A Date with Destiny

All across England and around her coasts men wait to launch the biggest amphibious assault in history. In just a few hours they will be part of the operation to liberate Europe from Nazi occupation and oppression. Most are aboard troopships, from ports such as Poole, Portsmouth, and Southampton, waiting to disembark in landing craft and assault beaches all along the coast of Normandy. Others pilot the aeroplanes that will give the operation air cover. A few clamber into gliders at Tarrant Rushton ready to be towed over northern France where they will be released to land and capture key locations, whilst others climb into C-47 Dakotas in Upottery from which before dawn they will leap and parachute to the ground to capture, disrupt, and destroy strategic locations all along the Cotentin Peninsula just behind the beaches. They are part of the D-Day landings and together they will make history, they will free Europe, and will prove their bravery and resourcefulness in desperate times again and again.

This is also the set-up for War Stories: Rendezvous With Destiny Campaign Book, the first supplement for War Stories: A World War 2 RPG, published by Firelock Games. It is a campaign—both historical and roleplaying—that takes place over the course of two weeks in June, 1944. As members of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the US 101st Airborne Division, the Player Characters will parachute into northern France, regroup and begin the liberation of Europe in a series of missions from their initial landing to the assault on the town of Carentan which will connect the beachheads established by the Utah and Omaha beach landings. The Player Characters will face fierce resistance from the Germans, exhausted joy from the French civilians, the cruelty of the Nazis, and tensions within their own platoon that will all come to a head at the culmination of the campaign. War Stories: Rendezvous With Destiny Campaign Book includes advice on how to set up and run the campaign, advice throughout including on running the battles that make up the key points of the campaign, and more.

The set-up involves character creation and really choice of company within 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. The supplement includes six pre-generated paratroopers, which the players can choose from or create their own. What they definitely have to do is create the Background Characters, the other members of their Player Characters’ platoon and company. These will serve and fight alongside the Player Characters and if the worst happens, serve as a source of replacement characters. The Player Characters should be members of the same squad and there is scope for one of them to be the platoon commander and thus a commissioned officer, though this will, of course, mean extra responsibilities for that character and his player. When it comes to the choice of company within the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, it is highly recommended that the Player Characters are not members of the 2nd Battalion with its Dog, Easy, and Fox Companies, especially Easy Company, since its exploits are so well known, having been chronicled in the book and television series, Band of Brothers. This leaves six other companies to choose from. Although there are missions within the campaign that are similar to those conducted by Easy Company, the point of War Stories: Rendezvous With Destiny Campaign Book is not to recreate what its members did. Rather it is to tell a story that runs alongside that of Easy Company that is as equally dangerous and heroic.

Each of the seven missions in War Stories: Rendezvous With Destiny Campaign Book is organised in the same format. This begins with an introduction, a list of the mission objectives, the allied forces involved, new intelligence recently gathered by spotters and scouts, details of the objective, possible events, and information about the wider battle, before coming to a close with what might happen in the immediate aftermath and what battles might take place next. Each mission is accompanied by one or more maps, all full colour, which have a lovely period feel to them.

The campaign itself begins with an overview of the major targets on the Cotentin Peninsula and what intelligence is available before leaping into the first of its seven missions. This begins at Upottery airfield in Devon, waiting for the jump into France, famously delayed a day by the weather. Buffeted by wind and flak, the Paratroopers will land bruised and underequipped, subject to random events between the landing and the rendezvous point. The jump and its consequences could be played through in a sequel session before undertaking the first mission proper. This is to target the coastal battery overlooking Utah Beach outside St. Martin de Varreville. Subsequent missions will see the Player Characters advance down the Cotentin Peninsula, capturing the village of St. Marie Du Mont, capturing a bridge over the River Merderet, withstanding a German counterattack, and beyond to assault the town of Carentan in several days of street fighting. All of these engagements are based on historical events—or at the least, very close to them. For example, famously, as depicted in Band of Brothers, members of Easy Company along with other paratroopers, assault Brécourt Manor, a German artillery battery overlooking causeway exit #2 leading off Utah Beach, but there was another German artillery battery, at Holdy Manor, overlooking causeway exit #1. It is this battery that the Player Characters will assault. The assault is very similar to that of Brécourt Manor, although unlike Brécourt Manor, there are prisoners being held at Holdy Manor. Unlike the events of what happened at Holdy Manor, the Player Characters do have a chance to rescue them.

