RE: [WW] New Update

["Hal Mangold" <righteousfist@greenronin.com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-weirdwars@gamerz.net [mailto:owner-weirdwars@gamerz.net]On
Behalf Of PEGHopler@aol.com
Sent: Monday, June 04, 2001 3:13 AM
To: weirdwars@gamerz.net
Subject: [WW] New Update


Hi All,

I just finished wrapping up the equipment chapter for Weird Wars and thought
I'd take a break from writing by, uh, doing some more writing.

As I told the playtesters I e-mailed the chapter to, the next historical
roleplaying game Pinnacle does had better be Creepy Caves: The Game of
Prehistoric Horror. The equipment list would be:

Club
Rock
Pointed Stick

Really advanced groups might have Flaming Sticks.

Anyway, let me address some of the topics that have come up on the list:

Women

Of course we want both men and women to enjoy the game, but since it is set
in a historical setting, the role of women is somewhat limited (at least at
first). Unlike Deadlands where we used the extended length of the Civil War
as a reason for women taking on traditionally male jobs, this hasn't
happened
in WW (unless you want to play Rosie the Riveter). Also, unlike earlier,
periods, it's next to impossible for a woman to pose as a man (those pesky
entrance physicals).

This means that if the GM is running a historical campaign, female
characters
are limited to being resistance fighters or nurses at the start. Of course,
since women did serve in Europe in units like the WACs and the Wrens, and as
ferry pilots, there's no reason you couldn't concoct a back story that would
allow for female combat characters. For instance, a female pilot could be a
ferry pilot that was blown off course by a storm, ran out of fuel over
France, and had to ditch. The male soldiers are "stuck" with her until they
can get her back to the rear. Of course, once the weirdness starts, all bets
are off.

The OSI classes are open to both sexes. The specialized skills needed by the
OSI are so vital to the war effort, there is no discrimination based on sex.

The situation is also different on other fronts. The Russians for example,
had both female infantry and fighter pilots.

Rank

Just a little clarification on what Lee posted.

At the end of each mission characters that have advanced a level may check
for promotion. Basically you roll 1d20, add your character level, and any
modifiers due to medals your character has earned. There are two different
tables for enlisted men and officers. Advancing on the officer table is much
more difficult. It's not possible to reach the top of the officer table
(which is capped at Colonel) without a chest full of medals.

Checking for promotion at the end of each mission is a bit faster than
historical promotions, but it was done for two reasons. First, the
characters
will generally be involved in high-risk, high-profile missions that get the
attention of the brass. Second, and more importantly in my opinion, is its
fun. The d20 system (and computer games like Diablo), have two basic ideas
that make them fun. The first is "Kill things and take their stuff." The
second is "Level up and become more powerful." The rank system falls in this
second category.

Someone asked about adding your level to the roll. This is basically done to
represent both time in service and growing proficiency. It also means that
you will eventually get promoted even if you don't have a chest full of
medals. The DC for the promotion roll goes up by 5 points each rank level,
so
just leveling up is no guarantee that you will get promoted.

Medals

If your character does anything heroic during an adventure, he can earn a
medal (like Zeke feeding his hand holding a live grenade to the demon during
our playtest). For this to happen, the ranking officer has to put in a
recommendation for a medal or your superiors have to hear about it in some
other way. Then you roll on the medal table and add any modifiers like being
severely wounded in the act (knocked below 0 hit points). If you roll high
enough, you get a medal and an XP bonus. Higher medals have more XP
attached.
In our playtest, Zeke's act in which he was severely wounded and saved the
unit from a pretty nasty death netted him a Distinguished Service Cross
(just
below the CMOH).

Deadlands

WW is a completely separate setting from Deadlands. The books that are being
dual-statted are for use with the Deadlands d20 book.

Other Nationalities

Unlike Hollywood, we know that the US didn't fight Germany alone. It's
possible to play a British, Canadian, French, Polish, Dutch, Belgian,
Danish,
or Norwegian character (did I forget anyone? Luxembourgers?). We've included
British and Canadian equipment, ranks, and medals. Most of the soldiers from
occupied countries were equipped with either British or US equipment. The
Free French 7th Armored for example, used American tanks, while the Polish
6th Airborne used British equipment.

Other Theater/Eras

WW will be supported. At the moment I am aware of plans to do books covering
the Pacific, North Africa/Mediterranean, and Russia. The first book only
covers Western Europe.

The default start for a new campaign is June, 1944, but it's possible to
begin earlier. We chose D-Day as the starting point because there wasn't any
major ground troop activity in Western Europe prior to this without going
all
the way back to 1940 (Italy and North Africa are outside the scope of this
book). The book contains a history of the war, so it is possible to go back
and start earlier. For instance, if you're running a British campaign, you
could run a group of Commandos from 1940 on and play out some of the raids
into Norway and France.

The history section also includes some What If? ideas for GMs. Like, what if
Germany had won the Battle of Britain and Operation Sealion had succeeded?
You could run a campaign set in occupied England. There's also no reason the
war has to end in May of 45. With all the occult goings on, the war could be
extended beyond the real end date and Hitler could hole up in the
Alpenfestung. Once the war does end, there will be plenty of Nazi
experiments
to "clean up," the OSI will probably pitch in with this as part of the
Marshall plan--and there's always those belligerent Communists to keep an
eye
on.

Haunted Tanks and other vehicles

There is also a section on playing a group with a haunted vehicle(s). The
players could be a tank crew and attached infantry with a haunted tank, for
instance, or a bomber crew with a ghostly co-pilot. The vehicle has special
powers and actually goes up in level along with the group, gaining new
powers
and becoming harder to kill than an average vehicle. The downside is that
all
the characters that "buy in" to the haunted vehicle (some of the powers
extend to the PCs), take an XP hit for having such a powerful ally.

German Characters

Okay, before I address this next topic, I want to make a few statements so
I'm not bombarded with hate mail or have the Mossad show up at my door
because somebody misunderstood what I said:

The Holocaust did happen. The mass slaughter of the Jews, gays, gypsies, and
numerous Eastern Europeans by the Nazis was a crime against humanity and
evil
to the core. There is no excuse for these or other atrocities carried out at
the orders of Hitler and other members of the Nazi party. Roleplaying a Nazi
or Nazi sympathizer is not suitable for a roleplaying game and is not
condoned or advised by either myself or Pinnacle. May they all rot in Hell.

Okay, I hope that was clear enough.

The Nazis are firmly placed in the bad guy role (a role which they heartily
deserve), but I do point out in the book that not all Germans were Nazis and
therefore evil. The average German soldier was at worst doing his patriotic
duty for his country or simply trying to survive in a world gone mad.

Rommel was a prime example of this. He never joined the Nazi party and
became
very disillusioned with Hitler while serving in North Africa. Although he
was
not directly involved in the failed bombing attempt, Hitler had Rommel
killed
because the conspirators had chosen him to take control of the government if
they succeeded.

There are no provisions in the book for playing German characters, but since
the classes (except for the OSI) would be nearly identical, and all the
German equipment is in the book, there is no reason a GM who wanted to run a
group of disillusioned Germans working against the Nazis could not do so.

That's all for now,

John Hopler


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