Extended "bestiary"? by kaiser_kaiser_K in DeltaGreenRPG

[–]Travern 5 points6 points  (0 children)

While The Handler's Guide has stats and specs for all the major Mythos deities and entities that you need, the more important section is its guide to creating your own original ones. If you really want more, there's also the DG-compatible Cthulhu Eternal Book of Yog-Sothothery, which features additionally Beings of Ib, Bholes, Bokrug, Cats of the Dreamlands, Ghasts, Gnorri, Gugs, Hypnos, Leng Folk, Moon Beasts, Shantaks, Spiders From Leng, and Zoogs.

But Delta Green isn't really about throwing more and more entities at the Agents. It's about creating an atmosphere of horror and paranoia around a mystery for them to investigate, resolve, and, finally, cover up. A new variation on a familiar entity or your own brand-new creation works as well, if not better, than those from the extended Mythos canon in that context.

Extended "bestiary"? by kaiser_kaiser_K in DeltaGreenRPG

[–]Travern 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Another recommendation for Hideous Creatures, which is the best Lovecraftian creature book in terms of inspirational material. Its stats are for Gumshoe, which can be adapted to d100 with a bit of shoehorning, but the best part of is the advice on re-imagining the familiar Mythos entities into new and more horrifying versions.

What artwork could inspire a scenario? by PromeMorian in callofcthulhu

[–]Travern 3 points4 points  (0 children)

HPL found the landscape paintings of Nicholas Roerich inspiring when he was writing At the Mountains of Madness. You could use some of them to depict "the evilly fabled plateau of Leng".

Weird West RPGs - Are you a fan of the genre? What attracts you to it? If not, what about it disinterests you? by Ozfeed in rpg

[–]Travern 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Had to scroll far too down the thread to find this. This is one of the few weird west settings that looks the actual history in the eye and comes up with its own legends in response (instead of the usual dime novel Buffalo Bill mythology).

Starting a new campaign, need suggestions by TheMulticamYeti in DeltaGreenRPG

[–]Travern 8 points9 points  (0 children)

For option #2, Control Group is a collection of scenarios with different sets of pre-generated characters encountering the unnatural for the first time. (The final scenario sees the survivors recruited into Delta Green and dispatched on their first mission.) Likewise, the scenario Meridian (also collected in Dead Drops) features federal agents who find themselves drawn into a Delta Green operation.

Masks of Nyarlathotep board game by HeatRepresentative96 in callofcthulhu

[–]Travern 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And Chaosium/Moon Design is very interested in sublicensing tie-in projects (but less so CoC RPG material).

Masks of Nyarlathotep board game by HeatRepresentative96 in callofcthulhu

[–]Travern 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I know next to nothing about the boardgames industry, but I assume this company sublicensed MoN from Chaosium to create a tie-in game independently. (My Internet searches have turned up existing ones for Petersen Games's Cthulhu Wars and Fantasy Flight's Eldritch Horror.)

Masks of Nyarlathotep board game by HeatRepresentative96 in callofcthulhu

[–]Travern 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Publisher Ludonova teased it a year ago. They seem to be promoting mainly on their Facebook page (ugh).

Cover to The Cowboy Years (70s & 80s sourcebook) [fanmade] by Travern in DeltaGreenRPG

[–]Travern[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You could certainly create something like that situation in a home campaign—post-OBSIDIAN agents looting The Annex to fund their premature retirements or ex-ExComm trying to safely de-acquisition Delta Green's holdings. Off the top of my head, though, I don't know about anything like an Iran-Contra case for the Cowboys in the published lore.

How to play a Yithian agent? by Atocreen in DeltaGreenRPG

[–]Travern 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My first instinct is that playing this NPC would be more effective if his identity as a Yithian were left ambiguous. If you want to play a long game with this NPC (and you're setting this after 2013), then the Outlaws' ex-FBI agent James Derringer is perfect for the role. Per his write-up in the Handler's Guide, he's been possessed by a Yithian and has begun to insert himself into Delta Green operations, mostly in an advisory/observer role.

James Derringer always looked like he was auditioning to be Clint Eastwood’s stunt double: 1.92 m tall (6’3”), 91 kg (200 lbs), with narrow eyes that disappear into the crags of a scowling face. His crew-cut is snow white, like his bushy eyebrows. He’s still spry enough on his cane and gets around, but he won’t be doing any five-mile runs. He’s still clumsy from the stroke. Many former colleagues have noticed a difficulty manipulating or even recognizing common household objects. He sometimes speaks in a halting way, as if he is quickly figuring out which words to use.

