World War Two Campaign

[Cassandra]

Re: World War Two Campaign

 

Then again, Doc Savage had equipped his team with Bulletproof vests, and Batman wore one two (he also carried a gun as well).

[Clonus]

Re: World War Two Campaign

 

Then again' date=' Doc Savage had equipped his team with Bulletproof vests, and Batman wore one two (he also carried a gun as well).[/quote']

 

Not for very long. Actually given the number of guys who felt free to go up against guns armed with nothing but manly fists, it's possible that that some gadgeteer is handing out anti-killing attack protection to worthy candidates.

[Cassandra]

Re: World War Two Campaign

 

Scenario 1

 

March, 1941. For the last three months the U.S. Congress had been debating the Lead Lease Act, which would allow war materials to be load to Britain and then returned at the end of the conflict. This was necessary because the Commonwealth was running out of money do to the war. The Nazis would want to prevent the act from passing, giving them the chance to starve Britain and force a surrender or at least a negotiated peace.

 

Heroes involved.

 

Black Condor - Richard Grey, Jr. took the place of assassinated look alike U.S. Senator Thomas Wright of California. Pro-Ally he would be a natural target of Axis spies.

 

Phantom Lady - Sandra Knight is the daughter of the U.S. Senator Henry Knight, but a crime fighter as well. More to the point, the Axis might go after her directly in order to pressure her father to vote against Lead Lease.

 

Starman - Ted Knight is Sandra Knight's cousin. Should she be kidnapped Henry Knight might as his for help finding her, even is the Senator was unaware that he was the cosmic rod wielding superhero.

 

Superman - Clark Kent is a Reporter for the Metropolis Daily Star. He could be in Washington to cover the vote, along with fellow reporter Lois Lane and photographer Jimmy Olsen. Superman himself in top of the Nazi capture list as they hope to find a way to use his powers for their own ends.

 

Liberty Belle - Libby Lawrence is a popular radio commentator. She would be covering the Lead Lease vote along with fighting Axis spies.

 

Johnny Quick - Johnny Chambers is a movie news camera man and would be in Washington to cover the vote.

 

 

The Axis might not want to send their own men, but hire common thugs to go after the heroes. In an effort to turn public opinion against the Allies they might use a British mastermind for that purpose. Perhaps even a famous movie star who had some Nazi friends.

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: World War Two Campaign

 

The best Golden Age campaign I ever ran was when I was stationed in Korea. It started as a "Pulp" campaign with heroic characters who were destined for "great things" (in GY1939, I planned to begin having supers appear on the scene, to go along with the preexisting "masked mystery men". Unfortunately, the lead-up to WWII was too long, so while we had great fun with the pre-war years (and the years between the war and America's entry into it) I was transferred stateside before we could have our "Pearl Harbor adventure". Hopefully someone stepped in after I was gone to keep things going, but military gaming groups, especially in Short Tour countries, tend to have a lot of player churn.

 

One Character, introduced as a P/NPC (GM-made but only usable by a new player if he wanted to join but didn't want to make a character right now), was Superman, done with 250 points. ISTR he had only 50 STR but 20 rPD, so he was tough by the standards. He was a SPD 3 character, and everyone else was (initially) SPD 4 except for the combat expert who had SPD 5 once the NHCMs came off in '38. Early Superman could not fly, but could leap tall buildings in a single bound (up to about 65 stories) or up to an eightth of a mile, and he had gliding, so once he was up there he could stay for a while, the early beginnings of what was intended to be built into flight with earned experience. Unfortunately for Superman, his player wanted something better, so we allowed him top bring in his "Ironman Clone" (Henceforth, "IC") from another campaign. He was a decent player, though and did not skew the campaign much, except when he, Tex Jones (the Aviator), and The Hunter went into business, buying out American Bantam to produce their own "People's Car". The Hunter was financier, TJ designed the engine and drive train, while IC designed the rest using modern engineering principles and safety standards. We even had sessions where all the rest of the team joined in on one of the "what should it look like" brainstorming session, the result of which was rather like the Tucker Torpedo (a movie of which kinda sparked all our imaginations earlier).

