[WW] New Update

[PEGHopler@aol.com]

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