Secret Terrors

To date the focus of Achtung! Cthulhu, the World War 2 setting of Lovecraftian investigative horror published by Modiphius Entertainment has primarily been upon the human participants, that of the Allies against the Nazis and the uses to which secret enemy organisations harness knowledge. What this has meant is that the place of some of the more traditional forces or elements and some of the major figures of the Mythos has really been absent in the Achtung! Cthulhu setting. Now this is not necessarily a bad thing, since it leaves room for the dedicated Keeper of Call of Cthulhu lore to draw upon upon other sources and other histories to develop them for himself. Nevertheless, the Achtung! Cthulhu Terrors of the Secret War actually address some of these concerns and does so in an interesting fashion. For although Achtung! Cthulhu Terrors of the Secret War looks very much like a manual of Mythos Monsters, it is much more than that. Achtung! Cthulhu Terrors of the Secret War is a manual of Mythos Monsters with an application!

Indeed, for whilst Achtung! Cthulhu Terrors of the Secret War does indeed include some twenty or more major entities of the Mythos—known as Terrors in this supplement—and their servants, it includes the means to combat them too. From Abhoth and Arwassa to Yegg-ha and Y’golonac, not forgetting Cthulhu himself, the investigators can take the battle directly to the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods, all with units of infantry, tanks, and even artillery in support of their efforts. In order to do this, Terrors of the Secret War presents a new and simplified set of rules for handling mass combat; descriptions of various Great Old Ones and Outer Gods, their attacks and weaknesses, and the means to banish them; a grimoire of new spells; and an armoury of new weapons, including some for the Allies—that is, the player characters to wield! As with other titles in the Achtung! Cthulhu line, Terrors of the Secret War is written for use with both Call of Cthulhu, Sixth Edition and Savage Worlds.

The ‘Simple Mass Combat System’ introduced in Terrors of the Secret War is designed as a faster, easier alternative to that presented in Acthung! Cthulhu Keeper’s Guide that also keeps the players and their investigators involved. It first organises everything into units, including regular military forces, Great Old Ones, any servitors—whether summoned by the Great Old Ones or the Nazis, and so on. Even advantages are treated as being the equivalent of units, although they are ‘virtual’ units. So units in cover or that are considered to be elite units, have a Combat Advantage, each Combat Advantage considered to be a virtual unit. The number of units on both sides are compared and any losses deducted—one side needs to have a three-to-one majority over the other in order to inflict losses without suffering any itself. Achieve a three-to one-ratio and the side with the greater advantage can knock out one enemy unit, if they have a two-to-one ratio, then both sides lose a unit, and if the ratio is just one-to-one, then there is stalemate.

For example, Unit 242 is a platoon of commandos assigned to Department M to strike at Nazi activities involving the Mythos on mainland Europe. There is intelligence that the Nazis are summoning Deep Ones off the coast of France and Unit 242 is ordered to ambush both whilst Department M agents attempt to grab the lead Nazi cultists involved. It also has the support of a squadron of three Motor Torpedo Boats that will provide supporting fire. Unit 242 is an elite unit, has done this task before, is attacking from cover, and has the element of surprise, plus it can call on a strafing run from the Motor Torpedo Boats. The Keeper decides that this is equivalent of five extra Virtual Units—on the first round at least—to give the Allies a Combat Advantage of six. Arrayed against them are the Nazi sorcerers and the Deep Ones. They are equivalent of two units and receive no other benefits, both being distracted by the summoning. This gives the Allies the three-to one-ratio for a successful mission.

The first round begins when a Department M agent fires a flare over the summoning site. Immediately, the Motor Torpedo Boats roar into attack, their heavy guns opening up on the Batrachian humanoids wading through the surf. The Deep Ones are cut down, their bloodied corpses splashing into the water. At the same time, the British commandos target the Nazi sorcerers, not to kill, but to pin in place. Under the hail of bullets the agents rush forward to snatch their targets... 

Initiative in the ‘Simple Mass Combat System’ is equally as simple. The investigators and any NPCs act first, followed by the military forces on both sides, and then the Terror itself. What this and the ‘Simple Mass Combat System’ is designed to do is keep a game moving at the same speed as normal play. It is also designed to keep the players and their investigators involved, the players directing the Allied forces and their investigators acting to thwart both the enemy NPCs and the Terror.

The bulk of Terrors of the Secret War is devoted to descriptions of the twenty or so Great Old Ones and Outer Gods. None of them are new to Lovecraftian investigative horror or to Call of Cthulhu, though many are new to Savage Worlds and many, especially the avatars of the various deities, are little known. What is immediately obvious about the write-ups for each is that not one of these Mythos entities is accorded any stats. Instead, taking a leaf out of Trail of Cthulhu, it presents the ways in which the investigators and others interact with the particular Mythos entity, primarily during the use of the ‘Simple Mass Combat System’. These are Investigator Actions, Military Actions, and Terror Actions; that is, actions that can be undertaken by the investigators, by the military forces, and by the terror itself against the investigators and military forces arrayed against before it. So for example, in the entry for Cthulhu, Master of R’lyeh, the possible Investigator Actions include ‘Evasive Manoeuvres’ (successfully avoid his claws whilst driving or piloting a vehicle) and ‘Psychic Chain’ (work with allies to withstand some of the Great Old One’s psychic attacks); whilst possible Military Actions include ‘Diversionary Fires’ (distract Cthulhu with firing patterns or types of attacks) and ‘Drive Him into the Sea’ (sufficient attacks will force him back underwater). In turn, the Master of R’lyeh’s Terrors include ‘The Stuff of Nightmares’ (affect the dreams of the sensitive) out of combat, but in combat he can of course make a ‘Claw/Tentacle Attack’ as well as both ‘Blessing of Cthulhu’ and ‘Blight of Cthulhu’ (gives a bonus to forces opposing the Allies and inflicts a penalty upon the Allies respectively). In addition, each of the entries includes plot hooks, possible servitors, victory conditions, and some commentary and evidence. The commentary takes the form of advice from an expert who consults for Department M, whilst the evidence comes in form of newspapers, letters, after-action reports, and so on. They add colour to Terrors of the Secret War, but of course can also be used as handouts.

The primary aim in encountering any one of these Terrors is for the Allies to banish it—of course there is no question of being able to kill it—and there is a means provided for each Terror described. As much as Terrors of the Secret War ups the scale of these encounters by involving military units and taking it a step towards being a  wargame, it never gets away from the individual scale of the players and their investigators. Whilst the players will be rolling dice for the Allied military forces and even directing them, it is their investigators who will be running about the battlefield, trying to get closer to the Terror in order to banish it.

In technical terms, Terrors of the Secret War offers new options for both the Allies and the Nazis. For the latter, it packs the already horrifying Shoggoth into various advanced pieces of technology for monstrous effect, whilst for the former, the Allies get arms and armour created in response to the Nazi use of Mythos-enhanced technology. They include the Blevins Steam-Assisted Enzymatic Carbine and Pistol, Electric Discharge Weapons like the ‘Crackler’  M5-1 Bazooka, the Eastin-Bakhaus Arclight Rifle, and the ‘Prometheus’ Lightning Cannon. In the main, these are bulky, unwieldy weapons, and it should be rare that the investigators be assigned them, though knowing that they have to face a Terror is probably reason enough.

