Twilight 2000
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Twilight 2000 is a role playing game set in the aftermath of World War III. The premise is that the United States and the Soviet Union have gone to (limited) nuclear war with all its consequences. The game was first published during the Cold War and was intended to be a accurate depiction of a possible future, but events in the world have rendered the premise of the game an alternate history. The second edition featured a reworked background, intended to be an alternate history closer to real-world history. The scenarios in Twilight 2000 typically involve a military unit which was stranded in Central Europe after the nuclear war and places emphasis on attempting to realistically depict military and social systems after a nuclear war.
The manufacturer of the game, Game Designers' Workshop, which is now owned by Tantalus, has combined the timelines of Twilight 2000 with the science fiction games 2300 AD, by doing so the rather depressing post-nuclear environment of Twilight 2000 is mitigated by the outcome in which the Earth rebuilds itself and begins to colonize space.
The first edition of Twilight 2000 is being reprinted by Far Future Enterprises, while the second and 2.2nd editions, both using the system that became standard for GDW's games, are still out of print.
Twilight 2000's success as a game can be attributed in part to its manner of presenting a military background and setting, without hemming the players into a military's command structure. The civilian governments of most countries in the game have been shattered (the only countries still mostly intact in Europe are France and Belgium, which refused to enter into the war, leaving NATO) with the US government splitting into the civilian and military governments, as has the military chain of command, the supply lines, etc. The various military forces are presented as being much weaker than their stated sizes, occupying civilian territories and relying on civilians for food and small-scale manufacturing, and recruiting from civilian populations to some extent. This all means that the players can feel they are part of a military of some sort, without their characters being forced to submit to higher military authority. Players generally can choose whether they want their players to try and continue the war, get back home (wherever that may be), be a part of one of the new power groups wherever they are, simply survive as mercenaries or marauders, or some combination.