2300AD Product Listing

Copyright © 1996 Jay Adan.  All Rights Reserved.
Disclaimer

The following is a list of basic information for all 2300AD products ever released by GDW, 3W and Seeker. I've also left comments about those products that I felt deserved them for one reason or another. - Jay

Anybody wishing to share their own thoughts on any of the products is welcomed to do so. Send me your comments by KevinC and I'll add them on.

This was the first incarnation of the game and had its share of problems. Never mind the fact that the title led many people to believe that the game was associated with the Traveller background ( which is wasn't) when the game first came out it was impossible to make a concious, or in some cases living, character. Sure, it was just a little typo but this is just an example of the kinds of problems it had. There was little or no information on the alien races ( some people think of this as a good thing) there wasn't much to go on as far as story ideas and the production values weren't that great. Still, it was an interesting background - based on the Twilight: 2000 - game and that along with one of the best star maps everr produced for a roleplaying game was enough to get many people at least interested. An errata sheet corrected the typos and later products revealed the nature of the aliens. Still, not a very good beginning for a roleplaying game.

Having learned from their previous mistakes GDW repackaged renamed and otherwise revamped the 2300 game. This was the second edition of the game and was a huge value for the money. There was much more information stuffed into the box including basic information on all of the major races, more story-related information and, well, just more STUFF. Had the game looked like this in the first place it would easily have knocked out all of the competition. instead it was almost too little, too late. The game did get its share of support for a while but it never did seem to find its audience.

You wants info on Kafers? You gots info on Kafers. This is actually a great sourcebook for the race - if you like them. Lots of information, illustrations, equipment, and a star map. Very useful if you are going to use them as the focus of your campaign.

It was nice to finally have some detail about Earth in the 24th century but this book also turned the game from what it was into a primarily Cyberpunk game. Now, in general I don't have a problem with this. I mean, if you want to use 2300AD to play that genre, why not? Still, it seems that GDW decided to try to bolster sales by altering what the game was about. After this supplement came out most of what came after was specifically cyberpunk in design. The details about Earth mostly just expand on what is included in the basic game.

This is one of the better adventures. Lester Smith seems to have a great love for roleplaying and you can see it in much of his work. This is actually a series of three adventures centered around the Beanstalk on Beta Canum Venaticorum. It makes a great introductory adventure for new players and characters.

This module starts out exciting and moves downhill fast. After the characters' ship is disabled by Kafers in orbit around an unexplored planet they then have to escape the fireball-to-be and survive on the planets surface. There they eventually discover the Klaxun - a race of tree-like creatures currently embroiled in a societal upheaval. Actually, this would probably make a good book - but it makes a pretty boring module. The majority of the book is taken up with descriptions of the planet and some of the flora and fauna. Now this is not a bad thing - for a sourcebook. I guess the idea was that the GM is ssupposed to spend a while making survival on the planet surface interesting. the contact with the Klaxun is a little more interesting but it really isn't given that much space in the book. Still, the module isn't a complete waste. You get a very clear picture of the Klaxun race, their society and their home planet. That in itself makes it a valuable resource. A final note on Energy Curve - for a game that seems to lean heavily toward a military theme this module is decidedly non-military and more exploratory in nature.

This is a great book to have if you intend to run the Kafer War as GDW planned it. They did a very good job detailing when the Kafers attacked a system, what resistence they encountered, and what happened on the planet as a result. It also offers some insight to Kafer thinking, and the problems of trying to coordinate large task forces... especially if the crews tend to go out raiding on their own.

The main problems with the book are with the Earth forces. Counterattacks are not always well detailed, and the positions of Earth forces can be more than a little vague. The list of the military situation, Summer 2301 at the front of the book is nice, but the ships are frequently not in those positions when the Kafers arrive on the scene.
From: Aaron Teske (mithramuse at cmu dot edu)

Not nearly as useful as the Equipment Guide but nice to have anyway. It covers mostly military vehicles but has a number of non-military designs as well.

148 pieces of equipment and nearly all of them illustrated either in color or B&W. Unfortunately, some of these are duplicating pieces from the basic game but it is nice to have all of these together in one book.

This was the first and only board game based on the 2300AD RPG. It was basically just a starship combat game that utilized both large ships and fighters on a starfield hex map. The counters were some of the best I've seen in this type of game and I have used them for a number of other games as well.

