Philippines Peril

Achtung! Cthulhu is the roleplaying game of fast-paced pulp action and Mythos magic published by Modiphius Entertainment. It is pitches the Allied Agents of the Britain’s Section M, the United States’ Majestic, and the brave Resistance into a Secret War against those Nazi Agents and organisations which would command and entreat with the occult and forces beyond the understanding of mankind. They are willing to risk their lives and their sanity against malicious Nazi villains and the unfathomable gods and monsters of the Mythos themselves, each striving for supremacy in mankind’s darkest yet finest hour! Yet even the darkest of drives to take advantage of the Mythos is riven by differing ideologies and approaches pandering to Hitler’s whims. The Black Sun consists of Nazi warrior-sorcerers supreme who use foul magic and summoned creatures from nameless dimensions to dominate the battlefields of men, whilst Nachtwölfe, the Night Wolves, utilise technology, biological enhancements, and wunderwaffen (wonder weapons) to win the war for Germany. Ultimately, both utilise and fall under the malign influence of the Mythos, the forces of which have their own unknowable designs…

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Talisman is a scenario that takes Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 to a theatre of war that it rarely visits, instead focusing in the main upon the home front and Western Europe. That theatre of war is the Pacific and in particular, the invasion of the Philippines by the Japanese. It is early March, 1942, and with the attack on Pearl Harbour by the Japanese Imperial Navy only three months before having delivered a blow to American pride that still stings, the USA is about to suffer another defeat. That is the loss of the Philippines. Already, General MacArthur has been ordered to evacuate to Australia lest he be captured by Japanese forces, but there is still intelligence to be gained from the enemy—some of it of an outré kind. This is an opportunity for Majestic to learn more about the occult activities of the Japanese. What they know, what they wield in the Secret War, and what alliances they might already have made. Just three months into the war, this is an opportunity for Majestic to prove itself and what it is capable of. Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Talisman is a one-shot scenario with five pre-generated Player Characters. It can be played as a one-shot, as the start of campaign in the Pacific developed by the Game Master, or as a potential source of Majestic agents who have been sent on their first important mission and if they survive, could be assigned elsewhere.

The scenario is a three-act affair which opens with the Majestic agents quickly brought together and briefed on their mission to go behind enemy lines and gain actionable intelligence about enemy occult efforts and assets, what their briefing officer describes as ‘Special Assets’, as well as confirmation of disappearances and massacres at the hands of Japanese forces. They are to trek north through the jungle and check on various villages near Mount Naib as they go. The biggest problem that the Player Characters face is that they are up against a deadline—less than five days. They definitely need to hurry up and they are likely to need to make a run for it on the way back.

Initially, the difficulties faced by the Player Characters on their north are natural—slippery underfooting, quicksand, a difficult river crossing, and more, but quickly they will come across more and more signs of Japanese activities, including an initial encounter with the scenario’s primary antagonists, Colonel Takeshita Fuyuto and a strangely silent, long haired and robed woman who appears to strike fear in the surviving villagers. At this point, the characters are not expected to intervene, the Game Master being expected to tell her players that the odds are overwhelmingly against their characters. However, the knowledge they can gather is useful and will help them in the river port of San Domingo where the Colonel Takeshita Fuyuto has established a base and is planning a ceremony of some kind the very night that the Player Characters arrive. Ideally, they should arrive beforehand, have time to reconnoitre the town and hopefully prepare a plan of action.

The summoning is the climax of the scenario and the Player Characters are free to deal with it as they wish. Given that maps are given for the town and the compound where Colonel Takeshita Fuyuto has his headquarters, this final encounter (as well as an earlier encounter at a village), can be run narratively or involve the use of tokens or miniatures—depending upon the inclination of the Game Master and her players. It is a challenging battle as there are still plenty of Japanese soldiers about and the Player Characters are lightly armed (though there is a scene early in the scenario where they have the chance to gain more or better equipment). The aftermath of the climax is a race back through enemy lines to report back to headquarters. Depending upon the outcome of the battle in San Domingo this can extremely unnerving or it can be a relatively safe journey bar a run in with a Japanese patrol or two.

The scenario includes full stats for the chief villains of the piece, Colonel Takeshita Fuyuto and his thoroughly evil ‘great-great-aunt’, Oba-San, as well as Japanese soldiers. The five pre-generated Majestic agents consist of a female dilettante* and traveller of Japanese-Sicilian background, a combat engineer, a military policeman with a background in the occult, an ex-burglar turned soldier, and a Filippino soldier and jungle scout. All five are lightly equipped as there U.S. Army is running short of supplies in the face of the Japanese onslaught.

* Her name is Beverly Andrews. There is no indication as to which set of sisters she is related to.

Physically, Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Talisman is generally well presented, though it could have been tidier in places. It does not have any artwork, which is a pity as it would have been nice for the chief villain and his ‘great-great-aunt’ to have been illustrated. The scenario’s four maps are good, but these are battle maps, not area maps. Again, it would have been nice if the area map that the Player Characters are given in game as part of their briefing had also been included as a handout.

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Talisman is a mission-based scenario. Which means it is quite linear in its plotting, but it will tests the Player Characters from start to finish, there is scope for roleplaying, and of course, there is plenty of action. Plus it takes the players to a different theatre of war and focuses more strongly on other factions in the Secret War. Plus its treatment of the Mythos is a little more restrained in comparison to other scenarios involving either Black Sun or Nachtwölfe for Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20, so the tone of the scenario is a bit more creepy rather than out and out pulp horror. Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20: Operation Talisman is a solid scenario that be run as a one-shot, as a change of pace from other Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 scenarios, or with some effort from the Game Master be the beginning of a behind the lines campaign in the Philippines.