Okay...some of your thoughts on Weird War II

[Cyragnome]

Okay, I posted this in one of those "other" forums *cough*Nutkinland Thread Ahead *cough*, but wanted to open it to a wider audience.

First off, I like this book (and Dead from Above). It's got the creative juices flowing...

Below is a portion of that thread...

I guess I'd just do a bit of brain dump on some the stuff I was thinking (and a bit of what was discussed in a chat session) to kick this puppy off.

First Eastern Front stuff would be very neat. Imagine characters as Russian Troops, throw in some Commissars (NPC or PC) for inter party conflict. Add a bit of occult and Nazi SS troops. Mix well with Stalingrad style house to house, factory to factory fighting (or Leningrad...just where did they get enough food to feed those that survived? Hmm...). Bake at 450 degrees for an hour and you've got a good set up.

I'm really looking forward to doing some Pacific Theater stuff, though. Take Papua New Guinea or Guadalcanal, mix with Marines, toss with Japanese officers with Eastern Magics (hmm...Oriental Adventures?), stir in some cannibalistic natives with shamanistic magic and boil until thickened.

I'm also debating possibly doing something with GURPS based on this background. The GURPS WW2 book is one of the best I've purchased in years. It's a great start. Add GURPS Spirits, Undead and Monsters and it's all set up and ready to go.

Well, here's a start. Any other ideas, concepts, thoughts?

 

[ProfAnime]

Well one thing I am thinking of adding in as an extra to the Axis is maybe some Cthulhu-esque type stuff, especially once CoC d20 comes out.

I am thinking of maybe having some Deep One attacks on parts of the D-Day fleet...maybe the characters stumble across some Lovecraftian ghouls while going through a bombed out French town.

I also have been looking through the Gear Krieg RPG from DP9 for ideas of how to add some superscience elements to Weird Wars II. Just think about Tesla cannons against a pack of Wherwolves. Overall pulpy horror goodness

 

[Katowice]

Afrika Korpse: The North Africa Campaign, Hell Freezes Over: The Eastern Front, and Land of the Rising Dead: The Pacific Theater are all coming out this year. Thought you might like to know.

 

[The Antra]

I did the artwork for Hell in the Hedgerows and found it great. By the time I got my copies, this book helped me a lot on getting players "into" the game (I mean from regular soldiers to aware of the supernatural).

I am also working on Afrika Korpse and the small ammount of material that I have seen, I can tell you this:

AMAZING!

Glad I'm gonna get a copy of that one, but I'd buy it anyway... It's really a great sourcebook.

 

[Disciple of Darwin]

I haven't bought Weird Wars yet, but it sounds very interesting. I really started thinking about it over the last few days as I've been reading Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose. The HBO miniseries was based on this book.

Man, I don't think you could find a better WWII book that could be more easily made into a campaign than this (although I'm no WWII buff so I could be totally off base). Transforming this book would take a bit of initiative on the DM's part, but its the real story told by the guys in Easy squadron. Good descriptions of the battles and all that. You might take a look, if for nothing else, flavor for your game.

 

[Katowice]

I haven't bought Weird Wars yet, but it sounds very interesting. I really started thinking about it over the last few days as I've been reading Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose. The HBO miniseries was based on this book.

Man, I don't think you could find a better WWII book that could be more easily made into a campaign than this (although I'm no WWII buff so I could be totally off base). Transforming this book would take a bit of initiative on the DM's part, but its the real story told by the guys in Easy squadron. Good descriptions of the battles and all that. You might take a look, if for nothing else, flavor for your game.

I bought both Band of Brothers and Weird War II. The RPG has enough "real" information provided so that you don't have to run a supernatural campaign. Plus, the Blood on the Rhine book starts with D-Day and even includes some basic skill and feat guidelines for creating airborne troops. I would highly recommend it. I am running a Rangers campaign, but I'm starting it with the invasion of Italy.

 

[trancejeremy]

Has anyone else had trouble buying the WW2 books? My local store doesn't them. I tried ordering on-line from a reputable store, but they could never get it in either. I finally won it on Ebay, which with my luck, won't arrive for another month or two.

 

[Ace]

Weird Wars doesn't interest me very much truth be know.

First I think that type of game would be better with GURPS rather than D20.

Second the classes are so-so, they work fine but they are too DND, most soldiers in WW2 would be multi classed commoner/soldier types not pure military.

Third: I am just not into World war 2 games that much as a one shot sure but a steady diet isn't for me. YMMV

 

[Cyragnome]

trance, I had a similar problem, but finally drove a bit out to pick them up. The nearest FLGS didn't have it and I just can't bring myself to ask them to order it...these guys are just creepy. But another FLGS had it in stock and it was an impulse buy there.

Ace, I found the GURPS WW2 book as an invaluable resource in helping plan out a number of things in the campaign I'm preparing. (Actually, I'm using GURPS with the Weird War stuff as campaign background...so to a point I do agree with your GURPS assessment, but I've always had this thing that I don't like GURPS magic...it's just me)

DiscOfDarwin, that's the great thing about the recent years fascination with WW2, there's so much stuff out there in the form of history books (Ambrose's latest concerns bomber pilots, which meshes well with Dead from Above, whether he plagarized sections or not, that doesn't concern me in this particular realm of thought...yes plagarism is bad, but I'm thinking background material at the moment).

1eDM, I'm definately of the take that "Things-Man-Was-Not-Meant-to-Know" will play a part. It's a perfect breeding ground, and...well, there are the Horror and Fear rules from Ravenloft to add a new twinge to the equation.

Thanks guys, any other thoughts?

 

[Katowice]

Ace, I found the GURPS WW2 book as an invaluable resource in helping plan out a number of things in the campaign I'm preparing.

How comprehensive is the GURPS WW2 book? One of the problems I noticed with WWII: Blood on the Rhine is that you're pretty much stuck with the "Fortress Europe" campaign. I'm starting my group of Rangers at the invasion of Italy and had to read a lot of other books to get all the information (thank you Time-Life!).