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As its title suggests, Laundry Files: Agent’s Handbook, the first supplement to be published for the Laundry Files, Cubicle Seven Entertainment’s RPG of esoteric espionage based on the Laundry Files series of novels by Charles Stross, is not just for the GM, but for his players too. As what is essentially a companion volume to the core rule book, it also contains plenty of information that a player will find useful. Within its pages can be found discussions of subjects as mundane as bureaucracy, car chases, and chases, and as outré as Deep Hybrids and Gorgons, along with advice on running Laundry Files campaigns outside of the good offices of Capital Laundry Services and also within, but during other time frames. Like any good companion for an RPG, the Agent’s Handbook brings together a diverse range of articles, in this case all with either a bureaucracy, espionage, or horror theme; or a combination of all three. It begins in purely espionage territory with solid introduction to the arts of Tradecraft and Fieldcraft. It covers everything from sources of information, running agents, and codes to tailing, surveillance, and electronic surveillance. Whilst all of the information presented here could easily be found elsewhere, having it in one place is useful and it does provide enough detail for the Games Master without the need for further research. Of course, this being a companion for an outré espionage RPG, the occult aspects of both arts are also discussed, including occult stenography (hidden writing) and occult tailing. This switching back and forth between the ordinary and the outré continues with the next two chapters, “Bell, Book, and Candle” and “Firearms.” These two chapters come chock full of toys in a manner that is almost as much fun as the old Q Manual for the James Bond 007 RPG, which is somehow fitting that all of the Laundry’s technical knowhow is provided by Q Division. Although the first chapter covers items as ordinary as forensic kits and night vision goggles, it also details devices seen in the novels, such as Display Glasses and the OCCULUS wagon. Rules are also provided for vehicles and chases; for designated premises – essentially rules for creating Laundry agents’ homes; and for handling experimental devices, the type of contraption that the players get to have fun with before its goes “fffizzzt” and the Games Master gets to have fun with all of the side effects. Rounding out the chapter is a couple of sample safehouses created using the given guidelines.

For the most part, the handguns, submachine guns, rifles, and shotguns described in the Agent’s Handbook are all ordinary enough, for the most part intended to arm the opposition rather than the player characters. This expands upon the armoury included in the core rules and helps add verisimilitude to what is both an espionage game and a modern set game. The chapter does not wholly ignore the outré, adding a selection of occult shotgun shells to the specialised ammunition already detailed.

Of course, the player character agents are going to want to get to play with the new toys presented in the previous chapters and “Black Budget, Red Tape” discusses how this is done. Its focus is on the use of the Bureaucracy and Status skills, both of which are necessary if the player character agents are to navigate the sometimes labyrinthine organisation chart that makes up the Laundry’s administration. The need for this can be both skills it to manipulate the budget for its current mission, to search the Laundry’s records, to requisition items from Q Division, or in effect to even besmirch or befuddle enemies and rivals within the Laundry. The Games Master can involve the player characters in an audit, performance reviews, informal manager meetings, and so on. All of this should been done sparingly, but just as it plays a role in the novels, it should play role in the Game Master’s campaign.

If the Laundry has to be ISO 9001 compliant, then so does its agents and thus, so do the player characters. This means not only the filling out of forms and reports, but also training courses, and as part of the civil service of the United Kingdom, the Laundry offers lots of courses, from the mundane Achieving More with Less and Managing Change to the unconventional Exorcism 101 and Briefing the Uninitiated: Rapid Esoteric Induction Workshop. Most obviously courses are a means by which a player character can be improved, but they also work as roleplaying hooks, rewards, and sometimes punishments. There are courses here to suit all aptitudes and ambitions.

