Twilight 2013: A New Dawn. (System-lite, T2K, seeking GM, F/Any)

[Lustful Bride]

 "Every generation seems to have a defining moment - a “where were you?” day when the world inexorably changed for the worse. 7/7, the Indonesian tsunami, 9/11, Challenger, JFK, Pearl Harbor... I’m pretty sure that back in the early Fifth Century, citizens on the fringes of the Empire always remembered where they were when they got the news that the Visigoths had sacked Rome.

The problem for my generation - the survivors - is figuring out which day was The Day. Was it nerve-gassed bodies fallen in windrows across the Paris suburbs? Russian tanks summoning up ghosts of the Cold War as they slunk through Kiev? Nuclear flowers blossoming in the Belorussian summer? The great engines of the world grinding to a halt as darkness fell like a hammer on the European Union? Winds off Lake Michigan fanning a firestorm that reached higher than the jagged stump of the Sears Tower? Pinpricks of light in the high orbitals as the lights at home went out forever?

I can tell you where I was on each of those days. Quite frankly, they all sucked. Today isn’t much better, and I can’t even tell you where I am now, let alone where I’ll be tomorrow."

~Unknown military survivor of The Twilight War.

It is now mid-July 2013. By most accounts World War III, the Twilight War as it is commonly referred to, has raged officially for almost three years now. But in reality, the fighting goes back much further than that, at least a decade prior and with countless proxy and brushfire wars that all contributed to decreasing global stability. What some don't understand, or want to admit, is that it wasn't just one singular event that put the world onto the course for mutually assured destruction. It was a series of dominoes that had been coming for a long time, that we ignored or sped up.

The ravages of Global Warming ramped up each year, and contributed slowly to economic damage across the world. The heatwaves and floods led to failed crops and the specter of famine hanging over nations that had not suffered such issues in centuries. Resource shortages, terrorist attacks, economic hardship, political tension, lack of compromise and negotiation all spiraled together to create the perfect storm. When the fighting started, it snowballed out of control. The world only barely avoided a full M.A.D. scenario, but the nukes still flew and targets were wiped out across the world. Beijing, Moscow, Washington, Paris, and more. It is difficult now to verify what locations are still there and which ones are just radioactive craters.

All the major world powers went to war with one another, sometimes staunch allies even turned on themselves, until there wasn't a single place on Earth free of war. It is impossible to tell who is friend and who is foe, if those words even mean anything anymore. The winters are getting colder from all the debris of the nuclear detonations, oil is becoming scarce, as are manufactured goods. It seems that 2013 was the year that Democracy died and Feudalism made its return. Command and control is shot all to hell, and many people are becoming petty warlords. Power no longer resides in a social contract between governments and the governed, but with those who have the sole monopoly on violence and death.

In 2011 all of the progress made over the last 100 years is almost entirely erased. In 3 short years, mankind returns to the 1800’s in terms of available industry, technology, luxury, and even population (and worsens with regard to widespread disease and famine). The United States has cracked under the weight of the Twilight War, with the South East of the country deciding to secede once more and try to make it on their own. Most the government was already decapitated when DC was bombed, multiple federal agencies were wiped out, and the President himself made it official with a speech many call the 'Good Luck Address.', before the signal finally went out. In his speech, the president outlined the end of the United States, and effectively dissolved whatever organized forces were still left.

Several hundred years of war, strife, famines, economic and social upheavals were not capable of killing the US, but one man was. President John Royce put the final nail in the coffin, pulling the life support for the country before it even had a chance.

Executive Order 13999 'Good Luck'

“My fellow Americans,” begins the President of the United States.

“This evening, on the two hundred and thirty seventh anniversary of our country’s founding, I come before you with a message of apology and farewell.  When you chose me five years ago to lead this great nation, you did so because of your belief in my promises of renewed peace and prosperity.  I promised to restore to this office the integrity that it once held, to prove it worthy of your trust once more.  I promised to restore to America the fortune and certainty that we all enjoyed in happier times.  Your government – no, I personally have failed to uphold those promises.  And I am sorry."

“This past year brought you face to face with the greatest crisis our nation has ever known.  You endured unimaginable losses and hardships not experienced since the first days of our republic.  And through it all, you persevered, responding with magnificent spirit that has always defined America.  I have never been prouder to be an American than I have been in this, the Last Year.”  A sigh rustles  across a country at the implicit capitalization, as the President speaks the two words that have grown to symbolize the death of everything that came before.