If played straight through as is, the various missions laid out in War Stories: Rendezvous With Destiny Campaign Book will take a session or two to play through. However, there is more to the campaign than the military action. There are downtime activities and a number of mini-missions, more thumbnail hooks, that the Game Master can develop, but in addition there are two story strands that the Game Master is expected to thread throughout the campaign. The first is ‘He Who Would Be King’, which involves tension in the command structure in the Player Characters’ Company, a clash of personalities and competencies that will come to a head in the bombed and battered buildings of Carentan. The second is ‘In the Face of Evil’ which tracks the involvement of elite SS officers in their attempts to bolster German defence against the invading Allied forces by any means necessary. Of the two, ‘He Who Would Be King’ is more roleplaying focused than ‘In the Face of Evil’, as it involves members of the Player Characters’ own Company and pretty much everyone is going to have an opinion about it, whereas ‘In the Face of Evil’ puts a face to the Nazi war machine and gives everyone someone to hate. What it does mean is that with each new mission, the Game Master will not only be preparing that mission be the next sections from each of the two story missions.

Rounding out War Stories: Rendezvous With Destiny Campaign Book are chapters with all of the stats and backgrounds to the campaign’s NPCs, mission by mission, the mini-missions, and a set of player handouts and maps. The latter are larger versions of the ones produced earlier in the book.

Physically, War Stories: Rendezvous With Destiny Campaign Book is well produced. The artwork is excellent, and the cartography is evocative.

War Stories: Rendezvous With Destiny Campaign Book is an all-male affair. That is understandable given its historicity, but the campaign does not allow for the option of including Partisan or French Resistance members that might have allowed other character options. Then there is the matter of the SS presence in the campaign which leans into caricature just a little too much. Another issue perhaps, with the campaign, is its historicity, the fact that the events of the campaign run very close to the events as they really happen and that may be seen as detracting from the efforts of the soldiers actually involved. This is far from the truth, for although in the course of the campaign, their characters will be involved in historical events and even involved in recreating them, what the players are really doing to coming understand some of the difficulties that the soldiers faced and how determined they were in overcoming those difficulties and so defeating the Germans. Lastly, there is an undeniable familiarity to this campaign. Whether from watching or reading Band of Brothers, or even playing Call of Duty or Medal of Honour or Brothers in Arms. None of that can be helped, but unlike those first-person shooters, War Stories: Rendezvous With Destiny Campaign Book is designed to tell a story where the players and their characters, together, work, fight, survive, and mourn together.

War Stories: Rendezvous With Destiny Campaign Book is a well-researched and solidly written supplement that enables the Game Master to run a game setting during one of the greatest military campaigns and for the players to experience just some of the effort involved. And as an experience, War Stories: Rendezvous With Destiny Campaign Book should be in turns exciting, harrowing, and ultimately about camaraderie.

Year ’44

It has been decades since there has been a big roleplaying game based on World War 2 published that took its history straight. Most World War 2 roleplaying games mix in another element, typically horror, whether that is Lovecraftian horror as in Achtung! Cthulhu or more traditional horror, like that of Weird War II from Pinnacle Entertainment Group. GURPS WWII from Steve Jackson Games is one of the few exceptions to play it straight, although it does have it own supplement to add horror and other oddities, GURPS Weird War II. It should be noted that both the original version of Weird War II—Weird War II: Blood on the Rhine for the d20 System—and GURPS WWII were released in the early noughties, at a time when in interest in World War 2, mankind’s greatest conflict, was at its height. It was then the sixtieth anniversary of the USA’s entry into World War 2, and this was being marked culturally on television, on film, and yes, in roleplaying. Since then, Achtung! Cthulhu has been the flagbearer for gaming in the period, but it is interesting to note that with the passing of the eightieth anniversary of the events of World War 2, there has been much, much less of an interest in the roleplaying hobby in the period. It is essentially passing out of memory and into history. However, as June 6th 2024—the eightieth anniversary of Operation Overlord, of the D-Day landings—approaches, there is a roleplaying is a new roleplaying game based on World War 2 which does take its history straight and does focus on the D-Day landings and the subsequent campaign to liberate Europe from the Nazi yoke.

