Back in the 1990s and the Oughts, I loved conspiracy-based RPG settings and material. I devoured GURPS Illuminati, Delta Green, Kenneth Hite’s Suppressed Transmission columns, and so on.
But in the last decade, I’ve moved away from them. Part of it may be that I realized that how many conspiracy theories ultimately originated in antisemitic slanders. Part of it might be their mainstreaming by the resurgent fascist right and their supporters. And, of course, the great villains of our day perpetrate all their villainy in the open, rarely even bothering to hide what they are doing.
So I no longer enjoy settings where “The Conspiracy” and their schemes are the main focus of the setting. While I don’t mind having “small-c” conspiracies in a game, I don’t like it when there is a secret cabal of conspirators running everything.
How about you? Do you still enjoy Conspiracy-based setting, or have you lost your taste for them as well?
I feel the same. For me it’s even greater with occult and ancient-magic stuff like Indiana Jones or Uncharted. Loved those kind of stories but today I can’t ignore the harmful and anti-intellectual undertones (and with much of the newer stuff clearly anti-intellectual messages) of it.