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Chapter-by-Chapter overview:
Prologue: Semper Fidelis A short story with marines. It is like the short fiction from the other parts of the war. This book goes into the Pacific part of World War II.
Chapter 1: Welcome Aboard This is player character information for the Pacific. The book has only two core classes: The Navy seaman and the marine. The seaman is the only fully statted core class. The marine is basically a grunt with a moral bonus. This chapter also has, for lack of a better term, specializations. These are tacked onto a core class to add more depth to the character. This system sure beats having 40-50 archetypes that are the same in every detail except name. The Feats in this book are command based, except for the Weird Feats.
Chapter 2: Equipment Vehicles & Ships This chapter has all the weapons and equipment for the Pacific theater. It starts out with Japanese weapons and arms. Then it goes into weapons from that were used exclusively in the Pacific. Also included is a listing of the weapons from the other theaters of the war.
Chapter 3: Naval Combat This chapter takes table top war games scenarios and converts them into d20 format. If you like that sort of thing, this is the perfect chapter for you. I think that is unnecessary and it takes the focus away from the players, unless the players happen to be command personal.
Chapter 4: History This chapter has the history of the Weird Wars Pacific Theater. It goes further back than December 7, 1941. It goes to 1932, during the height of Japanese imperialist period. This time, Hirohito and Yamamoto encouraged the Japanese people to expand all over the Asian world. It does not go into great detail about every event in this part of the war. It does cover the major ones. The chapter ends with the atomic bomb blowing up Nagasaki.
Chapter 5: War Master's Secrets This chapter describes all the weirdness in the Pacific. It has the Korumaku who are the Japanese equivalent to the OSI. They are the ones the specialize in making all the weirdness in the war. They use mystically imbued poisons to attack their enemies and to empower their soldiers. They also create the Tetsujin, a robot that is empowered by a human brain. The robot looks like something out of Star Wars.
Chapter 6: Bestiary In this chapter, there is a bunch of creatures for use in a campaign. Many of them are sight specific: it is impossible for a mako (Shark man) to appear in the jungle. Others, like a lightening god, can appear in all sorts of campaigns.
Chapter 7: Here Be Dragons An adventure for the Pacific war. The party goes through all areas of the war.
What I like about the book:
Details: This book gives the skinny on both sides of the war in the Pacific. There is enough information in the book to give the War Master a variety of campaign options and adventure seeds, above and beyond the ones that are mentioned in the book.
The Feel: This book captures the horrific feel of war. It also adds another layer that is separate from the real war. From the artwork to the descriptions of the Japanese people,
What I hate about the book:
Not enough Weirdness: The book tries to keep the weird part of the game series separate from the war part. I think that they should be closer together. I would like to have seen a subtle supernatural influence invade the Pacific Theater like it did in the core book.
The Japanese Mindset: While it does help to have this information from a historical standpoint, the problem is this book should not be an historical tome. It is supposed to be a period book. I feel that knowing the Japanese mindset will diminish the horrific feel of the setting. It would be better if the book did not explain this aspect of the war, or at least hold this knowledge for the war master.
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