Brave New World: Glory Days by Hostile V

1 INTRODUCTION
2 Post
3 MINI UPDATE
4 NEW POWER PACKAGES
5 GADGETS, EQUIPMENT AND SETTING SECRETS
6 FOILING DER FURHER

INTRODUCTION

posted by Hostile V Original SA post



GLORY DAYS

INTRODUCTION

You want you some war? Hell yeah you do! War is awesome and war is righteous and we should send our Deltas off to war!

Well it’s mostly about World War II being different due to the presence of Deltas. Welcome to Glory Days, the Brave New World sourcebook for fightin’ Nazis, the Italian fascists and the Imperial Japanese. Glory Days is set in 1942 and its narrator is the 18-year-old Delta Sparky giving the introduction and talks about the US, the fights in Europe and the Pacific and Delta Squadron. In a year, Sparky will be thrown into a concentration camp crematorium and he will rise from the fire as Superior. But despite knowing how this story ends, there’s still a year’s worth of fighting and stories to get there. This book is all about that fight, the year between America enters the war due to Pearl Harbor and Superior kills Hitler with his bare hands. As per Brave New World tradition, this book is half fluff and world building and the rest is new mechanics, new items and a sample adventure in the deserts of North Africa. So let’s get down into it.


Sparky, pre-horrible event.

Note: I will be glossing over a lot. Sparky can, and will, talk about all sorts of anecdotes such as: that time he met the President, how he thinks Delta powers came to be, how it’s good for Delta Squadron to not be segregated, how it’s interesting for women to be entering the workforce in America because the men are gone. So you’re getting a more distilled, concentrated look at everything with less fluff.

DELTA SQUADRON

Delta Squadron is formed on December 14th, 1941 when FDR opens up enlistment to go to war. In addition, he offers amnesty to any criminals with powers who want to enlist: a full tour of duty in exchange for a clean slate (except for the worst Deltas). Women can also join Delta Squadron but they’re limited to intelligence gathering and non-combat ops but are allowed to protect themselves if necessary. Minorities are also allowed in Delta Squadron because a Delta is a Delta.


Linin' up for war.

What about your identity, though? You can still wear a mask and join Delta Squadron. You still have to give your name to the US government so they can verify you and do background checks. They have to check to see if they’re spies. If you pass the check, you’re allowed to wear your mask while serving overseas. This is for two reasons: so you can act as an icon for the nation and so the enemy won’t know who you are so they can’t threaten your family.

When you join Delta Prime, you go to boot camp on Perris Island for three months to train alongside the Marines. This is followed by a month of officer training. That’s when you go to Delta Squadron proper to serve under the command of Colonel Joseph Ford, a Bomber who got his powers in World War I jumping on a grenade. His assistant is Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Payne, the Silver Ghost coming out of retirement to act as the Executive Officer. Delta Squadron itself is actually three platoons made up of multiple squads of 15 people overseen by a major.


Sparky, Stalin, FDR, Churchill and some other dudes.

ALPHA PLATOON is stationed in a secret location in London. Their Major is Francis McCrary, a Shrinker. Their main role is to work in various ways, such as protecting Britain from German fighter planes or doing covert ops in Europe.

BRAVO PLATOON helps the US Army in the Sahara fighting Erwin Rommel and his Nazi forces. The main role of Deltas in Bravo is to work alongside Allied desert raiders and North African freedom fighters. Their Major is Willis Keyes, a strategist who is waiting for more US Army troops, having to work with what he has for now.

CHARLIE PLATOON fights in the Pacific, island-hopping to fight the Japanese Navy. They’re lead by Major Harlan “Hellacious” Hayes, a Hot-Shot who got his powers leading a cavalry charge against the Japanese (not explained why or where he was doing this) and was shot by a sniper. Hayes was also the golden boy of General MacArthur and they operate out of the rebuilt Pearl Harbor.

So how does Delta Squadron get around? Well that would be The Liberty, a flying aircraft carrier held aloft by blimps and the Gadgeteering of American Gadgeteer Doc Goddard. The Liberty does not actually do any fighting besides launching planes from a high altitude because if anyone popped the blimps it would fall, kill everyone and sink. It has not ever actually landed since it took off, you get on and off via plane. The Liberty flies where it needs to drop off and pick up Deltas for combat ops.

THE HOME FRONT

Here is a list of things that this game name checks and explains and you probably know what they are if you paid attention in history class. These are things people really did do during the war effort:
The big thing is that women are being allowed to work, which is good! In addition to working at factories and businesses, women are also stepping up to protect the nation. The Ladies of Liberty are female Deltas who are taking the place of the heroic male Deltas. They were founded by Gertrude Sieger (previously Iron Maiden, unmasked in LA on Santa Monica Boulevard by a criminal, later became an actress) and Fever (Hot-Shot, Gertrude’s friend). The two decided that they didn’t want to deal with the politics of the US Army telling them what to do and treating them different so instead they passed up recruitment and started recruiting like-minded women. They attracted a backer in the form of Howard Hughes (the producer and plane fan) who provides them national transportation. Their big public break came from capturing the Nazi Delta spy known as the Red Phantom, a Phaser who was stealing info from the Department of War. They have a lot to do but they have a lot of women joining their ranks to protect America. Let’s take a look at the major issues of the cities of America.


KICKING JUSTICE

New York: Two German saboteurs by the names of Frick and Frack are operating in New York and Wall Street to try and sabotage the American economy. Frick is a Charmer whose MO is to worm his way into companies and industries and compel their leaders into making stupid ideas to make the companies fail and deny supplies to the US. Frack is a lot simpler: he’s a Bomber and he walks into a bank with a single demand of “give me all the money or I explode”. New York also has the Junior League, four teenagers (a Gadgeteer, Bouncer, Copycat and Shrinker) who help the Ladies protect NYC.

Chicago: Chicago is the original home of the Delta Squadron Gunner known as The Gangster, Carlo Parente. The Gangster ruled the underworld with an iron fist until his arrest in 1936. His brother took over with the commands passed down from prison until the Gangster took the amnesty deal. Without the Gangster, his brother was killed and now Chicago is home to a bunch of feuding gangs trying to take the whole city. The Gangster doesn’t particularly mind, thinking he can pick off the stragglers when he returns. As for the city, the government is reassembling its old gang-busting forces with the help of a Bargainer called The Consultant.

Los Angeles: LA is home to the Ladies of Liberty and their backer Howard Hughes. LA’s Delta population is still substantial and the home base of the Ladies is always looking for recruits. Fever herself leads a group she calls the California Girls: Debbie Capri/TKO (telepath), Jane Lussow (sneak) and Elaine Burkowski (one of the first Aquarians in the public eye). LA is also home to one of the most notorious serial killers in the USA and the biggest misstep this entire section has to offer: a person that the police have dubbed The Landshark. The Landshark exclusively targets attractive women wearing costumes (actresses, showgirls, dancers, Deltas) and is called The Landshark because their victims show up half-eaten with bite marks that match a shark. They’ve only killed one Delta (Kara Ling, Chinese-American Covenant nun) but the California Girls are trying to stop them for all of the regular women they’ve killed.

Washington DC: The Red Phantom has been dealt with but there’s a new threat in the capitol. That threat is known as Fritz, a Nazi Changeling spy who impersonates people in DC to try and steal secrets. So far the OSS hasn’t been able to catch them yet.

I don’t really have much to say about all of this. It’s pretty competent and yet that doesn’t really make it interesting. The Landshark is definitely the worst part of it all. The other main low point is Sparky’s endless tangential rambling and weird comments. I mean, I wish I had more to say but I’m kind of glad it’s mostly inoffensive.

THE EUROPEAN FRONT



I hope you’re ready for a lot of Delta names in other languages that I will just be translating to English for convenience’s sake.

France: France is home to the Free Heroes, Deltas allied with Charles de Gaul’s Resistance and the Allied Forces. They’re lead by The Lion, a Tough, and his two top lieutenants: The Spirit (a Phaser) who steals from Nazi offices and The Messenger who can telepathically transmit messages. Their biggest defeat was when another national hero known as The Patriot was killed by Kapitan Krieg and his corpse was strung up from the center of the Arc de Triomphe. Real coincidental that another guy called Patriot was killed and martyred.


I'm no expert on tanks but that tank looks weird.

