[Games That Shaped Me] Part One - Dark Conspiracy

[Marcus Bone]

Stolen from Dave Chapman - the first in my series of 'Games that Shaped Me'... looking forward to a bit of self reflection and growth!

In this first post I cover the game that influenced me the most - Dark Conspiracy (who would have thunk that!?!)

[ReHerakhte]

Interesting to see what Chapman considers an influence. I don't mean this in any negative sense, I am genuinely curious about the things he chose because I recognise the majority of them!

However, on to you Marcus.
In all the time that I have looked at La Bossiere's material, I never actually saw his gaming website until well after he had stopped writing Dark Conspiracy material and even then, I was just trying to locate the adventures he had written. Hence I didn't actually know you had been a contributor! So I learn something new

An interesting read.
Looking forward to the next part!

Thinking back on it, DC was the fourth game that I ever purchased and it was initially to support the (Twilight: 2000 alternate gameworld) Merc: 2000 campaign I was running. Then it eclipsed the M2k game and I started running DC full on even after the end of GDW. I eventually found Demonground so that kept the DC interest running high and here I am, still involved with DC 20 years later!

[Linden]

Thinking back on it, DC was the fourth game that I ever purchased and it was initially to support the (Twilight: 2000 alternate gameworld) Merc: 2000 campaign I was running. Then it eclipsed the M2k game and I started running DC full on even after the end of GDW. I eventually found Demonground so that kept the DC interest running high and here I am, still involved with DC 20 years later!

My route into the game was as a player. A friend in our group bought it and pitched it to us as being like Call of Cthulhu but set in the near future. This would be back in the early 1990s where, despite the a few efforts at modernist interpretations of the mythos and the imminent arrival of Delta Green, much Cthulhoid gaming still seemed rooted in the 1920s which I've never been that interested in. A more up to date alternative (as I thought it was then) sounded right up my street. Really enjoyed the short campaign we played and bought the game myself some years later, by which time it was out of print but easy to find on Ebay and still being supported by Demonground. These days I like DC for its retro-take on the future as well as its flexibility in terms of campaign and character types. It is still the game that I've GM'ed the most: Three campaigns to date, all lasting a year or more. Given the chance I'd run another at the drop of a hat.

[Marcus Bone]

...Hence I didn't actually know you had been a contributor! So I learn something new

Let's be honest it was only a couple of short articles in a 'zine mostly full of Mike's stuff! Still, it was the first thing I ever did for any audience outside my own gaming group (I'd only just the internet - 33.6k dial-up). And I have to say, the idea of a zine (which eventuated as Demonground) grew from that work!

I laugh now thinking back to those early forum/chat days...

[Marcus Bone]

...It is still the game that I've GM'ed the most: Three campaigns to date, all lasting a year or more. Given the chance I'd run another at the drop of a hat.

It was probably the game in which I ran my first serious campaign as well - with the players all being much older than I was. The group had come out of playing games like Twilight:2000 and Aftermath, so were keen on the DC setting. They also didn't mind playing with a young bloke like me (I think I was 15 or 16 when I joined their group - most of the guys were in their 20s and the eldest was in his early 30s).

To this day I'm not the biggest fan of the GDW system, although I like its core Stat+Skill & Difficulty Level approach, so I'm not sure I could ever run a 'standard' DC game ever again... despite have dozens of scenario ideas for it!

[Marcus Bone]

Just in case you're interested - Part Two: Call of Cthulhu.

[Linden]

To this day I'm not the biggest fan of the GDW system, although I like its core Stat+Skill & Difficulty Level approach, so I'm not sure I could ever run a 'standard' DC game ever again... despite have dozens of scenario ideas for it!

Me neither. By the time of the third campaign I'd got so fed up of GDW's house system, I used the free Fuzion rules instead. They have problems of their own of course being in dire need of proof-reading and editing - they look thrown together from several different sources. I still think they offer a better version of the Stat+Skill mechanic though and there's a bit more differentiation in weapon damage. I kept DC's recoil mechanic in firearm combat otherwise I think there's a tendency for Fuzion/Cyberpunk characters to put a few too many bullets on target, especially with auto-fire. The conversion wasn't too much of a pain (the same stat+skill numbers in DC worked ok in Fuzion) and I'd probably use the same hybrid system in any subsequent campaign I ran.

[Morthrai]

I laugh now thinking back to those early forum/chat days...

Those were such creative and downright fun times and I made my first online friends, most of whom are still in touch.

To this day I'm not the biggest fan of the GDW system, although I like its core Stat+Skill & Difficulty Level approach, so I'm not sure I could ever run a 'standard' DC game ever again... despite have dozens of scenario ideas for it!

I doubt if anyone ever really enjoyed the system as written As for scenario ideas, let's get them out there!

[ReHerakhte]

I doubt if anyone ever really enjoyed the system as written

Umm...
Well...
Actually...

Aside from the pain in the arse of working out damage values for explosives and a need for more granularity in the Difficulty Levels, I generally like the GDW system with one caveat - I prefer the d20 system as used for Twilight: 2000 2.2 & Dark Conspiracy 3rd Ed. over the original d10 system as used for T2k 2nd Ed. & DC 1st Ed.
It's actually my preferred system for modern & near future gaming because for my tastes a lot of other systems are too pulp-action/cinematic, too gimmicky or are too damned invested in the "level-up/gear-up = progression" mentality of fantasy games like D&D.

So in keeping with the topic of this thread, yes Dark Conspiracy (and Twlight: 2000) has definitely shaped me in terms of my gaming prefences!

[Linden]

I doubt if anyone ever really enjoyed the system as written

Umm...
Well...
Actually...

I think Zvezda is on record somewhere in the mists of time on this forum saying he liked it as well - whatever happened to him, does anyone know?

Anyway, back on topic more or less, I remember a UK fanzine reviewing 2300AD and saying something to the effect that the game system was the usual GDW mixture of highly elegant and hideously clunky (i.e. task resolution and combat system respectively - what's with all those funny decimal fractions in the latter?). I think the same applies for DC.

On to Call of Cthulhu, yes still a favourite although BRP does suffer from what venerable UK mag Imazine referred to the banana syndrome: I have 80% skill in hitting people with bananas, why do I only have 00% or the basic minimum in hitting people with oranges? Some skills and experience are transferable surely? The sanity rules can be crippling and ruin the game for afflicted players if not applied with discretion by the Keeper.

[Marcus Bone]

I think Zvezda is on record somewhere in the mists of time on this forum saying he liked it as well - whatever happened to him, does anyone know?

It always worried me that Zvezda disappeared as he did - I know he lived in the Ukraine and he vanished around the time all the unrest with Russia occurred. Although it is shamefully under reported, I believe the situation over there is pretty grim in the EAst - "More than 9,000 people have been killed in the military campaign" to quote wikipedia...

[Linden]

It always worried me that Zvezda disappeared as he did - I know he lived in the Ukraine and he vanished around the time all the unrest with Russia occurred.

I corresponded with him a few years ago and he was living in Berlin. His Facebook page remains active (as of 20th March) and he still seems to be in living in the "City of Dreams". Curioser, and curiouser.

[Marcus Bone]

...he still seems to be in living in the "City of Dreams". Curioser, and curiouser.

Carosa then?