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Just a reminder the r/nightattheopera scenario contest wraps up at the end of Feb. Details https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QsWZHrDCkoBhTMAaXUjrVFSvjq_F58Xl1f3Bmv-MyHk/edit here
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Jan 31, 2018 00:38
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| # ? May 29, 2024 03:50 |
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The Fall of Delta Green has been released in PDF!
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Feb 1, 2018 04:34
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I'm a old person who doesn't like staring at a screen to read, and losing my mind waiting for a return on my $300 for real, physical books pledge though. Sounds like this Spring might net me Fall and the GM guide, finally.
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Feb 1, 2018 14:30
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You're missing out on an absolutely gorgeous pdf, then. Pelgrane was not kidding when they said they were upping their graphic design game. There is as much of a timeline as you could wish for in the latest update. I'd personally take anything more than 3-4 months out with a grain of salt, but they have updated the release schedule. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arcdream/delta-green-the-role-playing-game/posts/2103783
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Feb 3, 2018 20:53
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So I finished up running Kali Ghati last night and all I can say is that one thing I did not expect to happen was for the party to actually somehow manage to loving successfully extract Ellis  Most of them even lived! Somehow!
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Feb 9, 2018 19:50
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Acebuckeye13 posted:So I finished up running Kali Ghati last night and all I can say is that one thing I did not expect to happen was for the party to actually somehow manage to loving successfully extract Ellis Go on...
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Feb 9, 2018 22:00
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Elendil004 posted:Go on... So basically, what happened was that after the ambush, the party and most of the surviving soldiers (With one of the PCs taking over for the squad leader after his previous character ate an RPG to the face) made their way to the village, stayed overnight to rest up, and then proceeded to the temple. At this point, the party consisted of four NPC soldiers (Booker, Bryant, and two survivors from the second MRAP I named Trady and Bortles) and six PCs, of which only two had any real combat expertise (Including the now-PC controlled squad leader). So, when they get down into the temple and find Ellis, a fairly typical interaction plays out-they basically go "Ellis, what the gently caress," Ellis babbles, then pulls out a knife and rushes them. One PC and two NPC soldiers then proceed to shoot him... and either miss or do minimal damage. At this point, one of the players decides to run forward and disarm Ellis, and together with Booker and Bryant proceed to tackle him and wrestle him into some flexi-cuffs. While this is going on, one of the other PCs looks up, sees the Sleeper, and decides to Get The gently caress Out, only to turn around and spot the mass of villagers sneaking up on them. Since they decided to book it the first round of combat, I gave the squad a free round to shoot into the rushing villagers (that is, everyone who didn't shoot or rush Ellis), of which all but one miss. One does kill a villager, which causes the Sleeper to stir and freak everyone the gently caress out, but they don't do any more significant damage before the mob hits them. What then proceeded was one of the most pathetic slapfights I've ever witnessed in an RPG. Out of twenty loving villagers, barely any actually manage to hit, and those that do either can't get through the body armor of the soldiers or PCs or end up doing minimal damage. Likewise, the PCs and the NPC soldiers can't hit a single loving thing, and in fact more damage is done through villagers fumbling their rolls and stabbing each other than through any intended attacks. At this point, they collectively decide to make a break for it, and in the melee the squad leader drops a smoke grenade and one of the other PCs drops a flare, making it impossible to see anything and giving everyone penalties on top of their abysmal rolls to actually hit anything. I basically give each member of the party+the NPCs an athletics check to try and shove their way free of the melee to book it, which all but Bryant eventually manage to succeed upon. And so, the party is effectively running out of the temple as quickly as they can, with most of the villagers mobbing Bryant (or just attacking each other at this point) and a handful in pursuit of the fleeing party. At this point I start having the party take intelligence checks to find their way out, of which they succeed on one before one of the NPC soldiers finally manages to kill a second villager, which triggers the Sleeper. Two of the party members immediately go down from temporary insanity from going past their breaking points, and I have the rest start rolling the individual intelligence checks to try and get out. Fortunately for the party members that failed, one of the NPC soldiers immediately flubbed his roll as hard as possible and ran directly towards the creature. The next round, the other NPC soldier failed slightly harder than the least successful party member, and got gibbed as well. Since they'd actually managed to get part of the way out of the temple, I only made them roll two successes (With the exception of the NPC Bryant, who I had roll all three... which he passed). Eventually, it came down to one PC who failed the intel and athletics checks twice in a row, but miraculously made both dodge rolls to avoid getting caught by the creature. He then made the last intel check he needed to escape, and together the surviving sane party members managed to get up the staircase and out of the temple, with the NPC Booker carrying Ellis. After escaping the temple, they decided to go around the valley, nearly killed themselves going down the mountain, managed to briefly reestablish radio contact, and after wandering around for about 12 hours managed to get found by a Blackhawk dispatched by CORAL NOMAD, who then brought them to Bagram AFB for debriefing and recovery. tl;dr the party was given a significant advantage in the final encounter by some of the worst combined rolling I have ever loving seen. Death can't wake the Sleeper if no one can actually kill anybody! 
