The Inside Scoop on Gaming

The twenty-third letter of the Greek alphabet is “psi.” The 23rd Letter is a game of modern day psychics, government agencies, and corporate conspiracies. Players take the role of psychics and agents. They may be affiliated with one of the government projects, with one of the corporate powers, or with The Network, the loose affiliation of independent psychics.

Setting

The 23rd Letter posits a world in which government agencies sponsored research on psychic abilities during the Cold War and in which corporations built upon the initial government research and recruited psychics to further their business objectives and gain advantages over their corporate rivals. Outside the government and corporate institutions is The Network, the psychic underground. The general public does not believe in psychic abilities, but many in the public fear psychics. The government agencies and corporations offer psychics comfort and protection. The Network offers freedom, support, and, for some, the opportunity to strike out against those that would oppress psychics.

Most prominent are the governmental projects dedicated to intelligence gathering, counter- subversion, and/or military affairs. Two sample Projects are detailed: the U.S. military’s Nevada Project and a civilian U.S. Project, the Western Project, that is the cooperative effort of several intelligence agencies. A list of ten plot hooks is provided for using the Projects.

The Powers are the corporate entities engaged in recruiting and training psychics. There is only a sketchy description of the Powers, their goals, and their practices, and only one Power is described: Strategic Research Laboratories. There is no list of plot hooks for using the Powers.

The Network is a loose affiliation of psychics and that is about as much as we are told. Although, there are a number of suggestions for using the Network, including a list of plot hooks. The Network is described as a group of cells, and although a sample cell is provided, there is no description of how the cells interact and work together. Unfortunately, I got the impression that this was because the game designers weren’t sure themselves.

In addition to these groups, there is the Terata. The Terata are powerful, rogue psychics that were first created during the Cold War by the government Projects in the West and in the U.S.S.R. These enigmatic mutant psychics are significantly more powerful than other psychics and they are often marked by physical abnormalities. The Terata are presented as a shadowy counterweight to the Projects and Powers. The mysterious Terata are presented as the Grays of The 23rd Letter, but they often seem more like the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

Character Generation

Character generation in The 23rd Letter is fairly straightforward. You develop a character concept. Attribute and skill points are then determined by a character’s age as shown on a chart divided into seven age groups. The attribute points are allocate between Strength, Intellect, Reflexes, and Endurance. The attributes range from 1-8, with Adults having an average attribute value of 4.5, adolescents having an average of 3, and persons over 50 having an average of 3.5.

Skill points are divided between Novice, Competent, and Professional skill ratings. A Professional rating provides a +4, Competent a +2, and Novice a zero modifier. Untrained skills are at -2. Children receive only five Novice skills. Adolescents and teenagers receive no Professional skills. Mature adults and Elders receive one Veteran skill at +6. Skills cover both standard competancies (i.e. Firearms, Stealth, Socializing, etc.) and psychic competancies.

Characters may obtain advantages and disadvantages by selecting positive and negative Qualities. Each Quality is rated from 1-3, and Psychic Talent (2) must be selected in order for a character to have a Psychic Ability. Qualities cover aspects of a character’s background and personality such as Perceptive, Social Status, Repulsive, Addiction, and Insomnia. Only a brief, one-line description is provided for how a Quality may influence play. In general, Qualities decrease or increase difficulties. Psychic Talent may be taken twice, but the point costs are such that a character must take several burdensome negative qualities in order to balance the four-point cost of two Psychic Talents.

Characters with Psychic Talent may choose one Psychic Ability for each Talent taken and roll 2d10 divided by two, with each die counted as 0-9, for the rating of each Ability, giving an Ability range of 0-9. The Psychic Abilities are Telepathy, Psychokinesis, Psychometry, and Biofeedback. Each Ability is broken down into six subskills, and skill points must be spent on developing each subskill. A character must have at least a Novice rating in a in a subskill before it can be used. An optional rule is provided for the structural learning of Psychic subskills so that the subskills are learned in a given order (i.e. a Psychometrist would learn Awareness, Object Reading, Telelocation, Precognition, Kirlian Sight, then Intuitions). The structural learning of Psychic subskills, though, is a really bad idea as it creates a “level” system, takes much of the mystery away from psychics, and creates a system where the players may generally suppose that a young psychokinetic will know telekinesis but not electrokinesis.

