Spycrafting Delta Green

[TheAuldGrump]

Woohooo! Delta Green: Eyes Only has shipped!

A reprint of the chapbooks that I missed when they came out. My copy should be here sometime next week.

The Auld Grump

[Crafty_Pat]

Yeah, I just got my notice as well. Huzzah!

[Crafty_Alex]

WTF...I paid the day it came out and no notice for me... 

[Leeking208]

I recently discovered my shipping confirmation in my spam folder so you might want to check there. The Delta Green Mailing List tells the harrowing tale of a small clearing house (ARC Dreams) attempting to ship several hundreds of simultaneous orders. So don't worry too much if you still haven't gotten it.

[Crafty_Pat]

I had to retrieve mine from my spam folder as well.

[TheAuldGrump]

Ditto.

It was pure chance that I saw it before Yahoo deleted it.

The Auld Grump

[TheAuldGrump]

And in regards to the lethality of my last session - my players agree that they had not allowed for how deadly the Qualities were, but they also felt that I spent my Action Dice more aggressively - rather than using them to cue events I was using them to increase damage (both Lethal and Stress) and to increase to hit rolls. They pointed out that I had not had a gun battle in the SteamCraft game in three months. The players who had been in my X-Com game on the other hand said that I was about par with how I handled that scenario. The Wargamer went in expecting to take casualties, and set himself up to be one - and maybe survive. Being able to take and reduce damage was what his character was all about. Even though he ended up on the Table of Ouch he was pretty happy with the way things went. (He will be running his game for a few sessions after Christmas - I will get to play instead of run again for a while!)

Mind you, the characters in the SteamCraft game are much more investigative than combative - More Scooby Doo and Peter Whimsey than G. I. Joe and Bulldog Drummond.  I ran the scenarios around what the characters could accomplish, and what would be fun. In all honesty - the current SteamCraft game is a bit of harmless fluff, not what I would consider a serious game at all. Fun, not gritty. When last we left them they were dealing with politics and a romantic Subplot. If I ran a combat heavy game they would end up as worm food.

So, the net result is that the Campaign Qualities stay where they are right now, and the players will adjust their tactics.

The Auld Grump

*EDIT* This came up following a Team Fortress game - the Spycraft players toasted both me and my D&D players. At least I got to kill their Heavy Weapons Guy. A lot. On the other hand their Scout and Spy took out my Sniper over, and over, and over....

[TheAuldGrump]

Worst lines at the Team Fortress game, in reference to the Delta Green campaign -
Player 1: If the Victorian game is SteamCraft is this LoveCraft?
Player 2: Sounds like a sex manual....

The Auld Grump

[TheAuldGrump]

Picked up my copy of Eyes Only at the post office on my way to the game for tonight. Information on the Fate, the Mi-Go and some scenarios. But one thing I was completely wrong about - the Philadelphia Experiment is indeed around in the DG universe. It appears under the title Project Rainbow in Eyes Only.



I am going to have to go over Paradigm's version to see how much I can use out of Conspiracies. The DG version involves time travel, which is something that I prefer to avoid.

A few more weeks of the DG game, a few of getting to play for a change, and then I wrap up the current SteamCraft campaign, at least in theory. The action  in the SteamCraft game is picking up several years after the end of the last scenario - at least one character is increasing an age category.

I also have to give some thought as to handling Green Boxes, pre selected drop off points for gear picks that also act as storage for random things left from previous missions. I am giving some thought as to some scenarios where they are fairly central. (Like finding the mummified corpses of the last team to use that particular Green Box.

I am thinking that a short haul trailer would make a good Box - they often get rented hundreds of times before making their way back to their home - new users are informed where the last user left it. One or two fall off of the rolls as time passes. Leave it off in the back forty of someone's land so no one notices the peculiar odor that is there for the better part of a summer....

The Auld Grump

[Krensky]

I think you'll like their take on it.  Phase Agents are just what you need to give the players night terrors.

[TheAuldGrump]

Hmmm, they were a lot more cautious at tonight's game. Enough so that not much was accomplished. Oddly, the player who's character took the most Lethal damage (and rolled on the Table of Ouch as a consequence) was also one of the players who thought that too much time was being spent planning rather than doing. He tends to be a bit goal oriented.

My plans for this mission are actually fairly innocuous - something to put a victory under their belts before they face off something a bit more dangerous. Yig ain't a bad guy, as gods of the Mythos go.... For my purpses I have determined that he is native to this planet, and, as has been shown in several published adventures, is actually a force against the Fun Guys from Yuggoth.

Would you believe a Christian Snake-Handling cult that also has ties to Yig? Without being out and out bad guys?

The team is investigating the cult, which in turn is moving against the Mi-Go on Yonder Mountain - the team may well end up on the side of the cultists in this one.

There is also a lone 'wizard' up on that mountain who follows Yogsothoth. The team may or may not ever meet up with him. But everyone on the mountain knows about him, and stays away.... He does not have any plans for world destruction, or of controlling the world, he is after something... completely different.

The Auld Grump

[Mister Andersen]

Man, I need to get back to my Mythos inspired retelling of the MotU.

[TheAuldGrump]

Well, the team has joined up with the Yig cultists, and are planning a daring attempt to rescue one of them  from the MiGo - a woman who is pregnant, and is nearing the time when she gives birth to the Son of Yig....

While the event is likely to send some rolling on the Table of Sproing it is actually innocuous, next session they will have an opportunity to see Yig in the form of the Bird Snake (Quetzalcoatl ) - he is not, in this instance, a villainous creature, he wants to rescue his bride and child. While the cultists may consider themselves Christian, Yig does not. I am drawing parallels between Quetzalcoatl, Yig, and Christianity - the reborn king aspect. 

An odd case where stopping the summoning of one of the Great Old Ones is not something to be stopped.

The Serpent People on the other hand want both Bride and Child for themselves, hoping to thus gane more favor with their one time deity. So there is a three way battle in the offing. While the Serpent People were of his creation his current interests lie only in his Bride and Child, whether it is the team or the Serpent People who effect their rescue or kidnapping is immaterial, as long as they are not being used by the MiGo for whatever skulduggery they are currently up to. (Actually, I know what they are up to, but think it unlikely that they will succeed....)

The Auld Grump

[TheAuldGrump]

WTF...I paid the day it came out and no notice for me... 

Did you get your copy? I have had mine for some time now.

The Auld Grump

[TheAuldGrump]

Well, two things happened at this week's Delta Green game - one good, one bad.

Good - My players used a recon drone for the first time, to scout a facility that they believed was in use to distribute 'Mother's Milk' enhanced steroids (they were right). Good gravy it made a big difference! I even had a mini for it, from RAFM. It was the first time that the players have done much with Gadget picks, they gave it some chameleon ability and silenced it.

Bad - The binding on my 2nd Printing rulebook gave way, and not in either of the places I expected. The backing of the pages split right down between two pages, and that was all she wrote - several more pages came fluttering out along the break. This was not the result of abuse, but during regular use.

The Auld Grump