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In Short

Unfortunately, there are a lot of problems here. The setting and GM aids are extremely sparse, providing little benefit. The combat system is odd, allowing some characters to survive several heavy pistol shots to the chest with little complication – an unusual choice considering the sort of gameplay Esoterrorists seems to be striving for. The skill list is lengthy and very specific, including extremely trivial skills alongside very powerful skills. The point spending mechanic of the game may leave some players cold, and the rest of the rules are so light that many readers will be left with a muddy understanding of what a character is capable of.

If you’re looking for a rules light system for resolving mysteries with very little attention to combat and an extremely simple stock setting then give The Esoterrorists a try.

The Physical Thing

The art is of average to below average quality and, unfortunately, the product reuses its own art. A simple 6 panel comic is reused in piecemeal form, with all six panels being reprinted later. Additionally, the example pictures and scenes tend to showcase heavily armed characters with body armor performing military actions. This seems somewhat out of place for the product. While some characters may acquire body armor and weapons, which could be used in raids out of the prying eyes of government officials, many characters are meant to be more mundane investigators.

The Ideas

The core setting idea is that the Esoterrorists are a group of occultists who stage hauntings, UFO landings, and other bizarre phenomenon in order to alter the expectations of the local populace and weaken consensual reality enough to allow a creature from beyond to slip into this reality. The characters belong to a group called the Ordo Veritatis which seeks to stop the Esoterrorists and, in rare circumstances, fight the creatures summoned into this world.

Under the Cover

This chapter provides a brief discussion of the overall focus of the game similar to that described in The Ideas above. Members of Ordo Veritatis are drawn from all walks of life to expose the schemes of the Esoterrorists.

Chapter Two Your Character 17 pages.

This is the big character creation chapter for The Esoterrorists. Characters are built on a variable number of points for Investigative Abilities determined by the number of players – from 32 points for 2 players to 20 points for 5 or more players. This is in order to guarantee that most of, if not all of, the Investigative Abilities are accounted for. General Abilities are purchased with a pool of 60 points.

Investigative Abilities range from narrow Abilities (Forensic Anthropology, Textual Analysis, Bullshit Detector) to broad Abilities (Law, Research, Evidence Collection) and are generally split into three categories (Academics, Interpersonal, and Technical) to help the player. Standalone Abilities include Athletics, Health, Medic, Shooting, and nine others. These tend to be quite broad and generally useful in a variety of circumstances. The only one I find odd is Preparedness, which reflects how Prepared for things a character is. A successful Preparedness check might reflect a character having packed a first aid kit in the trunk of her car, for example.

Let’s build a character!

Example: I’m creating Beth Paris, a museum curator. I’m assuming this is a 4 player game, so I have 22 points to spend on Investigative Abilities. I choose to spend them this way: Architecture 3, Art History 5, Forensic Accounting 1, History 2, Languages 2 (Spanish, Latin), Research 1, Photography 3, Bureaucracy 1, Flattery 1, Flirting 1, Negotiation 1, Reassurance 1. Now I have 60 points to spend on General Abilities. The only rule is that I must have an Ability equal to half the value of my highest Ability, so I could not have Scuffling 40 and Driving 10 as my second highest. I’d have to have at least a 20 in order to have a 40. This means that characters with supreme levels of skill in one area have little breadth of capability.

I decide to buy Athletics 10, Driving 5, Health 15, Scuffling 5, Stability 15, Surveilance 5, Infiltration 2, and Preparedness 3. I reason that Beth keeps in good shape, with regular martial arts and yoga classes, and that’s why she’s quite tough. An average person only has a Health of 4 and Stability of 4, making player characters quite exceptional. That’s it, character creation is done!

Chapter Three The Gumshoe Rules System 6 pages.

This chapter begins with a brief discussion of why the Gumeshoe System exists. The system came about because of dissatisfaction with random dice rolling as a means to advance a mystery, with a desire to give the players all the major clues and let them spend points to gather even more hints and information. A standard structure for a mystery adventure is also provided, walking a GM through the process for creating a simple mystery.

Clues in The Esoterrorists are gathered through the use of Investigative Abilities. As long as a character has an appropriate Ability, all the player needs to do is say something like “Beth is using Art History to look over the portrait for clues.” That’s it. If there’s a clue there, Beth will discover it and the GM will tell her what she’s found. This may often allow for quick scene advancement where, moments after a clue is found, the game shifts to the next scene where the characters are investigating a new location.

