Delta Green Sandbox Hack

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Lessa

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Can this work? I thought about a game with strategical + investigative + tactical combat layers for the PCs to explore, not unlike the Xcom and Phantom Doctrine videogames. They would form a cell responsible for some area (say, Denver) and the group would use a map of the region with potential events marked in red with lines tying them, you know like those spy movie maps..

Prev_Map-Pinboard.jpg

...while trying to suppress and/or eliminate supernatural elements. The GM would have run a clocks running on the background to indicate conspiracies evolving. And perhaps a third clock for the local supernatural exposure to the public. Other than that, we could have the usual downtime moves for agents to increase their contacts network, deal with stress, protect dear relatives and don't go crazy in the process.

I also thought about some kinf of funding mechanic, where you get better montly resources based on the group overall rating on missions. Only here instead of money, it could be some roll on a table where the better your rating the better tablet you roll, so your chances of receiving potentially better gear increases.

So, how compatible this is with default Delta Green, and how much tweaking woulod be needed if it's not? Any other tips or suggetions on games to do it?

P.S: at the moment I'm trying to pull this with Cthulhu Dark Green, the adaptation of Cthulhu Dark for Delta Green from the same author. But I'm open to suggestions of course.
 
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On a more serious note. Conspiracy X is a good one if you like Unisystem and want to focus on the mystery part. The Company if you want to go more the military route and stick with a D100 game. Chronicles of Darkness (and maybe some supplements) if you want to focus on the supernatural or horror aspects. Or a slight hack of M-Space if you want to use Mythras!
 
Conspiracy X is a good option.

Night's Black Agents would also work quite well IMO.
If you are going with any GUMSHOE game, you want to pick up Moon Dust Men by Kenneth Hite for the tactical level.

Moon Dust Men said:
President Eisenhower established Project Moon Dust in 1953 to locate, contain, and coordinate everything known about the alien presence on Earth. The public-relations and open-source arm of Moon Dust was called Project Blue Book. Blue Book ended its work in 1970. It is 1978. Your work never ends. This GUMSHOE campaign frame, Moon Dust Men, can be a sci-fi, conspiracy, or horror game – it’s up to you to find the truth.

Moon Dust Men includes new abilities (Ufology), new skills (Remote Viewing, Psionics), aliens (Greys, Nommo), and cryptids (chupacabr a, Mothman). This campaign frame introduces Backslash Points, a rule-variant for the “weird science” genre typified by The X-Files or Fringe.

A Moon Dust team comprises three to six personnel, usually including a linguist, a technician, and a combat ops specialist. All are airborne, or at least jump, qualified – UFOs don’t always crash near roads or landing strips. The Air Force attempts to cross-train team members in the skills of the others to ensure a team functional capability despite any casualties that may be incurred in their employment.

Ken includes sprinkles of moon dust campaign frames for Ashen Stars, Esoterrorists, Fear Itself, Mutant City Blues, Night’s Black Agents, and Trail of Cthulhu.

Then he came out with MAJESTIC Overwatch, which provides the strategic level.
MAJESTIC Overwatch said:
President Eisenhower established Project Moon Dust in 1953 to locate, contain, and coordinate everything known about the alien presence on Earth.

The Moon Dust Men are the tip of the spear. MAJESTIC-12 aims it. Manage the global war against the aliens with this new GUMSHOE subsystem. Do you build retro-engineered Aurora craft, or bioroids to fight on the Moon? Do you launch satellite screens or dig in anti-saucer lasers? You decide where the black budget goes — and who it goes after.
 
On a more serious note. Conspiracy X is a good one if you like Unisystem and want to focus on the mystery part. The Company if you want to go more the military route and stick with a D100 game. Chronicles of Darkness (and maybe some supplements) if you want to focus on the supernatural or horror aspects. Or a slight hack of M-Space if you want to use Mythras!

