Authors and Editors: Mike Montesa, Shane Lacy Hensley, Simon Lucas, Piotr Korys, Clint Black, Matthew Cutter, Dave McGuire,
Butch Curry, Joel Kinstle, and Paul “Wiggy” Wade-Williams
Original concept and material by: Shane Hensley and John R. Hopler, with additional material by Peter Schweighofer, David, John, and
Edward Niecikowski, and Mike Montesa
Interior art by: Chris Appel, LuisNCT, Richard Clark, Michael Colasante, Greg Lambrakis, Marcio Fiorito, Jordan Peacock, Richard
Pollard, Kevin Sharpe, and Simon Lucas; Cover art by: Daniel Rudnicki; Cover design by: Joel Kinstle; Photos by: The Department of
Defense and the National Archives
Critter concepts by: Clint Black, Andrew Hind, John Hopler, Rob Lusk, Mike Montesa, Andrew Morris, Jess Ray, Dirk Ringersma, David
Ross, Joseph A. Unger, and Paul “Wiggy” Wade-Williams
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Playtesters: “The Unknown Soldiers”—Tony Dolan, Cameron Eeles, Peter Melville, Selby Thorpe, and Stan Ward; Peter “Leitchy”
Leitch’s “Savage All-Americans”—Rob Aked, Clem Colman, Bruce Hargrave, Chris Maxfield, and Mark Somers; Piotr Korys’ “Red
Heroes”—Piotr Braciak, Michal Kuzniacki, and Maciej Ziebicki; Markus Finster’s “Vienna Resistance”—Stephan Becker, Erika Lexen,
Josef Teufer, Michaela Trimmel; David McGuire’s “Force 10”—Richard Downs, Scott Morris, Chris Noellert, Debra Noellert; Shane
Mclean’s “Squaddies”—Pete Scarrott, Tim Lewcock; “Stalin’s Fist”—Jason Nichols, Matthew Klausmeier, Christian Clough, Alex Seavey,
Keaton VanAuken, and Simon Lucas; “Twin Terrors”—Caden and Ronan Hensley.
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Mike’s Dedication: This book is dedicated to the Greatest Generation, to the soldiers, sailors, and airmen of the Allied nations that
fought in World War Two, and to my father, who saw it all and made it through.
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Shane’s Dedication: To the fantastic artists who paint the worlds between our words, and to DC Comics’ classic war tales—G.I. Combat,
Sgt. Rock, the Haunted Tank, the Unknown Soldier, the War That Time Forgot, and most importantly Weird War Tales. If you haven’t read these and
you’re looking at this book, we highly recommend finding back issues or trade paperbacks at your local comics store.
Weird Wars, Weird War Two, Savage Worlds, Deadlands, “Plot Point Campaigns,” all related characters and creatures,
and all related marks and logos are copyrights of Pinnacle Entertainment Group. All Rights Reserved.
Produced in association with Studio 2 Publishing, Inc. The Studio2 logo is a trademark of Studio2 Publishing. All Rights Reserved.
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Contents
Chapter Two: Setting Rules.................. 26
Awards and Medals........................................26
Medal Modifiers.............................................26
Promotion.......................................................26
Promotion Modifiers.....................................26
Movement.......................................................28
Supplies............................................................28
Buildings & Fortifications.............................29
Battlefield Hazards.........................................30
Fire Support....................................................31
Artillery............................................................31
Close Air Support (CAS)..............................32
Disease.............................................................33
Parachuting......................................................33
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Chapter Three: Allied Powers............... 40
Common Ordnance Tables..........................41
The United States...........................................42
US Vehicles.....................................................44
American Aircraft..........................................46
American Ships...............................................49
The United Kingdom....................................54
British Naval Units.........................................55
UK Vehicles....................................................56
British Aircraft................................................57
British Ships....................................................59
The Soviet Union...........................................62
The NKVD.....................................................63
Russian Vehicles.............................................64
Russian Aircraft..............................................65
Russian Names...............................................68
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Chapter One: Characters........................6
Unit Organization............................................6
Command..........................................................6
Extras.................................................................6
Squad Composition.........................................6
Your Character.................................................6
Playing the Axis................................................7
Service Branches and MOS Packages........... 8
Women and Minorities....................................8
Basic Training...................................................8
Army & Marine MOS Packages..................... 8
Why No Skill Minimums?...............................9
Navy MOS Packages.....................................10
Air Corps MOS Packages.............................11
Civilian Packages............................................12
Basic Equipment............................................13
Weapon Issue..................................................14
Demolitions....................................................16
Skills.................................................................16
Language Barriers..........................................16
Murphy’s Laws of Combat...........................18
Hindrances......................................................18
Edges................................................................19
Background Edges.........................................19
