Assault on Pillbox 12: an OWB "Trial by Fire" Funnel attempt

This post is based on a recent "one-shot" session I ran my group through using the "Trial by Fire" rules from OWB and the "Assault on Pillbox 12" scenario from the "Normandy Breakout" supplement. We were a regular player down (the one that is the designated group leader), so it made for an interesting diversion and helped me with some of the individual personality dynamics... 

Into the Jaws of Death...

So Why a D-Day Scenario? 

So when I start a new group of players or a new campaign arc for existing ones, I like to throw the action straight at them - not always a combat situation, but often something dangerous - they begin in media res and need to quickly sort themselves out - it's one of The Lazy DM's tactics I like to use repeatedly. I thought this would work even better for a one-shot and the nature of a funnel is that things move fast and improvisation is the name of the game...

Assault on Pillbox 12 is an almost scene-by-scene simulation of the Omaha beach landing scene from the film "Saving Private Ryan", so I thought it would be ideal, if somewhat intense... (trigger warning)

I mean the first few minutes really kick things off and get the adrenaline going - I recommended the players watch that extended scene from Saving Private Ryan if they could to get into the mood.

Amusingly, only one of the three players had actually seen the film, which I think amplified the whole effect and created a very compelling sense of confusion and urgency.

How to Play OWB "Trial by Fire" 

Effectively the rules on pages 42-43 of the OWB Corebook are a type of funnel, well at least a "mini-funnel" in the spirit of DCC or similar. A bunch of unskilled 0th-level characters are thrown into a dangerous situation and the survivors develop relationships, back stories, and an idea of their skill aptitudes and personality quirks during the "funnel session".

Character Names 

Rather than actual proper names, I just asked the players to pick the appropriate style first names (and optionally surnames) starting with the same letter in the sequence. So for instance we first had:

    Aaron

    Bob

    Colin

Then as each character dies, moving down the alphabet:

    Dave

    Eliot

    Fred

    George

... and so on, cycling through the letters. 

This prevented interruption of play, and to further keep up the momentum I had each new character appear as a new grunt running up to the spot the player's last character died or near enough (emulating respawning in FPS games eg Call of Duty and similar) and falling in.

The only hesitation was choosing the weapon loadout from the three choices (Large Rifle (M1 Garand) + 4 grenades / SMG + 4 grenades / Heavy Weapon + only 2 grenades) and the preferred Physical Stat (STR or DEX or CON). This rolled through pretty quickly after the first few "changeovers".

After a player had three characters die, as a variant rule given the lethality of Assault on Pillbox 12 for zero-level characters, I allowed for 4th and subsequent characters but restricted the weapon choice to Large Rifle but players could scavenge from their fallen comrades.     

In the session I ran with my group as a "one-shot" , only the character that started with Colin had a surving character (Leonard) from his three initial "lives", the other players had one surviving character (Mike) with 4 dead, and no surviving character and 7 dead. So in total, 13 dead and 2 surviving 0th level characters from the "funnel", one who stood out as a possible Tactician, the other was played more as a Grunt than anything (survived jumping on a grenade with a helmet).

Using Allied NPCs 

I used a similar strategy with any Allied NPCs, using their first names A, B, C ... etc, but in retrospect, it would have been better to use surnames for realism, and will do that for any subsequent sessions. An alternative would be to use a name generator such as this one (in advance) and have a ready-made list. 

So I didn't use any officers, because I wanted to let the players attempt to rally the remnants and didn't want to railroad them, but unfortunately, they just randomly headed off in a group by themselves... LOL. 

However, I did throw in a brief encounter with a combat medic moving along the lines, healing up the troops and any wounded player characters, and some combat engineers with Bangalores. I left it pretty freeform and let the chaos reign.

For a future session, I'd run these a bit more developed (see below).

Running the Beach Landing

Just like in the movie, there's a lot going on during the beach landing and it can be confusing... this is inherent to the chaos of the assault but can make it difficult to run easily even with the "mass combat lite" approach used in the scenario, so I broke things down into a couple of actions I needed to do. 

I first decided to push the dice rolling back onto the players to increase their buy and in and provide a sense of urgency and hopefully retain agency... this worked so well though that it resulted in the players running off in different directions without coordination - somewhat less than optimal, but led to amusing outcomes and I think truly reflective of the potential for panic.

To achieve this I made each character roll TWO d6s each "round" (preferably different colours unless using Discord or Roll 20 etc) while moving to the base of the cliff. Depending on their choices and the Bangalores, a given character can reach the cliff base in as little as 6 "rounds" but it will most likely take longer than that to cross the distance into the relative safety of the  

The first d6  is to check if they were hit by "enemy fire" - on a 1, that is the main event for that round and the second d6 is used to determine what they are hit by (Normandy Breakout, p4). 

If I'd thought of it, I would have added a d20 save as most of the time they ended up having some sort of cover they could use or flong themselves towards - one of the players worked out how to make a short macro for Roll 20 which we used, so that would be the way forward I suspect.

                Use this string:     /roll 2d6+d20     (copy and paste)

Secondly, I created a "DM Playsheet" from the map that had all the main information to hand:

DM Playsheet for Assault on Pillbox 12

This has everything I need in the scene but is not covered by the basic OWB rules.

I also found this elevation plan that gives an idea of the beach terrain for better visualisation and can be handed to as a printout for players or sent as an image over Discord / Roll 20 or other VTT:

And a nifty diagram and photo of a Landing Craft (aka "Higgins Boat") to help evoke the initial moments:

Ideas for Repeat Playthrough

I plan to run this again, as it really was a lot of chaotic fun!

It was a great "one-shot" filler for when a player or two is missing, and I can see adding in WW2 style variations (Nazi Super Science, Nazi Occult, etc) or shifting it into a different setting or game system even with a bit of jury rigging. There are definitely a few elements and structural parts that could fit into say a T2k 2nd edition or 4th edition (Free League) game - adjusting some of the "atmospheric" rules for the initial breakout from Escape from Kalisz...

Added Details and Encounters while Crossing the Beach

For future plays, I'll be making it so that if they roll another number than 1, other events happen based on this optional expanded table next time, using the second die to help determine the exact scene the player witnesses:

Table A: Stray Fire & Additional Beach Scenes

1.        Hit by Enemy Fire (1-4 stray fire, 5 MG, 6 explosion) as per p4 

2-3      Just missed by enemy fire (use 2nd die to determine type of enemy fire)

4.        Soldier falls in front of you to enemy fire (use 2nd die to determine type of enemy fire)

5.        Come across a dead body (can use as partial cover for stray fire only) with gear

           + Wire clippers (1-2) / Rocket grapple (3-4) / Weapon upgrade (5-6)

          6.        Officer (1) / Radioman (2) / Sniper (3) / Medic (4) encounter OR soldier falls (5-6)

Officer: will attempt to rally the players and push them towards the next objective by barking orders.  

Radioman: busy trying to communicate about conditions on the beach, characters will hear snatches of communication but be aware that few officers have survived. 

Sniper: can ask to lay down covering fire on an MG nest to avoid if rolls next turn 

Medic: will heal character 1d3 hit points of wounded. If the character is not wounded, the Medic will ask them to help drag a wounded soldier to the closest piece of cover and assist for 1 round. 

This is roughly based on the script of the beach landing scene and the brief encounters of Tom Hank's character, Captain Miller, plus a few other ideas to help the meta-game progress and give the players some hints and the potential to pick up some specific equipment or weapons.

