Working on developing and GMing a quasi-campaign of one-shots, in which each session is a different set of characters on a different side or front of WWII. Individual characters would be left up to the players, but what would be some interesting settings, mission ideas, or perspectives in the war to explore in such a series of one-shots?
Additionally, any recommendations on what system could be best used for such a setting/combat.
OP, forgot to mention some current ideas I had for such perspectives.
>British commandos on St. Neivelle Raid >French or German tank crew during the invasion of France >German or Soviet tank crew at Kursk >Soviet or German squad at Stalingrad >American or Japanese aviators at Midway >American paratroopers during D-Day >etc.
Michael Perez
Do a three part game. First game or so is the germans rolling up the eastern front before they get bogged down, marauding and fucking up villages. Second game is as the red army pushing back towards berlin, vengeance and comrades. Third game is as american GIs cleaning up the mess in eastern germany, eventually having to decide what to do with some of the 1st game's germans as POWs being contested by the 2nd game's russians.
Robert Green
Like that idea, though how would the third one work, I was under the impression GIs kept to the western half aside from Berlin, though I cuold easily see a scenario playing out in Berlin where the German POWs get into the American sector and they need to decide what to do with them.
Asher Anderson
Twilight 2000 (for excellent tactical firefights), Albedo 2ed(same, and great character creation for OS), GURPS ww2.
I suggest you read the Ernie Pike ww2 comics, those have mutliple PoV and are well-written. Will certainly give you lots of ideas.
And try to find a common theme or an element to link most of the sessions together. May be a couple reccuring character, or an object that everyone searches/find, like a famous painting, and so on....
You can do a spanish civil war session as an introduction, it's the start of ww2 for gear and ideologies.
I'd do some polish and italian troops, too. For french and italians you can play with the sides. Italians were divided after 43 (see the cephalonian battle), and so were the french (with the FFL/FFI and the milice/vichy forces/division charlemagne. See Mers-el-Kebir, a french soldier that had a brother on the Bretagne is not gonna join the Allies)
Suggestions of battles: Monte-Cassino, Operation Dragoon, Narvik, Petrikovka and Don offensive, the whole sino-japanese war,...
Landon Murphy
Always wondered about Twilight 2000. How does the Twilight 2013 version compare?
Camden Evans
The most polite thing you can say about Twilight 2013 is that it was made by people with more enthusiasm than skill.
Elijah Robinson
>Albedo 2ed Never heard of this; what's it got going for it?
Also I don't suppose anyone's got a good ruleset for tanks?
Eli Evans
Albedo is a cold-war military furry hard sci-fi rpg (based on the albedo comic). It has excellent space combat (not that it matters here) and gunfights. What I really like about it is that it has a really nice character creation with personality traits tied to mental stats, combat and social encounters. It makes roleplaying most situations easy as pie, and turns to PTSD simulator fairly quickly.
It gets nondescript weapons, so it's easy to reskin it, but you'll only get things like carbine and rifle, no big Mauser/MAS/Lee-Enfield/Arisaka/Carcarano list.
Austin Gomez
First of all, cool idea.
Second of all, source on pic?
Jason Martin
Will definitely check those systems out, that and the Ernie Pike comics.
The recurring character or object makes a lot of sense, and good suggestions on how to create interesting divided scenarios.
Thanks and I'm honestly not sure where I found it. Reverse image search is giving me the original artist though I think the collage of the 5 is an edit I found somewhere.
You can also make it so the players encounter their previous characters each time, if possible from the other side. Would make for a couple nice "oh shit" moments if they've made some questionable decisions in the previous sessions.
Ian Clark
someone involved in the Dunkirk evacuation. My first ideas would be:
>British troops waiting for the ships >French troops holding back the Germans for several days >German troops trying to clear up the resistance > maybe even sailors from the south coast dropping everything to get troops, while dealing with German artillery and other stuff
it's a part of the war that isn't mentioned as much as the later battles
Blake Morales
For more inspiration, there's the Apocalypse ww2 series of documentaries (6x1h). It covers most of the war despite some smalls oversights.
