American WWW2 Weird/Supernatural Forces

[Black Cavalier]

Have people included supernatural forces with their US Weird War 2 forces?  I know industrial things like APE suits & tank/walkers are common, but I'd like to hear about equivalents to vampires & werewolves based on American folklore & monsters, both from Native Americans & those of European descent.   

So far I've come up with Sasquatch, Wendingos, Jersey Devil, Chupacabra, Native American Shaman with animal familiars, Pennsylvania Dutch Pow-wow folk magic.  I also thought about folklore characters like Paul Bunyan, but other than just running him as a giant-type figure, I wasn't able to think of how to incorporate his story into a military setting. 

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Weird WWII]

I have the following in my forces

Aqua-Marine / a Marine that can turn into and manipulate water
Invisible Agent aka Invisible Man
Air Assault Troops / Just think 40s helos with Vietnam era heliborne doctrine
Troops with the M3 Sniperscope IR kit
Indian Commandos / American Indian Commandos
Classic DC and Marvel Wartime Heroes and Superheroes / Easy Company, Howling Commandos, Unknown Soldier, Haunted Tank, Creature Commandos, The All Winners Squad, All Star Squadron, etc.
Elctro-Cannons
United Stated Space Raiders / Space-Borne USMC Raiders
Allied to Namor's forces of Atlantis and Wonder Woman's Amazons

Just off the top of my head,
Brian

[Skrapwelder]

I meant to send you an e-mail regarding this discussion but its just as good here.

Have you thought about a force with a Voodoo element? Gives you American zombies.

It doesn't have to be a Supernatural element either. Golden Age superheroes were already mentioned. Tesla Tech would be a good angle as well.

[Black Cavalier]

I thought about Voodoo too, but since I was thinking of a force from the Western US, I was think more along the lines of Native American influences.  & I know there can be just about anything Weird, but I'd just prefer supernatural stuff, as opposed to super heroes & tech stuff. 

OTOH, I do have the (young) Hellboy & Lobster Johnson figures.  I'd just need a Professor Broom one.

[Red Orc]

Thunderbirds?

Either a magical summoned giant bird that has a sonic attack mode (with a slight chance it could backfire on the summoner or his allies - you have to be very careful not to annoy the Thunderbird); or a powerful individual who is a shape-shifter (a sort of were-eagle or were-condor); or maybe a unit that takes its inspiration from the Thunderbird(s) - perhaps they could work like a parachute/rapid insertion unit (like jump troops in sci-fi games), they fly in with their magic Thunderbird cloaks then take them off and fight normally.

As for 'tech' and super heroes versus magic, well, any sufficiently advanced technology is indestinguishable from magic anyway... and Hellboy is a demon, of course. So I think that qualifies as supernatural. Or, a 'techy' explanation would be 'from a parallel negative-energy dimension'. But does it matter if you call the gateway 'a Portal to the Ninth Hell' or 'an Einstein-Rosen Bridge'? It's the same tyhing. Just a different way of explaning it.

[Chief Lackey Rich]

Obvious, but what about the Haunted Tank concept - ghost of an old soldier (Jeb Stuart in the original comic, but it could be any ancestral figure or Founding Father type just as easily) playing watchdog for a descendent and his unit?  That's plenty supernatural.

[Weird WWII]

The Golden Age Unknown Soldier was a manifestation of all those who died in the service of the country during war time.  He was was super strong, could transform into anyone who died and even fly.  The more modern Uncle Sam took on that origin but makes for a great avenging spirit wraith-like GI.

I did a character called Kilroy who was a mysterious GI who appeared out of nowhere and performed some devastating attack and then vanished with only the Kilroy was here graffiti in his wake.  This was more of a wild card event that might happen but not every battle.

