In Short

The Good: The award of Acclaim points spurs on action and cool stuff in a cyclical manner that seems very likely to deliver a good time. The book is very easy to read and reference. Examples are clear and plentiful. The use of special phrases to mark different events is fun and adds to the flavor of the product.

The Bad: As a GM-less game, Committee may not work as well with groups that have participants who are shy or only prefer to be reactive. While fun, the novelty may wear off quickly for some groups.

The Physical Thing

The Ideas

Under the Cover

With your materials in hand the group sits down to design their characters and figure out the general outline of the adventure. Character creation is easy. First, begin by creating a general concept and a Desire (a general goal).

Example: I’m playing Tony Two-Fists, a mobster turned hero after the death of his wife at the hands of a rival criminal group. He’s a wise cracking butt kicker who can’t help but get in trouble because of his mouth. His Desire is “To take down organized crime once and for all!”

Every character has four Attributes – Daring, Genius, Instinct, and Charisma. Players distribute 11d6 as they please, but one Attribute must be the highest.

Example: Daring 4d6, Genius 2d6, Instinct 2d6, and Charisma 3d6 round out my former mobster.

Every Attribute also has a Descriptor. When this word or phrase is brought into a description of a tense situation it results in a bonus die for the character, whether the Descriptor is positive or negative in tone.

Example: For Daring I take “Brawling,” for Genius I take “Scams,” for Instinct I take “Streetwise,” and for Charisma I take “Wise Cracking.”

Finally, I pick Gear and Associations for my character. The highest Attribute determines how much of each I have to spend. The number of dice determines how often I can bring it into play and how powerful of a bonus it is.

Example: Daring is my highest Attribute, so according to the book I have 2d6 Gear and 2d6 Associations. For Gear I select “Little Book of Secrets” and for Associations I take “My Wife’s Family.” Both can definitely help the character when he’s in a pinch.

Now that I have my character built I need to know who will serve as my Opposition. The Opposition will be the player running the antagonists against me in any sort of conflict. We can determine it randomly, pick the player on our left, or use whatever means so long as everyone has an Opposition. With that done, all that’s left for character creation is my introduction.

“And so, on the appointed day, I, Tony Two-Fists arrived in the halls of the Committee.” With those words character introduction begins. I describe my character in the most glowing terms possible, mention his secret desire, and then sit back and let the rest of the players add in a little bit more. Each player, in character, describes something interesting my character is known for. These descriptions become unattached Descriptors and may each be used, once per adventure, to add 1 die to a roll. This seems like a ton of fun because of the key words everyone uses (“And of course all the Committee knows…”), the ability for any two participants to veto something they find inappropriate, and the general sense of the players together creating people that have their own legends and histories following them on their adventures.

Now that we have characters we just need an adventure! First, we pick the era of play (Victorian or 1930s). Second, we decide on the number of scenes per character per location (1 or 2). Third, we decide on the expedition site and its secret. Fourth, we decide what routes we’ll take to get there. Fifth, we create a list of potential hazards. Finally, we prepare the expedition log. If this sounds like a lot to do, it really isn’t. I imagine this taking no more than a few minutes of play, and it can easily be fit in during the rest of setup (getting drinks and such). Let me walk you through it with an example.

Example: My group immediately decides on a 1930s game with 1 scene per location per character (due to time constraints). Our expedition site is going to be central Africa to confirm reports of a strange black monolith that has been discovered there. The secret of the expedition site is that the monolith is millions of years old and was left there by an ancient star faring race to uplift creatures to a more evolved state. To get there from our home base in New York City we’ll be taking a flight to southern Florida, then a ship to just off the Ivory Coast, and then a series of jeeps to the expedition site itself. For hazards we quickly develop a solid list. A U.F.O., a group of Nazi’s following rumors of a device that can evolve the world to be perfect, an aborigine tribe and its strange customs, and “something” in the night. If we think of more later we can certainly add them in. Finally, we prepare the Expedition Log by sectioning off a piece of paper for each stage of our trip. During play the Log will be filled in with information on what all happened during the journey.

We have our characters, we have an outline, and character introductions have been made. Now, on to adventure!

At each adventure location each character will have the agreed upon number of scenes. During a player’s scene they begin with a bit of transition, follow it up with some freeform roleplay, and then move into a hazard resolution scene. At this point the player designated as the Opposition will narrate a hazard for the current player to overcome, select a number of Hazard Dice (d10s), and roll those dice. As the current player begins to respond a 3 minute hourglass is turned over to time them – if they don’t finish their narration of overcoming the hazard in time then they lose Acclaim (metagame currency and a sort of victory point).

