Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to the Pacific Front

129 Pages·2014·34.333 MB·English

by  Modiphius Entertainment

Horror Takes to a Whole New Stage...
A terrifying World War Two setting, fully compatible with the
Call of Cthulhu, Sixth Edition and Savage Worlds roleplaying games.
Discover the secret history of the war beyond Europe: tales of
heroic struggles in the Far East and the Pacific Islands; the
re-emergence of archaic evils deep within an ancient land; the
terrors of jungle warfare, where humans are not the only things
stalking you, and the term “wildlife” potentially has a whole
new meaning...
Sally Armitage
Majestic
The Guide to the Pacific Front adds a new
dimension to the Secret War, including:
• A variety of new civilian and military character templates
• New tomes, weapons, artefacts & equipment
• Even more vile creatures & occult threats
• Rules for surviving not only jungle warfare, but the jungle itself!
In fact, a whole dossier’s worth of useful historical and
fantastical information to help you expand your campaign out
into the wider world of the Secret War.
Credits
Written by
Dave Blewer, Bill BoDDen, alex BunD, & lynne HarDy
Additional Material by
aDam CrossingHam
Edited by
lynne HarDy
Cover Artwork & Interior Artwork by
Dim martin
Graphic Design, Layout & Cartography by
miCHal e. Cross
Produced & Art Directed by
CHris BirCH & lynne HarDy
Proofreading by
riCHarD HarDy, t. r. KnigHt & tom mCgrenery
Community Managers
Dave mcalister & Dan wHorl
Published by
moDipHius entertainment ltD.
35 Turneville Road, London. W14 9PS
[email protected]
Legal
Artwork © Modiphius Entertainment Ltd 2013, except the Savage Worlds, Chaosium and Call of Cthulhu logos
which are used under licence. Photographs are used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License or
Public Domain use.
Photographs are used to illustrate period uniform, people, places and equipment in a historical context only.
This game references the Savage Worlds game system, available from Pinnacle Entertainment Group at www.peginc.com.
Savage Worlds and all associated logos and trademarks are copyrights of Pinnacle Entertainment Group. Used with permission.
Pinnacle makes no representation or warranty as to the quality, viability, or suitability for purpose of this product.
Call of Cthulhu is a Registered Trademark of Chaosium Inc., and is used with permission.
www.chaosium.com
The Achtung! Cthulhu, nachtwölfe, Black Sun, Section M, Majestic & Modiphius Logos are © 2012, 2013 Modiphius Entertainment Ltd.
Any unauthorised use of copyrighted material is illegal.
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: MPS01051CS
Table of Contents
2
ForEworDs FroM BILL BoDDEn & ALEx BunD
ChAPtEr 1: welcome to the Pacific 3
ChAPtEr 2: the Land of the rising sun 17
ChAPtEr 3: the Balance of Power 25
ChAPtEr 4: In Captivity 34
ChAPtEr 5: new Beginnings 39
ChAPtEr 6: the whole Kit and Caboodle 48
ChAPtEr 7: the Best Laid Plans 64
ChAPtEr 8: Exotic Beasts and Vile Beings 70
ChAPtEr 9: Artefacts, spells, and tomes 91
ChAPtEr 10: the Many Faces of war 95
ChAPtEr 11: Adventure seeds 113
ChAPtEr 12: suggested resources 116
119
InDEx
Foreword from Bill Bodden
When I was recommended to the folks at Modiphius by
friend and co-conspirator Monica Valentinelli, I didn’t ex- Foreword from Alex Bund
actly realise what a vast, twisty rabbit hole I’d been sent
down. A year and several books later, my involvement with I’ve always had a keen interest in World War Two thanks
Achtung! Cthulhu continues to be a rewarding relation- to a diet of Commando stories and war movies as a child,
ship: a great deal of work, but a lot of fun as well. While but the Pacific Theatre was something I was relatively new
the terrible loss and suffering of millions during the span to. So when Modiphius asked me to work with Bill to de-
of World War Two are not to be made light of in any way, velop this new sourcebook I jumped at the chance, espe-
I hope that our concepts, and the many stories they gen- cially when we were told we could breathe some new life
erate in the minds of gamemasters and players everywhere into some old Lovecraftian foes, specific to the region. I
as their adventures play out around the tabletop, will help hope our take on the ferocious battles of the Pacific islands
us to remember the true horrors of war. I’d like to thank and Southern Asia give both players and Keepers a taste
Chris Birch for the opportunity; editor Lynne Hardy for her of the horrors that lurk in these mysterious lands, and that
patience and encouragement; my co-author Alex Bund for we have opened up a new theatre for man’s eternal bat-
being clever, imaginative, and inspiring; Dana Lombardy tle against the cosmic terror that is the Cthulhu Mythos.
