Welcome to Earth-ClF3!
This article will be a quick primer on what you need to create a character for this setting. If you are reading this then I finally enacted my diabolical plans of bogging a party or two down in my gritty World War 2 Fantasy Setting and I am preparing, as you read this article, to bring great trials and tribulations upon your heads. There are things you must know before this campaign starts that might effect your character creation processes such as the themes, inspirations, setting, and tone. Knowing these variables will help lead to a better gaming experience. If any of the variables you see here are not to your taste then please alert the Game Master as soon as possible. Please remember that, above all else, this is a collaborative storytelling game. We are all here to have fun and share a story together. With all that out of the way lets start with...
Setting.
The setting of this game is a Fantasy World War 2. There will be Nazis and they will be doing not good things. You will be a Squad of Specialized Mage Strike Teams focused on striking special targets as well as other unique missions requiring highly trained soldiers. You are Soldiers in the Allied Army attempting to fight back The Axis Powers in their conquest to take over the world. At this point, Magic has been a rare and difficult to train talent possessed by a special few and often presenting differently based on the individual. It was only during the First World War that countries attempted to cultivate, train and use entire units of Military Trained Mages on the battlefield. The painful and sluggish Trench Warfare that dominated The Great War has been abandoned and newer more fast paced methods of engagement are now in vogue. This transition has been the result of technology and advances in the study of Magic known as Metaphysics. This is the Dog Days of the war and The Third Reich is at the height of its power and influence. Tyranny and horror rage across the European theater. In the east, the burning fury of The Rising Sun scorches The Pacific Islands and East Asia. In the African Continent The Italians have seen greater success than in our world. With new naval bases being built along the east coast of Africa to aid the much smaller Japanese Fleets against the coiled fist of The United States, ready to strike back after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Tone and Themes.
The Tone of this game will include some gore, a lot of graphic violence, firearms and bombs, war and the crimes associated with them, references to The Holocaust and Concentration Camps, graphic scenes of human evil and greed, and a generally negative depiction of Organized Religions of many kinds. This might all sound a bit dark. It seems like that because that is the way that it is. But the other themes are brotherhood, the endurance and tenacity of the human spirit, finding light in dark places, choosing good over evil and fighting to protect others. I will be excluding elements of racism and antisemitism from The Allied Powers. We are all adult enough to acknowledge that these things existed and that they were horrible. As a Game Master I am comfortable with blood and gore and violence of all stripes! But I am made massively uncomfortable by depictions of real world bigotry, racism and sexism by "The Good Guys." That said, The Allied Powers will not be completely unproblematic. This game will have classism, capitalist greed and people in power making morally questionable calls for personal reasons. This setting will also have events and scenarios that do not adhere to our world's events as they relate to World War 2. This is partly to keep players from using History Channel Documentaries to win the game and also because I am not a living encyclopedia of the exact chronological progression of The Second World War and might get things a little mixed up at times. A battle might happen a month or two out of date, or Canada could join The Axis Powers! Who knows?
Inspirations.
This setting was inspired by World War Two: In Real Time. A Video Documentary on Youtube performed in the form of a news caster breaking down the news of World War 2 week by week starting on the day the war first broke out and going all the way until Japan's Surrender. Another inspiration and specifically the inspiration for how the combat and gameplay should feel and work is The Saga of Tanya the Evil, an Isekai anime about a psychopathic, atheist, japanese salary man who dies, tells God to go fuck himself and is reincarnated as a tiny blonde girl in a Magical World War One German Empire. I find this anime hilarious on multiple levels. It also helped me crystalize how to use D&D Characters and storytelling in a World War setting where things tend to feel very large but the relatively small group of characters are meant to have a big impact. Smaller inspirations are media such as Saving Private Ryan, Inglorious Basterds and Hellsing Ultimate: Abridged.
Limitations.
There are certain limitations on Race and Class. This is mostly down to flavor and ultimately you can play almost any race or class if it is cleared by the Game Master. For flavor reasons this is an all Human campaign. Mechanically this game has all kinds of odd magical quirks and skills a Mage can develop, you just still look like a human. Spellcasters are preferred for obvious reasons. There will be Firearms in this game that can act as Spellcasting Foci and Ranged Combat is a big component. I am not saying Melee will be utterly useless but acquiring abilities for ranged combat is unavoidable. Melee focused classes will still be given opportunities to use their abilities to the fullest if the player insists but having no ranged options would be a terrible mistake. Warlocks will be subject to suspicion and persecution based on their choice of Patron. Finally and arguably one of the most important things of note is there is NO RESSURECTION MAGIC!!! The only exceptions to this rule are spells like Spare the Dying and Revivify.
Conclusion.
In conclusion this game is a semi-modern fantasy WWII Sim where you play Magic Soldiers tasked with Special Operations and you are going to be experiencing near Warhammer levels of shit, mud and blood. You're all human and should all have ranged combat options in mind. Many things in this world will be familiar and many will not. Have fun and kill Nazis!
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