I've seen mention of a "retcon rule" in Conspiracy X, apparently as a tool for dealing with character death. I know nothing about the game so I wonder if someone could fill me in on how this rule works.

Quote from: Elliot WilenI've seen mention of a "retcon rule" in Conspiracy X, apparently as a tool for dealing with character death. I know nothing about the game so I wonder if someone could fill me in on how this rule works.

In Conspiracy X, all humans are psychics (though not all are very powerful psychics) so all humans have access to certain psychic abilities. These are usable once a week (which usually translates to once per session). There are five abilities. One of which is called second sight, and allows a Player Character to rewind the last round.

The second editon (unisystem version) of the game removes this ability, though many on the ConX 2.0 boards decided to play with it anyway, and the ConX 2.0 developer has posted on RPG.net that he intends to include the option in the Paranormal sourcebook when (if it ever) comes out.

So in essence, in ConX if your character makes a bad decision and dies because of it (very likely considering the high lethality of both editions, and the relative threat of stuff like extraterrestrials) you can opt to attempt to use second sight to retcon the last (EDIT) turn, this is handled by doing a Zener test i.e. the player guesses the correct symbol on the back of a Zener card.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zener_card

Or optionally you can use a die roll. The cards though are usually considered cooler.

Succeeding allows your character to retcon the last round, with full knowledge of the very near future (the round you retconned).

That's very neat.  I've picked up 2.0, but I've never read or played the game before.  I'll keep an eye open for that supplement.

It reminds me of the mcguffin device in Galaxy Quest.

I remember when I was playing games in Jr. High, we'd make horrifying homebrew games based loosely on AD&D.  One rule involved a limited number of "Undo"s, wherein you could basically say that the last action didn't happen.  You'd get more "Undo"s every time you gained a level.

Quote from: RedFoxIt reminds me of the mcguffin device in Galaxy Quest.

I remember when I was playing games in Jr. High, we'd make horrifying homebrew games based loosely on AD&D.  One rule involved a limited number of "Undo"s, wherein you could basically say that the last action didn't happen.  You'd get more "Undo"s every time you gained a level.

Midknight should try writing up that game. Or Rocket Patrol.

Quote from: mrlostyou can opt to attempt to use second sight to retcon the last session

Yeah, I know that's not what you meant but the possibilities are intriguing...

Quote from: Consonant DudeYeah, I know that's not what you meant but the possibilities are intriguing...

Oops, I thought I'd edited that. Okay now I've edited that glaring error.