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Mokole is the second installment in Eden's "Bodyguard of Lies" series of unthemed Conspiracy X sourcebooks (as opposed to their more usual themed books like Shadows of the Mind or Exodus). It may be a grab-bag of unconnected odds and ends, but the contents share a consistently good level of quality; just about everything is decent, and a few bits are very good indeed.

The book opens with "Odyssey", the winner of a short story competition on the Con X website. "Elegaic" is a good description; it's a very moody piece about on how the work Aegis does can change its agents, in several senses. I rather liked it, and I'm not usually fond of game fiction.

This is followed by two chapters on magic by John Snead; I loved what he did with the basic magic rules in Forsaken Rites, and this is a worthy followup consisting of a new occult group suitable for player or GM use and a new type of magic. Said group is the Knights of Mona, Templar-types (well, more Hospitallers really) who maintain a public face as a Catholic humanitarian aid group. I didn't think they were exceptionally interesting, but they were well fleshed-out and I suppose every conspiracy setting needs an occult branch of the Vatican.

In contrast, the alchemy rules are lively and original; instead of going the standard "mystic pharmacist" route, Snead draws on the more symbolic and transfigurative aspects of the tradition. Essentially, alchemy combines magic with a creative skill to craft an object that enchances or changes another object's properties; depending on the alchemist's style this catalyst could be anything from a building that affects its inhabitants to a mantra that works on the alchemist herself. This type of magic is less convenient than the usual methods (effects take much longer to cast and usually require a quiet workspace with lots of equipment), but has less dramatic side-effects and an interesting range of effects based on metaphorical and literal changes. For example, the procedure of Lesser Unlocking will open locks, translate foreign languages, or decipher codes, while Harm can cause physical damage, mental stress, or add disadvantages to the subject, depending on the caster's intent. The illustrations for this section are worth comment; I'm not sure if they're period illos or not, but they're full of the wonderfully bizarre and impenetrable imagery real alchemical texts used instead of actually explaining things. This section is great stuff and well worth using in Conspiracy X or any modern-occult game.

After this comes several sections that revise and redefine the basic skill rules (in a nutshell, giving PCs more free skills but at lower levels, as well as reducing the overlap between related skills, so an agent with Biology 5 won't have an effective skill of 4 in all the other sciences) and add a couple new Traits and Trainings. This is all decent stuff (especially since players want to give their characters all the skills they can, given how small the margin between failure and success is in this game), but not very flashy or adaptable for other game systems.

The second half is taken up by the book's eponymous adventure, which takes place in the swamps of Louisiana and plays on PC expectations about Con X's saurian critters. I haven't thought much of the adventures in previous books, but Mokole's a cut above the usual in that the sequence of events isn't excessively linear and two or three other groups are poking around the area (which reinforces the fact that PCs supposed to be covert investigators). It also has news clippings and HERMES downloads to hand out to players and a nice appendix featuring the major NPCs, what they know, and what they're willing to tell. On the bad side, the scenario as written is a little unforgiving of PC blunders in that slipups will result in ambush by snipers, and voodoo serves as a deus ex machina in a couple places. On the whole, it's a pretty good adventure that could be exported to other modern-occult or conspiracy games with little effort, as it uses a minimum of Con X-specific jargon and even provides capsule explanations of the competing NPC groups' MO and philosophy.

As usual for Eden, the layout and graphic design are top-notch, and the typo count is well below average for the line. Still, there are a couple slips, most notably a misaligned entry in one of the alchemical charts.