Players can get more than just the clues, however, if they’re willing to spend the points. Every Ability in the game, both Investigative and General, has its own pool of points equal to its rating. My example character, Beth, has a pool of 5 points in Art History and 1 point in Forensic Accounting. If she found a clue related to her Art History skill, or I thought up some sort of useful information I’d like for her to discover related to that, then I’ll spend a few points (typically 1 or 2) from that pool to gain the information.

Where multiple characters are investigating with the same Ability the one with the highest Ability gets the information first. Where they’re tied they both get the information at the same time.

Chapter Four Tests 18 pages.

Gumshoe uses two types of Tests to determine if a character succeeds at an action. Simple Tests involve rolling 1d6 +/- modifiers assigned by the GM + any points a player wants to spend from the relevant Ability’s pool. My example character, Beth, would roll 1d6 + 0 on an Athletics test normally. I could spend up to 10 points from her Athletics 10 pool, however, to increase the die roll. I would have to do that before the die is rolled, and I’d want to make sure to only spend points when it really matters. Points refresh between game sessions. Tests have a Difficulty ranging between 2 (Easy) and 8 (Very Hard). Some players may not care for the speculative nature of the system, as they may end up spending pool points on relatively easy tasks or fewer points on tasks that turn out to be quite difficult.

Simple rules for Piggybacking (a group of people using one character’s Ability) and Cooperation are also provided. To Piggyback every character must spend 1 point from the same Ability the main character is using, and then the main character makes their roll using any amount of their own points (and only their own points). The big downside is that if a character doesn’t have any points to spend, perhaps because they don’t have that ability, it increases the Difficulty Number of the attempt by 2 (which is a large increase). This makes it difficult to Piggyback with mid to large groups of characters. Cooperation allows other players to spend points on the primary character’s behalf, but they subtract one point from every expenditure. If my character, Beth, was helping another character with Art History she could spend 3 points and the other character would get the benefit of 2 points.

Contests are common events in The Esoterrorists, especially during chase scenes. The instigating character goes first, rolling against a set Difficulty Number. Then another character goes. Everyone keeps rolling until someone fails. When a monster is chasing the characters, if the monster fails then the characters get away. If a character fails then the monster catches that character and the game shifts to combat. Sometimes different entities will have different Difficulty Numbers. In a chase scene this could represent one party being in its natural environment while the others are intruders, allowing the one to succeed more easily.

Combat is very simple – perhaps too simple. A character rolls their Scuffling or Shooting skill against a Difficulty Number of 3 or 4 (4 if the opponent has a high Athletics). A successful hit results in a damage roll of 1d6 +/- a modifier being applied to the character’s Health, with the modifier ranging from -2 (Punch, Kick) to +1 (Heavy Firearm). Armor subtracts this damage. Most characters can take a gunshot or two and continue fighting, and some exceptionally hardy characters (such as my example character) might be able to survive five or more gunshots before passing out.

A few simple rules, such as using cover and reloading guns, are also provided. Health for normal humans will be around 4, though a character in The Esoterrorists with Health so low probably wont survive for long. Characters can take damage up to -12 Health before they actually die, though negative conditions and blood loss are applied to them as they get hurt more.

Characters in The Esoterrorists have a lot more to worry about than simply being shot or stabbed with a kitchen knife, however. Stability measures the mental health of a character, and it’s relatively easy to lose. Whenever a character encounters something horrific they must make a Difficulty 4 Stability test or lose Stability. This is where the mechanics are a little strange. Characters can spend Stability points to increase this roll in order to make sure they succeed. This results in bizarre circumstances where characters wont spend for relatively mundane losses (losing 2 points for being in a car wreck) but will spend 2 or 3 points in severe circumstances (losing 8 points from watching a loved one being killed). Stability operates like Health. When reduced to zero points a character is Shaken. They can’t use Investigative abilities anymore and all Difficulty Numbers go up by 1. At -6 they acquire a Mental Illness and permanently lose a point of Stability. At -12 they become incurably insane and may go out in one last self destructive act or be permanently committed to an asylum. Insanity is probably as common, or even more common, than injury in most The Esoterrorists games, especially since monsters are described as being so nasty they tend to kill rather than injure.

