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Review of World War Cthulhu
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World War Cthulhu is not a pulp itineration of the wartime Europe (the main rulebook starting point focuses upon the Darkest Hour – 1940 with a sliding scale time back and forward). Geographically, it is using the European theater (future supplements promise to detail Europe and other theaters as well) and is centred on the actions of the men and women of the Special Operations Executive. The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a British World War II organisation. Following Cabinet approval, it was officially formed by Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton on 22 July 1940, to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe against the Axis powers, and to aid local resistance movements. Needless to say this allows for lots of collaboration with the Allied forces and even sympatric members of the Axis who might yet become future allies - i.e. the USSR or Italians or Argentines. In this shadowy world cast in a world dominated by Nazi tyranny – it would be very easy to go Pulp a la Indiana Jones (which many of my Cthulhu adventures of the 1930s degenerate into) but to Cubicle 7’s valiant effort they do not go that route. Yes, the SOE investigators are somewhat portrayed as larger than life – given a particular skill bump that differentiates them from the foot soldier but overly so. In keeping with good Call of Cthulhu tradition, investigators are ordinary people facing extraordinary and supernatural forces older than mankind itself. Furthermore, as it does not describe the ideology of Nazism or horrific atrocities in anything less than an unspeakable evil – it does not seek the answers for those crimes against humanity except they were crimes of humans against fellow humans. The Mythos remain disinterested in humanity, as ever – however, their cults are actively trying to bring the End Times upon us all.
That said, it is not the story of SOE against the Mythos in a quasi-Delta Green setup. It is the SOE provides the cover story where players are recruited by the mysterious “N” for the mission within the mission. Sometimes, players may run many missions for “N” slowly going insane in the process or dying in the unknown war between mankind and the Mythos. “N” is a man with supreme influence in all circles of government, the military, and intelligence community but is not omnipotent whether investigators are merely chess pieces in a larger stratagem or they are his “field agents”. Everyone knows not to cross “N”. His agendas are his own. In either case, there is ample room for stories of espionage on the home front (battling cultists and their agents), parachuting into the occupied territories to explore some dank castle where an ancient evil is awoken or merely retrieval of some artifact lest it comes into the hands of the enemy.
The Axis powers also have a stake in this struggle – and they are given as noted above a sympatric point of view. Which means it is firmly rooted in classic British spy fiction – where the Establishment is riddled with intrigue all its own. And, in the 500 myriad shades of gray – shadows form – and in those shadows in the spaces and cracks in between - the Mythos lurks. Some creatures have an agenda that directly impinges upon the war effort, some creatures are being used, but like in Call of Cthulhu adventures – the horror lies in the cosmic revelation that we are insignificant. There are beings that are infinitely more intelligent and bizarre than anything thought of by our philosophy or puny minds can comprehend. Cubicle 7 has gone to great lengths to ensure that the story of World War II investigators is about putting the thumb in the dam to prevent the deluge. Heroics aside. The war both evens the chances of investigators at setting back the Mythos’ agenda – unless the mysterious “N” stands for Nyarlathotep which is one possibility or a facet of a possibility. Multiple sources can be used for different modes of play. What Cubicle 7 wants to emphasize is a historical account and allow the missions to be those valiant stories that nobody hears about not some sort of weird war setting.
A brief introduction outlines the mood for the piece, as I have largely outlined above, it is historical and it is gritty and grey. The main protagonists are the different British intelligence agencies who compete and cooperate over the scarce resources of the war. The real heroes are those in Special Operation Executive – who by Churchill’s directive was to lead commando raids to set Europe ablaze in small squads across the different locales of the European theater, but, not exclusively, honorable mention goes to the Naval Intelligence Division, MI5/6 as well as the Royal Airforce Intelligence thus providing a wide array of talent to be recruited Network N. Part Two, like in many of other Cubicle 7’s fine works separates out nicely – a Player’s Handbook or as it is termed here: “Investigators Resources” and because Cubicle 7 does participate in the Bricks & Mortar program and does have PDF preorders – it is very easy for a Keeper to create the rules for players without giving away tradecraft secrets or the mystery the veils our reality.
Thus, it places front and centre – what Churchill termed the Greatest of Assets – a nation’s people which naturally includes investigators. As identified above, players are given a little skill and attribute boost that gives them an edge over the general population. This makes for good gaming in that it prolongs the life of investigators slightly. And, I am of two minds on this issue. Absolutely necessary, if you are planning to run a Call of Cthulhu campaign (such as the story of a bunch of investigators who survived the horror and horrors of the war). Notwithstanding, many Cthulhu adventures tend to revolve around one shots. Partially, because players blunder into situations like not understanding books may be more dangerous than that glowing staff. Or really you cannot outrun a Hound of Tindalos, as one of my groups recently tried to do. Included here are new skills and some questionable new occupations. Meaning that I realize the need for occupations, but, sometimes they strike me too much like D&D classes – and really occupations should provide guidance for skill selection perhaps a minor skill bump but nothing more. Otherwise, we are left with needing a Call of Cthulhu book of occupations which runs counter to the ethos of ordinary people fighting the unwinnable fight against ancient evils…. So that particular aspect I did find a little like D&D. Similarly, small unit tactics does explain what the players “do” and maybe is necessary as we come up two generations since the end of World War II. But, as I said, I was weaned on stories of this titanic conflict. However, not everyone is as knowledgeable – so its inclusion makes perfect sense and also gives the impression of the lone wolves fighting an insurmountable evil, yet, giving hope for a party of the few. And, the very nice thing about the Investigators Resources is that fine editing has pared down to twenty pages. Most players these days need something more than a Quick Start and yet do not have the patience to read through a D&D Players Handbook – so kudos to Cubicle 7 for their continued dedication to making life easier and game play faster.
