New Orleans

Any and all discussion about Dark Conspiracy, the RPG of modern conspiracy horror
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manodogs
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New Orleans

Post by manodogs »

Let me just say, the book having arrived yesterday, that Dark Conspiracy New Orleans is one hell of a sourcebook/adventure! That said, I'm not even halfway through it and already have a few nitpicks to post. I'm afraid I'll end up adding to the list as the discussion is furthered - but it's all for The Greater Good (The Greater Good), so...:
  1. It introduces a new UV jumpsuit, notes it is "common (though expensive)" but gives neither price nor stats - p. 14
    - Given the excellent Sunglasses Chart, this shouldn't be too hard to crib together. Any takers/suggestions?
  2. We're treated to an excellent, and rather in-depth, coverage of just how screwed the poor are (the mayor and her seven-person council cares nothing for them, their sector is walled-in, no fire and little police support, etc.), then are told the police are threatening to confiscate all weapons in Lou's neighborhood because three homeless were recently shot and killed... ??? Classic Dark Conspiracy contradiction! The very thing about which so many complain...
  3. Lou's house map (p. 17) is unnumbered! (But is easy enough to fix) - just mentioning it in case there is another edition (print or digital) and it can be corrected.
  4. The description for the Cobra People which have been taken over by the Nexus of Evil (an aside: do you think one of George Bush's staff-writers was a DC gamer?), it states: "All of the Cobra People encountered by the PCs are well beyond the recoverable stage of subsumption. There is no hope any of them can ever regain control over their own minds again." - p. 77
    - Um... did I miss a meeting - or (more precisely, though equally likely) a book? "Subsumption"? "Recoverable stage"!!!!???? I can only assume this references a volume never released - likely in the Dark Races series - and it makes perfect sense that, if Cobra People are similar to Vampires, their bitten survivors should have a chance at recovering, but let me go on record as saying: cut the whole idea. Keep Cobra People as Dark Minions without all the vampiric-type stuff. People aren't "bitten" to become Cobra People, but to poison them and be eaten; recovery involves getting over the poison and the physical damage and nothing more.
    - Still, this does further the precept of Cobra People being one of the Dark Races which gave rise to the vampire legend. Except that, until recent climate changes allowed for it, they were limited to India, Egypt, and Central America (p. 216 - core). While vampire legends are widespread, and all these places have regional vampire legends, they aren't very well-known and the European vampire legend is far stronger than all of those put together and multiplied by 50!; they can't really be said to have furthered the vampire legend, though cutting this whole Cobra People-creating process doesn't negate their role in it.
    - What does everyone think?
Now, those aside, Dark Conspiracy New Orleans is fantastic and exactly what I was looking for! While I still feel Metrodome is an essential game aid (and no, not just because I created it - though that is a plus, IMHO), New Orleans goes a long way toward rounding-out the Dark Conspiracy world and world map. And I highly suggest it.

I am currently getting through both it and the Shadowrun Seattle Sourcebook. I will add stats to Metrodome to fit what was presented in New Orleans (I like to keep the formatting consistent, as much as possible), as well as the information presented (temperature, costs for travel to other cities, etc.). For those doing the 3rd-ed., feel free to include the "Metrodome Data" (as on pg. 10) in the book, so long as you provide a link to the full thing. Time permitting, I'll submit a short article, further detailing Seacouver (mentioned on pg. 8). I assume this is a metroplex involving Seattle and Vancouver? I'm not breaking out the atlas; if I'm wrong, please tell me. I'll submit it to Proto-Dimensions for publication, but it will be several weeks from now.

Speaking of which, the book introduces numerous cities which I will reference in the text and so on, but it would be too cool if some of us took the bait and fleshed-out a few of them. As I say in the FAQ, Metrodome came about on a need-to-know basis, which is why there is no real consistency between entries; I list what I came up with as I did so, and leave the rest to individual GMs. However, I am going to take all of this under advisement and set everything else aside for the time being to focus solely on the expansion of Metrodome.

Highly
recommended, great sourcebook - and though I have a lot of issues with the adventure itself, it isn't bad, either!
- [url=http://www.theweirding.net/RPG/DC/]ManoDogs[/url]
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Linden
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Re: New Orleans

Post by Linden »

manodogs wrote: The description for the Cobra People which have been taken over by the Nexus of Evil (an aside: do you think one of George Bush's staff-writers was a DC gamer?), it states: "All of the Cobra People encountered by the PCs are well beyond the recoverable stage of subsumption. There is no hope any of them can ever regain control over their own minds again." - p. 77
I wouldn't read too much into this. There's a similar discrepancy between the Russian Rusalka being identified as a type of Wailer in Dark Races, and a sub-species of Pale in one of the adventure modules. My personal suspicion is that that there wasn't much communication going on between GDW's various writers, and/or central editiorial control wasn't up to scratch. Too busy trying to keep track of their Traveller TNE universe I expect.
"There's a lot of dignity in that, isn't there? Going out like a raspberry ripple."
manodogs
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"Subsumption"

Post by manodogs »

Thanks, Linden.

Reading further, the word "subsumption" is mentioned in other Minions' descriptions; it appears to be referring to the whole Nexus of Evil thing - as in their control - but it's hard to tell. Given this, the Cobra People description may have meant there is no way any of the Cobra People would regain control of their own minds and go back to being "regular" Dark Minions (not under the control of the Nexus of Evil), with their Cobra People goals and intentions, et.al.

I'm sure you're right about the lack of communications. They might also be referring to other, planned books in the line which never saw print, and editorial should have caught that, too. The more products I get from this line, the more apparent it becomes that central editorial was lax, all the way down the line. There are few typos, but lots of run-on sentences, grammar, and so forth - not to mention the copious errata such as this that simply doesn't make sense. I'll try to start keeping tabs of this stuff and add it to the wiki, whenever I can.

Either way, I'm letting it go, as you suggest.
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Zvezda
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Re: "Subsumption"

Post by Zvezda »

manodogs wrote: Reading further, the word "subsumption" is mentioned in other Minions' descriptions; it appears to be referring to the whole Nexus of Evil thing - as in their control - but it's hard to tell. Given this, the Cobra People description may have meant there is no way any of the Cobra People would regain control of their own minds and go back to being "regular" Dark Minions (not under the control of the Nexus of Evil), with their Cobra People goals and intentions, et.al.
As far as I understood this was exactly what they where trying to say since the plant controlls most monsters in the swamp.
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