d20 WWII?

[Atridis]

Is there anything out there for a d20 World War Two game? I'm looking for any gaming material suitable for an espionage/special ops game set in Occupied Europe (France, mainly).

I've located tons of historical reference material, but now I'm looking for stuff that can help with game mechanics. I'll probably use d20 Modern as the basic rules-set, but it provides very little that is specific to either an espionage/military game or for a World War Two game. For instance, how does one adjudicate parachuting from 300 feet at night? I glanced at Spycraft, but it seems geared toward the modern era. I'm not sure the classes and backgrounds would apply in 1942 (I could be wrong - I don't own the book, I've only read the reviews of it).

 

[Dana_Jorgensen]

Is there anything out there for a d20 World War Two game? I'm looking for any gaming material suitable for an espionage/special ops game set in Occupied Europe (France, mainly).

I've located tons of historical reference material, but now I'm looking for stuff that can help with game mechanics. I'll probably use d20 Modern as the basic rules-set, but it provides very little that is specific to either an espionage/military game or for a World War Two game. For instance, how does one adjudicate parachuting from 300 feet at night? I glanced at Spycraft, but it seems geared toward the modern era. I'm not sure the classes and backgrounds would apply in 1942 (I could be wrong - I don't own the book, I've only read the reviews of it).

Depends on how accurately you wish to portray the era.

Pinnacle makes the Wierd War II series, which does to WW2 what they did to the Wild West. They're also straight D20. Bloodstone Press does a D20Modern based PDF entitled Hell on Earth, which is a decent source for classes and whatnot, however, their weapons section breaks the D20M firearms rules. I'd also suggest my own Big Bang: The Mostly Illustrated RPG Guide to Modern Weapons Volume 6, due in mid-february, as it focuses on WW2 weapons, stays true to the D20 modern system, and provides more than a brief paragraph on each weapon.

 

[trancejeremy]

As mentioned, Pinnacle has a whole line of WW2 d20 stuff, Weird War 2. It's for regular d20.

While it is geared toward horror, it does have a solid rules system (IMHO) and has stats for most war equipment - planes, tanks, guns, etc (though it's spread out over several books)

 

[trancejeremy]

Personally, I don't like the d20 Modern's gun system, so I think what Pinnacle did was a good thing - having different caliber's actually matter, penetration, etc. (Though I like Spycraft's implementation, too, though it gets a bit cute with the type of dice used sometimes)

 

[GPEKO]

Polyhedron no.156 (with Dungeon 97) had a pretty good mini game called "V for Victory", for WWII D20 roleplaying. It was design by Chris Pramas (from Green Ronin) and it's about 45 page long. Since it was designed at the same time as D20 modern, it not exactly the same, rule-wise. For example, it has rules for long sweeping bursts of machine guns (or like they say: "hosing an area with a lot of lead").

 

[Atridis]

Personally, I don't like the d20 Modern's gun system, so I think what Pinnacle did was a good thing - having different caliber's actually matter, penetration, etc. (Though I like Spycraft's implementation, too, though it gets a bit cute with the type of dice used sometimes)

I know what you mean about d20M's firearms rules - the weapons tend to blur together, which takes some of the fun out of it. I'll take a closer look at Pinnacle's rules - I had pretty much disregarded them bc of their horror-fantasy bent (although, on a related note, I've always thought that WWII would be a great backdrop for a World of Darkness game).

Polyhedron no.156 (with Dungeon 97) had a pretty good mini game called "V for Victory", for WWII D20 roleplaying.

Cool. Being a mag, it'll only be a few bucks - which makes it right up my alley (one drawback to the Pinnacle books is that there are a few of them - I don't want to spend $100 just to have rules on parachuting and stats for German half-tracks...).

 

[GPEKO]

Cool. Being a mag, it'll only be a few bucks - which makes it right up my alley (one drawback to the Pinnacle books is that there are a few of them - I don't want to spend $100 just to have rules on parachuting and stats for German half-tracks...).

I must warn you however that "V for victory" has no stats or rules for vehicules. It's mention at the end of the article that such rules are coming in future magazines but this has not yet seen the light of day. I guess you can use your imagination and your own knowledge to fill the gaps here.

As for rules for parachuting, if I remember correctly, it's handled by a balance check with a big penalty if you don't have jump training (which is a feat, I think).

 

[Pierce]

As our normal GM won't be available for our weekly game next week, another player is going to GM a one-shot WWII/Supers game. I know we're going to use the Blood and Vigilance for the Supers side of things. I'm not sure, but I believe we're going with Blood and Guts for the WWII flavor. Looking forward to it, tho.

 

[Golem2176]

I've located tons of historical reference material, but now I'm looking for stuff that can help with game mechanics. I'll probably use d20 Modern as the basic rules-set, but it provides very little that is specific to either an espionage/military game or for a World War Two game.

If your campaign is going to be espionage/military intensive I reccomend Spycraft from AEG. For Spycraft supplemental material check out the Modern Arms Guide and the various classbooks.

 

[Bagpuss]

For additional background information GURPS have a number of excellent WWII sourcebooks available. Although a lot can be gained from history books.