“The world of 5th Conspiracy is one in which gods, angels, monsters, and memes walk unseen throughout the modern world. Part human and part anthropomorphized idea, the Oratum are dualistic. Simultaneously more and less than human, titanically powerful and more limited than a normal person, forces of nature and victims of their own nature.”¹

Back in January, I went through a number of games I need to try in 2024. I’m nearly complete on that list. With 5th Conspiracy, I went through a whole season and it took me a while to parse all that I’d learned and done. Heck, nearly 70 pages of notes during the game will do that. (Yes, I’m that kind of player.) Also, I figured what better time to premiere my experience and the glorious details of this game than right before the next season starts and you get your opportunity to try it at PAX Unplugged next month! So get ready to look past the obvious and mundane, to the world of the Oratum and their 5th Conspiracy!  This was the game that my dear friend Kae said I had to try at PAX Unplugged last year, and I’m so glad I did. 

I asked Kae why she’d come to me directly and so in her words: “It managed to blend urban fantasy in a setting with combat that didn’t feel like a slog while offering character options of so many different mythologies and monsters varieties that it felt like anything was an option. I left wanting to play 5th Conspiracy again. I literally did the next day of the con.”  PAXU 2023 would prove that opportunity! “Stephen had created his own system with outside mechanics which broke down and solved so many issues we’d experienced in other games we played together over the years. I  knew it would appeal to Rob as a player who loves WoD which heavily influenced 5th Conspiracy. It was worth his time to invest in [insert wink emoji here] with the added bonus that I wanted to play what I knew would be a great game system with a great roleplayer and friend.” Gotta love Kae, and thank you Kae for helping bring me into this world and meet Stephen!

Truthfully Stephen, that is Stephen Koontz the creator of AED Publishing (also on bsky), does an amazing job breaking down the what of this game. The man’s been gaming his whole life, worked for Roll 20 (a developer after my own heart), and took his experience to not only make a creative modern (usually urban) fantasy/gothic/scifi game but also weave in the tools to help it, you, your gaming group be successful. How’d he do that? Calm down, I’ll get there! First, I have to go a bit deeper into the Premise. While I thankfully have an early version of the full 5th Conspiracy rule book – yes, be jealous it’s over 200 pages of awesome – I can’t just share it with you! However, I can tell you that this game is very much that mix of fantasy, gothic, and scifi like I mentioned. It all comes down to what kind of character you and your friends (the actors) are playing, let alone the story you are telling with your Director (the GM). I won’t say Storyteller, because, well I’ll get to that later too.

Tell Me Why

In my professional life, where I work as a consultant, we try to strive for the Why of a company we’re working for, and the why of a project. That helps us help you (the client) prioritize as well as get us all marching to the same vision together, especially if the Why is a problem you’re trying to solve. Making it easier to use the checkout of a site is a very different why than launching a new site design to excite customers. Of course, you might want to do both! But this isn’t about my work, so why then are you telling me this Rob you might be asking? It’s because the Why of 5th Conspiracy is important. It’s tools for establishing a gaming group, a game with a story you wish to tell, and even the fundamentals of its mechanics are all part of Stephen’s desire to answer the problems of keeping a gaming group together, to be able to tell diverse stories (even differing season to season), and allow for a gaming system that allows us all to be authors of the story while still putting some fun anxiety into the dice rolling. Yes, yes, I swear I’ll get to mechanics too. It’s worth calling out that characters come first, then stories, then mechanics. You can even see that in the frame up to how Stephen and his team are putting the book together as seen below.

