Inspirational Movies and TV for Dark Conspiracy

[ReHerakhte]

I've since found that Google Play has the show so I'm inclined to purchase it from them at some time in the near future.

Oh yes, the tired old trope of Nazis conquering the alternate world...
I wasn't thinking about that at the time but I can see now that that is probably going to be the first thing some people think of. My initial thought was of a more serious Cold War situation in the alternate world with a very powerful Soviet Union that may have ideas about "assisting" their prime world counterparts.
However I do really like the "Paton's Dream" scenario too.

[Linden]

My initial thought was of a more serious Cold War situation in the alternate world with a very powerful Soviet Union that may have ideas about "assisting" their prime world counterparts.
However I do really like the "Paton's Dream" scenario too.

It might be possible to blend the two ideas: A short war in Europe until the US drops the A-bomb, as much as a warning to the Soviets as to finish off Japan. The subsequent period sees the alt-Soviet Union trying to achieve parity with the alt-West, by any means. Participation in the RPA is just a means to filch Nazi twisted technology, much as it is in this dimension but with an added impetus. Contact with the prime USSR could also be beneficial - a whole new meaning to the phrase "international socialism". The prospect of two Joseph Stalins dealing with each other fairly makes the mind boggle, I suspect neither would tolerate the other in the long term.

[ReHerakhte]

You know as soon as I read your idea of two Stalin's I had exactly the same though as you regarding how they would see each other!
Imagine if one (or both) of them laid out plans to kill the other but their underlings then use those plans to kill the instigating Stalin so that Malenkov comes into the leadership. Officially, Stalin died in March 1953 of a cerebral haemorrhage but according to speculation and rumour, Beria had Stalin killed.

This scenario plays out like the real world but Stalin actually is murdered and yeah, okay I'm stating the obvious but I'm thinking then of what happens with the UN orgnanizations monitoring the crossing points between the worlds. With the two Stalins trying to strengthen ties with each other's worlds, then one (or both) of them are killed would we see a mass migration of Soviet citizens trying to flee their world, would we see Soviet loyalists trying to find Stalin's killers looking in both worlds etc. etc.
I think there's a lot of game scenarios available from that idea.

[Phulish]

You know as soon as I read your idea of two Stalin's I had exactly the same though as you regarding how they would see each other!
Imagine if one (or both) of them laid out plans to kill the other but their underlings then use those plans to kill the instigating Stalin so that Malenkov comes into the leadership. Officially, Stalin died in March 1953 of a cerebral haemorrhage but according to speculation and rumour, Beria had Stalin killed.

This scenario plays out like the real world but Stalin actually is murdered and yeah, okay I'm stating the obvious but I'm thinking then of what happens with the UN orgnanizations monitoring the crossing points between the worlds. With the two Stalins trying to strengthen ties with each other's worlds, then one (or both) of them are killed would we see a mass migration of Soviet citizens trying to flee their world, would we see Soviet loyalists trying to find Stalin's killers looking in both worlds etc. etc.
I think there's a lot of game scenarios available from that idea.

There is an old joke that Soviet leaders would catch 1 of 2 strains of flu: lead or cyanide.

[Linden]

You know as soon as I read your idea of two Stalin's I had exactly the same though as you regarding how they would see each other!
Imagine if one (or both) of them laid out plans to kill the other but their underlings then use those plans to kill the instigating Stalin so that Malenkov comes into the leadership. Officially, Stalin died in March 1953 of a cerebral haemorrhage but according to speculation and rumour, Beria had Stalin killed.

Beria was a very evil man, but I gather he had some reformist ideas after Stalin's death. Didn't get the chance to put them into practice of course because his colleagues decided he was too dangerous to live. In Counterpart one of the themes is the ways that the two worlds diverge in both personal and public ways and Stalin's death or ultimate fate could be one of those significant branching points . I don't think I'd be comfortable with a campaign that reimagined Beria as some kind of proto-Gorbachev figure though. A rather more pulpy idea springs to mind based on the Delta Green Soviet life extension experiments - how about an undead Stalin, part ghoul, or worse? That would certainly encourage people to want to move to this side.

[ReHerakhte]

I very recently bought season one of the Channel Four series Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams but I only started watching it today. The season consists of ten stand-alone episodes based on the works of Dick and the very first episode The Hood Maker, shows an alternate history version of the world where telepaths exist.

With the first episode being filmed in the UK, the alternate world is very British but it's also wonderful material for the bottom end of the socio-economic scale for Dark Conspiracy.
Although I haven't watched more than the first episode yet, some of the other episodes also appear to be useful for DC.
Whether there will be any further seasons is unknown to me, there's plenty of material from Dick left to use and season one was filmed in 2017 and released in 2018, so next year will tell.

While plenty of us here have known/mentioned that Dick's work is readily adaptable for various rpgs, I think this is the first time that his stories have been so readily available. The TV series certianly makes them more accessible.

[Linden]

The season consists of ten stand-alone episodes based on the works of Dick and the very first episode The Hood Maker, shows an alternate history version of the world where telepaths exist.

I loved the retro-70s look of that but couldn't understand a word anyone was saying. By the time I'd figured out how to get subtitles it was half-over and I didn't have a clue what was going on. How did you find the sound quality?

