My First "Operation Whitebox" Character

A couple of posts back I rolled up a "Whitebox" character, that was for a fantasy RPG, however "Operation Whitebox" is a WWII RPG that is itself a completely separate and self contained game derived from that fantasy game.

I started by rolling 3D6 six times. I got into the fudging business right away. I rolled double 1's twice, and each time rerolled all three dice. The end results were, 10, 7, 11, 9, 15, and 12. Not great, but thanks to the fudging, not awful either.

I allocated the stats as follows:

• STR 15
• INT 10
• WIS 11
• CON 12
• DEX 7
• CHR 9

I slotted the 15 into STR because I wanted to play the "Grunt" class, and STR is a prime requisit for the class. In fact the only stat that earned a modifier was STR, on which I gained a +1, which comes into play during melee combat.

Rolling for nationality I got British (of course!) and as a pre-war profession Academic. My rolled rank was PFC, which I don't think is a British designation, but would be "Private".

Clearly I got English as a language, and I picked French as a secondary.

Rolled 2D6 for HP and managed to get 10 without any fudging!

Basic to-hit bonus, was +1, and Armour Class 11, and Saving Throw 14.

The only thing then to do was make a note of my level 1 abilities. 

• Get one extra attack against level 1 enemies.
• Uncanny Toughness (bonus +1 AC)
• +2 to Saving throws against explosives and suppressive fire.

There's no equipment to be bought or noted as that will be given out when the mission briefings take place.

I really liked this process, simple straight forward and quick, meaning no session-zero needed, just roll-up and play.

OSR Bleeding

It occurred to me the other day that bleeding could be a factor in OSR games, and that it could change the dynamic of combat in an interesting ways. My first thoughts were:

• Blunt damage does normal damage.
• Blade/puncture damage does normal damage + 1HP per combat round, until bandaged. Each would requires separate bandaging.
• Bandaging takes 1-3 combat rounds

The idea behind this suggestion is not to slide the scale towards realism, but rather to create an ongoing problem that can probably be ignored for a round or two but becoming more important as each round goes by. This would change the thought processes of the player. 

Instead of limiting the mental calculation to "I can take one more hit" during combat, it adds the threat of accumulating damage that "could" outweigh the damage die of the monster.

There are plenty of variations that you might use instead or in addition, such as only bleeding on a crit', or different levels of bleeding.