Wolfenstein TTRPG Coming From Modiphius

Modiphius has announced plans to develop the Wolfenstein video game IP into a tabletop roleplaying game. The game will utilize Modiphius's 2d20 system, with a crowdfunding campaign planned for Fall 2026. Per a press release, the game will specifically focus on Wolfenstein: The New Order and Wolfenstein: The New Colossus.

For those unfamiliar with Wolfenstein, it's set in a world in which the Nazis defeat the Allies in World War II and then use advanced technology to conquer much of the world. Players are typically members of the resistance, stealing various weaponry from the Nazis and then defeating both Nazis and their monstrous science experiments.

Modiphius has a relationship with Bethesda, the owner of Wolfenstein, and makes a series of games based on the Fallout franchise. The Fallout RPG also uses a variation of the 2D20 system as well. Modiphius also develops a series of games based on Bethesda's Elder Scrolls series.

Modiphius has a sign-up page to be informed of when the crowdfunding campaign for the Wolfenstein RPG launches on GameFound.

 

[CF07]

For fair disclosure...
I merely like STA, not love it. I've run campaigns. 3 of them. I would prefer LUG Trek or PD1 slightly to it for TOS/TAS or even Movie era... but it feels slightly better for Discovery and SNW tone, dead heat even for TNG/DS9/Voy era.

I'm not a Trekkie to judge fit to different eras of the game but I've played in a few multi-year STA games, all set in the Next Generation or post-NG era. I prefer STA1 to STA2 overall.

I love Dune: Adventures in the Imperium. I playtested the starter set and the house management rules. I think it's far superior for Dune to LUG, tho' LUG's Dune was fun for a one shot or two.

I wanted to get a copy of LUG Dune but never managed to. Nor have I ever played FASA or LUG Trek. FASA seems to have all the nittanoid rules that an '80s vintage game has that tries to simulate everything. I think it's got cool source material but my feeling is that like most games of its era it doesn't actually emulate the feeling of the show well, something that STA does.

I strongly like Fallout, but it's missing the one key rule from STA, Dune, and others: making a temporary trait .

Interesting. I think I'd just add that back into the game even if it's not there. I only played Fallout a bit but I didn't like its level system, which to me doesn't feel like a good match to 2D20.

I've done a little solo for Captain's Log. Meh. Which is better than my normal for solo play. despite the sheet similarities to STA, it's very different resolutions since you don't buy extra dice...

I've never done solo play so I can't comment. If I want to play something solo I usually break out a video game.

I've read, but not run, Mutant Chronicles 3, Conan, John Carter, and Infinity; I've read the QS for S1999 and Dreams and Machines...

I ran a bit of Conan and did a one shot John Carter. I really wanted to like Conan but felt it had some good ideas but overall was way too crunchy for what it was trying to do. I also think, ironically, that Conan doesn't really make a great TTRPG. REH Conan's such a lone wolf that it rubs with the ensemble cast nature of TTRPGs. If they'd modeled it more on the movies, ironically, it might have been better, especially the first movie.

I've also run Achtung! Cthulhu 2D20; it does a great job of getting a pulp feel.

One of the biggest things I'll say about 2D20: It reads strangely but it plays really well once you get the hang of it. Critics who've only read the game don't really understand that.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I ran a bit of Conan and did a one shot John Carter. I really wanted to like Conan but felt it had some good ideas but overall was way too crunchy for what it was trying to do. I also think, ironically, that Conan doesn't really make a great TTRPG. REH Conan's such a lone wolf that it rubs with the ensemble cast nature of TTRPGs.

Yeah I think they really missed the boat with Conan. But I disagree that Conan couldn't be a great RPG. It would just take some more thinking outside the box, and all Modiphius did (IMO) was to map the aesthetics of Conan to mostly traditional RPG play.

