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The name’s Davenport. I review games.
So the other day these three goons show up at my door, claimin’ they’re with the Eden Studios boys. They didn’t smell like zombies or look like a swell-but-maybe-underage dame, so I was kinda dubious about that – they were just three big fellas in dark suits, dark hats, and dark glasses. Stylish? Sure, but that don’t make a guy a game company man. (Hell, it usually means just the opposite…)
But sure enough, they had an Eden game for me to review: Conspiracy X Second Edition.
Well, sort of.
I mean, they hand me the game, all right, and explain how it contains all sorts of “classified” info on flyin’ saucers, spacemen, spooks (the ghost and the spy kind), psychics, magicians, and so on… but then they try tellin’ me that they were “never there” and that I “never saw” the book.
“So I’m just s’posed to act like I imagined this whole conversation?” I asks.
“If that’s what it takes,” they says.
Playin’ along, I asked’em what good they expected a review of an imaginary book handed off by imaginary goons in black suits to do.
After lettin’ me know that I “ask too many questions,” they muttered some hot air about a “disinformation campaign.”
Whatever. I got the book, imaginary or not, and now you’ve got the review.
So I guess you gotta ask yourself: “Do You Wanna Believe?”
Substance
Warning: While this game makes what the character do know fairly explicit, it’s not always great about making clear exactly what they don’t know. Even some of the material in the character creation chapter is a little iffy on that point. That being the case, please consider this entire review possible spoiler territory.
Chapter 1: Indoctrination
Here once again is Eden’s standard opening chapter, introducing both the nature and organization of the book as well as roleplaying in general. The recommended fiction seems helpful enough, although I have to wonder whether the ultra-powerful psionics of Akira mesh with those of ConX.
Chapter 2: Personnel
The majority of character creation follows the standard procedure found in other Unisystem games I’ve previously reviewed, such as WitchCraft (where I first described the rules) and All Flesh Must Be Eaten (for which I first playtested them). I’ll refer readers interested in the details of these and other common Unisystem mechanics to those reviews. Here, I’ll be covering the aspects that make ConX unique.Recruitment
In a conspiracy game like this, one of the most important questions a player will ask is: “What does my character know?” This section responds to that question with an in-setting briefing that a new agent might receive upon joining Aegis, the game’s protagonist conspiracy – including basic information on the group’s alien adversaries and the conspiracy’s “cell” structure (e.g., small autonomous groups receiving their orders from a central authority but with no awareness of their fellow cells).
Character Types
In power level, the standard ConX character types of Heroic and Talented correspond to the All Flesh Must Be Eaten characters types of Survivor and Gifted – badasses of the non-supernatural and supernatural varieties, respectively. ConX also offers Pre-Heroic and Neo-Talented character types for groups more into Mulder and Scully than Neo and Trinity.
Professions and “Pulling Strings”
Nowhere does ConX stand out more from its Unisystem siblings than it does in the concept of Professions. In game terms, a Profession is a sort of package Quality that includes built-in Skills, Qualities, and Drawbacks, as well as the ability to exert influence in various spheres of government in order to get things done – a.k.a. “Pulling Strings.” This could be something as simple as having someone arrested, as dramatic as a raid by a S.W.A.T. team or Special Forces, or as pivotal as gaining access to captured alien technology.
The chapter provides an extensive list of Professions from all areas of the government. Some of the more obvious player choices include the various branches of the military and law enforcement; however, the non-gunbunny Professions include some of the more heavy-duty Strings ripe for the Pulling. Working for the Center for Disease Control might not be as hip as being a Navy S.E.A.L., but no commando is going to have the means to counteract an alien virus. And while an Air Force fighter jock might be able to hop behind the stick of the top secret Aurora jet, it’s the N.A.S.A. administrator who can commandeer one of those nifty orbital railgun satellites that officially don’t exist…
Chapter 3: Ops Center
With character groups taking the forms of cells in a government-wide conspiracy, it’s only natural that equipping the team involves more than simply checking off a shopping list. In ConX, characters start the game with resource points that they can pool to “purchase” arms, equipment, and the various aspects of their headquarters. If the players want their cell to have an underwater base with a submarine dock, for example, or a desert headquarters with a concealed hangar for their tricked-out SR-71 Blackbird, it’s just a matter of points.
While I haven’t playtested this aspect of the system, it bears a strong resemblance to the organization creation system in Angel, which I have playtested. Based on that experience, I’d say that equipping an Aegis cell could be loads of fun punctuated by frustrating points-juggling to get all the details just right. True, that can describe any number of points-based character creation systems, but bear in mind that this is creation by committee. Getting players to agree on the relative importance of an occult library as compared to decent sleeping quarters presents more of a challenge than you might think.
