Dark Conspiracy-like novels

Any and all discussion about Dark Conspiracy, the RPG of modern conspiracy horror
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Zvezda
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Post by Zvezda »

I messed up the last message. It is not available in English jet. I mistook the German version for the English one on that online bookstore. The English transation will be availabel in February 2033 (well rather 2010 but who cares).
I did not know that Metro 2033 was about to be made a video game. This is a very good idea. It would also work well as a pen and paper RPG. THough I would still prefere DC! Here is some concept art form the game. Very useful for everybody who needs Russian themed NPCs...
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ReHerakhte
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Post by ReHerakhte »

Hell! It's the German version - I'm just very glad I wasn't tempted to pay for a copy. The site I visited might have said it was German language but I definately didn't see it... I should have checked Amazon, they at least list the language. Would have been my own dumb fault if I had bought a copy...

Anyway, here's the company that is making the game based on the novel
http://www.4a-games.com/ and here's the link to the game website http://www.metro2033game.com/ although I don't seem to be able to load the page at the moment :?
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Zvezda
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Post by Zvezda »

Thanks for the links. Well, it would have been partly my fault too since I have stated that the books are available in English. Fortunatly they were too expensive...
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Marcus Bone
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Post by Marcus Bone »

I recently cleared out some of my cupboard full of books (when we moved house), and I discovered my old Dark*Matter novels.

The three I have are

1. In Hollow Houses, by Gary A. Braunbeck

2. If Whispers Call, by Don Bassingthwaite

3. In Fluid Silence, by G. W. Tirpa

I know 4 (Monte Cook's novel in the series) is available, but Don Bassingthwaite's 5th isn't (was a download on the wizard's site that is long gone and not easily found online).

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Morthrai
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Post by Morthrai »

The original Dark*Matter was great, being one of the alternity line of games which sadly got put aside because WoTC came out with 3e D&D/D20.

I'm not dissing them for doing it, it is just simply because I quite liked alternity's basic system with the bonus die and all. Just wonder if they had made D&D to fit in with the alternity system, would it have been accepted? After all it's no bigger a change than (for example) reversing the way AC worked... :twisted:
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ReHerakhte
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Post by ReHerakhte »

*Warning: Thread Drift!
One of my friends had a short-lived Dark*Matter campaign and like you, I quite liked the rules and although I wasn't too fussed on D*M's specific world background I did like the conspiracy-horror aspect very much.
While it was a big change for WotC to go from 2nd edition AD&D to 3rd edition, it's been a bigger change to the garbage they have called 4th edition (but I'll save my rant against it for another time). I think they would have been far better served to make any new editions of D&D fit the Alternity rules.


But back on topic, I had forgotten that there were novels for Dark*Matter. I don't think they sold very well here in my little corner of the world (my city has long had a rather small pen & paper gaming community).
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Post by Marcus Bone »

ReHerakhte wrote:*Warning: Thread Drift!
One of my friends had a short-lived Dark*Matter campaign and like you, I quite liked the rules and although I wasn't too fussed on D*M's specific world background I did like the conspiracy-horror aspect very much.
While it was a big change for WotC to go from 2nd edition AD&D to 3rd edition, it's been a bigger change to the garbage they have called 4th edition (but I'll save my rant against it for another time). I think they would have been far better served to make any new editions of D&D fit the Alternity rules.
Still drifting...

Dark*Matter came out the year I was at Gencon (99? The year my Sin City book - p'too - was published). Interestingly it was written by Wolfgang Baur (who I meet through Mike Marchi - Wolf used to be in Mike's DC campaign - see his write-ups - and therefore Mike could, in some ways, be called the grandfather of D*M :P) and Monte Cook, two very good writers who had big investments in horror (Monte went on to to do D20 Cthulhu of course - with John Tynes).

But the Alternity engine never got the support it needed (I always got the feeling it was a hang over from the TSR buyout). Of course 99 was also the year that WotC also announced (to no one's surprise) 3rd edition. And in some ways it is understandable why Alternity had to go...

I just wish I had a 10th of the budget Wolfgang and Monte did for DC (or FD)...