Combat Edges................................................20
Leadership Edges...........................................21
Professional Edges.........................................22
Social Edges....................................................23
Weird Edges....................................................23
Piloting.............................................................34
Dogfights.........................................................35
Naval Operations...........................................37
Chapter Four: History.......................... 70
The Origins of World War Two..................70
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Welcome to the War!.......................................5
Editor’s Note....................................................5
Chapter Five: War Master’s Secrets...... 84
The OSI............................................88
BPO...................................................90
Chapter Six:
War Master’s Rules�� 92
Nazi Blood Magic.......................... 92
Large Scale Battles......................... 92
Mass Battles....................................93
Battle Turn Ratio Table.................93
Sanity............................................... 93
Chapter Seven: Campaigns..... 96
Standard Campaigns.....................96
OSI & BPO Campaigns...............96
One-Shot Adventures.................. 96
Skirmishes..................................... 97
Campaign Theaters......................97
European Theater of
Operations (ETO)....................97
ETO Savage Tales..................... 101
The Eastern Front.................... 105
North Africa..............................110
Pacific Theater of Operations (PTO)
and China-Burma-India (CBI)��112
POW and Resistance Campaigns...............117
Mission Generators......................................118
Land Missions...............................................118
Air Missions..................................................125
Naval Missions..............................................130
Chapter Eight: Rattenkrieg.................134
Chapter Nine: The Axis Powers..........144
German Vehicles..........................................146
German Aircraft...........................................149
German Ships...............................................151
Japanese Military Personnel........................154
Japanese Vehicles..........................................155
Japanese Aircraft..........................................156
Japanese Navy...............................................158
Chapter Ten: Horrors of WW2............162
Index....................................................174
Character Sheet....................................176
As the Polish cavalry topped the next rise, the lieutenant saw he’d
gotten lucky. A German mechanized unit was pulled up for a rest in the
valley below. The charge was sounded and the cavalry advanced. The
Germans, caught off-guard and dismounted from their vehicles, were
cut to pieces. The lieutenant was exhilarated—until the supporting
panzers rolled into view. The cavalry was trapped and massacred.
The lieutenant, determined to die fighting and in the saddle, spurred
his horse toward the tanks, blowing the charge on his bugle. Then
he noticed the spectral figures of dozens of medieval Polish knights
riding alongside him…
Over the English Channel, August 1940–The Spitfires of No.
17 Squadron climbed into the sky, passing above the cliffs of Dover
and out over the Channel. The pilots were exhausted, for this was
the fourth sortie today. The squadron was down three planes for
this fight: two stuck on the field with engine trouble and one lost to
a Messerschmitt ace, one of the “Abbeville Boys,” in the morning’s
engagement.
As the sun rose, so too did the dust on the horizon. Rommel’s
Afrika Korps was coming! The 7th Armored stood ready to hold
them here, at some nameless spot of sand in the Libyan desert.
The regimental commander lowered his binoculars and ordered his
crew to make ready. The 7th advanced into battle. Then the Germans
opened fire, the range extreme—they were using their powerful
88mm guns. Within thirty seconds six tanks were smashed. The
British tanks accelerated to close the distance. Out of the dust the
enemy line became visible. But where were all the German tanks?
There were only two. And they were not panzers looming up out of
the dust. They had arms and legs and rock-hard skin—and were the
size of small buildings…
Stalingrad, October 1942–The burned-out ruins of apartment
and office buildings looked like scorched bones. In the rubble of this
tortured city Hitler and Stalin’s armies were locked in a vicious death
struggle that knew neither mercy nor pity.
The Russian defenders of the Barrikady Factory fought from
behind mounds of their own dead. Their backs to the Volga, there was
nowhere to run—death or victory was the only release. Elite German
Pioneer units were moving into position to assault the Russians and
take the factory. A salvo of artillery stirred the rubble near the Russian
positions, announcing the start of the assault. Russian machineguns
chattered in reply, scything down the charging German troops. But
to the horror of the Red Army troops, the “dead” Germans got
back up! The fascists kept coming even with their limbs shot off and
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But the Luftwaffe was pressing the attack and for the pilots
of the RAF there was no rest for the weary. The squadron leader
ordered the formation to close up. Rising from the clouds ahead was
the German bomber formation. But where were the escort fighters?
Then paratroopers began to drop out of the bomb bays. Only they
weren’t paratroopers. Whatever they were, they were small and fast,
and there were a lot of them—headed right for No. 17 Squadron…
Tobruk, Libya, June 1941–The early morning was the only
pleasant time in the desert; the only time when it was cool and the
air wasn’t choked with clouds of dust and biting flies. The tank crews
pulled their maintenance checks, swabbing out the barrels of their
Crusader’s guns, topping off the petrol tanks, and making sure all was
ready for the coming fight.
