I return to the series I'm devoting to Sturm und Drang, the supplement about Second World War of the Walküre line (you may read the previous posts following these links: post 1 and post 2), and in this ocasion I will explain ideas to use the information contained in the book with other role-playing games set in this conflict or nearby eras (as a campaign setting for example) thanks to its Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license and in some cases I will give you ideas about game mechanics to adapt part of the material offered by the book.
Comandos de Guerra
The first game I will talk about is Comandos de Guerra, a classical game of the Spanish role-playing landscape written by Juan Carlos Herreros (who is also the author of the introduction to Sturm und Drang) and published nowadays by Ediciones Sombra.
The first edition of Comandos de Guerra is from 1990 and used a system based in percentile rolls, being Sistema Sombra its actual game engine, which you may freely download from the Recursos para el Director de Juego (Resources for the Game Master) of the publisher.
The basic manual offers a rigorous vision of Second World War, a process for creating characters by nation and service branches and a complete list of weaponry and vehicles with their corresponding game mechanics, so any person wanting to play in the campaign environment of Sturm und Drang can easily do it getting inspiration from the events explained in the supplement without having to adapt its contents.
Comandos de Guerra has a rich online help to complement the contents of the basic manual (in the side menu you will see links to rules, setting articles, etc.) and also is already available in digital format, so it's possible to find an original edition facsimile in Lektu and the actual edition in Lektu and DriveThruRPG.
Tormenta de Acero (Storm of Steel)
The following game you may find interesting to use with Sturm und Drang is Tormenta de Acero (Storm of Steel), written and published by Álvaro Prada and available in Spanish and English at DriveThruRPG.
This game allows the simulation of infantry combats of Second World War at tactical level, to do this the manual offers the neede information to create a soldier squad (the player characters) with an easy system based in experience (from recruit to elite soldier) and, optionally, a characteristic in which the fighter stands out (athlete, strong, a specific weapon or equipment specialist, etc.) with the corresponding combat rules (including artillery use, armored vehicles, morale and command effects).
As in the case of Comandos de Guerra referees and players may use the historical information contained in Sturm und Drang immediately without needing to carry out any kind of conversion regarding weapons and equipment, as Tormenta de Acero has all the needed information about them.
Besides the basic book there are also available two adventure modules, A Beach Too Far and Climbing to Hell, which can be bought at DriveThruRPG.
GURPS WWII
The third game that may interest you to use with Sturm und Drang is the series that the publisher Steve Jackson Games created for the third edition of GURPS, their universal game system. It's GURPS WWII and offers the following titles:
As in the case of Comandos de Guerra and Storm of Steel it's not necessary to carry out a conversion of contents at game mechanics level as GURPS WWII have all that is neede to play, reading the historical chronology of Sturm und Drang it's enough to have ideas for creating adventures.
Vieja Escuela Pulp! and Aventura!
I begin to delve with games taking advantage of the OGL to offer an experience inspired at mechanical level in Dungeons & Dragons and I do it with a pair of games of adventures with pulp magazines, thirties' film serials (and it's more modern follow-ups, like the adventures of Indiana Jones) aesthetics.
Vieja Escuela Pulp! - Second Edition is the work of Josep Ramón Balcells (based at the same time in the game Vieja Escuela written by Javier «Dwaine Hicks» García) and it's available from the website of grapas & mapas in Spanish and English, as a free download as well as printed through Lulu.
Aventura!, writeen by Carlos Julián «Variable» del Cerro and Josep Ramón Balcells is a supplement for the game Eirendor (based at the same time in the the 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons ruleset, which is published by Yipikayei. The basic books (Eirendor: Reglas y magia and Eirendor: Tesoro y Monstruos) are available at DriveThruRPG and Lektu, Aventura! can be downloaded from Sinergia de rol.
Both can be used to create adventures in the previous years to Second World War taking information from the historical chronology of Sturm und Drang and introducing elements from pulp literature (to see some ideas I advise you to read this post I wrote in 2016 about crossovers and shared universes).
