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''From: Jürgen Hubert''
No, this is _not_ about Iraq. At least, not directly.
You see, I've just finished watching the third episode of an anime series
called "Gasaraki" - a show that combines modern warfare with a certain
Mythos slant (at least it appears like that in the episodes I have seen so
far). And from this I've gotten ideas for an entire campaign frame for Delta Green.
So let's say that some small Third World nation was caught in the act trying
to sell Weapons of Mass Destruction to some terrorist organisation - maybe
Al Quaeda, maybe another one. The International Community is outraged, and
the UN sanctions a multinational military operation (under US leadership,
naturally, but involving as many nations as you want) to slap that country
and its dictator around a bit.
The Air campaign bombs lots of places and goes more or less according to
plan. Then a large number of land forces make a quick push towards the
capital of the country, hoping to decapicate the leadership and ending this
war as soon as possible. The coalition forces involved are large and
powerful enough that all resistance should be pointless.
Instead, they are almost completely annihilated.
It suddenly turns out that the dictator's forces have some technologies that
are more advanced than they have any right to be - they have a new weapon
platform (possibly something like a variant of the Land Warrior concept that
actually _works_) that is a decade or two ahead of that of the US Army!
The invading land forces retreat to the borders and wait there for new
orders. The air campaign continues, and special forces raid the country in
desperate attempts to gain intelligence and possibly get samples of the new
tech, but for now the war is in a holding pattern. There's too much ego at
stake here (especially on the American side) to back down now after such a
humiliating defeat, and unless the dictator has _another_ ace up his sleeve,
the ultimate outcome of the war is not in doubt - eventually, the country
will run out of troops and supplies. But the commanders of the coalition
forces must weigh the desire to end this war quickly with the necessity to
keep casulties on their side low. Already, public opinion back home calls
for the heads of several of the strategists involved…
And the shadow war between the special ops and the defending troops gets
more intense. Special ops teams bring not only back news about the weapon
platform, but also of a strange cult among the population of the country.
More and more bogeys appear on the radar screens, and some planes are
unaccountably lost. Something _strange_ is going on there, and military
censorship desperately tries to keep a lid on it. Meanwhile, the military
forces of the various nations involved use this as an opportunity to test
various "experimental" technologies - and as you would expect, Majestic is
in the thick of it.
Meanwhile, the western intelligence community is in turmoil. Why didn't they
know _anything_ accurate about the defenders capabilities? Is this ordinary
incompetence - or corruption in their own ranks? The dictator must have
gotten his tech from _somewhere_, but where? Countries that are supposedly
friendly to the USA, but have some other agendas? Multinational
corporations? But if the latter, why didn't they sell this amazing stuff to
the USA, who would have been prepared to make the company rich beyond their
wildest dreams? Could it be that the dictator of some small-time Third World
nation had something even better to offer than money? And just how was such
incredibly advanced technology developed without anyone noticing?
And while this war drags on, the PCs can get involved in all sorts of ways -
as special ops or ordinary soldiers of any of the nations involved, or as
secret agents trying to find out where this technology comes from.
So, what are your thoughts? Your suggestions?
- Which country serves as the bad guy?
- Who are its secret backers?
- What, exactly, is the new weapon platform, and who built it?
- What nations are involved in the invading forces, and which have
"experimental", Mythos-tainted technology to test? Which of them (either the
central military command, or a certain part of their military and/or
intelligence structure) have double agendas that will make the life of the
investigators difficult?
- What Mythos forces are involved, and in what way?
''From: Edward Lipsett''
- Which country serves as the bad guy?
One of the stans… smack-ass between Russia, the India-Pakistan blow-up,
all those nice Arabs nations to the east, soil, Mt. Ararat nearby… and
Tibet, too!
''From: Dirk R. Festus Festerling''
So, what are your thoughts? Your suggestions?
miam! tasty…
- Which country serves as the bad guy?
indeed, any of the -stans or surrounding areas like
tcetchenia (sp?) would be fine. on a sidenote, some
long time t2k gamers have started to run russian unit
pc's lately. this might be a interesting opportunity
to play non-dg characters too.
