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. 

Answers to 20 Quick Rules Questions: OWB (Operation: White Box)

I enjoyed answering "20 Quick Rules Questions" for Twilight: 2000 so much that I thought I'd look at answering them for another favourite game of mine that I understand some people have already used successfully as an alternate system for a Twilight: 2000 campaign:  

This is based on the OSR blog post list that I stumbled across - Brendan S. of Necropraxis' 2012 post "20 Quick Rules Questions". Given Operation white Box (OWB) is based on the original edition of Dungeons & Dragons (the Gygax and Arneson one), the answers could provide a useful starting point for new players.

For those of you unfamiliar with this system, it's created by Pete Spahn of Small Niche Games.

Consider downloading the potentially freely available "Pay What You Want" PDF only edition to look over (suggested price $5 USD) or better yet support Pete and buy the actual softcover or hardcover! I'd highly recommend checking out some of the reviews available (such as RPGPundit's review, Rolling Boxcars' review, the one over at "Thoughts of a Barbarian" and for those who like videos Ol' Man Grognard's video review or Brendan Goeringer's video review).

Operation: White Box - 20 quick Rules Questions

1. Ability scores generation method?

The standard generation is very "old-school" rolling 3d6 and assigning to the Attributes in order ie. Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Constitution, Dexterity, and Charisma (page 2).

There are two other options presented:

"Some Referees allow players to have more flexibility in their choice of class. One option is to roll 3d6 six (6) times and "arrange to taste". This allows the player to place the best rolls on the Attributes that best fit the character concept."

"For particularly heroic campaigns, the Referee might allow players to roll 4d6, dropping the lowest single die and add the remaining dice where they wish. This will lead to characters who are well above most normal individuals in the setting, making them more powerful in play." 

2. How are death and dying handled?

When a character's hit points reach zero, they die of their wounds. Optionally, the Referee may allow that a character becomes unconscious when they reach zero hit points, not dying for another one (1) turn, allowing the rest of the unit to come to their aid.

This rule becomes very significant given that characters in OWB at the "Traditional" level of play use only a 1d6 for their hit points with only a small bonus from abilities using the Universal Attribute Bonus Table (page 5) and/or their chosen class (although a Grunt or Uberlaufer starts with 2 HD). "Heroic" level characters use 1d10 for their hit dice and "Inglorious" level characters roll hit points using 1d20, making for a more cinematic experience as it were... (page 24).

In addition, the maximum level is only 5th level, which effectively means that the maximum hit points for a "named" character is only around 35 unless the optional Advanced Attribute Bonus rule is used (page 6). Sure, most weapons only inflict around 1d6 damage except for heavy weapons but this is significant as characters can potentially be slain by a single bullet at low levels.

Fortunately, Gut checks are allowed when a special operative (PC) tries something beyond the norm and can potentially be considered a chance to avoid death - a character rolls 1D6 and if the roll *less* than their level they succeed (page 40).

"Gut checks should be reserved for the most dire situations, where failure results in serious injury or death. Charging a machinegun nest unscathed through a hail of bullets, picking up three live grenades and tossing them back at the Germans, taking out a Tiger tank with a bazooka, running through a minefield, or crawling to the detonator and blowing the bridge even after being reduced to 0 Hit Points are some examples of gut checks." 

3. What about raising the dead?

This isn't a fantasy game, once a character dies that's it, they're permanently dead.

If using the Nazi Occult mini-setting (pages 150-160), resurrection ritual might be possible through either a Natural Magic or Runic Magic ritual or through some kind of Nazi Superscience technology (pages 146-149).

4. How are replacement PCs handled?

There are no specific guidelines for replacement PCs.

5. Initiative: individual, group, or something else?

Group.

Each party rolls 1d6 - the highest roll wins and the winning party acts first.

In the case of a tie, the parties act simultaneously (pages 44-45).

6. Are there critical hits and fumbles? How do they work?

Yes, as an *optional* rule (page 45).

A roll of 20 can be considered an automatic hit, inflict double damage or hit two opponents at once. A roll of 1 similarly can result in an automatic miss and may result in dropping the weapon, the weapon jamming or the character tripping and falling.