and Don Perrin for a bottomless supply of sage advice on Thanks to Chris Birch for getting me involved once again;
tanks and planes, and suggestions on researching them; to Lynne Hardy for her considerable editorial juggling abil-
and for her love and support, my wife Tracy. ity with so much material; Bill for his knowledge of the
theatre and his creative inspiration during the course of
the project; and, of course, to my wife Jo for her unques-
tioning love and support… Well, apart from her one ques-
tion—“What is roleplaying anyway?”
Bill Bodden
Spring 2014
Alex Bund
Spring 2014
ChAPtEr 1
Welcome to the Pacific
“Always we will remember the character of the onslaught against us.”
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
whAt Is
Captain Richard Whitaker banked the Dakota to go round for a
second look. Yep, definitely another one of those strange “build- AChtung! CthuLhu?
ings” that really shouldn’t be there, nestled snugly into the crevices
of the Himalayas. No, not nestled, so much as spreading organi- Achtung! Cthulhu is a World War Two-inspired setting for
cally across the mountainside. Lovecraftian roleplaying, where player characters investi-
“Chalk it up as another one for the books, Ash,” he called gate the dark machinations of madmen and monsters whilst
to his radio operator. “And Eugene, make sure he sends the right battling to defend the world they know from the all-encom-
co-ordinates this time! I’ve got a date tonight and I’m not missing passing chaos that war brings.
it ‘cos he can’t get his numbers the right way round.” This book has been created for use with Chaosium’s Call
Ignoring his crewmates’ laughter and wolf whistles, he glanced of Cthulhu, Sixth Edition roleplaying game and Pinnacle
again at the face of the mountain. He’d almost lost count of them Entertainment Group’s Savage Worlds system. Within these
pages you will find the historical detail to ground your game
in as much, or as little, reality as you want; guidance on cre-
He squinted, hard – he could have
ating new types of player characters; new creatures, artefacts,
sworn he saw movement down there, and tomes; and a selection of new rules for dealing with the
but now there was nothing. hazards of jungle warfare.
The Achtung! Cthulhu: Guide to the Pacific Front is split
into two main sections: one designed for both the Keeper
now, those misshapen structures, although each fresh sighting and investigators (Chapters 1-6), and one primarily designed
sent a shiver up his spine. Although it wasn’t the weirdest thing for the Keeper that gives more information on the various
he’d had to do since the war broke out, mapping these babies was Mythos-related threats likely to be encountered in this the-
dangerous and time-consuming and, as far as he could tell, fairly atre of the war (Chapters 7-11).
pointless when there were supplies in urgent need of delivery to the If you are playing Call of Cthulhu, look for
Chinese forces somewhere far below. Cth this symbol, which highlights the rules relevant
Still, right now he wasn’t employed to think, just find these to your game.
things and let the powers that be know where they were. Sti- If, on the other hand, you are playing
fling his frustration, he turned the bird’s nose towards home when Sav Savage Worlds, you need to look for this symbol
something caught his eye. He squinted, hard—he could have instead.
sworn he saw movement down there, but now there was nothing.
Nbwuootrt rthhyin eangb ,ho huuemt rtahenme sceino dudaeldyd s sh…uimrvsiveelf ,t hitis w haigshn ’ut pju fsotr haunmy alennsg ytho uo fh taimd eto; Aalplp rroevaadly, fMoirs sy oAurrm i tage.
– o. Petersen
— 3 -
Chapter 1
ChronoLogy oF A
1920
DIstAnt wAr
The Thule Society mounts an expedition to Sumatra, during
The timeline provided here is intended to compliment those which strange blue crystals are discovered (Achtung! Cthulhu:
found in both the Investigator’s and Keeper’s Guides for Ach- the Keeper’s Guide to the Secret War, p.98).
tung! Cthulhu. It concentrates on events in the Far East
and America during the early years of the war (predomi-
1929
nantly 1941-42), as well as introducing important events
that lead up to the conflict. Due to the vast area over which OCtObEr
the Pacific war takes place, it is impossible to mention every The Wall Street Crash leads to the Great Depression.
event from every battlefront, but details on key actions have
been included wherever possible. Some entries have been left
1931
deliberately vague so as to provide inspiration for the Keeper,
thus enabling them to fit into your own individual campaigns. Japan’s Kwantung Army invades Manchuria in China,
renaming it Manchukuo. Kendo is made a compulsory sub-
ject in Japanese boys’ schools.