Player characters fall under the spotlight with a set of ready-to-play, bar customisation, investigator templates; new professions, including one for an Assassin; and two sets of new rules for character generation. The first of these sets allows a player to create his character in five year blocks, enabling the creation of an agent with a broader skill base, whilst the second set provides a means to veteran Laundry agents. All of these options are joined by perhaps the most outré concept in the supplement – outré that this for the Laundry Files RPG as opposed to any other RPG. This is the idea that the players can take the role of non- or near-humans. This includes Deep One Hybrids, Ghosts, Gorgons, Parallel Reality Refugees, and Residual Human Entities (or zombies), the latter being the eventual status for Laundry agents killed in the Line of Duty whose corpses are not too heavily damaged. Although such creatures are encountered in the fiction, most notably Ramona Random of the novel The Jennifer Morgue, the inclusion of these non- or near-humans as a player option feels at odds with the fiction – more so during character creation, rather than something to transition into, as with the Ghosts and Residual Human Entities. Perhaps the least radical of the near-humans given is Parallel Reality Refugee, but for the most part the inclusion of these “races” works better as a means for the Games Master to create NPCs.

Lastly, the Agent’s Handbook explores campaign concepts within the universe of the Laundry Files, both away from the offices of Capital Laundry Services and inside them, but in different time periods. Campaigns away from the Laundry take the Laundry Files more into traditional Call of Cthulhu territory, though the authorities – or at least some of the authorities – are possibly aware of the Mythos, and in the case of the Laundry, are if not monitoring the investigators’ activities, then watching for something that will trigger their intervention. Most notably, the supplement discusses the possibility of playing cultists and thus allowing the players to take the role of the winners! (After all, the Stars will come Right for someone if not something!). This is of course a daunting prospect as sorcery and thus Mythos knowledge is difficult to acquire and they face the possibility of ending up as sacrifices as much as they face being arrested and incarcerated, if not inducted into the Laundry. Also discussed are the possibilities of playing a campaign based around another agency, such as the USA’s much feared Black Chamber (though this is covered in more detail in the supplement, God GAME Black). Equally as interesting is the possibility of running a historical game of the Laundry Files, perhaps during the 1930s and World War II, during the Cold War, and so on. The first of these of course, lends itself to a crossover with Modiphius Press’ Achtung! Cthulhu line, but to be honest, as good as any of these ideas are, and there is no denying the potential in any one of them, they do all suffer from brevity. They could all do with much more information being devoted to them, indeed, the authors of the Agent’s Handbook could take the contents of the sections to running alternate campaigns and turn it into a whole book. There are campaign ideas here that are worth chapters themselves rather than little more than a mere page each…

Physically, the Agent’s Handbook is well written and tidily presented with the occasional piece of good art. It is somewhat drily written, though the geeky wit of Stross’ novels is allowed to shine through in the footnotes. A nice addition comes in the “form” of “Official Forms” that if used by the Games Master will add verisimilitude to his game.

Laundry Files: Agent’s Handbook continues the high standards for the game line’s supplements set by Black Bag Jobs. Where that anthology provided a sextet of excellent scenarios, the Agent’s Handbook provides exactly what it should, and that is, supplementary useful. All of it is useful, all of it is well written (though in places there could be more of it), and all of it will only add depth and detail to a Laundry Files game.

You Signed Up For This...

So you signed the Official Secrets Act (Section III) in blood. You have done the right courses in everything from “Introduction to Applied Occult Computing” and “Basic Computational Theory” to “Surveillance and You: A Field Guide” to “The Paper Clip Audit Procedure.” You got cleared for field duty so now you get to protect the United Kingdom plus her dependencies (and the European Union and the USA and the rest of the world in that order) from the filth of the multiverse. Except that does not happen every day, thankfully. So most of your day means a commute into the centre of London, logging on and starring at your computer screen dealing with one dull memo after another in between attending even duller meetings before trudging back home. It is all go for the life of an agent of The Laundry, the United Kingdom’s most secretive agency tasked with protecting the country from entities from beyond. Okay. Mostly it is not, but being a field agent means that you are likely to receive telephone calls at four in the morning. Which probably means overtime and expenses and paperwork, and overtime and expenses means that the country is in danger. Paperwork the Laundry does all the time even if the end of the world is nigh… Still a 4am “Black Bag Job” means fun and excitement and a chance of death and a chance that the world might end if you fail. No pressure then. Still your healthcare plan is up date – isn’t it?

