An update to converting ‘modern’ scenarios to Delta Green

(Updated 5/20/16)

Way back at the predawn of time (1999) there was a discussion thread (started by Shane Ivey no less) about porting ‘modern’ Call of Cthulhu scenarios into the Delta Green setting.  The gist of that discussion was archived on the Fairfield Project .

There was also a modern scenario guide by Jacob Busby (now posted on Delta-Green.com) that I believe originally appeared on the old Ice Cave site (I couldn’t find it on a the Wayback archive in a quick search but I didn’t try very hard) that was much more comprehensive in scope but with only a few comments per scenario: Delta Green Scenario Guide

With the release of the new stand-alone version of Delta Green, I thought this collection of conversion notes should be updated to include those published since then.  A good number of  new ‘modern’ scenarios have been released since Mambo #5 topped the charts, so I thought I might start a list here, hoping that others with more time might do the heavy lifting of writing some conversion notes.  I’m linking to this post on the DGML and Yog-sothoth.com since I’m hoping the motivation there will be greater on more general RPG sites like RPG.net etc.

I’m omitting all of the scenarios previously covered on the two lists linked to above, although I suspect new adjustments will be required in running some of these modern scenarios even in the intervening 17 years (for example, the Fractal club mailed ‘zine and 5 1/4″ floppies that feature in “The Fractal Gods” from The Stars are Right (1992).)  Some of these have been covered in earlier discussion on the DGML about specific scenarios or collections – I did a very rough link to each book, if I could find one, but can add more narrow commentary should I find it.

I am skipping over anything actually published by Pagan/Arc Dream since those usually already include a mention of Delta Green.  Likewise no “scripts” for Cthulhu Live since I have no idea about how one converts those to table-top play.  I am also omitting magazine scenarios and those scenarios from Chaosium’s monograph line as that would be an even more enormous list; I might do a separate list of those later.

I’ll endeavor to keep this list up to date with links to other folks conversion suggestions, as they are posted or as I find them (I haven’t delved into YSDC’s enormous forum archives yet).

Professionally Published ‘Modern’ Call of Cthulhu scenarios since 2000

Ramsey Campbell’s Goatswood, and Less Pleasant Places (Chaosium, 2001) – All set in the UK, in Campbell’s fictional Severn Valley towns.

• The Windthorpe Legacy
• Gothic
• Silent Scream
• Cross My Heart, Hope to Die
• Watcher Out of Time
• Unpleasant Dreams
• Blessed Be
• Of Dreams and Dark Waters
• Third Time’s the Charm

 

Unseen Masters (Chaosium, 2001) – Scenarios set on the US East Coast – NYC or Rhode Island.

• The Wild Hunt
• The Truth Shall Set You Free
• Coming of Age

 

The Stars are Right, 2nd Ed  (Chaosium, 2004) – Two scenarios were added for this 2nd edition- one set in US southwest, the other in the Rocky Mountains.

• The Darkest Calling
• The Source and the End

 

Secrets of Japan (Chaosium, 2005) – All scenarios set in Japan and tie into the authors idiosyncratic take on the Mythos in Japan.

• The Hin-no-Maru Slayings
• Meiro (the Laybrinth)
• The Yonaguni Monuments

 

Our Ladies of Sorrow (Miskatonic River Press, 2009) – All scenarios set in the U.S.

• The House of Shadows
• The Desert of Sighs
• The River of Tears
• The Final Cut

 

Cthulhu Britannica (Cubicle 7, 2009) – scenarios are all (spoiler) set in the U.K.

• Wrong Turn

 

Arkham Now (Chaosium, 2009) – All scenarios set in ‘modern day’ Arkham

• Lonely Hearts (Taste Great)
• Lost in a Book
• I Did What the Virgin Asked

 

Snows of an Early Winter (Super Genius Games, 2009) – Set in New York City

The Arkham Case Files: Deep Morgue (Solace Games, 2012) – Set in Massachusetts

Lost in the Lights (Sixtystone Press, 2013) – Set in Las Vegas; contained notes for running as part of an Delta Green campaign.

Mythos Case Files: Fungi Mine (Solace Games, 2013)

Horror on the Orient Express, 2nd Ed. (Chaosium, 2014) – Set in Istanbul

• The Simulacrum Unbound

Nameless Horrors (Chaosium, 2015) – Set in the UK?

