A great campaign setting ruined by a terrible rule system.

The good: There is not many conspiracy games to choose from, but even if there were Conspiracy X stands out. In particular it is a lot more focused and has a more cohesive world then most conspiracy fiction. One thing that I did like about the rules were the pulling string qualities that allowed the players to call on the power of the big bad federal government. In most roleplaying games the players have no outside resources and the DM is encouraged to prevent all attempts for players to try and use such resources even if it makes no sense for the players to be lonewolfing it. Nice to see a game that allows and provides rules for the players to actually act like government operatives.

The bad: good god is Unisystem awful. I think the central premise of the rule system is: "Why resolve an action in one roll when you can resolve it in 5 rolls. Why have hit points when you can have Life points, Endurance points and Essence points." You will spend more time rolling dice and keeping track of your 3 different kinds of hit points then you will roleplaying. Also the skill system is badly handled (like the fact that driving a truck is a different skill then driving a car).

One of my all time favorite shows is the X-Files. It was a fantastic myth of everything that made for good TV in the 90s. Sure it went on a little too long, but when it was good it was the best thing on TV.

So it should be no surprise that I enjoy similar themed games. I like Alternity Dark Matter and The Unexplained, but my favorite has been Eden Studios' Conspiracy X.

ConX (as it is called) comes in three different editions. There is the original rules, a GURPS version and the newest Unisystem version which makes system-wise compatible with WitchCraft RPG (but still not thematically compatible). I have all three, but I prefer this newest Unisystem version, not just for the system, but it brings ConX out of the paranoid 90s and into the post millennial, post-9/11 world.

So what is ConX about? Well the basic system is Classic Unisystem so the same as AFMBE, WitchCraft and Armageddon. The premise is that the U.S. Government has been in contact with three different alien races over the last few decades and how they have all these various plans for the world. In addition to all of this there are rival government agencies and all sorts of unrelated (or related) weirdness going on. The focus is much more psychic powers and MKULTRA than the magic and covens of WitchCraft.

Con X 2.0 also has rules for more equipment, weapons, and governmental agencies. The coolest mechanic in the game though has to be the Pulling Strings one. Very useful when working through the myriad of governmental bodies you will need to deal with. These alone make it worth the price if you play any other Classic Unisystem game.

Ok, so my love for the WitchCraft RPG is well known and well documented. Creating a WitchCraft world of adventures, situations or even meta-plots of my own are nearly second nature to me. But I also like Conspiracy X. A lot. The games are not really thematically compatible and both have very different points of view on magic, gods, monsters and the like.

If you like conspiracies and the X-Files, Con X is your game. If you want to run a paranormal game, but don't want to get bogged down in myths, legends and want your magic to be somewhat more controlled then Con X is your game.

Here is another way to look at it. You are a character in a Modern Paranormal game. Suddenly a glowing figure appears before you. What is this creature? If you say Alien, then play ConX. If you say Demon, then play WitchCraft. Both games can be used for horror, ConX is dark sci-fi, WitchCraft is dark fantasy.

ConX is great fun and one of the best "Conspiracy" games out there.

I was a big fan of the old edition and was initially skeptical of the change to unisystem.

After giving the system a chance, I have come to love the mechanics behind it.

The setting info alone is worth reading, definately a must have.

...now if only they would speed up the release of the supplements....

So to start off, I am a long time ConX fan, I own all the 1.0 books.

I had recently bought the treeware version of this pdf for myself, but I decided that I wanted to be able to search the book and to have the ability to print out small sections fror my group.

The book has had some edits to bring it up to date from the orignal 1996 Conx 1.0 version. (The Black Book is now refered to as the National Defense Directorate. There is also a mention that there are multiple Saurian races on Earth.)

There is also an section on converting ConX 1.0 to the new version (which great if you own all the other source books like me!)

As always, Eden has great artwork and the book is very readable and printable. I also like that it is watermarked and doesnt use (evil and forsaken) DRM. I hate adobe drm and refuse to buy any products that use it.

In the future you will see some more updated sourcebooks from eden (The Extraterrestrial source book & Paranormal Sourcebook.)