So. Does the game live up to its promises - and premises?
THE GAME
...starts out (after a brief intro to the conspiracy horror genre) with an overview of the game mechanics. We’re told what traits exist, how conflicts work (including extended conflicts), and what maneuvers, weapons & armor are available. This section seems strongly influenced by the Shadow of Yesterday; not only do extended conflicts work like a simplified version of tSoY’s “bringing down the pain”, but - like in tSoY - “weapons” and “armor” are a description of function, not form. That is, in a given conflict, Reputation and Legal Authority can be used to give you bonuses to attack and defense rolls. The damage you inflict and receive can - again like tSoY - be described in different ways, depending on the type of conflict you’re in; sometimes “damage” will mean a head wound, other times a loss of face.
Like in many games dealing with personal horror and cruelty, the game has mechanics for measuring how close to the edge the characters are. Whenever a character does something morally questionable, the player has to make a roll to see if the character’s Taint increases. Each new level brings new abilities - and problems. These aren’t always easy to translate to game terms - descriptions like “When he is harmed, he becomes enraged and strikes harder and faster” are open to interpretation, and the game encourages group discussion on how to handle them, both mechanically and as guidelines for character portrayal.
While it’s a good thing to encourage the group to agree on how things should work, I have two problems with this approach: First of all, if there are to be rules, I want them to be clear on exactly what to do. If they’re only suggestions, that means GM fiat and/or house rules, none of which I really like. Second, I’d hate to be a player with a taint effect like that when the dice hit the table at the climax of a heated conflict - and I realize the GM has a different interpretation of the effect than I do.
The chapter isn’t all that clear on what the game’s about. It seems a bit premature to tell me how to use my traits when I don’t know where they’re coming from. Luckily the next chapter, “Forming the Cell”, describes character generation - and the game comes into focus.
FORMING THE CELL
Characters are made up of Drive, Trigger, Piety and Ethnicity – in addition to skills and attributes. Drive is a description of personal beliefs and emotions; interestingly, players will be evaluated after each session, and will receive Destiny points for staying true to their characters’ Drives. Triggers are the events that brought the characters into conflict with the Conspiracy; they can be used to aid in conflicts, and when they’re resolved, the characters are out of the game. Ethnicity is self-explanatory, and seems to have no mechanical effect. Piety is both what a character believes, and how strongly; this, also, can be used to aid in conflicts.
Then each character has their Doom – a predetermined horrible ending. You can call upon your Doom to end any conflict in your favor - but that brings you one step closer to... your DOOM! GM’s should see the options for driving players hard; you can set up a conflict that’s nearly impossible to win, and the players will be able to wring their way out of it... at a price. “How far are you willing to go”, indeed.
Now, the group creates their Cell. From a pool based on all the characters’ Assets, players buy the cell’s affiliations, allies, artifacts, contacts, equipment, manpower, magic rituals, mentors, real estate and retainers. I can easily see how groups could care less whether they have three or four retainers, whether they own a cottage or a townhouse, whether they can employ twenty or twenty-five men etc. There’s not a real sense of weighing one important thing off against each other, and if I were to run this game, I’d make each of these a choice between two or three significantly different options. “Do you want to be dirt poor, but affiliated to the Church - or do you want to be able to afford most things you need, and have a strong ally, but no magic at all?”
Like many things in the game, any cell asset can be used in a conflict as a bonus for a die roll - but this costs a Destiny Point for each use, which pretty much makes sure that the high-ranking assets will have an effect on game play, while the average- and low-ranking ones won’t be brought into play very often, if at all.
The cell has a Trust pool that members can draw on in conflicts. Points spent can be regained by having characters make sacrifices to help the group; points are lost if characters don’t make such sacrifices, or... if they die.
Finally, the group makes the cell’s Kicker - an event that leads the whole group right into the game. This technique, taken from the game Sorcerer, is a good way to get players invested in events from the very beginning.
THE SUPERNATURAL
Some have the Witchblood. It’s heritable. Nobody knows where it comes from. It gives magic powers. Witchblood makes characters more susceptible to Taint; the stronger the bloodline, the more powers the character can use - and the easier he succumbs. Some use ritual magic. This requires the appropriate skill, a point of Vitality, and a conflict roll. The rules say losing the conflict can mean trouble - but there’s little detail on what kind of trouble; it seems to be up to the GM to decide exactly what happens if a sorcerer fails to bind a demon, for example.
THE CONSPIRACY
There’s no predefined conspiracy in this game. The GM will be making his own. The guidelines for this are simple and step-by-step; decide on the conspiracy’s agenda, then their power structure, size - etc. However, there’s no mechanics for using the conspiracy in play (nothing like Dogs in the Vineyard’s proto-NPC’s, Demonic Influence or “how to drive the town”, for instance). While I don’t see any easy way to do this, I still would have loved some sort of system that helped me - as a GM - make sure the conspiracy I create will be fun and challenging to run, both for myself and the players. Some way to know that I was providing the right sort and amount of pressure to drive the game forward.
