itch.io

it’s a really great campaign overall! Like I said these are just fridge logic small issues which occurred to me while reading through it.

This is a great beginner campaign, with classic American-horror-movie settings and symbolism - the third scenario in particular reminded me of a more sinister Gremlins!

A few small suggestions: 

• The local church is referenced on the map but not described. Local pastors are likely to be a good source of gossip/info about a town so might deserve a short writeup.
• Given his high profile, the Agents should have more opportunity to learn about Miles Minderbender (love the Catch 22 reference - but is it binder or bender?) other than the possibility of rumours on the Metro. The fact that Miles is a native of Nebuchadnezzar should be something the Agents could come across in the first scenario, especially if he is providing financial support to the cinema and the school. Maybe the cinema, library and school have stacks of complimentary copies of Effective Altruism in the Hypermodern Workplace which the Agents could later quote from to get on Miles/Steve from Marketing's good side. Has Milo exposed any of his 'unusual religious beliefs' on social media?
• Given there are no missing people in Ruby Rough, it wasn't clear on first readthrough where the "template" for the Fetal Axons came from. My impression now is that it came from Milo bringing tissue from Ibis Big Red to the River Seam Coal Mine (RSCM), so that RSCM Big Red learned how to make them from the people Ibis Big Red has absorbed, is that right? Since the first fully absorbed victims are 'Nigel Roach and Mei Yixing',  the chinese spies, and Big Red also tries to mimic possessions, maybe they could be hinted at in the Fetal Axons appearances? eg they all look Chinese, or babble nonsense chinese phonemes, or all have patches of skin on their throats mimicking throat mikes, or something? Spine Launchers have pseudo-chinese characters on them?
• The origin of RSCM Big Red isn't clear. My inference is that Milo planted it there as an 'off site backup' for the main Big Red mind at Ibis, is that right? Maybe Effective Altruism in the Hypermodern Workplace could include an extended rant about the importance of maintaining multiple secure air-gapped offsite backups for your data.
• If it only existed after Milo fled to Nebuchadnezzar, the cinema under the cinema in Showstopper has a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem; it's not clear how Milo, alone, could have excavated an underground cinema in order to project the film in order to open the gate in order for Big Red to come through, make the Theater of the Flesh, and take over the town, within the 2 weeks or so after he fled Ibis, especially since there's a functional cinema right there above ground. It's a great dramatic climax but has a bit of a fridge logic problem. Just to tidy up the loose end, maybe the agents could find a tunnel full of nerve tendrils leading to the lower levels of the RSCM (that were inaccessible in Ruby Rough) making it clear that what they killed in Ruby Rough was just a branch of what became the Theater of the Flesh? And that the tunnels to the surface are freshly dug, so they wouldn't find them in Ruby Rough?
• If Milo's very flashy and obvious car is parked right outside the cinema, Agents are likely to head straight for the cinema and ignore everything else in the town. Especially if it occurs to them to get satellite pictures to find his car in advance (maybe these could be obscured by smoke in Showstopper?) I suggest that his car is hidden somewhere. Maybe he deliberately pushed it into an old coal mine on the approach to town  in order to hide his tracks - approaching Agents could find the tire tracks leading off-road?
• Maybe Daniel Church, who is a little under-utilised, could show up as a survivor in Showstopper, to brief/help the Agents if needed or be a replacement PC?
• It's slightly odd/inconsistent that there's a suggested soundtrack for White Nile but not the other scenarios.

Thank you! I’m new to this platform.

True, good thing to do! I should get to reading them.

Well done you too!

I always get this kind of “is that all” flat feeling after these things wrap, I confess…

Fair enough.

Is it permissible to reuse art from the Delta Green books? For example, if the Agents meet the Director, can I put in a headshot of him reproduced from the Handler's Guide as a handout?

IDK how much it will blow out yet, but I know I’m going to be doing a lot of trimming and pruning to get under.

The handouts in this case are more of an Easter egg and potential branch for the handler to an optional official scenario anyway. I’ll re-add them afterwards as suggested.

