Dark Conspiracy-like novels

Any and all discussion about Dark Conspiracy, the RPG of modern conspiracy horror
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Marcus Bone
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Dark Conspiracy-like novels

Post by Marcus Bone »

Hi All,

I'm writing a bit of a bibliography for Dark Conspiracy, and am looking to include a few fiction novels in the list. What I'm specifically looking for is any Dark Conspiracy styled books, that would suit as a 'gateway' to our game.

I'm thinking of books like Blood Brothers by Steven Barnes, etc.

Any suggestions?
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Post by anthraxus »

You might try Futureland by Walter Mosley. It gets a lot of the technology aspects of things, but doesn't have the horror aspect of things.
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Post by Linden »

Already mentioned this one to Lee but...

Trajectories by Julian Rathbone. Set in rural southern Britain in 2035.

It's a bit too loosely plotted and some of the satire is rather heavy handed but contains quite a few DC elements:

1. Countryside overrun by GM plants.

2. Elite nomen class living in gated communities protected by the ubiquitous DC style security guards. Poorer Mike and Prole classses left to scratch a living as best they can with limited employment opportunities.

3. Travelling nomads in camper vans.

4. Mixture of high tech and retro-tech e.g. the regular armed forces are equipped with the latest stealth planes, tanks and apcs. The territorials make do with old Lynx helicopters and SLR rifles.

5. A future history of environmental disasters and catastrophic wars.

No monsters though, except human ones.

As an aside, all of Rathbone's books are worth reading, even when as in this case he's slightly off his game. He's extremely prolific and his work encompasses crime, espionage and historical novels.
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Post by Linden »

Thought of another:

"Gun, with Occasional Music" by Jonathan Lethem. Futuristic detective story written in the style of Raymond Chandler. Some of the sci-fi elements are a bit too way out even for Dark Conspiracy e.g. the genetically engineered talking animals and babies with adult brains. Good for that neo-noir atmosphere though.
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Post by Morthrai »

Just trying to remember off the top of my head what the main inspirations for my old Republic of Britain articles were. I'm adding a couple of others too.

Novels
Mindstar Rising by Peter F Hamilton (psychically enhanced ex-soldier works in corporate security in a post global warming Britain)

Roofworld by Christopher Fowler (two groups living on the rooftops of modern-day London are engaged in a clandestine war. One faction is controlled by an evil sorceror)

Rune by Christopher Fowler (Dark Lord hides evil runic inscriptions in the bar codes of supermarket goods)

Fairyland by Paul MacAuley (London genetic engineering whizkid treks across a cyberpunkish Europe in search of something or other - OK I forgot what :oops: )

CORPSE by Mick Farren (Security specialist is caught up in a plot involving a fake nuclear war)

Short Stories

Blit by David Langford (graffiti based on fractals has the ability to make your brains dribble out of your ears :shock: )

Sorry but with me not being online at home I can't turn my head slightly to the left and see what's on the shelf where I keep all these things! I'll add more tomorrow :)
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Post by anthraxus »

"All right, Phase 6, Bad guys go first..."
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Post by Antenna »

I have a slightly related novel by Alfred Bester, The Stars My Destiny. I just like the sociotopic view of the novel and would likely recomend that novel to be read in pure sociotopical view to get on view of the DC world. Still there is no real conspiracy more of the "tatooed man". Somewhere it gets my view of the Empathic line also fleshed oput when I read it and reread it. Probably it would fit Traveller the more...

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Post by Zvezda »

"Night Watch" by Sergey Lukyanenko. Other works of the World of Watches are not jet published in English. But some will be by the time DC3 hits the market.

The way we play DC I can also suggest "1984" by George Orwell and "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury. Both very dark future. And maybe "The Odessa File" by Frederick Forsyth. Or the Dan Brown conspiracy stuff which I personally do not like.

The cool thing about DC is that you can use almost every good story to work with the game. Even Fantasy books can be used to flesh out a protodimension.
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Comics

Post by Zvezda »

There is also a lot of Comics I can suggest for DC:

Strange Killings by Warren Ellis they are a must read for DC players...

Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis

Hellblazer by Warren Ellis as well as by Garth Ennis and the others...

Just a Pilgrim by Garth Ennis

Bloody Mary by Garth Ennis

Preacher by Steve Dillon amongst others

Y: The Last Man by Pia Guerra and Brian Vaughan even though it is rather postapocalyptic it is my top favorite comic series. Nothing supernatural in it however.

And finaly V for Vandetta. By Alan Moore


I guess all of the Strange Killings series and Helllblazer are best suited for the modern day horror thing. But DC is more than that...
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Re: Comics

Post by Morthrai »

Zvezda wrote:I guess all of the Strange Killings series and Helllblazer are best suited for the modern day horror thing. But DC is more than that...
Indeed it is, but I always wanted to try to stat John Constantine for use as an NPC. However, it proved to be very tricky as his 'talents' don't precisely match anything in the published material and I never finished it :?

I may start another thread in which we can try putting in stats for TV and movie characters :D
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Post by Linden »

State of Mind by John Katzenbach: Serial killer thriller set in a near future US very similar to that of Dark Conspiracy. Plenty of info on it here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/034542 ... e&n=283155
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Re: Comics

Post by Zvezda »

Morthrai wrote:
I may start another thread in which we can try putting in stats for TV and movie characters :D
That sounds like a very interesting idea.
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Post by Linden »

Lee mentioned this one in the bibliography to one of his Republic of Britain articles:

"A Philosophical Investigation" by Phillip Kerr. Another serial killer tale, this time set in a futuristic London. Found the philosophy a bit heavy going to be honest. I like Kerr's nazi era Bernie Gunther private eye novels better.
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Post by Morthrai »

Kerr also wrote 'Gridiron' about a state of the art skyscraper run by an artificial intelligence that starts to evolve in a rather Old Testament manner :shock:
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Post by Braxen »

While the setting is a little off (1920's-30's) I find the works of Lovecraft can work quite well in DC. My personal favorite is the Shadows over Innsmouth (my mind just went blank....I hope thats the correct title).

At the Mountains of Madness would also work really well....something about fighting critters in antartica with no one else around just says YES to me! :twisted:

The irnoy for me is that I wanted to run Call of Cthulu for my party but I was shot down. So, when I run DC it somehow seems to have cthuluish feel....odd how that happens :lol: .
"Hey guys did you hear that scraping sound? guys? GUYS?!"

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