Anyone out there running or playing in a d20 WWII game?

[ragboy]

If so, what are your experiences? I'm developing a short campaign based off of the V for Victory mini-game that came out in Dungeon a few months back and blending that with some Spycraft fun, and some Weird War (stats and rules mostly, no monsters/FX). It's set in Occupied France 1944 and loosely historically-based (no FX, but some future/sci-fi tech involved).

I'm just looking for anyone that's had experience with a WWII setting under d20. Likes and dislikes. War stories. The usual.

 

[Siegfried Niemand]

My players have loved the two Wierd War II games I've run for them. I used them as breaks in our regular D&D campaigns; one shots, really. I whipped up about 6 premade characters and let my players pick from them.

The Johnny Squad, as they are called (since each and every one of the characters in the party is named Jon, John, Jan, or the like -- everyone not named so has died within a few days of joining the group, and are considered by the characters to be bad luck...), have gone through the published adventures Hell in the Hedgerows and Dogs of War.

We have not yet used the vehicle rules, but rifles, flamethrowers, machine guns, and calling in artilery strikes have all worked out well. Another thing my players say they like is the sense of realism, since I could say, "Remember in Saving Private Ryan how this scene was..." or "It looks like the camp in Great Escape," and they immediately know what I'm talking about.

Plus they get to toast Nazis with flamethrowers on the 4th of July. What could be better than that? Especially when their crate of U.S. Army issue hot dogs turned out to be combat boots and underwear...

Good luck with your game, and let us know how it turns out.

 

[barsoomcore]

You must read We Were Like Gods Once -- ledded's masterful World War II Story Hour.

I'm running a WWII game later this month -- "The Bridge at San Leonardo" -- Canadian force sent in to capture a bridge as part of the assault on Ortona, Italy. I found a pretty sweet recon photo to base the whole thing on (it's not here, but THIS is a great resource) and a pretty straightforward setup. Watched The Guns of Navarone (again) and Band of Brothers (for the thousandth time) to warm up.

Should be fun.

Post any resources you find online.

 

[ragboy]

You must read We Were Like Gods Once -- ledded's masterful World War II Story Hour.

Yea. I'm reading it. (I'm also reading yours, by the way. I'm a big Burroughs fan...)

I'm running a WWII game later this month -- "The Bridge at San Leonardo" -- Canadian force sent in to capture a bridge as part of the assault on Ortona, Italy. I found a pretty sweet recon photo to base the whole thing on (it's not here, but

Great resource! I have a ton of WWII sites and resources I'll post tonight when I'm at home.

Watched The Guns of Navarone (again) and Band of Brothers (for the thousandth time) to warm up.
.

Band of Brothers is a great movie resource. Lots of different characters and crazy situations. Kelley's Heroes is a good one (especially with the typical 'adventurer' mindset that tends to develop in any RPG). Anyway, more tonight.

 

[ragboy]

My players have loved the two Wierd War II games I've run for them. I used them as breaks in our regular D&D campaigns; one shots, really. I whipped up about 6 premade characters and let my players pick from them.

That's probably what I'll have to do, as well. My players are pretty resistant to change/learning new systems....

The Johnny Squad, as they are called (since each and every one of the characters in the party is named Jon, John, Jan, or the like -- everyone not named so has died within a few days of joining the group, and are considered by the characters to be bad luck...), have gone through the published adventures Hell in the Hedgerows and Dogs of War.

Cool. I'm probably not going to go the Weird War route, though I'll use their mechanics. I'm really wondering how their vehicle system works (I'm an ex-tanker, so there has to be some tank-on-tank action... )

Good luck with your game, and let us know how it turns out.

Thanks! It may be a while. I'll probably post the campaign/adventure up on my website, when I get that done...

RgB

 

[malladin]

I developed some stuff for, but never got chance to run, a horror/low-powered supers WWII game (like godlike, but less powerful and much darker). Lots of Nazi occultists and demons to fight. The twist was that the character's powers were of demonic origin, too.

I used Hell on Earth for the WWII stuff and 4CtF for the super powers (I basically buiold the demons using the super hero class from 4CtF but gave them 'Outsider' level saves, Base At and hit dice.

Cheerio,

Ben

 

[Maerdwyn]

I played a Godlike one-shot, and I'd really like to play some more. Had a blast. Unfortunately, no takers around here so far.

