Below are my grades, critiques, and thoughts about the 2021 Delta Green Shotgun Scenario Contest.
We also discussed some of these entries on the Green Box, and my friend and co-host Tom had some really enlightening comments on some of the entries I looked down upon here in this record.
Grading Rubric
A+ - perfectly runnable and inspiring
A - runnable and I want to
B- runnable but not personally interesting
C- needs minor improvements to be runnable
D- needs major improvements
F - Too much attitude of the knife, incomplete
Comments were a stream of consciousness as I read them.
Deep Fiction - The agents go undercover and must dismantle a mythos conspiracy from the inside.
Don’t love the coercion setup.
Pretty bonkers premise, and now the Agents are expected to live in Mexico?
A lot of words on the setup before the investigation even begins.
There’s like four different Mythos entities involved, this is a bit overwhelming for a shotgun and there’s no concise picture for a Handler to know what is going on, and now I’m seeing that there’s additionally six sorcerers too
So the suggestions for ending this scenario are “blow up, kill, kill, kill, kill” and then there’s nothing to follow up with the Mexico angle afterward either?
Grade: D bordering on F. Too much crammed and it feels incomplete. My suggestion is to focus on fewer things and dig into those.
Oh boy a scenario that involves underwater recovery, you have piqued my personal and professional interests.
50 feet of depth at night in a northern region is going to be a very cold and dark dive. Additionally the muck and mire means that light sources are going to be absolutely useless and you’ll have less than one foot of visibility. Depending on how fast the current is moving, you’re also going to have to worry about using equipment to keep you in place.
Getting this steamer box up is going to involve using some scuba lift bags, in which you take your spare air tube and create a pocket of air, like a reverse parachute. Even trying to lift a single rock out by yourself is going to require some expert scuba techniques, especially depending on how long you’ve been underwater and how quickly you ascend.
Moving to the Unnatural effects, I think that if you add in the sensory deprivation you have a really solid scenario invoking deep personal horror and claustrophobia/bathophobia
I do have a question, if the rocks are pulling fluids towards them, how is that effected by being submerged at 1.5 atmospheres of pressure?
It looks like you assume that getting the rocks out of the water is the easy part, and I fully reject that.
The transport of the rocks also feels like it would be essentially a series of dice rolls to resist that effects of the rocks, which may require adding more choices for agency sake. The map is great.
Grade: B-, piques my interest but I want to know more about the rocks and getting them out of the water
Similar setup to Disassociation from the collection Fear’s Sharp Little Needles
This seems to be written for Call of Cthulhu.
Really trippy atmosphere. I approve of gaslighting the players but if you’re going to do it just roll the dice for them behind a screen.
This has potential to be a really sensory-intensive exploration scenario, but feels a bit like a rambling railroad.
Grade: D, focus on dividing your thoughts into more coherent subsections (such as rooms) and consider making lists of activities that the Greys will engage in
Insane in the Membrane - The agents wake up in a hellish sanatorium.
Really powerful imagery, imagine a bunch of people sitting around a table and imagining things happening….
Very evocative, but too many initial SAN tests.
You reference Flesh-Shackles but there’s no stat block for them.
The details and gross weirdness are nice but this is a palace of pain scenario, what is the ultimate goal or purpose?
Grade: C, needs more clarity of purpose but otherwise great writing
Irregular Bereavement Protocols - An unnatural finding in a crematorium forces Delta Green to deal with strange reunions in the town of Joseph, Oregon.
Really solid start to an intriguing investigation. I got to the part where “atypical Alpha waves” are mentioned and it’s several paragraphs before some explanation is given.
My initial thought upon learning that the artefact creates loved ones wasn’t “I need to destroy this,” it’s “This is a wonderful tool and I should keep it or monetize it.”
Grade: A, a complete investigation tied up nice and neat, motivations of Agents and suggested endings aside
Who Do You Think You Are!? I am! - Your chances of survival are Slim to Nil, and Nils just left town.
Ahh, it’s The Thing.
The scenario is runnable and in a playable state, but I’m personally not interested (The Thing board game exists and is pretty fun). Mechanics seem to use some mix of Call of Cthulhu rules too.
