could easily fit S1889...
Just I have not figured where Dark Conspiracy could fit in other than a really wacked Pentapod construct when it emerges what is the real nature of the Pentapods... where they the shoggoths or the Great Old Ones?
Gallowglass
SOC-12
Urm, books are at home, but even so I don't see how this equates with the setting being necessarily pessimistic or bleak. And whilst the "rotten core" was pushed quite hard in the Earth/Cybertech Sourcebook and the two associated adventures, it was never really a feature of the setting prior to those. Not that it wasn't a reasonable reading of the setting, but I don't find it a clear implication of the published material.
Equally, I don't really see how colonial struggles for independence are automatically grim and depressing subjects (typically the opposite I would have thought, but I can see it being either).
"Mankinds Battle for the stars" to me implies that a) there is a mankind to be doing the battling (so the species hasn't diverged radically, turned itself in to programmes or mucked up its DNA to a preposterous degree) and b) that survival as a species is not (directly) and issue: it's a fight for a glorious prize, the stars and our right to be there. Now I have no idea if that is what MWM and co at GDW ment by the 2300AD bye-line, and it's certainly not the only way to play the game, but it feels plausible to me and seems more consistant with the majority of what GDW published for 2300 (E/CS, DP and RttC excepted, which were all classically cyberpunk and dystopian). But one can play the setting over a quite wide range of tones from dark to light (one of its strengths IMO), as opposde to some settings which can rather straightjacket one to a predetermined style with too little flexibility.
Mind, when I'm running or playing games for bleak, dark world views, I favour Call of Cthulhu in the classic style (i.e. everybody dies or goes mad except the lone survivor who at best staves off the darkness for a little longer but also knows d**n well that it is only a temporary repreive...). I had a lot of fun adapting the cyberpunk bits of E/CS for my Cthulhupunk game at Uni (Ah me, Hunting Horrors chasing people through Central Park, Yellow signs coded in to skill chips... happy memories...)
And don't be nasty about the 'pods, they are are friends...
Cheers
Nick Middleton
The cyberpunk bits of 2300 seemed tacked on, and they were. Neural jacks and all that sort of militarily useful technology makes no appearance throughout the Kafer War period, though ECS explicitly states that it was common on warships.
The core of 2300 is exploration and the new frontier, though combat against a dealy alien adversary (or a human one) can be part of the genre. But, like Gallowglass states, it's about _people_. Not cybershells, or bioroids. People. People in new environments, interacting with other people, human and alien. The outlook is predominantly hopeful, not dystopian.
The new version will markedly downplay the cybertech/biotech aspects of the game, at least for humanity. It isn't cyberpunk, though a case could be made for cyberpunk elements, especially in the Core. But the game itself isn't about that.
And yes, I do know that.
The core of 2300 is exploration and the new frontier, though combat against a dealy alien adversary (or a human one) can be part of the genre. But, like Gallowglass states, it's about _people_. Not cybershells, or bioroids. People. People in new environments, interacting with other people, human and alien. The outlook is predominantly hopeful, not dystopian.
The new version will markedly downplay the cybertech/biotech aspects of the game, at least for humanity. It isn't cyberpunk, though a case could be made for cyberpunk elements, especially in the Core. But the game itself isn't about that.
And yes, I do know that.
Don't always associate cyberpunk with the bleak. To do service to cyberpunk fans there is much good science and excellent fiction in cyberpunk. The notion of consciousness merging with computers is a rather old one. That I think were the intial fears when robots starting emerging SF.
Asking about the ghost in the machine has also been a staple of Science Fiction. How much this can be translated into a new frontier will be interesting. Clearly, man will be bringing the best technology to the frontier but it will not be long before the frontier begins to change man. This is an element I saw in the early T2300 but as the line progressed, it seemed that the war with the Kafers was of upmost importance. Whereas, if we read the war was a predominantly French problem until Triumpant Destiny was near Earth.
Given the dark overtones that people allude to, it is a wonder if we cannot expand on this.
BTW, Pods are Pods. Who is controlling the Pods, is what I would like to know...
Asking about the ghost in the machine has also been a staple of Science Fiction. How much this can be translated into a new frontier will be interesting. Clearly, man will be bringing the best technology to the frontier but it will not be long before the frontier begins to change man. This is an element I saw in the early T2300 but as the line progressed, it seemed that the war with the Kafers was of upmost importance. Whereas, if we read the war was a predominantly French problem until Triumpant Destiny was near Earth.
Given the dark overtones that people allude to, it is a wonder if we cannot expand on this.
BTW, Pods are Pods. Who is controlling the Pods, is what I would like to know...
Cyberpunk in literature and cyberpunk in gaming tend to be rather different beasts. 2300 didn't really handle it well, largely as it was an afterthought to the rest of the game.
There is a place for the examination of man vs. machine, or even man and machine. 2300 isn't the place for it, at least not in the core setting. Perhaps another setting will be produced after the D20 version is released, maybe as a Traveller's Aid sort of thing.
Could happen.
There is a place for the examination of man vs. machine, or even man and machine. 2300 isn't the place for it, at least not in the core setting. Perhaps another setting will be produced after the D20 version is released, maybe as a Traveller's Aid sort of thing.
Could happen.
Gallowglass
SOC-12
True, although in the wider popular media (i.e. TV and film) the concerns of cyberpunk literature were generally dumbed down to a rather tired recycling of the frankenstein motif, which is probably why I despise most film, TV and Game "Cyberpunk".