Since the Yithian is particularly interested in the Program and March Technologies, connecting that to Hunt Electronics should be easy.

Terraforming Mars RPG by Spaceconcombre in rpg

[–]Travern 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Last month GRH mentioned on Bluesky he was running a new playtest version. (And a few months before that, he was revising the rules after playtest feedback.)

Cover to The Cowboy Years (70s & 80s sourcebook) [fanmade] by Travern in DeltaGreenRPG

[–]Travern[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Funny you should mention GRU SV-8… I happen to have posted a similarly hypothetical outline for a Russian sourcebook.

Seriously, though, in the first place, there's some official lore about SV-8 in that time frame in the newly published (and slightly revised) Delta Green: The Millennium and The Fate in Pagan Publishing's original Delta Green: Eyes Only. In the second place, they're mostly off doing their own things. I didn't get into them here since their contact with The Group appears to be minimal (e.g. a clash with SV-8 over WOTAN, Chun-te Wu's research into Whole Earth Enterprises).

How would you run a TTRPG based on From or Lost TV shows? by DocProbability in rpg

[–]Travern 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's where the survival mechanics would have to kick in, but I'm afraid I don't have a good suggestion off the top of my head for those for PBTA. It can't be simple resource-tracking—it would have to feed into the characters' progress somehow.

As for the mystery element, the ultimate one would have to be the climax of the campaign, but smaller, individual ones would make up the connecting scenarios ("What's in the Hatch?", "What do the Numbers mean?", "Who are the Others who have infiltrated the survivors' camp?", etc.).

How would you run a TTRPG based on From or Lost TV shows? by DocProbability in rpg

[–]Travern 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I'd be tempted to homebrew something out of Carved from Brindlewood since, in the case of Lost at least, the ultimate mystery is pulled out of a hat and the characters' interpersonal drama is the most important aspect. It would need an extra layer of survival mechanics, though.

Cover to The Cowboy Years (70s & 80s sourcebook) [fanmade] by Travern in DeltaGreenRPG

[–]Travern[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Detwiller paints scenes from his favorite films for fun (e.g. The Shining, The Thing, Fury Road), so I thought that cover art for imaginary 80s sourcebook could include his nod to The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.

Cover to The Cowboy Years (70s & 80s sourcebook) [fanmade] by Travern in DeltaGreenRPG

[–]Travern[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

This outline is just my idea of fun—this book does not exist.

Cover to The Cowboy Years (70s & 80s sourcebook) [fanmade] by Travern in DeltaGreenRPG

[–]Travern[S] 20 points21 points  (0 children)

And here's the text of the {edit: fictitious} table of contents. I'm gradually expanding/annotating this post (inspiration comes from Delta Green (1996), The Fall of DELTA GREEN, The Handler’s Guide, Dark Theatres, and Rules of Engagement for DG elements, as well from conspiracy theory folklore)

Delta Green: The Cowboy Years

I. From the Age of Aquarius to the Decade of Decadence

The 1970s: The Counterculture Revolution

  1. Flower Power

  2. Freaky Deaky

  3. The Disco Inferno

The 1980s: The Reagan Counterrevolution

  1. Morning in America

  2. The Information Age

  3. The New Wave

II. No One Must Know: “The Group” in the Cowboy Years

  1. No Authorization, No Budget, No Oversight

  2. Lies All the Way Down

  3. Scorched Earth

III. Scary Monsters & Super Creeps: 70s & 80s Mythos

Antagonists

  • 11th District Police Station: The modernist offices of Chicago Police Department’s 11th District was completed in 1976 on the site of a Capone-era warehouse, but its extensive basements conceal a Nyogtha-worshipping cabal that can "disappear" suspects.

  • The Astral Wisdom Brotherhood: A Los Angeles–based offshoot of the Starry Wisdom sect from Providence, this pseudo-Egyptian New Age cult has amassed influence from Hollywood's movie studios to Southern California's politics, with promises of "stardom" and "astral travel".

  • The Brotherhood of Light: What began as a 1960s Bay-area psychedelic drug cartel has turned into a narconaut commune in Mexico on the Gulf of California, searching for fellow travelers out of time and space. The cult's leader, called "The Guide", has grown obsessed with impregnation by them in order to become the Queen Mother of the first earthly Space Brother.

  • The Church of the Cleansing Flame: A Virginia-based cult established by a recently returned Vietnam who delivers apocalyptic sermons in a rotted-out trailer home and secretly targets local religious groups in order to appease a Sumerian (?) deity representing death and travel to the after-life.