 

I'm Still On My Own? Viva La Apocalypse while awaiting my copy of T2k v4.0

Art from Free League (promotional images)

It's been a while since I posted anything T2k related, but this post acts as a partial explanation and has some hints about the future of this blog with the release of the 4th edition. I don't usually seek comments, but given the circumstances, I'd welcome opinions on my intentions from the community!

My current mood for lockdown in Fortress Oz... 

Well not quite perhaps, but down here in Australia shipping is often delayed significantly, so it's unlikely I'll see my Kickstarter T2k v4 boxed set anytime soon sadly. As much as I appreciate the PDFs (alpha and beta), for something like this I feel I need to have the physical product to immerse myself in to study and work through - so I'll keep waiting for now patiently.

The pandemic has caught all of us up in different ways so it's been a while since I've looked at any of the T2k material I've created and written about on this blog. I was surprised when I came back after about a year to post a player summary for my current 5E group about the Iron Kingdoms, to see that this site has been accessed a *lot* more times than I expected, more than my other RPG blog. 

So I may have felt like I was still on my own down here in the antipodes, but it was a welcome surprise to find that in March this year, my site has become wildly more popular than previously, with particular popularity in July and August as well which is unprecedented.

Thank you all for your interest in my humble little blog of rantings!

I must say I'm a bit lost as to why as I've been so caught up with life and work that I hadn't been following along with the community much and seem to have missed something... so I had a look at the Top 10 posts accessed in the last 6 months to get some idea of where the interest lay:

Top 10 Posts April to October 2021

So it seems pretty clear, with 7/10 of the top posts directly T2k related, that the interest is likely related to the recent launch of the 4th edition and perhaps people's reactions to (or against that). I'm quite proud of some of the articles in this list, so good to see people are finding them useful.

I am however curious why they are being accessed - whether they are being accessed for use in the new 4th edition or rather being used to support people playing the earlier editions. As noted above, leave a comment on what you have found useful and preferably why. Also if you have any ideas to shed on the site's sudden popularity I'd appreciate it.

As to the other three posts:

• Glad to see some interest in my tightly themed mini-site the Derropedia.
• I really like Riverine adventures and will keep returning to that topic again and again... 
• Check out Operation White Box - it's a great game and Pete Spahn is an amazing creator. 

So when I do get my boxed set, I'll be returning to revise and expand on my existing T2k articles.

I'll compare the v2.2 mechanics of my older articles and the new 4th edition mechanical interpretations of the setting: character generation, iconic pre-generated NPCs, the Polish campaign and hex maps, trains, cavalry, and of course TOTs. OK maybe some new articles as well, eh? 

Should be fun, I'm looking forward to it.

Tu N'es Pas Tout Seul... Merci!

Oh last, but definitely not least comment. 

Thank you to all you viewers in France.!

Whoever you are and regardless of why because this was a very unexpected audience metric.

It seems this blog is now significantly more accessed from France than elsewhere by almost an order of magnitude. I really don't understand why to be honest, but although I can understand the content being popular in North America and also Sweden, I'm not quite sure what the "French Connection" is exactly as nothing is in French (my schoolboy French is terrible, Google Translate to the rescue) and nothing on this blog is set in France, unlike my other blog. 

I'm not aware of French VPNs being suddenly popular either.

6 months of Audience by Origin

So I guess it's Viva La Apocalypse! 

Au revoir. 

For When You're On Your Own (YOYO) - More pre-generated characters!

So despite my intentions to have a break from Twilight: 2000 material, a recent post on the little-visited Twilight: 2000 subreddit prompted me to post this in response.

A while back I lamented the lack of pregenerated character for Twilight: 2000 as a potential barrier to adoption of the setting and the game by new players and presented six pregen "archetypes" to help provide inspiration and fill out a small party with some core roles if needed:

The Wheelman

The Heavy

The Scout

The Doctor

The Engineer

The Major

I had developed v1.0 versions of "Monk" and "Bobby Lee" based on the example characters in the rulebooks, then updated them to v2.2 ("the Wheelman" and "the Scout") and added in the other four archetypes as I had only limited information on the rest of the named characters, but I didn't have the time or inclination to develop all the characters mentioned in the example fiction.

But it turns out a Reddit user known as "u/wbgamer" has now done exactly this according to his post.

He's created a great resource of pre-generated characters in my view for both new and old players and referees alike. Apparently, he saw my original v1.0 characters on my old blog "My Life as a Grog" and felt inspired enough to complete the set!

The twelve v2.2 characters are linked to a Google Docs zip file of PDFs of the "advanced" Excel character sheet developed by Marc on the Juhulin forums that include character portraits and some background notes, with an accompanying "Notes" file with suggestions for the group's backstory and vehicles (LAV-25 and HMMW M1029), weapons and other equipment they share in common at the beginning of the default Escape from Kalisz campaign scenario.

I hereby salute you, good sir!

For those interested in the breakdown, the characters are:

• Alvarez (support - electronics, fluent Spanish, secondary combat medic)
• Anderson (sergeant, 49yo, speaks Russian and has contacts)
• Bobbi Lee (MP not ranger but scout and rifleman; see also my version) 
• Carson (truck-driver for LAV-25, crack shot)
• Gordon (former construction engineer and combat engineer support) 
• Griffith (supply sergeant, scrounger and wheeled driver)
• Jefferson (reservist, tank gunner and heavy weapons)
• Jones (Welsh SAS / sniper with Polish and German, stealth and combat)
• Major (prior enlisted combatant, now older officer; see also my version)
• Monk (drafted pre-war mechanic support character, see also my version)
• Toye (captain, typical infantry combat officer)
• Wood (not actually a medic just "the closest thing")

u/wbgamer's "Design Notes" for his iconic Escape from Kalisz Party

Note: the zip file and PDFs are private documents initially but accessible upon requesting permission and being approved by the author. I'd be happy to mirror host the files here and will contact the creator to check what he's comfortable in sharing soon or if he has any issues with the screenshots.

The Same, but Different?

So that's great, but what's the difference between u/wbgamer's characters and my pregens?

I mean you already have my pregens, what more do you need right... right?

Well, it really depends what you're looking for, as I think the two sets of pre-generated characters are not only both useful but also complementary. Sure, we both present versions of "Monk" and "Bobbi-Lee" (which intentionally vary only slightly in end result according to u/wbgamer although Bobbi Lee is a very different build as he explains in the "Design Notes") and both groups have a "Major" but the two sets follow different design philosophies there are enough differences to comment on.

"Monk" character sheet by u/wbgamer

Group #1

My half-dozen characters were designed to be *supplementary* to an existing small group, ie. for a game with 3-4 players with their own individual characters who need or want some more developed NPCs than the standard NEVE / 2 card mooks, villagers and adversaries of the basic game with their set Attributes, Assets and random motivations.

As a set they allow for most of the core roles of a Twilight: 2000 group stranded in post-WW3 Poland to survive, covering the major threats: food, breakdowns, disease, injury and social interaction. Probably I should have included a scrounger but I made a decision not to partly because Scrounging is a very rare skill limited to only a few career terms (as u/wbgamer notes) and because despite the setting's emphasis, there are no workable rules for scrounging presented (a significant omission - I'd suggest the rules from the Other Dust RPG could be readily adapted).

They are also designed to be readily modified to give some basic builds and variants for new players that don't want to spend too much time on learning character generation, as inspiration for more proficient players or to provide a quick replacement or fill-in character when a primary character meets a grisly end or the group realise that they need more than a single-digit Mechanic Asset for the grease-monkey that's been tagging along and driving their 5-ton truck as a cardboard cut-out.

