/var/log/orava

Quick heads up: Delta Green: Eyes Only, which previously was only available as a hardcover limited run which quickly sold out, is now available again in paperback form. Needless to say: it rocks. Seriously.

If you like Delta Green and/or modern Call of Cthulhu and don’t have this book yet, I suggest you grab a copy before they run out, once again.

An alien conspiracy 160 million years in the making.

A group so powerful, their leader may be a god.

An accident so terrible it threatens the past, present and future.

To DELTA GREEN, it’s just another goddamn Night at the Opera.

Finally got around to reading this. Wow, once again; I have yet to be disappointed by any Delta Green book. This is extremely good stuff and quite creepy to boot.

Delta Green: Eyes Only collects three old and long (long!) out-of-print chapbooks for DG, and adds in three new scenarios (each one built around one of the chapbooks) and some extra articles. The first section/chapbook, “The Machinations of the Mi-Go”, concerns the Mi-Go (no surprise) and expands on their operations from what we’re told in the core book. While good, this section is maybe the weakest, simply because there isn’t all that much new here – lots of nice expansions on previous ideas, though. The second section, “The Fate”, deals with that organization (also initially introduced in the corebook), and here they are shown to be even scarier than initially depicted – which is understandable given the “default” answer presented here as to who/what Stephen Alzis actually is. Nice character detail on all the “Lords” is given, in addition to some supporting cast.

The last non-adventure section, “Project Rainbow”, is perhaps the best, and it’s completely original to this book – namely, the DG version of the Philadelphia Experiment. Very creepy and very cool.

Next up we have the scenarios. First is “A Night on Owlshead Mountain” which is a very nice scenario connected with the Mi-Go – but in a pleasantly subtle way. Probably the easiest scenario in this bunch to integrate with an existing campaign. Second up is “Artifact Zero”, which is a chilling and extremely deadly scenario built around the Project Rainbow stuff. Really good scenario, but also so ridiculously deadly that it makes Convergence from the core book look a bit tame. Run this for established play groups only if you’re prepared to lose a lot of PCs. I’d personally run this as a one-shot, and continue on with survivors (if any). You need a ridiculous level of paranoia to survive this thing. Not a bad thing, but… well, you have been warned. This one is nasty and unfair.

Last up is “Holy War”, which concerns internal Fate politics and the fallout of that into the hands of DG and other groups, set in New York just after 9/11. Reads like a nice adventure, but probably best suited for more experienced agents.

All in all, I was extremely impressed with this book, it continues the very high level of quality that Delta Green books are known for. If you want some nasty nihilism into your modern-day occult/supernatural games, you can’t really go wrong with Delta Green material.

As an aside, Scott Glancy just announced on the DG mailing list that a softcover reprint of “Eyes Only” is going to the printers today – so expect to see that available from some places in the near future. Good news for those who missed the original 1000-copy print run, which sold out fast.

Well, after having run a few (kinda sorta) Delta Green one shot scenarios, I’ve now finally gotten around to reading the core book. I was pretty familiar with the general game/world setup before, having read all the DG novels and short stories – but still, this was very much worth reading. I can easily understand why people went “whoah!” when this was first published, and why the original print run sold out: this is Cthulhu updated to the modern age, dripping with conspiracy, paranoia and a sense of doom. The whole tone here is “push back the darkness one more day”, and it picks up a lot of cues from cold war spy stories. Burned-out people trying to keep themselves alive and sane by whatever means necessary, fighting an invisible war that most other people around them are (happily) blind to.

The basic tone and setup is reminiscent of The X-Files (though frequently much grimmer), but it’s not a copy; Delta Green preceeded X-Files by about a year, and was born from the writers wanting a modern Cthulhu game in which the PCs actually had a reason to stick together.

This new edition of the game is hardbound and is double-statted for BRP/d20, but it otherwise identical to the original as far as I know. It contains info on the basic game setup and details on the main groups, most of which are hostile to Delta Green. The second half of the book contains three scenarios: the startup scenario Puppet Shows and Shadow Plays, the (in)famously deadly Convergence, and a longer mini-campaign titled The New Age. All are very good, though I’d hesistate to run Convergence other than as a one-shot, it’s ridiculouly dangerous even for a Cthuhu scenario and should result in an extremely likely total party kill (not “possible”, but “almost certain”). You have been warned.

