For a free product, this has good production quality, but I do not see many things that would be original or captivating and neither do I understand why this has its own RPG system different from others (I have not seen anything to warrant this).

Forest of Fear

With Forest of Fear, a more extensive campaign for Achtung! Cthulhu has been released. The story arc spans eleven chapters and takes place in the late years of World War II, more specifically against the backdrop of the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. The campaign is aimed at both experienced players and battle-hardened characters and recommends that agents have completed at least ten other missions. Not only does the campaign's length provide a challenge, but also the fact that several hostile parties operate here and get involved in a dangerous conflict. Moreover, the themes of this scenario and the strong correlation with one of the historic battles of World War II are responsible for the fact that this is a challenging scenario in any respect.

The agents are sent out to contact the Resistance in the Ardennes. At first, the campaign starts quite simply, with meeting a member of the Resistance and moving into a temporary headquarters. Thereafter, however, the plot quickly gains momentum and shows the agents that sinister forces are at work. The players are supposed to investigate the Black Sun's activities in the area, which initially starts with an archaeological outpost. Soon it turns out that ancient secrets rest beneath the Ardennes – or rather, rested until the Black Sun unearthed them to abuse them for their purposes. 

But before the player characters can focus on this task, a second storyline takes them in because, in addition, a dangerous and ancient cult is also active in the area. These cultists are preparing their own rituals to unleash a terrible threat to the region. Thus, the player characters get caught in a battle against two opponents, as both the Black Sun's and the cult's activities keep growing, making for increasingly dangerous missions. Sometimes it is about out-of-control summoning rituals. Then there are far-reaching caves to explore, created by ancient mythical creatures, to learn about the sinister plans of the Black Sun finally. The stakes are nothing less than stopping a secret weapon that could turn the tide of war against the Allies again. 

However, the cult goes even one step further, preparing to conjure a doomsday scenario. Fortunately, the agents are not entirely on their own, though, because in addition to the members of the Resistance, they also find the influences of a Celtic deity and her otherworldly followers working against the cult as the Wild Hunt. If the agents can establish good terms with these potential allies and pass their tests, they will receive much-needed support for the upcoming challenges.

The missions are varied and diverse – and often not designed to be solved by a simple frontal attack and fighting everything that moves. Often, it is mainly about gathering information and surviving to understand the enemies' activities and plans. Thus, sometimes caution is more useful than daredevil action. But, of course, there is room for hard fights and dynamic action. Towards the end, players will have to face extremely dangerous enemies in the two final missions. 

Forest of Fear is an extensive and challenging campaign. Player characters will deal with dangerous enemies and face a wide range of brutal cthulhoid horrors. They definitely have chances to fail in the missions as the stakes are high and the Black Sun's plan could set the Allies back greatly. However, not only the Black Sun and the Nachtwölfe play a role, but the players must also deal with a Celtic deity, a medieval cult, and the lost civilization of a mythos race and its secrets. In addition, they can meet some signature characters of the game and complete the storyline that started with Assault on the Führer Train.

From my point of view, the campaign has a good dramaturgy and offers varied missions that increase coherently and are not always simply decided by force. In fact, there are a few intermediate adventures that have entirely different goals. I found only the introduction of a Celtic deity into this scenario a bit atypical and not well suited to the mythos – even if it increases the player characters' chances of survival. Of course, the secret plan of the Black Sun and Nachtwölfe is both bizarre and coherent for Achtung! Cthulhu in equal measure, so Forest of Fear manages to combine cthuloid horror with the horror of World War II. Personally, I do not always find the latter combination a suitable scenario for a role-playing game, but those who get involved with the setting of Achtung! Cthulhu will probably have no problems with the fact that real war events are used as background for the fiction here. So if you are looking for a long, brutal campaign set against the backdrop of World War II, Forest of Fear will provide you with a campaign of adventures that will challenge the agents for many evenings of play.

(Björn Lippold)

Assault on Zuara 2

When a mysterious Luftwaffe plane lands on an airfield in North Africa and keeps disappearing and reappearing, these events may indicate activities by the Black Sun or the Nachtwölfe. Therefore, this is a mission for Section M agents to spy on the plane and either steal or sabotage it.

The third Priority Mission is summarized in four pages of text and a map. The text primarily describes the airfield and the troops stationed there. This time, fewer alternative adventure seeds or scenarios are suggested. Instead, the player characters' options to fulfill this mission are described in more detail.

Assault on Zuara 2 presents less of a mythos setting and offers more of a commando operation on an enemy airfield that requires stealth and planning, as it can hardly be solved by a frontal assault.

Even though Assault on Zuara 2 offers good material for a short mission in its compact format, I personally find this setting too focused on the military operation aspect and lacking secrets from the Cthulhu Mythos.

(Björn Lippold)

Our Lady of the Eternal Sapphire

The second Priority Mission for Achtung! Cthulhu revolves around an old monastery near Cairo, from which a brooch made of Blauer Kristall originates. The player characters are sent out to investigate the site and get to the bottom of the rumors about a relic in the form of a skull made from Blauer Kristall.

The second Priority Mission basically offers two pages of text and a map as source material. The setting is briefly described, and for the antagonists references are made to the rulebook. Again, there are several adventure seeds and alternate backgrounds, which the game master can choose to include additional or alternate enemies or give the mission an entirely different atmosphere.

Even though Our Lady of the Eternal Sapphire does not provide much concrete material, it presents an exciting setting and alternative backgrounds that game masters can easily use to entertain their players for one or even two game nights. I liked this Priority Mission because it offers some exciting ideas that can be used to develop larger story arcs.

(Björn Lippold)

Resurrection Men

Ghouls living in old tunnels from World War I – that is essentially the summary of the Priority Mission Resurrection Men for Achtung! Cthulhu. In just eight pages (or really three pages of text and a map), it provides an adventure hook and setting as a mini-adventure that can be played in one session. Adversaries are depicted only with references to the rulebook, and the main part of this booklet consists of the map of the tunnel system and brief descriptions of the rooms and tunnels. Alternative starting points for the scenario are included for those the standard variant of this mission does not work for.

Resurrection Men has an interesting idea, but in fact, the scenario provides little that you could not come up with on your own. Only game masters who want to save time necessary for drawing a map or need a quick basic idea will get any useful material here. As free game material, Priority Mission provides a hook for one game session, but anyone hoping for a real mission will be disappointed.

(Björn Lippold)

Operation Black Cap

Montenegro, 1941: A Black Sun plane crashed, and Section M is eager to learn more about the cargo being transported. Therefore, the agents are sent out to travel undetected from the coast to the crash site, scout out the situation, and intervene if necessary. This means that they are to either secure or destroy artifacts of value. Operation Black Cap takes place in two acts. First, the agents must arrive at the target location and avoid patrols, since the country is in a state of alert due to an imminent invasion. Then, near the crash site, the player characters discover that they are not the only ones interested in the crashed plane. The agents must avoid or face the other parties until they finally reach the plane wreckage. At that point, it becomes apparent that the cargo is potentially very dangerous. 

Ultimately, it is up to the players to decide whether the agents can secure the cargo, must destroy it, or just try to escape with their lives as cthuloid forces are unleashed.

Operation Black Cap is an entertaining short scenario with an interesting premise for one or two evenings of play. In fact, the adventure provides tie-ins for follow-up missions. However, the secondary threat that the agents have to deal with turns out to be a bit archetypical and would have had much more potential.

(Björn Lippold)

it is refreshing to see a "post apocalyptic" world that wasn't caused by disease or nuclear bombs. The intricately designed factions and the unique, life-like world make Ashland a must-play rpg!

Hands down one of the best free RPG products I have ever read. You don't get the usual 2-3h sample "adventure", but a fully fledged module with approx. 100 pages that will last you about 3 full sessions depending on your playing style.

There are still some typos in this early release and I expect the authors to fix those once they have gone through the current kickstarter of the whole game line.

Sample characters are included, but you will need the also free "Blood & Doom Primer" which includes the rulebook in a very usable work in process status.

Strongly recommend both the Blood & Doom system as well as this first playtest module.

From reading through the primer content the system appears to be in a good spot - not too crunchy but not too light either, much like World of Darkness, which I guess was an inspiration for this d10 dicepool system.

The primer on the cults is detailed and really well written from a GM standpoint, as the content seems easy to bring into play.

The most disappointing aspect was the lore of the The Ayaari - I'd much prefer evil sorceries over aliens in my sword & sorcery setting any day.

A very mediocre supplement. It tries to cover many topics, but it does it in a very superficial way. For example, the section about different eras is quite small and provides little information on how to play in them. Arrakis itself looks rather dull and empty, where there are only two cities and endless desert, where there is almost nothing interesting. Yes, the planet was like that in Herbert’s books, but the authors of supplement did a minimum of work to fill it with life and details. (For example, we have fremen-betrayers jacurutu, a potentially very interesting theme… but this supplement only gives you a brief description and one trait as a game mechanic…). The artwork is pretty good, but half of the NPC examples don’t have images. Therefore, in my opinion, this book isn’t absolutely necessary to play «Dune». At first glance, it gives you a lot of new stuff, but upon closer inspection there is nothing enough interesting or special about it.

Great game here. It hits my taste at medium crunch, giving intereting options bithbin building your character as well as during the game. Inlove thatbit combines theater of mind with solid tactical choices in combat. While most elements of the game engine have been around for sime time, the way they are stxked together is very neat.

I've read through the primer and it looks good to me, some random comments :

• I had trouble choosing from the list of the weapons, usually a sign of good balance
• I like that even though we have classes everyone kind of works the same way, both from a level of stats + skills to do actions and with the powers activated by blood points, having the same structure for casters and non-casters helps with keeping their potential close.
• Even considering the above i mildly dislike that the specializations are so encompassing for the class, for warriors and experts i would like to see some shared traits and powers for when you don't feel like picking something exotic, like for instance the triple shot ability of the viper seems pretty generic, why wouldn't the ninja be able to do that as well ?
• I like the resource management of wounds and equipment through time coupled with clear ways to handle them
• You have a skill to research through heap of books ;) it's a thing i tend to do often and our gm is always annoyed when the skill is not included

A well thought out TTRPG with great potential in this free primer. I cannot wait until the kickstarter to see all the options and meet the rest of the world!

This looks like a well-thought out game that (being free) already includes more content than many paid games out there. It seems easy enough to get into but actually has a decent amount of crunch as well. The bundle even comes with music included, and a gorgeous map. It runs on a d10 dice pool mechanic, but does a lot of cool things with it (setbacks, weapon attributes, momentum). There's too much to cover here in short but being free it's definitely worth taking a closer look for anyone.

Also, the artwork is all top-notch and has a distinct, paintery style that's both colorful yet feels dreamlike and otherworldly at the same time, giving 'Athyr' a very unique atmosphere. The addition of two books to compliment the rulebook, one offering a wealth of setting information, the other the most expansive lore on cults I have yet seen in a tabletop RPG, makes this something I can recommend to everyone. Can't wait for the Kickstarter.

I've played a decent number of TTRPG systems in the past, each which had their upsides and downsides. Blood And Doom for me strikes a great balance between the crunch I appreciate in some systems, whilst still keeping it all very neat and organized. I also greatly enjoy the various tips and tools for GMs, something even after over half a decade of GMing I still find use in.

Still very happily surprised by how expansive yet easy to read all the cults and lore are. Normally I tend to lean towards either my own homebrew setting or the real world depending on what game system I'm using, but with Blood And Doom I'm actually thinking of giving this one a serious shot! As for the cults, I love how much detail is shown about what their goals are and how they seek to reach them. Too often do I find systems where this part is either left behind during writing, or becomes so hard to follow that I only end up using some monsters and writing the cult myself.

All in all, really looking forward to run this system myself and excited to see the full product take form!