“Tragically, I must now speak of failure.  The past half-century has seen a diminishing of that spirit, and I have no choice but to accept the blame for this most terrible of losses lies squarely at the feet of myself and my predecessors.  My countrymen, for two generations your government betrayed you – not through treachery or oppression, but through sweet seduction, by shouldering your burdens in a misguided attempt to buy your loyalty and silent consent with luxury and security.  The events of the Last Year challenged us and found us wanting, and we all paid the price for this assumption of responsibility as your government failed to honor its obligations to you, its citizens.  The most basic guarantee of a government to its people, of peace and safety, was a lie."

“My compatriots, I now call upon you one last time to rally, to march to the sound of the guns, to light the watch fires in this twilight of an age and to hold back the darkness that threatens to engulf all mankind.  I call upon you to rekindle the spirit of explorers and colonists, tradesmen and statesmen, pioneers and citizen-soldiers who forged the United States of America upon the anvil of adversity.  I call upon you to dream again the dreams that made our nation great and raised it to dazzling heights: dreams of liberty, equality, and justice.”

The President bows his head over clasped hands for a moment, as if praying for guidance – or pausing to regain his composure. When he again looks into the camera, his face is lined with an internal struggle, showing the legacy of every sleepless night that he endured while cities burned.  A nation holds its breath.

“There are times when it is necessary to tear down the ruins of the old before building anew.  I spent the past weeks consulting with every one of your elected leaders who could be reached, and, with deepest regret, the consensus we reached is that this is such a time.  The United States yet lives, and will so long as a single American heart beats, but it is deeply wounded, clothed in sackcloth and ashes.  Any attempt to continue blindly in a single, centrally determined direction would be doomed to failure. You could not and should not trust our guidance now when we have so gravely erred before.

“Therefore, my final executive order as President of the United States, duly authorized by the surviving members of Congress and the Supreme Court, is that the federal government and all agencies thereof are disbanded, effective as of this date, the fourth of July, two thousand thirteen.  All former federal employees, both civil and military, who now stand on American soil are requested to place themselves and the assets they control at the disposal of the local governor or equivalent interim authority.  All such personnel outside American territory are requested to return here as best they may, and may whatever God you pray to keep and protect each of you as you walk that long road home."

“Many years ago, in another time when this country was torn apart by strife, it was led by a better man than I.  He called then, as I call now, upon his citizens to dedicate themselves to the unfi nished work of their fallen brethren, to bring about a new birth of freedom, that government of the people, by the people, and for the people should not perish from the earth.  In my last moments as your President, I call upon you to dedicate yourselves to the rebirth of this nation, to shelter and cherish our shared ideals until a time when America has the strength to raise itself up again on the hands of men and women who dare to dream."

“But this time must not be prematurely forced upon history by men who seek to maintain their own power because they know nothing else, nor by those who are guided not by reason but blind and misplaced faith in their own infallibility.  It must be brought about by you and your children, by common consensus, through common wisdom, for common good, at a time when you as a people have healed the wounds of our betrayal and are ready to choose new leaders who will not repeat our crimes.  Until that time, you must trust in yourselves first, remembering that America has always been made great by individual, exceptional, men and women.

“Good night, my fellow Americans... and good luck.  You’re on your own."

The United States of America is no more, just as many other countries around the world no longer exist as they once did. To some it is the final nail in the coffin for the world. While for some it is the call to return home, or the chance to bring it all back like a phoenix from the ashes. Some called Royce a sign of the times, others called him Nero, playing his fiddle while Earth burned.

With the dissolution of the federal government, many soldiers were left without information, some were abandoned on the battlefield or left following old war plans or the words of generals just to have a path forward. Many federal workers are now left alone, forced to follow anyone who seems to be in charge, or just looking for a good hole in the ground to die in. Many would rather end it all than see the new Dark Age that is coming, and the end of civilization.

Some are trying to keep the lights from going out though, and a band of federal agents had been planning to do the same. There were plenty of Continuity of Government plans that had yet to be enacted, many doomsday bunkers that still had supplies. They just needed to be properly managed.

