 |
What follows is an archival copy of public information. Content herein is believed to be of historical interest to Delta Green fandom and should remain untouched, as a sign of respect for the original author(s). The article must be removed on request by copyright holders, if any. Please improve the wiki with living documents inspired by the ideas here. |
 |
The following material was imported from the Ice Cave. |
 |
A living document based on this material has been created at Call of Cthulhu scenarios. |
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1999 09:19:23 -0600
From: Shane Ivey
A while back we discussed the prospects of using other published scenarios in Delta Green setting, but I can't remember if we got down to business and evaluated any actual incidents. If you've used a non-DG published scenario in the Delta Green setting, how about giving your evaluation to the group?
To kick things off, I've run Delta Green with the following non-DG scenarios. Some worked better than others. Note that I ran all these as DG before the DG book had come out—all we had to go on was the Fairfield Letter and TUO #7.
The House on Stratford Lane (from TUO 3)
The Killer Out of Space (from Cthulhu Now)
Love's Lonely Children (from The Stars Are Right)
This Fire Shall Kill (from The Stars Are Right)
The Professionals (from The Stars Are Right)
"Stratford Lane" was easy enough to convert to a modern setting and to DG players; the investigators were FBI agents, so they pursued a straight kidnapping investigation, and I threw in a small team of NROD agents who were pursuing the same case from a different angle. This was before DG had been published, though, so I didn't have the role of Majestic or their relationship with the Greys & Mi-Go fully fleshed out; with that extra background it might have been a lot tighter. It was still fun as "a one night stand."
"The Killer Out of Space" just screams to be played as Delta Green. When I read it now I think, "How did we play this before Delta Green??" The scenario is terrific, too. When I first played in it, pre-DG (BDG?), it had some of the scariest moments I had experienced in Cthulhu. Go borrow or buy a copy or dig it up at an archeological site, convert Drake and his boys to a BLUE FLY team with Army support, and run it RIGHT NOW!
"Love's Lonely Children" also worked well; it makes a great one-nighter with a terrific punch, and the seedy murder-and-drugs-and-mean-streets setting fits smoothly with law enforcement-oriented DG investigators.
"This Fire Shall Kill" was another fun one-nighter; the "Oops, an investigator's house/cousin/parent/sister gets toasted by the Mythos" opening is a little tired and could be changed, but that's not too big a deal.
"The Professionals" was terrific to read, but less terrific to run. Its plotline was a bit too linear for my tastes, but the espionage, intrigue, political corruption, and terrorism make it a tailor-made DG op, complete with dangerous and shady rival federal agents to contend with. It would be pretty easy to work a Majestic vs. DG storyline into it, perhaps exploring a last-minute effort by Delta Green to keep Majestic from learning and researching the truth of the situation.
Any other experiences out there?
Date: Thu, 07 Jan 1999 01:20:18 +1100
From: Rob Shankly
"The Killer Out of Space" just screams to be played as Delta Green. When I read it now I think, "How did we play this before Delta Green??"
(cut)
Indeed it does, a really great DG scenario. When I first ran it (about 1994) my players were all instructed to create FBI agents. It rocked then, and my current group are going to meet it as well. 5/5 phobias.
Pretty much all of "At Your Door" is immediately applicable to DG as well. I ran a shortened version based around chapters 2, 3 & 4 (Landscrapes, Dawn Biozyme, No Pain No Gain) with the missing information from chapter 1 supplied by friendlies who disappeared (darlin' Jenny!). The group were 100% casualties while still in the mountains, so they never got to Toronto. I made a point of putting the PCs "under cover" to minimise the amount of help they could call on, so they were unknown to the local law and had to act "outside" it. The result was that the last two PCs escaped the hills and were killed by police when they went to confront Dr.Finley. Initially they did not realise the investigation was a DG operation. It was their first mission and they thought they had been summoned from distant parts of the country so that their cover would be safe, and were briefed to investigate and gather evidence.
The scenario does need protection from power-mad PCs who might try to call for law enforcement too early. My players were told that Dawn Biozyme is wealthy enough to be secure from search warrants (or equivalent) without extraordinary evidence of wrongdoing. Therefore they had to get ironclad proof before calling for help. Anyway, "At Your Door" is 5/5 phobias as well.
And a useful book to read beforehand is Neil Stephenson's "Zodiac" for a look at one version of the green movement.