7. Do I get any benefits of wearing a helmet?

A helmet provides a +1 bonus to a character's saving throw vs explosions such as a grenade.

8. Can I hurt my friends if I fire into melee or do something similarly silly?

When firing into a melee, it may be impossible to choose which opponent (or friend) receives the attack and the Referee must determine which random target is struck (page 46).

9. Will we need to run from some encounters, or will we be able to kill everything?

The game includes a specific sidebar to address this: "A Note on Combat Lethality..." (page 55).

"The Referee and the players should be aware that combat in WWII: Operation WhiteBox is fairly lethal. The lack of body armor and the lethality of modern weapons makes even the most unskilled NPC soldier dangerous. The characters are encouraged to avoid pitched battles whenever possible and instead rely on superior tactics such as stealth, ambushes, cover and concealment, and overwhelming firepower to overcome their enemies. If the Referee prefers a more combat-oriented type of game, he is encouraged to look over the Optional Rules for Traditional, Heroic, and Inglorious levels of play on pg. 24." 

10. Level-draining monsters: yes or no?

Not in the basic game.

Ghosts are given as an example monster in the Nazi Occult mini-setting (page 152-153) and can drain one level per attack. Vampires are also presented but don't have level draining powers.

11. Are there going to be cases where a failed save results in PC death?

Possibly, although there is no "save vs death" as such.

There is only a *single* saving throw used by characters "to avoid something terrible happening to them", although different classes receive different bonuses against different threats (page 38).

Saving throws mostly allow half damage - there don't appear to be any instantly lethal standard effects (or spells in the Nazi Occult mini-setting) so a failed save *may* result in PC death if the damage inflicted is high enough. Explosions typically inflict 2d6+2 damage unless a saving throw is made, but given the relatively low hit points of most PCs this can certainly be lethal.

It's noted that being directly hit by a vehicle weapon (autocannon or higher calibre) would be lethal, but that individuals are difficult to target so potential hits from these weapons are treated as explosions above and inflict 2d6+2 damage (halved on a successful saving throw).

The sole exception to the above appears to be the saving throw required to escape a destroyed vehicle before it explodes and instantly kills whoever fails to escape in time (page 59).

12. How strictly are encumbrance & resources tracked?

All equipment has a weight in pounds (lbs). A normal character can carry up to 25lbs of equipment without a Movement penalty;  special operatives (PCs) are conditioned to carry up to 100lbs of equipment without issue (pages 38-39).

Specific equipment such as grenades, explosives and other mission-critical equipment *is* tracked.

Ammunition is suggested to be tracked in the abstract rather than by each round or bullet (page 50).

"The Referee is free to count every round (bullets or shells) if that suits the needs of his game. Otherwise, the Referee can have each character roll 1d6 after every three to five firefights. On a roll of one (1), the character is out of ammo." 

13. What’s required when my PC gains a level? Training? Do I get new spells automatically? Can it happen in the middle of an adventure, or do I have to wait for downtime?

PCs gain a level when they accumulate enough XP, no specific training is required.

This isn't a fantasy game so there are no spells in the default game and magic works somewhat differently in the Nazi Occult mini-setting (pages 155-160).

As XP is gained at the end of a mission, this does not occur in the middle of an adventure (page 39).

14. What do I get experience for?

Experience is awarded as a group when they complete missions, but not only for killing opponents, there are several other potential sources suggested (page 39).

1. Overcoming or defeating opponents (use HDE/XP values)
2. Use of Class Abilities to further the story or mission (1d6 x10 XP)
3. Completing "side missions" (Targets of Opportunity) which thwart German plans (1d6 x25 XP)
4. Completing assigned missions (1d6 x50 XP)

Individual bonus XP can be awarded by Referees for roleplaying particularly well or taking great risks. In addition, each class have a Prime Attribute that provides additional XP and all characters gain an XP bonus from having Charisma or Wisdom values of 13 or higher.

XP gained for vehicle combat has specific guidelines dividing the XP between both the PCs and the NPC crew in a 2:1 ratio as a group (pages 67-68).

