WWII RPG

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[Armfelt]

I am working on a "Pen and Paper" RPG that will be based on WWII. I am trying to make the game quite realistic, a shot in the head will instantly kill, and in most cases also in the torso. While a shot in the leg will just cripple the person and are in grave danger.
But still I will try to keep the game rules as easy as possibly, by letting the GM decide what is most reasonable and to make the actual roleplay be the most important part.

The "adventure" that I am now working on begins during the "phony war" and the player characters will start as grunts in the "British Expeditionary Forces", at the moment placed in a northern town in Belgium... Blitzkrieg begins etc...

Now for my question, do anyone now a good movie or fictional book about the "Fall Gelb" and "Dunkirk" part of the war?

I will try to make it quite open for the group to choose what they want to do and how to do it in the chaos. The adventure or rather campaign will be mostly of small episodes or missions that can be finished in an evening, but even longer ones, much depending on the group.

The group will later on if they survive and make a good job to be part of the Commandos/S.A.S. I know what will happen at that part, but the way as tommy infatrymen is not finished, and would be happy for ideas.

[badmorning01]

In my experience military RPGs are very hard to pull off, due to the rigid way the military is organised and missions planned out. I like your idea of commandos - they did have more freedom on the ground and were more reliant on intuition and on-the-spot planning then other units.

I used to be a player and GM in Aliens RPG (yeah, like the film. You play as USCMC). What will be hard to provide is the need for drama between characters. I find that replacing it with action doesn't cut it. What usually works is your typical fight against overwhelmig circumstances and a desperate fight for survival (like dropping 20 klicks of your dropzone int he middle of German panzer assault and trying to get back to friendly lines). So my advice is - don't make them follow orders, just set out an objective.

The group will later on if they survive and make a good job to be part of the Commandos/S.A.S

Like I said - as long as you can avoid instructing them, it will work. What mekes this type of game so much better, is when there is REAL chance of dieing. And I mean like 80% chance of death. Example;I hosted a game based on Pitch Black. A major USCMC freigther full of marines crashes on a desert planet, shot down by enemy missile. I set the objective as getting to the pickup zone and avoid enemy search parties. After four hours of play, out of five players only one survived. His eardrums where bleeding from standing too close to his own explovies, his leg was shattered from a fall, rifle kept jamming because of the sand.

What a lot of GMs try to do is to try make it just another RPG but in a military setting. Forget the story, it's all about gritty realism and trying to 'beat' the GM and everything he throws at you. Make them work their survival and you will do great.

Good luck with your game.

[sheffer]

i have same experience in hand made military rpg systems, including ww2. i can share with u by my groundworks, mail me if u need it (sheffer2005@yandex.ru)

[MetalHead122]

I do not totally get this.. but it looks intresting..

RPG in real life or what.. xD

[Malevolence]

Never ever make the gunplay a simple "if you're hit you die" system in an RPG based on dice. Somebody will get unlucky and be dead, or perhaps everybody will, and then there's going to be a lot of character re-rolling. Keep in mind it's not a military sim, it's a roleplaying game - be a bit lenient with the things people can survive so all the work on their character isn't thrown down the tubes when they roll that 1 and shoot themselves in the foot by accident.

[Armfelt]

I have thought about it during this day, and while it would be cool to follow actual events during the history and letting the players try to solve problems in this chaos that the BEF did suffer, and try to make their way to Dunkirk, hold their ground and finally retreat over the English channel. After that time would go and they could be invited to the new battallion of special forces that will be sent to fight in Norway.

But yeah, I agree that being a regular infantryman is too much of about obeying orders, and too little about solving problems by their own. So i will scrap the plan about "the battle of France" and make this adventure into smaller and bigger missions for the Commandos to solve.

Hopefully I will get to test an adventure this weekend, were the players will be soldiers from the "Scots Guard" in a fictional 1940s. The leaders of the british army have ordered an operation in Nazi-occupied France to take out power plants and military factorys, to somewhat hald german development and make a later invasion easier.

(I have the whole mission on a website, written in detail. There I have rules, character creation + much more. But it is written in swedish, so I guess it ain't much help here)

But the group (No. 8 Commandos, 3rd Section) will be sent to destroy the hydroelectric plant 'Croix', that is along the river Loire (remember it is still fictional, and the game is still in a kind of Beta state). They have aerial photos of the dam and got some military intel of what is guarding it. They got quite some time to decide what they will need, and the players will be able to build their group so they should be possible to take on every situation (everyone got 2 specialities, as eg. mechanics, explosives, pathfinding, medics etc. This is excluding their weapon specialities).

Everyone may carry equipment of 50 kg during a shorter voyage by foot. With that load, they will not be able to travel fast...

