Achtung! Cthulhu: Fate Investigator's Guide to the Secret War

141 Pages·2014·42.181 MB·English

by  Modiphius Entertainment

The Secret War Has Begun!
A terrifying World War Two setting,
fully compatible with the Fate Core roleplaying game.
Discover the secret history of World War Two: stories of amazing
heroism, in which stalwart men and women struggle to overthrow a
nightmare alliance of steel and the occult; of frightening inhuman
conspiracies from the depths of time; of the unbelievable war
machines which are the product of Nazi engineering genius—and how
close we all are to a slithering end! The Secret War has begun!
Alec owton Section M
Inside you’ll find a whole kit-bag stuffed with:
• An array of historical and fictional material to help
you create exciting characters from across Europe,
the British Commonwealth, and the United States
• How you can keep the home fires burning, become part
of the Allied war effort, or risk everything by joining
the partisans to bring down the Reich from within!
• What life was like serving with the various
military forces and on the Home Front
• Additional hints and tips designed to help you
find out what dark secrets your past may contain …
The Fate Investigator’s Guide to the Secret War is the definitive guide
to the late 1930s and ‘40s for use by players and gamemasters alike.
Legal
Credits
Copyright © 2013 Modiphius Entertainment Ltd. All rights reserved.
Written by
Chris BirCh, Dave Blewer, alex BunD, aDam Crossingham, Artwork © Modiphius Entertainment Ltd 2013, except the Fate logo which
lynne harDy, sarah newton & matthew Pook is used under licence. Photographs are used under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License or Public Domain use.
Fate Conversion by Thanks to Gustav Hicke & Darren Miller for photographs.
ryan maCklin Photographs are used to illustrate period uniform, people, places and equipment
in a historical context only.
Edited by
lynne harDy & miChal e. Cross This work is based on Fate Core System and Fate Accelerated Edition
(found at http://www.faterpg.com/), products of Evil Hat Productions, LLC,
Cover Artwork by developed, authored, and edited by Leonard Balsera, Brian Engard, Jeremy Keller,
Ryan Macklin, Mike Olson, Clark Valentine, Amanda Valentine, Fred Hicks,
Pintureiro and Rob Donoghue, and licensed for our use under the Creative Commons
Attribution 3.0 Unported license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
Interior Artwork by The Four Actions icons were designed by Jeremy Keller.
Dim martin
This work is based on the Fate System Toolkit
Graphic Design, Layout & Cartography by (found at http://www.faterpg.com/), a product of Evil Hat Productions, LLC,
developed, authored, and edited by Robert Donoghue, Brian Engard, Brennan
miChal e. Cross Taylor, Mike Olson, Mark Diaz Truman, Fred Hicks, and Matthew Gandy, and
licensed for our use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license
Produced & Art Directed by (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
Chris BirCh & lynne harDy
This work uses material from “Changing Skills: A Matter of Survival,”
Proofreading by published by Magpie Games in The Fate Codex Volume 1, Issue 2 and
riCharD harDy, t.r. knight, matthew Pook & written by Ryan Macklin, and is licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International license
our BaCkers (see BaCkers’ thanks for further Details) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en_US).
Community Managers Text from the following sections of this book (except Achtung! Cthulhu
Dave mcalister & Dan whorl storyline, nachtwolfe & Section M) is licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International License: Chapter 5 (except text in sidebars and
Published by introductory story), Chapter 6 (all), and Chapter 7 (only the “Equipment & Fate”,
moDiPhius entertainment ltD. “Weapons”, “Armour”, and “Ranged Weapons & Effective Distances” sections).
To view a copy of this license, visit
35 Turneville Road, London. W14 9PS http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
[email protected]
When attributing, include the following text in your copyright information:
Achtung! Cthulhu Feedback Heroes “This work uses Fate rules and material from achtung! Cthulhu:
leonarD Balsera, logan Bonner, roBert Calfee, pfautbel iisnhveeds tbigya Mtoro’sd igphuiiudse Eton ttehret asinecmreetn wt Latrd .d, easnigdn iesd l ibcyen Rsyeadn u Mndaecrk ltihne,
lillian Cohen-moore, tony egan, morgan ellis, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
Brian engarD, DaviD gallo, evan Jeshka, Colin JessuP, (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en_US).”