• The Moonchild
• The Space Between

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Behind the scenario – Clyde’s footlocker

There was a question recently on the Delta Green Mailing List regarding a certain item from my scenario “Last Things Last”, appearing in the recently released Delta Green: Need to Know free quick-start rule set.  I thought I might give readers a peak behind the wibbly grey curtain of my mind answer said question below, however…

—SPOILERS FOR “LAST THINGS LAST”—

DONT BE A PRIMATIVE SCREW-HEAD AND RUIN YOUR FUN IF YOU ARE GOING TO WANT TO PLAY THE SCENARIO!

Now that we have dealt with those preliminaries, here was the question:

In “Last Things Last”, the short adventure in Need to Know, there is an assortment of things in Baugman’s footlocker, such as reel-to-reel tapes, the doctoral dissertation ,”sky devils” the bloody suit… are those seeds for future planned adventures?

Shane Ivey has already explained that there is no greater canonical ‘Delta Green’ purpose to the items in Clyde Baughman’s footlocker; the box exists to let Handlers seed this intro scenario with whatever leads to future scenarios they wish to place. The items I included exist solely to offer inspiration for the Handler… but I thought I might share the inspiration for each of the items therein. Maybe knowing how I invented them could spur your own imagination?  I’ve trimmed these a bit so as to minimize the immediate spoilers.

Generally speaking, this catalog of items was directly inspired by the Green Box Generator, an online, open-sourced tool for Keepers (and now ‘Handlers’) – you input the number and types of items you wanted to include, be in mundane or supernatural, documents, weapons, or artifacts.  Anyone could add an item from the mundane to the absurd.  I liked to write 1 item a day, for a while at least, probably writing at least 100 entries.  It was an interesting exercise in item creation and a spur to creativity.  Take a look at a modern incarnation of the Green Box Generator here.

Let’s look at what is in the footlocker…

Reel-to-reel tapes labeled with FBI evidence tags…

The FBI conducted a great deal of surveillance in the 1960s and 70s, and I thought some bit of ephemera from this era when Baughman was most active in the conspiracy should be included. I imagine this was a leftover from a COINTELPRO (or its Delta Green  equivalent) operation that discovered hints of the Mythos.  I also like the idea of some physical remnant of Delta Green’s less savory operations.

Snake-Handling Protestant groups in Appalachia were not typically subject to FBI scrutiny, but they were marginal enough and plausibly linked to some likely target of government scrutiny – the Ku Klux Klan for example.  Linking that religious movement to Yig, a very American Mythos figure (considering his ties to Oklahoma) seemed obvious.

A cardboard box containing a neatly folded but very bloody man’s suit.

This is purely a warning to players – things will go badly while working for Delta Green.

An annotated copy of the doctoral dissertation “Sky Devils: Archetypical Figures in Native American Mythology,” by Karen Barr…

This was part of an article I had been working on for the Unspeakable Oath magazine (this was back in 2003/4 before it became clear that issue 16/17 would be the last regular issue of the Oath for a long while), providing a sampling of minor Mythos works in the form of academic dissertation – yes, I was in grad school then.  My thought was that these would be obscure works you would only come across if you did a very intensive search in academic literature – unless your dissertation is published, there might only be one copy held by your university.  If I recall correctly, I’d come up with between 6 and 10 of these, with hints of things like Yithian possession, the Innsmouth Raid, and (as in this one) the Mi-Go.  Originally each one was given an author’s name based on an anagram from some of my favorite Call of Cthulhu scenario authors.  I decided to revamp the name a bit to sound more plausible- Karen Barr spun out from some anagram of Keith Herber I think.

Three tear-gas grenades…

I wanted to include something illegal, but nothing too actually dangerous.  I guess I have a fondness for faulty grenades as I’ve included them in at least two scenarios at this point.  I suspect this comes from my love of the old West End Games RPG Paranoia, in which we often would be given requisition orders for grenades that either were unlabeled or were given inventory information that was classified for Yellow or Green citizens only.

A large iron knife…

I wanted to include a weapon that investigators would wrongly assume was magical.  In doing a little research I am happy to learn that the Anglo-Saxons actually did make a type of knife called a seax that fits my description.  As for Ogham inscription, it is an obscure enough script that many people haven’t heard of it, fits the rough period for Anglo-Saxon weaponry, and might have been inspired by reading a Terry Pratchett book about the time.

A mundane leather pouch containing hair (black bear), teeth (human infant), and feathers (bluejay and barn swallow).

I wanted something spooky but mundane.  This might have been a tip of the hat to the various items included in the auction list from “The Auction”, which I was thinking about as I worked on this list, though, as mentioned above, the proximate inspiration was the Green Box Generator.  If my memory serves there was a similar mundane item there too.