Germany: The usual suspects are still in charge of the Third Reich: Hitler, Goring, Himmler, Donitz, Eichmann and Goebbels. Their Delta defense force is known as Die Kriegfurher. Originally DK was run by a man known as Wilhelm Krueger, a Tough who went by the name of EisenMann. He was a faithful Nazi but he was not ruthless or cruel so one day he was mysteriously killed. Control of the group went to a man by the name of Kurt von Mullenheim or Kapitan Krieg, a Gunner. Krieg’s second in command is Erich Manstein or The Madman, a Blaster who enjoys killing defenseless people and being reckless. Krieg handles operations outside of Germany while Madman does everything at home.

Important Nazi Deltas:

I'm going to assume that this is The Madman, judging by the glowy hands and punk haircut.

Great Britain: The Imperial League is Britain’s Delta team keeping the island safe from the Germans with the help of American Deltas. The League has been in existence since right after the end of World War I and has since accepted women as well. They’re counted as an independent unit of the army. There is also the Dawn Patrol, a subsidiary of the League of five Aces with planes who shoot down German planes. The OSE is operating abroad as well with the help of the League.

Italy: Mussolini has been keeping most of their Deltas at home to protect Mussolini. Their Delta army unit is known as I Vinctori or The Winners and they’re lead by a Changeling called The Face. The good Winners are in Africa helping the Nazis and around 20 (lead by the Face) are staying in Italy as personal bodyguards. Other notable guards of Mussolini are The Weapon (a Gunner with a silver-plated Beretta) and unconfirmed rumors of a Teleporter and a Snuffer.

The USA: Delta Squad is working with the OSS and helping recruit Deltas from abroad to the side of the Allies. In Britain, they’re lead by OSS agent George Carver (an Interrogator) and his top agent known as Blink (Teleporter). They’re the only permanent OSS agents in Britain, the rest are assigned as needed. Two American Aces have joined the Dawn Patrol in addition to Indian, Australian and New Zealander Aces. The French Resistance is helped out by an American woman who goes by the name of Bang, a Bomber who explodes Nazi officer hangouts through the direction of the Lion. The top agent in Germany is a Changeling who goes by the codename Trojan. Trojan is notorious for impersonating top Nazi officers (including Wolfgang Dietrich, the top Interrogator) and exploiting the paranoia of the Third Reich to cause havoc. He’s most famous for implicating a person who blew the whistle on an assassination plot as the actual mastermind by impersonating Dietrich and claiming that the whistleblower was a liar.


That's The Yankee in the right. Again, I have no idea who the other two people are.

Thoughts on the whole shebang: On the one hand, there’s not a lot that’s bad beyond the Landshark. On the other hand, it’s boring. It’s immensely boring. The majority of the things presented are either Sparky’s ramblings and color commentary or just saying “here are the Deltas of Country X at this point of the war and here is what they do”. Honestly, I'm cutting out a shitload of the extra info and as a result the majority of it feels pretty bare bones, so that's why the paragraphs about places are pretty short. The only thing that interests me is the Ladies of Liberty; that I feel is a good campaign idea that would be worth playing. Knowing what comes later, the entire thing feels like doodles in the margins of a history book. I hate to say that the entertaining stuff comes later, but it definitely does.

NEXT TIME: the war in Africa, the march on Russia and the Pacific Theater.

Post

posted by Hostile V Original SA post



THE REST OF THE WAR

THE AFRICAN FRONT



The war in Africa predominantly takes place in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt. Italy invades Ethiopia in 1935 and also invades Libya and parts of Kenya, the Sudan and British Somaliland. This is undone in 1941 when Britain helps the Ethiopians retake their land but Italy still has Libya and from there Italy is dicking around in the desert in 1942. Most of the Africans fighting and helping the Allies are Libyan partisans, Egyptians with British educations and assorted nomadic groups, Deltas or regular people.


"What's that?" "Looks like metaplot." "I'll ride ahead and alert the others and get the dynamite."

Italy has a force of Deltas lead by Captain Italy (a Bouncer) and his two lieutenants The Ghost (a Phaser and former female fashion model turned killer) and Lucio Cavarozzi, a Flyer messenger and actual Italian cousin of The Gangster. The Gangster has sworn to bring down Lucio without using his powers. His powers being Gun. Against a guy who can fly. Look he’s your cousin and there’s honor and all that but come on.

The Nazis are lead by Erwin Rommel who is a Delta due to a failed assassination attempt. As a result, he’s a Genius and he’s in charge of the whole German army in Africa. Kapitan Krieg spends most of his time helping in the desert and he has problems keeping lieutenants alive. Rudolf Klein (Blaster) was shot in the back of the head by an American Speedster as Klein tried to blow up the water plants of Tobruk. The War Giant was stopped by a Shrinker named The Flea distracting him while running around under his uniform while a Teleporter named The Coyote put three live grenades down his pants followed by shoving the barrel of his rifle down the guy’s throat to make him surrender. The grenades did not kill him somehow. Finally, The Night was a Sneak cutting the throats of sleeping soldiers until Sparky used himself as bait and shot her in the face when her blade deflected on his skin. His current assistant is a Lazarus named Walther Braun, meaning it’s going to take some effort to kill him but that’s all he can do.


Sand knife! Sh-sh-shah!

The British are not British, they’re mostly Australians, Canadians and New Zealanders operating on behalf of the British. The Imperial League has only three Deltas in the area. The Sniper is Sergeant-Major Niles Copland, a Welshman with Gunner powers who watches the desert with a rifle. The Red One (*sighs* yes because of the saying that “the red racecars go faster”) is Dudley Mansfield, Speedster courier. Third, Sir Edwin Durghart is a Flyer who carries supplies and orders. The two Australian Deltas of Australia’s Delta Company are Major John Morgan (a Blaster) and Warrant Officer Miles Tennant (a Tough famous for slowly walking through fire and taking the time to line up his shot). Allied with the British is a leader of a group of raiders, an Irishman named Dennis O’Day who is a Dunemaster (a new type of Delta with Desert Powers).

Delta Squadron is mostly centered in Tobruk, Libya or wherever they’re needed. Most of them are assigned as needed but there are four permanent assignments to Africa divided into two groups. The first group is Brick Magoo and The Tank, two Goliath buddies with a fondness for throwing tanks. The second group is The Padre and the Cowboy, a gun-toting Covenant priest and Gunslinger who likes shooting Nazis through their Swastika insignias.


Welcome to whatever the fuck this is!

THE EASTERN FRONT



America doesn’t really like Russia but they’re helping for now so the friendship is tenuous. The Germans have been trying to invade Russia through Poland since 1941 and then Russia joined the Allies. Then winter came (Germany tried to invade in June). Now it’s June again and Leningrad is still under siege by the Nazis.

Russia still has the Red Brigade if you remember them. Spoilers: they’re Delta Prime but Stalinist and internally fighting constantly. The Nazi threat has made them stop backstabbing each other and now they’re totally concentrated on national defense. Deltas are celebrities in the USSR and instead of turning to crime most of them join the Brigade and abuse their position if they see fit. The ones who go too far are quickly killed by their allies and reported as having valiantly died promoting Communist values. The Red Brigade is broken into four companies lead by four colonels who report to a general major. That general major is Yuri Raskolnikov, code-named Big Bear because he killed his mentor, The Bear, outside of Groznyj Grad for his ability to transform into a fearsome Man Bear. He likes to lead from the front and is a strategist and fighter.
I think I've read this slash-fic before.

Germany has a lot of Nazis at play around Russia.
Do you get it, he's some Father Winter-ass Delta.

THE PACIFIC THEATER



Japan controls most of the Pacific ocean and is also trying its hand at a ground war with China. The US isn’t officially allied with China but they’re united against a common enemy after Pearl Harbor. McArthur is chomping at the bit to try and retake the Philippines, Australia is chipping in, the US is mad that the Japanese have taken two Alaskan islands and everything is popping off. Side note: Sparky doesn’t understand kanji and has nothing nice to say about it.


Welcome to what the fuck this is!

Japan segregates its Deltas by gender. The men are forced to join the Rising Sons where they’re indoctrinated into an Imperial cult and dedicated to strength and physical prowess along with being told to follow the rules of bushido as samurai. Or they’re turned into metaphorical samurai with their swords being whatever you’re assigned (like a plane). The women are forced to join the Ladies League where they’re trained in espionage and sabotage. They all live by rules of honor and kamikaze and all that jazz. Worth noting is that there’s a new type of kamikaze bomber which is a Flyer dropping a Bomber onto a deck of a ship. The impact pulps the body and the Bomber explodes and the Flyer hangs around and picks their friend out of the sea. So that’s just delightful. At least it's explicitly mentioned that this is kind of a waste of two Deltas because you're risking both of them.


