Every year since dinosaurs ruled the Earth (c.2005) Delta Green fans have provided (sometimes) brief scenarios for the community's annual end of year contest. In 2021, some 52 scenarios were entered, each needing to be under 1,500 words.
Here is part one of my spicy hot-takes on how the 2021 contest went down.
DEEP FICTION
Synopsis: Agents go undercover and must dismantle a mythos conspiracy from the inside
Opinion: A neat campaign thread based around a very different kind-of premise just too huge for a 1,500 word shotgun. As a campaign it's interesting; as a scenario it falls flat.
The crux of the “core scenario” seems to be infiltrating the Unnatural equivalent of the Witness Protection Program (which is a cool idea), but the rest is basically set-up which isn’t explained. Some of the NPCs are nice, but the lack of stats means there’s no pick-up-and-play potential for them either.
I'd be interested seeing this converted into a proper scenario - dealing with the WitSec occultists sounds like a blast.
As a jump-off point for an experienced Handler this is fine, but could do with a pruning to bring out the scenario itself. As a campaign, it’s a solid idea.
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LOCUS OF CONTROL
Synopsis: Players are abducted by Greys! They must escape!
Opinion: More a campaign opener than a scenario. The setup is neat, but is a bit of a railroad, requiring players do what’s expected (like beating to death the greys) or following whispering words in their ears – and knowing players, they’ll probably do anything but.
While its design leaves a strong likelihood of descending into a dungeon-crawl, I do like the way it uses 1990s Delta Green and Majestic-12 tropes to introduce lore. My jury’s out on the (unspecified and unstatted) “augmentations.” It’d have been nice to have these described – even in simple terms like “Augmented Arm, +20% to STR rolls, +1D4 damage to Unarmed” or “X-Ray eyes, can see through walls.”
The ending offers a few possibilities for future play, but leaves a bit too much up to the Handler to work out where to go next.
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INSANE IN THE MEMBRANE
Synopsis: The agents wake in a hellish sanatorium.
Opinion: An evocatively meaty dungeon-crawl with an amusing, if potentially trite, “it was all a dream” ending.
My biggest problem is that I want to know more about the incident at the asylum in 1896. Some clues peppered around the dreamscape, maybe an NPC. If I ran it I’d want to tie their escape to “solving” the 1896 incident, rather than it simply concluding by beating a Skin Person to death with a metal bar.
The fleshy horror is nicely described, though the lack of opportunities to impact upon it – outside of beating it to death – keeps it from going that extra mile. I do like that if you die in the dream you wake up with terminal brain cancer, though. That’s Delta Green for ya.
* * * *
WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?! I AM!
Synopsis: Your chances of survival are Slim to Nils, and Nils just left town.
Opinion: I’m not a big fan of rewritten movies (or at least well-known movies) as scenarios because they have a habit of trying to repeat their successful formula, leading the Handler to try orchestrating a railroad or having the players emulate – or try to break – the core plot.
This one’s not so bad – it’s got a few nice twists and turns – but I don’t know how much the players would find out plotwise before the running and the screaming and flamethrower-ing start. I’d be more inclined to give it kudos if it had swapped the tundra setting for – say – a desert or something. Maybe shoggoths hate sunshine.
I’m also not a fan of “Secret Hitler” scenarios outside of one-shots (and boy, when I saw Secret Hitler in the text I was imagining the secret was going to be about Point 103 and Karotechia shenanigans). Players are notoriously fickle beasts and, while this scenario goes some way toward trying to fix their potential foibles, having the player not know they’re actually a polymorphic killer feels a bit – er... unfair. Even for Delta Green.
Overall, this is well thought out and consistent, with some great ideas on adapting a classic movie to RPGs. But that means anyone who plays it is going to expect it.
Addendum: apparently dogs have been banned in the Antarctic since the late-1950s. So the scenario's wrong, but I learned something. And now, so have you.
* * * *
WOE, A PLAGUE BE UPON YOU
Synopsis: A local farmer unintentionally unleashes a biblical plague on a small town with unusual effects.
