Be Kind, Rewind
A Delta Green Shotgun Scenario
Premise
The players begin as video store clerks in a 1980s strip mall. A distressed visitor leaves them a mysterious VHS tape before committing suicide in front of them, unraveling a surreal conspiracy. Over time, they discover they are not real but digital copies of Delta Green agents inside a Yithian simulation designed to study the spread of a deadly virus. The agents must awaken to their reality, transmit a vital cure formula to the real world, and survive a hostile environment.
Gameplay Overview
Players create Delta Green agents but are unaware of their true identities, believing they are video store clerks who lost their previous jobs. The setting is Reagan-era America, with a strip mall housing a video store, a gas station, a law office, a Chinese restaurant, and an outdoor camping store. Background news mentions a mysterious flesh-eating virus outbreak in New York hospitals two days prior.
The Visitor
A disheveled woman (Dr. Marlene Kendall) enters the store. She approaches a clerk, calling them by name, and hands over a blank white VHS case, insisting it contains vital information. After realizing the clerks do not recognize her, she pleads with them to watch the tape before shooting herself in the head.
- Clues on the body:
- Dr. Kendall's driver’s license.
- A chemical formula (the cure).
- A cryptic list hinting at the simulation, e.g.:
- Incapable of random number generation: Players thinking of random numbers all say the same one (1/1d4 SAN loss).
- No-clip: Objects behave abnormally, e.g., hands pass through surfaces (1/1d4 SAN loss).
- Generic items: Brand names are replaced with plain labels like CEREAL (1/1d4 SAN loss).
- SAN Loss: Witnessing the suicide triggers 1/1d6 SAN loss.
The VHS Tape
The VHS tape must be rewound. And can be played in a VHS machine under the counter. When played, it shows Dr. Kendall in a panic, describing the virus as part of “their plan” and urging viewers to make copies to reveal the truth. A bloodied man tied to a chair is visible behind her. Before explaining further, the tape is destroyed as the machine malfunctions, emitting smoke.
The Manager’s Office
The tape can be repaired using a machine in the manager’s office. Upon entering:
- SAN Check: 1/1d4 SAN loss. Success reveals reluctance to enter due to vague memories of a manager; failure triggers doubts about whether a manager exists.
Inside:
- Hi-tech equipment and an ominous door labeled “The Stock Room.”
- A computer containing planted Russian spy files. At 20% Computer Science, the computer advises of the location of the only other working VHS machine: at the back of The Stock Room. At 40%, players discover false intel identifying the store manager as a Russian spy. At 80%, they uncover files in Yithian script but cannot understand them.
The Temporal Loop
Players attempting to leave the strip mall find themselves looping back, unable to escape (1/1d6 SAN loss). This is due to the Yithians having isolated this part of the simulation from the rest after tracking Dr Kendall to the video store. Other stores are deserted but offer resources, such as firearms at the camping store. Cars in the parking lot contain weapons for players with high Firearms skill.
The Regional Manager
One hour after beginning repairs, or earlier if players explore the Stock Room, the “Regional Manager” arrives. This Yithian-controlled human avatar questions the players about the store and becomes hostile if he senses any hint of their awareness to the truth. If players already entered the Stock Room, he will hunt them. A successful Alertness or INTX5 roll will identify The Regional Manager as the man tied to the chair in the video.
The Stock Room
The Stock Room defies spatial logic, appearing impossibly large (1/1d4 SAN loss). Players encounter rows of VHS equipment, Russian-marked crates, and more. Roll for encounters:
| Roll | Encounter |
| 1 | 1d4+1 Russian troops patrolling. |
| 2 | An 8x8 ft impossible hole. |
| 3 | A Soviet LuAZ-967 vehicle (may help or hinder). |
| 4 | A checkpoint with guards and a mounted heavy machine gun. |
| 5 | The Regional Manager finds them. |
| 6 | The Comms Station (final encounter). |
The Finale
At the back of the Stock Room, players find a Soviet comms station guarded by four to six Russian troops and a colonel. The Regional Manager arrives if he hasn’t already appeared.