Rounding out Terrors of the Secret War is a short grimoire of spells. From the semi-absurd Attract Fish—it does of course, have its uses—to Wave of Oblivion, the majority of these spells will be familiar to anyone who has played a lot of Call of Cthulhu, Sixth Edition. Rather than presenting new spells, the grimoire, much like the descriptions of the Terrors earlier in the book, is actually providing details of these spells for use with Savage Worlds for the first time. Given that the focus of Terrors of the Secret War is upon the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods, the bulk of these spells are summon/dismiss and contact spells. Pleasingly, page references are given for Call of Cthulhu, Sixth Edition for all of these spells.

Physically, Terrors of the Secret War is well presented and well written. There are some great illustrations too with everything being in full colour. The content is backed up with a short, but decent index.

There is a lot of information in Terrors of the Secret War, but it is not necessarily information that is easily or readily applied to a campaign. Whilst it is definitely written for use with the Achtung! Cthulhu setting, some of its content—the various descriptions and details of the Terrors and in particular the spells in the grimoire, will be of use to a Keeper who is running a game of Lovecraftian investigative horror using Savage Worlds. For the Keeper who is running a Call of Cthulhu campaign that does not take place in the Achtung! Cthulhu setting, there is less that is useful here. Yet even then, the bulk of the contents have limited application given that facing the Terrors described herein tends to occur as the climax of a campaign. Or at least they do if the Keeper is running his Achtung! Cthulhu campaign in a style akin to a traditional Call of Cthulhu campaign, but the Achtung! Cthulhu setting takes place during a global conflict that escalates everything. In the real world, this was primarily technological progress, but in Achtung! Cthulhu, the rate of technological advancement is matched by mankind’s growing knowledge of the Mythos and by the frequency with which contact is made with the entities of Mythos. This is mostly by certain agencies of the Axis powers, who desperate for great power have turned to ever more summonings of great powers… So it makes sense for there to be more encounters with Terrors in Achtung! Cthulhu, but the Keeper should probably avoid using too many of these Terrors lest their impact is lost.

Overall,  Achtung! Cthulhu Terrors of the Secret War provides lots of information for the Achtung! Cthulhu setting. More importantly though, Achtung! Cthulhu Terrors of the Secret War does a solid job of upping the scale of the conflict against the Mythos.

The Esoteric War in the East

Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to the Eastern Front is one of three supplements that each focus on one of the three main theatres of World War 2 for Modiphius Entertainment’s Achtung! Cthulhu campaign setting which pitches the stalwart men and women of the Allies against the outre and the occult being harnessed by the Axis powers to win the war. The first, Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to North Africa, explored the conflict back and forth across the sands against the Germans and the Italians, whilst the third, Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to the Pacific Front, looked at the war in the Far East against the Japanese Empire. Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to the Eastern Front examines the war between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, primarily from the opening salvos of Operation Barbarossa in 1941 until almost the fall of Berlin in 1945. This is a massive conflict that will see the German war machine invade on a thousand mile long front and get almost to the gates of Moscow, besieging great cities in the process, only to be thrown back first by the dreaded Russian winter, but then by a combination of the Soviet Union’s huge armies, an economy that is eventually harnessed for war, and the fierce patriotism of the Russian people. It is no wonder that the war becomes known as the Great Patriotic War.

As with the core books for the line—Achtung! Cthulhu: Keeper’s Guide to the Secret War and Achtung! Cthulhu: Investigator’s Guide to the Secret War—Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to the Eastern Front is written for use with both Call of Cthulhu, Sixth Edition and Savage Worlds. It perhaps gets a little busy in places where the writing has to switch between explaining the rule systems, but overall the supplement is well written. The supplement’s single map of Russia and Eastern Europe is also done in full, vibrant colour, actually covering Eastern Europe and the Baltics as well as the Soviet Union.The book itself is done in full colour, but in muted shades as is standard for the line, with decent, if stylised artwork, the layout done as a burgeoning sheaf of documents.

The supplement begins by setting the scene, with a chronology that runs up to early 1945. Although the primary focus of this chronology is the war itself, it actually begins in 1831 with the birth of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the occultist and founder of the cult Theosophical Society whose writings would influence numerous esoteric societies in the century following her death in 1891. Its runs up to the start of World War Two, charting the rise of the Bolsheviks and the Communist Party as well as the founding of various occult societies such as the Theosophical order, ‘Spirit is Life’, and their eventual suppression by the Soviets. It is accompanied by an overview of the Soviet state and an extensive gazetteer of the Eastern Front—and regions beyond! For not only does Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to the Eastern Front have to cover the thousands of miles long battle front from Leningrad in the north to the Caucasus in the south, it has to cover the Winter War in Finland, the Arctic convoys from Great Britain to Archangelsk and Murmansk, Tito’s Communist insurgency in Yugoslavia, and of course, the inhuman treatment by Nazi Germany of many of the peoples it conquers. In the process it examines the defence and in some cases, virtual destruction of various cities, Leningrad and Stalingrad obviously, but also Kharkov, Minsk, Sebastopol, Warsaw, Kraków, and more...

The makeup of, and the influences upon, the Soviet military and war machine is covered in some detail. At its most basic, this details its military structure and its arms and equipment. Primarily, the former looks at just the Soviet army, but it does include the air force. Notably it also includes units of the infamous NKVD, which serve as the USSR’s internal military consisting of troops that run the GULAGs, prisons, railways, factories, and more; border troops that protect her borders; and of course, national security units that root out spies and traitors and guard Soviet and party officials. It also highlights the lack of experience of Soviet forces early in the war—primarily due to Stalin’s pre-war purges, and the lack of sophisticated radio equipment that hampers Soviet military operations; Order 227 which directs troops never to retreat; the use of both penal military units and women on the battlefront; and last, but not least, the role of political commissars.

Secondly, the very many various pieces of equipment that the Soviet Union fields are listed. This includes the personal arms, such as the Mosin-Nagant rifle and the PPSH-41 SMG and vehicles like the T-34 tank and the ZIS-5 truck. Since the Soviet Union runs desperately short of vehicles early in the war, American vehicles like the P-39 Airacobra and Studebaker US6 truck, supplied under the terms of the Lend-Lease are also listed. Axis vehicles are not ignored, though they tend to towards to the more extreme tanks like the Elefant and the Jadgpanther. Overall, this is a good mix, though perhaps the one omission is the aerosani, the propellor-driven snowmobiles used by the Russians for reconnaissance across areas of deep snow. Perhaps the oddest of the mundane pieces of  equipment fielded by the Soviets is the protivotankovaya sobaka, the anti-tank dog, trained to crawl under  a German tank and detonate the mine strapped to its back. Unfortunately, the use of dogs in this fashion proves unreliable, particularly as they attack Russian tanks because of poor training.

In terms of character options, Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to the Eastern Front provides information for a Soviet investigator’s background nationality and Occupations for Cavalry soldiers, NKVD Agent, and Osobist SMERSH or military counter-intelligence agents as well as the Kinolog, the Vor, and the Zek. A Kinolog is a dog trainer and handler, a Vor is a career criminal whose only loyalty is to his fellow criminals, and a Zek is a GULAG prisoner, anything from an actual criminal to a discredited and purged poet, physicist, or soldier. The only new training package available is for the NKVD, but for Savage Worlds the supplement gives new Hindrances and Edges such as Under Suspicion and Hot Blooded, the former for politically unreliable characters, the latter enabling a character to withstand the terrible low temperatures of the Russian winter. Now in comparison to either Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to North Africa or Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to the Pacific Front this feels like fewer choices. This is understandable given that most of the options are covered in Achtung! Cthulhu: Investigator’s Guide to the Secret War, but nevertheless, these new options do lend themselves to interesting roleplaying possibilities, the Vor and the Zek in particular given their outsider status in what is a totalitarian state. 