One highly magnetized glass sphere…

I like impossible objects.  A magnetic glass sphere fits that bill.  The Mythos/supernatural need not always be immediately fatal or dangerous, but I wanted it to be something that wouldn’t attract too much attention

A sizeable file regarding the Ventaja Corporation (aka Venta, meaning “advantage”), an Argentine import/export firm, dating from 1965 to 1968…

***cough*** Karotechia ***COUGH*** **cough***  I wanted to include some connection to some historical DG foe.  In the original version of “Last Things Last” Baughman had called up something far less malevolent than the thing in the version updated for the new Delta Green RPG, and this link to the Karotechia hinted at this connection.

I hope this peek behind the curtain was of interest!

Various, Sundry, and Assorted

I’ve been letting this blog slide more than a bit, between familiar obligations – the holiday season is always a busy one – and hording my free time trying to get a few long-outstanding projects completed.  Nevertheless, I want to at a minimum keep posting here  weekly… and now that it has been a month since my last update, I don’t want to let that gap grow any larger.

Sentinel Hill Press/Arkham Gazette news:

The biggest single piece of news is that the latest issue of the Arkham Gazette has been unleashed upon the world.  Issue #3, all about witches and witchcraft in Lovecraft Country, is available for sale on DriveThruRPG for $12 in PDF and $20 for print on demand + PDF.  It is 120 pages of Lovecraft Country wonderment and I am very proud of it, from cover to the annotated scenario list at the end.  We’ve slowly been building up a stable of authors and artists and I was happy to include articles from such Lovecraftian luminatries as Chris Huth, Chris Jarocha-Ernst, Dan Harms, Tyler Hudak, Christopher Smith Adair and with art from Trevor Henderson, Chris Huth, and Ian Maclean; layout by Chris Huth & handouts prepared by Dean Engelhardt.

In other Sentinel Hill Press news, I’m still reading a few submissions (and sorely owe some people replies about their submissions…) and will likely update our call for submissions before the end of the month.  Readers hoping for a Kingsport issue for #4 might just be in luck.  I also need to finish correcting, revising, and updating the contents of issues #1 and #2 (and to complete an extra article for issue #0) so that they can also go up on DriveThru (and out to our Kickstarter backers.)

I also created the first episode of the Sentinel Hill Press-cast, a podcast for all thing Sentinel Hill Press (and The Arkham Gazette/Lovecraft Country).  In our first episode I talked about SHP’s current and future projects, issue #3 of the Gazette, an interview with author/artist/layout guru Chris Huth, and two segments on New England folklore.

My Other Call of Cthulhu projects:

I have two scenarios in the works, either of which is being very cooperative.  The first is “The Smoking Heart”, my add-on scenario for the Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion Kickstarter.  It’s definitely a bang your head against the wall type piece.  I’ve revamped the plot, torn out the scenario’s guts, revamped it again, and not glower at it menacingly as I try to find a way to introduce Jackson Elias as an NPC organically, but also keep his involvement central to the plot without negating player agency.  I can see now why I dropped it in favor of the pulpy romp that is Don Coatar’s “The God of Mitnal” when I originally did the Companion.

Item two is for an unannounced project at an unnamed publisher, set in a a different era that I usually write for.  It is also coming along more slowly, but it is less painful, as my delay is more in wanting to find more inspirational material in the particular genre of horror I want to emulate rather than trying to outwit the fundamental flaw of justifying investigator involvement in most investigative horror games…  Pity party for me – the writing assignments I’ve taken aren’t easy and require work.  Sob.

Recent podcasts and interviews:

Yea, verily, there are many a podcast that has had a new episode in the past month.  Here are the ones I spotted –

• The Cthulhu Breakfast Club  – Ep. 9 (A remembrance of ‘Big Bad’ John, New Lovecraftian rpg products, mushroom eggs on toast, and much more).
• The Good Friends of Jackson Elias – Ep. 65 (Karl Edward Wagner’s “Sticks”), Ep. 66 (The Appeal of Horror as a genre)
• Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff – Ep. 165 (Necromancy! Powells shopping!), Ep. 166 (Chicago International Film Festival!  Shockingly Dull  Existential Solo Adventure!), Ep. 167 (The Biology of Taste!  James Jesus Angelton!), Ep. 168 (Old Maps! Terrible Architecture!), Ep. 169 (The War of Jenkin’s Ear!  Bloody Mary!)
• The Miskatonic University Podcast – Ep. 91, an interview with Badger McInnis, creator of Feed the Shoggoth, and an overview of the HP Lovecraft Film Fest (Fall, Portland 2015).  Ep. 92 has been recorded but is delayed due to technical issues.
• The Sentinel Hill Press-cast – Episode 1, Sentinel Hill Press news, a look at issue #3, an interview with Chris Huth, and two snippets of New England folklore.

