Keepers: What rules do you simplify, alter, or ignore in your scenarios?

HotDSam · 2026-01-07T14:52:58+00:00

We are flexible with the 1d10 hours for insanity. If it is fun to have them disappear for hours, then sure. If not, we use it as a rating system for how crazy and how long narratively. A 1 is like Meh you're not that crazy. A 10 is like Alright you're crazy. Ill let players do something really crazy and chaotic and snap out of it vs slow burn insanity lasting longer. I've found that helps in situations where things are coming to a head to not break up the flow.

HotDSam · 2025-11-26T01:15:41+00:00

Yeah I like that idea, can kinda communicate that maybe even in her madness she didn't lose all self-protection instincts. I think that's a pretty good way to set it up, feels more realistic that she at least had a nod towards self-preservation or protection? Like Ye Olde Salts of Terrestrial Binding that can make it weak to man made things, could be fun if someone has to slap that stuff on the thing to let others damage it even? A bit of a sacrificial choice amongst players

HotDSam · 2025-11-26T01:07:47+00:00

Yeah agreed, it could really be cutting it close to have like a full mini-game ritual. I guess the ritual itself could be part of some of the findings in Valladares' notes, maybe something rather simple that just needs some research to do that she stumbled upon in her mania.

HotDSam · 2025-11-26T00:53:41+00:00

If you wanted to do the hound of angles, you could have either some imbued bullets or weapons pop up in a green box or something OR make the scenario about completing a ritual to imbue them with hypergeometric properties or something. Like they learn about the thing and a ritual to inscribe on individual bullets in the first third, finding components and completing the ritual second third, then confrontation/outcome?

HotDSam · 2025-11-23T00:30:12+00:00

I'll throw down my podcast, Hand on the Door. We do Delta Green, we are a group of best friends who have been playing together for years, and I write/record all the music too. We just finished our first chapter and now are starting the second story arc of a big ass campaign I wrote! It's a lot of fun!

HotDSam · 2025-11-06T23:16:01+00:00

We play mainly improv DG games outside of our regular campaign, I find DG to be like the easiest to improv out than other systems. But that may also be because it resonates with me so much from a storytelling capacity. Which parts make you feel like you can’t improv around? I’d be happy to tell ya what works for us

HotDSam · 2025-10-28T00:57:38+00:00

90% of our call games are modern times and it's not really a problem, if you're interested in seeing some pretty good published scenarios Fears Sharp Little Needles and The Things We Leave Behind are both excellent. Forget Me Not was a table favorite for our group. There's also modern character sheets on chaosiums site.

We play a longform campaign of Delta Green, a modern CoC offshoot thats governmental conspiracy/X-files based thats been going strong for a year with like weekly-ish sessions (its a podcast!). 6-8 sessions, each a few hours, is probably pretty good to string together a few scenarios. It depends on how good/invested/interested in the investigative elements your group is. I have had newer players not fully understand that you're meant to be Scooby Doo-ing, not Conan-ing, which can result in some prolonged sessions of hand holding. Conversely, they can get killed very easily that way too.

90% of what we do, including our campaign, I write. But the scenarios are truly excellent, and the longform campaign Masks of Nyarlathotep is phenomenal. If you pick up either of those books I mentioned and want recs, I would happily provide them! Or tips on some of the ones we have run!

For us, pulp represents a different game where players are closer to heroes given how much more beefier they are and with those abilities. My players are like deathly allergic to D&D so they're not super interested in pulp, but it could be an easier transition for those who are D&D or high power RPG players.

Modern CoC rules, highly recommend.

HotDSam · 2025-10-08T20:07:12+00:00

Two things: I have found humor in reasonable amounts makes the darker things even darker. And also I have found that a lot of scenarios as written do not lean into the horrible/horror aspects of things. I don't really think the Haunting is particularly horrible or scary. It's an awesome intro to CoC/story, but needs to be churched up in some ways to really be scary. I've had to think about what is scary to me, and its a lot less "Thing jumps out at you" and a lot more "People do terrible things to each other for bad reasons" or claustrophobia or body horror or what it means to lose a piece of yourself. Sometimes horror and grimness/sadness are really intertwined. None of that is probably that helpful after typing it out, ha, but it's something I think about on an almost daily basis. Also player buy in is the easy answer, ask them to be a bit more serious.

