A Bit of History
It has been three years since I first started this column, and I have greatly enjoyed writing it. Every month I get the opportunity to throw out some new ideas, often ones that might otherwise never see the light of day. I certainly would not have been able to keep this column going without loyal readers, and I thank you for your support. So here's to three years and to another three at least!
Alternate history is a favorite pastime of historians of all stripes, be they professionals or energetic amateurs. It is also a fine means of creating a setting for a role-playing game, but especially helpful in a time traveling alternate timeline hopping campaign. Nothing says we are not in Kansas anymore than seeing a road sign welcoming you to the People's Democratic Republic of Kansas (well, that's still Kansas, but not as we know it). Presented below is an example of a change point that is rarely used, a moment in history where events could have gone differently and produced a divergent timeline (of course this assumes our timeline is not the divergent and that Earth Prime isn’t actually one of the alternates). This can be the basis for an entire campaign, or just a stopping point on a journey through time and possibly even space itself!
Originally I was going to offer you five change points, but the responses to my requests from publishers for review products was outstanding. In order to fit all these reviews in, and give them the amount of coverage they deserve, the first part of this column focuses on one historical change point. The other four will all get their own columns later this year, in effect turning these capsule summaries into something more fleshed out.
Treaty of Paris, 1783
The Treaty of Paris in 1783 ended the American Revolution. We are altering one provision of the treaty, specifically Article 2 establishing the boundaries between the fledgling United States (actually the Congress of Confederation at the time) and British North America. In our history, the treaty was incredibly generous, due in part to the actions of George Rogers Clark and his campaign in the Old Northwest Territory. However, in our alternate this boundary was set differently, namely along the Appalachian Mountains, hemming in the young nation and preventing it from extending its authority westward. The exact how of this alteration is left open, it could have been due to a failure of George Rogers Clark to take Kaskaskia and Vincennes, a desire on the part of the British to keep their promises to their First Nation allies in the region, or perhaps just poor negotiation skills on the part of the parties involved. Perhaps, instead of buying peace with someone else's land (and thus helping to set up the Americans as future trading partners) the British wanted to poke their former colonial subjects in the eye, a response to the shock and governmental confusion that followed the war.
However it happened, America did not expand to include the Old Northwest territory, or even most of the South west of Georgia. This region became one of wild freebooting and petty kingdoms mixed with failed utopias and First Nations. The US needed this territory, but was blocked by a fear of British reprisal, as well as the continued British arming of First Nations in the area.
We set our campaign (or visit) in 1850, and see a very different North America. The United States consists of the Eastern Seaboard from Maine to Florida, as well as a number of islands in the Caribbean taken during the Napoleonic Wars (which America took small part in, siding with the French in the North American Wars of 1802-1814). France lost the Louisiana Territory to Britain, but the latter was unable to keep all of it due to its remote and distant nature on the edge of the map. From the Appalachian Mountains to the Mountain West the continent is a patchwork of small republics and border kingdoms. Some of these, such as the Cherokee Confederation, are populated by the descendants of the First Nations that supported the British and are staunch allies of the Crown. Others, the nations of Ohio and Kantuckee, were formed by American freebooters and exist as smaller republics in emulation of the United States. Several of these are city-states, and a few are near anarchic in their government, or at least in their application of government. Britain holds a great deal of North America, with Canada and Louisiana together making up over half the continent. Canada has expanded to include much of modern day Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, as well as parts of Northern California, Michigan around Detroit, Minnesota, and Montana. Louisiana is a sprawling crown colony that encompasses the modern state of Louisiana, as well as the gulf coast to Florida. Tendrils of British controlled areas spread up the rivers into Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi. As the British Empire has banned slavery, frequent clashes between British colonists and their slave-owning American cousins have occurred along the boundaries of Louisiana, and a year doesn’t pass without some form of rebellious conspiracy being unearthed.
The PCs could be agents for one of the larger nations, such as the United States or the British Empire. This sets up a game of intrigue that spreads across not quite familiar lands. Alternately, the party could be a group of pioneering freebooters intent on carving out their own nation from the unclaimed or lightly held lands of the trans-continental free for all.
Reviews
Twice a year, once in December ("I Want Games for Christmas") and once in May, I write a review column that looks specifically at historical and historically themed role-playing games. In previous years the games chosen for review came from my collection, but this past December I reviewed mostly items sent to me by publishers. This year, for the anniversary review column publishers have sent all the items reviewed, and it's quite a large assortment covering a span of centuries.
Cubicle 7, who distributes the English translation of Qin the Warring States for 7th Circle (a French publisher) sent me this delightful game of martial artists and Taoist mages set during one of the most interesting eras in Chinese history. Many years ago I picked up a d20 sourcebook called Weird War II, and Pinnacle Entertainment sent the current Savage Worlds Plot Point edition of that game, a great improvement over the older version. Precis Intermedia, better known as purveyors of fine cardboard figures, sent not just one but four titles for review ranging from Colonial America to Film Noir. Finally, Bully Pulpit Games offered up their Fiasco games as well as basket of historical playsets. They also sent their game of the 1944 Polish Uprising, Grey Ranks.
For those of you who have not read my review columns before, a few words of explanation are in order. I am a freelance writer and many of my best contacts in the industry are with publishers I am currently or have worked with, and thus many of the items sent for review are from these publishers. This year there is only one, Qin the Warring States, though last December saw many more. Second, my reviews focus more on the historical content of the games than on their systems or play. Sometimes system is well married to setting and deserves some mention, but these are not reviews of game systems, but of their value as historical role-playing games (and bad systems deserve mention as well so that the buyer may beware).
Qin the Warring States, 7th Circle
Several years ago I looked through a copy of Qin at GenCon, and really wanted to buy it. Sadly, I only had money for one large purchase, and went with The Great Pendragon Campaign instead. I was very happy when Cubicle 7 sent me Qin for review, and after reading it I am greatly looking forward to Yggdrasill due out later this year. First off, the only caveat for this review column, I am working on a project for Cubicle 7, and thus my review may be somewhat compromised, that is up to the reader to decide. That said, I am almost embarrassed to say that Qin is the best of the lot this year and one of the best historical RPGs I have come across. The physical product is reminiscent of earlier eras in RPG design, being largely black and white with a few color pages. The paper is of a good weight and the artwork is very invocative of the genre. The inside covers feature a color map of Warring States era China, though it is not highly detailed it does provide enough to grasp the geography of the era. All in all, it’s a pretty book, and a nice change of pace from the full color glossy throughout that has become standard. Honestly, that style does not evoke the proper atmosphere for historical and horror games, not to mention it greatly inflates the price.
Qin is set during the later part of the Warring States period of Chinese history, roughly 481 BCE to 221 BCE, though Qin does not spend many pages referencing Western chronology or calendars, just one page towards the back of the book for those who care about such things. In fact, the history section is rather small and just gives a brief overview of how the current situation came to be. Instead of spending pages discussing the course of Chinese history, Qin instead gives the reader a great deal of information about the state of affairs in China during the later part of the Warring States era. Daily life, from food to sexuality, is presented in a clear and easy to understand manner, a great boon to the GM and players. Philosophy and religion each get their own chapters, and considering that both form the basis for much of the magic in the setting this is more than appropriate. Of even greater utility, the hidden world of the martial artists and adventurers is detailed in its own chapter. Imagine, a setting where there is an established concept of wandering adventurer, and an existing and detailed sub-culture for them to live in. Finally, the setting material contains a tour of the warring states themselves with important figures given short biographies.
This is one game where the system is tightly tied to the setting. Characters are heroes, people who have an understanding of how the Tao operates, insight into the true workings of the world, and a spark of heroic grandeur. The tag line to Qin is "You're a Hero, Become a Legend". Core attributes are based off of the Eastern elements of Metal, Water, Fire, Wood, and Earth. A damage track system is used and is titled the Breath of Life. Characters also have a Chi trait that is used to power their various special abilities, as well as modifying die rolls. Chi is an interesting trait in that its resource management scheme needs to be given a great deal of attention in game, run out of Chi and you lose your status as a hero and revert back to being a common human and thus out of the story. A nice part of the system is the ability to blow your entire Chi in one last-ditch effort, basically going out in a blaze of glory. Finally, characters have Renown, a trait that they should hope to increase as they perform heroic acts. This becomes a key feature as characters perform heroic deeds and their renown increases, leading to them being more easily recognized as heroes (hopefully).