The group of feds called themselves 'Reclaimers' as they set out on their own, twelve strong and willing to give their lives to continue the fight. Their initial work was small, but it meant so much to those that needed it. It all seemed to be going well, put down highwaymen and raiders here, help a town fix its generator there, little diversions on the way to seeking out likeminded individuals. Making the world better by lighting up the darkness with small candles of hope.

But then they were ambushed.

The Reclaimers never saw their enemies, until the first of their three vehicle convoy went up in flames, and shots lit up the night. They fought desperately against their assailants, downing a few of them, but in the end only two survived and escaped the burning remains of their group. It was the end of the Reclaimers as a group. A sad tale repeated many times over to scattered bands of would-be heroes who gave it their all, and were found wanting.

One of the survivors was a young NSA analyst and translator, the other a former FEMA director. The Analyst had carried the director with her for three days through the forest, until coming across an old radio station where she pulled him in and tried to tend to his wounds.

He died the very next day, and the analyst was left alone. She might as well have been the last person on Earth. For three months she didn't see or hear from anyone. She would venture out to find supplies, books, fuel, ammunition from cabins and a small town nearby, yet never saw any other survivors. She had enough supplies to live comfortably alone, but the one thing she lacked was information and company. So she got to work trying to get the radio up and running. It was as good a plan as any, and with time she did get it operational.

The signals she got were spotty, but it did help her to see how the world was faring. None of it was good. She actually had to make herself a chart to keep track of all the conflicting stories coming in while swimming through the constant doom and gloom filling the air ways. A lot of it was chatter from bandits, slavers, racial supremacists and seditionists that were all too happy to dance upon the ashes of the world. They now had a chance to rob rape and kill without any punishment, to do as they pleased and feast upon the suffering of others openly.

She hated listening to it, and started to broadcast her own signal out. She used the station to send her message out to the world that things could get better, the world wasn't dead, and America is worth fighting for and reuniting. Under the alias of 'Athena' she made sure the airwaves weren't only filled with bigotry and hopelessness.

It wasn't the smartest thing in the world but it felt good to challenge the evils of the world. For another month she gave news updates and helped pass info along that she managed to pick up on from other stations, played music for any survivors still listening, and would hold late night sessions of her talking about whatever came to mind. Most of it was just about her previous life, her love of the country, and whatever books she had on hand. She especially loved to deny the President's final speech that the US was dead, even getting vulgar over the radiowaves and calling President Royce a traitor. But information about her previous employment slipped out and a few times she even boasted about it, drawing the attention of one of the more well armed militia groups in her area.

Once they had figured out just where her station was, they rolled up in their battered vehicles, looking ready to have an engagement and snuff out her light.

Instead, one of them hopped out of their vehicle and nervously shuffled up to the station, and knocked at her door. It wasn't the tactic of raiders, but of someone willing to talk. And talk they did. They were all draftees or enlisted from before the very end. They had just finished training when everything finally fell apart. Their commanding officer killed himself, and left them without further orders, and on the rare moments they managed to get in contact with someone of a higher rank, they didn't seem to have a real plan beyond 'stay alive, fight off any invaders or insurgents'. The soldiers had been surviving by group consensus these past few months, fighting off raiders, and looking for supplies. They had picked up a few survivors along the way and slowly built up a convoy. But without any real plan they were all living on borrowed time.

Then her voice came out over the radio, her station acting like a lighthouse to guide them to calm waters. She gave them hope and then a goal to reach for. They heard her credentials and as far as they were concerned, she was the only legitimate part of the US government left to give them orders.

They're just a bunch of young men and women playing soldier to stay alive. At only 27 Athena might actually be the oldest person among them all, already giving her a measure of seniority. With no command structure or idea of what to do or how to get home. (If home even exists anymore) they are rudderless. They have no purpose and every day is harder than the last. Athena gives them a chance to feel useful and like they aren't lost anymore.

So she assumes a command role among them, helping to direct their efforts and plans. Their little radio station becomes the spark of the effort to reunify the country. A spark that will ensure the American Eagle rises up from the ashes once more like a Phoenix.



Among the first things that turn their hopeless cause into one with an actual chance, is the discovery of an old Cold-War era missile silo, that still has its payload. It isn't in the best state of repair, but functional. The defenses all seemed to have been stripped (or were never there) aside from a single security checkpoint and a Patriot Missile Launcher that still had a tarp over it. The inside of the facility was larger than modern missile silos, allowing storage of non combatants and supplies. It might have been a prototype or an attempt to combine offense and defense.

