It’s been a while since we visited the alternate World War II of Achtung! Cthulhu, and I had the chance to read a new adventure, so let revisit, shall we? If you haven’t seen the game yourself, or you haven’t read any of my reviews of the game, Achtung! Cthulhu is a game set in World War II, where the PCs are special operatives attempting to thwart Nazi occultists using the forbidden supernatural powers of the Cthulhu mythos. While there have been other versions of the setting using different game system, this one uses Modiphius’ 2d20 system, the same base system that powers the Fallout RPG, Star Trek Adventures, Dune: Adventures in the Imperium, and Dishonored, although it leans into the slightly more mechanically textured system in Fallout versus some of the more streamlined implementations.

The adventure we’re looking at today is Operation Oberon, a mission where the PCs are attempting to shut down a German operation to steal objects of power from Asia, funneling the operation through Shanghai.

Disclaimer

I received a review copy of this adventure from Modiphius, and I have received other review copies from Modiphius in the past. I have not had the opportunity to run or play in this adventure, but I have had a good amount of experience running 2d20 games as well as being a player in a few.

Achtung! Cthulhu: Operation Oberon

Achtung! Cthulhu Created By Chris Birch
Writing Bill Heron
Editor John Houlihan
System Design Nathan Dowdell
Cartographer David Keenor
Graphic Designers Matthew Comben, Richard L. Gale, Michal E. Cross, Tony Mastrangeli
Project Managers Haralampos Tsakiris, Gavin Dady
Project Assistant Robert Hebblethwaite
Creative Lead John Houlihan

This mission is 26 pages long, which includes the following pages:

• Cover and Credits Page: 2 pages
• Table of Contents: 1 page
• Handouts: 2 Pages
• Ad for other Modiphius Products: 1 page.

The rest of the content is the taken up by the adventure itself. In addition to the adventure PDF, there is a file with player and GM version of the handouts. The adventure is formatted in a two-column layout, with the product lines standard weathered look, which includes simulated stains, taped in photograms, and other affectations that make it look like a file that sits in an office of some hidden government agency.

The Outline

We’re going to get into spoiler territory, so if you don’t have clearance for this file, please wait for your handler to assign your next operation.

The Nazis from Black Sun, the more mystical, sorcerous Nazi supernatural agency, has an operation to plunder the supernaturally powered relics from Southeast Asia, facilitate by the Japanese military, and funnel through China via Shanghai.

The PCs only know that Black Sun is running an operation known as Operation Oberon, and their mission is to find out as much information about it as they can, but they aren’t necessarily being sent to personally shut down the organization. That means, once they learn the above information, they can focus on exfiltrating themselves from Shanghai.

The PCs start the adventure with invitations to get into an event at The Wagnerian Nightclub, what functions as both a standard nightclub, and a fan club for the Nazi party. The place is owned by Gerhard Wagner, a man with no actual standing with Black Sun, but one with his own supernatural secret.

Black Sun is being facilitated by a local triad, the Flying Dragon Triad. Not only do they have control of the criminal activity in this section of Shanghai, but the Flying Dragon Triad also has its own supernatural traditions and dabbling into the Mythos.

Getting Started

Once the PCs get into the club, a lot of the opening of the adventure is letting the PCs explain what they are investigating, and how difficult different lines of investigation would be. There are a number of NPCs that the PCs can interact with, as well as several sections of the nightclub that may contain additional information that the PCs will find useful.

NPC interactions include some guidelines for different tactics the PCs might employ, like dancing with various patrons or making small talk. There are rules for what happens if one of the PCs gets thrown out of the club (it actually helps the other PCs’ stealth efforts, because the guards already dealt with the rabble rouser). One of my favorite things in this section is that some agents can just work the room and look for leads, look for escape routes, numbers of guards, etc., and they can make a Difficulty 0 test to generate Momentum for the team.

Diverging Paths

Once the PCs have some time to investigate, the local ranking Black Sun Master will arrive, giving the PCs a chance to follow him after he leaves the club, or to attempt to eavesdrop on his conversations. Depending on what tactic the PCs employ, and what decisions they make, they might either follow the Black Sun agents through the sewers to discover a Mythos temple under the club, or they find out about a truck hauling artifacts that they can try to catch.

The temple complex reveals the Mythos connections of the Flying Dragon Triad. They may witness a sacrifice about to take place, forcing them to decide on intervening, or avoiding detection.

Follow That Truck

Either the PCs head straight to this part of the adventure, or they meet up with it after following their Black Sun target, which will determine if he is present in the vehicle, and changes a few of the encounters slightly. It’s also relevant to this section whether the PCs manage to tail the truck without being seen, or if this turns into a full-on car chase.

There are some statistics for vehicles that PCs can use. These include their rented car, local cars that can be stolen, or even some motor cycles. There are some chase rules included, which is essentially a test to determine how many areas exist between the PCs and the truck they are following. Motorcycles are actually a little better for this, as they can weave in and out of traffic that slows down larger cars but provide the PCs with less cover. There are also several Chase Hazards outlined that the GM can spend threat to initiate, including running into road construction, unexpected traffic, or the ever popular boxes set in their path.