Three broad categories of special abilities, Taos, Combat Techniques, and Magic, are provided. Every character has some of these, and it is entirely possible, indeed highly recommended, that all PCs have some of the first two. Taos are cinematic abilities that heroes gain from their understanding of the inner workings of the universe, and range from feats of agility and strength to inspired artificing and mystical social manipulation. Combat techniques are cool whiz-bang wonderful things that characters can do with weapons or fists (or feet, heads, elbows, etc…). These are more tightly defined than the Taos and are linked to combat skills. Together with the Taos, combat techniques go a long way in emulating wire-fu and martial arts movies, they're genre-enhancing abilities to say the least. Magic is a different creature all together. In fact, as Magic is explained as a means of applying the universal laws of the Tao, it is treated in many ways as more of a science, and a banned science, as the dominant Confucius philosophies act to suppress Taoists and thus magicians. This differs from the Taos in that these are more gut reactions to an understanding of the Tao, whereas Magic is the result of careful study and experimentation. Magic is divided into external and internal alchemy, divination, and exorcism. The two alchemies differ in their approaches, but both have the aim of attaining immortality. External alchemy focuses on creating potions, elixirs, and ointments, and the like that aid in correcting or creating an imbalance of yin, yang, or elements in the consumer. Internal alchemy operates in much the same manner, but does so within one's body and does not require the creation of substances, merely the attunement of the mind, body, and soul with the greater Tao. Divination is just that, reading signs and portents from various sources, but also includes geomancy (do not face a geomancer on his chosen ground) and communion with spirits of various types. The fourth form of magic, exorcism, deals with controlling and banishing spirits and demons, as well as other supernatural creatures.
Speaking of creatures, the GM section gives a nice assortment of critters, ranging from the more prosaic threats of an enraged water buffalo, to a collection of demons and spirits. In my opinion this chapter could have been longer, and I would love to see a full treatment of the supernatural denizens of Ancient China in the Qin Bestiary supplement. Following the chapter of creatures, there is a short chapter in guo long, dragons, and their roles as true power behind the thrones of the warring states. The main part of the book ends with a short adventure meant to get a party right into the thick of things.
Qin the Warring States is a game that accurately captures an era in history and uses this to provide a rich setting for fantasy games. It also, through its system mechanics, allows for the emulation of 'martial arts' movies, especially of the more modern wire-fu variety. I could easily use this game to run Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. In short, this is a game that I would love to play, as either a player or GM.
Coyote Trail, Precis Intermedia
I love Westerns, from cheesy movies to RPGs, and even at one time miniature skirmish wargames. In fact, I once got rid of all my miniatures except for my Wild West figs, even though I no longer use them or paint them, I just can’t part with those little Cowboys and Indians. After reading Coyote Trail, I may just have to break them out of the closet and run a western campaign (along with a few choice additions from Precis Inermedia's Disposable Heroes range of cardboard minis).
Coyote Trail is a Western RPG using the Genre Diversion system. The system is a generic one that the publisher adapts to various genres, such as Westerns or Film Noir. At its core, it is a cinematic system and works quite well in that regards. At the core of this emulation of film are gimmicks and clichés. Gimmicks are more general and often background related features of characters (and horses), whereas clichés are more action oriented. Combined, they allow a PC to go beyond his skills and attributes, but the real joy of these features is that they don’t generally provide plain bonuses or penalties to rolls (though many do). Instead the best of them simply give a personality trait or allow the PC to simply do something cool, no roll required. Of special note, horses and wagons can have gimmicks as well. This is wonderful, especially the part about the horses, as far too many Western RPG's treat horses as little more than plain conveyances, not important NPCs.
Roughly a third of the book deals with the system, and after that it is on to the meat of any good historical RPG, the era of the setting. Here one might be disappointed if one expected to see an in depth treatment of the topic of Western Expansion. Indeed, the setting material in Coyote Trail is geared less towards an authentic representation of a time period and more of an overview of the Cinematic West. This I find very interesting, as the game embraces the various tropes of the genre, creating a game less about a historical period and more about the image of that period. This unabashed approach, right down to archetypes encountered at various locations or in a gang of outlaws focuses on utility rather than edification. That said, the largest amount of setting material in Coyote Trail is dedicated to the Plains Nations, with detailed histories, chronologies of the Indian wars, and cultural information. There is a lot of information here, though it takes a broad survey approach as opposed to an in depth look at any one subtopic.
