Kurt swung the stick hard and cursed to himself as his wingman's plane exploded into flames. His Messerschmidt arced precariously through the hail of flak and metal in a tight reverse. Two minutes ago, he had been part of an entire formation, patrolling the skies above occupied France for the enemies of the Reich. Now, his was the only plane in sight. He toggled his machinegun trigger and scanned the blue expanse, outside his cockpit, searching for some sign of the bandits that had ambushed them.
From a cloud just below him, a silver flash appeared, and he dove his plane to match it. His guns spat out a rattle of a thousand rounds in desperate pursuit of the blur, trying to capture it and make it burn the way it had made so many of the Luftwaffe's planes burn. No such luck. With effortless ease, the killercraft shot around and locked its own weapons on the hopelessly slow Messerschmidt. Just before the fire seared his face to oblivion, Kurt thought he could see the other pilot through the windshield - its scaly, inhuman face cracked in a hideous grin...
Of all the hoary, ancient, brow- beaten, cliche-ridden concepts to enter science fiction, an alien invasion of the Earth has got to be the hoariest. Since H.G. Wells published War of the Worlds, literary master and pulp hack alike have all taken a stab at menacing armies from beyond the stars. We've had straight out conquering and commie-type infiltration. We've had flying saucers and three-legged tanks. We've had vaporous clouds and flesh-sucking doppelgangers. We've had baby elephants, little green men and phallic seed pods. We've had every conceivable way this story can be told thrown at us, and by now, most of us are sick to death of it. Is it any wonder then, that science fiction RPGs have avoided the concept like the plague?
From a creative standpoint, there isn't much a role-playing game can do with alien invasions. After its heyday during the 1950s, the idea seemed pretty much sapped of energy and now, it just doesn't fire the imagination anymore. Game designers nave rightly decided to focus their efforts on other elements of science fiction, and most of the worthwhile elements of the concept have been appropriated for other genres. Let's face it: Great Cthulhu is a lot sexier than a bunch of little green men with Napoleon complexes. Without some sort of pep and pizazz, there just isn't anything left in the alien invader story to make for a good RPG.
Or so it seemed, until sci-fi writer and history professor Harry Turtledove released the first book in the Worldwar series. An ongoing epic of four volumes, Worldwar managed to revive the notion of good old fashioned space invaders while simultaneously providing a terrific framework for role-playing. The concept is devilishly simple - what if the aliens had landed in the middle of World War 11? - but it provides enough subtle nuances and inspiration to keep even the most demanding role-players going.
It's May, 1942. The armies of the world are locked in vicious, deadly combat across every corner of the globe. In Europe, Hitler's dreams of domination are all but realized, with only England remaining in defiance of his tyranny. Russia and Germany lie in an ideological death grip, as millions of dead on both sides pile up on the steppes of the Ukraine. Asia ties at the feet of Japan's imperialist expansion, while the United States slowly turns its industrial might towards avenging Pearl Harbor. And in the heart of Poland, the first steps of a "final solution" against the European Jews are being enacted by Nazi occupiers. Never before has humanity been so divided, never before has the fate of our planet been so much in doubt.
And then they came: a fleet of huge spaceships piloted by reptilian invaders from beyond the stars. "The Race," as they called themselves, had arrived to conquer the Earth and make it their own. They moved quickly, utilizing their superior technology to brush aside our forces like toys. Mainland China was seized from the Japanese, as was occupied France and most of the Third World. The Russian front was divided up the middle, the United States cut in half at the Mississippi. And nothing we had seemed capable of stopping them.
Suddenly, our all-but insurmountable differences had to be shunted aside, and lifelong foes had to join forces in the face of this common threat. To do otherwise was to risk eternal slavery at the hands of an utterly inhuman foe. Slowly and grudgingly, the divided forces of mankind joined together in defense of their planet... and thus the true worldwar began.
This article is intended to help gamemasters run a campaign set in this world, a world so close to our own and yet so unlike anything we've seen before. Interested GMs should be sure and study Turtledove's books (two have thus far been written: In the Balance and Tilting the Balance with two more promised in the near future), as well as the more "mundane" histories of World War II. A healthy overview of other alien invader stories can be useful as well; War of the Worlds is an obvious one, and the original miniseries V contains some good ideas as well. The following is intended as a generalized overview and a guide-line to converting Turtledove's novels into a role-playing format. As such, some of the story's surprises are revealed below, and readers wishing to keep the books fresh may want to hold off until they have familiarized themselves with them.
More Space Iguanas Uber Alles Role-playing in Harry Turtledove's WorldWar
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