Time of War: Weird War Heroes

Character Creation

Creating a character is easy. Just
follow the steps below through the training process.

1. Race
Everyone is human (despite Nazi propaganda to the contrary).
All characters receive a free Edge during character creation.

2. Nationality
You may choose your nationality from any of the Allied nations.
Be sure to check out the new National Identity Edge as well.

3. Choose Service
Decide if your hero is in the Army, Navy, Air Corps, or Marines.
Again, your War Master may require your character to be in a specific
service to better fit the campaign.

4. Choose Military Occupational
Specialty (MOS)
Within your service branch, decide what job your character
performs (see page 8).

5. Attributes

Define your hero’s attributes as normal. Keep in mind some military specialties may require minimum starting attribute levels. 

6. Skills
Starting characters get 15 points for skills as usual. However, you must take certain skills determined by the character’s service branch and job specialty. Using this system creates characters that are suited to their roles within the military.
The Master may allow you to create characters outside these guidelines if desired.
Basic Training: To ensure that every soldier, sailor, airman, and marine has the basic skills needed to function in the military, every recruit goes through Basic Training. Record the Basic Training skills appropriate to your service branch and pay the costs to purchase them.
MOS Training: Once you’ve purchased Basic Training skills, take any skills required by your MOS.
Spend Extra Points: Leftover skill points may be spent as usual, and often reflect the character’s life prior to armed service.

7. Edges & HindrancesAll starting characters begin play with one free Edge of their choice. Some Edges go particularly well with a given MOS. These are listed as Useful Edges, but you are not required to take them.
You may take one Major Hindrance (worth 2 points) and two Minor Hindrances (worth 1 point each). If you take any Hindrances, you may use the points gained from them for the benefits listed below.
For 2 Hindrance points you can:
•  Raise an attribute one die type.
•  Choose an Edge.
For 1 Hindrance point you can:
•  Gain another skill point.

8. Rank
All military personnel have a rank or rating. Unless your Master says otherwise or if you have not bought the Rank: NCO or Rank: Officer Edge, your character’s starting rank cannot be higher than E–4. See the Rank Tables below for the ranks appropriate to your character’s nationality and service branch.
If a squad has two officers of the same rank, the two players must decide which is senior (often decided by the earliest enlistment date).

9. Gear

The basic gear issue varies greatly from country to country, but unless the War Master says otherwise, your character is issued his uniform, a bedroll, mess kit, and basic weapon.
(Ammunition is usually handed out at the front as needed.)
Any additional equipment required by your MOS is listed in its description on the following pages.
Characters have $50 worth of personal gear or cash as well.
Shipboard Navy personnel generally do not have personal
firearms while on duty. When necessary, firearms are issued from a shipboard arms locker. These weapons include the standard small arms (rifles, pistols, submachine guns, and light machine guns) used by that particular country. The Master should determine the type and number of weapons available in a ship’s arms locker.
Air Corps personnel are generally armed, if at all, with the standard issue pistol for their country.

10. Background

Come up with a history for your character. Was he drafted or did he volunteer? Where is he from? What did he do before the war?

What about his family? What kind of personality does he have? Some of the answers to these questions could help you choose what service your character goes into and even what job he might end up doing.

Service branches and MOS packages

A character’s service branch determines the basic skills he’s taught and the particular jobs available. Start with Basic Training and make sure your character meets the Attribute and Skill Requirements.

If no die type is listed, the character must at least have a d4 in the associated skill.

Gear is the equipment a recruit is issued under normal circumstances. Note that “normal circumstances” can vary greatly by nation and campaign. Russian soldiers recruited for Stalingrad, for example, are lucky to get a weapon. They almost certainly won’t be issued uniforms, bedding, gas masks, and so on.

After “passing” Basic Training, move on to your character’s particular Military Occupational Specialty (MOS). The MOS packages here are provided as a quick way to make up characters who are likely to be on the front lines. There are of course more occupational specialties within the military than listed here, but most of those are support or administrative functions that don’t bring such personnel out on the front lines.

Basic Training

Army & Marines

The Army is usually the backbone of a nation’s military. In WW2, armies swelled to tremendous size—millions and millions of men (and a fair number of women, particularly in the Soviet Union) served in the Axis & Allied armies.