Opinion: An interesting, if slightly tongue-in-cheek (?), idea that feels more CoC than Delta Green, with the villain reading a moldy old tome to get revenge on his neighbor and acidentally unleashing Biblical fury. I love bitey-faced locusts, me, though I'm not sure if they're really that scary.
The hook feels off, with the Agents arriving under cover of investigating land fraud – yet the bodies are still in situ. Might have also done with media or entomologists being in town, studying this unprecedented cicada assault. The clue-thread works, though, and I can see players running through it at a steady pace without any real troubles. That may be the biggest problem; it feels like there aren't enough things separating the dead neighbor from the perpetrator (no "red-herrings").
The Butter Gang has to be the funniest threat to the Agents yet. Bit odd the way they hate Agents if they think they’re cops but can still be bought off with weed. Entrapment much?
Some of the stat block is a little... odd. The big psychic cicada “shoots cicadas at enemies like bullets”, (!) while the “Collapse House” is sort of a deus ex machina. The fact there are different ways of dealing with the problem is good though and should be in more scenarios.
* * * *
IDEAL EDUCATION
Synopsis: An outbreak of mental illness making people pull out their own hair shows a link back to a new educational paradigm at a local school.
Opinion: FALL OF CTHULHU (or some other Lovecraftian comic) had a story about an elementary school putting on The King in Yellow. It was a good comic – and the opening to this shotgun is good too (people pulling out their hair? Ripping off their faces? Masks? Sure, why not).
My main issue is that this becomes two scenarios smashed together – one involving a school play (neat) and the other about infected apples (uh), where neither seems to gel entirely with the other. The way it was set up, I’d assumed the vector was the new syllabus, but it veers off into a garden of magic fruit and a Carcosa’d botanist. The clues leading down this path are there but feel a bit tenuous; I’m not sure if players would necessarily realize where to go.
Evidently more emphasis was placed on the beginning of the scenario and less on the end, as nothing much is provided about Carcosa (which the Agents potentially stumble into) beside a requirement to roll Navigate a few times. Overall, I think there’s a solid beginning and middle here, tempered by an ending that isn’t foreshadowed by the hook.
* * * *
LOST HALLOWS
Synopsis: Agents are encased in a wintry game of survival while picking up another team's case.
Opinion: A well designed scenario with a simple plot – a shapeshifting monster wants to eat you.
Nothing wrong with that; if anything it’s a really good example of how to do it, if maybe a bit too reliant on traditional tick-boxes (Native American myth-monster; evil-filled Green Boxes; whoops, the players released the beastie!).
I think some of the background plot lacks coherency: the monster’s killed 444 people – in 200+ years – and now wants to kill 444 more to seal the deal. But it’s already killed 48 people in the last decade. Sounds a bit high – Yosemite’s only had 120ish in the last decade and that’s 3,000 square-km.
The one-line descriptions for the NPCs are OK, but I feel like they might’ve been pepped up a bit – that’s more a personal preference. I like slightly “wacky” NPCs just to make them stand-out or easier to roleplay.
The lack of stats and information on how to find out the monster’s a skinwalker (or how to trap it) are the biggest detriments. More info on research methods, on the tree, and surviving tools in the Green Box would’ve helped, perhaps with a description on how to recreate the sigil that locked it away previously. But otherwise this is an enjoyable scenario, and I think players would like it – if they work out what’s going on in time.
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ONE FINE MOURNING
Synopsis: An Agent has fallen during an ongoing campaign... Here is a shotgun style guide on how to handle it.
Opinion: I find the idea of running a “scenario” covering the aftermath of a PC’s death quite interesting; perhaps even poignant. This is a neat and well-written setpiece for things to think about, with a few role(plays) and rolls included. While I don’t know if I can say it’s a “scenario” I’d run, it has whet my appetite to put more emphasis on covering the aftermath and emotion of actually losing a team-mate.
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EXPOSURE THERAPY
Synopsis: An Agent's truthfulness comes back to haunt them.
Opinion: I like scenarios where things come back to bite players in the backside, and this one does it with style. The fact it can be easily transposed to another location (or even a different organization, like PISCES) with the minimum of fuss, and revolves around those poor, underused Bonds is a cherry.
