Set Europe Ablaze:

WWII Role Playing Game

 

Introduction

Winston Churchill proclaimed the necessity of the Allies to create covert operations that would "set Europe ablaze" in defiance of Nazi occupation. This game will give students the opportunity to research and role play cover operations in WWII, all while working to avoid detection by the Nazi and collaborationist forces of Europe. The British Secret Operations Executive and the American Office of Strategic Services trained operatives to use agitation, strikes, sabotage, random acts of terror, propaganda, and assassinations to hinder Nazi rule and to inspire resistance.

Students will train as these covert operations and devise techniques to overcome the Nazis and the collaborationist regimes through role playing through both fictional and famous historical covert operations.

Covert Operatives Directive:

You have been recruited by either the Secret Operations Executive (SOE) or the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). You will choose a covert operative from the list below and train as that agent. Follow the following steps:

  1. Read the RPG Game Book (click here)

  2. Choose one of the historical agents listed below. Your group must have one Operations Director for the SOE team and one for the OSS team who will help strategize plans and send resources. Everyone else will choose a historical character to play as an operative.

  3. Train as your chosen character — research your character, but you may need to get creative training in different areas of specialty if there is not enough historical information about your chosen character.

  4. Choose THREE areas of specialty (based on your research, or what is needed by your Operations Director).

  5. You can also research different areas of specialty, methods of training, and information on occupied nations by reading the GAME PLAY RESEARCH BOOK (click here).

  6. Fill out a Character Profile (linked here) to develop your character.

  7. With your Operations Director’s guidance, you will be sent to a field of operations in Europe. You will write a mission plan that will describe how you plan to fulfill your mission. Your success or failure will be determined by a number of factors decided upon by your Game Master, including a dice roll.

  8. BE CAREFUL! The Nazi authorities and the Collaborationist Regimes are hunting for you! The authorities could find you, torture you, or find your radio signal. Your survival will be determined by a dice roll and the skillset that you bring to the mission.

  9. You are limited to 10 lives! Your grade is dependent upon your level of participation in the war effort, and in your success and failure of mission objectives. Mistakes happen, but carelessness, apathy, and needless loss of your 10 lives will negatively impact your life.

Historical Personas

England

Ian Fleming

Virginia Hall

Noor Inayat Khan

Merlin Minshall

Roman Czerniawski

Madeleine Barclay

Sonia Olschanezky

Pearl Witherington

United States

Juliette May Alexander

Moe Berg

Julia Child

Sterling Hayden

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

Jim Thompson

Nicholas Deak

Elizabeth Devereux Rochester

France

Spain

Juan Pujol Garcia

The Netherlands

Dirk Klop