Dan hall, neil mason, stuart mCDermiD, mark miller,
Janina PosDzieCh, John Powell, markus raaB, Achtung! CthuMlhoud i&ph tihues MEnotderiptahiniums eLnotg Lot dar.e © 2012-2014
steve raDaBaugh, miChael riCharDs, Brett ritter,
Brian roCk, teo tayoBoBayo, Julia trönDlin, tom tyson, No part of this book shall be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
travis young & Jeremy zimmerman means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any
information retrieval system without written permission of the publisher.
Any trademarked names are used in a historical or fictional manner;
no infringement is intended.
This is a work of fiction. Any similarity with actual people and events,
past or present, is purely coincidental and unintentional except for those people
and events described in an historical context.
Find out more about Achtung! Cthulhu and other
Modiphius Entertainment games at
www.modiphius.com & www.facebook.com/modiphius
Modiphius Entertainment product number: MPS01031F
Table of Contents
Forewords From Lynne Hardy & ryan mackLin 2
cHapter 1: welcome to the secret war 3
cHapter 2: keep the Home Fires Burning 10
cHapter 3: Home, sweet Home 21
cHapter 4: in the service of one’s country 34
cHapter 5: your country needs you! 48
cHapter 6: Getting your Hands dirty 63
cHapter 7: the tools of the trade 85
cHapter 8: character concepts 96
cHapter 9: mythos Backgrounds 112
cHapter 10: Quick play Guide 118
cHapter 11: our sample cast 120
cHapter 12: suggested resources 122
That’s everything typed up, Sir.
Now where would you like me to file it?
- Peggy
Foreword from
Lynne Hardy
My involvement with Achtung! Cthulhu came about Foreword from
through a chance conversation my husband had with
ryan Macklin
Sarah Newton at Dragonmeet a few years ago. He men-
tioned to her that we were involved in a homebrew World
War Two live-action and table-top campaign, and later Working on Achtung! Cthulhu has been quite a fun and
we got chatting about potential Home Front scenarios. I intriguing ride. For quite some time, I have talked online
went away buzzing with ideas, and began digging out the about the difficulties of making Fate work for the various
history books ready to put some thoughts together. sorts of horror games that people, including myself, love
To cut a long story short, Sarah then directed me to play. So when Chris Birch first talked with me about
towards Chris [Birch], and when I eventually had a designing the Fate edition of Achtung! Cthulhu (which
window to discuss the project properly with him almost he did while I was working with Leonard Balsera on
eight months later, he asked me to pitch a section of the designing Fate Core), I relished the challenge of making
proposed shadows of atlantis campaign. He obviously something that could be a pulpy adventure, a war story,
liked it, and the next thing I knew, we were discussing and a Lovecraftian terror while staying true to Fate. That
the investigator’s and keeper’s guides. And then the word wasn’t easy, and I’m grateful to my fantastic playtesters
for helping me forge the rules in this edition.
“Kickstarter” was mentioned…
I remember feeling very nervous when Chris told During the project, I spent a bit of time going back
me he was going to ask for £8,000 so that we could through the Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game. Those
fund the project. “Wouldn’t it be terribly embarrassing of use who love horror gaming owe a significant cultural
if we didn’t get it?” I thought. So when we went sailing debt to Sandy Petersen, Lynn Willis, and the many others
past that first barrier twenty-four hours later, I was both who created and fostered this roleplaying genre.
relieved and more than a little bit shocked—it certainly I sincerely hope you enjoy this blend of Fate and horror.
looked as if quite a few other people believed in what we
were doing besides us!
Needless to say, the response to the Kickstarter took
us all somewhat by surprise. The backers’ generosity has
enabled us to attempt far more than we’d expected, and
has allowed us to assemble a team of talented individuals
to bring our vision of the Mythos in the 1940s to grue- Ryan Macklin
some, tentacley life. The project has been a steep learning Spring 2014
curve for me in terms of managing, coaxing, prompting,
and cajoling those individuals into delivering their best
work, and I hope that you will agree that the time taken
to get it right has been well spent.