•  Attribute Requirements: US Marines require a d6 in Spirit.

•  Skill Requirements: Fighting, Shooting.

•  Basic Gear Issue: Steel helmet, bayonet or knife, web gear (web belt, suspenders, 4 ammo pouches), backpack, bandage, mess kit, canteen, gas mask, entrenching tool, spare uniform, boots (or shoes with leggings), 4 pairs socks, bedroll, rain poncho, shelter half. Total Weight: 46 lbs.

Navy

Naval forces during the war literally decided the fate of nations.

They ferried vital materiel and armaments across the oceans, brought massive firepower to bear on coastal targets, and delivered waves of marines to distant and bloody shores.

•  Attribute Requirements: Agility d6.
•  Skill Requirements: Boating, Shooting, Swimming.

•  Basic Gear Issue: Duffle bag, spare uniform, and shoes. Steel helmet, life preserver, flak jacket (usually worn when topside during battle). Total Weight: 35 lbs.

Air Corps

Military air forces came into their own in World War Two.

Bombing raids crippled production and massed formations while airdrops of army paratroopers secured vital targets—such as the crossroads beyond Normandy on D-Day. Strafing fighter planes also solved the army’s constant dilemma—the much tougher German tanks—by destroying them from above. Truly, whichever side had air superiority—barring poor weather—had a massive advantage.

•  Attribute Requirements: Smarts d6.
•  Skill Requirements: Repair, Shooting.

•  Basic Gear Issue: Leather flight helmet, goggles, oxygen mask, spare uniform, flight jacket, boots or shoes, electrically heated suit, leather flight suit (jacket, pants), shoulder holster, life preserver, survival kit, knife, parachute. Total Weight: 63 lbs.

Army & Marine MOS Packages

The Army and Marine MOS packages are grouped together because, in most cases, they are the same—an infantryman in the Army essentially does the same thing as an infantryman in the Marines (but don’t tell them that!).

Armored Vehicle Crewman

Your tanker is a member of an AFV (armored fighting vehicle) crew. He might be the driver, gunner, or commander. Vehicle crews cross-train on each position in case one of their comrades is disabled.

Each crewman knows the basic maintenance procedures for the vehicle, how to drive, and how to load and fire its weapons.
•  Attribute Requirements: None.
•  Skill Requirements: Driving, Repair.
•  Useful Edges: Ace, Bullseye, Steady Hands, Mechanically Inclined.
•  Special: None.
•  Additional Gear: Tanker’s helmet, goggles.

Artilleryman

You are a member of an artillery unit or mortar section and you serve on a gun or mortar crew. You know how to limber and unlimber (set up and take down) the weapon, and how to load, aim, and fire it.

•  Attribute Requirements: Strength d6.
•  Skill Requirements: Knowledge (Artillery), Repair.
•  Useful Edges: Fire For Effect, Mechanically Inclined.
•  Special: None.
•  Additional Gear: None.

Combat Engineer

Combat engineer characters are usually attached to the HQ unit and sent out on missions as necessary. They know how to handle common construction tasks and demolitions (including setting and disarming charges of all kinds).

•  Attribute Requirements: Smarts d6.
•  Skill Requirements: Knowledge (Demolitions), Knowledge (Engineering), Repair.
•  Useful Edges: Jury Rig, Mechanically Inclined.
•  Special: None.
•  Additional Gear: Toolkit.

Infantry

They are called dogfaces, ground-pounders, grunts, and poor bloody infantry. They’re also called the “Queen of Battle,” because only they can truly hold ground and take objectives. All those other service branches are there for the grunts.

The infantry’s job is to close with and destroy the enemy via fire and maneuver.

That’s what the book says. Most just want to survive the war in one piece and go home. But the only way home for your killer is through the enemy lines. Good luck, soldier.

•  Attribute Requirements: None.
•  Skill Requirements: Notice, Throwing.
•  Useful Edges: Infantrymen need all the Combat Edges they can get!
•  Special: None.
•  Additional Gear: None.

Medic

Most people on a battlefield are concerned with putting holes in other people. Your hero is concerned with patching them up. He’s a combat medic trained in battlefield first aid. Whether or not he carries a weapon is up to you. Note that the USMC does not have medics. The US Navy provides medics, called “corpsmen” to US Marine combat units.

•  Attribute Requirements: None.
•  Skill Requirements: Healing, Knowledge (Medicine), Notice.
•  Useful Edges: Fleet-Footed, Healer, Medic.
•  Special: None.
•  Additional Gear: Field medical kit.

Officer

Officers make decisions on strategy and tactics, and look after the welfare of their men. Some are academy graduates, others are “90-day wonders,” the product of a fast-paced (and not necessarily comprehensive) officer-training course. The best officers are often “mustangs,” promoted from the ranks on or near the field of battle.

•  Attribute Requirements: Smarts d6.

•  Skill Requirements: Knowledge (Battle), any one skill appropriate to the job. For example, an armor officer might take Driving, whereas an engineering officer should take Knowledge (Engineering) or Knowledge (Demolitions).

•  Useful Edges: Any Leadership Edge is, of course, useful.
•  Special: Characters starting play as officers must take the Rank (Officer) Edge during character creation.
•  Additional Gear: Pistol holster, binoculars, compass, map case.

Paratrooper 
Airborne paratroopers are trained in the use of parachutes to get into battle. Paratroopers undergo far more difficult training than standard grunts as they’re expected to drop deep behind enemy lines and operate with little to no support.
•  Attribute Requirements: Strength d6.
•  Skill Requirements: Notice, Stealth, Throwing.
•  Useful Edges: Paratroopers must take the Jump Qualified Edge.
•  Special: None.
•  Additional Gear: None.

Scout

Scouts operate far ahead or on the flanks of main combat units.

They might be infantry or cavalry scouts (cavalry includes both actual horses and light vehicles at this point).

Scouts must be quick, quiet, observant, and independent. They’re heavily trained in navigation so that they can lead heavier forces to contact (or away from) the enemy.

•  Attribute Requirements: None.

•  Skill Requirements: Driving or Riding (for cavalry scout), Knowledge (Navigation), Notice, Stealth.

•  Useful Edges: Danger Sense, Fire For Effect.

•  Special: None.

•  Additional Gear: Binoculars, compass, map case.

Sniper
As a sniper, your marksman’s job is to take out key enemy personnel—officers, non-coms, radio operators, and so on. She might operate with a squad or larger unit providing accurate fire when needed, or she might be sent off on her own to take out a specific target, or wreak general havoc.
•  Attribute Requirements: Spirit d6.
•  Skill Requirements: Notice, Shooting d8, Stealth, Survival, Tracking.
•  Useful Edges: Danger Sense, Dead Shot, Marksman, Trademark Weapon.
•  Special: None.
•  Additional Gear: Rifle scope.

Navy MOS Packages

The following MOS packages cover mostly shipboard personnel.

Engine-man
These tough souls work with a lot of heavy machinery in the cramped spaces of the engine room or boiler room, and know how to fix things when they break down.
•  Attribute Requirements: Vigor d6.
•  Skill Requirements: Knowledge (Marine Systems), Repair.
•  Useful Edges: Jury Rig, Mechanically Inclined.
•  Special: None.
•  Additional Gear: None.

Gunner’s Mate

Gunners operate all shipboard guns, from machine guns and anti-aircraft guns up to the big naval artillery pieces that rattle the ship with their recoil. Gunners usually operate in crews servicing one weapon, and each weapon is often part of a battery of weapons directed by a gunnery officer. Your gunner knows how to operate a particular type of gun mount, including basic maintenance, and loading and firing.

•  Attribute Requirements: None. 

•  Skill Requirements: Knowledge (Gunnery) or Shooting, Repair.
•  Useful Edges: Bullseye, Fire For Effect, Rock n’ Roll, Steady Hands.
•  Special: None.
•  Additional Gear: None.

Helmsman

Helmsmen have their hands on the ship’s wheel, but it’s the captain who tells them where to go. Your sailor knows how to maneuver his vessel through difficult waters (like channels, inlets, ports, shoals, and shallows), stay on course in bad weather or heavy seas, dock the ship or stay in formation, and maneuver during combat.

•  Attribute Requirements: None.

•  Skill Requirements: Knowledge (Marine Systems), Notice.