Characters are rounded out through secondary traits of Fatigue, Character Pool, and Stress. Fatigue is Hit Points and is equal to Endurance. Character Pool is experience points. During play, Character Pool points may be spent to increase the success roll of a failed roll and, in the event of a critical hit or miss, one point is taken from the Pool and added as experience for the skill being used (Actually, the term used in The 23rd Letter is “critical blunder.” A great use of language.). Character Pool points may also be spent in downtime to increase skills. In order to learn a Novice skill, character points must be spent on a chance on a d10 to learn a skill. It is an interesting mechanic, but I have no idea what it is attempting to represent.

Stress is fatigue for psychics. Stress is accrued in tense situations, as the result of a psychic attack, and when certain psychic skills are used (i.e. Extract, Implant, Regent, Precognition, Psychic Healing, and all psychokinetic skills). A character may also elect to incur stress in order to improve a success level. What Sanity is to Call of C’thulhu, Stress is for The 23rd Letter. At low levels, Stress can cause headaches or dizziness. At higher levels, Stress can cause hallucinations, eating disorders, mental illness, and heart strain. The kicker is that Stress can only be reduced through therapy, drugs, and rest, and rest means a day with eight hours sleep and no activity. The 23rd Letter has no New Age notions about using meditation, diet, or exercise to manage stress.

Characters are then finished by writing a detailed background or by rolling once on a character background table and once on a group background table for each member of a player-character group. Group backgrounds include squabbles within the group, media interference, enemies, and witness to calamitous events.

One of the great things about The 23rd Letter is that it is explicitly designed to generate characters without psychic abilities. Non-psychics actually have an advantage over psychics. Psychics must allocate some of their skill points to psychic skills and have to take one or more negative qualities in order to have any Psychic Ability. Non-psychics are free to allocate their skill points on practical skills and need not take any negative qualities.

One negative aspect of The 23rd Letter’s character generation system is that it does not distinguish any advantages in education, experience, or training. Attributes and skill points are the same for all characters within an age group. For example, a 28-year old Annapolis educated Navy Seal receives the same skill points as a 28-year old homeless heroin addict.

Mechanics

The 23rd Letter uses ten-sided dice for skill tests, read as 0-9. Skill tests are made by attempting to roll under an attribute plus skill using one or more d10 based on the task difficulty. Successes are graded on five levels from critical blunder to critical success. Now, the odd thing is that a minimal success is rated from -4 to +4. The 23rd Letter is the only game that I know where missing a skill test is still a success. Wounds are rated on eight levels from Nothing to Fatal, with a -1 penalty for each wound level.

In truth, though, you aren’t going to want to buy The 23rd Letter for its mechanics. You would be better off using the mechanics from another game with psychic abilities such as Aftermath or GURPS, or even adapting The 23rd Letter’s Psychic Abilities to a good system that doesn’t include psychic abilities. You’ll want The 23rd Letter for its setting and description of psychic abilities, not for its mechanics.

The 23rd Letter is an interesting game, and it is presented in a clean, desktop publishing format. Albeit, without any pictures or illustrations. Unfortunately, the book also has a consistent number of errors and a few irritating inaccuracies. For instance, both “G.M.” and “GM” are used interchangeably. Also, the table of positive and negative qualities does not clearly distinguish which is which. Apparently, the game designers did not think to use negative numbers to distinguish the negative qualities. Fortunately, it is fairly easy to tell which qualities are positive and which are negative.