War Stories: A World War 2 RPG is published by Firelock Games and is notable for using the system du jour that is the Year Zero Engine, first seen in Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days. It is also notable in defaulting to the years 1944 and 1945 in its focus, the years of the Allied invasion of Europe. This does not mean that it cannot be set in earlier years during the war or in other theatres of conflict and the rules will support that. The arms and armour, though, that are detailed in the core rules are fielded by the Allies and the German forces in the European and North African theatres of operation. The Game Master wanting information on the Asian theatres will have to wait for further supplements. The play of War Stories: A World War 2 RPG also differs from other World War 2 roleplaying games which tend to focus on special operations conducted by an ad hoc mix of characters—in other words, Player Characters. War Stories: A World War 2 RPG can do that style of play, but the default in War Stories: A World War 2 RPG is that the Player Characters are members of squad, part of a platoon, in a company, and so on. In addition to the Player Characters, there will be Background Characters, a supporting cast which makes up the rest of the platoon, which can come into play supporting the Player Characters, interacting with them, and even replacing them if a Player Character is wounded or killed in action. This brings in elements of troupe play as it gives the players a wider range of character to roleplay, although mechanically, Background Characters are not as detailed as Player Characters. By default, the Player Characters will be members of the 101st Airborne a la the television series, Band of Brothers, but other units are also possible and the Player Characters could even be members of a tank crew with some adjustment. The roleplaying game’s first supplement, War Stories Campaign Book: Rendezvous With Destiny, supports the default.

War Stories: A World War 2 RPG also addresses the role women and minorities played during the war and the prejudices that they were confronted with. The authors advise that these prejudices should not be basis for scenarios in War Stories: A World War 2 RPG, and that where it does arises as part of any story, it should be handled with care and responsibility. It notes too that minorities fought with distinction too, and that women were involved in the conflict as well, and one of the archetypes suggested as part of character creation is a Partisan who is portrayed as a woman as is the War Correspondent. Similarly, one of the archetypes is portrayed as an African American. Lastly, it notes that whilst War Stories: A World War 2 RPG is not alternative history roleplaying game, the likelihood is that any campaign run by a Game Master is likely to stray from exactly what happened historically.

A Player Character in War Stories: A World War 2 RPG has four Attributes—Strength, Agility, Intelligence, and Empathy. These are rated between one and five. He also has several skills, rated between zero and five. These are associated with each of the four Attributes. For example, Calisthenics is a Strength skill, Ranged Combat an Agility skill, Insight an Intelligence skill, and Guts an Empathy skill. Specialisations, such as Grunt, Stealth, Sharpshooter, Born to Lie, and Counsellor add dice to Action Tests and come in two tiers. Talents like Intimidating, Fast Reflexes, Hardy, Polyglot, and Intense Focus: Empathy provide further bonuses. For example, Polyglot grants a chance to understand the basis of other languages, whilst Fast Reflexes enables a player to draw an extra Initiative card and chose the best. All five Player Characters have Flaws and Virtues, for example, Aloof or Naïve, Careful or Well-Spoken. In play, the Game Master can invoke a Player Character’s Flaw or Virtue to impose a negative or positive Die Modifier respectively.

In addition to Endurance, a Player Character’s capacity to handle the physical and mental stresses of combat and other challenges, he also has a Conditions Tracker which measures the effect of damage suffered. The Conditions Tracker has four categories, one for each Attribute, and each category has three ranks. Wounds is linked to Strength and a Player Character can either be ‘Gashed’, ‘Cut’, or ‘Nicked’. Weariness is linked to Agility, Fear to Intelligence, and Morale to Empathy. Each rank levies a penalty on all rolls made with its associated Attribute.

War Stories: A World War 2 RPG provides two options when it comes to character creation. The first involves choosing an Archetype, one of its suggested Service Branches, assign three points to attributes, assign set values to the archetype’s skills, choose Specialisations and Talents, a Flaw and a Virtue, and a buddy from the amongst the other Player Characters. The eight Archetypes consist of Rifleman, Scout, Medic, Weapon Specialist, Leader, Engineer, Partisan, and Correspondent.

