A meditation on Delta Green, and unrelated topics
After having read several of the Delta Green
casebooks, I've come to the tentative conclusion that running a bunch of investigators through a scenario in this game is going to be an even bigger headache for a GM/Keeper/Storyteller/whatever than managing one's NPCs in Twilight 2000. To begin with, you have the problem of the players knowing more than the characters, and this is a serious problem since half the horror and terror of being a Delta Green operative is that you don't really know what you're tangling with half the time. In a Lovecraftian setting, this verges on suicidal, because the humans you're going after are just as powerful as you are most of the time, and they've got clout of a terrible and sanity-breaking kind backing them up. Perhaps in a post-Through a Glass, Darkly
setting, where Majestic-12 and Delta Green seem to have finally come to terms, you might have better informed DG teams going after targets, but just as in The X-Files, where Mulder and Scully never seemed to realize just what they were up against until it was almost too late, it's not the way to bet.
This means your players are going to go through characters like nickels at an all-night poker game if you make them play based on what the characters know as opposed to what the players know, and I can't imagine that's going to be too much fun for most people. Quite the contrary, I imagine it's going to be really frustrating having their people killed right left and center because the characters can't and don't know as much about the Mythos as the players do. Maybe there's a way to avoid that (Chris Carter and his writers managed to keep the series going for seven seasons until it collapsed under a lack of actual planning and David Duchovny becoming bored) but I'm not sure what it would be. One thing's for sure - I'm going to have to read a lot more of the material before I make up my mind.
Still no sign of the damn jacket from Haband, but at least I got my Bloodmouth Carnist T-shirt today. Wore it to the Chick-Fil-A, where nobody even batted an eye; managed to repress the urge to stop by Whole Foods on the way home and instead went to Walmart for more protein bars and some Diet Coke in the handy 1.25 liter/40 ounce size.
Speaking of CFA, they seem to have reworked their grilled chicken so that it's not as dry as it was; they also replaced the provolone with colby jack and did something with the bacon that improved it tremendously. So the new roast chicken club is a Good Thing; the spicy chicken sandwich is still the best, though.
Managed to get the FMJRA done and posted for the first time in a couple of weeks. Tomorrow, the much-delayed Rule 5 Sunday and maybe a book post.
casebooks, I've come to the tentative conclusion that running a bunch of investigators through a scenario in this game is going to be an even bigger headache for a GM/Keeper/Storyteller/whatever than managing one's NPCs in Twilight 2000. To begin with, you have the problem of the players knowing more than the characters, and this is a serious problem since half the horror and terror of being a Delta Green operative is that you don't really know what you're tangling with half the time. In a Lovecraftian setting, this verges on suicidal, because the humans you're going after are just as powerful as you are most of the time, and they've got clout of a terrible and sanity-breaking kind backing them up. Perhaps in a post-Through a Glass, Darkly
setting, where Majestic-12 and Delta Green seem to have finally come to terms, you might have better informed DG teams going after targets, but just as in The X-Files, where Mulder and Scully never seemed to realize just what they were up against until it was almost too late, it's not the way to bet.
This means your players are going to go through characters like nickels at an all-night poker game if you make them play based on what the characters know as opposed to what the players know, and I can't imagine that's going to be too much fun for most people. Quite the contrary, I imagine it's going to be really frustrating having their people killed right left and center because the characters can't and don't know as much about the Mythos as the players do. Maybe there's a way to avoid that (Chris Carter and his writers managed to keep the series going for seven seasons until it collapsed under a lack of actual planning and David Duchovny becoming bored) but I'm not sure what it would be. One thing's for sure - I'm going to have to read a lot more of the material before I make up my mind.
Still no sign of the damn jacket from Haband, but at least I got my Bloodmouth Carnist T-shirt today. Wore it to the Chick-Fil-A, where nobody even batted an eye; managed to repress the urge to stop by Whole Foods on the way home and instead went to Walmart for more protein bars and some Diet Coke in the handy 1.25 liter/40 ounce size.
Speaking of CFA, they seem to have reworked their grilled chicken so that it's not as dry as it was; they also replaced the provolone with colby jack and did something with the bacon that improved it tremendously. So the new roast chicken club is a Good Thing; the spicy chicken sandwich is still the best, though.
Managed to get the FMJRA done and posted for the first time in a couple of weeks. Tomorrow, the much-delayed Rule 5 Sunday and maybe a book post.