Product Review

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