TTRPG Roll 23-39 – A new telling of old war tales with War Stories: A World War 2 RPG (G.I. Garcia, Firelock Games, 2022)

One of my acquisitions at the Armchair Dragoons Fall Assembly wargaming meet up in October 2023 was the core rulebook for the roleplaying game (RPG) War Stories: A World War 2 RPG by G.I. Garcia from Firelock Games (2022). If I was stuck in an elevator and was challenged to describe War Stories I likely would say, “War Stories is a tabletop roleplaying game that uses Free League Publishing’s Year Zero Engine Free Tabletop License (YZE FTL) in a default setting loosely based on the HBO TV series Band of Brothers but with incomplete material for a Game Master.” Taken as a whole, War Stories is a fair RPG that is grounded in solid game mechanism but with a setting that presents a great deal of background but little actual material for Game Masters (GMs).

This ain’t your grandfather’s RPG

War Stories is one of the few roleplaying games that directly places players in the role of combat soldiers in historical military forces. It is not my first RPG of this genre; long ago in 1982 the second roleplaying game I ever acquired (after the three-Little Black Book version of Traveller) was Behind Enemy Lines from FASA. The back of the box describes the game thusly:

Behind Enemy Lines is a role-playing game which allows you to take on the character of a U.S. infantryman in World War II. Parachute drops, night raids, sniper ambushes, pitched battles, combat patrols, and long-range reconnaissance probes are the challenges you face. Your enemy is cunning, well-trained, and well-equipped. Your ingenuity, your courage, and skill are all that stand between you and disaster.

Behind Enemy Lines, back of the box

I wrote previously about wargames with strong roleplaying game elements, or what I call “Adventure Wargames.” My banner game of this genre of gaming is Behind Enemy Lines. Part of the reason for that categorization is that Behind Enemy Lines, though a roleplaying game with character creation, is more heavily focused on the combat portion of the game. The game mechanisms used in Behind Enemy Lines to create characters are very bare-bones (no pun intended); the main emphasis of the game mechanisms are combat first and what I term “adventure by encounters” second. Character creation, such as it is, is “just enough” but not very deep; there are a few (but not many) narrative hooks generated but those pale in importance compared to combat skills.

As I described Behind Enemy Lines many years ago, “In reality, it is a WWII skirmish combat game with some RPG mechanics grafted in.” To bring that thought up to date, the campaign game approach of Behind Enemy Lines is effectively a mission-based dungeon crawl across the European countryside of World War II. The rules and campaign themes of Behind Enemy Lines are very suitable for adventuring in the vein of the movie The Dirty Dozen.

War Stories, on the other hand, approaches the design of the game in a very RPG-forward manner. Although one can certainly use War Stories to fight a skirmish battle, the core game mechanisms are firmly rooted in a narrative roleplaying game approach over a more rigid, wargame rules-centric system. The focus of War Stories is the squad; that collection of a few soldiers thrown together in combat that share an intense personal bond.

The very RPG-forward core game mechanism used War Stories is the Dice Pool variant of the Year Zero Engine Free Tabletop License (the YZE FTL comes with two core game mechanism choices: Dice Pool or Step Dice). This is the same core game mechanism used in Free League Publishing’s ALIEN: The Roleplaying Game. The War Stories core rulebook describes the Dice Pool mechanism this way:

War Stories uses traditional six-sided dice (10-12 per player should do) to determine the results of actions that can potentially fall short of success and, just as importantly, where failure has some serious consequence. Generally, a number of dice, called d6s, are rolled equal to the PC’s [player characters] Attribute and Skill, hoping to attain a result of 6 on at least one die. Sixes rolled are called Successes. Often, one is enough, though for some tasks you may hope for more than one success. Also, there are instances where additional d6s are rolled to represent Bonus Dice.

War Stories, p. 15

Example: The namesake character in the core rulebook, Private First Class John ‘Jack’ Reeves, is trying to sneak up on a German guard at a small farmhouse the morning after the airdrop into Normandy. This is a Skill Test of Agility + Infiltrate versus Intelligence + Perception. The example player-character sheet for Reeves is found on page 48 of the core rulebook and shows that Jack has Agility=5 and Infiltrate=0. He is going up against a standard German Infantry non-player character (NPC) with stats found on page 216 giving the German soldier Intelligence=3 and Perception=0. The GM gives the German NPC a -1 die penalty for looking into the direction of the rising sun. Jack rolls 5d6 getting 1, 2, 2, 2, 4 for no Successes. Reeves decides to use the Push Your Luck rule to reroll the four dice that are not a “Dud” 1. The Push Your Luck rolls are 1, 2, 2, and 6 for a single Success. The two “Dud” rolls become FUBARs which are a gaming metacurrency for the GM (Lucky Strikes are the player counterpart to FUBARS). The GM rolls 2d6 for the German soldier getting a 3 and a 5 (no Successes). Reeves has won the opposed test and is now just on the other side of a short stone wall from the German soldier. Jack is close enough that he now has a choice of rising up over the stone wall and shooting or he could leap the wall and rush the guard with his combat knife out.

