How do you play?
The first game begins with a Starting Interview which takes one of three forms:
- Employee Screening – Each player interviews for a job with the franchise, with the GM or another player conducting the interview. This is my favorite method and I typically conduct the first interview and then let each subsequent employee join the interviewing process as they’re added to the team.
- Investor Meeting – this is more of a collective interview where the team makes a proposal with a venture capitalist played by the GM.
- Media Interview – here the GM plays a reporter conducting an interview with the agents about their franchise.
What’s the purpose of the interview? First off it helps set the tone of the game – serious, comedic, horrific, etc. It also helps establish who the characters are as well as create sub-plots that can be exploited later. For example, in one game I ran, one of the players looked down at the imaginary resume in front of him, and asked “So, it says here you were kicked out of the military for sleep-walking? Want to explain that?” That was something that was completely improvised but the other player ran with it, explaining that he wasn’t sleep-walking but rather was possessed by a poltergeist. This was some cool stuff which then gave me something to use in the session.
Once the interview is over, play moves on to the formal job phase, which is what the games revolve around. Jobs all follow a similar structure:
- Getting the call – contact from the client and information about the job.
- Research & Investigation – researching the problem and coming up with an explanation/solution.
- Suiting up – Acquiring the equipment needed to deal with the problem.
- Fieldwork – dealing with the problem.
- Cleaning Up – transferring franchise dice after the job is completed.
- Vacation – relieve stress and get ready for the next job.
Whether by phone, by mail, or in person, a client contacts the franchise and hires them for a job. This type of job can take any form and the game provides a quick chart to help GMs who might need a little inspiration. Consulting the chart generates a personality for the client, their profession, what kind of occurrence is happening, and the location of the job. This makes the game a cinch to run with absolutely no prep. It also brings out another facet of InSpectres – the game isn’t just about supernatural occurrences; the clients themselves can be colorful personalities that bring their own challenges.
The research & investigation, suiting-up, and fieldwork phases work much like they sound – the characters figure out what the problem is, come up with a solution, prepare to carry out their plan, and then carry it out. This is the point at which the system really shines because all of the various mechanics come together to create the story. During the Research & Investigation phase, characters use their Academics & Contacts skills (and others if they get creative) to figure out what the problem is. This is the part where the game really starts to deviate from the “norm.” How? To start, the GM does not feed clues or information to the players. Instead, the players determine how the story progresses through their success and failure during this phase. For example, the players are investigating a haunted haunted sorority house and in the R&I phase, one rolls Academics and gets a “6.” The result is that they get to narrate what they find and so they might say something like “Ah hah, it seems that two pledges died during initiation back in the 1920s!” Wham, the GM now knows who is haunting the house.
Once the job is finished, the Clean Up phase wraps things up, after which the agents can head off for a nice vacation to recover in time for the next job.
Confessionals
The game also includes a Confessional mechanic, which involves players breaking up the action with a commentary about their character’s thoughts or feelings during the scene. Ever seen a reality TV show confessional? It’s the same basic idea. The unusual thing about the confessionals in InSpectres is that they actively encourage breaking the 4th wall – your character is speaking to the audience (or in this case the other players) – this can be done to introduce new story elements, plot complications, or even foreshadowing of events about to occur. A character can also use a confessional to introduce a new trait about another character. For example, in one game I’ve run, one of the characters called for a confessional right before the group entered a haunted sorority house and said “Unfortunately for us, Bill’s irrational fear of the dark never came up during his interview but it became obvious soon enough.” Wham! Bill acquired the trait “afraid of the dark” and we now knew darkness was going to play a role in an upcoming scene.
All of this may seem a bit chaotic but it really works in play to help create the feel the game is going for, as well ties the system together. The system only allows one confessional per scene so they are limited and depending on the timing, can play different roles: played out at the beginning of a scene, a confessional can set the tone and even define the action that’s about to occur, serving as foreshadowing and helping to tell the GM “this is what I want to see.” In the middle of the scene (as a cut-scene), it helps to create a reality-TV feel and also provides an opportunity for direct narrative control over the action as it’s taking place. At the end, it provides reflection about what just happened or sets up where things are going next. The confessional mechanic is definitely the best part of InSpectres.
My Final Thoughts
I really enjoy both playing and GMing InSpectres. With a creative group it can yield some really entertaining stories and fun-filled game sessions. It does take getting some used to though, especially for people only used to a more traditional GM-player role. My biggest challenge in running it is often getting players into the idea of telling me what the answer is rather than having me supply the answers or outcome. This shared narrative control is what makes the game awesome but it requires a different way of thinking. The game also works best with creative players who are used to improv. I’ve had it fall flat with some players because they simply can’t or won’t improvise which can make the story stall. In situations like these it’s helpful to have a GM and/or players willing to give suggestions and help move things along. In my experience, I’ve had the best time playing the game with kids and those who are new to RPGs since they are typically the least resistive to taking the narrative reins of the story and often will take the story in unexpected directions. As such, it’s a great introduction to roleplaying and it’s one of my go to games when I want to introduce people to the hobby.
The game is one which is best suited for smaller groups. While you could play it with eight or more people, I find the sweet spot is three to four players because it gives everyone plenty of spotlight time and keeps everyone involved. It also works best if you’ve got players who can create interesting, quirky characters. For example, while it may seem cool to play the scientific genius, it’s much cooler in my experience if you’re playing a high-strung, former-pizza delivery guy with a bad lisp. In other words, the more colorful and quirky your character, the more fun it is to react to the erratic situations and twists the game will generate. Similarly, the game really shines when everyone is into improvising, especially when it comes to techno-babble: “I’ll pull out my sub-atomic Spectral analyzer with the 3.3 GHz upgrade” sounds a lot better than “I pull out my ghost detector.”
For the $10 cost of the pdf I think you can hardly go wrong with the game, especially if you’ve got a creative group or want something that you can pull out when you’re down a few players and still want to do some roleplaying.