 

In case the links in my Sig are too confusing here's a ->LINK<- to my WWII Sourcebook, derived mainly from the above documents and a trivia book called World War Two Superfacts that I can't find many references to online. I did find ->THIS<- list of WWII trivia listing sources. Note that it starts with an editing error (the page repeats the first 10-or-so entries).

[megaplayboy]

Re: World War Two Campaign

 

If you're running a game and trying to hew somewhat close to real history, a week-by-week timeline for WW2 is likely essential. Pretty sure there's at least one on the interwebz somewhere.

[Cassandra]

Re: World War Two Campaign

 

Marvel characters based on the Dictionary descriptions are more "realistic" the DC characters, and many would fit right in.

[megaplayboy]

Re: World War Two Campaign

 

http://ww2db.com/event/timeline/

 

WW2, day by day timeline, with significant events going as far back as 1910 and as far forward as 1949.

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: World War Two Campaign

 

...And yes, I do plan on getting the latest GAC when it comes out. I've been waiting now for what, something like 18 years now?

[megaplayboy]

Re: World War Two Campaign

 

...And yes' date=' I do plan on getting the latest GAC when it comes out. I've been waiting now for what, something like 18 years now?[/quote']

 

Did the last one really come out that long ago? Wow.

[SSgt Baloo]

Re: World War Two Campaign

 

Did the last one really come out that long ago? Wow.

 

Yeah. I'm patient, but I'm not immortal either.

[Cassandra]

Re: World War Two Campaign

 

A superhero World War Two campaign would have a mix of technologies. The early war tanks used the both the Axis and the Allies were lightly armored and armored. In fact, two thirds of all British Tanks, and one third of all German Tanks were armed only with machine guns. Strangely enough all French Tanks had armor and cannon capable of defeating any German Tanks, but only one in ten had a radio, and they were split up into smaller units while the Germans concentrated theirs.

 

Meanwhile superheroes would be firing off ray guns and flying in invisible planes.

[Steve]

Re: World War Two Campaign

 

Did the last one really come out that long ago? Wow.

 

1994 was indeed the last time GAC was put into print.

[Clonus]

Re: World War Two Campaign

 

A superhero World War Two campaign would have a mix of technologies. The early war tanks used the both the Axis and the Allies were lightly armored and armored. In fact' date=' two thirds of all British Tanks, and one third of all German Tanks were armed only with machine guns. Strangely enough all French Tanks had armor and cannon capable of defeating any German Tanks,[/quote']

 

I...think you've got your sides mixed up. One third of the _French_ tank forces were World War I relics armed with machine guns. The German tanks were all state of the art

[Cassandra]

Re: World War Two Campaign

 

The Germans were using four different types of tanks. The Panzer 1, a six ton vehicles illegally built as an "agriculture tractor" and was to be used for training purposes, but they needed to put in on the front lines despite only being armed with a pair of .30 cal machine guns. This was useless against other tanks.

 

The Panzer 2, an slight improvement with a 20mm cannon and a little more armor.

 

The Panzer 3 was the first real tank with a 37mm cannon. Some thought had gone into it's design as it had a crew of five, commander, gunner, loader, driver, and a mechanic/machine gunner.

 

The Panzer 4 was available in a few numbers, and was armed with a short 50mm cannon that more more useful as infantry support artillery because it lacked the punch to penetrate tank armor.

 

Because the Germans expanded the number of Panzer Divisions the Germans were forced to use Czech built Tanks also armored with with 37mm, but with half the armor.

 

 

The French had an equal number of tanks, all armed with at least a 40mm cannon, and all with front armor capable of defeating any German tank shells. The Char B tank not only had a 40mm cannon in a turret, but a 75mm built into a sponson in the front hull.