Group #2

u/wbgamer's characters, however, are a whole pre-generated group, ready to run as a unit and designed to function as a unit with the group assets and history to match. In that sense, his approach is more traditional providing the elements of a party for the initial campaign, much like the "iconic party" of a certain draconian spear derivative campaign for a particular original fantasy role-playing game. Sure, 12 characters may sound like a lot to run, but at least you have the option of choosing from the whole gang ready to go, there's an available specialist for all the major non-combat threats (including a scrounger) and the Referee can handle a couple of the others that provide key roles if they're looking for a more cinematic approach.

Unlike my archetypes, a backstory is provided for the individuals and for the group as a whole, adding to the limited background presented in Escape from Kalisz and fleshing out the world just that little bit more. I think this helps give this set of characters an edge for a Referee kicking off a Twilight: 2000 game for a beginning group of younger players that may have never played the game before - they can just jump straight in and not only explore the mechanics readily but also have suggested interpersonal relationships from the get go. They don't need to get bogged down in character creation which some people find overly complicated.

The group's shared equipment seems quite reasonable without being overpowered and matches the canonical LAV-25 / HMMV combination from the original v1.0 boxed set. This is an aspect I hadn't considered previously but provides an example to use as inspiration for your own player group or similar remnant groups from the US 5th Infantry Division.

Final Comments

I think u/wbgamer's pre-generated characters are a great contribution to the non-canon resources of the game, helping lower a significant barrier I believe exists for new players adopting T2k - the relative complexity and time sink of character creation. I like the way the dozen have been designed to interact as a group, their shared resources and their common backstory - they could even be used as a rival group to your game's player group and a source of potential allies or replacements.












 

Take the Initiative - Twilight: 2000 Initiative Mechanics and Options

Initiative is a common feature of most RPGs, and there are a lot of posts and articles detailing the various ways of determining who acts first... and nearly as much written on discussions as to why this is important. Twilight: 2000 has a different Initiative approach compared to many systems, not only in terms of how Initiative is determined as a static derived characteristic but also it's interplay with two other the number of attacks/actions a character can take per turn and also somewhat uniquely in my experience, its influence on whether a character panics/freezes.

Who Has the Higher Initiative Here? Who is Panicking?

"An analysis of Initiative in v2.2 would be worthwhile. It's so important; high INIT characters can regularly get the drop on novices, and most everybody really. Several factors play into it: terms served in specific careers, wounds, two actions per turn by high INIT characters, etc.
I like the INIT mechanic, yet find it occasionally frustrating in play as well. It's a clean system, but is too predictable, and heavily-skewed toward the players IMO."

- Wayne Gralian (@waynesbooks), MeWe Twilight 2000 group, May 2019

Starting Initiative and Modifiers

Let's start with the basics of the v2.2 RAW (rules as written) that usually helps.

Base initiative is determined by a 1D6 roll. (The minimum initiative is 1). 

• Regulars keep their base roll. 

• Reservists divide by 2 (round up).

• Draftees, militia and volunteers (including government agents) divide by 2 (round down).

• Modify by Military Careers
• +1 for rangers, airborne, special forces, force recon, snipers, and "equivalents"
• -1 for support, air force enlisted, aviation enlisted, and military intelligence personnel

• Modify if the character has spent 2+ Terms in the following Civilian careers
• +1 for Criminal
• +1 for Federal Law Enforcement
• +1 for State/Local Law Enforcement

• A character's current Initiative is reduced by 1 when slightly wounded, by 3 (total) when seriously wounded, and by 5 (total) when critically wounded. 

Unlike many other games, a character's AGL (Agility) or similar does *not* modify Initiative.

On average this means that a military character / regular with will have an Initiative of 4+ (average roll of 3.5 on 1D6 and +1 for relevant career), compared to a civilian character with an average Initiative of 2, maximum 4 (if 2+ Terms in an applicable career).  

The effective maximum Initiative for a starting character is 7 (roll of 6, Regular, +1 for Military Career *or* +1 for 2+ terms in an applicable Civilian Career) - this isn't explicitly explained in the T2k v2.2 rules, but the equivalent section in Traveller: 2300 aka Traveller: the New Era (TNE) that uses the same "GDW home game" ruleset states the bonus is from either one or the other, *not* cumulative (TNE Corebook, page 36).

Experience accumulates *separately* for Initiative (page 139). Given a character is only likely to gain a maximum of two experience points towards Initiative per session, and only if "they perform a particularly outstanding shot or superior feat of melee combat", it's unlikely to gain an Initiative of 10 or more without extended play. 

Effects of Very High Initiative (PCs only)

The majority of starting characters, about two-thirds of regular army characters and all civilian characters (draftees, reservists, volunteers) will have an Initiative of 5 or less - this is referred to as "normal" initiative range and the effect is roughly linear across the mechanics. By comparison, NPCs have Initiative in this range (Novice 1, Experienced 3, Veteran 4, Elite 5). Animals have Initiative 6.

However, a regular army player character with a Term in a combat Career can achieve an Initiative of 6+ about 33% of the time (2 in 6; a roll of 5 or 6 on the D6 roll +1 modifier for career as above) - this is referred to as "very high" Initiative and has three implications which aren't normally available to NPCs if following the RAW (page 139-141).

Initiative isn't just about the sequence of play, however.

1. Sequence

As even Elite NPCs only have an Initiative of 5, a player character with "very high" initiative of 6+ will act *before* every other human opponent they will encounter, and likely the same time as an animal or even earlier.

2. Panic

A character with a current Initiative of 6+ never suffers Panic! as the result of the1D6 roll cannot exceed their Initiative unless they become wounded (page 197).

Whenever a character is knocked down by wound damage (see "Wound Effects and Healing," page 211) or surprised (attacked from an unexpected direction, ambushed, or surprised by an encounter as defined in the encounter rules), there is a chance that he or she will panic. This is not blind panic which sends the character screaming away, but panic which causes him or her to momentarily freeze. 

To determine if a PC panics, roll 1D6. If the result is greater than his or her Initiative rating, he or she panics. The PC may not conduct any action for the number of turns by which the die roll exceeds his or her Initiative. However, if the character is forced to freeze for more than one combat turn, he or she may go prone on the second turn and remain there until able to move again. If the character has already conducted his or her action for the turn, the following turn counts as the first turn frozen. If the character has not yet acted in the turn in which he or she panicked, the current turn becomes the first turn frozen.

Animals, although they have an equivalent Initiative of 6 don't use the Panic rules.

To me, this makes less sense to be tied to Initiative and action sequence which is more about reflexes/agility, whereas not freezing up in combat I would have thought would be linked to will and experience. Sure being experienced and not freezing up helps you react faster, but not necessarily the other way around.

3. Multiple Attacks

A character with a current Initiative of 6+ can make *two* actions per round, the second action at the step equivalent to the character's Initiative divided by 2 (rounded down) eg. step 3 for Initiative 6 or 7, step 4 for Initiative 8 or 9, and step 5 for Initiative 10.  

Note: A character whose current Initiative level is reduced to 0 or lower, through Wounds or equivalent debility, may not act that turn at all. A character with "very high" initiative with two attacks that suffer wounds sufficient to drop their current initiative to 5 or less can then only act once per turn, losing their relative advantage.

Analysis

Initiative in Twilight: 2000 works very differently to most RPG games - although it employs a "list" or "statistic" based mechanic best known from classic D&D and derived games (roll a dice, either d6 or d20 and add usually Dexterity or similar characteristic modifiers), it's somewhat unusual in the sense Initiative is a fixed characteristic or derived statistic rather than being randomly generated, awarding initiative to the side that started the fight, using variations of index cards, playing cards or even dispensing with initiative altogether.

The main implication is that the sequence of action is therefore comparatively *static*.