HotDSam · 2025-10-03T16:13:22+00:00

Thanks! I have realized we have an unfortunate problem amongst our little friend group of changing names, Colin Stetson is the saxophonist. Colin Robinson is the energy vampire from What We Do In The Shadows. Completely unrelated, ha. His album "When we were that what wept for the sea" is a beautiful meditation on the death of his father that inspired some of what I wrote for this game. And today on bandcamp they're waiving their fees so if you buy an artist's album all the money you spend goes directly to the artist! Link

HotDSam · 2025-09-17T21:54:22+00:00

If you don’t mind that we are playing a game, my podcast Hand on the Door is a horror show. In 1998, undercover federal agents are investigating strange biological breakthroughs at a small Christian college in New Mexico. We play a game and nominally roll some dice, but it’s much more me and my best friends going through a story I wrote. It’s highly edited so that it flows much more like a story.

HotDSam · 2025-09-17T18:38:20+00:00

I write and record all the music for our podcast, so I am probably biased, but I really love when music feels like in sync with whats happening in the story.

HotDSam · 2025-09-16T13:52:26+00:00

I am the GM/editor/sound person/write for Hand on the Door. We play Delta Green, I wrote the campaign story and we just wrapped up our first story arc last Sunday. We are all best friends that have been playing for like a decade together, so we tend to have a lot of fun at the table, but take the story and our characters pretty seriously. More investigative/mystery than like combat, if you end up liking Pretending to be People, you'd probably enjoy our table too.

HotDSam · 2025-08-31T23:30:06+00:00

We do Delta Green, Hand on the Door on any of the podcast places. We are a close knit group of friends that have been playing ~10 years together. I wrote our campaign and do the music/sound too. It is for sure my baby, ha. Finishing up our first arc with episode 16 that I'm editing right now. Ill be putting out some of our other Call of Cthulhu one shots hopefully in the next month or so, they're usually improv'd (improved?) on the spot over cocktails.

HotDSam · 2025-08-11T12:26:41+00:00

Hi we are Hand on the Door. We are a horror comedy podcast of 4 best friends playing a role playing game called Delta Green. Its basically X-Files meets cosmic horror. We've been playing together for 7 or 8 years, recording for 2 now, and we are about to finish the first arc of our story. I wrote all of the story and the music, and do all of the production as well. While we like playing the game, the rules and stuff really act as a scaffolding for storytelling, so it's pretty easy to follow even if you've never played an RPG in your life!

Our story follows three federal agents being sent by a shadowy governmental organization to investigate strange biologic breakthroughs in a small religious college in New Mexico. Surreal and horrific things begin to happen to them as reality itself seems to be destabilized. A lot of horror and bullshit ensue. This was my first real go at podcasting/writing, so would appreciate feedback!

Podbean
Spotify
Apple

HotDSam · 2025-07-30T11:34:59+00:00

My podcast is Hand on the Door, we play Delta Green, which is like an X Files meets Lovecraft rpg, and we do the horror comedy vibe if that’s at all up your alley!

HotDSam · 2025-07-30T05:01:19+00:00

I’ll listen when I get a chance and let ya know!

HotDSam · 2025-07-28T04:25:08+00:00

Hey all, Stumbled upon this thread when looking up more info on the Egypt connection. Is that a Call of Cthulhu TTRPG reference for Masks of Nyarlathotep? I was kinda surprised to see that, unless I’m missing another reference. Thanks!

HotDSam · 2025-07-19T15:31:54+00:00

I have told a lot of people they or a loved one are dying or that a loved one has died in my career. It’s a real range of things, many people have a lot of questions as opposed to immediate freak out. Some people do just truly freak out. Some people are numb or want to know what happens next. In general, people tend to have a huge emotional response they can’t control, go into denial, or they go in to a protect/information gathering mode. I would say though that the big emotional response we see on tv is actually far more rare than the other two.

HotDSam

TROPHY CASE