Do the words in player handouts count towards the word limit? I want to optionally reward Agents with copies of some old DG case files if they dig into various things, but it would blow my word count out somewhat if they are included.

resent

sent!

I can pass on email addresses for Aaron and Bret, for this purpose. What’s the best way to PM you?

Be aware that because LTL and Sentinels of Twilight are Arc Dream products now, there could be copyright issues if you want to reproduce big chunks of them (though since LTL was a Shotgun and is a free product it maybe doesn’t matter for this non-commercial purpose, IANAL) as opposed to just linking to and commenting on them.

Now fleshed out the Campaign outline a good deal further:

 The theme of the War On Dregs is revenge – blind revenge, and its consequences. The Director and A Cell are both driven by their own pasts to want revenge on the Unnatural. As they get older, as their grip on the reins of power slips, the drive becomes an obsession. They know, in their bones, that they can't hope to destroy the Unnatural. But maybe they can use it to get revenge on something that they hate the most (the Deep Ones for the Director, the Disciples of the Worm and Majestic/the Program itself for A-cell). As the clock ticks and the threats escalate, they will take more and more risks, and cross more and more boundaries, to bring the temple of their enemies down, even if it comes down on their own heads - or, more likely, on the heads of the agents they've selected to be their eyes and hands. Meanwhile, a deeper threat lurks behind the obvious manifestations. A threat with deep roots in Delta Green’s history. A threat the old men are too blinded by revenge to see.

By the end of the campaign, Agents will be all too familiar with consequences. Will they turn away from the old men's nemeses? Will they find the deeper threat? Or will they ride the storm to the bitter end?

Campaign Overview

It almost makes one nostalgic for the old days, when humans were prey and the Mythos was a hunter; today, humans prey on themselves, and the Mythos is a tool for our own self-destruction. Yet when humanity is gone, the Mythos shall remain – then, who was the tool? – John Scott Tynes, Delta Green.

What Has Gone Before

For many years, Dr Adam Barrowman of PharMethuselah has been selling Compound 82 (“Pharmacea”), a miracle cure-all that can stave off any malady – except old age – to the ultrarich, becoming extremely wealthy himself in the process. Secretly, Compound 82 is derived from a captive population of Worms, larval astral parasites originally captured by Delta Green in an operation against the cult they call the Children of the Worm in 1985. To make Compound 82, Worms are placed in captured human hosts who are drugged and lobotomised into near-oblivion, whose lives are measured in months or weeks. PharMethuselah runs ongoing human trafficking operations to keep ‘The Farm’ fed with victims, moving every few years to anywhere people can vanish in large quantities. After abandoning their facility in the Congo following a botched military coup, today, The Farm is in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, just across the border from El Paso. PharMethuselah has made lucrative arrangements with local drug lords to keep the victims flowing in exchange for a trickle of Compound 82 for the cartel elite. But as the limitations of Compound 82 become clear, Barrowman needs more funding and new insights to overcome the age barrier.

For many years, Gavin Ross, aka Michael Bellek, aka MJ-3, has been staving off all maladies, including old age, with his secret stash of ARD15 pills, while becoming ultrarich from the technologies he stole from Majestic. He has invested in, and granted little secrets to, many medical research companies, without succeeding in duplicating ARD15. Now his supply of ARD15 is almost gone (see the scenario VISCID for another consequence). He needs a pharmaceutical miracle.

For many years, Gino Bova has been climbing the ranks of the Exalted Circle, the organisation of the ultrarich which secretly worships Dagon. He masterminds the rituals in which captive women are trafficked, turned over to Deep Ones, then discarded after giving birth. He obsessively attempts to manipulate the development of their hybrid offspring with drugs and pharmaceuticals, so far without result. He knows that Deep Ones never die, but all his worship of Dagon will not grant him such a gift. His money can buy him anything – except immortality.