Casey’s definitely a serious threat to Agents with all her powers and her Familiar, which means there’s a strong likelihood it’ll end up a meat-grinder. Actually going up against her seems more pointless than trying to bust the Bond out of – er – bondage. If I ran it I’d probably give the Agents some means of persuading her to work with them, if just for a “my enemy’s enemy is my friend” type deal.
I really like that mind-shifting knife. It’s inventive and icky, not really something you’d want, and just feels entirely in keeping with the dirty world of DG.
Despite it’s limitations – particularly if Agents haven’t been spilling the beans to their shrinks – and the likelihood of a TPK, there’s a neat scenario here. I’d run it with a few personal tweaks.
* * * *
WEREWOLF GIMMICK
Synopsis: Bring your heroes to the wolf's den, watch them all get crushed.
Opinion: I didn’t think I’d enjoy this scenario as much as I thought I would, but it won me over with its interesting interplay of detective work, emotional characterization and (shock!) moral quandaries. Considering I have zero interest in rasslin’ it’s a testament to the obvious love of the subject matter that it works.
My biggest bugbear is the assumption Agents will be going undercover as luchadores. I’m unsure any I know would do that unless forced into it. Still, not a big problem. If I ran it I’d also bump Stephanie’s age up a couple of years – precocious six-year-olds are funnier/scarier than four-year-olds, I guess.
In summary, really good.
* * * *
FLIGHT 719
Synopsis: An ancient artifact can trigger many things, more if it’s floating in the sky.
Opinion: A mash-up of two scenarios, neither of which are thematically linked – one about a date-rape-drug (!) smuggling arms-dealer, the other a Friendly transporting a “weird artifact” -- which has a cool backstory no one will ever know.
Both plots are interesting, even if the former’s basically a railroad to ensure Things Happen (mafia goons with guns, a dead man in a bathroom), but in my opinion the artifact and its effects are the cooler setpiece. It’s a shame that isn’t brought to the fore, because it’s likely the players will end up missing what’s going on before everything goes to hell and people’s eyeballs start bleeding.
In that vein, the super-powered mi-go is just overkill. And the possibility of a TPK as the plane crashes is also very high possibility. For an “introductory scenario” the potential for everybody dying is remarkably high.
I wouldn’t run this as written or for newbies, but I think there are enough cool parts in here that removing a couple of them – or even putting them into a different setting (Elder Thing brain-can on a runaway train, anyone?) – would be fun
* * * *
FREUD'S CIGAR
Synopsis: Some cases are simple, they don't need to be overanalyzed, sometimes a killer is just a killer.
Opinion: A solid and simple “Scooby Doo” scenario with a serial-killer on the loose. The hook to draw in Agents (the “changeling theory”) might need a little Unnatural-esque pep – that he’s making the bones into “keys of ascension” is a nice touch but could've been pumped up to include other weird occult symbols or similar.
I like the way this is written, clean and effective (though it could do with more paragraph breaks), but sometimes it over-does itself. An edit for extraneous words would have left more space for more clues, which are a little light on the ground right now (it's theoretically possible to just investigate one of the crime scenes and discover the culprit's hideaway right from the beginning).
With some relatively clued-in players, I don’t imagine this scenario lasting more than a couple of hours - but I think they'd be relatively fun, if not entirely memorable.
* * * *
LOUP-GAROU
Synopsis: The chuck is cut, et les chiens ont faim.
Opinion: While well-written, the layout took me a couple of reads to understand exactly what was going on – it definitely needs a few more breaks and carriage-returns in there.
Otherwise I liked the premise for this scenario but felt that it might assume a bit too much of the inherent goodness in players not to just murder the preacher in plain daylight when he comes out to talk to them (or goes to the store). Similarly, the overabundance of backstory regarding the preacher being a ghoul could’ve been trimmed (or omitted entirely) to bump the wordcount and give more info on actions Agents might take beside burning the entire compound down and calling it a day.