 

The H 35 Tank was faster and more heavily armed then any German tank, and had an armor piercing 57mm cannon.

 

So why did they lose?

 

One reason was that each French tank had a one man turret. That meant that the French Tank Commander had to find a target, load the gun, fire, command the tank, and watch the company command Tank for signals. This overload of duties gave the Germans the ability to flank and destroy the French takes by hitting them on their weaker side or rear armor.

 

To make matters worse, the French Deployed their tanks in smaller groups as infantry support, and only built four tank division (one commanded by Charles De Gaulle).

 

Plus the French Command and Control was so outdated their main headquarters did not have a radio. They relied on two phone lines. The Overall Command Headquarters was placed thirty five miles away from the Army headquarters, It took a minimum of two days for orders to filter down from headquarters to the front lines.

 

By that time is was too late for them to react.

 

If you want to read more I suggest Blitzkrieg by Len Deighton, and Collapse of the Third Republic by William L. Shire.

 

One tidbit in the Shire book was that the French were so afraid of fighting the Germans that they suggested launching an attack on the Soviet Union's Caspian Sea Oil Fields in order to cut off the Axis oil.

[assault]

Re: World War Two Campaign

 

The French had a lot of WW1 era FT-17 light tanks in addition to their modern armour.

 

So yes, some French armour was obsolete, but that wasn't the main problem.

[assault]

Re: World War Two Campaign

 

No Megascale movement for superheroes' date=' but some vehicles may have it (Wonder Woman's Invisible Plane for example).[/quote']

 

The Flash objects, strongly. So does Johnny Quick and the Whizzer.

 

Superspeed is their schtick.

 

Air Wave has a problem with restrictions on instantaneous communications, too. He gets enough grief about being a superhero whose main power is to be able to make a phone call from anywhere as it is. And now when people realise just how awesome he is, they are tacitly trying to ban him...

 

My superhero team: the Flash, Air Wave... I'll get back to you for the rest....

[megaplayboy]

Re: World War Two Campaign

 

Well, if you want to imagine the potential impact of superspeed, megamovement, long-distance communication, etc., just ask yourself what would have happened differently in WW2 if the Axis had possessed a couple reconnaisance/communications satellites and the Allies didn't? They'd be able to track allied ship and troop movements, and to communicate this information quickly back to HQ. The Germans would have romped through the USSR and North Africa, and the Japanese would have wiped out the American carriers at Midway without much difficulty. Now, one can suspend disbelief a bit, but still a good GM should have an explanation ready for why superpowers haven't completely rewritten history and shortened the war in either direction.

[Shadow Hawk]

Re: World War Two Campaign

 

To have a WW2 campaign with supers that follows the general flow of the war requires some forethought... someone upthread pointed out 'rule of cool' applies when I pointed out treaty limits, and that was correct. So, give the Germans and Japanese superweapons and have the PC heroes counter them, either by facing them directly to nuetralize them, or by doing 'commando' type raids to knock out the factories before they can be massed produced. Some ideas...

 

1. German atom bomb. In reality, the Germans weren't all that close, either because they drove out the scientists who could have put them on the right path, or because one of thier top scientists intentionally put them on the wrong path, or just plain bad luck. Put them on the right path, and have the PCs sabotage them!

 

2. Japanese Naval Might. Japan lacked resources to build all the stuff they planned on. Blowing up shipyards sounds like fun, especially if the uncompleted battleship Kii (the 4th Yamato class) is "fully armed and operational". OR, make the Kii the never built "Super-Yamato" (eight 20" guns!) for the heroes to destroy.

 

3. German super-tanks.

 

4. German jet fighters.

 

5. Japanese Super-Ninjas.

 

6. German powered armor. Have one suit used by a supervillian, made as a prototype, and have the PCs destroy the factory.

 

And so on.

[Cassandra]

Re: World War Two Campaign

 

There were a number of secret super weapons considered, many in the book My Tank is Fight! by Jay Parsons.

