OSR Commentary - Dark Conspiracy & The Origins of the Malmori Empire in The Talon Sector Campaign For The Cepheus Engine Rpg

 Gotta love gamers, since yesterday their have been numerous folks now jumping on the Dark Conspiracy train. Well today we're gonna talk about the origin of the Malmori Empire within my modified Hostile/Cepheus Engine rpg  campaign. The campaign's version of the Malmori empire was born out of several  books Hostile's Crew Expendible, Synethtics, Darktek, More G3G book, & These Stars Are Ours campaign setting book. The Malmori Empire is a race of space pirates under the control of the warlord Sador. They've been the 'big bad' since the campaign's inception but actually their a red herring in every sense of the word. 

When the Reticulan empire fell their humanoid clone worker race was left to its own devices but they were completely purposeless. Their Gray masters had left them many of their own devices but the ancient  Malmori were vulnerable to the whispers of far darker voices from between the stars. So they took up to the stars again mining & generally behaving in the fashion that they had under their master's yoke. The Malmori were cloned from ancient peoples of Earth eons ago taken in one of the many Reticulan raids on Earth. 
Soon came mankind spinning out among the stars with planetary colonies & taking control of many of the Malmori mining terroritories. Shades of the 'Pirates of the Ancient Mediterranean' ; "the decline of the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BCE and ended when Pompey the Great (l. c. 106-48 BCE) defeated the Cilician pirates at the Battle of Coracesium in 67 BCE when, actually, Egyptian records substantiate piratical activities in the Mediterranean centuries earlier and Roman accounts report its continuance for centuries afterwards. " Many of the alien species encountered were actually mankind genetically modified by the Reticulans. The Malmori were an early attempt & were perhaps made with a modified genetic flaw. Their organs & body parts would break down after the 20 year mark. 

A Malmori warrior whose battle/medical suit keeps him intact against the hostil effects of a planetary atmosphere. 

The warlord Sador was a part of the elite cast & could live up to two hundred years with organ & limb replacement. The Malmori were made using the rules & guidelines found in Zozer Games Synethtics book. But these clone armies are flawed because the clones were force grown using the cloners found in the Darktek book.

 This particular band of Reticulans had fallen under the sway of dark forces & so too were the Malmori. Since the advent of the psionic storms they have had no further contact with humanity. But they retained many of the star ships left by their Reticulan masters. This included several stellar converters used for harvesting the cores of planets or converting stars into highly unstable radioactives for processing.

 

 Only recently have several Habringer cargo carriers  started to go missing along the border with the Human Empire have the corporations noticed the return of the Malmori empire. Patterns indicate that there may far more going on here as entire crews have been missing or harvested depending upon the rumors. The Reticulan empire is particuarly silent upon the mattter for moment. Weaponry & tactics of the Malmori  come straight out of the More G3G book. While some of the technologies of the Malmori themselves are left over Darktek equipment used by their twisted Reticulan empire former masters. TSAO: 50 Wonders of the Reticulan Empire  represents another branch of the Reticulans who have not fallen under the thrall or yoke of the dark masters of the far darker Greys.  Star Law is only coming under the suspision that the Malmori are becoming a problem once again. What's really been helpful here is Piracy and Privateering in fleshing out aspects of the Malmori Empire. Are the Malmori victims of circumstance or have they become tools for something far more dangerous?! 

 

Commentary on The Darktek book for Dark Conspiracy rpg & Its Uses In Cepheus Engine Rpg campaigns

"Behind the shadows of our world, the Dark Ones lurk, plotting humanity's ruin. Their Dark Minions stalk us, armed with horrific devices, the products strange and hideous sciences. Human agents capture what they can, hoping for weapons that will aid them in their fight. And in some secret strongholds, individual ETs who have escaped the darkness labor side by side with human scientists, creating items to hold the Dark Ones off.

Meanwhile the megacorporate sector pursues technologies that pander to the wealthy. For many, HiTek is the truest symbol of high status. Worn like a coat of arms, it distinguishes the movers and shakers from the increasingly disenfranchised hordes of 'commoners' below.

In this volume, you will find items ranging from the gruesome biologic weapons of the Dark Minions, to the futuristic constructs of the ETs, to the most advanced in human technology. But all belong to the world of Dark Conspiracy, a world that is itself ever more a product of DarkTek. "

Darktek is a missed opportunity in the Dark Conspiracy rpg. A raging hole in the Dark Conspiracy rpg line of books. And on & on & on go the reviews of  the Darktek  book published in 1991 by Games Designers Workshop  that have cropped up over the years. This is true of of this  review  from Marcus Bone.  Which none of the Drivethrurpg Dark Tek reviews seem to agree with at all. Why?! Because of the fact that oh sure there's the usual  rpg equipment geek stuff like weapons, melee weapons, camping equipment, etc.. But Dark Tek  also has  a ton of retro technology that seems to be more in place of some alternative Thirties or Nineties  style sci fi Earth. So in other words Darktek fits  the world of  Dark Conspiracy itself.  But what does Darktek have to do with Cepheus Engine?! Quite a bit actually. 

The real difference between most equipment books & Darktek? Is the fact that Darktek is orient not only towards the PC's but mostly towards the dark forces & their minions. And their occultech style technologies have a high cost factor  indeed to the PC's humanity as well as their sanity. For Cepheus Engine Darktek is a perfectly designed PC/enemy book in one. Why?! Well because Bagagge Books Empire of Time offers alternative time period settings where Darktek could be very useful indeed.
"It’s been 20 years since time travel was invented and the here-and-now, the good old 21st century, is in the middle of a revolution. You switched your major in university because of it and it’s paid off: you’re heading up-time, on a mission to the Chovu Imoi, an intelligent species that won’t even evolve for another 600 million years. It’ll be three weeks’ journey on the old model Hyundai time ship the expedition has bought second-hand from the University of Victoria, but you’ve tried to pack light. " 


Want to find out who & what are really in control of a vast empire of alternative time periods?! Empire of Time is a perfect fit for this coupled with Darktek. Here you can have agents of time putting the hurt on the dark minions across space & time. 

The reason for this is very simple, Charles E. Gannon the author of Darktek was very active in the fandom of Traveller 2300 AD and in fact is a contributor to Stygian Fox's Colonial Times fanzine. 

And so the reader of Darktek who happens to be an old school Traveller rpg player recognizes the vac suits. The full on space equipment and much more this opens up all kinds of possibilities for gaming on alternative timelines & Earths. 
And it also means that the forces of darkness have also been busy exploiting these alternative historical time lines. This is just the sort of weirdness that would see in Michael Brown's Among The Stars Silent Screaming .. 

For the Hostile Rpg Darktek offers some very strong possibilities as an alternative equipment book for the bad guys. Imagine your marines facing down colonial terrorists armed with ancient occult pact technologies that can offer a real challenge to the party. Or a Zaibatsu gang armed by an ancient Oni ready to take down a whole corporation. The possibilities are endless. 

Is Darktek completely perfect? Hell no. But it does suit my purposes for my current Cepheus Engine rpg campaign that's ongoing.