It was, perhaps, inevitable that the three would meet. Now, they form an unholy triumvirate. Barrowman’s pharmaceutical genius and control of Worms. Ross’ access to beyond-cutting-edge science from the ruins of Majestic. Bova’s wealth, drug and human trafficking networks, expanded customer base among the Exalted Circle, and control of a ready supply of Deep One hybrids – the new secret ingredient of the sea-green Compound 83, “Pharmacea Oceanic”.

After the three met and pooled their knowledge, Barrowman realised that Deep Ones and Deep One Hybrids could supply the answer to his ‘human test subject’ problem. Deep Ones were certainly not human. He was sure he could pay lawyers to argue that Deep One hybrids weren’t human either. But their capacity to interbreed with humans showed that they were similar enough at a genetic level for ‘Compound 83’, the result of implanting hybrids with Worms, to be usable by humans. Plus, hybrids were far tougher than humans, with lifespans of up to a year in The Farm when appropriately sedated. Most promisingly, Deep Ones and post-transformation hybrids were, apparently, immortal. Compound 83 seemed to transfer some of that extended lifespan to its recipients. This, Barrowman was sure, was the key to both the species barrier problem and the lifespan problem, and yet more confirmation of what fools Delta Green were – if they had granted him access to their knowledge of Deep Ones in the 1980s, he would have had immortality by 2000!

Compound 83 is both more and less than Barrowman thinks. Its extra effectiveness is partly due to a freak coincidence. Ciudad Jiarez, the current location of The Farm, is a focal point of magical power from a disrupted K’nyan energy nexus, which enhances the lifespan and potency of the Deep One hybrids and hence the compound made from them. If The Farm were to move, or this focus was disrupted, its lifespan-extending characteristics would largely vanish. Furthermore, extended use of Compound 83 results in the user taking on some characteristics of Deep One hybrids – this happens very gradually if the Compound is only used for health preservation, but if used to repair gross bodily harm (e.g. gunshot wounds, amputations) the icthyotic new flesh is readily apparent. Finally, Compound 83 opens the user to the dreams of Great Cthulhu. Thanks to Barrowman, Ross and Bova, the Cult of Cthulhu will soon arise reborn, made up not of isolated tribes in the Pacific, but of the richest, most desperate men in the richest country in the world.

Meanwhile…

The Disciples of the Worm, secure at La Hacienda in Sinaloa have, as yet, no notion that their bastard stepchild is established almost at their doorstep. Rather, the more clear-headed among them are exploring a different pharmaceutical possibility: Liao.

Liao had been considered and rejected centuries ago by Ibrahim ibn Ali as too dangerous to use, because of its risk of attracting Hounds of the Angles. Even though using it increased one’s ability to perceive and navigate the Higher Plane, using too much, or even carrying it within the Higher Plane, inevitably called down Hounds sooner or later. Like many other failed experiments, ibn Ali forgot it and moved on.

Chandra Choudhury is not so lackadaisical. Realerted to the existence of Liao by the brief popularity of rave drug Reverb, he has been experimenting with microdoses and combinations of other drugs. While using the Higher Plane ‘under the influence’ is still too dangerous, he has discovered that a microdose of Liao, too small to trigger the time visions which attract Hounds, enables an empathic connection between a Disciple and the partially astral nervous system of their Worm symbiont. In combination with Choudhury’s meditation techniques, the Disciple becomes able to quiet the Worm’s movement and metabolism, resulting in a significant reduction of pain levels and food demand. A significant side effect is that the Disciple’s rapid healing is also slowed (to only 1 HP recovered per round), but the anti-aging effects continue to apply. This is the best progress the Disciples have made in improving their quality of life in many years.

However, they lack a good source of Liao – they do not have any black lotus cultivars themselves, shipping it from Asia via the Higher Plane is far too risky, and Tong Shuguran no longer deal in the stuff. Through their dealings with the cartels, they have become aware that a new cartel, Los Ecos (‘the echoes’) appears to have established a new source of Reverb. They are in negotiations with this cartel to establish a guaranteed supply.