Actually nothing is said about Buddhism at all in this book, which is interesting. This feels out of place.

The Rising Sons report directly to Emperor Hirohito and Prime Minister Hideki. Their leader is Colonel Matsumoto Shonan, a Tough who often throws himself into danger to motivate the troops and demonstrate the squad's ideals. Beneath Colonel Shonan are three platoons named after historical periods run by three Majors who report to him.
I have definitely read this slash fiction before.

The Americans are being commanded by Harlan Hayes from the USS Wasp, an aircraft carrier in the Pacific Rim. Hayes' second in command is Robin Finney, an Aquarian who runs a Navy submarine and uses Aquarians and Gadgeteers for a daring sort of search and destroy missions. Basically, a Gadgeteer creates a timer for a mine and the mine is fired out of a torpedo tube with an Aquarian in tow who helps position it towards the enemy before the timer goes off. American Aquarians are also generally present below the waves countering Japanese Aquarians.

And that's pretty much it for the fronts.

Thoughts on the fronts: Wow, Japan really gets the short end of the stick. Seriously, there's just 11 pages. Russia also gets 11 but there's just... more to it. Africa gets 13. There seriously isn't much of a historical aspect or context presented, the majority of it is just Delta Stuff and lightly interesting plot hooks. This is marginally more interesting because (maybe with the exception of the Pacific) this isn't really touched on too much in my history classes.

But it's still all just very thin. All of these big players, movers and shakers get a brief physical description, their powers and roughly 5-10 paragraphs. And some of these paragraphs are a handful of sentences or just one long sentence formatted to fit the column to look proper. Now imagine all of this stretched out over 100 pages in two columns with some margin fuckery. It just doesn't read well in the slightest, it's not particularly compelling and it doesn't set the scene well for anything. It's just "here are all the Deltas and here is what they do, here is the in-universe uses of powers".

Fortunately, we can throw all this boring shit in the trash! I never thought that the mechanics of the characters would interest me way more than the fluff would, that's a first for this series. So NEXT TIME let's marvel at the Deltas of World War II and how goddamn situational they are pretty much across the board.


As Shakespeare once wrote, "Entrance, lead by a bear".

MINI UPDATE

posted by Hostile V Original SA post



MINI UPDATE

The Many Asides of Sparky

Note: not all of these quotes are verbatim, they're summaries.

NEW POWER PACKAGES

posted by Hostile V Original SA post



NEW POWER PACKAGES

Let’s do some house-cleaning for the rules because the rules of 1999 don’t apply as much to 1942. To make a Glory Days Delta, you don’t have to choose to be Registered/Unregistered with your powers. Instead you have Drafted/Wanted for men with no restrictions for women. If you choose Drafted, then you answered the call of duty. If you choose Wanted, you gain the Wanted negative quirk for refusing to comply with federal law. You can also choose to be a member of Delta Squadron/Red Brigade/Josie and the Pussycats, getting Authority 3 at the level of Officer but also getting Duty (Army) 5. Any future power packages still fly, just be mindful that not all of them are going to be useful due to the skills and tech levels of the 1940s (the Hacker is explicitly mentioned here). Finally, starting money is $100 due to 1940s Economics which the game says is basically $1000 by 2000’s standards. You can also get equipment for free depending on your station in the army and the nature of your requisition and you can also get increases in Authority for free by playing good soldier.

Or you can do what I recommend, which is throw out half of those rule changes and just play Ladies of Liberty Brave New World. Or better yet do that in a different system. Onto the powers!



Side note: needing to roll off raw dice for your powers is still ass.

ACE

The Ace has an instinctive connection with all things vehicular once you put them behind the wheel. That’s really all they get; they can drive/fly super well. Lucky for them, they’re pretty well needed during the war.

Aces get +5 to any skills that involve handling a vehicle, even if they don’t have any points in that skill. For Tricks, they get:

Trick Driving: Use an extra success on a roll to showboat and goad any enemies following you into pulling off the same trick. It’s a Spirit roll to resist falling for it and if they fail the roll, add +5 or more to their TN to copy it.

Trick Flying: Same but with a plane.


"Later asshole!" Dude hands on the damn steering wheel.

Trick Boating: Same but with a boat.

Keep It Together: Make a vehicle handling roll (TN 5) and every extra success lets your vehicle ignore the modifier of one wound per success for a round. The extra successes can also be spent to add an extra round to the duration of ignoring the damage.

New Skills: Driving Tracked Vehicles, Submarines and Large Boats.


I think I bought tires from an auto store with this guy as the mascot.

Thoughts on the Ace: Okay and right out of the gate it's time for being overspecialized. The Ace is really good for war. And outside of war, they're really good for a lot of criminal or courier jobs. That's pretty much it. Unless you want to be Captain Vehicular Homicide at home, your non-Delta Prime jobs are probably going to amount to driving Defiants around and outrunning the cops. So if that's your thing, great! But for team cohesion, do you really want to be the guy who just drives the car and waits while everyone else does something, followed by "oh this doesn't need someone to drive? Oh okay". So yeah, not thematically bad for this book but not particularly fun in actual execution.

The premade Ace has his shit together and he's gonna be pretty good with that gun. Good for him.

COMMUNICATOR

The Communicator is a level of security above the Navajo Codetalkers by using telepathic communication. The Communicator has to attune their senses to a target by making eye contact with them for five uninterrupted seconds, but once it’s complete the bond is solid until death. The Communicator can send and receive thoughts from the people they’re bonded with, individually, regardless of any distance in the world. Telepathic communication is like hearing the person on the other end speaking but only you can hear them. Also for some reason if you don’t know you’re attuned to a Communicator, you can make a TN 10 Perception roll to realize you’ve got something weird going on with them. This is a dumb rule.

Telepathic communication requires a TN 5 Spirit check to open a link with a bonded target for up to a hour. The Communicator can have as many bonds as they like and nobody can spy on them unless the other person linked at the time is speaking out loud to transmit their thoughts. You don’t need to do that; you can just think the words. To open for longer than a hour, make another Spirit roll. There’s no penalty to failing those rolls. For Tricks, they get:

Force Link: Normally a bond is a willing thing but with an extra success on a TN 5 Spirit roll the Communicator can lock eyes with someone unwilling and link with them.

Telepathic Scream: Send a deafening psychic message to a target to try and stun them with an opposed Spirit roll. For every success over the target’s roll, the target takes a phantom Wound and makes a Stun check. The Wounds aren’t real and fade quickly, especially if the target is knocked out.


I...this is a weird design for her face, huh.

Thoughts on the Communicator: Good for war, good for international communication, not really good for anything else. "But hey, they have a non-lethal fighting ability!" Okay, yes. They do. However you have to pay the Trick tax to get Force Link to perform a scream. In the modern day, the Ranged Taser basically does the same thing but without an opposed roll. A Taser has a TN 9 for stunning. It would take three extra successes to get that same level. In the modern age, it's good for Top Secret Ops. That's pretty much it, unless you want to get a job as an astrologer/performing psychic.

The premade is competent so that's good. I can't really recommend them.

DESICCATOR

For every 24/48 hours without water/food, a BNW character takes 1 level of massive damage if they fail a TN 10 Strength check. Welcome to the Desiccator, a Delta with the power to strip moisture and liquid from a target with a touch. Desiccators are Deltas who got their powers from almost starving to death or dying from dehydration and as a result they don’t actually need to eat or drink anymore.

Their power is Desiccation, the ability to suck water from a living being or a container. If it’s a container, the liquid transforms into water vapor and floats away. If it’s a living being, the water is sucked out of their pores and cells and spills through their clothing onto the floor. The touch of a Desiccator can bypass armor if water can reasonably pass through it. The basic power can only strip liquids from containers. They also get complete immunity to needing to eat or drink.


Mummy Touch!

As a consequence, eating and drinking has a strange effect on them because it disrupts their static, oddly balanced nutritional system. All food and water acts as an intoxicant to a Desiccator, so a glass of liquid or a half pound of food acts like a stiff drink. The first cup/half pound gets them giddy. Anything past that adds a cumulative +1 to all TNs for the next hour. For Tricks, they get:

Desiccate Creature: Strip the liquid from living beings. Every extra success on an opposed Spirit roll deals one Wound of massive damage to the target by making the body’s water pour out through their skin. Healing proceeds as normal but is helped by drinking a lot of water. Healing without excess water is TN 15 Strength, healing with three gallons ingested daily drops back down to the basic TN 10 Strength. Anyone killed by desiccation is mummified and shriveled.