Name: Albert Emerson
Rank: Private
Nationality: British Age: 22
Service Branch/Career: Airborne
Buddy: Johnny Abbot Languages: English (Tier II)
Virtues: Hard-working Flaws: Impatient
Lucky Strikes: 0 FUBARs: 0
Endurance: 5

ABILITIES & SKILLS
Strength: 4 – Calisthenics 1, Stamina 1
Agility: 4 – Ranged Combat 2, Infiltrate 3
Intelligence: 4 – Perception 2
Empathy: 3 – Guts 1

Specialisations: Paratrooper I, Scout I, Stealth I
Talents: Hard to Find

Equipment: Mk I Sten Gun, Denison Smock, MK1 Paratrooper Steel Helmet, 1937 Webbing, lightweight gas mask, toggle rope

The second method is more involved, but gives a more rounded and detailed result. This is the Life Path method which involves rolling tables for nationality, upbringing, experience both before and during the war. The result can be a bit messy and unfocused if using this method, but it can also create some interesting Player Character Backgrounds. Alternatively, a player can simply choose the results to give himself more control over the outcome and so design rather than randomly create a character. In comparison, the means for creating Background Characters is simple and straightforward, producing NPCs with basic stats, skills, and specialisations that are easy to bring into play.

Name: Élodie Robillard
Rank: Partisan
Nationality: French Age: 23
Upbringing: Rural/Small Town (Carnival)
Pre-War Experience: Minor Criminal (Gang Leader)
War Experience: Partisan (Smuggler)
Buddy: – Languages: French (Tier II), Dutch (Tier II)
Virtues: Determined Flaws: Impatient
Lucky Strikes: 0 FUBARs: 0
Endurance: 4

ABILITIES & SKILLS
Strength: 2
Agility: 4 – Infiltrate 1, Nimble 1, Ranged Combat 1
Intelligence: 4 – Insight 2, Perception 2
Empathy: 5 – Command 1, Persuasion 2

Specialisations: Born to lie I, Street Smart I
Talents: Judge of Character

Equipment: Throwing Knife

Mechanically, the War Stories: A World War 2 RPG uses the Year Zero Engine, which requires six-sided dice. To have his character undertake an action, a player must roll an Action Test. The player rolls a number of six-sided dice equal to the skill value and its associated Attribute. Further dice can come from Specialisations, the situation, and equipment used. Each six rolled counts as a Success. Only one Success is typically required to succeed at an Action Test. Extra Successes can be used to generate additional effects, for example, bonuses to damage in combat or extra Lucky Strike tokens.

If no Successes are rolled or if he wants to generate more Successes, a player can chose to ‘Push Your Luck’. This enables him to reroll any dice that did not roll Successes or results of one. He can only this once for any Action Test. However, a ‘Push Your Luck’ attempt turns any result of a one—on either the original roll or the reroll, into Duds. Any Dud results after a ‘Push Your Luck’ earn the Player Character a FUBAR point. A Player Character can hold up to a maximum of two FUBAR points, any excess going into a pool that the Game Master give out to a Player Character when narratively appropriate.

Along with FUBAR points, Lucky Strikes are the two types of luck or hero points in War Stories: A World War 2 RPG. A player can use his Player Character’s Lucky Strikes or FUBAR points to reroll ones on a ‘Push Your Attempt’, add more dice to an Action Test, reroll a damage roll, change a minor plot point, gain Fast Actions in combat, remove Suppression effects, and re-rolling Critical Results. Thus, FUBAR points are not necessarily as dangerous as they first appear or sound, but the Game Master can use them in three other ways that a player cannot. This is ‘Push an NPC Test’, essentially a ‘Push Your Luck’, but for NPCs; impose a narratively suitable Condition on a Player Character without the need for Endurance loss; and introduce a Random Bad Luck Event into the current scenario. If there is an issue here, it is the number of options for the players to choose from, and remembering them in play.

