Dark Conspiracy-like novels

Any and all discussion about Dark Conspiracy, the RPG of modern conspiracy horror
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tadkelson
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Re:

Post by tadkelson »

Morthrai wrote:

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)

:)

This one sounds interesting so thanks for sharing it
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Re: Re:

Post by Linden »

tadkelson wrote:
Morthrai wrote:

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)

:)

This one sounds interesting so thanks for sharing it
Check out Fowler's short stories, for my money they're miles better than Roofworld.
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Morthrai
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Re: Re:

Post by Morthrai »

Linden wrote:
Check out Fowler's short stories, for my money they're miles better than Roofworld.
I agree actually, though I really enjoyed using elements of Roofworld in a session once it's not his best work.
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Re: Dark Conspiracy-like novels

Post by Zvezda »

Just finished The Strain and I think it is okay. Has some nice new ideas (well they were already used in DC) on vampires. The whole book could have been somewhat shorter.
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Re: Dark Conspiracy-like novels

Post by Zvezda »

Inspired by this post, the classics The Jungle and The Grapes of Wrath seem to be very good at describing the food and prole situation in DC.
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Re: Dark Conspiracy-like novels

Post by Linden »

The War Against Chaos by Anita Mason

Set in a futuristic Britain reminiscent of Orwell’s 1984 but perhaps also owing something to the “Big Corporations” of Cyberpunk. Interesting for the way it portrays communities living outside society: “Marginals” – residing in derelict houses, scavenging for food and other essentials and “Diggers” – a community living underground in a huge government fall out shelter. The latter in particular are vividly drawn and could be slotted into a subterranean DC adventure without much difficulty.

Not a well known book (Mason appears to be an unjustly neglected writer), but what few bits of literary criticism I can find seem to be of the view that it’s a product of its time (pub 1988): Parallels are drawn with the miners' strike and the treatment of new age travellers by the then British government. It seems to me though that the climatic riot scene where Diggers and Marginals march on a swanky down town area and are brutally suppressed by the police is eerily prescient of modern day anti-capitalist protests.
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Re: Dark Conspiracy-like novels

Post by Linden »

Read The Fear Index by Robert Harris over the weekend. Harris is best known for his historical thrillers but has the occasional foray into the modern era. This one is a spin on the well worn idea of artificial intelligence. Critics seem to think it's heavily influenced by the late Michael Crichton although Neuromancer and Terminator 3 struck me as more obvious antecedents.

Anyway, what happens is that an algorithm used to run a hedge fund becomes self aware and starts acting very strangely. Its creators try to switch it off but of course they can't. Meanwhile the world stock markets are imploding. Not one of Harris's best but still a good airport style read.

It got me thinking that a Dark Lord needn't be some HP Lovecraft style behemoth residing in another dimension, but might actually be man made. Having acquired the power to influence markets such an entity could have caused the Greater Depression for its own reasons - it's interesting that even as the algorithim turns murderous it still follows its primary mission; making money and lots of it. Minion hunters may like to look at which companies turned a big profit during the depression. They might well have something to hide...
Last edited by Linden on Tue Jul 24, 2012 4:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Dark Conspiracy-like novels

Post by ReHerakhte »

Hey that's a damned good idea Linden, I've just sort of taken it for granted that various corporations had money because they exploited the hell out of the situation - our own evil so to speak.
I also took it for granted that the Dark Lords were extra-terrestrial in origin, didn't even think that maybe they could have been created on Earth without the Dark's influence.
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Re: Dark Conspiracy-like novels

Post by Linden »

ReHerakhte wrote:Hey that's a damned good idea Linden, I've just sort of taken it for granted that various corporations had money because they exploited the hell out of the situation - our own evil so to speak.


A character in the novel, one of the hedge fund's managers, realises what's happening and accepts it. I suppose he becomes a kind of corporate Igor through a combination of fear and greed. I'm sure in the world depicted in Dark Conspiracy there'd be plenty of others who would do the same.

I'm idly wondering if it would be possible to tie this into the game's organic computers idea. I remember there was a tabloid scenario seed in the first edition which depicted an AI group consciousness as fairly benevolent. Doesn't have to be that way of course. An organic AI made from a bunch of corporates could be quite ruthless and power hungry.
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Re: Dark Conspiracy-like novels

Post by Morthrai »

Off topic slightly, but thinking about it now I never got the impression that Dark Lords were all alien or extra-dimensional in origin. There were a couple of humans in the Mike Stackpole novels who were going that way, one being the Japanese emperor's son and heir.

In fact, the idea that someone or something from Earth can become a Dark Lord just adds yet another ingredient into the mixture :twisted: Not all things alien to this dimension are bad, and not all things native are good!
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Re: Dark Conspiracy-like novels

Post by Linden »

Millennium People by JG Ballard. One of the main themes is the gradual squeezing and imminent extinction of the middle class, which seems to fit in with DC’s socio-economic environment. Couldn’t really take the notion of the middle class revolt seriously, but I’m pretty sure Ballard didn’t either. Set pieces like the burning down of the National Film Theatre and storming Broadcasting House have the air of mischievous mickey taking about them.
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Re: Dark Conspiracy-like novels

Post by Linden »

Trust Me On This by Donald E. Westlake - a whodunnit set in the world of supermarket tabloids. It's one of Westlake's humourous efforts (these days he's perhaps best remembered for his Richard Stark alter ego whose ultra hard boiled novels inspired the films Payback and Point Blank, as well as giving Stephen King the idea for The Dark Half) and could be useful background reading for anyone thinking of playing a reporter PC. One of the novel's supporting characters specialises in crypto-zoology and alien encounter features and some of his suggested stories read like DC story seeds e.g. “creatures born with extra heads or other duplicated parts came mostly from Brazil...while encounters with oversexed but not unfriendly aliens took place most frequently in Scandinavia.”
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Re: Dark Conspiracy-like novels

Post by Linden »

Flashback by Dan Simmons. A crime novel set in a future US that's suffered a Greater Depression style economic calamity. Features loads of DC type elements (gangs, corps, dreamlands, outlaw regions, hi-tech guns and gadgets) and is well worth reading for campaign background. Does wear its tea-partyish politics quite heavily on its sleeve though.
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Re: Dark Conspiracy-like novels

Post by ReHerakhte »

Wow Linden, it seems as though you're becoming our default novel finder.
Lots of good suggestions there.
:D
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Re: Dark Conspiracy-like novels

Post by Linden »

ReHerakhte wrote:Wow Linden, it seems as though you're becoming our default novel finder.
Lots of good suggestions there.
:D


Thanks. I do read a fair bit - I'm definitely from the "quantity has a quality all of its own school". That said, been reading a lot of John Le Carre recently which is perhaps more literary than my usual fare. I suppose they're mostly about conspiracies but are very much of their time i.e. the Cold War, and with not a lot of action, so of doubtful application to DC.
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