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In Short

Those who are already familiar with Conspiracy X or the Unisystem will get a lot less out of this title. The entire core Unisystem rules are reprinted once again and this reviewer could not tell a difference between the Conspiracy X information presented here and that from previous products. This book will only be a useful addition to your library if you intend to run a Unisystem Conspiracy X game.

The Physical Thing

The art is of average to low quality, and while many pieces fit well with whatever is being discussed that’s not true for a lot of the art. The art is mostly people, some of them in suits, which is at times evocative and other times wasteful. In the equipment section we are treated to a half page picture of a completely normal van. On the other hand the few pictures of satellites, undersea domes, and research centers do convey a conspiracy sort of feel. As far as I can tell the art is entirely recycled from previous Conspiracy X products, and some fans of the series may find this irritating.

The Ideas

In addition to the standard government agent types Conspiracy X also allows players to take on the roles of psychics and mystics. In fact, 95% of the human population is naturally psionic and can call upon their abilities on occasion to get various intuitive nudges. Full blown telekinesis and telepathy using psychics as well as spell casting occultists are possible, though the magic in the setting is more subtle and ritual oriented. Magic is basically a tool to help solve the dilemma of a given session and not to kill bad guys with.

The setting provides several different players in the massive worldwide conspiracies so game moderators will be able to weave together a multi tiered conspiracy the players could spend years breaking apart. However, some of the groups involved in the conspiracy seem so much stronger than humanity it is difficult to imagine them having a meaningful role in a campaign. This could be resolved either by playing up the fatalistic perspective (this is too big for us), avoiding the most powerful groups, or switching over to a more Cinematic game.

The ideas here aren’t fresh or new, but those looking for a game that lets them play out their favorite episode of X-Files have found the perfect match.

Under the Cover

Both a functional table of contents and index are present here. Every chapter begins with the same background art (recycled from the covers of earlier products). The book begins with some average quality setting fiction to get readers in the conspiracy oriented mindset.

Chapter 1 Indoctrination 5 pages.

A disclaimer that this book is fiction, a chapter summary, the standard roleplay book questions and answers; this chapter is only of use to those orienting themselves with the chapter summary or those new to roleplaying games. The last page contains a section just about Conspiracy X which discusses what sorts of fiction the game emulates. X-Files, Signs, 24, Akira, and other bits of fiction are discussed along with how to use the book to get that sort of feel. I question whether Conspiracy X and the core Unisystem generally is suited to running games with world shaking power, but it is one of the suggestions. Most of the abilities introduced in this product facilitate lower key styles of play.

Chapter 2 Personnel 83 pages.

This chapter begins with a two page explanation of the setting to get new players up to speed. After that the different character elements in Unisystem are presented along with different character types the game moderator may make available. For example, a lower key game may use the Pre-Heroic and Neo-Talented build options to create just above average individuals for play. An X-Files emulating game might just use the Pre-Heroic package alone. Two other packages, Heroic and Talented, are presented for the notably above average characters. Games trying to emulate 24 and Akira would want to use these. As always these packages can be mixed and matched for a given game, though it does result with characters of notably different power levels.

Depending upon which package a player selects they will have a certain number of points to spend on characteristics. These include Attributes, Skills, Qualities, and Drawbacks. Attributes and Skills form the backbone of the Unisystem with most task resolution involving Attribute + Skill + 1d10. Attributes represent raw physical ability while Skills represent specialized training. Qualities are special abilities and can range from supernatural powers to contacts to physical beauty. Drawbacks are various disadvantages, such as physical handicaps, that a character may have which give more build points.

A very nice addition to the Unisystem is the introduction of Professions. Players may spend a mixture of attribute and skill points to buy a Profession package representing their past training. Examples include: FBI agents, Air Force pilots, NASA scientists, and other similar government backgrounds. Each of them includes bonus Skills, Qualities, and Drawbacks as well as “Pulling Strings” which includes the sorts of influence that profession could exert, such as being able to arrest people. It’s a very lengthy, comprehensive list that provides many options for characters as well as a brief description of the organization.

The Qualities section introduces some new Qualities for Unisystem though they are setting specific. The Quality list is comprehensive and fun, giving players many options for their characters. However, the lengthy list rounds out a moderately complex character creation process. A player new to Unisystem should have a good character concept before looking at all the options available to them.

I was a little disappointed to see all the standard Unisystem skills again. Beautician, for instance, has no real use except to supplement Disguise rolls. In addition, the game focuses on government agent types. Cosmetology just isn’t a path into the FBI or NASA. There are many other flavorful skills like this as well. I like the idea of character flavor through skills, but with Beautician competing with such essential skills as Investigation, Occult Knowledge, and Myth and Legend: UFOlogy it seems like a poor decision to keep these other skills. For a game like All Flesh Must Be Eaten where characters come from all walks of life this skill list makes more sense, but it just doesn’t work for Conspiracy X. Finally, the entire skill system suffers from being too narrow. The skills are very specific and some players will find themselves picking many skills to represent one area of training (such as surveillance).

While the game hints that it can be run using Cinematic Unisystem rules there is no support for that. If a GM wants to run it using Cinematic Unisystem then they’ll have to buy Buffy or Angel. Speaking of buying other products, while this game is technically complete it only offers a few magical rituals and a very vague suggestion on how to build others. Those who want more magic and psionics are encouraged to purchase an upcoming supplement. I really think more information on both topics should have been included in this book, which makes the suggestion of an additional purchase more than once.