•  Useful Edges: Ace, Alertness.

•  Special: None.

•  Additional Gear: None.

Machinist’s Mate 

A machinist’s mate is handy with tools. They’re trained to work on particular ship systems, but can also handle most mechanical work without too much trouble. Machinist’s mate is a catchall MOS that covers the many shipboard technical specialists including electricians, fitters, and mechanics of all sorts.

•  Attribute Requirements: None.

•  Skill Requirements: Knowledge (Marine Systems), Notice, Repair.

•  Useful Edges: Jury Rig, Mechanically Inclined.

•  Special: None.

•  Additional Gear: Toolkit.

Naval Officer 

Your character received officer training at the Academy or in the Officer’s Training Course. Officers of flag rank (admirals) are found commanding fleets and task forces. If not in command of a ship, naval officers command a section or division of the crew.

•  Attribute Requirements: Smarts d6.

•  Skill Requirements: Knowledge (Battle), any one skill appropriate to your job. For example, a Gunnery Officer should take Knowledge (Gunnery). An Engineering Officer might take Knowledge (Marine Systems).

•  Useful Edges: Any Leadership Edge is of course useful.

•  Special: Characters starting play as naval officers must take the Rank (Officer) Edge during character creation.

•  Additional Gear: None.

Radar/Sonar Operator
 Radar and sonar operators use detection equipment to plot the positions of the enemy. They know how to use radar or sonar equipment (choose one when creating your character). While most can’t build a set themselves, they usually know how to fix most problems if they have sufficient parts to cobble from.
•  Attribute Requirements: None.
•  Skill Requirements: Knowledge (Radar or Sonar), Notice, Repair.
•  Useful Edges: Alertness, Jury Rig, Mechanically Inclined.
•  Special: None.
•  Additional Gear: None.

Torpedo-man

Your sailor is trained in the use and maintenance of torpedoes.

He knows how to load, fire, and perform maintenance on both the torpedo firing tubes and the torpedo itself. He also knows how to calculate firing solutions.

•  Attribute Requirements: None.

•  Skill Requirements: Knowledge (Torpedo), Repair.

•  Useful Edges: Bullseye, Jury Rig, Mechanically Inclined.

•  Special: None.

•  Additional Gear: None.

Air Corps MOS Packages 

“Air Corps” includes both Army and Navy air arms.

Aircrew

Your character is an aircraft crewman attached to a particular squadron. Most often these are gunners on large bombers. He knows the ins and outs of several types of planes, including their weapon systems and basic piloting controls. He probably hasn’t actually flown, but he probably could in a pinch.

•  Attribute Requirements: None.

•  Skill Requirements: Knowledge (Aircraft Systems), Notice, Shooting.

•  Useful Edges: Alertness, Bullseye, Jump Qualified, Killer Instinct, Steady Hands, Mechanically Inclined.

•  Special: None.

•  Additional Gear: Bomber crews may also wear flak jackets and steel helmets if they care to bear the weight.

Bombardier

Bombardiers have a big responsibility—get the bombs on target!

Bombardiers are found on medium or heavy bombers but may also be part of torpedo and dive-bomber crews.

•  Attribute Requirements: Smarts d6.

•  Skill Requirements: Knowledge (Bombardier), Notice.

•  Useful Edges: Alertness, Bullseye, Jump Qualified, Pickle Barrel, Steady Hands, Mechanically Inclined.

•  Special: Characters starting play as bombardiers must take the Rank (Officer) or Rank (NCO) Edge (depending on service and nationality) during character creation.

•  Additional Gear: None.

Mechanic

Aircraft mechanics spend a lot of time working on their assigned planes. Rain or shine, under fire at a forward airstrip, on the pitching deck of a carrier, or at a rear area base, he must get the job done. He might also be a flight engineer, on board an aircraft and keeping an eye on everything during a mission.

•  Attribute Requirements: None.

•  Skill Requirements: Knowledge (Aircraft Systems), Repair.

•  Useful Edges: Alertness, Bullseye, Jump Qualified, Jury Rig, Steady Hands, Mechanically Inclined.

•  Special: None.

•  Additional Gear: Toolkit.