Regarding game statistics I offer the following conversion notes:
For Vieja Escuela Pulp! I will take as a base the damage of some of its weapons and will compare them with their equivalent in Sturm und Drang as can be seen in the following table.
| Vieja Escuela Pulp! | Sturm und Drang | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Firearm | Damage | Maximum damage | Damage |
| Shotgun (12 gauge) | 1d6 | 6 | 3 |
| Pistol (.45) | 1d8 | 8 | 3 |
| Rifle 30-06 | 2d6 | 12 | 4 |
| Submachine gun | 1d6 | 6 | 4 |
Seeing data contained in this table you may consider that damage in Sturm und Drang is equivalent to medium damage in Vieja Escuela Pulp!, so to convert it to the latter yoy may multiply it by 1, 2 or 3 and then search the equivalent damage code in dice.
Regarding Aventura! the conversion isn't as straight if you look at this other table:
| Eirendor – Aventura | Sturm und Drang | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Firearm | Damage | Minimal damage | Medium damage | Maximum damage | Damage |
| Machine gun | 3d6 | 3 | 9 | 18 | 4 |
| Shotgun | 2d10 | 2 | 10 | 20 | 3 |
| Pistol | 2d6 | 2 | 6 | 12 | 3 |
| Revolver | 2d8 | 2 | 8 | 16 | 3 |
| Rifle | 2d10 | 2 | 10 | 20 | 3-4 |
| Automatic rifle | 3d8 | 3 | 12 | 24 | 3-4 |
In this case, taking into account that Aventura! doesn't offer concrete weapons calibers, I would advise to search the weapon to be converted from Sturm und Drang and then compare it to the type of weapon in Aventura! to use the listed damage in the supplement.
As for the vehicle statistics there's no one in those works, but the notes of the following section can be used if the referees may want to create them for their adventures.
WWII: Operation WhiteBox and The Front
And with a world war going on it's about time to see a couple of games with OGL dealing with this topic:
WWII: Operation WhiteBox, written by Peter C. Spahn and compatible with the game Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox by Mythmere Games, focuses on operations behind enemy lines in countries occupied by Axis powers, so it offers the possibility to create characters in special operations groups of Special Operations Executive (SOE), Office of Strategic Services (OSS) or US Army Rangers among others as well as all kind of resistancegroups. In addition to Second World War historical details and an introductory adventure this game also offers 3 little campaign environments with pulp and science-fiction settings which can perfectly connect with the two previous games.
The Front, written by Mark A. Hunt also offers the chance to play characters taking part in the same kind of missions and campaigns of the previous game, including brief notes to develop a pulp campaign with the characters facing the Werwolf guerrilla and classical monsters (gargoyles, werewolves, etc.) during the invasion of Germany by the Allied forces in 1945. Besides all this it should also be noted that The Front uses game mechanics adapted from The Black Hack, so it's possible to find things like usage dice to represent items that can be depleted with continued use, like firearms ammunition.
TTo use the statististics of weapons and vehicles in these games we can do the following:
In WWII: Operation WhiteBox the following options regarding the weapons' damage code can be considered:
- The damage code of Sturm und Drang is equivalent to medium damage in the game, so in case of firearms and grenades can be multiplied by 2 and convert this to a combination of six-sided dice and add or substract 1 or more points.
- In case of anti-tank guns (RPGs) the damage of Sturm und Drang must be multiplied by 8, or even 10, before converting it to six-sided dice.
| WWII: Operation WhiteBox | Sturm und Drang | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Firearms | Damage | Maximum damage | Damage |
| Handgun, medium (Luger P08 9mm) | 1d6-1 | 5 | 3 |
| Handgun, large (Colt M1911) | 1d6 | 6 | 3 |
| Rifle, large (Mauser Kar 98k) | 1d6+1 | 7 | 4 |
| Submachine gun (Thompson SMG) | 1d6 | 6 | 4 |
| Machinegun, medium (MG 42) | 1d6+2 | 8 | 5 |
| Grenade (Mills grenade) | 2d6+2 | 14 | 5 |
| RPG, medium (Bazooka) | 8d6 | 48 | 5 |
To convert the characteristics of land vehicles the following could be considered:
- To calculate Hit Dice (HD) Damage Resistance (shortened RD in Spanish) and armor (blindaje in Spanish) of Sturm und Drang can be added and then adjust to the nearer numbre following the examples of WWII: Operation WhiteBox.
