Soviet Vehicles of WWII - Now on Drivethru

[MongooseMatt]

We have just posted the newest in our line of Traveller supplements for the Second World War - and the Soviets have arrived! You can grab your copy now at;

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/134747/Soviet-Vehicles-of-World-War-II?affiliate_id=7242

Taking the brunt of German aggression, the Soviet Union reeled under the onslaught for the first years of the war. After finally holding the enemy back at Stalingrad, the Soviet war machine was finally able to flex its muscles and struck forward, carrying the war into the heart of Germany. In many ways, the clash between Germany and the Soviet Union was the Second World War, and became the source of the most desperate fighting and vicious battles.

This supplement for Traveller introduces many vehicles that formed the fighting arm of the Soviet Union in the Second World War, and provides full details of each, allowing them to be used within games. The weapons unique to the Soviets are also covered, along with enough information for you to use them in your own games and own vehicle designs.

 

[sideranautae]

Nice! Very timely for me as I am currently reading a book of first person accounts of the mechanized warfare on the Eastern Front.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Nice! Very timely for me as I am currently reading a book of first person accounts of the mechanized warfare on the Eastern Front.

Been reading up on Stalingrad myself

 

[Prime_Evil]

Now it would be very interesting to see a book with rules for generating WWII era characters and with some information on WWII era equipment...

 

[Jame Rowe]

Now it would be very interesting to see a book with rules for generating WWII era characters and with some information on WWII era equipment...

I admit that I'm scratching my head about why Traveller needs WW2 supplements.

 

[sideranautae]

I admit that I'm scratching my head about why Traveller needs WW2 supplements.

I have used such info when PCs are exploring new systems and are on a world of the appropriate TL. Not that there are Germans or Russians there but what do the weapons & vehicles possibly look like and their stats.

 

[Jame Rowe]

I admit that I'm scratching my head about why Traveller needs WW2 supplements.

I have used such info when PCs are exploring new systems and are on a world of the appropriate TL. Not that there are Germans or Russians there but what do the weapons & vehicles possibly look like and their stats.

Fair enough. Rules expansions are always useful, just so long as they're not required. Or can be houseruled.

 

[MongooseMatt]

I admit that I'm scratching my head about why Traveller needs WW2 supplements.

Not an unfair question - and, I have to admit, part of it is self-indulgence on my part. While working through Merc II, we did a tank that was kind of an off-world version of a Tiger tank. That got me thinking what a real Tiger tank would look like in Traveller...

If you want a better reason (!), the book's description goes into possible uses, chiefly a providing a set of TL 5 vehicles that you can use in any campaign. Just change the names of them!

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

I admit that I'm scratching my head about why Traveller needs WW2 supplements.

Not an unfair question - and, I have to admit, part of it is self-indulgence on my part. While working through Merc II, we did a tank that was kind of an off-world version of a Tiger tank. That got me thinking what a real Tiger tank would look like in Traveller...

If you want a better reason (!), the book's description goes into possible uses, chiefly a providing a set of TL 5 vehicles that you can use in any campaign. Just change the names of them!

I would like a World War II treatment of characters and World War II careers and equipment. Off the bat I can think of a few Traveller careers that would fit right into a World War II campaign.

Academic: Examples Werner Von Baun, Enrico Fermi etc.
Army: Examples Colonel Dick Winters, General George S. Patton, and the RAF, US Army Air Corps
Barbarian: There are a few, particularly in the Jungles of Indonesia
Marines: Storming Iwa Jima, and Okinawa, Japan, the Black Sheep Squadron were Marine Aviators
Mercenaries: The partisans in France could be considered mercenaries for example.
Merchants: as in the Merchant Marine crossing the Atlantic in convoys and evading German U-Boats
Navy: Plenty of action in the Navy, particularly with carrier pilots, and the crews of destroyers, subs, and battleships.
Nobles: There are various Nobles in Germany and England
Professionals: Ship's engineers, Doctors in MASH units, The Army Corps of Engineers
Rogues: Make excellent spies
Scouts: They are the eyes and ears of the armed forces, often pilots taking pictures of various bombing sites.

The skill sets are going to look different, the career tables will look different as well. The question is how would a World War II adventure look different from a typical Traveller Adventure. Probably adventures will be with missions where individuals matter more rather than mass movements of troops on the battlefield.