* * * *
TOGA PARTY
Synopsis: Stop a cult from harvesting human energy for profit with their magical cryptocurrency.
Opinion: When I saw this scenario was about cryptocurrency and blockchains, I was ready to skip it – it’s not a topic I know much about, and it often leaves me high-and-dry. Thankfully this is an interesting scenario, simple enough to understand but deep enough to have fun with, including a number of things do and NPCs to deal with.
I’d have preferred a little more on the intentions of the cult beside making money and “spreading misery” (is that what Shub-niggurath wants?) but it does leave it open for Handlers to tinker with the results for a cataclysmic summoning or somesuch. I also get the feeling the only real conclusion is killing everyone and burning the place down, but that might just be me.
Overall, a well-written and clever scenario that works far better than I first thought. Really nice.
* * * *
THE DROVE
Synopsis: A vision of a horrific murder leads the agents to a cult operating in a pig farm.
Opinion: Evil pigs at a hoggery? Sign me up. This scenario opens with one of those great, unused hooks – the “hero” has flashes of terrible events they must solve. Very cool, very Lovecraft.
It’s a shame the core gets a bit bogged down – there’s a powerful town cult of zero SAN lunatics, a pig-man-meld mutated into a super-pig-maw-monster (considering none of the possibilities for what actually created the pig-monster really impact the story, it probably doesn’t need the multiple-choices offered), and the opportunity to be thrown down a chute into a labyrinth.
The labyrinth bit is really nice and I’m surprised doesn’t come up more often. It’s a traditional horror trope, yet rarely appears in Delta Green. Claustrophobic dripping tunnels and a grunting man-eating monstrosity is good for fear.
Overall, a solid entry that could’ve been parred back on the background and focused more on the unremitting horrors of the farm itself. I’m also kind of sad that the threat just isn’t a literal drove of feral pigs, used by the owner to eat people he doesn’t like. But that’s a different story.
* * * *
THE HARVEST
Synopsis: Agents must investigate the dark secrets of an idyllic prairie town.
Opinion: Those darned Russians are at it again (what is it with Russian cults in DG?). While the hook’s a bit weak, it’s nothing a little Handler-inserted weirdness couldn’t fix.
Otherwise this is a solid little scenario with cool setpiece (the sacrificial altar and ceremony are wonderful), but lacks some of the finer points that could’ve really elevated it – the town lacks any named NPCs beside Vladislav the Agents can talk to or investigate or beat up, there are no real clues to follow beside breaking into the ceremony, and the most likely solution is one that’ll end as a hoe-down or a firestorm.
More opportunities for the players to interact with the community, or different ways of bringing down the cult (thought research or negotiation), would definitely raise this scenario above some of its peers.
* * * *
ABNORMAL ANATOMY
Synopsis: Briefing: Extradimensional space. Missing agents. Investigate!
Opinion: If this was trimmed down to a D66 from a D100, I think the extra wordcount would not only have kept the core of its element (random things!) but allowed for an actual opener and conclusion describing what’s going on.
Some of the ideas in here are pretty interesting in their own right but without even a rough premise (“Dr. Bachman opened the Cube O’ Doom, plunging his hospital into the Hellraiser Zone. Get in there and destroy the statue to Xamuch!”) it’s a dungeon-crawl plus the kitchen-sink, and that's not entirely a good thing.
I’d also give extra points if there was a better link between the elements – sure, it’s a spooky gore-encrusted hospital full of faceless nurses, but what’s with the shoggoths and dissected elder-things and deep ones? Now, if you’d made it Hellraiser's Zoo I’d have bought it, hook, line and sinker.
* * * *
MIRROR, MIRROR
Synopsis: An officially sanctioned Program black site has gone dark while the facility is still in operation, the Program needs it investigated.
Opinion: A neat hook with a vague storyline, which is a shame since it hits a lot of high-point “mysteriousness” and unsettling possibilities. Has a nice build-up of dread, something players rarely get in the opening to scenarios. The lack of a “What’s Going On” for Handlers at the beginning of the doc is unfortunate.