In Soviet Russia, the existence of the occult—and worse—is a state secret, but knowledge of it has only been reluctantly accepted by the state in the face of its use by the Nazis. Various aspects of it is studied by a number of sometimes rival Soviet organisations. The Brain Institute of the VKP (B) is a scientific agency answerable to the Communist Party which exploits technology looted from the Mi-go; staffed by occulist and sorcerer zeks, Institute 21 is an arm of the NKVD that brings its outré methods to counter-intelligence; and Otdel MI or Bureau of Extraplanar Research, which has scoured the world for ancient books, relics, and artefacts, and also controls the Tunguska site. The Otdel MI is the only agency likely to co-operate with Allied agencies and whilst all three agencies are opposed to the German agencies of Black Sun and Nachte Wölfe, only  Institute 21 and Otdel MI are likely to oppose them directly. There is of course much more to all three organisations and there are of course Mythos threats to the USSR beyond Black Sun and Nachte Wölfe, such as the Nochnyye Ved’my, the Shantak-riding Night Hags that are the Mythos counterpart to the famed female bomber pilots, the Night Witches; worshippers of the charnel god, Mordiggian, beneath Leningrad and other besieged cities; and the sprinkling of Ithaqua cultists from Finland to Siberia.

The various occult organisations have fielded various pieces of equipment. The most notable of these are the unreliable energy weapons designed by Otdel MI, but the most absurd are the Bomb Wraiths, Institute 21 bombs with the means to summon fire vampires embedded in the bomb casings! The majority of the new tomes listed originate in the Far East, reflecting the interest in Tibet and other Asian countries by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and other occultists. A solid grimoire adds an interesting mix of spells, whilst the bestiary adds the Insects from Shaggai and the Krysoluds (or rat-things) for Savage Worlds as well as various new creatures and races.

Two things are apparent from the treatment of the Cthulhu Mythos in Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to the Eastern Front. First is that it is disparate and dispersed. Second is that this feels right for the setting. After all, both the occult and occultists have suffered decades of disruption and destruction. Initially by the Soviet government, but then more recently by the Nazis. The Soviet Union is also a vast territory, so it is highly unlikely that one ‘hidden’ cult could arise to really threaten the cult that is the Communist Party. More importantly, the treatment of Russia in terms of the Mythos has always been light—especially for Call of Cthulhu. Beyond ‘Secrets of the Kremlin’ from T.O.M.E.’s Glozel est Authentique; Cold Harvest, and the Miskatonic University Library Association Monographs Machine Tractor Station Kharkov-37 and Terror; and Pagan Publishing’s GRU SV-8 and the Skoptsi from Delta Green: Countdown, there has been very little for the authors of Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to the Eastern Front to go on. So where Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to North Africa and Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to the Pacific Front have to cover hotbeds of Mythos activity and the activities of major entities and their cultists, Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to the Eastern Front only has to really address the one single issue in terms of the Mythos—what caused the Tunguska Explosion of 1908? The answer here is of course, Azathoth, but not quite and that feels perfectly in keeping with the underplayed treatment of the Mythos for Russia for Achtung! Cthulhu.

As with the other two theatre of war supplements, Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to the Eastern Front is rounded out with listings of NPCs and some adventure seeds. The former are divided between important people for whom no stats are given and the ordinary men and women who fight on the battlefront for whom stats are given. The adventure seeds focus on mysteries for Allied investigators to look into and perhaps a second for Russian characters would have added a little balance.

Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to the Eastern Front is well presented and decently written. If there are issues with the presentation, it is with the book’s treatment of its new esoteric equipment. First, none of them illustrated, which might well be a problem for the Keeper should his investigators get hold of them. Second, their descriptions are given in the mundane equipment listings where they feel out of place and hint too much at secrets explored in more detail in chapters devoted to the Mythos. The writing itself is good and does not shy away from ignoring the atrocities enacted throughout the conflict—by both sides.

As with Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to North Africa and Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to the Pacific Front, this supplement has vast swathes of territory to cover and detail. Much like those books, it covers the mundane side of the war on the Eastern Front—and other areas, in an engaging and informative way, and the Keeper is also provided with plenty of extra details, colour information, and write-ups of interesting personalities and places. Its treatment of the Mythos feels fresh and balanced, primarily because it does not have to ignore the development of previously published Mythos elements for Call of Cthulhu. Above all, Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to the Eastern Front does a good job of capturing the dark and driven desperation of the war in the East and whilst the addition of the Mythos makes the war even darker, the Mythos in Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to the Eastern Front kept suitably and thematically underplayed.

Onslaught and the Occult in the Orient

Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to the Pacific Front is the third of three supplements for Modiphius Entertainment's World War 2 set RPG of Lovecraftian investigative horror to examine particular theatres of the great conflict. The previous two books examined the Eastern Front and North Africa—in Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to the Russian Front and Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to North Africa respectively. Now the line heads to the Far East where the investigators will face foes seemingly inhuman and alien across inhospitable terrain that ranges from the wide stretches of open ocean to the depths beneath fecund, even foetid jungle. From 1932 until 1944, it covers first Japan’s growing dominance of China and then her lightning series of strikes that will see country after country and colony fall as well as the pride of the United States Navy sunk, before the Allies manage to regroup and send their forces hopping from island to the next, driving the resource starved Japanese forces back to their home islands. All this whilst certain races of the Mythos and cults devoted to Alien gods watch and wait to see if they can take advantage of the chaos…

As with the rest of Acthung! Cthulhu line, the Guide to the Pacific Front is written for use with both Call of Cthulhu, Sixth Edition and Savage Worlds. Mechanics for both are clearly marked and whilst the supplement does present a large number of items—tomes and spells in particular—that will be familiar to devotees of Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying, this is primarily because they are being presented for the first time for Savage Worlds.

Before the Guide to the Pacific Front can begin covering the war itself, there are several decades of history to explore. These detail Japan’s meteoric modernisation and rise as a regional power, defeating first China and then Russia, before siding with the Allies in the Great War and capturing several former German colonies. Resentment towards her former allies coupled with rapid militarism—the latter often promoted and encouraged by the numerous secret societies made up of members of both the military and the government, drove Japan to invade China, Korea, and Manchuria before striking at the American Fleet at Pearl Harbour and then invading and conquering colonies and islands across South East Asia and the Pacific. Not is the rise and state of Japan described, but so is the state of the colonies and colonial powers across the region. The latter includes Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands, whilst the former includes India, Burma, French Indochina, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, and others. The timeline itself only goes as far as 1944 and not to the end of the war—at least in our timeline. This is with good reason, as events in Europe in April, 1944 and the supplements Achtung! Cthulhu: Assault on the  Mountains of Madness and Achtung! Cthulhu: Bye Bye Baby mean that the history in the Achtung! Cthulhu world plays out entirely differently...

As difficult a subject as it is, the Guide to the Pacific Front does not shy away from Japan’s deplorable treatment of her Prisoners of War. In addition to the overview an uncomfortable subject, rules are provided to surviving the harsh conditions imposed by the Japanese attitude towards prisoners as well as a Prisoner of War Hindrance for creating a POW. This lends itself to being part of an Achtung! Cthulhu campaign, but whether the investigators begin or end a game as POWs—or perhaps experience it somewhere between—this would be a harrowing and inhuman experience.