The product goes on to provide a list of mental illness effects that, for me, are infuriating. The exact mental illness is determined by group discussion while the player of the mentally ill character is sent out of the room Of the six included, allow me to share a few of them with you. Homicidal Mania involves the GM taking the player aside and telling the player that his character knows another PC is a supernatural creature but also knows exactly how to kill that creature. Another, Paranoia, involves the players and GM working together as people – not as characters in the game – to be suspicious and make the other player nervous. One example for Delusion is “there might be no such thing as squirrels.” Multiple Personality Disorder involves another player being assigned to play the character during times of stress, effectively robbing the player of the character during the most exciting parts of the game. Some players may like these silly mental illness options, but for some groups they could cause real irritation.

Both Stability and Health may be restored through the Shrink and Medic Abilities which allow points from those pools to be spent to increase the Stability or Health pools. The chapter wraps up with an explanation for when pools refresh (usually between sessions) and how to advance characters (2 build points awarded per session that may be spent on Investigative or General Abilities).

Chapter Five Designing Scenarios 2 pages.

This brief chapter provides some simple suggestions for creating adventures. The main suggestion, which is excellent, is to look through the weird news stories of the present day and pull out ideas that seem interesting. Often our own news suggests weird conspiracies if we use just a bit of imagination, and this is a great way to get inspiration for adventures. The chapter also discusses how imprisonment can often bring an investigative game to a halt and that it’s best avoided where possible.

Chapter Six Running Scenarios 4 pages.

These four pages discuss how to create the illusion of choice for players even when they’re being railroaded. One suggestion is that players should be allowed to flesh out the minor details of the story in order to feel more involved. Advanced GMs who can think quickly on their feet are encouraged to take player input and roll with it, even allowing players to spend points to create their own clues and such if the GM can handle that. Finally, the author suggests using index cards with the word “SCENE” written on them to indicate to the players when an investigative scene has come to an end and they need to wrap up character commentary. I think the index card suggestion is a great idea.

Chapter Seven The Laws of Esoterror 3 pages.

Our world is an objective reality where laws of nature apply. Another realm, separated by something called The Membrance, is a completely subjective reality where monsters and chaos reigns. Human belief can erode the membrane, allowing these creatures to come across. The Esoterrorists stage hauntings, UFO landings, and other such things to get people to believe in the supernatural in order to weaken the Membrane. Once that is done the Esoterrorists summon one or more of these creatures into this world, usually using a set formula to give it one of three forms. The Esoterrorists expect they can bargain with these beings for power. Your characters are here to stop the Esoterrorists.

Chapter Eight Creatures 1 page.

The monsters section takes up one half of a page and includes three monsters. Blood Corpses are zombies. Kooks are kinda like alien Greys in appearance, only they’re feral children with sharp teeth that eat children. Torture Dogs are “extra-dimensional hunter-trackers [that] resemble giant mammalian cyborg weevils.” A simple stat block is provided for each, and they’re pretty tough opponents.

Chapter Nine Reality’s Last Defenders 2 pages.

This chapter presents two pages of very sparse information discussing the priorities of the Ordo Veritatis. Secrecy and cover ups are high on their priority list, and in general the group avoids combat and trouble with law enforcement whenever possible.

Chapter Ten Operation Slaughterhouse 24 pages.

This is an example adventure for The Esoterrorists involving high level political corruption, murders in Washington D.C., and the weird methods the Esoterrorists use to advance their plans. On the whole I find the adventure to be adequate. Some of the rules are a little odd, such as no Stability test for seeing a gruesome crime scene involving severed body parts and blood everywhere but requiring a test later for seeing someone decapitated in a car accident. Still, the adventure does a good job of showing the GM how to hand out additional information based on expenditures of Investigation Ability pools, and that makes it a welcome addition to the product.

My Take

Combat seems inconsistent. On the one hand the game suggestions that characters should die regularly to the horrors they encounter. On the other hand, many characters can survive a surprising amount of damage which seems to be at odds with the high lethality horror game The Esoterrorists strives to be. Add to that the fact that the Medic Ability seems to magically heal people and I’m really confused as to what The Esoterrorists wants to be. I also dislike the Stability system for reasons stated earlier in the review.

If you are looking for a game setting, avoid The Esoterrorists. The setting material is extremely sparse and could easily be summed up in one page of text. If you are looking for a rules system dedicated to investigation, to the general exclusion of everything else, then give The Esoterrorists a try. The Ability pool based clue gaining is innovative and a welcome evolution in game design.

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