A lot of word-count is spent setting up the case officer (always worth slicing back) and over-description, e.g. “Separate from the other buildings, the Facility is noticeable” (well, naturally) or “Each of the three doors down the left hallway open into eight by ten rooms with a metal table that has a dull lustre to it” (that’s 26 words on its own). If half of the unneeded words were cut, I’m guessing there’d be more than enough room to put in more actual events for players to face and/or defeat.
The idea Agents have to fight/meet their future selves (who blame them for their plight) is cool – but the D100 table of encounters isn’t really that; it could’ve been cut down to a D100 roll or similar with nothing much lost. It’d be more interesting if the table had random things the unfortunate “time-slider” has suffered – missing an eye or in a wheelchair, carrying a weird futuristic gun, etc.
Overall, an interesting premise.
* * * *
OPERATION PITCHBLENDE
Synopsis: There are no easy answers for agents who encounter the corpse of a living admiral.
Opinion: This scenario suffers from a problem a bunch of shotgun scenarios do: a really cool hook which provides a lot of questions, none of which are subsequently answered within the scenario itself. If it had said “mi-go did it” or “March Tech done it” I’d have at least, as a Handler, have been able to whip up a backstory to slot it into – but if run as is, I’m pretty sure players would feel cheated.
More problematically, the “clone” is only described as having replaced the real Admiral as a note to the Handler. There is no way for the players to discover this, as written – and that leaves the Agents potentially leaving the clone to live his life unpestered. What does this mean? Is there a danger in doing this? Should the Agents care? I don’t know.
On the plus side, I think this is a great hook for Handlers to toy around with as a setup for their own scenario. The “random” replacement of individuals is always spooky.
* * * *
WITH YOUR NAME ON IT
Synopsis: You don't want to be number one with a bullet…
Opinion: A nasty little Green Box item that’s liable to annoy players more than it interests them. I love the premise, but the warning not to make it a “gotcha or a surprise” rings a little hollow when it’s exactly that. The solutions are also a little too “clean” for a scenario - how many DG games actually involve counting bullets?
I can see this curse being a fun little scenario if it was inverted; for instance, a locked-room mystery where bodies are found with name-carved bullets embedded in them but nary a shooter in sight.
* * * *
THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH
Synopsis: When employees of a medical company begin turning up dead from a mysterious virus, a group of Agents are sent to figure out where it came from and how to stop it. Not all is as it seems however, as the company has a few secrets of its own to hide…
Opinion: This is an interesting set-up with a well done chain of clues and responses. I like the way the “villain” of the piece is also, in his own way, a victim – and the quandaries Agents are placed in trying to deal with it.
On the other hand, March Tech having a tooled-up and murderous Asset Recovery Team to splatter Agents that don’t play ball feels like overkill. Players have got enough on their plate without forcing them to go toe-to-toe with a kill-team and suffer the ire of their superiors forever and ever.
There’s also bit of an oddity in the Avatar’s attacks. If it’s touched by anyone, it infects the plague – yet if it touches someone, it does a withering attack. If I ran it I’d just keep the first one.
A fun scenario - though the meme names would have to go if I ran it. It's just a bit too much for my tastes.
* * * *
MISAPPROPRIATED
Synopsis: Of thousands of stolen artifacts, one has particular significance. Who will claim it?
Opinion: A well written scenario, cleverly tied to real events and with a trail of interesting clues that ends up tripping at the finish line by ensuring the Agents either stop a guy turning into a tree... or see a guy turn into a tree.
Being turned into a tree is spooky, but I'm not entirely sure how problematic that is in DG's book. If anything, it effectively solves itself.
I get the feeling the idea for this scenario was more a psychological slow-burn, with a more grounded ending than the usual guns-and-magic found in others. I like that and respect it, but it's let down somewhat by the fact the Agents never interact with the culprits before the ritual begins, thereby removing any real emotional impact we might otherwise have felt.
On the other hand, I'd definitely still run this one. I just think I'd have the sacrifice turn into a Mythos monster.
* * * *
UNSANITARY CONDITIONS
Synopsis: The trash compactor in the apartment building on 113 Parade Street Traverse City, Michigan have thus far claimed four victims. Will it claim more?
