Achtung Cthulhu logo

  • THE SECRET WAR
  • WHAT IS ACHTUNG! CTHULHU?
  • FACTIONS
  • BACKGROUND

THE SECRET WAR HAS BEGUN

Welcome to the Secret War in this fast-paced pulp-influenced rollercoaster of an RPG which nimbly mixes the sanity-challenging terror of Lovecraftian cosmic horror, with the chaos and heroism of World War II. Enter a world of audacious Allied agents, malicious Nazi villains and the unfathomable gods and monsters of the Mythos themselves, each striving for supremacy in mankind’s darkest yet finest hour!

Answer the call with the dauntless men and women of the Allied occult forces: Britain’s Section M, the United States’ Majestic, or the brave Resistance, all willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to hold back the legions of the Nazi occult.

Battle the Black Sun, Nazi warrior-sorcerers supreme, who use foul magic and summoned creatures from nameless dimensions to dominate the battlefields of men. Struggle against Nachtwölfe, the Night Wolves, who utilise technology, biological enhancements, and wunderwaffen (wonder weapons) to win the war for Germany.

Can you prevail against such overwhelming odds, or will you succumb, like so many others, to the terror of the Nazi occult or the malign influence of the Mythos? This is your story to tell!

Achtung! Cthulhu is a setting for Lovecraftian roleplaying during World War II, which allows players to discover the truth behind the malign influence of the Mythos on the Nazi war machine and beyond, as conflict engulfs the globe during 1939-1945.

In this pulp-influenced world of brave Allied heroes and dauntless two-fisted adventure, players will take on the roles of Allied servicemen and women, secret agents, members of the resistance or even hapless civilians caught up in the wider conflict. All stand firm against the twisted might of the Nazi occult: the Cult of the Black Sun, who wield foul magic and summon captive horrors in their bid unleash Yog-Sothoth and Nachtwölfe, their nominal allies and rivals who place their trust in Atlantean technology, weird science, and strange wonder weapons to prevail.

Players will experience a world where dread secrets and powerful artefacts lie forgotten in ancient ruins, abandoned sites and forgotten cities, and peer deep into dusty tomes and manuscripts seeking to understand eldritch knowledge that was never meant for the sight of mortals. They’ll arm themselves with experimental technology and deadly weapons and learn to wield powerful magical spells or harness potent psychic powers to fight against this uncanny threat.

They’ll also encounter exotic native races like the Deep Ones, undersea worshippers of the dreaming god Cthulhu, or the strange Mi-Go, fungoid-insectoid beings from the furthest corners of the solar system who have come to Earth for an unknown purpose. Towering over them all are the monsters, entities and gods of the Mythos themselves, who seek to take advantage of the chaos of the second world war to extend their dominion over the minds of men.

Will your heroes prevail against all odds, or will they, like so many others before, fall to the malign influence of the Mythos? That is your story to tell…

“We’ve not got much time. Or much hope. But, we do have a stiff-upper lip. So that’ll just have to do.” — Viscount Alexander ‘Alec’ Towton Head of Section M

Section M’s mission is to oppose and foil Black Sun and Nachtwölfe’s worst machinations and serve as Britain’s front line occult force in the Secret War. It’s always playing catch up, as it was not officially brought into being until 1939, but ‘better late than never’, say Section M’s operatives, that’s just the nature of war.

Despite its initial over reliance on a forgotten archive of Victoriana and a talent for improvisation and making do — Section M survives and eventually thrives. Its success is due to a combination of those great British virtues — indomitability and luck — while leaning on the cosmopolitan diversity of its former Empire to fill in any gaps. By war’s end it has matured into a formidable fighting force.

The strength of Section M lies in its unorthodoxy, its faintly amateur ethos and its adaptability, reacting directly to situations without the burden of endless bureaucracy. Its chief, Sir Alec Towton is a brave and indefatigable leader, adept at spotting an array of talent and harnessing it for Section M’s exacting needs. It’s most notable operatives include Corporal Akhee “the Eye” Singh, Captain “Badger” Harris, Natalya Petrova, and “Mad” Jack McMasters.