Either way its the perfect place to put down roots and ensure that their words are backed with force. The loyalists dub the facility 'Atlas Base', as it will be what holds up the world in this new age.

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

With both the old radio station, and the silo, under loyalist control, the forces under command of Athena begin operations to secure their holdings and expand. There aren't enough people around for too many people to sit around on guard duty, especially with winter eventually coming. They need to store up supplies before the growing season is done, and maybe aid other communities nearby in doing the same.

Even Athena herself is going to be pulling her weight and taking part in missions and heading out in person. Some don't feel comfortable with her going out and putting herself in danger, if she were to die then it might break their fledgling movement. But she insists. She cant sit back and let them all fight and die if she isn't willing to do the same. Besides, having an official alongside them might help their group seem like an actual force for good and not just another fiefdom built upon military strength.



Hopefully this isnt too confusing, but if it is I will explain more down here that may help you. I'm looking for a roleplay set within the rpg setting of Twilight 2000 (Not the vampire book series), specifically the Twilight: 2013 setting which modernizes it to a setting closer to out own time. I'm looking for someone who can help run it with some system elements and wouldn't mind helping teach me the system (either the old one, or a more system lite version that doesn't go as insanely in-depth as T2K is infamous for doing.).

I am not looking for this to be a constant series of firefights, but a balance of fighting with a focus on rebuilding the nation during downtime, maybe helping to manage and improve things in a Houses of the Blooded style system.

If this interests you please PM me and we can work things out and see how things go. We could start it off at the Radio station or after the discovery of Atlas Base and move on from there. We can work out any number of details to make this easier and fun for the both of us.



With the 3rd Edition of Twilight 2000 on the way, I thought it best to also include my thoughts for a possible scenario set in the new revamped timeline of the third edition book.

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

-Ever since the successful Coup in the Soviet Union, military hardliners have been in charge of the USSR. They have tightened their grips on power to ensure no one will ever kick them out, and the increased tension (coupled with economic difficulties) has been egging on the conflict between the East and West. In the States the more militant war-hawks have been winning more elections and are only held back by those party who feel that NATO is a failure and that the US should stand alone. Or at the least that Europe should handle its own problems without America.

US funding of NATO is actually starting to decrease and logistics is suffering the most from the budget cuts (much to the enjoyment of the Warsaw pact),
and causes NATO to stretch itself thin while making more errors.

-Some soldiers, staff, mechanics, and civvies (including a reporter that no one wants to deal with) get sent to an old supply depot that has been abandoned for a couple years, with only themselves, and old accommodations to keep them company. Luckily they have their own rations since the MREs there are from the 80s and no one wants to eat them.

They keep trying to call NATO command for pickup but instead get sent a Bradley IFV and two M88 Recovery vehicles. Apparently a translation error confused 'pick up' with 'recovery' and the Bradley operators have no idea why they are there. They were just told to report to the depot and that fuel would be present.

While they try to figure things out, the reporter (who i imagined as an Expy of Katie Killjoy, and one of those 'NATO is a failure' people, who openly calls NATO 'Never A Thing Organized.'. ) has been using her satellite phone to try and call her supervisor and issue complaints about how she's been treated. Bit by bit information of the outside world trickles in through her, yet she mostly cares for her own success.

She's infamous for pissing people off before suddenly turning a camera on to get reactions she wants/to trip them up. Truth is she doesn't give a damn about NATO, Europe, or anything but her own success.

Reporter: "The average working American is becoming an obese slob who sits back all day drinking beer, watching porn and nascar. So what if I stretch the truth a little bit? So long as they keep watching my news hour and giving me ratings they can choke on their own remotes for all I care."

The only person who ever stood up to her was a character I came up with. Who began as a NATO clerk/translation specialist ( who was again sent to the wrong place). There were plans for Mexico to become a more serious member of NATO but they fell through, and she was instead sent to Spain, but got rerouted halfway through that to Germany. She's mostly been helping with paperwork since then and wishing to go stateside again.

She's nothing special at the moment.

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

But once the war begins she is going to get some real on-the-job training.

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

She lost her temper at the Katie expy, after the reporter used the deaths of several airmen (due to mechanical failure on an MH-6 Little Bird) to win some points with the public back home about what a 'waste of American money and lives NATO is'.