Chapter 4: Tradecraft
Here the book covers the standard Unisystem rules. Again, my observations in my WitchCraft and All Flesh Must Be Eaten reviews apply here as well. On the other hand, if you’ve read those observations but don’t feel inclined to take my word on the matter (horrors!), and if you’d like to take the try-before-you-buy approach, you can download WitchCraft for free at the Eden’s website here.
While the system may lack originality, it does incorporate some particularly stylish rules and rules options from other games in the Unisystem line. The martial arts system comes from the excellent Enter the Zombie supplement for AFMBE; however, in a happy nod to the game’s first edition, it incorporates Gun Fu as a martial art of its own and featuring a few unique pistol-centric moves.
Speaking of EtZ, the gonzo martial arts and gun fu powers from that supplement would make excellent additions to a ConX game with that “summer action blockbuster” feel. Which brings me to another handy rules import: the cinematic combat options from Armageddon: the End Times, which include “mook rules” for cannon fodder adversaries and two-gunning, acrobatic shooting-and-dodging, and spending Luck for healing for badass PCs.
Chapter 5: Paranormal
Psychics
Of all the powers humans can possess in this setting, psionics are most prevalent by far. In fact, people with no psychic powers are the exception, not the rule. All normal humans can have psychic insights into the nature of a situation, a person’s immediate intentions, thoughts, or feelings, an object’s history, and even hints about the future. I love that there’s an actual mechanic for these “everyday” powers. That mechanic can take the form of a Difficult Willpower test; however, in a tribute to a popular mechanic from the game’s first edition, the GM can employ actual Zener cards to allow players’ real-world “psychic potential” to stand in for that of their characters.
True psychic powers use the standard Unisystem psionics rules that first appeared in WitchCraft, although a modified version of the Zener card test may be used as well. Surprisingly, the game includes only three full-blown psychic abilities: Clairvoyance, Telekinesis, and Telepathy. Also missing is the WitchCraft psychic’s ability to use Essence to boost their powers Akira-style, although that might be a bit too flashy for this setting anyway.
Speaking of missing abilities, the minority of the population lacking psychic powers comes in two varieties: Voids and Psinks. Both are hard to affect with psychic powers and remain oblivious to most psychic manifestations, but Psinks actually make psychic powers more difficult to use in their presence.
Seepage
According to the ConX setting, everything supernatural is a manifestation of humanity’s collective fears causing its untapped psychic potential to “seep” out into the world and take forms based upon those very fears. This makes the setting as a whole powered by slightly New Age-y pseudoscience rather than the mix of sci-fi and “real” supernatural horror that the presence of magic, hauntings, and monsters like vampires would seem to imply. Whether that’s a good thing depends upon what you’re after. From a player’s perspective, there may not be any difference at all, but the GM will know the “rational” explanation behind every spook, werewolf, and demon. Personally, I find the concept limiting, but I’ve never been a fan of humanocentric explanations for the supernatural. For perspective, Unknown Armies never appealed to me for the same reason.
In any event, I definitely approve of the manner in which Seepage works. Despite its origins in collective fears, local population levels don’t affect areas in which Seepage forms “Pools” (or the more powerful “Loci,” in areas of worldwide significance like Stonehenge). Instead, Seepage rises to its highest levels in isolated areas of higher superstition or wherever places associated with mystery or intense emotions exist – “haunted” houses, shrines, ancient ruins, and so on. Seepage levels range from 1-3, and each level has an associated range of ambient Seepage Points. “Times of Power” like a full moon or a solstice can increase these levels, as can the presence of human Seepage magnets known as Foci. These individuals boost the ambient Seepage Points by +2 x their Willpower. (In fact, it may take the presence of a Focus to “agitate” a Pool or Locus into supernatural activity, although extreme psychic or emotional events may serve the same purpose.) Psinks, by contrast, reduce Seepage Points by a like amount.
All of this comes together beautifully in the form of…
Magic
Any character in ConX can learn the rituals required to manipulate Seepage to produce directed supernatural effects. All rituals – of which the chapter details five, with tips on making more – take both time and the expenditure of Seepage points in the amount required by the ritual’s “Threshold.” The latter makes ritual use at the appropriate times and places highly important and makes Foci, with their ability to boost ambient Seepage Points, into something akin to wizards. Together, these elements form an extremely authentic-feeling magic system, even if the magic itself is not.