Capture Water: An extra success on the Desiccation roll allows the liquid extracted to be caught in another container if one is handy. You get roughly a quart of water per wound inflicted or whatever amount if it's not from a person. The water is pure and distilled and there’s nothing special about it but people are superstitious and believe it has longevity properties.


Time for the Dance of the Seven Days of Death By Thirst.

Thoughts on the Desiccator: For starters, the word "desiccate" is spelled "dessicate" through the whole book. Second, hooray for Trick tax because otherwise you're limited to just destroying liquids with your mind (oh and a Spirit roll). The Desiccator is interestingly dangerous. I dig the complication to healing them and I dig that it's a fast and reliable way to hurt people, but the nature of it being melee is kinda eh. Really it's just not well thought out beyond sucking the water out of people. I can imagine it being good for sabotage but that's it.

They're getting good with making these characters somewhat competent at doing things. Her character is very cliche though and...yeah. I don't particularly like it. It's gonna get weirder though.

DUNEMASTER

The Dunemaster is perfectly capable of surviving in the desert thanks to their powers over sand. They’re incredibly handy in Africa as spies, couriers or assassins.

Dunemasters get powers they can turn on and off as they see fit. They get Immunity to sandstorms, walking through them with no issue or obstacle like they have a force field. They can breathe normally if they’re in sand, a sort of force field preventing the sand from getting in their noses and mouths. They can walk on sand by making it rise up to meet their feet, never slipping on it or leaving footprints. They can surf on dunes by making the sand rise up and firm up before pushing the dune with their mind at a max speed of +50 Pace. They can even literally swim through sand by diving in and treating it like it’s water, able to stay beneath the sand indefinitely and swimming with +20 to Pace. For Tricks, they get:

Sandbreathing Buddy: Make a Spirit roll and use an extra success to give a lungful of air to an ally when they’re under sand too. Note: your ally is not immune to being crushed under sand like you are.

Sand Spray: An extra Sandsurfing success can be used to spray an enemy and force a Stun check with extra successes spraying extra targets.

New Skills: Sandsurfing, a Strength-based skill that lets Dunemasters surf sand like it's water.


Surfin' Lib-Y-A.

Thoughts on the Dunemaster: Wow do they get a lot to do with their powers with no downsides besides being situational. Sandbreathing Buddy really isn't that good of a Trick though, it could use something different. But they do get a pretty good variety of movement options, it's impressive. Give 'em a gun and they're golden.

Speaking of, Barehanded is a bad way to go unless you want to surprise enemies and try and strangle them. Aside from that, he's very good at what he should be doing and that's good for him. That mangled Bible quote is awful, though.

FREEZER

A Freezer is a Delta who theoretically got their powers from the circumstances of almost freezing to death. It's completely plausible that they just lived in Pasadena up until they got hit by a car and got powers too. The Freezer has control over ice and cold but in a temperature way as opposed to summoning snowballs.

A Freezer can drop the temperature up to 20 degrees Fahrenheit per success on a TN 5 Spirit roll in an area of up to 10 cubic yards. Every five minutes it requires another TN 5 Spirit check to keep the cold going. This doesn't have any ingame effect besides +5 or +2 intimidation bonuses against people depending on whether or not they know you and your powers. Alternately, the Freezer can flash-freeze up to 100 pounds of material or chill it as long as the item is no warmer than its surroundings. As an added bonus, they're completely immune to the cold.

The main downside of being a Freezer is that any time you have to endure temperatures higher than 80 degrees, they get hot and that's not good for them. Add +1 to the TN for any Speed or Strength-based checks or +2 if it's 100 degrees. Freezers don't play well with the summer. For Tricks, they get:

Freeze Creature: The Freezer can flash-freeze people with an opposed Spirit roll and a touch. An extra success deals 3d6+3 points of massive damage plus 3d6+3 damage localized to the limb. If it's taken enough damage to be pulped, congrats! It's frostbitten beyond recovery and might need amputation!

Ice Shield: Use an extra success on Flash Freeze and 5-10 gallons of water to make a shield for yourself by pouring it over your head and freezing it as it flows down. The Delta can also do the same thing with 10 cubic feet of snow. The shield has 10/2 armor and lasts until it melts or it crumbles.


Buddy how do you move.

Thoughts on the Freezer: Oh boy. So you need Freeze Creature to do anything offensive and your main power is just Make It Colder But There Are No Rules For That Hurting People So It's Kind Of Useless. Seriously that's just ridiculous. The damage Freeze Creature deals is nuts, especially with the potential to just lose a limb. Their negative trait is a tough one for the majority of the world though and I have no idea how they're supposed to walk around with their ice armor besides a slow waddle. I dunno, it feels a lot like the Desiccator to me.

Ha ha do you get it he's Russian. He's really hindered by that 5 Spirit, all of his stats and skills just suffer as a result by being spread so thin with no real combat capability besides Ice Touch.

GASSER

Congrats, you might qualify as a walking war crime! A Gasser's lungs are full of various gasses that create a poisonous mixture with a little concentration and the release of a deep breath.

Using the gas is a Shooting attack that creates an area-of-effect of poison gas around the target. In a straight line from the Gasser to the target, everything within 12 feet of the location is hit and everything within 6 feet of the cone's sides is susceptible to the gas. Touching the gas deals damage so avoiding the gas requires a TN 10 Speed roll for the main target and TN 5 for anyone secondary. Gas deals 5d6+5 massive damage but the gas breaks up at the end of the next round. The only surefire protection against the gas is a mask and heavy protective clothing. As an added bonus, a Gasser no longer needs to breathe and is immune to asphyxiation or any poison gas.


Time for irony!

As a downside, the Gasser has rotten breath at all times. -2 to any persuasive situations when they can smell their breath within two feet of them and Seduction is a -5 penalty and anyone trying to seduce a Gasser takes a TN 5 Spirit roll per hour to go through with it. For Tricks, they get:



Blow Cloud: With an extra Shooting success, the Gasser can center the cloud around their body in a 12 foot radius.

Spit Gas: Turn the cloud into a sticky toxic loogie and use an extra Shooting success to splatter the target with the goo. The goo deals 5d6+10 damage and might splatter people around them.


GI *hacking cough*

Thoughts on the Gasser: Hoooooooboy. Your powers aren't explicitly said to not affect allies so that's fun. Also the implications of a Nazi Delta having this power becomes incredibly tasteless. It's great for combat and it's impressively versatile but when you think about it, god it's horrible and somehow worse than the power of Exploding.

They set out to make the most dangerous American soldier in Europe. They succeeded. 1999 Metaplot presents: THE GASSER. Rated G for "good premade but somehow this whole powerset comes off worse than the Bomber".

JUNGLER

Dunemasters master dunes. Freezers master freeze. Junglers master jungle. The jungle becomes their home turf and their powers reflect that.

For starters, they get animal empathy with all animals if they can gesture to it. They can't actually talk but they can read each other's body language and make requests of the animal if they beat a Spirit roll. Second, Junglers are totally immune to all poisons and venoms. Third, the Jungler also has empathy with all plants and they can do their (reasonable) bidding on a TN 5 Spirit roll. Anything complex can require a Trick. Speaking of Tricks, Junglers get:


She's killing these Japanese soldiers for a pair of pants.

Scare Animal: An extra success on Animal Empathy can instead scare the animal and turn them loose in the direction of the enemy to cause a stampede or get them to attack in self defense.

Plant Bind: An extra success on Plant Empathy turns a 60 by 60 foot area into a rat's nest of snaring grasses and roots. The area reduces the pace of everyone inside by half.

Plant Smack: An extra success can command a tree branch to beat on someone. If it's a surprise and the target doesn't expect it, it's a flat 3d6+2 damage per smack. Otherwise the swinging limb has 5 Fighting.



Plant Snare: Capture a limb with a snare by using an extra success and a vine. If it's unexpected, it just hits. Otherwise the vine has 5 Fighting. To get free, the target has to beat a Strength contest against a Strength 4 plant or deal 5 damage to the vine.


I guess none of those pants fit.