Acebuckeye13 fucked around with this message at 08:53 on Feb 10, 2018 |
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Feb 10, 2018 08:49
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Sounds like Delta Green by way of the Cohen brothers.
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Feb 10, 2018 16:36
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That's a pretty good outcome. KG is one of my least favorite scenarios since it's obviously an early combat playtest and it shows. Night Visions feels like a more fun and interesting version of KG, to me at least. Glad it went well (ish).
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Feb 10, 2018 20:40
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What I find weird is that the scenario assumes the PCs are going to run over the mine, but the driver has a coinflip chance to spot it and that only gets better if the in the passenger seat has a good Awareness skill. It gets nice and creepy once you actually get to the village, but unless you have the second squad with you standing guard it's probably "LOL Sleeper's up, you're all screwed". And would A-Cell really be mad if you showed them the recovered hard drive and said "Ellis went bonkers and headed into a Bad Place, we should consider him KIA or worse and let sleeping eldritch dogs lie"? Barring the two soldiers he talked with there's not that much to contain, a cover story can be concocted, and Kali Ghati isn't a threat to anyone who isn't in it.
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Feb 10, 2018 23:57
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Kavak posted:What I find weird is that the scenario assumes the PCs are going to run over the mine, but the driver has a coinflip chance to spot it and that only gets better if the in the passenger seat has a good Awareness skill. It gets nice and creepy once you actually get to the village, but unless you have the second squad with you standing guard it's probably "LOL Sleeper's up, you're all screwed". The concern for A-Cell is that Ellis isn't just anyone, he's a CIA asset, and even the possibility of him getting picked up by the Taliban would be bad not just for Delta Green but for US operations in Afghanistan in general. Plus, while Kali Ghati itself isn't really a threat, there's no actual way to know that until you get there.
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Feb 11, 2018 01:57
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Acebuckeye13 posted:The concern for A-Cell is that Ellis isn't just anyone, he's a CIA asset, and even the possibility of him getting picked up by the Taliban would be bad not just for Delta Green but for US operations in Afghanistan in general. Plus, while Kali Ghati itself isn't really a threat, there's no actual way to know that until you get there. So bug out when that becomes apparent?
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Feb 11, 2018 02:12
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Kavak posted:So bug out when that becomes apparent?  I mean, hypothetically they could, but I don't know why they would, especially when the higher-ups would have some awkward questions afterwards about why they got that close to Ellis only to chicken out before they actually reached him.
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Feb 11, 2018 02:23
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Does A-cell consider "Genre-savvyness" as a valid defense?
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Feb 11, 2018 02:28
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Kavak posted:Does A-cell consider "Genre-savvyness" as a valid defense? Not generally, no 
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Feb 11, 2018 03:11
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To pivot to a topic that will make the thread look less like a classified document, how do you reconcile running the Cthulhu Mythos in a world where popular culture has been greatly shaped by its fictional depictions? Ignore it? Work around it? Is it all a psy-op designed to strengthen humanity's mental defenses?
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Feb 11, 2018 03:14
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Kavak posted:To pivot to a topic that will make the thread look less like a classified document, how do you reconcile running the Cthulhu Mythos in a world where popular culture has been greatly shaped by its fictional depictions? Ignore it? Work around it? Is it all a psy-op designed to strengthen humanity's mental defenses? I take the less-trod but also less meta-fictiony tack of "Our world but Lovecraftian fiction doesn't exist as such." There is still horror fiction, but there was not a brand of weird cosmic horror in the early 20th century by a man named Lovecraft and his contemporaries that referenced the same monsters and entities the Agents are facing. I have, in the past, winkingly inserted Sutter Cain as a contemporary author of cosmic horror in that vein who may be working from more than just his imagination.
