Firelock Games Announce Two New Historical Roleplaying Games
May 20, 2021 by brennon
The folks at Firelock Games are going beyond their miniature wargames and exploring the world of roleplaying games soon. Two Historical roleplaying games are coming soon for the period of World War II and the Golden Age Of Piracy. We start with War Stories - A World War II RPG.
War Stories - A World War II RPG // Firelock Games
War Stories uses the Year Zero Engine and puts you in the muddy boots of the soldiers of the American 101st Airborne or the British 6th Airborne. You will play as the valiant soldiers who landed in Normandy during the events of Operation Overlord as you work to secure victory for the Allies and oust the Axis powers.
As well as being able to play as members of the Airborne you'll also be able to take on the role of Resistance Fighters or maybe Tankers that have found themselves embroiled in the chaos of World War II. This roleplaying game is as much about heroics, valour and courage as it is about telling the story of World War II through a more personal viewpoint as you create your own War Stories.
The Golden Age Of Piracy
If you prefer your black powder then you can head back to the Age Of Sail and take a look at Under The Black Sail.
Under The Black Sail - A Historical Roleplay // Firelock Games
Using their extensive knowledge of the period from Blood & Plunder and Oak & Iron, the team at Firelock Games are looking to produce a historically accurate roleplaying game. Create sailors, explorers, adventurers and of course pirates as you wind your way through history and maybe even meet some of the most famous characters of the period.
All of this is done, again, using the Year Zero Engine and the book has been researched and crafted under the guidance of world-renowned piracy historians. This seems like another great chance to head back in time and explore this period through a different lens.
Are you tempted by these upcoming roleplaying games?
"This seems like another great chance to head back in time and explore this period through a different lens..."
Interesting. I am a bit surprised they did not make UBS as a 5E game as the crossover might have doubled the sales.
I have yet to see a historical WW2 rpg that worked well.
I am glad they didn’t. I might be tempted into Under the Black Sails now. I wouldn’t have been bothered had it been 5E
50 million players worldwide and year on year sales growth does seem to indicate that 5E is a system worth looking at when creating RPG books. On the other hand a small company might struggle to create multiple products using more than one system. And Year Zero is also growing so all good.
There’s no disputing it’s a successful product. But then again, so are McDonald’s.
D&D is, IMO an awful system. However my own subjective opinion aside, it’s also not a very good system for creating a historically accurate anything, it’s definitely aimed at fantasy settings with lots of magic and magical abilities.
There’s a place for D&D (like) systems, but unless you impose a hard limit to the top level it is hard for it to make sense in any historical context.
…
It does seem an odd setting for an RPG.
It does, doesn’t it… I didn’t know how I felt about it at first.
I imagine if you can get a decent string of thematic stories out of it with a satisfying progression then it might be like a tell-it-yourself Band of Brothers?
It’d be beyond my GMing talents for sure
That’s the rub!
I feel like it would be pretty easy to fall into the fantastic or ridiculous too, and that feels a bit … distasteful. At least it does to me.
That’s exactly what I’m twitching over! I guess Commando comics and 50s war films exist but I’d want to do better with an RPG.
Absolutely not a dig at Firelock here, it’s a matter for the GM and players.
Indeed. If you go the ‘pulp’ route it opens up more options, and if you add in the fantastical (zombies/werewolves, satanic cults etc) then there are other games that do this. A purely historical WW2 game is going to be tricky. It is either ‘go stealthy, blow stuff up’ or ‘go big guns and blow stuff up’?
Weird war isn’t my cup of tea but you’re right, pure historical is pretty limiting.
The Tommies and Yanks for the most part wouldn’t speak French, Dutch, German, etc so no interaction with the locals, just survival.
Kelly’s Heroes
Dirty Dozen
Where Eagles dare
Guns of Navarone
Band of Brothers
Saving Private Ryan
Inglorious Bastards / Inglorious Basterds
Sure … you probably would be looking at more Hollywood style WW 2 commando raids, but it wouldn’t be impossible.
People play games set in Star Wars covering a war that is seen in 3 movies, which is what ? Two years ?
Trying to play it as ‘regular’ army grunts wouldn’t work, because soldiers kind of have to follow orders with no room for error but that’s about it.
Good points. It’s not like I’ve gone in for re-enactment in Bolt Action 🙂
there are fair few ww2 based rpg games already out, also a few for vietname and other warzones it’s not like they’re treading new ground
A great way to get more games onto playing table’s.
“Hello Hello” Rpg expansion ?
For me it’s just clear – I see Firelock stuff – I instantly fall in love with it! 😀
Every game from FG strikes directly into my personal preferances, so yeah – for me both of this RPG will be instant-buy. My teammates from RPG group when saw WWII and pirates RPGs just started going crazy 😀
Just taken my money now! ???
Can’t wait for the ‘Under The Black Sail’ book!
I’ll snag he WWII book as well, but Pirates has always been the shizznets for me!
Firelock Games keeps hitting it out of the park. ?