History
Dark Conspiracy was originally developed and printed by GDW in 1991. It was designed by Lester Smith, and illustrated by several artists including Larry Elmore who did the cover, and Tim Bradstreet. When GDW closed down in 1995, the rights passed to Dark Conspiracy Enterprises, who remain the current owners. In 1998 the game was licensed and re-released by Dynasty Presentations (DPI) as a 2nd Edition. The Gamers' Conglomerate 3rd Edition, announced in 2006, has not been released. The first proper release for third edition is Conspiracy Rules, issued as a PDF in mid-December 2012. Issued through Kinstaff Media's imprint 3 Hombres Games, the third edition material is commonly referred to collectively as Dark Conspiracy III or just DCIII.
The first edition was published in a single 366 page rule book, in a soft cover, standard size volume. 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. DPI released two versions of each book, a Basic Edition and a Masters Edition. An upgraded version, known as 'DC 2.5' was developed by DPI but never released.
The first edition had numerous expansion volumes, e.g. Empathic Sourcebook, Dark Races I, Protodimensions, PC Booster Kit, and Darktek, as well as several modules, three novels, and a boardgame. The first edition was also well-supported in GDW's own gaming magazine 'Challenge', and occasionally in several other gaming publications such as Dragon (magazine).
The second edition combined all of the information in the expansion volumes with the information in the main book and sorted it into the two books.
The third edition rulebook Conspiracy Rules was released in December 2012 as a PDF-only download. This 298 page publication is in effect the core ruleset. A second book detailing the game world will be entitled Conspiracy Lives. Other all-new adventure and sourcebook material will be forthcoming throughout 2013.
The entire back catalogue of both first and second edition materials are being sold in PDF format through DriveThruRPG, as with GDW's other work. Far Future Enterprises, who are selling the products through DriveThruRPG have also compiled two CD-ROM collections, which include the previously unseen DC 2.5 as well as a short promotional video for first edition which was thought to have been completely lost until a VHS copy surfaced in 2008. The video takes the form of a low-budget horror movie trailer of the type often seen in the 1980s.
3Hombres Games material is also available via DriveThru RPG. The first three products from 3Hombres are short adventures designed for use with the older editions.
The fan community (more specifically Marcus Bone, Mike Marchi and Geoff Skellams) were also responsible for the freely downloadable magazine Demonground, which was solely a Dark Conspiracy related publication for its first few issues. It later expanded to cover other role-playing games of a similar nature to Dark Conspiracy. The last issue was released in 2002. The free PDF fanzine Protodimension, first published in 2010, is based on similar principles. Protodimension is edited and published by the members of 3Hombres Games.
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