Podcast Review of Dark Conspiracy - Mirage Arcana

[Marcus Bone]

Don't know if this has been previously mentioned but I discovered a podcast review of Dark Conspiracy over at the archives of Mirage Arcana.

Although it the podcast is now defunct, the archives are over here - http://www.screencast.com/users/MirageA ... odcast/rss. Episode 21 has the review, which starts at around the 24 minute mark.

Interestingly it is an Australian group of players who do the review...

Marcus

[Morthrai]

Well spotted Marcus! Yet another decent podcast that was gone before I even heard of it

[Linden]

Always fascinated to hear how other people play the game: They had two character careers that I banned in my campaign on the grounds of being just too way out i.e. Cyborg escapee and Alien Renegade. I got the impression they treated it almost like a traditional fantasy rpg. The references to warriors and sorcerors made me think they saw it as closer to Shadowrun than Call of Cthulhu (although obviously they namechecked both).

Reckon they pretty much nailed everything I don't like about the combat system.

Listening to the run down of the character creation system, doesn't sound like they played first edition, more like second perhaps?

Would be interesting to know what module the GM was originally going to use but discarded as unsuitable.

[ReHerakhte]

I got the impression that the guy who was running the session had some ideas that were... not quite... like the book. As for the players, one of them definitely sounded as though he thought it was going to be like ShadowRun and yeah, I think they played it like a traditional fantasy type game or perhaps the action style that is found in CyberPunk 2020.

I was almost screaming at the computer when they kept mentioning the modules they played or didn't play but never named (until near the end when they mentioned which one they used). For a podcast, it illustrated what I don't like about podcasts - people blathering on but never supplying the info the listener actually wants.

[Linden]

I got the impression that the guy who was running the session had some ideas that were... not quite... like the book.

I thought that too. Nothing wrong with it of course. Although his ideas weren't necessarily ones I'd want to use in my game...different strokes for different folks and all that.

[ReHerakhte]

Speaking of reviews, I found this today as I was searching the net for custom DC character sheets. The review dates from January of this year but I don't think it's been mentioned here before, apologies if it has.
http://www.darkdungeon2.com/2010/01/cla ... iracy.html

[Linden]

I've not seen it before so thanks for posting the link - a really good review. My favourite quote: "Dark Conspiracy shows a world where Mulder and Scully from the X-files desperately screwed up." Also thought the reference to the sub-prime crisis was quite apposite.

[ReHerakhte]

Considering what we have seen over the decade in the USA particularly, it's startling how similar DC is to the real world now. I've mentioned to some of my gaming group that I think DC was a little more accurate while the cyberpunk genre was too optimistic when it declared a timeframe of the 2020-2050s when it seems to me that many of the negatives of the DC and cyberpunk worlds appear to be happening right now.

[Morthrai]

Another good find there Kevin, even I hadn't seen that before.