6th December 2005
By Keith Senkowski, Bob Goat Press, $12 PDF / $20 Softback / $32 Hardcover
How far are you willing to go to learn the truth? That's the question Conspiracy of Shadows asks of its characters. How does it help your players do this, and how does it guide your play towards this goal? Read on.
In the interests of full disclosure: I really liked the first edition of the game (review here), so much so that I got to know Keith. I helped with some editing on the Conspiracy of Shadows Companion. I like the game a lot, so if I come across as a fan, that's because I am.
I've always been somebody who likes the more, grimy, pseudo-medieval settings. Places where the kings are corrupt and the populace are fearful. It's part of what appeals about Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and it's also part of what appeals in Conspiracy of Shadows too. The player characters are people with a drive to help their society, but that drive may end up with their own corruption, death or loss of their position within society. Revised Conspiracy of Shadows retains this feel, and adds a few more tweaks to help you achieve a story of this kind in play.
From a visual point of view, Conspiracy of Shadows Revised is a bit tighter. The smaller size pages makes for an easier read. After use, the thing I think what mildly flawed the first editions layout was the long line lengths. The new smaller package makes it a much more a “easy to dip in” layout. The PDFcomes with lots of nice bookmarks too. The illustrations give the book a particular feel of brooding menace, and the cover now feels more individual and is less reminiscent of a White Wolf book. The game is available in PDF, hardback or paperback, whichever is your preference. This review is based on the PDF.
How does the new edition stand up rules wise? Sleeker and more satisfy is the general feel. I liked the old version of the rules, but they were fairly generic story facilitating rules. The new revision adds more spice to the solid base ingredients. The rules for tasks and combat have been clarified to be conflicts and extended conflicts, much like The Shadow of Yesterday. The step by step “how you resolve stuff” is feels clearer this time round, with intent being used to decide whether you use a simple 2D6 plus Attribute and Skill roll or a series of rolls with initiative and momentum (you get 4 actions in a row as long as you keep succeeding). There are still more old-school elements like maneuvers, but added to the weapons as situational modifiers are things like “church authority” and “reputation”. It's the same system, but the focus is shifted. I like the shift, others with a more traditional play-style might not.
Doom is a big change to the game, and one that I thoroughly approve of. You get to define your character's eventual destiny, a dark fate towards which they are being drawn. Take a point of doom to win a conflict you absolutely must not fail. But that win brings you closer to your eventual doom, spend that last point and your doom is at hand. See what that does? The mechanic throws that “How far are you willing to go to learn the truth?” question out to the players right away. Does your character care about doing this enough to have it bring you closer to a nasty fate?
Trust is also a new addition. A pool of points that can be drawn on to help in important conflicts. But it goes up and down based on based on how much trust and dedication the player characters show to each other. In this way it acts much like a pressure counter. You know the group's is in trouble when the trust pool gets thin and the need for trust increases as trouble escalates.
Advice on creating the game is expanded from the previous edition, and takes you step-by-step through the process of building a conspiracy and then planning how to use it in game. The metaphor of thinking about the game like a TV series is used to good effect here, and helps you get a much more solid idea of what the game is intended to be. There are a couple of sections that seem to go against the group-participation angle of the rules, notably the episode construction section which talks about linear plots.
The land of Polian hasn't changed much since first edition, as far as I can tell. It's still a rich setting, conveyed in a remarkably small amount of space. The organisation of the book seems to have relegated setting almost to an appendix, but to my mind this is a good thing, as it puts the process of creating a great set of characters and a great conspiracy ahead of it in the game's priorities. It sends a direct message of “your guys are what matters here, not the background fiction.”
Overall: Conspiracy of Shadows Revised builds on an already good system to create a much more focused game. If you own first edition, you might be OK just checking out the system tweaks over at the Bob Goat website. However, the overall presentation and emphasis of the game are much clearer in this edition, so personally even though I got the PDF for free, I'll be buying the nice new hard cover, which will stand up to a bit more at-table use.