Where Coyote Trail really shines in the chapter describing the town of Shady Gulch. Not only is the town and surrounding area described, but also biographies and stats are given for a host of townsfolk, from the sheriff to the local tong 'disposal' man. Shady Gulch is also a composite of every archetypical Western settlement trope, all tied together in a neat package and ready for adventure. Speaking of adventures, nearly thirty pages are dedicated to four short adventures that allow the GM to pick up and play several sessions straight out of the book. Three of these adventures expressly take place in and around Shady Gulch, while the fourth can be in a nearby town or easily placed in Shady Gulch.
Coyote Trail fills a need in the field of Western RPGs, being a lot less system orientated than its competitors (such as Aces and Eights). I wouldn’t call the Genre Diversion system rules light, but maybe medium light. The material on Shady Gulch is very useful and I do believe I may set a Western game there (especially with the four adventures provided). All in all, if you don’t own a Western RPG, or want some new material, pick up Coyote Trail.
Colonial Record, Precis Intermedia
Colonial Record is a sourcebook for Coyote Trail that covers the American Revolution (or the American War of Independence as some call it). It starts off with new rules for character creation, including new gimmicks, many of which could be easily used for Coyote Trail. In fact, most of the book is new rules for campaigns set during the war or in the years shortly before and after. Fortifications are given a decent level of detail, and have gimmicks much as characters, horses, and wagons do. A short chapter gives an overview of colonial life and the course of the war, as well as some of the events leading up to it. Important figures of the revolution are presented as fully stated out NPCs with short bios. Much as Coyote Trail gives us Shady Gulch, Colonial Record has Abbotsford, a highly detailed setting for you Rev War adventures, as well as an introductory adventure that in some ways forces the players to make a choice about the revolution and their involvement in it.
Colonial Record provides a decent amount of material for playing Coyote Trail games set in the years around the Revolution. Much like other Genre Diversion games, this is light on the historical information and long on the utility. It is a hard choice to make when writing historical games in this day and age, how much actual exposition do you include? After all, players and GMs can just wikki search the topic for in depth detail, and it might provide more bang for the buck if you focus on system and utilitarian aspects of the setting, such as story hooks, character hooks, and NPCs. Precis Intermedia's decision to go a more utilitarian route is a valid one, and considering their products are around a hundred and thirty pages or so (Colonial Record is much shorter, but it is a supplement) this decision is a sound one. If you are looking for an inexpensive means to get started in a new historical era, you can’t go wrong with Precis Intermedia's products.
Mean Streets, Precis Intermedia
Mean Streets does not cover a historical period as much as it covers several decades unified by their association with Film Noir. For those of you not up on your genres of film, Film Noir is a style that is defined by a cynical worldview, low-key black and white cinematography that emphasizes shades of grade and shadows, often erotic undertones, and a generally gritty approach to life. Many of the best hard-boiled detective movies of the 1930's and 1940's are in this style (though not all, let the viewer beware). Mean Streets sets out to be a cinematic game in this style, and it frankly succeeds at this better than Coyote Trail does Westerns. Like Coyote Trail, Mean Streets uses the very cinematic Genre Diversion system, complete with gimmicks and clichés. The book is set up much like its brethren, but diverges quickly into something much more. Although a shorter book by about twenty pages, Mean Streets places more of an emphasis on providing setting detail. A survey of Los Angeles in the 1930's, Chicago in the 1920's, and New York in the 1940's provides the bare minimum needed to set a campaign or adventure in these cities, the setting material really shines in chapters devoted to the US criminal system, organized crime, the Film Noir attitude, and Casablanca. The last one threw me for a loop, as I don’t normally associate that movie with Film Noir, the ending is far to upbeat. However, Casablanca and Morocco in general make a great setting for cloak and dagger action and intrigue. Plus, if I can get someone to run this setting for me I can play as Captain Renault, which would leave me shocked, shocked to see gambling in this establishment. A lot of detailed background and setting descriptions are given for Casablanca, more so than New York or Chicago, as well as a bouquet of NPCs and story hooks.
Where Mean Streets shines is in the adventures, adventure seeds, and how to run Film Noir games sections. Like the other Precis Intermedia products I reviewed, Mean Streets is long on utility. The chapter on the attitude of Film Noir is exhaustive and packed with information, tips, hooks, and simple how-to. It would double nicely as a primer on how to run investigative games no matter the setting or system. Eleven story hooks are given, actually short synopsis on which to base a scenario. These range from classics such as the murders, gang wars, and McGuffin chases, to a really nicely done court room drama set up. The book ends with three complete ready to run stories, one set in Casablanca, to get the harried GM going.
