What's On the Workbench- Impossible Landscapes for Delta Green (Chapter 1-The Night Floors)
This post is part of a series where I write about whatever happens to be on my workbench today. Don't think of this as a review, but rather a focused discussion about how I'm using this resource in either my home games or my writing
Major Spoilers for a lot of Delta Green modules forthcoming
While I like to consider myself pretty OSR pilled, the fact of the matter is that more often than not the style of game I find myself most frequently running is Investigative Horror. The first game that I ever fell in love with was Call of Cthulhu. My first extended campaign was in Tales from the Loop and Things from the Flood which, while not strictly Investigative Horror, certainly was at my table. I'm a true blue cosmic horror junkie--in an alternative life I choose to pursue a masters degree in 1930's pulp instead of going into the workforce. I devour Lovecraft, and his work has irreparably shaped the way my brain works for storytelling. I suppose that's not always a great thing.
(Side bar--if you want to see my attempt at creating a trad investigative horror module, check out Thrown Voices at Drivethru RPG)
As for TTRPGs, my biggest guilty pleasure is reading scores of scenarios written for these systems. Trained by OSR bloggers, I can recognize some flaws in the very marrow of the way most of these modules are structured. Too often, the scope of the investigation presented by these modules are incredibly narrow, butting up against the player agency my OSR diseased mind automatically privileges above all else. Gameplay momentum comes to a halt as important clues are delivered in the form of lavish handouts--which the GM is required to print in full colour fidelity or the effect is lost. Assumptions are made on the behalf of the writer about the direction the investigation will take, and all of it collapses into pulp when presented at the table--at least in my experience.
But I love them anyway. A highlight in the trad Investigative Horror scene is Delta Green. Wow, what great books these guys put out. On the surface, DG looks like a Call of Cthulhu clone flavored to the X Flies--complete with too many skills to even fit on the character sheet. In Delta Green, the investigators take on the role of agents for the "Delta Green" conspiracy--a secret arm of American bureaucracy responsible for dealing with supernatural and "hypergeometric" incursions into modern life. The primary mechanical innovation here seems to be the introduction of a "lethality" mechanic that makes sure that when your investigator gets hit by something like a grenade or automatic rifle, they probably die. Also, since you are playing as agents of the Federal government, you get lots of information about different possible career paths for your investigators. By my standards, not really innovative, but considering that Call of Cthulhu has been around for 7 editions at this point and all of the editions are broadly compatible, this isn't really an innovative space, mechanically.
Where Delta Green shines is in its module design and theming. This is a game that absolutely loathes the American police apparatus. A regular Delta Green module sets up some sort of supernatural horror, and then details all the ways in which your investigators' presence just absolutely makes the situation a million times worse for the actual people involved in the problem. And these modules go hard on actual, specific issues related to governmental overreach. In the starter module Last Things Last, the investigators clean up after a passed away agent who's mind--and family--have suffered the consequences of his involvement with the conspiracy. Reverberations has the investigators intrude upon the practices of a marginalized religious community they don't understand to try to stop a Hound of Tindalos--a problem that the aforementioned community really did have under control. And God's Teeth is a tour de force; an anti authoritarian manifesto in the disguise of a horror module that stares down the horror of weaponized government incompetence in its worst possible forms and doesn't blink even once. But I'm not running any of these games right now.
I'm running Impossible Landscapes, the Ennie winning King in Yellow themed module, published in 2021. I'll go on record, unfortunately, as being a big King in Yellow stan. I say unfortunately because I don't think a lot of "cosmic horror" people really get the King in Yellow. Robert Chambers, the author of the original collection, was not by trade a horror writer. And these stories go far beyond "spooky play makes you go crazy"--acting largely as a commentary on the attitudes of the leisure class when faced with the prospect of societal collapse. While Impossible Landscapes is also absolutely a "spooky play makes you go crazy" module, it also is maybe the only other piece of King in Yellow media since True Detective to really gets to the heart of those stories.
So, I'm running this campaign for my usual Investigative Horror minded table. The premise for the first part of this adventure is pretty straightforward as far as Delta Green goes: a young woman named Abigail Wright is missing from the artist commune where she lives, and has left a bunch of supernatural paraphernalia glued to her apartment walls in an unnerving collage. The investigators are tasked with sorting through the spooky debris and making sure that there isn't an active threat here. Unfortunately for them, Wright has found the aforementioned spooky play what makes you go crazy, and her reading it has opened a crack in reality leading to "The Night World"--a backrooms-esque seemingly infinite space where seemingly any person, place, or thing touched by The King in Yellow can be found.
Wait--a dangerous exploratory space? Is this some sort of DUNGEON CRAWL??? Deep in the part of my brain that devours blog posts and backs too many Kickstarters, synapses fire up. Yes, it says, this is a dungeon crawl. I like dungeon crawls. They encourage player agency and freedom. Yes, OSR-brained me says to the Investigative Horror side of my brain, this is absolutely a dungeon crawl. This past Thursday was my table's fourth session in this campaign, and the first in which they sought to explore the Night Floors. I thought I was ready--all my prior Delta Green experience taught me that all I needed was an annotated copy of the module and everything would be fine. And it was fine, but ultimately I left that session being very unsatisfied in the actual "crawl" portion of the session.
As the players explored the Night World, I found myself saying things that went against every dungeon-crawling instinct I have. "Where do you go? Left or right?" I ask, as the players are faced with no discernible clues as to what is on the other side. Even worse, there literally is nothing on the other side--the only guidance the GM is given to running The Night World is 20 "encounters"--most of which are merely observing something spooky with no opportunity for engagement. While this might be enough for some people, and I think I did a pretty good job last session using only this framework, I am again not satisfied. Don't take this as a knock against the book--it has some of the best investigation I have ever seen. But it is clear that the Night World section of this book just aren't what I need personally at the table.
So what's a GM to do when faced with a dungeon crawl that has limited player interactivity? Well, this OSR-pilled man is going to systematize this chaos, just a little bit. I have some experience with something similar. Last week I posted some nostalgia prep--a depth crawl I made for a spooky liminal space years ago. I based this off of Emmy Allen's Garden of Ynn depth crawl, and I think that went very successfully. I think it's a perfect fit for what I'm trying to make happen here.
So, my plan: Dig through Impossible Landscapes to find enough encounters, locations and NPCs to populate the Depth Crawl charts. Can I do it? Well, if I get it figured out, I'll be sure to update you all. Based on what I've seen online, I'm not the only one who has found issues with the actual playability of the spaces on offer in this module. Which is a shame--when I first read Impossible Landscapes back when it was first published, it was one of the best books I read that year. Not RPG modules, BOOKS. And I read a lot of books!
Thankfully, not that it is needed, the book gives me permission to do things like this. To quote from the book's introduction:
This book has Teeth. And one of you must eat it. Chew it and swallow it, and then act as the book might act.
As apt a metaphor for GM prep as I've ever seen. Well, let's get chewing. We have a lot of book to eat before our session next week, and I hope to have this chapter fully gameable and in my notebook by then.
For now: the IRL cork-board my players made to manage all their clues.
Until next time!
-J.