Recently (and perhaps due to playing too much Wolfenstein and the like) I've been inspired to run a Weird War II game, featuring all sorts of fun and horrific nonsense, focusing mainly on a band of heroes working to reclaim the world from an oppressive Nazi regime.
My main question is, what system would work best for this and why? I'm personally leaning towards Savage Worlds for it's pulpy combat Rules, and customization, or Genesys, but if you have recommendations and reasons you'd recommend the system please do share! My main inspirations for the story setting are Wolfenstein, Heavy Metal, Dieselpunk art in general, and the like!
My group has been running a weird wars 2 campaign for nearly 2 years now. We started with some of the action up in norway in 1939 then been playing real time since, as a lot of the big events of the war match up well with our sessions give or take a day. For instance, last fortnight we where on our way to the Philippines to stop some german sorcerers summon a robo-mecha minotaur thing and had to stop off at Hawaii for refueling. System wise we have been using savage worlds with the actung Cathulu expansions (and bits and pieces from other expansions); and it has been a blast.
Zachary Thomas
Do you let your players use magic? I'm thinking of doing so, just to add a little extra fun and weirdness to the setting. How closely do you stick to actual history? Did you have to learn a lot about history before running the game?
Joseph Clark
>playing too much wolfenstein Are you one of the couple thousand people who purchased TNC?
Jace Green
I was just considering making a weird cold war thread and posting as many weird prototype-ish tech things as I had, think I'll do that here, and try to stay kinda close to the era, though some of it is a bit more modern
Matthew Johnson
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Joshua Davis
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John Butler
I've long wished I could make a Weird War II strategy wargame, cooking up vague ideas for factions and units, some basic technological and supernatural concepts, wish there was a good RTS that covered the concept.
Robert Smith
One of the characters is a sorcerer using the rules in actung chathulu but the costs have left other characters sticking to mostly mundane tech. We stick fairly close to history but a mythos spin on a lot of it (though not as much as you would think). For the average soilder, the war is as history is written but there is a number of mistakes in the offical records. Our group is actually pretty knowledgeable about the war to begin with (Im a history major for instance) but even a wikipedia search of a number of events can lead to some interesting ideas
James Bennett
No, though I’ve been considering it. Mostly playing old school Wolfenstein and Return etc.
Ryan Wood
So some notable events that we have taken part in: Boaring action in Norway Invasion of Norway Invasion of holland Push through the ardens forest and french frount lines Getting caught at dunkirk Seizing the french navy after the fall of france (Namly the Cruiser Submarine the Surcouf) Early days of the Blitz Firebombing of Coventry Long distance raids in northan africa Insurection in Ethiopia Battle of Greece Battle of crete Sinking of the bizmark Pearl harbor Philippines Next session we are proberly off to the fortress of Singapore
Lucas Peterson
Considering have a part of the story where the players attack and capture a castle being used as a Nazi military base, and for all sorts of occult stuff.
Ryder Clark
There's always Weird War II for D20 and Savage Worlds. Want me to dump one even both?
Wyatt Young
I really like that idea, it's got a lot of potential. What kind of faction were you thinking? Like obviously axis and allies and such but any weirder armies?
John Brown
If you could dump the Savage Worlds one that would be awesome, if anyone had Achtung Cthulhu for SW that would be great as well.
Christopher Sullivan
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Parker Garcia
I was going to upload then I remembered these troves: Snip.li
/SaWo for the SW
/Cthulhu for Achtung.
Jace Richardson
that first snip link doesn't seem to work unless I'm being stupid, but thank you
David Collins
TNC was the shit. Ignore /pol/spergs about it being SJW propaganda - there's a whole character arc that ends in a character literally saying "You can't call people who aren't Nazis Nazis just so you can treat them like they're lesser than you."
It's also an improvement over TNO in pretty much every way. My only grievance is that it was pretty short.
Jeremiah Scott
I just tried it again, definitely works. Punctuation matters if you're typing it.
