@Robyo, thank you for the review!

I'll add, for those interested, that we have a WWII: Operation WhiteBox G+ Community so check it out for game updates, game content, and general WWII articles and discussions.

Quote from: finarvyn;961174Very cool, and I hadn't heard about a WW-II version of my rules set. I'll have to be on the lookout for this. :-)

Is this Matt Finch??? If so, I have tried to contact you numerous times on G+ and by email so I was guessing you either didn't like me or the contact info was bad. Please hit me up at smallnichegames -at- gmail -dot- com and I can send you some game PDFs.

Pete

Quote from: pspahn;961824Is this Matt Finch??? If so, I have tried to contact you numerous times on G+ and by email so I was guessing you either didn't like me or the contact info was bad.

Hey, Pete. No, I'm not Matt but I'm Marv. I did the S&W WB rules set and Matt did pretty much all of the other S&W variants (Complete, Core, etc). If the PDF offer extends to me as well I will send you my contact info.

Quote from: finarvyn;961834Hey, Pete. No, I'm not Matt but I'm Marv. I did the S&W WB rules set and Matt did pretty much all of the other S&W variants (Complete, Core, etc). If the PDF offer extends to me as well I will send you my contact info.

Well sir, I guess he just doesn't like me then.

I guess I was unclear on the rules origin!  Please email me and I will get you set up with the PDFs.

OK, I finally have, and have read through the game. Two words, love it! Its familiar because of the whitebox underpinnings. Yet stand well on its own. I was worried about damage and such. But its got that gritty, a knife or pistol is a life taking dangerous threat feel. Sometimes my inner WWII/gun/equipment guys starts to pipe up. But it keeps it simple, and I can respect and get behind that. I'm really enjoyin it. I cant wait to run a game. Thanks again Pete. This is a winner for me.

Quote from: Ronin;964161OK, I finally have, and have read through the game. Two words, love it! Its familiar because of the whitebox underpinnings. Yet stand well on its own. I was worried about damage and such. But its got that gritty, a knife or pistol is a life taking dangerous threat feel. Sometimes my inner WWII/gun/equipment guys starts to pipe up. But it keeps it simple, and I can respect and get behind that. I'm really enjoyin it. I cant wait to run a game. Thanks again Pete. This is a winner for me.

Excellent! Please let me know when you plan to run a game. I'd love to hear details.

Also, for those who are interested, on June 6th-7th I am running a massive PDF/print sale on all WWII: Operation WhiteBox products. I'll post a reminder in this thread. Thanks again!

Pete

Cool.

Thank you for sharing this.

Just a quick reminder - OWB sale ends today!

Check us out on RPGNOW.

So I'm still looking at this for running Achtung! Cthulu - it's on my desk right now - maybe use the 1e D&DG Cthulu Mythos stats for the opposition. Looking at hit points, I probably don't want special agent hero types dropping to one shot so I'm thinking that 10hp on 1st hit die +4 per subsequent should work well, been calculating what this means per PC class in pencil for my copy - not easy with all the 3+1 hd > 4hd > 5+2hd OD&D stuff.

For weapon damage, I want a small chance one bullet can kill anyone, so I'm having melee weapons max on a crit, but firearms on a crit do x2 damage and exploding dice - every '6' = 'roll again and add 6'.

That should keep my players worried without killing them all in the first fight or having to start at higher level, which wouldn't be great when the game only has 5.

I think for WW2 combat Initiative should be critical, maybe take a hint from Holmes and have Init = DEX+Level.

I tend to use the Heroic level for my games, using d10 for HD instead of d6. It sort of hits that sweet spot for me, where PCs can survive a combat or two, but can't just run through a hail of bullets and take out the machinegun nest. Most weapons do around 1d6 damage, with auto fire and explosives potentially doing much more, so every hit hurts.

Quote from: pspahn;967318I tend to use the Heroic level for my games, using d10 for HD instead of d6. It sort of hits that sweet spot for me, where PCs can survive a combat or two, but can't just run through a hail of bullets and take out the machinegun nest. Most weapons do around 1d6 damage, with auto fire and explosives potentially doing much more, so every hit hurts.

I thought about this, but I want robust starting agents, which a straight d10 roll doesn't guarantee, then a moderate increase by level. Also I kind-of like not using any dice but d20s and d6s in the game.
Hmm - 10 on 1st hd +5/extra hit die, rather than 10 +4, would work well for Heroic tier, and looks neater.

What I do for this type of game is start PCs with a number of hit points equal to their Con but they don't actually gain any hit points until their rolled value exceeds their Con. This way, characters start a bit less squishy but don't end up with a huge number of extra hit points at mid-upper levels.

