Dark Conspiracy's influence in RPGs

[Marcus Bone]

It always amazes me that despite being 30 years old (and having only one really far-reaching edition), that Dark Conspiracy has such a far reaching influence. As an example Chris Pramas (head of Green Ronin) posted this today (as part of his ongoing series of reflecting on RPGs)...

Today's game is Dark Conspiracy (1991) from GDW. The game takes place in the early 21st century. There's been a huge economic crash, multinational corporations are more powerful than governments, and the gulf between the rich and poor has become massive. Crazy stuff, right? On top of that there are aliens, vampires, demons, and a Cthulhu-style Great Old One, as well as some cyberpunk elements. This allows you to run all sorts of horror scenarios, and have some pulp and scifi weirdness too. It's a bit of kitchen sink (by design) but there is also a story that does a credible job of tying it all together. Makes more sense than the X-Files, which would mine similar territory two years later. Dark Conspiracy uses a variant of GDW's house system, as seen in Twilight: 2000 and Cadillacs and Dinosaurs. It's not as obsessed with military equipment as Twilight: 2000 but it's still pretty crunchy for a horror game. Since GDW went out of business, Dark Conspiracy has been revived several times. A second edition came out in 1997 and a third in 2012. A fourth edition is on the way from Amargosa Press.

I had no professional involvement in Dark Conspiracy but I did meet designer Lester Smith several years later. I was publishing another horror RPG, Whispering Vault, which Lester had reviewed quite favorably in Dragon Magazine. He wrote an adventure for our next supplement, The Book of Hunts, and having someone from GDW and TSR writing for us felt like a big get for my tiny company.
#CuratedQuarantine

[ReHerakhte]

And I think to add to that, when the 2nd edition came out, it was a specific attempt by someone who was a fan of the game, to keep it alive. He had the resources to do so and did so.
Arguably 3rd edition was a similar situation.
These weren't big companies known for their RPGs (although I believe Dynasty Presentations was creating or managing online games at the time)

[Marcus Bone]

These weren't big companies known for their RPGs (although I believe Dynasty Presentations was creating or managing online games at the time)

re: DPI - Not really - it was more of Ken W leveraging off of his connections in the industry (having previously worked at TSR)... it was a very 'fly by night' type of arrangement... that said - I did get the books I ordered way back then (and a butt load more when I attended Gencon in 99). Good thing too as I never got paid for my DC book I wrote...

[ReHerakhte]

Ouch! Glad you got something for your work (I own a copies of all three released Sin City adventures - took a while to track down physical copies but I got 'em eventually!)

The tale about Ken further supports the notion of "fans keeping the game alive". I knew he was a fan but it's still surprising to hear just how much love he must have had for DarkCon if he went to those lengths to get the game back in print.

[Morthrai]

Personally I think it's a good thing that the DPI edition happened years before Ken gained his extremely poor but definitely deserved reputation as a rip-off merchant

[ReHerakhte]

Personally I think it's a good thing that the DPI edition happened years before Ken gained his extremely poor but definitely deserved reputation as a rip-off merchant

Oh?
That's a tidbit that I haven't heard.
I got the DPI Basic Player's and Ref's books as they were the only DPI products that ever got to my city at the time. I finally located the GM's screen later and I think it was at one of the gaming shops here but the three Sin City books took a number of years checking websites and online auction sites like eBay.

But I will say I was not particularly happy with DPI because to get the complete Master Editions of the Player's and Ref's books, you were expected to tear off the front cover of the Basic book and send it with a money order to DPI and they would send the Master Editions.
Frankly, I was appalled and outraged that they would expect us to pay for a basic version & deliberately damage it just to get a copy of the complete books that were never made available through normal shopping channels.
I reckon if you have the money to print a Basic version, why bother with that when you could just as easily print the complete version?
So I guess the basic aspects of Ken's dodgy personality were already at play, I was too isolated from his work to see more.

[Morthrai]

The entire story is here. If you're not familiar with the tale check the Chronology page first.

https://notanotherdime.blogspot.com/

[ReHerakhte]

Bloody Hell!
I didn't realise just how egotistical and narcissistic he is

Yeah, I'm also glad he was disassociated from DarkCon before he turned the full-on scoundrel knob up to 11