Most of this covered on the super secret Dark Conspiracy fans Facebook page earlier this week...
So, the conceit in the first Dark Conspiracy 'era' (The Hidden War) is that the players have all been hand-picked and recruited by a power unknown to form a cell and check out these weird things that have been happening, find out as much about them as possible, and stop them doing nasty things. While keeping everything hush-hush from the rest of the world (that bit is really important).
So, the players will tend to be sought-after specialists, in one way or another, rather than your average Charlie off the street.
The current selection of careers and their assignments looks like this:
Agent: Corporate, Government (spy or higher level law enforcement), Military (analyst)
Empath: Mystic (hippy/chancer), Military Empath, Test Subject (really not a happy past!)
Mercenary: Bodyguard, Fixer (you seen War Dogs, right?), Warfighter
Military: Frontline (all services, includes armour and support), Aircrew (not just pilots), Sailor
Scientist: Field Researcher, Laboratory Researcher, Theoretical Researcher
Technical: Computer Tech, Medical Tech, Engineer
Underworld: Bounty Hunter, Enforcer, Thief
We also have an 'appendix' career that is not part of the line up but can be used - the Prisoner. Like the Traveller you already know and love, you fall into this one via Mishaps in another career. However, they this tends to happen slightly more often in Dark Conspiracy, so entirely possible you will be working alongside an ex-con.
The first feedback we had was that, even with the premise of The Hidden War, people wanted at least the option of a 'Charlie off the street.' As a designer, I resisted this at first, as it seemed to foul the initial vision for the new game... but then I started to ponder how it could not actually work, but work well...
So, the Connections rule that we have in Traveller (whereby you roll an event in a career term, and link it to another player - so, for example, your Marine takes part in an occupation on a colony world, and that is where you met the Rogue who was at the centre of a weapons smuggling ring to the resistance) was initially removed from Dark Conspiracy. The idea here was that while the Connections rule was easy to justify between, say, Mercenary and Military characters, when you added law enforcement and scientists, it stretched credulity a bit. So, Connections were taken out.
However...
We added another 'appendix' career, which is not exactly part of the core line up, but is there to play with in the Core Rulebook - the Everyman (very much a working title). This is divided into White Collar, Blue Collar and Drifter assignments, which should have a reasonable chance of covering a wide swathe of civilian life.
Two things are being done with this career. First off, we bring the Connections rule back for the Everyman alone, and they are able to link with anyone/everyone. In this way, they become the glue (perhaps even the heart) of the group.
Second, the Mishap that throws them out of the career will be written to be their 'inciting event' that reveals the darker world to them and moves them into the (otherwise professional) group that has been recruited.
The result of this will be characters that are hideously out of their depth, but able to bring a perspective that the professionals may lack completely. Think of the equivalent of a John McClane or perhaps a Xander from Buffy. An ordinary person thrown into an extraordinary situation.
This will give players the choice to go for the hard-nosed all (or near all) military campaign, a softer X-files(ish) campaign, or a lower key campaign where all the characters are wildly out of their depth, perhaps led by one brilliant scientist who has some vague idea of what might be going on.
So, the conceit in the first Dark Conspiracy 'era' (The Hidden War) is that the players have all been hand-picked and recruited by a power unknown to form a cell and check out these weird things that have been happening, find out as much about them as possible, and stop them doing nasty things. While keeping everything hush-hush from the rest of the world (that bit is really important).
So, the players will tend to be sought-after specialists, in one way or another, rather than your average Charlie off the street.
The current selection of careers and their assignments looks like this:
Agent: Corporate, Government (spy or higher level law enforcement), Military (analyst)
Empath: Mystic (hippy/chancer), Military Empath, Test Subject (really not a happy past!)
Mercenary: Bodyguard, Fixer (you seen War Dogs, right?), Warfighter
Military: Frontline (all services, includes armour and support), Aircrew (not just pilots), Sailor
Scientist: Field Researcher, Laboratory Researcher, Theoretical Researcher
Technical: Computer Tech, Medical Tech, Engineer
Underworld: Bounty Hunter, Enforcer, Thief
We also have an 'appendix' career that is not part of the line up but can be used - the Prisoner. Like the Traveller you already know and love, you fall into this one via Mishaps in another career. However, they this tends to happen slightly more often in Dark Conspiracy, so entirely possible you will be working alongside an ex-con.
The first feedback we had was that, even with the premise of The Hidden War, people wanted at least the option of a 'Charlie off the street.' As a designer, I resisted this at first, as it seemed to foul the initial vision for the new game... but then I started to ponder how it could not actually work, but work well...
So, the Connections rule that we have in Traveller (whereby you roll an event in a career term, and link it to another player - so, for example, your Marine takes part in an occupation on a colony world, and that is where you met the Rogue who was at the centre of a weapons smuggling ring to the resistance) was initially removed from Dark Conspiracy. The idea here was that while the Connections rule was easy to justify between, say, Mercenary and Military characters, when you added law enforcement and scientists, it stretched credulity a bit. So, Connections were taken out.
However...
We added another 'appendix' career, which is not exactly part of the core line up, but is there to play with in the Core Rulebook - the Everyman (very much a working title). This is divided into White Collar, Blue Collar and Drifter assignments, which should have a reasonable chance of covering a wide swathe of civilian life.
Two things are being done with this career. First off, we bring the Connections rule back for the Everyman alone, and they are able to link with anyone/everyone. In this way, they become the glue (perhaps even the heart) of the group.
Second, the Mishap that throws them out of the career will be written to be their 'inciting event' that reveals the darker world to them and moves them into the (otherwise professional) group that has been recruited.
The result of this will be characters that are hideously out of their depth, but able to bring a perspective that the professionals may lack completely. Think of the equivalent of a John McClane or perhaps a Xander from Buffy. An ordinary person thrown into an extraordinary situation.
This will give players the choice to go for the hard-nosed all (or near all) military campaign, a softer X-files(ish) campaign, or a lower key campaign where all the characters are wildly out of their depth, perhaps led by one brilliant scientist who has some vague idea of what might be going on.