Black Bag Jobs, the first supplement from Cubicle Seven Entertainment for The Laundry, its RPG based on the “Laundry Files” series by Charles Stross, brings together six scenarios designed to scare the field agents with the fundamental truths about the universe. Each of the six can be run as single scenarios or one-shots, or be run as a part of an on-going campaign, one that exposes the player characters or agents to The Laundry’s darker secrets and its darker fears. Any one of the six can be run in a single long session or perhaps two.

It opens in rip-roaring fashion with “Case: Lambent Witch” which has the agents sent out to a North Sea oil rig that has gone silent. Somebody might be drilling in the wrong place and thus broken the terms of the treaty with a certain ocean floor dwelling species. The scenario has the feel of the film Aliens, but requires more than firearms to solve. It is followed by “Lost and Found,” which has the agents dealing government bureaucracy and inter-departmental politics when they have to find a lost laptop – which has all of the wrong software on it (Mythos tomes in PDF, anyone?) – and deliver a briefing to a new Parliamentary Private Secretary.

The third scenario, “The Shadow Over Kafiristan” takes its cue from Kipling’s The Man Who Would Be King and the Great Game as much as it does the current situation in Afghanistan. The agents are sent out into the field to ascertain whether or not a local warlord would make a good ally after he is spotted sporting an occult tattoo. Is he a mere worshipper or an actual practitioner of sorcery? After all the stress of the previous missions, the agents get to relax and go on a retreat, except that whilst there, they are to run a discreet security check upon the new facility. Given that the title for the scenario is “The Wild Hunt” and that it is set in the West Country, this is probably not the getaway that the Med & Psych Department promised you.

In “Secret Agendas,” the sextet mixes up the occult with the classic paranoia of the espionage genre as the agents are tasked with ferreting out a potential traitor. The job is made all the more interesting because the agents get to investigate the suspects in both the waking and the dreaming world, all three of which will be placed under a Truth Compulsion Geas. The last scenario in the book, “The Signal,” provides the agents with a glimpse of the much feared CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN as the agents have to follow a strange signal that comes from off world, much in the same manner as the ending of The Atrocity Archives. If used as a campaign, this scenario brings the anthology to something of a downbeat ending rather than a climax. This should not really surprise the characters, who after all, are not going to receive much in the way of plaudits (there is though, always the index linked pension) and should still realise that the end of the world with the advent of CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN is nigh.

Physically, Black Bag Jobs is well put together. It uses the same layout as The Laundry RPG, but the tighter page count means that there is more artwork and other features that break the text up. The interior artwork itself is also good. In addition, all of the scenarios come with their own handouts, all of them nicely done. I would recommend a buff folder or two in which to present them to the players at the appropriate time.

The highlight of the book is the author’s successful effort to capture the feel of the bureaucracy, the politics, and attitude of British government institutions with their weariness, small mindedness, and stubborn natures. These are all very English scenarios, ones that draw heavily from the United Kingdom’s relatively recent political and geo-political concerns, whether it is Afghanistan, North Sea Oil, and civil servants losing laptops. A vein of knowing humour runs throughout the six, some of which is laugh out loud funny, and much like the novels themselves, is very British in tone and feel.

Were I to select a favourite scenario from the collection, it would be the first, “Case: Lambent Witch.” It starts the collection with a bang and is the one that feels the most similar to Stross’ fiction. Others like “Lost and Found” and “Secret Agendas” explore the paranoia that come with the espionage world before giving the occult twist, while “The Wild Hunt” plays off some of the fiction’s more absurd elements. The last scenario “The Signal” is perhaps the least pleasing and the least interesting. In part because it takes the agents away from The Laundry and its internal bickering, and because it takes the GM’s game towards the forthcoming apocalypse that is CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN, and preventing that is more interesting than actually having it occur.

