Proto-Dimensions (1992) is the peak of Dark Conspiracy’s WTFness.

Kind of a manual of the planes, kind of a shot at Rifts or Torg’s explicit genre slipstreaming, kind of an esoteric mess. Actually, no, let me back up a bit. You know those weird pseudo occult books you’d come across in the 90s? Book of the Sub-Genius is sort of on that vibe. But more like the occult/conspiracy stuff that fused mysticism with fringe science, like the Ong’s Hat stuff? Proto-Dimensions has big Ong’s Hat energy.

What you get here is a metaphysical system explaining alternate dimensions and how travel between them is accomplished. That is a deceptive sentence, because it makes things seem straightforward. It isn’t. It is deeply weird and confusing. I do not understand these metaphysics at all and that is beautiful.

There are also twelve profiles of existing proto-dimensions. One of them is the lost colony of Roanoke. There’s Gothic, which is, like, an endless gothic castle. There’s the para-elemental plane of plague and a dimension that is run by killer robots that look like they were designed by Jack Kirby.

I don’t know how useful this book is. Period. Like, for Dark Conspiracy, let alone games that aren’t Dark Conspiracy. But this is the Dark Conspiracy book you should consider getting.