 

[ledded]

You must read We Were Like Gods Once -- ledded's masterful World War II Story Hour.

Aw shucks man... . I don't know about 'masterful', but it does have lots of BANG and POW and KABOOM. But thanks for the props anyway.

We do these 'one-offs' that we'll do a few games of to cover for when someone is out of town for a while or we want to take a break from our main campaign. I had been wanting to do a straight WWII campaign but was having trouble getting buy-in. We also wanted to do a Supers campaign using Chuck Rice's wonderful Blood and Vigilance. Somebody said 'Hey, why not do both, Capt America and Bucky vs the Red Skull'. So that's what we did. I tried to make it feel a bit like Godlike (a product I'll admit I've never played or even read that much of, but their pictures and story fluff are really nice and attractive).

So I took a bunch of stuff from V for Victory, threw in some Hell on Earth from Bloodstone Press, made up a bunch of stuff including compiling my own weapons list with some help from the Wizards and Enworld resident gun experts, taped Blood and Vigilance over the top of it, and busted out my tanks and miniatures. It was quite a bit of fun, but was one of the most research intensive games I've ever done, considering we only played about 5 or 6 nights worth of it (and had a blast the whole time). Most of the reason I did it this way was that we liked the d20 Modern system, and by using that as a base and products/home brew that built off of it folks wouldn't have to learn a new system, so I was able to sell the idea of playing it a lot easier.

The PC's started out as 'normals', had certain abilities 'awakened' within them and were yanked from their own units to a special OSS division, called the ESS (Enhanced Soldier Subjects), refered to as 'the Esses'. They got sent on a few missions, mostly got the crap kicked out of them while barely saving the day and whatnot. We used a good bit of vehicle stuff, mostly fairly simple Spycraft-like rules using the Charles Rice aircraft rules reprinted in Hell on Earth. Lots of tanks, half-tracks, mortar barrages, strafing by BF-109's, that kind of stuff.

My whole thing was that I wanted to give a sense of realism even though we were playing with 'superheros'; we ended up getting a very nice feel, the players still turn pale and start shaking when I say 'Tiger Tank' or 'Nebelwerfer'. There were as few battles where they literally crawled away just inches from a TPK

My story hour and the links to the miniatures page give a good idea of what we did and how our table was set up.

I'm running a WWII game later this month -- "The Bridge at San Leonardo" -- Canadian force sent in to capture a bridge as part of the assault on Ortona, Italy. I found a pretty sweet recon photo to base the whole thing on (it's not here, but THIS is a great resource) and a pretty straightforward setup. Watched The Guns of Navarone (again) and Band of Brothers (for the thousandth time) to warm up.

Should be fun.

Post any resources you find online.

Sounds like a great game man, I'd love to be a part of it.

I'll post up some of my voluminous resources when I have the chance... I've picked up a lot of photos, stats, maps, recon photography, all kinds of neat stuff I've used as handouts and props and references. I even made a CD of sound effects and WWII-era music and video file footage (American, English, French, and German) to play during the game on Fludogg's PC. Nothing like being at the Battle of Arnhem, the Germans firing at the PC's from 3 sides, and having the background sound-effect track from the Saving Private Ryan Omaha Beach landings mixed with a recording of an actual MG42 firing playing on about 7, and giving the PC's only 6 seconds to give me their action when their turn comes up. Very intense, for the most part. Also funny to play the 'Lili Marlene' track in German when the scout makes his listen check to catch the german column moving into a town ahead of them. Being able to actually hand the players a printout of an aerial recon photograph from WWII of an area they are about to have to enter when they ask for it is a big plus.

Band of Brothers, A Bridge Too Far, Saving Private Ryan, The Bridge at Remagen, tons of movies I've loved and used also. I would have mentioned The Big Red One, which I like, but there is always that scene when the Germans overrun them in Africa and the Nazis are driving grey-painted *Sherman* tanks that I've never been able to get over... :\

Band of Brothers IMO is by far one of the best movie references. I have now gotten everyone in our group who hadnt seen them already to borrow my DVD's and watch them, and even the 'I hate war movies' guy loved it and several members of the group are now asking for a straight, no-FX WWII short campaign.


All in all, it's not always easy because of the potential lethality of encounters, but if you play it right it can be quite a bit of fun for everyone. I'm very much looking forward to doing a no-fx, straight WWII campaign one day.