Opinion: Cool idea about a piece of technology suddenly made dangerous (reminded me of Stephen King’s The Mangler) dialled up to overkill proportions. Like, potentially unfun proportions.
The opportunity for players to have their Agents brutally killed with very little chance of stopping it is high in this scenario (the fact a successful roll doesn't overcome the suicidal actions feels rather unfair) - and the solution isn't much better, probably leading to mass suicide. Considering the backstory of the painting being thrown into it, I originally thought it might've been better if it was just the mangled artwork that was the problem - requiring Agents to find the pieces and burn them or something.
On the other hand, this is a really grounded, rather smart scenario - the NPCs are neat, if a little buried in the text (it'd have been good to separate them with breaks) - and has the potential to be a brain-tickler for players who don't play arty-farty Agents.
* * * *
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE
Synopsis: When Delta Green agents must retrieve the contents of a Green Box in Juneau, AK, a former DG friendly mistakes the agents for an unknown enemy and follows standing orders to protect the conspiracy’s secrets with his life.
Opinion: A simple enough scenario that’s either going to end with a bunch of dead Agents, a bunch of arrested Agents or... well, that’s pretty much it.
Since players do not know Sorensen is after them, are not able to negotiate with him, and otherwise are unable to dissuade him, effectively makes him an avenging angel – a deus ex machina that swoops down and instigates a shoot-out they had no opportunity to outthink or outrun.
* * * *
SNAKE OIL
Synopsis: A mass grave leads agents to dark scientific experiments.
Opinion: A nice simple scenario (albeit one set in Canada, which is M-Epic's purview) about mad scientists kidnapping the homeless for a bit of experimentation. The clue thread is solid, leading players to the Secret Lab where things are pretty much guaranteed to end in a shootout.
There's a surfeit of DG scenarios featuring Mad Scientists Experimenting On The Homeless, so it's not exactly an untapped market, but this scenario is a good - if not entirely unique - entry. I think the worms are kind of cool, though I'd imagine they get a bit boring after you'd killed a few of them. Maybe they should "evolve" into something else as the scenario progresses?
* * * *
FOR WHAT AILS YOU
Synopsis: An alien trapped in an espionage device, a man who should have died 3 years ago and a March Technologies hit squad.
Opinion: While the hook is weak and ill-explained, and the timeline is a bit out-of-synch (it sometimes feels like Agents arrived minutes after the crash, at other times hours or days), this scenario isn’t half-bad at all.
If a little convoluted, and with some rather bizarre events – like March Tech wetworks massacring an ambulance crew for no reason – there’s a clear thread running through it with the opportunity for some nice setpieces. I liked the idea of one of the Agents being Bonded to the Yithian, though – like in so many cases where players must play the villain – it’s liable to go to pot if you don’t pick the right person to do it.
I’m probably not the only one who thinks the March Tech goons are unnecessarily shoehorned in; their two objectives here appear to be: 1) cause problems for the players, who have enough problems anyway, and 2) set up a DG/MT war in the future. I’m not necessarily a big fan of that second one, so I’d probably skip it if I ran it.
* * * *
SILENT NIGHT
Synopsis: The stars are right tonight and the Agents are tracking three mad men as they navigate by the light of a malignant star to the birth of something strange and terrible.
Opinion: A Christmas scenario – of whichthere have been a few, some also involving gunning down a messiah. This one’s one of the better ones, if just because it has a solid clue thread running through it.
While there are too many rolls needed to follow the “wise men” (albeit nothing a bit of judicious Handling can’t fix), my biggest issue is that the ending is basically a cult hoe-down – although in this case they’re mostly unarmed and liable to be a pushover if Agents are smart. Not a bad scenario by any means, if needing to be played with the right people – the ones who get the joke.
* * * *
THE ONE AND ONLY GUN STORY
Synopsis: A scant encounter with two hundred years of human violence in a 3 pound frame.