Battle
Players face a chaotic fight as Russians attack anyone not in uniform, including the Regional Manager if he also attacks. Surviving players reach the station containing a computer and VHS machine.
The Truth
The repaired tape plays, revealing the simulation’s purpose and the players’ true nature as digital constructs of real-world agents. Dr Kendall and the players’ characters’ real world counterparts are Delta Green and their simulated copies discovered this and attempted to rebel. Dr. Kendall was the only one who escaped, the players’ characters’ minds were wiped and given a new backstory by the Yithians as guardians of the only access point for information to and from the outside world in the simulation. They learn the formula on Kendall’s note can be transmitted to their real-world counterparts, saving humanity but dooming themselves to likely be deleted by the Yithians once they have no further use for the simulation itself
- SAN Loss: Realizing their true nature triggers a 1d10 SAN loss. Realising that saving the outside world will render them useless to the Yithian and doom them to an unknown terrifying fate triggers a 1d20 SAN loss.
Key Themes
- Horror: Uncovering their identity and the simulation’s nature.
- Surrealism: Abnormal physics, looping geography, and generic objects.
- Moral Dilemma: Sacrificing themselves for the real world.
STAT BLOCKS:
“The Regional Manager”
A cruel Yithian agent disguised as something truly mundanely horrible – middle management
STR 10 CON 14 DEX 12
INT 20 POW 20 CHA 8
HP 12 WP 20
SKILLS: Total Knowledge 75% (see TOTAL KNOWLEDGE).
ATTACKS: Electric Gun 75%, damage variable (see
JURY-RIG).
JURY-RIG: Compared to the power of the Great Race,
human science is pathetic. Agents of the Great Race can
warp modern devices into far more effective technology.
Sometimes, this can be accomplished in mere minutes.
Often, these tools are rigged to explode or self-destruct
after a period of time. The most common are:
∙∙ Electric Gun: This device can be as small as a garagedoor
opener, and can inflict damage of the user’s
choosing: a jolt of 1D6 or 2D6, or a bolt of lightning
with Lethality 15%. It ignores body armor but can be
blocked by cover.
∙∙Temporal Mine: This can look like nearly any
household object or device. Once activated, it causes
everything within a small radius to be frozen in time,
effectively isolating it from the Construct of spacetime.
The scope and duration of the effect are up to the
Handler.
∙∙Transfer Device: When it enters the limited human
mind, the Great Race cannot use its ability to jump to
another form without first building a transfer device.
This small box, composed of rods, wheels and mirrors,
permits the mind of the Great Race to return to the
Library at Pnakotis.
TEMPORAL IMMORTALITY: To an extratemporal being,
death is only an inconvenient “blank spot” in the
otherwise limitless expanse of four-dimensional spacetime.
Even if the human agent form of the Great Race appears
to perish, that entity persists on, somewhere in time.
TOTAL KNOWLEDGE: As temporal explorers, the Great
Race have access to endless epochs of knowledge from
all times and cultures. Knowing a challenge is coming,
they can learn all they must know before it begins. Only
occasional, strange variances in causality limit them. They
have the equivalent of 75% in every skill, alien or human.
Russian Guards
A simulation of the great enemy of yesteryear – but just as lethal as their real-life counterparts.
STR 14 CON 14 DEX 12
INT 10 POW 11 CHA 10
HP 12 WP 11
Skills: Athletics 40%, Alertness 40%, Firearms 50%, Heavy Weapons 40%, Melee Combat 40%, Unarmed Combat 40%
Attacks:
AK 47 (Firearms 50%) Range: 100m Damage: 1d12 Armor Piercing: 3, Lethality: 10%, Ammo: 30
Makarov (Firearms 50%) Range: 10m Damage: 1d8, Ammo: 7
NR40 Combat Knife (Melee Weapons 40%) Damage: 1D6 Armor Piercing: 3
Credits
Be Kind, Rewind was written by Captain Mark for the 2024 Shotgun Scenario contest.
Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1185sKaHLWxPDm3P1BRlnYTywyjlU_eaqFnWZ8fZqEN8/edit