Unless a character is wounded, their Initiative and hence the order in which they act in a combat sequence is predetermined and pretty much unchanged, not just for a particular combat round or combat, but for *every* combat for every session, for the whole campaign. 

Essentially a character with a high Initiative will almost *always* act first and in many cases will even receive a second action during the turn sequence (see above). There's no random element or the possibility of variation which can lead to combat becoming somewhat predictable if there's a chance of a "one-shot" kill due to superior weaponry and/or skill. In Twilight: 2000 this is a very real possibility so acting first every combat has a major consequence and risk of imbalance.

Compare this to the common 1D6 (or 1D20) roll for each side (or character) per combat (or per round), plus optional modifiers found in most games of this era and you'll appreciate the effect.

As noted above, to compound this skewed advantage effect, a player character with a "very high" Initiative of 6+ not only acts first but is also immune to panic and attacks twice in one round - this effectively sets up a major power inflexion below which most other player characters and NPCs are linear in power advancement and above which characters are in a completely different power class.

This may well work for many groups and clearly favours the PCs in an otherwise somewhat brutal and often lethal rules system but it's worth looking at the wider implications before allowing a character with "very high" Initiative in play as they are likely to easily dominate any combat situation in an otherwise more balanced mixed group.

Options and Variations

So maybe it's worth considering a few different options for determining initiative - let's have a look at some of the approaches used commonly in other RPGs and see how they might work for T2k and whether they can "even" out some of the potentially unbalancing consequences of "very high" Initiative characters or otherwise improve the game.

1. Random Initiative

Most RPGs determine initiative randomly with a dice roll, so let's consider that:

a. Random 1D10 once per combat: this is the original Initiative system used in most retro-clone / OSR games based on a certain "original game system" but let's use the description from LotFP (Lamentations of the Flame Princess) because it's well written:

"All player characters roll 1d6 for initiative individually, and the Referee rolls initiative once for each type of enemy they are facing in combat. Then the Referee counts down from 6 to 1 (with each of these units being a Segment of the combat Round), with everyone acting on their particular Initiative Segment. If opposing groups roll the same Initiative number, break ties using the Dexterity modifier. For creatures without a Dexterity score, the Referee can roll 3d6 to determine their Dexterity for purposes of Initiative only. If there are still ties, then all tied combatants act simultaneously." 

So use a 1D10 and instead of using the Dexterity modifier as a tie-breaker, for T2k in the case of a tie the character with the higher AGL (Agility) score acts first.  

b. Random 1D10 roll once per turn: as above, but each character rolls once per turn. 

Both of these approaches allow a random element to determining initiative but result in difficulties with modelling experience unless you make XP in an "Initiative Modifier" and track it separately- characters with an applicable "combat" career Term (see above) or 2+ Terms in Criminal, or Federal / State / Local enforcement add +1 to their initiative Initiative Modifier and then increase it through play as normal from there.

I think it's hard to model Panic using this random approach, however - see the insert below for suggestions on how to do this if you use this alternative Initiative system. This is not necessarily a bad thing as linking Initiative to the chance to freeze or panic has it's implications as noted above.

For either of these options, characters that roll a 6+ for Initiative can optionally act twice in the one turn for the duration of the combat or round respectively at the stage equal to the roll divided by two (rounded down) as explained above. This consequence is a lot more random than the normal rules, reducing the set multiple attack advantage of player characters although still allows experienced characters to deploy multiple attacks.

2. Non-random Starting Initiative

These options are in contrast to "random Starting Initiative" which is the default for T2k v2.2. Both options allow for more player choice in order to determine their character's Initiative.

a. Use Agility: use a character's AGL (Agility) score instead of rolling, modifying by +1 or -1 depending on appropriate military careers or 2+ Criminal / Law Enforcement Terms. Characters that have 6+ AGL can act twice in the one turn. This favours a deliberate approach to character builds but can lead to significant power creep compared to NPCs (maximum Initiative 5) in terms of player characters acting first and having multiple attacks, even if you use a less favourable variant that the AGL required for 2 attacks per turn is increased to 8+.  

This approach doesn't really work for Panic however, so see the insert below for suggestions on how to do this if you use this alternative Initiative system.

There's no way of increasing Attributes during play in the RAW however, so this results in static initiative unless you allow XP to accumulate towards a separate "Initiative Modifier" as noted in the random options above which complicates the approach.

b. No. of Military Terms: in the 1st edition of T2k Initiative was modelled in a complex manner using a mechanism called "Coolness Under Fire" (T2k v1.0 Player's Manual, page 8), which determined how many of the 5 rounds in any combat turn a character hesitated, so a low score was better. The result for "Coolness Under Fire" was mostly random and still based on 1D6 (subtracting from 10), but there was a link between time in combat and better "Coolness Under Fire" that was lost in the move to 2nd edition. Military terms don't quite equate to military experience base (MEB) or time in combat however.

Linking Initiative to the number of *military* terms is an option, although this tends to favour military characters significantly over those with civilian backgrounds as using this method civilian characters will almost always start with Initiative 1 unless they're in the reserves or spent time in law enforcement. As most characters start with 3-5 Terms, so this will typically result in comparable Initiative levels to NPCs.  As usual, characters with an applicable "combat" career Term (see above) or 2+ Terms in Criminal, or Federal / State / Local enforcement add +1 to their Initiative total.

For this approach Panic and multiple attacks (characters with Initiative 6+ can act twice per turn) are worked out the same as usual and accumulated experience can increase the Initiative score after play. 

Of the two options, the AGL based one is perhaps the most intuitive but requires a separate method for determining Panic, whereas the second option ties turn sequence, multiple attacks and the risk of freezing strongly to actual military experience, which I think makes sense.

Coolness Under Fire in T2k v2.2: How to Panic Better (or Just the Same)

The first three alternate approaches above (options 1a, 1b and 2a) work for action sequence (and multiple attacks) but break the mechanic used for determining Panic. This isn't necessarily a bad thing as the concept of acting first / multiple times and not freezing from panic don't need to be linked, but I think Panic is a core part of the T2k combat experience to retain.

The simplest approach to this is to just use the old T2k v1.0 concept of "Coolness Under Fire" and determine it using the rules normally used for Initiative eg 1D6 roll modified by regular vs draftee/militia/volunteer status and specific military and civilian terms. This probably works better for the random initiative approaches rather than the AGL based initiative option.

Using this option, instead of gaining Experience in just "Initiative Modifier", characters also gain XP towards their "Coolness Under Fire" score, which adds another score to track, unfortunately as the options above suggest the use of XP accumulating towards an "Initiative Modifier". One option to offset this is to award experience each session that can be used for *either* "Coolness Under Fire" *or* "Initiative Modifier*.

Variant: use Military Terms to determine "Coolness Under Fire" as per option 2b above when using one of the other Initiative methods (random or AGL based). This makes sense and not only separates turn sequence from the risk of freezing but also factors in combat experience.

Conclusions

Initiative in T2k v2.2 is much more than just a determinant of the action sequence.

If STR (Strength) is the most important Attribute in game for most combat because it's linked to the most combat-related skills except for the AGL based acrobatic unarmed combat moves, then in the default game Initiative is likely a close second to have a high score in for a combat build character, but *not* by spending build points in AGL (Agility) like most other games as a good Initiative score is mostly determined by military Career choice/timing and chance.

The random generation of Initiative potentially sets up not just an unpredictable gradient between combat oriented and non-combatant characters, but also a "two-tier" effect with combat oriented characters where some otherwise equal PCs will randomly have additional abilities based only on an arbitrary initial die roll. To me, this takes away player agency and enjoyment so I've suggested some options above that might help offset this effect.