Grade: B, this is probably the best version of The Thing scenario I’ve seen
Woe, Plague Be Upon Ye - A local farmer unintentionally unleashes a biblical plague on a small town with unusual effects.
It seems like a plague of cicadas this big would draw far greater attention to this small town
Question: who found Price’s body? It doesn’t seem that this is ever addressed and it’s assumed that Agents would beeline to his house? Do the Agents go directly to where the biggest mass of cicadas are and then find the body?
If the cicadas are loud and obnoxious enough to be irritating people to the point of violence, I don’t think a 60% Alertness clue should be necessary.
The monsters are super cool and unique
Grade: B, a fine investigation but not personally interesting
Ideal Education - An outbreak of mental illness making people pull out their own hair shows a link back to a new educational paradigm at a local school.
Interesting hook, but the carcosan ties are a little bit too overt for my tastes, but the apples are a nice twist (and potentially unexpected). That said, the investigatory track seems a bit simple and there doesn’t seem to be many choices for Agents.
Grade: C, a few clues and choices would make this great
Lost Hallows - Agents are encased in a wintry game of survival while picking up another team's case.
Impressive map and character portraits. Interesting that the Agents investigating actually make the situation worse by freeing the beast. IMO More clues are needed for Agents to actually discover the secret to beating the monster (destroying the white willow).
Grade: A, this seems like a fun scenario to run
One Fine Mourning... - An Agent has fallen during an ongoing campaign... Here is a shotgun style guide on how to handle it.
This seems more like a setpiece than a scenario. I can’t even really grade it because there’s not much to grade. It’s fine and can be a helpful resource for people to make a more meaningful scenario
Exposure Therapy - An Agent's truthfulness comes back to haunt them.
My first question is how does the therapist know to confront Agents in New York?
Now this is a genuinely interesting coercive hook, but I’m still not sure how the therapist was able to pull this off.
If/when Casey starts torturing Agents, it’s expected that they’ll remain in her witch house instead of backing out and firebombing it? If Agents are given orders to kill, don’t be surprised when they don’t investigate.
The new rituals are pretty cool, and I really like the title
Grade: C, needs a better reason for Agents to stay in Casey’s house and not just immediately resort to arson
Werewolf Gimmick - Bring your heroes to the wolf's den, watch them all get crushed.
Lol I love any scenario where the premise is that Agents can’t break kayfabe. I was really skeptical about this scenario at first but it’s a way better version of Reverberations
Grade: A+
Flight 719 - An ancient artifact can trigger many things, more if it’s floating in the sky.
I don’t love introductory scenarios but this is a pretty good one.
This sounds like a really fun frantic scramble for the Unnatural thing in a dangerous bottle episode.
Migo on the wing of the plane has a real Twilight Zone vibe to it.
Grade: B, needs slightly better organization. Consider using headings for different foci: Friendly NPCs, Enemy NPCs (with motivations and possible actions), the weird thing, and some possible outcomes and things to inject in the scenario
Grade: B
Freud's Cigar - Some cases are simple, they don't need to be overanalyzed, sometimes a killer is just a killer.
Competent mundane scenario, where was this during the Mundane or New contest?
I would like a lot more clues that point towards the serial killer, perhaps even about autopsies that sort of blur the line to make agents unsure if this is mythos or mundane
Grade: B
Loup-Garou - The chuck is cut, et les chiens ont faim.
Real True Detective vibes, and a good investigation. One thing I wish was added: how did Calvin’s family feel about him when he was high on Seventh Seal, did he try and eat a family member, etc?
Grade: A
TOGA Party - Stop a cult from harvesting human energy for profit with their magical cryptocurrency.
I didn’t think that I would love this scenario, but I do. I don’t know how it’s expected to be investigated remotely. Needs some “to the moon” memes to go with it
Grade: A
The Drove - A vision of a horrific murder leads the agents to a cult operating in a pig farm.
A whole town full of zero SAN cultists doesn’t seem feasible to portray effectively. I think the hook could use a change too, it seems like a stretch. That said, the monster is super scary and interesting.