“The Nazis are meddling with forces they shouldn’t and that means we have to get our hands dirty too. The only way to survive is to fight fire with fire.” — Sally Armitage, Commander of Majestic

Majestic, the United States’ special occult force in the Secret War, shares Section M’s mandate of opposing Black Sun and Nachtwölfe and their Mythos allies. Although certain agents actively assist their British counterparts prior to the United States’ entry into the war, it is not until late 1942 that “the Office of Mumbo- Jumbo”, as J Edgar Hoover disparagingly terms it, comes into its own. Although late to the party, Majestic is well funded and resourced and uses American ingenuity to fuse together a powerful combination of firepower and technology, mixed with raw courage and tenacity, to create a flexible fighting force which serves across many fronts with distinction.

Majestic’s foremost goal is to defend American interests and it often finds itself as the tip of the spear, going toe-to-toe with Axis and Mythos foes and strong arming them into submission, albeit at a high cost in lives and material. Majestic runs a huge variety of missions and operations, ranging from small team reconnaissance teams to battalion-sized airborne combat drops. Given the loose and distributed nature of Majestic’s network, agents in the field often find themselves improvising to address the unexpected and its heroes include the formidable Professor Richard Deadman and Sergeant Brandon Carter.


“Yog-Sothoth is the gate, the key and the guardian. When the black sun is released and its solar rays wash over the Earth, then all men will know his dominion, and despair.” — Exarch Reinhardt Weissler

Through Hyperborean magic and dark pacts with the ancient gods of the Mythos, the Nazi Order of the Black Sun practices foul sorcery and summons evil creatures from other dimensions to rule the battlefields of men. Even though their warrior-sorcerers, trooper foot soldiers and captive horrors become a terror to the allies, Black Sun’s practical work for Hitler’s brutal regime is not its true aim.

In the strange, alien place between wakefulness and sleep, one finds the Dreamlands, a realm beyond the veil of consciousness. There, on the fabled Plateau of Leng under the inky, sombre gaze of its dark star, lies the valley of the black sun. Knowledge, power, and madness abound here, where the Hyperboreans imprisoned an aspect of the Outer God Yog-Sothoth in an unnatural solar orb aeons ago.

Based at the sinister forbidden fortress at Wewelsburg castle and driven by its ruthless leader, Reinhardt Weissler and his four Priors, the Order of the Black Sun works inexorably toward its primary goal, acquiring the magic and artefacts necessary to free Yog-Sothoth from its solar prison in the Dreamlands, and unleash it upon this dimension. There it will shine its unholy light on Earth and rain destruction and terror on mankind forever more.



“Science, technology, an indomitable will to power, and the Blauer Kristall, these are the tools we will use to prevail against all our enemies, both foreign and domestic.” —Mina Wolff, head of Nachtwölfe. Nachtwölfe, the Night Wolves, were originally part of Black Sun, until Mina Wolf’s great betrayal when she split from Exarch Reinhardt Weissler, splintering off to form her own occult organisation with the tacit backing of the Fuhrer. Nachtwölfe’s primary focuses are science, technology, progress, biological enhancements and wonder weapons
 
 
(wunderwaffen) powered by Blauer Kristall (Blue Crystal) to help win the war for Nazi Germany. They scour the world for rare Atlantean technology, looking to learn its secrets while harvesting the rare Blauer Kristall which powers it. Nachtwölfe specialists stalk the battlefield and are instantly recognisable by the eerie blue glow of their advanced weaponry and technology, fabricated by the scientific staff who pursue Mina Wolff’s vision of an advanced Germany. Nonetheless, their methods are still without conscience and ethical or moral considerations and Nachtwölfe creates many horrors of its own. The Cerberus-Gruppe actively encourage their staff to push the limits of science using highly questionable methods. “The ends justify the means” is their warped thinking in creating this new order for the Third Reich. Senior staff include Gerd Schmidt, commander of the Nachtwölfe elite WolfGuards and Krafft Heimburg, head of the scientific division.

