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2300AD : Humanity Among the Stars

Introduction to 2300AD
Introduction to the Site
The Great Game II
My 2300AD Universe
Site Log

Introduction to 2300AD

2300AD was a hard (hardish, see the My 2300AD Universe Section) science fiction role playing game produced by GDW in the late 1980s. The background assumed that World War III had occurred just before the new millenium and that mankind had spent the next three hundred years rebuilding the earth and colonising nearby solar systems. Earth itself remained split into over a hundred nation states which competed with one another for resources and prestige both on and above the earth. The dominant power over much of the period was France which had capitalised on a quick recovery from the devastation of the Twilight War, as World War III was known, and the subsequent turmoil. Even France however was not a super power merely the first amongst equals.

By 2300AD humanity had colonies on planets orbiting tens of other stars and had encountered four alien races one of which had become an inplacable enemy.

Current Status of the Game

When GDW went out of business 2300AD was already out of print but following the winding up of the company Tantalus Inc. purchased the rights to 2300AD along with a number of other GDW products. There are presently no plans (of which I am aware) to relaunch 2300AD however there is a small but active community of players and referees on the Web.

Introduction to this Site

The Humanity Among the Stars Site presents my view of the 2300AD game and will, over time, provide various resources for fellow players and referees.

If you have any queries, spot any errors or I have got something wrong (the latter two being highly likely) please eMail me.

The Great Game II (GG2)

Introduction

GDW generated their future history for 2300AD by playing a grand social-political-economic-military-diplomatic simulation. Members of the GDW staff took the part of the countries of the earth in 2000AD and in five to ten year turns played out the recovery from nuclear war, the discovery of a star drive and the foundation of colonies on the planets of other suns. This future history ended in 2300AD and was extended to 2303AD in various game supplements.

A group of players on the Web has now decided to further extend the history of the game universe by restarting the game from where GDW left off. This effort is being primarily organised by Steven Alexander and further details can be found on his Web Pages.

GG2 Information on this Site

As part of GG2 each player is required to produce a Web Page(s) for each of the countries he or she is playing. I am playing New Zealand, The Netherlands and Elysia (a former French colony on the planet Joi which orbits 61 Ursae Majoris). The pages can be found by using the following links.

My 2300AD Universe

My main complaints about the 2300AD universe as presented by GDW are

Why is the solar system not much more heavily colonised and developed?
Given that extra solar colonists start off in space why is most of the local industry not in orbit where it doesn't have to pay the transportation costs up the gravity well and energy is available 24 hours a day and all but free?
Why build your first beanstalk on a 1G aggricultural colony world? Surely you would want to have a go somewhere much easier first - say a low G world near the bulk of humanity's industry and expertise (Mars for example).
If you can build a beanstalk this would have massive implications for architecture (Gibralter Bridge anyone?). Also is you are building beanstalks why not space tethers (essentially beanstalks that don't reach the ground) which would greatly reduce the costs of reaching orbit.
DNA Modification! If you can modify humans to live on King surely everyone with any money at all would be busy modifying themselves and their children to be smarter, healthier, stronger, longer lived etc. While this would be a very interesting SF RPG it is not 2300AD.

Despite all the above I do enjoy 2300AD mainly I think because of the multi national flavour and the lack of domination by any one power. I am quite happy to live with Stutterwarp and aliens underneath every other rock as these are necessary for the game its just the little niggles that annoy me.

During the course of my musing on 2300AD I have produced various items of equipment and organisations. The ones that I have had time to write up can be found on the following links.

Log of Site Construction

I am attempting to keep a log of the updates to this site as and when I make them. This is also a useful place to check to see if I have added anything new since you last checked.

Site Log.

Version 1.2

12/11/1999