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Review of As Above, So Below
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Blurb from the publisher: 'Covert insertion, a HALO drop into enemy territory. There are some things the spooks can't handle, some problems that can only be resolved through superior firepower. Even though you're going up against unknowable horrors, you don't have the luxury of fear, because lives are on the line here.
An emergency senior committee meeting in an anonymous briefing room in Whitehall. The shuffle of papers, low murmur of voices. The minister wants a proposal on his desk by 9. Army liaison confirms they have assets in place. Not that they know what's really at stake. They are not cleared for what you know, but lives are on the line here.
When the going gets tough, the Laundry calls in the professionals. This sourcebook gives rules and guidelines on incorporating special forces missions into your games of The Laundry Roleplaying Game. The spies have done their grubby work - now it's time for the SAS to drop in and put down the alien horrors with courage and high explosives. Visit alien dimensions and the most remote, unfriendly regions of our own world, meet interesting locals, and kill them before they kill you.
The decisions that matter aren't made in the field - they're made in conference calls, in committee meetings. This sourcebook add a political dimension to your games of The Laundry Roleplaying Game, letting the players climb the ladder of promotion and take charge. Management isn't always a bad thing - it's power by another name, and bargains with ministers and Auditors work just like bindings with eldritch entities. Sorcery is the continuation of politics by other means.
Two sourcebooks in one, exploring two very different facets of the Laundry.
The military, and the political.
The sharp end, and the hand that guides.
As above, so below.
This 128-page, black and white, softcover supplement contains:
- Background on Special Forces organisations;
- Rules for creating Special Forces characters;
- Advice for running Special Forces scenarios, including Occult Engagement Protocols;
- Advice for running Political Games, including rules for pay grade, status, promotion, mentors and committee meetings;
- A new mini-game for playing high-level meetings;
- Three new scenarios, using the new play-styles introduced in the book.'
What you get: Your USD 24,99 or GBP 16,99 will buy you both the 128-page, black and white softcover of As_Above,_So_Below, a supplement for The Laundry game line, as well as its electronic edition.
The supplement can also be purchased in an electronic format only for EUR 12,73 or USD 14,99 or GBP 11,54. The electronic edition is 129 pages long. Quaintly enough, the back cover is missing.
Contents: The job of a Laundry operative is well-defined. He is not the one that will decide what to investigate; the orders come from above. In cases of major screw ups, he lacks the fire power to clean up things, and the army is called in.
Until now.
As_ Above,_So_Below expands the concept of the game to both the decision-making level as well as on-the-ground implementation through military intervention.
It starts with Boots On The Ground, a chapter about creating Special Forces characters working with The Laundry. These are not permanent characters and do not follow the same character creation process like usual characters do in The Laundry rulebook. The process start by choosing a predetermined character package from the seven on offer (like Officer Material, Survivor and Sensitive Soul). Each package has every single stat, as well as the skills and equipment already defined; this is a military operation, not a hippy camp. Age is rolled for (EDU + 4 + 1d6), but nobody can be more than 40-years-old. Two specialties are picked amongst the 17 on offer (e.g. Medical, Vehicles, Underwater Operations, Languages). Discretionary skill points can be attributed to skills as long as no skill is above 90%, and finally the team is formed via each player describing not his own character but the character to his left. Players collectively decide who their commanding officer should be, something that gives that character a couple of extra bonuses. An optional rule called Retroactive Skills allows players to allocate these points not in advance but during the course of the adventure, under the proviso that the particular skill had not been tested yet. Doing so needs some background generation and roleplaying on the spot.
Bigger Sticks is about the militaries's arsenal. Expect handguns, submachine guns, shotguns, carbines and riffles, light support weaponry as well as accessories and related equipment.
Special Forces Organisation covers the UK Special Forces. The chapter discusses their history and parts of their organization, as well recruitment, the chain of command and even particular branches like the Special Air Service (SAS 21, 22 and 23), the Special Boat Service etc. Snipets about their involvement against Mythos activities are also included.
Occult Engagement Protocols provides the Keeper with knowledge about how to structure military interventions. Unless one is already in military or security forces he is unlikely to know what do in case containment or suppression is needed, how an almost conventional operation looks like or how he should go about recovering personnel and equipment. Then there are the non-conventional threat responses like the bug hunt (little information on opposition), the cocktail party (battles with organized troops and disadvantaged opposition) and the goalpost job (battles where no rules apply).
Running Military Games is a small, 3-page chapter about how a military-oriented game can turn out, seeing how it is relatively different to a standard RPG where players can act at whim.
On Borrowed Time is 12-page a scenario for military characters that are already aware of the supernatural, irrespective of whether they dealt with it before. The objective: clean up the mess after the US and the UK agencies clash in a time-shifting locale, after it winked into our existence. Who said that only the supernatural is The Laundry's enemy?
Following the scenario, the book takes a sharp turn and delves into politics. The Shadow of Mahogany Row starts by discussing status. It measures a character's informal reputation in The Laundry, as well as their official rank and ambition. Thus, status does not equal rank alone. It doesn't' work in a linear way, but changes depending on department. The more a character advances in the hierarchy and takes over managerial responsibilities, the less likely he is to be found in the field.
