Can someone explain Esoterrorists to me?

>>55318771
It's been a while since i last looked at Esoterrorists, but if i recall correctly, the basics are actually fairly simple, someone please correct me if i got some stuff wrong.

So you got our world, and the Outer Dark, and between the two you have "The membrane".
Our world operates under laws of physics and is an onjective world, Outer Dark is the opposite where pretty much the whole reality is subjective, these two worlds cross over ever so slightly, but are mostly kept separate by the membrane.

By weakening the membrane the bad guys (the actual Esoterrorists) can pull stuff through the membrane from the Outer Dark to our world, and that Outer Dark entity then takes an actual physical form which may be influenced by the people who summoned it, or perhaps some other general fears of the people in that region.

The weaker the membrane gets, even crazier shit can be pulled through.

The various Esoterrorist groups have different motivations, and some creatures can be pulled through unintentionally.

The player investigators work for this shadowy organization known as Ordo Veritatis, which is a sort of Delta Green on steroids, however the investigators are usually given very little information on he Ordo.

Also, it's worth noting that all the information we have on the Outer Dark, the Membrane and the Outer Dark Entities are pretty much based on information that the Ordo has collected, and very little is actually set in stone.

If you have any other questions i'll try to answer as best i can.

Are the Ordo Veritatis operatives full-time operatives or do they have a "day job" like Delta Green agents? Does the OV has its own infrastructure (bases, labs, safe houses, vehicles, firearms, databases...) or do the operative have to "borrow" the equipment they need from other organizations? Is the OV active around the world or only in certain areas?

>>55320006

>Are the Ordo Veritatis operatives full-time operatives or do they have a "day job"

Yeah they got day jobs and normal lives. OV investigators also tend to have more mundane careers than their Delta Green counterparts.

>Does the OV has its own infrastructure

Yes, this is what i implied at with DG on steroids. However, players rarely have access to most of these, they can request information, equipment or access to safehouses but they can't just walk to a OV base, partly cause they would have no idea where such a facility would be.

OV is pretty much divided into sort of core infrastructure and field cells, and they try to keep them mostly separate to avoid any Outer Dark infiltration.
In the field they have 2 types of cells; The investigators and secondly the Special Suppression Forces, which are pretty much anti-esoterrorists/Outer Dark entity Swat Teams

>do the operative have to "borrow" the equipment they need from other organizations?

Weapons and other restricted material is often given to the investigators by their handlers (always called Mr. Verity) if deemed neccessary, simply because most investigators won't normally have access to such items, due to their often otherwise mundane lives and careers.

>Is the OV active around the world or only in certain areas

Another part where OV is DG on steroids, as they seem to be worldwide.
Published adventures take place in US and Europe, i think one takes place in south east asia.

>>55320195
So basically it's pretty much like Delta Green. Is it otherwise generally as grim (kill witnesses, destroy evidences, sacrify your private life...).

>>55319696
Thanks for explaining. So the Outer Dark beings are kinda like Pennywise, as opposed to a great old one or something similar that would show up in an HPL story?

>>55321133
It's very similar to DG, but it plays differently, partly because the entities you fight against are different from the cthulhu mythos stuff.

>is it otherwise generally as grim (kill witnesses, destroy evidences, sacrify your private life...)

Yes and no. OV investigators gotta follow much stricter guidelines than DG agents, simply because if they do horrible shit to people (kill witnesses, or torture for example) those actions can also lead to the weakening of the Membrane, which would be counterproductive.

OV agents also need to come up with some sort of coverstory to contain the membrane breach and to help it heal, however the problem usually is that good/easy explanations for the weird stuff that's been happening are other horrific events that can weaken the membrane by increasing the anxiety levels of the people who live in the area.

Don't get me wrong, it's still a grim game where people die horrible deaths, and the Esoterrorists go out of their way to inflict pain and misery on their victims just to tear holes in the membrane.

It also lacks a sort of unified mythos that DG and other Cthulhu mythos games have, it has no specific Outer Gods, or Old Ones, there are no massive cults spread over the world worshipping a single entity, the Esoterrorist cults are mainly interested in themselves, attempting to use the Outer Dark for their own benefit, not because they are subservient to some greater being.

So if you've played Delta Green, then Esoterrorists will appear very familiar, but feels and plays quite differently mainly because of the differences in the antagonists.

>>55321218
Well yes, sort of. Depending on the damage done to the Membrane, you can pull more powerful or just more creatures through.
If it's only a small tear in the Membrane you might only get Outer Dark Entities that are more animalistic, with a sort of animal like intelligence, a larger rift might allow a more sentient powerful being like Pennywise to materialize.

And yeah there are no Great Old One like entities in Esoterrorists, at least that we would be aware of, the Outer Dark is still a bit of a mystery, and despite being explained as a subjective world possibly without proper form, we don't really know, as as far as OV is aware, no one has ever passed to the Outer Dark and then returned.

>>55321513
So are Outer Dark Entities amorphous, or do they stick to one form once they're out and about?

>>55321983

"The creatures Esoterrorist rituals evoke don’t literally travel here from the subjective realm, which they refer to with ominous terms such as the Outer Dark. They materialize here but for a few instants after their arrival obey the irrational
non-physics of the Outer Dark. They then adopt an objective, biological form. At this point Esoterrorist ritualists impose a form on them via intense concentration."

That's how the book describes it.

So once they have a shape, they typically retain that shape, unless they have some powers that allow them to change shape, or atleast cause people to see them in a different shape.
The monsters have stat which i think was called Aberration, which allows them to do all sorts of weird things that bend reality and break laws of physics.

However, it does leave out the fact that if the membrane gets too thin, or begins to tear, these entities can manifest spontaneously, without anyone summoning them (on purpose anyway) in which case they might take a sort of physical shape of some human anxiety.

>>55322243
Actually, it seems like they have taken Aberration out from the second edition, and either just given them special abilities that corresponded with some of the same stuff Aberration allowed them to do.

Anyways, considering the subjective nature of Outer Dark, and how very little about is nailded down, it technically allows you to pull any sort of unnatural monster out of there.

To give a couple examples from opposite ends of the spectrum.

"Torture Dog
These extra-dimensional huntertrackers
resemble giant mammalian
cyborg weevils. Whirring power drills
jut from between their oversized,
prehensile mandibles. They use these
to inject psychotropic toxins into the
bloodstreams of their victims, which
heighten their consciousness of pain,
while keeping them awake for marathon
torture sessions."

and for example "The Mystery Man"
which is just described as a godlike entity which targets the PCs wishing to destroy them "utterly, body and soul, and not neccesarily in that order" He never assaults the investigators directly but uses puppets and intermediaries to carry out his attacks. He can also "take variety of forms and personas" some which the PCs might be familiar with..

So between those two extremes, you can pretty much fit any monster/creature you would want.

>>55319696
>>55320195
>>55321417
>>55321513
>>55322243
>>55322710

Thanks for answering all of these questions, I think I'm definitely gonna pick up a copy at some point now.

>>55323245
No problem anon, it was a pleasure. Esoterrorists is a cool game, and deserves more love.