If you’ve checked out the earlier post this week about World of Darkness, you’d know it was free this week in celebration of Read an Ebook Week. If, for some reason, you still don’t have it — either before it was free or since it was — you still have till tomorrow to grab a copy. It’s free, why not?

I’ve gone over most of the book this week, not getting to read everything due to a certain beta popping up and the release of the Dawn of War 2 expansion, so I’ve gotten a pretty good gist of what everything is about. To be honest, more so than many rulebooks, you’ll want to read through the entire thing at least once. Player or Storyteller. (WoD’s GM/DM) I’ll explain why in a second.

The ebook itself is fairly well done, of course, since it’s basically the second edition of the game rules. My biggest complaints are the lack of bookmarks and printer friendly options — it’s a PDF copy of the print book. This is easier to accept seeing the original rulebook came out in 2004 — it’s getting close to a decade old now. Most of the art is quite good, the layout is fine, and there is an index and table of contents to help with the lack of bookmarks. If you were going to use this book a lot, I’d recommend getting the print version, too. (should be easier to navigate)

The game’s core mechanic is very simple, using d10s you build a dice pool based on: Attribute + Skill + Equipment +/- Modifiers, roll versus 8 and count successes — if any. A roll of 10 explodes allowing for more successes to be rolled. Simplicity is all around in this game, even if the above mechanic seems slightly complicated.

You have a 3 groups of attributes and 3 groups of skills, broken down into Mental, Physical, and Social. During character creation you choose your Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary groups for both sets and apply points as seen fit. There’s also Virtues, Vices, Merits, Flaws, and Equipment to go through. After you’ve finished reading everything — the longest part of the process — actual character creation shouldn’t take that long.

Practically every action you could possibly need to take during play can be found in the rules and is usually well detailed with all the information needed to use it — this is why you’ll want to really read through and familiarize yourself with the rules, Player or Storyteller. (you might find something you hadn’t thought of doing before)

The setting, for those not familiar with the game at all, is based heavily on dark conspiracy and supernatural elements. Horror to some. (not a particularly scary genre to me) There’s tons of sourcebooks out already for the general game world and the other WoD branches (Werewolf: the Forsaken, Vampire: the Requiem, Promethean: the Created, Mage: the Awakening… basically, if it has a Name: the Something and is from White Wolf, you could probably use it) to help flesh out campaigns even more. I also tend to enjoy the fiction that’s written in the books, helps get you into the mood.

If you’ve never really thought about tabletop RPGs before but wouldn’t mind trying one — I’d recommend this one especially. It’s got plenty of detailed information for players and GMs, including what looked like a bunch of beginner tips. For those that have plenty of RPG experience, but simply never cared to check into WoD before — if you want a pretty crunch light horror/supernatural game, this should work well. (though you’ll likely want some of the supplements, too)

Taking advantage of GM day sales (Paizo, RPG Drivethru and possibly others have them — lasting till the 8th or 9th) I grabbed a PDF copy of Weird War II from Pinnacle Entertainment, which uses the Savage Worlds system. The PDF has a nice little feature using layers that allow you to disable different parts — like background graphic, pictures, etc. — to make it more printer-friendly. That’s a pretty big bonus to me. The PDF is also bookmarked for every section and chapter — getting around is quick and easy. (if it matters, the book does include a table of contents and appendix, like all good books should) I find the layout to be good, there’s not too many grammatical or spelling errors, and the art is pretty well done.

So, now that you know the quality is good (I wouldn’t mind getting a copy of this in print, if I knew I’d be able to play it), what of the content? For those that don’t know, Weird War II is supernatural horror and dark conspiracy set in World War II, mostly focusing on the Allies as player characters. (there are enough rules and information, though, that it could easily be run from the Axis point of view) I’m not going to do a step-by-step review of the chapters, or everything in the book (there’s a lot that only GM’s should know about, anyway), but I will say that this book is packed with information — especially equipment and vehicles used by all sides and branches of military. If you simply want a WW2 RPG without any supernatural bits, you can run that with this. There are roles and equipment for practically every occupation you could think of on the front lines of WW2, and even roles for civilians or resistance fighters. The book literally covers every theater of operation and everything you could want to do. (well, mostly — gamers are highly creative)

For GM’s, the book has a pretty good overview of the war and many adventure hooks based on battles and events throughout the time period. (I think I even remember reading through 3 or 4 campaigns worth of notes) A mission generator is also included and can be used for land, air and naval missions. (there’s different generators for each, using the same basic system) What else, that might not give away too much… There’s plenty of new beasts, all the aforementioned equipment and vehicles, and some new/changed edges and hindrances. Plenty of stuff to rip from and use elsewhere.

Oh, one thing I should mention — the military roles that most players will have to fill are basically classes. This doesn’t mean they can’t take various skills that they might want, but it does mean that they will have some skills required to fit into a role. From what I’ve seen, it usually isn’t more than one attribute at a certain point and two or three specific skills. The players should have plenty of points left over to customize their characters however they want, but it would be good for them to stick to a role they prefer. (this combat will likely be squad based and tactical) Also, Officers and NCOs play a large part in the game — one player will need to be one and it will be likely that the other players will need to listen and follow orders. (not always a good thing for some groups) Since this is a military based setting, rank will play a big part.

And that’s that. I don’t know if I’ll ever have a chance of playing the setting, but I found the book to be quite enjoyable and well done. If you enjoy Savage Worlds, World War II, and horror/conspiracy themes — this is a great book for you.