Navigator

Navigators plot a plane’s course, constantly determine its position, and estimate distances and travel times using a variety of navigational tools, including celestial navigation (looking at the stars at night) and dead reckoning. They can figure the aircraft’s speed, range, weight, fuel load, the weather, and many other factors in order to plot the most efficient course.

•  Attribute Requirements: Smarts d6.

•  Skill Requirements: Knowledge (Navigation), Notice.

•  Useful Edges: Alertness, Bullseye, Jump Qualified, Steady Hands, Mechanically Inclined.

•  Special: Characters starting play as navigators must take the Rank (Officer) or Rank (NCO) Edge (depending on service and nationality) during character creation.

•  Additional Gear: None.

Pilot

Your flyboy is a pilot, one of the most highly skilled members of his nation’s military forces. He might fly bombers or fighters, but either way, he’s worked hard to get his wings. He’s responsible for everyone aboard his craft, and knows that the payloads he delivers are vital to his nation’s survival.

•  Attribute Requirements: Smarts d6, Agility d6.

•  Skill Requirements: Notice, Piloting, Knowledge (Bombardier) for single seat aircraft pilots, optional for bomber pilots; Knowledge (Navigation) for single seat aircraft pilots, optional for bomber pilots.

•  Useful Edges: Ace, Alertness, Barnstormer, Bullseye, Killer Instinct, Jump Qualified, Pickle Barrel, Mechanically Inclined.

•  Special: Characters starting play as pilots must take the Rank (Officer) or Rank (NCO) Edge (depending on service and nationality) during character creation.

•  Additional Gear: Some fighter pilots may use early model “G-suits.”

Civilian Packages

The very nature of “World War” means civilians are frequently dragged into bloody conflict. Below are two packages for those who received no formal military training.

Rather than having required skills like military personnel (who are specifically trained), the civilian character types described below have recommended skills reflecting their varied backgrounds and experiences. It’s up to the player to decide which skills best fit his hero.

CivilianCivilian characters can be anything from blue-collar factory workers to housewives, doctors, politicians, or company executives.
•  Attribute Requirements: None.
•  Recommended Skills: Any, but one should be related to your profession. A doctor, for instance, should take Healing.
•  Useful Edges: Any.
•  Special: None.
•  Gear: Civilian characters have $200 (War Master’s discretion) to purchase their equipment and belongings.


Resistance Fighter

Resistance movements sprung up in nearly all countries occupied by the Axis powers during the war. Some, like the French resistance, were an active and major part of the Allied war effort, providing valuable intelligence to US and British planners.

Resistance agents also sabotaged roads, bridges, and depots that tied up large numbers of enemy resources. Some carried out assassinations that, at least temporarily, crippled Axis operations.

•  Attribute Requirements: None.
•  Recommended Skills: Notice, Shooting, Stealth, Streetwise (if from an urban area), Survival (if from a rural area).
•  Useful Edges: Any.
•  Special: None.
•  Gear: Rifle or pistol appropriate to theater, knife, $200 to purchase personal equipment and belongings.

Scientist

During wartime, technology advances quickly. With the tremendous budgets and the full power of modern economies bent towards creating war-winning technologies, there’s more than enough work for the nations’ brain-trusts. Occasionally, this work even leads scientists to the front lines.

•  Attribute Requirements: Smarts d8.
•  Recommended Skills: Any Knowledge, Investigation, Notice.
•  Useful Edges: Any.
•  Special: None.
•  Gear: Scientist characters have $500 (Master’s discretion) to purchase their equipment and belongings.

Skills

All skills from the Savage Worlds core rules are available. A few have special rules in this setting, and are noted below.

Boating

Boating covers all mundane aspects of handling boats, ships, and even submarines, including steering, basic navigation, and maintenance.

In Weird Wars, the Master should sometimes treat this like Common

Knowledge. A sailor who spent most of his time on submarines, for example, might suffer a –2 penalty for his few days aboard a battleship, or the first few hours he attempts to steer a PT boat. Briefly noting your character’s experience in his background should help figure out exactly when and when not to apply any penalties.

Driving 

The Driving skill works as usual. Characters are assumed to be familiar with wheeled vehicles such as trucks and cars. The first few hours spent in a tracked vehicle, motorcycle, or other type of unfamiliar vehicle should be accompanied by a –2 penalty. Characters with appropriate backgrounds, such as Armored Vehicle Crewmen, ignore this penalty in tanks as well as wheeled vehicles.