Of course, having said that I should also mention that this game was also nearly unplayable as written. GDW had a nasty habit of releasing games unplaytested and this was a stellar example ( excuse the pun). The basic rules are all there. I mean you CAN play the game but the rules are a little clunky. For example, the rules have a section on how firing arcs extend out from the ship and the diagram shows them going out about three hexes. This is a little confusing since none of the weapons fire out beyond one hex. This isn't a major mistake but when you are trying to learn the game for the first time it does lead to some wrong impressions. Which of course leads me to another complaint - the weapons only have a range of 1 hex! Where's the fun in that? I like to think that if this had been playtested this part of the game would have been rethought.. Which leads me to my last major complaint and indication that it was never playtested - in the scenario THE RAID ON 791 REMOTE the Argentinian player is supposed to destroy a remote station guarded by brazillian ships... No rules are given on how to determine if the station is destroyed!

So you might wonder why you would want to get Star Cruiser. Well, it does have great counters that you can use in many other games ( I suggest FULL THRUST by Ground Zero Games) and it does have the ship construction rules plus a number of ship designs are included along with cool illustrations by Tom Peters.

From 3W

As I was responsible for the production of this one I'll leave comments to others who are less biased than I. I will mention that this module centered around a counter-offensive against the Kafer and I have received lots of positive comments about it since it was produced.

From SEEKER

Seeker was another GDW licensee ( Like Digest Group Publications and 3W) and mostly produced deck plans for Traveller. Well, this was their first product for 2300AD. While the idea was good the product was of questionable value. Firstly, the product covers not a well known ship class but an entirely new ship - the Virginia class Schooner. Okay, that's not so bad in itself but the ship design was so damned BORING! The thing looks not so much like a starship as it does the probe from Star Trek IV. Which means that it's just a long cylinder with no outstanding surface features. The plans for the ship were nicely produced on a blue-print type paper and the drawings were nice. It was also done in 25mm which is the standard for most RPG miniatures. Still, who was likely to use them given that the ship was so ugly? Not only that, they were expensive. $11.95 is quite a bit to pay for something as light a product as this - if it were a cool ship like the Aconit or something useful like the Desarge I might have been willing to shell out the bucks.

This was the only other set of deck plans that Seeker ever did for 2300AD. This was a destroyer-escort ship and was a much better design than the Virginia. Production values were the same as the other and the price is the same. The only major difference in content is the addition of a bit of fiction by Clare Hess.

2300 Resource 0.....Fighter Craft
2300 Resource 0.....American FS-17A
2300 Resource 0.....87th American President, The
2300 Resource 0.....Coming to Terms
2300 Resource 1.....Hunter-Killer
2300 Resource 1.....American Battleship Columbia
2300 Resource 1.....First Premiere of Germany
2300 Resource 1.....Kafer War Update
2300 Resource 1.....German SternTruppen
2300 Resource 2.....French Aconit-Class Frigate
2300 Resource 2.....Life in Zero-G
2300 Resource 2.....Starship Captain
2300 Resource 2.....Stutterwarp Threshold

