A Dark Conspiracy is Coming!

This summer sees the unveiling of the all-new Dark Conspiracy RPG from Mongoose. We have been working hard on this for some time now and we are really excited for you all to see the results!

Dark Conspiracy: The Unseen War is a modern-day horror RPG that will see your players take on the role of Operatives, handpicked by a mysterious organisation to defend the Earth from the deepest terrors beyond imagination. 

The fundamental problem, however, is that no one really knows anything about... well, anything.

Operatives do not know the motives or goals of the organisation supplying them with technology and information. The organisation does not know the nature of the Dark Minions or what they are really capable of. And no one knows who else has begun to learn of the Dark Minions and the threat they pose.

What is evident is that no one else must ever learn anything about the Dark Dimensions. They are simply too powerful to let people harness their technology and supernatural energies. Inevitably, someone would bring ruin upon the Earth and enslave humanity to their whims, which would all too soon be subverted by the Dark Minions and their masters. Perhaps there are those who have already started this process.

The conspiracy must be built. And it must be kept.

The Tone

We have made sure that you can approach Dark Conspiracy from a variety of angles. You can treat your Operatives as a well-funded investigative group (perhaps akin to the X-Files, or maybe X-Files with guns), a military-style unit engaging in secret operations, or a single expert somewhat-versed in Dark Minion events surrounded by 'civilians' (something like Buffy the Vampire Slayer?).

Elements of horror can be dialled up or subdued to suit individual groups and the stories they wish to explore, as can the level of action.

You can play Dark Conspiracy as a long-running Cold War-style espionage campaign fighting against the greatest of evils, a campaign based on technology and weaponry, a lighter-hearted war against darkness, a string of morally ambiguous choices, or a blend of styles to suit your players.

There are certainly strong themes running through Dark Conspiracy, but we have been mindful to allow a wide spread of playing styles.

The Rules

Dark Conspiracy is a Traveller-adjacent game - that is, it is built on the core Traveller engine but has its own Core Rulebook. This allows us to bend and tweak Traveller to best suit the world of Dark Conspiracy and the types of stories that can be told within it.

For example, Operatives in Dark Conspiracy do not benefit from the Connections rule in their careers, as they have all been working in secrecy within a variety of organisations across the world. However, the Everyman career (representing a member of the public who has somehow fallen across Dark Minion activity) does get access to the Connections rule, allowing them to bind the entire group together - in a way, becoming the heart of the team.

As another example, those of you who have been following the Fifth Frontier War series or have the latest Journals of the Travellers' Aid Society will be familiar with the use of Trivial Characters to speed up the use of 'bit player' NPCs in a story. Trivial Characters have been integrated into Dark Conspiracy from the start.

We will be going into specific rules and systems in the near future (check back on Planet Mongoose regularly for the latest intel!), but as a preview you can expect to read about:

• All new careers to create your crack team of chosen Operatives.
• Tracking the level of Trust the organisation has in you and your team.
• The presence of Empathic powers which have just started to be found amongst humans - though no one really knows where they have come from or why.
• The construction of the Operative's own cell, the resources it has access to, and its own (fully customisable) headquarters.
• The nature of missions the Operatives will be undertaking, and why maintaining the conspiracy is more important than data-gathering or neutralising Dark Minions.
• The use of cults dedicated (knowingly or otherwise) to the Dark Minions, and mechanics to represent the reach of their grasp in the world.
• We have also included a system so Operatives (your players!) can create their own conspiracy, nursing it throughout a campaign by investigation, to present to the Referee - who will be able to create a brand new mission (or more) to determine whether they were absolutely right... or complete crackpots.

We have been running a Developer's Diary on our forums for a while, but Planet Mongoose will be showcasing the results of development over the next few months. We will be diving into individual rules and showing you how the Traveller core system has been adapted for modern-day horror.