Shane Ivey and Adam Scott Glancy interviewed on d-Infinity Live (12/3/2015)

Shane Ivey and Dennis Detwiller interviewed on Microphones of Madness (11/28/2015)

Times of Daylight Saved

Oh geez, this blog has been left to go fallow for quite a while. I’m giving up on trying to recap all the news of the past two(!) months and will just hit the highlights of what I have been up to in these past few months.

Sentinel Hill Press:

• We had our second annual ‘October-ganza‘ on the Sentinel Hill Press blog, covering topics relating to Call of Cthulhu and/or New England, including New England’s Islands, Boston’s ‘ghoulish’ history, and Native Americans in New England.
• Issue #3 will be ready any day now – I am awaiting my printer proof copy to confirm that the layout is correct, and once that happens, copies will start going out to our Kickstarter backers, and it will become available for purchase on DriveThruRPG and at Chaosium’s online store just after.  The crew at the Cthulhu Breakfast Club flipped through an earlier proof copy recently on their show if you want to see a real life copy… in video.
• We continue to look for submissions for future issues of the Arkham Gazette – likely topics include Kingsport, Dunwich, and ‘Law and Crime’ but we are interested in anything Lovecraft Country related.
• For more about what’s coming next for Sentinel Hill Press, see this blog post.

Delta Green:

• I was very pleased (and frankly flattered) to have a revised version of my Shotgun Scenario “Last Things Last” used as part of the free Quick-start rule set for the new Delta Green RPG, which completed a very successful Kickstarter campaign ($360k+).  I’ve set up a separate page on the blog here to collect all the real play recordings, actual play reports, and Handler advice (and hopefully some commentary from me on the genesis of the scenario) all in one place.  (I also pitched them a couple scenarios, but I’ve not heard back on those yet.)

Blog news:

• I have been adding more information and making corrections to my Bibliography of New England Gravestone Carvers.  I think I’ve caught all the articles from Markers (the Association for Gravestone Study’s journal), up through issue #24 (as well as the first volume of the AGS’s newsletter, up through 1990).

Projects in development:

• I am still (sorry!) revising my scenario “The Smoking Heart” for the Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion kickstarter backers.  Happily it will be released separately from the print copy of the Companion so my delays aren’t holding that project back.  I am sorry for the delays.  I’ve made a few stabs at the thing but keep being dissatisfied with the results and have torn it apart again.  My apologies to the all of the Kickstarter backers.

• I am working on a scenario for a scenario collection.  Slow going, but my deadline is the end of the year, so I keep plugging away, an inch at a time.
• I am also revising an old project, about which I cannot say anything else, at least at this time.

Other News:

• Adam Gauntlett, one of my favorite RPG authors, has launched a Patreon account to fund his creation of more RPG materials.  Let’s see if we can boost that pledge level, shall we?
• Yog-sothoth.com is running its 10th (!) annual Secret Shoggoth Yuletide gift exchange.  Members should definitely sign up.  I’ve done it every year and it is always a lot of fun.

Hopefully I will have more news soon!

ENnie voting, Interviews, and Gravestone Carvers galore

First off – I’ve put out a new call for submissions to the Arkham Gazette for our fourth (!) issue.  Please give it a read and consider submitting something.  The Gazette lives by the aid of many hands. 🙂

If you’ve somehow not heard, ENnie nominations have been announced, including a whole host of Lovecraftian-related projects have honored:

• Horror on the Orient Express (2nd Ed)
• Acthung! Cthulhu: Terrors of the Secret War
• Dreamhounds of Paris
• Ken Writes about Stuff: Vol. 2
• Ken and Robin Talk about Stuff
• The Miskatonic University Podcast

Vote now!

Speaking of of the MUP, I had a great chat with Keepers Jon and Murph of the Miskatonic University Podcast about the soon-to-be-released next issue of the Arkham Gazette, long-forgotten witch trails of New Hampshire, and Colours Out of Space.  I’m always glad to talk to the MUP crew and it was a special treat to talk a bit about one of my favorite of Lovecraft’s creations.

What else is new in podcast land?