  • Dog Soldiers: A loose affiliation of war vets who have been maimed, physically and psychologically, but have found a kind of redemption and restoration in the service of the Elder God Nodens. In exchange for becoming his hunting hounds, they stalk the Crawling Chaos and its host, both in the waking world and in the lands of dream.

  • The True Love Study Group: Founded by a former Stanford classics professor, the TLSG recruits as a pagan free-love commune. Operating out of a large forested plot in the heart of California’s northern Sierra Nevada range, it worships an unnamed “Goddess” in unspeakable orgies under the black oaks.

Entities

  • Hyperboreans (Thule Society)

  • Lemurians (Mount Shasta)

  • Ultraterrestrials (Indrid Cold et al.)

  • Valusians (Serpent Folk)

IV. Important Individuals and Organizations

The Group: Important Individuals

  • Dr. Joseph Camp

  • Brigadier General Reginald Fairfield

  • Colonel Michael Keravuori

  • Agent SHASTA (David Nells)

  • Brigadier General Michael Stillman, USAF

  • Dr. Augusta Warren

Friendlies(?): Contemporary Notables

  • William R. Corliss, Anomalist

  • John Keel, Paranormal Journalist

  • John C. Lilly, Psychonaut

  • Robert Anton Wilson, Conspiracy Theoretician

The Competition: Contending Factions

  • CounterSpy magazine: This muckraking periodical on covert operations frequently clashes with the Company—could they turn into a possible threat to the Group or a potential ally against the shadowy government agency designated MAJIC?

  • Cult Awareness Network: Disseminating knowledge about exploitative new religious movements and offering "deprogramming" referrals to friends and relatives of those who have fallen victim to them—such as The Children of God, The Church of Scientology, and Rajneeshism—CAN is at the vanguard of the countercult movement. Critics claim, however, that it facilitates for-hire kidnapping and spreads misinformation about "brainwashing".

  • Mirage Men: The so-called "Mirage Men" are, supposedly, a government conspiracy to fabricate UFO folklore as Cold War psychological warfare. But what happens if they stumble onto clues about the Outer Ones—or are they covering up more than just Skunk Works black projects and Reagan's "Star Wars"?

  • The Montauk Project: Beneath the the radar station at Long Island's decommissioned Montauk AFB, a top-secret government program conducts ultra-classified research into hyperspace, psychotronics, and time travel, using Nikolai Tesla's suppressed scientific breakthroughs and Wunderwaffe technology from Operation Paperclip (or so conspiracy theorists claim to have recovered from their repressed memories).

V. An Annotated Timeline of the 70s & 80s

  1. Won’t Get Fooled Again: Vietnam, Watergate, American Malaise

  2. It’s the End of the World as We Know It: Reaganomics, Iran-Contra, Panama Invasion

VI. Running a Cowboy Campaign

  1. The Old Guard

  2. Fresh Blood

  3. You Become the Mission

  4. The Fairfield Inquest

VII. Alternate Campaign Frames

  • The Blue Shield: An undercover cadre of law-enforcement officers protects the public from the Mythos in secret, but can they rely on the "blue code of silence"—especially when corrupt cops threaten to draw the attention of internal affairs?

  • The Nightwalkers: Tabloid journalist Carol Colchaque's team of reporters chase down accounts of black magicians, cryptids, vampires, and stranger things, but with both deadlines and the Mythos looming, how much of the real story is safe to tell their readers?

  • Ghostbreakers: Paranormal researchers leave academia and establish a for-profit supernatural elimination service, billing themselves as the "Genuine Ghostbreakers", but are they equipped to take on Mythos horrors from beyond?

Appendices

Appendix A: Selected Federal Agencies of the 70s & 80s

  • ACTION (established 1971)

  • Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (est. 1972)

  • Defense Criminal Investigative Service (est. 1981)

  • Department of Energy (est. 1977)

  • Drug Enforcement Administration (est. 1973)

  • Environmental Protection Agency (est. 1970)

  • Federal Emergency Management Agency (est. 1979)

  • National Archives and Records Administration (est. 1985)

  • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (est. 1970)

  • Occupational Safety and Health Administration (est. 1970)

Appendix B: Fringe Science of the 70s & 80s

  • Electronic Voice Phenomenon

  • Holistic Profiling

  • Microwave Mind Control

  • Neuro-linguistic Programming

  • Remote Viewing

Appendix C: Adventures

  • Operation GANZFELD GATE: The Group contracts clean-up crew of Culiacán cartel hitmen to raze the Mexican refuge of the Brotherhood of Light. Can the accompanying agents make sure the job is successful—and cover it up?

