In the December 1975 issue of TSR’s The Strategic Review* there appeared an article entitled ‘STURMGESHULTZ AND SORCERY, or, How Effective is a Panzerfaust Against a Troll, Heinz?’ by Gary Gygax. It described a World War Two battle between a Waffen SS patrol (thirty troops, an armoured car and two half-tracks) and an Evil High Priest and his minions (a magician, two ‘heroes’, three Ghouls, three Mummies, four Trolls, nineteen Orcs, and one Giant Scorpion) in a strange encounter on the Eastern Front. The D&D rules were used to run the Evil High Priest et al, but a new set was given in the article to play the German side. The game itself ended with the patrol driven off, unprepared for the nature of their opponents and rushing back to their headquarters with a strange tale to tell.
* (The actual issue is #5 and the article was later reprinted in The Best of The Dragon Vol. 1, which is where I remembered it from. It can also be found in the Dragon Magazine Archive CD-ROM -- I am indebted to both Kelly St. Clair and Lance Purple for pointing me to the article on the archive after its search engine proved too awkward. Thanks chaps).
And that was it for twenty-five years for an idea that was kind of silly, but fun nevertheless. After languishing for so long, step forward Pinnacle Entertainment who have breathed new life into the concept (which TSR never did) and given us Weird War II: Blood on the Rhine. This is the first in a line of historical horror RPGs, and another game that combines two genres in such a way as to make you think, “Hey, that’s cool!” So instead of the Weird West combination of cowboys, Indians and horror found in Pinnacle’s Deadlands game, Weird War II: Blood on the Rhine is World War II and supernatural Nazi horror. Yup, that’s right, there is more than an inkling of truth to tales of Hitler and the occult. And now that the Allies have broken out of the beachheads in Normandy, the old Kraut is desperate enough to put Nazi knowledge of the occult into practice.
There is but one factor in Weird War II: Blood on the Rhine that some may find to be a problem: The game uses WotC’s d20 system. This means that the game does not stand alone and the War Master (as the GM is known) needs to have a copy of the Player’s Handbook and the Dungeon Master’s Guide in order to get the most out of Blood on the Rhine. What about the Monster Manual, you say? I’ll come to that later…
Weird War II: Blood on the Rhine is thick tome, sporting a scary Nazi wehrwolf on the cover. It is a little dark, but eye catching all the same. Inside the book is clearly organised and laid out. It is let down by the occasional typographical error and having pieces of art improperly placed such that the text beside it is scrunched almost beyond recognition. The standard of art is reasonable in a pulp fashion, though some of the individual figures are rather scrawny. Besides this, lots of historical photographs are used to illustrate vehicles, individuals and scenes. To nit-pick, one picture (on p.149) looks to be the wrong way round. Below it is an explanation of the swastika and how the Nazi version was drawn spinning counter-clockwise. In the photograph, the swastikas on the armbands are definitely spinning the other way! The book is written in a light tone, though the more touchy subjects are clearly placed in black boxes.
The book opens with a short and necessary history of the conflict up until the D-day landings, before going onto character creation. Of course, this being the real world, the only race available is Human. There are roughly five initial classes: Grunt (standard enlisted man, from basic rifleman, air or tank crewman, but roughly equating to the fighter class), Officer (like Grunt, but relying upon Charisma), Medic (healer or cleric sans the magic), Scout (ranger) and Resistance Fighter (rogue) -- the only civilian class. Each of these is still geared towards combat, but with special abilities and feats their own. Rank is treated as a Feat and begins at sergeant for enlisted men or 2nd lieutenant if officer class.
The chapter lists the equipment and details needed to equip characters from most branches of the military (save the Navy) of the various nations that made up the Allies. Information on the German equipment is also provided, but they are meant more use by NPCs than by the characters. In addition the position of women, blacks and Asians in the war at this time are also discussed and simply state that they are limited, but can be circumvented through events of the game. Thus events can be orchestrated in the confusion of war to bring a black driver, female nurse or an air crewman together with a little imagination.
Together with the PHB and the chapter on new feats and skills, a group should be able to create a balanced unit of characters for the game. This can involve any type given in the list of initial classes, but the default appears to be the basic squad of riflemen. It is clear from the chapters on combat that follow –- which cover fire fights, vehicle duels, artillery, minefields and everything the War Master might need bar strafing and air support (to be covered in a future supplement), that getting into a fight is a deadly affair. Notably, the feats given in Weird War II: Blood on the Rhine are geared towards ranged gunfights and away from melee. Further, there is virtually no form of personal armour available, so characters are going to have to rely upon their inherent Dexterity bonus and their ability to duck behind cover. Guns and heavy weapons can and do kill characters -- there is an optional rule covering the effects of severe wounds should a character’s hit points be reduced to zero or less. To offset this, it is suggested beginning characters start at third level. Further, each character begins with one Benny, which is this game’s term for luck or hero points. Bennies can be traded in return to re-roll skill and attack checks, or even to restore 1d6’s worth of hit points. Once a Benny is expended it is gone, but can be earned again through good roleplaying and heroic acts at the discretion of the War Master.
There is a lot for the prospective War Master to take in with the new combat rules, so many of the necessary combat tables have been handily reprinted at the back of the book for the War Master’s easy reference. Even with just these rules, you could play a straight World War II RPG, but then that would be missing the point of Weird War II: Blood on the Rhine.
Up until now, there has been no mention of the weirdness (bar the opening piece of colour fiction) that is integral to Weird War II: Blood on the Rhine. General George Marshal has set up a secret organisation, the OSI or Office of Supernatural Investigations to look into the occult doings of the Nazis. The OSI scour military reports for such occurrences and then investigate, often sending those troops out on other dangerous missions in order to prevent knowledge of the supernatural becoming widespread. If those troops, (that is, the player characters) survive this or even another encounter with the supernatural, then they might recruit them to work for the OSI. In Weird War, this is what happened to war hero Audie Murphy!
