Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2009451" data-attributes="member: 18387">The basic concept of this book is set during the 2nd World War, with the allies beginning to invade France during D-Day - the only difference from real history is that the German forces have started using all sorts of occult practices to help them win, and the allies are trying to stop this in a sort of hidden war that the history books never spoke about.Weird War II, Blood on the Rhine, is a nearly 200 page softback book, black and white throughout.  The first chapter basically introduces the history of WWII, and tells you why you are fighting.  It is fairly comprehensive, given the short space provided, and I would expect most role-players to know the gist of it anyway.  The character classes allowed are Grunt, Officer, Medic, Pilot, Resistance Fighter and Scout.  Hands up everyone who wants to be either a grunt or pilot!  They seem fairly balanced with each other though, I have to confess, with our gaming group leaning towards certain types of character in this game, not all got chosen!  The book goes into some detail on what sort of nationalities people can be, and then looks at how both allied and axis military powers are organised, including such things as the Gestapo.  Unless you are seriously clued up on WWII, I expect there is something new here for everyone.  Lots of disclaimers seem to abound whenever the Holocaust and death camps are mentioned - probably a wise thing to do, though they may have gotten away with a large disclaimer in the front of the book, instead of strewn throughout.I imagine a lot of people, like me, will turn straight to the equipment chapter!  Everything from the Enfield and M1 to tank guns and artillery are covered.  Tip - if you are hoping to be a sniper, try grabbing a Gewehr 43. . .  Just don’t tell your CO.  The Combat chapter actually looks like the Judge Dredd game in a few places, such as with using pistols in melee combat and stray shots (different rules there though).  Which came out first?  Grenades and smoke weapons seem to be more realistic but then, they should be in this sort of military game!  Rules on vehicles spend a lot of time on damage, and there are many ways to blow up a tank - however, the game recommends that players tend to be kept away from vehicles until the climax of scenarios, and there are no rules for aircraft.  A shame for pilot characters, though I have just picked up the Dead From Above supplement which adds just this - I’ll review it when I have taken it for a ‘spin’!An entire chapter is given over to prestige classes - Commando, Sniper, Adept (combat the supernatural), Chaplain (can cast spells!), and OSI Operative, who is one of the front line people dealing with the German’s occult forces.  This leads us very neatly into the Magic chapter, which is based around Chaplains doing miracles (much like clerics, with the same sort of spell list) and Germans casting Runes.  Haunted vehicles can actually help the allies (players), as an aircraft can bring its dead pilot back to base or a tank can fire screaming shells - it becomes a kind of supernatural friend for the players.  They are quite possibly going to need it, for the Games Master’s chapter includes all the German plans for the war, just what they are up to on the occult side of things (including rules for the likes of Blood Mages), and all sorts of occult-based creatures such as gremlins and Wehrwolves.The book winds up with a short rescue-type scenario.Blood on the Rhine is a good game overall - the new d20 rules work well and the occult added to the history of the war seems logical and is in tune with many of the ‘conspiracy theories’ surrounding just what Hitler was up to in WWII.  The trouble is, when I started playing, I did not want to face ghosts and zombies and occultists.  With all the information in this book, I wanted to start playing Saving Private Ryan, leaving all the fantasy stuff behind.  I cannot really fault what Pinnacle have added, and I am wondering if I have actually missed the point somewhere along the line!  It just did not ‘grab’ me in the way I thought it should.In summary, however, I enjoyed this game.  I probably won’t be doing any long term campaigns with it, but playing through a disastrous D-Day landing one Saturday afternoon cannot be a waste of time for anyone. . .</blockquote>

Verification