Conspiracy X 2.0 with the Conspiracies Sourcebook includes the Black Book (NDD) as a playable group and is more militaristic than AEGIS with tech access related to Clearance Level rather than influence. It seems XCOM-ish.
 
Conspiracy X 2.0 with the Conspiracies Sourcebook includes the Black Book (NDD) as a playable group and is more militaristic than AEGIS with tech access related to Clearance Level rather than influence. It seems XCOM-ish.
You'd probably need to homebrew an organization somewhere between Aegis and the Black Book. As you say the Black Book has a more militaristic style, in line with X-Com, but their collaboration with aliens in return for tech doesn't work.
 
So, if I get you right, the game is going to have two phases/modes of play, right?
1. The map phase, where the PCs do legwork, uncover clues, make connections, plan attacks and do downtime stuff.
2. The mission phase, where you get in the shit and get very tactical on an X-Com level?

I’ll tell you, if this was a video game, I would play the everlasting fuck out of it. :thumbsup:

I think you’re probably better off with an Unholy PbtA-mashup.
Blades in the Dark or one of its offshoots/competitors as a baseline for the City Map stuff.
I don’t know how tactical PbtA can get, there was a WWII soldier PbtA game that Voros Voros was talking about, I remember it being pretty cool.

If you’re looking at Gumshoe, you might want to take a look at The Fall of Delta Green. It’s Vietnam-era game about the event that caused the breakup the first Delta Green and led to them becoming disavowed. There’s supposed to be a lot of military weapons and vehicles in there for the Gumshoe system.
 
You'd probably need to homebrew an organization somewhere between Aegis and the Black Book. As you say the Black Book has a more militaristic style, in line with X-Com, but their collaboration with aliens in return for tech doesn't work.

Fair point, although they don’t really trust the aliens so it adds a nice spice to the relationship. Depends on whether it is ‘pure’ XCOM or just XCOM like,
 
CRKrueger said:
If you’re looking at Gumshoe, you might want to take a look at The Fall of Delta Green. It’s Vietnam-era game about the event that caused the breakup the first Delta Green and led to them becoming disavowed. There’s supposed to be a lot of military weapons and vehicles in there for the Gumshoe system.
This looks amazing. Cold War spies + weird lovecraft shit is totally my thing.

So, if I get you right, the game is going to have two phases/modes of play, right?
1. The map phase, where the PCs do legwork, uncover clues, make connections, plan attacks and do downtime stuff.
2. The mission phase, where you get in the shit and get very tactical on an X-Com level?

I’ll tell you, if this was a video game, I would play the everlasting fuck out of it. :thumbsup:

I think you’re probably better off with an Unholy PbtA-mashup.
Blades in the Dark or one of its offshoots/competitors as a baseline for the City Map stuff.
I don’t know how tactical PbtA can get, there was a WWII soldier PbtA game that Voros Voros was talking about, I remember it being pretty cool.
You have it right, yes. For simplicity sake, I would go with default DG initially, as it gives me straight from the box:

1. Tactical combat.
2. Downtime.
3. Agents xposure, mental & social degeneracy.

What's missing is just a strategical layer:

4. A city map
5. A method for generating conspiracies and tracking their multiple leads and progress on that map.
6. A network of contacts and friendlies
7. Monthly resources/rewards/budget coming from higher ups, based on cell performance.

That's it.

Questions: what mechanics you know (from any game) are good and simple to cover that? And what city/region would provide a good strategical layer but not break canon too much? Perhaps some small town in Arizona or Colorado and its environs or something? Would an order coming from Cell-A saying "the group now has autonomy to deal with occurrences in say, Denver and environs, until further notice... I just want a monthly report" make sense?
 
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What would be good "base upgrades" for the group's local conspiracy, in a Blades in the Dark/Xcom/Phantom Doctrine vein?

