Sturmgeschutz and Sorcery?

[archersix]

I'm palnning on running a scenario in Labryinth Lord(might as well say B/X D&D) where the characters will run into some SS troopers as the antagonists. I've got the Best of Dragon mag Vol I where they give some details on how to do this. What's missing is rules, or even any ideas on how to bring the vehicles into play. They make somemention of using stats from Tractics, but I don't have those rules and don't even know anybody who does. Any ideas?

[scottenkainen]

What vehicles?

[archersix]

haven't made up my mind yet. probably a halftrack or two and a Mk ii panzer. Maybe even a Tiger if I'm feeling sadistic :-)

[jmccann]

Jun 16, 2013 13:34:49 GMT -6 archersix said:

I'm palnning on running a scenario in Labryinth Lord(might as well say B/X D&D) where the characters will run into some SS troopers as the antagonists. I've got the Best of Dragon mag Vol I where they give some details on how to do this. What's missing is rules, or even any ideas on how to bring the vehicles into play. They make somemention of using stats from Tractics, but I don't have those rules and don't even know anybody who does. Any ideas?

One possibility would be to use the current game Flames of War which is 15mm WWII. You could probably get some second hand stuff from ebay - you would just need a couple of SDKfz 251s and a handful of troops. I suppose you could make use of a few machine guns and maybe mortars but you would not need very many WWII figures.

There is another current minis WWII game, Bolt Action. It uses 28mm figures.

Or you could get some free skirmish game rules from the internet. There are some rules from WRG here www.wrg.me.uk/WRG.net/History/wrg.html which would work, look for the "Infantry" and "Armour and Infantry" rules. There are also lots of freebie minis rules on the internet but the quality will vary wildly.

For figures, I guess the major choices would be 15mm, 28mm or 1/285 (GHQ) or 1/72 - there are lots of plastic options which might be the cheapest.  I think for economical figures, 1/72 will be the best bet, but if you scrounge around on Ebay you might get lucky in some of the others scales.

Are you at all interested in WWII per se or is this just for cross-genre special events?

[archersix]

Thanks for the ideas Jmccann. This will probably just be for a one shot game, but one never knows! Because it is a one shot, I'm hoping to not have to buy anything. Basically looking to see if anyone had done this before and had some idea of workable stats/armor/ movement for those kinds of vehicles?

I could just wing it, but that can cause problems sometimes.

[jmccann]

Jun 17, 2013 20:22:53 GMT -6 archersix said:

Thanks for the ideas Jmccann. This will probably just be for a one shot game, but one never knows! Because it is a one shot, I'm hoping to not have to buy anything. Basically looking to see if anyone had done this before and had some idea of workable stats/armor/ movement for those kinds of vehicles?

I could just wing it, but that can cause problems sometimes.

I think the problem is not get "workable stats/armor/ movement for those kinds of vehicles" but to get those to interact w/ your D&D game mechanisms in a fun and somewhat balanced way. In Gygax's case Gary and the players were familiar with both medieval/ fantasy and WWII games. Without that kind of background I think for a one-shot you might be best served by just winging it.

[Deleted]

Will the players have any WW2 era anti-tank weaponry? If not then the actual armor stats of the tank aren't really important. For vehicles, the halftracks are suitably cool as well as some of the larger german armored cars. I think the SS had more of those than the regular Wermatcht. Decide on what vehicles you'd like to see and how the PCs can interact with them. That'll help decide on what rules would work best.

[jmccann]

I think that is a good approach. You should think about what the PCs could do that would have any effect. Fireballs, lightning come to mind. Missile and melee weapons would have pretty much no effect although it might be possible for indirect fire from missile weapons to affect soft-topped vehicles. What level are the players?

[thorswulf]

I don't thing swords and battle axes are going to be very effective against anything other than humans. On the other hand a magic sword that is a dragonslayer might cut through some softskins. Fireballs and the like would damage the vehicles. Sleep spells could be very useful against drivers of vehicles though.