Quote from: hedgehobbit;967334What I do for this type of game is start PCs with a number of hit points equal to their Con but they don't actually gain any hit points until their rolled value exceeds their Con. This way, characters start a bit less squishy but don't end up with a huge number of extra hit points at mid-upper levels.

That's not bad. I max HP at 1st level anyway. Subsequent levels reroll HP based on class HD and take the highest number. It's generally a non issue because they're not going to be bullet sponges either way unless you use the d20 HD of the Inglorious level of play.

Just been going over game today - I really appreciate how complete it is, with so much stuff packed into a slim volume, far more than my expensive Achtung! Cthulu books manage - though they do make pretty props.
There are some mistakes I think, eg it refers to the M1 Garand as having an automatic fire mode, the closest to an automatic heavy rifle I think would be the Browning BAR, what's now called a squad support weapon. And it lists the Sherman as a medium tank on par with the German Panthers, rather than a light tank on par with Panzer III & IV - if that were so the Shermans vs Tiger scene in Fury would have been a lot less dramatic. But those are very easy things to tweak. I love the suppressive fire section, very nice indeed, and I think the general rules approach is dead-on in terms of appropriate complexity.

Quote from: S'mon;967355Just been going over game today - I really appreciate how complete it is, with so much stuff packed into a slim volume, far more than my expensive Achtung! Cthulu books manage - though they do make pretty props.
There are some mistakes I think, eg it refers to the M1 Garand as having an automatic fire mode, the closest to an automatic heavy rifle I think would be the Browning BAR, what's now called a squad support weapon. And it lists the Sherman as a medium tank on par with the German Panthers, rather than a light tank on par with Panzer III & IV - if that were so the Shermans vs Tiger scene in Fury would have been a lot less dramatic. But those are very easy things to tweak. I love the suppressive fire section, very nice indeed, and I think the general rules approach is dead-on in terms of appropriate complexity.

Thank you! Yes, I wanted it to be as complete as possible without bogging everything down in too much detail.

The M1 Garand is capable of simulating Burst Fire (but not suppressive fire) because of its high rate of semiautomatic fire (compared to bolt action rifles of the time).

I expanded more on vehicles in the Common Vehicles of WWII sourcebook I released which does more to differentiate the Sherman from the Panther. The Sherman is a medium tank with Reinforced Hull x2 and a Light Tank Gun (75 mm low velocity) whereas the Panther would be a medium tank (Reinforced Hull x2) with a Medium Tank Gun (75 mm high velocity). This means that the Sherman could only penetrate the Panther from the sides or rear while the Panther's gun could penetrate from anywhere. The Tiger would be a heavy tank (Reinforced Hull x3) that the Sherman's light tank gun could not penetrate at all. The tank in Fury was a Sherman Easy Eight armed with the 76 mm (Medium Tank Gun in the game) so it could penetrate the Tiger from the sides or rear, but not the front, similar to the movie.

I know there are other variables to armor penetration (angle, distance, types of rounds, etc.), but this is about as detailed as I wanted to get for the game.

Glad you're liking it. Its a fun game to play!

Quote from: pspahn;967368Thank you! Yes, I wanted it to be as complete as possible without bogging everything down in too much detail.

The M1 Garand is capable of simulating Burst Fire (but not suppressive fire) because of its high rate of semiautomatic fire (compared to bolt action rifles of the time).

I expanded more on vehicles in the Common Vehicles of WWII sourcebook I released which does more to differentiate the Sherman from the Panther. The Sherman is a medium tank with Reinforced Hull x2 and a Light Tank Gun (75 mm low velocity) whereas the Panther would be a medium tank (Reinforced Hull x2) with a Medium Tank Gun (75 mm high velocity). This means that the Sherman could only penetrate the Panther from the sides or rear while the Panther's gun could penetrate from anywhere. The Tiger would be a heavy tank (Reinforced Hull x3) that the Sherman's light tank gun could not penetrate at all. The tank in Fury was a Sherman Easy Eight armed with the 76 mm (Medium Tank Gun in the game) so it could penetrate the Tiger from the sides or rear, but not the front, similar to the movie.

I know there are other variables to armor penetration (angle, distance, types of rounds, etc.), but this is about as detailed as I wanted to get for the game.

Glad you're liking it. Its a fun game to play!

Thanks for your thinking, I see you've put plenty of thought into it! (I'm sceptical re Sherman & Panther having comparable durability - may check out your supplement). Re the M1, I see now - burst fire from a semi-auto makes sense within the 1 minute combat round paradigm; not sure about it with 6 or 10 second rounds. Trying to remember what it was like firing the SA80 bullpup carbine on semi-auto when I was in the army reserve, I think firing full power rounds you couldn't really 'burst fire' within say a 3 second period because the barrel has to be re-aimed after every shot (unlike with Hollywood-style blank firing where it doesn't kick much).