Challenge 27..........Traveller: 2300 Designer's Notes
Challenge 27..........North American Research League, The
Challenge 28..........Astronomischen Rechen-Institut, The
Challenge 28..........Traveller: 2300 Designer's Notes
Challenge 29..........In the Cards
Challenge 29..........Trade in 2300
Challenge 30..........Flight of the Bayern
Challenge 30..........IEX
Challenge 30..........Stutterwarp Technology in 2300
Challenge 31..........Armour in 2300
Challenge 31..........Earth: 2300
Challenge 31..........Spacesuits
Challenge 31..........Sung, The
Challenge 32..........Cayuga-Class Close Escort
Challenge 32..........Papers and Passports
Challenge 32..........Xiang, The
Challenge 33..........Davout
Challenge 33..........Lone Wolf
Challenge 33..........North America: 2300
Challenge 33..........Stutterwarp Revisited
Challenge 34..........2300AD Revision, The
Challenge 34..........INAP
Challenge 34..........Thorez
Challenge 34..........Ogre: 2300
Challenge 35..........World Invaded, A
Challenge 36..........Anatomy of a Missile, The
Challenge 36..........Devil in the Dark
Challenge 37..........Three Blind Mice
Challenge 38..........Star Cruiser Power
Challenge 39..........American Marines, The
Challenge 39..........French Lieutenant's Connection, The
Challenge 40..........Anatomy of a Space Mine
Challenge 40..........Cellular Launcher
Challenge 40..........GDW System Overview
Challenge 40..........M17A1 Armoured Personnel Carrier
Challenge 40..........Stahlhammer, The
Challenge 40..........Riding the Wave: New Equipment
Challenge 41..........Macrocombat
Challenge 41..........Sweet Trade in Space: Piracy, The
Challenge 42..........AV-90 Marine VTOL
Challenge 42..........Italy: 2300
Challenge 42..........Leathernecks on Aurore
Challenge 42..........Manhunt
Challenge 42..........Where Ya From, Mack?
Challenge 43..........AECA
Challenge 43..........L-5: Community in the Sky
Challenge 43..........Where Ya From, Mate?
Challenge 43..........New Cyber Equipment
Challenge 44..........Black Market
Challenge 44..........Highland
Challenge 44..........Social Class in 2300
Challenge 45..........Catch and Carry Team
Challenge 45..........Hot Stuff
Challenge 46..........Contagion
Challenge 47..........New Attack Programs for Cyberjockeys
Challenge 48..........Naval Reservists in 2300
Challenge 49..........Operation Back Door: Episode 1
Challenge 50..........Operation Back Door: Episode 2
Challenge 50..........Ylii, The
Challenge 51..........Operation Back Door: Episode 3
Challenge 52..........Operation Back Door: Episode 4
Challenge 53..........Wired Society
Challenge 54..........Master Race
Challenge 55..........Motorcycles
Challenge 56..........SAMN
Challenge 57..........Cache and Carry
Challenge 58..........Just How Good is Sidearm-5, Anyway?
Challenge 59..........Rock 'n' Roll Never Dies
Challenge 60..........X-Wing Down
Challenge 61..........This is Only a Test
Challenge 62..........Catch as Catch Can
Challenge 63..........Into the Depths
Challenge 63..........Jacked In
Challenge 64..........Drifter
Challenge 65..........One of us Always Stays Awake
Challenge 66..........Diamonds from Premiere
Challenge 67..........Old Enemies
Challenge 68..........Bugout
Challenge 69..........Repo Men
Challenge 70..........Gorgon Hunt
Challenge 71..........Stowaway
Challenge 72..........Bioadversity
Challenge 73..........Edge of Memory, The
Challenge 74..........Survival Course

Travellers' Digest  9.....Civilian Vehicles
Travellers' Digest 10.....Briefcase Library
Travellers' Digest 10.....Paramedic Kit
Travellers' Digest 10.....Pentapod Constructs
Travellers' Digest 10.....Life Foundation "Squid", The
Travellers' Digest 11.....Overview of the American Arm, An
Travellers' Digest 11.....Exploration: American Style- Part 1
Travellers' Digest 12.....Exploration: American Style- Part 2
Travellers' Digest 12.....ASV-97: A Multirole Vehicle for the USMC, The
Travellers' Digest 13.....Pentapod Spacecraft- Part 1
Travellers' Digest 14.....Clarkesstar
Travellers' Digest 14.....Pentapod Spacecraft- Part 2
Travellers' Digest 14.....Traveller Q&A
Travellers' Digest 15.....LC-20 Landing Craft
Travellers' Digest 15.....Traveller Q&A
Travellers' Digest 16.....Tula-Class Frigate
Travellers' Digest 17.....Hogan 500, The
Travellers' Digest 18.....Newmark's Scouts
Travellers' Digest 19.....Russian Orbital Marines, The
Travellers' Digest 19.....2300AD Q&A
Travellers' Digest 20.....Middlemen
Travellers' Digest 21.....Guessing Game, The
Travellers' Digest 21.....Homecoming

Vortex 6..........New Ships for 2300 AD

Far and Away 2.....Time and Tide On Beowulf
Far and Away 2.....A Call To Arms

Stardate ?.....Incident On Pluto
Stardate 5.....Valinor Class Mining  Survey Vessel
Stardate 5.....Adventure At Augerau

Voyages  9.....The Kafer Connection: Descent Into Terror
Voyages 13.....Fort Bliss Class Destroyer
Voyages 14.....Encounter At Hesperus
Voyages 15.....2300AD Ship Profile And Size Chart
Voyages 16.....The Bunker Hill Class Cruiser

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