I am not going to lie, I kind of miss the April posting blitz; it gave me something to make sure I had to do with my blog everyday. Sure, a lot of the ideas were half formed or incompletely explored, and it seemed like I never had enough time to get everything done that I wanted to talk about; trust me, there's a list of unused topics left over from the A-Z Challenge. Now I am back to not posting every day though and it feels like a bit of a let down. I think I may start going back through my list of topics I didn't have time for or just didn't get around to for whatever reason, it'll give me a bit of a change of pace from tinkering with rules I haven't tested yet at least.
Now a wee preview-
Optional rule for elite troops character generation:
Roll all Stats with 2d6+6
This rule is optional and goes into effect if the gamemaster wants to run an elite forces campaign. Elite forces might be Airborne troops or Rangers or Commando units.
National Characteristics:
ReplyDeleteRussians +2 Con, -2 Int. (Tough, Independent thought-not encouraged)
English: -1 Str, -1 Con, +2 Wis (Always complained about the 'mericans being too well fed, condescending)
Scottish: +1 Strength (what with all the caber-tossing and such)
Irish: +2 Charisma (the ladies love them, according to the Irish at least)
Being an Irishman I'll have to agree with GSV's comment, we're full of it.
ReplyDelete@GSV-I considered national characteristics and then decided I wanted to avoid stereotyping. Besides which, does that then make Americans the "base" race of humanity? Having said all of this, I am reading this at 5:30AM local time and I couldn't help but find myself agreeing with the national characteristics as stated. I assume this is because I am 1/2 Scottish and a giant strong man who has tossed a fair amount of cabers in his day, I grew up in one of the few parts of the USA that is ethnically Irish (according to US census maps) and thus may have inherited some attitudes towards the English. Just out of curiosity what about the Welsh? Or the other "races" of Europe both Axis and Allied? This may be an interesting avenue to explore, since it is really the only thing differentiating different soldiers other than language and uniform/equipment.
ReplyDelete@Lurker-Nearly drowned my keyboard in coffee when I got to your bit. All too true :)
For WWII on a heroic/comic book/RPG scale, where the individual PC might (should?) be focused on as an individual, I think I'd hesitate to use national characteristics. To me, the national traits seem more significant when dealing with "larger" games involving the capabilities of units, because the effectiveness of a group of men arguably averages toward the mean. It seems less crucial in a game where a "unit" is one individual soldier whose personal traits come to the fore. This is not to say that it would be "wrong" to include them, I just wonder if they add more headaches (for example the danger of accidentally tapping into negative sterotypes associated with real nationalities -- not an issue when dealing with fantasy races/species) than their value in the game would merit. This being said, I think traits could add flavor if you're careful with how you present them, and GSV's ideas are an excellent start.
ReplyDeleteOne other thought that occurs in terms of avoiding possible negative stereotypes is to simple give each nationality a bonus "ability" of some sort (and not giving them penalties based on nationality). For example, Americans might have a bonus when attempting to operate any vehicle or machinery. Russians might have a bonus in passing morale checks, or have an ability to go heroic (what Squad Leader and Up Front used to call "berserk"). German officers and NCOs might have an initiative bonus, etc. But by keeping the six "bio-genetic" ability scores out of it, and keeping everything in the bonus category, you could avoid negative stereotyping.
ReplyDeleteGood plan there Bard. I actually have Up Front! sitting on the shelf next to my D&D stuff right now anyway for the WW2 inspiration; maybe I should actually use it AS inspiration too. The only downside there is that the French and Italians really kind of suck to play. The British get the "Coolness under fire" thing though, which I am thinking would translate as a slight morale bonus and maybe a +1 to hit. Japanese squads are nearly impossible to break and are pretty darned good at hand to hand combat, so good morale for them and melee bonuses. Germans get initiative bonuses. Russians get ? Americans? I don't know, I have to take go now, I'll think more on this later. Feel free to add your thoughts guys.
ReplyDelete