Dark Conspiracy Developers Diary

[MongooseMatt]

Welcome to Dark Conspiracy, set for release around the summer of 2026!

Dark Conspiracy is still very much in development right now, so we thought it might be fun to create this forum and post the occasional thread covering specific areas of its writing, giving veterans of the game and newcomers alike the chance to comment on the ideas being explored and potentially affecting the final books!

 

[Sigtrygg]

Welcome to Dark Conspiracy, set for release around the summer of 2026!

Dark Conspiracy is still very much in development right now, so we thought it might be fun to create this forum and post the occasional thread covering specific areas of its writing, giving veterans of the game and newcomers alike the chance to comment on the ideas being explored and potentially affecting the final books!

Do you mind if I transfer things like your interview to their own threads in this forum?

 

[MongooseMatt]

Do you mind if I transfer things like your interview to their own threads in this forum?

You would be welcome

(I would totally have thought of doing that if, umm, it had popped into my head...)

 

[hopsnbaer]

I will be disappointed if there is not a Private Investigator Career\Assignment.

 

[AndrewW]

(I would totally have thought of doing that if, umm, it had popped into my head...)

It did, but then someone hacked your brain and removed it right afterwards.

 

[hopsnbaer]

No reason

 

[HidaO-Win]

It would be great if the game included cooperative base building for the players to cover the default equipment they had and have somewhere to hang their hats.
Similarly pulling strings mechanics to represent things like requesting forensics or getting warrants.

 

[MongooseMatt]

It would be great if the game included cooperative base building for the players to cover the default equipment they had and have somewhere to hang their hats.
Similarly pulling strings mechanics to represent things like requesting forensics or getting warrants.

This is one of the next things we are working on - what a cell actually means for the players, and what resources it grants. I suspect that improving the cell's reputation with the powers that be and gaining greater access to resources will be one of the main ways players 'level up' in this game.

It will also provide good motivation for the players to actually work on creating their own conspiracies when things go less than well in the field...

 

[HidaO-Win]

Really happy to hear that. Look forward to any other information coming out.

 

[Wizard]

Would I be right to assume that even thought there will be a difference between the Dark Conspiracy skills and those in Traveller, most other elements would be interchangeable? Such as bringing in Traveller weaponry, armour and other equipment into DC, and, what's really on my mind, Dark Tech into Traveller?

I thought comes to mind, will DC be metric? I hope so, as it makes the above easier.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Yes. While there are differences, you will find it supremely easy porting from one game to the other. Animals in Traveller, for example, will cross over with little to no change at all, as will weapons...

 

[GypsyComet]

One concern I had with the original in hind sight was that it had "the 90s Problem" that GDW otherwise avoided: the setting described in the core book was essentially lost by further development. It was most on display in WW's World of Darkness, in which the social structures and general setting the PCs operated in was erased, either as a comfortable lie that was never actually the case, or under some other artifice, by the end of the first year's worth of books. In DC's case, the core depicted a largely wrecked world with a few enclaves that could live under the illusion of normalcy. Then the secret agencies appeared, you could still travel to just about anywhere, and cities that were in well-labeled devastation were thriving, if under threat. The Challenge adventure "Gnawlins" was one of the first indicators, IMO, that the core setting was being set aside; its tone is clearly different.

It would not take much adjustment to keep that shift but make more sense doing so. Label the comfortable illusion immediately, or as the page 4 gotcha.

Of course, the Proto-Traveller crowd think the same thing happened to that game. It didn't. Growing a setting from scratch as an example is not the same as selling one setting then pulling an M. Night Shyamalan on it.

 

[Sigtrygg]

I think the three book concept is a great idea and the best way to handle this.

Book 1 being the nearly now means you can keep things ticking over as long as you want to...
Book 2 is where the whole world now knows and things have gone from bad to worse - this is the closest to the original DC setting I think.
Book 3 looks like it could be great fun as the full scope of the setting in now opened up - multiple dimensions, alternative worlds etc...

 

[Morthrai]

The original backstory of the Dark Conspiracy world has two key events that happen in 1947 and 1983. I won't spoil them for newcomers and I have no idea if Mongoose are keeping those for the new edition, but they're a handy way for a referee to explain any differences between the published material and their own game

Also, who knows exactly what effects those protodimensions might have on our "reality" anyway...

 

[MongooseMatt]

The original backstory of the Dark Conspiracy world has two key events that happen in 1947 and 1983.

They will be there, but... we are approaching them a little differently.

We will be digging into the adversary side of Dark Conspiracy soon (up to now, we have just been hammering out the core rules and player-facing side of things) and, once we have some preview material. we will start unveiling the conspiracy