Weird War 2: Blood on the Rhine is a softcover, 192 page book, that sells for $25. It is a d20 game set in the final year or so of World War 2, after the allied invasion at Normandy. As the name suggests, this book is focused on the war in Western Europe, and mentions inside that later books will be released focusing elsewhere (and that air combat will be in a further supplement as well).
Physically, it's a fairly solid book, with a rather dark but glossy cover that seems to really attract fingerprints. The side margins are fairly large ( 1 1/2 inches), but the top & bottom margins are small (call it a centimeter). Still, most photographs & tables extend into the side margins, so it's not too bad. The text size is a bit big, but not bad.
Rather than just a straight RPG adapation of World War 2, this game is set in a somewhat fictionalized universe, and focuses on fighting the supernatural as well as the Axis. If you've read the comic, Weird War Tales from DC, then you have a good idea what this is about. Or perhaps F. Paul Wilson's The Keep. Or even the recent Castle Wolfenstein games. At any rate, given Hitler's obsession with the occult, it especially makes sense. (For a good, if odd, book on this, read "The Spear of Destiny" by ???, well, I can't remember)
It starts off with a brief short story to set the mood. The first chapter, about 10-11 pages, provides an overview of World War 2, from it's roots to 1944.
The second chapter, pages 24-47, is about characters. Several new classes are introduced that replace the default ones in the PHB - The Grunt (like the fighter), which is the basic solider, The Officer, The Medic, The Resistance Fighter (closest to the Rogue), and the Scout (pretty much the same as in Deadlands d20, a wilderness fighter type). The Grunt class has a number of specializations based on what branch the character is in - basically, it just guides the picking of initial feats and skills.
All in all, the classes seem fairly balanced. The Grunt is more or less the Fighter with more skill points (which is needed since there are more skills). The only really bad one is the Officer, which seems rather weak compared to the others. Sort of a stripped down Grunt. It's also mentioned that Medics by geneva convention must be unarmed, so that could pose problems in a game.
Besides just the game information, there is quite a bit of background info on the military and such, and an overview of the major people in both the Allied & Nazi governments. It includes several period photographs of people, including Nazi SS troops handling corpses at a death camp.
Chapter 3, on skills & feats is a bit thin, but that is probably a good thing. About 7 new skills are added, mostly involving modern combat. There are also about 20 new feats, many of which are proficiencies in either weapons, gear, or vehicles. Many are also from (and the same) Deadlands d20.
Chapter 4, equipment, is 25 pages, including several tables. This section describes various firearms, weapons, tanks, half-tracks, truck, and other vehicles from the US, UK, and Germany. Firearms do damage on par with weapons in Deadlands d20 - usually about 2d6 for pistols, 2d8 for rifles. The damage for the heavier weapons seems a bit low (like an M2 machinegun only doing 2d10), but as the game points out, 'damage' does not mean physical injury until hit points are reduced to zero.
Chapter 5, combat, also takes up about 25 pages, including several charts and tables. It adds several nuances and rules to make combat more realistic, including things like supressive fire, smoke, minefields, explosions, artillery. Probalby the biggest addition is vehicle combat.
A couple of new concepts are introduced for vehicle combat. Armor Rating and Penetration Value. It's basically a typical damage reduction system. Basically, vehicles have an armor class, an armor rating, and damage points. It's easy to hit a vehicle, but unless the damage exceeds the armor rating, it doesn't hurt the vehicle (weapons also get a penetration rating, which is subtracted from the armor).
For instance, say a tank has an armor rating of a 140, (like some of the better german ones). A rifle has a penetration value of -10, so a person can shot it all day and not hurt it. But a Bazooka has a penetration value of 100, and a damage of 5d8. So the person shooting it with one would have to beat 40 (AR of 140 - PV of 100) damage in order to hurt it. In most cases, it wouldn't, but on a critical hit, it would damage the tank. Or they'd shoot in a less armored position (Weird Wars does armor by location). So it works pretty well.
Chapter 6 is devoted to prestige classes. They include the commando & the sniper, plus several "OSI" classes. The OSI is a fictional Allied agency devoted to fighting the supernatural. The OSI classes are Adept, Chaplain, and Operative. While I've read some criticism of the first two classes, they seem apropriate to me.