As part of the OSI, a number of new prestige classes become available to the players. These include the mundane ones such as sniper and commando, but also the weird ones of Adept (magic user), Chaplain (divine magic user) and Operative (supernatural fighter), which are all officer classes. Magic revolves around rune magic for Adepts and divine miracles for Chaplains, but both cost fatigue (treated as subdual damage) to cast, meaning that neither can be cast willy-nilly as you would in a D&D game. If an Adept knows a rune from the Futhark as listed in the book, they can cast spells related to it, if they are of the necessary level. The spells themselves are taken from the PHB. The low accessibility of magic in Weird War II: Blood on the Rhine does add further to its gritty flavour. Nazi Blood Mages also use Rune Magic, but can draw upon the power of sites soaked in blood, such as battlefields and the like.
Another form of weirdness is the haunted vehicle. Again this affects both sides in the war, as the ghosts of a vehicle’s (taken from the comprehensive list given in the book) former crew continue to reside within and help out the current crew. This can give a vehicle supernatural abilities such as Ambush Sense, Ghostly Gunner or even bring the dead back to life through Revivification! Of course, this might be one way for a recently departed character to live on in a game.
So apart from spell casting Nazis, what are the characters up against? Weird War II: Blood on the Rhine gives a short list of rather deadly creatures. These range from the rather Orc-like Brutes (Nazis who have given into their bestial nature), the traditional machine wrecking Gremlin, the demon dog Kluddes, Reanimants or zombies and the aforementioned Wehrwolves. Beyond these, there will no doubt be a bestiary on the way, but there are creatures from the Monster Manual which might be suitable to the setting, as well as those from the other books of creatures for the d20 system. Finally, the game is rounded out with a short and dirty adventure, Dogs of War.
So what of the problems with Weird War II: Blood on the Rhine? The major one is its treatment of the horror genre, which is rather poor. The mechanic for fear rolls is less than perfect and tends to downplay the horror aspect of the game. Further, there is scant advice for actually running the horror aspect of the game, meaning that War Masters looking for help with this needs to look elsewhere. Either GURPS Horror or if you can find it, Ken Hite’s Nightmares of Mine should prove helpful in this. This is a major detraction from what is a cool product and especially so if you consider that Weird War II: Blood on the Rhine slots into the d20 family of games, with the intention of leading the D&D player into a new genre.
Another problem is that Rank can be rolled for. Once a character has gained the Rank Feat, making him switch to the Officer or the OSI classes if commissioned or becoming a sergeant if still enlisted, they can roll a Promotion check if they advance a level. This is a blatantly ugly, clumsy, absurd rule, when some decent advice on how to handle promotions would have been far better. Also, experience can be awarded for earning decorations, but the table listing the points earned is missing. Fortunately, Pinnacle are aware of this omission and the table can be found on their web site (http://www.peginc.com/WeirdWars/Errata.htm).
The combination of the horror with another genre forces comparisons with Pinnacle’s Deadlands and if you thought that game was cool, then no doubt you will love Weird War II: Blood on the Rhine. Of course, you may be put off by the fact that Weird War II: Blood on the Rhine uses the d20 system, but that does mean that there isn’t any of that endless mucking about with cards and chips. The permutations made possible by using the d20 system are an added bonus. For starters, there are several monsters from the Monster Manual that are suitable to the style of horror in Blood on the Rhine and if you want Nazi Satanists, then Green Ronin Publishing’s Legions of Hell is a must! Need a dash of the Mythos? One half Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu, one half Pagan Publishing’s Delta Green setting, and if you want your cake to have icing, just wait for the d20 version of Call of Cthulhu! For adventures and source material with an archaeological bent, check out West End Games’ Indiana Jones RPG and if you carry your game on after the end of the war, then Delta Green is once again useful -- and let’s not forget GURPS Atomic Horror. Whilst I’m at it, having mentioned Ken Hite once, I’ll do it again, since Weird War II: Blood on the Rhine is ripe for his brand of high weirdness as seen at Pyramid on-line and the published volumes of Suppressed Transmission: The First Transmission and Suppressed Transmission 2: The Second Transmission. In particular I’m thinking of ‘A Dish Best Served Cold: The Antarctic Space Nazis’ (http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/login/article.cgi?392) as seen in Suppressed Transmission: The First Transmission and ‘Sieg Howl!: Werewolves of Deutschland’ (http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/login/article.cgi?1592) which has yet to see publication in the paper volumes.
Weird War II: Blood on the Rhine adds significantly to the d20 system and it also does more. It lifts the d20 system out of the swords and sorcery genre it has been stuck in to date with both Dungeons & Dragons and Star Wars by bringing us a decidedly gritty setting. Instead of the high fantasy seen in those games, the fantastical elements are scaled down for Weird War II: Blood on the Rhine and made more dangerous to the ordinary soldier. Of course, the characters in this game are still heroic in nature -- and hopefully in deed, but this is fitting since Weird War II: Blood on the Rhine is game of pulp horror.
Forget the fact that Weird War II: Blood on the Rhine is a d20 system game (or at least, please don’t hold that against it), because the idea is really cool, if in a slightly silly, pulp way. Fans of Suppressed Transmission should rejoice, since this book is all but Ken Hite’s ‘Sieg Howl! : Werewolves of Deutschland’ given form. Of course, there have been several really cool d20 adventures and supplements released in the first year of the game, but… All in all, and despite its minor problems, Weird War II: Blood on the Rhine has to be coolest of them all. I mean, Nazis, Wehrwolves – what more could you want?
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