Although the six scenarios are written for The Laundry RPG, there is material here that a Call of Cthulhu Keeper could use in his campaign. Perhaps the easiest scenario to adapt is “The Wild Hunt” because its set up involves The Laundry the least, so that could easily be removed. Conversely, the more that the scenarios are written around The Laundry, the harder they are to adapt, at least for Call of Cthulhu. Running some of them for Delta Green might be possible.

If you already have a copy of The Laundry RPG and want more, then Black Bag Jobs is an obvious purchase. If the GM makes that purchase, then he will a solid set of six scenarios that are in turns engaging, exciting, and entertaining – and sometimes funny too.

Is Cthulhu ISO 9001 Compliant?

Imagine if the end of the world was nigh and the only thing standing between the population of the United Kingdom and unspeakable demonic entities from dimensions beyond feasting upon its collective brains, was a top, top secret organisation leftover from World War II whose field operatives know how to combat these horrors using computational sorcery developed by Alan Turing run through iPhones, but which have to bring every mission in under budget, survive interdepartmental turf squabbles, and conduct regular paperclip audits. This is the set up for the “Laundry Files” – The Atrocity Archives, Jennifer Morgue, and most recently, The Fuller Memorandum – a series of novels by Charles Stross that combine Lovecraftian horror with classic espionage shot through with a heavy dose of pop culture geekery, especially computer based, and a wry sense of humour. Think Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy meets Yes, Minister and Dilbert, and then send them off to deal with the Mythos, and you have about the right tone. Those then are the novels, but Cubicle Seven Entertainment happens to have published a roleplaying game based on them, and the thing is, it is a bit odd.

For starters, The Laundry – A roleplaying game based on the “Laundry Files” novels by Charles Stross, is actually a roleplaying game within the setting of the novels themselves. There are notes in the game that have the main character from the novels – Bob Howard – being instructed to field test the RPG (on expenses) to determine how much accurate information it contains and whether it represents a threat to the national security of the United Kingdom. Next, H.P. Lovecraft both existed in the “Laundry Files” setting and also happened to write a series of short stories about an alien god he named Cthulhu as well as various other unholy deities and entities, which have not only entered pop culture, but also happen to be almost not quite right. So it is entirely possible that the classic roleplaying game from Chaosium, Inc. also happens to exist in the setting of the novels. Which when you consider the fact that (a), The Laundry uses the Basic Roleplay system that has the same common ancestor as the mechanics in Call of Cthulhu, but is slightly more complex; and that (b), The Laundry borrows extensively from Call of Cthulhu canon (Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh, anyone?) and its source, then the authors of this game either know too much, or they are just having a metafictional joke or two at your expense.

Other than that, The Laundry is not actually all that odd and turns out to be a fairly straightforward RPG of Lovecraftian investigative horror that uses a venerable set of mechanics that Call of Cthulhu players will easily adapt to. There are significant differences between the two games though. The Basic Roleplay system mechanics are more detailed and character creation is more focused for example. Plus it is firmly set in the period of the here and now with the impending apocalypse “when the stars come right” that is CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN due in 2013. This is a bit of a sod if the GM wants to set his game in 2014, though the author does have a good stab at providing advice for the GM who wants to run his players through that event. In addition, some characters in the game do get to play with magic, or rather computational sorcery, usually run through their department approved smart phone after the character has passed and been signed off on the right training courses – starting with Introduction to Applied Occult Computing; and more importantly, it actually provides a reason as to why the characters would go face things squamous and otherwise. Namely, for Queen and Country (and Commonwealth and our EU partners), for the healthy pension (though if CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN comes true, the best it will be is unhealthy), for the excitement (because it beats sitting around in a cubicle all day knowing that you know too much and doing a make work role until your pension matures, though either way, you still have to be ISO 9001 compliant), and because you are here for the duration. After all, you either read a bad book, accidentally tried to summon something that nobody should, really did try to summon something that nobody should and have regretted it since, got seconded to the Laundry and have no idea what all this occult twaddle is, or you saw something that nobody should see. Either way, you signed the Official Secrets Act (Section III) in blood, and the only way in which you can talk about this is with your fellow Laundry civil servants – if they are cleared for the same cases that is – upon pain of ending up as a zombie in HR. Really. In the meantime, The Laundry does take account of the events of the third book. The Fuller Memorandum, so spoilers abound…