15. How are traps located? Description, dice rolling, or some combination?

There's no specific mechanic for detecting traps, but there are rules for finding Hidden Things - a character has a base chance of success equal to 1 on 1d6 if they move at half their normal Movement rate or less and specifically state they are looking carefully. This can be modified by certain character actions or Class abilities at the Referee's discretion (page 38).

The same mechanic applies to Ambushes (page 50). Snipers have not only an improved chance of spotting an ambush but are also able to conceal themselves more effectively (pages 19-20).

16. Are retainers encouraged and how does morale work?

There are no specific rules for retainers and hirelings. The Charmer, Maquis, Sniper and Uberlaufer gain a small number of loyal NPC followers at 3rd and higher levels (pages 14-24).

A Tactician similarly gains a company, division or special forces unit at 3rd level (page 21). 

Morale is left to the Referee's discretion (page 53):

"The majority of people in the world will not continue to fight a hopeless battle, seeking to retreat, surrender, or flee if they can. Only rarely do people fight to the death. The Referee decides when enemies abandon a battle and retreat, based on the situation and the enemy's intelligence. In some cases, the Referee may have the enemy make a Saving Throw to determine if they will stay or flee, modified by bonuses or other factors."

17. How do I identify magic items?

This is not a fantasy RPG so there are no "magic items" as such in the default game.

If using the Nazi Occult mini-setting, magic items are known as artefakts (page 151). These range from single-shot items that mimic spells, permanent magical items usually in the form of named family heirlooms or unique items, and legendary items with powers determined by the Referee. Given their relative rarity, the latter two types may be relatively easy to identify by their reputation alone.

If using the Nazi Superscience mini-setting, conforming to Clarke's Third Law, superscience equipment may partially fill the space of magic items and should be readily identifiable as extraordinary (page 146-147).

18. Can I buy magic items? Oh, come on: how about just potions?

Not in the default game, see #17 above.

In the Nazi Occult setting artefakts may be able to be traded for in return for successfully completed missions. Similarly, superscience equipment may be available to operatives in a Nazi Superscience campaign.

19. Can I create magic items? When and how?

No, see #17 above.

For a Nazi Occult or Nazi Superscience mini-setting, creating or locating significant artefakts or superscience equipment may be a mission in itself - likewise thwarting the creation or activation of Nazi versions may well be an interesting mission concept.

20. What about splitting the party?

(Note this is my "standard" answer as I don't feel it's really a mechanics-specific issue.)

Never split the party. It's always a bad move!

OK, all jokes aside the main issue is the meta-game issue of player boredom while one group or player sits out while the Referee concentrates on the others but this is better discussed elsewhere (such as here, or perhaps here).

However, splitting up the group makes a lot of tactical sense in many situations - scouting, foraging/hunting, maintaining vehicles and other "down-time" activities are often better split up between members of the group given the emphasis on resource tracking including time. So using some of the suggestions in the links above will be useful as it's not an uncommon occurrence.

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 

 

Crawl Out Through the Fallout (Radiation in Twilight: 2000)

Like a disease, radiation is an "unseen" threat in the Twilight World. Unlike a disease, which is amenable to medical intervention, radiation sickness is not particularly treatable apart from providing supportive care and a character's chance of surviving is only dependent on their CON score and their accumulated exposure. 

View of Chernobyl from a ruined window(sepia-tone modified image from this VICE article)

Radiation is a mid-late threat as it takes time for the risk of radiation sickness to build up through repeat exposure but unlike other threats that can be resolved or reset, the threat of radiation worsens over time the more exposure a character has during the game and there's no way to decrease this risk through medical treatment.

I'm Radioactive! - Radiation Exposure 

I'm waking up to ash and dust
I wipe my brow and I sweat my rust
I'm breathing in the chemicals
I'm breaking in, shaping up, then checking out on the prison bus
This is it, the apocalypse

Whoa... 

- "Radioactive", Imagine Dragons 

The rules for radiation and the potential for radiation sickness are given on pages 242-243 of the v2.2 corebook (although as each page has a half-page image, the rules really only cover one page of dense text). Although potentially radiation sickness could be considered a "disease", the rules use separate mechanics, adding another "mini-game" to the overall system.