The Basics

First, know that 5th Conspiracy is a juxtaposition of the human and the supernatural. You might be a witch or wizard. You might be a vampire or a werewolf. You could be an angel, a devil, or some other divine entity. Maybe you’re of the Fae, and that doesn’t mean you have to be a trickster in the woods! Perhaps you’re the spirit of the forest or a city block. Perhaps you’re an alien, traveled here in the pursuit of science and the Earth’s important future. You might be the personification of a legend or myth like Paul Bunyan or Johnny Appleseed. Or perhaps you’re descended from the Gods of one culture or another or a mix! As I said, it’s a mix! There’s a fair amount of politics as these groups have organized into houses and a certain power structure, with names you’ve likely heard (Lucifer, Merlin) leading the way. All want to keep influence, all like a certain amount of veneration from mortality (not just the Gods). What does it mean to exist in this modern world? How do you influence it, gain from it? Do you forgo your humanity or try to help it? As you gain power and influence it gets harder and harder to not only blend, but to stay close to what once was considered human for you. You can see below a part of the book (still in development) where we get a fictional character’s perspective on what the Oratum are.

Premise & Planning

You can utilize 5th Conspiracy in many ways, emphasizing the political, or the action, or a mystery. To help you and your friends focus on what kind of tale you wish to tell, and to help the group come together with joint understanding to prevent game fracturing… You know, like one person didn’t realize the game would be months long or they can only make it every other Saturday? Or one person wanted more action and another’s here for romance and politics? Stephen created the Premise Document, available in the 5th Conspiracy Resources. So I can’t tell you this game is just one thing, because it’s not. And it’s not just based on what the Director wants. Oh no, well the Director might have ideas about this game and its mechanics really challenges you to help write the story with your fellow players. You aren’t just reacting to a story that’s crafted without the characters in mind. And it’s not the Director’s job to write out a full plot weaving the characters’ needs together. It’s a group effort, a blend of the two, because it’s collaborative because while 5th Conspiracy is at heart a character driven game, it’s also player driven. Oh that doesn’t make it easy, no, but it is more rewarding and the Premise Document helps you get there. Decide on the genre (more action or intrigue, or something else). Think about the themes that inspire everyone. Are you trying to find your family or seeking self-discovery? Maybe it’s revenge. Maybe it’s a treasure hunt. Spirit helps remind you of some parts of fiction, tv, etc. that you’re trying to capture here. Is it Monty Python or Game of Thrones, Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, Dresden Files or True Blood? And of course, choose a Setting. Usually it’s going to be a big city but hey, if it’s just small town in the midwest that’s okay too!

Of course the Premise Document details more like the expected schedule, some Hooks to tie into the pilot, and the important Safety Mechanics. You should be reviewing all these in part in discussion ahead of session 0 with input from the Director and players, and then formally at the session. It’s good to review and certainly possible to reject aspects so the group can come together into a new plan. Take a look above for how Stephen goes into that process. Really, take a look at the Premise Document (open it!) and you will realize how valuable and useful it can be for any game, not just 5th Conspiracy. Like I said, Stephen’s created not just a fun, great game but tools to help you in all your roleplaying.

Hooks & Needs

I mentioned the Hooks above on the Premise Document. This is where the Director has taken their inspiration for the game and hopefully a pre-session 0 alignment on genre, themes, spirit and the characters being considered to come up with the events that set up the story of the season. This is important to help the characters know how they might fall into, get caught up in, or seek out the main plot items. Indeed, a character could be the genesis of one. But this is important because the most important part of character creation – besides having a rough idea of your central concept or Tulpa – is knowing your characters needs. What makes them tick? What is driving them forward? What do they want, or truly need? And they should reflect some of the Hooks if not have a Need tied to one of the Hooks. You can have situational needs too, but they’re not what’s at the root (thus Deep) of the character. In the first season, my angel knew they valued knowledge and I had envisioned this “Lost Angel of the Oratum” concept. Our central hook was around a missing character named Mercedes so I had created a Deep need of finding a place for my character, a true place of being or home. Their situational need tied to the hook, having heard about Mercedes and wanting to help find her because she was part of one of the mage families, the Salucci.