 

The German Super Panzers the size of a Light Cruiser.

 

The British Aircraft Carrier made of a mix of wood pulp and ice, displacing 2 million tons.

 

A German Space Station (re-entry would have been a problem because they were off by how hot the temperature a returning spacecraft would get).

 

 

Of course they did foresee night vision goggles, but the battery back weight 35 lbs.

[ayinde]

Re: World War Two Campaign

 

I would think starwars the clone wars cartoon might make a good model for a supers in world war 2 setting

[assault]

Re: World War Two Campaign

 

While the presence of superpowers does change things, I don't think it is a good idea to single out specific powers as problematic. Basically, all of them are potential setting breakers.

 

I don't think that superspeed, for example, is more problematic than, say, telepathy, invisibility or the ability to control bees. Any of the latter can break things quite nicely. Just think about them for a while.

 

Clearly, there is no point in trying to rule out or control every possible dodgy power - you might as well just rule out powers in general, and play a Pulp game. (Which would be fun). Nor is there any point, IMHO, in arbitrarily restricting particular powers, especially ones associated with some of the most well known and deservedly popular superheroes.

 

In other words, crippling the Flash as a viable character concept is both unfair and pointless.

[Clonus]

Re: World War Two Campaign

 

Well' date=' if you want to imagine the potential impact of superspeed, megamovement, long-distance communication, etc., just ask yourself what would have happened differently in WW2 if the Axis had possessed a couple reconnaisance/communications satellites and the Allies didn't? They'd be able to track allied ship and troop movements, and to communicate this information quickly back to HQ. The Germans would have romped through the USSR and North Africa, and the Japanese would have wiped out the American carriers at Midway without much difficulty. Now, one can suspend disbelief a bit, but still a good GM should have an explanation ready for why superpowers haven't completely rewritten history and shortened the war in either direction.[/quote']

 

For my project I assume that the existence of superhumans and supertechnology is a net gain for the Axis, but not such a big one that they actually win. The consequence of failing to deal with most of the story seeds will be an extension to the length of the war. In theory if the PCs did absolutely nothing, then the Axis would win, but how likely is that?

[kahuna's bro]

Re: World War Two Campaign

 

a wwII era super should be lower powered than todays supers

[Greywind]

Re: World War Two Campaign

 

Not necessarily.

[casualplayer]

Re: World War Two Campaign

 

While the presence of superpowers does change things, I don't think it is a good idea to single out specific powers as problematic. Basically, all of them are potential setting breakers.

 

I don't think that superspeed, for example, is more problematic than, say, telepathy, invisibility or the ability to control bees. Any of the latter can break things quite nicely. Just think about them for a while.

 

Clearly, there is no point in trying to rule out or control every possible dodgy power - you might as well just rule out powers in general, and play a Pulp game. (Which would be fun). Nor is there any point, IMHO, in arbitrarily restricting particular powers, especially ones associated with some of the most well known and deservedly popular superheroes.

 

In other words, crippling the Flash as a viable character concept is both unfair and pointless.

 

I specifically said anything greater than 100 kph tended to be a core concept power, not rule it completely out. Lots of characters could hit 100 kph speed on foot: Robotman, Hourman, early Supes, WW. That would probably be the recommended cap for your heavy cavalry characters. Then you had your light cavalry/carrier pigeons like Flash, Johnny Quick and Air Wave that speed was just about all they did. In teamups they would draw fire while laughing at those slow, fat bullets until the heavy cav and shock troops arrived, the shock troops usually arriving on motorcycle, characters like Black Canary, Captain America, Wildcat and Batman, or on wing.

 

Due to cornering limitations and road conditions 100 kph was usually fast enough to catch a mobster's car or beat a train in a footrace, unless it was a Sivanamobile or something. The fastest train or car of the era didn't top 200 kph. It was a luxuriously slow and frantically urgent era.