Starting rads are calculated according to pages 23-24. For military characters, this is No. Terms x2 x D6 (effective maximum 84 rads for 7 terms) and civilian characters 1D6 x 1D10 (max 60 rads). A high score puts starting characters at risk of radiation sickness with any further exposure but otherwise, most characters will not have any issues until more than an hour of exposure to a crater or their second and subsequent exposures.

Radiation Illness CON modifiers
(T2k v2.2 corebook page 244)

Rads less than 50 have no effect, anything greater requires a CON check on D10 multiplied by a modifier on the table on page 244 depending on the character's *total* rads accumulated:

• Slight illness is a risk at 50+ rads and becomes automatic at 400+ rads
• Serious illness is a risk at 100+ rads and becomes automatic at 600+ rads 
• Death is a risk at 300+ rads and becomes automatic at 800+ rads 

Fortunately, radiation is relatively easily avoided compared to disease - the main source is impact craters usually found in the ruins of larger cities or occasionally during a travel Encounter (a 1 in 10 chance if an Item encounter is triggered except in cantonment or disputed regions). As only a few years have passed since the nuclear exchange, most craters will be readily identifiable even if partly eroded although this may be more difficult in urban ruins also damaged by conventional explosives.

The radioactive areas associated with craters are larger than the visible crater however and range from 3/4 km across to about 1.5km across. Other sources of radiation eg leaking reactor cores or radioactive waste are not explained except for a nuclear detonation. A Geiger counter confirms the presence of radiation, allowing exposure to be avoided. The game suggests that a lack of animals or vegetation as a ready clue - this is not strictly correct as plants can actually tolerate a level of radiation. 

At a rad accumulation rate of 1D6 per minute in a crater area, on average an hour of exposure without protection exposes a starting character to ~210 rads (60 minutes x 3.5 rads on average), running the risk of slight illness *and* serious illness, but not the risk of death unless they've had additional exposures already. This assumes you don't roll 60D6 (one dice for every minute) or multiply a single D6 roll by 60 which seems potentially disastrous (max 360 rads from one-hour exposure).

Higher and/or longer periods of exposure have the following averaged effects:

• 2 hours (~420 rads) automatically causes slight illness and runs the risk of death. 
• 3 hours (~630 rads) automatically causes serious illness.
• 4 hours spent in a crater without protection (~840 rads) is certain death. 

A nuclear detonation (~6000 rads) is noted to be immediately fatal.

A character travelling in an "enclosed" vehicle accumulates 1/10th the rads, a radiologically "shielded" vehicle only 1/100th the rads. A MOPP suit probably provides protection as a "shielded" vehicle but it's not explicitly stated in the corebook. It is possible to survive the radiation effect of a nuclear blast in an enclosed vehicle if not directly exposed to the shockwave and blast, although the crew will suffer serious illness at least as the dose is 600 rads (only 60 rads in a "shielded" vehicle).

Radiation Sickness

Once a character has 50+ rads, if exposed to significant to radiation the character must make up to 3 CON based checks (one each for death, serious and slight illness in order)), *every* time they are exposed to radiation. Unlike diseases, there are no modifiers that affect this check, the only way to reduce the risk is to avoid or reduce exposure in the first place. An exposed character only has to check once per day - this seems to just be a mechanical simplification for the game as it's possible to be exposed more than once several hours apart from different sources.

Radiation Exposure Infographic
(Mayo Clinic website via raytodd.blog)

There is no Medical: Diagnosis check involved in diagnosis although some of the symptoms (nausea, vomiting, headache) could be mistaken for infectious disease and supportive care, supervised by a character with that skill, is needed to reduce the period of incapacitation (see below).

Death is always checked for first at accumulated 300+ rads - failure of the CON check results in slight illness within 1D6 hours (see below), then serious illness 2D6 days afterwards (1D6 days if 300+ rad exposure) with incapacitation lasting 1D6 days or more during which the character *dies*. No treatment ameliorates this, making radiation one of the few "auto-kill" threats in the game.

Slight illness occurs within 1D6 hours of significant exposure and results in *halving* of STR, AGL and INT for a day (2 days if rads exposure is 600+). This is debilitating but not incapacitating and oddly does not affect CON or increase Fatigue like a disease would, nor does it make the character more prone to a superadded infection.

