"Home for Weird War Two" Topic

Weird War Two needs a home having been banished from the WW2 boards, while as a sci-fi gamer I welcome any cross posts to the sci-fi boards about this, I feel WWW2 needs a home.

Amalric posted this on the WW2 Discussion board

"Should Wierd War be included in the WW2 Discussion board or elsewhere on TMP?

Please answer YES or NO first, then discuss if you like.

I'm wondering about this because of the unexpected intense debate my posting here of pics of a wierd war model I painted up generated.

Thanks
Amalric"

So should pulp be the true home of WW2?

'bangs head on table'

That should have been, so should pulp be the true home of WWW2……..i'm asking this since my knowledge of Pulp is limited.

Pulp or possibly Horror, seem like the most likely place for Weird War stuff depending on how "Dark" your setting is.

If "Pulp" is comfortable being expanded to include years outside of the "inter-war" years, then I would think it appropriate. I think the hallmark of Pulp is that ituses some history to develop situations that seem plausible. I think Weird War does the same, but in a different span of time.

Chris J.

Ha, good luck sorting this one out.

Yes. (Probably)

If it is an actual historically accurate topic, WWII board is fine (by me).

If the post regards mythical or supernatural stuff, they (the WWII board guys) will chase you off with torches and pitchforks. ;)

In the latter case, horror, SF and Pulp seem fine.

Weird War II crosses WWII, Pulp, Sci-fi, and horror in most cases. I'd just crosspost to all of those. Anyone who doesn't like it doesn't need to read the thread. Weird West stuff never gets complained about on the Old West board.

I love the attitude of the purists. All us Weird War II players were the same way at one time then the hate melted away and some great gaming became the norm. Give them a bit, they will conform. If not they will go back to playing Nappy.

Brian

I'm not against you guys posting on Sci-fi by the way, i'd just like to know there's a place to put this stuff without any arguments. Especially since i'm planning to start gaming it myself.

NO. Not for purism but to make things more clear. I think Werid War should have an own board or maybe a generic "Weird" board.

Elianto
mondialterei.wordpress.com

Are there Weird Napoleonic players out there? Flying Dutchman vs Horatio Hornblower? How big a fit would there be on the napoleonic boards over that?

Temeraire, Napoleonic wars with added dragons (carrying crews of riflemen)………actually a good read.

Perhaps an alternative history board would be in order. I thought we had one but I can't find it. Weird War II, Games based on Turtledove and other alternative history writers would have a home. Barring that, horror or sci-fi would probably be the best fit (depending on what makes your WWII weird )

Dave

I think an AH board would work

How about just starting a " weird " board for any weird variant of any " mainstream " period?

maybe a generic "Weird" board

Most of the TMP boards tend to be a bit weird at times.

Are there Weird Napoleonic players out there?

There is a fantasy Napoleonic game called Flintloque (produced by Alternative Armies).

Griefbringer

I forgot about Flintloque.

I don't think we need anymore boards around here. There are too many already.

Wouldn't any battle reports where the result of the game differed from what happened in real life have to be posted to the Alternative History board if we had one?

That would depend on how widely you want to cast the net under the banner of Alternative History. What is being discussed is a forum for game systems that have some basis in history but blend in a fantasy, horror, sci-fi, or alternate timeline element. Again we'll refer back to Flintloque, Weird War II, games based on alternative history novels such as Harry Turtledove as examples. If someone can some up with a more appropriate name for such a board, I am all ears.

Dave

Who came up with restrictive defintion of Pulp? Why is it "interwar"? I just don't get it. I'm thinking about Pulp magazines or dime novels. Think about the main themes. I can understand leaving out the Old West, it has its own board. Same goes for Sci-Fi and horror. That leaves detectives and adventure stories for the most part. But the Pulps span a good chunk of the 20th C.

But that doesn't answer the Weird War question. Personally, I think it's Pulp. But I think a lot of things are Pulp. If the Pulp board gets flooded with Weird Ward threads, then separate it out. But please don't put it in "Alternative History". That really sounds ridiculous. Wargaming a historical battle and leaving open the possibility of a different outcome is alternative history. Tossing in robot tanks and monsters is not.

A lot of it is about purchasing and painting miniatures. If you can flesh out your Weird War armies with "historical" WWII miniatures (of course you can!), then I suppose from a marketing standpoint you should put a Weird War board within the WWII boards. I think I've come full circle on this.

Pulp. I agree with (Man?)pigbear's definition of it.

BTW, I cannot speak for the other WWII guys, but I simply don't want to see the main WWII discussion forum (the one that gets the most traffic already) cluttered up with Weird War posts when there's a nice other forum available.

I tend to post on the Horror board ( modern horror stuff) but when it comes to Weird War stuff it's always a bit hazy where it should go.
I'd go (sort of) with Pulp because of the larger than life Characters etc but I also game WW2 Historically and "Weird".
I can understand some guys getting a little peeved at having their board invaded by what they deem as being no better than Spam.
Any how, The 19th Century board has got a VSF section so why can't the WW2 board have an "Alternative" section? Is it so difficult to create another board if it obviously offends people by sticking posts in the wrong place?
VSF is Very popular and deserves its' own place but Alternative WW2 is also becoming very popular. I for one would like to see a board for Alternative WW2 which would keep people happy and would give those who enjoy that genre a place to post stuff without causing offence.

Regards
PM

I think the general problem is the term "Weird War II." I've always felt there was a strong distinction between Weird War II and Alternate History. I don't believe they are flip sides of the same coin except in the broadest of terms. Most hard-core WWII gamers I know would have no problem playing a straight alternate history scenario with historically accurate technology, orders of battle, settings, and general political situations up to the point where your speculative scenario departs from historical fact. The further you wander from the point of historical departure in terms of timeline and associated facts on the ground, the more likely you are to annoy the hardcore historical gamer. I associate Weird War with fantasy and science fiction. The premise behind alternate history is that historical outcomes could have turned out completely differently based on small but plausible changes in the decision making or circumstances surrounding a certain historical action. Stauffenberg's briefcase gets jostled the other way, and thus Hitler is wounded by the bomb plot much more severely than historically and never regains control of the military. Or the D-Day invasion gets scrubbed by the weather. What happens next? Each is a plausible basis for an alternate history scenario that I don't think would get one kicked off the WWII board for proposing, as long as the games based on either of those scenarios took place relatively soon after those events occurred. Neither scenario depends on magic, supernatural intervention, or the invention of superscience technologies that aren't available or practicable now, much less being remotely possible in the early to mid-1940s. There's nothing wrong with Weird War II or Alternate History. They can both be great fun. (I've enjoyed running WWII pulp and SuperSystem comic book superhero games and have lately been sculpting figures to run some more.) It's just that they tend to cater to different audiences or different sensibilities. Good alternate history WWII situations could have happened but didn't. Weird War II situations never could have happened--but who cares? It's cool when the SubMariner uses a Panther tank as a bowling ball or the Brits start loading silver bullet clips into their Stens because they can hear the German weretruppen howling in the distance. We should just make sure that we advertise what we're interested in playing accurately and clearly.

Mulligan