- To calculate descending Armor Class (AC) add 1 or 2 to the armor of Sturm und Drang (the Ascending Armor Class, or AAC, is calculated according to WWII: Operation WhiteBox rules).
- To calculate HD only the RD divided by 2 and add 2 points in case of large planes (bombers or the like).
- AC is calculated taking RD like in land vehicles and multiplying it by 2.
| WWII: Operation WhiteBox | Sturm und Drang | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vehicle | HD (HP) | AC (AAC) | RD | Blindaje |
| Armored personal carrier (SdKfz 251) | 6 (24) | 5 (14) | 6 | 2 |
| Medium tank (T-34) | 9 (36) | 4 (15) | 6 | 3 |
| Heavy tank (Panzer VI Tiger ausf. E) | 10 (50) | 3 (16) | 8 | 3 |
| Small aircraft (Messerschmitt Bf 109) | 3 (12) | 7 (12) | 7 | 2 |
| Large aircraft (B-17 Flying Fortress) | 5 (20) | 5 (14) | 9 | 3 |
In the case of The Front (which, like Aventura!, doesn't offer concrete data about firearms calibers) is advisable to use the generic codes in the book.
On the other hand vehicle data from Sturm und Drang could be converted to The Front considering the following:
- In case of land vehicles Damage Resistance values (shortened RD in Spanish) can be translated directly to HHit Dice (HD), for light vehicles it could be necessary to substract 1 to 3 points to adjust them to The Front statistics.
- In case of aerial vehicles RD value can be can be directly translated with a ±1 adjustment in HD.
| The Front | Sturm und Drang | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Vehicle | HD (1 HD = 8 HP maximum) | RD | Blindaje |
| Armored vehicle (SdKfz 251) | 3 (24) | 6 | 2 |
| Tank (T-34) | 5 (40) | 6 | 3 |
| Heavy tank (Panzer VI Tiger ausf. E) | 8 (64) | 8 | 3 |
| Fighter (Messerschmitt Bf 109) | 6 (48) | 7 | 2 |
| Bomber (B-17 Flying Fortress) | 9 (72) | 9 | 3 |
The 13th Year and 1940 – England Invaded!
To finish this post I will talk you about a couple of games which also have the Second World War as a background but, like in Walküre and Sturm und Drang, has changed becoming and uchronia:
The 13th Year, written by Johnathan Hicks and available as a free download from Farsight Blogger and from 1KM1KT takes us to the end of the conflict and to the global use of nuclear weaponry by Nazi Germany and Japanese Empire after the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States. The action occurs in 1952, 13 years after the beginning of the war, and although the world has been reduced to a radioactive desert there are armies still roaming the surface of Earth in what seems to be a war without end.
1940 – England Invaded!, written by Simon Washbourne (author of Barbarians of Lemuria) and available as a free download from 1KM1KT, starts with the assumption that Operation Sea Lion has ocurred and Nazi Germany has succesfully invaded Great Britain. Playing characters are members of British resistance opposing German occupation forces.
To use weapons and vehicles statistics of these weapons we can see the following:
In case of The 13th Year weapons damage in Sturm und Drang can be considered equivalent to maximum damage o weapons in the gpuede considerarse equivaleame (1 or 2 points can be added to the total):
| The 13th Year | Sturm und Drang | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Firearm | Damage | Maximum damage | Damage |
| Pistol (Colt M1911) | 1d3+1 | 4 | 3 |
| Rifle (Mauser Kar 98k) | 1d3+2 | 5 | 4 |
| Submachine gun (Thompson SMG) | 1d3+1 | 4 | 4 |
| Machinegun (MG 42) | 1d3+3 | 6 | 5 |
| Grenade(Mills grenade) | 1d3+2 | 5 | 5 |
| RPG (Bazooka) | 1d3+4 | 7 | 5 |
Regarding vehicles it can be considered that Sturm und Drang Damage Resistance (shortened RD in Spanish) multiplied by 1.5 is more or less Body Strength in The 13th Year, for armor take armor (blindaje) of Sturm und Drang and add 1 for armored vehicles, 1 or 2 for light tanks and 2 for heavy tanks:
| The 13th Year | Sturm und Drang | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vehicle | Body Strength | Armor | RD | Blindaje |
| Motorcycle (BMW R75) | 3 | - | 2 | 1 |
| Car (Mercedes-Benz W31) | 6 | - | 4 | 2 |
| Truck (Opel Blitz) | 8 | - | 6 | 1 |
| Armored vehicle (SdKfz 251) | 9 | 3 | 6 | 2 |
| Tank (T-34) | 10 | 4 | 6 | 3 |
| Heavy tank (Panzer VI Tiger ausf. E) | 12 | 5 | 8 | 3 |
As for 1940 – England Invaded! the game doesn't offer statistics for vehicles (it only offers technical data like nationality, speed, etc.), so I will only deal with the conversion of weapon damage stats and I already tell you that it is a bit special.
