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United States
E Dummerston
Vermont
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(Brief introductory note: When this book (edit#1 - Some how I had a glitch here that I missed in editing.) arrived, I perused it and thought, “What the hell is this?” I was still in a honeymoon state of mind from Dreadful Secrets of Candlewick Manor, apparently, and this just did not fit what I expected to see after that beauty. Over the next few weeks, it seemed to flit from pile to pile and location to location as I would start reading it and put it down after ten to fifteen minutes. I really want RPG Geek to build up to a heavily used site, because I enjoy reading reviews of other RPG products, so I decided that I had to put up or shut up. Thus, sat down and pushed through the product to review it.)
Spoiler Alert: If you are going to be a player for this setting, please skip reading this review. It could really ruin a great adventure for you.
Short Review: This product is 55 pages long and costs $9.99. It is paperback with a nice glossy cover. At first I thought the price was a little high for 55 pages, but after reading, there is a lot here, and, really, if more things were priced at $9.99, I would probably be buying a lot more stuff than I do.
Within are the details of the history and the denizens of the Spring Crescent Middle School. 28 pages are used for this purpose, mostly focusing on the people of the school.
The artwork for silly and creepy moods is included as the creators wanted to leave the style for how you would play the game a choice.
The final 27 pages are what won me over. Like having your glasses cleaned, the author, like in Dreadful Secrets of Candlewick Manor, showed me the beautiful flexibility of the game system, and the potential it has. The end material does lean towards creepy, or at least, I easily saw it that way, and it gelled my affection for the product.
In short, for $9.99, this product provides you with one detailed scenario and the seeds for four more which could be easily made with all that is given to you. I am glad I sat down and forced myself to read it all; I really would have missed out if I hadn’t.
For veterans, I think you will really enjoy this; for newcomers, to run this, a lot of “fly by the seat of your pants” will be required and may be difficult, but I believe there is enough of a safety net in the material that that this will be run successfully by beginner GM’s!
Long Review:
Artwork: I had trouble warming up to Curriculum of Conspiracy and Monsters and Other Childish Things: The Completely Monstrous Edition. While I ultimately ended up liking them, I was bothered by why repeatedly, I would not initially like the products. After some thought, it finally occurred to me that the artwork is probably responsible for my reaction, because there is a mixture of goofy, sloppy scribbles and creepy, pen and ink line drawings. I came to this game looking for creepy, but the creators are leaving it up to you on how you want to run your campaign, thus, there is art for both moods. Just be aware that the mood of the game you want may not be reflected in the artwork. Knowing that it is representing two moods, the art is fine, nothing spectacular, but nothing poor either.
At this point of the review, I always like to chunk things out by the chapters. There is a problem here though, no table of contents. While there are chapter titles, there isn't a table of contents or an index. I believe this is a weakness of the product. If I am to use it at a table while running the scenario, the makers should put in something to help me find information quickly. To be fair though, there are total of only 55 pages to master. It is pretty easy to flip through and find what you need. It wouldn’t be too hard to jot down a simple list on the inside cover to help. Even though it is easy to overcome, I knocked my rating of the book down 1 point because of it.
Chapters:
Spring Crescent Middle School: 1 page: A flavored overview of the school introduces you to what it is like.
Theme: ½ page: The stated theme serves to frame everything you do as a GM while running this setting and scenario. It is brief enough to remember, yet powerful enough to uniquely shape the experience.
The History of SCMC: 4 pages: The history tells the 3 major parts of the school’s past. It covers the back story of how a man who practiced the dark arts comes to run a school. It also explains more current times. I actually enjoyed this story. It is well written and quite detailed. It also explains the birth and history of the Conspiracy, which operates much in the way a team of super villains would. A new creature called a Gidim, half-human, half-monster, is also introduced. It explains how they came to be and how they are to be used in the story.
Machinations of the Conspiracy: 3 pages: This section explains how the Conspiracy works. It gives general suggestions for what it will do. I found these hard to understand at first. I think it was difficult because this section of the book came too soon. I had no familiarity with the individual people in the school, so some of the information didn’t click. After finishing the section "The Cabals", I liked this section and it did make sense.
Here is a listing of what it covers just to give you an idea: Initial Plots – The Grudge, Monster House, The Lock-in; Divide and Conquer – The Trophy, Blackmail, The Favorite; Final Strike – The Lamb, Truce, Scorched Earth; Damage Control – The Patsy, Silence, Betrayal. These are basic options you have to run the Conspiracy consistently in different situations, and there is enough variety so that things won’t get predictable.
The Cabals: 15 pages: I wish this had been titled the Conspiracy because it covers the leader of the Conspiracy and its four cabals. The neat thing is that the cabals work in secret and separately from one another. The explanation for this situation is great and sounds like a lot of fun to work with in the scenario.
For all non-player characters you are given a brief description, a quote they should be known for, and a typical encounter with them, including their basic stats: feet, guts, hands, brains, face, and relationships.
The break down of the section is as follows. There is the leader: Principal Stanmeyer and then the four cabals. The first cabal is the Order of Harmonious Diplomacy (five people) which keeps the Conspiracy a secret from the world. The second cabal is the Eyes of Sights Unseen (three people) which are the eyes for the Conspiracy. The third cabal is the Wardens of the Veil (five characters) is the goon squad of the Conspiracy. The fourth and final cabal is the Brotherhood of Elder Sages (five members) which is the research & development and training branch of the Conspiracy.
This section ends with two more characters that are not part of the Conspiracy, but are watched by them.
Mystic Wards: 3 pages: Mystical wards are used by the Conspiracy to protect the school and attack monsters. This section is quite neat, because while not covered in the original book Monsters, it is a new and powerful element. I think it will really throw the players off and cause quite a bit of concern. Very cool stuff.
Student Cliques: 1 page: Here you are reminded of the basic stereotypes of adolescence in school setting, and maybe it's a waste of a page, but it is a list to keep your school population diverse.
Allies & Mentors: 2 pages: Four npcs are detailed in terms of how they might come to help the player characters. While this is neat, I was frustrated to see that two of them are Conspiracy members. The problem wasn’t that they are Conspiracy members, but that their detailed descriptions were in an earlier part of the book. The problem with that is that without an index or table of contents, I will be flipping around the book to find information for those two instead of seeing it all in one spot. This is picky and could be easily corrected by adding page numbers next to the content for easy flipping.
Using SCMC: 4 pages: This is where the book started to gel in my mind and got me excited (page 32). There are four different story seeds and each one has listed with it a genre, theme, and possible mentor to tie to the player characters. The titles of the ideas are: Burning the Midnight Fire, Just Another Brick in the Wall, Spiritus Mundi, and Rusty and Friends. Some are very dark and sinister, while one is a comedy story arc. I thought it was neat that the writer stayed true to the original book and included the styles of playful and creepy, between which you as a GM can choose.
Gamemaster Tips: 3 pages: Ten basic statements help GM's to run the school and scenario, with detailed advice after each one. I really like this section and could see flipping to it when unsure of what to do, but it does seem misplaced. I was thinking it should be in the front of the book for easy access, but then I thought, it wouldn’t be understood there so maybe it should have been in the back? I really couldn’t figure out where else to put it, but it did seem odd to have such a neat section buried in the middle of the book. The ten tips are:
1. The Conspiracy is experienced in dealing with monsters and their kids.
2. The Conspiracy prefers to isolate students by attacking their relationships.
3. The Conspiracy is relentless.
4. The Conspiracy depends on secrecy to survive.
5. Finding a kid with a monster is not easy.
6. The Conspiracy identifying a kid with a monster is a major turning point in the campaign.
7. Build tension as the campaign develops.
8. Children’s entertainment is a good source of inspiration.
9. Make the relationships an integral part of the game.
10. Make Spring Crescent your own.
Class Schedules: 5 pages: There are four schedules on one page for player use, two are for delays and one is for an early release. I thought this was a waste at first, but for realism, I can see using them once the game gets going! There is a list of sample classes at the school and then three pages of maps of the school.
