Book 1 of Dark Conspiracy III Rule Book Review And Commentary Part II With Dark Corner Exclusives

Some of  the badass artwork that appears in the DC rule book by artist  Bradley K. McDevitt that appears both in the rule book and exclusively on this blog 

 Introduction

Yesterday we talked about the Dark Conspiracy Rulebook pdf and its pulpy horror science fantasy goodness today we're going to take monsters, setting,empathic abilities, and much more.
What is Dark Conspiracy? To recap its  first book of Dark Conspiracy III, an update to the original and in many ways ground-breaking urban horror RPG of the 1990s

 Setting 
The setting of the DC rule book dives into lots of great details about the setting. The Greater Depression is detailed and given more extensive background information. We get greater insight into the causes and what's happening in the world of Dark Conspiracy. The whole thing reads like our world given a bath in pulptastic acid. There's lots of little hints about the retro pulp future of this horror cum ufology game. Even the equipment list gets into the act. As I've stated before this beast weights in at 198 pages. The setting stands on its own or could work with no effort at all in the Twilight 2000 second edition. The post apocalyptic madness of Twilight could use DC to break apart some of the drudge of the setting. Giving a horror sensibility to an already horror game waiting to happen in Twilight 2000. DC has a science fiction bent right up front screaming "Use Me Please"
The game setting is our world's conspiracy theory turned to "11" and then given over to the horrors of a 70's grind house horror/science fiction matinee. 

 Empathic Abilities, Darkling Powers, And Psychic Abilities 

One thing that Dark Conspiracy has always had going for it was the weirdness of the powers and abilities of the PCs, NPCs and the monsters. That's all here but its been fine tuned and brought into focus. The PC abilities and the darkling powers work together and dovetail into the combat section. They work easily,quickly, and with little fuss. 

We greater attention to the setting and the powers working within that setting. The monsters and powers are very integrated in the setting. 

 The Monsters 
Every single monster from every single splat book is right in here. That's right from the Pale to the ETs their all here and given very in depth treatment. You get the legends, urban legends, and the truth about their capabilities as well. The stat blocks are evenly laid out so that the whole package shines. Dark Conspiracy adventures live and die on the monsters and minions. The darkling powers of the monsters make sense and they dovetail into the empathic abilities of the characters. These are simply monsters to blow away but with a bit of background fully realized Npcs waiting for the PCs to stumble into them. 

Here we see a network of connections between the overlords and their minions, the aliens, and the "supernatural" elements of the game. The monsters and minions work within the confines of the game giving faster game play and easier access to the entire frame work of the game. This is no accident, the 3Hombres Games group are actually folks behind the original edition of Dark Conspiracy for GDW. That comes across with those "supernatural" elements of the game. These elements are actually alien science and the so called "Dark Tek". 

 The setting, abilities, monsters, PCs, all work well together and are much more even then in the original edition of the GDW game. All of these elements have a horror/pulpy paranoia running through them. Its nice to have that. 

Pros 

1. Fast playing Empathic abilities and a combat system that works
2. Modified Chargen
3. Management of Contacts
4. Clarified rules for automatic gunfire and initiative
5. Updated weapons
6. Dark Sensibility to the supernatural/ufology of the game background
7. A very depressing setting that I want to actually game in.
8. Updated space setting and equipment  
9. 298 pages for 10.00? I'll take that all day long 
10. Good solid authors like 
    Lester Smith, 

    Marc Miller, 

    
    

    Norm Fenlason, 

    Lee Williams and many others. 
    

    With Artists such as 

    
    

    
    

    David Lee Ingersoll, 

    
    

    
    

    
    

    Bradley K. McDevitt, 

    
    

    
    

    Earl Geier, 

    
    

    
    

    Norm Fenlason

The book isn't without its cons however but again they are pretty minor

Cons 

1. The art in the rule book is a bit uneven but works for the setting 
2. If you don't like a solid crunch rule book this might not be for you for horror science fantasy gaming 
3. Very, very in depth treatment of the monsters. I heard friends complain about the amount of monster information. For me you simply can't have enough
   
   
   You can purchase the book pdf right over Here!