Volunteer for the firing line

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

1. 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.

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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. […]

Fear and loathing in Russia, with demons

Well, despite a semi-hectic real life schedule leading me to not get as much prep work done as I would have liked, I’ve managed to run a few non-horrible rpg sessions. After a long while of not running anything, it’s slowly coming back. I guess GM:ing is sort of riding a bike – you can get better at it over time, but once learned you never really forget the skill. Also like the bike, now and then you crash and fall in a spectacular fashion no matter how good you are…

Anyway, last Tuesday we had the first proper session of an Exalted game. The story starts in Nexus, and I had a bunch of plot threads semi-ready and went with what the players decided to do. Mostly things went in expected directions, but there were quite a few surprises to keep me on my toes. Apparently things seemed to progress in a logical fashion, which is nice, considering that behind the scenes I was desperately trying to integrate multiple fast-mutating plot threads together. We’ll see how this goes; at the moment the characters have recovered a few (apparently minor) artifacts and are trying to figure out the meaning of a symbol which gives some of them foreboding flashbacks from the past. Things are made interesting by the fact that the party isn’t exactly in agreement about how best to proceed… White Noise’s stealthy and paranoid approach to things is not quite in synch with Khamyn’s “go forth my followers and fetch me information!” deal. Oh, and they have a First Circle demon in their basement, happily building a nest from various spiky bits. Will the Dragon-Bloods come gunning after the party looking for stolen loot? Will the Wanderer decide to go “fuck this” and revert back to the Immaculate faith? Will Damien the Black Sword decide to pay the brothel another visit (“to gather some more info!”)? Stay tuned.

On Sunday I ran the one-shot scenario Machine Tractor Station Kharkov-37 to a bunch of people, with good results. As expected, the scenario worked very well and the pregen characters had just the right amount of built-in friction and mutual paranoia to keep things from being too easy. Most of the game went in a straightforward fashion, with creepy stuff getting discovered bit by bit and the characters going into “oh shit, let’s leave now” mode (smart of them). Things took a sudden and Paranoia-style turn at the end, when the TASS leader decided that the Commissar knew too much and tried to discreetly execute him. The keen-sensed Commissar threw a spanner into the works, however, by partially dodging the bullet (literally) and running for the trucks, trailing blood and shouting “help, he’s gone mad!”. At the same time, the TASS leader was shouting something to the tune of “stop, traitor!” and confusion reigned supreme. Things wound up with the Red Army medic blowing the TASS thug’s head off with a rifle and with the Red Army group doing a “tactical retreat” from the spot. All in all, a grim but fun DeltaGreen-meets-Paranoia game session. I also used the game as an excuse to test Stolze and Detwiller’s Nemesis game system instead of using BRP, and it worked pretty well. Needs some tweaking, the stock skill list isn’t that hot and this one is probably much better – but overall is seems like a solid engine for low-power horror games. Seeing as the same engine is used in the superhero game Wild Talents, it apparently also works for high-power stuff. Oh, and Stolze is working on Reign, which uses the same “ORE” system to drive some sort of political fantasy game. It’s pretty versatile, though of course needs tweaks depending on what sort of game you want to run.

In any case, I think this became my system of choice for Cthulhu-type games, it works and is lightweight enough. The next time I use it I’ll probably give the alternate combat rules a try, they sound like they might work (even) better than the default ones – which aren’t bad by any means.

On Thursday we’ll be doing Exalted again. I’ll have to find some time today to prepare a bit, since tomorrow night I’ll probably be playing VTES at Valter Cafe – Andrea of EC2006 organizing fame is coming to Finland (from Italy) and we’ve promised him gaming company. […]