[Games That Shaped Me] Part One - Dark Conspiracy

“We do not learn from experience... we learn from reflecting on experience.”
― John Dewey

It probably goes without saying that I’ve always been a fan of Dave Chapman’s work as an RPG designer and as such I'm an avid follower of his blog. In recent days he completed a series of posts called [Roll Your Own Life] The Games That Shaped Me that looked at the Role Playing Games that influenced and guided him in his writing and personal life. These brief snippets are fascinating, and they've inspired me to do the same, although maybe a little more critically.

So without further ado … unashamedly stolen (with permission) … this is Part One of “Games That Shaped Me”.

Dark Conspiracy

I know, I know, you’re think ‘duh, he’s posting this on his own Dark Conspiracy fan site, so it’s pretty obvious that this game affected him’*, but honestly I don’t think I can ever exactly say how much DC as been a core part of my make-up as a human being (maybe my wife, Emma, could, as she's been there most of this wild ride?). Still, let's give it a try...

[* - Okay, I was going to post this up on my darkconspiracytherpg.info website but the formatting there drove me crazy... hence I posted it here]

Let’s see ... there’s lots here ... so bear with me on this –

• It was the first RPG I purchased with my first-ever ‘real job’ paycheck way back in 1992 – the job was at a gas station BTW so nothing too exciting,
• The first game writing I did that appeared in public  – for Dr Mike LaBossiere’s “Opifex Bi-Monthly: Random Universes” – was for Dark Conspiracy,
• I was a founding editor of the well respect “Demonground” Fanzine which was dedicated to the game,
• My first published RPG product “Of Gods and Gates” was for Dark Conspiracy 2nd Edition,
• My gaming company was the licensee of the game back in 2005 and 2006,
• Since 2006 I’ve owned and run the Darkconspiracytherpg.info (and.com) website and to this day continue to pop out the occasional article or adventure idea, and
• I was (am?) one of the writers for the upcoming 4th Edition (currently stuck in development hell).

So why do I love Dark Conspiracy so much?

The answer to this is two-fold - as a gamer I find the setting interesting and unique and as an individual much of my creativity and drivers for personal change has been aligned with my involvement with the game.

In regard to the setting itself, I don’t think I’ve ever encountered such an open, and yet well constructed world as Dark Conspiracy. I know that others differ in this, but to me DC is the events, attitudes and zeitgeist of the 1980s extrapolated thirty years into the future; a time where technology is stuck in this juxtaposition of future possibilities and retro-styled production. It has gritty cyberpunk-like cities, post-apocalypse type wasteland, and unlimited and unknowable enemies. Most importantly, it is a place where the characters can actually make a difference, but that ‘difference’ is simply a ripple in a pond that vanishes as quickly as it appears. I'm sure that Michael Stackpole's novel - the Fiddleback Trilogy - has a massive influence on how I imagine the world DC, but there is also so much more!

As for the personal aspects, so many key events in my life are intertwined with Dark Conspiracy. My – to date - sole trip to Gencon was for the publication of my DC book, some of my favourite articles for Demonground were written when my personal life was on a real high (not that it isn’t now), and today, when I’m at my most creative, ideas for articles, adventures and discussion points for the game to flow unbidden from my mind. In some ways DC reflects my state of mind and creative centrepoint.

Why has Dark Conspiracy shaped me?

Again my answer is two-fold…

Number one, it taught me that if I’m not comfortable or happy with something or someone then stop being involved with them/it. If I had realised this twenty years ago, then I would have done a number of things different with both my writing and the relationships involved in the publication “Of Gods and Gates” and “Demonground”, and I suppose it those events that lead me to develop a professional toolset that has seen me become a successful IT leader.

Number two, it showed me that I can’t do everything myself. Back when The Gamer’s Conglomerate held the licensee for Dark Conspiracy, I thought I had to do everything – write a new game system, publish lots of new material and build a social network. That was impossible to do as a single person unable to dedicate more than a few hours a week to the game. If I had my time again, I’d outsource the writing of the system (based on some clear guidelines), have others provide a collection of scenarios, articles and the like and finally pay someone to be the ‘social cheerleader’ of the game… honestly the cost in all that would be minimal and I could focus on the thing I enjoy most – the creativity and the programme leadership.

So there you go, I’ve revealed why DC has shaped me, and shared a few secrets I’ve been hiding away for way too long… I promise the next Parts won't be so introspective (or will they?).

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