Grade: C
The Harvest - Agents must investigate the dark secrets of an idyllic prairie town.
Very weak hook. Not much to investigate and it looks like the solution is to kill everyone and let God sort them out, doesn’t Nyarlathotep at least step in? Slight Wicker Man vibes
Grade: D
Abnormal Anatomy - Briefing: Extradimensional space. Missing agents. Investigate!
Alright this is really avant garde. I didn’t finish reading this. While evocative and somewhat inspirational, this is a d100 list, not a scenario. There’s no structure whatsoever?
Grade: NA I can’t do this fairly.
Mirror Mirror - An officially sanctioned Program black site has gone dark while the facility is still in operation, the Program needs it investigated.
A lot of words spent describing the layout of this building could have been used to further develop the cool Unnatural thing (and give the Handler a summary of what’s happening!), especially since you provide a map drawing! The same thing for the table of results that are mostly the same.
Grade: C, leaning towards B because I want to know more!
Operation Pitchblende - There are no easy answers for agents who encounter the corpse of a living admiral. I still don’t know what the source of the duplicate body was after reading this scenario twice.
It’s a good hook that’s never explained. I don’t understand the point of trying to make the Friendly look suspicious, either.
Grade: D
With Your Name On It - You don't want to be number one with a bullet…
This is more of a setpiece than a scenario. It’s a neat idea but it’s not a shotgun scenario.
Grade: NA
The Masque of the Red Death - When employees of a medical company begin turning up dead from a mysterious virus, a group of Agents are sent to figure out where it came from and how to stop it. Not all is as it seems however, as the company has a few secrets of its own to hide…
This is a complete, thorough investigation but it’s not my cup of tea. The names are clever if a bit on the nose.
Grade: A
The Audient Void - Agents receive tickets to a disturbing lecture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Interesting premise, very evocative imagery and events. I predict this is a mellon scenario. He can’t fool my keen eyes.
Grade: A, it’s complete but not my cup of tea
The Greater Good - Stop the oncoming apocalypse through questionable moral choices.
Cool periapocalypse setting. So they’re still having court and not enforcing martial law?
Very edgy scenario. If you’re looking for a way to screen how players feel about sensitive topics have everyone fill out the “Consent in Gaming” RPG checklist safety tool (google it, it’s free)
This scenario would be better with more specifics and if the grimdark crime city was played up more.
Grade: B-, needs just a bit more
“Say a little prayer for me” - An AI art installation is performing a ritual to summon an Elder God onto the MIT campus.
This many deaths at a school so quickly and suddenly would result in the school being shut down (it’s hard for me to suspend my disbelief here). Your “more difficult” clue of everyone working in the same building actually seems kinda obvious to me? All of these just seem like normal clues. Other than that, this seems to almost be a complete scenario, albeit a tad bit unfocused for my taste
Grade: C
Misappropriated - Of thousands of stolen artifacts, one has particular significance. Who will claim it?
Impeccable imagery and story, but the scenario feels like there’s not much for Agents to do. It seems that the author is aware of this, providing the large timeline and detailed ritual scene before telling Handlers it’s their choice as to what happens. Not to be rude, but of course it’s the Handler’s choice. Agents with good information about what’s happening should be able to make a meaningful choice, which would probably best be served by them appearing at the beginning or midway through the ritual, so they could choose to stop it or join in.
Grade: B
Unsanitary conditions - The trash compactor in the apartment building on 113 Parade Street Traverse City, Michigan have thus far claimed four victims. Will it claim more?
This scenario was weird, but I think the intensity of the machine that drives people to sucide could stand to be dialed back a bit for gameplay purposes. As it is, any agent with an Art skill encounters it and then spends the rest of the scenario trying to kill themselves, which I think I would be less than enthused about.
Really bonkers scenario that needs some revision.
Grade: D, consider making the machine dangerous in escalating stages for gamability purposes
Identity Crisis - an agent disrupts their own cell’s meeting to shoot their clone who long ago infiltrated the cell - how long have they been penetrated & what wider conspiracy has been revealed?