To calculate damage of weapons against a human target 1d20 is rolled and depending on the weapon used and the obtained outcome he may be stuned, lightly injured, heavy injured, incapacitated or killed; to see if a weapon can affect a vehicle and knock out it the outcome of the roll is compared with the vehicle type (and here it is realistic: it's impossible that a handgun affect a heavy vehicle, like a tank).
The question in this case is to see how an equivalence can be achieved between damage code in Sturm und Drang and 1940 – England Invaded!, after mulling about it I think I have found a process that may be quite adequate.
First of all calculate the number of damage points in the "Kill" column of the weapon in 1940 – England Invaded! which is being converted using the following table.
| Conversion data to get killing damage of firearms against humans in 1940 – England Invaded! | ||
|---|---|---|
| Weapon type | Conversion formula | |
| Small arms (pistols, revolvers) | SuD damage – 2 | |
| Submachine guns | SuD damage – 2 | |
| Rifles | SuD damage – 3 | |
| Machine guns | SuD damage – 3 | |
| Antitank weapons | Boys A-T (.55 in) | SuD damage – 1 |
| 20 mm | SuD damage | |
| 37 mm | SuD damage + 2 | |
| 2-pounder (40 mm) | SuD damage + 3 | |
| 6-pounder (57 mm) | SuD damage + 9 | |
| SuD : Sturm und Drang | ||
Once this number is obtained it has to be seen to what scale from 1 to 20 it corresponds (if the operation resulted in 0, it is considered 1 for the calculation), so if the result is 1 it corresponds to 20, if it is 2 it corresponds to 19 – 20, if it is 3 it corresponds to 18 – 20, etc.
To find out the other numbers of the scale the following table can be used, there are showed the corresponding percentages of the needed points in 1 twenty-sided dice.
| Damage in 1940 – England Invaded! (humans as target) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weapon type | Damage scale (percentage of points in 1d20) | |||||
| Stunned | Light damage | Heavy damage | Incapacitated | Kill | ||
| Small arms (pistols, revolvers) | 35% | 30% | 25% | 5% | 5% | |
| Submachine guns | MP38 MP40 |
30% | 15% | 25% | 20% | 10% |
| Sten Lanchester |
25% | 15% | 25% | 25% | 10% | |
| Rifles | Lee Enfield Kar 98K |
30% | 25% | 20% | 20% | 5% |
| Springfield 1917 | 30% | 30% | 20% | 15% | 5% | |
| Machine guns | MG34 Hmg | 5% | 20% | 25% | 35% | 15% |
| Lewis Lmg | 10% | 15% | 35% | 30% | 10% | |
| Bren Lmg MG34 Lmg |
15% | 15% | 35% | 25% | 10% | |
| Antitank weapons | Boys A-T (.55 in) | 5% | 15% | 15% | 40% | 25% |
| 20 mm | 5% | 10% | 15% | 45% | 25% | |
| 37 mm 2-pounder (40 mm) |
5% | 5% | 15% | 35% | 40% | |
| 6-pounder (57 mm) | 5% | 5% | 5% | 10% | 75% | |
So, if a German Luger P-08 pistol have damage 3 in Sturm und Drang this figure will correspond to 1 20 in 1d20, to calculate the other numbers we would use the previous table.
