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Chapter-by-Chapter synopsis
Prologue
This framing fiction is about a soldier on the Western Front of World War II. He and his company are fighting some unexplained horror of the war.
Chapter 1: Welcome to the War
This chapter sets up the game to the default campaign date of June 6, 1944. It covers the major players in the Weird War II Western Front: Great Britain, Germany, and the United States. This section also gives a brief history the war in Europe and in the African. It does not go into any details for the Russians or the Japanese theatres of the war. Those two areas are not important for this portion of the war.
Chapter 2: Characters
All the character classes available to players operating on the Western Front: Grunt, Officer, Medic/ Nurse, Resistance Fighter, and Scout. There is mention of the Pilot character class, but it is not in this book. I guess that it is listed in a later book. In the Weird Wars, Players do not start with magical abilities. They must wait until they earn the right to acquire them. The players also have the option of specializing. By choosing certain Feats, the players have the option of becoming a specialist in an area military knowledge. There is another difference in the Weird War II from standard d20: Weapons. These are not bought: they are assigned. What weapons you receive depend on which country you hail from, on which way you specialize, and on the whims of the War Marshall. And, unless it is attached to a vehicle, there is very little armor used in this game. Every Soldier gets a Helmet. Certain MoS might be able to get a Flak Jacket assigned to them. The rest must depend on the surroundings and vehicles to provide extra cover.
Apart from that, the Character Creation process follows the normal d20 standard of character creation. Roll stats, Record the numbers, assigned the derived values, roll for hit points, etc.
The remainder of the chapter is devoted to how to act like a soldier. It has all the information a soldier needs to survive: code of conducts, how to behave in front of officers and fellow soldiers. There are also sections devoted to women and minorities in the war. It has important information about generals in both sides. It also has information about the enemy: who they are, what they look like, and how to stop them.
Chapter 3: Skills and Feats
This section contains all the new skills and feats useful in a weird war setting. The book has eight new skills. There is nothing to report here. The specific changes to the skills from the Players Handbook are changed to fit the context of the setting, but they function almost like their D&D counterparts.
There are twenty-one new feats in the book. Six of these new feats deal with weapons. Four of the feats deal with the most common types of vehicles. Four of the new Feats are for interacting with troops. The remaining seven deal with combat situations that do not involve discharging firearms. All the feats combine to give the system a gritty warlike feel. It also contains the changes to existing feats from the Players Handbook.
Chapter 4: Equipment.
This chapter has all of the most common and the most interesting weapons available to the average soldier in Weird War II. Any thing the soldier might use (or find) is in here: grenades, antitank rounds, machine guns, rifles, and pistols. There are also long descriptions of every vehicle available to an infantryman in the Weird War. At the back, there is a reference chart with all the weapons for easy recording and tally.
Chapter 5: Combat.
This section has all the rules of engagement for any Weird War game. It has rules for firearms, artillery, healing, and vehicle combat. The healing rules are cool. The game gives two options for healing: normal and severe. Normal rules are for those that want to play a war movie the caliber of The Sands of Iwo Jima. The Severe wounds option is for Marshall that wants a little realism in their Weird War game.
Another new feature for a Weird War setting are Bennies. These provide are little boost of luck for the characters when they really need it. They function exactly like Fate Chips from Deadlands D20.
Chapter 6: Prestige Classes
So far, the book focuses on the war part of the setting. If this is a Deadlands book, this section might be the start of the No Man's Land. In this section, the war starts to become weird.
This book has five prestige classes, 2 of which are normal military: the Commando and the Sniper. Commandos are characters that have seen the elephant and are able to handle themselves in front of the Horrors of the war. Snipers are trained to kill from a distance. They provide support for your troops, should the need arise.
The other three are Organization of Supernatural Investigations (OSI) prestige classes. Two of these actually use magic. The OSI Chaplain performs miracles, like heal wounds and resurrect the dead. The OSI Adept specializes in using the Runes to perform subtle effects that could be explained away as coincidences like Fog or Magic Armor.
Chapter 7: Magic.
This chapter has all the rules for performing magic in the Weird Wars. There are two types available to the PC's (NPC's have a bunch more): Miracles and Runic. Miracles are little effects that could be performed feasibly by any man of God. Runes are letters that the Germanic Tribes used centuries ago. They provide powers for the people who know how to use them. Using miracles and Runes cost strain.
Chapter 8: Haunted Vehicles
The Staple of any weird War Story, these vehicles has spirits to protect and provide powers to help the current users. These vehicles can hide, aid the driver, fire shots that penetrate armor, and repair it. If you are lucky, they can also resurrect the dead. And if you are luckier still, there is a chance that you will be in control of your character to boot.
Chapter 9: Officer's Country
This has all the major battles from the start of the campaign setting (June 6, 1944) to the end of the war (May 5, 1945). This section contains the magical effects the Nazi's have access to: Mithril, Blood Magic, all sorts of monsters, and the Nazi Thule Society. It also has all the other rules the War Marshall needs to provide a realistic war setting: Promotions, Ranks, and Medals.
Dogs of War:
This is a sample adventure for the War Marshall. This story gets the characters ready for the weird part of the war. It has one of the lesser supernatural baddies the Nazi's have access to.
Reference charts
All the charts needed for play in one location.
Other stuff: The Artwork is cool. The drawings are sparsely distributed; actually, they are practically nonexistent. The drawings start out weird and it gets creepier throughout the book. It also contains period photos from World War II. The layout is nice. It has real world quotes from the people involved in the actual World War II, and not in the Weird War setting.
Drawbacks: for those that care about it (I know a couple that do), it is a D20 game. That is the only drawback I see. If you are creative, this should not be a problem. The setting can be used as source material for other games. It works best if you convert it into Savage Worlds, from what I hear. I am not the biggest fan of Savage Worlds, and have never tried it. Chances are, I am not going to. I am more of a Deadlands player and prefer to use that system, unaltered. If Savage Worlds is your cup of tea, that suggestion might work best for you.
Overall, I think that it is a great concept. It is a war story RPG in the caliber of all other war RPG's I have played. It also has the feel of those old Weird War stories published in the 50's. It has the potential for great games. Fighting in a war is terrifying enough, but this game can push people over the edge.
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