InSpectres

 

Fighting the forces of darkness so you don’t have to.

 

 

Introduction

 

This review – being my first and all that – has been rewritten a number of times. In this latest version I’ve tried to keep it short and concise, like the game it is about. I know it didn’t work, so sue me.

 

First an apology to Jared A. Sorensen should be in order that it took half a year till I put this up. But seen in a positive light, this gave me the chance to gm InSpectres more than once. And it was a pleasure to do so.

 

 

Overview

 

InSpectres is a roleplaying game by Jared A. Sorensen that is easy to “learn” and ideal for playing on short notice. The authors statement, that the system was designed “to turn the whole player-GM relationship on its head” is quite true and even playing it once can be an eye-opener concerning player centered storytelling. The pdf has eighty pages and is available as a screen-viewing and print-out version. This review is based on a comp copy of the screen-version of the pdf. The print-out version will probably have a higher resolution making the art less “grainy”. Additionally if you own the pdf, you can upgrade it to a dead-tree version (momentarily sold out).

 

The pdf is available at RPGnow or directly at Memento Mori Theatricks.

 

 

Presentation & Style

 

The pdf is black and white with a nice and clean layout combined with a readable font. The text is formatted into one column and broken by boxes of the same size, which contain tips for playing the game. There are a number of illustrations in the pdf which are done in a comic like style that perfectly fits the setting of the game (see below). The art looks professional and does not have to fear a comparison with that found in books of some larger companies.

 

The pdf offers a four pages long functional index and an appendix in the back. The appendix features a glossary, a summary of the game mechanics and the relevant tables for the game. Last but not least you find things like the character sheet and the important “EMPLOYEE NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT”.

 

 

Setting

 

The setting information is not even a page long and presents something like the world today, only with ghosts, demons and … stuff. The players are the owners or employees of a franchise from InSpectres. This is a company like “Ghostbusters” which takes care of annoying things like paranormal vermin, the undead grandmother etc. . The basic advice is to play this as humorous mixture of movies like the abovementioned Ghostbusters and Startup, but you can also go for something more serious or cthulhuesque (can be found here).

 

Finally comes the usual “you can change what you want and fit it to your style of play” remark and that’s about it.

 

 

Later on in the pdf, you get more information on the general way to play a session:

 

-        First the client interview (The client and his case can be created via randomized tables).

-        Research and grabbing equipment.

-        Solving the problem.

-        Unwinding to remove stress penalties (see below).

 

 

System

 

The system uses d6 dice pools of manageable size (manageable for those that are not too fond of dice pools). That means generally you roll 3 dice, with a maximum of 7d6 as an exception. Overall the system is nothing groundbreaking, but it is easy to learn and works well in most cases. It has a few bugs, but nothing that can’t be fixed.

 

 

But first: How does it work?!

 

Characters are created by assigning nine skill dice on your character’s four skills, with a maximum of 4 d6 in one skill. The skills are Academics, Athletics, Technology and Contact. When a character attempts something, you have to find the relevant skill, throw the amount of d6 you have in that skill and compare the highest result to a chart. The chart has values from 1 to 6, with 1 meaning catastrophic failure and 6 meaning player narrated positive outcome. With 5 and 6 you also get franchise dice, but more on that later.

 

Another thing that will influence the size of the rolled dice pool is the characters talent. The talent is chosen during character creation and can be something like “hung around the comic store during his youth”. Whenever a situation arises that is connected to that talent, the character can add one bonus die to his skill roll.

 

A negative modifier to your skill roll is stress. During play the Investigators see horrible things or dead things or … . Investigators then have to roll a number of dice corresponding to how sanity blasting the whole experience was. Check that against a chart and you get results from “loses skill dice” to “gets cool dice”. The cool dice grant a certain resistance against further stress rolls.

 

Finally you have “franchise cards”. These are one-use-only storage places for franchise dice. Franchise dice are earned during investigation by rolling 5 or 6 on skill rolls and basically by finishing a case. One franchise card for example is “the library”, which allows the withdrawal of dice for Academics skill rolls.

 

 

Putting the whole thing together could lead to the following:

 

Thomas, the Head of Research of your InSpectres team wants to know everything relevant for banishing evil spirits. He has an Academics skill of 4. But alas, today he has already had a horrific encounter. His possessed neighbour ate his beloved dog! (And quite messily at that.) Understandably he has trouble concentrating and loses 3 dice on his Academics skill (one die remaining). Fortunately his talent involves rpgs, so he knows everything about evil spirits (+ 1 die)! Because his research is a question of life and death, he withdraws two dice from the library card. In the end Thomas rolls 4 d6, gets a 6 and saves the day.

 

There are some additional rules and the possibility to play demons, vampires etc., but the main concepts can be readily seen in the above example.