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1999 09:11:59 +0900
From: "David Farnell"
I'm doing At Your Door as DG now - dumped Landscrapes (seemed irrelevant to the overall action; might use it by itself later), and they're presently in Jenny's Cave, where we've been stalled for the last 2 or 3 months (haven't been able to get everyone together for a game). I was planning on a highly modified Toronto chapter (replacing the Serpent Guy with an old enemy from their first investigation, who happened to Consume Likeness on another religious leader, so it fits his MO—and dumping Ran Tegoth, who was ridiculous and stupid even in the original story), then subverting the final Samson chapter into a nasty Carcosa-on-Earth deal (which could give them a foretaste of things to come in certain EH chapters). I stripped it down to speed it up and get rid of nonessentials. Also, I'm still pondering how to expand the idea of that kid in the final chapter - maybe there's more and more like him being born now, and it'll have something big to do with the Endtimes stuff in Agent Timmin's site. (A particularly nasty idea I had was to make them essential to summoning Carcosa, and somehow arrange things so that the only way to stop Carcosa from arriving would be to murder the innocent kids, forcing the players to choose - somebody on the list presented a similar idea which I have of course ripped off - Thanks!)
Rob, if you've got your notes on your computer, I'd love it if you could send them to me off-list!
I've also run Love's Lonely Children, which worked great as an intro-to-DG scenario - a very tight, well-thought-out piece which needs little modification. One of my PCs is now intermittently anorexic after going mad in that one! It really fits in with the modern sense of hopelessness and futility that runs through DG (which, I think, is more similar to Chambers and Bierce than Lovecraft - HPL had a slightly different flavor of hopelessness).
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1999 13:45:41 -0500
From: "gable"
David Farnell, I say to you, do not call up that which you cannot put down!:
Also, I'm still pondering how to expand the idea of that kid in the final chapter—maybe there's more and more like him being born now, and it'll have something big to do with the Endtimes stuff in Agent Timmin's site.
OK. In my campaign, I'm planning to use "At Your Door" (at least the last chapter) as a backdrop - that is, the characters won't run through it but it'll happen as I see fit. I'm using an idea I've come up with that the kid in the final chapter is really, really important to the Tuchulcha cult and so cultists are trying to get a hold of him (not kill him, as in the scenario). However, he has loads of psychic potential, so Majestic-12's also trying to get a hold of him for cloning purposes. The Tuchulcha cult's of the mind that he's a messiah, and it would be sacrilegious (sp.) to clone him, so this has the potential to lead to a Majestic-Tuchulcha schism.
I'd say you could do something with that. His amazing 99 SAN gives him a royal sh*tload of psychic potential (or maybe he works like the kid on X-Files) and also a sh*tload of magical power, and he's essential to the summoning of (x) deity. Sounds kind of like the ideas you were already working towards.
However, if there's more like him, it kind of negates the idea of him being a messiah. This is very vague, but in some way make him/them closer to the GOOs, the OGs can relate to him better, something like that.
I've also run Love's Lonely Children
BTW, is "The Stars Are Right" still available anywhere? Some of the adventures look interesting, IMHO.
Date: Mon, 05 Oct 1998 10:35:40
From: Davide Mana
Has anyone run this scenario within the context of DG? Given the main threat being dealt with in the scenario I think it will slot in nicely, and am considering running it as an intro for a DG campaign. Any keepers done this? If so, any advice?
I tried to adapt it as a DG introductory adventure this summer and then dropped as we started playtesting some homemade adventures. Adapting the thing to DG is not impossible, but you'll have to modify something along the way.
Here's my notes from back then.
I'll assume that you know the outline of A Resection of Time.
- as the whole thing starts with a strange car accident and an irregular paper-handling on the part of the hospital staff, this is perfect to bring in law enforcement type PCs (future DG agents?) - I'd suggest FBI (so that X-files freaks are happy), CDCP (desease control policies have been infringed by cremating Kyle so soon?), DEA (he was coming from a place "near Colombia") etc. On the other hand, the final shock comes only if the players have been part of the original expedition and all that. So you might end up handling two set of characters: the "proper" investigators and the friends of Kyle Wodson working for Schwartz. Fine but tricky.
The alternative is playing by the book, and using civilian PCs.
- using law-enforcement connected characters might give a few problems when it comes to data collecting. perquisitions and witness interviews: flash a badge and a lot of things will be smoother. On the other hand, if they are on a legit investigation, they'll have to stick to the procedure.
- a lot of handouts should be remade, removing blatant mentions of Great Old Ones and such, making the thing more subtle. As this is gonna be a DG game, replace Mi-Go with Greys. This part is not difficult but requires a lot of work if you want to preserve the high quality of the original handouts.
- the trip to Arkham is the worst part when it comes to subtlety: you'll have to set the scene in another town and university (easy) and find a way to pass the same informations without actually mentioning the old tomes, or the Mythos connection will be too evident. A good (IMO) idea would be the introduction of a "friendly" character that collects the data (from a restricted section of the University Library?) and then relates them in person during a meeting in the characters' hotel room.
This at least will make the subsequent BOYS attack in the hotel more dramatic and focused, and not simply an heavy-handed case of harassment (as it is in the printed scenario).
- generally, through the whole adventure I do not feel at ease at all with the BOYS activities, as they are too much of a plot device in some moments. They should probably be fleshed out a bit.