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Eric Johnson (order #2093395)

Maslefe?i!ipm

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Basic Edition

-Mastets Edition

THE SECOND EDITION

The second edition was published in two folio-sized volumes, one targeted at Players (184 pages, Basic Edition and
400 pages, Master Edition) and the other at Game Masters (180 pages, Basic Edition and 462 pages, Master Edition),
both in soft cover.
In each case, the Basic Edition was a subset of the Masters Edition (and the DPI catalog listed the additional Masters
material as an Expansion volume). For insights into the material differences between Basic and Masters, it is possible to
compare the Tables of Contents of each of the books (provided on the following pages).

Players Handbook Basic Edition 184 pages

Players Handbook Masters Edition 400 pages

Referees Guide Basic Edition 180 pages

Referees Guide Masters Edition 462 pages

Referee's Screen (Dark Conspiracy, 2nd Edition)

This three-paneled referee's screen (33" x 8.5") is beautifully illustrated by fantasy
artist Larry Elmore. This Referee's Screen has everything a Referee needs for quick
reference to speed up game-play.
Also included is a 48-page book with material from the previously released Ice
Daemon and Nightsider adventures, both of which are sure to frighten and delight
horror role-players of any age.

Eric Johnson (order #2093395)

The Shadow Falls

Sin City, Vol. 1
Welcome to New Centennial City, or
"Sin City" as the people who live here
call it.
New Centennial City is a new Hong
Kong - a place of commerce,
opportunity and dark secrets. It is a
foreboding place, crouched
somewhere in the shadows between
Tim Burton's Gotham and the Los
Angeles of Ridley Scott's Blade
Runner.
New Centennial City is a place
where powerful men prey on the
weak-minded with disastrous results.
A series of violent crimes and a
mysterious explosion, draw the
players into the clutches of the
Calendites, a modern-day Mayan cult
led by the enigmatic Ethan Rayne. In
trying to learn its secrets, the players
are caught up in the frenzy of
impending doom. The stage is set!
The end of the world is nigh!"

Eric Johnson (order #2093395)

Of Gates and Gods

Sin City, Vol. 2
Something strange just crashed into
a heavily populated region of
NewCentennial City and someone is
trying to keep it a secret.
As the players investigate, they will
be introduced to the subculture of the
Citadel. The Citadel can be best
described as the personal playground
to the elite of New Centennial City.
Big parties, big business and big
money flow through this area at neckbreaking speeds.
The Citadel is dangerously out of
control. Greed and corruption can be
found on every corner. Certain
elements attempt to change the world
as we know it. What is happening
behind the scenes and can your party
stop it before it's too late?
And no matter what happens in Sin
City, just remember...
IT'S JUST BUSINESS."

Masks of Darkness
Sin City, Vol. 3
"Just what the hell is going on
here?'
Something is happening behind the
scenes in New Centennial City. A
gang war has erupted in the Projects
and an influenza epidemic sweeps the
city. Meanwhile, a man has gone
missing and no one seems willing to
help find him. The players get asked
to help and inadvertently get pulled
into a web of lies, deceit and
confusion.
Masks of Darkness introduces
several new underground ernpathic
cells that are active in New Centennial
City. They, together with the players,
will work together to uncover the truth
that lurks behind the facade of
everyday city life. If the players aren't
careful, they could get more than they
bargained for."

DEMONGROUND
DPIs support of Dark Conspiracy 2 included the innovative electronic fanzine Demonground, featuring many of the
same authors who contributed to the rules and its supplements (and who had contributed to Dark Conspiracy 1).
The first issues of Demonground were exclusively Dark Conspiracy material, but as the publication matured, it
expanded to cover other games in the genre.

Eric Johnson (order #2093395)

Eric Johnson (order #2093395)

95

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Eric Johnson (order #2093395)

Eric Johnson (order #2093395)

Eric Johnson (order #2093395)

A Short History of the Dark Conspiracy Game

By Lester Smith
Did you ever wonder how a roleplaying game comes to be? Well allow
me to pull back the curtain over the history of the Dark Conspiracy RPG, and let
you take a peek.

