An Interview With Chris Lites, part of the Free League Publishing Twilight: 2000 team!

I know it's been a while, but I wanted to have some more information on what's going on with the upcoming Twilight: 2000 4th Edition Kickstarter campaign by Free League Publishing! We've seen some interviews online with the design team here, I am not a big video person myself, having been told once that I had a "face for radio, and a voice for television."

But I digress, in any event, I have here the questions and responses from Chris Lites, who is part of the design team, and his thoughts on where the team wants to go. Chris was extremely responsive, and gracious considering the amount of development time he is putting into the release we hope will be sometime next year! (My thoughts, noone elses, please don't bug FGL about it!)

The interview is below, the questions were either formulated by myself, or submitted by readers. Chris's responses are in italics.

1.     Will Character Generation be limited to Army characters, like in the 1st Edition will it be more diverse like in the 2nd Edition?

You can play military or civilians from the start.

 

2.       Will there be setting sourcebooks that do more modern apocalypses?

I’m not sure what the future holds. We’ve discussed an option that might lead to a contemporary sourcebook...possibly.

 

3.       What can you tell us about the proposed mechanics?

One set of mechanics is a more detailed version of the Year Zero System. It includes a much heavier focus on combat. We are also playtesting an alternate ruleset. I can’t say more now.

 

4.       Have you brought anyone on from the old GDW team?

Marc Miller is involved.

 

5.       How many of you are fans of the game?

I don’t think anyone involved isn’t a fan of the old game. I started playing it in about 1986 as a kid. I was pretty obsessed with all things military. I memorized cyclic rates for NATO and Warsaw Pact small arms at one point. Twilight: 2000 was probably the third game I played after D&D and Recon. It was pretty much designed for kid me.

 

6.     What made you all decide to keep the game in 2000, considering younger players are, well, barely aware of the Cold War and all that came with it?

We kept the game where it is because it’s the most plausible scenario and the one fans are familiar with. I think the idea of apocalypse never gets old. Given our current world, certainly, “the end is nigh” is very much in the air. The specifics of what any causal factor were pale in comparison to what we, as a society, deal with mentally: the aftermath. We were perilously close to apocalypse in the Cold War and find ourselves in a different, longer apocalypse now. One that is multi-causal. However, the effects of a Third World War have most of the trappings of what we’d see if everything that can go wrong now continues to do so. While new players might not get the Cold War sense of doom, I think younger generations can relate to the feeling of a dark cloud over the world. Setting it in a recent era makes it realistic but still a bit escapist.

 

7.       Will you be re-issuing old adventures for the new system?

The old adventures serve as a road map. You’ll see the Poland campaign but, in true sandbox style, we present it in such a way that is can be set in the UK, Germany, Sweden, wherever you want.

 

8.       Miniatures, what scale and whom if anyone, have you approached? Or can you talk on that?

Miniatures have been discussed. I am a huge minis gamer. Nothing is decided. The RPG certainly does not require them.

9.       If there’s one thing you want to tell the fans, what is it?

 I’d tell the fans that I was a huge fan of Twilight: 2000, studied the Cold War as a kid while it was going on and both myself, and Tomas intend to do the old game right while making it mechanically modern.

 

10.    Do you think, with what’s going on in the world now, and the rise again of PA entertainment over the last few decades, has Twilight:2000’s moment in the sun finally come?

I think the current state of the world makes the return of Twilight: 2000 as timely as it was when it appeared in 1984. We live on the edge of a vast unknown, a very likely dark abyss, and it permeates our global culture. If you can turn that experience into an exercise for fun, you might find it cathartic. At least in our game, players have agency. In the real world, as individuals, we are very much subject to the agency of others save when we come together. If we’re going to get out of this era’s looming end times, it’ll require global movements from the people who will suffer the consequences. That said, it is a game at the end of the day and the object is to have fun. But, as a writer, I’m very aware of how close some of the scenarios in the game are to what might happen in the not too distant future. There is, for example, a virus in game as an optional plot thread. I wrote that prior to COVID. I hope other things we’ve put in the game remain conscripted to the land of “might have been.”

So, that is our interview thus far. I plan to do another one, hopefully before the beginning of the kickstarter in August! So, send me your questions care of the blog!

 

In other news, there's been quite a bit coming out via Battlefront Miniatures, including this curious development! 

Image taken from Battlefront Website

 Yes, reader, your eyes do not deceive! LAV-75s in 15mm! Yeah, I know, there must be a T2K player at Battlefront. It's the only explanation. They are due to be released in July, and I do my T2K gaming in 20mm, but I might get some for my 15mm Sci-Fi armies. I'll keep ya posted. 

 In other news, my 20mm projects have been slowly humming along. Well, not so much mainly because I have a literal ton of 15mm projects to work on in the sci fi realm, then some WWII, so I am doing the Twilight: 2000 miniatures projects as I can, when I can. But some progress has been made!

A Revell M2 Bradley, a Trumpeter LAV-25 (third one of these I have built) and a S&S GAZ-66 Flatbed, all in 20mm

Another view of the above pictured.

The completed Elhiem "Cover Stars" pack, along with the HMMWV that goes with. Need to weather the HMMWV, but they're almost ready. Good figures that paint up great.

For future installments, I plan on doing a review of Battlegroup: NORTHAG, and perhaps writing some ideas for T2K for it, as well as reviews of Spectre: Modern Operations, and Contact Front, two newcomers (relatively) on the block for potential T2K Miniature gaming fun. I also plan on showing off some of the moderns I picked up recently second hand, and from Butler's Printed Models. I'm also got an idea to doing some Twilight War orbats for Fistful of TOWs, as well as doing a series on where to get the miniatures!