Weird War 2 - The Pacific Theatre

[cptbutton]

Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2

Here's a variant: it works better set in the period 1950-1970, maybe 1980, because of the age factor, but imagine a few Japanese and American soldiers, both discovered on some Pacific Island. They have no idea how the war turned out, who won, or what's been going on over the previous decades, because they've been waging their own private war against Something Bad that they managed to keep contained year after year after year...

Talk about unsung heroes...

I like it.

And of course they have long since united and become friends.

When outsiders show up they panic because they assume that whichever side won the war will kill half of them and try the other half as traitors...

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

Not one I had heard of ... must check the Warehouse...

It's one of the 3/e books I kept on my shelves, and not only because I contributed two chapters (though it was the book where I first started consciously thinking about the tropes of different genres), but because it's really rich in strange and wonderful ideas. Edited by Ken Hite, you know?

[jason taylor]

What about CBI? There is plenty of room for lost civilizations, ghosts of dead emperors, etc.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

What about CBI? There is plenty of room for lost civilizations, ghosts of dead emperors, etc.

Could you start with an explanation of what "CBI" is? I suspect you don't mean the fictitious law enforcement agency that Patrick Jayne used to work for. :)

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Could you start with an explanation of what "CBI" is? I suspect you don't mean the fictitious law enforcement agency that Patrick Jayne used to work for. :)

China, Burma, India Theater of Operations.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

Regarding "weird war 2" stuff, I notice that most of the creative effort seems centred on the European Theatre. Granted the Nazis were well known for their experimental technology and wacky occultism, but has anyone knocked out any equivalent material for Japan?

Checking the shelves, there's a bit. Pinnacle Entertainment's Weird Wars game had a Japan sourcebook, Land of the Rising Dead, in its first incarnation, which was based on d20 system. Their second spin of the idea, Weird War II, is Savage Worlds, and has a few stats for Japanese equipment, but that's all.

Godlike is a superhero game set in the WWII era, which has some stuff for Japan, but concentrates on the ETO. The game system is "One Roll Engine," which is a bit weird.

The best I know of is the material in GURPS Weird War II.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

Regarding "weird war 2" stuff, I notice that most of the creative effort seems centred on the European Theatre. Granted the Nazis were well known for their experimental technology and wacky occultism, but has anyone knocked out any equivalent material for Japan? Hi-tech stuff is probably a non-starter for them - Japan seems to have ended the war behind the curve on everything - but some kind of occult jobbery might be in scope.

I recall something from the Laundryverse about BLUE HADES assisting the Japanese defence of certain islands, and I suppose there are always those memetic katanas and functioning sennibari ...

Speaking of that why not do something with the Arrow Cross(effectively Hungarian Nazis)? Of course then too despite their having some of the same weirdness, perhaps you kind of run into the same,"Dude not funny" sort of thing that you do with Nazis. Arrow Cross were as enthusiastic about slaughtering Jews as Nazis(really there is no obvious reason why it does not exist for some of the things Japanese did other then historical coincidence). In fact that may be an appeal of CBI; the Nazi occultism was associated with Nazis whereas over there you can just get it with the general mystery of the place.

Then too Laslo Almasy(a famous explorer and adviser in desert special ops to Rommel) had a family with a tradition of occultism and some weird things going on at his castle(yes his family owned a real castle). You can always say "Almasy was a vampire" if you don't scruple at dumping on an individual who just happened to be fighting the side his country put him on and did nothing dreadful personally. On the other hand he was an Egyptologist. Maybe he woke up a mummy that was annoyed at all those loud armies firing artillery off when he was trying to sleep?

[dcarson]

Chi powers from GURPS Martial Arts would fit in Asia. Ninjas with the fantasy ninja powers and Chinese wuxia fighters opposing them. GURPS Thaumatology: Chinese Elemental Powers would be useful and is on sale at the moment. As is GURPS Martial Arts.

Fu Manchu and his Burmese dacoits. A bunch of those are public domain http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/Fu_Manchu .

[L.J.Steele]

Take a look at Louis L'Amour's Captain Jim Mayo stories (in the 4th collection of his stories) -- very Tales of the Golden Monkey style, in interwar era. Tales of the Golden Monkey (a short-lived TV series) had its charms, but doesn't hold up well on rewatching.

[dcarson]

The Louis L'Amour website has some useful resources like deckplans of the freighter http://www.louislamourgreatadventure...antMarine3.htm