"You don't have to get along with everyone, but you can't be a dickhead and expect to be hired or stay employed."
MetalMan's Review of "InSpectres" by Memento Mori Theatrics
NOTE: The version of InSpectres being reviewed is version 2.03 and is the current version as of this writing. The points raised in this review may or may not apply to your version of the game.
InSpectres is not a new game. It's been hanging around for a few years now getting occassional fixes and adjustments. What originally started out as a Free RPG has now gone commercial. The mastermind behind the game is Jared Sorensen of Squeam fame. You can get a free startup edition of the game to try before you buy. There are also currently two free supplements for the game: In-Speckers and UnSpeakable with more on the way.
The Premise:
Players assume the roles of the various parapsychologists, ghost hunters, technical specialists and ordinary schmoes who are members of the InSpectres franchise. Their jobs are to deal with the various annoyances and embarassments of supernatural occurances in this modern world. Think of it as a lively comedic mix between Ghostbusters and various reality TV shows.
What Ya Get:
InSpectres is a thirty-nine page Adobe Acrobat file. You will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader software or a similiar third-party program capable of rendering the PDF document format to make use of this game.
Cost:
Ten dollars USD will score you a copy of InSpectres for your own.
Appearance:
The appearance of InSpectres is minimal. There are no interior illustrations and only a single simple black and white one (presumably the InSpectres franchise logo) on the front cover. Text is arranged in single-column format and is well-organized and relatively free of typographical errors.
The Game:
After the obligatory introduction, you get to the meat of the game: character generation. You give the character a name, personality and what former occupation they had prior to joining InSpectres, Inc. Each character has four skills: Academics, Athletics, Technology and Contact. All should be self-evident except for Contact which represents how much of a gift the character has for social interaction. Nine dice are allotted to be distributed through these four skills. No skill can have more than four dice and less than one. In addition, you recieve an extra bonus die for selecting a Talent. A Talent is something that the character is good at such as Car Mechanics or Star Trek Trivia. You recieve the use of this bonus die in the game when it can be applied to the current situation. Talents can be applied to any skill as long as you are creative enough to rationalize it in some manner to satisfy the GM. Some people are going to hate this simplified method of chargen but it's really going to depend on your style of play. While these skills encompass a broad area, they're also inclusive and flexible in their use such as using a Technology skill roll to impress someone.
Next up is franchise creation. If you've ever played Conspiracy X, this idea shouldn't be completely alien to you. You pick what size of InSpectres branch you wish to use in your game and this determines the number of dice that you get to distribute among your resources. There are three resources that you can allot franchise dice to: A Library Card, a Gym Card and a Credit Card. Each add to your Academic, Athletic and Technology skill rolls respectively. There is also The Bank. Any unused franchise dice can be placed in the bank. The bonus of this is that these dice can be used on any skill roll - the downside is that the dice may or may not be available for use when you need them. Such is the freewheeling nature of modern corporate practices of cooking the books... er... accounting. I love the idea of the bank. Not only does it give the players a greater chance to accomplish their tasks but is is also extremely risky to take wanton advantage of it because you could loose everything and send your franchise spiraling down into bankruptcy. If you hate the use of dice pools in your games, you are probably not going to care for this.
The fourth section details the game mechanics. Task resolution is very simple and yet also the single best thing about InSpectres. You roll the number of dice that you have in your skill and take the highest result from one of your dice and compare it to a chart. The bigger the roll - the better it is for your character. You can not only be successful in your attempt - you can wrest control temporarily away from the GM and describe the results and consequences of your action that affect the game. Truly spectacular rolls can even earn you franchise dice. Low rolls mean that the GM remains in control and gets to throw a monkeywrench in the situation or "make the characters lives more interesting." There is also an ancient Chinese curse that says: "may you live an interesting life." Rules are also given for acquiring items and the dice roll guidelines required to obtain them as well as a fun little rule for "rejects" that an especially devious GM could implement on gadget-mad groups. The mechanics section concludes with rules for "taking 4" (those of you familiar with d20 should have no problem with this concept except that it can only be used when the relevant skill is already at 4) and rules for teamwork (which essentially boil down to donating a die from each participating character's skill roll in an attempt to bolster another character's roll). There isn't anything flashy with the mechanics - they're simple and easy to understand. Where the fun truly comes in, however, is with the players taking control. I probably would not recommend InSpectres for inexperienced GMs but, if you like improvising and really getting your characters involved in the game, you really should take a look at this.