Twilight: 2000 Character Creation - Welcome to Hell? (Maximum Starting Terms)

In the first post of this series, I commented on the "Careers" section of the T2k v2.2 Character Generation process and posted an example of the spreadsheet tabs of "Skills by Term" I used to help develop the various pre-generated characters in line with the "archetype" concepts I wanted. To fully develop character concepts I determined the number of "Terms" in advance but realised that the random nature of the "War Breaks Out" mechanic Term by Term could be problematic, although for some this is a core part of the "randomness" and feel of the game. I have worked out a different way of determining Total Terms *before* Skill selection so that a player has more agency when developing their character as although in Twilight: 2000 the character won't die during character like in some GDW games, not knowing the total Terms at the start of skill selection has its drawback for some players nonetheless...

So When Does War Actually Break Out?

The War: At the end of each term, roll 1D10. If the roll is equal to or less than your current term number, war breaks out (i.e. war breaks out at the end of the first term on a roll of 1, at end of the second term on a roll of 1 or 2, etc.). - page 23, T2k v2.2 corebook

Looking at the cumulative probability from the table below, most starting characters generated using this default random method will have 2 or more career Terms (age 25+) and half will have at least 3 Terms. Only 15% of characters will be more than 5 Terms, the maximum number of Terms is 8 and the "average" character is around 3-4 Terms.

Cumulative Probabilities of War Breaking Out...

Apart from a couple of AGL ageing checks that have no major combat consequence even if failed, there's an inherent random difference in the power range (Skills) and resources (starting equipment) which can lead to an unbalanced player group. Of course, a Referee can always require players to create characters with a set number of terms or a range eg. 3-5 Terms to maintain a similar power level and age range across the group.

A Simplified Mechanic

Using the cumulative probabilities above, I calculated the below "single roll" table for either percentile roll or a single D10 roll - as constructed the latter provides a slightly higher chance of 6th and 7th Term starting characters but forgoes the possibility of an 8th term character:

Optional: Single Roll Starting Terms

This maintains the randomness of the original RAW but I think it adds value as a player knows at the start of the Career / skill selection section how many terms they have to realise their character.

Summary & Conclusion 

So taken together, we now have 3 potential character creation options:

1. Classic: default "roll after each term" method 
2. Modern: choose an arbitrary number of terms
3. Revised: single roll for maximum terms 

Twilight: 2000 Character Creation Spreadsheet - Starting Packages

While creating the various pre-generated characters for my proposed T2k v2.2 "starter kit", I came across the rather large stumbling block of the dense text in the "Careers" section of the corebook. The layout and length of this section make it difficult to work out which careers are useful to progress particular skills when aiming for a particular "archetype" build eg "the Heavy", "the Scout", or "the Wheelman" or targeting a particular Asset for a character. 

I then invested time creating a Google Sheet spreadsheet with what I think are useful tables and resources - the various tabs cover Archetypes, determining When War Breaks Out (maximum terms), Background / Education / Basic Training, US Army careers, US Marine careers and Civilian careers to date - I've so far not covered the other branches or non-US careers other than Basic Training for the most common forces in the default dstarting area (German, Polish, Soviet, UK) given the amount of work required and the non-US careers are mostly just minor variations of existing US careers.

Background, Education and Basic Training 

This first skills tab collates all the "core" parts of the Skill selection for character creation, listing which skills are Background, Education, Basic Training or allowed as Secondary Activity choices. 

Background, Education & Basic Training Summary Spreadsheet tab(derived from T2k v2.2 pages 19-20, 30-31, 35

A few notes on the notation and layout of the spreadsheet (used across all tabs):

• Prerequisites by Skill are listed where applicable
• Skills are grouped by Attribute
• Skills in bold are core "Basic Training Skills" for Military careers
• A numerical value denotes the skill levels granting by 1st career
• A "x" denotes that the Skill is available, a "-" indicates unavailable
• Comments are provided in the right hand most cell

The resolution of the above image won't be enough to see the detail (you'll have to go to the actual spreadsheet tab for that) but I think you'll be able to appreciate the following patterns if you kmnow that the columns in order left to right are Background, Secondary, various Education careers, Military Academy and then the starting Basic Training packages:

• STR based combat skills are mainly from military basic training or academy
• (Aircraft) Mechanic is only available from Technical education, not Background or Secondary
• AGL based skills are mainly Technical education or Background, other than Ground Vehicle: Wheeled
• CON and INT based skills are nearly exclusively found in Background and Secondary 
• Unsurprisingly EDU based skills all depend on specific Education careers except Medical: Trauma Aid
• CHR based skills are scattered across the various columns 

The patterns above become relevant, as for some builds it's the early choices that assist with prerequisites for later careers, Asset specialisation and knowing which Secondary Skills are and are not available at the start of character creation, thus guiding later choices from actual career packages. 

Likewise, organising the skills by Attribute (rather than alphabetically in the corebook on pages 48-49 or in the appendix pages 264-65) gives a better idea on how to choose skills that will work to realise a particular character concept. This isn't to encourage min-maxing per se (although I admit the tables do assist this as a by-product) but help reduce player disappointment and frustration at character creation given the time investment needed to generate a playable character.

Next Steps   

There's a lot more to the spreadsheet than just the "starting packages", but I hope by posting this veteran and new players alike will find character creation easier. In subsequent posts I'll talk about archetypes as a means of streamlining character creation and an optional method for simplifying determining starting age and maximum terms. 

OWB T2k - Character Generation

The following are some initial ideas for using the OWB (Operation: White Box) ruleset for a Twilight 2000 campaign. Unless otherwise noted, this is presented as an alternative to the more mechanically complex T2k v2.2 rules that provide significant detail but may be seen as a barrier to new players picking up the game for the first time. 

OWB is based on a much simpler, familiar game system.

War. War Never Changes... but does the ruleset always remains the same?
(Artwork is a mashup of the OWB and T2k v1.0 Covers)

Twilight World Character Creation, OWB style...

In general, as OWB is much simpler and more streamlined than T2k so my comments default to using the RAW ("rules as written") for the game, but there are some distinctive elements from T2k v2.2 that capture the particular feel of the GDW game that I think could be readily incorporated as "optional" rules and are therefore noted below.

Attributes

Replace with the standard OWB Abilities; AGL becomes Dexterity, EDU becomes Wisdom.

As T2k v2.2 uses a 1 to 10 scale, halve all T2k v2.2 related formulas when using OWB Abilities instead of Attributes for any non-OWB based mechanics used.

Use one of the following approaches:

• Random Generation: In this method, each Ability is determined by rolling 4d6-4 (reroll any roll that would result in a 0 Ability score). This gives a range of from 1 to 20 for each Ability. A player who rolls attributes totalling less than 60 points may add attribute points (allocated as he sees fit) to bring the total up to 60. This way the character is always at least average. 

• Allocation: Players who choose the allocation method have a total of 64 points to be distributed among their Abilities in any combination they wish. No Ability may have a value of 0 or more than 20.

Nationality & Languages

Pick a Nationality as per OWB, pages 8 and 9. Substitute "Soviet" for Russian - this reflects either Russian, Polish, or other Eastern Bloc origin personnel. Such characters can only choose to be Partisans (if Polish in the default setting) or Defectors (if Russian or other Eastern Bloc see below) and cannot choose one of the basic OWB classes.

Polish or other Eastern bloc characters are treated as "European" for the purposes of determining their fluency and number of additional languages. Russian characters, however, begin only with fluency in Russian (F) and only basic fluency (B) in one other language unless they have high Intelligence.

