This is my first review, so be nice.
GURPS Conspiracy-X is the second in the ‘Powered By GURPS’ series, the first being Transhuman Space. Games in the series are designed to be used with just the GURPS 3rd Edition Basic book, Compendium 1 and one or two other source books. GURPS Conspiracy-X requires the Psionics book, but you could probably get away without it if using the rules from the basic book, or do without it completely if you already have the original Conspiracy-X sourcebook ‘Shadows of the Mind’ (more on which later).
Conspiracy-X is a modern day conspiracy-horror role playing game. The players take on the mantle of government agents and powerful individuals working for a shadowy conspiracy called Aegis. They are pitted against another conspiracy known as the Black Book and its alien allies, as well as various threats from the supernatural and psychic worlds. Players are able to draw on the resources of their organisations using a system known as ‘pulling strings’ to gain access to such diverse resources as the DMV number plate database to orbiting SDI killer satellites.
I was never a fan of the core game mechanics of the original Conspiracy X, but I loved the background and a few other bits, such as the mechanics for Psychics and the luck rolls, so I was keen to see how Conspiracy-X would fare when converted to the more usable GURPS.
The book itself is well laid out, with an introductory story that will be familiar to veteran Conspiracy X gamers. The interior art is reproduced from various Con-X sourcebooks and is of a variable standard, ranging from the excellent, such as the computer art used for the Saurians, to the dire, for instance the art used in the seepage section. Art is, however, subjective, so what I hate, you might love. The text layout is clear with good use of sidebars and boxed sections and the book concludes with a comprehensive set of quick reference tables and a full index.
The first section deals with character creation under GURPS. Characters are built on 175 points, 75 of which must be spent on ‘social’ advantages, such as pulling strings and ally groups, status and Patrons. A new type of Patron is introduced, a Sphere of Influence (SoI) patron, which reproduces the Influence icon, influence stat and pulling strings abilities from the original Conspiracy X. The actual number of pulling strings assigned to each character will probably be lower than in the original Conspiracy-X, although the full range has been replicated. The SoI patron expands on the spheres of influence from the Conspiracy-X basic book and the Aegis Handbook and includes many of the principles from Sub Rosa. There are several GURPS advantages that are modified and several Conspiracy-X advantages are converted for GURPS. There are also numerous templates for agents from varying government agencies and a brief description of each one. For a fuller list of agencies and their powers, I’d recommend Delta Green: Countdown.
The next section details cell construction. This section is my players favourite and represents their characters accumulating ‘stuff’ from their parent organisation by misrouting shipments, assigning equipment to departments that don’t exist and so on. Each character generates a certain amount of Resource Points that are spent to acquire facilities from their sphere of influence, such as the ever-popular underground base, or equipment (‘Sergeant, why are there only four jump jets in the hanger? Well, sir, the 5th developed a problem with its turbine. Its been shipped of to a specialist turbine balancing unit. Don’t know when we’ll get a replacement, sir).
Next is the section on the seepage and its manipulation. The seepage is the background of psychic energy which all humans give off. It seeps from us every second of every day and forms a semi-sentient ‘layer’ of psychic energy which pools in certain areas and focuses around certain people. This energy is shaped by our perceptions of it, so a place that people think should be scary will be and will probably have a higher ambient level of seepage anyway, as they needed to think it was scary for some reason in the first place. The energy can also be used in two ways, either by a person directly manipulating the energy that they give off, taking the form of psychic powers, or attempting to manipulate the background seepage by means of magical rituals. The two methods are discussed, again using text from other sourcebooks updated into GURPS and a brief list of rituals are included, as well as rules for using GURPS Psionics. There are also guidelines for using the original Conspiracy-X psionic powers as detailed in Shadows of the Mind, and for converting Conspiracy X rituals from Forsaken Rites. The section also details the types of entities related to the supernatural, such as Forsaken, Incarnate, Demons and the process of and effects of becoming one of the corrupted.
Following this is a GM only Secrets section, which I won’t detail to avoid spoilers, but will say that it has received a similar treatment to the rest of the book, stats are updated and text is used from various Conspiracy-X sourcebooks.
Finally, there are guidelines for converting from Conspiracy-x to GURPS, a run down of useful Conspiracy-X and GURPS sourcebooks and the aforementioned quick reference tables and index.
Generally, I was impressed. The changes required for GURPS have been implemented well and are complementary to the background. The GURPS character creation should mean that you could now field a reasonably competent agent without needing them to be cripplingly flawed, as was a complaint with the Conspiracy-X character creation. I probably won’t use the GURPS psionics rules, preferring the more atmospheric Conspiracy-X rules, but that is just a matter of taste rather than because of any deficiency in the rules.
There are a few minor gripes, the SoI Patrons are poorly explained, and require several readings to get a grip on how the system works. The PC’s are also required to buy some form of status to reflect their position within their organisation (e.g. military rank, administrative rank etc), but it’s not clear when this status should be used as opposed to their SoI rating? Finally, for a book that claims you only need GURPS basic set, Compendium 1 and Psionics, it refers to an awful lot of other GURPS books: GURPS Vehicles, GURPS Special Ops and GURPS High Tech to name three off the top of my head.
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