[d20 Past] The Great War as an RPG setting

[JPL]

I was thinking the other day about Marvel's Union Jack, a WWI-era masked adventurer who fought vampires and Germans [and the occasional German vampire]. My thoughts turned to Kim Newman's excellent novel "The Bloody Red Baron," a sequel to "Anno Dracula," in which WWI occurs on schedule despite Dracula conquering England decades before.

So anyway...someone more creatively gifted than me should really do a WWI era d20 game. It hasn't been done before. It's the end of the Victorian and the beginning of the Pulp Era [insofar as most of the great pulp heroes, from Indy to Doc to the Shadow, fought in the Great War]. You're within a few years of Lovecraft, too.

It wouldn't have to have vampires...but I like the idea that the last of Europe's nosferatu [their numbers decimated by all of those pesky vampire hunters running around in the 1890s] are using the death and chaos to make their final stand against humanity.

Hey, Vig --- you could call this "Blood and Trenches" or "Blood and Bayonets."

 

[Yuan-Ti]

Have you ever played Clive Barker' The Undying? At the beginning, we learn the main character first came into contact with mystic forces fighting in the trenches in WW1, when the enemy used a shaman against his unit. Of course, the rest of the game takes place after that, but the idea is a fun one to contemplate. The whole era is full of possibilities.

 

[JPL]

Hadn't heard about that. Interesting.

There's a netbook adapting Masque of the Red Death for WWI which looks interesting. I know there's Wraith: The Great War, too [although my eyes glaze over every time I try to understand Wraith].

"Young Indiana Jones" had some good WWI episodes, too. No vampires, though.

 

[Roudi]

The nice thing about the new Blood & Guts 2e is that it's fairly easy to adapt it to new historical eras. I know I'm going to try and use it to produce an 1812 setting. Pulling off The Great War would be even easier. However, you'd be at pains to make it interesting in simply an infantry context... trench warfare wasn't that exciting, was terribly brutal, and very hard on the mortailty. There are plenty of ways to make WWI gaming interesting... just try and avoid the trenches.

 

[The Shaman]

Check out stories by John Buchan and Talbot Mundy for WW I era adventure. Buchan's books are spy novels, with occasional action on the Western Front - that might be a good way to run the campaign, to avoid the monotony and lethality of life in the trenches.

I've thought about this as well, and if I were going to create a Great War campaign, I would set it in East Africa (Germans and British) or the Middle East (British and Arabs against the Germans and Turks - Lawrence of Arabia-stylie!).

 

[Yuan-Ti]

More on the Undying... I checked out Clive Barker's site. Actually has some good stuff, including a synopsis of the story here:

http://www.clivebarker.com/html/visions/bib/relat/misc/undying/synopsis.htm

The entire site has a little bit of artwork, trailers and even a map of the game locale!

Site: http://www.clivebarker.com/html/visions/bib/relat/misc/undying/undying2.htm

Map: http://www.clivebarker.com/images/undying/art/Covenant Estate Map.jpg

Now bear with me on this. If you do a WWI game, this might be a logical step to take. Maybe the players go on leave? Maybe the war ends and you want to do a followup adventure ("years later...")?

And if you need mood music... it's free! (scroll down to Undying)
http://billbrownmusic.com/musicG4.htm

'Twould be fun. But the guys I play with have a one-track hive mind that jibbers "D&D! D&D! D&D! Fhtaghn d20!"

 

[TerraDave]

The Great War is a natural break point for unleashing anything weird, chaotic, barbaric, or whatever into the world (or having those forces gain in strength). Just like in Real Life.

But this shouldn't be a last stand for your vampires. It should be a moment of triumph...ascendence

 

[Yuan-Ti]

The Great War is a natural break point for unleashing anything weird, chaotic, barbaric, or whatever into the world (or having those forces gain in strength). Just like in Real Life.

But this shouldn't be a last stand for your vampires. It should be a moment of triumph...ascendence

Maybe the Red Skull gets his "humble" beginnings. Or is that too pulpy?

 

[trancejeremy]

A good source for inspiration could be Shadow Hearts and Shadow Hearts: Covenant, rpgs for the PS2. Both are set in a slightly ananarchoristic 1915 or so. Sort of hard to describe, but very stylish.

 

[Henry]

My friends and I once played a D&D game set in The Great War (although it was more like WW1 and WW2 combined). Paradrops with feather falls off of dragon-back, cloudkill gas attacks, Nuclear Fireball artifacts, strike teams slaying legions of Vampires in German castles, fighting Hitler (who was decked out with Golden Armor and the Spear of Destiny)...

Ah, good times.