Each holiday season, I review different modules, games or supplements as a thank you to the wider tabletop roleplaying game community. All of the work I review during Critique Navidad is either given to me by fans of the work or the authors themselves. This holiday season, I hope I can bring attention to a broader range of tabletop roleplaying game work than I usually would be able to, and find things that are new and exciting!

The Field Agent Handbook is a set of 5 connected booklets, each a journal to take notes in. You take on the role of an undercover field agent from the Aetherial Corporation, viewing the world through a lens of suspicion. I’m not aware of another game like it, but you could describe it as an always-on solo RPG to play when you’re out and about. Look, honestly, if this feels like a jam to you, then just order a handbook now and get playing.

So, what does a handbook contain? Well, to simplify it maximally, each of them has you searching for signs in everyday life of very strange things: You start with “suspicious activity” in 1924, but by 1928 you’re on the look for “kinds of giants”. All of the handbooks contain these basic signals you’re searching for in the inside cover of the book, for easy access. Once you know what to look like, you learn how to use your tools (typically a pendulum and another 1-2 items) to ascertain the likelihood it’s an actual case of giant (or whatever you’re looking for, perhaps sky-whale). We then have a few pages describing the phenomenon you’re looking for, and learning a little about it (animals, clouds, plants, geography) and the rest of the book is filled with space for your recordings.

The layout here is perfect, and feels like one of the cheap, mail-order zines that I ordered in the 80s; if anything it feels too modern for its intended time period. But it’s legible and easy to navigate, and leaves plenty of room for you to take notes, including an index that you fill out yourself. The art style is also very work manual, which means I can’t really praise it too highly, but it’s a perfect choice for these books.

So, I can’t really talk too much about these handbooks without spoiling things, but I think they’re absolutely genius. This is the analogue equivalent of a game like Pokémon Go; the closest TTRPG to this is the classic Collectible Trading Moon Game You pick a handbook — I’d recommend with no further research into which you get — and then until you complete it, every time you go out you’re forced to focus on one aspect of your environment. It’s meditative, and beautiful, but with a dose of humour and storytelling that I enjoy tremendously. It’s akin to the Bonsai Diaries, but you’re engaging with your actual environment and reinterpreting it, not creating your own pot sized world.

Anyway, The Field Agents Handbook is great. If you’re looking for something to do instead of be on your phone (as I am right now, while sitting a forest surrounded by birdsong), it brings a way to connect with what’s actually around you in a creative but deeply observant way. It’s a healthy, imaginative, solo exercise, with precisely the level of engagement with the imaginary world and your role as a secret agent in it as you wish. If any of this appeals to you, check it out now.

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