GURPS® WWII™

I had originally created this character to run as a PC in a friend's adventure (which I was also going to try to convince him to run). Nothing ever panned out and the character was never run.

ST: 11 [10]; DX: 13 [30]; IQ: 12 [20]; HT: 11 [10]

Attributes: 70
Advantages: 20
Disadvantages: -35
Skills: 43
TOTAL: 100

Advantages: Alertness +2 [10]; Fit [5]; Rank 1 [5]

Disadvantages: Code of Honor (Enlisted) [-10]; Extremely Hazardous Duty [-20]; Intolerance (Germans) [-5]

Skills: Armoury (Small Arms)-11 [1]; Brawling-13 [2]; Camouflage-13 [2]; Climbing-12 [1]; Demolition-12 [2]; Electronic Operations (Comm)-11 [1]; Engineer (Combat)-10 [1]; First Aid-11 [1/2]; Forward Observer-13 [4]; Guns (Light Auto)-15* [1]; Guns (Rifle)-17* [4]; Hiking-10 [1]; Jumping-12 [1/2]; Knife-13 [1]; NBC Warfare-10 [1/2]; Orienteering-12 [2]; Soldier-14 [6]; Spear-12 [1]; Stealth-15 [8]; Survival (Woodlands)-11 [1]; Swimming-12 [1/2]; Tactics (Infantry)-10 [1]; Throwing-11 [1]; Traps-13 [2]

* Includes +2 for IQ 12+

Gear: Springfield M-1903A1 w/8x scope (10 clips), Colt M-1911A1 (5 mags), 2 Mk IIIA2 grenades, bayonet, uniform, spare clothes, 2 canteens, cigarette lighter, compass, entrenching tool, matches, personal mess kit, personal basics, sleeping bag, military wristwatch, 3 K-rations, military holster, web gear, basic first aid kit, walkie-talkie

Mass Combat and the MVDS

Quite a while back I listed Troop Strength (TS) values for various ground vehicles that have been written up in G:WWII books. The main problem was that all the TS values were subjective. Since then, I think I may have come up with a reasonably objective system that allows one to derive the TS value of a ground vehicle by formula.

I decided to break the TS into three components: firepower, armor and mobility. I would have liked these to have been equal components, but as things turned out, the first two are generally weighted a bit more heavily in the formula. Here is how each component breaks down:

Firepower: Find the average damage of the main gun; if the gun has both an armor-piercing and high-explosive component, only use the AP portion of the damage. Divide this by ten. If the main gun is not in a fully rotating mount (eg, a Hetzer or StuG), divide that result by two. To this, add 1 for every LMG and 2 for every HMG the vehicle carries.

Armor: Divide the front turret DR by ten. If the main gun is not located in the turret, or the main gun is a MG, use the front body DR, divided by ten.

Mobility: Find the off-road speed in MPH. This is the mobility component.

Add the firepower, armor and mobility components, then divide by two. The result is the TS of the vehicle. If a vehicle is only armed with machine guns, the sum is divided by three.

This seems to work reasonably well for tanks and tank destroyers. I have not tested it for SP artillery, and it probably doesn't work for them.

Random Notes
An anti-tank team would probably best be handled as artillery that can only neutralize an armor advantage (although some infantry AT weapons did have an HE capability). The basic +TL to a soldier's TS for a rifle should probably assume a bolt-action rifle. A soldier with a semi-automatic rifle might get a +1 to this. I'm not sure about what modifiers to make for soldiers with SMGs or assault rifles. For machine guns, perhaps +(TL*1.5) for an LMG, +(TL*2) for a MMG and +(TL*3) for a HMG. This would just be for the MG gunner; anyone else in the crew has their TS figured as above.

As for artillery, it's given a flat TS of 100 under mass combat rules. Since that's probably for a 105mm piece, it might be reasonable to assign a TS to artillery equal to it's bore. Mortars, being much shorter ranged than howitzers and cannons, would probably have a TS of half bore. I'm not sure what to do about rockets. I probably would not make a distinction between towed and SP artillery for mass combat -- that's more of a strategic distinction than tactical one. Anti-tank and infantry guns, which are normally fired directly, are a different situation, which I haven't my up my mind on yet.