Meanwhile…

At the Program, the Director is sure that the Deep Ones are up to something – but what? After the disastrous 2014 attack on Devereux Mansion, the Program also has a bone to pick with the Children of the Worm (as Delta Green knows the Disciples) – but where are they? The Director is aware that the forces of the Unnatural are in conflict with each other as often as not. His strategic aim in this scenario is to provoke such a conflict, between the Deep Ones and the Children, thus hopefully inflicting more damage on both than Delta Green could accomplish on its own.

A-Cell also want to settle scores with the Disciples. The Disciples have cost them multiple agents over the years, including the disappearance of Avery Mitchell (Agent Grendel) and the torture and death of Agent Genevieve (Rebecca). Most significantly, the Program’s meddling in 2014 resulted in the loss of Agent Graham (Billy Weeks), the force behind the highly successful Operation REDBONE, to the Disciples. REDBONE’s unusual structure, with multiple cells of Agents and Friendlies cycled through New Orleans under Graham’s leadership, had a morale boosting side effect – it’s an Opera all the old hands took part in, with an enemy they could kill with bullets, together. Graham became something of a folk hero to the Outlaws, and was being considered by Poe for elevation to A-Cell. The loss of a potential successor with proven leadership qualities further embittered Poe against both the Disciples and the Program. Even more than the Director, thanks to Agent Cyrus/Bernard’s participation in the Fate’s civil war, Poe knows that the Unnatural can be turned on itself. Poe would love to see the Program go to war against the Disciples, and thinks that Forrest James’ hatred of the Deep Ones may be the way that they can be set against each other.

As a result, in this campaign, the command of whichever Delta Green the Agents are working for has similar aims, which the Agents find themselves fulfilling as the campaign continues.

• 1)Gather intelligence on what the Deep Ones and the Disciples are up to
• 2)Find leverage with which to influence their future actions (Liao, and The Farm)
• 3)Find a way to apply that leverage to make them vulnerable to each other (Ghouls)
• 4)Set the two into open conflict.

Neither side has given much thought to what might come next, or to how much their quest might corrupt their own organisations.

If the campaign is to be set in the 90s, some bending and tweaking is required. It is assumed that agents Darren (Forrest James) and Grendel (Avery Mitchell) have formed an alliance and are directing the Cells in their own personal wars, with only limited awareness by A-Cell of their intent.

In fact, both the Disciples and the Deep Ones are largely self-contained entities who, at this time, pose little broader threat to humanity. The greater threat is the Barrowman-Bova-Ross triumvirate and their systematic corruption of the world’s elite. The triumvirate are working with knowledge that Delta Green is ultimately responsible for spreading, due to their capture and study of Worms and Deep Ones in operations long forgotten. Agents will stumble across many traces of the triumvirate’s operations, but their leadership, blinded by their thirst for revenge, will misattribute them to the malevolence of the Deep Ones and the Disciples. For example, Delta Green (either incarnation) will assume that The Farm is a Disciples plot, and that Pietro Thule is a Deep One hybrid infiltrator. Only Agents who can maintain clear eyes and minds and doggedly follow the threads may realise that the true threat lies elsewhere. Only exceptional Agents can reorient the conspiracy towards this threat and save Delta Green from itself.

This campaign has a four Act structure.

Act 1 establishes the Agents within Delta Green, lays down breadcrumbs for things that will become more significant later (Worms, Ghouls, Deep Ones, Liao, and the history of Delta Green), and gives some insight into the dysfunctions of a sane organisation made of insane parts.

In Act 2 the stakes escalate, and Agents are more likely to die. Agents come across the traces of the Triumvirate’s operations and of the consequences of Delta Green’s history, and confront Los Ecos. These are misinterpreted as Disciple/Deep One activity by their higher ups. Agents who stay on the case have a chance to rectify this.