For example, here are some characteristics of Conan stories:

• Every region has its own style of weaponry, and Conan is constantly learning new styles, and also losing/discarding/breaking weapons before acquiring something new. How do you turn that into an integral and fun part of play?
• Many of the stories follow a pattern where the story seems to be about mundane/human conflicts (Conan vs. the pirates, Conan vs. the mercenaries, Conan vs. the army) but then something supernatural intercedes and it all turns creepy and weird. Frequently the supernatural thing is a 3rd faction, not allied with the original antagonist. How do you support that trope via mechanics? (To be fair, I didn't keep following the Conan line beyond the original book, but I know they expanded the game so maybe they did a good job of this.)
• The original REH stories were separated by barely-mentioned interludes, but the general pattern was: "Conan squandered his profits from his last adventure, got into trouble, and now we find him months later in a new country...". Again, what a cool premise for some unique new game design (possibly related to my first point)

But, again IMO, it was just another RPG, with Conan-esque fluff layered onto the mechanics.

 

[CF07]

Yeah I think they really missed the boat with Conan. But I disagree that Conan couldn't be a great RPG. It would just take some more thinking outside the box, and all Modiphius did (IMO) was to map the aesthetics of Conan to mostly traditional RPG play.

Yup, that's it. They kept a mostly traditional TTRPG things intact without picking up the things that made Conan unique and different.

For example, here are some characteristics of Conan stories:

• Every region has its own style of weaponry, and Conan is constantly learning new styles, and also losing/discarding/breaking weapons before acquiring something new. How do you turn that into an integral and fun part of play?

I totally agree, and Conan seems to switch weapons based on whatever's convenient/available. He gets a sword, breaks a sword, steals one from a foe after a hand to hand struggle, etc. They had some nice ideas with gear, such as sacrificial gear to avoid some damage, which I rather like. It means you get to sacrifice your shield or sword to keep yourself alive. That's VERY pulp and feels totally cool.

• Many of the stories follow a pattern where the story seems to be about mundane/human conflicts (Conan vs. the pirates, Conan vs. the mercenaries, Conan vs. the army) but then something supernatural intercedes and it all turns creepy and weird. Frequently the supernatural thing is a 3rd faction, not allied with the original antagonist. How do you support that trope via mechanics? (To be fair, I didn't keep following the Conan line beyond the original book, but I know they expanded the game so maybe they did a good job of this.)

They did add a lot of good content but I don't think they dealt with this issue.

I had most of the books but I sold them to Noble Knight last year as I've been doing purges of my books to reduce my excess of items in my apartment. I think I still have the PDFs.

• The original REH stories were separated by barely-mentioned interludes, but the general pattern was: "Conan squandered his profits from his last adventure, got into trouble, and now we find him months later in a new country...". Again, what a cool premise for some unique new game design (possibly related to my first point)

Yes, it would have made for an amazing game that's more episodic, which is a relatively unique niche in the fantasy space that's mostly dominated by "zero to hero" type advancement structures. REH did write a few longer form stories, too, e.g., Red Nails and Hour of the Dragon, so a campaign would certainly work, but Conan himself doesn't seem to advance a ton over that time. He does to some degree, I suppose, but more in terms of wisdom and gravitas than in terms of killing power.

If Conan's crunch level had been more like STA, where character advancement is fairly limited, I think it would have played faster and felt more pulpy. But instead it had things like hit locations and piecemeal armor, which just bogged the game down.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Yup, that's it. They kept a mostly traditional TTRPG things intact without picking up the things that made Conan unique and different.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees this / feels this way. I think it's really easy to say that makes the Conan stories unique is that he's the uber-mesch who is better than everybody else at everything, so how do you make an RPG like that? I think the trick is to ask, "Ok, but what else makes the stories distinct?"

 

[Reynard]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees this / feels this way. I think it's really easy to say that makes the Conan stories unique is that he's the uber-mesch who is better than everybody else at everything, so how do you make an RPG like that? I think the trick is to ask, "Ok, but what else makes the stories distinct?"

I think from a prose-craft perspective, Howard is one of the best among his era of pulp writers. But Conan is clearly the person Howard wishes he was and is not a very useful character for trying to figure out what fantasy TTRPG heroes should actual play like -- not least because of the ensemble nature of the hobby. Conan rarely has peers (although he does occasionally; Belit comes to mind), and most of his adversity exists solely to showcase just how awesome he is in the end.