1854
MArCh
1932
The Return of the Black Ships—The American Commodore
Matthew C. Perry forces the Empire of Japan to open its borders The last of the Manchu emperors (Puyi, the Xuantong
to foreign trade with the signing of the Convention of Kaneg- Emperor) is installed as Manchukuo’s puppet leader. The
awa; although this treaty only applies to the United States, the Kwantung Army openly begin agitating for the conquest of
1858 Treaty of Amity and Commerce (better known in the the rest of China. The forerunner of the notorious Unit 731
West as the Harris Treaty) widens such access to other nations. is established by General Shiro Ishii in Manchukuo.
A series of scuffles break out along the USSR-Man-
chukuo border between Soviet, Mongolian, and Japanese
1867
troops of the Kwantung Army. These intensify in nature over
FEbruAry the next seven years, culminating in the Battles of Khalkyn
Emperor Meiji ascends the Japanese Imperial throne, herald- Gol in May-September 1939.
ing the beginning of the Meiji Restoration and the end of
the feudal Tokugawa Shogunate.
— 4 -
Welcome to the Pacific theatre
unit 731
J.B. rhine
Officially known as the Epidemic Prevention and Water
Purification Department of the Kwantung Army, Unit Joseph Banks Rhine (1895-1980). Originally trained as a
731 carries out horrific experiments on prisoners and the botanist, Dr. Rhine is highly impressed with a talk given
Chinese populace, including biological warfare, mass by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on the subject of communing
poisonings, and vivisection without anaesthetic. Based with the dead. After additional training at Harvard
in Pingfang, it does not officially exist until the summer University’s Psychology Department, he moves to Duke
of 1940, but begins life much earlier as the Togo Unit, University, Durham, North Carolina and begins to study
a secret part of the Army Epidemic Prevention Research parapsychology under scientific, laboratory conditions.
Laboratory in 1932. It also operates a “medical school” He publishes his findings in the book, new Frontiers of
in Tokyo and is active in the Mukden POW camp, the mind, in 1937, as well as establishing the Journal of
Shenyang, China. parapsychology the same year. Although his methods
are criticised by rivals and sceptics, his findings are,
nonetheless, intriguing.
1933
JAnuAry Ignácz trebitsch-Lincoln
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) becomes President of the
United States. Ignatius Timothy Trebitsch-Lincoln (1879-1943). Born
into a Jewish family in Hungary, young Ignatius begins
1934 training as an actor before fleeing to London after a
series of petty thefts land him in hot water with the local
Hugh Foss and Oliver Strachey of the British Government police. Converting to Christianity, he travels to Germany
Code & Cypher School (GC&CS) break the “Red” Japanese and Canada before briefly becoming a Member of
diplomatic machine cipher two years before it is cracked by Parliament for Darlington, England. Serving as a German
the US Signals Intelligence Service (SIS) and the US Navy. spy during World War One, he remains involved with
The issuing of a new Ministry of War booklet begins the espionage and covert operations in one form or another
Imperial Japanese Army’s change from a force noted for its for the rest of his life. Having fled to China from Austria,
mercy to one infamous for its ruthlessness. he converts to Buddhism, rising to become abbot of
his own monastery in Shanghai, where he works for
1936 Japanese and German intelligence until his death. As
well as allegedly being a member of various Asian secret
nOvEMbEr societies, he assists Hans Ludendorff in the construction
Germany and Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact. of the golem that bears his name (achtung! Cthulhu: the
Keeper’s guide to the secret war, pp.238-239).
1937
New Frontiers of the Mind, a book describing the parapsy-
chology research undertaken at Duke University, North attempts to complete her solo round-the-world flight. The
Carolina, is published. National Defence Women’s Association begins collecting
A national program of judo training is introduced into single stitches from passers-by for “one thousand stitch”
boys’ schools in Japan. After pushing further into China belts (Senninbari) as gifts for Japanese soldiers; these belts
for the last four years in an attempt to take control of the are believed to act as protective amulets for the soldiers, and
country’s material resources, war finally officially breaks out often include unusual patterns and design elements. Ignácz
after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, near Peking (mod- Trebitsch Lincoln starts working for the Japanese producing
ern-day Beijing); fighting moves from here to Shanghai, anti-British propaganda.