In Act 3 Delta Green’s history is brought back to bite it, as Delta Green attempts to use Agent Nancy to gather intelligence on the Disciples and Deep Ones – either directly for the Program, or after rescuing her from the Program, for the Outlaws. This is likely to backfire horribly. Delta Green doesn’t give up on the idea of Ghoul agents, and attempts to use the ghouls encountered in Die Nachtbruder or the techniques used in Operation Killjoy for similar purposes. If neither of these are successful, DG contacts whichever Agent is most loyal/alienated (who has the fewest Bonds outside Delta Green), and asks if they would be willing to ‘lay down their humanity for the cause’ and undergo transformation into a Ghoul via the Ghoul Manuscript. DG desperately wants Agents who can pose as Disciples or Hybrids in order to set the Disciples and Deep Ones against each other. Agents are asked to do other morally questionable things for the cause, including taking part in a sweep for ‘illegal immigrants’ as part of their day job, which turns into human trafficking of innocent women who carry genetic traces of Deep One heritage. Having tagged them and traded them to Bova’s operation, Delta Green finds their final destination and raids The Farm. Unless Agents can correct Delta Green’s analysis, it is assumed to be a Disciples project.

Act 4 can go two ways. If Agents have succeeded in redirecting Delta Green’s attention to the real threat of the triumvirate (which may involve a tense meeting with a member of A Cell, or the Director himself), then Barrowman, Ross and Bova, and as many of their customers as possible, must die, and the Compound 83 project must be utterly destroyed. The triumvirate and their customers are rich, powerful, dangerous, well-guarded, men, but they are men. Once Delta Green directs its attention to locating them, Donald Poe and/or Director Oakes pierce their security like a hot skewer through butter, followed with snipings and bombings of their customer base of the rich, old and corrupt. This is interpreted as ‘left-wing terrorist’ activity by the US government and ‘regular’ national security establishment. Hunts for terrorist cells are launched. Some patsies and Friendlies take the fall. Both Outlaws and Program run quiet until the dust settles, using the time to reassess their own flawed decision making. As the campaign concludes, any Agents who were particularly instrumental in putting Delta Green on the right track may find themselves suddenly offered a command role. The reward for being the best gravedigger is always a bigger shovel.

If the Agents haven’t picked up on or convinced Delta Green of the deeper threat, Act 4 is Götterdämmerung. Using ghouls, patsies, and undercover Agents to pose as members of each of the conspiracies, Delta Green attempts to broker a bad deal between the Disciples and Deep Ones, causing each to believe that the other has double-crossed them. The Disciples believe that they will be receiving Liao, but receive gold (which Delta Green attempts to steal). More significantly, the Deep Ones believe they will be receiving a large human tribute, but Delta Green, posing as the Disciples, hands over the Worm-infested hybrids it has recovered from The Farm instead, together with other carriers of the Deep One gene it has seized and imprisoned during ICE ‘illegal immigrant’ sweeps.

If it works, the two sides escalate beyond Delta Green’s expectations. Enraged Deep Ones summon a Spawn of Cthulhu to lead a night attack on La Hacienda in Sinaloa. Seeing themselves outclassed, cannier disciples, led by Choudhary, flee via gate or Winged Servitor, then begin tracking down whoever is responsible, targeting both the Exalted Circle and Delta Green. Ibrahim, driven to rage for the first time in centuries and unwilling to abandon his library, invokes Qu-Tugkwa, the Nemesis of Flame, to strike the Deep One army, destroying everything in the area. If he succeeds in dispelling Qu-Tugkwa afterwards, surviving Disciples frantically pack their records and flee through Gates to prepared backup locations; if not, Qu-Tugkwa expands until La Hacienda is consumed as well before leaving.

SECRET SOCIETY WITHIN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT? SECOND DAY OF SENATOR MCCALL’S CLOSED DOOR HEARINGS. – Delta Green: Tales from Failed Anatomies V2

The backlash is disastrous. Fleeing members of Los Negros, the Disciples’ pet paramilitary, spread cell-phone footage of the supernatural battle, which the US-based Program is ill equipped to cover up. Mexico demands immense reparations from the US for the ‘submarine nuclear strike’ on its territory, pointing to the President’s often-repeated threats of military action against the cartels. The Pentagon begins a witch-hunt for the ‘deep state conspiracy’ responsible for the ‘unauthorised military strike’. Because there was no ‘military strike’ in any conventional sense, there follows 72 hours of confusion, in which the Program permanently shuts down 90% of its operations in order to prevent discovery, and Agents are ordered to commit various unsavoury actions to ‘close leaks’ and ‘tie off loose ends’. Led by Admiral Gates, the scientific parts of the Program flee to March Industries. The US government eventually takes the official position that the strike on La Hacienda was an escalation of inter-cartel violence using a ‘dirty bomb’. Mexico rejects this finding, entering a state of near-Cold War hostility with its northern neighbour.

