TEXT: [Conspiracy]
  This is a GM-less story game about conspiracy thrillers. It can
  be played by 1-5 players and it uses a deck of standard poker
  cards.
  What you need to play
  To play this game you need between one and five players, including yourself. You could in theory 
  play with more, but people might not get the chance to participate enough if you play with more 
  than five. You will also need a standard poker card deck without jokers and, although not necessary,
  a pencil and a printed copy of the story sheet (see at the end) will be useful.
  Please consider using the X-Card, lines and veils, script change, or whichever other safety tool you 
  know and works for your group.
  Preparing a game
  Shuffle the deck of cards. Decide if you want to start by defining one facet of the conspiracy, or the 
  player characters. If the former, you will start with the “Seed of conflict” scene, then do the 
  “Inciting incident” scene. If the latter, you will start with the “Inciting incident” scene, then do the 
  “Seed of conflict” scene. After the first two scenes, the rest are always the same, in the same order.
  Structure of the game
  A story told with Conspiracy will consist of ten scenes. Each scene has a name and a purpose, and 
  some of them will require you to draw a card. Players will take turns to tell and resolve each scene 
  (thus becoming the active player for that scene), although all players are expected to participate and
  contribute. As you play out more scenes, you will slowly uncover the conspiracy. The conspiracy 
  has six facets, and by the end of the story you will have decided all six. There are five types of 
  endings, each better than the last, and depending on your luck you will get a different type of 
  ending.
  Defining the protagonists
  In the “Inciting incident” scene, ie. one of the two first scenes in the story, you will have to define 
  who the protagonists are. There should be one protagonist for every player. Each protagonist is 
  defined by a name, a description (say, one adjective for its physical appearance and one for its 
  personality, but feel free to elaborate more if you have a clear picture), and its wants and fears.
  The wants and fears can help make the character morally ambiguous, bring conflicts with other 
  protagonists, and give you ideas to how they can get in trouble when uncovering the conspiracy. 
  Many possibilities could be seen as both want and fear, so don’t worry about the difference. Try to 
  come up with two for each character, but one is fine. Examples: committed a crime that they never 
  went to jail for (wants closure/to be forgiven); values his family and friends’ well-being over any 
  other person’s life (fears anything bad will happen to close ones); secretly hates another protagonist 
  and doesn’t want them to end up better off (fears “losing” to this character); is addicted to 
  
  something expensive (fear of running out of the substance); has a condition that could come up 
  again at any moment (wants reassurance things are going to be fine), has a phobia or a trauma (fear 
  for well-being), wants to show achievements to peers or family (wants acceptance or respect), etc.
  Facets of the conspiracy
  A conspiracy in this game is defined by six facets. These facets will be discovered throughout the 
  game, so they will be as surprising for the protagonists as for the players. The facets are:
  1. Who the conspirators are. A group of scientists, a group of a certain ethnicity, aliens, …
  2. Name. The name of the conspiring group.
  3. Structure. Secret society, rogue section of a well-known organisation, etc…
  4. Goal. To kill a certain group of people, to obtain power, to survive a catastrophe, …
  5. Methods. Murder, cover-up, starting wars, illegal activities, …
  6. The Head. The person who heads the conspiracy. Are they analytical? Manipulative? 
  Charming? Sophisticated? Sharply dressed? Physically intimidating? Violent? Do their 
  personal goals completely align with the conspiracy’s?
  Scenes that uncover a facet of the conspiracy
  Some scenes will uncover a facet of the conspiracy. This means that all players have to agree and 
  decide the contents of the facet specified by the scene. Sometimes you will be able to choose a facet
  from several, but in any case remember that you cannot uncover the same facet more than once (so 
  that, by the end of the game, you will have discovered all six). Normally, the characters will also 
  find out about the facet in that same scene, but it’s not necessary, eg. the players could decide that a 
  complication means that the characters cannot make sense of it yet.
  When a scene both uncovers a facet and has challenges, uncover the facet first.
  Scenes with challenges
  Scenes with challenges are scenes that can end up with a full success, partial success (success plus a
  complication), or failure (a complication). Before you solve such a scene, you draw a card. If the 
  card is a J, Q, or K, it’s a full success. If the card is 6 to 10, it’s a partial success. If the card is 2 to 5,
  it’s a failure. If the card is an ace, and (1) there is no mole in the story and (2) there are at least two 
  players, that means that the active player’s character becomes the mole, ie. an antagonist that 
  pretends to be on the side of the protagonists. It’s not necessary that the other characters are aware 
  of that fact, it could be that only the players are aware of it for now. If there is already a mole in the 
  story, an ace becomes a regular failure.
  In this context, “success” means that the protagonists get what they wanted. See each scene for 
  ideas. And “complications” are something that makes the fight against the conspirators harder, 
  something that goes wrong in the plan (like reading some documents but not being able to keep 
  them), or something that raises the stakes in some way.
  A full success gives two victory points, and a partial success gives one victory point. Keep track of 
  these, because you will need them for the epilogue.
  