Isaiah Richardson
How does one type it? I’m new to the whole snip.li thing
Landon Brooks
With the capital letters as you see them. SaWo, not sawo or SAWO. Get it?
Kevin Nelson
Also B.J. calls out the communist for being a coward when the Nazis came knocking.
Tyler Sullivan
I'm braindead right now, but maybe if you ripped off Civ: BE's faction styles. Axis can go full alien tech, Allies stick to purity and the Comintern go full mecha.
No forget that it sound stupid.
Carter Peterson
>himmler's sorcerers at wewelsburg search for asgard to beseech divine aid >accidentally tap into Warp-esque null dimension, a reflection of its observer's thoughts and desire >they want to see asgard so that's what they see >start summoning gods and norse heroes >everything comes out corrupted, a mix of half-remembered neopagan ideas and SS ideology >pic related
Asher Wright
>you were born too late to fly over europe fighting giant nazi-angels
Chase Stewart
>Nazi angels >British Evas >"Jimmy, get in the fucking colossus!"
Kayden Torres
One thing I'd do is break each nation down into several sub categories. Different factions and when you build your force you pick one or two factions who support you and that restricts the advanced units you can pick.
Everyone has access to basic bread and butter units but things like power armored infantry, advanced tanks and stuff might only be available if you pick the high tech/industrial option, and another would be supernatural and magical units.
So one german army might be mechanized infantry supported by armored walkers and helicopter gunships, while another could be wolfenstien style ubersoldatten alongside legions of zombies.
And one american army could be power armored heavy combat units and airstrikes for days while another could have a front line of werewolf shock troops.
So only the usual, traditional nations but different armies from each nation could be very different because of specialization unit restrictions.
Aiden Perez
You can especially play with this on the Axis side. There were a lot of competing factions in Nazi Germany. The SS, Wehrmacht, the various intelligence agencies and the air force were historically all rival factions in Nazi Germany, each vying for Hitler's favour and thus more power and influence. The SA is an extreme example.
Jaxson Thompson
Yeah, for the Germans you could have some SS supernatural stuff and the Thule Society, or Wehrmacht mechanized forces, power armor and mecha, or SS special projects with lab grown killer cyborgs and giant robots.
Would like other nations to get cool stuff too though, people usually tend to give the germans most of the really awesome stuff.
Supernatural Brittish would be pretty impressive. Holy Grail empowered knights with magic swords and riding supernatural mounts of incredible speed.
Supernatural units would lose out on more practical, realistic support abilities like massed artillery or heavy bombers but would get things like... well...
Let's just say you don't want to be playing against the Brittish and suddenly hear gregorian chanting as the fog rolls in.
>Yeah, for the Germans you could have some SS supernatural stuff and the Thule Society, or Wehrmacht mechanized forces, power armor and mecha, or SS special projects with lab grown killer cyborgs and giant robots. and people wonder why wheraboos exist. All of those sound cool af, sign me up.
Henry Walker
Why not use Weird War 2 as system ? The one based on Savage World. Or the old one based on d20 if you're feeling old school.
Alexander Roberts
I'm sure you could get a great setting by interpreting certain political cartoons and propaganda literally
Connor Nelson
See, I'd do this with secret societies who are just working through various nations. Like WWII as the culmination of an occult cold war that has been building up, rather than national superscience agencies.
I played in one of those FATE WWII Cthulhu games, with the sanity mechanic. We were pretty badass power wise but the threats were more soldiers in our way from trying to maybe long shot stop horrible doomsday prophecies rather than feeling like a badass punching out a Nazi cyborg-werewolf. Like if the Basterd Squad from Inglorious Basterds walked into a CoC scenario.
Ian Moore
I agree with you about the "propaganda" crap, but there are other things to dislike about TNC. Why did they lower the number of weapons? The campaign is already too short as you said, but why reduce the number of fun guns too? Some of the old characters don't get enough screen time. Poor Bombate just isn't given enough to do. And then there's Grace. I understand what they were going for, but she's an annoying stereotype.