This scenario would be stronger if it chose a specific direction and ran with it, rather than presenting all of the ingredients and having Handlers decide
Grade: B
With Friends Like These - When Delta Green agents must retrieve the contents of a Green Box in Juneau, AK, a former DG friendly mistakes the agents for an unknown enemy and follows standing orders to protect the conspiracy’s secrets with his life.
I find it hard to believe that a person who hasn’t had contact in almost 50 years would fanatically devote his life to protecting a secret that he doesn’t really know or understand. Also it seems like directly confronting the old guy and saying “Same team” would be a viable solution. It’s an interesting proposition, but I feel like saving the word count and making a more complicated thing either be escaping or having to be transported from the green box would have been a better scenario
Grade: C
We Don't Talk Like We Used To - They built the doll with love and care and dead meat. It wants to come home. Why won’t you let it come home?
Already a good start, I love scenarios that involve Bonds. I would have preferred that the narrative block of text at the beginning instead provide a summary of what was happening. I still haven’t read Impossible Landscapes but this seems complete and pretty good.
Grade: A
Snake Oil - A mass grave leads agents to dark scientific experiments.
Oh yeah, a Rainbow Six(the novel, not the game) bad guys torturing homeless people in the name of science. This one is pretty straightforward.
Grade: B
For What Ails You - An alien trapped in an espionage device, a man who should have died 3 years ago and a March Technologies hit squad.
There’s elements here that are fleshed out but I’m struggling to connect them. How did this car crash come to DG’s attention?
If you introduce a new mechanic like you do with “bonded” you should probably explain it before you reference it.
Grade: C
The One That Got Away - The Agents chase a witch into the Dreamlands.
Really strange CS Lewis inspired Dreamlands is innovative. The beavers remind me of the forest animals from South Park.
Grade: B
Pattern Recognition - The Agents have to investigate the unusual decapitation of a computer science student.
This may be the first competent sounding computer science oriented scenario.
You have two different sets of names for the same people (Jeffersons/Johnsons) which threw me off for a bit.
Grade: B, I’m not sure if there was a huge sense of urgency about this scenario
A Routine Audit (Redux) - Proper paperwork alone won’t save agents from the bureaucratic labyrinth discovered deep within the Defense Department’s first audit.
The facelift of an existing shotgun is neat, I guess, but I don’t know if there was really a need for this? I don’t want to be resentful but I also don’t want to read this version and try to compare it to the original
I was able to follow along easily enough, but this scenario seems like a slow exploration without much conflict
Grade: C
Silent Night - The stars are right tonight and the Agents are tracking three mad men as they navigate by the light of a malignant star to the birth of something strange and terrible.
Haha, another scenario about Jesus being a Mythos entity, full of allusions (a bit on the nose but still fun). Many of the times that dice rolls are called for seem unnecessary.
Maintaining the logistics of this chase seems like it would detract from the fun of it.
I’m interested in learning more about the cult and the origins of the child.
Grade: C, needs a bit of work
The One and Only Gun Story - A scant encounter with two hundred years of human violence in a 3 pound frame.
This is a great example of how a shotgun can effectively use its wordcount. The mechanics of the artifact come first, and then a sample scenario. No bullshit, just cool shit.
Grade: B
Special Delivery - The Agents are tasked with stealing a powerful analytics program from a March Technologies, Inc.'s shell corporation (Acuity Dynamix) in Boston, Massachusetts but conflict arises as the interests vying for control of the program collide.
- I helped edit this scenario and won’t be reviewing it.
Alteration - An Agent has died, but their body has gone missing. An alternative to death is revealed.
This is a sawed-off shotgun. It’s very short and the conflict left me wanting more. Would it be possible to have made the investigation take longer or introduce complications if you reduced words from somewhere else?
Grade: B, just needs a bit more
Halt! Who Goes There? - Bored reservists find themselves in over their heads.
Ooh, Gurkhas.
