“I think things would actually be a lot worse than people expect them to be. I’m more of the Threads kind of thinking, like, things are gonna be really bad, and hopefully it never happens!”
This is the common sentiment, but few consider that surviving a nuclear war or not isn’t actually up to us, ie the decision is out of our hands.
Many many people live far enough outside of nuclear targets (especially at today’s armament levels) that the choice available to them is actually one of “dying slowly and horribly from radiation poisoning, exposure, starvation, or disease” vs “surviving as relatively comfortably as one can be in the aftermath of a global nuclear war”. And the decision is made now with making fairly easy and simple levels of preparation, or not.
Just something I see a lot. “I wish” doesn’t actually go very far at affecting outcomes in reality, nor “I should have”.
It's spot on about Twilight 2000, in my experience, having just finished a game of it. We played with GURPS mechanics, but original setting material (GURPS hews very close to t2k in its realism sensibilities). We really leaned into improving Poland as a place in its portryal and i think our game really benefitted from that (that and focusing on making US national guard people with lives and backstories instead of just getting to what kind of cool gun you had).
Great article. Brought back many memories of RPGs in my youth, in particular The Price Of Freedom.
We all knew it was basically Red Dawn role playing. I didn't realise it was intended as a joke.
We certainly didn't play it like a joke. I had loads of fun coming up with scenarios involving waves of spetsnaz turning up at the last minute to give the players a proper fight!
Fascinating dive into Cold War TTRPGs and how they reflected the era's anxieties. The contrast Craig draws between Twilight 2000's realism and Gamma World's gonzo mutations really shows how diferent communities processed nuke fears. I remmeber playing wargames in that era and the detail obsession was real, but never thought about how the rebuilding aspect was missing from most rulesets yet players gravitiated towards it anyway.
“I think things would actually be a lot worse than people expect them to be. I’m more of the Threads kind of thinking, like, things are gonna be really bad, and hopefully it never happens!”
This is the common sentiment, but few consider that surviving a nuclear war or not isn’t actually up to us, ie the decision is out of our hands.
Many many people live far enough outside of nuclear targets (especially at today’s armament levels) that the choice available to them is actually one of “dying slowly and horribly from radiation poisoning, exposure, starvation, or disease” vs “surviving as relatively comfortably as one can be in the aftermath of a global nuclear war”. And the decision is made now with making fairly easy and simple levels of preparation, or not.
Just something I see a lot. “I wish” doesn’t actually go very far at affecting outcomes in reality, nor “I should have”.
It's spot on about Twilight 2000, in my experience, having just finished a game of it. We played with GURPS mechanics, but original setting material (GURPS hews very close to t2k in its realism sensibilities). We really leaned into improving Poland as a place in its portryal and i think our game really benefitted from that (that and focusing on making US national guard people with lives and backstories instead of just getting to what kind of cool gun you had).
Great article. Brought back many memories of RPGs in my youth, in particular The Price Of Freedom.
We all knew it was basically Red Dawn role playing. I didn't realise it was intended as a joke.
We certainly didn't play it like a joke. I had loads of fun coming up with scenarios involving waves of spetsnaz turning up at the last minute to give the players a proper fight!
Happy days!
Fascinating dive into Cold War TTRPGs and how they reflected the era's anxieties. The contrast Craig draws between Twilight 2000's realism and Gamma World's gonzo mutations really shows how diferent communities processed nuke fears. I remmeber playing wargames in that era and the detail obsession was real, but never thought about how the rebuilding aspect was missing from most rulesets yet players gravitiated towards it anyway.