Traveller World War 2, what do you want to see?

[Reynard]

The source(s) should aid refs and players to understand WWII, explain the force organization of each nation's troops plus their function and their standard equipment. There might be descriptions of typical unit missions that could range from fire team or squad level for Player RP to mass combat on a battlefield for minis which could entail two separate products.

Yeah, let's keep products separate. Maybe later, we could see a modern sourcebook to play out operations in the middle east or Korea and Vietnam eras. A single game mechanic is great but better to focus on each time period and genre and let adventurous refs and players mix and match. Go read Harry Turtledove for ideas on that.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

The source(s) should aid refs and players to understand WWII, explain the force organization of each nation's troops plus their function and their standard equipment. There might be descriptions of typical unit missions that could range from fire team or squad level for Player RP to mass combat on a battlefield for minis which could entail two separate products.

Yeah, let's keep products separate. Maybe later, we could see a modern sourcebook to play out operations in the middle east or Korea and Vietnam eras. A single game mechanic is great but better to focus on each time period and genre and let adventurous refs and players mix and match. Go read Harry Turtledove for ideas on that.

I read Harry Turtledove, I think someone needs to publish an adventure. If we put together an adventure, this will give us some idea which source books will be useful. By the way, have you ever played an actual Mongoose Traveller Published Adventure? I've played Dungeons and Dragons, I've played Pathfinder, seen plenty of adventures, and I'm not talking about a seat of the pants adventure with the referee putting together a few encounters and improvising. How would an actual Traveller Adventure be put together? I've had a few ideas, combine Triplanetary with World War II, it starts out during the Battle of the Bulge with the players being members of Easy Company in the 101st Airborne Division of the US Army, everything goes just as in the television Series The Band of Brothers, until they encounter a squad of Germans armed with laser rifles. So do you think US GIs could defeat that squad using World War II arms, assuming that's all the Germans have for that encounter?

After the Germans are defeated, the PCs as a part of Easy Company collect the rifles and interrogate German Prisoners of War, and from them they learn of a secret German base where their is a spaceship. I think you can figure out the rest.

 

[Reynard]

You lay down a lot there. Yes, I have run several published Traveller adventures over the past 30 years and have played in a couple. Do remember those seat of your pants adventures become official when they're published.

Writing an adventure starts with an idea as to what you what the player to achieve. Focusing on a WWII adventure, you as a Referee, should a little (or a lot) about the era and that war so you can get the right flavor. You should have a minimal idea how those militaries operated so you can decide what a mission for players will entail. More often than not, players are performing missions as a fire team or squad either as a special operation or separate or in conjunction with their overall military group. Your infantry or tank squad could be part of a larger confrontation but focuses on your player's immediate encounter(s) that should have important consequences to the whole. Missions can be patrols, hit and run, recon, or take an objective. Watch old WWII movies and try looking at old tv shows like COMBAT! for inspiration.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

I would like a WWII themed campaign book with the standard personal equipment of the armed forces detailed. While it would to me be much cooler to add a science fiction element like the Turtledove's Worldwar or Southern Victory series (well, I am an American..), if it boils down to pagecount I want the historical information to be done properly.

Any chance the Mongooses (Mongeese, he he) could get a license to make games of either?

 

[Reynard]

I do not believe World War Two is copyrighted.

That's the whole thing for Traveller game system, it allows cross timeline and genre gaming. They had that feature long before it became trendy. Really, they have TL 0 which means they can create Cave War.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

I do not believe World War Two is copyrighted.

:lol:

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

I do not believe World War Two is copyrighted.

:lol:

I'd like to put World War II in space, that is kind of the idea, I kind of like the Battle of the Bulge.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Bulge
the Battle of the Bulge was the penultimate challenge for American and British forces, its also the phase of the war where Hitler unleashes his secret weapons, So the adventure begins on January 1, 1945, I'm going to be plotting the positions of the planets for that date, and for a run of days after that.

 

[Reynard]

Now we're talking Iron Sky.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Now we're talking Iron Sky.

Saw that silly movie
I've made up tables for travel times between the planets Mercury through Saturn for the dates January 1, 1945 to January 21, 1945 for maneuver drives 1 through 6. For instance a ship's boat has manuever 6 at it would take 1.814 days to travel to Mars on January 1, 1945 at 6 g of thrust. To get to Saturn would take 3.31 days, The Germans can manufacture laser rifles on the lab ship and deliver them to the front once every 7 days round trip. It says the Ship's boat can carry 13 tons of cargo, a laser rifle TL 11 has a mass of 5 kg, so each trip can bring up to 2600
laser rifles from the lab ship, each round trip takes about 7 days, so every seven days another 2600 laser rifles are delivered and distributed to German troops. A laser rifle does 5d6+3 points of damage, A world war II rifle does 3d6 points of damage. The Germans will need to recharge the power packs, basically they'll be turning Diesel fuel into ammo using portable generators on the battlefield. How do you think this might affect the battle of the Bulge. I guess the Allies would be targeting the generators so the Germans can't recharge their laser rifles.