Characters require the Rituals skill in a given magical tradition (e.g., Voodoo) in order to use a ritual, with each ritual learned as a separate skill that cannot exceed the level of the agent’s Ritual skill itself. If the Seepage Points don’t meet the Threshold, the spell just doesn’t work regardless of the Ritual roll. If, on the other hand, the Seepage Points meet the threshold but the Ritual roll fails, we get into the fun topic of…
Corruption and Corrupted Beings
When a would-be magician meets a ritual’s Threshold but fails the Ritual roll itself, the character becomes corrupted. Characters may also become corrupted from spirit possession or other forms of exposure to the supernatural. When this happens, the GM secretly assigns a mental or emotional Drawback to the character. Whenever that drawback has a chance of manifesting in the character – “You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry!” – the GM rolls 1d10 plus the local Seepage level; on a roll of 9 or better, the player must make a Difficult Willpower Test with a penalty equal to the local Seepage level. On a failure, the character picks up both the Drawback and whatever level of corruption caused the problem in the first place.
Every time a character passes a new stage of corruption, there’s a chance he could “snap.” This occurs if the character fails a Simple Willpower roll made progressively more difficult with each passing stage of corruption. Once the character has snapped, he must make a Difficult Willpower test, this time with his number of completed corruption stages acting as a bonus. Note that this is the player’s last act on behalf of the character, who is now screwed – it’s a matter of how screwed he is, and how dangerous.
If the Difficult Willpower roll fails, the character becomes one of the Forsaken: an individual whose personality is replaced by that of an archetypal being. This archetype may be “good” or “evil” in nature but is no longer even remotely human. If the roll succeeds, the character becomes one of the Infused. His body physically warps to fit the archetype, and he gains powers appropriate to the archetype as well. (The chapter provides a bare handful of these: Mask, Possession, Regeneration, and Thrall.) These are the creatures responsible for the tales of humanoid monsters, such as the vampire and the werewolf; however, the physical mutations of the Infused are limited to forms possible for mammals, even if the Infused can gain traits that look the part. (The book uses the example of an Infused gaining scale-like skin to simulate a reptilian archetype.)
So aside from an awful lot of rolling, what does all of this mean? Well, it makes magic a dangerous activity, as seems appropriate for the setting. And I love the corruption death-spiral driven by the character succumbing to the darkness lurking inside him – this is what I think the Corruption mechanic in Unhallowed Metropolis, the subject of my previous review, should have been.
On the other hand, the Infused, like magic in the setting, suffer a bit for not being the “real deal.” An Infused may drink blood and sprout fangs and avoid daylight, but it isn’t a real vampire in the undead sense. In this way, the Infused remind me of the creatures found in Dark Conspiracy that seem to be creatures of legend but are not: any occult literature you read about them may be fascinating, but it’s not going to reveal any “supernatural” weaknesses. “Blow the crap out of it” serves as a cure-all for the Infused and renders occult experts purveyors of interesting insights into the Infused’s psyche but nothing to help but the poor bastards down.
Chapter 6: Classified
Here the book covers much of the Truth that is Out There, both in terms of the real significance of historic events and the three alien races currently operating on the planet.
Recent History
For fans of conspiracy theories, this section is pure gold.
The history of ConX begins with World War 2 and the founding of the Watch, an organization not unlike Hellboy’s BRPD founded to combat the threat of Nazi occultism. The tale moves on to the Roswell Incident and its role in splitting the Watch into two rival conspiracies, Aegis (the “good guys,” dedicated to protecting the human race) and the National Defense Directorate (the “bad guys,” dedicated to acquiring alien technology and knowledge at all costs). From there, the two conspiracies and their alien allies/adversaries snake their way forward through the decades, their hands in everything from the Kennedy Assassination to both space shuttle disasters.
(Yes, this gets a little squicky. The authors wisely chose to keep conspiracy theories related to September 11, 2001 optional to keep that squickiness from getting completely out of hand. I also note that serial-number-removed references to the conspiracies’ roles in the Ruby Ridge and Waco tragedies have been removed altogether in this edition.)
The HERMES System and Aegis Special Resources
Together, these sections describe the more unusual assets available to Aegis operatives.
The HERMES System is the ultratech communications and database network Aegis uses to communicate with individual cells (but never between cells) and to provide agents with every bit of information Aegis has ever gathered. Agents can access HERMES using handheld links disguised as PDAs. This convenience serves an important metagame function, speeding otherwise tiresome information gathering and providing an obvious method for the GM to feed plot hooks to the characters.
