Category: Articles Page 1 of 2

[Trigger Event] Harper’s Court

On June 1, 2020

The Best and the Brightest, The Smartest and the Bravest, The Men and Women of Harper’s Court
– The last lines of the Harper’s Court cadence call

It claims to be the training ground for tomorrow’s leaders, an academy of discipline and learning blind to the social and economic pressures of modern America.

But what is really going in at Harper’s Court? Is it simply yet another facility for the creation of some Dark Lord’s Igors, or is it a bastion of light in these darkest days, inducting a new generation of Minion Hunters? Read on and find out…

[Article] Music that Inspires You – Dark Conspiracy

By Marcus Bone

On April 12, 2020

In Articles

I would hazard a guess and say that I am the world’s worst musician. Beyond any physical limitations I possess, I think to this day I have the honour of being the only 5th year student not to master ‘Three Blind Mice’ on the recorder… much to my Mother’s chagrin¹…

Nevertheless music is important to me, I listen to some new album or musical piece every day and have always believed in a strong connection between tabletop gaming and music (I even wrote an article about such 20-some years ago in Demonground). The modern age of being constantly connected to the web, and having easy accessibility to streaming services such as Spotify and Amazon music has meant the scope – although maybe not the quality – of music I’ve been exposed to has expanded rapidly in recent years (even though I would say that I was pretty well versed in some genres even before that).

Alright, that’s nice, but what’s that got to do with Dark Conspiracy or even gaming in general. Well… when I write – like I’m doing right now – I find I do my best work listening to music that – at least to my ever enfeebled mind – inspires or reflects the genre I’m tinkering in. In fact, I’d actually go further than that and say I have playlists that embody the themes and feelings of specific game systems. Yep, I have a playlist for games such as Conspiracy X, Call of Cthulhu, River of Heaven (although that’s an easy one as the game has the best RPG soundtrack ever made²) and, of course Dark Conspiracy.

[Article] Shadows that Rip and Tear – An Observation on Dark Conspiracy

By Marcus Bone

On January 25, 2020

In Articles

This is a short article that I wrote for the Dark Conspiracy 4th edition Kickstarter that never saw publication. It looks to detail, at least from my perspective, why I continue to love, support and create for Dark Conspiracy and why I’m so excited for a new edition!

——-

Shapes that rip and tear. Shadows that live in corners… Windows in space and time that lead to realms of madness and decay…

And with those words an untold number of gamers were lured into the world of Dark Conspiracy. It was the early 1990s, and for years, roleplayers had played their games across infinite worlds of heroic fantasy, the bounds of airless space or facing the maddening terrors of Lovecraftian horrors, but rarely had they the opportunity to act out their adventures in a setting that reflected so darkly humanity’s own missteps into the future.

Dark Conspiracy is the game of modern, conspiracy horror, set against a backdrop of a bleak future dominated by greed, evil and nightmares from beyond reality. It was a product of its era, the result of a zeitgeist of suspicion and fear – likely driven by a recent stock-market crash, a changing governmental structure and a rapid rise in personal technology – that would spawn not only TV shows like the X Files, Millennium and Dark Skies, but also a plethora of other similarly focused roleplaying games.

[Milieu] The Tabellarium: An Empathic Underground Group

By Marcus Bone

On April 2, 2019

In Articles

Tabellarium, “Sedes, vel acervus tabularum, vel locus, ubi tabulæ servantur”

The war against the Dark Lords is anything but a holistic conflict, and instead it falls on numerous small, dedicated groups of Minion Hunters to stand against the evil that permeates into our world. This scattered, piecemeal approach can, and has, achieved some victories, but rarely are such isolated groups able to make major breakthroughs against the most powerful things that stand against humanity. Worse still, with such a scattered, piece-meal approach to the war against the Dark Lords, when a Darkling’s weakness is uncovered, or a Dark One’s plot is revealed, it is rare that this information can be capitalised upon, before the opportunity is lost for good.

And it is here that the Tabellarium ply their trade, as an anonymous dealers of information and secrets, connecting groups of Minion Hunters and their allies; bringing order to a war of chaos.

[Trigger Event] Atlas Industries

By Marcus Bone

On May 7, 2016

In Articles

Growing up we all knew the jingle… ‘Atlas in your Home, Atlas at your Work’, but who would have ever thought that you’d end up working in the place…

Atlas Industries was once an international powerhouse in the production of electrical goods of all sizes – from specialist industrial machines through to the most common home appliance. Through a multitude of brands, they exported across the globe, dominating the market so far as to say it wasn’t too much of a stretch to believe the company’s claims at the time – that every home in America owned at least one Atlas Industries product!