The Genesis
Early in the summer of 1990, I was
taking a break from grad school, when
Marc Miller called to ask if Id be interested in designing a new project for
GDW. I had some time on my hands
and you know what they say about idle
hands. So I said, Sure.
When I met with Marc and Frank
Chadwick to discuss the project, they explained that they wanted a role-playing
game of ecological horror. I have a soft
spot in my head for horror, so naturally I
said, Sure. We discussed the ecological
aspects: a world in danger of ruination; a
plot of some sort to take the earth from
human hands. They pitched some ideas. I
pitched some ideas. We shook hands all
around, and I went home to start work.
I was very excited. But as a roleplaying game designer, I was still a little
wet behind the ears back then. My RPG
experience to that point had been to revise
the Traveller: 2300 RPG, filling in some
holes and expanding the original to twice
the size. And Id done several adventure
modules and a few board games. But I
wasnt quite sure how to start a roleplaying game from scratch. So I just gave
it my best shot. I jotted down some basic
mechanics, wrote up a few monster descriptions, plotted out an adventure, and
got some friends together to start playing.
Along the way, I just hoped to generate
enough material to fill a 250-page book.

The Mechanics
It might surprise you to learn that the
game started with a d20 mechanic based
on skills. At the time, I was of the opinion
that a d20 was just about a perfect die for
a role-playing game. It gives a reasonable

Page 4

Eric Johnson (order #2093395)

range of numbers, without the clunkiness

of a d10 on the one hand, the needlessly
fine divisions of a d100 on the other, or
the bell curve of multiple d6s on the third
hand. (Its Dark Conspiracy, remember,
so I can have three hands.) In my original
system, the number of points by which
you succeeded or failed determined the
quality of your result. In competitive
actions, that quality helped determine
just how much of an effect the victim suffered. Still, the effects of that quality
were left up very much to the referee to
decide.
A few months into my work, Frank
and Marc called again, to let me know
that the second edition of Twilight: 2000
was going over very well for the company. They explained that they thought it
would be a good idea for GDW to have
similar mechanics for all its RPGs, so
they wanted me to adapt my current rules
to match T2K2.

At first, I wasnt thrilled about the

idea. As Ive mentioned, I thought the d10
system to be too coarse-grained, without enough variance. Still, I could see the
appeal of a game company having common mechanics throughout its RPGs, and
I like to be a team player. Also, it meant

Demonground Issue 1

that I didnt have to come up with new

stats for all the modern and futuristic gear
I wanted to include in DC.
That clinched it. I got to work converting my notes to T2K2 stats (or perhaps more properly converting T2K2 to
my notes). Empathy was added as an attribute, two of T2K2s physical stats were
merged, and skills were juggled to suit.
The project took a great leap forward as I
was able to concentrate on mood instead
of mechanics.

The Background
From the beginning, I set myself the
goal of making a background that could
incorporate absolutely any horror story. It
was my opinion at the time that AD&D
succeeded largely because a DM could
import pretty much any fantasy story, and
I wanted to do the same for horror.
Nowadays, Im not so sure thats a valid
approach. Chill tried just that, and its
died at least a couple of times. Call of
Cthulhu didnt really try that, and its still
as strong as ever. Vampire: The Masquerade and its siblings all focus on one vision, too, without trying to incorporate
absolutely every type of horror, and
theyre going strong. Fortunately for me,
two focuses developed early in Dark
Conspiracys development, and they gave
the game the identifying mark it needed to
survive.
The first focus was the guns. GDW
was a wargame company at heart, and it
showed even in their RPGs. (In fact, if
you used the abbreviation RPG at
GDW, it was usually assumed you meant
rocket-propelled grenade.) Rather than
fight that fact, I decided to try making a
horror game where the point was ultimately to blow the monsters to little
pieces. I just tried to create monsters that
would rip you up a time or two before you
could come up with a workable plan to
defend yourself. But once you had, it was
payback time in spades. Pretty much all

Editorial

of the DC adventures I ever wrote and ran

were designed exactly that way: Id maim
or even kill a PC or two, then let the rest
escape, catch their breath, equip for the
baddies, then come back and blast them to
bits. It isnt how I run Call of Cthulhu, but
it certainly works for DC.
The second focus was the ETs. As a
kid, I watched lots of sci-fi movies in
which the aliens were beneficent. Then as
a teenager, I read reports about ETs performing head transplants on helpless humans. So I built that change into the DC
game. Once the ETs came in peace, but
now they were corrupted. Franks the
fellow who came up with the rationale
that they had opened a mystic gate to
hell and became possessed. That central
concept gave DC an identifying mark it
needed.
As for the other monsters, I just tried
to come up with a rationale that fit the old
stories, but didnt stretch the laws of science too far. For example, it seemed more
reasonable to me that werewolves were
always bestial-looking in reality, but projected a hypnotic power to disguise themselves, than that their bodies could metamorphosize in seconds. That rationale
was one of the things that sold Frank on
my vision for the game.
Finally, I needed a world where such
creatures could break loose. But it had to
be a fairly modern one. So I described a
growing dystopianot quite cyberpunk
in which lawlessness plagued the rural regions, allowing for monsters to prowl, yet
dark secrets were held at the center of the
overcrowded cities. It was never my intent to detail the megacorps or metroplexes. Remember, I wanted a world
where referees could import stories they
read or viewed, not one that dictated their
campaigns. The plan was to allow for
Howling-style werewolf packs on the one
hand, and Aliens-style corporate horror on
the other. The rest of the dystopian vision
grew from those two extremes.