  Playing out scenes
  For each scene, the active player will choose the general idea or type for the scene. If the scene 
  uncovers a facet of the conspiracy, its contents are decided together with the idea for the scene. 
  There are a number of prompts and ideas in the story sheet, for inspiration, but you don’t have to 
  use them.
  Once the scene idea is chosen (eg. “We are going to talk to Z, the mysterious informant that 
  contacted us in the last scene, to learn about where the conspirators meet”), the active player will 
  decide the location and which characters are in it. Every player will play their own character in the 
  scene. By default, the active player will also play every other non-protagonist character. If a card 
  has to be drawn, it is drawn now, before starting the scene proper. The result of the card will decide 
  whether the protagonists got what they wanted, and if there are any complications.
  Now the scene is played out, with the active player deciding what happens, and the other players 
  reacting to it. In investigation scenes, a failure usually means that the protagonists cannot obtain the 
  clue, or that they do but they cannot make sense of it. But do whatever makes sense and is 
  interesting for your story. Try to remember all the unused clues for later scenes, in which you might 
  be able to use those clues as foreshadowing for whatever you come up with later.
  Scene breakdown
  There are always ten scenes in a game of Conspiracy. They are always in the same order, except that
  the first two can be swapped (see “Preparing a game” above). Some of these scenes uncover a facet 
  of the conspiracy (those are marked with a puzzle piece), some of them have challenges (those are 
  marked  with a card), and some have both.
  Seed of conflict 
  This happens months, maybe years before the rest of the story, and sets up the conspiracy, 
  uncovering the first facet.
  Facets you can uncover in this scene: Who the conspirators are, Goal.
  Inciting incident 
  The protagonists catch a glimpse of the conspiracy and are made aware that there’s something 
  strange that sparks their curiosity. In these scenes, the protagonists are defined and presented.
  Facet you uncover in this scene: Methods.
  First threshold 🂽
  The first opposition the protagonists find, eg. someone tells them to stop their investigation or else.
  Meaning of success: simply “lack of complication”, as there’s little to gain for the protagonists 
  here, eg. getting away from a pursuer, avoiding getting into trouble, or similar.
  Commitment
  The point of no return for the protagonists: they are too involved in the investigation and must press
  on until the end.
  
  3 x Investigation 
  🂽
  The investigation moments in which the protagonists learn and discover things about the 
  conspiracy. It’s three different scenes in a row.
  Facets you can uncover in this scene: Structure, Name, The Head. You will uncover all three, one 
  per scene, in whichever order you choose.
  Meaning of success: the protagonists find a document, get to talk to someone who gives them 
  information, find a secret location, follow the money trail to a new organisation, ...
  Defeat
  The lowest point for the protagonists, when they suffer a crushing defeat in the hands of the agents 
  of the conspiracy.
  Final battle 
  🂽
  The final encounter between the protagonists and the Head of the conspiracy, where the 
  protagonists learn the last details about the conspiracy, and its decided to what extent they defeat it, 
  if at all.
  Facets you can uncover in this scene: Who the conspirators are, Goal. Whichever you didn’t 
  already choose in the Seed of conflict scene.
  Meaning of success: the protagonist’s plan works relatively well, but at this point you will already 
  know how many victory points you will have at the end, so use that as a guide for how the scene 
  should play out.
  Epilogue
  The fate of the protagonists and the fate of the conspiracy, possibly happening weeks, months, or 
  even years later. There are five possible types of endings/epilogues, depending on the number of 
  victory points gained by the group:
  1. If the group gained less than 3 victory points, the protagonists fail and they will be forced to 
  live for the rest of their lives with this failure, maybe even being forced to be part of the 
  conspiracy.
  2. If the group gained 3 points, the protagonists tragically die without being able to stop the 
  conspiracy.
  3. If the group gained 4 or 5 points, they defeat The Head of the conspiracy but don’t manage 
  to stop the conspiracy itself.
  4. If the group gained 6 points, they stop the conspiracy but The Head escapes unpunished.
  5. If the group gained 7 or more points, they defeat The Head of the conspiracy and stop the 
  conspiracy itself, but at a high cost: jail, lose marriage or job, becoming an outcast, being 
  blamed for the conspiracy.
  As you can see, there are no happy endings in this game.
  