Serious illness has a delayed onset of 2D6 days (1D6 if rad exposure 300+) and incapacitates the character for at least 1D6 days, followed by a "general" illness period with the same effects as slight illness above that last 1D6 weeks. The only "medical" treatment of serious illnesss is essentially supportive and considered equivalent to the same amount of time as for two serious wounds (as per page 211):

"First, the caregiver must spend half an hour per wound level, per body area damaged, per day, tending to the wounds... Second, once per day the caregiver must pass an Average check of his or her Medical asset. If no medical equipment is available (a doctor's kit is minimum), then the task check becomes Difficult. Failure means that one of the two days' worth of time to be saved was lost. In other words, if the task is failed one day during the treatment period, only one day is saved from the normal healing time. If the task is failed twice, no days are saved. Note that failing the task a third time (or more) does not add time to the basic healing rate unless a Catastrophic Failure Is rolled on this third check (or beyond)."

This calculates out to two serious wounds (2 x 3 x 30 minutes, 3 hours) or almost a whole 4 hour period of medical care per day, provided medical equipment is available. Lack of this supportive care results in a longer duration of serious illness by up to 3 days (1 extra day per 2 days of incapacitation). Specifics of this supportive care are not given other than supervision by a character with a Medical asset, presumably Diagnosis as this is similarly used for disease.

Note:  it seems an oversight that serious illness at least does not inflict Fatigue levels or increase infection risk by reducing CON to half as lethargy, blood system dysfunction and impaired immune function are characteristic of radiation sickness, but it's possible this is to avoid the potentially lethal "double-hit" combination of radiation and disease affecting the same character at once. A Fatigue level of two in the post recovery "general illness" phase similar to other major diseases would seem a reasonable optional rule.

"General" illness refers to the recovery period following serious illness and is similar to the debility phase but confusingly named - an example of how the two sub-systems vary and create separate "mini-games" within the overall rules and add to the complexity.

Option: Chelation Therapies

Note: this optional detail is added after the initial post's publication thanks to "swaghauler" - I think it adds to the overall canon rules without affecting the role of radiation in the game.

"The one thing that GDW did not discuss in the initial publication is the methods of treating Radiation or even Heavy Metal exposure in order to reduce the RADS absorbed by the exposure. In their defense, this was not available to the public at large in the '80s when they were writing the game.

Potassium Iodide Tablets: These can be taken shortly after exposure (up to 1 hour) in order to "bind" some of the radioactive particles and pass them from the body through the kidneys. This will remove 1D6 rads from the exposure total.  

Prussian Blue Treatment: I have only seen this in injectable form but it may be available in an oral form. Like PI tablets, this will bind to various radioactive elements and allow you to pass those rads by urination. It will reduce exposure by 2D6 rads.

DTPA (Diethylene Triamine Pentaacentic Acid): I don't know if this is oral or injectable but it will bind to radioactive metals in the system and can reduce the RADS absorbed by 1D6. It can also be used to treat heavy metal poisoning. It provides a bonus of 1 to the CON checks (see my Food Contamination Table in the Storing Food thread).

Lithium Dioxide: An injection that can help one fight off heavy metal poisoning just like DTPA above.

I have no idea what the Availability or Costs of these meds should be. Input is obviously welcome."

- Post by "swaghauler", Juhulin Forums April 2019

Conclusions

Overall, from my reading, the rules for radiation sickness seem to model real-life "acute radiation syndrome" reasonably well from a mechanics perspective and the difference in mechanics to disease seems justifiable - radiation is an insidious but avoidable threat that builds in lethality over time but has little chance of medical intervention. 

As a scenario driver, radiation is useful more as a negative influence to prompt the player group to avoid a particular area, at least until they have obtained the appropriate equipment and/or vehicles to negotiate or significantly reduce the risk. The lack of treatment and the inevitable increase in debility through accumulated exposure provides a different tempo and from a campaign perspective, it's more relevant mid-late game and likely irrelevant in the early phases of a campaign. 

So if fuel and then food dominate the early phase of a default Polish campaign pre-Winter and armed conflict and disease are otherwise constant threats, in my mind radiation looms as a potential consequence of a long-term stay in a landscape littered with nuclear craters.

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.