Mean Streets is the best of the books that Precis Intermedia sent me, and I would love to run or play it. A small sidebar in the chapter titled "The Big City" gives some ideas on how to combine Mean Streets with the Ghoststories RPG (which I don’t have but it sounds intriguing). This idea needs further expansion, and I would love to see one or more supplements for Mean Streets that delve into urban fantasy. A cold-war espionage sourcebook would also be grand.
Two-Fisted Tales, Precis Intermedia
The final offering from Precis Intermedia is a game of thrilling pulp action. Unlike the other products I am reviewing for Precis Intermedia, Two-Fisted Tales does not use the Genre Diversion system. Instead it has its own system that effectively captures the feel of action-adventure with a medium complexity rules set. Of interest, the rules cover nearly anything out of the broad range of the pulp genre, from costumed crime fighters (not super heroes, those are a later invention) to rocket pack and death ray toting Flash Gordon types. This is one thing I rather like, most pulp games I have come across tend to forget that the pulps covered a broad range of genres and instead of embracing this create a setting and system that is too closely tied to a sole genre. Two-fisted tales embraces all the possible pulp genres, and your characters can be flying aces, g-men, wild men of the jungle, great white hunters, rocket pilots, mad scientists, supernatural dectectives, or even the spunky kid. This broad range of genre support is a strong reason to like Two-Fisted Tales.
However, this book is short on historical information, barely covering 1930's technology in the slightest of ways and not even attempting to describe the state of the world at that time. In fact, nowhere in the book does it make a direct reference, other than through discussions of the pulps as source material, any reference to era. Like the pulps themselves, Two-Fisted Tales exists in a vague era of now, with the idea of now stretching as wide as you want it (Western pulps were notorious for forgetting that the classic Wild West was dead for decades, thus six shooter armed cowboys and tommy-gun totting gangsters). Thus, Two-Fisted Tales is not so much a game of a historical era, but a game of a historical style of literature.
It serves up that style in heaping double handfuls of awesome. For example, characters don’t just improve by spending hero points and training new skills (though they can), they can pick up new shticks (special abilities), masteries, specialties, etc. on the fly by justifying why they always could do something but never have. The big piece of fun in Two-Fisted Tales are the adventure creation tables. Roughly a quarter of the book is taken up by chapters describing how to make a pulp style adventure, going into the nuts and bolts of the various genres and exploring story hooks and plot seeds. At the end of this chapter are several pages of random tables the Gm can use to create a story. Let's try them out. Start by determining the PC's motivation, for our example we'll say Sympathy. We roll 2d10 and get a 9, thus leading to the Disaster story hook table. That table yields a 6, Violent Crime, which further gives us (on the Viloent Crime subtable) a 4, Robbery, with one of the party's dependants caught in the crossfire as innocent victim. The villain of our story is a Crooked Cop. So, a crooked cop robbed a bank using his inside information on the bank's security, and in the process kidnapped the wife of one of the PCs, leading the other PCs to join him in the rescue due to their sympathy for their friend. Pretty cool, and I think I will use it in an upcoming game. The tables go on fro there, bringing in variable exotic locations, and most fun of all, several tables for rolling up McGuffins.
I like Two-Fisted Tales, and give it a lot of respect for covering several possible genres and giving them the detail they deserve, at least for the most part. In a few places, such as the villains and monsters chapters, there is the feeling that the coverage is a little too shallow. Most of the book is dedicated to characters and their wonderful toys, a trend that has become very common in the world of RPGs. On the one hand it makes purchasing Two-Fisted Tales of greater value to the players, however as a GM I find the truly useful chapters a little short (though still packed with utility). All considered, I recommend Two-Fisted Tales for anyone wanting a low price and rules easy pulp game, regardless of the genre.
Weird War II, Pinnacle Entertainment
As I stated before I first saw the Weird War II game in its d20 form several years ago. It was a little clunky, a little funky, but all in all a decent game that was only hampered by an attempt to hammer a setting into a system that did not suit it. The Savage Worlds edition that I received for review does a much better job of matching setting and system. Several changes were made that reduced some of the sillier aspects of the setting (Office of Supernatural Affairs as the people keeping the lid on knowledge of the supernatural, for example). Whereas the original d20 version focused on the 'American War', i.e. the European Theater from D-Day until the surrender of Germany, the current edition covers the entire war in exhausting detail, from the Far East to the Black Forest.