The Other Players

Which brings me to Mike Stackpoles
novels. At the same time I had been approached to do the game, Mike had been
asked to write a series of novels. Neither

Editorial

Eric Johnson (order #2093395)

of us was much aware of the others work

until both game and first or second novel
had been completed. Mike depicted a
more cyberpunkish world at first than I
had, but the two visions began to feed off
each other after the game was released.
Ted Kocot, the fellow who turned me
on to cyberpunk before it was a phenomenon, is to blame for the tabloid tie-in
to the game. He got me to thinking about
the ways in which those bizarre tabloid
stories could serve as clues for actual
events in the game. I found tabloid stories
to be a great inspiration for adventures. I
only wish I had taken the idea further, and
built them more fully into the background.
I think my favorite writer for DC
material was Michael LaBossiere. He began writing short adventures almost immediately, mainly for Challenge magazine. I immediately fell in love with his
approach to horror, his bent vision, and
his delivery in writing. I looked forward
to seeing his every submission. I hope
hell do some new work for the second
edition.
For what its worth, my favorite of
the full modules, however, is Among the
Dead, for whatever you can make of that.

Late Developments
Eventually, I finished writing and
went back to grad school for one season.
After finishing grad school, I went back
to work full-time at GDW. As luck would
have it, my first task was to finish getting
DC through production, then take over
management of the line. Through the next
couple of years, as the line expanded, I
had a great deal of fun. But the D10 system continued to bug me. I talked with
Frank about it often, and his reply was

Demonground
Demonground Issue 1

always something like, Sure, you can

change it, as long as all the current
sourcebooks for it and T2K2 remain in effect. So I couldnt just double the attribute and skill numbers, because things like
gun recoil ratings wouldnt work anymore. I tried a provisional change in the
PC Booster Kit, but it was kind of clunky.
About a week after the booster kit hit the
stands, however, I smacked my forehead
and said, Of course! Just add the skill
and controlling attribute together, and use
the total as the target number for a d20!
It was such a natural adaptation that we
all wondered why we hadnt thought of it
before. Thats the version thats in the
newest edition of the game.
What brought about that new edition,
long after GDW was gone? Well, at pretty
much every convention I attended, somebody or the other would ask me if the
game would ever be reprinted. I mentioned that fact to a couple of different
publishers over the years, and finally Ken
Whitman decided it sounded like a good
idea. He talked with the folks who currently own the license, came up with a
business plan, and got to work. It was
Ken who decided to split the original
book into two sectionsone for players,
and one for refereesthen incorporate
material from various sourcebooks into
each. Hes also the guy who decided to
repackage them both in digest sized
books. At first, I was skeptical about that
format, but when he showed me a sample
page, I had to admit it looked nice, and
when I saw the finished books at GenCon,
I was impressed. They definitely stand out
among a sea of 8 x 11 books.
Im gratified to see the books back in
print. Im not certain at this point how
much involvement Ill be able to have in
the lines further development. Lots of
water has passed under the bridge since I
ran the line at GDW, and I have several
other irons in the fire, as they say. But Ill
continue to advise Ken as he pursues further publication, and Ill be running DC
events at a number of conventions. Maybe
Ill see you there

Page 5

LESTER W. SMITH

ARK CONSPIRAC
SECOND EDITION

Shapes that rip and tear. Shadows that live in corners. Windows in the space and time that
lead to realms of madness and decay. A dark, lurking horror that feeds off the echoing anguish of a billion souls. When an ancient brooding evil is released from its dimensional
prison, humanitys worst nightmares come to life. Set in the near future, the world of Dark
Conspiracy is fraught with peril and challenge. Can you face the forces of darkness?
The Players Handbook contains all of the rules to create and run characters in the world of
Dark Conspiracy. Including material from the previously released Dark Tek and Empathic
Sourcebook, this book contains revised character sheets, expanded equipment lists and indepth empathic abilities section. 6 x 9 format, 400 pages, US$20.00
The Referees Guide contains material from the previously released Dark Races and
Proto-Dimensions. This book contains a large section on creatures and new dimensions for
players to explore. You will find all the rules, start-up adventures and creatures from the dark
abyss needed to play in this dark game of sci-fi horror. 6 x 9 format, 462 pages, US$25.00
To order Dark Conspiracy 2nd Edition, contact
Dynasty Presentations, Inc.
PO BOX 221
Lake Geneva, WI USA 53147
On the web, go to
http://www.dynastypresentations.com/
Copyright 1998 Dark Conspiracy Enterprises. Dark Conspiracy is a trademark of Dark
Conspiracy Enterprises. All rights reserved