It should be no surprise that a strong emphasis is placed on combat in War Stories: A World War 2 RPG. The mechanics use the same rules as Action Tests, whilst initiative is handled by drawing cards from the Initiative Deck, and can be altered as the result of Talents, such as ‘Fast Reflexes’ or Extra Successes generated on certain Action Tests. In one Round, a Player Character can undertake one Slow Action and one Fast Action, or two Fast Actions. Slow actions include Close Combat Attack, First Aid, and Rally, whilst Fast Actions include Aim, Go On Overwatch, and Operate Vehicle. The rules cover aiming, rendering first aid, rallying an ally, and overwatch, as well as range, obstructions, visibility, suppressive fire, and zones. The latter are combat areas which vary in size according to the needs of the narrative. Thus, one room in a house-to-house fight could be a zone, as could a wheat field outside a village. The rules also take into account rapid fire by semiautomatic weapons, burst fire, and full auto, along with suppressive fire, explosions, protection, cover, and personal armour.

When an attack is successful, a roll is required on the Damage Table. This is made with the ten-sided die. Bonuses to this roll can come from the weapon used, depending upon its lethality, and any extra Success rolled on the Action Test. Damage is deducted from the Player Character’s Endurance and applied to his Conditions Tracker. The first Condition is determined by the Game Master as narratively appropriate, whilst the player is free to assign the damage elsewhere on the Conditions Tracker. Rest, First Aid, and Rally can also be used to restore Endurance and remove Conditions. Damage rolls of ten or more inflict three points of damage and a Critical Hit. There are Critical Hits Charts for each of the body locations. There are rules too for fatigue and stress, a Player Character having to save against both with a Stamina or Guts Test respectively, and it is possible to be incapacitated due to stress and suffer from combat fatigue. The rules for healing are almost as complex as those for combat, but they necessary since combat is far more lethal than in most other roleplaying games. What is also clear is that a good medic is required on the battlefield.

The rules for vehicle combat work in a similar fashion to infantry combat, but with initiative cards being drawn by each member of a vehicle crew if manned by Player Characters, or a single card for an entire NPC crewed vehicle by the Game Master. Vehicles have their own Critical Hits Charts. The list vehicles include tanks, transports, and anti-tank guns, the latter in addition to the portable anti-tank weapons listed elsewhere in the extensive gear list. There are also options for advanced vehicle combat, but the Game Master is provided with optional rules throughout War Stories: A World War 2 RPG. These include perks granted for being awarded certain medals, dynamic hidden initiative, co-ordinating manoeuvres, infections and permanent injuries.

For the Game Master, War Stories: A World War 2 RPG provides a lot of support starting with rules for handling the campaign, that is, the wider battle going on around the Player Characters. This is simply not just for the Game Master to run. Although the primary player involvement is to zoom into the actions that their characters are fighting, they also have some control over what the Background Characters are doing and directing what objectives they are trying to achieve. The rules zoom in and out of the battle, first with the Player Phase, focusing on the Player Characters, before zooming out for the Battle Phase when rolls are made for wider outcomes, followed by a Casualty Phase and then a Narrative Phase when the Game Master describes the outcomes and the players decides the actions for the next Player Phase. There are rules too for movement between engagements, creating Areas of Operations, random encounters, and even tables of scavenged finds and loot!

Advice for the Game Master is decent, and there are suggestions for campaign ideas other than the default invasion of Europe, such as playing members of the Resistance or a tank crew, all supported by adventure ideas. Using miniatures is also discussed, but perhaps the most important piece of Game Master advice covers the possibility of arbitrary death, which is ever present in War Stories: A World War 2 RPG. The advice is to agree beforehand with the players whether or not to include it in the campaign. If they agree to its inclusion, in game it is simply not a matter of a Player Character being killed in an indiscriminate fashion, but rather that there is a chance of him being killed in such a way. There is also a section on ‘1940s Lingo’, an overview of the European Theatre of Operations in 1944 and 1945, and stats for the combatants involved—primarily German, perhaps more importantly a discussion of discussion of how both Allied and Axis forces were organised, how they operated, and what their tactics were. This is very useful, the guide to tactics very useful, as for the Allies, it will give the players some idea how their characters are expected to operate and how their allies will act, whilst also having some understanding of how the enemy will act. For the Game Master it is a good guide to both sides and will help her portray their actions over the course of a battle.

