Hacking Delta Green into Cthulhu Dark

#40

I’m trying to keep some distance from Sanity myself with this hack, hence why the disorders are flavored more as associations or reactions and not things out of the DSM. It’s also my intent that they be flavored as the result of intense pressure and stress rather than “insanity.” Insight isn’t a degeneration, so much as a nihilistic awakening to a cruel universe.

Though there’s certainly more to consider and I’d love to revisit it with others input.

(PS: edited the above response to address success and failure)

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#41

@HorstWurst If you have a copy of Lovecraftesque there is an ectensive essay in there about it. (If you don’t maybe @BeckyA or @rabalias might have a link to essay? (Worst case I can (with their permission) make a pdf of those pages and point you to it.))

Even Lovecraft himself wasn’t really using the term usefully - “sanity” (IIRC) has only been used in law cases - it has no clinical definition.

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#42

@shane I do have Lovecraftesque but hadn’t read the essay about mental health before. A very comprehensive and thoughtful take on the subject!

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#44

@Dissonance the N@TO guys are going nuts over one thing. What does X-Cell do? These hardcore DG nerds are tearing up the handlers guide looking for it (I presume comments on the system will come at some point - so far, they like the ‘Anchors’ and particularly the description of the mechanic)

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#45

Haha! So here’s the thing: this hack is completely compatible with any and all Delta Green material but X-Cell is something I took from my own home campaign where they were a cleanup squad made up entirely of Handlers and Agents who had f%#*ed up big time.

Also note: I probably won’t mention many phrases or words I imagine to be under copyright by the Delta Green creators (you’ll note the words Delta Green aren’t in there anywhere) and that’s my intention.

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#46

Been adding a bit of content to the doc. Still need to figure out how I want it arranged but I’m pretty happy with some of the example images and such. Noting that the rules are meant to be pretty minimal (I’m not going over 12 pages) what more would folks like to see? I have plans for a Green Box table and maybe a short example Operation to be added over the next week.

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#47

Wow, this is pretty amazing and I don’t think there is anything important missing. Maybe you could add drugs as a way to either temporarily reduce stress or harm or suppress Mythos Knowledge by 1 - but with the obvious drawback of developing an addiction. That seems to be in line with CD where reducing Insight always comes with a cost. Likewise, maybe the At Home scenes could be resolved with a roll and the GM or other players could roll a Failure Die if they think not repairing an anchor or treating a disorder would be interesting.
The Green Box details are great: Reading your comment about storytelling collaboration got me thinking if you could even run an improv game just based on whatever you roll up on the Green Box list, maybe an additional list of story prompts and some leading questions.
On page 12 the layout is a bit wonky but that could be on my end (it’s not obvious which parts belong to Repping the Organization and Collaborating with your team).

#48

Hours of fun to be had with the Green Box generator

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#49

Until I print out the pdf the layout will remain wonky given google docs tendency to arrange text very differently on certain devices.

I’ll be going through the green box entries and refining them to provide more story prompts, then we will see if I have enough room for a basic example scenario.

I like the suggestion for optional rules for drugs and such (there’s a nod in the disorders section to coping mechanisms). It’s been a lot of fun to put together!

#50

By the by! If anyone wants to be turned into an Agent, send a severe headshot or action pose my way :sparkling_heart:

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#51

Alright! Filled the doc with content. Curious about feedback on The Greenbox table and the two page example Operation (I cut it down a lot from a 12 page scenario I wrote some time ago).

#52

I really like that the scenario is not a bug hunt but messes with the players psychologically (cannibalism is a nice icky subject). What I realized while prepping published Delta Green scenarios for CD is that it really helps to follow Graham Walmsley’s procedures which are: Identifying the themes, manifestations of the creeping horror and the final revelation. I’m not sure if you can always find a compromise between investigation a case and creating personal horror but I think for the example mission it could be immensely helpful to provide a template by making these categories explicit.
So for “Food for the Gods” the theme could be hunger or fear of losing control, the creeping horror could be people eating ravenously and noisily, a homeless person looking for food in a garbage can while obese people pass by, the smell of food likened to body odor or a stray dog that ate its own paw and the final horror might be the realization that eating human flesh is really delicious or that hundreds of cans of Ambrosia have been shipped all over the world.
Another way of making the horror more personal is following the suggestion by Jason Morningstar in his Delta Green scenario “Sukakpak” where the Handler asks the players questions about their characters’ background in relation to the horror. So for “Food for the Gods” you could add questions like: What smell makes your mouth water, what is the most disgusting / delicious thing you’ve ever eaten, when was the last time you were so hungry you felt like starving or so full that you couldn’t move and then using the answers in the appropriate moment for maximum effect.
Again, I’m not sure you always have to do it that way but I was definitely struggling to combine the police procedural / spy movie tropes of DG with the personal horror of CD.

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#53

AFAIK @Jmstar’s Sukakpak wasn’t specific to DG. IIRC it was a Trail of Cthulhu scenario. I actually ran it as a Cthulhu Dark scenario a while back. (I can link the video later…)

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#54

Please do share! I don’t know why I had filed Sukakpak under DG in my mind (maybe because at least one investigator has to be a state trooper) but you are absolutely right: It was written for Trail of Cthulhu - with stats for CoC and CD as well.

#55

Here’s my four session run of four different CD scenarios, including Sukakpak:

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#56

Good suggestions! I’ll see what I can do: if I keep to my arbitrary limit of two pages it could be difficult to provide more than an outline. The original scenario has a lot more descriptive content.

But hey, maybe rounding it up to a lucky 13 isn’t so bad :sparkles:

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#57

I specifically wrote Sukakpak to support Cthulhu Dark and it doesn’t have stats for any other game in it. Maybe someone added them later. Making the horror personal (to the characters, to the players) is always a good move, when done with care.

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#58

I was referring to The Unspeakable Oath 21 where I found the scenario. “Stats” was obviously poorly worded by me :sweat_smile:, I meant the procedures for how to handle a specific encounter in CoC, Trail, CD and Nemesis (which I don’t even know what it is).

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#59

Alright: Here’s the current version of the PDF!

Going to pause work on it for now to pursue some other projects but I’m pretty happy with what I’ve got so far. Sometime soon I’ll get an editing pass in, clean up grammar, and tighten the text a little but, for now, enjoy:

-removed, see update, below-

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#60

First 2 APs of ‘Achtung! Cthulhu Dark’ are here: https://youtu.be/foXWBDqHgLg … & here …
https://youtu.be/n2Uz5a_e9y4.
First session is all about espionage in occupied Prague, but we get our first firefight in session 2 when the characters ‘Confront the Mythos and its minions’.
I will admit that I’m happy with how the hack is playing and particularly pleased with feedback from the players that the firefight felt ‘real’ even though it relied on very few rolls of the dice pool. I will admit to hoping that we’ll see at least one of them driven to ‘Seek relief from the horror’ next week!

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