  Colophon
  This game was designed by Esteban Manchado Velázquez for NO DICE j
   
   am
    . It uses the fonts Top 
  Secret (title), My Underwood (section headings) and Liberation Serif (text body).
  In the making of this game, these were the main resources consulted:
  •
  TV Tropes: So You Want To / Write a Conspiracy Theory
   
   
  •
  9-Act Screenplay Structure—Plotting Resource
   
   
  •
  The 5 C’s of Writing a Great Thriller Novel
   
   
  •
  10 Basic Ingredients of a Successful Thriller
   
   
  •
  Hillfolk
   
    (specifically, the list of desire choices on p. 13)
  
  [conspiracy
  The protagonists
  Challenges
  The conspiracy
  Who
  Intellectuals / Scientists / Ethnic group /
  Government / Bankers / Cultist / Aliens /
  Other  ___________________________
  Methods
  Murder / Mass destruction / Sacrifices /
  Kidnapping / Human experiments /
  Water or food tampering / Cover-up /
  Blackmail /  Starting wars /
  Other ___________________________
  Name
  ___________ Society/Clan/Fund/Club /
  Brotherhood/Order of _____________ /
  Project _________________________ /
  Other ___________________________
  Goal
  Power / Destruction of some group /
  Profit / Survival /
  Other  ___________________________
   
  The Head
  ________________________________
  ________________________________
  Structure
  Secret society / Crime confederation /
  Group of a powerful but benevolent org /
  Other ____________________________
  Scenes
  Name:  ________________
  Description: _____________________
  Wants and fears: __________________________________________
  2 victory points
  🂽
   
  🃞
  🃋
  🃂-🂵
  Complication
  🂡
  Mole /
  Comp.
  🃖-🂪
  Complication +
  1 victory point
  Seed of conflict
  Mysterious meeting / A message is received /
  Someone loses a ton of money
  Uncover one of: Who / Goal
  Inciting incident
  Someone is murdered / Someone disappears /
  Incriminating document / Mysterious note /
  Witnessing something they shouldn't have
  Uncover: Methods
  First threshold 🂭
  Men in black show up / Strange accidents /
  Character's boss receives pressure from above
  Complication prompts: Protagonist conflict /
  Evidence disappears / Eerie visit /
  People think protagonists are crazy
  Defeat
  Protagonist conflict used as blackmail /
  Protagonists beaten up and left to die /
  Protagonists framed and sent to jail /
  All evidence destroyed / Allies lost or dead
  Final battle      🂭
  Conspiracy deserter helps protagonists /
  Previous defeat gains unexpected ally /
  Bait is used against The Head
  Uncover the missing one: Who / Goal
  Complication prompts: Protagonist conflict /
  Innocent dies / Protagonist betrays principles
  Epilogue
  0-2 VP - Have to live with the
  failure, maybe as part of the conspiracy
  3 VP - Tragic death
  4-5 VP - The Head defeated, not conspiracy
  6 VP - Conspiracy defeated but responsible
  parties are free
  7+ VP - Conspiracy defeated but great cost
   
  Commitment
  Protagonist conflict / Moral reasons /
  Conspiracy threatens someone close /
  Protagonists on their own now /
  Someone saw protagonists in a crime scene
  Investigation x 3      🂭
  Meet anonymous informant / Find a document /
  Find relevant news articles / Talk to someone
  leaving the conspiracy / Find a crime scene /
  Find a key, secret place for the conspiracy /
  Tap into the conspiracy communications
  Uncover these, one per scene, in whichever
  order: Name, The Head, Structure
  Complication prompts: Protagonist conflict /
  Innocent dies / Cannot make sense of the
  new information / Info is planted red herring /
  Important weapon or contact lost /
  A trace or clue left for the Conspiracy
  Victory points:  ___________________________________________
  Challenge resolution
  Name:  ________________
  Description: _____________________
  Wants and fears: __________________________________________
  Name:  ________________
  Description: _____________________
  Wants and fears: __________________________________________
  Name:  ________________
  Description: _____________________
  Wants and fears: __________________________________________
  Name:  ________________
  Description: _____________________
  Wants and fears: __________________________________________
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Detectives & Crime/Conspiracy.pdf