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Sw: Weird War II
Weird War TwoStudio 2 Publishing and Pinnacle Entertainment160 pages hardcoverIn the horror of war dark things rise and World War II is historys greatest conflict. The Japanese stalk the jungles of South-east Asia. Carriers battle in the South Pacific. Tanks trundle across North Africa. Planes duel over England. The Nazi blitzkrieg conquers most of Europe with a genocidal madman at the controls. Prepare to battle the evil of the Axis powers and the hideous things that rise in their wake. This isnt just war - this is Weird War Weird War II contains everything you need to run horrific World War II adventures with the Savage Worlds game system new powers Edges Hindrances weapons vehicles for all the major powers an Adventure Generator dozens of Savage Tales new monsters and an operational-scale Plot Point Campaign that ties it all together. Weird War II requires the Savage Worlds core rules to play.. Item Weight - 1.83 lbs.
176 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 20, 2016
I proofread the upcoming Polish edition of this sourcebook.
Weird War II combines the historical background of the conflict with a turn toward the uncanny, magical and horrific, and it does precisely what it says on the tin... and unfortunately not much more.
There's a lot of fiction, both game-related and otherwise, that makes the Nazi-dark arts connection and it's an obvious direction for media like this to follow. Outside of a few out-of-left-field ideas in the Bestiary, Weird War II rarely strays far from the well-known standards of Nazi (or Japanese) Zombies, Nazi Werewolfs and Japanese weird technology. It provides a background for these things, but it does so in a very vague manner, which feels half-hearted. The "weird" in this sourcebook is a rehash of every cliche in the book, and that was very disappointing.
Outside of that, my other complaints are mostly down to how I like my sourcebooks - rich with fluff, and broadening mechanics so that they feel like they open up new options to the game master, instead of walling him in. Well, in the case of Weird War II, with its borderline-simulationist approach to statistics, I felt largely alienated. I appreciate the work that went into coming up with realistic approximates for the gnognards out there, but this renders much of the book useless to me. I'm not the sort of GM to simulate air or naval battles, so out go all the rules and statistics for that. Doing vehicular combat also isn't entirely my thing, and so that amounts to probably a fifth of the book being pointless tables for me.
Everything else is servicable, but there wasn't a part of this book that clicked with me. Nothing made me say "Wow, this is super useful, I'm so glad they included it!", but I did roll my eyes while reading some especially mechanically detailed passages.
It's a good book, don't get me wrong - and a must-buy if you want to run a WW2 game using the Savage Worlds ruleset. I just found that it doesn't exactly cover what I wanted from it... but then again, I'm not sure if I had a specific idea of what I wanted from this book. Whatever it was though, I haven't found it.
Weird War II combines the historical background of the conflict with a turn toward the uncanny, magical and horrific, and it does precisely what it says on the tin... and unfortunately not much more.
There's a lot of fiction, both game-related and otherwise, that makes the Nazi-dark arts connection and it's an obvious direction for media like this to follow. Outside of a few out-of-left-field ideas in the Bestiary, Weird War II rarely strays far from the well-known standards of Nazi (or Japanese) Zombies, Nazi Werewolfs and Japanese weird technology. It provides a background for these things, but it does so in a very vague manner, which feels half-hearted. The "weird" in this sourcebook is a rehash of every cliche in the book, and that was very disappointing.
Outside of that, my other complaints are mostly down to how I like my sourcebooks - rich with fluff, and broadening mechanics so that they feel like they open up new options to the game master, instead of walling him in. Well, in the case of Weird War II, with its borderline-simulationist approach to statistics, I felt largely alienated. I appreciate the work that went into coming up with realistic approximates for the gnognards out there, but this renders much of the book useless to me. I'm not the sort of GM to simulate air or naval battles, so out go all the rules and statistics for that. Doing vehicular combat also isn't entirely my thing, and so that amounts to probably a fifth of the book being pointless tables for me.
Everything else is servicable, but there wasn't a part of this book that clicked with me. Nothing made me say "Wow, this is super useful, I'm so glad they included it!", but I did roll my eyes while reading some especially mechanically detailed passages.
It's a good book, don't get me wrong - and a must-buy if you want to run a WW2 game using the Savage Worlds ruleset. I just found that it doesn't exactly cover what I wanted from it... but then again, I'm not sure if I had a specific idea of what I wanted from this book. Whatever it was though, I haven't found it.
February 26, 2013
Great supplement that can be played either as a straight historical game or with elements of the occult. I plan on using it for both.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews