Zero Point: Heroes of the Sea
Heroes of the Sea is an historical action horror campaign module from the Acthung! Cthulhu series for Realms of Cthulhu written by Sarah Newton and published by Modphius.
By Aaron T. Huss
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Heroes of the Sea is the follow-on campaign module for Acthung! Cthulhu, Zero Point campaign. This particular version was written for Savage Worlds using Realms of Cthulhu from Reality Blurs. Acthung! Cthulhu is set within the midst of World War II taking the action in Europe and giving it a Cthulhu Mythos twist. Heroes of the Sea even incorporates the Dreamlands into the campaign.
CONTENT
Encounters and Plot Episodes establishes the actual campaign material in a plot point campaign style. The encounters are given as an assembly of tables depending on where the PCs physically are within the setting. Different locations have predetermined encounters using the table, keeping the overall busy-work down to a minimum for the Keeper.
The Appendix contains a collection of pre-generated characters along with new rules, vehicles, and creatures to coincide with the World War II and Dreamlands aspects of the setting and this module.
OVERALL
Having previously read through the first campaign module using Call of Cthulhu, I find Acthung! Cthulhu lends itself much better to using Savage Worlds than Basic Roleplaying. As an action horror setting and not just an investigative horror setting, the pulp-like features of Savage Worlds help to enhance the action-like features of Acthung! Cthulhu without subjecting the characters to the restrictions of character strength like Basic Roleplaying (due to things like Bennies, Edges, and the ease of rolling over a TN of 4 with higher die types). Not that I don’t like the setting combined with Call of Cthulhu, I just like it a lot more when combined with Realms of Cthulhu and the Savage Worlds core system.
RATINGS
Publication Quality: 10 out of 10
Heroes of the Sea is a wonderful looking publication, albeit a bit slow at times when reading on a handheld device. The layout looks fantastic, the fonts are easy to read, and the general formatting is excellent. There is a lot of great artwork and maps.
Storyline: 8 out of 10
Heroes of the Sea has a good storyline that does an okay job of developing from beginning to end. A lot of additional storyline information could be added or at least additional elements of the surrounding activities could be added throughout the development of that storyline. At times I felt the storyline was progressing too quickly and would have liked too see additional Dreamlands information woven into the that developing storyline.
Desire to Play: 10 out of 10
The entire Acthung! Cthulhu campaign (so far) is an excellent action horror gaming experience. The PCs are thrown directly into the mix of World War II but from a very localized aspect instead of the war as a global feature. In other words, the war is going on all around the PCs, and they have to continue with their efforts without getting caught or killed. It’s a great collection of action with a layer of the Cthulhu Mythos over it. However, it should be noted that the Cthulhu Mythos is not the centerpiece of the series (at least so far), but rather an integral part of everything going on. Thus, the war is as much a part of the campaign as the mythos.
Overall: 9 out of 10
The Acthung! Cthulhu campaign is developing very well so far. The modules are nice and small (not page length, but in focus) considering the grand aspect of being surrounded by a war. In other words, you’re not trying to save the world or stop the war, you are simply a small group of special ops doing specific jobs behind enemy lines.
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