- What, exactly, is the new weapon platform, and who
built it?
actually i do not think about "built platforms".
remember gdw's dark conspiracy? there are "organic"
weapons of alien origin that "graft" on the user to
reload.
what about an opfor in grafted
battlesuits/exoskeletons with self-destruction
devices. the only thing left whe your brave grunt
takes one of these buggers down are splattered human
body parts and some smoking pieces of Armour that
somehow resemble Keratin…
sorry, just saw a re-run of starship troopers and some
things stuck.
''From: Marshall Gatten''
If, as Arthur C. Clark pointed out, any sufficiently advanced technology will be indistinguishable from magic, then it stands to reason that at least certain types of magic will be indistinguishable from sufficiently advanced technology.
So, when what looks like nothing more than a dust devil envelopes a platoon and rips them all to shreds as though it were a force 5 gale carrying shrapnel, the commanders will look at it and say, "Wow! Look at that weapon! How did they get the technology to create that destructive whirlwind?" Meanwhile, the cultists will look at the same phenomenon and say, "Our gods are cooler than your gods! Nah nah nah-nah nah!"
An invisible monster, much like Buggs Bunny's Tasmanian Devil but made up mostly of wind, which can be sicced upon one's enemies at a cost would be a formidable weapon indeed. The cultists probably think it's some sort of air elemental.
Just a thought.
''From: Jürgen Hubert''
>What, exactly, is the new weapon platform, and who built it?
If, as Arthur C. Clark pointed out, any sufficiently advanced technology
will be
indistinguishable from magic, then it stands to reason that at least
certain types of magic will be > indistinguishable from sufficiently
advanced technology.
Actually, I want to avoid something as blatant as that. The weapon should be
seemingly plausible - something that makes military equipment designers
wonder how they got so far ahead of them on the research curve, instead of
wondering how the hell these guys managed to break the laws of physics. The
tech should _appear_ to be mundane, if very good.
Of course, if some genuis researcher in some military lab gets his hand on
some samples, examines the circuits, and subsequently slashes his wrist and
writes messages in blood on the lab walls… well, it must be the stress
that got to him. ;-)
Remember, the public will eventually get _some_ information on these
weapons, even if that info is strongly distorted thanks to censorship and
military disinformation. So, if you don't want this scenario to serve as an
introduction to the End Times when the Mythos gradually becomes known to the
public, the weapons should be something that can be interpreted as something
scientifically plausible. And while "the public" in general is quite dumb,
there are plenty of bright people out there who might start asking weird
questions in the face of apparently implausible tech.
If the tech is just more advanced than US issue equipment by a decade or
two, the public will see it as some sort of spy drama: Which secret lab
built this? And this fits in very well with the central theme of Delta
Green, where the ultimate truth is known to only a few while the masses live
in ignorance.
But if this stuff turns people into Invincible Bug Warriors(TM), then you've
got an entirely different game - MechaCthulhu, possibly. This can still be
fun, but in my opinion, this wouldn't be Delta Green anymore.
Your mileage may vary.
''From: Rasmus Juul Wagner''
The villain: North Korea. Oriental AND Communist - two fine flavors of
villain that go GREAT together. If anybody could develop great weapons AND a
master plan AND keep it a total secret, my money is on these guys.
Backers: Could be anybody. The Shan, perhaps? They make excellent
infiltrators.
Development of technology: I like the idea of hundreds of crackpot,
mythos-inspired scientists slaving away in underground concrete
bunker-laboratories, far from the prying eyes of spy satellites, complete
with underground test ranes and plenty of "volunteers" donated by your
frinedly fascist regime.
As for the weapons themselves, I've always been fond of the ability to
ignore armor; perhaps an energy beam that only interacts with organic
matter? The ability to teleport explosives for short distances?
Or small hunter-killer robots, the size of tennis balls, moving by
contragravity and reactionless thrust?
A functioning telepathic hive mind? The ability to regenerate fatal wounds?
The ability to ignore bullets? A sonic, mind-affecting attack that solidiers
go crazy and shoot their comrades?
''From: Giles Hill''
- Which country serves as the bad guy?
My personal thoughts are Korea and or any central African state, the key is that the coalition would have to believe that the state in question would fall befor its onslaught.
- Who are its secret backers?
Ooooh Oooh I know the Mi- Go, a bit obvious I know, but they want whatever material has been found in the state and are prepared to go to any length to ensure its security - including arming the locals.
- What, exactly, is the new weapon platform, and who built it?
Super soldiers a la groversville, equipped with personal protomatter powered armour and the latest in gauss technology. Likewise "technicals" with bolt on chemical lasers and larger gauss weapons.
