WEIRD WAR II: BLOOD ON THE RHINE

By: James T. Voelpel
Date: Friday, October 19, 2001

With films like SAVING PRIVATE RYAN and TV series like BAND OF BROTHERS, some role-playing fans out there may be looking for something in the World War II vein. Well, the creators of the Origins Award winning DEADLANDS role-playing game seem to have what you're looking for with their D20-based WEIRD WAR II: BLOOD ON THE RHINE. Created by Pinnacle Entertainment Group, WEIRD WAR is very much like all of their products written by gamers for gamers. Playability is of the highest importance, and the use of the D20 system (created for DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS 3RD EDITION) means you don't need to learn a whole game.

The cover for WEIRD WAR II is something that reaches out and grabs you the vision of a Nazi-garbed werewolf definitely sets the tone for what the game is all about. The book starts out with an in-depth history of the real events of World War II, including all the major battles of the western European theater (the eastern front, the Pacific and Africa will be covered in upcoming books). This history continues in another, later section and includes a short write-up discussing the Holocaust; authors Shane Lacy Hensley and John R. Hopler handle a very serious subject with honesty and integrity. They know this will offend some people, but for accurate history, these atrocities happened and we shouldn't ignore them.

The character creation section includes all new professions to use (you aren't going to find a lot of Paladins in the American military), including grunt, officer, medic, resistance fighter and scout. This gives you some idea of the basics for playing a typical person involved in WWII that is, until your characters learn there is something else going on in the war. Much has been written about the Nazi's pre-occupation with the occult, so what if all of that was true? They are already some of the most vile historical figures what if they had access to dark powers? Standing against the Nazi's occult divisions is the OSI (Office of Supernatural Intelligence), and eventually the heroes will join or work for this organization. The mystical portion of WEIRD WAR II has drawn on many other areas for background, including the Thule Society to Atlantis and Norse mythology.

The basic rules for WEIRD WAR II are all found in the PLAYER'S HANDBOOK, DUNGEON MASTER'S GUIDE and MONSTER MANUAL by Wizards of the Coast. The new rules that encompass this game are in the areas of magic, combat and characters. WEIRD WAR II uses D&D 3E's combat system but with a few modifications, such as penetration value for firearms (can't shoot a tank with a pistol) and weapon damage for such things as flame-throwers and German '88s. After the characters have advanced to a certain level, they can move into new prestige classes like OSI chaplain, OSI operative, commando, sniper and OSI adept. The chaplain and adept classes are magic careers, the chaplain using cleric spells and the adept using sorcerer/wizard spells.

We play-tested WEIRD WAR II on two different occasions (although since then we have decided to make it into a campaign) and it was a strange experience for veteran D&D players. Suddenly everyone has to work together (you are in the military) and anything out of the ordinary creeped them out. I ran our group first in the introductory module found in the back of the source book, and the game moved fast with combat moving even quicker.

Pinnacle has definitely come up with another winner with WEIRD WAR II: BLOOD ON THE RHINE. It would have been nice to have a hard cover and some color pictures, but at $25 it is a bargain compared to other RPG products. The book definitely suffers from some horrendous artwork thank goodness for the many historical photographs used throughout. If you are a D&D 3E player looking for something different, or a fan of anything related to World War II, this is the game you've been looking for.

WEIRD WAR II: BLOOD ON THE RHINE

Grade: B+

Author(s): Shane Lacy Hensley, John R. Hopler

Publisher:  Pinnacle Entertainment Group

Price: $25.00