[Personal Reflection] Dark Conspiracy & Call of Cthulhu

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On July 18, 2023

In Call of Cthulhu, Dark Conspiracy, Personal Reflection

“We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.”
– John Dewey

It probably goes without saying that I’ve always been a fan of Dave Chapman’s work as an RPG designer (umm… see the Conspiracy X material here on this site for ongoing evidence) and as such I’m an avid follower of his blog. In 2020 he completed a series of posts called [Roll Your Own Life] The Games That Shaped Me that looked at the Role Playing Games that influenced and guided him in his writing and personal life. These brief snippets are fascinating, and they’ve inspired me to do the same, although maybe a little more critically.

So without further ado … unashamedly stolen (with permission) … this is “Games That Shaped Me”.

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[Review] The Esoterror Factbook

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On June 21, 2023

In Review, The Esoterrorists

Please note that this review was originally posted over on RPGGeek and is mirrored here for completist reasons only!

You know that feeling, the one that goes… “hang on now, they’ve definitely set this all up for a sequel, right?”. Well, that’s what I always felt when reading the original The Esoterrorists roleplaying game (the core rulebook now known as 1st Edition). Written by Robin D. Laws and published by Pelgrane Press in 2006, here you had gem of a great set of mechanics (the vast majority of what we know today as the GUMSHOE system), but no real substance behind it. I mean in The Esoterrorists 1st Edition you got the bare bones of anything you might realistically call a ‘game setting’, and worse, it really felt like a ‘quickie’ knock off of other more intriguing modern horror settings such as Delta Green, Hunter or even Conspiracy X. Sure, one could see that somewhere in the text there was a really neat unique game world just waiting to let loose … but where, oh where, was it!

Well, you’ll be pleased to know, 2009’s The Esoterror Factbook (also by Robin D Laws) is that missing ingredient; the background, context and detail that finally brings The Esoterrorists into its own… just a shame so few people know it even exists….

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[Scenario] The Esoterrorists: A Night on the Town – Updated

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On March 6, 2023

In One-off Adventures, The Esoterrorists

With the creation of the GUMSHOE Community over on DrivethruRPG, I thought it was time that I updated and released my Esoterrorists 2nd Edition Demo scenario – A Night on the Town.

This is now available as a ‘Pay What You Want’ (nominally $2.00 US) over on DrivethruRPG – https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/429239/A-Night-on-the-Town–A-The-Esterrorists-Second-Edition-Demonstration-Scenario–Version-11

There isn’t too much substantively changed in this new version, barring a few spelling mistakes and a new ‘standard’ layout (oh, and a new much better looking cover!) and the original release will remain available here as an archive.

A Night on the Town has been written as a demonstration scenario for The Esoterrorists RPG. It arose after the author realised that the GUMSHOE system brought a specific set of expectations to the gaming table. These skills, while easy to learn, can be difficult to explain without examples, and are best demonstrated in play.

A Night on the Town is a quick, single session scenario (coming in at 18 pages) and provides three complete Ordos Veritatis’ operatives ready to roll into the action!

[Review] The Book of Unremitting Horror: Gumshoe Edition

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On February 28, 2023

In Review, The Esoterrorists

Please note that this review was originally posted over on RPGGeek almost a decade ago (OMG!) and is mirrored here for completist reasons only!

If there is one genre that draws me more than any other in gaming, then it is horror. From the investigative paradigm of Call of Cthulhu, through the brutality of Kult, and even into the wackiness of Deadlands, the horror genre has always been more than just monsters hiding in the darkness to me. This generic interest in horror was probably what first drew me to The Book of Unremitting Horror, but it is its note-worthy content (which is much more than your typical collection of ghouls and goblins) that inspired me to write this review.

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[Review] Nemesis: The Grey Sourcebook – 1st Edition

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On February 27, 2023

In Conspiracy X, Review

Watch the Skies! For they are ‘The Grey’ and they mean us great harm…

With the successful launch of the Conspiracy X roleplaying game in early 1996, New Millennium Enterprises (the original publishers of game line and the precursors to Eden Studios) quickly realised they were on a winner and had captured an audience wanting to know more of the setting’s mythology and background. Either anticipating this interest or responding rapidly to its demand, Nemesis – The Grey Sourcebook was released a few months later.

This review continues my series of looking back on the various books, supplements and publications that have been released for Conspiracy X over the years, and in the processes looking at what insights this – once extremely popular – roleplaying game might reveal to us here in the 2020s.

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