What good WWII RPGs do you know?

[Nomad4life]

Hi! I was just wondering if anyone knew of a good RPG suitable for running WWII campaigns? I know there are a few out there, so I was hoping that somebody could sell me on one of them. Anything specific you could tell me about your choice would be helpful as well. Thank you.

 

[mac1504]

There is Godlike: http://www.rpgshop.com/product_info.php?products_id=30511&

It's basically superheroes (referred to as "Talents") taking part in WW2. Our group played a short campaign using the Mutants and Masterminds ruleset.

 

[painandgreed]

I would go with a modified versoin of Twilight 2000. Most of the weapons should already be listed. Armor and heavy weapons would be the one thing that is missing but could be modeled off of the existing rules.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Third Edition GURPS produced an entire line of World War II supplements:

http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/ww2/

 

[scourger]

Since I just watched Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers again recently, I am thinking of running a game in the WWII genre. The system I would likely use is Savage Worlds. Here's a link:

http://www.peginc.com/Games/Savage Worlds/Savage Worlds.htm

Although it's billed as a generic game, the rule book contains many rules and gear that are great for a WWII game. A real bonus is that it seems easy to run and to run for large groups, including big battles.

For d20, I recommend V for Victory from the Polyhedron side of Dungeon # 97. $10 is a steal for a back issue:

http://paizo.com/dungeon/products/issues/shackledCity/v5748btpy72ws

I bought a copy in addition to my subscription copy so that I could have 2 copies on hand. It adds a bit more d20 complexity, but it looks worthwhile.

Good luck with your game.

 

[Bobitron]

The GURPS stuff is very good for information, and I own it all, but I've never liked the rules.

I own two different D20 rulesets; Hell on Earth (1939-1945) by Bloodstone Press and WWII Heroes by SteelMagic Studios. I was really disappointed in WWII Heroes, it turns character creation into a skill and feat fest. HoE is pretty decent, but in my own campaign I ended up using mostly D20 Modern with a few things stolen from HoE. Honestly, D20 Modern is flexible enough that little work would be needed to set in in that era. If you want to see how well the rules can work without supplements from other manufacturers in a WWII-Vietnam era military campaign, check out Shaman's excellent Wing and Sword game here on EN World.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

I also picked up the new game by Mystique Enterprises, Behind Enemy Lines. It's a re-working of the '80s game by FASA. It looks very complete, but it hasn't really captured my interest much. Lots of charts and such, but not as much useful content as I would like. I'll confess to being a D20 Modern fan (obviously), so I wasn't too impressed with the rules. I haven't played it, though.

 

[bolen]

doesn't spycraft have a 1940's version out. That could have d20 stats for WWII hardware

 

[Bobitron]

doesn't spycraft have a 1940's version out. That could have d20 stats for WWII hardware

I think it is a Sixties version, but it will probably have some stats that might be useful. The d20 products I mentioned above would be a) cheaper and b) more useful. Not that I don't like Spycraft, it's one of my favorite systems.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I would suggest D20 Modern. It's flexible enough for that kind of thing.

 

[wingsandsword]

I'd also say go with d20 Modern, it's got the flexibility to do the job, it is a rules set that you already know, and the core book already has most of the stuff you'd need in it. If you don't want any fantastic elements, it's designed to work without them just fine (most WWII RPG's, like Godlike and Weird War II presume superpowers or other supernatural aspects). Of course, if you want Nazi occultists hunting for relics and allied chaplains who occasionally call in miracles, you can throw that in too seamlessly.

d20 Past has a little stuff on using d20 Modern in WWII, with some generic nazi stats and pulp-heroic 20's to 40's era stuff and a Flying Ace PrC, but not too much material.

You can get source material for WWII all over the place. Turn on the History Channel. That or a quick net search will find loads of sites.