Ya Got Winning Attributes

That gave me my central concept and ties to the game. From there, I could build up my angel boy, my strangely insightful, off-putting to fellow teenagers Ardent. I had to choose his 4 Attributes: Fitness, Coordination, Keen, and Personality. They have sub-attributes or Traits too. Brawn and Tough for Fitness. Dexterity and Agility for Coordination. Aware and Smarts for Keen, and Charm and Will for Personality. Those traits probably help you reason out the intention of the four, but what I like is how they flow into mechanics. Any time you try to do something that requires a little effort or is contested, you’ll need to roll one of those traits, the die of the parent attribute and with the benefits of the trait number. I figured my Ardent was a bit of a student athlete so while all abilities started at d4, I’d raise Fitness and Keen to d6s. I got one more raise and rather than make any a d8, or increase Coordination, I figured he was strong of Will and thus had to increase Personality. I also would get to put a 1 in some of those sub-attributes. What’s that do? Well whatever that value is – it can raise later on as you advanced – if that number or lower is rolled, you roll again. Thus, I could ensure I didn’t get a 1 when rolling with Will, which obviously had to get a 1 in it. Same for Smarts as he was a dedicated student and another for Aware as he was more people watcher than extrovert. I so wanted one in tough, but it wasn’t time and I was out of points. Decisions have to be made. So here’s what my scores looked like:

Who You Are Matters

But it’s not just those attributes, it’s also how you see yourself and others see you. You start with an identity at a d4, which is pretty novice, while a d8 is professionally trained or known and the limit of most humans. You can certainly get higher, however. We got 6 identity step increases. Thus I decided to start with three based on the concept I’d already started forming: Student Athlete, Respected Volunteer, and Lost Angel of the Oratum. I also decided to go pretty standard across the three and give each 2 steps, so each would be a d6. That would mean I’d have to be sure to justify these as part of my Milestone breakdown. Those Milestones are basically the advancement of the character, and the average young adult and character should have 3 Milestones to start with. Each milestone brought 2 of those identity step increases. Stephen has a great chart and level up detail, so I won’t go hard into it but it helps you tie advances to story. Thus after this step I had the following identities:

Oh and look at that Dramatic Action button there… You see, we played with Roll20. Remember I said Stephen was a dev for them? Well he created an API to tie in with the character sheet, i.e. he programmed the heck out of it to work just how like Roll20 makes other game systems work. Snazzy right? Yeah, literally the way to play this virtually is already ready for you! You hit that Dramatic Action button after you’ve determined your approach, that is the Attribute and Identity you’ll roll with to determine your result. Stephen’s gone beyond that and in dramatic scenes of real conflict, there’s a timer. Get your approach in fast, with a quick snippet of what you’re doing story-wise, and don’t delay! It really helps you feel the action, like using the Jenga tower in a Dread game. I love it. You might note too there’s text under my identities as they can shift as you increase them. Ardent went from a Courageous Volunteer who saved people from a burning building (which is where some magic first kicked in, protecting him) and soon became a Respected Volunteer working around his home city. Here’s hoping in Season 2, Ardent will be a little less of a Lost Angel, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Additionally there are Identity Focuses, like special perks tied to your character’s identities that you get to work out with your Director. Ardent was thought to be a wizard at first, capable of manipulating elemental energies, and so I wanted a wizardly Patron for him. The Director (that is Stephen) was like, well what about Merlin? Won’t that be a hoot when he shows up! Uhm, yes! It really was a surprise for the other players too. I also thought that he should be well Connected due to his volunteer work, which makes it easier to call in help through those channels. The Patron on the other hand is more the ‘shows up when it really matters but isn’t around all the time’ type. His influence was felt in my background and he showed up once during the game in a perfect way. Well, he appeared again, but it wasn’t him after all but a tricksy rogue AI/robot bent on world domination. Ardent was trying to stop it so it made sense.

It’s More Arts Than Science

But let’s get to the fun powers stuff! These are your Arts and you will have access to 3 domains of Arts. Those domains (shown below) are Beauty, Freedom, Primal, Prosperity, Security, Spiritual, Victory, and Wisdom. You gain access to one through your Faction, which is the overall grouping of a few Families. The next you gain is from your Family. Each of the different families and faction gain access to these Arts, but usually with a different focus on the subset of abilities.  However it’s worth noting it’s not restricted.