The book ends up with a big infodump on U.S. government agencies (I had no idea there were so many, the alphabet soup here can make your head spin). Extremely nice detail if you want to add a degree of realistic detail to your game, and should be useful as a resource for other games, too.

There have been some claims that Delta Green doesn’t really work in the post-9/11 U.S., with the tighter scrutiny on federal agency ops and anti-terrorist paranoia which makes a cell operation like Delta Green look precisely like a terrorist operation. Which it is, in many regards. I’m not sure about all that – government agencies are massive things with typically low efficiencies and lots of obfuscation and layers, it doesn’t strain my sense of disbelief to have “shadow ops” still going on under official pretenses. Also, some have said that the X-Files/UFO elements of DG are “outdated”… and I’m not sure I agree on that, either. The Grey/MJ-12 thing is only one small part of the game, and the fact that terrorists have replaced UFOs in the public landscape doesn’t mean that you can’t still use UFO mythology. It might be even more effective in a game, now, since we’re well past the X-Files boom.

In short: I don’t really see any problems in running Delta Green set in a modern U.S. – and if you do happen to have a problem, you can always set your game in pre-9/11 times. Problem solved. I’ve gotten the impression that a “New Millennium” DG sourcebook is one idea the writers have been bouncing around, so we might even get an “official” version of the “DG in 2000s” thing some day.

This is a truly excellent book, and its reputation of being one of the best game expansion books ever published is well-deserved. The amount of new, weird and disturbing ideas here is off the scale, it’s a magic blend of Cthulhu, film noir, Cold War spy stories, X-Files and many other ingredients. I can’t really recommend this book and game highly enough.

Some small notes that don’t really merit a separate post…

• Good things about our house #N: having two showers means that if one should break (as one did, by starting to drip ceaselessly), you still have the other one and don’t need to fix the thing right now! (just “asap” will do).

• The Cat Containment System (tm) is not fully operational and functioning. In other words, we finally completed the extra fencing on top of our yard fence, so that we can now let the cats out into the yard without too much furry leakage. Seems catproof so far; there is one theoretical escape route but that should vanish Saturday when we get a certain tree cut down. Who knows, maybe the felines will start digging an escape tunnel next – stay tuned.

• I’m slowly dipping my toes into miniatures. Having been fascinated with Dream Pod 9’s Heavy Gear roleplaying game for a long time, I’m now getting into the miniatures wargame side of that game. The new tactical system (Blitz!) has been getting a ton of praise from various directions, and the new expanded Heavy Gear Blitz! Locked & Loaded rulebook should be shipping in my direction next week. After I get that, I’ll decide what factions appeal to me most and get a few starter squads… and after that, I’ll actually need to learn how to assemble and paint the things. Scary. I’m not sure if there are many (or any) Heavy Gear tactical players in the Helsinki area, but if nothing else I can recruit some friends to help with playtesting. Don’t know exactly why, but even though “mechs” as a concept has always left me cold, the smaller power-armor style that Heavy Gear uses triggers all my “kewl!” buttons. The rpg rocks, and I’m hoping the miniatures game will too.

• The Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity ransom is now at $15750 (of $20k), so it needs 85 more pledges/pre-orders to be a “go!”. Still 12 days to go on that, no panic yet – but it’s hard to predict how this will go. So… if you’re on the fence on this, now would be a good time to throw in your $50. Even if you later decide you don’t need the book, it’s a limited printing of 1000 and the previous such (Eyes Only) sold out very fast. In other words, you can easily make a profit on eBay later, if needed (when available, Eyes Only has been eBay:ing for around $90-$100). Of course, the real reason to get this is to get some more great DG stuff. Not enough of that in the world.

More and more, companies and individuals are exploring alternatives to the traditional ways of publishing and releasing stuff. Two new examples saw the light of day just now.