Mechanically, the supplement presents a good range of new character options, both civilian and military. These range from Colonial Settler and Guerilla Fighter to Triad Gang Member to Tribal Member and from Chindits and Codetalkers to Gurkhas and US Marines. Means are provided to create random nationalities and military drafts as training packages for the Australian Coastwatchers and US Marine Raiders. In many cases, the player and Keeper alike will need to refer back to Achtung! Cthulhu: Investigator’s Guide to the Secret War for the other generic, yet still appropriate backgrounds and Occupations. Nevertheless, this is a good mix of options and ideas, that is further supported by a solid list of equipment—primarily Japanese—to support that also given in Achtung! Cthulhu: Investigator’s Guide to the Secret War, and a good guide to fighting and surviving in the harsh conditions of South East Asia and the Pacific Islands. This covers how the war is fought and its difficulties, whether that it is the problem of conducting an amphibious landing past a coral reef, the limited lines of sight beneath the jungle campaign, or simply just trying to keep the front lines supported when they are thousands of miles away. The rules here cover jungle visibility, booby traps, and the dangers of infected wounds in a hot and humid environment amongst others.

Where the Guide to North Africa completely ignored the Crawling Chaos who it would be perfectly unnatural to have present mocking our activities throughout the desert campaign and beyond, the pleasure in the Guide to the Pacific Front is that it does not ignore the Great Old One lurking in the room—or rather in the depths of the ocean. The supplement’s exploration of the Mythos is expansive and detailed, focusing on a limited number of cults, races, and gods, starting of course, with great Cthulhu himself—or rather the cult and the races devoted to him. The focus is upon his servants rather than the Great Old One himself, so this not only includes the Deep Ones, and Mother Hydra and Father Dagon, but also his sons—Zoth-Ommog, Ythogtha, and Ghatanotha. Their inclusion pushes the supplement into some obscure aspects of the Mythos. They and their father and his cult are presented as potential allies rather than as active participants in the affairs of mankind. The Tcho-Tcho are treated in similar fashion, a detailed potential ally, but the Serpent People are not. Rather, in addition to going into detail about their origins and their reawakening, the Guide to the Pacific Front talks about their long range plans and their active interest in the doings of mankind. In fact, they appear to be most active of all the Mythos forces in the theatre and this makes them easier to use then the more passive Cthulhu Cult and Tcho-Tcho. Further, the long range plans of the Serpent People lends itself to a full campaign, one that could take beyond the end of World War 2.

Besides the races, gods, and entities of the Mythos, gives a number new artefacts, spells, and tomes. Most of them—such as the Cthaat Aquadingen and Thaumaturgical Prodigies in the New-England Canaan—are new to Savage Worlds rather than Call of Cthulhu.

What is apparent from the description of the Mythos in the Pacific is—barring the plans of the Serpent People—how little human agency is involved. This is radically different to the war in the West, where the Nazi secret organisations of Achtung! Cthulhu—Black Sun and Nachte Wölfe—are actively researching and ‘co-opting’ the Mythos. In the Pacific, neither organisation is particularly active and the Japanese seem to possess almost no knowledge of the Mythos. This seems almost true of the Allies as well, Department M is hardly present and there appears to be no active opposition or investigation of the outré aspects of the war. Of course, this leaves it open for a Keeper to develop this aspect himself, but some direction would have been useful, more so given how good the Mythos material is in Guide to the Pacific Front.

Rounding out the Guide to the Pacific Front are descriptions of numerous NPCs. As with the other supplements, the real world figures are given just a description rather than a description and stats. This understandable, but the descriptions are decent and the stats given to the ordinary NPCs are good. The latter includes NPC versions of the Occupations given earlier, but notably also gives stats for some surprising NPCs—members of the INA, the Indian National Army that fought the British in the jungles of Burma. Lastly, the supplement includes a trio of adventure seeds the send the investigators to some interesting places.

Physically, the Guide to the Pacific Front is well presented, being neat and tidy, and decently illustrated, with a lot of good information. Like the Guide to North Africa, lots of extra information can be found in the boxed text that appears fairly regularly. Yet as presented as the supplement is, in terms of the writing, it is a book of two halves. The first half, which deals with the history of, and the background to, the conflict in the East and how it was fought is simply overwritten and stylistically, often a challenge to read. Now to be fair, I am reading the book as both a reviewer and an editor, and so when it comes to the writing I may be overly sensitive, but there were occasions when I had to put the book down, walk away, and then come back to it later. Fortunately, the second half of the book, the half that deals with the Mythos is infinitely easier to read and thus much more engaging.

Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to the Pacific Front is not a perfect book. The writing is uneven in places and aspects of the book are underwritten, but it is a good book. It provides an excellent overview of the conflict in the Far East and how it was fought, the rules and armoury are solidly done in supporting the overview, and fundamentally, its treatment of the Mythos is nicely detailed and does not feel as if it sits in isolation from Call of Cthulhu cannon. Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to the Pacific Front is a solid treatment of the war in the Pacific, whether fighting against the ordinary or the outré.

1973: Escape from Colditz

Last year’s review of Kingmaker proved to be surprisingly popular such that it got me thinking—what games of its era are worth revisiting? Only one game came to mind, a game from my childhood that like Kingmaker I played, but never owned. That game is Escape from Colditz, first published in 1973  by Gibsons Games.

Designed for two six players, Escape from Colditz is set at the height of World War Two. The Germans have selected Schloss Colditz as Oflag IV-C, a prisoner-of-war camp for ‘incorrigible’ Allied officers who had repeatedly escaped from other camps. To those incarcerated in Schloss Colditz, making escape attempts was not only their patriotic duty, but to an extent, also seen as a sport, as was making the lives and duties of the garrison as awkward as possible. The majority of the players in Escape from Colditz are Escape Officer who control  Prisoners of War (POWs) of certain nationalities—American (blue), British (red), Dutch (orange), French (brown), and Polish (green)—whilst one player controls the sentries of German security (black). The aim of the Allies is to get as many POWs out of Colditz and back to Allied territory—to make a ‘home run’ as the prisoners called it—as they can, whilst the German player must stop them.

To effect an escape, each Allied player must acquire equipment. First an ‘escape kit’, consisting of a compass, a disguise kit, food, and forged documents, and then second escape equipment, such as forged passes and keys to get past outer doors in the castle, rope to climb down out of the castle and then over the outer walls, and lastly wire cutters to get through the fences. To acquire equipment an Allied player must get two of his officers to particular rooms in the castle. For example, to acquire rope an Allied player must get two of his officers to either the chapel or store and then back to the Appel area in the centre of the castle courtyard. Similarly, to get a disguise kit, an Allied player must get two of his officers to either the Theatre or the Laundry and back to the Appel area.

In response the German player will be moving his sentries around the rooms and grounds of the castle, from the barracks to the sentry posts (and often back again) in order to monitor POW activities and to block potential escape routes. Once an Allied player has acquired equipment, his officers are subject to closer scrutiny and potential arrest and incarceration in the cells. If an officer is arrested in the grounds of the castle, the German player can confiscate equipment from his player as well as send the officer to the cells. 