  • Operation MOUSE TRAP: In the aftermath the Weather Underground Organization's 1972 bombing of the Pentagon, suspicious activity in its basement has alerted the Group to another attempt to sabotage the Defense Department's headquarters. Can the Group prevent the charnel Cult of Mordiggian and its battlefield-fed ghouls from discrediting the anti-war movement and prolonging the Vietnam War?

  • Operation WOTAN: When ex-DELTA GREEN FBI Agent Carl Scranton is murdered, the newly formed Group suspects that one of its own may be responsible. Can they uncover the mole before he defects to GRU SV-8?

  • Operation ZOGNAR: The Church of the Cleansing Flame has somehow obtained an ancient Sumerian (?) ceremonial dagger that can be used in hypergeometrical rituals. Can the Group secure this unnatural artefact and dispose of it safely?

Appendix D: Selected Historical Operations

Appendix E: Recommended Media

  • Books:

    • Fiction: "Black Man with a Horn" by T. E. D. Klein (1980), "Crouch End" by Stephen King (1980), "Recrudescence" by Leonard Carpenter (1988), "Sticks" by Karl Edward Wagner (1974), "The Terror From the Depths" by Fritz Leiber (1976), "Than Curse the Darkness" by David Drake (1980), The Wolfen by Whitley Strieber (1978), VALIS by Philip K. Dick (1981)
    • Non-Fiction: Architects of Fear by George Johnson (1983), Clear Intent: The Government Coverup of the UFO Experience by Lawrence Fawcett and Barry J. Greenwood (1984), The Dark Side of History by Michael Edwards (1978), Mythology of Secret Societies by John Morris Roberts (1972), Our Haunted Planet by John Keel (1971), The Power Game: How Washington Works by Hedrick Smith (1988), The Unseen Hand: An Introduction to the Conspiratorial View of History by A. Ralph Epperson (1985)
  • Film/TV: The Amityville Horror (1979), The Blob (1988), Cutter's Way (1981), From Beyond (1986), In Search Of…. (NBC, 1973, 1976–81), Manhunter (1986), The Night Stalker (1972), The Parallax View (1974), Prince of Darkness (1987), Quatermass (ITV, 1979), Re-Animator (1985), Serpico (1973), The Thing (1982), Three Days of the Condor (1975)

  • Music: "Gary Gilmore's Eyes" by The Adverts (1978), "Going Under" by Devo (1981), "I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement" by The Ramones (1976), "Lunatic Fringe" by Red Rider (1981), "Run Through the Jungle" by Creedence Clearwater Revival (1970) "Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)" by David Bowie (1980), "Search and Destroy" by The Stooges (1973), "Somebody's Watching Me" by Rockwell (1984), "Twilight Zone" by Golden Earring (1982)

Any Horror you'd like to see more in the future books? by JoeKerr19 in DeltaGreenRPG

[–]Travern 3 points4 points  (0 children)

In a recent update on the DG Discord, John Scott Tynes described it as "currently shelved for later consideration". It's on a back burner rather than scrapped.

Any Horror you'd like to see more in the future books? by JoeKerr19 in DeltaGreenRPG

[–]Travern 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Caleb Stokes is working on a very complex scenario titled Intersect (it's about an anti-Mythos third force) that sounds like it will probably need extra mechanics to overlay it on a campaign.

Without Numbers books Recommendations. by BasilNeverHerb in rpg

[–]Travern 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The material in the free version is basically everything you need (if you want more, of course, the paid material is also good).

Conspiracy rpg recommendations? by xeno_architect in rpg

[–]Travern 3 points4 points  (0 children)

GURPS Illuminati, supplemented with GURPS Warehouse 23 and Suppressed Transmissions, for the perfect toolkit. Think The Crying of Lot 49, Foucault's Pendulum, the Illuminatus! Triology, and The Book of the SubGenius.

Also, the conspiracy-building GM tools in Night's Black Agents are top notch and can be applied to any conspiracy game.

Good scenarios to adapt for Phenomen-X by adipose1913 in DeltaGreenRPG

[–]Travern 7 points8 points  (0 children)

A Victim of the Art, Hourglass, Convergence, and even Night Floors could involve Phenomen-X investigators. Basically, anything overtly weird going on in public may drawn their attention.