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Feb 11, 2018 03:20
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Kavak posted:To pivot to a topic that will make the thread look less like a classified document, how do you reconcile running the Cthulhu Mythos in a world where popular culture has been greatly shaped by its fictional depictions? Ignore it? Work around it? Is it all a psy-op designed to strengthen humanity's mental defenses? So this idea stems a lot of being willing to step outside of genre monsters. If you go the route of 'cosmic horror' and have the real threat be an implacable enemy that there is at best a stalling measure against, then the genre knowledge the players have could be used to at best stall the scenario. So players perform smartly and with genre knowledge, but that ends up with a tie at best leading into something that shows that all the actions they have performed have been predetermined by some entity. Or I'm sure someone has better ideas than me after multiple whiskeys. (sorry but this is honestly after multiple whiskeys-cokes, and i have a crippling anxiety that anything I do with cthulu/horror is going to be lovely). I'm not a fan of your last option (psy-op), but there is a lot of space to work with. Some of this depends on your players. If they can play their characters straight, then there is a lot of room where you set something up, and all the players know it, but their characters don't, and how that all falls out is actually a ton of fun. This isn't workable with every group though. I guess I'd ask how good is your group at playing to character knowledge vs player knowledge, and from there you can go multiple ways. Someone who doesn't really know a ton still might know that reading books is a bad idea, so if the player is running his guy that way you need a way for other players to step up to soak that hit you were planning for him to read The Memoirs of Alahazhrad. I'd also say to not feel bad about listening to a podcast or somethign and nabbing the main idea. The guy that runs out coc game pulled the candle-cove game from rppr nearly whole-cloth. However, without any prompting, someone in our group did something that happened in their podcost that was... highly, uh, unusual. Both instances involved breaked a car window to get access to some books and useful, though not critical, information Personally I've found that even if you don't like the idea of delta green, pulling the way they structure characters is really good. If you want less useful guys have everyone subtract points and have a max point for categories (so maybe instead of 8 skills that are +20, you have 6 skills at +20. and maybe instead of a max of 80 you say there is a max of 60). Even if all you pull out of DG is bonds and stuff, dealing with that and vignettes involving that adds so much character meat that even someone who only knows 3.5 dungeon crawling will end up really involved with their character.
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Feb 12, 2018 10:57
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Anybody going to Gencon this year? I'm set to run three DG games.
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Feb 12, 2018 19:27
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Acebuckeye13 posted:
Indeed. The mission is to confirm Ellis' status - that means that the PCs need to see him in his current state. If they see a creepy village and gently caress off, A-Cell is going to have some mighty severe questions for them especially if they spent the lives of uninitiated personnel. That requires no small amount of covering up, especially if there's damage/destruction to valuable material (like the MRAP). Military property like MRAPs have very anal-retentive paperwork requirements which leave very obvious paper trails. Hilariously, US dollars do not have the same amount of attention/due diligence paid to them, doubly so if they come with CIA personnel. I still need to finish up that brief rules brief on bribing the ANA for Kali Ghati, but I'm confident it will be worth it!
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Feb 12, 2018 23:55
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Elendil004 posted:Anybody going to Gencon this year? I'm set to run three DG games. Yep! I'm thinking of running something CoC, maybe Mohole from Petersen's Abominations. Does anyone have experience running it? It seems to tick all my boxes for a con game. -has pregens? check -can fit into 4 hours or less? not sure -story goes from 0 to batshit crazy? oh yes -is lethal? yeah
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Feb 13, 2018 01:58
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Elendil004 posted:Anybody going to Gencon this year? I'm set to run three DG games. I'd like to, but given my current job situation I'm not sure I'll be able to get time off. What scenarios are you thinking of running?
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Feb 13, 2018 02:02
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Acebuckeye13 posted:I'd like to, but given my current job situation I'm not sure I'll be able to get time off. What scenarios are you thinking of running? I'm running Stop Repo (mine from this years shotgun contest), one called Hard Candy (adapted from the first DG game I ever played in) and my submission to the r/nightattheopera scenario contest (which I'm rewriting) about Jared Leto.