The basic premise of the Weird Wars line of products is that war creates fear and terror, emotions that certain supernatural entities can feed upon, and that may in effect create these entities in the first place. In Weird War II this is exacerbated by the use of dark magics by the Axis powers, creating a situation were the allies may very well lose the war because of the supernaturally induced fear and terror, and that humanity might be overcome by this same wave. The PCs are members of a joint Allied organization, the Office of Special Investigations, whose task is to defeat supernatural threats and cover them up. The last is very important, for the more rumors and tales of horror spread, the more powerful the supernatural becomes. All this is highly reminiscent of Deadlands and the Reckoners, but as both are from the same people this makes a lot of sense. However, in Weird War II there are no supernatural kings running the show, the true bad guys are the Axis powers and their insane occult operatives.
Weird War II is full of historical detail, covering the entire war and all theatres, as well as the major combatants. Resistance fighters are offered alongside the more regular military types as PC options. Like all the Plot Point sourcebooks for Savage Worlds, Weird War II provides a ton of hooks and story ideas throughout the book. Equipment is thoroughly covered, from tanks to rifles to ships and planes. Optional rules for the setting involving mass combat, sanity, artillery, advanced dogfighting and naval operations rules, and parachuting. Even if you are not using the supernatural elements, this book would be an excellent resource for WWII role-playing using the Savage Worlds system.
Fiasco and Historical Playsets, Bully Pulpit Games
I heard a lot of good things about Fiasco and I enjoy the genre of movies that it seeks to emulate. However, Fiasco is not my cup of tea. It’s a narration based role-playing game, and I'm a more traditional gamer, but it could be a lot fun for someone who likes non-traditional games. The system is based around a single concept, people behaving badly due to inherent character flaws, usually greed and a desire for vengeance. This I like, as I am fonder of games that do one thing and do it well than ones that try to hit several targets at the same time and often fail in at least one aspect. The core rules book does not contain any playsets (scenarios) of a historical nature, but several are available as pdf's.
The four playsets I downloaded for review, London, 1593, Transatlantic, 1913 New York , and Reconstruction are short on historical detail, but long on flavor. London, 1593 deals with playwrights, actors, poets, spies, and other low lifes involved in hijinks in London. Transatlatnic is similar, but set on a luxury liner, the Leviathan, on its maiden voyage sometime after WWI. 1913 New York provides the most amount of historical detail with two pages of notes concerning locations in the city during the end of the era. Finally, Reconstruction provides play options for southern Virginia as carpet baggers, freed slaves, and unreconstructed southerners vie to fulfill twisted desires and needs. These playsets are very sketchy, but that is the style for the game and they are free. As historical sources, they are wanting in a lot of detail and only skin deep as far as the history side goes. Players are going to have to bring a lot to the table to add verisimilitude to them, but hey, free pdf games. They could be useful as means of generating ideas for historical games, provided you are just looking for plots, characters, and places for a period you already know.
Grey Ranks, Bully Pulpit Games
A game about child soldiers during the Warsaw uprisings? Daring to say the least, the subject matter is dark, very dark, and the game itself warns players that there may be uncomfortable aspects from the beginning. Add to this the underlying plot lines of love, romance, and teenage sexuality, and Grey Ranks maybe a little much for some players. The game is full of historical detail and would serve as an excellent primer to Warsaw and Poland during the Nazi Occupation. Of great interest, the built in campaign is run in chapters that progresses the events of the uprising as play proceeds, a very nice touch in a highly historical game. The system itself is very abstract and deals more with events and interpersonal relationships than actual 'simulationist' styles of play. I can't express my love for the historical nature of this game enough. It deals with one thing and one thing only, Polish teenage resistance fighters cast against one of the darkest times in the history of Poland. Grey Ranks does this with loving detail, right down to a glossary of Polish terms and slang for use at the table. However, my only issue is that this is one dark game, the PCs are basically doomed form the start and you play thought the nearly inevitable loss of the things they love, and quite likely their lives as well. Still, Grey Ranks is a masterfully done historical role-playing game.
