Dark Conspiracy-like novels

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

Zvezda wrote:Due to the fact that we are now playing in Africa I have decided to read ‘Heart of Darkness’ by Joseph Conrad again. I must say that book might be way too evil for the average game of DC. Probably the more sinister GMs could use it to flesh out African settings or as a guide how Europeans behave towards the Africans in the World of DC.
I was thinking that in DC World it's perhaps more likely to be the Chinese oppressing the Africans than white Europeans. China currently investing heavily in the Dark Continent, especially in mineral extraction. Of course it all depends on China's economy continuing to expand and not go down the toilet when the credit bubble that's financed it so far bursts.
Zvezda wrote:The book was written more than 100 years ago, but I suppose probably everybody knows it. It is about the journey of a small steamboat on the Congo. Anyways it is wroth reading. If you guys don’t have the time for that It is also available as Audiobook. For free. If some one is interested in the link I can dig it up, though I must admit I don’t like the readers voice too much.
For the non-readers there's also Apocalypse Now.
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Post by Zvezda »

Ivan Dobski wrote: I was thinking that in DC World it's perhaps more likely to be the Chinese oppressing the Africans than white Europeans. China currently investing heavily in the Dark Continent, especially in mineral extraction. Of course it all depends on China's economy continuing to expand and not go down the toilet when the credit bubble that's financed it so far bursts.
Not too unlikely, depends perhaps on the GM. Eitheway if you are willing to run a real crule game with humans outeviling (well that is not an English word I guess) the dark minons it has loads of ideas for you in stock.
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Post by Linden »

How about Damnation Alley by Roger Zelazny? The badlands between California and Boston would make good inspiration for Outlaw and Demonground areas in DC.
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Post by anthraxus »

And the vehicle in Damnation Alley is very similar to how I picture a Bigfoot Command Center.
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Post by Linden »

anthraxus wrote:And the vehicle in Damnation Alley is very similar to how I picture a Bigfoot Command Center.
A lot more guns though? :wink:
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Post by Linden »

I thought From a Buick 8 by Stephen King was a bit Dark Conspiracy: The eponymous Buick is actually a dimensional gate. The hostile enviroment on the other side is a protodimension.
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Post by Zvezda »

Despite the fact that King is somewhat popular his stories tend to be very good in my oppinion. Most of them can be used in one way or the other for DC.
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Post by Linden »

I find him a bit variable - his early stuff is great, and I like his short stories but he had a fallow period mid 80s to late 90s: The Tommyknockers is well nigh unreadable. I thought From a Buick 8 was something of a return to form.

Never had any interest in the Darktower series oddly enough.
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Post by Zvezda »

I haves started very late to read his books. I wasn't very interested in him at all since he was too popular for my oppinion to be good. Well and I had seen on King film or the other and those where not very convincing at all. Tough I must admit there are good King films...very good indeed.
I started reading his books by accident and so far all I have read was good in one way or the other. I have never even touched Tommyknockers I must admit.
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Post by Linden »

Zvezda wrote: Well and I had seen on King film or the other and those where not very convincing at all. Tough I must admit there are good King films...very good indeed.
Film/tv adapatations a very mixed bag it's true. Of the ones I've seen The Dead Zone and Salem's Lot (1970s version) really stand out. Dark Half, Thinner and Pet Sematary are ok.
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Night Watch/Day Watch/Twilight Watch/Final Watch

Post by Zvezda »

Once more I really must recommend the "Night Watch" books by Sergei Lukyanenko. They are totally different from the movies and seem to be very useful for DC. If you have the time to read too all of them that is. On thing I value most is that they give you a very interesting look on how the Dark see the world and what they do to remain unseen. One example is the production of Horror movies to make the humans indifferent to reports and even film and photo evidence of vampires and werewolves. The universe is very different form the one presented in DC but the books really hold millions of ideas. I can not recoment them to people who prefere a black and white story line. It is not like in the movies where the good guys can slaughter all the bad guys because the bad guys are bad and than everything is nice...well that should be enough for now.
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Post by Marcus Bone »

Has anyone here read the Quint Dalrymple novels?

They look interesting (future Edinburgh) and I want to know if I should try and find them.

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Post by Linden »

Just re-read the Midwich Cuckoos but John Wyndham (first time was years ago when I was probably still at achool). Quite dated now, but some key DC elements: Low key alien invasion, involvement of shadowy military intelligence types, and best of all extensive use of empathic powers.

The film version Village of the Damned (NOT the John Carpenter remake) is also worth a look, particularly as it makes the children a lot more alien than the book does.
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Metro2033

Post by Zvezda »

Here is an other recommendation: Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky. It is not really very DC much more Fallout but is a very good book. In a very dark, post apocalyptic world the survivors must stay in the Moscow Metro to survive. Stations have become mini-states fighting each other (or forming alliances) and the tunnels are polluted with mutants. It’s available in English but not as popular as the Night Watch books so it might be harder to get. But than there is always the internet. If you liked to play STALKER (the video game!!!) than you will be very likely to enjoy this book.
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Post by ReHerakhte »

I've never been much of a First Person Shooter game fan but I absolutely loved the STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl game although I much prefer the mod to take it back to the original Oblivion Lost concept. I wasn't very impressed with STALKER: Clear Sky and while I have replayed the Shadow of Chernobyl version (with various mods) many times I have not really bothered with Clear Sky (but I can't wait for the next installment, Call of Pripyat)

Because of STALKER I had heard of another, similar game that just happens to be based on Metro 2033 and from that I found out about the novel. It is difficult to find in English and unfortunately some of the English language copies I have seen for sale have been outrageously overpriced (for example, I would expect to pay about US$30 for a new copy, not the US$70 and more that some shops were asking)
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