To move around the map, both the Allied and the German players roll two six-sided dice and simply move. Rolls of doubles allow re-rolls and if a player rolls a three, seven, or eleven, he can draw card—the Allies draw Opportunity cards, whilst the German draws Security cards. The Opportunity cards do a variety of things. For example, Bribe a Sentry gets an Allied player more equipment, Hideaway enables him to hide equipment before the German player can confiscate it, Diversion allows him to send a German sentry back to the barracks, Tunnel (Chapel) gives him access to the tunnel leading out of the Chapel, and Staff Car presents him with the chance to steal the car waiting in the castle grounds and drive it to freedom. Various other Opportunity cards enable a player to move to various locations, get out of the cells, and so on. The German Security cards include Appel (Roll Call), used to summon all POWs back to the courtyard and search and arrest any that do not return, Tunnel Detected that enables the German to find a tunnel, and of course, the dreaded Shoot to Kill card that enables the German player to kill a POW who is outside of the castle walls! No player can hold more than three cards, but the Allies can freely exchange their Opportunity cards.

The play of the game typically proceeds with the Allied players collecting enough equipment, the German player marking the POWs as best that he can, until he is ready to make an escape. There are multiple escape routes, typically involving a POW climbing out of a window and then over the walls or cutting his way through the wire. Alternatives include taking a tunnel—there are three in the game and the player needs to have the appropriate Opportunity card, the aforementioned Staff Car Opportunity card, or a Do or Die card. The latter represents a last ditch bid for freedom, the player being given a random number of rolls—varying from one Do or Die card to another, each Allied player receiving a random one at game’s start—with which to get a POW to Allied territory. This is typically done at the end of the game to get one more POW home and it costs no Escape Equipment to use a Do or Die card. Should the attempt via the Do or Die card fail, then the escaping  POW is killed in the attempt and the player is out of the game.

Tactically, the German player needs to monitor the Allied players for signs of an escape attempt and move his sentries accordingly. The Allied players should get their escape equipment as ready as quickly as possible and during this opening stage of the game, playing Escape from Colditz can be quite tense as a game of ‘cat and mouse’ ensues between the Germans and the Allied POWs. Here the POWs can run interference, ‘voluntarily’ turning themselves in to send a nosy German sentry back to the barracks whilst he takes the offending POW to the cells. Once enough escape equipment has been assembled, the Allies should ideally stage their escape attempts en masse and at separate points round the castle . So for example, whilst the Americans and the British make their out of the tunnel from the chapel, the Polish should be climbing out of Officers’ Quarters and up over the wall, and so on. Ideally, this should overwhelm the German player who will never quite have enough decent rolls with which to capture the escaping Allied officers. Still, the escape attempts should be not only tense, but also exhilarating affairs as one POW after another attempts to make a home run. 

On the other hand, a failed escape attempt, is not only disappointing, but it can also feel rather deflating. After all, the player has been busy assembling escape equipment and having used it in the attempt, now has to start going round the castle collecting it again if he wants to make more attempts. Plus of course, his failed escapees are now in solitary (and have to roll doubles to get back out).

The need for the Allied Escape Officers to coordinate their escape attempts and the fact that they can swap or give each other Opportunity cards means is that Escape from Colditz is a co-operative, or rather, a semi-cooperative game because the Allies need to work together to affect successful escape attempts. That said, there can only be one winner, either the German player because he has stopped all escape attempts or one of the Allied players because he has got the most POWs home. Even so, Escape from Colditz does not come with set objectives. Typically all of the players agree on a time limit and the number of successful escape attempts needed for an Allied player to win. Two hours is the suggested time limit and two escapees the recommended number. An Allied player wins if he manages this in the time limit, the German player wins if he prevents anyone from doing so. 

Physically, Escape from Colditz is a very nicely put together game. The trade dress and the graphic design is excellent, with extra flavour text on the Opportunity and Security cards adding historical details, the card holder for the game’s card being made to look like a Red Cross parcel, the front of the rules sheet being the same as the sheet issued to POWs  advising them not to make escape attempts. All of these extra details add verisimilitude to the game’s theme, but none add as much as the map board. This is a large affair, providing a stunning depiction of Schloss Colditz and its environs in wonderful detail. 

Thematically, there can be no argument that Escape from Colditz is a triumph. The addition of the cover sheet to the rules advising that escaping is not a sport and the Red Cross parcel packaging for cards adds nothing to game play, but everything to the feel of the game. As does the beautifully functional map of Schloss Colditz. Yet the game is unbalanced in terms of the number of players—too few Allied players and the Germans have an easy time keeping an eye on everyone and foiling escape attempts; too many players and it is a lot easier for the Allies to make escape attempts. Equally, the game is also mechanically flawed. The ‘roll dice and move’ mechanic feels dated, but arguably it does feel suited to the game. Worse though are the ambiguous rules, which all too often leave situations open to interpretation, such that house rules are needed. Admittedly, Escape from Colditz is a forty year old design, and whilst it definitely shows, the game is not unplayable, not unenjoyable, and worth replaying once in a while. Its age though makes it a very interesting game.

 No game comes with the cultural weight of Escape from Colditz. It is ‘boys’ own adventure’ that evokes the using of a stick as gun to fire at the German enemy when you were children, of the comic book Commando War Stories in Pictures, of Saturday afternoon war movies like The Great Escape, The Cruel Sea, In Which We serve, and of course, The Colditz Story,* of the proverbial ‘British stiff upper lip’ and sticking it to the Hun, of “For you, the war is over”, and so on. This is hardly surprisingly given when the game was published—the early 1970s—a decade when the war was still strong in our collective memories. This cultural weight is enforced by the authenticity of the details in the game—the notice informing the POWs that escaping was not a sport, the replica Red Cross parcel used to hold the cards, and so on—but perhaps most obviously by the fact that the game’s co-designer, Major Patrick R. Reid M.B.E., M.C., had been been a prisoner at Colditz and had indeed escaped in 1942.

*Most of which have the actor John Mills in common…

It tied into our toys too. The game’s primary publisher, Parker Brothers, was owned by the American multinational, General Mills, as was Palitoy, the British toy company best known for Action Man, essentially the British equivalent of G.I. Joe. Numerous uniforms and outfits were manufactured for Action Man, including an Escape from Colditz Boxed Set, the contents a German Sentry outfit, Escape Officer outfit, escape equipment, forged documents, maps, card sentry box!

Of course, unlike other games that put the one or more players against the Germans, Escape from Colditz makes it personal. Those other games are typically war games like Squad Leader that play out at the impersonal squad-to-squad, tank-to-tank, battalion-to-battalion, or army-to-army level. Escape from Colditz places you at the head of an Escape Committee up against one player alone—whomever is playing the German security of the castle. And you hate him for it, just like you hate the Germans. Which was fine in the 1970s. Forty years on and it is no longer politically correct to hate the Germans—almost as if we have gone on a cultural diet. After all, the Second World War ended seventy years ago, the Germans are are an economic, rather than a military powerhouse, and arguably, the Germans lead the European Union. Nevertheless, that does not stop us from poking fun at the Germans, often relying on stereotypes and jokes that are a hangover from the war.

Playing the game almost forty years on is thus a different experience, more jokey, but still laced with many of the same clichés that the war engenders. It is also different experience because game design has moved on and we have been exposed to wider and better game design so that the flaws in Escape from Colditz are more apparent. The best that can be said here is Escape from Colditz offers more thematic than mechanical depth, but is still a very enjoyable game despite its flaws.

So in 2015, one wonders why the game is not in print? After all, any number of games have been reprinted and and updated from the 1980s, so why not this classic from the 1970s? It is no surprise that that an updated version was published in Spanish by Devir Games in 2006, since the sequel to the original, Después de Colditz, was published in Spanish in 1986. Yet there is no English language version currently in print. There can be no doubt that the game is ripe for an update—even if my long hoped version in which the Germans are controlled by the board and the Allies play in true co-operative fashion, is unlikely to happen, but with Fantasy Flight Games publishing a Spanish RPG, perhaps the time is right?