From top of my head...

a. Contacts network (+intel)
b. Forgery (+reduce heat)
c. Wiretaps (+intel)
d. Green Boxes (+gear)
e. Safehouses (-heat +security)
f. Interrogation Room (+intel)

Other ideas?
 
Some version of a Armory that adds a quality level to the groups weapons, a similar upgrade could give access to heavy armor. I'd also recommend a Med Bay that grants bonuses to healing somehow. Security Systems, Dead Drops, and a Machine Shop could all be useful upgrades too.
 
A lounge, for the relaxing and drinking after the fighting. It should include a couch, a big screen TV, a flickering neon open sign, and a surly barkeep.
 
zarion zarion , relaxing drugs could have that effect. It could be an upgrade of the medbay that could work as an armor against insanity or something.

Fenris-77 Fenris-77 great ideas, thanks! Though for the more Twin Peaks like small town vibe I'm going for, maybe the green boxes with scattered stuff like "a syringue, a rusty 1911. 45 and a holed helmet" would work better than a full armory. What's dead drops and machine shop? Some way to pass Intel covertly (like that The Americans square bench?) and to manufacture stuff?

Oh, and this weekend I'll try my hand at a Crew Cell sheet for the team to track this. Clocks and all. :grin:
 
Dead Drops are an old school spy thing. I leave an X in chalk on the mailbox, and you know that the microfilm is taped to the bottom of the park bench near the fountain. Exchanging information without a face to face meet.

The machine shop could be a lot of things. Primarily souping up or repairing vehicles and weapons. An autoshop with a couple of other machines would do both quite comfortably. Making your own rounds would fit in there too, which plays well if, for example, you find aliens that are vulnerable to som,ething odd you could load rounds with it or produce dragon's breath rounds for shotguns, or amke silencers, or whatever.

These would be bigger upgrades for the game you running, if you wanted to use them at all. You can also reskin them as stores in some cases, like, for example, knowing the guy who runs the army surplus might grant access to bullet proof vests, that sort of thing.
 
This looks amazing. Cold War spies + weird lovecraft shit is totally my thing.


You have it right, yes. For simplicity sake, I would go with default DG initially, as it gives me straight from the box:

1. Tactical combat.
2. Downtime.
3. Agents xposure, mental & social degeneracy.

What's missing is just a strategical layer:

4. A city map
5. A method for generating conspiracies and tracking their multiple leads and progress on that map.
6. A network of contacts and friendlies
7. Monthly resources/rewards/budget coming from higher ups, based on cell performance.

That's it.

Questions: what mechanics you know (from any game) are good and simple to cover that? And what city/region would provide a good strategical layer but not break canon too much? Perhaps some small town in Arizona or Colorado and its environs or something? Would an order coming from Cell-A saying "the group now has autonomy to deal with occurrences in say, Denver and environs, until further notice... I just want a monthly report" make sense?
Hmm, can’t think of any games off the top of my head that do base building, income, all that sort of thing for a modern game. It’s always Fantasy or Post-Apocalyptic.

There was a supplement for Hunter: The Vigil called Block by Bloody Block which was set up to be the kind of thing we’re talking about. A Hunter group slowly investigating the supernatural in a city and slowly taking it out and saving the city.

As far as an income based on things you do, I think you could possibly hack something out of MY0.

There’s also Silent Legions, Kevin Crawford’s Mythos-like. My guess is that book has lots of generating tables that might be useful.
 
Conspiracy X 2.0 with the Conspiracies Sourcebook includes the Black Book (NDD) as a playable group and is more militaristic than AEGIS with tech access related to Clearance Level rather than influence. It seems XCOM-ish.

I don't have my books handy, but wasn't there an organization that is part of AEGIS that was related to aliens and space? MOONDUST?
 
I would definitely look at Conspiracy X 2.0's rulebook for ideas. Mainly because of Pulling Strings, which are various qualities that are profession related that characters can use. An example is being able to call in a SWAT team or wire taps if you're law enforcement. They cover other professions like the CDC, etc as well.