Let's see some examples:
| Examples of damage in Sturm und Drang converted to 1940 – England Invaded! | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Damage scale (humans as target) | |||||||||||||||
| Weapon | Stunned | Light damage | Heavy damage | Incapacitated | Killed | ||||||||||
| d20 | Points | % | d20 | Points | % | d20 | Points | % | d20 | Points | % | d20 | Points | % | |
| Luger P-08 pistol | 1-7 | 7 | 35 | 8-13 | 6 | 30 | 14-18 | 5 | 25 | 19 | 1 | 5 | 20 | 1 | 5 |
| M1 Garand rifle | 1-6 | 6 | 30 | 7-12 | 6 | 30 | 13-16 | 4 | 20 | 17-19 | 3 | 15 | 20 | 1 | 5 |
| Browning .50 machine gun | 1-3 | 3 | 15 | 4-6 | 3 | 15 | 7-13 | 7 | 35 | 14-18 | 5 | 25 | 19-20 | 2 | 10 |
| 57 mm canon | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 4-5 | 2 | 10 | 6-20 | 15 | 75 |
To calculate the chance of knocking out a vehicle with a shot of a given type of weapon the process is similar to the previous one, calculating first the conversion formula of the damage against soft-skinned vehicles (cars and trucks) and then score needed to affect every type of vehicle.
| Conversion data to get damage of firearms against soft-skinned vehicles (*) in 1940 – England Invaded! | ||
|---|---|---|
| Weapon type | Conversion formula | |
| Small arms (pistols, revolvers) | SuD damage x 3 | |
| Submachine guns | SuD damage x 3 | |
| Rifles | SuD damage x 2,5 | |
| Machine guns | SuD damage x 2,6 | |
| Antitank weapons | SuD damage x 2 | |
| SuD : Sturm und Drang (*) Cars and trucks |
||
| Damage in 1940 – England Invaded! (vehicles as target) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weapon type | Damage scale (percentage of points in 1d20) | |||||
| None | Soft-skinned vehicles (*) | Light armored vehicles | Medium armored vehicles | Heavy armored vehicles | ||
| Small arms | Webley .455 | 55% | 45% | - | - | - |
| Luger P-08 | 60% | 40% | - | - | - | |
| Submachine guns | 35% | 60% | 5% | - | - | |
| Rifles | 45% | 50% | 5% | - | - | |
| Machine guns | Lewis Lmg | 10% | 65% | 25% | - | - |
| Vickers Hmg MG34 Hmg |
15% | 65% | 20% | - | - | |
| Bren Lmg MG34 Lmg |
20% | 65% | 15% | - | - | |
| Antitank weapons | Boys A-T (.55 in) | 10% | 50% | 30% | 10% | - |
| 20 mm | 10% | 45% | 30% | 15% | - | |
| 37 mm | 5% | 50% | 25% | 15% | 5% | |
| 2-pounder (40 mm) | 5% | 50% | 25% | 15% | 5% | |
| 6-pounder (57 mm) | 5% | 30% | 30% | 25% | 10% | |
| (*) Cars and trucks | ||||||
In this manner a Lee-Enfield rifle (damage 4 in Sturm und Drang) could knock-out a car with a roll of 10 to 19 and a light armored vehicle with a 20.
Let's see some examples:
| Examples of damage in Sturm und Drang converted to 1940 – England Invaded! | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Damage scale (vehicels as a target) | |||||||||||||||
| Arma | None | Soft-skinned vehicles (*) | Light armored vehicles | Medium armored vehicles | Heavy armored vehicles | ||||||||||
| d20 | Points | % | d20 | Points | % | d20 | Points | % | d20 | Points | % | d20 | Points | % | |
| Luger P-08 pistol | 1-11 | 11 | 55 | 12-20 | 9 | 45 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| M1 Garand rifle | 1-9 | 9 | 45 | 10-19 | 10 | 50 | 20 | 1 | 5 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Browning .50 machine gun | 1-3 | 3 | 15 | 4-19 | 13 | 65 | 20 | 1 | 20 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 57 mm cannon | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2-7 | 6 | 30 | 8-13 | 6 | 30 | 14-18 | 5 | 25 | 19-20 | 2 | 10 |
| (*) Cars and trucks | |||||||||||||||
The End
And here comes the end of this series about the Sturm und Drang supplement of the Walküre line, the adventures that were obtained during patronage and the games with which you can use its contents, I hope you liked it and that it can be useful to plan adventures for your game table.
This entry it's also available in the following languages:
Castellano Català
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