Lynne Hardy
Autumn 2013
CHapTer 1
Welcome to the Secret War
“You hold in your hands the future of the world...”
- Raymond Poincar´e
“Green Light, Go, Go, Go!”
Audrey’s stomach lurched into her throat as the Whitley
shrank away into the frigid night air and her body was jarred by
the deployment of her parachute. The blood rushing in her ears
subsided leaving her floating over the French countryside in near
silence, finally able to take stock of the situation.
Six months ago Audrey had been a clerk at Wyndham and
Campbell, translating dreary French scientific journals. When
His Lordship gave her his card and promised the adventure of
a lifetime, she had leapt at the opportunity. Now, shivering as
much in terror as from the biting wind that whipped at her hair,
she longed for nothing more than the comfort and familiarity of
her wobbly old desk.
Somewhere below her, or so she was told, her Resistance
contact Ariane would be waiting. But who else might be waiting
down there? She had heard the stories during her training of the
When his Lordship gave her his card
and promised the adventure of a lifetime,
she had leapt at the opportunity.
Gestapo and their ways, but surely they wouldn’t do anything
to her—after all, she was just a girl! Surely they’d go easy on
her, wouldn’t they?
“Here comes the ground, old girl—brace yourself.”
What was it that bloody Granger had said as she boarded the
plane, fighting with her kitbag as she stumbled through the hatch?
“We never say good luck in the theatre; we’re a superstitious
bunch. So I’ll just say break a leg!”
— 3 -
Chapter 1
WHaT iS
For those coming to this game who are already familiar
aCHTuNG! CTHuLHu? with Fate, you will find a number of changes within this
particular build that highlight playing in the tone and genre
Achtung! Cthulhu is a World War Two-inspired setting for of the Cthulhu Mythos. Most of these new and altered rules
Lovecraftian roleplaying, where player characters investi- are detailed in the Fate Keeper’s Guide, though—in true Fate
gate the dark machinations of madmen and monsters whilst fashion—players are encouraged to read through those sec-
battling to defend the world they know from the all-encom- tions of that book in order to better understand the rules as
passing chaos that war brings. a whole. Most notable are rules for a character’s degrading
Within these pages you will find historical details which sanity, handling investigations, how aspect usage changes
will allow you to ground your game in as much (or as little) in the presence of otherworldly horrors, Mythos magic, and
reality as you want, rules for creating player characters, and conflicts against inhuman threats.
the skills, specialisations, stunts, and equipment you can In the end, this means that characters in this edition of
use to help build the world and atmosphere of Fate Ach- Achtung! Cthulhu are capable of the small victories, but
tung! Cthulhu. always at some cost due to exposure to the Mythos—the hall-
mark of such stories. You may buy the world a brief reprieve
from annihilation, but you alone cannot do so forever. Your
achtung! Cthulhu and Fate
heroism and sacrifice will still have meaning to the untold
This edition of Achtung! Cthulhu uses the Fate Core System millions who are unaware of the doom that awaits, but the
by Evil Hat Productions. It is assumed that you have a copy Mythos will still grind your mind and body into dust, no
of Fate Core System and some familiarity with Fate (or at the matter what roleplaying system you use.
very least, that your GM does and can teach you the game).
Frequently, this book and the Keeper’s Guide will refer to FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE?
sections or pages in Fate Core System. If you do not have This game assumes that, at the very least, the GM is familiar
this book, you can download a PDF copy from evilhat.com. with the Cthulhu Mythos lore found within the RPG hobby.