Knowledge

Knowledge skills are very important in the Weird Wars setting.

Many military specialties directly depend on a specific Knowledge skill focus. Some common Knowledge skills are listed below.

Artillery: The Artillery skill covers the use and maintenance of crew-served indirect fire weapons like mortars, artillery pieces, rockets, naval guns, and torpedoes—weapons that can be fired at targets out of line of sight. Usually, a character with this skill is part of a crew. He knows the basic firing and gun-laying procedures for his weapon but cannot operate the gun alone. The War Master should decide when this is or isn’t possible. For example, one man can load and fire a mortar, but readying a 16” naval gun is not something one man can do alone (the shells alone are too heavy). If it’s important (and possible), figure it takes a single person as many rounds as the gun typically has in crew to load such a weapon alone.

Battle: This skill is used to employ military units in combat. Battle is broken down into Aerial, Land, and Naval specialties, with each one a separate skill. An Army officer knows how to maneuver a platoon of infantrymen for example, but wouldn’t be able to do anything with a squadron of PT boats. The skill is used to resolve mass engagements using the Mass Battles system. It can also be used to analyze an enemy battle plan or other subjective uses.

Bombardier: This covers the dropping of bombs or torpedoes from aircraft. This skill may be taken by both pilots and crew members but is not a necessity for the pilots of large strategic bombers (like the B-29). The skill allows level, dive-bombing, and skip-bombing (where pilots come in low and fast over water and “skip” their bombs, like a flat stone on a pond, toward their target) as well.

Communications: The use and maintenance of wireless radio equipment and landline communications devices is covered by this skill. Those who have it also know Morse code. Successful use of Knowledge (Communications) means that messages the operator sends are clear and accurate, while failure indicates the message was garbled or incomplete in some way. When receiving a message, success means the operator can pick a message out of the static, or more finely tune the receiver to get a clearer signal.

Cryptography: Those who use encoding and decoding devices (like the Enigma machine) have this skill, which also covers knowledge of the history and theory of cryptography. Characters can also create their own codes and attempt to break codes for which they do not have a key.

Demolitions: This skill covers all aspects of demolitions and the use of high explosives. It can be used to set and defuse charges, and to estimate the amount of explosives necessary to demolish buildings and structures. See the sidebar above for more information.

Espionage: This ability covers aspects of spycraft such as setting up and running surveillance and counter-surveillance, running spy networks, and tradecraft, which involves things like arranging clandestine meetings and “dead drop” transfers. Use of this skill generally determines your character’s success or failure at spotting or recognizing other agents’ handiwork, or the quality of his own espionage activities.

Gunnery: This skill works like Knowledge (Artillery) but applies to the use, knowledge, and firing of large naval guns (anything larger than anti-aircraft weapons).

Language: For the Allied forces, obviously, speakers of German and Japanese are in great demand. There is also a need for personnel who can speak Russian, Italian, French, and Chinese. Each language is a separate skill. A d4 skill means the character can say basic phrases, while a d12 is fluent enough to mimic regional accents.

Navigation: This is an especially important skill for any combat officer or non-com in any branch of the service, and it certainly can’t hurt for an enlisted man to know how to use a map and compass.

Navigation can be used to determine position, plot a course, or determine how long it will take to get to a destination. Failure on a Navigation roll means the character is either lost, off course, or will take longer to get to a destination than planned (which can be dangerous if one’s vehicle is low on fuel).

Occult: Knowledge of the mysterious and supernatural falls under Occult. Those who have dabbled in this field know something about the history of secret societies, magical traditions (like kabbalism, voodoo, tribal, or shamanic magic), and the paranormal.

It is different from the Arcane Background Edge in that it represents only knowledge of the occult, not the ability to do anything with that knowledge.

Sonar: Your hero is trained in the use of sonar equipment to detect ships and submarines at sea. Good sonar operators can determine the speed and bearing of a contact, its type, know when it has launched weapons (torpedoes and depth charges), and identify and separate other background “noise.”

Piloting

Piloting handles all aspects of flying and routine maintenance of aircraft, from transports to fighters and bombers.