Terms (and Professions)

OWB does not use Terms to generate characters, unlike T2k v2.2. The closest correlate is probably character level - each character level reflects up to 4 years in service. A party of mixed character level is possible but it is recommended that the characters are all within 2 levels of each other.

For beginning campaigns, set the party's average character level at between 1st to 3rd level. At the GM's option, a starting character may be 4th level but automatically apply ageing effects to their attributes as if their roll was unfavourable (see Age below).

OWB professions (Pages 9 and 10) provide some background detail but minimal mechanical effect.

Character Classes

The six basic OWB special operative classes: Charmer, Combat Engineer, Grunt, Sniper, Tactician, and Wheelman are available without modification. There's not really a direct OWB equivalent of armor crewman, artillery specialist, combat medic, heavy weapons specialist, or pilot at this stage so creating a character along the lines of these archetypes may require some ingenuity.

The Maquis and Uberlaufer classes are readily modified to reflect non-Western individuals as follows:

Partisan replaces the Maquis class. This reflects Polish (or other Eastern Bloc) civilians siding with the western forces and/or local militia unfriendly to the Soviets. Use the same mechanics except that instead of France, abilities such as Contacts and Resistance Leader mentioning France are linked to the character's country of origin based on their chosen Nationality (default is Poland). 

Defector replaces the Uberlaufer class. This reflects Soviet (Russian, Polish regular or other Warsaw Pact forces) personnel forced into military service that defected early during the Twilight War and have since become incorporated into regular Western (US or German army) units. Replace Wermacht Understanding with Soviet Understanding and Nazi Hate with KGB Hate, modifying the mechanical effects to reflect the appropriate modern groups. Hero's Welcome changes to Defector Leader and  reflect a cohort of more recent defectors that join the character attracted by their fame and deeds rather than individual's from his or her hometown but is otherwise mechanically identical.

Option: non-Western military personnel of the six basic OWB classes are possible as later player characters and recruits as the unit travels through post-war Poland. Such characters gain the equivalent of Soviet Understanding in addition to their usual class abilities, but suffer a -5% XP penalty and may not speak English particularly well. 

Rank

Use the OWB rules on page 10 for simplicity - rank has no real mechanical bearing on *either* game in actual play except for doubling the starting equipment buy allowance in T2k v2.2.

Option: all characters except Defectors (Uberlaufer), Partisans (Maquis), and Tacticians roll 1d6 - on a 6 they are an officer. Defectors and Partisans are never officers. Tacticians also roll 1d6 - on a 4 or greater they are officers and are automatically officers if they start to play at 3rd level or higher.

Contacts

Consider using the general rules from T2k v2.2 but modify as there are no Terms in OWB - add one contact per character level - note this may adversely affect the uniqueness of the "Contacts" base ability of the Partisan (aka Maquis / "Resistance Fighter") class.

Initiative (and Panic)

Use the standard OWB rules, rolling 1d6 every round of combat.

Option: use the T2k v2.2 rules based on character generation and NPC classification below:

To determine Initiative, regulars roll 1D6, reservists roll 1D6/2 (round up), and draftees roll 1D6/2 (round down, but re-roll results of 0). Add +1 to this roll for rangers, airborne, special forces, force recon, snipers, and equivalents. Modify by -1 from this roll for support, air force enlisted, aviation enlisted, and military intelligence (but never reduce Initiative below 1). Animals have a base Initiative of 6 unless noted otherwise.

Converting across, OWB Snipers add +1 to the base initiative roll, Charmers and Wheelmen modify by -1 from this roll. For all characters add the character OWB level to the player's Initiative rating instead of tracking experience separately for Initiative. Characters with an Initiative of 5+ gain an additional action per round (see T2k v2.2, page 194).

Panic

If the character is knocked down or surprised, roll a 1D6 and if the result is higher than the character's OWB level, the character is frozen and stunned for a number of rounds equal to the number by which the die roll exceeded the character's level.

Option: the character can make a Saving Throw against being stunned.

Alternative: using the expanded initiative option above opens up the potential of the original Panic rules (T2k v2.2 p197, formerly referred to as the "Coolness Under Fire" mechanic in T2k v1.0 and modified for the later edition):

Whenever a character is knocked down by wound damage (see "Wound Effects and Healing," page 211) or surprised (attacked from an unexpected direction, ambushed, or surprised by an encounter as defined in the encounter rules), there is a chance that he or she will panic. This is not blind panic which sends the character screaming away, but panic which causes him or her to momentarily freeze.

To determine if a PC panics, roll 1D6. If the result is greater than his or her Initiative rating, he or she panics. The PC may not conduct any action for the number of turns by which the die roll exceeds his or her Initiative. However, if the character is forced to freeze for more than one combat turn, he or she may go prone on the second turn and remain there until able to move again. If the character has already conducted his or her action for the turn, the following turn counts as the first turn frozen. If the character has not yet acted in the turn in which he or she panicked, the current turn becomes the first turn frozen.

NPCs have initiative based on their equivalent level (see T2k v2.2 page 139).

For ease of reference, use the following T2k v2.2 values below:

• Novice NPCs have Initiative 1
• Expert NPCs have Initiative 3
• Veteran NPCs have Initiative 4
• Elite NPCs have Initiative 5

NPCs with OWB professions add their character level to their Initiative as above.

Rads

Civilians roll 1d10 x 1d6. Others roll (2x OWB Level) x 1d6 for a minimum of 1d6 Rads. Radiation rules are otherwise the same as for T2k v2.2 (p242-243) but halve the Constitution score in the formulas (as T2k v2.2 uses a 1 to 10 Attribute scale).

If using the optional expanded Initiative rules above, Rads = (2 x Initiative) x 1d6.

Radiation isn't dealt with in the basic OWB rules, so that will have to be detailed further later.

Age

OWB does not use anything similar to T2k v2.2's 4-year Terms, but the concept of effects beyond age 29 affecting starting characters significantly makes sense. Terms loosely correlate to character level (see above), so requiring Ability loss checks at Level 4 and for each level thereafter as per the table on page 24 of T2k v2.2 makes sense - this encourages low-level play and retiring older characters.

Excerpt from T2k v2.2 Rulebook

The character loses 1 point from the relevant attribute if the 1d10 roll is less than the current level of that attribute. If the roll equals or exceeds the attribute, there is no loss. 

This check, also called an age saving throw, is made at the end of each term.

Skill- and Attribute- Derived Values

The combat values are irrelevant in an OWB based game (Hit Capacity and Unarmed Combat Damage), but the other derived values are of optional relevance: 

Weight: A character's weight in kilograms is equal to 80 plus two times Strength minus Dexterity [2x(Str - Dex)] +80. This accounts for the difference in Attributes between T2k v2.2 and OWB. 

Load: in  T2k v2.2 a character may carry, without being heavily burdened, weight in kilograms equal to three times the sum of his Strength and Constitution divided by two (Str + Con) x 3/2 to account for the differing Attribute scale. This is called his normal load - compare to the more generous default 11kg (25lbs) for normal individuals and 45kg (100lbs) for the somewhat cinematic allowance for special operatives (OWB pages 38-39).

Throw Range: the distance (in meters) a character can throw a one-kilogram weight accurately is called his throw range in T2k v2.2. Throw range in OWB is twice the character's Strength (Str x 2) in metres or six times the character's Strength (Str x 6) in feet, depending on which scale of tactical combat grid is being used.

Equipment

Use the T2k v2.2 rules for starting equipment with "generic conversions" to OWB mechanics. This equates to $5000 x number of Terms in the military, but instead use OWB character level (doubled if an officer, see above). Additional equipment can be bought using the usual T2k v2.2 Equipment lists and/or P. Mulcahy's online expanded equipment lists if desired.

