How I Use Inhuman Stat Tests in Delta Green

Delta Green has some monsters (and people) with stats outside of the normal human range of 3-18. Just using the rules in the Agent's Handbook makes resolving stat tests a bit weird when the stat in question is at 20 or higher. Fortunately, page 188 of the Handler's Guide has us covered: they succeed on all rolls except for 100, which fails and fumbles, and critically succeed when the dice match and if the result is less than or equal to their stat. I like this rule. It's elegant, and because of the way opposed tests work, it makes 20 CON different from 30 CON, since one is more likely to critically succeed.

TOE-FAT COUNTRYSIDE: Session Five (part 1)

Bill interrogated the two ISI agents using his red beard and faked accent via fluency in Chechen to pretend to be part of the Taliban. "Just because the big man is gone doesn't mean you can do whatever you want. Now tell me, why does the ISI care about a UFOlogist?" In the scenario, agents Mirza and Kalmati are written as unflappable and tight-lipped. But I figured the recent course of events was enough to shake them up. Mirza explained al-Zahabi had tipped them off to a downed aircraft in North Waziristan and that the higher ups were very interested. There were machinations going on, but the conspiracy didn't go all the way to the top. It was just a new project within the ISI, albeit a large one. Jim drove them to the hospital where Chester unceremoniously rolled the unconscious Kalmati out of the truck bed and onto the ground. As they drove away, they could see Mirza frantically making a few calls on his phone. Pretending to be Taliban was a smart move, as ordinarily the ISI agents tell al-Zahabi the CIA is looking for him and that he needs to get out of town.

TOE-FAT COUNTRYSIDE: Session Four

Over the past few months, I've slowly been running a Delta Green campaign for some friends in an attempt to finally run Iconoclasts. Glancy's new magnum opus suggests running it as a capstone for experienced Agents, and the pregens on offer all have two damaged veteran packages to match. But I thought it'd be more fun to manually put the Agents through the wringer. Plus I wanted to get to know them better so I could make Iconoclasts pop.

The campaign structure is an alternation between scenarios set domestically and ones set overseas, usually in the middle east. I'd already run them through tormsen's Enemy of the Tribes. Our cast consists of

• Jim Coake, an FBI agent focused on artifact smuggling.
• Gabriel Almeida, a very large FBI special agent
• Nelson 'Doc' Taylor, former navy medic, currently pursuing a new career at the CIA
• William 'Big Bill' Chester, a retired SEAL turned CIA Paramilitary Officer and communications expert.

Big Bill and Doc Taylor were already in Pakistan because of their jobs, while Jim and Gabriel were generously flown out on Delta Green's dime. A month ago, a team of Navy SEALs filled Osama Bin Laden with bullets. In the process, an encrypted flash drive containing an exchange between Bin Laden and the local Taliban was discovered. Once cracked, it contained enough hints of something spooky that Delta Green assigned a team to investigate.

ARCHINT: The Mi-Go Gravity Weapon

The Gravity Cone is an unassuming device, two irregular slabs of black metallic stone that just barely fit into a man's outstretched palm. Carefully tracing one's fingers over the surface or shining a light at an angle reveals a tapestry of razor thin squiggles carved into the material. Delicate hinges surround the edges, making it seem impossible to open.

Taking a rubbing of the etchings is difficult, but possible. Occult likens them to a specific crop circle design made by hovering spacecraft. Supposedly they're the impression left behind by an 'antigravity drive.' Archeology notes the similarity between one of the patterns and the seal of Antaeus. In one version of The Twelve Labors, he first challenged Herakles to lift his halteres, which were impossible for any mortal man to separate from the earth. History compares the alien symbols instead to a series of runes employed by Merlin in one version of the King Arthur legend. Rather than pulling a sword from an anvil (the stone was a later addition), he just picked it up. No one else could lift it because the runes on the anvil increased the sword's weight tenfold for the unworthy.

ARCHINT: The Abacus

From PLUNGE #3; art by Stuart Immonen, colors by Dave Stewart, letters by Deron Bennett

In my previous post, I mentioned a necromantic abacus as a possible artifact. Here's a writeup for it, more in line with mellonbread's game design philosophy.

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.

Whispers of the Dead (Shub-Niggurath)

 

Shub-Niggurath by Albert Che

The Ritual 

The operator must enter the wilderness and make a blood sacrifice on an altar. Stereotypically, this occurs in a dark, dense forest. However, those with skill in Anthropology or Archeology (or a high Occult rating) know that lush islands, bogs, and even grasslands are suitable. The only thing that matters is that the operator must not be able to see the sprawl of civilization. As such, more modern versions of this ritual suggest that the operator walk until they can't see whatever vehicle they traveled in anymore.

Whispers of the Dead (Yig)

 

Original Weird Tales illustration by Hugh Rankin

The Ritual 

The ritual must be performed in an area suited to snakes and reptiles, such as a swamp, jungle, or desert. The operator drapes one or more snakes over their body and traces curves and spirals into the muck, dirt, or sand with a staff carved or painted to look like a snake. They hum or hiss along to an odd melody played on the flute and drums. Those with Anthropology know that a digital recording will be sufficient. It's the sounds and the effect they have on the operator's mind that is important rather than the instruments or act of playing them.