First off, we have Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) releasing a whole new album, just scant months after the last double-disk instrumental set. This time around, the whole thing is absolutely free, you can download “The Slip” in various digital forms, without needing to pay Trent one dime (or having to deal with DRM or other nonsense). Trent says that he intends to also release the album in more traditional CD form later, but for now the digital download is a “free gift to the fans”. Apparently his previous “decide how much you want to pay” foray with the Ghosts set was a success – or else he just wants to thumb his nose at the big record labels. Or maybe both. Me, I’m not complaining, I’ve really liked the new NIN stuff – lots of energy and actual melody, instead of just industrial drones.

The second has to do with roleplaying books, where the guys at Pagan Publishing / Arcdream decided that they would like to publish a new Delta Green book (which is at least partly complete already), but all their cash is tied down in other book projects. The Ransom Model to the rescue! So, we now have a new Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity book ransom running; you pledge $50, and if they manage to raise the full $20,000 there will be a print run and you’ll get a copy of the book. If not, you don’t get charged anything and they’ll possibly publish it later via more traditional means, but there’s no guarantee or timeframe on that. So in effect, it’s a binding pre-order for a book, which also gauges how much interest there is for the thing. Very cool, and Greg Stolze has been doing it for a while now with his Reign supplements. Because it’s a printed, hardcover book, international customers will need to Paypal an extra $25 to cover shipping if the book goes to print.

Personally… well, a new hardcover book filled with more Delta Green goodness? Of course I’m in. Besides liking the ransom model in general, Delta Green rocks and the writers on this one are once again first-class. Here’s hoping they get enough pledges so we’ll get the book sooner instead of (much) later. It’ll cost me $75 with international shipping, but with the current $-vs-euro rate that’s about 50e which is quite a normal price for a big hardcover book.

So… if you like NIN, hop on over to their site and download the new album as a gift. If you like Delta Green, pledge your $50 and support the excellent cause of “pay great writers to create tons of cool new modern Cthulhu stuff”. Can’t really go wrong with either choice.

One of my players had to cancel from our Exalted game last Saturday at (almost) the last minute, so I had to figure out something alternative I could run, with only Friday night to prep. After mulling some alternatives, I decided on the “PX Poker Night” Delta Green intro scenario which I had recently read. Said scenario exists in many variants, but a nice version with maps etc is found in an old 2003 back issue of Dungeon/Polyhedron – and since I recently found out that Paizo still has those available, I ordered myself a copy about a month ago and read it some weeks back. It’s a nice scenario; lots of room for mayhem and very open-ended, and with a fairly low lethality factor (for a Cthulhu/DG scenario, at least). It mostly involves the Grey/MJ-12 connection, which is only a small part of the DG mythos, but it’s nicely structured and fairly logical. Probably doesn’t seem logical to the players, though, since events get chaotic fast and the players have no idea of the background machinations going on.

We played using the stock NPCs (each player chose one of the 11 available base personnel and statted him/her up), and it went well – everyone seemed to have fun and I really enjoyed running the thing. I added some extra stuff into the mix from other sources, but mostly I ran the core of the scenario as-is. Had some fun “didn’t see that one coming” moments, such as the spot where a friendly-seeming alien approaches asking for help… and gets hit on the head with a shovel in response. Assistance is futile! Most of the characters were left alive at the end, leaving room to continue some time later with another scenario using (partly) the same characters, if there’s occasion. Funny, I’ve now run two sort-of DG scenarios, and I still haven’t read the core Delta Green book (it’s on the shelf though, waiting its turn).

Fun (if long) day of gaming, with some food made via a random Internet recipe to stop people from going hungry. Food was good too; the next time I make that thing I’ll want to increase the amount of crepe batter, though, we ran out before running out of filling.

I was pretty exhausted afterwards, even more than normal after a full-day GM job. Fell asleep a bit after 11pm and slept almost 12 hours. Zzzzzzz. Maybe it’s an alien plot.

