WWII Supers/Supernatural Hero

[Mightybec]

I'm working on a Supernatural/Superhero in WWII setting. Each of the major powers will have a certain type of supernatural units assigned to them. Here's what I got so far.

All: Low Level Superheroes
US: Tribal Werewolves
Germany: Zombie and Zombie constructs, Necromancers
Japan: Oni, Elemental Dragons

Does anyone have suggestions for
UK:?
Russia:?
Italy:?

Thanks,
Mightybec

[Crimson Arrow]

Taking "7th Sea" as a guide, how about faerie characters for the UK, shapechangers for Russia, (possibly werebears, to avoid overlapping with the US) and witches for Italy?

I'd suggest faerie magic users, or people using legendary items for the UK, rather than faerie characters. That seems to sit better with a war.

If you opted for shamans instead of werewolves, you could have a bit more variety in the shapechangers for Russia, but you could still have wereboars, ravens, maybe even something strange like sturgeons (for naval operations).

The witches could be your common or garden variety, or could have tarot based powers. Perhaps they are fortune tellers, who really can see the future, or you could make them stereotypical gypsy types, giving people the "evil eye" and cursing them.

[Catacomb]

Gypsy types for Italy...Also use American Indians and Shamans in the Pacific(codetalkers?)

[Nuadha]

For the UK, I'd recommend picking up and reading a book about traditional faeries or Celtic mythology. Faeries aren't just little pixies. A few faerie types to consider in a superhero game:

Ankou- Black cloaked figures with faces hidden in the shadow, the personification od death. (Wales)

Attorcroppe- Snake-person (Saxony)

Beansidhe- (pronounced Ban-shee) A water woman known for her horrible wailing. (Ireland)

Ballybogs- Mud-people from Ireland

Buggars- Shapeshifting Goblins from England

Bwaganod- (pronounced Bookanohds) Goblins who can shapeshift into animals. (Wales)

Bweiod- (pronounced Bu-keyd) solitary, tall fae with purple eyes, a pointy nose and long fingers. Can move so fast can barely be seen. (Wales)

Dryads- Nature spirits (Celtic)


Throwing in some people with legendary weapons, such as Caliburn/Excalibur, wouldn't hurt, either.

[Nuadha]

Also, don't forget that the Southeastern US (Lousiana) has a lot of Voodoo practitioners. If you're going to work in Shamanism or Voodoo, make sure to treat them with a respect. They are each a religion for a lot of people.

[Supreme]

Personally, I prefer the use of allegories in campaigns. Zombies certainly make an excellent allegory for fascists because that's what fascism does to its population. It homogenizes them, removes their humanity, and turns them into automatons. The US contingent being werewolves is, while it is a good polar opposite to nazi zombies, seems to present a couple of problems.

First, if your PCs want to play Americans, it seems like their only choice will be lycanthropes. I don't know what your players are like, but it seems a little narrow to me. You may wind up with a lot of players saying, "I want to play an American - BUT..." That's always the player's way of saying, "I'll play in your campaign, but I don't really care for the background you've written." Those games are always troubled. Second, werewolves are powerful, loud, and unsubtle. During the War the Allies greatest strength was in espionage. You may want to think of things along those line. In the US, the natives have a folkloric tradition of skin-walkers - but the settlers have a long tradition of psychics.

As for UK suggestions, I suggest wicca/pagan magic-users. Also, anything associated with Camelot (i.e., Excalibur, Knights, Merlin, etc.). As for Italy, the sky's the limit. You can do stuff associated with Roman deities, or anything from classical mythology. You could also throw in magical stuff associated with Catholic saints, though this might be offensive to some of your players. Personally, I'd do something with Bacchites. It fits the Roman mythological theme, and the political theme as Mussolini's "politics" were based upon fervor and violence to the exclusion of rational thought.

Russia? No ideas. The Russian mythology I know is Baba Yaga, the witch who eats children. Doesn't make for good press amongst the Allies.

Here's another general thought. Since one of themes of the war was that each side fought by bringing to bear all the sheer industrial might that they could muster, you may want to play out some kind of merging of the mystical with industrial. Zombie-robots, as you already mentioned. Steel golems. Cursed factories. Etc.