Character generation in War Stories is either simple or a bit complex depending on player preference. War Stories offers two character generation options: Archetype or Life Path. The archetype method is a 15-step process described on five (5) pages using eight archetypes that include:

• The Rifleman
• The Scout
• The Medic
• The Weapon Specialist
• The Leader
• The Engineer
• The Partisan
• The Correspondent

On the other hand, the Life Path method of character creation in War Stories is a detailed process with many more narrative elements as compared to the rather straight-forward—if not a bit generic—archetype procedure. The Life Path method is described over 19 pages of the core rulebook.

Regardless of which character generation method chosen, each character in War Stories will have narrative hooks. Specifically, each player-character will have a Character Talent, a Character Flaw, a Character Virtue, and a Buddy (chosen from amongst the other PCs). Interestingly, these are virtually the same characteristics used to describe Background Characters.

Background Characters, or BCs, in War Stories are non-player characters that are part of the unit and controlled jointly by all the players and/or the GM. Not only do BCs round out a unit, they also can be used as a “ready spare” if a player-character meets an untimely demise. The rules for BCs neatly address a common problem of military-themed RPGs; if there are not enough players where is the rest of the squad? In War Stories, the rest of the squad is represented as BCs.

https://youtu.be/r7zeh6z49YQ

The rules for combat in War Stories are found in Chapter 5: Combat and Chapter 6: Damage and Healing. As stated on page 82, “While Combat in War Stories is largely comprised of Ranged Attacks and Close Combat melees, and understanding of movement, range, and other circumstantial rules helps create the exciting action that is sure to unfold in a tense firefight or a life or death brawl.” Interestingly, for such a narratively-focused RPG, the Combat rules in War Stories recommend the use of hex or graph paper at a scale of one hex/square to 5 meters (p. 82). If three or more hits are scored the damage location on the body becomes important and a d10 is used to determine where the hit occurs (Head / Torso / Arm / Leg) (p. 85).

For a set of rules that are very RPG-forward, the rules for Social Conflict in War Stories fall a bit short. Social Conflict is presented in a single narrow column of text. By the rules, Social Conflict only applies between player characters; social conflict with non-player characters (NPCs) are resolved as skill tests. The rules for Social Conflict—as limited as they are—is where the issue of orders in a military-themed RPG are addressed:

One important consideration in a military-themed game is the question of rank and orders. It is critical that players agree on the role of any NCO or higher-ranked officers played as PCs. Orders given are expected to be obeyed, or at least seem to be obeyed. Often, this has the potential to create dramatic conflict and complex relationships among the party members. This is a good thing as it adds to the story considerably! However, this may also cause issues among some groups. Abuse of the power associated with rank is highly discouraged. Players should keep in mind that the game is meant to be fun for everyone, and playing a ranking PC should not interfere with this. The game assumes the group is mature enough to play with rank accordingly. It is is not, the GM may simply make all players the same rank and portray ranking characters as NPCs.

War Stories, Social Conflict, p. 98

I’ll just say that the “solution” to differences over Social Conflict given by the writers of War Stories feels…inadequate to me as it works against the general approach to player agency given in the Year Zero Engine.

From grit to pulp

In the time since Behind Enemy Lines was published in 1982, respect and admiration for The Greatest Generation, as made popular by news anchor and author Tom Brokaw’s 1998 book of that title, has led to various popular portrayals of soldiers in World War II. One of the most popular portrayals has to be the 2001 HBO TV series Band of Brothers based in turn on author Stephen Ambrose’s 1992 book Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest. While one cannot argue about the individual wartime achievements of The Greatest Generation, one can be critical of how those achievements are sometimes portrayed in popular culture. Even the highly praised TV series Band of Brothers was not above altering history in the name of plot. Another popular World War II movie that was popular but based on some questionable history is the 2014 movie Fury. While the movie was praised for its historical attention to detail, the book it is loosely based on, Death Traps: The Survival of an American Armored Division in World War II, is a 1998 memoir by Belton Y. Cooper which has faced criticism over some of the historical interpretations contained within.

