Current State of Things

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

This may be a little naive for a guy of my age to say, but whatever happens we are all part of DC in some way and we should stick together. :D I'm flying the flag for us to continue swapping ideas and discussing all kinds of stuff as we have been doing all this time.

I have seen some of the changes that Marcus proposed for TGC's version of DC3e and which will be used in his new project and they are good. You guys will like it I am pretty sure.

If Far Future let someone else have a go at DC3e, and if they give the project to the right people (by which I mean the people I would give it to if there was no TGC!), it could be good.

I guess I'm just going to carry on supporting DC in any and all forms.
Who's with me? 8)
Lee Williams.
"Superstition is the name the ignorant give to their ignorance"
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Linden
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Post by Linden »

Morthrai wrote: Who's with me? 8)
Count me in. :wink:

Been running my current DC campaign for over two years now and it's still going strong. Testament to the game's quality I think. As a rules system it's flawed but the range of adventures you can have more than makes up for that. Having GM'ed DC a fair bit I love it more than when I was first introduced to it as a player back in the early 90s.
"There's a lot of dignity in that, isn't there? Going out like a raspberry ripple."
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ReHerakhte
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Post by ReHerakhte »

I'll be there as well.
Like Linden, I find now that I like the game more than when I was first introduced to it. The rules do have some flaws, we can all probably think of one or two without even consulting the book but overall, I like them enough to have them as my prefered rules system.

Again like Linden said, the range of horror sub-genres you can have in DC (even at the same time) and the different types of adventures you can have because of that means for me, flaws in the rules can be overlooked (or modified to better fit with what I want).

As long as there's a forum like this one, I'll be checking in and throwing some of my ideas around and reading other people's ideas to see all the DC goodness they have created.

Cheers,
Kevin
It's not whether you win or lose,

It's whether I win...
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Zvezda
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Post by Zvezda »

To infinity, and beyond!

I agree to almost everything of the above only I liked DC from the beginning.
:wink:

I thing I have to get used to the yahoo news group thing. They seem very active.
manodogs
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What I Can

Post by manodogs »

I am doing what I can to support the continued playing and development of DC. My site supports it as well as any I've seen, though it doesn't yet have as much material up as some of the others (most of which are fantastic!), but I have tons more content to come (in fact, two more neighborhoods should be up tonight, including one with an extended adventure/campaign hook)!

I have a handful of rules changes and additions, but like others have noted, the DC system is simply flawed, and you have to kind of accept it and run with it. The main thrust of the department is Metrodome, a full-fledged campaign setting, specifically designed for DC.

Well, I take that back, there are several rules additions and what-not in the material. I added the Sport skill and a system for handling it, as well as the Unarmed Melee Combat Expansion Set. There's also a Fear mechanism, as well as Intimidation rules and a Security/ID Forgery Expansion... so I guess... yeah, there is a lot of rules stuff.

Anyway, I'm holding out hope for a 3rd-ed., but the way the economy is these days - not to mention the fact that I'm so old, it's nearly impossible to find a gaming group - I'm content to run with the 1st-ed. for now. If a 3rd-ed. does come along, I'll definitely grab a copy when I can afford to, but more just for completeness and my personal love of the game than anything else. I don't even game anymore; designing for the website fulfills my gaming desires these days (of course, I'm looking to move somewhere with a gaming community and plan to get re-involved then).

Like I've been telling the guys over in the Yahoo Group, I'm a team-player. I'd love to link to these forums (as opposed to starting my own) and support the game in any and every way I can, but no one who is doing whatever they're doing with it has been responsive - and I've tried contacting them several times.

If any of you are designers, artists, writers, and/or webmasters, hit me up! I'm really eager to network with other DC players and coordinate our efforts! That's why I joined these groups and am posting in these forums! Why should we have 10 different forums, 12 different campaign settings, and all of that - none of which are really listed anywhere, save the webring, which isn't managed well nor often - when I am willing to donate free webspace, design efforts and time, and so forth? When there are already at least two forums boards (here and Yahoo)? Etc.