(There are also some concepts that are drawn from Fate Naturally, stories from Lovecraft and his contemporaries will
System Toolkit. You do not need to be familiar with that book communicate an appropriate sense of atmosphere and the
but we have included references for those who wish to read uncomfortable nature of the world at large. And while the
further, and it is also available from Evil Hat Productions.) Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game is not required for playing
If you are familiar with Chaosium Inc.’s Call of Cthulhu the Fate edition of Achtung! Cthulhu, the way the setting is
roleplaying game and how it handles characters and cosmic explained and conveyed may help those who are not famil-
horror, playing horror in Fate will seem odd at first, as pro- iar with Lovecraft’s works. Another good Mythos reference
tagonists in Fate are more competent at a broader selection book that should also be of help is the Cthulhu Mythos
of skills and can use fate points to turn some failures into Encyclopedia, Third Edition by Dan Harms, published by
successes. This makes the tone of the Fate Core edition of Arc Dream Publishing.
Achtung! Cthulhu much pulpier than the Basic Roleplay-
ing (BRP) edition.
CHroNoLoGy oF a
WorLD aT War
Established histories place the foundations of World War
all Change?
Two firmly in the events of 1918-1919, when the German
nation is systematically humiliated by the victors of the
In the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game, a player so-called “War to End All Wars”. Their treatment, both
character is usually referred to as an “investigator”. For real and perceived, sets the scene for everything that comes
the Fate edition of Achtung! Cthulhu, we have made the after. Bearing this in mind, we have included select events
decision to use the term “character” instead—it fits better from the period before war is declared on September 3rd,
for the pulpy action-horror tone that we are aiming for. 1939. This timeline concentrates on the events of the West-
Similarly, in Call of Cthulhu the person running the ern Front, but a few dates from other theatres of war are
game is usually referred to as the “Keeper”. However, we included for perspective’s sake. These other theatres, such
have decided to stick to Fate Core’s terminology here as the Pacific, Eastern Front, and North Africa, will be dealt
too, so gamemaster (GM) it is! (Although you will still with in more depth in their own dedicated supplements.
see the word “Keeper” and “Investigator” in references to Events within each year are arranged chronologically
the GM and player guides, matching our other editions of and, where possible, on a month-by-month basis. Specific
Achtung! Cthulhu.) dates have been included for particularly significant events.
— 4 -
Welcome to the Sercet War
1918 1935
NOvEmBER FEBRuARy
Germany signs the armistice which ends World War One. Robert Watson-Watt carries out a proof of concept test of
Range and Direction Finding (RDF). The US Navy intro-
duces the alternative term “RADAR” in 1940.
1919
JuNE
1936
The Treaty of Versailles is signed by Germany.
mARCh
The Rhineland Crisis: the remilitarisation of the Rhine-
1925
land by Germany in response to France and the Soviet
OCtOBER Union’s mutual assistance agreement of 1935. Although
Germany signs the Locarno Treaties. It promises, amongst this is in direct contravention of the Treaty of Versailles
other things, never to invade France or Belgium again. and the Locarno Treaties, Britain and France do nothing
to oppose it.
1928
JuLy
The Kellogg-Briand Pact is signed. The signatories, including The Spanish Civil War begins between the Republicans and
Germany, France, Britain, and the United States, promise Francisco Franco’s (Fascist) Nationalists. The war ends with
not to use war as a means of solving disputes. Franco’s victory in April 1939.
1931 1937
Japan’s Kwantung army invades Manchuria in China, ApRIL
renaming it Manchukuo. In 1932 the army installs the last Germany begins to practice its aerial warfare tactics with the
of the Manchu emperors, Puyi, the Xuantong Emperor, as bombing of the Spanish town of Guernica, carried out by the
a puppet leader. Luftwaffe’s Condor Legion.
1933 JuLy
Japan invades China after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident,
JANuARy seeking to take control of the country’s material resources.
Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes President of the United
States. Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany.
1934
re: union
AuGust
Hitler takes absolute control of Germany after the death of Austria’s annexation by Germany is often described
President von Hindenburg. as a “bloodless” political and military coup. However,
political dissidents and undesirables are rounded up and
removed, one way or another. The action also leads to the
mobilisation of the British Royal Navy.
a Bitter pill to Swallow
The Treaty of Versailles forces Germany to accept the blame
for World War One alongside Austria and Hungary, to pay raise a Glass
huge reparation fees, and to concede large areas of territory.