Conan was arguably the biggest single influence on OD&D, and even D&D has never been able to do Conan right.

 

[sevenbastard]

Let the hate go Bill!

Hey, I get it if you're excited for a particular adaptation, like a Conan RPG, and the latest iteration doesn't do it for you.

But hoo boy, anger, bitterness, hate . . . definitely leads to the fan dark side!

You say that like the Dark Side is a bad thing....

 

[Bill Zebub]

I think from a prose-craft perspective, Howard is one of the best among his era of pulp writers. But Conan is clearly the person Howard wishes he was and is not a very useful character for trying to figure out what fantasy TTRPG heroes should actual play like -- not least because of the ensemble nature of the hobby. Conan rarely has peers (although he does occasionally; Belit comes to mind), and most of his adversity exists solely to showcase just how awesome he is in the end.

Conan was arguably the biggest single influence on OD&D, and even D&D has never been able to do Conan right.

Yes, which is exactly why I'm suggesting that an RPG based on Conan, to make it feel like Conan, should focus not on him (or not exclusively) but on the structure and tropes of the stories.

(To more emphasize the titular character, though, it could have been a duet game, like Beowulf, intended for one player, one GM.)

 

[coyote6]

Ok ok ok....maybe it's time to give them another chance. I do like punching Nazis.

(Now....a Duke Nukem RPG...that I could get behind...)

The bad news is that once the Duke Nukem RPG is announced, it will be fourteen years before it's released.

 

[CF07]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees this / feels this way. I think it's really easy to say that makes the Conan stories unique is that he's the uber-mesch who is better than everybody else at everything, so how do you make an RPG like that? I think the trick is to ask, "Ok, but what else makes the stories distinct?"

Absolutely, though he certainly does have his serious flaws and there are stories where he can't just out-sword everyone else though. It's more of the start of the story, but the one where he swims to Belit's pirate ship, implying that whatever it was he was doing before really didn't work out, is a cool way to start. The Belit story is cringe in a lot of ways now (product of its time...), but when they get to the island and things go very, very awry is also very well done.

 

[CF07]

I think from a prose-craft perspective, Howard is one of the best among his era of pulp writers. But Conan is clearly the person Howard wishes he was and is not a very useful character for trying to figure out what fantasy TTRPG heroes should actual play like -- not least because of the ensemble nature of the hobby. Conan rarely has peers (although he does occasionally; Belit comes to mind), and most of his adversity exists solely to showcase just how awesome he is in the end.

You're right, Conan is usually a lone wolf hero, which is not a good basis for a TTRPG where it's unusual for most of a group of players to be willing to be the sidekicks of a main character.

REH did have some actual peers for Conan. Belit is a good example, though she's quite the mess in terms of being taken by greed and suspicion. Valeria from Red Nails is a very good example. She's got a mind and reputation of her own and doesn't just swoon for Conan... he has to work for her. (Sadly she gets badly used by REH in the two bondage scenes... like I said elsewhere, product of its time....) In Hour of the Dragon, the slave girl Zenobia doesn't get much time but she's certainly got serious pluck, so much so that Conan remembers her from the very beginning all the way to the end and she becomes his queen.

Conan was arguably the biggest single influence on OD&D, and even D&D has never been able to do Conan right.

It was stated as such, but I'm not sure it totally was because OD&D never emulated Conan in a meaningful way. You're totally right, they didn't get it right, ever. I think D&D was influenced by a lot of sources but never transcended its wargaming roots, not in the way that a lot of more modern games have.

I actually think Modiphius could have if they'd made the system less crunchy overall to keep the pace high and tried to make Conan a bit more like the first Schwarzenneger movie, where Conan, Subotai, Valeria, and Mako are a damned good adventuring party in a pulp context. None of them feel like pointless sidekicks and they all really need each other.

I think the dirty little secret of a lot of game companies, certainly of Modiphius at the time, is that many games aren't really written to be played but to be read and savored by people who have disposable income. STA certainly had this issue, although it's escaped into the wild of actually being played. The 1E main rulebook was rough to use in play due to its poor organization and white on black print, but it sure looked cool!