Gaming in the Universe of: Tannhauser

It’s official: My first paid work as a freelancer in the gaming industry has been announced, so I can talk about it. There’s a new Tannhauser set of figures coming out. You can see the members of the Shogunate of Japan here.

For those of you unfamiliar with Tannhauser, let me tell you a little about it.

It is the year 1952, and the Great War never ended. That’s right, for the past 30 years, warfare has spread across the globe. The forces of the US, England and others have formed The Union, while Germany has formed the Reich. While the Union has advanced their technology by means of the crash at Roswell, the Reich have experimented with dark magic and demonology. Additionally, the Russians are now a Matriarchy, combining the talents of Nicolai Tesla and worship of the Teutonic gods.

There’s lots of pulpy science-fictiony elements to the universe, and it’s presented as a fantastic little board game.

And now, the Japanese have made their appearance. After lots of long nights on the phone there are three new figures coming out (two of them come together). Iroh Minamoto is a samurai who keeps returning to the battlefield no matter how many times he’s killed, while the troops pack has a “special agent” and a regular soldier.

So how could you play in the universe of Tannhauser? Quite easily. There are some fan-made books out there that cover the whole mythology of the world, using a lot of stuff from the old French version of the game, before FFG got a hold of it. You can scour those for information.

But how to play the game? This is where Savage Worlds steps in. The rules lend themselves to pulp action, while the Weird War II supplement will give you your science fiction for the era.

Mind you, the game is not WW2. That’s an important distinction. WW2 never happened. World War 1 continued, long past WW2.

I think, with all of the miniatures they’ve come out with for the game, I may have to run a one-shot or two using the figures and Savage Worlds rules.

If you’re ever in the Minneapolis area, my brother has been running mega-battles of Tannhauser over at the FFG retail store Thursday nights. He’ll be starting back up in June.