Thoughts on the Jungler: The animal empathy is the best part. All of those tricks being needed to do shit with plants sucks because using any plants to do stuff is as handy as being able to basically command any animal. Honestly? Being able to command insects so easily is super good. Get a shitload of bees or bullet ants or any poison insect that can move fast and swarm and you're just fucking golden.

If you came into this game series experiencing Nubile Native Cleavage at any point, well here it is. She's basically Filipino Poison Ivy down to the costume and that's...yeah. There's now two sexy women dressing skimpily getting revenge on their oppressors to avenge their dead parents in this book. Aside from that she's mediocre.

TRANSLATOR

The Translator can understand any language as well as they understand their own with some prep work. Yes, as well as you understand your own: if you're illiterate and learn Japanese, you can speak it but not read it. As a result, Communicators are prized for secret messages because Translators are always monitoring the airwaves.

To understand another language, make a TN 10 Smarts roll after reading a page in the new language or hearing a minute of it being spoken. If it succeeds they get 1 level of that language and repeated successes over time can increase the level by 1 each time until it's as high as their native tongue. For Tricks, they get:


Man, even the Translator's picture is boring.

Codebreaker: As long as you know the language of a cipher or code (does not apply to stuff like semaphore) the Translator can use an extra success to break the code and know it like another language. It takes one extra for a simple code, two for a standard and three for a complex code. If the code is too short to get a full handle on, it takes another success in addition to all others.

Instant Comprehension: Use extra successes to gain extra levels per moment of learning instead of repeated exposure.


A scene from something you'll never see in this game ever.

Thoughts on the Translator: Wow, really giving the Ace a run for their money huh. The Translator is basically a NPC/contact powerset. Unless you're playing a high-stakes espionage type game, it's really not worth playing a Translator. You have to roll off raw Smarts to break codes and that takes a lot of successes. But consider the following: it's 1942 and the Ultra has already been invented. The machines can basically break all of the top codes already and nobody trusts radio so Communicators are a top pick. The mechanic of knowing new languages is annoyingly gradual and dumb.

Case in point: he has English 5. Good! He starts play with literally no other languages. I sure hope you want to learn these languages on the fly through play and making the other characters wait as you talk to someone or read books repeatedly for up to days on end.

WEREBEAR

Become a, uh, Werebear.

The Werebear comes in Man, Beast and Bear modes. The man is normal and has all their normal skills and stats. The beast is a two-legged monstrous manimal with claws and teeth like knives. The bear is a bear, just a really damn smart bear. The Werebear can claw/claw/bite as a full attack action. The off-hand claw has no penalties but adding the bite on is +4 TN and making more than one attack adds on +4 for +8 TN total. The Werebear is as smart as it is in all forms but is just limited by what it can do in each form by biology. Any skills learned in any form are added on like normal skills.



There are downsides to being a Werebear, though. They're terrified of fire, taking -5 to all actions involving them. They also get an augmented form of Savage, transforming into beast mode if they ever lose control in human or bear form and attack anything around them. This is normally a TN 5 Spirit roll but raises to TN 10 during a full moon. Finally, anything silver does double damage if it's used as an attack in any form. For Tricks, they get:

Bear Hug: An extra success on a claw-claw attack can turn into a two-armed bear hug that deals Strength damage. The Werebear can bite the head without needing to attack and the only thing short of a Strength roll to escape is to kill the Werebear.

Terrify: Roar to intimidate, an extra success forcing a TN 5 Bravery roll or run and any other successes add +1 to the TN.


Their groin is, like, fucking concave.

Thoughts on the Werebear: So after a bunch of relatively thematic Deltas, it's time for a fucking werebear. The Werebear's claw/claw/bite is a good idea but not very good in execution because hey, +8 to the TN to maul someone. The damage is generally alright, the Bear Hug is really the selling point because hey, free bite. But you're fucking huge so you're easier to hit even if you have more wounds and actually it's not even really expressed how the damage carries over between forms. Do you think they really thought out how Delta Weres work? Because I don't think they did.

Speaking of, time for Comrade Bear! First of all what the fuck is wrong with your claws. Second of all what the fuck is wrong with your stats and plotting. You gave him Max Strength, which is pretty good, but all he can do is climb. Seriously, did nobody proof this part of the book? Ridiculous.

WERESHARK

Like bear but shark.



The Wereshark can do pretty much everything the Werebear can but with a shark instead of a bear. The downsides change though. First, the Wereshark has an attachment to the ocean. As long as the Wereshark is within sight or smell of the ocean, they're calm. Without it, +3 to any Spirit rolls by being constantly on edge. The Savage quality is unchanged except replace Full Moon with High Tide. Finally, instead of the silver vulnerability, the Wereshark can't abide fresh water in beast or shark form. Fresh water forces a stun check to avoid illness for a hour that adds +3 to all TNs. For Tricks, they get:

Monster Bite: An extra success on a bite attack means the Wereshark latches on and won't let go. You don't have to roll to bite the target, you just automatically deal bite damage.

Water Sneak: An extra Sneak success in the water means the Wereshark can dive and disappear from the naked eye. The Wereshark can then make a surprise attack by resurfacing or biting someone underwater. This doesn't fool radar or someone who can sense living forces.


Jawesome Joint Damage!

Thoughts on the Wereshark: The bite power is pretty dang good as you might have noticed. The big downside? Being slow and clumsy outside of water. This puts a big damn crimp in waddling up to people to gnaw on them to death. They're also more prone to going berserk because high tide is once a damn day as opposed to a full moon. Being bound to the water like that is rough as well. The ability to disengage and surprise people at will is crazy lethal though.

Yeah okay I guess they just didn't feel like filling out the Werebear character. He's pretty well-rounded but I would remove his ability with blades and add it to melee. Aside from that? Appropriately dangerous.



AWARDS

Most Likely To Kill A Room Full Of People Without Breaking A Sweat: The Gasser because Ranged Rules. There are some other dangerous Deltas but 5d6+5 poison gas that deals massive damage? Potent shit.

Best Battlefield Control/Exploitation: Tie between the Dunemaster and the Wereshark. Leaning more towards Wereshark because of their innate combat edge.

Most Pigeonholed Into One Job: A lot of these characters are but none as bad as the Translator.

Melee Class Most Affected By Dex-Focus in Game Engine: Sorry Wereshark, being slower on land isn't a good thing.

Peak 90s: The weird Captain Climate vibe from everyone who has environment-based powers. Runner up: the physical designs of the Werebears and the Weresharks. Look at those fucking proportions and claws.

Most Cribbed Directly From Deadlands: Not really applicable here, thankfully. There is a delightful lack of metaplot among these Deltas.

Best Optional Combat Rule Shenanigans: For outright murder? The Wereshark's at-will swimming surprise attacks. For shenanigans? The Jungler's abilities to fuck people over with plants if the enemy is unaware is nice but hands down the ability to just command an army of poisonous insects with barely any effort is wonderful.

Most Broken Class (Not In A Good Way): Hmm. The Desiccator and Freezer needing to pick a Trick to hurt someone? I'll call those runner ups. No, the most broken class is the Translator for its dumb, repetitive learning process.

NEXT TIME: new Gadgets and all sorts of new combat stuff like guns and rules.

GADGETS, EQUIPMENT AND SETTING SECRETS

posted by Hostile V Original SA post



GADGETS, EQUIPMENT AND SETTING SECRETS

Gadgets

Let’s get it started. I’m going to link a picture of the page about playing Gadgeteers out in the world but just remember: new rules for the Gadgeteers mean that even with a schematic, you still have to spend a maximum of 6 weeks to build it by testing it over and over.



Aerial Carrier: An aerial carrier is a flying aircraft carrier suspended in the air with four blimps with helicopter rotors to help keep it hovering and move it. It has four decks, holds up to 25 planes at once and the blimps are incredibly susceptible to being popped by AA flak. It can barely move with three blimps and it will crash with just two. The carrier requires four Gadgeteers to maintain (one per blimp) and they also like to include other gadgets so aerial carriers are hotbeds of Gadgeteers. There are currently three in existence. The Liberty flies for the US and it’s the flying headquarters of Delta Squadron. The Genki flies for the Japanese and is the fastest (40 MPH) and is mostly just a mobile launch platform for planes. It’s the home to Japan’s Ace Deltas and was also used in Pearl Harbor. The Uberkrieg flies for Germany and is the home of Kapitan Krieg and is used in the bombing of Britain.


