Author Topic: Need help with a CoC/Delta Green scenario  (Read 7503 times)

Kamen

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Need help with a CoC/Delta Green scenario
« on: January 25, 2013, 03:18:45 PM »
Ok, so, I need some help with a CoC/Delta Green scenario I'm trying to come up with. I have some basic ideas for what I want to do, but I'm fairly new to GMing as a whole and I've never run a Mythos based game before, so any help and/or advice would be greatly appreciated and I apologize ahead of time if I jump around and for leaving walls o' text.

My initial desire to run a scenario came from when I was playing Far Cry 3 when it first came out, between the tropical archipelago setting, the survival, predator/prey aspect and the semi-psychological themes, I figured it could make for an interesting game. This is also something of a sequel to an earlier CoC game my group's usually GM ran in 2010 that ended with my PC's brain in a jar (thanks Nyarlathotep), another PC (a US Marshal) joining DG, and everybody else either dying or going missing.

The basic plot I have worked out is the Party is a Joint-Op between the DEA, US Marshals (the PC I mentioned earlier), ATF, and maybe FBI/DSS/CIA, on a mission to a yet-to-be-named archipelago (a US territory for hand-waving reasons)  in the Mid-to-South Pacific and the target is an international crime boss/drug lord/human trafficker and his operation on the island(s). The basic motivations are: The DEA wants to stop this drug operation; The US Marshals want the drug lord's fugitive right-hand man, who is essentially the Vaas in this scenario, along with any other fugitives they can locate in the operation; The ATF wants to stop any illegal weapons he's smuggling; and the FBI/CIA wants the leader dealt with, period. Of course, it starts out this way, then horrible things from beyond human understanding show up and it all goes to hell.

I'd like the archipelago to be 3 islands situated around a central lagoon, that is large and oddly deep, and each island has 1 or 2 major set pieces. There's the Northern Island, which will have the major city/town on it, the Southern Island, which will be the crime bosses main abode and center of his operations on the islands, and the Western Island, which will hold an abandoned military testing facility/air field. Along with these there could be a few smaller towns and some older ruins spread throughout the island with strange statues and carvings. Wildlife would also play a part in this, between dangerous native predators and prey to the more horrifying Mythos creatures that begin to show up as the group explores.

Now the elder horror stuff and this will probably be where I need the most help. I figure the crime lord could be the head of a cult that is spreading throughout the islands. Given that its set on the water in the Pacific I'd figure a Cthulhu cult would probably work best, though I know in the DG book it mentions that Cthulhu cults are all but eradicated. He could have a secret temple to Cthulhu deep inside the mountains surrounding his complex. Maybe there could be rumors through the towns of strange figures (Deep Ones, obviously) coming from the sea or the lagoon at night and carrying off people; Strange fish-things being caught in a local fisherman's net; Maybe a town they find close to the lagoon has become something of a tropical Innsmouth. I was actually thinking, and I'm not sure how dumb this sounds or if it would make any sense, but possibly having the islands be apart of R'lyeh, like a broken piece of the city or an outlier (like a suburb/borough), that peaked above water along time ago and slowly eroded into the archipelago. Anyway, the ruins dotting the island could be ancient Cthulhu cult sites, where the crime lord stumbled across some writings/statues/etc and became something of a new prophet for Cthulhu.

Finally the Delta Green/Party stuff, once again probably gonna need a bit of help with this part. So right now I'm trying to decide if I want the entire group to be DG or not. I know I'd like at least 2 DG agents, one of which is the US Marshal, and maybe a DEA agent. I figure if not everybody is DG it could make for some party tension and drive up the stakes. My usual group is between 5-6 people, so 2 DEA, 1-2 Marshals, and some combination of ATF/FBI/CIA to round it out. I figure with 2 DEA we could have a Field Agent and a lab tech/doctor-type. OK, more motivation stuff real quick, I'd like to have some sort of mysterious drug mcguffin/plot hook for the DEA side. A strange new drug shows up on the underground scene (Club Apocalypse perhaps?) and the DEA manage to trace it back to its only source to the island, maybe they get it out of the Vaas character, who then escapes his prison transport, causing the Marshals to get after him. Speaking of drugs, if anybody has rules for drug-use and effects let me know please, I've heard of some homebrew rules, but haven't actually seen any. Finally, once the party gets together in Hawaii for briefing I'd like to split them up for transport to the Archipelago, for undercover reasons as an excuse for the party, but really I'd like the second group's plane to go down on one of the adjacent islands, probably the Western one, and have them survive and come across creepy stuff along the way back to meet with the rest of the group. Maybe have them run into some of the crime lords cronies as they investigate the crash.

Ok, that's it for now, please let me know what you think and any suggestions are more than welcome! Once again sorry about the wall of text, I'm just excited to get this idea out there and get feedback. Thanks again!

Flawless P

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Re: Need help with a CoC/Delta Green scenario
« Reply #1 on: January 25, 2013, 03:40:45 PM »
If you do go for the R'yleh angle I would recommend presenting it as being affected by R'yleh and not an actual part of it. Then having certain locations shift and all the locals don't know the difference (The hospital was always on the south western shore...).

Modern day innsmouth might work but I would recommend using only Dagon instead if that is the case. He doesn't get nearly enough love in my opinion.

If you decide to go with only a few DG agents I would also recommend giving all the other characters at least one unexplained occurence that took place in their careers and maybe part of the DG guys missions is to assess the rest of the party for entry to DG.
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clockworkjoe

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Re: Need help with a CoC/Delta Green scenario
« Reply #2 on: January 25, 2013, 06:12:09 PM »
Yeah I'd drop the  R'yleh angle. You don't need it. Cthulhu cults are fine in DG because the world is large and even if a bunch of Americans shoot up the deep ones near Innsmouth and their human cultists, it doesn't mention some south Pacific cult would even care. DG Eyes Only has a chapter on an Alaskan Deep One cult - check that out.

This is a fairly complex setup, so this is more than a one shot - it's at least a 3 session game. Is that what you want?

Kamen

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Re: Need help with a CoC/Delta Green scenario
« Reply #3 on: January 25, 2013, 07:21:54 PM »
Ok, I kinda figured the R'lyeh thing was a bit much. I might switch it to being a bit more Dagon focused cult. I do like the trial-by-fire aspect for the non-DG party. And yes, it'll be a multi-part scenario, even if I tried for a one-shot my group would manage to stretch into multiple session. I'll have to see if I can get a copy of Eyes Only; I have the core DG book and a pdf of Targets of Opportunity. Also, I guess it was kinda implied, but being the South Pacific there's a definite Samoan/Polynesian influence to the area. Thanks again!