 

 

What is special?

 

The main difference to the standard rpg comes up with the player narrating his success. If the players search the haunted house for clues and succeed, they have to come up with an explanation of what they find and what it means. For example “Under the floorplanks of the study we find the diary of the mad New England witch hunter. Three of the entries point to a conspiracy of the old families of the village”. The players have to come up with tidbits like that, while the job of the GM is to help them along and tie the events and ideas into a coherent whole.

 

And as an additional mechanic you get the confessional. It is not really a mechanic, but one more possibility for the players to influence the game. The game compares it to the scenes in reality shows, where one person tells what he thinks about another one or about relationship issues. The confessional allows players to add back story to their own or other characters, twist the plot, or add the fact that they brought holy water along to the current scene. Holy water not being one of the usual things to carry around, the players have to narrate their uncanny ability to bring along such lifesaving equipment. Depending on the tone of the game, this could be a bad joke or an elaborate scheme. Meaning: They need a consistent explanation, but otherwise are free to modify the facts.

As neither I nor my players watch reality shows we renamed the confessional to director’s chair. In my opinion that is the use of the chair. Players can not only comment, but they can rewrite the whole plot. But regardless how you call it, the confessional is a very good idea and adds to the playing experience.

 

 

A relevant point that should be mentioned, is the lack of experience points or rules based character development. What will change during playing sessions is the success/failure of the franchise and the amount of cool dice the characters have.

 

This might not be enough for everybody.

 

 

Playtest

 

How did it work out in play? The relevant part of the review.

 

The good:

 

This game requires practically no prep time. The first session of InSpectres I mastered came a bit as a surprise. I had read the rules only once and had planned to read some examples of play. I wanted to see how to best handle the confessionals and the way other groups played this game. When a regular session of another game was cancelled on short notice and the group met anyway, I pulled out InSpectres. While I reread some rules, my group made the characters and we started playing about one hour later. In the beginning we created a town for their franchise. It was quite astounding, how fast a group can create a setting with all the necessary trappings for interesting plots. I only vetoed certain ideas, to preserve the setting’s consistency. Following that, we detailed the franchise. A few rolls got them an old gas station with a diner and a massive environmental problem. Next up was the client interview for their first case. The random tables in the rules produced a nice customer and some vague plot ideas. I kept the information I gave the players quite sparse, as I didn’t have too much planned and also wanted them to come up with the clues on their own.

 

It took some time to get used to the style of play (narrating your success) and to the confessionals, but they were accepted readily enough. During the game I sat back and gave the players free reign. When I wanted to make changes to the plot I also did it in the form of confessionals. This is not in the rules, but it worked very well and helped in getting players and GM on the same level.

 

The story that was created during play was quite complicated, humorous and so interesting that everyone was keen on playing again.

 

 

The bad:

 

The first game produced mostly successful rolls for the skill tests, meaning a 5 or 6. Rolls without negative consequences come up too often, if the skilled characters (3 or 4 in a skill) make them. In my group the franchise’s Academic was doing all the research, the Contact guy procured the equipment etc. . While players working together is great, this definitely lessened the dramatic impact of some scenes. This problem can be remedied by adding stress penalties. But you have to give them for all skills (contrary to the recommendation in the pdf). Otherwise players will specialise some more and still roll success after success.

 

Another rule I found unconvincing was the cool mechanic. It leads to cool characters becoming cooler, while the stressed ones become even more so. Meaning that one character stays competent in his skills, while the other is sucked into an “incompetence spiral”.

 

The lack of an experience system seems to be no problem for one-shots, but one player thought it unfitting for longer campaigns. And I see that it can be a turnoff for a number of people.

 

One final thing: The game definitely seems better suited to humorous play. My players had some problems in narrating the story the moment they felt it had to be somewhat consistent/realistic.

 

 

Conclusion

 

The game is an interesting alternative to “classic” roleplaying games. It is fun to play, easy to learn and the ideal game for playing on short notice. I’ m not sure if it is suited for beginners, but it is definitely worth a try. I would not recommend it to GMs that prefer keeping a tight reign on their players or have trouble improvising. But even then, it might just help you getting a new perspective in your regular games.

 

And if you are suffering from GM burnout, or want to convince your players to support your gaming efforts this could help you in doing so.

 

 

Concerning the rating:

 

I gave the game a 5 in Style, because it is (among other things) an enjoyable read and because I really liked the art. There are better looking (full colour) books available, but you don’t get those for 10 dollars! The same with the substance: It has only eighty pages, but they contain everything needed for hours of fun, as the players are your “splatbooks”.

  

 

A final word: If this review got you even slightly interested in reading or playing the game, just buy the pdf, it’s well worth the price.