Most equipment other than weaponry has clear benefits that can be converted easily across to OWB mechanics as needed (see later post for details), but see the special section on modern armour such as kevlar flak vests and ballistic kevlar helmets.

Starting Transportation

Use the standard T2k v2.2 "Starting Vehicle" table on page 26; roll 1d6 for every 3 characters in the unit (as opposed to 1d6 for every 2 characters in v1.0). Vehicle conversion will be covered in separate posts, with modifications (and quirks) playing an important part in an individual vehicle's "character" and performance. 

Option: use either my simple Revised US Starting Vehicles table or the complex Version 2.0 PDF derived from Paul Mulcahy's excellent resource website.

WWII: Operation WhiteBoxTM is a trademark of Peter C. Spahn 

 

Bring Out Your Dead (Disease in Twilight: 2000)

This is another in the series of posts exploring the various "mini-game" mechanics within the Twilight: 2000 v2.2 rule-set, this time the "unseen" threat of diseases - a threat that can't be solved with bullets alone. I suspect diseases are underutilised in most campaigns, possibly because of their threat to player agency and the usual emphasis on combat as conflict resolution.

Like a lot of the game mechanics, the rules for diseases are based on a  complex combination of different dice rolls and sub-systems which can be difficult to appreciate the impact of without working through examples and/or using the rules in extended play.

Plague: Carting the Dead, by J. Moynet (Wikki Commons)

The White Horse: Disease

"The horseman on the white horse was clad in a showy and barbarous attire. [...] While his horse continued galloping, he was bending his bow in order to spread pestilence abroad. At his back swung the brass quiver filled with poisoned arrows, containing the germs of all diseases." 

- Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, "the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse"

Disease is considered an important "scenario generator" in the game, likely more so than many RPGs - although the nuclear exchange and war inflicted heavy casualties, it was the resultant infrastructure breakdown and outbreaks of disease that dropped the global population to 50% or less in some areas. In the resulting Twilight World, the threat of disease remains ever present and is suggested to drive stories other than just straight "shoot and loot" conflict.

By my calculations, a disease very commonly affects settlements the group may encounter - almost 1 in 4 settlements if using the random crisis recommendation (see comment below).

Disease rules are given on pages 244-245 of the v2.2 corebook, with specific details of the various disease on the following two pages. The whole "mini-game" mechanics for disease are particularly complex, even when compared to other "non-combat" threats such as running out of fuel, vehicle breakdowns, starvation, fatigue, and radiation.

Other than this main section the only references are in the Biology (people/water), Medical: Diagnosis (draft animal/people/water), Survival (water), and Tracking (wild animal) skill descriptions of the difficulty levels for detecting disease.

Medical: Diagnosis (EDU) overall is the most relevant skill, not only because it aids with recognising contamination across animals, people and water but also as it is used to diagnose the correct disease and modifies the recovery roll for the infected character. As Medical is a "cascade" skill, characters with Medical: Trauma Aid or Surgery have some skill with Medical: Diagnosis.

Catching a Disease

There are three ways to contract a disease:

• People encounter (Biology or Medical: Diagnosis check)
• Settlement (includes merchants, army groups; possibly marauders, hunters)
• Encampment (includes refugees, stragglers; possibly marauders, hunters)

• Animal encounter  
• Draft animal (Biology or Medical: Diagnosis)
• Wild animal (Tracking check while on the trail)

• Drinking contaminated water/food (Biology, Medical: Diagnosis  or Survival check)

Note: it's not explicit in the actual Encounter section but the implication is that Disease should be checked for *every* relevant encounter eg Animal, Group, or Settlement. The risk of a particular people or animal encounter (or water) carrying a disease is given on the various tables on page 274 of the corebook.

Disease Frequency and Type Tables 
(Twilight: 2000 v2.2, page 274)

People: contracting a disease is dependent on the sanitary conditions - "settlement" reflects groups that practice good sanitation and so includes merchants, army groups and possibly more organised marauders and hunters. "Encampment" reflects less sanitary conditions and applies also to refugess, stragglers and some marauder / hunter groups. The base chance for "settlement" is 11+ on 2D6 or 8.34% (1 in 12) and for "encampment" is 16.67% (1 in 6).

Note: if using the Settlement Crisis suggestions, any settlement that rolls of "9" (Epidemic, doctor needed) or "10" (Disease, medicine needed) indicates a potential risk of contracting disease above and beyond the tables. So even if there's only about a 10% chance on average of disease for a given settlement/encampment, there's still a 20% chance (1 in 5) that it's been affected by disease in some way, further underlying the frequency of disease as a potential threat. Taken together, this is a 28% chance (roughly 1 in 4) of disease (recent, current or imminent) being an issue for any given settlement.

Animal: the base chance of an animal carrying a disease is 5.56% (1 in 20).

Water: this refers to water away from settlements including rivers, lakes, streams, springs, abandoned wells. The risk is the same as for animals ie. 5.56% (1 in 20). If detected the contaminated water can be avoided or boiled to avoid exposure - this would seem to be sensible and standard practice for any military trained characters with Survival skill.

Detecting Disease

Detecting a disease is an AVG difficult skill check (x2 Attr+Skill), with the skill applicable depending on the encounter as noted above:

• Biology (EDU) is used for animals, people and water
• Medical: Diagnosis (EDU) is used for draft animals, people and water
• Survival (INT) is used for water
• Tracking (INT) is used for wild animals

Medical: Diagnosis (or Biology) is the most useful skill for detection, and although Biology is also used to manufacture antibiotics, Medical (any) has much broader use. Tracking for wild animals seems to refer to identifying a diseased animal before the encounter in order to completely avoid them, I'd consider that once encountered Biology and Medicine: Diagnosis could be used instead.

A character with at least a "Novice" level Asset (Attribute + Skill = 9) in one of the relevant skills above therefore has a 90% chance of identifying a disease, with Experienced or higher level characters with the correct Asset capable of *automatically* detecting disease.

Even an unskilled character with a high EDU or INT Attribute level (8+ for example) has a reasonable rate of success at 40% (difficulty level is doubled from AVG to DIFF as unskilled).

Risk of Infection

Encountering a contaminated individual, animal or water alone is not enough to risk infection depending on how the disease is spread, it depends on whether they are exposed to one of it's modes of transmission (page 245):

The Referee should consult the description of the disease to determine how it is spread and compare this with the group's particular vulnerabilities. A disease spread by tainted food is not spread to those who don't eat the food, and one spread by contact doesn't affect those who do not make contact with the victim. A disease spread through the air places all characters within range at risk. 

As noted above, boiling contaminated water before drinking removes the risk of infeciton, even if the presence of disease is not detected - this applies to dysentery, cholera, hepatitis-A, typhoid fever, and possibly minor waterborne diseases. Only dysentery and typhoid are normally contracted from "wild" water sources however, the other waterborne diseases result from encampments/settlements.

Resisting infection is an AVG Constitution check (2x Attribute) on d20, with the target score modified as follows based on how vulnerable the character is and the disease's virulence:

• -1 for each Fatigue level (includes those from starvation)
• -x depending on the disease's "Infection Number" (up to 6)

For most unfatigued characters with an average CON of 5 for a target of 10 or less, the base risk is therefore 50% ie 50% chance of catching the disease if exposed. As most diseases have an "Infection Number" of at least 3, this reduces the target to 7 and gives the character a 65% (2 in 3) risk of contracting the disease. More virulent diseases (those with Infection Numbers of 5+ like Cholera, Pneumonia and Pneumonic Plague) increase this risk to 75% (3 in 4) for an average character.