 

[AndrewW]

Agents: Got to have someone gatering information, besides the recon (Scout) personel.
Citizens: Need someone to build all those tanks, warships, planes and so on.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Agents: Got to have someone gatering information, besides the recon (Scout) personel.
Citizens: Need someone to build all those tanks, warships, planes and so on.

Agents usually have dual careers, much of the intelligence was gathered by partisans, and agents usually come to collect that, also deliver weapons and supplies to the partisans, another useful role is to smuggle downed airmen and escaped POWs out of axis controlled territory, and there were some Germans who were opposed to Hitler, and spied for the allies.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

'Attack Squadron: Roswell' by  Zozer Games might be of interest as it has "some" info on pilots that could have been in WWII.

 

[tzunder]

Traveller would make a great WW2 rpg engine!

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Traveller would make a great WW2 rpg engine!

Just curious, what would you think a World War II adventure format would be like? Who are the player characters most likely to be in a World War II setting? While were considering World War II adventures, we might consider World War III adventures as well.

 

[Old timer]

Some ideas of how to do WW2 in Traveller. Simplest is PCs are part of or are a squad of infantry involved on one of the fronts of the war, easy to have them involved in any major ( or with a bit of research) less known battle of WW2. 2nd ed merc book has the rules to cover any mass battle. This type of game would be as much about the day to day experience of being on the front lines as well as the battles the PCS may well find themselves fighting in. Good example of this would be band of brothers TV series.
Taking the idea of a squad of men a little further, they could also be part of a more elite or special service unit, like British commandos or the long range desert group, involved in a daring raid behind enemy lines. These two option would involve more combat/action orientated adventures.
Another option is playing special agents/spies in occupied France or operating in Casablanca, again traveller has the book for this (agent) just lower tech. A little googling and research would reveal all the wonderful gadgets they came up with. These type of games would be more roleplay orientated with plenty of dramatic chases and action scenes, best played more 'film' style than 'realism' style.
Of course this is Traveller a sci fi game, so one other option is the classic alien invasion of Earth during the war. There is at least one novel series that explores this idea, and one could always be inspired by H G Wells war of the worlds as well for this type of game.

 

[AndrewW]

Commando style as well.

Movie examples:

Where Eagles Dare
Guns of Navarone

As possible inspiration sources.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Another option is playing special agents/spies in occupied France

Or play characters from Allo Allo...

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Some ideas of how to do WW2 in Traveller. Simplest is PCs are part of or are a squad of infantry involved on one of the fronts of the war, easy to have them involved in any major ( or with a bit of research) less known battle of WW2. 2nd ed merc book has the rules to cover any mass battle. This type of game would be as much about the day to day experience of being on the front lines as well as the battles the PCS may well find themselves fighting in. Good example of this would be band of brothers TV series.
Taking the idea of a squad of men a little further, they could also be part of a more elite or special service unit, like British commandos or the long range desert group, involved in a daring raid behind enemy lines. These two option would involve more combat/action orientated adventures.
Another option is playing special agents/spies in occupied France or operating in Casablanca, again traveller has the book for this (agent) just lower tech. A little googling and research would reveal all the wonderful gadgets they came up with. These type of games would be more roleplay orientated with plenty of dramatic chases and action scenes, best played more 'film' style than 'realism' style.
Of course this is Traveller a sci fi game, so one other option is the classic alien invasion of Earth during the war. There is at least one novel series that explores this idea, and one could always be inspired by H G Wells war of the worlds as well for this type of game.

WorldWar in the Balance.

All we need now are vehicles of the Race!

 

[locarno24]

I must say the 'Balance' series is a very good one! I'd love to see a sourcebook for the Race's invasion. One thing I'd probably do is have several 'fronts' and get each player to make one character for each; part of the reason you get a very good feel of a global war is the way the action keeps bouncing from the RAF to Germany to Russia to the US to Manchuria and back

It's easy enough to create a Race Landcruiser from the vehicle handbook - although I guess you could have done the same for the WWII gear, as well.

Mercenary has a nice updated mass combat system, so it's easy to play out campaigns. As noted, all you really need are career tables for the soldiers, etc, with appropriate events and skills like "Battle Dress" subbed out for more era-specific useful ones (Drive?)

 

[MongooseMatt]

Just to chip in, we are hoping to make Italian Vehicles available before the weekend!