Conspiracies in the zone - a Mephisto review

Hotel Imperator is the 5th Zone Compendium featuring four additional Special Zone Sectors to expand the game.

The eponymous Hotel Imperator setting is also the scenario that is described in the most detail and takes up almost half of the book. It features an old hotel that has become the headquarters of a conspiracy that introduces a major power factor into the zone and may pose a significant threat. As usual for such settings, the situation is complicated, and even within the conspiracy, there are several factions that can be played off against each other. Even though the Hotel Imperator is at the center of the scenario, the organization operating here, the Brain Circle, can also be used as a longer-term threat in the game. Notably, elements from this setting are taken up and continued in the scenario book The Gray Death.  

The second Special Zone Sector, The Long Road, picks up on animal mutants traveling through the zone in a vehicle caravan. The player characters can encounter these animal mutants and the fact that a few humans are with them as prisoners can lead to a conflict in which the players have to choose sides.

The Zone Fair is an old amusement park that has been reopened by a robot and offers several attractions. The player characters can take part in a high-stakes poker tournament. However, a boat of explorers has docked here, and the promise of tasty food can also attract the player characters. The setting also offers a small reference to the Rabbit Kingdom from Zone Compendiums 3, which also plays a role here.

The final scenario, The Great Zone Walker, brings a gigantic mining excavator to the zone operated by a small crew. Here, the mixture of bizarre animal mutants using this gigantic machine as a vehicle and the massive vehicle itself creates an atmosphere reminiscent of Mad Max in this setting.

As a bonus, this volume offers four new mutant powers - Beastmaster, Clairvoyance, Electric, and Telekinetic - and reclassifies which mutants are psi mutants, giving players the option to explicitly create psi mutants and then roll on a correspondingly reduced mutation table. Two new artifacts also round off the book.

Hotel Imperator focuses on a setting that integrates a major threat into the zone, which also plays a long-term role in the campaign. Post-apocalyptic road movie elements are incorporated into the game with the large excavator and the animal mutant caravan. The amusement park comes with its own dark secrets. Due to the various plot elements, it is also suitable for a longer game, even if this setting has superficial similarities with the Wild West park from Zone Compendium 4.

Zone Compendium 5 also provides some exciting and interesting ideas. With its eponymous setting, this book offers strong story hooks, especially for those who want to include a larger plot in their campaign.

(Björn Lippold)