Ardent is part of the Host Faction because he’s a Khafra, a being tied to knowledge. It took a lot for me to decide between Ange (classic guardian angel) and the Khafra, but at the root I knew Ardent would be about bringing knowledge, especially magical knowledge, and enlightenment to people. Considering not a lot of human beings use and believe in magic, it makes sense he’s been lost right? So the Host gain access to Beauty and the Khafra to Wisdom. You then choose a third, and Spiritual seemed right due to the magical aptitude I wanted Ardent to have on his own and training he’d have gotten from some wizard tower before they realized he wasn’t a mage at all! Your two granted domains also have some abilities that might work easier or better for you. Each Art has up to 5 levels and various options to choose within those levels. The first Beauty art I chose for Ardent was Thoughts and Prayers, which does indeed work better for the Host. Ardent can hear the prayers of humans across several blocks, and those that pray to him by name can be heard from any distance. It’s a real easy way to send a message when a cell phone isn’t going to work! Ardent also took the ritual magic of the first level of Spiritual, some of that wizardry training, and Flip a Coin, the first from Wisdom. Flip a Coin would represent that strangely insightful, oracular like ability he’d always had as a young kid, knowing things by surprise or guessing at outcomes.  Below there’s another excerpt focusing on the Werewolves and you can see a bit of their domain Art: Primal.

Let’s Roll Dice!

To get that next level of mechanics, let’s talk roll results. Again, first you start with your approach and then agree on what attribute and identity that makes sense to roll. Rolling uncontested? The Director has a target number in mind and if one die meets or beats, you succeed. Both do? That’s success with a dramatic beat and you get to ask for something a bit more. There can be dramatic consequences too for failure, but that’s part of the fun of the story and you get to narrate why the failure. It doesn’t have to be ‘oh I’m just bad at stealthing at this one moment.’ Maybe someone comes around the corner, the light flickers, a rat hits a piece of trash, etc. Rather than the typical d20/D&D occasional bad roll reflects on you, it’s more the circumstances of the game. A real dramatic failure might mean introducing more risk like another guard coming down the hall to suddenly spot you! You can choose to succeed with consequence when your roll fails, but roll snake eyes and it’s a dramatic failure no matter what! Figure out the results, then tell how it all plays out. Narration is always the last aspect to be detailed.

Your Arts can usually be used most of the time without consequence, but some uses of them could tax or Deplete you, especially used in combat. All Oratum are powered by an amount of veneration or worship energy for their legend, the fear of them, etc. That helps counter that depletion and that’s checked again their Balance. The greater your Arts access (i.e. the max level you have) the higher your balance. Over time your Depletion die goes from d4 to d20. When you roll higher than your Balance, you become Taxed and can eventually become Depleted. Roll under or equal to your balance? Well then the die amount for your depletion check goes up. Eventually, even the strongest Oratum can tire the power they pull through their tulpa. I liked seeing this in action because it gives power/ability to your character, but over time with certain uses it can be used up and give reason for the character to seek new veneration from human folk.

There’s some other mechanics, like using Story Points (think hero points) to get a reroll in an action scene or introduce something into the scene to help you like an ally arriving or revealing a tool that could aid in the effort. You might also get advantage, or +1 to a roll, but get in a spot in an action scene and you’ll have disadvantage, -1 to any non-defensive action. Good idea to try and get out of that spot so you can get rid of that -1. There’s other conditions like wounded, helpless, dying, but I’ll leave those to you to discover more about when you play. Instead, let’s look a bit deeper at the story and my own experience shall we?

But Why A 5th Conspiracy?

