Dark Conspiracy-like novels

Linden · Post by **Linden** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 3:38 pm

Zvezda wrote:@Ivan: strange as in 'crap' or as in 'interesting'?

Um...not interesting, but not sure if crap is the right word. Over-complex is the term I think I'd use. Also, and I'm not au fait with all of the various incarnations of D&D, but it seems to be something of a missed opportunity: Does a reasonable job of the skill list with rolls being suitably modified by attributes then buggers it up by adding all these peculiar feats on the back of the character sheet. Logic seems to just go out of the window there. The whole thing seems rules heavy generally, when they could have had a nice streamlined system that was up to date yet at the same time not too distant from the original D&D game.

Zvezda · Post by **Zvezda** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 8:12 am

That's what I like abut DC, the system is very easy and the combat system is not only easy but fast and deadly too. Sometimes it is a problem that you either have very easy or almost impossible. It is a bit better using the T2K 2.2 rules but not much.

I have had my worst expirience with overcomplex games with Role Master. If I remember correctly a fight with 2 persons on each side took like 4 hours.

Linden · Post by **Linden** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 8:31 am

Zvezda wrote:That's what I like abut DC, the system is very easy and the combat system is not only easy but fast and deadly too.

Funnily enough a lot of the criticism I see levelled at DC claims that it's:

a) Too complex
b) Not deadly enough (except for NPCs)

I don't have a problem with b). As we've discussed previously, it's an action orientated game and the PCs are the heroes. As for a) I think that's the result of it being descended from Twilight 2000 which to me has always been a quasi-wargame. Back when I played DC we had a sensible GM who didn't get too caught up in all the rules. He solved the square root demolitions issue simply by not letting us get hold of any explosives.

Zvezda wrote: I have had my worst expirience with overcomplex games with Role Master. If I remember correctly a fight with 2 persons on each side took like 4 hours.

Now that it is over the top. MERP was complex enough for me. Never tempted to make the acquaintance of its big brother.

Post by **Morthrai** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 2:45 pm

Zvezda wrote:And for that conspiracy stuff...I just somtimes wonder if these people actually belive what they say or if they only want some attention...

I would say it's equal amounts of both, but there is also a third type of person: people who just make stuff up. I guess in a way, we are guilty of doing that ourselves

Zvezda · Post by **Zvezda** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 8:41 pm

Yep, I can remember the times when...well. Yeah I guess you are right here. Any more DCesque novels anybody?

Post by **Morthrai** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 2:52 pm

Here's a book that a friend of mine ran a short DC campaign off:

Strangers by Dean R Koontz

Linden · Post by **Linden** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 4:46 am

London Orbital by Iain Sinclair. Not a novel, but a travelogue of the author's circumnavigation of the M25 motorway. Has a tendency to digress and go off at weird tangents, but gives an idea of how the future London is evolving: Characterless Mike/Prole housing built on old ammunition factories. Semi-rural Nomen gated communities on the edge of the city on the sites of Victorian asylums.

Sinclair also delves into the relationship between bent government and their big business cronies (primarily developers) which is a conspiracy of sorts.

Post by **Morthrai** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:46 pm

A few stories and books that I didn't mention before

Make Room, Make Room! by Harry Harrison (made into a movie "Soylent Green" with Charlton Heston). Overpopulation and food shortages in a vastly expanded American city, megacorps and government meddling.

There is also a short story by Harrison set in the same world, We Ate The Whole Thing, which for me is actually better than the Soylent Green story. Read it and you will see it's a perfect Dark Conspiracy tale. Pollution and death all over the place!

The Welfare Man by Chris Beckett. A man who works for the UK employment department in a rough area of the city has an eventful day. Very dystopian and told from the point of view of a man who is actually lucky enough to have a job.

Zvezda · Post by **Zvezda** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 5:19 pm

I think I have already mentioned it but most of the stuff Poe has written is quite good (despite the fact that some of you had to read it in school) and I have never encounterd a bad horror story by Ambrose Bierce!
Well these are classics but they are great, many of the sories have been copied by other writers. Well, and most of their stuff is available for free.
Some Poe (For the lazy)
Some more Poe (for the not soo lazy)
Bierce 4 teh win!!1!
And finally The Devil's Dictionary It is not too DC but worth a look

Linden · Post by **Linden** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 2:54 pm

Zvezda wrote:I think I have already mentioned it but most of the stuff Poe has written is quite good (despite the fact that some of you had to read it in school) and I have never encounterd a bad horror story by Ambrose Bierce!

I'm also reading one of the old masters at the moment, massive anthology of short stories by H G Wells. The ones I've read so far have been very short and punchy. As a prose stylist he knocks spots off of Lovecraft. His influence on DC can't be discounted either: The Morlocks and Moreau-Weres owe an obvious debt to him.

Post by **Morthrai** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 1:19 pm

Ivan Dobski wrote:Already mentioned this one to Lee but...

Trajectories by Julian Rathbone. Set in rural southern Britain in 2035.

It's a bit too loosely plotted and some of the satire is rather heavy handed but contains quite a few DC elements.

I finally obtained a copy from the local library (the entire system in this county only has 2 copies!) and I have to say you were right on most points. Having spoken about the book in person as well as here I have a sneaking feeling that I enjoyed it a little more than you did.

A hearty recommendation from me.

Linden · Post by **Linden** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 2:56 pm

Morthrai wrote: I finally obtained a copy from the local library (the entire system in this county only has 2 copies!) and I have to say you were right on most points. Having spoken about the book in person as well as here I have a sneaking feeling that I enjoyed it a little more than you did.

A hearty recommendation from me.

My Dad really liked it as well. I didn't dislike it, just thought it was one of Rathbone's lesser efforts. Vaguely unsatisfactory for the reasons I mentioned earlier. Great setting though.

Not DC related but I'd highly recommend his historical novels "The Last English King", "A Very English Agent" and "Birth of a Nation."

Linden · Post by **Linden** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 8:18 am

Just read Rule Britannia by Daphne Du Maurier. I think it could be useful as source material for a Republic of Britain setting. It takes place in the early 1970s after a disastrous British entry into the EEC. To stave off bankruptcy the UK government enters into a political union with the United States. The new combined state is known by the unfortunate abbreviation of USUK, and proves to be unpopular with the public at large. American troops land in the British Isles to make sure the union goes smoothly. The book concentrates on a campaign of civil disobedience against the USUK government in a small Cornish village. It’s interesting for the measures taken by the authorities to try and bring the Cornish to heel e.g. cutting off utilities, limiting people’s movements, stopping food deliveries etc. Possibly measures that could be used by the oppressive, but incompetent, Socialist People’s Party.

US readers might find the book guilty of egregious Yank bashing although I think most of the American characters are presented as decent people making the best of being given a rotten job to do.

Linden · Post by **Linden** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 4:59 pm

Another one: The Chrysallids by John Wyndham. The post apocalyptic setting doesn't really fit the DC paridigm but the nascent empathic underground does.

Zvezda · Post by **Zvezda** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 4:22 pm

Rule Britannia sounds interesting maybe I can get it form a public library. Due to the fact that we are now playing in Africa I have decided to read ‘Heart of Darkness’ by Joseph Conrad again. I must say that book might be way too evil for the average game of DC. Probably the more sinister GMs could use it to flesh out African settings or as a guide how Europeans behave towards the Africans in the World of DC. The book was written more than 100 years ago, but I suppose probably everybody knows it. It is about the journey of a small steamboat on the Congo. Anyways it is wroth reading. If you guys don’t have the time for that It is also available as Audiobook. For free. If some one is interested in the link I can dig it up, though I must admit I don’t like the readers voice too much.