Lastly, there is a short, introductory scenario, ‘The Tank: Intro Scenario’. It takes place in late August of 1944 as the Allies attempt to close the Falaise Pocket and prevent a German breakout from Normandy. The Allies have learned that from captured prisoners that German troops are regrouping at a village to the east called Moulins-sur-Orne and they have a Panzer IV with them. The tank is possible threat to the rapid breakout that the Allied armies want to make out of Normandy. The Player Characters, consisting of a single squad, with no Background Characters, is ordered to reconnoitre the village, verify the intelligence gathered from German prisoners, and if confirmed, to destroy the tank. Playable in a single session, it is grim affair that mixes up shellshocked French civilians, Germans wanting to surrender, and Germans wanting to fight. The only issue with the scenario is a lack of a map and the fact that it does not make full use of the rules including Background Characters. ‘The Tank: Intro Scenario’ is set after the events of War Stories Campaign Book: Rendezvous With Destiny, so the Game Master could wait to run it or even treat it as a sort of ‘flash forward’ for events after that campaign.

Rounding out War Stories: A World War 2 RPG are a series of appendices that provide a glossary, bibliography, all of the game’s tables for ease of reference, a section of pre-generated Player Characters and NPCs, and lastly, the index. There are enough pre-generated Player Characters to choose from to play ‘The Tank: Intro Scenario’ and they include a female partisan. Her presence could increase the number of players for the scenario from four to five.

Physically, War Stories: A World War 2 RPG is well presented book. The artwork in particular is very good, although as good as it is, depicting a Gestapo agent as looking like SS-Sturmbannführer Arnold Toht from Raiders of the Lost Ark does suggest a pulp tone that the roleplaying game does not actively support, although there is an option for it. Lastly, it does need an edit in places.

The primary issues with War Stories: A World War 2 RPG are two-fold. Neither is an unfair criticism. One is that its focus on D-Day and the European theatre of operations means that huge swathes of the conflict are ignored. To be fair, covering the whole of World War 2 would result in a very unwieldy book and instead it focuses on a period of the war that is more familiar than others. Second is that its focus is on the Americans and the 101st Airborne, which comes fully to the fore with the first supplement for the roleplaying game, War Stories Campaign Book: Rendezvous With Destiny. It is a criticism that is often labelled at treatments of World War 2, but then, Firelock Games is an American publisher and the USA is a bigger market, and again, there is the familiarity of the operations of the 101st Airborne via Band of Brothers—both book and television series.

War Stories: A World War 2 RPG is a gripping, gritty treatment of the biggest conflict of the twentieth century. It is well written, well designed, and very well presented. If a gaming group is looking to roleplay the historical World War 2, then War Stories: A World War 2 RPG is the obvious choice.

Quick-Start Saturday: War Stories

Quick-starts are a means of trying out a roleplaying game before you buy. Each should provide a Game Master with sufficient background to introduce and explain the setting to her players, the rules to run the scenario included, and a set of ready-to-play, pre-generated characters that the players can pick up and understand almost as soon as they have sat down to play. The scenario itself should provide an introduction to the setting for the players as well as to the type of adventures that their characters will have and just an idea of some of the things their characters will be doing on said adventures. All of which should be packaged up in an easy-to-understand booklet whose contents, with a minimum of preparation upon the part of the Game Master, can be brought to the table and run for her gaming group in a single evening’s session—or perhaps two. And at the end of it, Game Master and players alike should ideally know whether they want to play the game again, perhaps purchasing another adventure or even the full rules for the roleplaying game.

Alternatively, if the Game Master already has the full rules for the roleplaying game the quick-start is for, then what it provides is a sample scenario that she still run as an introduction or even as part of her campaign for the roleplaying game. The ideal quick-start should entice and intrigue a playing group, but above all effectively introduce and teach the roleplaying game, as well as showcase both rules and setting.

—oOo—

What is it?
The War Stories: A World War 2 RPG Quickstart Ruleset is the quick-start for War Stories: A World War 2 RPG, the roleplaying game of the stories of the men and women whose desperate missions and harrowing exploits would help win the greatest conflict of the twentieth century.

It includes a basic explanation of the setting, detailed descriptions of the various elements which make up a Player Character, rules for actions and combat, details of the arms and equipment fielded by the Player Characters, the mission, ‘Cut the Lines’, and five ready-to-play, pre-generated Player Characters.

It is a forty-five page, 20.42 MB full colour PDF.