Yes, although there is also a mirror-image of the de-humanising effects of technology that one can trace back to Capek's RUR. And I do think that transformation of what it means to be human is central to Cyberpunk: not necessarily as a bad thing either, but more as an exploration of the ways in which our definitions of what is human have and will shape and be shaped by our environment...
Actually, the thing that I find most frustrating in what was published is that GDW touched on this with the DNAMs and Provolution and then backed away from it, leaving the DNAMs as a rather prominent anomaly.
Interesting that in contrast I got caught up in the exploration/frontier side and rapidly let DNAM's drop in to the back ground. Mind, I rapidly tired of bug-hunts as well...
It is the obvious logical alternative to take: focus more on the DNAM's and Provolution, shift away from the Kafer War (so it's easier to gloss over the absence of cybertech in the published material) to extreme bio-engineering at the limits of the chinese arm or back on earth and I think you can get a pretty dark, very CP feel to the setting without any major re-writes.
"But meep we control ourselves meep just like you meep. Want to try this personal alarm clock, controls your body clock so you are always at peak alertness meep for your scheduled meetings meep. You just insert it here MEEP ...!"
cheers,
Nick Middleton
Ok you are being attacked by a party of Kafers, how is a neural jack going to help you?
Ok, you are being attacked by a party of cybershells and bioroids, how is a neural jack going to help you.
In the cartoon "Inspector Gadget" and example of Cyberpunk? It certainly is an example of the merger of Man and Machine. Oh but I forgot, Cyberpunk is supposed to be depressing. I guess in that example you'd have to let "The Claw" win.
Ok you are being attacked by a party of Kafers, how is a neural jack going to help you?
The neural jack IIRC, allowed one to connect to a smartgun, which certainly would help agianst Kafers. Or connect to a vehicle, aircraft or starship. which, again, would help.
Ok, you are being attacked by a party of cybershells and bioroids, how is a neural jack going to help you.
In the cartoon "Inspector Gadget" and example of Cyberpunk? It certainly is an example of the merger of Man and Machine. Oh but I forgot, Cyberpunk is supposed to be depressing. I guess in that example you'd have to let "The Claw" win.
The whole point of what I'm saying is that 2300 is _not_ cyberpunk. It is about people and new environments, about contact with aliens, and exploring the stars. It is not about the erosion of self is the face of biological or mechanical augmentation. That is a perfectly legitimate type of game. It's just not what 2300 is about. You can add that, IYU, if you like. But it won't be a strong theme in 2320.
How do I know that? Answer coming soon.
Earth/Cybertech SB makes it look like Cyber is common IN THE CORE, and perhaps amongst cetain naval crewmen. It is far less likel outside the core.
And 2300 is about the most important of Cyberpunk meta-concepts: man changing to adapt to a changinng environment, and wondering what it means to be human.
In 2300, the triggers about that are Aliens on the rim, and growing dystopia in the core. In fact, the core is almost ignored in the core rulebooks. And most of the supplemments. E/CT provides the only CLEAR view of core life. And it is focused on ONE of the TWO core worlds.
No, it's not Cyberpunk ala CP2020 or Shadowrun. But the elements are there; the pentapod equipment fills a similar trigger role. Case in point: the pentapod diving mask; it is a living creature, and it is stated that some who would dive with a mask can't cope with the idea of a creature hugging their face, even if it provides them air.
And 2300 is about the most important of Cyberpunk meta-concepts: man changing to adapt to a changinng environment, and wondering what it means to be human.
In 2300, the triggers about that are Aliens on the rim, and growing dystopia in the core. In fact, the core is almost ignored in the core rulebooks. And most of the supplemments. E/CT provides the only CLEAR view of core life. And it is focused on ONE of the TWO core worlds.
No, it's not Cyberpunk ala CP2020 or Shadowrun. But the elements are there; the pentapod equipment fills a similar trigger role. Case in point: the pentapod diving mask; it is a living creature, and it is stated that some who would dive with a mask can't cope with the idea of a creature hugging their face, even if it provides them air.
I'm not sure that those are specifically _cyberpunk_ meta-concepts as much as they are _science fiction_ meta-concepts. A great deal of SF is concerned with the human condition in alien environments, as the concept of 'what is human' is challenged by intelligent aliens, robots and artificial intelligence, and by the changes undergone by humanity in adapting to alien environments. Change is not specifically a cyberpunk motif.
The point here is, 2300AD is not cyberpunk the way 2020 or Shadowrun is. Except for the tacked-on bit of ECT, it's not really cyberpunk at all, and wasn't really intended to be.
And 2320 won't be. I have fairly explicit intructions on that score. It won't be Transhuman Space in the Stars either. Cybertech and biotech do play a role, but that role is minimal, even experiemental for the most part. DNAMs are more used to aid in adaptation to hostile environments than they are used to produce super-soldiers. The 2300AD tech section even states that genetic engineering for intelligence and other "superior" traits was problematic.
The point here is, 2300AD is not cyberpunk the way 2020 or Shadowrun is. Except for the tacked-on bit of ECT, it's not really cyberpunk at all, and wasn't really intended to be.
And 2320 won't be. I have fairly explicit intructions on that score. It won't be Transhuman Space in the Stars either. Cybertech and biotech do play a role, but that role is minimal, even experiemental for the most part. DNAMs are more used to aid in adaptation to hostile environments than they are used to produce super-soldiers. The 2300AD tech section even states that genetic engineering for intelligence and other "superior" traits was problematic.
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