World Wars Coda

[Eric R.]

Well Gurps World War II seems Kaput for now and I began to think what it would take to use the CODA system for a World Wars Game. The idea is a game which could cover the entire era of the world wars roughly the first half of the twentith century and provode for classic pulp style adventure ala Indiana Jones. I started to jot down some notes and decided I would post the as they came along.

Nationality – This section would describe the main nationalities for the period (1900 - 1950) these being: American, British, Chinese, French, German, Indian, Italian, Japanese, and Russian. each Nationality description would have:
Personality
Home Nation
Culture
Language (also referring to common languages spoken within the nation example Polish in the Western areas of Russia)
Common names
Favored Professions
Species Abilities (those skills and traits which set the nationality apart from others)

Note: There would not be entries for Physical Description nor Species adjustments to attributes as all are humans. In addition rules and notes for those of a distinct nationality living in another country would be given such as Poles in Germany, Jews in any Eastern European country, Chinese in the Philippines

Professions, there are 10 basic professions in CODA World Wars these are:
Laborer – common blue color jobs such as carpenters, iron workers, mill workers, dock hands
Farmer – those with a background in agriculture such as farmers, peasants, and ranchers
Businessmen – small business owners and merchants to presidents and members of the management of large multi national corporations such as United Fruit, Rolls Royce and IG Farben.
Rogues - your usual mix of criminals, Hobos, near do wells and con artists
Professionals – Highly skilled people in professions such as teachers, scientist, Professors, and lawyers
Artisans – people trained in the arts and entertainment such as artist, movie stars and poets
Police - Cops, Gastopo and KGB members
Government Workers – including diplomats, aids, colonial officials and local leaders
Mystic/Clergy - thos einvolved in both the occult and religion
Military – those in uniform as part of a nations regular armed forces (air forces, navy and the army)

Attributes – No Change

So thoughts on what i got so far?

[Tobian]

Perhaps you could style it after the way Stargate handles 'races' where each starting profession grants you a bonus and a negative based on the principle "The reason you are in the airforce is BECAUSE you were born with a natural high dexterity" etc..

Also, like Startrek, you could also base the 'Military' class as an Elite profession, with a number of specialities, which give you all your skill bonuses (as a field medic would be a military officer, but less skilled that a regular doctor as he has skills in military too!)

The main problem I can forsee is overcoming the whole 'system operation' skill which allows for multiple stacking in Startrek, and gives you bonuses to use an awful lot of things (such as how our doctor was nearly as good at flying the ship as our pilot was! )

But at least you already have the archaic craft skill, which can be used to cover planes boats and things, in the officers handbook

[Eric R.]

I am just begining to think what the skill list would look like I know I will have a Mechanic Skill which will have specialities like Tank, Aircraft and Atomotive.

Next step is figuring out the whole citizens into soldier concept which is a hallmark of the era. Just becuase your a Laborer does not mean you don't end up as a footsolder in your nations army.

Several of professions would be handled as elite style ones for example the professionial will have a lot of different ones i.e. a medical can be divded into Surgeon, Nruse, General Practice etc. . .

[Tobian]

Well perhaps you can have two types of soldier. Officer class, which is an elite profession - and enlisted which is essentuially a multiclass person.. I.e. what most people would have been, having been pulled from their regular profession.

So you might have two ways to be a medical specialist in the arm..

Your started off as a Doctor (probably a 'professional' class - then later gained the 'enlisted' class

or

You start off as a Officer and, as it's an elite class you gain 'medical specialist' as your speciality...

The former would be an all round better doctor, but has no real status in the army, he's just een enlisted.. whereas the other one would be a mediocre doctor but has status in the army (or other service as you wish)

[Sea Tyger]

Originally posted by Tobian
Your started off as a Doctor (probably a 'professional' class - then later gained the 'enlisted' class

or

You start off as a Officer and, as it's an elite class you gain 'medical specialist' as your speciality...

The former would be an all round better doctor, but has no real status in the army, he's just een enlisted.. whereas the other one would be a mediocre doctor but has status in the army (or other service as you wish)

In the US, the doctor that gets pulled in is automatically given a commission. The minute the Army found out he's a doctor, they'd slap a medical corps insignia and a pair of railroad tracks on his collars and send him on his way.

[Tobian]

Yeah I know what you mean here, that was a bad example, but that could be nurse, car mechanic, machinist, security forces (police officer) etc - there's allot of ways to go about it.

Because you couldn't start the game multiclassed you could still grow into a commission later anyway by buying it as an edge with a GM's permission.

[RaconteurX]

The second edition of Behind Enemy Lines had Background Skills gained from life before the Army and Military Skills gained from Basic and Specialist Training. This is not unlike Personal and Professional Development from Trek, so perhaps you can use it as the basis for something comparable. I will dig out my copy of BEL and sent you a summary of character creation, if you like.

[Pericles]

I can't speak for how things would work in Starfleet, but in the US military, its the officers that are the generalists and the enlisted are the specialists.
Officers do have a branch and they have technical expertise in that field, but they concentrate on the macro level focusing on command and how they fit into the big picture. Enlisted are the true specialists that focus on the micro level and do the nuts and bolts of the actual field. The junior enlisted to the actual work under the supervision of the more senior enlisted that are the "go to guys" (and gals!) when you want to know how any thing is actually done.
The medical field is of course different in most cases with all the doctors and the nurses being officers. However, in the Special Forces community, the enlisted medics have skills that rival all but the most skilled doctors.