My site's coverage is dedicated to the Metrodome setting, which is pretty specific since it's a domed city, but it's specifically designed to "drop" into any campaign. If any of you already have great sites setup or are working on them, I'd love to link to them and so forth.

Let's use these forums to connect and coordinate our efforts and support one another. And, like I said, if you're interested in what I'm doing and want to contribute, have suggestions, or whatever, let me know! We can definitely work something out, no matter what you do or want to do.
- [url=http://www.theweirding.net/RPG/DC/]ManoDogs[/url]
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ReHerakhte
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Post by ReHerakhte »

Manodogs, I'd like to say that I really enjoyed reading all the Metrodome material. It gave me a few ideas here and there but more importantly, the random generators were copied and have been sitting on a disk just waiting for the time when I started a new campaign. I loved those randomizers!
I notice you have been updating every so often and the randomizers are not presently available, I hope they'll will be back soon (i'd like to see if there are any updates or changes to the earlier versions that I copied).

Cheers,
Kevin
It's not whether you win or lose,

It's whether I win...
manodogs
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Wow!

Post by manodogs »

Wow - thanks so much, Kevin! You really don't know how good that makes me feel! I did the Champions material way back in 2002-2003, then added the DC material in 2005 or so, and in all that time, no one - not one person - ever sent me an e-mail saying, "This is good, this sucks, or you can't even read what that says!" - nothing (and you really couldn't read a lot of the DC stuff - I had no idea). It really means something to hear that someone is familiar with it and appreciates it!

A few people discussed some things on the Champions list, but I left once 5th-ed was released because it was all about that and I wasn't investing in yet another line of product. Most of the people in the Yahoo DC Group have been rather... antagonistic? Well, hostile, at least. It gets tiresome, but I've wanted to do this and comic book art since I was a kid, so I'm used to dealing with negativity - "get a real job," "you live in your little fantasy world," and all that stuff.

It's really nice to know someone appreciates the time and effort. I'd be doing it anyway - obviously, I did for years and years - but it's still really nice.

As for the Randomizers, I am also really proud of those. Those came about through sheer necessity on the one hand, but once I got into them, I really enjoyed doing them. I cleaned up the text (grammar, etc.), corrected some of the math, and gave the entries descriptive names (Fetid Stench, Pitch) where apropos, but they're largely the same. I haven't even gotten into the Alien Randomizers yet, but I ditched the cheeseball graphics. I only had those up because my scanner didn't work with XP; they were the only free "alien"-type images I could find online and I figured they were better than big, blank spaces.

It's awesome to hear from someone who actually remembers the Fear the Outside material, because The Weirding is light years ahead. I grew up wanting to be a comic book and gaming artist before I went into music and I won awards and took courses at Joe Kubert, Memphis College of Art, etc., as well as being an Honors and AP English nerd. I always intended to showcase professional-level material, I just didn't have the technology and my life was such a mess back then, I couldn't focus on it - plus, I was limited by what GeoCities allowed me to do. I really think you'll be impressed, compared to what Fear the Outside looked like; this is what I always wanted the stuff to look like (of course, I'm still learning and changing stuff as I do).

Thanks again for the kind words. I've made a special note to get to those Randomizers real soon, just for you! Let me know if there's anything else you're interested in or want to see, etc. And if you have anything going on, drop me a line (rpg_theweirding.net) and I'll do whatever I can to help! Also, I'd love to hear anything you'd like to contribute or suggest in regards to the material already presented.

Again, I'm very interested in coordinating all DC-related projects and efforts across the Web, so I'm eager to hear from all designers and webmasters who have material to present. If you don't know how to do HTML, etc., but have stuff you'd like to share, let me know and we can work something out. Same goes for hosting, etc. I'm willing to donate my time, efforts, and webspace to quality work, though I most certainly do use advertising to recoup some of those costs (and hopefully one day, make a profit). If that bothers you, well... it really shouldn't and I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors, but I'd still like to link to your stuff, etc.