SHOOT THE BALLOONS

Amphibious Tank: The amphibious tank is also known as the Platypus. It’s a submarine with retractable tank treads and mounted guns, designed for taking German beaches with stealth and for Pacific use. You can’t use the guns underwater so it requires stealth to drive but on land it can trundle around guns blazing. It seats four, three gunners and a driver, hopefully with the Gadgeteer as a gunner, a Delta Gunner on the turret and an Ace driving.


GLUB GLUB I'M A SUB

Ferry Maker: A Ferry Maker is an amphibious mobile platform used to replace bridges or cross rivers. The ferry maker has four mounted harpoons (two on the front, two on the back) and uses the harpoons as anchors on the different sides. Imagine a 35 foot long, 15 feet wide platform on treads with a tower in the back with a mounted gun and six-foot-high armored walls on the platform. That’s a ferry maker and it’s used to move tanks, troops or vehicles across the river by propeller and treads churning water as it follows the harpoon’s wires.


Not a picture of a Ferry Maker, just a picture of something that can't happen without the Phaser becoming solid and getting fucked up being half-melded into a tank.

Frequency Scrambler: It scrambles frequency using a receiver and transmitter attached to separate radios. Each part needs a Gadgeteer to make and maintain and they only use certain frequencies to keep them interconnected. The main purpose is to defeat Translators and encrypt the radio frequency you’re calling on. Of course, if it’s compromised, the whole system could go down because the different countries use the same frequencies internally over and over for simplicity.

Infrared Goggles: See in the dark and see heat signatures. Yep. They’re really only here because they didn’t actually exist in WWII.

Jetbike: Before it’s refined in the future into the hoverbike, the jetbike is a motorcycle’s body on top of two jet engines. This is exactly as safe as you think it is. They can’t hold more than three people max (including driver) and the device is best described as “volatile”.


Yeah I have no fucking clue what this is but there's no jetbikes involved.

Mobile Fortress: Also known as the Supertank, it’s a big fucking machine on treads covered with guns and boasting at least one 127 mm gun (which is a lightweight gun…for naval artillery). There are only four currently in existence and they’re generally slow machines surrounded by troops and other vehicles supporting them. Germany’s Essen crews 20 and is in Germany somewhere. The Hadrian is Britain’s, crews 12 and is in Africa. The Knox is America’s, crews 17 and is also in North Africa. The Mischa crews 20 and is protecting Moscow for Russia.


Honk honk, here I come at 20 MPH!

Tanksuit: Developed in Germany and originally called a Panzerklage, the Tanksuit is bigger than a man and only requires one pilot to operate. It walks on two legs and is operated by a driver climbing into the center of the suit (a cockpit with a chair) and is manipulated by two motivator arms and pedals beneath the chair for the feet. They have guns mounted on their shoulders (operated by a trigger in the manipulators) and boast 10d6 Strength, their hands containing fingers and the suit is dexterous enough to climb and jump. Their big weakness is a loud diesel engine mounted in the back behind the chair and it’s real loud. As a result, most pilots use headphones that relay commands from base to ignore the loud engine, making them susceptible to missing things they can’t hear. Also the engine is in the back so any rear ambushers could try and shoot through the armor at it.


Dude you're trying to fight this thing from the wrong end.

Thoughts: Oh that’s cool I’ve literally heard of none of these but the Tanksuit until now. You’re not gonna share these with the rest of the class before you give me this section? No? Okay. So the Aerial Carrier is a horrifically bad idea, it’s slow and destroying one blimp can severely hinder the carrier. The Amphibious Tank? Not the worst idea but heavily susceptible to an angry Wereshark or RADAR and a torpedo. Ferry Maker? Actually a pretty sound idea from a war standpoint. Frequency Scrambler? Necessary but not fun. Infrared Goggles? Helpful but not necessary. Jetbike? Not the best idea. Mobile Fortress? Really situational and pretty susceptible to certain kinds of Deltas (a Teleporter and a Phaser, for example). Tanksuit? The fact that it generally has just one gun is okay but it’s got some pretty clear design flaws. Let’s not count the infrared goggles and frequency scrambler in the following criticism: none of these inventions are particularly worthwhile. None of them sound like they’re anything worth building towards or making period. They all sound like they should be shitty inventions by the Nazis and it’s really dumb that the other countries think these are a good idea. Of course they’re willing to field Gasser Deltas, so everyone’s mental.

NEW MECHANICS



Vehicle Rules


I can't explain why this looks so goofy but it does.

New Weapons


This is just awful.

I managed to transform five pages of equipment and weapons and shit into one picture here, check it out.


Look at all this shit I feel compelled to share.

Thoughts: None of this is really good or useful or interesting. I gave up giving a shit halfway through the part on vehicles when it got all anal about how planes work. Those critical hit tables are absolute ass and that’s a terrible addition to the vehicle rules in a game about superheroes doing wacky shit. Fuck this.

SETTING SECRETS

There are none. Pretty much everything that’s happening doesn’t have anything below the surface. Instead we get game ideas and NPCs. I’ll be including all of the NPC blurbs and their stats below and Jesus it took forever to format 23 pages of NPCs.

SETTING SECRETS ADVENTURE HOOKS AND NPCS



On The Home Front: The game recommends playing Deltas who couldn’t hack it in the army and are protecting the US from Nazi spies and subversive elements and help keep the war effort going. Know what I have to say to that? Fuck that, play as Ladies of Liberty and take no shit.



Against the Desert Fox: Espionage and sabotage adventures in the deserts of Africa. Ride a tank around and shoot Nazis, blow up fuel depots, Casablanca spy junk or even play as a native Libyan/Egyptian/nomadic person fighting against the Italians and Nazis.



With the Resistance: Cloak and dagger business in occupied France. The game says “if you want to play an actual Brave New World game with people you can’t trust and an oppressive government, play this”.



Red Pride: Play as Red Brigade Deltas and kill Nazis in the snow.



Island Hopping: Hang out on a destroyer or cruiser, fly planes and pilot boats or subs, play as islander natives resisting the Japanese or turn evicting the Japanese from each island into a dungeon crawl but with American Deltas.



Also don’t be afraid to change the timeline even further or use the Glory Days book later in the war.



Thoughts: All of these are pretty obvious plot hooks and judging by that tagline I would never play a game set in occupied France. It’s also an incredibly weird typo that Patriot I and The Yankee share the same name, unless that’s intentional in which case that’s pretty stupid. The Landshark is still awful and I really don’t have much to say about these premade characters besides that Nazi Bargainers are an incredibly low hanging fruit for them to engage in atrocities for power and their shitty totems reflect it. So yeah, come up with your own stuff, it will probably be better because the majority of all these named people suck ass.

NEXT TIME: the first premade adventure not attached to a GM screen, a tale of desert adventure called ”FOILING DER FURHER”. Spoilers: you’re not actually foiling Hitler or any of Hitler’s plans and this whole thing is lower down the food chain.

FOILING DER FURHER

posted by Hostile V Original SA post



FOILING DER FURHER



Preface

Things aren’t going well for the Nazis in North Africa and as a result Rommel has been turning to weird science and magic to get results for Hitler. The weird science in question is the Graberpanzer, which you might know better as a Drill Tank. The tank has a drill on the front and a drill on the back and pretty easily burrows through the sand. The Gadgeteer behind it is a Libyan man named Muhammed el-Abin who is basically offering his inventions and services to the highest bidder. It just so happens that his new employer is the Nazis.

Rommel likes the idea behind the Drill Tank, but he wants it to take some test runs to prove its worthiness to Hitler. The big plan is to have el-Abin do something impressive: find an ancient Egyptian artifact rumored to have magical powers known as…

*sighs* The Scarab of Shazbatt. God damn it.


Don't you make that face at me, el-Abin.

So yeah if Rommel is able to bring the Scarab of Shazbatt to Hitler’s Bargainer buddy The Negotiator, he believes that Hitler will be impressed enough to give the African front more soldiers and tanks to help him. El-Abin has been hauling ass all around Libya, making his way to Egypt to get to Giza to look for the Scarab with the help of his panzer crew. Three major problems: a Nazi Drill Tank will piss off the British if they find it in Egyptian land, they have no idea where the Scarab is and the Drill Tank actually can’t see underground. To rectify the last two problems, el-Abin and his Nazi crew have been kidnapping British scientists and archaeologists and have been successful in kidnapping the Belgian grad student Melissa Stalhart, assistant to British archeologist Cal Longstrom (expert on the Scarab/general Egyptian archaeology).

