Dark Conspiracy

[GM DarkLord]

Would there be any interest in playing Dark Conspiracy? 

Imagine an Earth where chaos reigns. an Earth of the very near future. Runaway population growth. diminishing resources, and human greed have all taken their toll on the planet. Megacorporations have slipped the reigns of national regulation, and now they wage a continual economic war on political governments. A global economic collapse has plunged all but the most privileged into poverty. 

The superpowers have collapsed from inertia and economic stress. In some places those federal republics still exist in name, but their individual states have stepped forward to fill the vacuum of power, and where those states fall short, local governments take up the slack. The result is a political crazy quilt of bizarre and contradictory laws and practices. What is the custom in one locale may well get you shot in another. 

But economic and political chaos are only the symptoms of the disease. Its cause lies in the roots of humanity's deepest, darkest nightmares. Somehow, an ancient. unspeakable evil has been unleashed on the Earth, an evil which thrives on the anguish of a billion tortured souls. This malevolent power now twists the minds of men and women, using their base instincts to serve its purposes. Parts of the world have fallen completely under its control, and from them emerge its Dark Minions, creatures of another time and space that feed not only on human flesh, but also on the human spirit. 

But there are still people fighting to drive back the Darkness. Sometimes they're agents of organizations that retain some small residue of their former power and independence. Sometimes they're members of what remains of the free press. Most often they're just victims who've escaped the horror and are now fighting back. But always, they have to walk softly, because thousands of people disappear every day, people who simply know too much. People who know what Darkness has returned. 

In Dark Conspiracy, the players play the role of normal, or perhaps not-so-normal, human beings who are fighting a global menace of unprecedented proportions. An alien, malevolent intelligence, imprisoned for eons, has been released to wreak havoc on the world. It is doing a pretty good job. 

Your character has become aware of this menace. and. along with a small band of like-minded companions, has set out to uncover and destroy the menace. 

The difficulty is that this in no simple back-room conspiracy. The driving force behind it is an other-worldly presence of profound power and evil. Its minions that roam the Earth are hauntingly similar to creatures of dark legend from around the world. Similar, but never quite identical. But regardless of the power of the enemy, there have been victories. Some were small victories. Some were costly. But enough small victories can turn the tide. 

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We would be playing with the 2nd edition ruleset.  These books are available thetrove.net for free.  I am very familiar with the system and can assist with character creation and the like if one cannot acquire the books, or just has general questions.

[GM DarkLord]

Character Creation 

Character creation is made much simpler using the Character Generation Worksheet on page 388 of the Player's Handbook

Characters are defined by the following attributes: Strength, Constitution, Agility, Intelligence, Education, & Empathy. All of the stats except Empathy range from 1-10.  Empathy ranges from 0-6.  Stats may be determined by either rolling 2d6-2 (rerolling 0s) for each stat except empathy which is 1d6-1, or distributing 36 points amongst the stats, with points spent on empathy costing double.

The remaining details of character creation are laid out in the book pages 15-38, but the majority of character creation is performed by selecting "career terms".  Each of these terms will allocate either a certain number of points in a given list of skills, or will allow the player to allocate a certain number across several skill options and potentially grant the character long-term NPC contacts. Each term will also age the character by 4 years (with one exception).  All characters start at 17 and your total terms take determines your age.  At the end of each term, you roll a 1d10 and if you roll less than your total number of terms, your character has had their "introduction to the Dark Invasion" and goes through the character completion steps.  You can also choose to stop after any term.  As your character ages there is a chance that your physical stats will drop due to the creeping decrepitude of age.

In the character completion steps, you determine how you "muster out" which defines the character of your introduction to the dark and helps determine your final starting cash for equipment purchases, starting initiative, increased empathic power, etc.

Character sheets will be managed through shared google Sheets. I am working on a character sheet that I will copy and share out to each player as they join.  We will be using Unseen Servant for dice rolling (Campaign ID: 879)

[GM DarkLord]

No house rules to start, although if we find things that need tweaking and/or correction we can work those out as needed.

I would expect regular posting, with a minimum of 1 post every other day expected, although more frequent posting appreciated.

Any questions or comments, feel free to ask.

[DM Vitkyng]

Never played it before will look at the rules when i get the chance. (Not likely vefore theweekend)

[GM DarkLord]

Never played it before   will look at the rules when i get the chance. (Not likely vefore theweekend)

If you have any questions or anything I can help clarify, or if there are particular things you are looking for I can explain.  I will probably be expanding the first post some to expand on the setting more.

[GM DarkLord]

Expanded the first post to better describe the situation of the campaign.

[GM Marvel]

So characters are a bunch of normies who end up battling monsters?  

I will take a look.

Apparently there's more than one edition.  From what you've already said it looks like we'll be playing 1st edition?

[GM DarkLord]

So characters are a bunch of normies who end up battling monsters?  

I will take a look.

Apparently there's more than one edition.  From what you've already said it looks like we'll be playing 1st edition?

2nd edition actually.  

There are options you can take in character creation, such as Cyborg Escapee, Renegade ET, or Empathic Underground as examples, that will make your character very not normal, but in general yes the characters are more-or-less normal people who have become aware of the threat the Dark presents and have chosen to fight back against it.

When going through the creation cycle all careers are broken into three broad groups: military, education, civilian.  Typically, just like in real life, wealthy or middle class (gnome or mike respectively) characters will start off with a civilian career in mind but go through a term or two in college/grad school or a term or two with the military, then fall into that civilian path.  Poorer characters tend to jump straight into civilian careers (and have access to Street Urchin, which is the only career term you can take that doesn't age you as it is more of a childhood background kind of thing).  

The character creation process is very robust and does a good job of helping you buildup your character's history as you go along.

[GM Marvel]

Isn't 2nd edition, d20?

[GM DarkLord]

It uses a d20 as the core die for combat resolution but it is in no way connected to the d20 open system or D&D.  It is a system originally developed by GDW (but not d6) and then tweaked and refined as it progressed.  2nd edition shook out some of the math heavier bits and streamlined things from 1st edition and was the most popular among the player base.  3rd edition was not well received as they tried to rebrand to "Conspiracy Rules!" and that just didn't take off.  

There is a german company working on publishing a full relaunch of the game.  I was a high-tier backer of their kickstarter, but it has run into massive production hurdles (including the company that launched the kickstarter folding completely and a new company picking up the work and promising to fulfill) so who knows when that will ever come out.