Characters with weak base health such as a CON score of 2 or 3, have a high susceptibility to disease as their base chance of avoiding contracting infection is 30% or less, before the modification from the disease's Infection score! 

It's easy to see how Fatigue and starvation can rapidly lead to infection even in normally strong fit characters - as each Fatigue level reduces CON by 1 *and* reduces the Asset by another -1, the risk of infection rapidly escalates and easily spreads in communities or groups of soldiers without food even if they start with good health (reflected by a high CON score of 8+).

Note: the example on page 245 using Monk is wrong, his target should be 12-2-3 or 7 as the AVG difficulty should double his CON of 6 - the worked example uses a base of 5. So if he rolled a 4 on d20 he would have actually avoided contracting the disease. 

Diagnosis & Misdiagnosis

Image: Snook 8 / Deviant Art
(Header for this article on ISIS and Ebola)

Overall, the specifics of the various diseases as presented in dense blocks of text are difficult to understand, so I've collated all the cramped text information into a table to analyze further:

Summary Disease Diagnosis table
(derived from pages 246-247 T2k v2.2 corebook)

Looking at the "Diagnosis" table, food/water contamination seem the most common mode of transmission, whereas typhus, rabies and bubonic plague are more specific and readily avoidable.  Only pneumonia and pneumonic plague are spread through the airborne route.

Pneumonic plague is the most virulent (Infection Score of 6) and the two most difficult to diagnose diseases are hepatitis A and typhoid fever, although the latter cannot be mistaken for a minor disease.

Diagnosis in phase I of the disease is a Medical: Diagnosis check; this is one step easier (FOR becomes DIFF, DIFF becomes AVG, AVG becomes EASY) in phase 2 of the disease. Most diseases can be misdiagnosed as a minor disease leading to ineffective treatment and potential dire results.

Effects, Treatment, and Death or Recovery

This is where it becomes complex. Again I think constructing a table helps for this section.

Each disease has an incubation phase (no effect / unable to diagnose), a phase 1 (harder to diagnose but easier to recover from) and a phase 2 (easy to diagnose but more severe, treatment *half* as effective and harder to recover from). Treatment begun earlier works better, so diagnosing the disease correctly early makes a significant difference.

Recovery rolls are a D10 that must exceed the "base recovery" number.

This is modified by:

• + CON score (average +5, max +10)
• + Medical: Diagnosis of the treating character (effectively up to +5) 
• + bonuses from correct treatment (assumes correct diagnosis, up to +8)
• -1 for inadequate food
• -1 for inadequate shelter 

All the diseases have a "base recovery" number of 18 or more - assuming adequate food and shelter, a character with an average CON of 5 and an average roll of 5 or 6 still needs the benefit of the treating character's Medical: Diagnosis skill (effective max 5) and treatment to have a chance of recovery.

If a character fails a recovery roll during phase 2 they have a risk of actually *dying*. 

If the character does not die they suffer debility (modified by the recovery roll success or failure).

Summary Disease Treatment & Recovery table
(derived from pages 246-247 T2k v2.2 corebook)

Comments on Specific Diseases

Rabies particularly seems quite insidious and lethal - although potentially readily avoided, it has a long incubation period of *weeks* and it's "base recovery" is 26 with a death probability of 100% ie automatic death if recovery fails. Although the 14-day DE vaccine provides a +8 modifier, the D10 + CON roll still has a target of 18, relying heavily on the treating character's Medical: Diagnosis skill. Without the specific treatment (the rare vaccine), an infected character with CON 10 and an excellent roll of 10 on the D10 needs to be treated by a character with a Medical: Diagnosis skill of 8+. The prolonged debility period of 20 weeks is the longest of all the diseases presented.

The two plagues (bubonic and pneumonic) are also essentially lethal on a failed recovery roll with extended debility periods of 15 weeks each. The next most deadly is actually food poisoning, with a death probability of 50% and a difficult recovery roll although if a character survives, their debility period is relatively short at 2 weeks.

The other disease (including minor diseases) are rarely lethal and easier to recover from, with debility periods of 6 weeks or less and easier to source treatment options.

Tuberculosis is a notable omission as it's apparently very common in war scenarios. Although perhaps more insidious and slow, it's very difficult to treat with standard antibiotics and exacerbated by malnutrition and low immunity eg HIV infection.

Summary

Looking at the disease rules closely, I'd consider that disease as threat or potential stimulus for the player group probably deserves more of a show given the conditions of the Twilight World. I've not come across much mention of it in the Polish supplements I've looked through and if anything the conditions in Poland in the Twilight World of 2000 seem setup so that disease should be a common enough challenge encountered.

The detail and complexity of the rules in T2k v2.2 are considerable - 4 rolls to check if a character is infected and up to 5 rolls to check for recovery or death. On the one hand, this is probably one of the more comprehensive treatments in an RPG I've seen but on the other hand, it may be overly complex and present a barrier to its use during play.

Hopefully, the additional tables above help with this however and I think the whole "mini-game" can be summarised into set steps from the dense block of text (see the Appendix below).

Weighing up the probabilities and taking into consideration the resource-poor world, the role of disease in the game seems to be to help drive the player group towards larger towns and cities seeking advanced medical treatment or as a barrier to prevent them exploring in a particular direction.

You might have an APC, enough fuel, parts and food to make it to Bremerhaven and a good chance of dodging former Soviet soldiers if you keep off the roads but if one of you gets sick, say your mechanic, and you don't have the correct medicine that side trip into town may cost you precious time. Or do you make a decision to leave your plague-ridden companion behind...

Appendix: From Contact to Recovery (or Death) 

This is a summary of the "mini-game" of disease for easy reference by a Referee:

Contracting Disease

• On an Animal or Group (people) Encounter check for presence of disease (2D6 roll)
• Check if a character drinks potentially contaminated water (1 in 20 risk)
• Determine the type of disease according to the relevant table (page 274 or above)
• Check to see if the group detects the presence of a disease (Medical: Diagnosis or other)
• Referee to rule to determine if a character is potentially exposed 
• AVG:CON check to see if exposed character contracts the disease 
• Wait for the incubation period to pass and then inform player of symptoms

Overall, this involves four rolls: a 2D6 roll (check for presence), a D10 roll (type of disease) and two D20 rolls (detection check, CON check to avoid disease). Potentially could be simplified into four D20 rolls.

Treating the Disease

• In phase 1, check to see if the disease is diagnosed using Medical: Diagnosis

• IF the correct diagnosis is made, apply modifiers and check for recovery at the end of phase 1
• IF recovery roll is successful, then the character recovers and suffers the debility effects
• IF the roll is unsuccessful, check again at the end of phase 2
• IF the phase 2 recovery roll is successful, move to the debility phase
• IF the phase 2 recovery roll is unsuccessful, check for death
• IF the death check fails, the character dies
• IF the death check succeeds, apply debility 

• IF a misdiagnosis is made, apply any applicable modifiers and check for recovery
• IF recovery roll is successful (unlikely),  then the character recovers and suffers the debility effects
• IF recovery is unsuccessful, recheck diagnosis (half difficulty in phase 2)
• IF correct diagnosis is made, apply correct treatment and check recovery
• IF misdiagnosis still, check for recovery (less likely)
• Otherwise follow the same steps as above until death or debility 

This requires at least two D20 checks (diagnosis and phase 1 recovery rolls) but if the character is misdiagnosed in both phases increases to four D20 checks (two diagnosis checks, two recovery rolls) and a D10 roll (check for death). The D10 death check could be converted into a D20.