Nanking (site of the infamous massacre in December 1937)
and northern China. OCtObEr
New Japanese military code systems are introduced The Japanese Cabinet Planning Board is established; its
towards the end of the year; they are not broken until the decrees limit imports in an attempt to save foreign cur-
late summer of 1938 by John Tiltman of GC&CS. Amelia rency, and prioritise the production of goods essential to
Earhart disappears somewhere over the Pacific as she the armed forces.
— 5 -
Chapter 1
1938
DECEMbEr
MArCh 27th: The tiny island of Nauru, a small Australian Pro-
The National Mobilisation War Law is passed by the tectorate in the South Pacific, is shelled by a German ship
Imperial Japanese Diet, giving the government powers to flying Japanese colours. The reasons for the shelling, and the
conscript labour and intervene in the economy; industry is deception, remain unclear.
forced to concentrate on war needs, to the detriment of the
Empire’s cotton trade. Rationing of certain goods is intro-
The Tasai Yokusankai is formed,
duced, including petrol; many vehicles are converted to run
introducing the one party system into
on charcoal instead.
Japanese politics.
Spring
The first hotdog stand opens in the Ginza district of Tokyo.
1940
JunE
1939
Matches and sugar are rationed in Japan. 12th: a non-aggres-
A new Japanese diplomatic machine cipher, known as sion pact is signed between Japan and Thailand.
“Purple”, is introduced in early 1939; the British still keep
up with Japanese intelligence by intercepting other sources AuguSt / SEptEMbEr
of information until February 1941. Japan is now in control US codebreakers crack the Japanese Purple cipher; work-
of China’s most productive areas. Cosmetics and perma- ing from their notes, they build replica Purple machines
nent waves (perms) are banned in Japan as unnecessary and give one to the British in exchange for information on
consumer luxuries. Enigma. Decoded Japanese intelligence is known in the US
as “Magic” (as opposed to “Ultra” for the Enigma decrypts).
JunE
Japan switches its main operational code to the Japanese SEptEMbEr
Fleet Code (known as JN-25 by the Americans); this new As part of their Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere plan,
cipher is broken by John Tiltman within weeks. Siam is and under the guise of co-operation with the French author-
renamed Thailand (Land of the Free). ities, Japanese forces occupy parts of French Indochina,
including Hanoi; the arrangement with the incumbent
AuguSt authorities permits the Japanese to station troops in the
The British Far East Combined Bureau, set up in 1935 to country and move them through to China. The Tonarigumi
handle intelligence gathering in the Far East, moves from (neighbourhood mutual aid associations) are formalised
Hong Kong to Singapore to continue intercepting Japanese by the Japanese government; consisting of ten to fifteen
transmissions. households, each group is charged with distributing rations,
fire-fighting, civil defence and ensuring that national objec-
SEptEMbEr tives are adhered to at a local level. 27th: the Tripartite Pact
1st: Germany invades Poland (Case White). 3rd: Britain is signed by Germany, Italy, and Japan.
and France declare war on Germany; Japan declares itself
neutral in the war on Europe. OCtObEr
The Kwantung Army loses its campaign against Soviet The Taisai Yokusankai (Imperial Rule Assistance Association)
and Mongolian troops, ending the Soviet-Japanese Border is formed; it effectively introduces the one party system to
War; present during the final battles at Khalkyn Gol is Japanese politics and promotes Prime Minister Prince Fumi-
Georgy Zhukov, who later commands the Russian coun- maro Konoe’s Shintaisei (New Political Order).
ter-offensive at Stalingrad; few Japanese commanders listen
to the reports from the survivors of the battle and their sto- nOvEMbEr
ries of fighting on a strange, bleak plateau, nor the tales of Roosevelt is re-elected President of the United States for the
the terrible savage men that assailed their positions. Price third time. Dance halls and jazz performances become illegal
controls are instituted in Japan, and are closely monitored in Japan, allegedly to protect Imperial citizens’ morality.
by the economic police.
1941
OCtObEr
Section M moves into the Metropole Hotel, London, and sets JAnuAry
up office in the suite next door to Section D. Japan asks Brit- The US ambassador in Tokyo reports on plans by the
ain to close the Burma Road in order to prevent supplies from Japanese Imperial Staff to attack US air and naval bases,
reaching Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces; Britain refuses. including Pearl Harbor.
— 6 -
Welcome to the Pacific theatre
FEbruAry AuguSt
The United States reorganises its naval forces into Atlantic, Roosevelt warns Japan not to invade Thailand. Admiral
Pacific, and Asiatic Fleets. Kishisaburo Nomura, the Japanese ambassador in Washing-
ton, proposes a peace conference between the US and Japan.