Running Political Games is a 5-page chapter not that dissimilar to the one in the first part of the book. This, of course, demands characters with a certain status and/or rank. The chapter explains the difference between going loud (tackling high-stakes missions) and going deep (tackling complex missions worth of many scenarios each). The multiple characters per player idea kicks in, as does the idea of role-playing a committee. The irony of people around a table pretending to be people around a table is not lost. In any event, political campaigns are very different to run than military ones. Expect advice on intrigues, suggestions about moles, scandals, cover ups, a grand design, and all this with a large supporting cast and complex interactions.
High-Level Meetings contains a mini-game that solves the equation of portraying high-ranking NPCs. It uses a usual set of cards, where each of the suits stands for one of personal or departmental status, allies and political power when used as Influence, or as troublesome individuals, organisations, internal problems or occult problems, when used as issues. The fluff behind each card is not set in stone, and can change from game to game. The mini-game can be played in three different ways: existing crisis, random plot generator and Bob, you are in the meeting. Depending on the format, cards get revealed and the players (as their high-ranking temporary characters) start building up on them fluff-wise. At some point solutions need to be proposed, usually creating more work for the players' usual characters. The player whose proposal gets agreed upon scores the card he played, which may lead to the issue's actual resolution and the player may receive benefits or extra information.
There are two political adventures in the book, Hot Potato and Fire Drill, both at 19 pages. They contain elements of both usual scenarios (i.e. with characters on the ground), as well as the political aspect of the campaign and the mini-game it involves.
The book closes with a three-page index.
The strong points: As Above, So Below answers the need of having different characters performing different types of missions, something that a Laundry Gamemaster was bound to perceive at some point in his game. The military style is rather straight forward: big toys, tougher and better equipped personnel, military structures and a different style of play. It is not as easy for a military to keep up with The Laundry office humour at times, this doesn't mean however that the tone changes totally to something ultra serious or grimdark. The rule that allows you to create the backstory of the next player is an instant camaraderie builder and provides depth to the grunts on the ground.
The military adventure itself is good fun because it taps on the fatalistic aspects of The Laundry. It involves time-travel in an action mode that strongly resembles a surreal roller-coaster, with the characters even having to eliminate themselves at some point. Having another agency as an opponent instead of everybody cooperating in harmony against the Mythos is very welcome. Queen and country first, the world second, and even that last part is to be debated.
The political campaign style is very different. The players will not fully give up running every day agents; they simply get to participate at a different level of The Laundry's reality, namely the decision-making one. The mini-game is entertaining, and creates a nice little competitive diversion in the context of the role-playing experience. It strongly depends on the participants' role-playing skills and their eagerness to role-play the situations behind board meetings. Such a style of play is very likely to evolve into a constant barrage of save the UK ideas infused with Dilbert jokes and even more bureaucracy than before, that ultimately screws the normal Agents the players are running. Needless to say, this is a very cool dynamic; players do come up with totally outlandish ideas that they know they have to fix later, in a race to the bottom sort of spirit. My first thoughts when reading it (and even more so during the playtests) was the Dr. Strangelove scene with everybody in the war room. It can be zany, it can be weird, it may look impossible, but the world is still at stake.
The two scenarios accompanying the political campaign are solid, yet Fire Drill steals the show, as any scenario which uses otherworldly beings as rocket propulsion systems would. Fantastic idea, great implementation. The challenge is how to make the humour shine through.
Even if a Gamemaster decides not to use the either the adventures or the two new styles of play, the book contains enough information and rules to enrich a typical Laundry game. Easy example: the retroactive skills which, taking the game's fatality into account, can be effectively used in the first adventure of each PC. Fluff-wise, it's clear why chapters describing different organisations set ups are useful; I am talking about the very-well written Occult Engagement Protocols and the Running Political Games chapters. For a Laundry campaign to run smoothly, the GM has to appear, if not outright be, more knowledgeable than his players about how an organization like this operates in certain procedures.
The art is solid, even though it plays a supporting role. Major NPCs in the adventures get their own imagery (good!), no matter how small the adventures are.
The pdf is of a very high quality, with bookmarks going down to subchapter level. Boxed texts still need to be searched each time but in the end they are not that hard to find.
The weak points: The expansion into different vistas of The Laundry universe alters the initial experience. I consider this a good thing myself, yet those wanting something better regulated might be put off by the dissonance between the different levels of campaigning. Fun as the political game might be, it might not be what will attract one to the game in the first place seeing how it is not the main part of the deal.
This is yet another book in The Laundry game line that contains tons of things that are not tightly knit. There is an internal reasoning within the book, yet when viewed under the lens of the whole line, the organisation of information keeps degrading. It will not affect your session, as a Gamemaster however be prepared to devote time with quite a few books open in order to organise your campaign.
There are a few typos in the book. I get tired of repeating it, yet it's true.
Conclusion: As_Above,_So_Below expands the scope of The Laundry universe so that the players can tackle an even bigger number of procedures while entangling themselves in a greater number of diverse adventures. It is an easy and thought-provoking read, while remaining usable by both for the gung ho as well as the more cerebral amongst us. I recommend it for the adventures alone.
For more info on As_Above_So_Below and Cubicle 7 visit its website at http://cubicle7.co.uk.
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