fully compatible with the Fate Core roleplaying game.

The Secret War Has Begun!A terrifying World War Two setting,

• 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 …

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!

Section MAlec owton

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.

Inside you’ll find a whole kit-bag stuffed with:

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CreditsWritten by

Chris BirCh, Dave Blewer, alex BunD, aDam Crossingham,

lynne harDy, sarah newton & matthew Pook

Fate Conversion by

ryan maCklin

Edited by

lynne harDy & miChal e. Cross

Cover Artwork by

Pintureiro

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, matthew Pook &

our BaCkers (see BaCkers’ thanks for further Details)

Community Managers

Dave mcalister & Dan whorl

Published by

moDiPhius entertainment ltD.

35 Turneville Road, London. W14 9PS

info@modiphius.com

Achtung! Cthulhu Feedback Heroes

leonarD Balsera, logan Bonner, roBert Calfee,

lillian Cohen-moore, tony egan, morgan ellis,

Brian engarD, DaviD gallo, evan Jeshka, Colin JessuP,

Dan hall, neil mason, stuart mCDermiD, mark miller,

Janina PosDzieCh, John Powell, markus raaB,

steve raDaBaugh, miChael riCharDs, Brett ritter,

Brian roCk, teo tayoBoBayo, Julia trönDlin, tom tyson,

travis young & Jeremy zimmerman

LegalCopyright © 2013 Modiphius Entertainment Ltd. All rights reserved.

Artwork © Modiphius Entertainment Ltd 2013, except the Fate logo which

is used under licence. Photographs are used under the terms of the Creative

Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License or Public Domain use.

Thanks to Gustav Hicke & Darren Miller for photographs.

Photographs are used to illustrate period uniform, people, places and equipment

in a historical context only.

This work is based on Fate Core System and Fate Accelerated Edition

(found at http://www.faterpg.com/), products of Evil Hat Productions, LLC,

developed, authored, and edited by Leonard Balsera, Brian Engard, Jeremy Keller,

Ryan Macklin, Mike Olson, Clark Valentine, Amanda Valentine, Fred Hicks,

and Rob Donoghue, and licensed for our use under the Creative Commons

Attribution 3.0 Unported license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).

The Four Actions icons were designed by Jeremy Keller.

This work is based on the Fate System Toolkit

(found at http://www.faterpg.com/), a product of Evil Hat Productions, LLC,

developed, authored, and edited by Robert Donoghue, Brian Engard, Brennan

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

(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).

This work uses material from “Changing Skills: A Matter of Survival,”

published by Magpie Games in The Fate Codex Volume 1, Issue 2 and

written by Ryan Macklin, and is licensed under the Creative Commons

Attribution 4.0 International license

(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en_US).

Text from the following sections of this book (except Achtung! Cthulhu

storyline, nachtwolfe & Section M) is licensed under the Creative Commons

Attribution 4.0 International License: Chapter 5 (except text in sidebars and

introductory story), Chapter 6 (all), and Chapter 7 (only the “Equipment & Fate”,

“Weapons”, “Armour”, and “Ranged Weapons & Effective Distances” sections).

To view a copy of this license, visit

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

When attributing, include the following text in your copyright information:

“This work uses Fate rules and material from achtung! Cthulhu:

fate investigator’s guide to the secret war designed by Ryan Macklin,

published by Modiphius Entertainment Ltd., and is licensed under the

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license

(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en_US).”

Achtung! Cthulhu & the Modiphius Logo are © 2012-2014

Modiphius Entertainment Ltd.

No part of this book shall be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any

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

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Now where would you like me to file it?

- Peggy

That’s everything typed up, Sir.

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

Table of ContentsSa

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Foreword from Lynne Hardy

My involvement with Achtung! Cthulhu came about

through a chance conversation my husband had with

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

we got chatting about potential Home Front scenarios. I

went away buzzing with ideas, and began digging out the

history books ready to put some thoughts together.

To cut a long story short, Sarah then directed me

towards Chris [Birch], and when I eventually had a

window to discuss the project properly with him almost

eight months later, he asked me to pitch a section of the

proposed shadows of atlantis campaign. He obviously

liked it, and the next thing I knew, we were discussing

the investigator’s and keeper’s guides. And then the word

“Kickstarter” was mentioned…

I remember feeling very nervous when Chris told

me he was going to ask for £8,000 so that we could

fund the project. “Wouldn’t it be terribly embarrassing

if we didn’t get it?” I thought. So when we went sailing

past that first barrier twenty-four hours later, I was both

relieved and more than a little bit shocked—it certainly

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-

some, tentacley life. The project has been a steep learning

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 HardyAutumn 2013

Foreword from ryan Macklin

Working on Achtung! Cthulhu has been quite a fun and intriguing ride. For quite some time, I have talked online about the difficulties of making Fate work for the various sorts of horror games that people, including myself, love to play. So when Chris Birch first talked with me about designing the Fate edition of Achtung! Cthulhu (which he did while I was working with Leonard Balsera on designing Fate Core), I relished the challenge of making something that could be a pulpy adventure, a war story, and a Lovecraftian terror while staying true to Fate. That wasn’t easy, and I’m grateful to my fantastic playtesters for helping me forge the rules in this edition.