Just a couple ideas,
Brian

[leadfool]

How about using the Ghost dance.  Certain rituals will make some of your troops bullet proof, but only if they believe.  Maybe some sort of save for your line troop units. 
Some warriors in various tribes had individual animal spirit guides.  Perhaps each warrior can call upon an animal, like a familiar.  Get an extra melee attack.
jiust some ideas

[Chief Lackey Rich]

You might get some inspiration from Wellman's John the Balladeer stories - all the shorts have recently been compiled in a volume called Who Fears the Devil? from Paizo.  The stuff is set in the US post-Korean War, but the supernatural stuff John encounters would fit any time period.  Much of it would be hard to use in a wargame (perfect for horror RPGs though) but there are exceptions - European strains of the Guardinels seem plausible as a terrain hazard, and creepy folklore critters like the Flat, the Culverin, and the Behinder must have overseas variants - or make good hassles for saboteurs trying to operate out of rural areas in the US.  A "trapping safari" with US troops trying to round up a bunch of the beasties for use against enemies overseas might be a good scenario too.  And of course there are plenty of witchy types with nasty hedge magic in the stories, some of it very effective - as long as they don't let some guy with a silver-stringed guitar get too close.

The story Old Devlins Was A-Waiting has a classic example of the kind of "ancestral guardian ghost(?)" riff that Haunted Tank uses, too.

[section 8]

The ability to transform into animal spirits was a common theme in Shamanism. Wolves, and ravens being the most commonly mentioned that I know of.

Coyote, the trickster could be interesting to throw into the mix. Give those who call upon him some sort of power to trick the enemy into thinking that their pals are actually the enemy. Confusion and chaos.

Wind Talkers, communication without radios.

It was also a common belief that when you killed someone you gained their power. A brief power mimic could be interesting, especially if they have super powers, or supernatural powers.

Ghost dancers believed that the shirts they wore made them impervious to bullets. Didn't work out so well in reality but it has some interesting possibilities game wise.

On the ghost topic. I've always thought that the ghosts of American or French WWI squad rising out of the ground and helping take out the Nazi's would be cool.

The Native American Ghost Walker. Imagine the German drawing a bead on the Indian scout, he's just about to pull the trigger when the guy just disappears into thin air. The kraut blinks his eyes in disbelief then catches some movement out of the corner of his eye and looks to his left, just in time to see the Indian shoot him. How's he do it? who knows.

anyway, that's all I got.

[joroas]

Check out Matakishi's site:

http://www.matakishi.com/weirdwarallies.htm

[Laughing Ferret]

* Native American skin-walkers: a'la werewolves, but other animals as well. The Sphere Wars range is a good source for these.

* Sioux White Buffalo.. either in buffalo form or woman.. could use the drain life ability to represent turning those who mean her harm into dust.

* John Henry: stated as team member: avoidance 1, mitigation 4. skills: super strength, iron will,

* Headless Horseman: stated as team member: avoidance 3, mitigation 2.  skills: suppression, damage projection tight beam (throwing a flaming pumpkin head), horrific gaze, flurry of blows.

* Teddy Roosevelt and the ghostly rough riders: Teddy: avoidance 2, mitigation 3, skills: iron will, inspirational leader, healer.
    ghost rough riders: squad of henchmen: avoidance 1, horses. (Teddy's healer skill is what can bring the spirits back into form (so to speak)) -paint them up as ghostly apparitions.

* Johnny Appleseed: Avoidance 3, Mitigation 2, skills: iron will, summon trees: plants seeds and trees spring up, providing cover

[white knight]

Well, my own efforts on the subject matter seem to be spread out over a lot of threads, so I'll just have to direct you to my old blog:

http://whiteknight.skynetblogs.be/weird-war-ii-us/

And a couple that for some reason never made it unto the blog:

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=7148.0
http://wk.frothersunite.com/misc/pics/julyus1.jpg
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=7002.0

[captain richards]

Great Idea...The more weird stuff the better, I brought WW2 weapons back to the Civil War so both armies now long dead, have become the undead are fighting again.

captain richards

[proditor]

Joe Magarac.

Think Colossus from the X-men, but from Pittsburgh.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Magarac

Hard to beat a dude made out of steel!