The quick-start is well illustrated and the artwork is uniformly excellent, especially that of the pre-generated Player Characters. The maps for the scenario are also good and like the newspaper-style layout for the quick-start, they grant the War Stories: A World War 2 RPG Quickstart Ruleset a pleasing verisimilitude.

The War Stories: A World War 2 RPG Quickstart Ruleset is published by Firelock Games.

How long will it take to play?
The War Stories: A World War 2 RPG Quickstart Ruleset and its adventure, ‘Cut the Lines’, is designed to be played through in one session, two at the very most.

What do you need to play?
The War Stories: A World War 2 RPG Quickstart Ruleset requires six-sided dice, no more than ten per player, as well as a single ten-sided die each. Ten cards from a standard deck of playing cards, numbered Ace through ten are also required. They will form the Initiative Deck.

Who do you play?
Four of the pre-generated Player Characters consist of members of the 101st Airborne. They include an ex-baseball player turned intimidating sergeant, a farm boy who is an impatient scout, an unlucky ex-police officer now rifleman, and an educated, but naïve medic. The female Player Character is a French ex-con artist turned partisan.

How is a Player Character defined?
A Player Character in War Stories: A World War 2 RPG has four Attributes—Strength, Agility, Intelligence, and Empathy. These are rated between one and five. He also has several skills, rated between zero and five. These are associated with each of the four Attributes. For example, Calisthenics is a Strength skill, Ranged Combat an Agility skill, Insight an Intelligence skill, and Guts an Empathy skill. Specialisations, such as Grunt, Stealth, Sharpshooter, Born to Lie, and Counsellor add dice to Action Tests. Talents like Intimidating, Fast Reflexes, Hardy, Polyglot, and Intense Focus: Empathy provide further bonuses. For example, Polyglot grants a chance to understand the basis of other languages, whilst Fast Reflexes enables a player to draw an extra Initiative card and chose the best. All five Player Characters have Flaws and Virtues, but these not defined in the War Stories: A World War 2 RPG Quickstart Ruleset and the Game Master will need to consult the War Stories: A World War 2 RPG core rules if she wants to bring them into play mechanically.

In addition to Endurance, a Player Character’s capacity to handle the physical and mental stresses of combat and other challenges, he also has a Conditions Tracker which measures the effect of damage suffered. The Conditions Tracker has four categories, one for each Attribute, and each category has three ranks. Wounds is linked to Strength and a Player Character can either be ‘Gashed’, ‘Cut’, or ‘Nicked’. Weariness is linked to Agility, Fear to Intelligence, and Morale to Empathy. Each rank levies a penalty on all rolls made with its associated Attribute.

How do the mechanics work?
Mechanically, the War Stories: A World War 2 RPG uses the Year Zero Engine first seen in Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days, published by Free League Publishing. To undertake an action, a player must roll an Action Test. The player rolls a number of six-sided dice equal to the skill value and its associated Attribute. Each six rolled counts as a Success. Only one Success is typically required to succeed at an Action Test. Extra Successes can be used to generate additional effects, for example, bonuses to damage in combat or extra Lucky Strike tokens.

If no Successes are rolled or if he wants to generate more Successes, a player can chose to ‘Push Your Luck’. This enables him to reroll any dice that did not roll Successes or results of one. He can only this once for any Action Test. However, a ‘Push Your Luck’ attempt turns any result of a one—on either the original roll or the reroll, into Duds. Any Dud results after a ‘Push Your Luck’ earn the Player Character a FUBAR point. A Player Character can hold up to a maximum of two FUBAR points, any excess going into a pool that the Game Master give out to a Player Character when narratively appropriate.

Along with FUBAR points, Lucky Strikes are the two types of luck or hero points in War Stories: A World War 2 RPG. A player can use his Player Character’s Lucky Strikes or FUBAR points to reroll ones on a ‘Push Your Attempt’, add more dice to an Action Test, reroll a damage roll, change a minor plot point, and so on. Thus FUBAR points are not necessarily as dangerous as they first appear or sound, but the Game Master can use them in three other ways that a player cannot. This is ‘Push an NPC Test’, essentially a ‘Push Your Luck’, but for NPCs; impose narratively suitable Condition on a Player Character without the need for Endurance loss; and introduce a Random Bad Luck Event into the current scenario. The latter is not explored in any detail in the War Stories: A World War 2 RPG Quickstart Ruleset and if the Game Master wants to use this aspect of the rules, she will have to improvise.