[Thanks to J-P Treen and his wife and his family for hosting my recent game.]

Supernatural Secrets of the Sands

Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to North Africa opens up the core focus of Modiphius Entertainment on the war in Europe and brings Lovecraftian investigative horror in World War 2 to a whole new theatre—the desert war. In doing so it explores two wars and just a limited time frame. The first is of course between the Desert Fox and the Desert Rats, between Field Marshal Rommel and ultimately General Montgomery, fought with tanks, minefields, and men across the burning sands that stretch from Morocco in the West and Egypt in the East. The second is the hidden war, a ‘game’ of cat and mouse as more secret than secret organisations on both sides try to ascertain and thwart each other’s plans. The period for this setting is little more than two years, between 1941 and 1943, during which time battle will ebb and flow across harsh sands…

As with the core books for the line—Achtung! Cthulhu: Keeper’s Guide to the Secret War and Achtung! Cthulhu: Investigator’s Guide to the Secret War—Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to North Africa is written for use with both Call of Cthulhu, Sixth Edition and Savage Worlds. It perhaps gets a little busy in places where the writing has to switch between explaining the rule systems, but overall the supplement is well written. The supplement’s single map of North Africa is also done in full, vibrant colour, actually cover all but the south of the continent. The book itself is done in full colour, but in muted shades as is standard for the line, with decent, if stylised artwork, the layout done as a burgeoning sheaf of documents.

The supplement begins by setting the scene, with both an extensive chronology of the war fought, month by month from May, 1939 until November, 1943 and an extensive gazetteer of North Africa. Both it should be noted also cover East Africa and to an extent, the Middle East, and then to a lesser extent West Africa, because battles were also fought there. Primarily against the Italians in the Horn of Africa, but also against the Axis backed insurgents in Iran and Iraq and the activities of Vichy France in her colonies. The discussion of SOE’s fractious operations that also hamper the American  amateurs of the OSS against the Abwehr’s extensive network sets the background for intelligence operations in the region. Further chapters detail the arms and armour, equipment and other vehicles fielded throughout the conflict with a particular emphasis upon the Italian armed forces as Mussolini's imperial ambitions mean that North Africa is a major theatre of operations for them. Interesting points here note that all sides would often issue and reissue similar uniforms and the lack of armour early in the war mean that some Allied forces field Italian tanks! Of course, fighting in the hot and arid environment of North Africa brings its own dangers, so full rules are provided for dehydration, heat stroke, sunburn, and sunblindness as well as scavenging in the desert.

In terms of characters, Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to North Africa provides a surprising array of new options. These include a new version of classic Call of Cthulhu Occupation, the Archaeologist, as well as the expected Occupations for members of the Long Range Desert Group, Special Air Service “Jeep Raider”, and Privateer, No. 1 Demolition Squadron (Popski’s Private Army), there are some interesting additions. These include members of the 28th Māori Battalion, Greek Sacred Band, Askari (tribal soldiers), and more. These are supported by new Background and other Edges such as National Identities for India, New Zealand, and South Africa, and Comfortably Numb—that is, inured to the mental trauma of combat.

Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to North Africa being a supplement for a game of Lovecraftian investigative horror means that the Mythos is not ignored. There are two strands to this in Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to North Africa. The first is what the Nazi secret organisations of Achtung! Cthulhu—Black Sun and Nachte Wölfe—are up to, which primarily consists of long range expeditions deep into the desert and learning of these will probably result in the player characters making equally long trips accompanied by the Long Range Desert Group or Special Air Service. The other strand develops the Mythos indigenous to the region, in particular expanding upon the origins of the Necronomicon, upon the history and inhabitants of the Lost City of Irem, and upon the worship of Sebek. All three are solid additions to the Call of Cthulhu canon, that upon Irem in particular, expanding as it does in a more interesting fashion than has been done for Call of Cthulhu previously. 

Yet despite describing various other locations and adding an array of artefacts, spells, and tomes—many of them new to Savage Worlds if not Call of Cthulhu—the section on the Cthulhu Mythos does feel underwhelming. For what it does not do is develop or update any of the Mythos threats or entities known to be at large in Egypt. For outside of New England, Egypt is and always has been, a most notorious hotbed of Mythos activity, whether that is with the Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh, the Brotherhood of the Beast, or the worshippers of Bast—discussion of the former being an especially odd exclusion given the inclusion of Masks of Nyarlathotep in the bibliography. Now this exclusion may be down to the limits of the license and it may well be down to the space limitations of the book, but either way, this exclusion is definitely a pity, because it would miss out on the other opportunities and adversaries already present that have to be doing something during World War 2.

The Keeper is ably supported by new spells and Mythos tomes as well as a Mythos bestiary and a ‘who’s who’ of the conflict. These include ordinary NPCS—both civilians and soldiers, such as Arabic Museum Director, Society Matron, Sonderkommando Dora, and Polizia Dell’ Africa Italiana—and the leading figures of the conflict, such as Rommel and Montgomery, Mussolini and Bradley, and King Farouk I and Haile Selassie. Now none of these leading figures are given stats, but that is intentional and none of them really need the stats. A number of examples of the Mythos entities and creatures described earlier in the book are also given stats, whilst rounding out the supplement is a trio of adventure seeds. These are not all that interesting, especially given that the book contains better hooks for ideas elsewhere in its pages. 

Of course Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to North Africa has a lot to cover and cannot be expected to cover everything. It certainly covers the mundane side of the North African war in an engaging and informative way, and were the Keeper to want to run ordinary missions and operations, then he will find just about everything he would want in the pages of this supplement. Further, he will also find lots of extra details, colour information and descriptions of interesting personalities and places that he can bring to his game. Where it feels underdeveloped is not in terms of the material new to the Mythos, but in terms of the greater Mythos, which means that the Keeper will have to develop this material himself. Yet despite this disappointment, Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to North Africa is a solid supplement providing plenty of material for the Keeper to take the secret war into the harsh sands of North Africa.

The Pen is mightier...

With all of the recent interest in Lovecraftian investigative roleplaying in World War Two, particularly in Cubicle Seven Entertainment’s World War Cthulhu – The Darkest Hour and Modiphius Press’ Achtung! Cthulhu, it is sometimes forgotten that there was a conflict before the global war, one that has often been seen as the ‘dress rehearsal’ for World War Two. This is the Spanish Civil War, fought between the Republicans in support of the democratically elected Spanish Republic and the Nationalists, a fascist rebel group led by General Francisco Franco, between 1936 and 1939. It became the focal point of the radical politics of the Desperate Decade as the fascist nations of Germany and Italy actively supported the Nationalists and the Soviet Union supported the Republicans. It was thus the first clash of two totalitarian ideologies and the active support from both was in addition to the thousands of volunteers who would travel to Spain to fight for each side.

In fact, to date there has been only the one scenario set during the Spanish Civil War for any game of Lovecraftian investigative horror—‘No Pasaran!’ from the Miskatonic University Library Association monograph Shadows of War: Four Scenarios Set In and Around the Second World War published by Chaosium, Inc. for Call of Cthulhu. This is now joined by Soldiers of Pen and Ink, a scenario for Pelgrane Press’ RPG of clue orientated Lovecraftian investigative horror, Trail of Cthulhu. Penned by Adam Gauntlett, the author of Flying Coffins, RMS Titanic: The Millionaire’s Special, and Sisters of Sorrow, this is a one-shot affair that finds the investigators in Madrid, the Spanish capital, tasked with having to shoot a pro-Republican documentary when one of their team goes missing. Has Ramon been arrested by the Soviet representatives for his Trotskyite leanings or been assassinated by Fascist sympathisers?