During the hazard itself the current player will be rolling a pool of d6s based on his current Attribute plus any additional dice from Gear, Associations, Descriptors, or other players coming into the scene to help out. The current player will then advance a single d6 result to try and beat the total of the Opposition’s roll, describing how their character tried to overcome the obstacle. If it’s not enough then the Opposition describes a complication, and the two go back and forth until one side wins or loses. Winning seems to be much more common, especially considering the amount of things a character can do to get an edge, but the degree of victory is important. The more entertaining the story, based on the number of d6 it takes to beat the opposition, the more Acclaim a character stands to earn from the victory.

Example: On my turns I narrate Tony doing his best to try and impress the local tribe through his good manners. I’m about done with the freeform and hand things off to my Opposition, who describes a custom that outside tribes (including our band of adventurers) must choose a warrior to fight one of the tribe’s warriors if they hope to be taken seriously. In short order Tony is stripped to the waist, preparing to pit his rough and tumble New York streets fighting style against a tribal warrior. The opposition here is 3d10 and a total of 18 is rolled. I briefly narrate an unattached descriptor that another Committee member gave me during character creation, Dependable, in how Tony is willing to take a beating in order to see his group through. This gives me 4d6 (my Daring) + 1d6 or 5d6 dice with which to try and beat 18. As soon as I throw the dice the 3 minute timer starts running – I get a 6, 5, 4, 4, 2, 1. I advance the first die “Tony rushed in and gave the warrior a quick double tap to the chin.” 6 isn’t enough to win, so now the Opposition gets to describe a complication. “The warrior was made of pure muscle and shrugged off Tony’s blows like water before lashing out with his longer reach.” I advance the 5 now. “Tony keept moving, trying to tire the guy out.” “But the warrior had little trouble keeping up and managed to corner Tony.” Now I advance the 4 for a total of 15. “With his back to the wall Tony fought that much harder, kicking the warrior repeatedly in the legs to try and take him down.” “The powerful warrior, growing weary of the combat, grabbed Tony by the neck and lifted him in the air.” Finally, I advance my last die – a 4 for a total of 19 – and win the conflict. “While being held in the air Tony grabbed hold of the warrior’s wrists and savagely headbut the warrior in the face. Both of them went down in a heap, but only Tony got back up.” It took 4 dice to resolve that conflict so Tony earned 1 point of Acclaim, according to a chart in the book.

Group scenes occur in much the same way only the number of Hazard dice rolled is greatly increased, the timer is increased, and the entire group is participating in overcoming the Opposition (set initially by a random player). The Opposition role moves around the table so everyone has an opportunity to participate as part of the Opposition. Group hazards normally occur whenever two or more beverage containers are empty and at the end of the expedition as a grand finale (though there is no timer then).

This system is further supported through manipulation of Acclaim. Everyone wants Acclaim because at the end of the session the person with the highest Acclaim gets first crack at narrating the Epilogue and the next person has to respect any facts the first establishes, such that the person with the highest Acclaim gets more control over the end of the story. Acclaim is most often gained through overcoming Opposition but it can also be gained through tying story elements together. So, if the Nazis tried to steal a book from a character in an earlier scene and I now narrate that that book is instrumental in deciphering code written on the ancient alien monolith I will gain Acclaim for taking two unconnected story encounters and putting them together. This can go back and forth too – perhaps later it is revealed that the book was a fake all along, written by a new villain to thwart the efforts of the Committee. Acclaim, in turn, is most often spent to get more dice to roll thus tempting players with bad rolls to spend Acclaim in the hope of earning more.

Of final note, the author includes suggestions on other ways to play the game. I really want to run it as a classic dungeon crawl, where the fighter, cleric, rogue, and mage are all sitting around a tavern telling the patrons of their grand adventure. It’s certainly not limited to that, however, and I see little reason Committee could not be used to run whatever suits your group’s fancy.

My Take

A gaming book is more than just mechanics, however, and The Committee for the Exploration of Mysteries shines in its use of examples, rules summaries, general text presentation, and even in its use of artwork. The character sheet here is sharp, providing the most needed information alongside with a visually appealing and easy to use sheet.

I wouldn’t want to run Committee every time I sat down to roleplay and, in all honesty, I doubt I would run it more than on the rare occasion. Its going to give me a different game play experience than just about everything else out there, one that I suspect is a ton of fun but definitely something where the novelty could wear off over time. The transitional phrases, drink mechanics, and everything else are fun and atmospheric but could get repetitive after a while. That said, most similar smaller press games are meant to be enjoyed several times but aren’t necessarily intended to be the last game you’ll ever play. If you want to have a great time on occasion then I think it’s an excellent game to turn to, however, and offers good value for the cost.

All in all I think this is an excellent product that shamelessly borrows from past games and successfully creates something unique. If you like the idea portraying a group of adventurers recounting a story of their past experiences, GM-less gaming, or just clever games then pick this one up.

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