From
The Dawn of Time…
The Atlantis Rising sourcebook
takes you on a comprehensive tour of the most
human like aliens in the Conspiracy X game,
the Atlanteans. The Atlanteans are an ancient
race from a distant planet called Alan’ns,
which was much like Earth (as far as geography
goes anyway). They have been among the human
race since the dawn of our civilization and
have been messing about with us for roughly
the same amount of time.
The Atlanteans have been
very tied in with human society throughout
history. They frequently masqueraded as our
kings and queens, even as our gods (way back
when we all ran round in loin cloths and poked
hairy things with sticks till they fell over).
Atlanteans look a lot like humans, usually
good-looking humans, but they can alter their
appearance using nanotechnology. Nanotech
is all about using microscopic machines (nanites)
to perform various tasks.
Nanotech is a major part
of the Atlanteans society; they use it for
everything, from making houses and transport
to maintaining their bodies. The use of it
on their bodies has achieved something else
as well, immortality. Atlanteans don’t
age, they don’t get sick and they can
heal damage that would easily kill a human.
What was Atlantis all about
then…
The first three chapters
of this book can be read by the players, although
the third section should only really be read
by players wishing to use one of the new Forgotten
character types. Chapter one is short and
sweet, it tells you how the book is laid out
and what lies in wait for the reader. Chapter
two is another shining example of the gleaming
Conspiracy X setting. It has been written
as if the characters in the game have performed
a search using their HERMES computers (special
laptop type things with access to loads of
secret info). This is good for building up
the Atlantean myths, legends and background;
it should also give the players a healthy
respect for the things these super-human aliens
are capable of.
Chapter three is used to
tackle an area that may interest the gamers
who’ve been playing the game for donkey’s
years. To an immortal a prison sentence is
a bit of joke. After all they could lock you
up for 200 years and when you got out you’d
still have an eternity of freedom to look
forward to. So how do you punish a bad Atlantean?
You take away their memories. To an Atlantean
their memories are very important, so as a
punishment they have their memories stripped
away and then they get abandoned on Earth
for a set amount of time. When their sentence
is complete they get picked up and given their
memories back, well most if them do anyway.
The Forgotten are Atlanteans
who never got picked up, they’ve been
forgotten (not just a clever name). These
beings still have their immortality and their
Terminator like bodies they just don’t
know why. Sound like an interesting character?
Well they are and if your GM agrees to it
you could be road testing an immortal in your
next gaming session.
The rest of this book is
great, but it’s also very “GM
eyes only” so I ain’t going to
ruin anything by giving stuff away. Suffice
to say, Chapter four gives you a really detailed
description of the Atlanteans history and
origins. Chapter five has some sample Atlanteans
with varying motives that are sure to enhance
any storylines. Chapter six is where the nanotechnology
I was telling you about earlier is explained.
There is some really good stuff in here and
the look on your player’s faces when
the Atlanteans start using it will be well
worth seeing. The last chapter is one of the
standard sourcebook adventures, where they
try and crowbar some of the stuff from the
book into one of your games. It’s well
written though and is a worthy end to a good
book.
The End…
This is a good expansion
of the rulebooks alien section and will tell
you almost everything you could possibly want
to know about the Atlanteans. Some of the
revealed secrets weren’t quite what
I’d hoped for but they were good none-the-less;
and the fact that most of the information
in the book is from “incomplete and
inaccurate” Aegis files it can easily
be altered to suit your games.
This book could easily keep
conspiracy theorists busy for years, assuming
they live that long of course…
Reviewed By Jon Simpson |
