Clockwork Publishing to launch Crowdfunding for New Edition of DARK CONSPIRACY

[Silent Pat]

Uhrwerk Verlag/Clockwork Publishing is proud to launch their Crowdfunding for a new edition of Lester Smith’s DARK CONSPIRACY, a dystopian action horror roleplaying game. First published in 1991 by Games Designers Workshop (GDW), DARK CONSPIRACY was a startlingly original action-horror game, depicting a bleak, retro-futuristic, totalitarian America where corporations rule everything and the countryside has been abandoned to violent gangs and alien horror.
The game line flourished and spawned a trilogy of novels, a board game, ample support in gaming magazines, a wide range of sourcebooks and adventures, and a variety of fan-produced magazines, each dramatically expanding the scope of the setting. Despite being out of print for years, the game maintains an international base of passionate enthusiasts, with many calls for its return.


In DARK CONSPIRACY, the players taken on the roles of normal citizens in an era marked by a Greater Depression, drawn into investigating the sinister alien horror that has infiltrated human society. With a variety of high-tech weapons and paranormal abilities, these “hunters” wage a clandestine war against and battlefields ranging from sprawling, dystopian metroplexes to the open countryside, haunted by weird creatures and corrupted by alien influence. The ultimate horror is that this malefic force is apparently aided by human collaborators, corporations and governments who have sold humanity out for their own survival and profit.


This new edition updates the game system and setting to modern sensibilities and heralds a robust line of accompanying sourcebooks and accessories. The team is led by veteran author and designer Jason Durall (RuneQuest, Conan, Basic Roleplaying, Serenity, Achtung! Cthulhu, The Laundry Files, World War Cthulhu, etc.), and consists of a wide and diverse team of talented newcomers and industry veterans, with additional team members to be announced.


The crowdfunding launches Thursday, April 11, 2019 (2 PM eastern time, 11 AM pacific time), and runs until May 7 on gameontabletop.com.


It includes the DARK CONSPIRACY core rulebook, a gamemaster screen/resource, an adventure anthology, an equipment sourcebook, a guide to paranormal phenomena, and a bestiary describing the bizarre and horrific creatures of the Conspiracy.


www.gameontabletop.com


https://www.facebook.com/DarkConspiracy




About Clockwork Publishing/Uhrwerk Verlag


Uhrwerk Verlag was founded in 2009 by Patric Götz. Previously, he already has gathered extensive experience in the field of roleplaying, first, as an employee in a games store, then working at a wholesaler and finally, as publishing director and CEO at Ulisses Spiele. The first games published by Uhrwerk were the German versions of Hollow Earth Expedition and Deadlands Classic in 2009 as well as the license for the western continent Myranor for The Dark Eye.


In the following years, Uhrwerk also published further games with great success, among them more and more German self-prodcutions like Malmsturm, Contact or Dungeonslayers. But they also continued extending the publisher‘s list with translations of English games such as Numenera and Achtung! Cthulhu.


Since 2013, Uhrwerk Verlag (under the label Clockwork Publishing) also captures the English-speaking market. With a successful kickstarter for a translation of the German version of Space:1889, the English version of the game was financed.


At the same time, Uhrwerk Verlag focuses mainly on the production of Splittermond, its own German fantasy roleplaying game. Today, about a dozen employees are permanently emplyoed at Uhrwerk Verlag. On average, three to four roleplaying publications are issued per month. Uhrwerk Verlag already successfully carried out several crowdfundings.

 

[Silent Pat]

Clockwork Publishing is proud to launch their crowdfunding for a new edition of Lester Smith’s DARK CONSPIRACY, a dystopian roleplaying game of supernatural horror. You can support the game on Game on Tabletop:

https://www.gameontabletop.com/crowdfunding-189.html

First published in 1991 by Game Designers Workshop (GDW), DARK CONSPIRACY was a startlingly original action-horror game, depicting a bleak, retro-futuristic, totalitarian America where corporations rule everything and the countryside has been abandoned to violent gangs and alien horror. Clockwork Publishing is happy to bring another classic GDW game back with a new and expanded edition after enjoying great success with the new edition of SPACE: 1889 which was published in 2014.

In DARK CONSPIRACY, the players taken on the roles of normal citizens in an era marked by a Greater Depression, drawn into investigating the sinister alien horror that has infiltrated human society. With a variety of high-tech weapons and paranormal abilities, these “Minion Hunters” wage a clandestine war against these dreadful forces of darkness and fight them on battlefields ranging from sprawling, dystopian metroplexes to the open countryside, haunted by weird creatures and corrupted by alien influence. The ultimate horror is that this malefic force is apparently aided by human collaborators, corporations and governments who have sold humanity out for their own survival and profit.

