By GENE SEABOLT Additional Material by HANS-CHRISTIAN VORTISCH Edited by STEVE JACKSON with LOREN WISEMAN GURPS System Design ❚ STEVE JACKSON Page Design ❚ PHIL REED and JUSTIN DE WITT Marketing Director ❚ PAUL CHAPMAN GURPS Line Editor ❚ SEAN PUNCH Managing Editor ❚ PHILIP REED Director of Sales ❚ ROSS JEPSON Transhuman Space Line Editor ❚ PHIL MASTERS Art Director ❚ WILL SCHOONOVER GURPS FAQ Maintainer ❚ ––––––– e23 Manager ❚ STEVEN MARSH Production Artist & Indexer ❚ NIKOLA VRTIS VICKY “MOLOKH” KOLENKO Prepress Checker ❚ WILL SCHOONOVER Lead Playtester: John L. Freiler Playtesters: Michele Armellini, Thomas L Bont, Brandon Cope, Peter V. Dell’Orto, Shawn Fisher, Martin Heidemann, Erik Manders, Phil Masters, Kenneth Peters, and Robert Prior GURPS, Warehouse 23, and the all-seeing pyramid are registered trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. WWII, Pyramid, Red Tide, and the names of all products published by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated are registered trademarks or trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated, or used under license. GURPS WWII: Red Tide is copyright © 2009 by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. All rights reserved. Some art based on photographs copyright www.arttoday.com. Some art based on photographs from the National Archives and Records Administration and former Soviet sources. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this material via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal, and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. An e23 Sourcebook for GURPS® STEVE JACKSON GAMES ® Stock #37-8007 Version 1.0 – November 2009 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . .4 The Commissars . .28 Night Witch . .49 About the Author . .4 The Officers . .28 Commissar . .50 From Modernity . .29 Opolchenie . .51 1. THE SOVIETS To Madness . .29 MAJOR PERSONALITIES . .52 AT WAR . .5 A People Prepared . .29 The Generals . .54 THE SOVIET ARMED FORCES . .30 ALIENATED NATION . .6 The Red Army . .30 4. THE SOVIET THE TSARS’ LAST BATTLE . .7 Special Forces . .33 ARMORY . .56 THE CIVIL WAR . .8 The Air Force . .34 ORPHAN IN A COLD WORLD . .9 The Navy . .35 PERSONAL GEAR . .57 Slow, Hastened Death . .9 THE RED ROAD . .36 SMALL ARMS . .60 The Stalin Era Begins . .10 Training . .36 Soviet Small Arms Table . .60 ALLIES OF THE AXIS . .11 Replacements . .37 Weapon Descriptions . .61 Fateful Timing . .11 Following Orders . .38 VEHICLE DESIGN . .64 The Pact in Practice . .11 Not Following Orders: New Weapons . .64 The Buffer States . .12 The Penal System . .38 New Components . .65 The Winter War . .12 WHAT THEY CARRIED . .39 New Chassis Options . .65 The Nervous Year . .12 What Carried Them . .39 THE MOTOR POOL . .66 A CRASHING GRAY WAVE . .13 FIGHTING AT NIGHT . .40 Vehicles Key . .66 The First Days . .13 Artillery . .67 Off the Canvas . .14 3. CHARACTERS .41 GAZ-67 4x4 Light Cars . .68 Unblunted Momentum . .14 GAZ-60 Caterpillar Truck . .68 CREATING A CHARACTER . .42 A Lull in the Heat . .15 Zis Trucks . .69 Female Roles . .42 Southern Sacrifice . .15 BA-10 6x4 Armored Car . .70 ADVANTAGES, DISADVANTAGES, BREAKWATER MOSCOW . .16 BA-64 4x4 Armored Car . .71 Winter Reprieves . .16 AND SKILLS . .42 T-60 Light Tank . .72 Red Reach . .17 Advantages . .42 BT-Series Fast Tanks . .73 Exceeded Grasp . .17 Disadvantages . .44 T-28 Medium Tank . .74 Skills . .45 SEA CHANGE AT STALINGRAD . .18 T-44 Medium Tank . .75 Status . .45 The Last Straws . .18 KV-Series Heavy Tanks . .76 Winner Take All . .19 CHARACTER TEMPLATES . .46 KV-2 Heavy Tank . .77 Turning it Around . .19 Frontovik . .46 IS-Series Heavy Tanks . .78 Tank Hunter . .47 HIGH WATER AT KURSK . .20 SU-76 Self-Propelled Gun . .79 Cossack . .48 Initiative Seized . .20 SU-122 Self-Propelled Gun . .80 No Rest for the Wicked . .21 THE RED TIDE . .22 Ten to Win . .22 THE WORLD AS THE STAKES . .23 An Ominous Pause . .24 The End Is Nigh . .24 The Final Blows . .25 Rush to the Reichstag . .25 A DIFFERENT SORT OF WAR . .26 New Dawn in the East . .26 From One to the Next . .26 2. THE SOVIET ARMY . .27 A NEW KIND OF MILITARY . .28 2 CONTENTS The Terrain . .93 The Climate . .94 The Great Rivers . .95 People and Places . .95 HAZARDS OF A TOTAL WAR . .96 Fatigue . .96 Cold . .97 Heat . .98 Starvation . .98 Dehydration . .99 Sleep Deprivation . .99 Combat and Stress . .99 LIFE ON THE FRONT . .100 Welcome to the War . .100 And Farewell . .100 MOVING THE PLANTS . .101 In the Meantime . .102 The Next Battle . .103 THE EASTERN FRONT . .103 BEHIND ENEMY LINES . .104 Civilians . .104 Civilian Partisans . .104 Partisan Soldiers . .105 TAKING THE OTHER SIDE . .106 The Russians . .106 The Ukrainians . .107 Others . .107 THE COMMUNIST LIFE . .108 Family . .108 Work . .108 Housing . .109 Religion . .109 6. CAMPAIGNS . .110 CAMPAIGN STYLES . .111 Stalin’s Sacrifices . .111 Tobacco and