Sample TS Numbers
Here are calculated TS values for several vehicles.

SdKfz 251/1: 6
M-3A1 halftrack: 6
Humber Scout Car: 6
Daimler Scout Car: 7
SdKfz 250/1: 7
Jeep w/M-2HB: 7
Panzer Ib: 11
Universal (Bren gun) Carrier: 13
Light Tank Mk VI: 15
SdKfz 222: 16
SdKfz 231 (8-Rad): 17
Valentine III: 21
Panzer IIc: 23
Panzer IVd: 28
M-3 Stuart: 31 Matilda II: 33
Crusader III: 33
Churchill IV: 35
Panzer IIIj: 36
M-4 Sherman: 39
Panzer IVh: 40
Hetzer: 41
T-34A: 43
M-10 Wolverine: 44
M-4A3E8: 50
Tiger: 53
Panther G: 68
Tiger II: 74
Jagdtiger: 75
(Leopard II: 190)

Hovercraft for MVDS

Part I - Components
Since GEV skirts and tracks have the same volume multiplier in VE2 (0.6), the tank chassis are the best ones to use as a basis for hovercraft. The main problem with them is that tank chassis are rather heavy (using x-hvy/cheap frames). I decided (somewhat arbitrarily) to give the hovercraft chassis medium/expensive frames. Also, I'm simply treating "tracks" as "skirts." This leads to:

Hovercraft chassis weight = tank chassis weight x 0.5
Hovercraft chassis cost = tank chassis cost + $2.5 x (body SA + skirt SA)
Hovercraft body HPs = tank body HPs / 4
Hovercraft skirt HPs = tank track HPs / 2

All other chassis numbers remain the same.

Notes: This only covers the Very Small to Colossal tank chassis. The weight calculation is a quick and dirty average (I figured new weights exactly when fiddling around). The smaller chassis should be a little (5%) lighter and the larger ones a little (5%) heavier; I don't think this warps reality too much. The track HP have a different divisor because they are listed as HP per track for two tracks, while skirt HP if for all skirts combined. Top area should probably be reduced because of lift fan placement, but I'm not sure how much (at a guess, halved).

Lift and thrust fans: In VE2 terms, these are TL7 ducted fans, weighing 27 lbs + 0.6 lbs per kW, costing $4 per pound and taking up (weight/125) in VSP. If used as a lift fan, it provides 20 lbs of lift per kW. As a thrust fan, this drops to 4 lbs per kW. Lift fans must be mounted in the body, thrust fans in the body or pods. Note that aerial propellers (old and standard) can be used as thrust fans.

Part II - Performance
Hovercraft use the rules for aircraft, with some differences. Performance statistics are prefaced with a "h" rather than "a".

A hovercraft may accelerate in reverse or sideways at half hAccel.

Stall speed: If a hovercraft's lift is not greater than loaded weight, it can't move. Otherwise, stall speed is 0.

Top speed cannot exceed 300 mph.

Determine aMR as (6 - Size Modifer)/2.

If a hovercraft loses it's skirts, lift is halved.

Suggested Reading

This list is by no means exhaustive. I have limited this list to books I own that are in print (or recently in print) and generally $20 or less.

Dunnigan, James and Nofi, Albert, Dirty Little Secrets of World War II, Quill, 1994
Forty, George, Japanese Army Handbook: 1939-1945, Sutton, 1999
Harding, David (ed), Diagram Group, Weapons: An International Encyclopedia from 5000 B.C. to 2000 A.D., St. Martin's Press, 1990
Hogg, Ian, Twentieth-Century Artillery, Barnes & Nobles, 2000
Stokesbury, James L., A Short History of World War II, Perennial, 1980
Sutherland, Jonathan, World War II Tanks and AFVs, Airlife, 2002
Trewhitt, Philip, Armored Fighting Vehicles, Barnes & Nobles, 1999
Yenne, William, Secret Weapons of World War II, Berkley, 2003

Disclaimer:

The material presented here is my original creation, intended for use with the GURPS system from Steve Jackson Games. The material is not official and is not endorsed by Steve Jackson Games.

Notice:

GURPS is a registered trademark of Steve Jackson Games. All rights are reserved by SJ Games. This material is used here in accordance with the SJ Games online policy.