• Since the last update, there’s been a Keeper Dan only episode of the Misk. U. Podcast, in which he recapped the most recent Lovecraftian gaming news.
• The Good Friends of Jackson Elias discussed Lovecraft’s “The Shadow Out of Time”.
• Ken and Robin talked about Hollow Earth Theory and how to barbecue a unicorn; I suspect Ken will always answer Kansas City style.

In other news have Pelgrane Press revealed the subject of their recent countdown – Cthulhu Apocalypse, The Doomsday Edition, which collects the previously released Apocalypse Machine, the Dead White World,  and Slaves of the Mother and adds on eight new short scenarios.

Cubicle 7’s World War Cthulhu: Cold War Kickstarter continues to recruit assets, crossing over $40k.

I have been doing research on New England’s Colonial gravestone carvers, and drawing upon that research, I’ve put together an annotated list of all those carvers known, including the related sources about each carver.  If that pique’s your interest, give it a look.  It is still very much a work in progress – I need to regularize all the citations and start adding more links

Let’s conclude with a projects update:

• The Arkham Gazette #3 – issue save scenario is done and laid out (I guess I need to write an intro though); out scenario author Chris Huth is revising “The Queen of Night”.  When that it ready, be assured I’ll trumpet the news here.
• My Jackson Elias scenario for the Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion backers is still in progress.
• My unnamed scenario for an unannounced project is in the earliest draft stages – outline only currently, waiting for me to finish the two projects above.
• Our first stretch-goal scenario for the Arkham Gazette Kickstarter backers is done and waiting layout.  The other scenario is being worked on and the bonus article is still being written.  The former will be released in the near future.
• I’m sure I’m forgetting something, but those projects are what has been on my mind of late.

Memories of the Orient Express, part 1

I’ve been enjoying the frequent updates to the Orient Express Writers’ Blog, where Mark Morrison and Penelope Love have been providing all kinds of interesting news about the forthcoming second edition of Horror on the Orient Express.  They were even nice enough to include a link to ‘Tomes’, which might be a first.

While I’ve spent more (much, much more) time thinking about Masks of Nyarlathotep, HotOE was actually the first campaign I ever ran for Call of Cthulhu and was, in fact, the first game I ever ran of CoC.  I have a lot of fond memories of the campaign and the group I ran it for and I thought I might share a few memories with my readers.

Novos Akros: an indirect tribute to Tom Moldvay

A couple of years back, whilst browsing the stacks at my local hobby shop (such things still exist), I spotted two copies of Omegakron, a module for Lords of Creation.  After nabbing one for myself, I elected to pick up the other for my friends Juniper and Dave.  They own Square Records in Akron, Ohio, the area’s premiere purveyor of vinyl, used CDs, and cool ephemera.  I figured, though they were not gamers, since they lived in Akron they might find it amusing and could add it to their collection of weird decorations that adorn their shop.

Apparently they did find it amusing, or at least inspirational… apparently this spring they released an in-store exclusive Novos Akros a faux soundtrack to a (made up) movie based on the module.  (See here for its “backstory”.)  Living under  a rock, I remained unaware of the release until last week when they sent me a link to the soundtrack.  While I’m not a huge electronica fan, I’m pretty thrilled to discover that my weird gift inspired people to make art.  I don’t know of any RPG material, save for some of Alex Otterlei‘s work for CoC, that has inspired music.  Here’s to Akron, Ohio (with or without atomic monsters) and Tom Moldvay’s love of it.

Oh yeah…

A little while ago one of my works saw print- More Adventures in Arkham Country (from Miskatonic River Press) contains my scenario “Ghosts of the Florentina”.  Dreamy Kingsport collides with the harsh realities of property development!  Who will win in a clash of Lovecraftian horrors and escrow accounts?

More seriously, I am very happy with this scenario and enjoin everyone to purchase a copy of this book so that I might keep up my opulent lifestyle or rpgs and Cristal filled hot tubs.

Playtesting, session two

Things went well… but what to make of that boot print?

Injuries: 1 shotgun blast

Death: 0 (only rolled a 9 on 4d6)

Sanity Lost: 2 points (for exposure to gunfight and dead body)

Playtesting, session one

Since “Fury of Yig” is still in development, I don’t want to say too much about the details of the session, but feel I should at least note a couple things- We have three investigators- a crime-lab tech, a reporter, and a dilettante (who made his money off a bogus smoking cure). The players dove into the investigation and using a mix of their skills (which nicely overlap, oddly enough) made good progress.

Deaths: 0

Injuries: 0

Sanity lost: 0

(I suspect some of this stuff will change in the next time we play.)