 

Growing up as a British kid on a diet of Weird War and Sgt. Rock comics fuelled a thousand ‘weird’ battles with my Airfix soldiers and tanks. It wasn’t until I read H.P. Lovecraft’s At The Mountains of Madness that things clicked. What if the Nazis reachedthe ancient city in Antartica first, what if there was a ‘secret war’ taking place, behind the scenes, to ensure the Nazis didn’t awaken a greater evil? This went beyond the usual staple of mere vampires, zombies and werewolves in World War Two, it was a much deeper storyline.

Achtung! Cthulhu was born in 2012 as the first fledgling ideas came to life in our first releases, Three Kings and Heroes of the Sea by Sarah Newton, as Section D agents learned of a new menace growing behind enemy lines. We followed that up with the Achtung! Cthulhu Kickstarter in early 2013, which was only supposed to launch a couple of books, but thanks to over 1700 amazing backers, 11 books, a load of miniatures, merchandise, and more were funded. The books were developed with rules for both Savage Worlds and Call of Cthulhu 6th edition to reach as wide an audience as possible and went on to win many awards.Text

Achtung! Cthulhu drops you into an epic age old secret war, which started with the conflict between the old gods that sawthe fall of Hyperborea, Atlantis, the Roman Empire, Napoleonic Wars, World War Two, and will be fought through many aeons to come.

The age old terror represented by the Cthulhu Mythos promises destruction and chaos on such an epic scale that our heroes can only delay the end by a few more years. Achtung! Cthulhu promises a tiny sliver of hope. The real heroes of World War II, normal people who became resistance fighters or soldiers, feared that the Nazi war machine was just as undefeatable as we imagine Cthulhu, yet they still fought on. They fought often without hope for themselves, but that someone else might get the chance to end the war. This hope was well founded: the vast machinery of the Third Reich was finally defeated though by terrible sacrifices by the allied nations.

Achtung! Cthulhu throws you in to this epic struggle ready to go guns blazing against the forces of the Cthulhu Mythos as they jostle for control of Earth. However, guns won’t win every battle, you’ll need to dig deep into forbidden tomes, ancient spells, esoteric knowledge, forge uneasy alliances and mix that with a healthy dose of experimental weapons, or “funnies” as us Brits like to call them! Our very own Achtung! Cthulhu characters walk a fine line between light and dark. Natalya the Belarussian tank commander possessed by the raw fury of the deep forests and Arianne the French resistance agent bound to an ancient demon, are just two examples. What sacrifices will you make to defeat the Cthulhu Mythos in this world?

Now this new edition of Achtung! Cthulhu, built using our own cinematic 2d20 game system dials up the ‘weird’ to expand on the original game with more secret bases, more ancient mysteries, more terrifying creatures, fantastic technology, and some exciting hints of what’s to come. It is a secret war that isn’t just limited to the 20th Century, but spans millenia. We’ve got your six, so get ready because the Secret War has begun! Until next time, Keep calm and carry on, soldier!

—Chris Birch, Section M HQ


ACHTUNG! CTHULHU 2D20 CORE BOOKS

A!C 2D20 Player's Guide

Sold out

|

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 Quickstart Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 Modiphius Entertainment

A!C 2D20 Gamemaster's Guide

Sold out

|

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 Quickstart Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 Modiphius Entertainment

Black Sun Exarch Collector's Edition

Sold out

|



ACHTUNG! CTHULHU 2D20 BUNDLES

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 Quickstart Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 Modiphius Entertainment

A!C 2D20 Complete Bundle

Sold out

|

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 Quickstart Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 Modiphius Entertainment

A!C 2D20 Player's Bundle

Sold out

|

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 Quickstart Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 Modiphius Entertainment

A!C 2D20 Gamemaster's Bundle

Sold out

|


ACHTUNG! CTHULHU 2D20 ACCESSORIES

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 Quickstart Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 Modiphius Entertainment

Gamemaster's Screen & Toolkit

Sold out

|

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 Quickstart Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 Modiphius Entertainment

A!C 2D20 Quickstart

Free  

|

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 Quickstart Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 Modiphius Entertainment

Black Sun Dice Set

Sold out

|

Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 Quickstart Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20 Modiphius Entertainment