Still, there’s plenty of good advice and ideas on how the conspiracy may be used, especially with respect to the cell the players have made. This is good: the whole point of the conspiracy, in terms of the game, is – of course – its interactions with the PCs.
CREATING THE GAME
Here the GM is told how to plan his campaign and structure individual episodes. The use of themes, how to end the campaign, and the use of horror in the game are all covered.
The concept of “Screen Presence” is introduced as a way of planning how much attention each character will get in a given episode. This is very similar to the screen presence used in Prime Time Adventures; however, in CoS, screen presence doesn’t have any specific mechanical effect – it’s just a guideline for the GM.
The section on episode structuring is based on what function each scene has; teasers, complications, twists and resolution – a classic structure most people will recognize. Not much detail is given, and an example would definitely be welcome.
Apparently, parts of the episode are a collaborative creation: “The first collaborative part of every episode is the introduction of the immediate Issue”. But how, exactly, does the group collaborate? How do they pick an issue? And what about the Teaser, which starts the episode and should “imply the tone of the entire Episode” – does the issue have to fit in with that? If so, how?
PLAYING THE GAME
By now it’s clear that the author intends to cover as much as possible in what little space he’s given himself. This short section (7 pages) covers the use of atmosphere, including practical tips such as isolating the characters to make their lives more scary; plot hooks; pacing; cut scenes; and the portrayal of NPC’s, including tips on body language, use of voice and visual traits. In a sense it’s admirable how much is squeezed into these few pages – but the text suffers a bit from it. It often serves more as a reminder of techniques the GM has already acquired through experience, than as a tutorial on how to use those techniques. Again, examples would have been very useful.
THE SETTING
My God, the fractality! I’m simply getting impressed by how much the author crams into these pages. Let me give you a glimpse of the life of the reviewer. Usually, when you get to the background section, you go “yadda yadda yadda elves hate dwarves yadda yadda feudal system yadda yadda no real change in any of the societies for the last ten thousand years yadda yadda”. Can’t do that here. It’s more like this:
The Vors used to have great city-states and cultural centres. But then, the Valadarin barbarians invaded Polian and toppled the Vors. The Valadarin settled, and their social structure evolved into a decentralized system of strong independent magnates with a large noble class. The Vors, meanwhile, adapted parts of the barbarians’ clan system, and are more traditionally feudal – except there’s no king or nobility. Their clergy spans the entire social ladded, and all people belong to the Church.
And then there’s the tribal Norderins. And the Narrlachi clans. And the religious history, including the origins and spread of Albinicanism, and its interaction with and use of influences from other religions. And the three other major religions, none of which have A) evil assassin death cults, B) the inquisition, or C) mystical pseudo-asian secret GM stuff.
ALL IN ALL
This book is dense. There’s a LOT of stuff crammed in here. If this were a White Wolf book, you’d find the same information spread out over 300 pages. It’s the book’s major strength, and is wonderful for those of us who have no patience for drawn-out, clichéd setting descriptions. The author doesn’t go out of his way to show us how original he can be – he just provides a nuanced, detailed and believable setting, in a minimum of pages.
With respect to mechanics, he uses the same high-density approach. It’s clear that he draws on a background of games most Forge twunts will be very familiar with. That means the book’s full of great stuff that can give you a good game. However, there are two problems.
First of all, some of the rules are hard to grasp if you don’t already know what he’s on about. I have no idea how this will read if you haven’t already read/played Shadows of Yesterday, Prime Time Adventures and Sorcerer. It might work great – on the other hand, you might end up missing half of what’s presented here.
Second, he doesn’t go all the way. Some things that work well as hard and fast rules in other games – like Screen Presence – are presented as guidelines for the GM. In my view, this removes some of the point; rules like these only work if the whole group is focused on them and use them consistently. If it’s all up to the overworked GM (who traditionally ignores most GM advice in the first place), and it has no direct effect on the mechanics, the rule will be used haphazardly and inconsistently.
Still it’s hard not to recommend this book. My main gripe with it, personally, is that I feel like I already have the rule system – spread across five different other games. But most people don’t. The campaign tools in this book are great, and have been proven to work; and those who have played CoS recommend it.
The game won’t work for you if:
• You want detailed tactical combat.
• You want high fantasy and heaps of magic.
• You want the GM to tell the story while the players are listening.
It will work for you if:
• You’re playing some White Wolf medieval setting, but feel like the rules aren’t helping you actually make cool stories about your PCs,
• You’re curious about Those New Games, but don’t want something that’s all heavy fringe theory,
• Or you just want to play a really character-driven medieval conspiracy game.