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Near the Vistula, Poland, September 1939–The last message
from headquarters wasn’t good. The Germans had steamrollered the
Polish infantry and were charging for the bridges on the Vistula. The
young cavalry lieutenant at the head of his squadron knew there was
no escape—the Russians were approaching from the east as well. His
horse seemed in high spirits though, and if they could just get into
a good position from which to attack they just might have a surprise
for the Germans.
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Inside the factory, a runner staggered into the command post to
report, his face a mask of terror. “The Germans have raised the dead
against us!” Outside on the lines, the piles of bodies—friends and
foes—began to stir…
New Guinea, March 1943–Under the starlit skies of the South
Pacific, one could be forgiven for thinking the world was at peace.
But as the column of Japanese ships steamed into “the Slot” heading
for Guadalcanal and the American PT boats began their attack, all
thoughts were turned toward surviving the next five minutes. The
PT boats charged home first, launching torpedoes at the Japanese
transports. Return fire from the destroyers found its mark and
several of the smaller craft were blown to splinters. Hours later the
crew from PT-43 crawled ashore on a nameless island. The ragged
survivors were glad to meet the natives who seemed to melt out of
the treeline to greet them. As the crew walked off toward the village,
the shaman turned to the sea and raised his arms in tribute, his sharktoothed smile promising to appease the gods of the sea…
Welcome to the war! Weird War Two is a dark conspiracy/horror
setting for Pinnacle’s Savage Worlds roleplaying game. In this book
you’ll find everything you need to create exciting World War Two
roleplaying adventures.
The scope is epic, covering every theater of the war from 1939 to
1945, from the battlefields of Western Europe and the frozen hell of
the Russian Front, to the steaming jungles of Southeast Asia and the
windswept atolls of the Pacific.
You’ll be able to create adventures for any environment—land,
air, or sea. Weird War Two has an arsenal of tanks, planes, and ships
for you to do battle with. You can play the game “straight” without
any weirdness or you can dive right into the strangest stories your
imagination can come up with. You’ll learn about bizarre Nazi occult
rituals, secret Japanese experiments, and why monsters come alive in
the carnage and mayhem of battle.
Fight hard and your hero might even become part of the supersecret Allied units set up to combat them.
Grab your gear and move out soldier! We’ve got a war to win!
Editor’s Note
The book you hold in your hands is a re-envisioning of the
original Weird Wars: Weird War Two created by Pinnacle in 2000. That
game had a much deeper backstory told over seven books covering
each theater as well as the air war. This is not that Weird War Two. It’s
similar in many ways, but not the same.
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The Ardennes Forest, December 1944–The Germans had
broken through the American lines all along the front. Groups of
battle-worn GIs held their positions despite the onslaught and the
bone-numbing cold. The last time the Germans attacked they used
dogs, or at least that’s what Smitty said before he died from his
wounds. Doc didn’t think dogs could make wounds like that—maybe
it was a wolf or a bear. Sarge just rolled his eyes and told Doc not
to scare everyone with crazy ideas. But for the past hour strange
noises and low growls drifted in on the midnight wind. It sounded
like a pack of animals out there circling the lines. The Germans were
getting ready for another attack, and the noises in the darkness were
getting closer and closer…
Fight the good Fight!
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their bodies mangled; nothing could stop them. Seconds later, the
Germans were among the Russians and those who weren’t torn apart
fled for their lives.
Okinawa, April 1945–Seaman 1st Class Sullivan always kept
a sharp lookout at dawn. That was when the kamikazes came in.
He didn’t believe it at first—why would the Japanese waste good
lives and airplanes trying to crash into American ships? But when
he saw the Colhoun slip beneath the waves two days ago, sunk by
a kamikaze bomber, he changed his mind. The kamikaze were
desperate but effective he had to admit. For them it was a war of
spirit versus industry. Sullivan scanned the horizon and focused on
a fog bank miles away. That was strange. He looked closer. Suddenly
a huge shape loomed out of the fog and Sullivan recognized the
unmistakable prow of the Yamato, Japan’s largest battleship, wreathed
in a strange blue glow. The great vessel was heading straight for the
American carriers at the center of the fleet. The appearance of the
ship was a shock, but even more shocking was that the Yamato had
been sunk by American carrier planes a week ago…
Welcome to the War!
The world is in flames–and things are lurking in the smoke and
shadows, unnameable, unspeakable things made from the stuff of
nightmares and born from the fear and violence of war.
The forces of totalitarianism and fascism are on the march and
it’s up to the soldiers, sailors, and airmen of the Allied nations to stop
them. This means you, soldier! Your country needs you. The world
needs you. This is a time when ordinary people will do extraordinary
things. All you need to do is sign on the bottom line, raise your right
hand, and repeat after me...
Besides being written for the system it was born to be played
with, this edition follows the “less is more” route. We’ve given you
just enough backstory to get things rolling. The rest of it is up to
you.
