["Alts"/IW] Typical WWII campaign ?

[Qoltar]

Have wanted to post this for a while now......

How do you run a WWII RPG campaign without it becoming too much of an alternate history thing - or do you just let it ? - and don't worry about it?

I have thought about running a World War II scenario or two with GURPS - my only problem is trying to come up with just the right scenario that seems plausible and doesn't alter history too much. Plus, certain regions and topics connected to WWII might be too dark or 'grisly' compared to the usual RPGs that I run.

Are there certain months or theater areas where records wenbt missing and player character groups could roam without disrupting historical accuracy too much?

How much can be accidentally 'changed' and still have the war come out mostly the same as it did in our timeline?

IF I decided to let my players massively change things (like in recent Tartantino movie) -How much is too much? Or over-the-Top?

- Ed Charlton

[D10]

My only answer is, how much you like ?

Because its all about what you can handle without losing track of it.

[Qoltar]

Those of you that have run campaigns in the WWII setting - how much did you try to stay out of the way of historical events?

Or Did you not worry about it?

What is the typical campaign like?

- Ed Charlton

[D10]

Well, I have never run a WWII campaign, but I would give them free reign, post a lot on this forum, and let history get completely wacky.

[copeab]

Originally Posted by Qoltar

Those of you that have run campaigns in the WWII setting - how much did you try to stay out of the way of historical events?

I embrace the PCs getting involved in -- and sometimes changing -- historical events, but then I run campaigns where the PCs are larger-than-life action heroes, not average folks swept up in the tide of human events.

What is the typical campaign like?

I've run only one WWII campaign*, with secret magic (from the public anyway -- two PCs are mages) and a little psi and weird science. The PCs have had a had in changing history directly and indirectly (they unintentionally made things better for the Germans and intentionally made things worse for the Japanese). From my 'a dangerous situation' thread you can see they are on the verge of making another change.

* Well, two actually, but the other was a very short one set in the closing days of WWII and the PC was a German combat engineer. Most of the campaign was spent on an island a la "Land That Time Forgot" so I wouldn't quite call it a WWII campaign. I've also run a couple one-shots set early and late in the war but, again, these were weird war tales, not straight-up WWII.

[Michele]

Originally Posted by Qoltar

Have wanted to post this for a while now......

How do you run a WWII RPG campaign without it becoming too much of an alternate history thing - or do you just let it ? - and don't worry about it?

I have thought about running a World War II scenario or two with GURPS - my only problem is trying to come up with just the right scenario that seems plausible and doesn't alter history too much. Plus, certain regions and topics connected to WWII might be too dark or 'grisly' compared to the usual RPGs that I run.

Are there certain months or theater areas where records wenbt missing and player character groups could roam without disrupting historical accuracy too much?

How much can be accidentally 'changed' and still have the war come out mostly the same as it did in our timeline?

IF I decided to let my players massively change things (like in recent Tartantino movie) -How much is too much? Or over-the-Top?

- Ed Charlton

I'd say, do what you and your players like most. If they don't want to change history, don't make them do that.

I have run a Cabal(occult)-WWII campaign, with low-powered PCs and enemies. They have changed history a little bit, but not to the point of ending the war in 1942... They are satisfied with this, so why not.

Remember, when the PCs do something that helps, say, the Allies' ASW efforts, you can always not change the statistics of the Battle of the Atlantic. If the players, out of character, notice that (unlikely) and ask you about that, you can always say that it is what the PCs did that remained unrecorded! "You don't know how worse the actual situation would have been without the unsung heroes that your PCs represent!".

As to unrecorded parts of the history - there is no such thing, save in the cases where the records belong to amred forces and governments on the verge of collapse. And even then there would be something by the losing side, and everything by the winning side.
Then again, there may be places that are "unrecorded" as far as your players' awareness of them goes... have you considered picturesque Romania? Oh, those Transylvanian castles...

Finally, if you and your players _both_ want to change history _and_ not to change it... then they come from our universe (where history remains as they know it) and operate in a parallel. Infinite Worlds and all of that.

[Mgellis]

I haven't run a WWII campaign, but I think if I wanted to keep it from becoming too much of an alternate history world, I'd just assume the big historical events are outside of the control of the player characters. The same battles will take place, the will have the same outcomes, etc.

This does not render the player characters irrelevant. The campaign focuses on their individual success and survival. It's like a movie...we all KNOW that the English are going to win the Battle of Britain, but we don't know which fictional characters, flying alongside historical ones, will live or die.

But what if the players try to change history? It doesn't work. Either people don't believe them ("The Japanese are going to bomb Pearl Harbor!" "Sure, buddy. Go peddle it somewhere else, okay? We're busy here.") or something else keeps history on track.

On the off chance the players keep trying to change history and finally manage to pull a fast one on me, I have two options. I can either run with it, assuming this is now a Divergent Timeline, but that it will pretty much remain self-contained, or I can "sauce for the gander" them. The latter option basically means that if they absolutely insist on breaking my game world, then they have given me (the GM) permission to break it, too.

If the timeline can diverge, it means that other universes may be out there and it also means that cosmic energies may have been unbalanced by what the player characters have done. All of these would justify any weirdness I might want to inflict on my players. So ISWAT may show up. Or the Cabal. Or Nero Wolfe. Or Cthulhu. Or possibly even Sailor Moon, if I'm in a really bad mood.

[Rocket Man]

Another thing to consider is that, barring really unusual circumstances, it's HARD to make a big enough change that lets the Axis win. Simple logistics favored the Allies in any conflict longer than "knock a few countries down and sign the peace treaty."

So to echo what others have said here already, the players can certainly have an impact. But even if they change some notable points of history, it's unlikely to go knocking the war completely out of its ruts.

Unless, of course, you've got PCs smuggling an atom bomb to Werner Heisenberg. *evil grin* And maybe not even then.

[Qoltar]

Rocket Man, I very much doubt my regular group of players would ever do anything to help the German side.
Knowing my frequent players - its more likely the war might end a few months to a year earlier because of something that thery do.

Remember what I said in my OP about not wanting to bump up against some of the dark and grisly bits of WWII? One or two of my players have real world reasons not to to think very well of the Germans of 70 years ago.


- Ed Charlton

[Diogenes]

I think it would depend on several things:
First, Germany was at a disadvantage in the first place, so it would probably lose anyway.
Second, role-playing is a game of possibilities among other things, so the outcome might be different if the campaign runs that way, even in a realistic setting. That should depend on what the gamers expect of the after-war world. If, for example, the Iron Curtain has to fall as it fell in the real world, WW2 has to run mostly (!) as described in the history books. If not ...
Thirdly, speaking of unrealistic: UFOS, magic, whatever ... change things through their very existence.