Chapter 7 is on magic. This is where the book starts obviously becoming a fictional game, not historical. The first type of magic is pretty simply - Chaplains can cast miracles. They are more or less cleric spells. I'm not sure this really fits the game all that well, since the number of purported religious types who can perform miracles is very very small. Very small.
The other type, used by Adepts (and Nazi Blood Mages) is Rune Magic. It's essentially just wizard spells, but with a twist - spells are based around runes. In order to know a spell, the caster must know the rune or runes the spell is based on.
In either case, the class has a relevent skill, and the player must make a successful test to cast a spell. The caster then takes subdual damage, which represents the fatigue of casting a spell. So, spell casting isn't used all that much, and so is kept rare.
Chapter 8 is short, and is about Haunted Vehicles. This probably won't make sense to you unless you read the Weird War Tales comic book, it had an ongoing series about a tank haunted by the spirit of a civil war general. (I want to say Jeb Stuart, but I can't remember). Anyway, a helpful ghost can haunt the PCs vehicle (if they have one). It's powers are limited at first, but if the PCs give it a share of the experience points earned, it can get very powerful.
Chapter 9 is called "Officer's Country". Basically, it provides info on how WW2 ends, and then goes into the fictional aspects of the game. Details on the OSI, the nasty occult schemes Hitler is up to, tips on running the game, typical game stats for opponents, including some supernatural ones and some critters (including a 'Wehrwolf', pictured on the cover.)
The background is okay to me, but I think the fictional aspect isn't close enough to reality. The book has to point out which is true & which is fiction in the section on Hitler's occult interests & beliefs. But some of the supposedly non-fiction stuff about Hitler's occult connections aren't mentioned, and instead, there is a thing on 'Blood Magic'. Quite honestly, the supposedly true stuff is far creepier than just 'Blood Magic'.
Similarly, the OSI, is somewhat , well, stupid, in concept. It's apparently run by a fictional group called "The Sons of Solomon", who as a general rule, fight evil and the supernatural. There are a number of supposedly real organizations that might have made a better (or more interesting) fit.
Chapter 10 is a short adventure. It's very very short. Basically, the characters meet, search the woods, kill some nazis, then some monsters, then have a final showdown with an evil uber-nazi. It's meant for 3rd level characters (3rd level is recommended, 1st level characters have a short life span in the game). The final fight can be fairly tough, but it really depends on what sort of weapons the characters have left - if they are smart, they still have a few grenades left.
Lastly, there are a few pages of tables, repeated from various places inside the book, an index, and a character sheet. On the last page are ads for more Weird Wars stuff, including two really ugly minis. (One looks like Fish from Barney Miller's wife, with a beret and short skirt and Hillary Clinton's legs - if she were french - it's not a pretty sight, and the other is a pilot with a pistol and his arm in a sling. Pretty useless, as the pilot class isn't even in this book, and how many players have characters with their arm perpetually in a sling?)
Personally, I like this book a lot. There is just a ton of content, even with the big margins and small text size. I wish there were more, like pilots & airplanes and other theatres, but they do want to sell supplements. The new rules also actually work. Vehicle combat seems fairly realistic, and the various stengths & weaknesses of the different models of tanks seem to be depicted well and accurately.
On the plus side, a lot of this book is open content. All of several chapters is considered open (equipment, characters, combat), with the exception of product identity, which is mostly just the OSI and some monsters. Bravo for Pinnacle for doing so. Hopefully other companies will use the rules, as they are quite good.
Another thing worth noting is that Pinnacle does a good job of being fair towards World War 2. Most Allied countries receive credit. It's relatively fair towards Germany, pointing out that while the Nazis were evil (by just about any definition), many Germans were not. But it doesn't excuse them from guilt, either. Italy kind of gets made fun of at times, which might annoy some Italians. But even so, it's mostly directed at Mussolini.
So, to sum up, very impressive book. Mostly useful for those who want to run a Weird Wars game, but others will find it useful for stats for a fairly wide array of firearms, modern weapons rules, and other combat equipment.
