Editing 2300 AD (section)

==Publication history==
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 | footer            = [[Marc Miller (game designer)|Marc Miller]] and [[Frank Chadwick]] were two of the designers of ''2300 AD''.
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GDW created the popular science fiction role-playing game ''[[Traveller (role-playing game)|Traveller]]'' in 1977 with themes taken from [[Space Opera]] short stories and novels of the [[History of Science Fiction#The Golden Age|Golden Age of SF]].

In 1984, GDW published the unrelated and much grittier post-apocalyptic role-playing game ''[[Twilight 2000]]'', set in the year 2000 following a nuclear war. Two years later, wanting to follow up with a similar-themed "[[hard science]]" space-based role-playing game, GDW took the ''Twilight 2000'' storyline, moved it forward three centuries, and created a new game where humanity has recovered enough from the war that they are able to travel to nearby star systems. Although this new game, published in 1986, had no ties to ''Traveller'', and used a completely different game system, GDW titled it ''Traveller: 2300''. The game was published as a [[boxed set]] that contained:<ref>{{cite web | url =https://rpggeek.com/rpgitem/47483/traveller-2300 | title =Traveller: 2300 | website =RPG Geek | access-date =2021-05-19}}</ref> 
*48-page Player Manual
*48-page Referee's Manual
*8-page Forms Book
*8-page Near Star List
*8-page introductory adventure, "The Tricolour's Shadow"
*paper map with 3D representation of nearby star systems within 50 light years of Earth 
*a 10-sided die

The similar titles caused confusion between ''Traveller'' and the new game, and in 1988, GDW released a second edition retitled ''2300 AD''. Perhaps because of the initial confusion, ''Traveller: 2300'' / ''2300 AD'' sold poorly compared to ''Traveller''.<ref name="designers70s" />

About the same time, several competitors released [[cyberpunk]]-themed role-playing games which proved to be popular, including [[R. Talsorian Games]]'s ''[[Cyberpunk]]'' (1988) and [[FASA]]'s ''[[Shadowrun]]'' (1989). In an attempt to ride this wave, GDW published ''[[Earth/Cybertech Sourcebook]]'' in 1989 to give ''2300 AD'' a cyberpunk theme and also return the focus of the game to Earth rather than space.<ref name="HW">{{cite book|last=Schick |first=Lawrence|title=Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games|publisher=Prometheus Books |year=1991|isbn=0-87975-653-5 |page=345}}</ref>

GDW also quickly published several other cyberpunk supplements for ''2300 AD'', but sales remained poor. As games historian Shannon Appelcline noted in the 2014 book ''Designers & Dragons'', "The last few ''2300'' books supported this darker cyberpunk future, but it wasn't enough to sustain the line, which came to an end in 1990."<ref name="designers70s">{{Cite book|author=Shannon Appelcline|title=Designers & Dragons: The '70s|publisher=[[Evil Hat Productions]]|year=2014| isbn=978-1-61317-075-5}}</ref>{{rp|172}}

The game was revived twice, first in 2007 by QuikLink Interactive as a supplement titled ''2320 AD'' for the ''Traveller20'' game (based on the [[d20 System]]), and then in 2012 by [[Mongoose Publishing]] as  a ''2300 AD'' setting sourcebook for their version of ''Traveller''. The Mongoose version is still in publication.