| Paperback
- 136 Pages
The Garou’s largest enemy is the Wyrm,
a force of reality whose original mission
was to bring balance by destroying the Wyld’s
and Weaver’s creations. In time, it
has shifted from this original purpose, towards
a much darker one: the corruption of Gaia,
the Earth-Mother, and everything else that
goes with her.
The Wyrm controls many forces on Gaia, but
none as powerful and frightening as the gargantuan
mega-corporation Pentex, an octopus whose
tentacles grab everything, a truly apocalyptic
nightmare. The Garou fight the forces of Pentex
on a daily basis, sometimes winning the battles...
but ultimately losing the war. Why? Because
it controls and corrupts virtually everything
that humanity holds dear. You’ve read
a bit about Pentex in the main rulebook, you
may even have read some more in the now out-of-print
books of the Wyrm, perhaps you’ve even
found some extra details inside Freak Legion:
A Players’ Guide to Fomori. But, for
some reason you wanted more, as the person
addicted to Magadon’s over-the-counter
drugs, or the crazed video-game fan, hell-bent
on acquiring Tellus’ latest pixel-rendered
nightmare…
This book will satisfy your craving…
for now. But let’s be honest, you don’t
care where the fix is coming from, as long
as you’re getting it right?
What you will not find here:
Regrettably, this “guide to Pentex”
doesn’t boast an overall look on the
corporation, and doesn’t feature one
of its most interesting, and one of my personal
favourite, subsidiaries; O’Tolley’s.
What you will find here:
Six chapters, each one devoted to one of
Pentex’ Wyrmish subsidiaries, including
Black Dog Game Factory, White Wolf’s
mock clone, publisher of some real world role-playing
books such as Dead Magic (for Mage: the Ascension)
and the aforementioned Freak Legion. Each
chapter was penned separately, some of them
by legendary former Wraith: the Oblivion developer
Richard “Dead Guy” Dansky, and
some others by game developers Justin Achilli
(one of White Wolf’s most acidic people,
ruler of White Wolf’s flagship) and
Ethan Skemp (Werewolf’s big Kahuna himself).
Each chapter details a subsidiary, its subdivisions,
key personnel, hidden agendas, and other juicy
bits of premium information for the fiendish
Storyteller, who can turn it into threads
to weave nightmares.
Endron (by Richard E. Dansky)
Pentex’ first source of income was
oil, the black blood of the Earth, as Egg
Shen would call it in Big Trouble in Little
China. It is still its most important resource.
Thus, Endron is Pentex’ most powerful
and proud subsidiary. Its corrupt, incompetent,
and lack of safety measures form is laid bare,
and its techniques to spread this attitude
towards the world are shown. In my eyes though,
it’s a little too cartoonish how these
guys spill tons and tons of oil just to ruin
the Earth without thinking of the lost money,
especially given the utter importance that
all of Pentex’ companies give to their
profits.
Magadon (by Clayton Oliver)
Here we have a truly scary corporation. Few
things can get as far into our lives as medicine,
or vitamins and even our food. Magadon is
Pentex’ hold in the medical and health
realm, with tendrils sickly venturing into
other, even less savoury realms, such as biological
warfare. Magadon’s one of the “cleaner”
Pentex enterprises, because most of its products
are untainted (on the global level), due to
the inconvenience of the governments’
health controls. On a local level, that is,
in controlled environments, or inside random
packages, evil lurks. This chapter does a
very good job of analysing real world medical
corruption, an exaggerating it a bit for horror’s
sake. How much is exaggeration and how much
is covert fact is anyone’s guess. Anyway,
this is one of the best chapters in the book,
and it details one of the most interesting
subsidiaries.
King (by Richard E. Dansky)
Booze. How would the world be without it?
That depends on whom you ask, but the World
of Darkness would be a lot safer with King
Beers off the shelves. King Breweries and
Distilleries produce a variety of (mostly
cheap and low-quality) liquors. Again, another
pretty subtle corporation. King’s products
aren’t usually Bane-ridden; they just
produce a tiny little extra of the detrimental
effects of booze. A little more violence,
and a little longer hangovers, but that’s
it. Inside the corporation, however, very
dark beasts nest. I particularly liked the
Dragon Valley Wines “secret”.
As with the other Dansky chapter, I really
liked the fiction bits.
Avalon (by Deena McKinney)
When we were kids, there were few things
we loved as much as our prized toys. Pentex
has taken a step further: it produces toys
that hate us back. This chapter is one of
the most satirical ones, next to Tellus and
Black Dog. Avalon’s doll whose pants
won’t fit, and who relegates the child
to second-class status is painfully remindful
of the Barbie doll, as are the Action Bill
figures of G.I. Joe and many others. Less
cartoonish in its approach of “Pentex’
world domination scheme”, Avalon just
wants to desensitise the kids. It wants them
to be accepting of that which they are given.
Pretty scary and realistic.
Tellus (by Ethan Skemp)
For all of those out there who can’t
live without their daily fix of CS, or whatever
hits the market next, this is your thing.
Tellus creates computer and console games,
with ideas more extreme than those on the
real world market, like Elementary Skool Rampage,
Gang Beating, and online RPG Terminus (which
encourages civilian slaughter for XP’s
and fast in-game cash). As is obvious, Tellus
wants to encourage real-life violence (though
the book does explain that most people who
love violence inside a videogame will not
necessary like, or even accept, violence in
real life.) It’s a fun chapter, and
it probably holds many satirical product names,
but I probably missed most, since I’m
not very videogame savvy.
Black Dog (by Justin Achilli)
Last but not least, one of the most popular
pen & paper RPG makers in the whole wide
World of Darkness. Black Dog is, by far, the
most satirical chapter in the book, especially
because it is written by acidic Justin Achilli,
who takes it so far as to publish a mock newsgroup
flame between his alter-ego (Jason O’Kelly)
and some stereotypical gamers (the “know-it-all”
and the power gamer). I think the most fun
part is where the World of Darkness alter-egos
of various RPG gurus and game publishers are
described. Justin forgot R. Talsorian Games,
and some others, but the main publishers are
there, in black and white, but with their
names a little tweaked. As the Asian kid in
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom would
put it, Very Funny, very funny!
Overview & Final Words
So, all in all, this is a funny, and at the
same time very scary book. It details utterly
corrupt corporations that thrive in the World
of Darkness, but that disturbingly resemble
the real world ones (and sometimes, fall short
of them, if one considers what some real-world
corporations are capable of). So, now I will
finish my Fomor character sheet. I’ll
add some cool powers trading them for some
taints I don’t even consider playing
out. The Storyteller is dumb enough not to
notice. Too bad the book has so few powers
to choose among, and they are so damn expensive.
But hey, I always have min-maxing… Anyway…
tonight, we go wolf hunting!
Reviewed by Matías Timm
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