Setting
In the original Weird War II, players play as Allied soldiers during the Second World War. The setting presents a supernatural element, and characters face (and drive) haunted vehicles, fight mutant Nazi soldiers and investigate the supernatural. Heroes who face the supernatural can be offered membership in the Office of Supernatural Investigations (OSI), which then allows them to take the OSI Chaplain and OSI Adept Prestige Classes (which grant access to Divine and Arcane Magic respectively). Magic is handled differently in this setting than in other d20 settings, being cast by means of Runes and causing Fatigue to the caster.
Hitler and his Nazis have their own magic-users: Blood Mages, who can be amongst the toughest foes the players will face.
Blood Mages are essentially Adepts of Evil Alignment, which grants them the power to draw upon the 'innate evil' of places such as Death Camps and battlefields. Because the only difference between a Blood Mage and an Adept is Alignment, it is possible to play an Allied Blood Mage, though not recommended, as both the OSI and the Sons of Solomon (a secret organization devoted to hiding the supernatural) will come after them if they are discovered.
Magic is low-powered in this setting; Mages only receive spells of up to 5th level, and the only offensive powers in their arsenal are Magic Missile and Cloudkill, which blend in better with the chaos of the battlefield, mimicking bullets and clouds of poison gas respectively.
The books in the setting are:
- Blood on the Rhine - the Core rulebook
- Afrika Korpse - Sourcebook for Africa and Egypt
- Dead From Above - Sourcebook for aircraft and several flying monsters
- Horrors of Weird War Two - Beastiary, expanding the list of monsters from Blood on the Rhine and the various Sourcebooks
- Land of the Rising Dead - Sourcebook for the Pacific Theatre
- Hell in the Hedgerows - Adventure book, containing three adventures
- Hell Freezes Over - Sourcebook for the Russian Front
Read more about this topic: Weird Wars
Famous quotes containing the word setting:
“Linnæus, setting out for Lapland, surveys his “comb” and “spare shirt,” “leathern breeches” and “gauze cap to keep off gnats,” with as much complacency as Bonaparte a park of artillery for the Russian campaign. The quiet bravery of the man is admirable.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Like plowing, housework makes the ground ready for the germination of family life. The kids will not invite a teacher home if beer cans litter the living room. The family isn’t likely to have breakfast together if somebody didn’t remember to buy eggs, milk, or muffins. Housework maintains an orderly setting in which family life can flourish.”
—Letty Cottin Pogrebin (20th century)
“should some limb of the devil
Destroy the view by cutting down an ash
That shades the road, or setting up a cottage
Planned in a government office, shorten his life,
Manacle his soul upon the Red Sea bottom.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)