investigation of that site by using special conspiracy cards called bluffs,
which are hidden obstacles revealed only if the site is entered.

Once the agent team has committed itself to a site, the members of
the team compare their skills to the skill prerequisite of the site. This
represents the type of work required to find the information, and it's
important to tailor your site choices to the capacities of your agent team.
If none of your agents have the alien investigation skill, for example, it's
not a good idea to include the Oregon Coast in your deck. However, if
you've got two agents with observation skills of three each and another with a score of two, going to the Containment
Facility in Georgetown is a cake walk, because it only requires a combined observation score of four.

Of course, it's never really that easy. The conspiracy players are going to use strange phenomena (called events) and
hostile characters (adversaries) to eliminate or distract the agents. For example, an adversary that engages an agent in
combat can send him to the hospital, removing his skill from the team total. The event Paper Shackles adds the
bureaucracy skill - which the investigators may not have - to the site's
requirement. The active player can defend with events of his own, along
with witnesses and equipment.

When the moves and countermoves are done, if the total skill points
of the team are still higher than the site's requirement, the active player
may ask his question. Questions must be answerable with a yes or no, and
are restricted to the format "Is your 'characteristic' 'blank'?" For example,
the question "Is your affiliation alien?" is okay. "Does your motive have
fewer than six letters?" is not. Questions are asked publicly, but answers
are given in secret (an important consideration in multiplayer games).

What's best about X-Files is the interaction between the players.
Although the skill challenges are resolved simply by comparing numbers,
you can't win the game unless you have the deductive knack to interpret
the evidence your agents gather.

If you're a fan of the television show, X-Files is a must-buy. No game
on the market captures the intensity and the horror of conspiracy as well
as this does. Even if you've never seen the television show,
you'll enjoy the challenge of playing against other players as
well as their constructed decks. X-Files is a great game; trust
no one who tells you different.

- Jason Schneiderman

[breakdown]
the x-files: card description

A. Name: No explanation necessary.
B. Type: A reminder of the card's func-
tion in the game. This one is an Event.
C. Keywords: A card's distinguish-
ing characteristics. Keywords directly corre-
spond with...
D. Activators: A cord may be played
only if its activators correspond with an
appropriate keyword. The only activator for
No One So Paranoid is Active; this means
that the event must be played on your turn,