 

[Old timer]

Actually a WWII rifle is more like 3D+3 in damage (check bolt actions in Mercenary 2nd edition). If the Germans had laser rifles, they would slaughter allied troops during the battle of the bulge. Laser would be one shot one kill every time (average of 3D+3 is about 14 before any effect taken into account, laser average is about 21, which would kill Mr average on the spot before any effect taken into account) The use of lasers would cause panic among the allied troops (hard to see/hear, then you mate drops with a burn hole through his chest, and it keeps on happening) Worse is the ammo capacity, 100 shots in the power pack compared to 8 (Garand) or 10 (bolt action) and better yet, these laser from a hi tech alien craft are likely to have hi tech sights as well, making them even more accurate, and the laser can harm light armoured vehicles and it would be very easy to snipe the crew of all those open top Wolverines and Hell cats. If Germans had such weapons, it would make it more likely they succeed at their objectives for the battle of the bulge and then change how the battle of Europe goes.

 

[Rick]

Fuel was also a major reason for the Battle of the Bulge not succeeding. If in your alternative timeline, the Germans use alternative fuel sources, then that could make things very different.

 

[Reynard]

One of Harry Turtledove's books have Afrikaners travel back 150 years to the Civil War delivering weapons and equipment so the South has the big edge and win the war. Things were a bit different but, in the end, they still lost.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Actually a WWII rifle is more like 3D+3 in damage (check bolt actions in Mercenary 2nd edition). If the Germans had laser rifles, they would slaughter allied troops during the battle of the bulge. Laser would be one shot one kill every time (average of 3D+3 is about 14 before any effect taken into account, laser average is about 21, which would kill Mr average on the spot before any effect taken into account) The use of lasers would cause panic among the allied troops (hard to see/hear, then you mate drops with a burn hole through his chest, and it keeps on happening) Worse is the ammo capacity, 100 shots in the power pack compared to 8 (Garand) or 10 (bolt action) and better yet, these laser from a hi tech alien craft are likely to have hi tech sights as well, making them even more accurate, and the laser can harm light armoured vehicles and it would be very easy to snipe the crew of all those open top Wolverines and Hell cats. If Germans had such weapons, it would make it more likely they succeed at their objectives for the battle of the bulge and then change how the battle of Europe goes.

Their disadvantage is their factory is in a lab ship orbiting the other side of a wormhole, accessible by only two ships in the German's possession, a ship's boat and a fuel shuttle, the allies have the other ship's boat, Each ship's boat has a pulse laser, the shuttle has two, the lab ship has six. The lab ship can't go through the wormhole, as its unstreamined and the wormhole has an atmosphere. The machine shop on the lab ship is too big to fit aboard the ship's boat, the Germans don't want to risk taking it apart, as they don't understand the technology, they don't want to risk flying the lab ship through the wormhole, so they have to fly the ship's boat back and forth to Saturn through the wormhole to get a load of laser rifles while unloading raw materials for the machine shop and then back to Earth, the vulnerability are the two ships, they are the only means of getting more laser rifles. There is other advanced technology on Mars, in this setting the Martian canals are real, the atmosphere is thin but breathable, their are ancient cities dotting the surface of Mars, the deserts of Mars has preserved a lot of stuff, while Venus has been less kind to the technological artifacts that reside there. The Allies could mount an "Indiana Jones" type adventure on Mars, while German agents dog their every step trying to antagonize the natives against the allied interlopers.

 

[Rick]

Tom - this is worth putting together on another thread. As it is, without the full Triplanetary setting, it could make for a good campaign structure for an alternative WWII book, or a big chapter in it.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Tom - this is worth putting together on another thread. As it is, without the full Triplanetary setting, it could make for a good campaign structure for an alternative WWII book, or a big chapter in it.

I like the World War II setting because the Nazis make great villains, Steven Spielberg found a lot of uses for them. I've creates a map of half a sector for the other side of the wormhole, should someone get that Jump Drive working again. The Ancients which terraformed Mars and Venus, are dinosaur like aliens, but they got around with wormholes not the Jump Drive, they do or did have maneuver drives though. Good excuse to get the PCs on Mars. I got to invent some culture for Mars and Venus. Venus has dinosaurs of course too. I'll continue this on Triplanetary.