As soon as the camera's were off she slapped the reporter so hard that she almost got slapped with disciplinary action herself. Yet many seemed to approve of it (much to her chagrin) and now and again she can always hear someone saying 'Keep your Pimp hand strong, little sis', whenever she passes by.

The two of them might have been put together and sent to the abandoned depot by some officer who wanted to keep the reporter in line/punish the both of them.

But either way, using her satellite phone she hears that tensions have been getting worse, especially in the middle east where proxy forces of both sides have been disobeying orders. It all just keeps boiling till finally it explodes into open conflict. Just about everywhere that has NATO or Warsaw forces is in open conflict. Suddenly this little abandoned Supply Depot becomes actually useful as NATO drops off food, medicine, fuel and munitions there to help it act as a way station for forces moving to various frontlines.

Troops move in before deploying to the frontline, and some come back bloodied, or in body bags, for transport elsewhere. The staff that was originally at the depot now has their work cut out for them as the frontline gets closer and closer. Nearby I picture the events of the Team Yankee novel/Comic book are sort of occurring with the defenses and the heavy fighting there the only thing keeping the depot safe.

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

With a Hot-War phase already underway the non combatants get some 'suggested' training to ensure that if the reds hit the depot, they wont all be sitting ducks. The clerk throws herself all into it, training alongside the infantrymen who run drills at the depot and in the nearby woods, while the civilians at least get pistol training. The reporter is actually among the first of them to get that kind of training, possibly worried that the soldiers may try to rape her at some point, or take vengeance for her using them as a way to win herself a daytime Emmy back home.

Despite the risks, the reporter had been excited to stay since she wasn't directly in the line of fire and could get some great shots with her camera crew. Wounded troopers, NATO Forces desperately holding back the red charge, she could win herself some real awards with shots like these. Going from simple reporter to an impromptu war correspondent. There might even be a book deal in it for her. Unlike real war correspondents, this reporter is only out for the best shots that will shock and stun the public back home, rather than informing on the actual details and nuance of the war.

She had always wanted to hit it big and be famous, yet it just never seemed to happen. She knows that time is always marching on, and soon she might be too old to be the face of her news channel, so the war might be her last big chance to secure herself a comfortable nest egg to retire. Its not as if the war will do anything but end in a stalemate, right?

This changes when the Reds stage a new assault and she is out where she isn't supposed to be, her camera man has his head blown off and she abandons her sound guy to scramble behind a Humvee. The reds are repelled and the fighting only gets worse as NATO and the Pact savage each other in horrible fighting that eventually (just barely) ends with a NATO victory in their sector. The reds exhausted themselves and both red and blue withdraw forces from there to reinforce other areas and the depot mostly finds itself dealing with stragglers and a lot of dead and wounded being brought back to them.

Everyone is getting tired from hearing the carnage in the distance, and seeing the aftermath. Even the reporter mostly stays in her 'room' (really a supply closet cleared out for her), yet with her satellite phone she gets a lot more news from around the world (not the whitewashed updates everyone at the depot gets). Things aren't looking good, and pretty soon she is the one to tell them all of the first nukes fired by Israel against the Arab League, and then of the tit-for-tat nukes launched by everyone else until the world collapses.

They are all huddled around the satellite phone and the radios as the calls ring out everywhere of the bombs, and new strikes are pushed back and forth, the last dying embers of a world that may be killing itself just to kill itself by now.

Soon the satellite phone is the last thing keeping them in contact with anyone back home, the only news they get is from it, passing refugees, and AWOL troopers, until a half drunk/depressed messenger arrives in a humvee to deliver just a message, a single document detailing the failure of 'Operation Reset' and that their last orders are to either get home or do whatever the fuck they want.

"What kind of orders are these? How can they be telling us to just do as we please? What the hell are we supposed to do now!?" Demands the clerk turned infantrywoman.

"Whatever you want, anything you want. You're on your own." The humvee messenger says, no light in his eyes as he drives off, to find anyone else to deliver his messages to, fulfilling his last orders so he can eventually kill himself somewhere alone and in peace.

Left alone, with dwindling supplies, scattered information, and no further goals, the depot crew feels more alone than ever. But they are NATO, organization has never been their strong suit anyway. They shall do what they do best, turn chaos into opportunities.