Stress is something that every character in InSpectres has to deal with. The more horrific or agitating the situation is that the character finds themselves in - the GM may require a stress roll with a number of dice equal to the severity of the situation. The results of this roll can be something as inconvenient as a temporary modifier to a single dice roll or a permanent penalty to a skill. On the plus side, a spectacular roll of 6 will earn you a point of Cool. Cool is used to offset the number of stress dice required for a stress roll. Cool can also be spent in game to negate a penalty on a skill on a one for one basis or used to augument any skill roll (at the caveat on it not being available later when it might be needed).
Weird Agents are covered next. Weird, in this case, meaning anything that isn't human like werewolves, vampires, mummies, or talking dogs from another planet. InSpectres recommends that you only allow one weird agent per playing group. Weird agent characters get some pretty hefty advantages in that they start the game with ten dice to put into their skills, they can have up to ten in a skill and can have zero in a skill as well. Any dice not used can be converted to Cool. The downside to this is that you don't get to pick a Talent, you have to spend Cool points to activate any weird powers that your character may have, you don't earn income, and you can't earn franchise dice no matter how well you roll. Rules are given for having normal agents going weird through things like vampire bites, voodoo rituals, etc. and a few vampire, werewolf, ghost, zombie, psychic, sorcerer, demon and supernatural hero sample characters are given. Special mention should be given to the humorous description of the supernatural hero sample character - I've played with these types of folks for years and so has the author apparently.
Play structure is discussed in the following section and addresses the major hurtle that most GMs are going to have to deal with - how to effectively run a game where the players can potentially direct the plot. The first topic covered is the starting interview which is basically a chance for the players to introduce their characters and for the GM to set the tone of the game. Three different types of starting interviews are given. Confessionals are one of the trickiest parts of InSpectres to incorporate into the game but it is also one of the most powerful tools the players can bring to bear. Confessionals are moments where the character breaks the fourth wall and addresses the "audience." They can take this time to either allude to events that haven't happened yet (predetermining some facet of the overall plot) or talking about other characters. If they talk about other characters and assign an characteristic to them like "cowardly" or "daring", the character who was described can gain a extra franchise dice if they roleplay that characteristic during the game. Information is also given on how to incorporate events outside of the character's work for InSpectres aka their private lives as well as how to create and use NPCs in the game. The basic plot structure of an InSpectres game is covered next and gives an outline of how the plot should unfold even with minor deviations from the players. Information on bankruptcy and debt, death and dismemberment, vacations and character continuity wrap up this section. On a side note, this is also the largest section of the book but also the most essential. Included in this section are the real hooks to get the players involved. If you are a GM running InSpectres for the first time, you need to read and read again this section. This will determine exactly how much fun you're going to have. Don't get me wrong, InSpectres can be used without a good grasp of this information but you're not going to truly get all the enjoyment you could out of it otherwise.
The final section of InSpectres is final words from the author, general gaming tips on how to have a fun game session, credits, a list of inspirational material and a glossary of terms.
Overall Impression:
If you're a control freak GM, this is not your game. If you're not into roleplaying, this is not your game. This game is for people who like to cut loose with their games and do outrageous funny psycho-crazy stuff. This is a game who can quickly think on their feet and GMs who can run with it. This isn't to say that its totally freeform (far from it) but it expects a certain level of cooperation and desire to have fun from everyone playing. InSpectres is polished and ready to go. If you like really fun games or support independent game design, you really should consider buying a copy. I honestly cannot recommend InSpectres highly enough.
MetalMan signing off.
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