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Feb 14, 2018 01:15
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I finally got to play Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu and am happy to report that it's good. Mechanically it's similar to Pandemic. Each player gets a hero that does something unique and helpful, and when that hero goes insane their ability changes. Instead of germs, cultists emerge in locations across four towns - if a fourth would appear in one spot an Old One is invoked and the game gets harder. Shuggoths also appear and try to move through gate locations, which invokes an Old One if successful. Players win by closing the gates in each town. They lose when almost anything else happens. Closing a town's gate requires collecting five clues from that city, much like curing a pandemic disease. It feels everything I like about Arkham Horror compressed into 30-45 minutes.
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Feb 25, 2018 16:04
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moths posted:It feels everything I like about Arkham Horror compressed into 30-45 minutes. That sounds good, since Arkham Horror is one of those theoretically fun games that no adult ever has the 12 hours to set up and 36 hours to then play.
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Feb 25, 2018 16:18
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I play AH regularly, it doesn't take that long when you stick to the basics + maybe one or two of the five thousand addons / mechanics. Still, sometimes you start with poo poo gear, only draw poo poo encounters, half the map is blocked with high end monsters on the streets... and the old one wakes asap due to open gates because your friends waste the first five rounds trying to get a retainer.
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Feb 25, 2018 20:14
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This owns, from the fall of DG
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Feb 25, 2018 21:31
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I'm really mad I didn't order Fall of Delta Green on backerkit when I had the chance because it looks rad as hell
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Feb 25, 2018 22:02
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That map key is trash and I hate it.
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Feb 26, 2018 02:54
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Acebuckeye13 posted:I'm really mad I didn't order Fall of Delta Green on backerkit when I had the chance because it looks rad as hell Backers got the Ken Writes on Vegas in 1968 for free too. I think it was more as a consolation for not using Drivethru and using Pelgrane's system instead.
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Feb 26, 2018 23:11
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Misc thoughts on Fall of Delta Green after reading the book and playing one session Almost everything you liked and disliked about Trail, you'll like and dislike about this game. There are a couple of important differences, but not enough to convince someone to change their mind about the GUMSHOE system either way:
I think Fall of DG has too many overlapping subsystems for modeling your character's social and reputation networks. You've got Bureaucracy points as a General Ability, Agency Points and Military Science as Investigative Abilities, then you've also got both Bonds and Networks on the other side of your character sheet. All of them sort of overlap in what you actually use them for in-game. The book has some cool descriptions about past DG operations. A few too many are focused on chasing Deep Ones for my taste, you can only blast so many sea orcs before it starts to feel a bit rote. Like the Handler's Guide the book tries to suggest ways to spice the deep ones up. But in my opinion, the best way to use something the players have become too familiar with is to discard it and use something else. On that note, there's a section on the Cult of Transcendence, which everyone hated back in the old DG books. However some of the sub-factions attached to it are actually pretty cool and would make great investigations on their own. The Fall of Delta Green posted:Skorlupa Koshcheiya The greatest disappointment is that the Fall of Delta Green does not, in fact, contain a scenario about the Fall of Delta Green. The introductory module is good, but when the name of your book is a specific event, you create some expectations about what you'll find inside. There are some narrative descriptions of Operation OBSIDIAN, but nothing table ready. Overall if you like Delta Green and Trail of Cthulhu, you'll like Fall of DG. If you like DG but don't care for the GUMSHOE system, this book might still be a good primer on 1960s DG gaming. If you dislike both, this won't be the game to change your mind.
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Mar 8, 2018 20:32
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Also don't forget (if you're eligible) to vote in the r/nightattheopera scenario contest.
