This is a very nice intense one-shot! Well written and presented in a way that you can run it with virtualy a single reading, with its maps and handouts supporting it aesthetically. It spans about 4-5 hours with tension racking up after a dynamic opening. It is a bit linear and has sparce Mythos-lore exposition. The ending scene can turn out slightly underwhelming compared to previous encounters, mainly due to the lack of Mythos context and its availability to the players. In general it leans towards action, playing out like "Predator" on some of its parts. All and all very enjoyable.

GREAT convention game! He had me at Seabees!

{MILD SPOILERS}

The scenario has a great set up, set in a fictional island in the Pacific, where the players are a bunch of Seabees clearing up a airfield, getting it ready for US planes. I happen remember the old John Wayne movie, The Fighting Seabees. I loved that movie as a kid. The use of construction equipment in defense of their position was inspiring to me as a kid. While this scenario doesn’t really make the equipment available, there is no reason why the Keeper can’t at least present them as an option in the beginning encounter.

The Seabee characters are told that a VIP is arriving soon that they have to make themselves scarce and what they learn later is that it’s a special weapon to be used against the Japanese to end the war once and for all. No, it’s not the Manhattan Project. They call it Daybreak, and it’s much more Lovecraftian than a simple Atom bomb. Without getting into too much detail, basically a German scientist (and occultist) helped the US build a occult bomb.

Things go quickly awry once Daybreak arrives and the adventure comes down to surviving until the Navy can save the Seabees. The Japanese make a counter attack, the players have to save Daybreak, and as it turns out, something is lurking on the island as well. The players have to make a mad dash through the jungle, toting the crate containing Daybreak, and hide in an abandoned Japanese bunker until things die down. Of course, things don’t go as planned.

And it is easily paced at 4 hours. The game paced very well. It is a little rail-roadie but when dealing with military missions, combined with convention games, you come to expect it. The players are there to enjoy the experience. There is however, a lot of sandobx areas from the Keeper in terms of encounters. You can throw the monsters at them or pockets of Japanese military that survived the initial attack or landed as part of a new offensive. I thought later it would be interesting to have the island shelled by the Japanese, causing the players a new level of stress.

Aside from all that (if that wasn’t enough), the writer of this scenario provides an alternative way to deal with bouts of madness through the use of cards provided at the end. These cards are tooled perfectly for the adventure. I have used custom cards before in a one-shot and these fall right in line with what I would do. I like the writer’s thinking. Additionally, he provides equipment cards with stats for all the various weapons the Seabee players may fine laying around. I like this a lot as well. In war, you never know what you are going to find laying around.

I only added a few extra things to make it creepy. It is well written but I saw areas that could be expanded and added my own things. Haunting bamboo wind chimes in the trees ecverywhere. Why would the Japanese take the time to do that? Read the adventure and find out.

The adventure is very easy to run. And it supplies 8 pre-gens for players to play, which is invaluable. I highly recommend this adventure.