[Mightybec]

Originally posted by Supreme

First, if your PCs want to play Americans, it seems like their only choice will be lycanthropes.

Each country also has low level Superheroes also (Speedster, brick, ect). Sorry for leaving this out. It was late when I posted it last night.

Mightybec

[Lord Liaden]

I strongly suggest you browse this website, the "Encyclopedia Mythica":
http://www.pantheon.org/

Several sections should be helpful to you: The "Mythology" section includes both Roman and Etruscan mythologies, which should cover a lot for Italy, while the "Heroes" section features several prominent figures from Russian legend, along with associated foes and creatures. The "Folklore" section has lots of British and Irish fey folk and the like, plus a section on "Arthurian myths", which may give you ideas for U.K. characters.

[Mayday]

Germany went around collecting supernatural items (see Indiana Jones) so can very easily have foci based heroes, and they went pretty deep into the norse mythos as well. All kinds of supernatural stuff there, including Valkyries to haul you off the field and strange old men with eyepatchs asking for shelter.

For Eastern European countries that later became part of the Eastern Block and Russia, they can have vampires (Transylvania?).

Italy, I read a series last year about an alternate Rome (Rome with magic). Rome had over time developed a near immunity to magic, by being Branded with a special seal that marked you as Roman. More complicated than that but it was very interesting world... all nations had magicians, each working magic differently and with different strengths. I highly recommend it.

England and US: Demon summoning witches? The kind we burned at Salem, curses and all....

Also, Christian countries could have supernatural powers from that, as Japan might have Shinto and Buddhist based supernaturals.

Russia is just full of creatures and beings. Brothers Grimm stuff and worse.

With each country Germany or the Axis controls they may also gain access to that country's heroes or powers. Im thinking Egyptian mages and shapeshifters here. Could make for a very strategic campaign if liberating a country or controlling a country increased the supernatural resources available to you. For instance each country starts off with 1 neutral embodiment (or zeitgeist). The Germans invade and Rommel's men capture the Egyptian embodiment and kill/sacrifice him, his power goes to the person who killed him. (Or he can voluntarily do it and die, nothing personal) The Axis now have a new hero (villain to us) to use, with all the knowledge of the previous guy to use as he sees fit.

Oh, a wild card faction could be the gypsies and jews in your campaign. Having no home but having other abilities. Gypsies being tarot divinators. Jews being Masons, who were reputed to engage in sorcery or something? Jews may also have supers based on powers granted by the Old Testament God.

[Nuadha]

Don't forget the Golems!

I made a WWII German superhero as a PC in a WWII Champions game- a nice guy who just completely bought the propoganda and had no clue about the reality of the what was going on. "The Jews? They'll just be shipped away to live in peace somewhere else."

Anyways, he was called The Grail and was basically a Green Lantern clone- an archeologist that discovered the Holy Grail someplace in the Middle East. (In Nazi teachings, a teutonic item, not the christian version) It morphed into a ring that gave him amazing powers.

Unfortunately, I never got to play him, since I ended up moving away before the campaign started.

[Tom Carman]

Originally posted by Supreme
Personally, I prefer the use of allegories in campaigns. Zombies certainly make an excellent allegory for fascists because that's what fascism does to its population. It homogenizes them, removes their humanity, and turns them into automatons. The US contingent being werewolves is, while it is a good polar opposite to nazi zombies, seems to present a couple of problems.

First, if your PCs want to play Americans, it seems like their only choice will be lycanthropes. I don't know what your players are like, but it seems a little narrow to me. You may wind up with a lot of players saying, "I want to play an American - BUT..." That's always the player's way of saying, "I'll play in your campaign, but I don't really care for the background you've written." Those games are always troubled. Second, werewolves are powerful, loud, and unsubtle. During the War the Allies greatest strength was in espionage. You may want to think of things along those line. In the US, the natives have a folkloric tradition of skin-walkers - but the settlers have a long tradition of psychics.

I'm suddenly flashing on memories of Poul Anderson's Operation Chaos. There was the Army intelligence officer with his Polaroid "WereFlash" (for when there wasn't a convenient full moon), the witch with the switchblade broomstick (used as a flying lance), and her familar cat skating backward as it pulled the trigger on a "grease gun" loaded with silver slugs. Quoting from memory: "And then there's the Petrological Warfare boys... I wonder about the whole utility of that corps: you have to get a basilisk pretty close to an enemy and looking straight at him to get a effect. And the aluminum foil suit you have to wear to deflect your pets' influence makes you a dandy target for snipers. And then, when a body's carbon is turned to silicon, you get an unstable isotope, and you can get such a dose of radiation that the medics will have to give you a St. John's Wort plucked from a graveyard in the dark of the moon."

[death tribble]

I agree with some of the things others have said here.

As to the Germans, here is a specific item that we used in our campaign, the Spear of Destiny. This was the spear used against Christ while on the cross. Supposedly Himmler was very interested in getting hold of it. The Germans have legends of it cf Parsifial and Kingslor.

But you could also look at the Godlike RPG which deals with supers during the war.

[Nuadha]

There's a book about the historical Nazi-Occult connection,titled Unholy Alliance. It's some creepy reading. I don't know if it's still in print, but it may be worth hunting down. If I remember correctly, it has a whole chapter on the Spear of Destiny.

[Black Rose]

Originally posted by Mayday
Italy, I read a series last year about an alternate Rome (Rome with magic). Rome had over time developed a near immunity to magic, by being Branded with a special seal that marked you as Roman. More complicated than that but it was very interesting world... all nations had magicians, each working magic differently and with different strengths. I highly recommend it.

So how about some more details on it? Like a name maybe?

With each country Germany or the Axis controls they may also gain access to that country's heroes or powers. Im thinking Egyptian mages and shapeshifters here. Could make for a very strategic campaign if liberating a country or controlling a country increased the supernatural resources available to you. For instance each country starts off with 1 neutral embodiment (or zeitgeist). The Germans invade and Rommel's men capture the Egyptian embodiment and kill/sacrifice him, his power goes to the person who killed him. (Or he can voluntarily do it and die, nothing personal) The Axis now have a new hero (villain to us) to use, with all the knowledge of the previous guy to use as he sees fit.

I like this idea.

[Mightybec]

I've recently added the following to my original document...

Zombie Trooper: 20 STR, 15 DEX, 10 CON, 10 BODY, 10 INT, 10 EGO, 20 PRE, 5 COM 4 PD, 2 ED, 2 DEX, 6 REC, 20 END
Takes no stun 45pts
Immunity all poisons and diseases, doesn’t breathe, doesn’t breathe, doesn’t sleep 36pts
Rifle – 2d6+1 RKA, +1 OCV, 8 shots, real weapon, 14pts
Options: +15 STR
+7 Body, +1 STR All 15pts
+5 DEX
These are former German soldiers that were killed in combat, then brought back to life by Deiterich Von Bacher, Chief Necromancer for the Third Reich. They are capable of limited independent thought, and react very well in the battlefield environment.

Russia:
Places of Interest:
Siberian Research Facility: This facility is located near the site where a starship fell to earth in 1908. The Talecian vessel, damaged from a munitions accident, fell to earth. It jettisoned it’s antimatter reactor ten miles before impact, resulting in a huge explosion. The survivors lived for a few weeks, but our nitrogen rich atmosphere slowly poisoned them. Due to the distance between the crash site and the explosion, the wreckage was only discovered in 1934. Only a small amount of alien technology remained intact. Recently, scientists have begun to hook up a modified power supply for the ship. Once this is done, they will have unknowingly activated the ships emergency beacon, notifying the Telecians of the location of the damaged vessel. Working alien artifacts include 24 energy rifles, 1 armed hovercar (limited fuel cells), and two recon probes.

Spear of Destiny: This item is currently in Hitler’s possession at the Eagles Nest.
Stats: 2d6 KA, Penetrating, Healing 1d6 (Regeneration) only when held, Real Weapon, When the current owner looses the item, he receives 4d6 of Unluck as a disadvantage.

Mightybec