Part three gives the Keeper what (s)he needs in running the Cthulhu in World War II. It begins by unveiling the Network N as the central enigma in every adventure. It is in part nodding its head to British spy fiction of a mysterious centre where an owlish man is pouring over letters, manuscripts and other resources to send players on missions within their existing missions. It gives a number of options for the identity of “N” which good Keepers could utilize all of them confirming that Keepers are indeed servants of Hastur. It outlines The Opposition, yet, carefully balancing out that many Germans even if they were recruited or volunteered into some of the most nefarious organizations were still ordinary people – there might be a Xavier March among many of them. While the Nazis and Nazism is evil – people are not necessarily so. Therefore, investigators should always look for those allies even among the enemy. That said. The Axis forces believe fanatically in the righteous and blindly in their cause. This worldview confirmed by their successes in the events as the stage unfolds. Mission design is covered in loving detail always emphasizing that the cover objectives must also be met – however, battling the Mythos takes precedence.
The different intelligence theaters are highlighted ranging from Vichy France (a natural site and familiar to many) but stretch northward to Scandinavia, eastward to Russia, westward to Spain/Portugal and southward to the Middle East and North Africa. Each one of these locales is accompanied with a nice little adventure vignette or two. Future sourcebooks promise to flesh these locales in greater detail along with new rules specific to the theater and guidelines how to involve locals in play either as NPCs or more interestingly as PCs. Cubicle 7 is careful to avoid clichés but clichés are almost unavoidable for a scant chapter that projects the Brits as the lone good guys. But, as the campaign that is developed in the back of the book outlines – there are more shades of white than simply us – the good guys. Part of the opposition is the Mythos themselves. While the cults active get an excellent treatment. The actual Mythos are rather scant. That is a good thing. As too many Call of Cthulhu adventures revolve around monster hunts which runs completely counter Lovecraftian horror (except in the Blood Brothers variant). The horror of Lovecraft is perhaps that unknowable evil is always with us and inside us. Thus, I would have welcomed more exploration of different cults and ideas how the war has warped new ideas to serve old masters. However, I can see that will be up to the Keeper and future supplements to flesh out.
Then we have a short section on the rules of engagement. The sort of nuts and bolts of fighting a Special Forces unit in Europe. This section while highly informative is one the pulpier side of Cthulhu. I do not fault Cubicle 7 for its inclusion but wish it could have been balanced more with some of the softer investigation skills. How to obtain knowledge when libraries, notaries, and information is so tightly controlled by wartime censorship or simply being obliterated. For the Nazis did loot libraries and many notaries were part of the undesirable elements of the population that the Nazis sought to exterminate. So combat, parachuting rules, radio operation and vehicle combat are all very necessary but there should have been more attention to playing the other side of Call of Cthulhu which is investigation. These nicely segways into the next section which is equipment. The war has provided ample materiel for fighting the Mythos driving a tank over a chthonian might indeed kill it. And, flame throwers as well as machine guns are more readily accessible than in other itineration of the game but one has to deal with constant shortages. For war materiel is reserved for soldiers. And, SOE operatives were expected to live off the land rather than await parachute drops from London. So there is a nice balance between indeed some impressive equipment but the availability may vary from locale to locale and from time to time.
Lastly, we have a full-fledged campaign described here in called: “The God in the Woods”. As always there will be no spoilers. It is a good adventure. Minor typos like important NPCs are sometimes misnamed where Jacques becomes Jack and then back to Jacques in another segment. And, also some of the layout decisions of keeping track of the adventure was poorly done. For most adventures will have a summary right at the very beginning. The summary is there but it is located not where it was easy to get a sense of the adventure from the start. Furthermore, as a campaign there are a multitude of NPCs to keep track of. A good Keeper will have read through it a couple of times and create his/her own notes. It does explore some of the elements of the rules quite well but other parts remain still grey areas. One gets the impression that the campaign was written as an afterthought and not by same author as the rulebook and that parts of it were rewritten by committee. I look forward to further offerings to see whether or not – World War Cthulhu can keep its dark edge. For this adventure like the Intelligence Theaters section did play into clichés rather real life narratives (which make the best Cthulhu adventures IMHO).
It is a gorgeous book, like all Cubicle 7 products, the artwork is top notch and carefully chosen to match the text. There is a good assortment of styles but everything is dark and moody and highly realistic – otherwise, perfect RPG art. The purple pose creates mood and atmosphere and is in the all the right places to break up the rules. It is edited very well, in spite of, my grumbles with the adventure – the rest of the text is clear and more importantly accurate to World War II. I especially liked the treatment on Finland – not only was a remote theater for many English speakers but the ambiguity of its fight is lost by even many historians.
I look forward to reading the collection of short stories that circulates along with this volume some time. If you are looking for a dark game grounded in the Second World War of espionage and wartime commandos – this is certainly your game. If you are looking for playing pulp games with one-dimensional characterization of Nazis/Germans/Russian or French – this will not be your game. This book preserves what is great with Call of Cthulhu – investigation with a very shadowy milieu whilst preserving opportunities for heroics of small squads fighting a two front war. Future great supplements look to flesh in and create a truly great mode of play. Thanks, Cubicle 7 for bringing us World War Cthulhu.
