Dark Conspiracy Post 3 Hombres

[swaghauler]

Has anyone heard how the development of Dark Conspiracy is going since 3 Hombres closed up shop? I think it would be cool if DC (and Merc2000) was added to the general forum. I know this forum group could really appreciate the occasional venture into the horror genre.

The only issue I see is I heard that whoever bought it might convert it to a FATE type RPG. I also would have deviated from the more "cartoonish" or "comics oriented" original history to a more common modern setting with a darker twist. No commonly known demon ground or anomalies, but more like CoC or the Dresden Files where evil hides among the ordinary people in a very mundane world. One where killing that vampire could result in murder charges and you cannot stroll around with belt-fed automatic weapons.

[Vespers War]

The crowdfunding campaign for 4th edition went live yesterday. It's supposed to be a "streamlined" version of the original rules, with more attention paid to areas outside the United States (which makes sense, as the company doing 4E is German). My only complaint is that by going full-color and hardcover it's become quite an expensive game.

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by swaghauler

No commonly known demon ground or anomalies, but more like CoC or the Dresden Files where evil hides among the ordinary people in a very mundane world.

I actually run it more that way already. With the corporate stranglehold on the media, extremely limited and somewhat dangerous travel, and a bunch of other similar reasons, the average person isn't likely to know what's going on over the other side of town, let alone in the next county, state, etc.
Much of what the average person is exposed to can be explained away as pollution, mutations caused by said pollution, and garden variety terrorism/insanity.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

3 Hombres had the licence for a specific period of time, once it expired the main person behind 3 Hombres decided not to renew the licence (for a few reasons).

The 4th edition is viewed by the developers as a streamlined version updated to suit the modern audience. It is felt that the modern audience does not respond to the horror tropes of the 1980s-1990s in the manner that would give the new edition a fair chance of success. Therefore a number of things have changed such as the creatures you would encounter, character generation and so on but players familiar with earlier editions will still recognize many of the core rules concepts.

The kickstarter page has a decent rundown of the new edition. It's worth noting that Berlin is a major part of the expansion of the game setting (as indicated by the kickstarter page).

As an aside, the developers made no quick decisions in regards to what rules system to use and chose to update the D20 version of the game so that it was still attractive to fans of the earlier editions plus allow the conversion of earlier material to the new edition.
If you want more information, it is worth your time to check in at one of the strongest Dark Conspiracy forums still kicking,
http://www.darkconspiracytherpg.info/forums/index.php

[Morthrai]

Hi folks, sorry I haven't been checking in here for too long. Dark Conspiracy 4e is currently 81% funded after 4 days, which is respectable for a revival of what even a die hard fan like me admits was always something of a niche game

Given that this project is from a respected publisher who have previously worked on new versions of former GDW properties (Space:1889) I am quietly confident of success, especially with the updating and streamlining of the ruleset. If you're interested there's a video on YooChoob with the three main guys discussing the project at a recent convention.

Cheers all!

[Morthrai]

Dark Conspiracy also has a solid presence on Facebook, so if any of you are on there the fan group (of which I am an Admin) can be found here.

Clockwork Publishing's official FB page for the line is here.

Cheers!

[.45cultist]

Man, I hope It will keep open til next week(payday)!

[StainlessSteelCynic]

I believe the crowdfunder ends on 8th of May so you still have a good amount of time yet

[StainlessSteelCynic]

As one of the people who was writing for the 4th edition of Dark Conspiracy it give me no pleasure what-so-ever to announce that the company behind the new edition has filed for bankruptcy.
Uhrwerk Verlag/Clockwork Publishing has, as of 4th June, 2019, filed for bankruptcy so the future of some of their projects is at the moment unknown.

Press release in German followed by Google Translate version in English
https://www.uhrwerk-verlag.de/uhrwer...lvenz-bekannt/
https://translate.google.com/transla...enz-bekannt%2F

[Legbreaker]

Well, bugger.

[swaghauler]

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

As one of the people who was writing for the 4th edition of Dark Conspiracy it give me no pleasure what-so-ever to announce that the company behind the new edition has filed for bankruptcy.
Uhrwerk Verlag/Clockwork Publishing has, as of 4th June, 2019, filed for bankruptcy so the future of some of their projects is at the moment unknown.

Press release in German followed by Google Translate version in English
https://www.uhrwerk-verlag.de/uhrwer...lvenz-bekannt/
https://translate.google.com/transla...enz-bekannt%2F

That's a shame.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

This is the latest news posted on the crowdfunding page for DC 4th.

"bad news
[06/04/2019 12:43]

Today, we have to share an update with you, that is very hard and painful for us.

A couple of days ago, we – Clockwork Publishing/Uhrwerk Verlag – filed for insolvency.

Although the events that lead to this weren’t foreseeable altogether and hit us by surprise, we do have several options on how to proceed now. Nevertheless, we have to cope with the likely fact, that we might have to decide to close down our company in its current form until the end of the year.

Since the insolvency isn't opened for about 2-4 month from now, we won't be able to properly work on the Dark Conspiracy project as we have planned.

Besides the text for the main rulebook and the quickstarter, the texts aren’t finished yet. For legal reasons we do have to cancel all exterior assignments for texts until we are given the green light from our insolvency administrator. And of course we have to speak to our licensor and other partners on what they wish us to do. Until that is done we can’t make any binding statements. Our main priorities from our side are to still get the project done or to roll it back in a timely manner.

We will of course keep you informed every step of the way and hope for your patience. This is a very difficult time for our company, far extending the topic of this crowdfunding alone. We will give you more specific details as time goes on. Had we know beforehand what happened three weeks ago to the company, we wouldn’t have started the project in the first place.

Please accept our sincere apology for now, since this is all we can tell you in this update.

We will however be present here to answer questions to the best of our knowledge."

[Legbreaker]

I for one am quite interested to know what happened three weeks ago. Chances are we're not going to get to know, at least not in the short term.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

I don't know, those of us working on DC 4th had an online workspace and naturally all the talk was about DC and so on. We never really discussed things happening to the company so it's info we didn't get access to. If I do hear anything (and presuming I'm allowed to discuss it), I'll pass it along.