- What nations are involved in the invading forces, and which have "experimental", Mythos-tainted technology to test?
Britain (cos we never realise we're over committed) the USA (Cos they can) S.Korea (if you go with the Korean option) or Nigeria and S.Africa (if you go for the central africa option) then it very much depends wether this has a UN sanction - if yes, then Pakistan, Hungary, Poland, India, Bangladesh all the UN stalwarts. If its a US led op then perhaps a heavier weighting of "New Europeans"and or African states. Japan in a supporting role perhaps in the air if the state is Korea.
Oh the UK and US definitely its a Majestic proving ground especially now someone else has wheeled out the superior tech. Japan will definitely be interrested in this super tech to help pull itself out of its economic doldrums. Mossad not in there with anyone but looking to see what it can get its hands on.
- What Mythos forces are involved, and in what way?
PISCES operatives with the UK forces, Majestic with the US - both desperately after getting their hands on tech. Alzis the middleman playing everyone off against everyone. Greys and Mi-Go hidden away in the background. Both Africa and Korea lend themselves to mythos cults
''From: Ivan Zhivago''
- Which country serves as the bad guy?
I vote for Indonesia… 10,000 islands, a history of
shaky relations w/ the U.S., remnants of
animist/mythos cults, and Borneo!
- Who are its secret backers?
the Islamic Jihad/Karotechia of course, maybe even the
Sultan of Brunei
- What, exactly, is the new weapon platform, and who
built it?
I'd go with a highly lethal version of scalar
weaponry, scalar weapons are the wave of the future…
http://www.prahlad.org/pub/bearden/scalar_wars.htm
''From: Tom Cusworth''
Hmm! Lot's of suggestions already posted. I would tend to avoid the use of
North Korea purely for the reason that they do have a fairly HUGE standing army
(as you said "The coalition forces involved are large and
powerful enough that all resistance should be pointless.") this suggests to
me that the country in question should be seen as almost a pushover, which
would make the surprise all the more delicious when the coalition's ass is firmly
booted into touch.
Maybe one of the Stans, or how about Jibrovia? (He He!). Seriously, though I
feel that the Central African Option, or one of the Cash-Strapped former
Soviet republics may be an option.
''From: Rus Rayburn''
<snip>
- Which country serves as the bad guy?
</snip>
Politically, some of the -stans are very supportive of US Policy. If
you're going to have a US lead coalition fight them, perhaps something
out of central Africa. Say Togo (
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/to.html )
<snip>
- Who are its secret backers?
</snip>
A cabal of serpent men. They were awakened accidentally by an
military battalion investigating claims of mass graves. The first
serpent man was groggy upon awakening and was captured. When
presented to the units commanding officer for inspection, said serpent
man fully awoke and devoured the CO. After assuming the CO's
likeness, he awoke his comrades. The comrades consumed more soldiers,
then headed back to the soldiers base.
Under the guise of the soldiers, they have been assuming power to
cement their hold on the region. They are using tribal conflict to
purge their enemies from the area, providing advanced weapons to their
soldiers. Their long term goal is to find and awaken other serpent
men and, ultimately, establish their dominance over the region.
<snip>
- What, exactly, is the new weapon platform, and who built it?
</snip>
In an earlier post you said that you wanted something that didn't
obviously look like magick. Ok..
Lets say gauss weapons for a start, powered by a clip containing a
number of organisms suspended in gel… as the organisms consume the
gel, they give off electricity as a waste product. The electricity is
stored in capacitors of unusual design, made from a substance that
appears to be glass yet seems to retain an electrical charge. The gel
on inspection is a slurry of rendered human fat and bone marrow.
Larger electrical discharge weapons as well… think something the
size of a minigun. These are man portable, powered by a chemical
reaction. The firer wears a backpack of two pressurized tanks; when
the chemicals are mixed, then forced over a crystal in the firing
chamber a lightning-like electrical discharge results.
An anti-aircraft version is also being constructed, perhaps a series
of towers around a central location. When completed, they will
provide an electromagnetic screen. Anything entering the screen first
suffers EMP damage, then is destroyed. Think Tesla coils on crack.
<snip>
- What nations are involved in the invading forces, and which have
"experimental", Mythos-tainted technology to test? Which of them
(either the
central military command, or a certain part of their military and/or
intelligence structure) have double agendas that will make the life of the
investigators difficult?