As the scenario opens, the documentary team finds itself caught up in the opening manoeuvres of the Siege of Madrid with the city threatened by the advancing forces of the Fascists, rumours spreading widely before them about the blood thirsty nature of Franco’s men. Yet even as the Republican government and its Soviet advisors urge its soldiery and volunteers to the barricades, the Republican cause is undermined by differences in ideology and the fear of betrayal by Fifth Columnists, such that belief in the wrong ideology—Communism, Marxism, Trotskyism, or just simple Republicanism, may be enough to get you arrested or even shot! As much the the Republican cause is threatened by this factional rivalry, there is also something else that it fears that lies at the heart of the scenario—defeatism! This being a Trail of Cthulhu scenario, this manifests in an extremely pervasive fashion...

The hunt for Ramon will take the investigators back and forth across Madrid, interacting with famous persons such as Ernest Hemingway, amongst others, discovering signs of a pervading ennui and more, which threatens both the investigators and the city. Countering this ennui lies at the heart of Soldiers of Pen and Ink, which gives numerous opportunities for the investigators to be creative and to do the job that they were hired to do. This pushes the investigators to participate in a greater cause than that of one mere ideology or another, the chance to save Madrid and thus Spain, not from the Fascists, but from despair itself.

Although this is a scenario of Lovecraftian investigative horror, the atmosphere and tone Soldiers of Pen and Ink is perhaps more creepy than horrifying in its manifestation. Its horror comes more from what the two sides in the war are doing to each rather than from the Mythos, the threat of which is covert and insidious than explicit and sincere.

To support the scenario, Soldiers of Pen and Ink includes a good ten pages worth of background. This details the city of Madrid and Spain itself, focusing in particular on recent events; the arms and armour used by both sides; the equipment needed by the documentary team; and several new archetypes—Extremist, Volunteer, Spy, and Black Marketeer—should the players want to create their own investigators for Soldiers of Pen and Ink. Also included is a new Academic Ability, ‘Politics’, which may prove useful in the politically fractious atmosphere of the Siege of Madrid. Now while this is more than useful, it highlights one of the problems with Soldiers of Pen and Ink—our lack of familiarity with the period. This means that the players and their investigators need to assimilate quite a lot of information before they can begin playing Soldiers of Pen and Ink as it is unlikely that they will be aware of Spain and her political situation during this period, what they are doing in Spain, and of course, who Ramon is. This information would really work as a set of handouts so that the players can be ready to play without the need for the Keeper to present them with the need to resort to excessive exposition.

The second issue with Soldiers of Pen and Ink is that physically, it is slightly disappointing and not quite up to Pelgrane Press’ usual standards. The book needs an edit in places and the artwork lacks subtlety. It is also a pity that none of the pre-generated investigators come with their own portraits. That is by the by, for the third, and perhaps the biggest issue is the lack of a map to aid the Keeper. Certainly a map of Madrid would make Soldiers of Pen and Ink much easier to run.

Soldiers of Pen and Ink is primarily a one-shot. The motivations and politics of the period are not necessarily going to be as strong in ordinary investigators such that they would want to become involved in as fractious a conflict as the Spanish Civil War. This is not to say that it could not be run as part of an ongoing campaign, as rather that it would certainly make for a radical shift in tone and feel. One option of course would be to run it as a precursor to the war that is to come, although that does stray away from the time frame for Trail of Cthulhu. On the other hand, it would be very difficult to adapt the scenario to another location or period, the setting and its period being very of their time. Nevertheless, Soldiers of Pen and Ink is an engaging scenario, one that presents an interesting and clever interpretation of a Mythos entity, one that feels surprisingly modern, but it turns out is not, and one that is to an extent reminiscent of Nigel Kneale’s Quatermass and the Pit, all set against an undoubtedly Orwellian backdrop.

Nazis, Nasties, & N?

Before beginning this review, it is necessary to make one fact clear. I have written and edited for Achtung! Cthulhu, so in coming to review World War Cthulhu – The Darkest Hour, I cannot be seen to favour one approach over the other, one series over another. This does not mean that I can avoid making comparisons, but it does mean that such comparisons will not consist of which one is better. Rather they will be as balanced as possible and focus on where the two settings differ.

To explain, both of these series of books are devoted to Lovecraftian investigative horror set during the Second World War. One is Achtung! Cthulhu, published by Modiphius Press, the other is World War Cthulhu – The Darkest Hour, published by Cubicle Seven Entertainment. The first of these is written for both Chaosium, Inc.’s Call of Cthulhu and Pinnacle Entertainment Group’s Savage Worlds, whilst the second is solely written for Call of Cthulhu. Where Achtung! Cthulhu covers much of the breadth of the conflict that is Second World War, World War Cthulhu – The Darkest Hour, much as its subtitle suggests, has a much narrower focus. This focus is upon the opening years of the Second World War, when Britain and the Commonwealth’s back was against the wall and with the forces of Nazi Germany having rolled across the continent, Winston Churchill ordered the men and women of the Special Operations Executive to set Europe ablaze. The SOE is only one recruiting ground for ‘N’, a spymaster whose interests lie primarily in preventing certain outre knowledge from falling into the hands of the Nazis. Wherever that knowledge might be found…

This sets up the precept at the core of World War Cthulhu, that the investigators are always fighting on two fronts. In Europe they face both the Nazi occupiers and the malignly uncaring forces of the Mythos, and on that rare occasion, the Nazi who has knowledge of the Mythos. Their missions will find them dealing with military and intelligence matters as well as the Mythos–they may even coincide! Then when facing the Mythos, the investigators also have to keep its existence a secret, whether from the Nazis or the Allied governments. Whilst on the home front, they must deal with rivalries between the various intelligence agencies and perhaps the wily ‘N’ himself! Who is ‘N’ and what does he want? That  question is left unanswered in  World War Cthulhu, but several suggestions are made–including one that will be very familiar to veteran players of Call of Cthulhu. For the moment, in this ‘Darkest Hour’, the wishes of ‘N’ and the prime minister seem to coincide…

Investigators in World War Cthulhu are created as per Call of Cthulhu, Sixth Edition. Then each investigator receives skill bonuses for his nationality (United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, Europe, and the USA), upbringing (rural or urban), military service (from Advisor, Agent, and Civilian Operative to Mobile Infantry, Pilot, and Radio Operative), personality (Bruiser, Expert, Thinker, and Leader), recruitment reason and initial Mythos encounter, and additional training. This grants a total bonus of some 550 points for each investigator and in some cases a small bonus to the Cthulhu Mythos skill. This has three effects. First, the personalities handily classify the investigators’ roles and make creating a group that little bit easier, and make replacement investigators easier to slot into a group. Second, they address the issue of investigators needing to be competent enough to go on missions as part of the war effort, that is, actually have at least passing knowledge of the military and espionage-related necessary–even an average investigator will be competent. That said, the third effect is to make the investigators more competent than is usual, pushing the tone of World War Cthulhu towards Pulp and away from the Purist.

To show how this works, Niamh Brewer is a typical Call of Cthulhu investigator, created using the standard Call of Cthulhu, Sixth Edition rules, plus a few extra skill points to reflect time spent as a nurse during the Great War. Prior to being recruited by ‘N’, she worked as a legal researcher, hunting down heirs to wills. Being a woman she was unable to obtain a degree and she would have remained a spinster–her fiancée having been killed during the Great War–had she not been recruited.