Well, we finally got a pile of snow over here. Sure, it was mostly gone by this morning, but still… Sunday morning, I actually had some trouble driving the car down our driveway, had to take care not to get stuck. Kind of hoping the snow comes back soon, even though it’s a bit of a hassle it still changes the dreary grey into less dreary white – a big deal, as we’re right now in the worst stretch of the “it’s always dark, dammit!” Finnish winter.

Was a bit of an exercise-oriented weekend, for a change; six hours of martial arts / self-defense training on Saturday and three more on Sunday. Was a ton of fun, we explored what options a walking stick, a (big) flashlight, an axe, and a (normal trouser) belt give you. Turns out a walking stick/cane is a lot more versatile than even I would have imagined, especially if it has a hook on one end. Another surprise was the belt… it can become a surprisingly useful weapon/accessory. Best of all, neither are generally classified as weapons, and can be carried in places where a knife, for example, would get you in trouble.

The fact that an axe is a pretty good weapon came as no surprise, and neither the fact that a large flashlight doubles as a weapon without much problems. Have to watch out against blinding yourself, of course… we did some training in a darkened room, lots of fun that.

Besides that flailing around on an exercise mat, it was a nice, peaceful weekend. Cleaned up around the house, read quite a bit, watched some “tv”. I can now safely say that Pushing Daisies is very much worth watching, I found it delightful. It’s also… unconventional. It’s a romantic comedy, and it’s also a sort of an urban fairly tale (with a slightly macabre twist). The 3rd party narrator and the hyper-saturated colors add to this, it’s a totally intentional vibe. The writing is excellent and very funny, and there are just wonderfully bizarre momments (like when the passengers in a car suddenly start singing a They Might Be Giants song). It’s quirky and warm-hearted and I’m very much enjoying it.

What’s it about? Well, there’s this pie maker, who can raise the dead by touching them. Thing is, if he ever touches them again, they drop dead again. For good. If he doesn’t “kill” them again within one minute, someone or something else dies as a side-effect. Then there’s a girl named Chuck, some kooky aunts, and much surrealism.

The whole thing is just so weird and unconventional that I’ll be surprised if it stays on air for very long. On the other hand, it’s apparently gotten great ratings and has been picked up for a full season, so apparently I’m not the only one finding it charming. We’ll see.

Oh, and on a totally unrelated note: I’ve previously talked about Delta Green: Eyes Only, a Delta Green book collecting three near-impossible-to-find old chapbooks, with lots of new material thrown in. Well, it’s now shipping, and also nearly sold out; as of Sunday, there were 110 copies left out of 1000. After this limited run sells out, getting your hands on a copy might be highly non-trivial. So: if you’ve been thinking of maybe getting this, act now. Soon it will be too late. There’s a Game Geeks video review of the book available, if you want to get a quick description of what the book’s about.

Word of warning: the book is only available through Internet order, and the shipping costs to Finland are pretty high. The US$ is pretty low vs the euro at the moment, but still… this book will cost you a bit.

Lock and load agents, Delta Green: Eyes Only became available last night. As noted before, this is a limited run of 1,000 copies. I ordered about an hour after the announcement was posted and my order number was 101. Dennis said that it’s “selling like hotcakes”, despite the hefty shipping & handling costs – $30 s&h to Finland, which results in a total price of $70 for the book. Ouch. Becomes a bit less “ouch” once you realize that because of the strong Euro vs. weak, puny and generally inferior US$ that “only” amounts to about 52 euros. Expensive, but doable. Getting hold of this book once the 1,000 copies sell out will involve eBay, luck and lots of cash; I’ll happily pay 52e now.

In what is obviously a global conspiracy to hike up my credit card bill, Greg Stolze’s Reign also became available this week through Lulu print-on-demand, with two different options for cover art (I like the red Solis design best, myself). Also available as hardcover, and to top it off I understand that Lulu offers semi-reasonable shipping costs for us EU folks nowadays. Heroically, I resisted the temptation, I don’t want to cram anything more on my Visa this month.

For those of you going “what the hell is ‘Reign’?”, it’s Stolze’s new rpg using the ORE/Nemesis engine and focusing on politics and social dynamics in a fantasy setting – in other words, it has crunch that will let the players (try to) take over and run kingdoms. Could be very cool.

