Someone
else started it…
The Nemesis sourcebook gives
us the lowdown on the most stereotypical of
all the aliens in Conspiracy X. The Greys
are the typical X-Files, beaming people up,
telepathic aliens we all know and love. They
will probably seem less alien to many of us
simply because we have seen what they look
like in various posters and even toy figures.
Don't let this fool you though, they are just
as sinister as the Atlanteans and just as
mysterious as the Saurians. A dangerous new
enemy walks amoung us, keep your guard up
and curiosity in check.
The Grey homeworld is a water covered planet
in a binary star system 40 lights years from
Earth. They followed a very similar evolutionary
path to humans… to a point. As we plodded
on through our own history the Greys developed
an array of amazing psychic talents, which
they have honed to perfection over the years.
A major resource on Greyworld is coral, which
the Greys have managed to infuse with psychic
properties and can now make it do anything
from power psychic abilities to form flying
space craft. Their society was one of peace
and tranquility. They searched for nothing
more than enlightenment and a furthering of
their psychic skills. This was until the arrival
of the others...
The
others? Does this explain why they are picking
on us?
Well, I won’t go too
far into the deep blue sea of mystery as it'll
ruin the storyline you’ll find in the
book. But suffice to say, Eden have linked
the Greys into the overall Conspiracy X storyline
flawlessly. They are not simply coming to
earth for fun, they have very serious reasons
and motives behind everything they do. We
even learn the reasons behind the famous ‘beaming
up’ stories many abductees tell and
why they often can’t remember much of
what happened.
So
is there any cool stuff for the players in
this book?
Yes there is. Not only is
there a rundown on Grey technology with it's
various game effects, there is also another
character type which could be added to a veteran
group if the GM decides you can handle it.
The players will also enjoy
reading the first few sections of the book
as it has lots of HERMES download information
in that will help them get a feel for the
Greys. This is good for at least one player
in the group to read as it is highly dangerous
for an Aegis cell to have no knowledge of
these strange aliens.
In fact I found it useful
to give one of the players a brief rundown
on the Greys before we played, so the group
had a specialist of sorts to help them understand
what was going on. It is best to sort out
what you’re going to tell the player
beforehand and then don’t repeat yourself
or answer any questions they may ask. This
should leave them with a suitable number of
knowledge gaps and misunderstandings to make
their discoveries in the game a surprise.
The rest of this book is
very well put together and the Greys are perfect
antagonists for your gaming group. The “GM
eyes only” section has lots of cool
information in and introduces a ‘loose
cannon’ faction within the ranks of
the Greys, who may prove to be player character
allies or enemies depending how first contact
goes.
The
end of the world as we know it…
There is a fairly good adventure
in the back of the book, which could help
you give your players an idea of where Aegis,
The Black Book and the Greys stand in the
bigger picture. It comes with a nice map of
the area your players will spend most of their
time in and some decent NPC’s which
you may find useful in your other adventures
as well.
This is another good quality
sourcebook from Eden and it just reinforces
the fact that they have storytelling well
sussed. The only problem I have is once again
the rules. I still think it could all be far
simpler and probably more fun if they ripped
this system to shreds and started again. It
almost seems like they have tried to build
the game around the system and not the other
way round (which I believe is a better idea).
All in all though I was pleased with my purchase
and I recommend it to any budding Conspiracy
X GM’s out there.
I had come up with something
witty and amusing to write here, but I can’t
seem to clear my thoughts, in fact I’d
best go an write that Nemesis review before
I forget again…
Reviewed By Jon Simpson |