Chapter 3 Ops Center 37 pages.

At first glance this is an equipment chapter. However, this includes bases as well as guns and gear. Characters each have a number of resource points at the start of the game, which they may pool, that may be spent on acquiring a base for their cell (the PC unit is assumed to be a child cell) as well as a large variety of gear. This is stuff that comes straight from Aegis or whatever black ops operation the characters work for, so no need to worry about stuff like a paper trail.

The system appears to work well, and I think building a base could be a lot of fun for a group. Additional resource points are gained during downtime to stock the base back up on grenades or buy a new van. GMs who aren’t interested in this level of detail could skip all of these rules and generally let the characters have whatever gear makes sense. A GM could also use the resource point system but provide the base so that characters need not spend points on it. The biggest problem I see is that bases are assumed to have little to nothing except what is bought with resource points. If the characters want to sleep in their rooms, but they forgot to buy rooms for their characters, then they’re out of luck. This problem can, of course, be alleviated through simple attention to detail.

Buying everything from staff to vehicles to eavesdropping equipment is time consuming but it looks fun, especially considering how important gear tends to be in a modern conspiracy setting.

Chapter 4 Tradecraft 31 pages.

This chapter deals with the rest of the Unisystem rules. As of this writing interested people may download C. J. Carella’s Witchcraft for free off the Eden Studios website and check out the Unisystem.

The system is principally a Stat+Skill system where rolling high is good. The GM frequently modifies the roll to represent greater or lesser difficulty. The game has rules for everything, from fear tests to radiation to a fun but simple martial arts system. The core d10 mechanic keeps resolution simple though I certainly wouldn’t call Unisystem a rules light system.

Chapter 5 Paranormal 19 pages.

This chapter introduces the unusual abilities some characters have access to beginning with psionics. Most of humanity is psionically active and can use their limited abilities to aid intuition, getting 6th sense sorts of “vibes” about certain things. Full blown practitioners can use telekinesis, telepathy, aura reading, and other powerful abilities. The rules for these powers aren’t complicated, though telekinesis and telepathy do seem like really potent abilities to have in the setting. I think more should have been said about the sheer power of telepathy in a game focused on conspiracies.

Other supernatural powers are briefly covered as well. There are five spells (called Rituals) as well as a paragraph explaining in general terms how to create new Rituals. The chapter also discusses beings that have been corrupted by Seepage, the psionic/magical overflow that humans radiate. These corrupted beings are responsible for vampire, werewolf, and many other supernatural stories and become more than human. A few example powers are presented, but there isn’t a lot of support here. The book suggests that GMs should invent whatever powers they think are appropriate, or purchase the upcoming book that will list additional Rituals, Powers, Psionics, etc.

Chapter 6 Classified 35 pages.

This chapter provides the background on the Conspiracy X world as well as information on the major alien races and the NDD (the darker counterpart to Aegis, the good guys PCs are presumed to work for). What about all the other supernatural phenomenon? It’s just not here. Plenty of stuff for running a secret agent vs. aliens game but no additional adversaries. No stats for any adversaries except the typical members of the major alien races and the NDD. Keep in mind that one alien race is composed entirely of pacifists and another is so far advanced they might as well be gods, so stats that are provided are not very helpful.

The background history of the Conspiracy X world ranges from interesting to boring at times, though a GM could easily ignore the setting information and run the game as they like.

The Appendix 7 pages.

Conversion rules to bring Conspiracy X 1st edition up to speed as well as rules for playing without dice.

My Take

The listed review is for folk who are new to both Conspiracy X and the Unisystem. This game has a lot of good stuff going for it. The Unisystem is a fun system with lots of nifty fiddly bits to enjoy, especially during character creation. My past experiences with Cinematic Unisystem have shown the game to be smooth in play as long as the players have written out their combat maneuvers ahead of time. The setting is fun to read and has a lot of potential, though some of the historical information seems unnecessary and long winded.

For those that already have a copy of Unisystem: You are not going to get as much out of this product. The core Unisystem is reprinted again, along with the same qualities you’ve seen before. The handling of resource points is nice, and I liked cell creation. These rules could easily be ported into another game, allowing a group to do anything from build an Initiative cell for a Buffy campaign to a well funded group of spell casters for Witchcraft. The telekinesis rules are different from those presented in The Magic Box and there are new qualities and drawbacks that might be ported to certain other games, though most of them are very setting specific.

For those that already have a copy of Conspiracy X: A lot of, if not all of, the art is reprinted from earlier Conspiracy X products. The setting information is very sparse here, so don’t expect to get anything other than the Unisystem core rules with some Conspiracy X additions.

For running a spy or modern day conspiracy oriented game I like this product well enough. The extensive careers and resource system really help the core Unisystem thrive with this genre. However, the supernatural abilities are not well developed. A core rulebook should have support for such an important element of the setting, namely the supernatural here. I disliked that instead of more than five rituals a future product was plugged with a paragraph suggesting how a GM can create their own rituals. No example mutants were given, such as a vampire or some other sort of ghoul. There just aren’t enough core adversaries either. A GM can always create their own material, but purchasers should expect core rulebooks to offer a certain amount of quality material from the start.

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