All sixteen skills in the War Stories: A World War 2 RPG Quickstart Ruleset are described in detail and include the results of Success, Failure, and extra Successes. In each case, several options are given for the latter.

How does combat work?
Combat in the War Stories: A World War 2 RPG Quickstart Ruleset uses the same rules as Action Tests. Initiative is handled by drawing cards from the Initiative Deck, and can be altered as the result of Talents, such as ‘Fast Reflexes’ or Extra Successes generated on certain Action Tests. In one Round, a Player Character can undertake one Slow Action and one Fast Action, or two Fast Actions. Slow actions include Close Combat Attack, First Aid, and Rally, whilst Fast Actions include Aim, Go On Overwatch, and Operate Vehicle. The rules cover aiming, rendering first aid, rallying an ally, and overwatch, as well as range, obstructions, visibility, and zones. The latter are combat areas which vary in size according to the needs of the narrative. Thus, one room in a house-to-house fight could be a zone, as could a wheat field outside a village. The rules also take into account rapid fire by semiautomatic weapons, burst fire, and full auto, along with suppressive fire, explosions, protection, cover, and personal armour.

When an attack is successful, a roll is required on the Damage Table. This is made with the ten-sided die. Bonuses to this roll can come from the weapon used, depending upon its lethality, and any extra Success rolled on the Action Test. Damage is deducted from the Player Character’s Endurance and applied to his Conditions Tracker. The first Condition is determined by the Game Master as narratively appropriate, whilst the player is free to assign the damage elsewhere on the Conditions Tracker. Rest, First Aid, and Rally can also be used to restore Endurance and remove Conditions. (Amongst other rules the War Stories: A World War 2 RPG core rule book also covers Critical Injuries, Stress, Fatigue, and more, which are not included in the War Stories: A World War 2 RPG Quickstart Ruleset.)

In addition, the War Stories: A World War 2 RPG Quickstart Ruleset includes a table of the weapons used by the Germans in the scenario as well as a glossary of the various Qualities that the arms and equipment used by both sides can have. 

What do you play?
The War Stories: A World War 2 RPG Quickstart Ruleset includes ‘Cut the Lines’. This set in Normandy on the morning of June 6th, 1944 shortly after members of the 101st Airborne have parachuted into enemy occupied territory. Scattered, they have met up, together with a French partisan and are investigating a town which is currently ablaze. After foiling an ambush attempt on advancing Allied troops, the squad is assigned a mission. This is to knockout an enemy communications post based in the town post office and recover as much intelligence as possible. The squad is given free range as how they do it, though the involvement of French civilians may complicate the situation.

Is there anything missing?
For the most part, the War Stories: A World War 2 RPG Quickstart Ruleset is complete. However, a table of the Allied arms and equipment for the benefit of the Game Master would be useful. Similarly, given the relatively short length of the scenario, some scenario hooks or a link to sequel scenario would be a nice bonus for a group playing at home. Lastly, although mentioned in the rules and each Player Character comes with at least one Virtue and one Flaw, there is no explanation of how Flaws and Virtues work in the game. To bring them into the game, the players will simply have to roleplay them.

Is it easy to prepare?
The core rules presented in the War Stories: A World War 2 RPG Quickstart Ruleset are relatively easy to prepare. The Game Master will need to pay closer attention to how combat works in the game as it is the most complex part of the rules and highly tactical in play. There is decent advice for the Game Master on how to run the scenario.

Is it worth it?
Yes. The War Stories: A World War 2 RPG Quickstart Ruleset includes everything necessary to play out a desperate mission at the beginning of the greatest military invasion ever seen. The rules are clearly explained, the mission straightforward, the players are given free agency for their characters to approach it however they want, and the consequences of how the choices made by the players and their characters explored for the benefit of the Game Master. The scenario, ‘Cut the Lines’, is short, but that also makes the perfect length if the Game Master wants to run it as a convention scenario. Plus if run as a convention scenario, there is also scope to scale the scenario up into a skirmish roleplaying scenario, complete with terrain, miniatures, and maps.

Where can you get it?
The War Stories: A World War 2 RPG Quickstart Ruleset is available to download here.