Opinion: A rather weird scenario with a lot of emphasis on a fictive (and false) backstory involving a magic gun. The scenario itself is fine, being well-written and logical (if a bit stolid and basic), but I can’t help feel that the opportunity for players to find out what’s truly going on plotwise isn’t really there. In the end, it’s basically a Macguffin with six bullets.
* * * *
SPECIAL DELIVERY
Synopsis: The Agents are tasked with stealing a powerful analytics program from a March Technologies, Inc.'s shell corporation (Acuity Dynamix) in Boston, Massachusetts but conflict arises as the interests vying for control of the program collide.
Opinion: An evil AI scenario masquerading as a heist movie – or vice versa. The biggest problem with this scenario isn’t the premise or the scenario itself, but the front-loading of extraneous backstory and briefing. Ironically, for a scenario focused on actually stealing something and getting away with it, far too much text is spent on the infiltration (and Dr. Miller’s section is effectively a cutscene, the Agents playing no role other than waiting for her to be called away).
As for evil AIs, this one could’ve done with a little bit more on what happens if it’s released into the wild. Does it go WAR GAMES and try to take over NORAD? I do like that it keeps its end of the bargain, though the potential for misuse is very probable, depending on the Handler.
* * * *
ALTERATION
Synopsis: An Agent has died, but their body has gone missing. An alternative to death is revealed.
Opinion: Though apparently intended for a group, I get the feeling this would be a lot more fun as a one-player scenario, with a poor dead Agent’s player having to suffer the indignity of concluding his afterlife.
As well as being well-written, and both amusing and creepy (like the RE-ANIMATOR movie, oddly enough), there’s some good opportunities for roleplaying in here. I feel that some of the mechanics are a bit too fiddly in the long run, dealing with maintenance etc., but I wonder if any Agent would be given the opportunity to survive so long – I imagine his colleagues will put him out of his misery rather quickly.
* * * *
HALT! WHO GOES THERE?
Synopsis: Bored reservists find themselves in over their heads.
Opinion: Goatswood! Gurkhas! Lots of shooting! This is one of those one-shot scenarios I could probably see myself running at some point, with the potential for big explosions and mowing down horrible cultists.
The flow of events is fine but a bit... linear and expected? I was hoping for more emphasis on weirdness - perhaps some randomized tables? - and a bit of investigation – poking around, finding documents in briefcases handcuffed to MI5 men, or old books to throw on the fire etc.
In summary, however, it's a jolly fun time - and probably the first shotgun scenario I've seen to try and simulate a combat setting without getting bogged down in Firearm rolls. I really hope someone does a fully-fledged Raid on Goatswood sometime.
* * * *
AN APPLE A DAY
Synopsis: They say that when something seems too good to be true, it usually is. The Delta Green Agents who are tasked with investigating the strange happenings at the "Miracle Clinic" of Northern Maine are about to find out just how true this saying is.
Opinion: A cool idea, hampered by a railroad of a plot, where once players break in to start their investigation, the Other Delta Green promptly starts killing everyone. Hinging success or failure on five dice rolls is a good way of ensuring players get TPK’d or burn the building down – doing the baddies’ job for them.
Otherwise, the plotline is nice and the writing is clean and concise (though those items of interest are unlikely to come up, because everyone’s running for their lives). I feel that if Cell Omicron’s plan was separated into a timeline (maybe occurring the day after the Agents arrive, rather than as soon as they begin), there’d be more opportunity for investigation and dealing with the hospital staff before chaos ensues.
* * * *
TO THE WINDOW, TO THE QUOLL
Synopsis: A race through time as the Agents and some Grugs try to catch a time-traveling rodent.
Opinion: This feels like a meme scenario, though I’m not sure what the meme is – so maybe I’m wrong. The core idea is amusing and fun (although I could see it wearing out quite quickly), but I can’t help but think it’s got things backwards. Instead of modern-day Agents stumbling across the grugs and quoll by happenstance, I feel the more interesting story is having the players as the Grugs, picking up out-of-time hitchhikers as they chase the quoll across dimensions to get home. Trying to explain the situation to trigger-happy NPCs using grunts and finger-paintings has never been so much fun.
