Spycrafting Delta Green

[TheAuldGrump]

Hmmm, looks like I managed to post just before the big changeover....

I am running the first 'real session' of the campaign tomorrow. (Real as in 'the players get to do stuff rather than introduce their characters, get background, listen to some guy doing the Intell phase and then picking gear....)

The first mission is the one that introduces the team to Delta Green, and is dubbed 'Cold Drop'.

The characters are an independent strike team, allied with, but not part of, the DEA. A large drug cartel is known to be operating out of a set of ruins in Papua New Guinea. The operation is technically illegal - the U.S. has not declared war on Papua, nor is the government hostile to that of the U.S.. The characters have been informed that the Papuan government knows of the mission, and is turning a blind eye.

However, to maintain deniability, once the team is in the field they will not have communication with the Agency except for pick-up or extraction. All gear picks were chosen ahead of time, none could be held in reserve.

The ruins are built around a pair of open courtyards and are anomalous in nature - sharing elements of MezoAmerican design rather than Indonesian. Several entrances to an underground area or areas can be seen in recon photos.

The courtyards have been cleared to act as landing areas for helicopters - a small airstrip is just to the east of the ruins, but has not seen much use yet.

The government of Papua lists the ruins as being under study by an American university, but the study team has been delayed for several years by various people within the Papuan government. (Any guesses as to the name of the hallowed halls of learning that wishes to study these anomalous ruins? )

The team will be dropped seven miles South South-East of the ruins.

Mission objectives -
1. Extract the leader of the Cartel.
2. Damage or destroy any helicopters present.
3. Damage, Destroy, or Mine the airstrip - explosive devices have been provided for this purpose.
4. Kill or injure as many other members of the cartel as possible.
5. Cause as much secondary damage as possible, but avoid damaging the ruins in the process (yeah, right...).

The team is about to find out how far off their Intell was, and it will get uglier from there. Soon we will know if the team will join up with Delta Green, or be treated as 'Friendlies'.

The Auld Grump

[Scarecrow]

Forgive my ignorance, but what exactly is Delta Green?

Is it a military/Cthulu type game?  Or more a Military/Xfiles type thing?

[TheAuldGrump]

Forgive my ignorance, but what exactly is Delta Green?

Is it a military/Cthuhlu type game?  Or more a Military/Xfiles type thing?

More Military/Cthulhu, but either description fits pretty well. The Greys are constructs created by the MiGo (Fungi from Yoggoth). The PCs belong (or in this case will eventually belong) to an organization called Delta Green. Once upon a time DG was a legitimate agency of the U.S. Government, but those days have been gone since the 1970s. But DG has not come in from the cold, and exists as a conspiracy within the government, borrowing people and materials from other, still legitimate, agencies.

These are people who, during the Vietnam War, were willing to carpet bomb Tcho Tcho villages. Ready, willing, and able to send strike teams into areas suspected of Mythos or Alien activity. (A big chunk of why they are no longer a legitimate agency.

And of course they are not the only conspiracy dealing with the Greys, some agencies are quite willing to make 'compromises' in return for technology and other considerations....

More on Delta Green can be found here.

The Auld Grump

[Scarecrow]

what type of home brew/house rules will you be using to run this game.  Looks like it could be a bit of fun to run.

would it be easy to run this sytle of game without the background knowledge?

[TheAuldGrump]

what type of home brew/house rules will you be using to run this game.  Looks like it could be a bit of fun to run.

would it be easy to run this sytle of game without the background knowledge?

Hmmm, house rules - the only two major ones are spellcasting (lifted from D20 Call of Cthulhu, replacing San loss with Stress damage) and some primitive Sanity rules (When you go over a Stress damage threshold you gain a point of insanity. The player can decide to trade in Insanity for an affliction, but has to dump all of the Insanity points in one go - so the longer the player waits the worse the Affliction. 1 Insanity point is a minor phobia - seeing the target of your phobia inflicts Stress damage. 2 Insanity points for a major phobia  - take Stress damage, and make a Will save or lose an action. Three is either a crippling phobia - take Stress damage, lose one action, make a Will save to act at all, or a minor delusion. (Such fun things as paranoia, mania, etc.) It scales up from there, with the upper reaches being, at this time, 'The Control Makes Something Up'.

This houserule is only supposed to last until Crafty comes out with the official 'Table of *SPROING!*' (I am waiting for this one with considerable eagerness....)

