 |  Searching For The Truth |
As with most campaign styles, a conspiracy can shake the foundations of any game you want it to. But it works best in those settings with a strong political background, where the potential for intrigue and corruption are greatest. Here are a few games which come highly recommened for the depth and fascination of their backgrounds:
Though it borrows ideas unashamedly from a certain cult TV series, this game offers a great deal that is original and is positively bursting with scenario ideas. It's contemporary setting not only makes inspiration easy to come by - from fictional or real-life sources - but it also makes the impact of its themes more immediate and effective. As members of Aegis, a secret government department dedicated to protecting mankind from all manner of paranormal and extraterrestrial threats, players will have their hands full combatting alien Greys, Atlanteans, and Saurials, and agents of the sinister Black Book. In the world of Conspiracy X, every wild story is plausible, every nightmare is possible, and every mystery is more than it seems.
Another modern day game where terror lurks behind every shadow-wreathed corner, Don't Look Back has the advantage that it can be played in a variety of different styles from chilling horror, through complex mystery, to camp B-movie, but it is perhaps best suited to a conspiracy style of game, with the players once again taking the roles of federal agents. With its straighforward system and the flexibility of its background, DLB is perfectly suited to inexperienced as well as veteran players.
Characters struggle to defend The Empire against the machinations of chaos cultists seeking anything from war and bloodshed to promiscuity to the inevitable overthrow of society. The setting is late medieval/renaissance, one of the most engaging and well-realised fantasy worlds around, a down and dirty style of fantasy where the relative weakness of the PCs makes the threat of chaos that much more compelling. The entire Enemy Within campaign pits the characters against the chaos menace, but of particular interest to referees running conspiracy-style campaigns is Power Behind the Throne. A difficult but ultimately rewarding adventure, with a plethora of fascinating characters and an open, flexible storyline that relies heavily on the players' actions, it pits our heroes against a dangerous cultist leader firmly ensconce in a high-ranking position of power, whose scheme is already well under way.
Swashbuckling adventures in an alternate Victorian New Europa of High Magick and steampunk technology, the well thought out history cleverly interweaves historical fact and fiction, providing endless possibilities for develpoing adventures of intrigue and espionage. Ideally suited to a more James Bond/secret agent style of campaign, with players taking the role of agents of King Ludwig of Bayern, defending the small nation's interests against rival operatives of the Prussian von Bismarck, the World Crime League, Karl Marx's Anarchist Brotherhood, or the malevolent faeries of the Unseeli court.
Casts the players as teenage members of a street gang infected with a mysterious disease known as the Carbon Plague, and genetically altered as a result, on the run from ruthless corporate and governmental authorities. Orientated more towards narrative driven roleplaying than its somewhat combat dominated parent system - Cyberpunk 2020 - the concept of the little guys wronged but fighting back provides a fertile setting for a campaign based on governmental conspiracy. In a world full of secrets, information is the most precious commodity.