Adventure: A Lesson Learned: 12 pages: This is the final section of the book. It is an adventure to run in the school. This is akin to a slam dunk in a close basketball game. It, much like Dreadful Secrets of Candlewick Manor, turns a spotlight on the potential Monsters and Other Childish Things has. I don’t want to get into the specifics too much, but it is about a student who unknowing is forming a bond with and has no control over a new monster. It is really quite fun.
This section of the product is well organized. It has an overview, a list of who’s who, a background, a first scene: homeroom, an interlude: morning classes, a second scene: lunch, an interlude: afternoon classes, a third scene: after school, a fourth scene: evening, and finally the conclusion and some hangouts which could be used for settings to finish things up.
The format of the scenario is tracked by time of the student day instead of by location and is pretty neat. It really allows for the characters to follow their own interests at times and will force the GM to be pretty creative to fill all of that off scenario time. There is plenty of detail in the product so that these opportunities should be pretty fun.
The conclusion is well written because it covers all bases, from a complete failure all the way to a fantastic success and how those varying results may lead to other adventures.
I really was impressed with the creativity and density of the scenario despite the fact that it is 13 pages. I was struck by the fact that the players are going to have to do some detective work to figure out some clues, do some fighting/protecting, and also do a stealth mission. This has quite a variety for one scenario. I was thinking the variety of styles play might be a challenge for a new group of players, but I don't believe it will be for people with some role-playing experience. I actually think veterans will find it quite refreshing and fun.
There is one part where there is a purple hulk-type monster, which I thought was too close to the Hulk and felt cliche, but I thought, who cares. I would just change it to something creepy or unfamiliar. It is just a cosmetic detail, which doesn’t effect the quality of this great scenario.
Organization: The book has some organizational lapses: no table of contents or index, and the sequence of the material seems odd at times, to the point of where it was confusing until later in the product. With that said, I can’t easily see a way to fix some of the sequence issues. I am being picky here, it does not make the material any less effective or take away from its creativity.
Physical product: This is a paperback product with a square spine. I would rather have seen a folded, stapled spine which is more durable. My book’s spine has already split, thus the last page is only being held in because it is glued to the back cover. I go pretty easy on my books, and unfortunately, this is something that I see a lot with this type of binding.
Final Thoughts: So, I started by thinking, “What the hell is this?” But after putting in some time to looking things over, I am once again impressed with the scenario and setting that has been developed for Monsters and Other Childish Things. Curriculum of Conspiracy is really imaginative, has good variety for the players, introduces new material to use in any scenario for the game, has a mood you can shape to your preferred style, provides a solid scenario, which you can also use as a template to build your own adventures. Even with a few pages here and there that I felt were questionable uses of the paper, for $9.99 and at 55 pages, this has more detail and more creativity than other products I have seen at double the price and length.
It is a very detailed scenario, but still allows the GM to flesh out all of the specifics for the game, but not to the point that it will be a burden or difficult. With this product, even though it seems physically an opposite to Dreadful Secrets of Candlewick Manor, it is very similar to it. Its brevity doesn't cheat as you are given all the tools you need to have a lot of fun!
It is clear that the writers for Monsters and Other Childish Things are using Monsters and Other Childish Things: The Completely Monstrous Edition as a starting point for their scenarios and showing by example how to let your imagination run loose and have a great time.
Bottom Line:
For veteran rpger’s: Buy it! This is really different and worth a look.
For new rpger’s: Buy it if you are ready for something where you aren’t told every step of the way how it is going to go, or if you are ready to try something where the characters don’t go from one room to another. There is a lot of freedom in this scenario, but that is part of its beauty and what is going to make it lots of fun!
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Posted Sat Jan 2, 2010 2:17 am