Marcus
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ReHerakhte
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Post by ReHerakhte »

I remember John Tynes from his website called Revland, the 2000s era version (and of course from his work on Delta Green). It's from his Revland site that I first read what developed into a near obsession with the Russian movie 'Stalker' (if anyone has plans to see it, be warned, it's long - very long and seems to be a movie you either like or hate but won't ever love). This in turn fueled my interest in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadows of Chernobyl FPS computer game.
The webpage in question http://johntynes.com/revland2000/rl_thezone.html

So what's the connection with all that and DC I hear you ask? the STALKER game series is set in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl reactor and at some point the government sets up secret laboratories in the 'Zone'. Because of the strange artifacts being generated in the Zone, treasure hunters called Stalkers go in to recover them for scientists around the world. The government has a military cordon around the site to try and stop them and brigands have entered the Zone to prey on the Stalkers.
Add to this the mutated creatures in the Zone plus the weird dreams caused by the Brain Scorcher and 'blowouts' of radiation from the reactor and you have a very Demonground type environment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.T.A.L.K.E.R

Plus (further connection back to the thread) they have written a series of novels based on the world of STALKER although they appear to be available only in the Russian language :evil:
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Post by Linden »

I was a PC in a Hunter scenario that used pretty much the same premise. I'm not a White Wolf fan but it was good fun - I wonder if the GM had seen the film/played the games...
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Post by Marcus Bone »

ReHerakhte wrote:So what's the connection with all that and DC I hear you ask? the STALKER game series is set in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl reactor and at some point the government sets up secret laboratories in the 'Zone'. Because of the strange artifacts being generated in the Zone, treasure hunters called Stalkers go in to recover them for scientists around the world. The government has a military cordon around the site to try and stop them and brigands have entered the Zone to prey on the Stalkers.
Add to this the mutated creatures in the Zone plus the weird dreams caused by the Brain Scorcher and 'blowouts' of radiation from the reactor and you have a very Demonground type environment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.T.A.L.K.E.R

Plus (further connection back to the thread) they have written a series of novels based on the world of STALKER although they appear to be available only in the Russian language :evil:
Thanks for the enlightenment, it looks really interesting. I'm actually playing Metro 2033 at the moment, and the STALKER idea seems similar in many ways (maybe it's the Russian angle?)

Getting the conversation back to my train of though, this is definitely at style of game I'll hope you'll be able to replica with FD :P

Marcus
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- Stormbringer! - Supporting the Eternal Champion RPGs at http://www.stormbringerrpg.com
- Unbound Publishing - Bringing back the fear - http://www.unboundbook.org
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ReHerakhte
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Post by ReHerakhte »

And still drifting...
Marcus, if you get a hold of STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl you definitely need to patch it to fix some stability issues but... I'd play it once as it is and then once you've done that, get the fan mod called Oblivion Lost and play it again.
Oblivion Lost adds features removed from the original game (to make the deadline, its release was horribly delayed) and makes some things a lot more random. I've played 'vanilla' STALKER two or three times but I've played the Oblivion Lost mod about eight times now and I intend to do so again sometime soon.

STALKER Clear Sky is okay for the first half of the game but becomes whereas Shadow of Chernobyl and the first half of Clear Sky are open roaming landscapes, the end of Clear Sky becomes a more traditional, linear/corridor shooter FPS (like Metro 2033 is). Apparently it was an experiment to see if they could appeal to the US market or so the rumour goes.
STALKER Call of Pripyat, the latest in the series, introduces larger maps to explore and returns to the sort of form of Shadow of Chernobyl.

By the way, have you met the 'Librarians' in Metro 2033 yet? I hate that level.
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Post by Linden »

Just finished reading A State of Denmark by Derek Raymond. Written at the tail end of the 60s but would be useful for those interested in running a Dark Conspiracy campaign set in the Republic of Britain. The incompetent fascist regime depicted is exactly the sort of government that could make people welcome a corporate takeover of the country as a kind of deliverance.
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Post by Marcus Bone »

One of the joys working for a Library - I have a brand new (untouched) copy of Metro2033 now waiting for me to read :P

I'll do a minireview if I get a chance... I'm still trying to get past a bunch of Librarians...
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Post by ReHerakhte »

I'm also interested in reading the Metro 2033 novel and there's also a follow-up story called,I think, Metro 2035. Apparently the Metro 2033 game is very close to the storyline in the novel.
Once I get back from my holidays I'll have to chase up the 2033 novel.
Marcus Bone wrote:One of the joys working for a Library - I have a brand new (untouched) copy of Metro2033 now waiting for me to read :P

I'll do a minireview if I get a chance... I'm still trying to get past a bunch of Librarians...
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Re: Dark Conspiracy-like novels

Post by Morthrai »

All of my books are still tucked away in storage and I haven't heard any decent recommendations for new stuff for ages :( Well, apart from the ones you guys have posted here.

Does anyone have something that they think I should rush out and buy, or else run down to the library and borrow right away? :D
Lee Williams.
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