First, we’ve talked a lot about 5th Conspiracy the game. But what exactly is this 5th Conspiracy in-character? Well there are 4 conspiracies, which are the four courts of Oratum that make up the Metikos government. There are the Kylem, the Lucifera, the Tuatha De, and the Pragmatiste. Each faction belongs to one of these allied conspiracies, but don’t expect all to be friends. There’s still political challenges for power and all the various ranks and titles and squabbles around such. Dragons for example are found within Pragmatiste. Gods within the Kylem. Angels are within the Lucifera. Fae are part of the Tuatha De. However it goes a lot farther than that and you’ll find almost any myth or creature you might want to play have their place including Vampires in the Pragmatiste, magic users in Kylem, aliens in Lucifera, and more! But the 5th Conspiracy? This is a legend, a myth, said to be a group of Oratum or perhaps something different that will destroy the Metikos. There are the Titans who are almost abstracts of forces or elements of nature given form, and seemed basically focused on destroying the Oratum. It goes well beyond the Titans of Greek mythology. Could they be tied to the 5th Conspiracy? Maybe, I don’t know. This is purely Rob conjecture. Like I said, there’s much you could play and it’s possible a 5th Conspiracy could form out of renegade faction members! Take a look at the full Factions list preview below.

Ardent’s Story

Most games, you’re not going to start high up in any faction, let alone be known to a broader Conspiracy. Maybe some folks in your city know you and that’s probably it. Now certainly you and your group could choose to start with more milestone, farther along in your Arts and possibly in political clout if you want to get into higher intrigue and contention stories with the rest of the Metikos or just Oratum in your city. However, you can have plenty of interesting tales early on without being far along. That was certainly the case for Ardent, who actually arrived relatively fresh to San Diego while the other characters had some seasons under their belt. I as a player was also a fresh add but Ardent had had visions of terrible things happening in San Diego, and so he came to help.

Ardent eventually met the two other main characters playing in this season through their pursuit of the missing Mercedes, the odd behavior of the leader of the city, and the revelation that more and more Oratum were going missing. Eventually we found out that even the head of the Tuatha De, Marie Rattlestilt (seen below), was missing but only because she was in hiding. She’d orchestrated a many-centuries long plan of having a series of daughters, and one son, to help facilitate a possible saving play to stop a monkey’s paw like artifact that was influencing and taking control of some people, including the leader of the city Syrus Regis. Meanwhile, Ardent’s trying to figure out where his knowledge and magical influence comes from that led the Wizards thinking he was one and to eventually acknowledge it was like he had some sort of damaged angelic host. Had he or his parents, that he never knew, done something terrible like a binding? No. Instead we found out the lost, heavily damaged Raziel (Galitsur), the Angel of Mysteries and Secrets and so-called “Keeper of All Magic” was tied to Ardent. Raziel was healing because of how he’d sacrificed himself in the distant past, at the destruction of Atlantis to save all others. Ardent was helping Raziel heal and continue his mission while Raziel helped Ardent. Great, but that healing would mean nothing if this deranged, sentient magical artifact and twisted AI that was controlling robots to murder people (kidnap even) continued on. Truly, all would die. We did stop both, and the deranged AI didn’t make it easy, but 2 of the 3 characters died including Ardent. Yep, he saved all he said he would and yet again gave himself (like Raziel had) to protect everyone. When I actually play a really good guy, I really go for it. However, do not fret, not all hope is lost, as our new season (which will have started by the time this comes out) will see us traveling the realms of the dead including Hades and Heaven to help get back to the waking, living world.

Stephen’s a master storyteller certainly, and a wonderful Director in encouraging us to shape our scenes. It was certainly a new situation for me to tap my DM/GM/Storyteller hat but in a player-way rather than guiding my character’s journey along the larger plot. Ardent had some real challenges between his stats/capability and his newness to the city, but he did help. In fact, I found I felt Ardent needed a singular scene of real triumph, which is where he went up against the deranged AI as he saved not only just Mercedes, but two other NPCs that the AI was using for their Oratum power as sort of a super-supernatural battery. Funny enough, Ardent was the battery there at the end to fuel a reality-changing, wish machine of a sort to conquer the foul influence of the monkey’s paw and those too far gone to be saved, like Syrus. Oh did I mention Syrus was also Kae’s character’s dad? The other main character was a sister, a goddess of the moon and magic, and capable of moving between time/space to not only set up Syrus in the right battle (and save numerous powerful people of the city from dying stupidly) but also using that reality-changing, wish machine. Marie (their mother) had set it up well. Yup. A glorious series of final battle and emotional scenes.

