Kafer War Campaign Setting: Think Invasion plus adventures. Original Invasion described the war, but it would be nice to have things the players could actually do without making the adventures up yourself.
What Kafer War?
I'll be honest. One of the biggest problems I ever had with 2300AD as a setting was the big, bad, Kafer War. With the inclusion of the Kafer War, all the other rich campaign types possible suddenly become obviated. Who's going to be exploring ancient ruins on Daikoku while a genocidal alien fleet bears down on Earth and the Core? Figuring out what TransOcean Environments is doing with their new mini sub on Avalon is a moot point when millions are dying on the French Arm.
The Indiana Jones movies had the right approach. The era before, and the era after, major wars are ripe with adventuring possibilities (even if done badly). The era of a war, though, is largely about fighting. Sometimes that can be fun, but extended campaigns of nothing but shooting get old, real quick.
That's not to say that military campaigns won't play a part. The universe of 2300AD is full of opportunities for organized violence, from the aliens at the edge of civilization to skirmishes over oil fields on Heidelsheimat. However, the universe of 2300AD offers so much more than that. Exploration, corporate intrigue, and colonization all have their place, and their campaigns, in 2300AD.
Now, a colony at the edge of space was attacked. A nearby research station was lost just prior to the attack. Aliens have infested the surface of the colony world. Something is about to happen. That is all that is really known. The news gets little play in the Core, where the price of Ta-180 and the latest fashions out of Senegal are more important.
Over on the Chinese Arm, they are more concerned with the increase in demon attacks on Cold Mountain, and the effort to tame the pan-Thalassic world of Haifeng, than in what has happened to a French colony on tha other side of space.
Out on the American Arm, the last of the available frontier worlds is being explored, and America is staring across the gulf at the rich, dense cluster of Aquilan stars.
Even on the French Arm, it is worrying, but doesn't really affect the price of fish on Beowulf. Only the German colonies of Hochbaden and Dunkelheim have started to bolster their defenses. Meanwhile, French teams are starting to explore the Wolf Cluster, and dark rumours are starting to surface in the region around the Pentapod enclave on Beta Canum...