This is also the set-up for War Stories: Rendezvous With Destiny Campaign Book, the first supplement for War Stories: A World War 2 RPG, published by Firelock Games. It is a campaign—both historical and roleplaying—that takes place over the course of two weeks in June, 1944. As members of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the US 101st Airborne Division, the Player Characters will parachute into northern France, regroup and begin the liberation of Europe in a series of missions from their initial landing to the assault on the town of Carentan which will connect the beachheads established by the Utah and Omaha beach landings. The Player Characters will face fierce resistance from the Germans, exhausted joy from the French civilians, the cruelty of the Nazis, and tensions within their own platoon that will all come to a head at the culmination of the campaign. War Stories: Rendezvous With Destiny Campaign Book includes advice on how to set up and run the campaign, advice throughout including on running the battles that make up the key points of the campaign, and more.
The set-up involves character creation and really choice of company within 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. The supplement includes six pre-generated paratroopers, which the players can choose from or create their own. What they definitely have to do is create the Background Characters, the other members of their Player Characters’ platoon and company. These will serve and fight alongside the Player Characters and if the worst happens, serve as a source of replacement characters. The Player Characters should be members of the same squad and there is scope for one of them to be the platoon commander and thus a commissioned officer, though this will, of course, mean extra responsibilities for that character and his player. When it comes to the choice of company within the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, it is highly recommended that the Player Characters are not members of the 2nd Battalion with its Dog, Easy, and Fox Companies, especially Easy Company, since its exploits are so well known, having been chronicled in the book and television series, Band of Brothers. This leaves six other companies to choose from. Although there are missions within the campaign that are similar to those conducted by Easy Company, the point of War Stories: Rendezvous With Destiny Campaign Book is not to recreate what its members did. Rather it is to tell a story that runs alongside that of Easy Company that is as equally dangerous and heroic.
Each of the seven missions in War Stories: Rendezvous With Destiny Campaign Book is organised in the same format. This begins with an introduction, a list of the mission objectives, the allied forces involved, new intelligence recently gathered by spotters and scouts, details of the objective, possible events, and information about the wider battle, before coming to a close with what might happen in the immediate aftermath and what battles might take place next. Each mission is accompanied by one or more maps, all full colour, which have a lovely period feel to them.
The campaign itself begins with an overview of the major targets on the Cotentin Peninsula and what intelligence is available before leaping into the first of its seven missions. This begins at Upottery airfield in Devon, waiting for the jump into France, famously delayed a day by the weather. Buffeted by wind and flak, the Paratroopers will land bruised and underequipped, subject to random events between the landing and the rendezvous point. The jump and its consequences could be played through in a sequel session before undertaking the first mission proper. This is to target the coastal battery overlooking Utah Beach outside St. Martin de Varreville. Subsequent missions will see the Player Characters advance down the Cotentin Peninsula, capturing the village of St. Marie Du Mont, capturing a bridge over the River Merderet, withstanding a German counterattack, and beyond to assault the town of Carentan in several days of street fighting. All of these engagements are based on historical events—or at the least, very close to them. For example, famously, as depicted in Band of Brothers, members of Easy Company along with other paratroopers, assault Brécourt Manor, a German artillery battery overlooking causeway exit #2 leading off Utah Beach, but there was another German artillery battery, at Holdy Manor, overlooking causeway exit #1. It is this battery that the Player Characters will assault. The assault is very similar to that of Brécourt Manor, although unlike Brécourt Manor, there are prisoners being held at Holdy Manor. Unlike the events of what happened at Holdy Manor, the Player Characters do have a chance to rescue them.
If played straight through as is, the various missions laid out in War Stories: Rendezvous With Destiny Campaign Book will take a session or two to play through. However, there is more to the campaign than the military action. There are downtime activities and a number of mini-missions, more thumbnail hooks, that the Game Master can develop, but in addition there are two story strands that the Game Master is expected to thread throughout the campaign. The first is ‘He Who Would Be King’, which involves tension in the command structure in the Player Characters’ Company, a clash of personalities and competencies that will come to a head in the bombed and battered buildings of Carentan. The second is ‘In the Face of Evil’ which tracks the involvement of elite SS officers in their attempts to bolster German defence against the invading Allied forces by any means necessary. Of the two, ‘He Who Would Be King’ is more roleplaying focused than ‘In the Face of Evil’, as it involves members of the Player Characters’ own Company and pretty much everyone is going to have an opinion about it, whereas ‘In the Face of Evil’ puts a face to the Nazi war machine and gives everyone someone to hate. What it does mean is that with each new mission, the Game Master will not only be preparing that mission be the next sections from each of the two story missions.
Rounding out War Stories: Rendezvous With Destiny Campaign Book are chapters with all of the stats and backgrounds to the campaign’s NPCs, mission by mission, the mini-missions, and a set of player handouts and maps. The latter are larger versions of the ones produced earlier in the book.
Physically, War Stories: Rendezvous With Destiny Campaign Book is well produced. The artwork is excellent, and the cartography is evocative.
War Stories: Rendezvous With Destiny Campaign Book is an all-male affair. That is understandable given its historicity, but the campaign does not allow for the option of including Partisan or French Resistance members that might have allowed other character options. Then there is the matter of the SS presence in the campaign which leans into caricature just a little too much. Another issue perhaps, with the campaign, is its historicity, the fact that the events of the campaign run very close to the events as they really happen and that may be seen as detracting from the efforts of the soldiers actually involved. This is far from the truth, for although in the course of the campaign, their characters will be involved in historical events and even involved in recreating them, what the players are really doing to coming understand some of the difficulties that the soldiers faced and how determined they were in overcoming those difficulties and so defeating the Germans. Lastly, there is an undeniable familiarity to this campaign. Whether from watching or reading Band of Brothers, or even playing Call of Duty or Medal of Honour or Brothers in Arms. None of that can be helped, but unlike those first-person shooters, War Stories: Rendezvous With Destiny Campaign Book is designed to tell a story where the players and their characters, together, work, fight, survive, and mourn together.
War Stories: Rendezvous With Destiny Campaign Book is a well-researched and solidly written supplement that enables the Game Master to run a game setting during one of the greatest military campaigns and for the players to experience just some of the effort involved. And as an experience, War Stories: Rendezvous With Destiny Campaign Book should be in turns exciting, harrowing, and ultimately about camaraderie.
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