Now that the Drill Tank has Melissa to help them figure out where to dig, el-Abin is pretty close to getting the Scarab. If the PCs don’t intervene, they will recover the Scarab, drive the Drill Tank back to the Libyan R&D base of al-Kufrah and turn the tank over to Rommel. Rommel will then use the tank to assault Tobruk and hopefully destroy the Allied forces. If he succeeds, there will be more Gadgeteers sent to North Africa and they’ll have more soldiers and more Drill Tanks and more Deltas. In theory. In execution, the other NPCs involved in this story will complicate things. El-Abin has recruited a Bargainer friend to help him by the name of Ali Karin. Karin will have a gigantic erection for the Scarab and will immediately try to use it if he gets access to it. In addition, there is more than one Drill Tank already in existence as a backup at al-Kufrah, maintained by a nameless NPC.

Using the Scarab (Because You Are An Idiot): The Scarab is actually a Hellcaster Totem attuned to Shazbatt (from the Bargainers sourcebook). It can be used to communicate directly with him to broker Bargains. If Karin gets the Scarab, the first thing he’ll ask for is to augment el-Abin’s Gadgeteer abilities so his inventions can go up to a week without needing to be maintained. Shazbatt will automatically agree for the hell of it: for every Gadget affected, the Bargainer has to use the dull edge of the Scarab to cut off one of the Gadgeteer’s toes with no anesthesia. The moment Karin gets the Scarab, el-Abin loses two toes, one per Drill Tank. And if you get the Scarab and know a Gadgeteer and a Bargainer, they can do this too (WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS)!


The major NPCs and the Drill Tank.

PART ONE: WELCOME TO NORTH AFRICA

Introduction: The PCs are in North Africa to fight the Nazis for Whatever Reason. Recent rumblings have caused the bosses (be they army generals or whoever) of the PCs to tell them to seek out Captain Durghart to help with something. The office is outside of Cairo in a trailer normally pulled by a halftrack or a tank. The PCs can make a TN 5 Perception roll to realize that Durghart is constantly levitating, which he will admit is a security measure (due to Flight Armor/people can’t hear his footsteps). And now we get a briefing!



The PCs can get supplies from Corporal Pierce who will refuse to give them anything more than Reasonable Stuff (no tanks or heavy weapons). Then they’re off to the bar in Giza. How do they get there from Cairo? Hell if I know!



Dr. Longstrom: The bar is described as being Rick’s from Casablanca but shitty and dusty. Longstrom is trashed on whisky and he’ll describe what happened: he and Melissa were in his tent until there was an earthquake and German yelling. He tried to run from the dig site with her but they got separated. When he made his way back to camp, the whole thing was being eaten by a sinkhole of sand. He’ll tell the PCs he was looking for the Scarab and he’s pretty sure he knows where it is. If he’s pressed, he’ll also admit that he was fooling around with Melissa when the Nazis attacked. Get him sober and he’ll take the PCs to the tomb. The GM is recommended to play up the Pulp/Supernatural/Mummy angle.



The Tomb: The Tomb is just a large stone set into the desert sands that has to be moved to get access to the halls. The first room contains a mummy of the Pharoah’s first wife in excellent condition (Longstrom will be psyched about this find) and some hieroglyphics and dusty knick-knacks. In the northeast corner of the room, there’s a half-rotten tapestry covering a doorway and fresh footprints in the dust.



There’s a fork in the tunnel. Go either way and there are two Nazis in each tunnel walking around. The Nazis are from the Drill Tank, which has gotten stuck in a crevasse (formed in the corridor from tectonic shifting) it fell into as it drilled through the ceiling. The other two will run to the Drill Tank to try and get it loose and escape. Once the two in the halls are dealt with, the other two will be in the Tank and trying to escape. The Drill Tank is 20 feet off the bottom of the crevasse and the guns still work and the Nazis will shoot at the PCs with the guns. Anyone who is visible to the Tank for more than two rounds will get shot at by the main gun and the recoil will cause the Tank to fall into the ravine. If they don’t die, the Tank is stuck and the rear drill is broken. If any of the Nazis are caught alive, they won’t talk without being intimidated. If pressed, they’ll tell the PCs where el-Abin’s lab is and where the Gadgeteer and Bargainer are in the tomb.

From here are two unimportant rooms, one full of mummified cats and an antique chariot that can’t be used and the other full of mummies that requires a TN 5 Bravery roll to walk through.

The Pharaoh’s room is normally blocked off by a stone slab, but el-Abin and Karin used the guards to pull it down. The room is full of innumerable riches and the pharaoh’s sarcophagus is ajar with a prone woman lying on it. That woman is Melissa, who is near death after opening it and getting a face full of poison gas. She has enough life to tell the PCs and Longstrom that el-Abin grabbed the Scarab after she got gassed. She will also tell the PCs the rough location of el-Abin’s lab and when she’s done expositing she’ll die. You can try and use a Healer to save her but they need five successes on a Heal Poison roll so basically she’s doomed any way you shake it.


This never happens.

So now el-Abin and Karin will try and make their getaway. They have either stuck around in the room for some reason or they’ve managed to sneak past the PCs somehow. The Bargainer will use his Phaser totem to pull el-Abin through walls and sand until they’re outside where they’ll use the flying carpet to escape. Perhaps they’ve just spawned in lazily like a bad videogame. Regardless, if they make it to the air it’ll be hard to catch them without good shooting or another Flyer. The PCs are supposed to have a slim chance to stop them (with much more of an emphasis on their failure) but you should permit them to try lest you piss them off with railroading. You’re encouraged to play dirty with the NPCs: fly too high for them to see if nobody can fly, park the carpet and shoot them with the power staff if they can. Should the PCs stop them, good job! They still have to stop the second Drill Tank but they have the two masterminds in custody/killed and they have the Totem. Note: if they get away, this is when Karin uses the Totem to cut off two of el-Abin’s toes.

Defeating the Nazis: 1 experience point.
Finding out about el-Abin’s research base: 1 experience point.
Actually stopping el-Abin and Karin: 2 experience points.
Max possible points: 4.

PART TWO: THE NAZI BASE

The PCs can go back to Durghart for a brief “congrats, now go” and they can ask Pierce for transportation to Libya (he can give them two Range Rovers to drive out). There’s no danger in Libya until they get near the secret lab, but it’s 1500 miles and the whole trip will take 19 hours of non-stop driving. Fun!

If the duo escape in the last chapter, they’ll fly straight there without stopping, cut off his toes and tell Rommel about their success. Braun will start prepping the tank for the assault on Tobruk but everyone will take their time because they have no idea that the PCs are after them still (they actually have no idea who they are, really).

To actually find the lab, the PCs have to ask around in the biggest town around, al-Jawf. If the PCs are openly anti-Nazi, the locals will gladly point them in the right direction: an old Sanusi Muslim stronghold that the Nazis chased them out of and took over. Alternately they can spend 1d6 hours and find it by plane. The base is two miles out of town into the desert.



There are 24 Nazi guards total. There are two guards on each tower, they switch out every eight hours and if they’re off duty they’re in the barracks or drinking beer and playing cards in the prison (there are no prisoners). The bottom right building is not in fact Captain Durghart’s office, that’s a hilarious misprint. That’s el-Abin’s three assistants live, plus Lt. Lars Schmidt, the officer in charge of the camp who reports el-Abin’s progress to Braun and Rommel. The garage in the middle has a Tank Suit and the second Drill Tank, each under a tarp. No matter what time of day the PCs show up, Braun is preparing to leave the next morning in the tank on a truck to attack Tobruk.

There are a few ways into the camp. The PCs can sneak in on a truck that goes between Rommel’s troops and the facility a few times a day. The PCs can ambush some guards and steal their uniforms, either in the camp or the ones driving the trucks. The PCs can just murder their ways in or bust through the gates in their Range Rovers. The PCs can also wait until the next morning and ambush the convoy pulling the tank or sneak on and surprise the drivers. The convoy has 12 Nazi guards spread out through three trucks (two escorts, one hauling the tank) and a staff car for Braun.