</snip>
Assuming Togo is the country, then the French are most certainly
involved in the form of the Foreign Legion, perhaps the 2nd rep
parachute regiment. If you want the US involved, a Marine
expeditionary unit makes sense as well. Air support either from a US
Carrier battle group or from a French air base in Sierra Leone.
<snip>
- What Mythos forces are involved, and in what way?
</snip>
MJ12: As soon as word of the advanced weapons spreads, MJ12 would take
interest. Since they've made the deal with the grays, they think they
should be the only humans with advanced technology. They'll
investigate, wondering if the grays are supplying the rebels.
DG: Natch, there are plenty of opportunities for military type agents
and recruitment.
Men with Gauloiuse (sp?): If they exist in your world, they're an
obvious choice as well.
''From: Andrew J. Farrow''
< ignores all the good ideas so far and babbles >
ARGENTINA
thier enconomy is so far up the creek - who knows what deals they would
pull . " helped " out by WEE alzis , the migo etc before they know it thier
` helpers` are firmly in control
they have more cows than people so the cattle mutilation folk would have a
feild day :-)
invadining the the falklands as a test run to make sure all thier new toys
work - would bet the UK pissed at them by default
plus there is - ANTARCTICA they are within striking distance of the god
trap - plus nazi bases UFO crap and anything else you want down south
everyone is watching korea etc - and IMHO most africa nations cannot
develope anything like the tech base required without being noticed
south america has a lot of space , plus a large infrastructure that can hide
a lot of stuff
''From: Mark Mc Fadden''
- Which country serves as the bad guy?
Gotta be North Korea. C'mon, Little Lord Napolean Complex in lifts and
pompadour? And he has the world's largest private collection of tapes, CDs
and DVDs. He's a movie freak that chooses to live like a Bond Villain or
Yellow Peril. And he might actually have nukes soon. And he probably has a
harem.
He's really short. Everyone knows that the really short
king\pirate\emperor\conqueror\archvillain is a pain in the ass because they
*overcompensate*. Unless they have a fluffy white moustache, in which case
they are lovable.
Regarding the nukes, Time magazine and the New York Times say they aren't
there - yet. Which means that AOL Time Warner says they aren't there. The
last time I checked in with the real world on the subject via the BBC, it
seems that 9 out of 10 potential collaterral damage agree that there aren't
any nukes in North Korea yet.
I think most people agree that Li'l Kim wants 'em, is in the process (or
not, depending on kickbacks) of building facilities to produce them,
wouldn't hesitate to throw his weight around if he had them, and is wacky
enough to use them if cornered. I see a Playstation gamepad hooked to "the
football" at Kim's crib.
Actually, when North Korea was first trying to build them they showed up
pretty quick in our surveillance and we hustled some diplomats out there
ASAP to determine their intentions. Essentially, it was a shakedown. This
was before the doctrine of pre-emptive invasion, so they knew that there was
some room for compromise with the Clinton administration. The US gave North
Korea money, and North Korea stopped trying to build nukes and delivery
systems. Sort of like foreign aid, but instead of food and medicine for the
people of North Korea, Kim got a new home entertainment unit and some DVDs.
The home entertainment unit might have included a joy division, you know how
these archvillains get.
Well, after eight years of budget discipline and lowered expectations were
pissed away in less than a year, months before 9/11, some things had to be
snipped from the budget to make sure the tax breaks could keep coming. Just
toss the bill on top of the stack from the UN that the US hasn't paid.
Apparently, the US is a deadbeat dad, and has been under both flavors of
Democracy!(tm) since the 80s.
One of the things snipped was Kim's payola. Or rather, GWB broke the treaty
with North Korea that was keeping Kim from building nukes. So, he started
building nukes again, and made damn sure we knew about it.
So the US "renegotiated" the treaty, by which I mean that Uncle Sam found
some other bill to blow off and got caught up on the payments to the Axis of
Evil.
I have no problem with imagining Kim with his Garden of Death, or Zoo of
Death. Expect big meeting rooms with chairs around the table sitting on
trapdoors over pits full of mutated albino alligators glowing from the
yellowcake run-off. Keep an eye peeled for the really big deformed
bodyguard, because he's the real threat, after that exotic megabitch tries
to fuck you to death. If a brand new island with a volcano and a lake in the
caldera shows up some morning, keep a close watch on it. There's something
about it I don't like.
