Modern Conspiracy/Horror idea sources

[shadoe]

Here is the question. I have read all of the wonderfull Modern/Conspiracy story hours that we have in the forums, and since I am planning to start a campagin like that, I was wondering where poeple got the root idea from that started the story?

So what are some of your favorite sites and sources to mine ideas from?

 

[trancejeremy]

This is actually sort of a UFO/Paranormal fanzine that gets scanned and put up on the web. Humorous
http://www.martiansgohome.com/smear/

This site does a weekly roundup of UFO/Paranormal reports.
http://www.ufoinfo.com/roundup/index.shtml

 

[Tom Cashel]

Some of my favorite source material:

The Illuminatus! Trilogy, by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson
The grandaddy of conspiracy fiction. Required reading.

Spoiler

fnord

The Invisibles, by Grant Morrison et al.
All issues of this comic are collected in trade paperbacks now. It's a long, complex, mind-blowing story (and not all the loose plot threads get sorted out), but for sheer mass of cool-as-hell ideas it's hard to beat.

Planetary, by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday
The secret history of the Twentieth century. First 18 issues in trade paper. Read and be amazed.

Foucault's Pendulum, by Umberto Eco
Dense, erudite, often funny study of modern conspiracies as concepts that start out sinister and end up nutty.

The Crying of Lot 49, by Thomas Pynchon
Oedipa Maas discovers the symbol of Tristero, an underground postal network whose motto is D.E.A.T.H. (Don't Ever Antagonize the Horn?). Music by The Paranoids.

 

[Wraith Form]

Sorry, I'm not answering the question--I'm actually countering with my own question! Umm, which story hours have conspiracy themes? I'm really interested in checking them out, but don't have time to "wade through" all the story hours to find them. Could you provide links or names of story hours that I can read?

I'd appreciate it! Thanks!

 

[Jim Hague]

For sheer historical weirdness, The Collected Works of Charles Fort are a good start for odd events, as are Ken Hite's Suppressed transmissions columns/books. I also can't reccommend Nightmares of Mine enough for bar none the best horror GMing advice available anywhere.

 

[Peterson]

No time for links, but as soon as I can - I'll try to dig them up.

Medallions - AWESOME
Drunk Southern Girls With Guns, Bad Aliens etc - FREAKING AWESOME, written by an actual Hollywood writer.
Anything by Heapsomething or other....darn it. Can't remember again.

There, that should get you going.

Peterson

 

[ragboy]

No time for links, but as soon as I can - I'll try to dig them up.

Medallions - AWESOME
Drunk Southern Girls With Guns, Bad Aliens etc - FREAKING AWESOME, written by an actual Hollywood writer.
Anything by Heapsomething or other....darn it. Can't remember again.

There, that should get you going.

Peterson

Direct links to all three of these are in my sig (ignore mine).

I got the main campaign conspiracy thread by going to Google and typing:

XXX and conspiracy (where XXX is the topic of choice).

Some search terms that will give you hours of reading enjoyment (or horror):

Majestic 12
Bilderberg
Illuminati
UFO
Nazi + UFO (my campaign thread is based on this nonsense)
Alex Jones (he's a very vocal local conspiracy radio yokel)
Art Bell (mo radio...coast-to-coast)
Roswell
9/11
Flight 800

Some gaming materials that you might consider:

Dark*Matter (highly recommended by the gentlemen that write the story hours here)
Delta Green (a modern Cthulhu campaign that's absolutely stunning in detail)
Conspiracy X (don't know much about this one)

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Go to SVGames and download TSR's Alternity supplement: Dark*Matter.

Four bucks, great product. It's sort of the genisis for both JonRog1's and my own Story Hours.

Medallions is a great game and a great read, with some great people playing it. I'd highly suggest it.

My own game has been mentioned, and even linked (I feel warm inside), as has JonRog1's story hour.

(You can also find my SH linked in my sig, as well as a previous SH of mine, which isn't conspiracy based but is definately X-Files-esque and some Horror.)

My handle is always a source of confusion. Today at GenCon I had to tell the attendant at the table "Look for HEAP ...". Thaumaturgist is a synonym for wizard, or mage.

Oddly enough, I got the title from my apartment as an undergrad. I had way too much stuff in a small single-bedroom appartment, and no matter what people wanted I could find it stashed in my stuff somewhere. My friends took to calling it "The Heap" and wrote a character into their RPG called "The Heap Mage" who walked around with a mountainous backpack pulling varied and sundry usefull items from its depths.

--fje

 

[Krieg]

Beg, borrow or steal a copy of Delta Green.

It is a Call of Cthulhu supplement and a 2nd printing with D20 CoC stats added is somewhere on the horizon.

 

[DMScott]

Here is the question. I have read all of the wonderfull Modern/Conspiracy story hours that we have in the forums, and since I am planning to start a campagin like that, I was wondering where poeple got the root idea from that started the story?

A pretty good overview, IMHO, is Jim Marrs' Rule by Secrecy.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...102-3907302-1208901?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

It runs the gamut from the basically plausible "rich families have always worked to make sure things go their way" to the completely wacky "aliens created humanity as slave labour and are still working to keep us down" end of the spectrum, so lots of ideas to mine.

Marrs also has a book called Alien Agenda that's supposed to be good (as conspiracy books go, anyway), but I haven't read it.