Blast From The Past: Weird War II (original d20)

Wait… You guys are Nazis!

There was an interesting period in gaming that I’ve mentioned a few times, after D&D 3^rd edition dropped and everyone got into the d20 system. One of those who did was Pinnacle, who made d20 books for their various Deadlands settings. However, one of the first non-Deadlands games they made was the Weird Wars setting(s), but instead of using their unique and interesting system, they selected the d20 system. I’m going to come back to this whole thing but I wanted to address it now, as the later incarnations (and expansions) were done in the Savage Worlds, and this isn’t that.

To kick things off, the game gives us a few new classes to replace the ones from the PHB, as magic isn’t very common in the modern world. While this is a bit of alternative history, it’s not that drastically different. Anyway, we get the Grunt class, which is really just the Fighter from D&D, and is designed for Enlisted and NCOs. There is an Officer class, but they don’t really have anything going for them besides Rank. They don’t even have Leadership or something. Then, we have the Medic/Nurse class, which can heal. That’s all. However, as this is a d20 game without a lot of healing magic, this class is important. The next military class is the Scout, which I’m sure you guessed is based on the Ranger but has some Rogue class features. Speaking of Rogues, the only non-military class is the Resistance Fighter (or, as we should call them, the Anti-Fascists), and is more in line with a traditional Rogue.

Now, the core book is called Blood On The Rhine and is focused exclusively on the European area of conflict, in the late war, around 1944-1945 or so. It has stats and information for the various weapons, tanks, and other equipment for the Allied and Axis powers. And I rather like this, as you could use this to include tanks and machineguns in a D&D game. I did that once, it was a good time.

 But, what about magic? Well, it is there but uses Runes instead of normal D&D type spell casting. In order to cast a spell, you have to use Runes that your character has learned and has carved themselves, and make a roll. Side note, the Runes are the Germanic Runes that you’ve probably seen a round. The reason why they’re Germanic is because you’re fighting Nazis. Not playing them, fighting them. Just to be clear. Rune Magic can only be used by OSI Adepts, which is a prestige class. What’s the OSI? Well, aside from the Venture Brothers (which is why I put the quote at the top), they’re the magical super secret group in the US/UK that works with (or is part of the) OSS, which was a real thing. The Office of Strategic Services was a Commando thing, doing super secret things during the war and was eventually rolled into the CIA after the end of the war. The history and missions of the group are really very interesting and I suggest reading up on them if you’re interested. Anyway, the OSI in this setting is the Office of Supernatural Investigations and is run by US General George Marshall, who is a real guy. The OSI recruits members of the military who have run across the supernatural and various Nazi occult experiments. They also try to find Chaplins, who are the other magic users in the setting, the ones who call down the Divine whoop ass for the Lord. If you’ve played Deadlands, you’re already seeing parallels between the settings and mechanics and it doesn’t surprise me much.

As the Pinnacle boys like their horror, and mythology, there’s some other goodies in the core book. Yes, there’s Nazi Wehrwolves, and they are scary. But there’s also Fext, which are effectively invulnerable, and the classic Nazi zombie. There’s also kinda-sorta Nazi Orcs and some other things but not a whole lot. While there’s not a lot of monsters included in the core book, there’s enough to add some flavor to the game and get you started.

 So, with all that out of the way, let’s talk about what this game does. It’s walking a line between historical war action and dark horror. You play a bunch of regular Joes, trying to survive the war, and will end up facing horrors beyond your darkest fears. If you’re lucky, you’ll get some magical back-up as time goes on, but maybe not. You might not get someone who can cast spells but you could get a haunted tank (yeah, there’s rules for that). When this game came out, there were only a few supernatural horror movies set in the WW2. There’s a few more now, which vary in quality, but this genre is kind of dead now. That means that finding inspiration to draw from might not be easy. Of course, you can just watch Band Of Brothers or Saving Private Ryan and just add in some horror elements.

Before I go further, there’s a few things I need to talk about. First off all, the Holocaust happened and it was tragic and we should make sure that it does not happen. The industrial scale of murder of people is one of the worst things we’ve ever seen on the planet. And the Nazis are bad guys and shouldn’t be viewed as heroes or something to aspire to in any way, shape, or form. Killing Nazis is an American tradition. Not joining them. So, there’s going to be a delicate balance you’ll want to do if you run this game, making sure that you’re respectful to the millions of people who were murdered and making sure that the Nazis are bad guys. One of the reasons why I want to run or play this game is because I want to kill Nazis in a safe and healthy way.

 Ahem. Anyway. I mentioned that there’s some expansions and I’m going to take a minute to discuss two of them. The first one is Hell In the Hedgerows, which is a campaign you can run, and even includes pre-made characters. Set in the direct aftermath of D-Day in France, the characters will start in a small French village but will quickly be set against a supernatural threat that feeds on blood. After that, there’s a fight over a Golem. No, not the ones from D&D but the ones from Jewish tradition. So, that’s fun. I’ll keep mum on the last two adventures but it does build to some great scares and heights. I wanted to talk about this one, as if you are interested in picking up the game, this is something you’ll want. Or maybe you can steal the ideas for a game of your own.

The second source book I want to talk about is Dead From Above, which adds in rules for airplanes and air combat. And it can give you haunted aircraft. I mention this one as some people might like the idea of dropping bombs or having a crashed air crew having to escape from enemy lines. It also gets referenced in the other books from time to time.

What at are the other books? There’s a campaign books for North Africa and the Mediterranean, the Russian front and rules for making Russian soldiers, and about the war in the Pacific against the Japanese. The last book is a collection of monsters and spooks you can unleash upon a group. Since there’s a lot of stuff in each one of these, I’ll probably tackle them one at a time in Sources Say.

 I really liked the idea of this game but I feel like the system was a poor choice. The d20 system isn’t conductive to a feeling of suspense or horror in the mechanics. The other thing is that when you make major changes to the system that doesn’t include AC and healing, the game gets much more deadly. Now, I think it’s been updated to the Savage Worlds system but I also feel like that isn’t quite the right fit, either. That’s due to the simplistic elements in that system when it comes to wounds and the like.

I would love to take the time to break the system apart and rebuilt it, as the game is very much what I like to call Blue Collar Horror. Much like Hunter, the focus is on regular people in extraordinary circumstances, and it isn’t the world your trying to save, but yourself and your friends. And that’s where this game can be very, very good. Sure, you want to beat the Nazis but you also want to make sure that your buddies make it home. And that can lead to some really good gaming experiences.