During the project, I spent a bit of time going back through the Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game. Those of use who love horror gaming owe a significant cultural debt to Sandy Petersen, Lynn Willis, and the many others who created and fostered this roleplaying genre.

I sincerely hope you enjoy this blend of Fate and horror.

Ryan MacklinSpring 2014

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— 3 -

“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

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!”

Welcome to the Secret WarCHapTer 1

“You hold in your hands the future of the world...”- Raymond Poincare

When his Lordship gave her his card

and promised the adventure of a lifetime,

she had leapt at the opportunity.

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— 4 -

Chapter 1

all Change?

In the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game, a player

character is usually referred to as an “investigator”. For

the Fate edition of Achtung! Cthulhu, we have made the

decision to use the term “character” instead—it fits better

for the pulpy action-horror tone that we are aiming for.

Similarly, in Call of Cthulhu the person running the

game is usually referred to as the “Keeper”. However, we

have decided to stick to Fate Core’s terminology here

too, so gamemaster (GM) it is! (Although you will still

see the word “Keeper” and “Investigator” in references to

the GM and player guides, matching our other editions of

Achtung! Cthulhu.)

WHaT iS aCHTuNG! CTHuLHu?

Achtung! Cthulhu is a World War Two-inspired setting for Lovecraftian roleplaying, where player characters investi-gate the dark machinations of madmen and monsters whilst battling to defend the world they know from the all-encom-passing chaos that war brings.

Within these pages you will find historical details which will allow you to ground your game in as much (or as little) reality as you want, rules for creating player characters, and the skills, specialisations, stunts, and equipment you can use to help build the world and atmosphere of Fate Ach-tung! Cthulhu.

achtung! Cthulhu and FateThis edition of Achtung! Cthulhu uses the Fate Core System by Evil Hat Productions. It is assumed that you have a copy of Fate Core System and some familiarity with Fate (or at the very least, that your GM does and can teach you the game). Frequently, this book and the Keeper’s Guide will refer to sections or pages in Fate Core System. If you do not have this book, you can download a PDF copy from evilhat.com. (There are also some concepts that are drawn from Fate System Toolkit. You do not need to be familiar with that book but we have included references for those who wish to read further, and it is also available from Evil Hat Productions.)

If you are familiar with Chaosium Inc.’s Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game and how it handles characters and cosmic horror, playing horror in Fate will seem odd at first, as pro-tagonists in Fate are more competent at a broader selection of skills and can use fate points to turn some failures into successes. This makes the tone of the Fate Core edition of Achtung! Cthulhu much pulpier than the Basic Roleplay-ing (BRP) edition.

For those coming to this game who are already familiar with Fate, you will find a number of changes within this particular build that highlight playing in the tone and genre of the Cthulhu Mythos. Most of these new and altered rules are detailed in the Fate Keeper’s Guide, though—in true Fate fashion—players are encouraged to read through those sec-tions of that book in order to better understand the rules as a whole. Most notable are rules for a character’s degrading sanity, handling investigations, how aspect usage changes in the presence of otherworldly horrors, Mythos magic, and conflicts against inhuman threats.

In the end, this means that characters in this edition of Achtung! Cthulhu are capable of the small victories, but 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 heroism and sacrifice will still have meaning to the untold millions who are unaware of the doom that awaits, but the Mythos will still grind your mind and body into dust, no matter what roleplaying system you use.

FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE?This game assumes that, at the very least, the GM is familiar with the Cthulhu Mythos lore found within the RPG hobby. Naturally, stories from Lovecraft and his contemporaries will communicate an appropriate sense of atmosphere and the uncomfortable nature of the world at large. And while the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game is not required for playing the Fate edition of Achtung! Cthulhu, the way the setting is explained and conveyed may help those who are not famil-iar with Lovecraft’s works. Another good Mythos reference book that should also be of help is the Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia, Third Edition by Dan Harms, published by Arc Dream Publishing.

CHroNoLoGy oF a WorLD aT War

Established histories place the foundations of World War Two firmly in the events of 1918-1919, when the German nation is systematically humiliated by the victors of the so-called “War to End All Wars”. Their treatment, both real and perceived, sets the scene for everything that comes after. Bearing this in mind, we have included select events from the period before war is declared on September 3rd, 1939. This timeline concentrates on the events of the West-ern Front, but a few dates from other theatres of war are included for perspective’s sake. These other theatres, such as the Pacific, Eastern Front, and North Africa, will be dealt with in more depth in their own dedicated supplements.

Events within each year are arranged chronologically and, where possible, on a month-by-month basis. Specific dates have been included for particularly significant events.

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