Top Secret

This collection of five solo RPGs/LARPs, a notebook, daily journal and 2025 wall calendar are made to be played when out and about. They help you observe the world around you slightly differently and then leave space for you to draw your own conclusions.

These employee handbooks are written as in-world artefacts from the 1920s for Field Agents for the Ætherial Corporation working in the covert Observancy Department.

The Department spent their time observing the world around them while tapping into their subconscious mind through the means of pendulum dowsing.

Each year they refocused their efforts on a new object of suspicion:

• 1924 Revolution (March) — Seek out revolutionary animals
• 1925 Leviathan (June) — Spot flying creatures in the clouds
• 1926 Communication (August) — Decode the language of plants
• 1927 Tempus (October) — Uncover pools of liquid time
• 1928 Colossus (November) — Find traces of giants in the landscape

To capture their observations they used this series of A6-sized workbooks with each including:

• ~10 pages detailing agent objectives, instructions and other information
• ~60 structured pages for noting observations, maps, notes & sketches
• A dowsing board on the back cover

Agents are encouraged to note down their observations, use the dowsing board to help ascertain a particular aspect of their observation — eg the motive for an animals suspicious activity — and draw their own conclusions.

Supplementary materials inculde:

• Notebook (July) — Create your own studies
• Calibration Record (August) — Track your emotions and activities
• 2025 Wall Calendar (October) — Follow the moon cycle through the year

All Agents are also furnished with:

• An identification card
• Suitable propoganda to enlist other observant Agents
• A 'Field Agent' button badge (physical only)

I’ve decided to reopen the Observancy Department, release the handbooks and invite YOU to join the Ætherial Corporation’s most covert operation, its Field Agents.

Special features of the Field Agent handbooks:

• Can be played anywhere you go
• Use common everyday equipment (a key on a string)
• Can be sent to Head Office once completed for a stamp of approval

Each stamp progresses an Agent through the four ranks (one for each handbook) from Operative to Special Agent

Observancy Department, 1924

• Drops of Æther

  30 May 2021

  Writing without fingers — Space age interfaces — Magic, with a little 'm' — A character sheet for the table

• Occurrences in the Æther

  9 May 2021

  Tone of Voice — ZineQuest 4