And you can give it to your players so they're roughtly up to date with the lore.
Luis Foster
Every time I see the OPs pic I wonder why the British para doesn't have a Sterling SMG.
Christian Parker
Alright OP, this image is of some of the B-25 bombers which participated in the Doolittle Raid.
Here's the plan these crazy motherfuckers decided to go with.
1. Have a B-25 loaded down with as much fuel and as many bombs as possible. 2. Sail said B-25 out to the point where China is just barely within one way range. 3. Have these heavy ass bombers that were never designed for flying from carriers takeoff of the USS Hornet 4. Fly to Japan using primitive navigation equipment 5. Drop bomb loads on targets of opportunity 6. Continue on to China in the hopes of ditching within allied territory while aware that the Japanese were in control of large swathes of the country.
Lemme translate that into stages of an adventure: Navigating the ocean to Japan, not getting shot down over Japan, crash landing in China, working one's way from behind enemy lines to friendly troops without being shot.
Seems like the China leg at least would be damn good adventure fodder.
Jaxson Thompson
The air component might be a bit stale but yeah, them trying to hoof it through China and escape Japanese soldiers could be a ton of fun.
Guess the original artist was lazy or maybe couldn't get good enough reference photos? idk
Robert Perez
>that picture
Implying the japanise are the same hight as everyone else.
-10 BS to enemies attempting to target. -10 Str in close combat.
Logan Mitchell
I dont know if your interested... but i have had an idea for a long time of introducing bionics into a ww2 campaign.
Players will all play wounded souldiers either axis or allies, that are introduced into a secret bionic limb replacement devision, so they can carry on fighting.
Heres the twist. The campaign goes on after the war ends. The devision goes dark, leaving most of the vets to return home with their augments. The second twist is that you play as the next generation, decendants from the veterans, and you have have raceal bonusses depending on how the vets married / had childeren. Eg. +5 Intelligence for Japanise, +5 Perception for Jewish, +2 Ballistic +2 Strength for American, 2 common lores for British (Or +3 Fellowship), +5 Willpower for Arabic. Etc... you can have fun with these.
The next generation, entrusted with the secret of the augments by their forefathers, have to come together to rediscover the technology, to give it to humanity / make alot of money in buisness. However facism is on the rise again... how will they guide their buisness in this climate?
Or something like that... i am tired.
Isaiah Scott
Shadowrun would work well for that sort of game.
Jason Sanchez
>Sterling SMG.
I think you mean Sten. Sterling was after war.
Um... well the British did make limited use of Thompsons bought from America before its enterance into the war. Many like to think that the Thompson is a better weapon than the Sten, but the truth is a little more complex. I still remember this history program where they got an old vet, maybe 70somthing and gave him a Sten and that old bastard still got a 3 round burst all on target at 25 meters. Which is remakable considering the Sten was basically made of industrial pipes.
Also the US Para should have a M1 Carbine w/ folding stock, which is altogether a better weapon.
Eli Campbell
In what way?
Thomas Perez
Not the best selection of battles (and I didn't find a way to work in the Brits unfortunately.) but if you wanted to maintain a theme or carry over something from game to game. This might work as a lineup.
Game 1: PCs play Japanese Soldiers getting their shit pushed in by the the Soviets at The Battle of Khalkhin Gol
Game 2: PCs play those same Soviet soldiers pulled out of Siberia to Defend Moscow. March through Red Square and right into battle with the Germans right outside the city.
Game 3: PCs play those same Germans now shifted to the Western Front for The Battle of the Bulge.
Game 4: PCs play those same American soldiers in the Battle for the Remagen Bridge and the crossing of the Rhine.
And then we come full circle here and are forced by geography to break from the trend in order to complete the circle.
Game 5: The PCs are American Marines attacking either Iwo Jima or Okinawa.
Juan Thompson
Well, bioware and cyberware exist in it and fit well into its rules. You'd just have to disregard all the magic in that system, reskin weapons into suitable equivalents.