I also really value the mechanics and even the Arts use in non-combat scenes. D&D and Pathfinder are pretty combat focused, but utility spells and the right skill rolls help. Like FATE, utilizing failures to tell the story is woven into 5th Conspiracy so it’s not just a fail or pass. And you’ve got serious World of Darkness feels with monsters, politics, but it’s so much more than that. It’s certainly a climb to influence and possibly leave the human world behind, but that depends on the story you tell as well. There’s incredible opportunity for you with this ruleset. You could easily be the powerful people in a small town, or start higher milestone (and thus more power/influence) though I’d recommend saving that for after you’ve played a campaign or at least a couple seasons of one. I highly recommend investing in 5th Conspiracy and this amazing game. In fact…

Play 5th Conspiracy at PAX Unplugged!

Are you excited to try now? Good. You should be. Here’s how you can play 5th Conspiracy at PAX Unplugged. Go to Games On Demand, which usually has a large area set off in the RPG part of the hall. If you’re not familiar with Games On Demand, you don’t preselect tickets but stand in line and it’s first come, first serve for the time slot that’s starting. So if you want a specific game, get in line. Join their discord or go by and ask for some guidance. They will help you. Heck, I will help you if you ping me!

You could also meet the fabulous Brian Liberge who ran that Monsterhearts game I was so joyously part of. But most importantly even if you don’t get into the game you want, there’s a lot of others happening and you are guaranteed to have a great time with this amazing group of volunteers! Stephen will be there running 5th Conspiracy at the following times:

• Friday 12/6
  • 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. (EST)
  • 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. (EST)
• Saturday 12/7
  • So no times set right now, but Stephen seemed open to the possibility…
  • UPDATE RPG Designer Meet & Greet
    • 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. (EST)
• Sunday 12/8
  • 2 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. (EST)

And of course, you’ll probably see me at Games On Demand as well! I’ll have more hype for PAX Unplugged coming in two weeks, my article releasing right ahead of the convention. Safe travels, happy gaming, and much love to all in this great community! So very thankful for my Know Direction and gaming family!

Investing In:

I wasn’t quite sure what to name my article series when I first started but the idea of showcasing or discussing things that make me excited, that I find new and interesting, or maybe I’m otherwise passionate about seemed to fit with the idea of Investing In something like the Pathfinder 2E mechanic. To use some magic items you have to give that little bit of yourself, which helps make these things even better. I like the metaphor of the community growing and being strengthened in the same way!

I also want to hear what you’re Investing In! Leave me a comment below about what games, modules, systems, products, people, live streams, etc you enjoy! You can also hit me up on social media as silentinfinity. I want to hear what excites you and what you’re passionate about. There’s so much wonderful content, people, groups (I could go on) in this community of ours that the more we invest in and share, the better it becomes!

Sources

Banner – 5th Conspiracy book, AED Publishing, Stephen Koontz, art by Mike Luard

1. Premise excerpt, 5th Conspiracy, AED Publishing, Stephen Koontz
2. 5th Conspiracy full cover banner, AED Publishing, Stephen Koontz, art by Mike Luard
3. Guide to the Mysteries, AED Publishing, Stephen Koontz, layout by Jen McClearly
4. On the Nature of Oratum, AED Publishing, Stephen Koontz, layout by Jen McClearly
5. Premise Rejection, AED Publishing, Stephen Koontz, layout by Jen McClearly; “Cinna the Sphynx”, art by Ethan Kelso
6. Domains, AED Publishing, Stephen Koontz, layout by Jen McClearly
7. Wolfe Family, AED Publishing, Stephen Koontz, layout by Jen McClearly
8. Witch, AED Publishing, Stephen Koontz, art by Mikael Lavandier
9. Factions, AED Publishing, Stephen Koontz, layout by Jen McClearly
10. Marie Rattlestilt, AED Publishing, Stephen Koontz, art by Mike Luard
11. Games On Demand logo, Games on Demand
12. Suits banner, AED Publishing, Stephen Koontz