Niamh Brewer, Legal Researcher, aged 44
NATIONALITY: British
OCCUPATION: Legal Researcher

STR: 13 DEX: 16 INT: 15 IDEA: 75%
CON: 08 APP: 13 POW: 16 LUCK: 80%
SIZ: 15 SAN: 76 EDU: 18 KNOW: 90%
HP 12
Damage Bonus: +1d4

SKILLS: Accounting 50%, Archaeology 21%, Drive Auto 40%, First Aid 35%, History 50%, Law 55%, Library Use 75%, Listen 45%, Mechanical Repair 40%, Medicine 20%, Occult 25%, Persuade 65%, Psychoanalysis 11%, Psychology 35%, Spot Hidden 65%
LANGUAGES: English 75%, French 41%, German 16%, Italian 11%, Latin 41%, Spanish 11%
COMBAT SKILLS: Grapple 40%, Umbrella 40% damage 1d4+db

The following are the stats and skills for the investigator who has been adapted to World War Cthulhu. 

Niamh Brewer, Legal Researcher, aged 44
NATIONALITY: British
OCCUPATION: Legal Researcher
UPBRINGING: Urban PERSONALITY: Expert
MILITARY SERVICE: Civilian Operative
MYTHOS ENCOUNTER: Discovered a Mythos tome
REASON FOR JOINING: Forbidden Secrets

STR: 13 DEX: 16 INT: 15 IDEA: 75%
CON: 08 APP: 13 POW: 16 LUCK: 80%
SIZ: 15 SAN: 69 EDU: 18 KNOW: 90%
HP 12
Damage Bonus: +1d4

SKILLS: Accounting 50%, Archaeology 41%, Art (Painting) 45%, Bargain 15%, Conceal 25%, Craft (Gardening) 25%, Credit Rating 25%, Cryptography 30%, Cthulhu Mythos 08%, Dodge 52%, Drive Auto 70%, Electrical Repair 30%, Fast Talk 15%, First Aid 65%, Hide 30%, History 60%, Law 55%, Library Use 95%, Listen 65%, Mechanical Repair 60%, Medicine 20%, Natural History 20%, Occult 30%, Operate Radio 42%, Persuade 65%, Pharmacy 21%, Psychoanalysis 11%, Psychology 35%, Sneak 25%, Spot Hidden 85%, Survival 15%, Tradecraft 20%
LANGUAGES: English 95%, French 61%, German 16%, Italian 11%, Latin 51%, Spanish 11%
COMBAT SKILLS: Grapple 40%, Handgun 40%, SMG 25%, Umbrella 40% damage 1d4+db

‘N’ also indoctrinates his agents against the horrors they might encounter. By invoking his ideals or whatever he holds dear, an investigator may be given a roll against his POW×5 to reduce the effects of a Sanity loss following an encounter with the forces of the Mythos. Just like the additional skill points, this pushes World War Cthulhu towards the Pulp tone. In addition to providing extra skill points, World War Cthulhu also gives new occupations–Politician, Scientist, and Spy–as well as range of skills. These are mostly a mix of new military and new espionage related skills. The former include Command, Gunnery, and Military Science, whilst the latter include Cryptography and Tradecraft. Military Science also includes the tactics skill.

Investigators and their players also receive two solid sections of advice, one covering ‘Intelligence Operating Procedures’ and the other ‘Small Unit Tactics’. As solid as the advice is, it is incomplete. The problem is that all of this advice is for handling missions against the Nazis in occupied Europe and North Africa. It ignores the other strand of World War Cthulhu, that of investigating the Mythos and preventing it from falling into the hands of the Nazis. So where is the advice for doing this? Surely ‘N’ would give out such advice since he actually goes so far as to indoctrinate the investigators? It is not as even as the investigators in the default set-up are unaware of the Mythos.

The advice for Keeper is kept short and to the point, and unlike the advice for the players, it covers the Mythos aspects of the investigators’ missions as well as the military and intelligence ones. One of the pieces of advice highlights the primary difference between Achtung! Cthulhu and World War Cthulhu. This is that the militarisation of the Mythos should be avoided–or in the form of a mad scientist or SS sorcerer, at least rarely encountered. This is not something that Achtung! Cthulhu does and is one reason why its tone is Pulp whereas that of World War Cthulhu is mostly not… To support the advice on running missions, the Keeper has a gazetteer giving thumbnail snapshots of various Intelligence Theatres, from Vichy France and German  occupied North West Europe to North Africa and the Middle East. Besides a description, each country or region comes with a mission, both a military one and ‘N’s secret mission. There is plenty of variety in the twenty-five or so given, but they will need some development upon the part of the Keeper.

World War Cthulhu does not add anything new to the Mythos. Instead it updates it and brings it into the 1940s, examining the effect of the war–if any, upon the forces of the Mythos. Nor is it a comprehensive update. Understandable since the Call of Cthulhu canon is rather large and diverse, but the major entities, creatures, and forces of the Mythos are covered along with their human cults. It does adjust, or at least quantify, the Sanity rules though. First by granting a bonus if a player roleplays his investigator to his Personality and second by how successful he and the rest of the squad have been on a mission.

World War Cthulhu offers two major rules, one of which is optional. The first major rule addition handles a fundamental aspect of intelligence operations–going undercover. Essentially it is a percentile value that if a roll is failed against, it at least arouses the suspicions of the authorities, perhaps causes covers to be blown and identities to be revealed. It does involve some bookkeeping upon the part of the Keeper, but not much. It can even be used as means to push a scenario along too as not every cover identity is perfect. The second and optional rule covers ‘Dramatic Action’ in which the Keeper offers a player the chance for his investigator to do something dramatic and successful, but at the cost of placing him in extreme danger. It feels very similar to the ‘Push’ mechanic presented in the new Call of Cthulhu Seventh Edition, but probably will not be used as often. It also pushes the tone of the game towards Pulp.

The equipment section covers not just arms and armour, but also ordinary goods and things that the agents might buy at home, or anywhere in Europe and North Africa. The weaponry section is oddly diverse given that the focus of World War Cthulhu is on the early to middle years of the war in the European and North African theatres. The inclusion of Japanese weapons feels totally out of place as many of the American arms and vehicles. Overall the selection feels pitched towards the ‘Small Unit Tactics’ section of advice than it does the ‘Intelligence Operating Procedures’. 

Rounding out World War Cthulhu is ‘The God in the Woods’, a scenario set in Vichy France. The investigators are sent in by SOE to make contact with the French Partisans, but ‘N’ also wants them to look for a colleague of his. It is more of a mini-campaign, with a fully realised location and multiple plot threads. It is challenging like any Call of Cthulhu scenario, but showcases how much difficult it is to conduct an investigation totally surreptitiously. It is an excellent scenario and perhaps the highlight of the book.

Physically, World War Cthulhu is well written and decently presented. The artwork is also decent. If there is an issue, it is that the book needs an edit in places.

World War Cthulhu – The Darkest Hour strives for a Purist tone and style of play. It does not quite achieve that, primarily because it pushes investigator creation towards a Pulp tone, as does the Dramatic Action option. Balanced against is a good mini-campaign, some solid advice on running the game, its tight focus and campaign structure, and the fact that it does not militarise the Mythos. Yet despite this unevenness in tone, World War Cthulhu – The Darkest Hour is still a good Purist approach to Call of Cthulhu and World War Two.