My recommendation?
First, join Kim at his hobby, then kick his ass at it. So I would watch
some movies with him and MSTie the shit out of them and make him shoot soda
out of his nose when I blindside him with a convoluted media reference. This
will make him want to take me for a tour of his nuclear facilities and show
me the control rooms and big red buttons that make stuff blow up.
Second, nail his girlfriend. Sometimes you can reverse the process and nail
his girlfriend so you can get invited over to kick his ass at his hobby. In
either case, do NOT skip this important step. Often you must make sacrifices
to bring this about, so be sure to bring your own girlfriend along so she
can get killed. Then you can get on with nailing Kim's girlfriend so you can
kick his ass at his hobby. Or vice versa.
He probably has all kinds of exciting cars and boats and aircraft to play
with, so you can bond over some chases.
If these negotiations fail, I recommend threatening him in some way so that
he climbs up something to get away from you. Then you can fight him on some
precarious platform, then throw him to his death. Or rather, spare his life
then turn your back so that he tries to attack you, which you sidestep,
allowing him to fall to his death under his own power. Lava or molten metal
are pretty good at killing these guys, but there is a lot of fudge factor
left when there is no body recovered. I understand Darth Vader fell in a
volcano, and it didn't seem to slow him down much. Nope, best thing is a
long fall onto impalement. Kills their ass dead. But watch out those first
few minutes after he gets shish-kebab'd, because he still has one good
throat clutch and snarl in him before he finally, completely dies. Cut his
head off, just to be sure.
Or, you could hold your nose and snuggle up to him. Give him what he thinks
he wants and let him do what idiot sons would usually do if they weren't
made leaders of countries. Give him access to Disneyworld and build a local
Planet Hollywood that serves kimchee. But call it Kim - Gee!(tm) and serve
it in a souvenir dish that you can take home.
Make Sandra Bullock return his emails. I'm not saying go over there and be
his concubine, Sandy, I'm just asking that you be polite and help the
diplomats by keeping him happy. Your country thanks you.
Kill Randy Newman for his viewing pleasure. My profile of Kim says that he
still hasn't forgiven Randy for 'Short People.' He's one of those short guys
that didn't get the joke, and never will.
Give him Pamela Anderson. I don't know if he wants her, but we don't, and
it couldn't hurt.
- Who are its secret backers?
That's a hard one to call. Nukes mean Azathoth, and that means
Nyarlathotep, but the movies and weirdness seem more Hastur.
- What, exactly, is the new weapon platform, and who built it?
Giant robotic humanoid weapons platforms that fold into ground vehicles or
unfold into aircraft. Also several of the weapons platforms can join
together and make a really big humanoid weapons platform with a sword.
Or weird manta-shaped weapons platforms that stand on three legs of force
and shoot heat rays.
Seriously, if I was doing a Kim scenario the weapons platforms would
resemble diabolical machines from movies.
''From: Jeff Boggs''
For the Argentina case you'd have to explain how a fairly democratic and
modern state (compared to lots of places on Earth, that description fits
Argentina very well) wanted to invade the Falklands, etc. Easy. The
military and rightist Peronists (as opposed to the leftist Peronists they
threw from helicopters) become uneasy with recent attempts to rescind
amnesty granted to all the fascist thugs who disappeared the
opposition. Seeing their necks on the line, Argentina undergoes a coup d'
etat motivated outwardly by a desire to reduce unemployment, roll back
privatization of utilities, and repay debt to international lenders. Hell,
maybe even the US administration, the IMF and the World Bank indicate
(behind the scenes) that they would support some of these measures (but not
the de-privatization). Maybe some background players (3rd generation
NS/German refugees? odd Churches that fled New England?) in Argentina
suggest they can improve Argentina's economy through the development
of cutting edge biological research, especially cloning and
organ-harvesting, that would bring in more foreign exchange. Throw in
additional technologies as needed depending on which mythos group really
pulls the strings…It might be fun if this sort of campaign evolved over a
decade, with Argentina sliding first into chaos as family members find out
the disappeared were experimented on/sold off to deep ones/etc, then the
military coup takes place, then Argentina becomes a destination for wealthy
sick and elderly
to get miracle cures, which the players must investigate, etc.