While not really my type of scenario, being a “VIP protection” mission with a big dollop of comedy, as a light-hearted step away from the usually grim-and-gritty world of espionage and conspiracy, it’s got a lot of nice ideas, all neatly explained and ready to go. I think it'd go down well with players who want something different - and Handlers who want something to pick-up and run.
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YOU'RE THE SHAN NOW, DOG
Synopsis: One of PISCES cadaver dogs ate a bug, and now it's run away from home.
Opinion: A PISCES (PICES?) sub-org that offers intriguing possibilities, but spends too much time backstorying the group and its members. I think a lot of the information could have been wrapped into a sample scenario, which would’ve helped introduce them while also showing how they work.
While I wouldn’t personally use PISCES ghouls in my game – just not my cup of tea and more in line with the North Korean fanon group on Fairfield – the premise is original and very different from the norm. Some may say it's overkill to have a ghoul-wizard-shan, but it's definitely novel!
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ONE TOO MANY NIGHTS AT THE OPERA
Synopsis: Agents follow a missing Delta Green team through a series of false leads in small town America.
Opinion: I love mundane scenarios and I really liked this one. There are a solid string of “clues” leading to the conclusion – well, a conclusion – while the opportunities for players to get waylaid, jumping at shadows, are given just the right amount of information and thrust.
My only real issue is there’s no way for the players to realize the crash was purely accidental and not by some malign act, outside of the Handler coming clean. I don’t think it’s a big concern; a bit of Forensics will probably conclude the car skidded off the road by happenstance. But the threat remains.
Then again, while some might argue it’s a letdown finding out what’s really going on, I think the odd shaggy-dog story is worth telling once in a while.
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OPERATION ASK ALICE
Synopsis: A quantum pointcrawl through the Sedona Dreamlands
Opinion: An intriguing scenario idea that I found a bit too confusing when it came to working out how to run it. I’ve never been a big fan of putting new rules or complexities into shotgun scenarios, and this one has a bunch of mechanics for things I’d probably never use. Not a bad thing; just a personal grumble.
It’s nice to see the Dreamlands get some Delta Green love, though, even if it’s not necessarily the Dreamlands I know.
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LORD AND HEAVEN
Synopsis: A kidnapped child, an ugly standoff and an unholy, hair trigger eschaton in the attic.
Opinion: The original ending to Kevin Smith’s RED STATE by way of Delta Green. Clocking in at almost 1,500 words for the scenario and another 2,000+ for the appendices (!), I don’t think I’m the first to say this isn’t really a shotgun, but I won’t belabor the point.
The idea for the scenario is great. Where it falls flat is in the potentials. The Agents are expected to sneak into the Amish compound without being seen, rescue the child and then escape – without alerting anyone or causing a firefight. Except the scenario is all but written to ensure the players will mess up; as well as having heavily-armed Mennonites, there are not one, not two, but four Winged Servitors lurking in the shadows. Overkill is expected – with no Handler provided recommendations for negotiating with any of the groups involved.
While I wouldn’t say the scenario needs to be simpler, I would say it could do with being cut back to basics. There’s no need for a paragraph or two about the case officer, nor the backstory of this Mennonite offshoot (a link to Wikipedia would probably have sufficed); most Handlers can fudge the details based on WITNESS or TIN STAR.
Overall, a solid and interesting scenario premise, but with the Handler left in the lurch when working out what will happen when the Agents inevitably fail.
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A THICC SICKNESS
Synopsis: Agents are sent to bust a cocaine delivery near Key West under a storm which hides both the delivery and something else.
Opinion: An interesting new creature, buried inside a 500 word scenario that’s basically a prolonged shoot-out with a thin thread toward a potential new Delta Green enemy. My biggest issue is the sheer amount of text about the creatures themselves, which – while well-written – seems like an attempt to shoehorn backstory that doesn’t add to the scenario itself. I really like the image of monsters tugging cocaine barges onto a storm-swept beach, but I wonder whether using something more well-known (like Deep Ones) would have allowed for the scenario to be padded out to something befitting its strengths.
PART TWO
COMING SOON
Based. Where's part two?
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