In the Special Resources section, the book details technology that Aegis agents may not even be aware exists, from captured alien weapons to drugs and devices that boost psychic powers. These items keep the potential for “Holy crap!” moments even involving the PCs’ own organization. (Not to mention the means to cause vast amounts of property damage.)
The National Defense Directorate
The book provides some excellent information regarding the NDD, particularly in the area of their relationships with the Greys and the Saurians (see below), not to mention stats for a couple of seriously scary aircraft incorporating alien technology.
The Extraterrestrials
Three races threaten humanity in ConX.
The Greys are pretty much exactly what you’d expect: big-eyed, small-mouthed, grey-skinned beings with powerful psychic abilities who abduct humans with impunity and erase their memories of the events. The majority of their technology consists of lenses that utilize and enhance those abilities. In a clever touch, the classic “flying saucer” shape is a result of the crafts being huge psychic lenses used to focus the Greys’ telekinesis for propulsion. Of the three races, only the Greys have mastered faster-than-light travel.
The Atlanteans have the appearance of idealized humans, possess uncanny proficiency with nanotechnology that makes them almost godlike in power, and pull the strings of human society in the finest Illuminati tradition. I have to say, though, that based upon their stats, they don’t seem as impressive as all that. While I distinctly recall someone telling me that their 1st edition ConX group had to call in a nuclear strike to stop a single Atlantean, the 2nd edition versions look like chumps compared to their Immortal counterparts in Armageddon: the End Times.
The Saurians are (as their name implies) humanoid lizards. Warlike masters of particle physics, they produce powerful offensive and defensive energy weapons. Some of their number also disguise themselves as humans – the infamous “Men in Black” – in order to terrorize those who come too close to the truth.
Each race comes with a built-in reason as to why they don’t simply take over. The Greys operate in small, independent groups with inscrutable goals, the Atlanteans are almost pathological individualists, and the Saurians are, in fact, a small group fleeing from an invasion fleet that’s on its slow-but-steady course to earth.
I heartily approve of all three races and their abilities. Unfortunately, I’m not exactly sure how I’d use them. That’s not entirely the game’s fault, mind you – I’m just not all that great at coming up with mysteries, and short of contrived gun battles with the aliens, a good mystery is exactly what their doings require to make an adventure.
The Appendix
The appendix includes both conversion rules from the game’s 1st edition – a valuable tool, given the number of 1st-edition supplements out there and the slow pace of their 2nd-edition counterparts – as well as the standard Unisystem option of replacing dice with playing cards or playing randomizer-free. Lacking any experience with the 1st edition rules, I can’t really comment on how effective they may be, but they certainly seem comprehensive enough.
Style
The artwork of this 7.25" x 9.25" hardback closely resembles that found in AFMBE and its supplements. That makes the art passable to good, but I just don’t think the harsh lines and cartoonish elements are a good fit for the subject matter. I’d have preferred art with a more mysterious feeling, with shadowy figures and half-seen menaces.The writing has a very thematic voice, dealing matter-of-factly with topics that would blow the mind (in some cases, literally) of the layperson – just as you’d expect an Aegis officer to speak to agents in training. The opening fiction feels intense enough, although the story seems to go too far out of its way to incorporate as many elements of the setting as possible. More importantly, it’s too long, taking up valuable space that could have been used to flesh out the game’s week spots – the information on the supernatural, for example.
No typos or typesetting errors stood out to me. And as Eden’s products do and as all roleplaying manuals should, the book contains an index.
Conclusion
ConX looks like a pretty slim book. That’s a matter of the paper stock used; in point of fact, ConX has a larger page count than does AFMBE. However, AFMBE has the advantage of covering a single multi-faceted adversary and no single detailed setting, while ConX features many enemies and one very detailed setting.
I find that setting fairly limiting already, given its approach to the supernatural. The scarcity of information on potential adversaries doesn’t help matters. Now add the necessity of mystery creation – something at which, as previously stated, I suck – and you have a game that’s really not for me.
That said, the game truly does offer some outstanding twists to the standard Unisystem rules set, especially when it comes to character creation, cell creation, and “pulling strings.” These elements make for an excellent conspiracy game that may well trump my misgivings in the hands of better GMs than yours truly – the sorts who can make do with the game’s limited enemies and have no problem with mystery creation. Factor in access to the game’s 1st edition supplements and satisfaction with the supernatural’s humanocentric premise, and I can see someone absolutely loving ConX. If any of that describes you, and if your players have ever wanted see what it’s like to see X-Files from the perspective of the conspirators, give ConX a try.
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