Eric Johnson (order #2093395)

Lester Smith

ARK CONSPIRAC
SECOND EDITION

CURRENT IN-STOCK ITEMS

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Dynasty Presentations, Inc.
PO BOX 221
Lake Geneva, WI USA 53147
On the web, go to
http://www.dynastypresentations.com/
Copyright 1998 Dark Conspiracy Enterprises. Dark Conspiracy is
a trademark of Dark Conspiracy Enterprises. All rights reserved

Eric Johnson (order #2093395)

Welcome to New Centennial City or

Sin City as the people who live here call
it.
New Centennial City is a new Hong
Kong a place of commerce, opportunity
and dark secrets. It is a foreboding place,
crouched somewhere in the shadows between Tim Burtons Gotham and the Los
Angeles of Ridley Scotts Bladerunner.
New Centennial City is a place where
powerful men prey on the weak-minded
with disastrous results. A series of violent
crimes and a mysterious explosion draw the
players into the clutches of the Calendites,
a modern-day Mayan cult led by the enigmatic Ethan Rayne. In trying to learn its
secrets, the players are caught up in the
frenzy of impending doom.
The stage is set!
The end of the world is nigh!
Are you game?
DPI-1100 The Shadow Falls - Sin City Volume 1, 108 pages, US$16.00

P.O. Box 221

Lake Geneva, WI USA 53147
Phone: (414) 245-3710
Fax: (414) 249-9456
http://www.dynastypresentations.com/
Copyright 1999 Dark Conspiracy Enterprises. Dark Conspiracy is a trademark of Dark Conspiracy Enterprises. All Rights Reserved.

Eric Johnson (order #2093395)

Something strange just crashed into a

heavily populated region of New Centennial
City and someone is trying to keep it a secret.
As the players investigate, they will be
introduced to the subculture of the Citadel.
The Citadel can be best described as the personal playground to the elite of New Centennial City. Big parties, big business and big
money flow through this area at neck-breaking speeds.
The Citadel is dangerously out of control.
Greed and corruption can be found on every
corner. Certain elements attempt to change
the world as we know it. What is happening
behind the scenes and can your party stop it
before its too late?
And no matter what happens in Sin City,
just remember

ITS JUST BUSINESS.

This high-drama adventure is the second
installment of the Sin City series.

DPI-1110 Of Gates And Gods - Sin City Volume 2, 108 pages, US$16.00

P.O. Box 221

Lake Geneva, WI USA 53147
Phone: (414) 245-3710
Fax: (414) 249-9456
http://www.dynastypresentations.com/
Copyright 1999 Dark Conspiracy Enterprises. Dark Conspiracy is a trademark of Dark Conspiracy Enterprises. All Rights Reserved.

Eric Johnson (order #2093395)

Just what hell is going on here?

Something is happening behind the scenes
in Nwe Centennial City. A gang war has erupted
in the Projects and an influenza epidemic sweeps
thec ity. Meanwhile, a man has gone missing
and non one seems willing to help find him. The
players get asked to help and inadvertently get
pulled into a web of lies, deceit and confusion.
Masks of Darkness introduces several new
underground empathic cells that are active in
New Centennial City. They, together with the
players, will work together to uncover the truth
that lurks behind the faade of everyday life. If
the players arent careful, they could get more
than they bargained for.
And no matter what happens in Sin City,
just remember...

A MIND IS A TERRIBLE THING

TO WASTE!
This high-drama adventure is the third
installment of the Sin City series.

DPI-1120 Masks of Darkness- Sin City Volume 3, 108 pages, US$16.00

P.O. Box 221

Lake Geneva, WI USA 53147
Phone: (414) 245-3710
Fax: (414) 249-9456
http://www.dynastypresentations.com/
Copyright 1999 Dark Conspiracy Enterprises. Dark Conspiracy is a trademark of Dark Conspiracy Enterprises. All Rights Reserved.

Eric Johnson (order #2093395)