What's great is they're easily adaptable for other time periods/genres. I've toyed with modding some for use in both fantasy and the wild west

Also, the system agnostic Mythos Horror Creation System is very useful. It does have charts for creating both weird tech and aliens in addition to cults, deities and the like. So you could make some aliens for characters to take on, and weird tech they use (or humans working with them use)
 
Updated the Cell Sheet up above with Operation Types to be conducted in downtime (like reducing exposure by burning evidence or witnesses, infiltrating enemy cells, etc).

Hey ffilz ffilz , take a look at that Sheet above . How's that for an actual conspiracy game? I want your feedback bro.

Fenris-77 Fenris-77 , as usual, I would love to have yours too. (hmm.. this is becoming recurrent. Okay, I can pay you in beers if you want :hehe: )

I would definitely look at Conspiracy X 2.0's rulebook for ideas. Mainly because of Pulling Strings, which are various qualities that are profession related that characters can use. An example is being able to call in a SWAT team or wire taps if you're law enforcement. They cover other professions like the CDC, etc as well.

What's great is they're easily adaptable for other time periods/genres. I've toyed with modding some for use in both fantasy and the wild west

Also, the system agnostic Mythos Horror Creation System is very useful. It does have charts for creating both weird tech and aliens in addition to cults, deities and the like. So you could make some aliens for characters to take on, and weird tech they use (or humans working with them use)
Oh I looked at Con-X. Pulling Strings is great! As is the base building by pooling resources. Don't know that Mythos Horror Creation System, though. I'll take a look at it. Thanks!
 
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Update to say the Conspiracy Sheet is ready. This is for the GM.

The link up there has it updated, so take a look if you dig it. Feedback welcome.
 
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Hey mods, can you change the thread title to "Delta Green Sandbox Hack"? The thread start with one idea but shifted to something else. I tried changing it myself but no success.

A Fiery Flying Roll Black Leaf ?
 
How do project clocks work here? How do they advance? Can they ever time out or go wrong?

Are the players sending other agents out to do stuff? It seems like it.
 
How do project clocks work here? How do they advance? Can they ever time out or go wrong?

Are the players sending other agents out to do stuff? It seems like it.
Hi Pencilboy!

Yeah, Project clocks just track progress of players plans and actions. They are usually used in Downtime actions, but can track anything the group needs really.

Eg: let's say the group wants to implement "Dead drops" in their city. So one player picks the "pull strings" downtime option, and says the GM he wants to implement the dead drops with his Bureaucracy 80% skill. The GM asks how he's doing that, and he says "well, as a fed agent I'll visit the local public cleaning bureau and access their maps for small squares out of the way and with little traffic". "Ok, fine" says the GM, and let the player to fill 2 segments of the clock.

Then another player in his own downtime decides to help with the dead drops implementing. He doesn't have any skill at 80% though so he can only fill 1 more segment. He says the GM he will be using his HUMINT 40% skill for it, "I'll take a hike a couple days observing and listening to some street dwellers for some good spots to exchange stuff". The GM agrees and let him fill another segment.

So now the clock is 3 segments filled. Almost there. But, the last member in the team has other priorities and will pass the opportunity to fill it. That means the group will need to wait the next downtime for finishing up the Dead Drops.

Makes sense?

Remember those are just tools and guidelines to help the GM organize the sandbox. If he finds it appropriate to whip up an implement automatically "Nah your skill is really high and the task is simple, so mark that upgrade already", thats cool too, or decides the task is harder to come up "What, you want to infiltrate the local Sinaloa ring because you suspect they're dealing with Tcho-tchos? Oh that will be tough. Let's make it a 8-segment clock instead, ok? And once it's done, everytime your mole gives you Intel I'll roll Stealth for him, if he fails he's compromised. How's that for you? Still wanna do it?"
EDIT: and I would probably add "Don't worry, if he's compromised we can do a session for you to try and rescue him. Otherwise he will spill the beans on your cell and you get +10% Exposure. Oh, and their Sicarios will come for you".
 