So say the PCs are insufficiently sneaky and the alarm is raised. if el-Abin and Karin got away in part one, they show up here and react to the alarm. Otherwise it's just Braun in the base. El-Abin will jump into his Tank Suit, open the garage and stomp around looking for PCs to fight. Karin will put on his Phaser bracers and try and break into Braun's quarters to steal the Scarab back, run for the hills and then try to fly to Cairo for his own interests. Braun will run to the Drill Tank, fire it up and abandon everyone to protect the tank and get it out of the area. Because he's the only person driving the tank, he has +5 to using the machine guns and driving at the same time and he can't fire the main gun at all.

All things considered, el-Abin is a distraction. If Braun gets away, the Drill Tank still has a few more days before it breaks down thanks to the deal with Shazbatt which is enough time to assault Tobruk, possibly win and convince Hitler to allow more Drill Tanks to be made. If Karin escapes, a third party is now in possession of an ancient Totem and has a direct line to more power in exchange for sacrifice.

Capture/destroy the Drill Tank: 2 experience.
Defeat Lt. Braun: 1 experience.
Defeat el-Abin: 1 experience.
Retrieve the Scarab: unknown due to bad formatting and a printing error cutting off the bottom of this section. The next page is a full-page picture and whatever was supposed to be here is lost permanently.

HYPOTHETICAL PLAY SCENARIO

Cast of Characters THE YEAR IS 1942 and already the players are questioning while they're in North Africa. Jeremy shrugs and says that they're all with Delta Squadron after they signed up. Dan's eyes glaze over. Amanda gives Dan a poke to get his attention as Jeremy continues. They'll be helping fight the war in North Africa because Jeremy doesn't really have any ideas from the plot hooks so he's hoping this will be a springboard.

The team heads off to Durghart's office and proceed to all groan at his speech. Rough Rider does in fact notice that Durghart is floating but so what, he's a Delta, who gives a shit. Plus Ultra asks Durghart why they couldn't just be briefed about this on the plane and Jeep ride over and why they had to come here when they could just start at the bar in Giza. Durghart tells the PCs to get out and talk to Corporal Pierce for supplies.

Pierce refuses to give Flak any heavy equipment and the other players have to intervene to stop Dan from badgering the NPC for things they don't need (like heavy explosives). Plus Ultra turns on a little charm to get the Range Rovers to go to Giza.

The ride to Giza is long and uneventful and proves to be a boring round of roleplaying that goes on a bit too long. Brian asks why they couldn't just time skip to get to Giza. Jeremy waffles for an answer and Amanda says it's because otherwise what they just did was pointless and railroady. Jeremy grumbles.

Everyone hangs back and rummages through the empty bar as Plus Ultra talks to Longstrom and gets the info they need. Slippery Pete has fun teleporting Longstrom's passed-out drunk body to the car. Everyone is now pretty bored that all they've done so far is go to two places and drive around a bunch with no real payout. This time Jeremy skips to the tomb and everyone gladly gets a gun from the backs of the cars to prepare for combat. Using some muscle, they get the door off the tomb and spend far too much time exploring the first room and poking at the pharaoh's wife's sarcophagus. Rough Rider finds the exit relatively easily but they take their time exploring before they leave (with some urging from Jeremy-as-Longstrom).

Nazi Combat Time! Wonderbolt immediately obliterates one Nazi, turning them into a fine smear. Slippery Pete teleports the other into the chasm. The other Nazis immediately flee for the Drill Tank in a hail of gunfire which suspiciously misses despite everyone having at least 5 Shooting. The group comes up with a plan: Slippery Pete teleports Rough Rider into the path of the tank's guns as a distraction. While this is happening, Plus Ultra boosts Wonderbolt's damage and Wonderbolt starts powering up a Superblast. Flak holds up the rear by keeping an eye out for the other Nazis. Rough Rider runs around in circles, drawing gunfire, before Wonderbolt unleashes a 10d6+40 (Amanda argues it should be+60 for +30 x2 but reluctantly accepts it) Superblast. A ten minute argument ensues about whether or not a Blast bypasses the armor of the tank and because it's a Gadgeteer's invention but it's a vehicle it's hard to tell. Jeremy compromises by saying that it bypasses the vehicle's armor but it eats the damage and the passengers are safe. However, the damage ends up inflicting three wounds, forcing a critical hit...and the tank's engine is destroyed and everything shuts down.

Amanda is satisfied with this outcome. Jeremy grumbles. The Nazis inside the tank surrender and everyone has to stop Flak from trying to execute them because they surrendered. The team finds out about the secret lab and tie up the Nazis (with Flak shooting them death glares the whole time) and keep exploring the tomb.

The rest of the rooms are generally ignored because nobody wants to fuck around with the mummies. They find the pharaoh's tomb and everyone is annoyed they have to ignore the numerous riches in exchange for a dying girl leaking exposition like a sinking submarine. Brian asks just where the hell el-Abin and Karin are if they didn't pass them at any point and they're not in the room. Jeremy says that SUDDENLY, they're OUTSIDE and GETTING AWAY! Slippery Pete grabs Wonderbolt and starts teleporting the two of them after the two bad guys until they get outside and Wonderbolt starts shooting at them as they fly away. Unfortunately, the fly speed of the carpet really does make it hard to shoot them and everyone complains about railroading and cliffhangers. They load up the Range Rovers with as much gold as they can carry and drag a distraught Longstrom back to the cars. Slippery Pete makes a Navigation roll to figure out where to go and they decide to just drive straight there.

Jeremy skips over the 19 hours it takes to get there and it turns into longer because he insists the PCs need to sleep. By the time they get to the lab, it's night and by the morning of the next day Braun will be taking the Drill Tank to join Rommel's troops. Slippery Pete blinks around the camp and scopes things out, pin-pointing where the tank is, finding out that Braun is there and is unable to just see the Scarab. They split up into two teams. Team Exploder (Wonderbolt and Plus Ultra) go to the tank to destroy it with grenades from the inside. Team Mage Killer go to Karin's lodgings to shake him down for the Scarab.

Unfortunately, Team Exploder isn't the stealthiest and the Nazis open fire. El-Abin gets in the Tank Suit, Braun runs for the tank and Karin runs past Team Mage Killer towards Braun's. Upon seeing a guy run towards the tank, Plus Ultra pokes Wonderbolt and Wonderbolt reflexively explodes Braun's torso with an energy blast. Rough Rider starts shooting angry guards, Flak helps her shoot the guards (using her as a shield) and Slippery Pete blinks after Karin. While Karin is rummaging through Braun's things, Pete teleports Karin into the floor. Repeatedly. Until he stops moving.

Rough Rider and Flak continue to have a grand time killing Nazis as the rest go after Wonderbolt and Plus Ultra with the help of el-Abin. Still power-boosted, Wonderbolt one-shots el-Abin with an explosion because his armor does not protect because it does not count as a defensive power. The Nazis left standing run for their lives into the desert as the others try to stop Flak from shooting them in the back. They realize they have Braun's body in their possession and, knowing of his powers, they reluctantly cut Braun's head off his shoulders and carry it back to Cairo, knowing he'll be just fine and that they have a Nazi lieutenant in their care.

Everyone gets experience but are generally annoyed at how uneven the plotting and action was, how it went from being incredibly linear and rail-roady to a sandbox up until it went back to railroad. Rough Rider and Flak aren't happy they didn't get to do much until they got to just shoot Nazis. Wonderbolt is pretty satisfied with herself. Slippery Pete is glad that he got some fun with his powers. Plus Ultra considers this to be a successful mission and a job well done.

Nobody is particularly interested in continuing fighting World War II and would rather try playing a vanilla game set in the "present".

AUTHOR'S AFTERWORD



FINAL THOUGHTS ON GLORY DAYS: It's...yeah, it's not really good. It's not as relentlessly bad as Bargainers. It's a boring kind of bad, a "we have all of these NPCs for you to use and somewhat rigid plots, you should use what we made" bad. The equipment and those rules don't add anything useful, the new Deltas don't add anything useful, the premade mission is relentlessly meh and there's just not worth recommending, period.

Would I recommend this book? No and I wouldn't recommend using anything from it. It's kind of odd how this book is pretty optimistic and hopeful and yet it comes off way more boring than when it's fighting the government as a rebel bogged down with metaplot. It says a lot when the War Sourcebook is just bland and boring and worthless. Fighting Nazis isn't even fun because most of them are regular people and there's nothing that's going to stop Sparky from burning and altering the path of everything by becoming Superior.

Six down, three to go. The downward spiral continues next time in BRAVE NEW WORLD: CRESCENT CITY.