Tag: History of Dark Conspiracy

Mongoose Acquires the Dark Conspiracy Licence

On April 8, 2025

A little late to the party, but Mongoose Publishing recently announced that they have acquired the Dark Conspiracy property (to go along with their previous purchase of the Traveller IP).

Looking forward to seeing where this new reimagining of our favourite Roleplaying game might go, with news that a new edition (utilising the Traveller mechanics) will likely see light of day sometime in 2026.

Here’s the full press release as posted on Facebook –

Last week Mongoose Publishing acquired all rights to the Dark Conspiracy RPG, the classic game pitting players against an ancient and alien horror.

There will be a lot more news in due course, but we are delighted to say that Dark Conspiracy slides right into a project we have been working on and off for nearly two decades – indeed, it will be the final component needed to bring everything together. Expect to see a brand new Dark Conspiracy in 2026.

In the meantime, you can find the original Dark Conspiracy PDF titles on our website – https://www.mongoosepublishing.com/collections/dark-conspiracy-of-the-past

[Interview] Lester W. Smith – The Darklord speaks…

By Marcus Bone

On September 18, 2020

In Interviews

Let me tell you a story of a teenage boy who just happened to wander into a small, out-of-the-way, bookstore deep in rural New Zealand during the winter months of 1992. Imagine – if you can – that same boy, sandy haired, freckled and gangly, running his eyes across the somewhat dire bookshelf of roleplaying games in that very same store. Here he glances past the abundance of 2nd edition D&D supplements, the smattering of West End Games books and FASA product, hoping beyond hope that the game that had intrigued him so much on his last visit still remained somewhere among this aging collection of books, magazines and games. After a moment of panic, his fears are allayed and there, half hidden in a dusty corner, was the book he was looking for; a different type of RPG, one whose cover – complete with armed adventurers and terrifying zombies – promised a something fascinating and new at the gaming table!

That teen, of course, was me and little did I know, as I scraped the last few dollars from my holiday bank account to buy this amazing game, that it would lead me on a lifetime of creativity and adventure. Adventures that could have never even be contemplated if our guest hadn’t taken up the assignment to write the most interesting RPG to ever hit our gaming shelves – Dark Conspiracy!

It is therefore with the greatest of pleasure that I present an interview with the one and only Lester Smith (https://lestersmith.com/) – the man who was not only the creative mind behind Dark Conspiracy, but also a true legend in the roleplaying industry and a pioneer in gaming circles. If you’re a fan of Dark Conspiracy then you’ll know Lester’s name already, but even if you are only a casual gamer then you should at least know him for his time at TSR and his award winning ‘Dragon Dice’ game…

But what am I doing… we have the gentleman himself here to tell us about his life, gaming experiences and, most importantly, his time creating Dark Conspiracy. Welcome Lester, I’m so happy that you agreed to do this interview… I can’t believe it took me so long to get around to asking you to do this!

[Article] Shadows that Rip and Tear: An Observation on Dark Conspiracy

By Marcus Bone

On January 25, 2020

In Articles

This is a short article that I wrote for the Dark Conspiracy 4th edition Kickstarter that never saw publication. It looks to detail, at least from my perspective, why I continue to love, support and create for Dark Conspiracy and why I’m so excited for a new edition!

——-

Shapes that rip and tear. Shadows that live in corners… Windows in space and time that lead to realms of madness and decay…

And with those words an untold number of gamers were lured into the world of Dark Conspiracy. It was the early 1990s, and for years, roleplayers had played their games across infinite worlds of heroic fantasy, the bounds of airless space or facing the maddening terrors of Lovecraftian horrors, but rarely had they the opportunity to act out their adventures in a setting that reflected so darkly humanity’s own missteps into the future.

Dark Conspiracy is the game of modern, conspiracy horror, set against a backdrop of a bleak future dominated by greed, evil and nightmares from beyond reality. It was a product of its era, the result of a zeitgeist of suspicion and fear – likely driven by a recent stock-market crash, a changing governmental structure and a rapid rise in personal technology – that would spawn not only TV shows like the X Files, Millennium and Dark Skies but also a plethora of other similarly focused roleplaying games.