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Form-fillable pdf version is up.

I also made sure to acknowledge the games that inspired this stuff.

As always, if you anyone end up using this, gimme some feeback. I probably won't play it until march.

 
Huh.. I see I can't edit older posts. So here goes the new links (I've reorganized my google drive):

Cell sheet: LINK

Conspiracy sheet: LINK

Playbooks: LINK
 
I sent link to Shane Ivey. This needs to be an official DG product in expanded format.

You could use it for a ton of stuff. I was thinking of running a Colonial Gothic supernatural horror thing and it would work great for that.
 
Those are really well done Lessa silva. A distinction for building the conspiracy that I've found helpful in other games is faces/places. Places are discrete geographically, but it's possible that the party could learn about a face but not know where they fit in (or the GM might not know yet). On the GM creation end I find that the most useful bit of info I attach to an NPC or faction is actually motivation, because that's what connects them to the rest of the web, and also what helps guide their actions in play.

Much like the Dresden RPG I like to have a face that's somehow representative of the place/faction. So one black site might have a paranoid security chief while another might have a conflicted head scientist. I use the face to kind of help run and characterize the whole bit. As another example, in any TV show when the heroes go to an FBI field office, the tone of the whole office tends to be set by a single NPC, usually the first or second one the heroes meet. The face is a very useful shorthand for the whole place, and one the players will intuitively understand.
 
Fenris-77 Fenris-77 , I totally agree and that's what I used the keywords for. If you see the Conspiracy back page, the example given uses the elements you suggest (Starlight Telecom, Director Patrick Schulz, Lab outside Tucson). The keywords are supposed to cover notes the GM judges important: people, places, clues, stakes, etc. And he can cross post it in the Assets list if he judges some those really important.

Or did you have something more specific in mind? Please elaborate!

I sent link to Shane Ivey. This needs to be an official DG product in expanded format.

You could use it for a ton of stuff. I was thinking of running a Colonial Gothic supernatural horror thing and it would work great for that.
Good to know you grok it. As the small fonts in the credits say, It's just a Blades in the Dark crew sheet fused with Nights Black Agents conspyramid though.

Lemme know if something develops on your end. I suspect John Tynes would dig it too, seeing as his Labyrinth is also on the sandboxish side.
 
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Yeah, keywords cover much of the same ground, I would just organize it differently. As a matter of taste anyway. For your lab director what matters more for my process as GM is who that guy is and how he operates. We're both talking about the same info though, I'm just prioritizing it a little differently. I use the face motivations to run all the mooks too, so the security teams run by that director act and react much like he would. Its not essential at all, but I have found very useful for adding easy colour to the game.
 
Good points, actually.

Hmm.. perhaps separating the pyramid in it's own page, would leave the faction and assets with more space to shine in another page. This way I could have another field (say, Dramatis Personae) for the really important people running the Conspiracy show, more important than just assets. Makes sense?
 
Yup. The pyramid is a solid overview to track connections as is, I'd keep it. You could always just add in an index card sized face/place organizer. I've always wanted to do that double sided to print and cut out for easy reference. You know, 4 per page or something.
 
Yeah, I'm separating it next time. It will allow for some LuLz too, like allowing inserting pics on the nodes and faces and places. Imagine that pyramid where each node is a pic (a crime scene, a black site, a person face, etc). Would be cool
 
Updated. Thanks for the input, Fenris. :thumbsup:

It's form-fillable and ready to use. I placed buttons for inserting face pictures for the important people (same as the "map" in the cell sheet above).

And that's it. I may still go back for fixing errors but I'm satisfied with the results. I feel that if I increment more, it will start looking like work, which is the total opposite of my goals for this.

Thank you everybody!

 
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