Blauer Kristall Dice Set

Sold out

|


  • SECTION M
  • MAJESTIC
  • BLACK SUN
  • NACHTWÖLF


“The Nazis are meddling with forces they shouldn’t and that means we have to get our hands dirty too. The only way to survive is to fight fire with fire.” — Sally Armitage, Commander of Majestic

Majestic, the United States’ special occult force in the Secret War, shares Section M’s mandate of opposing Black Sun and Nachtwölfe and their Mythos allies. Although certain agents actively assist their British counterparts prior to the United States’ entry into the war, it is not until late 1942 that “the Office of Mumbo- Jumbo”, as J Edgar Hoover disparagingly terms it, comes into its own. Although late to the party, Majestic is well funded and resourced and uses American ingenuity to fuse together a powerful combination of firepower and technology, mixed with raw courage and tenacity, to create a flexible fighting force which serves across many fronts with distinction.

Majestic’s foremost goal is to defend American interests and it often finds itself as the tip of the spear, going toe-to-toe with Axis and Mythos foes and strong arming them into submission, albeit at a high cost in lives and material. Majestic runs a huge variety of missions and operations, ranging from small team reconnaissance teams to battalion-sized airborne combat drops. Given the loose and distributed nature of Majestic’s network, agents in the field often find themselves improvising to address the unexpected and its heroes include the formidable Professor Richard Deadman and Sergeant Brandon Carter.


“Yog-Sothoth is the gate, the key and the guardian. When the black sun is released and its solar rays wash over the Earth, then all men will know his dominion, and despair.” — Exarch Reinhardt Weissler

Through Hyperborean magic and dark pacts with the ancient gods of the Mythos, the Nazi Order of the Black Sun practices foul sorcery and summons evil creatures from other dimensions to rule the battlefields of men. Even though their warrior-sorcerers, trooper foot soldiers and captive horrors become a terror to the allies, Black Sun’s practical work for Hitler’s brutal regime is not its true aim.

In the strange, alien place between wakefulness and sleep, one finds the Dreamlands, a realm beyond the veil of consciousness. There, on the fabled Plateau of Leng under the inky, sombre gaze of its dark star, lies the valley of the black sun. Knowledge, power, and madness abound here, where the Hyperboreans imprisoned an aspect of the Outer God Yog-Sothoth in an unnatural solar orb aeons ago.

Based at the sinister forbidden fortress at Wewelsburg castle and driven by its ruthless leader, Reinhardt Weissler and his four Priors, the Order of the Black Sun works inexorably toward its primary goal, acquiring the magic and artefacts necessary to free Yog-Sothoth from its solar prison in the Dreamlands, and unleash it upon this dimension. There it will shine its unholy light on Earth and rain destruction and terror on mankind forever more.


“We’ve not got much time. Or much hope. But, we do have a stiff-upper lip. So that’ll just have to do.” — Viscount Alexander ‘Alec’ Towton Head of Section M

Section M’s mission is to oppose and foil Black Sun and Nachtwölfe’s worst machinations and serve as Britain’s front line occult force in the Secret War. It’s always playing catch up, as it was not officially brought into being until 1939, but ‘better late than never’, say Section M’s operatives, that’s just the nature of war.

Despite its initial over reliance on a forgotten archive of Victoriana and a talent for improvisation and making do — Section M survives and eventually thrives. Its success is due to a combination of those great British virtues — indomitability and luck — while leaning on the cosmopolitan diversity of its former Empire to fill in any gaps. By war’s end it has matured into a formidable fighting force.

The strength of Section M lies in its unorthodoxy, its faintly amateur ethos and its adaptability, reacting directly to situations without the burden of endless bureaucracy. Its chief, Sir Alec Towton is a brave and indefatigable leader, adept at spotting an array of talent and harnessing it for Section M’s exacting needs. It’s most notable operatives include Corporal Akhee “the Eye” Singh, Captain “Badger” Harris, Natalya Petrova, and “Mad” Jack McMasters.

ART PREVIEW




A!C 2d20 News

    Preview is not currently available for this section only on the live url page