[ReHerakhte]

Two things that immediately come to mind; accents and sound level.
The lead actor's accent made it difficult to understand some of the things he said early on in the piece.
The lead actress spoke so softly at times that I had to turn the volume up louder than usual just to be able to hear what she was saying.

Fortunately, his dialogue got to the point where his accent no longer made it impossible to understand anything he said but as for the second problem, I'm sure my neighbours heard what I was watching so I'm glad i wasn't watching the show at one in the morning!

[Linden]

I seem to recall one of the characters had a Scots accent - I don't think that was the problem, it was more about the level that the dialogue was recorded at. A recurring problem on British TV unfortunately.

[Linden]

Last weekend watched Vampyres (1974): A pair proto-Goth bi-sexual female vampires live in an old mansion from which they venture forth into the countryside to hitchhike and lure men to their bloody doom. Pretty much an exploitation piece with lots of nudity but elevated by its atmospheric direction and cinematography. It's not really a Dark Conspiracy film in the conventional sense but I think there's promise in the basic setup. It would work with a pair of Bloodkin vampires or Dark Elves at large in the bleak rural areas of the dark times. Might make a good introductory adventure.

Thematically you could also point to the film's vampires not being traditional ones: They don't have fangs , can tolerate daylight, and it's suggested they may even be revenants or some kind of ghosts. Fits in with that DC tag line about the old legends being true, just not in the way you think.

[Marcus Bone]

Last weekend watched Vampyres (1974): A pair proto-Goth bi-sexual female vampires live in an old mansion from which they venture forth into the countryside to hitchhike and lure men to their bloody doom. Pretty much an exploitation piece with lots of nudity but elevated by its atmospheric direction and cinematography. It's not really a Dark Conspiracy film in the conventional sense but I think there's promise in the basic setup. It would work with a pair of Bloodkin vampires or Dark Elves at large in the bleak rural areas of the dark times. Might make a good introductory adventure.

Thematically you could also point to the film's vampires not being traditional ones: They don't have fangs , can tolerate daylight, and it's suggested they may even be revenants or some kind of ghosts. Fits in with that DC tag line about the old legends being true, just not in the way you think.

Yeah, yeah Linden... any excuse to discuss your NSFW porn on the boards

[Linden]

Yeah, yeah Linden... any excuse to discuss your NSFW porn on the boards

It's not porn, it's art. Well all right, it's borderline porn but it's done with genuine style that harks back to the old Hammer films (including using one of their locations for the exterior shots of the mansion). In particular it captures the atmosphere of the English countryside in late autumn/winter extremely well. Ex-pat Spanish director/writer Jose Larraz does a good job of balancing creeping dread with out and out gore.

Larraz's film "Symptoms", a psychothriller starring Donald Pleasance's daughter, Angela, is well worth a look too and is a rather more subtle affair. Again it takes place in an isolated rural environment which adds to the creepiness of the proceedings.

[Linden]

Recently watched The Devil's Business, low budget UK crime thriller from 2011: A London crime boss sends two of his minions to kill a former business associate. Arriving at the man's country house the two hit men find the place full of Satanic paraphenalia and when their target arrives on the scene he proves harder to kill than expected.

It's very much in the traditional horror vein, perhaps harking back to Hammer's brief flirtation with Dennis Wheatley Satanism stories. DC style elements are the blue collar vibe of guys-doing-a-job, that a lifetime spent serving cosmic evil is just another way of joining the corporate pyramid and antagonist Mr Kist's hints of the "big picture" beyond conventional science. Younger hit man Cully waves a Desert Eagle around quite a lot too.

[Linden]

Oops, forgot Streets Of Fire

I recall when it first came out I read a review which said something along the lines of Streets of Fire has these odd anachronisms because it was as though someone from the 1930s had a dream about the future, but not in a science fiction style. For myself I never thought of the movie as being DC relevant until now, but yeah you are right...all those lovely retro elements

Finally got round to watching Streets of Fire and agree it's definitely got the Dark Conspiracy aesthetic. The look of it is very redolent of some of the art in the 1st edition sourcebook. Probably the best thing about it though - the dialogue is atrocious and most of the cast seem to be auditioning for a part in Garth Marenghi's Dark Place. Lead man Michael Pare in particular seems in danger of catching woodworm. Couldn't we have had the far more charismatic Bill Paxton? (here unfathomably relegated to playing a bar tender).

Not as good as Walter Hill's earlier film The Warriors which has a similar parallel universe look to it with the way out gang colours. I've certainly used that as inspiration when running urban DC adventures.

[ReHerakhte]

In an effort to see some of the films and TV series mentioned here, I have been trying to watch one a month but often get distracted by another movie. Such was the case with my latest attempt where I ended up watching the 2016 movie The Dark Tapes.
It's hyped as being 'genre-defying' and having four interlocking tales which it isn't really because we've seen similar treatments before in shows such as The Twilight Zone or movie such as Tales From The Crypt and the four tales are probably better described as sharing a connection rather than being 'interlocked'.
It's not something I can give much of a description about without giving away something of the plot but it's ripe with material for DC.

The Dark Tapes