Here are the essential changes for fans of the original game:
• The “Office of Supernatural Investigations” is a poor title for an
agency trying to deny the supernatural exists. It is now the “Office
of Special Investigations.”
• Haunted vehicles are a great concept, and an homage to DC
Comics “Haunted Tank” stories, but don’t work very well in actual
play. You’ll find a new Arcane Background called “Haunted” that
fits our setting better, is more personal, and doesn’t depend on a
vehicle the rest of the characters may not be invested in.
• OSI Adepts make Weird Wars feel too much like “swords &
sorcery,” and don’t really fit the theme. They’ve been removed.
Characters might find ancient tomes that allow them to tap into
magical energy, but it’s no longer a character type players can
choose.
• Nazi rune mages are now synonymous with blood mages.
They’re meaner, nastier, and much tougher to fight.
• Some of the less-serious monsters have been removed, and
there’s a bit less emphasis on everything being created by the Axis.
The premise of Weird Wars is that things rise spontaneously from
the violence of war. The Axis has tapped that dark energy, but its
terrors are still vastly outnumbered by those fiends that rise of
their own accord.
-Shane Hensley
March 2009
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CHAPTER One:
CHARACTERs
“Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men.”
– General George Patton Jr.
Or the Navy. Or the Air Corps. Or the Marines. Whichever
service you end up in, you are part of your country’s military forces,
and dedicated to the defeat of the Axis powers. Maybe you were
drafted. Maybe you volunteered. Regardless, your military service
starts here.
Unit Organization
The exact composition of your party depends on the nature of
the game the War Master intends to run. Here are some examples:
• Infantry Squad: One officer, one NCO, three or more privates.
These are part of a platoon of 20 to 50, which may sometimes be
placed under the officer’s command as well.
• Tank Crew: One commander (officer), two or more enlisted
(any one of which can be an NCO).
• Long Range Desert Group: Half patrol of one officer, often
two NCOs, and up to 20 other men in five vehicles.
• Fighter Squadron: Each man is an officer with his own plane.
If the fighter has a second seat (such as a rear-gunner), that
character should usually be an Extra.
• Bomber Crew: Pilot (officer), co-pilot (officer), navigator
(officer), bombardier (officer or NCO), multiple gunners (enlisted
men), depending on the actual aircraft.
• PT Boat Crew: One or two officers and another 12 men,
including some NCOs.
• Ship: A ship is too large to work as a constant unit in Weird Wars,
but players might start out on a ship in various roles and later find
themselves forming a “squad” for specific tasks, because they were
shipwrecked on a mysterious island, etc.
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Weird Wars is about action, combat, and eventually things you’re
best off not knowing about just yet, but another central theme is
the challenge of command. Unlike most settings where everyone is
equal, here there is a definite chain of command.
Squad Composition
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You’re in the Army Now!
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At least one player needs to take the Rank Edge, though he may be
an Officer or a Non-commissioned officer. For those unfamiliar with
military life, officers are the leaders who tend to plan and organize,
while non-commissioned officers (sergeants) handle more tactical,
hands-on leadership—often by example. Everyone else is considered
an “enlisted man,” or “private” in most armies.
Officers are required to have some education. Sergeants aren’t,
though at the higher grades they tend to catch up. Troops tend to see
their officers as either bumbling eggheads trying to get them killed,
or more rarely, inspiring paragons destined for greatness.
Troops tend to see sergeants more like angry mothers with
machineguns. Sergeants are the ones who yell at them, kick them,
and push them forward into battle—but they’re also the first ones to
rush out and grab a soldier if he’s been wounded.
Command
Even the lowest level officers and NCOs are meant to command
platoons of about 20-50 men rather than squads, but in the game,
necessity should place the officer with the squad on its missions. This
is a conceit of the game to some degree, but can also be seen as
the officer hand-picking the squad he wants for special duties. Later
on, he might stay with one specific squad because of the strange
experiences they’ve shared—there’s no reason to expose others to
such horrors if it can be helped. The squad might also be the officer’s
“headquarters” squad assigned as his scouts, bodyguards, and staff.
Extras
Most squads assume the officer and NCOs are player characters.
A few of the enlisted men are as well, and the rest are Extras. Though
the officers are in command, in combat, control of the Extras should
still be shared by all the players as usual.
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Your Character
Creating a character for Savage Worlds: Weird War Two is easy. Just
follow the steps below through the training process.
1. Race
Everyone is human (despite Nazi propaganda to the contrary).
All characters receive a free Edge during character creation.
2. Nationality
You may choose your nationality from any of the Allied nations.
Be sure to check out the new National Identity Edge as well.
3. Choose Service
Decide if your hero is in the Army, Navy, Air Corps, or Marines.
Again, your War Master may require your character to be in a specific
service to better fit the campaign.
4. Choose Military Occupational
Specialty (MOS)
Within your service branch, decide what job your character
performs (see page 8).