I mention the TV series Band of Brothers and movie Fury because both seemingly seem to be inspiration for War Stories based on the back of the book text and publisher’s blurb which are similar but not identical.

The back of the War Stories core rulebook originally published in 2022 starts off:

War Stories is a role-playing game set during the violence and drama of the Second World War. In it, your characters will wage the war of the Greatest Generation, experiencing desperate missions and harrowing exploits across the war-torn lands of Europe and beyond. The stories you create can vary from a one-shot scenario detailing the actions of a brief engagement to a lengthy campaign that stretches from Normandy to the Rhine and into the heart of Germany. With War Stories, you and your fellow players can do all this and far more. the streamlined Year Zero Engine is the basis of the War Stories ruleset which fades to the background allowing players to focus on the non-stop action.

War Stories, back of core rulebook

The publisher’s blurb found on the Firelock Games website in late 2023:

War Stories is a roleplaying game set during the Second World War. With it, you and your friends may play the roles of heroic soldiers parachuting into Normandy during Operation Overlord in June of 1944, or as a harried tank crew grinding their way through France in the breakout that followed. You may even explore history as an intrepid war correspondent or an underground resistance fighter. The campaign game will allow players to tell the tale of their stalwart band as they collectively liberate France and drive onward toward victory. Above all, players will create moments of valor and courage, ultimately weaving their personal tales into the fabric of history, from D-Day and beyond. These will be their War Stories.

War Stories, publisher’s blurb

While the publisher portrays War Stories as a wide-open campaign sandbox, the “sand” is not very well defined in the core rulebook. The rulebook includes a campaign, Rendezvous with Destiny, that focuses on the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division where one finds “Easy” Company of the Band of Brothers. Other possible settings mentioned are French Resistance or the International Red Cross. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a Japanese-American or Nisei unit that was the most highly decorated combat unit in US history is also mentioned. Many more settings are mentioned elsewhere in the core rulebook.

In the core rulebook for War Stories, it would seem logical that Chapter 9 – The Campaign and Chapter 10 – Telling the War Story would be the place for GMs to learn how to run a game. Chapter 9, however, devotes the first seven (7) of 16 pages to “Campaign Battles” which is a sub-game for fighting a “zoomed-out” battlefield where the squad is one small part of the battle narrative. While a Campaign Battle can provide the larger context around an adventure scene, it is not a guide to how to run that scene.

The next section of Chapter 9 in War Stories is “Campaign Travel and Encounters.” Based on my experience playing Behind Enemy Lines, this is where I expected an “adventure by encounter” section of rules. That is until I read this passage which makes “adventure by encounters” seem to the exception and not the rule: “While GMs can use pre-scripted plots and published adventures that focus on specific missions and points of action, there will be occasions where the players are traveling across the battlefield, or Area of Operations, either as part of those campaigns or as a scenario in itself” (p. 165). These 10 pages are mostly tables to help a GM create an Area of Operations (AO) with the general terrain, key features, random features, and encounters. Like the rules say; traveling through an AO can be a scenario, but it is not intended to be the full campaign generator.

In War Stories, Chapter 10 – Telling the War Story seems it should be the place for the GM to go for how to run a campaign. The chapter does that, but it does so from the approach of a GM that already has an action point or adventure or campaign developed. The closest the chapter comes to helping the GM develop their own campaign is the short section on “Creating Your Own Stories (Themes and Styles).” Unfortunately, this small section is more about themes than actual adventures. Even a later section on “Adventure Ideas” is little more than a list of ideas with no real rules behind them to assist the GM beyond generating an idea for an adventure/campaign.

War Stories includes an introductory scenario: Chapter 13 – The Tank. This is a small single mission that is designed to be playable in a single session. As a single mission this is a fair example of what a scenario could look like. However, given the lack of robust GM tools to create the details of an action point or scenario or campaign, the core rulebook for War Stories is perhaps best viewed as the rules of war with the missions sold separately.

The lack of robust GM adventure creation tools is what hold me back from wholeheartedly endorsing War Stories. The core rulebook is a complete set of rules for generating a character and operating within a setting, but that same book lacks the tools to empower a GM to create a full setting. Admittedly, I may be overstating the situation—there is plenty of background material presented and enough gear and weapons or NPC rules in the core rulebook that all the elements of an adventure are found between the covers. What I can’t clearly see are the rules to bring it together into a complete scenario or full campaign.

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Feature image courtesy RMN

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