For all of its quirks and faults, The 23rd Letter is still an engaging and interesting game. It presents a very viable and interesting setting for running a game of psychic conspiracies. The 23rd Letter’s portrait of contemporary psychics is fresher than Psi World and is more interesting, more useful, more affordable, and has better art than GURPS Chinooks. At a price less than most supplements, The 23rd Letter, is an worthy purchase. Jeb Boyt

The 23rd Letter
Item type: game Review by: Jeb Boyt Product Name: The 23rd Letter Author: Matt Johnston, John Fleming, Colin Johnston Company/Publisher: Crucible Design Line: The 23rd Letter SKU: CD.120 Cost: $18 / £10 Page count: 71 ISBN: 1 901042 01 4 Ratings: Style: 2 (Needs Work) Substance: 4 (Meaty) Review type: Capsule Review Genre tags: Modern day,Horror,Espionage,Conspiracy	The twenty-third letter of the Greek alphabet is “psi.” The 23rd Letter is a game of modern day psychics, government agencies, and corporate conspiracies. Players take the role of psychics and agents. They may be affiliated with one of the government projects, with one of the corporate powers, or with The Network, the loose affiliation of independent psychics. Setting The 23rd Letter posits a world in which government agencies sponsored research on psychic abilities during the Cold War and in which corporations built upon the initial government research and recruited psychics to further their business objectives and gain advantages over their corporate rivals. Outside the government and corporate institutions is The Network, the psychic underground. The general public does not believe in psychic abilities, but many in the public fear psychics. The government agencies and corporations offer psychics comfort and protection. The Network offers freedom, support, and, for some, the opportunity to strike out against those that would oppress psychics. Most prominent are the governmental projects dedicated to intelligence gathering, counter- subversion, and/or military affairs. Two sample Projects are detailed: the U.S. military’s Nevada Project and a civilian U.S. Project, the Western Project, that is the cooperative effort of several intelligence agencies. A list of ten plot hooks is provided for using the Projects. The Powers are the corporate entities engaged in recruiting and training psychics. There is only a sketchy description of the Powers, their goals, and their practices, and only one Power is described: Strategic Research Laboratories. There is no list of plot hooks for using the Powers. The Network is a loose affiliation of psychics and that is about as much as we are told. Although, there are a number of suggestions for using the Network, including a list of plot hooks. The Network is described as a group of cells, and although a sample cell is provided, there is no description of how the cells interact and work together. Unfortunately, I got the impression that this was because the game designers weren’t sure themselves. In addition to these groups, there is the Terata. The Terata are powerful, rogue psychics that were first created during the Cold War by the government Projects in the West and in the U.S.S.R. These enigmatic mutant psychics are significantly more powerful than other psychics and they are often marked by physical abnormalities. The Terata are presented as a shadowy counterweight to the Projects and Powers. The mysterious Terata are presented as the Grays of The 23rd Letter, but they often seem more like the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Character Generation Character generation in The 23rd Letter is fairly straightforward. You develop a character concept. Attribute and skill points are then determined by a character’s age as shown on a chart divided into seven age groups. The attribute points are allocate between Strength, Intellect, Reflexes, and Endurance. The attributes range from 1-8, with Adults having an average attribute value of 4.5, adolescents having an average of 3, and persons over 50 having an average of 3.5. Skill points are divided between Novice, Competent, and Professional skill ratings. A Professional rating provides a +4, Competent a +2, and Novice a zero modifier. Untrained skills are at -2. Children receive only five Novice skills. Adolescents and teenagers receive no Professional skills. Mature adults and Elders receive one Veteran skill at +6. Skills cover both standard competancies (i.e. Firearms, Stealth, Socializing, etc.) and psychic competancies. Characters may obtain advantages and disadvantages by selecting positive and negative Qualities. Each Quality is rated from 1-3, and Psychic Talent (2) must be selected in order for a character to have a Psychic Ability. Qualities cover aspects of a character’s background and personality such as Perceptive, Social Status, Repulsive, Addiction, and Insomnia. Only a brief, one-line description is provided for how a Quality may influence play. In general, Qualities decrease or increase difficulties. Psychic Talent may be taken twice, but the point costs are such that a character must take several burdensome negative qualities in order to balance the four-point cost of two Psychic Talents. Characters with Psychic Talent may choose one Psychic Ability for each Talent taken and roll 2d10 divided by two, with each die counted as 0-9, for the rating of each Ability, giving an Ability range of 0-9. The Psychic Abilities are