Thanks, Kevin. You really made my day!
- [url=http://www.theweirding.net/RPG/DC/]ManoDogs[/url]
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ReHerakhte
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Post by ReHerakhte »

Things like the zone breakdowns with their various significant corporations, gangs, attractions and so on were very welcome. Kind of reminded me of the stuff in the ShadowRun Seattle Sourcebook.
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manodogs
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City Zones

Post by manodogs »

Hip. Those things are on the way. I retooled the City Zones to be used for any sci-fi game/setting, then re-retooled it back (for specific systems), so that's a mess right this minute. For instance, I renamed the entries according to Dark Conspiracy conventions (anthills, Mike Town, etc. - p. 142-143) and changed the text to fit better with this, as well as expanded it, etc. I spent all yesterday scanning artwork, and today will be spent resizing and working it (cleaning it up, making it small enough for the Web, etc.).

Two of the neighborhoods are basically ready for publication, but I bought New Orleans on eBay and the tracking shows it should be here today. I'm going to wait until I read it (tonight), because I may want to adjust some things.

I've expanded most of them and formatted them so they don't fill five, separate pages. Plus you can actually read them this time! I really had no idea they looked so bad the first go-round, because of all the issues I was having in my personal life; I was designing that stuff offline and taking the whole desktop to friends' and family's houses to publish it. I didn't have much chance to actually view it and so on.

It looks so much better now. I was always proud of the ideas presented, but I knew the writing was rushed and needed work, and I had no way to get my artwork in there at the time. I did not know the text was so large and was overlapping and hidden by objects in some places, etc. That is fixed - well, I hope - I asked everyone to please e-mail me if they experience any issues. I know some sentences on the Metrodome page were overlapping on the 98 machine, even though they look fine on this one (Vista).

Yes, all of the material that was on FtO is coming, just better edited and presented. There is also a whole lot of material never before published. I know I kept telling everyone I was going to bring them the Rollerderby stuff over there - said that for years and never got to it - all of that is on its way and the pro-wrestling page (draft) is already up.

Speaking of Seattle Sourcebook, I was reading Shadowrun last night! Specifically, I read the core book and was working on Shadowtech. I have the Seattle Sourcebook, so I'm going to flip through that while I do the City Zones, since you say it had some similar content; I take whatever I can get, wherever I find it! I doubt I'll ever play Shadowrun again in my life, but if I can use any of it for DC or any other game I do play, than I got my money's worth.

I got those books, along with a slew of other systems for games I don't play (some I'd never even heard of), when I purchased a replacement Cyberpunk 2020 book on eBay. The woman said if I'd pay S&H, she had two whole boxes of RPG stuff she just wanted to get out of the house. I got a hell of a deal! I'll never play any of those games (of course, I might - just saying), but I'll use whatever I can get out of them for games I do play.

Thanks again for all the kind words and rest assured, everything that was originally on FtO is still there, it's just so much better looking and well done than before. That stuff was all rough draft to begin with, I just didn't get back to it until I started the "pro" site (heh - "pro" as in I pay for it...). It's a lot easier this time because I'm not working from 15+ years of disparate notes and character sheets!

More will be up tonight, though I don't know how much or what. I have to republish the Metrodome and Rules pages with the live links anyway, so you'll be able to just check those and get to the new stuff.
- [url=http://www.theweirding.net/RPG/DC/]ManoDogs[/url]
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ReHerakhte
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Post by ReHerakhte »

Awesome!
I can understand the impact of personal/family life on your ability to get these sorts of things done, I have some similar experiences although for me it's been due to some troubles at work and with looking after some members of my family who are suffering severe depression.
These days I lose patience with big projects. I can work on them up to a certain point and then I get fed up and have to stop for a long while. So I applaud those people who can commit themselves to a long term project, they have patience and persistence I used to be able to muster!
It's not whether you win or lose,

It's whether I win...
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