For those of you going “who the hell is Greg Stolze?”… you’re reading the wrong blog entry, sorry. Move on now, don’t block the view.

In probably-not-related news, Jerry Falwell is (finally) dead. The world just became a slightly better place, and the warm and sunny weather today just might be a side result. You never know.

Added later: Lulu.com has a promotion with really cheap EU shipping, but in order to get that you have to pay in euros, if you pay in dollars you get charged the normal price. For Reign, “cheap” here means 1,99e and “normal” $13.62. Don’t ask how I found that out. Just… don’t.

Strap on your ice skates and head towards the smell of brimstone, the Delta Green reprint is now actually available from Arkham Bazaar (and probably some other places as well). I didn’t want to risk missing out on this one, and ordered a copy as soon as I got word via the Delta Green mailing list. Huzzah!

In related news, Dennis & the guys are preparing to accept orders on the upcoming Delta Green: Eyes Only opus. Reprinting all 3 of the long-out-of-print DG chapbooks, with new art and some new material, this is high on my “MUST BE MINE!” list. Especially since it will be a limited print run due to contract reasons, and getting hold of it after it sells out will be… tricky (and will probably involve a wetworks squad and some ninja zombies).

I love the fact that Pagan and the Delta Green guys are all experimenting with new ways to publish books. With niche products like this, which have a high demand within their niche, print-on-demand and stuff like the ransom model of financing are coming into their own; they make it possible to publish things that would not make financial sense via the traditional channels. Which is nice.

The only bad part is that you have to be “in the know” to actually get the books. More and more, things like this are “Internet orders only”, you won’t find them in normal game stores and will probably never even hear of them unless you frequent various web forums, mailing lists and whatnot. That’s the price you pay when the middle man is cut off.

Update, later: I just got word that Fantasiapelit is getting a batch of the Delta Green reprint books, arrival in 2 - 2.5 weeks from now. So if anyone local is interested, no need to order from abroad, just check out the Fantasiapelit “new arrivals” section.

Delta Green has been a very difficult-to-get rpg sourcebook for a long time now, ever since the thing went out of print ages ago. I’ve been on the lookout for a copy, but since I don’t feel like paying $100-$150 on eBay so far I’m DG-less.

There have been rumors and semi-facts about an “upcoming” DG reprint for years now, so long it has almost become a running joke mentioned along with the words “hell” and “ice skating”. Apparently there were multiple screwups along the way and at one point it didn’t look likely that the reprint would ever see the light of day. Last month, however, Pagan Publishing declared ”Here the hell is Delta Green” and it looks like this semi-mythical reprint tome will finally make its way to (some) shops.

I have no info yet if Fantasiapelit will get copies or not. However, what is known is that Pagan has 22 advance copies sitting in their office, and the guys have been trying to figure out a fair way to decide who gets to buy one of those advance copies.

This morning the following arrived via the DG mailing list:

Agents,

A-Cell has finally come to a decision how we will distribute the 22 copies of Delta Green d20 we have available in advance of the print run arriving by sea later this month.

We are going to run a lottery. A firing-squad lottery.

Send in your name and address and a short statement that you don’t own a copy yet and that you have a group of players or intend to write a review of the book. We’re on the “horror system” here at Pagan Publishing so I’ll just have to trust that you are not looking to acquire a copy so you can flog it on eBay.

I’m going to take your names, print them out on “Hi My Name is” name tags, glue the name tag to a target silhouette, take the silhouette out to the gun range and shoot the hell out of it with my AK-47. If your name-tag is hit by a bullet, you get to buy one of the copies. For $40.00 + shipping you will get a signed copy of DG d20, your bullet-riddled name-tag, and a spent 7.62 x mm shell casing.

Good luck, Agents

A. Scott Glancy, President TCCorp

Now, if that’s not cool nothing is. At least it made me grin like an idiot.

In case it’s not obvious, my name tag will be in harm’s way. Here’s hoping for a lucky shot.

Update, later: curses, foiled again. Didn’t get lucky, will have to buy the book via ordinary channels.

Yog-Sothoth.com has a few pictures of the event.