It's 1985

West Germany teeters on the brink of defeat. The American V Corps is all but crushed, and Soviet armored formations rush to the French border. That is, however, only the war that most see. There is another war, a Dark War, a war against and between the monsters of our nightmares: vampires, werewolves or lycan as they call themselves, demons, witches, and other paranormal entities. These entities have taken advantage of the reality-ripping destruction of WW3 to overtly seek that which they have covertly desired for centuries: human blood, fear, chaos. There aren’t platoons of vampires or battalions of zombies skirmishing American paratroopers. Don’t be silly, these beings don’t work like that, although lycan clans have been known to arm their younger hunters and ambush their enemies, paranormal or otherwise. The monsters work in the shadows, a vampire coven of six or seven methodically preying on a small village with a weakened police force, a witch birthing a cult to serve in her search for wealth or power, a demon reanimating the dead to revel in the terror they create.

But enough of the hoopla, let's talk game. Dark War uses a simple system, based on a single rule. Anytime you role a 4 or greater you get a success. In Dark War, that success might mean you pump two AK-47 rounds into a werewolf, or that your nurse heals a team member, or a witch gains control of a weak-minded soldier, forcing him to fire on his comrade. What varies are the dice that you use. When building your own character, you assign a fixed number of dice (4 x D4, 3 x D6, 2 x D8) to seven attributes--Shooting, Melee, Speed, Intelligence, Charm, Will, and Dodge-- to determine what type of individual you control. The more dice and the better the dice assigned to an attribute, the greater chance you have or rolling successes. But the customization doesn't end there. You can use experience points to buy Kickers, such as "Rifles," which adds an extra D6 when firing a rifle or "Power of Prayer" that allows a character to heal a teammate within two squares. Two many options? Just choose a group of pre-generated characters from the bestiary, slap them on the provided map, and have at it. Or, if you prefer, you can fight out one of the three, included skirmishes

Obviously attributes such as Charm and Intelligence can be put to great use when roleplaying, but Dark War's unique Action Cards ensure they are relevant even when fighting a quick skirmish.  For example, when an opponent activates a character you can slap the Fear Action Card on them, forcing them to pass an Intelligence test or lose all their actions. Other Action Cards can reload a weapon, add a die to melee, or even heal a wound.