Character generation in The Laundry is a matter of rolling dice for characteristics and then choosing a series of skill packages. These account for a character’s Personality Type, Profession, and Assignment within the Laundry as well as the skills learned on the Field Training Course. They provide for a lot of skills, many of which have to be assigned a speciality, which means that they can be taken again and again. Whilst the process neatly defines a character’s background and role within the Laundry, what it does not allow for is any kind of personal interest skills as would be found during investigator creation during Call of Cthulhu as there is no room for customisation outside of the packages. So characters cannot begin the game being an excellent swimmer or an amateur painter.

Our sample character is private psychotherapist who was inducted into the Laundry after a patient exposed his occult practices during some therapy sessions. Doctor Garkovich’s move in to Field Duty after it was decided that after action monitoring was insufficient following a stress monitoring and counselling seminar.

NAME: Devon Garkovich
GENDER: Male AGE: 31
NATIONALITY: British
OCCUPATION: Doctor (Psychologist)
ASSIGNMENT: Medical & Psychological
PERSONALITY TYPE: Thinker

STR: 08 DEX: 10 INT: 14 IDEA: 70%
CON: 11 CHA: 14 POW: 14 LUCK: 70%
SIZ: 11 SAN: 70 EDU: 17 KNOW: 85%

HIT POINTS: 11 MAJOR WOUND LEVEL: 6
EXPERIENCE POINT BONUS: +7%
SANITY POINTS: 70

SKILLS: Bargain 10%, Bureaucracy 10%, Computer Use (Magic) 10%, Dodge 20%, Fine Manipulation 10%, First Aid 70%, Insight 60%, Knowledge (Accounting) 15%, Knowledge (Espionage) 05%, Knowledge (Law) 10%, Knowledge (Occult) 10%, Knowledge (Politics) 10%, Medicine (Internal Medicine) 45%, Medicine (Neurology) 15%, Medicine (Pathology) 15%, Persuade 45%, Psychotherapy 70%, Research 60%, Science (Pharmacy) 41%, Science (Biology) 11%, Science (Psychology) 51%, Sense 15%, Spot 40%
LANGUAGES: English 85%
COMBAT SKILLS: Fire Arm (Pistol) 25%

Of the skills, only Cthulhu Mythos and Sorcery cannot be improved through experience. Just as in Call of Cthulhu, the Cthulhu Mythos skill can only be increased by going insane or from researching dark tomes. Similarly, Sorcery, the practice of conducting summonings, and creating wards, bindings, and other enchantments, can only be gained through study and training.

Mechanically, The Laundry uses the Basic Roleplay system and differs only slightly from Call of Cthulhu. It is still a percentile system, a success being made whenever the player successfully rolls under the skill, which can be doubled for easy tasks, and halved for difficult ones. Skills can be over 100% and this allows for exceptional successes and a decreased chance of fumbling. Overall, the rules for combat and insanity are in keeping with Call of Cthulhu.

The setting of The Laundry is explored over the course of several chapters that cover everything from its history and labyrinthine organisation to the gear that its officers might be able to requisition (such as one of Erich Zann’s violin designs – unlikely, the trusty old Hand of Glory – more likely, and Personal Wards – Classes One or Two, very likely) and potential allies and adversaries at home and abroad. Particular attention is paid to budgets, requisitions, and training, with the characters being given an allowance for each mission which they can attempt to spend as they see fit (possibly helped along by their Bureaucracy and Status skills) and can best explain in after action reports. Assuming of course that the various departments that the characters report can agree as to whose departmental budget is funding the mission, complicated of course, by the fact that the characters usually report to several departments. That said, if the field agents over spend and fail to get permission for it afterwards, they will be in quite a bit of trouble with Financial Control or even the Auditors. Conversely, if they underspend, the characters can spend anything left over on weekend junkets or proper training courses, the latter leading to potential skill increases.

