In days gone by, companies used to put out new supplements every month or so. This was how many publishers kept the lights on by promising new rules or an advancing storyline for players already locked into their games. This has since shifted to a model featuring less releases that cover more ground, often in a magazine style format. Rowan, Rook and Decard has put out a mix of products from big releases to web only PDFs that contain campaign frames. Two books for Spire, Conspiracy Handbook and Magister’s Guide harken back to those days when a company would bundle material cut from a corebook with a GM screen to let them charge a little more for a piece of cardboard. In this case, however, both of these GM focused books offer excellent advice and options for Spire GMs. The company sent along copies of each for my evaluation. Do these books make Spire feel even darker? Let’s play to find out.
Conspiracy Handbook
In its earliest version, Conspiracy Handbook came with a sturdy GM screen though now they are sold separately on the Rowan, Rook and Decard site. (If you can find one of the old hard copy bundles for cheap, pick it up that way). This book offers a handful of people and places that can be dropped into any Spire story. Do you need a shifty contact that can be leveraged into helping out the cell? A weird location where players can meet to discuss the heist? This book has some notable options that each come with a blend of hooks, wants, needs and other story elements that make every version unique to the table. Ready made story elements can often run the risk of being spoiled by players. The charts here make that very, very difficult while still giving each element a distinctiveness that feels like Spire.
While I like drop-in elements like these, what I really loved about this book was the first chapter on how to build a conspiracy. The default assumption about a Spire campaign installs players as conspirators in the Ministry. The members seek to take down the aelfir that control the city as part of a cult associated with the drow moon goddess. This book allows players to build their own conspiracy if they want to or gives some great advice to Game Masters on how to build other conspiracies for the players to joust with for power. The trick, in short, is that you shouldn’t build just one conspiracy but three. In addition to the main conspiracy, there should be one that’s a reflection of everything the main conspiracy hates but uses the same methods to achieve and one that could be an ally or rival based on the actions of the players. The advice here is useful not just for Spire, but for any game that’s focused on factions jostling for position within an urban setting.
Magister’s Guide
For Spire groups hungry for more mechanics, Magister’s Guide provides plenty of new things to help run the game. Many of these rules are inspired by other games including Heart, Spire’s sister game of high weirdness dungeon crawls. That game set up some advancement rules that were a bit more character focused than the ones in Spire’s corebook. Instead of tying advancement to the rebels changing the city, the players choose their own advancement goals and get advancement based on how big of the changers they are. Given the fatalistic nature of Spire, that usually means characters that have unlocked a high advancement are probably not long for this world since that’s usually after something big like assassinating a member of the governing body of the city. Enjoy the cool powers while they last.
This book also expands on many of the ideas in the rest of the line. The gear purchasing rules in the core book get expanded out into more of a favor system where players can get services and safehouses in exchange for risking fallout.There are some light base building rules here for fans of Vaesen and other game where the group spends XP on their base as much as they do on themselves. Of most interest to long term campaigns are the Liberty rules, which basically give the city a Stress track and fallout comes in the form of retribution from the ruling class. It takes the form of increased Watch patrols, crackdown on districts and even important NPCs disappearing because of their ties to the rebels. It’s a brutal riff on heat rules that’s a perfect fit for the game.
The last half of the book includes new material for all the classes in Spire. That includes ones introduced in later expansions which points to the main weakness of this book. It’s more useful the more you are already invested in Spire. It’s not the best choice as a first or second expansion book but if the group already has the other big supplements, it’s a good resource to give your game even more depth.
Bottom line: Conspiracy Handbook is a great resource for Spire GMs looking for good advice to start out a campaign. Magister’s Guide is a great pickup once the group is locked in to the bitter end of a campaign.
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