Before the truck can make it to its destination, a fight breaks out between the Flying Dragon Triad and a rival triad. Moving through this fight puts the PCs in danger, but if the Black Sun agent is in the truck, it barrels over everyone, even the allied members of the Flying Dragon Triad. The last challenge is a checkpoint run by Japanese military, meaning the PCs are either going to have to have a really good plan to convince them to let the PCs through, or find a way to keep following the truck after sneaking by the checkpoint.

Warehouse Revelations

In the warehouse, the PCs can dig through some crates, which contain both mundane goods, like fireworks, and artifacts. The fireworks are called out as being usable as impromptu explosives, which may be handy, especially since the PCs aren’t likely to have been able to sneak in any demolition gear when they showed up at the club masquerading as regular patrons.

This warehouse is connected to a waterway, which allows a German sub to move in, pick up its cargo, and then move out again. There are a few notes on what happens if the PCs show up and go in guns blazing, versus sneaking around. If they take a direct approach that’s a little too direct, there are stats for the deck guns of the submarine. It’s definitely important to remind the players they don’t have to stop this operation; they just need to gather information on it. I know you can make improvised explosives, and there is a submarine, but if you try to relive your youth playing that Medal of Honor mission where you blow up the engine room on the sub, that’s on you.

The Final Stretch

When the PCs leave the warehouse, the streets are flooded with triad members in an all-out street fight. The PCs can’t avoid the next development when the leader of the Flying Dragon Triad sees them and decides to summon a Hunting Horror to chase down the PCs. If the PCs recognize what the creature is, they know that if they find a way to leave that keeps to well-lit streets, the Hunting Horror will continue to avoid direct light, waiting for them to stray into a more shadowed area. The fireworks the PCs may have found in the warehouse can also be used to drive off Hunting Horror.

When the PCs get back to their contact, they smuggle the team out of Shanghai. The PCs are intended to learn what will be done with this information. The Japanese authorities are tipped off to raid the temple, if the PCs discovered it. The Allied command structures who know about the supernatural goings on aren’t going to stop Project Oberon, they’re going to magically booby trap a number of artifacts they allow to slip into items being smuggled, so they can be widely disseminated.

I Understand Its Power Now

For me, personally, I like Achtung! Cthulhu scenarios that lean more into “what if Indiana Jones, but with Mythos stuff,” and this scenario definitely sits comfortably in that space. Because so many scenarios take place across Europe, it’s interesting to see more of the world and how it interacts with the primary villains of the game. I’m a fan of scenarios that have clear objectives but give the PCs a wide avenue to pursue those objectives, and this starts with a scene that does just that. I appreciate that there are little touches showing what a pathetic Nazi fanboy Gerhard Wagner is, include the fact that PCs can find out that the runes he has on display are non-sensical gibberish.

 . . . Top Men . . . Top Men

It’s always going to be tricky to shift the focus from European locations to China, when China isn’t a location addressed in the core rules, and this scenario is clearly meant to be a touch and go between the more European focused adventures. The problem with this is that it touches on some insensitive elements that Cthulhu mythos stories already have issues with. I don’t think any of this is intentional. I think it’s a matter of not expressly stopping to think about where Mythos stories have gone wrong representing other cultures in the past.

For example, the Flying Dragon Triad play into the “non-European cultures are corrupted by the mythos,” and then really stumble into that issue by implying that the tradition of Chinese dragons actually comes from Hunting Horrors. Instead of using them as an opportunity to shift the narrative away from associating Chinese characters away from being Mythos cultists, the rival triad is given no real characterization. I’m not saying it’s the best cultural representation, but in 1986, we had this movie called Big Trouble in Little China that presented one of the two rival gangs as allies against the gang tied up in supernatural horrors.

The Wagnerian Nightclub is the strongest part of this adventure, mainly because of its open-ended structure and the various clues that exist in different areas. Exploring the warehouse feels a little too sparse, and the final act Hunting Horror complication is heavy handed. Additionally, there isn’t much in the way of explaining how that encounter should end, other than the PCs can fend off the Hunting Horror with fireworks and staying on the main streets.

Tenuous Recommendation–The product has positive aspects, but buyers may want to make sure the positive aspects align with their tastes before moving this up their list of what to purchase next.

There are things I really like in this adventure. Between exploring the nightclub, and the chase through the streets, I was feeling the Indiana Jones vibes. But once they allow the adventure to split off into separate tracks, and then come back together, everything feels a lot more abrupt, and sparse.

Older version of Achtung! Cthulhu detailed organizations from other parts of the world, and allowed for some exploration of those locations, and I would love to see that for the 2d20 version, but I also think it really needs to be done with designers with a background in the culture, to do so with sensitivity and understanding.

https://whatdoiknowjr.com/2024/09/30/what-do-i-know-about-reviews-achtung-cthulhu-mission-operation-oberon/

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