At the GM’s discretion, Security Director Oakes ‘removes’ the Director for his disastrous miscalculations, and then removes Bostik when he attempts to turn himself in to the Pentagon, triggering release of some of his dead-man’s caches to foreign intelligence agencies. That the US has access to extraterrestrial technology soon becomes an open secret. Shelton, Mannen and Crumpton desperately cover up what’s left, and turn the core Agent network of Delta Green over to the Outlaws.

Delta Green survives as an illegal conspiracy, with much-reduced resources, in a world in which the Unnatural is increasingly exposed to public view, and the Cult of Cthulhu is resurgent.

Should you begin to examine the rich and powerful of the world, you would find a surprising number who pay tribute to Cthulhu. Most do this secretly and alone. Sometime soon, however, the dreams will come, their eyes will be opened, and they will realize that they are not alone in their adoration of the dweller in the deep. At that time, the cult of Cthulhu will be reborn, made up now of the cream of society, commerce, and politics. At that time, they will do all they can to orchestrate the events of the End Time. Until then, they are each alone, and may perhaps be dealt with. But there are so many, so very many… – Delta Green: The Conspiracy

Hi there, I'm James H, long time DG fan. I'm taking part to expand an old campaign sketch into a proper campaign. The factions I'm thinking of using are the Disciples of the Worm, and the Deep Ones.

As well as finally fleshing out the War on Dregs, I have a few other design aims for this campaign:

1.  To create a campaign suitable for beginners/beginning Handlers. This campaign is designed to have explicit lead-ins from Last Things Last, Operation Fulminate, and The New Age - the three most likely scenarios for a starting group.
2. To create a campaign which gradually exposes groups to some of the deeper DG lore: the Program/Outlaw split, the hidden motivations of A Cell and the Director, the fate of N Cell; without drowning them in it. Currently there aren't many scenarios in which this lore makes its way to the table.
3. To give some of my and others' old scenarios a new spin, because I'm egotistical and nostalgic like that :-)

Those are the aims. The theme of the War On Dregs is revenge - revenge and consequences. The Director and A Cell are both driven by their own pasts to want revenge on the Unnatural. As they get older, as their grip on the reins of power slips, the drive becomes an obsession. They know, in their bones, that they can't hope to destroy the Unnatural. But maybe they can use it to get revenge on a part of it (the Deep Ones for the Director, the Disciples of the Worm and Majestic/the Program itself for A-cell) that they hate the most. As the clock ticks, they will take more and more risks, and cross more and more boundaries, to bring the temple of their enemies down, even if it comes down on their own heads - or, more likely, on the heads of the agents they've selected to be their eyes and hands. Those agents, by the end of the campaign, will be all too familiar with the consequences of revenge on the Unnatural - will they turn away from the old men's nemeses, or see it through to the end?

DELTA GREEN: WAR ON DREGS

Awake, awake! Rise up, O Jerusalem, You who have drunk  the cup of His fury from the hand of the LORD; You have drunk the dregs of the cup of terror, and drained it out. Isaiah 51:17

That's super kind of you! I'm still pretty new to designing in this system, so any comments (or reviews!) really greatly appreciated!

Hi, I wanted to let you know that I riffed off this (and other influences) to create a scientific romance version, the Planetary Scholastic (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/398661/The-Planetary-Scholastic-Playbook), for sci-fi 'monks' like Jedi or Bene Gesserit - would love to send you a copy, what's the best way to do that?