Like Boating, working with new equipment should inflict a –2 penalty until the pilot gets used to the craft. Most penalties should disappear after 10 hours of flight time in the new machine. A few remarks in your character’s background about the types of aircraft he’s flown or worked on should help decide when penalties should be incurred.

Repair 

Repair works as usual, but particularly complex or specialized jobs outside a character’s regular background suffer a penalty of –2.

An aircraft mechanic, for example, might suffer the penalty when working on a submarine’s hydraulics. After a few days of working things out, the War Master can eliminate the penalty.

Shooting 

Shooting covers all types of direct fire weapons including personal firearms from pistols up to heavy machineguns, man-portable rocket launchers, flamethrowers, and aircraft mounted machineguns, cannon, and rockets. This also covers crew-served tanks, anti-tank, and anti-aircraft guns.

Indirect fire weapons, mortars, and artillery pieces use the Knowledge (Artillery) skill. Naval guns use Knowledge (Gunnery).

Survival

A character with the Survival skill knows the basics of survival in most situations. Note which climates your hero is familiar with—such as arctic, desert, temperate, or mountain. When the character is out of his element, he typically incurs a –2 penalty on his rolls.

A Note on Demolitions

Someone once said, “There are few problems that can’t be solved by a charge of high explosives.” If you believe that then demolitions is your answer. Below are the things you can do with the always risky Knowledge (Demolitions) skill.

Set Charge: This covers the setting of a single charge to be detonated by fuse or handheld detonator. If a series of charges is to be set off at the same time from a single fuse or detonator, the Knowledge (Demolitions) die roll for each charge after the first is modified by –1. Setting a charge takes a single action.

Booby Traps: The die roll modifier is the same when setting booby traps. Spotting such a trap requires an opposed Notice roll vs. Knowledge (Demolitions) roll. Each additional minute used to set up the booby trap allows it to be more sophisticated, and adds +1 to the Knowledge roll when it’s opposed by Notice (to a maximum of +3).

BOOM! A critical failure when setting a charge indicates the explosive detonated. The character and anyone in the burst radius suffers full damage.

Defuse Charge: A character may automatically defuse his own charge as an action, unless it’s so complicated the Master deter mines a roll is necessary. A 1 on the Knowledge die, means the charge detonates immediately.

Defusing a charge set by someone else requires a Knowledge (Demolitions) roll at a –2 penalty. If the roll succeeds, the charge is disar med. If the roll is failed, the explosive detonates as designed.

Estimate Charge: The mark of a pro is using the right amount of explosives to get the job done. A successful roll allows a character to know how much explosive to use for a particular job.

Parachuting

At the end of World War One, American General Billy Mitchell proposed arming troops with machine guns and dropping them behind German lines by parachute. The war ended before his ideas could be tried. After the war, the US lost interest in airborne operations, but the Soviets went ahead with developing large airborne units. The Germans followed suit, and in the early stages of the war, German paratroopers and gliderborne infantry took several key objectives. These successes spurred the development of the US and British airborne forces. The Japanese had a small number of airborne units but never used them in large numbers.

The percentage of failed chutes in World War Two was actually quite low, but in Weird Wars, have every paratrooper roll a d20 when he jumps. On a 1, disaster strikes—the chute fails to open. If the jump was at low altitude, he has one chance to make an Agility roll at –2 to pull the reserve. At higher altitudes, he has two chances.

Landing: The parachutes used in World War Two aren’t those of the modern era. They’re much trickier to guide and subject to a lot of drift. Before landing, the character makes an Agility roll at –2.

The War Master should tack on another –2 if the jump takes place at night, and another –2 if the winds are particularly high or if there are other adverse circumstances.

With success, the paratrooper drifts 1d20 x 2” from his desired target. Double that for high winds, and double it again at night. A raise on the Agility roll puts the trooper on-target within a few yards.

If a 1 is rolled on the Agility die, the soldier comes down in an obstacle of some sort, such as trees or telephone lines. He suffers 2d6 damage and is hung up until rescued or he cuts himself free.

It takes one full round to disentangle from a parachute once grounded.

On a failed check, the character suffers a level of Fatigue which persists until he receive a successful medical treatment, or have rested for more than 6 hours.