World War II: Character and Command RPG

[Theodorable]

The greatest conflict of our time. World War II encompassed six long years and most of our world. This RP would allow you to embody one of the millions of soldiers that fought in it, see him grow in both experience and rank and as their rank increases, so too would their influence on strategy as well. While ideally I would envision it encompassing all theaters, I think initially we would select two factions (one Axis, one Allied) and go from there. You would start at a low rank and follow your unit. From there you would fight in battles and as you fight in those battles you would be promoted and new soldiers, tanks, aircraft or ships would be promoted under your command.

Mechanics
CHARACTERS: You play a single individual. You can begin as Enlisted or an Officer. Both have their pro's and cons. As an enlisted man you are in the field, but you can directly influence the battle with your actions. As an Officer you have a larger plethora of troops to command but the battle is theirs to win and yours to lose.
COMMAND: Depending on the theater we may incorporate aircraft or ships or tanks and motorized vehicles. As an Officer you may looking over platoons and even brigades. As an Enlisted man you might begin with only a squad in which to command.

Thoughts / Opinions / Criticisms?

[Everblight]

I hold some interest in this. I'll keep an eye out. Also I would prefer Europe as the theater, preferably Germany v's England/America

[Theodorable]

Noted. Germany and Western Allies (United States, Great Britain).

[Jannah]

This seems interesting, but most of my knowledge of WW II lies in the Eastern Front.

[Gunther]

I also am interested, having first hand knowledge of military life as well as reading MILHIST for most of my life. I could handle just about any theater, but would prefer US or UK v. Germany. Following the path of a unit through various regions of the world, would be an interesting method of maintaining continuity. You could use a real historical unit like the 1st ID (US) or 505th PIR, 82 ID (ABN) or even the 7th Armoured Division (UK) which received the nickname "Desert Rats" for their actions in North Africa in 1940. Or you could simply make up your own unit...

B Company, 1st Battalion, 301st Infantry Regiment, 107th Infantry Division (US) Fictional Unit

[Theodorable]

Okay so that's another vote for the Western Front and one vote for the Eastern Front.

Once we get a few more opinions I will devise an OOC and we will have our "front" and "factions" generated.

For those that have spoken, would you gents see yourselves playing as Enlisted men or Officers?

An example of Enlisted would start out as perhaps an Obersoldat who can order another soldier around within his squad, or perhaps an Unterfeldwebel[ in charge of his own infantry squad.

An office would be something like a Second Lieutenant in charge of a platoon of riflemen or something equivalent.

[Gunther]

I haven't decided on whether to go NCO/EM or Officer. I was enlisted on Active duty and only advanced to Specialist (E4), but then attended Officer Candidate School in the Guard and became a Second Lieutenant. In all honesty, the more fun job is the NCO. He is closer to the action; hence more to write about. But I may go the O route. Who knows?

EDIT: I'm going to start off EM. There is always the option of a Battlefield Commission! See Audie Murphy

[Ozymandias]

This sounds fun. I'm in!

I'd also vote for the Western European theater. I'd also prefer to be enlisted.

[Theodorable]

I think we'll do the Western Front with a start date of June 7th, 1944 after the D-Day Landings. I surmise we could do the D-Day Landings if you guys wanted. Haha.

We'll have the Allies on one side with the available nationalities as American and British with the Wehrmacht on the other side with only the Germans as an available nationality.

If we can get to May, 1945 we may start up another campaign (North Africa, Pacific, Eastern Front?). I like to have an ENDGOAL in mind so that the RP never dies out.

[Ozymandias]

D-Day could be fun. It was certainly be a very dramatic way to start the RP.

I'd personally like to write about a section of British commandos if that's a thing that we can do. Should be fun!

[Everblight]

I'll be happy to play the Wehrmacht.

[Ekirei]

I'd be interested, but why start so late in the war? Sure, D-Day is pretty infamous, but there's so much that came before. Pearl Harbor, the invasion of France, Leningrad are all pretty big events.

[Theodorable]

Well Ekirei if we are looking at the first conflict between American and British soldiers it's going to be D-Day, or alternatively Operation Torch in North Africa.

[Gunther]

I would vote for Operation Torch, 8 November 1942 as our Start point.
Would you mind if I RP'd both an American and a German?
I'm not here to win anything, just write a story.

[Theodorable]

For now we'll stick to one side per person. I may expand it later. I'll get an OOC up today!

[mac7]

I too would be interested, not sure when I'd like to see it start but I love WW2 so anytime during the war is good for me. And really any campaign as well.

[Theodorable]

http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/8126/posts/ooc?page=1#post-153254

Kept it simple and clean. Let's get the applications in.