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The short answer is a resounding “Yes,” thanks to a rather inspired bit of thinking on the part of the author, Robin D. Laws (designer of The Dying Earth, Feng Shui, and Rune RPGs) about the nature of investigative role-playing, encapsulated in the core of the rulebook, the GUMSHOE system. The main difference between this game and its predecessors is that The Esoterrorists RPG recognises and addresses the problem of under skilled player characters that don’t or can’t find the vital clue, which throws the entire scenario off kilter and cannot be completed satisfactory. The solution is to change the emphasis, instead of scrabbling around hunting for clues, the investigators are assumed to be competent enough to find them, and the emphasis instead is now placed on the interpretation of said clues. This isn’t to say that they will be doled out anyway if the players choose to sit back and do nothing, or that characters with better skills won’t be rewarded. On the contrary, the players still have to ask the appropriate questions and use their player characters to examine a scene to get the clues.
Characters with better investigative abilities can spend points to discern more detail from a clue when found. Naturally the higher the ability level, the more points a character has available to spend, but sometimes spending points may in fact yield very little in the way of worthwhile additional data. Players must exercise careful judgement as to when to spend their investigation points. It’s a great innovative idea and would work well for just about any detective genre game, hence the GUMSHOE system, and it has application for all investigative style RPGs.
Unlike more conventional games, the GUMSHOE system does not use the traditional statistics (e.g. intelligence, dexterity or strength) to describe the character. There is just simply a list of abilities to which players assign points when generating a character and no distinction is given to between describing an ability as a natural innate talent or a learned skill, so each player more or less has a free hand in describing his character’s appearance and capabilities. Abilities in the game are therefore divided into two groups. Investigative abilities as mentioned previously are based on points, spent during the course of an investigation. The range of different investigative abilities is huge (39 are listed) and ranges from the ubiquitous Evidence Collection (spotting clues and preventing them from being contaminated), Coptalk (being able to deal with law enforcement officials), and Bullshit Detector (does what it says on the tin) to the obscure like Textual Analysis (were these diaries really written by Hitler?) and Forensic Entomology (using bugs and insects found on corpses to locate crime scenes and estimate the age of corpses). Ideally, the players should cooperate to ensure that collectively as a group, their characters possess a broad enough range of investigative skills to successfully conduct their inquiries.
The second group of abilities are called General abilities, (of which there are 13 listed. These cover things like Athletics (running, jumping, throwing, etc), Health (hit points), and Stability (sanity). Fighting is covered by two abilities; Scuffling - hand to hand combat, and Shooting - using guns. General abilities are handled differently to investigative abilities. Instead, a single six-sided die is rolled and if the number obtained equals or exceeds the difficulty number set by the GM, then the test has been passed. Otherwise it’s a fail -- simple as that really. A player can modify this roll by spending points directly from the relevant General ability and adding it to the roll. Not a very crunchy system, but nonetheless simple and quick to resolve. This also means that combat can be quite quick and deadly. It reminded me of the old adage about playing Traveller: “You’ll never get time to reload in this game -- either they’ll be dead or you will.”
So, what about the background setting? The player characters are assumed to be agents of Ordo Veritatis, a covert conspiracy aimed against the Esoterrorists of the title. These Esoterrorists work arranging events to magnify the general public belief in magic and the supernatural. By doing this, they hope to weaken the barriers of reality thus making it easier to cast magic spells and to summon fantastic creatures to do their bidding. Okay, they’re more like monsters of which only a few are described in the book and more will be described in Pelgrane’s next release, the GUMSHOE version of the excellent Book of Unremitting Horror. The players are in effect put in a very similar position to the Technocracy in White Wolf’s Mage: the Ascension RPG to police and stabilise the consensus public reality from radical elements who desire a less “static” form of reality. However, unlike Mage, there is no magic to be had for player characters in this game, as the practise of magic, no matter how benign the aim, is ultimately detrimental to reality and would advance the Esoterrorist cause. The Ordo Vertatis is an inverted version of the Illuminati or the Syndicate conspiracy in The X-files -- they work in secret, but for the benefit of humanity. However, sceptical GMs and players (and those wishing to add more of a sinister wrinkle into the background) may wonder, how exactly did the Ordo Veritatis find out about this “threat” to the consensus reality? Did they once pull off a similar feat a long time ago in order to stabilise reality into its current more “static” form?
The author sets out a bold manifesto on the very first page with this RPG, namely that it is an RPG that should be easy to learn, play and run and yet is robust enough to handle most situations. The main engine of the book, the GUMSHOE system ticks all those boxes with aplomb. It’s a game that can easily be picked up and run within an hour - something of a godsend for time poor modern role-players. Also included in the rules is a sample scenario, the rather cheerfully titled “Operation Slaughterhouse,” which demonstrates an investigation typical PCs from a US branch of Ordo Veritatis would have to tackle. It sets out the sorts of clues and information the GM would have to prepare for the PCs to pick up. The scenario draws upon very contemporary issues and as suggested in Ken Hite’s Suppressed Transmission column, drawing upon news items and then giving them a conspiratorial spin can add an extra frisson of horror. Rounding all this off is an index and a character sheet. (A pdf copy of the latter can be downloaded from Pelgrane’s Esoterrorist website [http://dyingearth.com/gumshoe/esoterrorists].) In addition to solving crimes and stopping the sinister plans of the Esoterrorists, the PCs also have to think up cover stories (called the Veil-out) to mundanely explain any weird happenings uncovered in the course of their investigations too.
So, what's wrong with The Esoterrorists? If it has any flaws, it is that it is too short, that there are not enough monsters (there are only three examples given), and nothing given on mundane animal stats. I’d have also like to seen more examples of different Esoterrorist cells and scenarios (but then I am admittedly lazy when it comes to writing my own scenarios). A discussion of how does Ordo Veritatis differ in different regions of the world would have been nice too. However I’m sure these are all things that had to be pared down to make it a quick and easy game to pick up and learn, giving it a nice compact small press feel. Plus it gives us something to look forward to purchase later… If you want more detail now, you can always make it up, (in the spirit of the glass is half full rather than half empty!), rather than wait for Pelgrane to publish a supplement.
All in all this is a sufficiently unique game, which forces the GM to look more carefully at the structure of her scenarios. The trail of clues that are set out in the course of the scenario that make up the plot, could lead to accusations of the GM rail-roading players during the course of play, but this is no worse than being constricted by what path player characters can take by the lay out of the walls and tunnels in a dungeon complex they happen to be exploring that week. I actually quite like The Esoterrorists as it is and what it sets out to do, namely a quick and easy RPG to learn and play with a great take on how to do investigative role-playing, and for that alone, I recommend this game to you.
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