Crow’s Corner

Cover to Cover Review of "Triangle Agency"

🇩🇪 Auch verfügbar auf Deutsch: hier lesen.

Welcome to part two of my series called “Cover to Cover”, where I review tabletop roleplaying game books I’ve read, but not yet played. Reading a rulebook is just the first step to understanding a game, so think of these reviews as glimpses into what a game might be like at the table.

Yes, the game explicitly tells you not to read it from cover to cover. I did it anyways, because I’m nosy and I like to take things apart to see how they work. I will not spoil anything in this review.

triangle agency core book

This is a game where you play fictional characters that are piloted by an alternate table-self! That’s you! I knew I needed to play this game the minute I saw it in the Ennie nominations. The tongue in cheek humour about dysfunctional workplace environments just got to me on a deeper level. The core gameplay loop is that <players/agents> will [REDACTED] capture anomalies and put them into the Vault at the Agency to keep reality stable.

Some quick facts about the book!

About the Content of the Book

So what was I talking about before, about not reading the book cover to cover? There is the concept of the playwall. The playwall is basically a bunch of content like [REDACTED], hidden to everyone, including the GM, until it shows up in game. It keeps the game narrative and novel on new playthroughs since choices are made purely for narrative reasons, rather than making a certain outcome happen you want mechanically. Personally, I wouldn't fault anyone for wanting to read it, but I can see the merit of it.

The book is roughly structured like this:

One gripe I had, was a non-existent index - but considering the structure of the book I can see how it was hard to include. It doesn't make it easier to reference rules though, so I had to use their discord server from time to time, to find the relevant pages to my questions.

The Rules

I might be in the minority here, but I do love me some d4. They’re such a fun die. Triangle Agency makes them work well from a game design / statistics standpoint and I love them for it.

triangle agency dice

Rolling Dice

To roll a check, six four-sided dice (6d4) are rolled and then the amount of 3s that were rolled are counted. Chaos (a currency to be spent by the GM) is created depending on the exact number of 3s. Quality Assurances (selected by <players/agents> at the beginning of the game) can be spent to adjust the result. Depending on your (lack of) Quality Assurances, there can also be Burnout applied to your roll, which eliminates some 3s.

Rolling exactly three 3s, triggers Tricendence. This means no Chaos is created, and certain other mechanics are refreshed/regained.

Combat is mostly narrative and resolved the same as checks.

Character Mechanics

<Players/Agents> choose their Anomaly, their Reality and their Competency. These are basically their powers, their personal life and their career and each are tied to certain mechanics and abilities.

Over the course of the game <players/agents> will accrue Commendations with the Agency which can be used in various situations, like respawning after death or to get items. There is also Demerits, which will trigger things like getting frozen yogurt room access revoked.

Quality Assurance points, which are set during character creation, can be spent to reduce Harm, improve dice rolls and more.

In between sessions <players/agents> can choose whether they spend Time on their career, their personal life or their anomalous powers (last of which, the Agency heavily disapproves of). There is a finite amount of Time that can be spent and it regulates the progression of the campaign. A typical campaign will run 10-30 sessions.

There are also some mechanics in the playwall, that I will not elaborate here.

What is Special about this Book?

It’s a bit like legacy games, where the rules change as you play. As the General Manager (GM) you will prepare missions and are aware of the broad strokes of the overarching plot. But much of this plot will not be revealed by you, but by the book itself as the game progresses and <players/agents> get insight into the playwalled documents. So buckle in, and enjoy the ride.

What this also means though, is that replayability might at least be limited. I don’t think every Triangle Agency campaign will look the same, but the first playthrough will probably be more special than those that come after.

The book is written “in-lore”. It’s a bit crazy, it’s at times somewhat confusing, but it’s always fun. Reading and figuring out the book together is definitely part of the experience of playing Triangle Agency. It might not be for everyone, but I urge you to try it, if the rest of the premise is already speaking to you.

Finally, the book is a work of art. The simplicity of the design (mostly), the full page artworks, the oldschool text editor references. There are rarely any pages with just text. I kind of wish the book was shrunk as a whole, though. It's super chonky but the text is large and I think it would have been neat as a smaller book, in a “handbook” kind of way. This is a nitpicky thing though, it’s visually one of my favourite books.

one of the player choices in triangle agency

The core book has a short adventure outline within two pages to give an idea how a session can go, but The Vault offers 12 more adventures on a total of 216 pages. I haven’t read those yet, so I might post a review in the future.

the vault - the triangle agency adventure book

Conclusion

This game definitely wants to be played as a campaign and everyone who knows me, has heard me complain about not having time for a fifth concurrent campaign… So this will probably sit on my shelf until one of those four other campaigns end. But my Triangle Agency book is awaiting that moment eagerly.

I think Triangle Agency will definitely be chaotic to run, but it’s something I’m prepared to roll with. This is one of those rare games that does things different. It breaks the mold and I am excited to see where that takes us on the table.

Unpaid Promotions

Shoutout to Paradice Game Store, for custom ordering the book for me! You should definitely check the store out if you're from Vienna.

And if you’re into bureaucratic horror, you might also want to take a look at my one-shot Chaos at the Interdimensional Services Bureau for The Secret RPG Crossoverse. It is available for free in both English and German.

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