Telepathy, Psychokinesis, Psychometry, and Biofeedback. Each Ability is broken down into six subskills, and skill points must be spent on developing each subskill. A character must have at least a Novice rating in a in a subskill before it can be used. An optional rule is provided for the structural learning of Psychic subskills so that the subskills are learned in a given order (i.e. a Psychometrist would learn Awareness, Object Reading, Telelocation, Precognition, Kirlian Sight, then Intuitions). The structural learning of Psychic subskills, though, is a really bad idea as it creates a “level” system, takes much of the mystery away from psychics, and creates a system where the players may generally suppose that a young psychokinetic will know telekinesis but not electrokinesis. Characters are rounded out through secondary traits of Fatigue, Character Pool, and Stress. Fatigue is Hit Points and is equal to Endurance. Character Pool is experience points. During play, Character Pool points may be spent to increase the success roll of a failed roll and, in the event of a critical hit or miss, one point is taken from the Pool and added as experience for the skill being used (Actually, the term used in The 23rd Letter is “critical blunder.” A great use of language.). Character Pool points may also be spent in downtime to increase skills. In order to learn a Novice skill, character points must be spent on a chance on a d10 to learn a skill. It is an interesting mechanic, but I have no idea what it is attempting to represent. Stress is fatigue for psychics. Stress is accrued in tense situations, as the result of a psychic attack, and when certain psychic skills are used (i.e. Extract, Implant, Regent, Precognition, Psychic Healing, and all psychokinetic skills). A character may also elect to incur stress in order to improve a success level. What Sanity is to Call of C’thulhu, Stress is for The 23rd Letter. At low levels, Stress can cause headaches or dizziness. At higher levels, Stress can cause hallucinations, eating disorders, mental illness, and heart strain. The kicker is that Stress can only be reduced through therapy, drugs, and rest, and rest means a day with eight hours sleep and no activity. The 23rd Letter has no New Age notions about using meditation, diet, or exercise to manage stress. Characters are then finished by writing a detailed background or by rolling once on a character background table and once on a group background table for each member of a player-character group. Group backgrounds include squabbles within the group, media interference, enemies, and witness to calamitous events. One of the great things about The 23rd Letter is that it is explicitly designed to generate characters without psychic abilities. Non-psychics actually have an advantage over psychics. Psychics must allocate some of their skill points to psychic skills and have to take one or more negative qualities in order to have any Psychic Ability. Non-psychics are free to allocate their skill points on practical skills and need not take any negative qualities. One negative aspect of The 23rd Letter’s character generation system is that it does not distinguish any advantages in education, experience, or training. Attributes and skill points are the same for all characters within an age group. For example, a 28-year old Annapolis educated Navy Seal receives the same skill points as a 28-year old homeless heroin addict. Mechanics The 23rd Letter uses ten-sided dice for skill tests, read as 0-9. Skill tests are made by attempting to roll under an attribute plus skill using one or more d10 based on the task difficulty. Successes are graded on five levels from critical blunder to critical success. Now, the odd thing is that a minimal success is rated from -4 to +4. The 23rd Letter is the only game that I know where missing a skill test is still a success. Wounds are rated on eight levels from Nothing to Fatal, with a -1 penalty for each wound level. In truth, though, you aren’t going to want to buy The 23rd Letter for its mechanics. You would be better off using the mechanics from another game with psychic abilities such as Aftermath or GURPS, or even adapting The 23rd Letter’s Psychic Abilities to a good system that doesn’t include psychic abilities. You’ll want The 23rd Letter for its setting and description of psychic abilities, not for its mechanics. The 23rd Letter is an interesting game, and it is presented in a clean, desktop publishing format. Albeit, without any pictures or illustrations. Unfortunately, the book also has a consistent number of errors and a few irritating inaccuracies. For instance, both “G.M.” and “GM” are used interchangeably. Also, the table of positive and negative qualities does not clearly distinguish which is which. Apparently, the game designers did not think to use negative numbers to distinguish the negative qualities. Fortunately, it is fairly easy to tell which qualities are positive and which are negative. For all of its quirks and faults, The 23rd Letter is still an engaging and interesting game. It presents a very viable and interesting setting for running a game of psychic conspiracies. The 23rd Letter’s portrait of contemporary psychics is fresher than Psi World and is more interesting, more useful, more affordable, and has better art than GURPS Chinooks. At a price less than most supplements, The 23rd Letter, is an worthy purchase. Jeb Boyt