Sorcery receives similar treatment in what is The Laundry’s densest chapter, which is not helped by a lack of example castings. The concept behind magic in the game is that it requires nothing more than enough thaumic energy and a means of computation. In the past, all that was available was the human mind and either a large sacrifice or a large cult, and sometimes both. Some cultists today still prefer this method, but with the advent of computers, Alan Turing discovered that machines could do magic a whole lot faster and with the right wards, a whole lot safer too. It is the way that the Laundry works magic today, classifying computational sorcery into five grades of summonings, glamours, geases, gates, exorcisms, and bindings. This is a very functional, almost bureaucratic magic system, as befitting the source, completely without any flash, unless that is, something goes wrong. When this happens, the most likely result is an explosive backlash of thaumic energy, but at worst, one of the sorcerers might be possessed by something from beyond or even a gate might be opened to another dimension. Such events are more likely if the casters have resorted to ritual or mental sorcery rather than computational magic.

In comparison with Call of Cthulhu, there are fewer Mythos entities described in The Laundry. Of course those from the novels and stories are included, as are others, but anyone expecting a bulging bestiary will be disappointed. Not unsurprisingly, they are organised by classification; so for example, a Fire Vampire is a Level Two Entity, while Umr at’Tawil is a Level Four Entity. Level Five Entities are akin to gods and weak gods at that, so go un-described. Other threats are also detailed, mostly human in origin and this in addition to the discussion of CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN.

Interspersed throughout The Laundry are a series of in-game documents that nicely provide a sense of verisimilitude. They include an introductory letter to Capital Laundry Services – the Laundry’s public face and Security: Best Practice Guide, whilst others accompany the game details on the various non-human species that the Laundry has had dealings with, and has even signed treaties with. They delightfully bland, yet helpful, and make you wish that The Laundry had come as a boxed set so that they could have been provided separately.

Whilst the GM gets the bulk of the advice and the support, the player is not ignored and is given a whole chapter to himself entitled, “Expectations of Play.” Its advice is excellent, as is that for the referee, who gets to read “Expectations of Game Mastering.” This covers everything from different campaign types and style and tone to handling player input and random generating Laundry missions as to what to emphasis in the game, including the horror, the geekery, the technothriller, the occult, and espionage’s actual history. Write-ups are provided for the major characters from the novels along with new characters that can be used as player characters or NPCs. Three ready-to-play scenarios round out the book and can be used to introduce players to the setting and its various aspects.

Physically, The Laundry RPG is a decent looking if plain book. Its art work is decent, but sparse, and although it looks plain, the layout is used intelligently such that it is never unreadable. It needs an edit here or there, and it does feel as if some of the sections appear much later in the book than they should. For example, the Security: Best Practice Guide and the Expectations of Play feel as if they should have been placed further towards the front of the book. In addition, it would have been nice if there more examples, particularly in the sorcery and the character generation sections.

The Laundry RPG comes with just everything a GM needs to get a game going. Devotees of the “Laundry Files” will appreciate how close it feels to the novels and the advice that it gives to help the GM get close to that feel, though this is probably slightly too complex an RPG for anyone who has not played or run an RPG before. Its tone is also slightly different to any other horror RPGs, there being a deep vein of dark humour that runs through it, one not always easy to maintain alongside the horror and espionage elements. Similarly, it is very different to Call of Cthulhu. It is more constrained and its play more focused than the freewheeling style of Call of Cthulhu, primarily because the player characters are working for someone. The differences are not so much that a GM could not plunder from Call of Cthulhu and its supplements, but he needs to take care in what he imports into his Laundry game, lest it turn into a “monster of the week” campaign.

If you happen to be a fan of Charles Stross’ “Laundry Files” who games, then The Laundry is going to be near perfect for you. If you are a fan of Lovecraftian investigative horror, then The Laundry presents another approach to the genre, one that is more focused, much drier in feel, and with a very much drier wit. Lastly, this is the only RPG of Lovecraftian investigative horror that bothers to discuss a pension plan, so you know The Laundry makes sense.