It is also intended to prevent German remilitarisation. The legendary guerrilla warfare weapon, the Molotov
The punitive terms of the Treaty are widely denounced in Cocktail, makes its first appearance during the Soviet-
Germany and lead to a festering resentment against the Finnish “Winter War”, although there have been
rest of Europe. The League of Nations, forerunner of the similar incendiary weapons in the past. It is named after
United Nations, is formed as a result of the Treaty in order the hated Soviet Foreign Minister, Vyacheslav Molotov.
to maintain world peace and prevent further conflict.
— 5 -
Chapter 1
a propaganda Coup
Sweet revenge
Operation Dynamo is a classic example of snatching victory
from the jaws of defeat, at least in the hearts and minds of The French armistice divides the country into a northern
the public. The combined operation by the “little ships” Occupied Zone and a southern “Free Zone”, run by the
and the British Royal Navy lasts for nine days and rescues puppet Vichy regime under Marshal Philippe Pétain. Hitler,
approximately 338,000 men (nearly 200,000 of whom are in an act of supreme vindictiveness, insists that the event
British) but virtually no equipment, leaving British forces at take place in exactly the same railway carriage and at
a distinct disadvantage for several years. Many of the French exactly the same location used when Germany signed the
soldiers rescued insist on being repatriated immediately. armistice in 1918. He even sits in the same chair as his
predecessor, Marshal Foch. He has the site destroyed three
days later, and the carriage taken to Berlin as a war trophy.
1938
Theodore Obrig and John Mullen develop the first all-plastic OCtOBER
contact lenses. The BEF is sent to northern France to defend the frontier
with Belgium.
mARCh
Austria is annexed by Germany in an event called the NOvEmBER
Anschluss. Belgium and the Netherlands declare themselves neutral.
The Soviet Union invades Finland.
sEptEmBER
The Munich Agreement: Germany successfully acquires the DECEmBER
Sudetenland, a German-speaking part of Czechoslovakia, The Battle of the River Plate: the pocket battleship and
after the French and British, desperate to avoid another war, commerce raider Admiral Graf Spee is scuttled just off Mon-
accede to Hitler’s demands. tevideo, Uruguay after a battle with the British Royal Navy.
1939 1940
mARCh ApRIL
Germany invades the rest of Czechoslovakia. Britain and The Weser-Exercise: Germany invades Norway via Denmark
France still do nothing. to secure supplies of iron ore.
mAy mAy
The Pact of Steel is signed between Germany and Italy, British troops take up positions in Iceland to prevent occu-
promising cooperation and support between the two nations. pation by German forces. Churchill becomes British Prime
Minister after Neville Chamberlain resigns. 10th: the
AuGust German invasion of France begins with a feint into neutral
The German-Soviet (Molotov-Ribbentrop) Pact is signed, countries Belgium and the Netherlands, drawing French and
much to everyone’s surprise, given the well-documented Nazi BEF troops away from the real area of attack through the
hatred of communism. Forest of Ardennes (Case Yellow). German troops cross the
French border there on 12th. The Netherlands and Belgium
sEptEmBER surrender to Germany. Operation Dynamo, the evacuation
1st: Germany invades Poland (Case White), using what of BEF and French armies from Dunkirk, begins.
will become known as “lightning war” tactics, or Blitzkrieg;
Einsatzgruppen, the so-called “special action groups” or JuNE
“mobile killing units”, begin executing Polish Jews and other British Special Service Unit forces are established, based
non-combatants behind the frontlines. 3rd: Britain and on Boer kommando troop structure. They do not become
France declare war on Germany. The Battle of the Atlantic known by their more famous name, the Commandos, until
begins with the sinking of the passenger liner SS Athenia off 1941 (p.36). 5th: the Battle of France (Case Red) begins.