Wow the first scenario I’ve seen that hopes that players will remember ther Suppression gunfire rules. This is fine, even if it is mostly just a combat scenario with a couple of choices sprinkled across. I wonder how players react to being threatened by allies repeatedly, my bet would be that they learn to not trust anyone
Grade: B
Hemimetabolism - A series of killings by spider swarms leave Delta Green nervous about future arachnid attacks.
This rules, plain and simple a clever reimagining of Metamorphosis with emphasis on making it experienced rather than learned about. I wonder where this one was for the Mundane or New contest. I do wish there was the option for it to actually be Unnatural.
Grade: A
An Apple a Day - They say that when something seems too good to be true, it usually is. The Delta Green Agents who are tasked with investigating the strange happenings at the "Miracle Clinic" of Northern Maine are about to find out just how true this saying is.
The clues that there is an Outlaw cell up to something don’t seem to point to that.
“After three successful Alertness rolls, the agents realize what is happening and will have to make a decision. “
I don’t even know exactly what is happening, what clues are there that Omicron cell is trying to set the place on fire? Solid premise but I’m expected to build everything else about it? Is it meant to be a skills challenge where the clues are all improvised based on player actions?
Grade: C-
Telling the Bees - Agents discover that some colonies probably should be allowed to collapse.
The hook seems a bit week and unbelievable that it would make it to DG’s attention. Could you make it more weird and occult, like a case officer having to brief Agents on what Aklo is?
I have experience with weird insect house threats and the immediate reaction that people took was to get a hazmat suit (although I guess a beekeeper’s outfit would work here), what happens if Agents pick up one of those?
Very cool and unique threat, kudos.
Grade: A-
Operation NIGHTFALL or Blast to the Past - Agents find themselves the target of time-murdering snipers from the other Delta Green. Their foes are being fed information and assassination orders from a superpowered AI. Not reviewing my own entry.
To the Window, To the Quoll - A race through time as the Agents and some Grugs try to catch a time-traveling rodent.
What happens when Agents are split up across time?
Why the Yellow Sign?
This is fun but it also doesn’t seem to have meaningful choices
Grade: B+
You're the Shan Now, Dog - One of PISCES cadaver dogs ate a bug, and now it's run away from home.
Misspelling PISCES throughout bothered me. Somewhat novel take: what happens if the ghouls eat a mythos creature? I think this would be better fleshed out as a full-fledged group writeup complete with rules for Agents playing as cadaver dogs.
There’s no scenario here really, but the content is still very good.
I can’t give it a grade on being a scenario.
One Too Many Nights at the Opera - Agents follow a missing Delta Green team through a series of false leads in small town America.
Where was this for the Mundane or New contest?
And very meta, too; a cautionary tale about the dangers of investigations involving assumptions and bias.
Grade: A-
When The Boat Comes In - a PISCES investigation into a missing agent on the coast discovers an unusual tradition
It’s a Wicker Man -like. Fully fleshed out investigation with a plethora of meaningful choices, good job. Any scenario where a Deep One lover can save you by mauling villagers to death is a good one.
Grade: A
Operation Ask Alice - A quantum pointcrawl through the Sedona Dreamlands
Ethereal sequence, pretty evocative but seems to lack choices for players as you stumble around, get attacked by the Haunt, and then drag the NPC back. After someone explained the quantum hexcrawl format for me, I warmed up to the idea a bit more.
Grade: B-
Lord and Heaven - A kidnapped child, an ugly standoff and an unholy, hair-trigger eschaton in the attic To get it out of the way, I think this one is way over the 1500 word count limit. The scenario is also predicated on a really restrictive timeline. As always, my suggestion is to instead use clocks to balance out player actions versus NPC reactions. The really bad thing that happens at the end is the most exciting part (at least from the perspective of a gamerunner), so I understand wanting to ensure that it happens. Grade: B
A Thicc Sickness - Agents are sent to bust a cocaine delivery near Key West under a storm which hides both the delivery and something else.
I genuinely think this would be better with a full writeup. Cool imagery. You misspelled your own scenario title and monsters though.
Grade: B+
I genuinely think this would be better with a full writeup. Cool imagery. You misspelled your own scenario title and monsters though.
Grade: B+
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