Artifacts and Devices

The Watcher, from Brian Poor

Introduction

I don’t really like how Delta Green handles artifacts. The Handler’s Guide says that they allow characters to use rituals without having to make a Ritual Activation roll. You just pay the costs and apply the effects. It’s elegant in its simplicity and it’s not bad, but you end up with the odd situation where unnatural entities and 0 SAN NPCs have no reason to use artifacts. The former have a 99% chance to succeed on any given Ritual Activation roll, and the latter can just automatically activate them in the first place.

¹

Another issue is that sometimes "you automatically activate a ritual" doesn’t make sense for a specific artifact. Maybe it’s an alien weapon that you still have to aim in the right direction where we would normally call for an attack roll, or maybe it’s some inscrutable device that you can roughly puzzle out how to use with your human brain, something more suited to a skill check. Artifacts and rituals aren’t interchangeable in the fiction and they should be meaningfully distinct in the game too. 

The following framework isn’t intended as a complete replacement for the one in the Handler’s Guide. It’s meant as a tool for Handlers to use situationally. Sometimes using an artifact can be as simple as “pronounce the words carved into the amulet and pay the costs to activate the effect,” but sometimes it isn’t.

My Proposal

When a character tries to use an artifact, they have two options. They can make a Ritual Activation roll (as described on pages 166-7 of the Handler’s Guide), or they can make a skill/stat test. For simplicity, the latter will be referred to as “the mundane roll” from here on out. 

A successful roll triggers the artifact’s effect while a fumble means something bad happens. 

Ritual Activation rolls always cost SAN, just like activating a ritual. In contrast, the mundane roll only incurs a SAN roll for witnessing a supernatural effect (see page 68 of the Agent’s Handbook). This is less corrosive to one’s sanity, as you don’t lose SAN with every use. Handlers should call for these SAN tests contextually. Agents shouldn’t simply roll every time they see something or only for the first time, but rather when the context is suitably different. When in doubt, ask the players if they think this is a novel enough experience to require a roll.

To create an artifact, first decide what the effect is. Then, decide what the costs for using it are. These should be fairly low. A ritual just requires a successful activation roll, whereas in this case, the operator must both possess the artifact and succeed on a roll. For the second step, pick the skill and/or stats used for the mundane roll. This could theoretically be anything, INT, POW, Luck, Science (Physics), Heavy Machinery, etc; whatever fits the concept. Finally, decide what happens on a fumble.

A fumbled Ritual Activation roll should only result in a mild negative consequence. For example, a homing beacon might attract unwanted attention from local wildlife instead of summoning its quarry. Using a magic abacus to talk to a corpse might result in psychic backlash or the inability to speak with this specific spirit ever again. The penalties for fumbling the mundane roll are harsher. The beacon might alert an angry shoggoth to the Agents’ location and the abacus might reanimate the corpse as a hostile undead. Particularly dangerous artifacts may cause harm on any unsuccessful mundane roll, not just a fumble. They may even punish fumbled activation rolls more harshly than a standard artifact.

If Handlers prefer a strategy of positive reinforcement, successful activation rolls may have a greater effect than a mundane success. But by default, activation rolls come with a built-in advantage: operators can permanently sacrifice 1 POW to turn a failure into a success.

Unnatural entities have a percentage rating for using the item. This doesn’t have to map one-to-one to the mundane roll that humans use to activate it. Monsters don’t have the same sorts of skills and stats as players, so we bundle this stuff together for Handler usability. For example, the Mi-Go statblock² in the Handler’s Guide has Tool Use at 55%. This governs how likely they are to fry Agents with their electric wands, slice them up with macrodimensional scalpels, or grapple and inject them with memory-wiping chemicals. Humans approach these Mi-Go devices as puzzles to be figured out while the fungi from Yuggoth are probably just operating them by rote. Zero SAN NPCs just use the stat or skill Agents would use. However, when unnatural entities and NPCs at 0 SAN fumble a roll to use an artifact, they only suffer the mild negative consequence, as if they had used their Ritual Activation rating instead.

Proof of Concept

The Mi-Go electric gun is a dark glob of congealed slime with multiple tendrils hanging from the main body. It has various spines and suckers tucked away that it uses to feed and interface with its users. When an Agent picks it up, it wraps around their arm and probes their veins and nerve endings. The experience costs 1/1D4 SAN from unnatural the first time from the shock of the physical intrusion and psychic connection, but subsequent attachments only cost 0/1 SAN. A fumbled SAN test might mean an accidental discharge.



Characters attack with the electric gun by spending 1 WP and 1 HP and rolling against their DEXx5 or Ritual Activation rating. Success deals 1D6 damage to the target who must roll CONx5 or be stunned. The damage ignores body armor (and counts as hypergeometry) but can be blocked by cover. Critical hits inflict double damage and automatically stun the target. At Handler discretion, Agents using DEXx5 to attack might not benefit from the Aim action, nor the bonus from point-blank range. Successful attack rolls using a Ritual Activation rating cost 1 SAN.



A fumbled attack roll means the creature has exhausted its internal store of bio-energy and must feast on fresh meat or a pint of blood before it’s useful again. A fumbled DEX roll means the creature starts biting the Agent for 1D4 damage until they can get it off. Maybe they mishandled it and it’s agitated, or maybe it just wants calories now.



Examining the creature with a high rating in Occult and Science (Biology), or succeeding at a test of either skill, tells Agents that it's an artificial organism controlled by a combination of mechanical inputs and electrical impulses. It probably uses internal reserves combined with nutrients siphoned from its host to discharge violent amounts of energy. With Unnatural 20%, an Agent knows the weapon costs HP and WP to fire and incapacitates its targets with lightning. Only Unnatural 40% or a successful test reveals the exact mechanics in the previous two paragraphs.



Of course, an Agent can always just scoop up the thing and try to use it, consequences be damned. The Handler should ask if they want to point and shoot by pulling what feels like a trigger, or if they want to let in the alien presence flickering at the corners of their mind. This determines whether they use their DEX or their Ritual Activation rating to attack, respectively. 

Special thanks to Archon of Archon's Court for his help in making this comprehensible to the average Delta Green fan

1 Technically, this is a gray area. Ritual Activation is (99 – SAN) and monsters don’t have a SAN score. But (99 – Null) doesn’t equal 100 or even 99. I think letting unnatural creatures automatically activate rituals is a good way of resolving this ambiguity.^↩
2 Elder Things also have implicit weapon-use skills for operating their Black Boxes and injectors.^↩