the coast of Rockall in the Atlantic Ocean. 11th: troops of 9th: Norway surrenders to Germany. 10th: Italy declares
the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) arrive on French soil. war on Britain and France. 14th: Paris is captured by the
17th: the Soviet Union invades Poland. Germans. 21st: Italy invades southern France. 22nd: France
— 6 -
Welcome to the Sercet War
signs an armistice with Germany. Two days later, France is JuNE
also forced to sign an armistice with Italy. David Stirling receives permission to form the first real detach-
ment of the SAS. 22nd: Operation Barbarossa, the German
JuLy invasion of the Soviet Union, begins; despite repeated warnings
The British Intelligence Service departments Section D, from Soviet, British, and American intelligence, Josef Stalin is
MI-R, and Electra House (EH) are merged to form the Spe- largely taken by surprise. The Soviet Union, by default, now
cial Operations Executive (SOE; p.41). The Folboat Troop becomes one of the Allies. Finland begins its second war with
is formed, named after the folding canoes they use for oper- the Soviets in support of the German invasion.
ations; it will later be known as the Special Boat Section
(SBS). The Battle of Britain begins. JuLy
The British pass control of Iceland to the United States.
AuGust Stalin institutes a scorched-earth policy to deny resources to
13th: Adlertag (Eagle Day), the start of the main aerial offen- the invading German army.
sive by the Luftwaffe against the RAF. Italy attacks British
Somaliland, triggering the war in Africa. sEptEmBER
Churchill establishes the London Controlling Section (LCS)
sEptEmBER to co-ordinate first British, and then later the Allies’, strate-
27th: the Tripartite Pact is signed between Germany, Italy, gic deception plans.
and Japan. Japanese forces occupy French Indochina under
the guise of co-operation with the French authorities, as part OCtOBER
of their Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere plan. Oper- German forces attack Moscow (Operation Typhoon).
ation seelöwe (Sealion), the proposed German invasion of
Britain, is indefinitely postponed after the Luftwaffe fails to DECEmBER
destroy the RAF. 7th: the Japanese air attack on Pearl Harbor officially brings
America into the war. 8th: the Allies declare war on Japan.
OCtOBER 11th: Germany and Italy declare war on the US.
Hitler begins the first of a series of attempts to woo Franco
into joining the war on the side of the Axis during a meeting
1942
at Hendaye, France. An agreement cannot be reached on
the necessary terms, in part due to huge bribes being paid to JANuARy
Franco by the Allies, although Spain continues to covertly The United Nations is effectively formed by the signatories
aid the Germans wherever possible. of the Atlantic Charter. Operation Drumbeat, known by
1941
V for Salvation?
JANuARy
Lt. Col. Dudley Clarke begins work on the entirely fictitious
Special Air Service (SAS) as part of his disinformation cam- The letter V is chosen by former Belgian Minister of
paign, Operation Abeam. Victor de Laveleye, of the BBC’s Justice, Victor de Laveleye, because it is the first letter
Belgian Service, proposes the “V” campaign to rally anti- of victory, victoire, and vrijheid (the Dutch and Flemish
Nazi support in Europe; Churchill is so taken with the idea, word for freedom). In June, 1941, the Morse code for V—
he starts using his “V for Victory” hand gesture. three dots and a dash—and the opening of Beethoven’s
Fifth Symphony, which reminds quite a few people of
mARCh the Morse version of the letter, are broadcast together,
The British Expeditionary Force lands in Greece. Erwin becoming the BBC’s European station identifier signal.
Rommel begins his North Africa campaign. Aleister Crowley claims that the idea is actually his,
with the symbol forming a protective ward against the
power of the swastika, passing it to the BBC to help
ApRIL
the British war effort. He also claims that he advised
Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece to rescue Italy’s fail-
Churchill to use the famous hand gesture from July for
ing campaign. Both countries surrender to the Axis.
very much the same purpose. However, Joseph Goebbels,
reichsminister of Propaganda, attempts to co-opt the sym-
mAy
bol, even though the German word for victory is “sieg”,
HMS Hood is sunk (shortly after young actor Jon Pertwee
leading to the campaign slowly falling out of favour.
is transferred from it). Its nemesis, the Bismarck, is hunted
down and sunk three days later.
— 7 -