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Mar 8, 2018 23:32
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Steamed Hams but it's Delta Green Forrest James: Well, Donald, I made it...despite your dead drop instructions Donald Poe: Ah, Forrest, welcome! Forrest: I hope you’ve prepared an unforgettable Opera *Donald enters kitchen to see his carefully selected team dead from self-inflicted gunshot wounds* Donald: Oh, egads! My team of agents is ruined! But, what if I were to outsource to a new team and disguise it as my own? Delightfully devilish, Donald! *Donald eyeballs a self-storage facility across the street. *Forrest enters room, sees Donald dialing up a new team* Forrest: Donnnnaalllldddd!! *musical interlude* Donald: Ah Forrest, I was just, uh, exercising my team before the opera. Care to join me? Forrest: Why are your agents bleeding from head wounds? Donald: Oh those aren’t head wounds, that’s just moulange! Moulange for the Delta Green Operation we’re having. *later, at the table* Donald: I hope you’re ready for a brainwatering Majestic Operation! Forrest: I thought you said we were part of Delta Green? Donald: D’oh no, I said Majestic, that’s what I call Delta Green. Forrest: You call Delta Green, Majestic? Donald: Yes. It’s a departmental dialect. Forrest: Uh huh, what department? Donald: Uh, US Government? Forrest: Really? Well I'm from the program, and I've never heard anyone use the phrase MAJESTIC 12 before. Donald: Not in the Program, no. It's a Cowboy expression! Forrest: Yes, and you call them Cowboys; even though they are clearly law enforcement professionals. Donald: You know, I should- the thing is- Excuse me for one second. Forrest: GOOD LORD, WHAT IS THAT?! Donald: ...Colour out of Space? Forrest: THE COLOR OUT OF SPACE...AT THIS TIME OF YEAR...AT THIS TIME OF DAY...IN THIS PART OF THE COUNTRY...LOCALIZED ENTIRELY WITHIN YOUR WORKING GROUP?! Donald: Yes! Forrest: May I see it? Donald: No. *Donald leads Forrest outside. From, inside a flashbang is thrown through the rear window* Andrea: Donald the NRO-D wetworks team is here! Donald: No, Andrea, it’s just the colour out of space. Forrest: Well Donald, you are an odd fellow, but I must say you run a smooth operation. Andrea: Help! Help!
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Mar 13, 2018 16:27
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I'll do you one betterquote:To be fair, you have to have a very high INT to understand Delta Green. The operas are extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of federal law enforcement most of the clues will go over a typical player’s head. There’s also ALPHONSE’s nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation- his personal philosophy draws heavily from the tie-in novels, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these scenarios, to realise that they’re not just fun- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Delta Green truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn’t appreciate, for instance, the humour in Major General Reginald Fairfield’s existential catchphrase Choose federal law enforcement. Choose the military. Choose NASA or the CDC. Choose lying to your superiors. Choose to ruin your career. Choose no friends. Choose divorce. Choose life through the bottom of a bottle. Choose destroying evidence and executing innocent people because they know too loving much. Choose black fatigues and matching gas masks. Choose an MP5 stolen from the CIA loaded with glasers, with a wide range of loving attachments. Choose blazing away at mind numbing, sanity crushing things from beyond the stars, wondering whether you'd be better off stuffing the barrel in your own mouth. Choose The King In Yellow and waking up wondering who you are. Choose a 9mm retirement plan. Choose going out with a bang at the end of it all, PGP encrypting your last message down a securely laid cable as an NRO Delta wetworks squad busts through your door. Choose one last Night at the Opera. Choose Delta Green. which itself is a cryptic reference to MJ-3 GARNET's assault on his stronghold at Fairfield Pond. I’m smirking right now just imagining one of those MAJESTIC simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Forrest James' genius wit unfolds itself on their night vision sights. What fools.. how I pity them. 😂
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Mar 16, 2018 07:44
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mellonbread posted:I'll do you one better Now do "every morning I wake up..."
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Mar 16, 2018 20:59
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Do the DD/LG copypasta.  Man, that slipcase edition looks swank AF. Glad I sprang for the deluxe pledge level.
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Mar 16, 2018 21:01
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Owlbear Camus posted:Do the DD/LG copypasta. 
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Mar 16, 2018 21:46
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I watched Annihilation last night and, my goodness, if you want a Delta Green adventure themed around the Colour Out of Space you could run it essentially verbatim.
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Mar 17, 2018 09:57
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My group wants to get into Delta Green in the near future. We started playing 7th ed CoC last year and went through some scenarios and a are in the final stages of a campaign right now, after that we want to try something new. I have just read through the quick start rules and found that the things that are really different from CoC are the new mechanics around Sanity and Bonds. Combat and skill rolls seem to be pretty much the same. Am I missing anything important? Also, is there a good summary of the "lore" behind Delta Green which all players can read to get in the mood?
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Mar 18, 2018 16:51
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| # ? May 29, 2024 03:50 |
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After 14 submissions, many playtests, and at least a few dead agents, /r/NightattheOpera's 1st Annual Scenario Contest is over and the votes have been tallied.
In 2nd Place, Motel California by ChiefMcClane In 3rd Place, Don't You Want Some Body (To Love) by mellonbread Congrats to the winners, writers, and players. We'll see you next year! Read em all here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QsWZHrDCkoBhTMAaXUjrVFSvjq_F58Xl1f3Bmv-MyHk/
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Mar 18, 2018 17:30
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