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World War Cthulhu: Covert Actions
The summer of '74 burned hot. I remember being stood on that beach, soaked in blood, the Mediterranean sky wider than you can imagine. The smell of 630 and cypress and burning tyres. I remember turning away from the carnage we’d been ordered to wreak. I remember seeing the Others coming out of the water. I remember a voice louder than God screaming. I don’t remember anything after that.
Agents of Section 46 may be assigned almost anywhere on Earth, to carry out objectives for which they are unprepared, with minimal material support and no official sanction. They may have to perform acts that leave them psychologically scarred, consumed with self-loathing or growing ever-emptier inside, unable to maintain healthy relationships, only connecting with fellow human beings as covers or as preludes to betrayal.
They will be in regular physical danger, evading those who would arrest, torture or kill them, forced in turn to inflict pain and suffering on often-undeserving targets. And then there is the truly unpleasant side to their work…
Covert Actions is a collection of six ready-to-play scenarios for World War Cthulhu: Cold War, the 1970s espionage setting for Call of Cthulhu.
• Puddles become Lakes: A routine, if unpleasant mission to silence a nosy journalist proves more complicated than first thought
• The Forcing Move: Reality crumbles around the 1972 Reykjavik World Chess Championship
• Cadenza: The Turkish Invasion of Cyprus echoes with deep secrets and hard choices
• The Guardians of the Forest: East Timor Descends into bloodshed and atrocity, and agents find themselves forced to decide which enemy they must defeat.
• Operation Header: The Arctic holds more than abandoned Distant Early Warning listening posts.
• The Unclean: The agents are activated to investigate a death cult in Moscow. What could possibly go wrong?
Covert Actions requires the World War Cthulhu: Cold War core setting book and Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition to play.
Suggested for mature readers.
Agents of Section 46 may be assigned almost anywhere on Earth, to carry out objectives for which they are unprepared, with minimal material support and no official sanction. They may have to perform acts that leave them psychologically scarred, consumed with self-loathing or growing ever-emptier inside, unable to maintain healthy relationships, only connecting with fellow human beings as covers or as preludes to betrayal.
They will be in regular physical danger, evading those who would arrest, torture or kill them, forced in turn to inflict pain and suffering on often-undeserving targets. And then there is the truly unpleasant side to their work…
Covert Actions is a collection of six ready-to-play scenarios for World War Cthulhu: Cold War, the 1970s espionage setting for Call of Cthulhu.
• Puddles become Lakes: A routine, if unpleasant mission to silence a nosy journalist proves more complicated than first thought
• The Forcing Move: Reality crumbles around the 1972 Reykjavik World Chess Championship
• Cadenza: The Turkish Invasion of Cyprus echoes with deep secrets and hard choices
• The Guardians of the Forest: East Timor Descends into bloodshed and atrocity, and agents find themselves forced to decide which enemy they must defeat.
• Operation Header: The Arctic holds more than abandoned Distant Early Warning listening posts.
• The Unclean: The agents are activated to investigate a death cult in Moscow. What could possibly go wrong?
Covert Actions requires the World War Cthulhu: Cold War core setting book and Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition to play.
Suggested for mature readers.
- GenresRole Playing Games
175 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Want to read
October 1, 2017Came back from my hol to find this waiting for at the Post office depot. Nice.
September 18, 2018
No pun intended, but the core book of World War Cthulhu: Cold War left me a bit…, well, you know. It is a good book, but I think I was hoping it to be incredible. This is probably because World War Cthulhu set the bar very high. I did not expect much of it and was majorly impressed. Maybe it was just because I thought the introductory scenario of the latter better than that of the former. Operation’s manual was good, very good in fact, but I did not have any scenarios. Then, Yesterday’s Men was cancelled, and Cubicle 7 ended their deal with Chaosium…but here we have tangible proof that Cold War Cthulhu is a setting worth keeping, whichever system comes in
Based on a quick read, I would say the adventures included here are not for first time Keepers, who are unlikely to get here anyway. There is plenty of sandboxing and very little railroading here, which makes a lot of sense since the trade is a lot about adaptability and flexibility. The stories seem solid, at least for a reader. Keepers might need to do a bit of research to strengthen their knowledge about the conflict/area in question, but the plots are clear. A reference list would have been great, but whom am I kidding, I probably do not have the time to read it anyway.
The combination of a mundane and a Mythos mission is a complex aspect of the World War Cthulhu settings. For the most part, here it has been solved very well. The exception is “Operation Header” where it seems to me both are same, and yet is a perfectly good module. That is the bottom line here. Yes, I would have liked other conflicts/areas. Yes, I would have liked a mission or two without the Mythos element, just to surprise the players and remind them that is defending the UK what pays the bills after all. Yes, this is a great scenario anthology.
Please, please, please. Keep the setting alive.
Based on a quick read, I would say the adventures included here are not for first time Keepers, who are unlikely to get here anyway. There is plenty of sandboxing and very little railroading here, which makes a lot of sense since the trade is a lot about adaptability and flexibility. The stories seem solid, at least for a reader. Keepers might need to do a bit of research to strengthen their knowledge about the conflict/area in question, but the plots are clear. A reference list would have been great, but whom am I kidding, I probably do not have the time to read it anyway.
The combination of a mundane and a Mythos mission is a complex aspect of the World War Cthulhu settings. For the most part, here it has been solved very well. The exception is “Operation Header” where it seems to me both are same, and yet is a perfectly good module. That is the bottom line here. Yes, I would have liked other conflicts/areas. Yes, I would have liked a mission or two without the Mythos element, just to surprise the players and remind them that is defending the UK what pays the bills after all. Yes, this is a great scenario anthology.
Please, please, please. Keep the setting alive.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews