SAS Origins Campaign

[Caradhras]

I couldnt sleep last night and had all these ideas about a campaign (I am sure someone will have thought of this before but thought I would share anyway).

With adapted T2K rules, how viable would a campaign in WW2 North Africa be with the charachters drawn from British and Commonwealth services for the formation of the SAS in 1941 by David Sterling with 'Paddy' Blair Mayne. The history of the raids is pretty well documented and the GM (and charachters?) would have the options to change real events and missions as the campaign evolved.

Certain skills and specialisms would come to the fore, desert survival, mechanics, recon, navigation, demolition to name a few (disguise, speak German/Italian?). Vehicle adaptation.... ?use of German/Italian vehicles.

Are there stats for weaponry and vehicles of the period? Anyone have other ideas for expansion here? I made a few scribbled notes in the night but am now groggy at work trying to remember all the stuff that was whizzing around my head :)

[Targan]

Awesome concept!

I have stats for many of the weapons of the time and all the applicable skills but they are for Gunmaster so they wouldn't do you much good.

If you ever run such a campaign I'd love to read your campaign logs. That would be heaps of fun to play in.

[Legbreaker]

The vast majority of weapons etc should be easy enough to find (just look towards Paul for most). The rest are either too damn obscure or can be worked around in my opinion.

The setting - perfect I'd think for an RPG. The T2K rules, any version, should work without needing alteration of any significance (only character generation might need tweaking with available skills, etc).

[Caradhras]

As an added thought - I know the SAS operations during WW2 will be well-documented however does anyone know of a good source book I could buy and read to expand my ideas.

[headquarters]

Ran one a a long time ago.It was great fun.Everyone has a atleast a rudimentary understanding and many a good deal of insight in to the period -so the setting is easy to implement .There are lots of pictures available to set the mood .Litterature is abundant .

Our group played Wehrmacht soldiers that (unrealistically -but its a game ) were transferred as a special abteilung from the various theatres to the next one .Always in the thick of things and often cluttering up famous Operations due to circumstance ( GMs way of having a laugh )

Did played as a "black ops " volunteer team in Finlands winter war, regular troops in the invasion of Poland and France and we ended up shelfing the campaign as players were dispersing to all over and could not be drummed up for sessions as the party was fighting in the Afrika Korps.

for the record : the guys were sort of a fictious "black sheep unit" Penal battalion type units due to many of the PCs backgrounds as criminals,ethnic "liabilities such as French ancestry,insolence and insubordination and political un reliability .Running the campaign was great fun for the GM as you could introduce nasty NPCs like nazi political offizers,devout nazi NPCs ,moral dilemmas with refugees and POWs etc .
The inhumane system was a great backdrop to unite the players and the fighting could be made merciless with all the gear available- tanks,artillery,air support and human wave attacks etc .

I have seen a site with stats for a few WWII tanks etc for T2K - cannot remember it now though - I guess you have to ask the oracle .(google).

Also our own site ( in all modesty ) has a few WWII items - but mostly its for V.2.0 - you might consider switching to those rules anyways ;)

As for material - "Play Dirty" from 1968 with Michal Caine is sort of good - at least you could print screen and lift images of it to use in your game.

[headquarters]

here is the link to the site

http://www.reocities.com/Area51/Comet/6498/t2000ww2main.html

I read that that GDW had plans for a WWII addition to the game called Iron Dream or some such .

Apparently they also had plans for a futuristic setting like 2025 with fictional developments of weaponry etc .

Sadly , none of it came to be .

[Marc]

I've used the material of the link posted by HQ in a pair of WWII "weird" games using v2.2 set of rules...Mmmm if I remember well I oposted it myself in the "GM resources thread". I seemed to me a good source.

Caradhas, the idea of the British commandos is a good one for a RPG setting. I have some information at home, because I had the intention of do the same. Sadly it's all in Spanish, but, when at home, I can give you the original title of the book I used. As I suggestion, I would take in to consideration to begin your campaign in Norway. That was my original intention for the campaign, basically for some (in my opinion) suggestive reasons:


There are good documented british raids in the occupied Norway, with excellent photographs.

It's a ways to introduce the players in the first commando operation previous to the foundation of the SAS. So, they will be there from the very beggining.

It's a good place for short, limited scenarios with novice commandos and it offers to you a nice contrast with the future operations in the desert.

[Caradhras]

Good ideas - thanks.

Marc, you remind me of a documentary I watched a while ago about the early SAS. I think they were all called to a remote part Scotland where they lodged with local people while they were interviewed and trained - and did take part in small raids to Norway, as you say, to build on the training. Definitely worth adding to my idea pool :)

[Adm.Lee]

IIRC, quite a lot of WW2 guns are in the Small Arms Guide. I'd had ideas about some one-shots as Commandoes or Rangers myself. Driving around in the Desert ought to be plenty amusing.

[O'Borg]

A while back I came close to running an LRDG campaign, though the LRDG were more of a recon group and often got a bit annoyed at the SAS for making trouble on their patch, especially as the early SAS relied on the LRDG for transport a lot and jokingly referred to them as the Libyan Desert Taxi Service.

Much of the initial SAS recruits came from the recently disbanded 'Layforce' - aka no 7,8 and 11 Commando

[jester]

We ran one in 00! It was myself, Pat, David and a few others. It was on the yahoo groups called, Desert Long Range Group or something similiar. My characters name was Remy, a Forgien Legion Deserter who had crossed the desert in a stolen armored car with a couple others who loathed the idea of serving the Germans. He and his comapnions drove as far as they could and hid at an oasis until they were found by local tribesman and returned to free French and British territory. Anyhow that was how he came to join the group.

The had 2 chevy Trucks on the lend lease outfited with a mixture of M2. Brownings, Vickars and Lewis guns. It was an awesome game!