To sum up, BoL: Mokole is a very good buy for Conspiracy X GMs and worth considering for conversion to other systems, mainly on the strength of the excellent alchemy rules. As always, I'm a little leery about the price tag, but compared to recent AD&D books it's a bargain.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 3 (Average)

Bodyguard of Lies 2: Mokole
Author: Magnus Petersson, John Snead, Martin Stennert, Bernard C. Trombley, Rens van der Bergh, and Paul Williams Category: game Company/Publisher: Eden Studios Inc. Line: Conspiracy X Cost: US $16 Page count: 136 ISBN: 1-891153-11-0 SKU: EDN00011 Capsule Review by Joe Iglesias on 03/20/00. Genre tags: Modern_day Espionage Conspiracy	Mokole is the second installment in Eden's "Bodyguard of Lies" series of unthemed Conspiracy X sourcebooks (as opposed to their more usual themed books like Shadows of the Mind or Exodus). It may be a grab-bag of unconnected odds and ends, but the contents share a consistently good level of quality; just about everything is decent, and a few bits are very good indeed. The book opens with "Odyssey", the winner of a short story competition on the Con X website. "Elegaic" is a good description; it's a very moody piece about on how the work Aegis does can change its agents, in several senses. I rather liked it, and I'm not usually fond of game fiction. This is followed by two chapters on magic by John Snead; I loved what he did with the basic magic rules in Forsaken Rites, and this is a worthy followup consisting of a new occult group suitable for player or GM use and a new type of magic. Said group is the Knights of Mona, Templar-types (well, more Hospitallers really) who maintain a public face as a Catholic humanitarian aid group. I didn't think they were exceptionally interesting, but they were well fleshed-out and I suppose every conspiracy setting needs an occult branch of the Vatican. In contrast, the alchemy rules are lively and original; instead of going the standard "mystic pharmacist" route, Snead draws on the more symbolic and transfigurative aspects of the tradition. Essentially, alchemy combines magic with a creative skill to craft an object that enchances or changes another object's properties; depending on the alchemist's style this catalyst could be anything from a building that affects its inhabitants to a mantra that works on the alchemist herself. This type of magic is less convenient than the usual methods (effects take much longer to cast and usually require a quiet workspace with lots of equipment), but has less dramatic side-effects and an interesting range of effects based on metaphorical and literal changes. For example, the procedure of Lesser Unlocking will open locks, translate foreign languages, or decipher codes, while Harm can cause physical damage, mental stress, or add disadvantages to the subject, depending on the caster's intent. The illustrations for this section are worth comment; I'm not sure if they're period illos or not, but they're full of the wonderfully bizarre and impenetrable imagery real alchemical texts used instead of actually explaining things. This section is great stuff and well worth using in Conspiracy X or any modern-occult game. After this comes several sections that revise and redefine the basic skill rules (in a nutshell, giving PCs more free skills but at lower levels, as well as reducing the overlap between related skills, so an agent with Biology 5 won't have an effective skill of 4 in all the other sciences) and add a couple new Traits and Trainings. This is all decent stuff (especially since players want to give their characters all the skills they can, given how small the margin between failure and success is in this game), but not very flashy or adaptable for other game systems. The second half is taken up by the book's eponymous adventure, which takes place in the swamps of Louisiana and plays on PC expectations about Con X's saurian critters. I haven't thought much of the adventures in previous books, but Mokole's a cut above the usual in that the sequence of events isn't excessively linear and two or three other groups are poking around the area (which reinforces the fact that PCs supposed to be covert investigators). It also has news clippings and HERMES downloads to hand out to players and a nice appendix featuring the major NPCs, what they know, and what they're willing to tell. On the bad side, the scenario as written is a little unforgiving of PC blunders in that slipups will result in ambush by snipers, and voodoo serves as a deus ex machina in a couple places. On the whole, it's a pretty good adventure that could be exported to other modern-occult or conspiracy games with little effort, as it uses a minimum of Con X-specific jargon and even provides capsule explanations of the competing NPC groups' MO and philosophy. As usual for Eden, the layout and graphic design are top-notch, and the typo count is well below average for the line. Still, there are a couple slips, most notably a misaligned entry in one of the alchemical charts. To sum up, BoL: Mokole is a very good buy for Conspiracy X GMs and worth considering for conversion to other systems, mainly on the strength of the excellent alchemy rules. As always, I'm a little leery about the price tag, but compared to recent AD&D books it's a bargain. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 3 (Average)

Bodyguard of Lies 2: Mokole