Byrons_Ghost
First Post
Sounds pretty cool. How much of the period does the book cover? Does it get into WW2 at all?
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Byrons_Ghost said:
Currently - our setting material runs from 1908 (the Tunguska event) through the Prohibition era (which -roughly - will end in the late 30s).
We do focus a lot of attention on WWI and how magic plays a role in that conflict.
I was tempted to cover WW2 - but there were a few things that gave me pause.
One of the main reasons was: in this alternate history the Great War ends _very_ differently. By the time the late 30s roll around - magic has been free in the world for almost three decades. It's changed the flow of events dramatically (Just one example:The October Revolution fails (thanks to the sorcerous abilities of Rasputin) and the Czar stays in control of Russia.).
There are a few other very significant changes from "our" timeline with the end result that the WW2 I'd be presenting wouldn't be very familiar to the audience.
If sales go well, it might be something we look at for a future supplement though.
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Nuclear Platypus
First Post
So is there a more definite release date yet?
I don't know if your WW2 expansion is a work in progress, but if you're not too deep in it, check out the work of Harry Turtledove. He's a historian who writes awesome alt-history stuff.
Among his works I think you'd find inspirational are a fantasy world version of WW2 (his Darkness series).
Bad proofreading is a pet peeve of mine- especially since I do so much proofing myself. I hope you're using human eyes as well as spell/grammar checkers. There are certain things eyes catch that programs just don't...and vice versa.
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(Oh yeah- eat your carrots
)Dannyalcatraz said:
A World War 2 supplement is well in the future - if it happens at all.
So far - I've got a couple supplements sketched out. The first one (that's received the publisher's green light) deals with the Prohibition Era in America, with special attention paid to Chicago (since it was, arguably, the most important battlefield in the war against bootlegging).
World War 2, in this setting, isn't going to have Communist Russia -it's going to have Czarist Russia with the wizard Rasputin as the power behind the Romanov throne. Also it's fairly likely the Nazi party wouldn't rise to power in Germany (although they might be a faction).
Frankly, I'm just not sure that there would be an audience for a game about World War 2 that didn't, in fact, look much like the it.
(Also -Pinnacle did a hell of a job with Weird Wars. Seems to me like they've got the whole supernatural take on WW2 covered - in spades. )
If sales are good, and if there is interest in it - I'd look into doing a World War 2. In fairness, I'd probably need to call the conflict something other than "World War 2"
Ah well, enough talk about what we might do in the future. Although we're not dealing with WW2, we do shine the spotlight onto World War 1 in Wizards and Wiseguys. I think this is fertile ground for gaming that hasn't been explored too much yet. I'm very excited about what we're doing with the Great War.
Just to give you a sample of what I'm talking about -here's quick excerpt from that section
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War Begins
In 1912, a meteor swarm in Vienna vaporized Austrian Archduke Ferdinand, his entire entourage and most of a city block. Suspicion falls upon a Serbian anarchist captured fleeing the city with a trunk full of Faerie scrolls. The Great War erupts. For the first time, the European continent witnesses the military applications of magic.
The Allies hold the upper hand in Abjuration, Necromancy, Illusion and Transmutation. However the Central Powers are more advanced in the study of Evocation, Divination and Transmutation. Their dominance in Evocation particularly is a strong advantage and the early years of the war go badly for the Allies. Backed up by German and Austrian combat mages, the Central Powers’ infantry push into Belgium and the Alsace-Lorraine region – attacking France from two fronts. Russia is forced to leave the war to deal with the Bolshevik Revolution.
The Germans are pioneers at combining aviation and sorcery. They expand their biplanes to accommodate a second seat for a combat wizard, and soon this single, simple innovation has decimated the ranks of the Allied air forces. With their air defenses weakened, zeppelin bombings become a deadly threat to both Allied military and civilian targets. French and British cities both live in fear of nightly zeppelin attacks.
Battlefield Innovations
With their squadrons of planes reduced to a mere handful, the French Air Force (the Armée de l’Air) procures several prides of griffins from a Faerie trader at a portal near Marseilles. While French wizards have never been able to apply shielding spells to aircraft, they have no difficulty applying them to living creatures and this provides some measure of protection from the Central Powers' combat magic and bullets.
The Fey trader (in actuality, a sympathetic elf) provides some training in the art of griffin riding and mounted aerial combat as part of the bargain. Soon the Calvary of the Sky (the Calvaire de Ciel) is defending French skies. Spellcasters are cross-trained as griffin riders and the combination of raw firepower and maneuverability makes them a force to be reckoned with.
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here's an image (once again, by Rick Hershey of Empty Room Studios) showing a squadron of Allied griffin riders downing one of the Kaiser's zeppelins
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