Sweat . .112 Red Razors . .114 Sinister Allies . .115 Into the Fray . .116 Sheathed Sword . .117 THE PIECES OF PEACE . .118 THE REDS, ORCHESTRATED . .121 ALTERNATE HISTORIES . .122 Purging the Purges . .122 The First Shots Fired . .122 Lieutenant Winter . .122 ISU-152 Self-Propelled Gun . .81 Kamov A-7 Autogyro . .88 THE BEAR AND THE DOGS . .123 Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov G5 Fast Patrol Boat . .89 The Rout of Moscow . .124 Fighters . .82 K-Class Submarine . .90 Seizing the Day At Stalingrad . .124 Mikoyan-Gurevich Kirov-Class Cruiser . .91 Interceptors . .83 DU, SS . .125 Yakovlev Fighters . .84 5. THE EASTERN Petlyakov Pe-2 Dive Bomber . .85 REFERENCES . .126 Tupolev SB-2 Fast Bomber . .86 FRONT . .92 Polikarpov U-2 (Po-2) HISTORY’S WIDEST LINE . .93 INDEX . .127 Light Bomber . .87 CONTENTS 3 ABOUT GURPS INTRODUCTION Steve Jackson Games is committed to full sup- port of GURPS players. Our address is SJ Games, Those who know a little history, and like to toy with the less P.O. Box 18957, Austin, TX 78760. Please include informed, sometimes assert that the Russians won WWII pretty a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) much on their own. This is, at best, a qualified truth. Others who also any time you write us! We can also be reached by know a little history tire of that argument and counter that the Rus- e-mail: [email protected]. Resources include: sians would have lost without U.S. and British aid. That, also, is a half-truth at best. New supplements and adventures. GURPS To begin with, half of those “Russians” weren’t Russians at all, continues to grow – see what’s new at but rather Ukrainians, Georgians, and scores of other nationalities. www.sjgames.com/gurps. These aggregate Soviets had to deal with internal grudges far worse e23. Our e-publishing division offers GURPS than any dispute between the western allies. adventures, play aids, and support in PDF form . They made common cause, for the most part, to fight Fascism. digital copies of our books, plus exclusive materi- They died by the millions to stop Hitler. This awesome sacrifice – far al available only on e23! Just head over to more horrible than anything that the West had to endure – does not e23.sjgames.com. receive its due outside the former Soviet lands. In the western Pyramid (www.sjgames.com/pyramid). Our “truth,” Stalin killed more of his own people than Hitler. The West monthly PDF magazine includes new rules and may applaud the Soviets for repulsing a nasty invader, even under articles for GURPS, systemless locations, adven- their own nasty regime, but we rarely feel moved to standing ovation. tures, and much more. Look for each themed issue The truth is that we can hardly count how many war dead the from e23! Soviets suffered, nor do we have any common standard to number Internet. Visit us on the World Wide Web at Stalin’s victims. He was a mass murderer. He was also the hard- www.sjgames.com for errata, updates, Q&A, nosed leader of a state seeking utopia in the face of a hostile world. and much more. To discuss GURPS with our staff Some of the Soviets fought despite Stalin’s shortcomings. Others and your fellow gamers, visit our forums at served gladly because they saw those same qualities as strengths. forums.sjgames.com. The web page for A few still do. GURPS WWII: Red Tide can be found at To modern American eyes, Stalin and his supporters were cal- www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/ww2/redtide. lous, even to the point of evil. That said, two points should be kept in Bibliographies. Many of our books have exten- mind. First, many of Stalin’s victims would have done the same, or sive bibliographies, and we’re putting them online worse. The heavy hand of the Communist state wrongfully – with links to let you buy the resources that inter- oppressed millions. The USSR was also home to millions of violent est you! Go to each book’s web page and look for racists and ultra-rightists, who were only prevented from slaughter- the “Bibliography” link. ing their neighbors by that same heavy hand. Certainly, Stalin’s state Errata. Everyone makes mistakes, including us took its security to paranoid excess, using terror as a weapon, but a – but we do our best to fix our errors. Up-to-date frightening reckoning awaited if its iron grip slipped. Whether or not errata pages for all GURPS releases, including this we agree with their choice, many clear-eyed Soviets willingly traded book, are available on our website – see above. personal freedoms to get the stability Stalin offered. Second, the Soviets saved the western Allies from a conflict of a Page References far greater magnitude. Some of us would not be here – because our Rules and statistics in this book are specifi- father or grandfather would not have made it back alive – if the Sovi- cally for the GURPS Basic Set, Third Edition.