They got on site on Saturday, got lost for a while (one player not believing that he made the roll, so setting off in the wrong direction....  He had made the roll... I set it fairly low so they could make it to the action.) They have just discovered two of the cartel members tied up and shot (dead). A third apparently ate a bullet after shooting his buddies.

It looks like the PCs aren't the only ones after these guys....

The Auld Grump

[Antilles]

(I am waiting for this one with considerable eagerness....)

Heh, me too. Partly because I can point at it and say "I kinda sorta helped make that." But mostly because I've played the Call of Cthulhu PC game and I really want to try something like that one day...

SPOILER:There are varying degrees of insanity, with corresponding effects. If you trigger the most severe effect (and this takes some doing, like staring at a big bad for a while) while holding a gun, you'll commit suicide . The first time it happened I went "Whoa! " Fun game .

[Crafty_Alex]

Believe me, I'm not holding out on Sprong to spite you guys More pressing issues (such as print books and getting this damn website done) have slowed it down, but I will be trying to finish this week. Sorry things have taken so long - we're all occassionally guilty of getting overexcited and underestimating time to completion

[TheAuldGrump]

Believe me, I'm not holding out on Sproing to spite you guys More pressing issues (such as print books and getting this damn website done) have slowed it down, but I will be trying to finish this week. Sorry things have taken so long - we're all occassionally guilty of getting overexcited and underestimating time to completion

Nah, that never happens!
(Really, I know all too well how it happens, this is why I warned you on the old site to never, ever say something will be done 'in a week or so, two on the outside' - such a statement tempts fate, and all but draws catastrophe near. Which reminds me... I wonder how the Mongoose printing facility is shaping up....)

The Auld Grump

[Crafty_Pat]

(Really, I know all too well how it happens, this is why I warned you on the old site to never, ever say something will be done 'in a week or so, two on the outside' - such a statement tempts fate, and all but draws catastrophe near. Which reminds me... I wonder how the Mongoose printing facility is shaping up....)

I've been meaning to blog about that, as I'm the one mostly dealing with it. Hopefully later today.

[Crafty_Alex]

Taking some time to bust heads on the project today (official name: Fragile Minds), and testing out some new tech I've put together. Take a look and tell me if this "walking tree avatar of a fertility god" is scary enough

Thousand Young (Standard NPC – 119 XP): Init VI; Atk IV; Def III; Resilience VIII; Damage Save: VI; Competence: IV; Skills: Notice VI, Sneak V; Wealth: None; Weapons: Squeeze (1d10+11) or Tentacle (1d6+10) or Trample (2d6+10); Gear: None; Vehicle: None; Qualities: aquatic, blindsight, camouflaged (forest, swamp), fearsome, feat (Two Hit Combo), hulking (Huge), natural attack (Caliber III squeeze, Caliber I tentacle, Caliber IV trample), superior attribute (Strength 30), tough II.

[Scarecrow]

TheAuldGrump, what are the chances of persuading u to run Delta Green on these forums as a PbP campaign?

[Mister Andersen]

Taking some time to bust heads on the project today (official name: Fragile Minds), and testing out some new tech I've put together. Take a look and tell me if this "walking tree avatar of a fertility god" is scary enough

Thousand Young (Standard NPC – 119 XP): Init VI; Atk IV; Def III; Resilience VIII; Damage Save: VI; Competence: IV; Skills: Notice VI, Sneak V; Wealth: None; Weapons: Squeeze (1d10+11) or Tentacle (1d6+10) or Trample (2d6+10); Gear: None; Vehicle: None; Qualities: aquatic, blindsight, camouflaged (forest, swamp), fearsome, feat (Two Hit Combo), hulking (Huge), natural attack (Caliber III squeeze, Caliber I tentacle, Caliber IV trample), superior attribute (Strength 30), tough II.

I'd throw in Construct & Unnerving - after all, trees really shouldn't be walking around trying to kill you.

[Crafty_Alex]

Good call, Mr. A.  I was going to upgrade fearsome to horrifying, then realized that was special NPCs only, and so added unnerving II to the mix. Got a few more NPC qualities being assembled by Morg for use in the Summoner class and we're set. Suffice to say, horror excursionists are not going to casually kill Thousand Young in a fight...standard NPC or not.

[Crafty_Pat]

I've been meaning to blog about that, as I'm the one mostly dealing with it. Hopefully later today.

Blog's up!

[Antilles]

How about people with the 'Innsmouth look', do they qualify for any of the new NPC qualities? Should they just get aquatic and be described as creepy, or do you have a 'deeply unsettling' quality or somesuch?