They will be quite free to pick and choose their equipment, that allow them to succeed with their mission. They will travel by a glider that is escorted and towed by a fighter plane and a medium transport/bomber. While in enemy territory, they are on their own and will be released...

i have same experience in hand made military rpg systems, including ww2. i can share with u by my groundworks, mail me if u need it (sheffer2005@yandex.ru)

I would be happy to look at your work, thanks

I do not totally get this.. but it looks intresting..

RPG in real life or what.. xD

It will be a so called "Pen & Paper" RPG, so there is a GameMaster that will be the storyteller and act as the NPC's. The players will act as the commandos and will be able to alter the story. Think of it as a book or movie, where you are able to participate in the story and alter it, but with no limitations as PC RPG's has. But there is rules as eg. you try to throw 500 kg boulder at an opponent, but will not succeed because you are too weak (you have eg. a strength value and a difficulty value, which you throw a dice to check if it is possibly).

Never ever make the gunplay a simple "if you're hit you die" system in an RPG based on dice. Somebody will get unlucky and be dead, or perhaps everybody will, and then there's going to be a lot of character re-rolling. Keep in mind it's not a military sim, it's a roleplaying game - be a bit lenient with the things people can survive so all the work on their character isn't thrown down the tubes when they roll that 1 and shoot themselves in the foot by accident.

The people that I will play this with is good roleplayers that I can rely on, and the meaning of this game is that people will need to be really careful if they want to survive. But as the GM I am going to be reasonable with difficulties and do my best to make it a good and exciting story. But if the players do something stupid, they will pay for it... But on the opposite, constuctiveness and resourcefulness will be rewarded. Teamwork, patience and timing will be the key.

[CommanderHolt]

Sounds intresting, I would like to join if possible.

[Mysthalin]

If you made the website non-swedish and accessible to us foreigners - I'd join.

[Armfelt]

Sorry, but I will try it in person first, later on I will consider to make it in to a web based game, but for now I only got a wiki with the rules and the first mission. But it would be really fun to play it with EiRR players.

(It is mainly built for ordinary pen & paper, where people gather around the same table, and the homepage is made for the players to look on between the sessions as a main rule book and forum if needed, but as I said, it would later be fun to try it with EiRR players in a web based game).

If anyone will be here in Visby, Gotland, Sweden this summer, pls tell. Then you could join a session.

And if you got ideas on what missions could consist of for Commandos, pls write it down here in this thread. I would greatly appreciate it!

[slyguy7447]

Are you using another ruleset as a basis or starting from scratch?  I used to run Recon (Vietnam-based RPG, http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=2627&products_id=61131 , that's a newer version compared to the book i have, but yeah) and what badmorning01 said regarding them is pretty much spot on.  Make every game a mission with a military style briefing beforehand, a model i used when running Recon was several sections, starting with Background, then Objectives, Terrain and Weather report, Expected enemy movements and strength, fire support availability, insertion method, extraction method.  Equipment availability is also a good one to throw in, and it's pretty much the first question the players will ask.  Once you give that info it's all up to the players how they do things, all you have to do is make encounters appropriate to what you're trying to model, for 'Nam it was booby traps, jungle animals, VC snipers and local/main force, etc.  Like badmorning said, keep it realistic and gritty, a quick character creation setup is ideal because this is war, and players will die frequently.  If they want a level 5000 character painfully nurtured over months of play, they're in the wrong RPG.  Also remember that commando-style military ops were always on a tight time schedule, so adding things like "the extraction boat will wait exactly 15 minutes, if you aren't there by then it's leaving and not coming back" and then constantly prompting players on time taken (and tracking it yourself) will create a good high-pressure situation.  Just remember not to take it too far, it's still a game after all

[Armfelt]

I can't really say that it is from scratch, that would be a lie. But what I have done is to take elements from other roleplaying games that I like, and implement them as they appear suitable. I got a functioning abilities and skill system. Weapon range and accuracy is ok. The only thing in that part is to balance the initial skill points for new characters to distribute, I want the commandos to be good, but still not overpowered.

Yeah, thanks for the tip about Recon. I found the "Advanced Recon", unfortunately just swiftly browsed the text, but I especially found the "Random Encounter" chart very interesting.

Ye especially in a military game it would be suitable and quite kindred to choose an adventure consisting of episodes of different missions. One good thing with Commandos/SAS is that the can operate everywhere, from the hot saharan desert in North Africa to the fjords in Norway.

And yes, the first time i tried this game (and will continue in a similar way), is that I will let them get all that information that is relevant for the task, ofc in the extent that eg. the british government can get hold of.

Yeah I will sure try to keep pressure on 'em, but still spare some space for interactions.