This new edition updates the game system, expands the setting, and heralds a robust line of accompanying sourcebooks and accessories. The team is led by veteran author and designer Jason Durall (RuneQuest, Conan, Basic Roleplaying, Serenity, Achtung! Cthulhu, The Laundry Files, World War Cthulhu, etc.), and consists of a wide and diverse team of talented newcomers and industry veterans, with additional team members to be announced.

The crowdfunding went live on Thursday 11th of April and runs until 7th of May. It includes the DARK CONSPIRACY core rulebook, a quickstart adventure, a referee screen/resource, an equipment sourcebook, a guide to paranormal phenomena, a bestiary describing the bizarre and horrific creatures of the Conspiracy, three separate card decks, and an adventure anthology.

Make sure to check out the DAY ONE specials on the project page: Clockwork Publishing has prepared a special discount for everybody who joins the project right from the beginning as a little thank you for the early support.

 

[Balistyx]

So glad to see this system getting some love, it is one of my favorites and wish I could get it to the table more often. Really hope this gets some traction and takes off for Clockwork. I have loved what you have done with Space 1889.

 

[Silent Pat]

Update - The Dark Conspiracy System - How do the Rules Work?

When the Dark Conspiracy system team — Sascha, Frank, Patric, Uli, and Jason — sat down at our initial summit in Cologne, Germany, and discussed what system we were going to use, the answer was obvious to everyone.

We would update the original so that the many passionate fans of prior editions of the game would be able to convert old materials easily, but at the same time, we’d streamline and simplify when possible. The original game had a lot of surprisingly crunchy sub-systems and some obvious exploits, so we wanted to address those as well as broadening the ways players can create and play their minion hunters.

Over the course of the next several months, Sascha and Frank took the original system and the updated d20-based system from the Dark Conspiracy PC Booster Kit and went through element after element and determined how to bring a modern sensibility to the rules and retain something that was recognizably derived from Lester Smith and Mark Miller’s original system.

The resulting system is straightforward, runs quickly in play, and players can grasp it easily.

• The basic chance of success is equal to the relevant skill of the task being attempted plus the associated attribute that skill belongs to: Skill Rank + Attribute = Skill Value.
• All actions a character (whether minion hunter or nonplayer character) attempts are handled on a single d20, attempting to roll equal to or below the Skill Value. The d20 result itself is not modified, just the Skill Value being attempted.
• The Skill Value may be modified by the general difficulty of the task being attempted, such as due to environmental factors, conditions, how injured the character is, or other factors. The Difficulty Modifiers range from +6 for a Routine task to –9 for an Impossible one.
• A roll of 1 is always a success and a 20 is a failure, no matter what the modified Skill Value is.
• A roll of 10 lower than the modified Skill Value is an outstanding success (like a critical in other games), and a roll of 10 higher than the modified skill value is an outstanding failure (a fumble in other games).
• Initiative is based on a combination of a character’s relevant combat skill rank plus their Agility attribute plus a roll of 1d6.

Each combat turn is broken into six five-second combat phases. In each combat phase, characters can perform a minor action and a combat action, as well as multiple reactions and/or free actions.

• Minor actions include things like bracing, moving at a walk or trot, switching gear, and standing from being prone.
• Major actions include aiming, firing, attacking in melee, readying a weapon for later use, reloading, running, using an object, throwing something, and disengaging.
• Reactions include blocking (parrying) and reactive attacks. The more you attempt in a round, the harder it gets.
• Free actions are things like dropping items, going prone, and brief talking.

There’s more, but for the most part that’s all players need to know to get started. We’ll be going into additional depth in future updates. Thanks for your support!

https://www.gameontabletop.com/crowdfunding-189.html#item-updates-3350

 

[Silent Pat]

The artwork of Dark Conspiracy

In our latest update we tell you a bit about our main artists, working for the new edition of DARK CONSPIRACY

https://www.gameontabletop.com/crowdfunding-189.html#item-updates-3395

 

[Balistyx]

Love the look and feel of the new art.

 

[trancejeremy]

Very nice. Much too rich for my blood, but as a fan of DC when it came out, it's nice to see it getting such a quality makeover/re-release.

 

[Silent Pat]

And we are FUNDED!

Thanks to all our supporters - now let's unlock some bonus goals

https://www.gameontabletop.com/crowdfunding-189.html#item-updates-3402

 

[Balistyx]

First stretch goal has been reached. new world map in pdf and print depending on where you backed.