MArCh Churchill meets with Roosevelt at Argentia, Newfoundland,
The eastern approaches to Singapore Harbour are mined and and receives a guarantee of US intervention in Malaya, Sin-
closed to shipping. Takeo Yoshikawa arrives in Hawai’i to gapore, and the Dutch East Indies in the event of a Japanese
gather intelligence on the US fleet at Pearl Harbor. attack. The Japanese complain that US ships are violating its
territorial waters when bringing aid to Vladivostok.
April
The US Lend-Lease Bill is ratified for China, enabling SEptEMbEr
America to supply defence materials to Chiang-Kai Shek The Japanese Air Defence Bureau is formed to advise on air
(p.97) in his war against Japan. Rice rationing is introduced raid precaution measures.
in Japan’s six major cities (Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, Sendai,
Nagoya, and Yokohama). A national education system is OCtObEr
also introduced; the traditional elementary school (Shoga- Prince Konoe is forced to resign as Prime Minister for being
kko) is replaced by the National School (Kokumin Gakko), “too soft”; he is replaced by General Hideki Tojo. 22nd:
to instil “the way of the Empire” in all students. 1st: Jap- Tokyo has its first blackout; the first air defence exercises are
anese Foreign Minister, Yosuke Matsuoka, visits Benito carried out the following day.
Mussolini and King Victor Emmanuel III in Rome, having
already visited Adolf Hitler and Joachim von Ribben- nOvEMbEr
trop in Berlin. 4th: Hitler and Mussolini meet in Berlin America insists that Japan should withdraw from Indochina,
to discuss potential plans for attacking Singapore and the China, and the Axis. Saburo Kurusu is sent to Washington
United States of America. 13th: a five-year Soviet-Japa- as the Imperial government’s special envoy; the move is a
nese Non-aggression Pact is signed in Moscow by Matsuoka
and Vyacheslav Molotov. 27th: British, Dutch, and US del-
egates meet in Singapore to draw up plans to defend against
possible Japanese aggression.
Flying high
MAy
Created by Chennault to replace Soviet support for China
The Viet Minh is formed to free French Indochina from
against Japan, and set up with direct authority from
foreign rule; guerrilla operations against the Japanese, with
President Roosevelt, the Flying Tigers are a mixed unit of
financial support from the US, the Soviet Union, and China,
USAAF, US Navy, and US Marine pilots, along with some
begin in late 1943.
civilian contractors, effectively acting in a mercenary
role. Chennault purchases 100 Curtiss P-40 Tomahawks,
July
forming three squadrons. The planes are all painted with a
Ribbentrop attempts to convince the Japanese to declare war
distinctive shark-tooth design on the nose cones.
on the Soviet Union; after its previous unsuccessful attempts,
Using what is described as a “dive and zoom” attack
Japan refuses. China breaks off its relationships with the
technique to compensate for the lesser manoeuvrability
Axis powers. Prince Konoe, the Japanese Prime Minister,
of their planes, the squadrons are charged with protecting
replaces Matsuoka as Foreign Minister with Vice Admiral
the Burma Road and Rangoon then, later (after retreating
Teijiro Toyoda after a series of diplomatic gaffs. 23rd: Jap-
into China as the Japanese advance into Burma), protect-
anese forces begin to occupy the rest of French Indochina
ing Chinese troops in so-called “morale missions”.
with Vichy “consent”; the US, Britain, and France freeze
Their first engagement, against Japanese “Lily” bomb-
Japanese assets as a result two days later; Japan retaliates
ers attacking Kunming, Yunnan Province, takes place
by freezing US assets the following day, with the US subse-
in December, 1941; their last, over Hengyang, Hunan
quently imposing an oil embargo; the occupation of southern
Province, takes place on 4th July, 1942. After this point,
Indochina is complete by 29th. 26th: Douglas MacArthur
thanks to political string pulling by the USAAF, the Flying
takes command of US forces in the Far East as well as those
Tigers are absorbed into its ranks, an action that sees
in the Philippines.
many of its pilots leave in disgust at the USAAF’s strong-
arm tactics. However, these pilots go on to become
SuMMEr
civilian transport pilots, ferrying much needed supplies to
The 1st American Volunteer Group of the Chinese Air
the Chinese from India.
Force, better known as the Flying Tigers, comes into being
under the command of Claire Lee Chennault.
— 7 -