Some Ghouls for your Thursday!
First, THE CULT OF THE GREAT PROVIDER...(Stalin's Ghouls eat WELL, from GRU SV-8) and
ISENHAN...(one of the Manhattan Heretics from KEEPERS OF THE FAITH)
TO: Alphonse
FROM: Joshua
DATE: April 7, 1998
Alphonse, what follows is the document recovered from the op of 15APR97. Agents who raided the facility recovered the document (a copy, obviously several generations old) seconds before it was eaten up by the goddamn shredder. The document is incomplete, but is disturbing enough as is. The indications of a complex conspiracy other than DG in the government are rampant, and the markings on it indicate (as far as HENRY can discern) that the document is authentic, or at least authentically marked.
Do you know anything about any of this, Alphonse?
Text follows:
August 29, 1947 CLASSIFICATION MAJIC
CIRCULATION WITHIN RESTRICTED CHANNELS ONLY
DO NOT COPY
Prepared for MJ-1 by MSSG-1 at Wright Army Air Field
Copy 1 of 1
FOR IMMEDIATE TRANSMISSION
SUMMARY:
Overall impressions of prelimenary tests of the Alien Disk, codenamed THE BUCKET.
BEGIN TEXT:
Overall, THE BUCKET resembles no known aircraft, has no visible control surfaces, and no means of propulsion which we understand. It hovers--by unknown means--three feet from the ground at all times. The craft moves easily when acted on by even a minor force. No measurable force is generated from the craft itself. We believe the propulsion system is not magnetic or forced-air in nature, since there is no measurable magnetic distortion, and no intake/outake of air which we can detect. It has been pointed out that this may be evidence of a "gravity motor" of some sort. If so, this indicates that the Others have a technology perhaps only hundreds of years ahead of us.
The surface of the craft is a frictionless metal, impervious to all known penetration techniques. We have collected about six thousand individual pieces of this metal which were presumably sheared off by the impact of the craft at the Corona site or splintered off by whatever incident brought the craft down. These sheets are about .061 microns in thickness, and weigh next to nothing. They also show material strength far beyond our capabilities--equivalent to 370,000 times the tensile strength of titanium/tungston alloy, with the penetration negation of diamond.
The rip in the rear of THE BUCKET has given us a clear, observable cross-section of the craft's hull. This rip is a mouth-shaped gash in the rear of the craft measuring 10' x 5'3/5". The cross-section is as follows: a tiny layer of the metal (called "Substance A") covering a secondary structure of beams of some sort of plant or resin ("Substance B"), which also exhibit great material strength. Each beam is between 2.76 inches and 8.79 inches thick and is covered in etchings of what is believed to be the Others' language. These beams form a common triangular superstructure which is backed by a substance which at first glance appears to be packed clay ("Substance C"). This fluid design allows the craft structure great flexibility, probably required for the high-G maneuvers these craft have been seen preforming in the past.
A bubble dome on top has three windows set into it, a similar dome on the bottom apparently has some sort of ramp or exit (from the interior a doorway is obvious, although we cannot open it at this time; the surface on the outside has no seams or obvious controls to activate the portal).
In the center of the craft is a small control room with no obvious seats or crew positions. The three windows open onto it. A small square console of Substance C sits in the center, and etched into it is a complex arrangement of geometrics. Their purpose remains unclear, although it is commonly believed that they are controls of some type.
On the wall opposite the windows is a plaque apparently made of Substance B, which again has a complex series of geometrics on it, as well as some of the writing seen on the superstructure beams. It is unknown what this plaque is
Text Ends
2024-09-24 16:04:57 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's a sneak peek at DELTA GREEN: OPERATIONAL HISTORY (PART 1). The book keeps...growing...and it's looking like 1928-1960 will be enough to fill a 256 page book (with another covering 1961-Modern Day) to come.
2024-09-19 12:51:14 +0000 UTC View PostTo the world at large, eleven died during the Pabodie expedition. In reality ten were slaughtered, while the unfortunate graduate student Ian Gedney was subdued and dragged off from the ruined Moulton camp by the revivified Elder Things.
In the black city, Gedney was fed into a bio-reactor the size of a car that devoured all but Gedney's brain and nervous system, which it kept alive, controlling and feeding stimuli into it, and collecting all stimuli coming out of it.
A new pic for THE OUTLOOK GROUP and GRU "DEBRIEFING" for DELTA GREEN: MILLENNIUM. I'm wrapping up the art even now. So much fun.
2024-09-11 16:45:32 +0000 UTC View PostAs a side note, 291 Agents have joined us over at DELTA GREEN: GHOST.IO, and we hope you do too. Soon, Patreon will force us to switch over to monthly billing ($6 a month) here, and we have consolidated DELTA GREEN & OTHER REVELATIONS and DELTA GREEN: DEAD CHANNELS, as well as my Patreon into one feed, at one price ($6 a month).
The outpouring of support and understanding in light of recent changes to DG patreons has been wonderful, and we want to continue to be as transparent as possible about the process. Additionally, not everyone could make the Gencon 2024 panel (including many of the game's authors), and we want to give people a chance to ask their own questions.
Delta Green Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/deltagreenrpg) is hosting a Q&A with Shane Ivey, Dennis Detwiller, and Caleb Stokes on Friday Sept. 13th at 530pm (CDT; -5 GMT).
We will be there to answer any questions you have about the recent creator consolidation, upcoming Delta Green work, or other Arc Dream products. Priority will be given to questions from patrons before we move to chat. Click the link above and let us know what to talk about.
As from a fountain continually flowing out of the city, the Roman camp was quickly and plentifully filled up with fresh men, not at all abating in courage for the loss they sustained but even from their very anger gaining new force and resolution to go on with the war.
Ops, this is Overwatch. First agent is approaching now. Far end of the park. Two minutes out. Was all that meant for us?
Plutarch. Life of Pyrrhus. Just thinking out loud. The one time every couple months it’s safe to think out loud. I almost taught classics, you know.
Keep saying shit like that and I don’t know how safe it’ll stay. The agent is almost there. Going silent.
What the fuck was that? You cunt. Friday’s dead, you know that?
I know. Have a seat.
Have a seat? How much did you know, sending us in like that? I ought to kill your ass.
I know. Have a seat. Let’s talk it through. Maybe we can find ways to do better next time.
Are you alone here?
Of course.
You piece of shit.
Do you need anything? Here’s some water.
You owe me something stronger than water.
Get drunk later. Let’s go through it. You ready?
Fucking bitch. Jesus.
Operations officer five niner three alpha six romeo niner. Operation FLYWHEEL debriefing. I’m with operations agent Jason Hanley Riggs.
I can’t believe you do that. You get a code number. I get my real name on this thing. What is that?
What happened to Annalise Friday?
For fucking blackmail?
Agent Riggs?
What?
What happened to Annalise?
You called me agent. I don’t know why it never clicked before.
What clicked?
We go into the field. We jump in front of the fucking thresher. But we’re not even Delta Green, are we? Not really.
I don’t know what that is.
Oh fuck off. I mean, you’re in it. You’re an officer. Us? We’re just agents. Assets. Disposable. How many of us have you killed?
I don’t know what you’re talking about. We’re here to discuss Operation FLYWHEEL.
I don’t figure you killed any of us yourself. Well, maybe. But probably not. But you run these ops. You know what they might mean. You know the statistics. And you send us anyway.
About Agent Friday—
I’ve been on seven of these things. Three or four of us on an op. We look around. We tell you we need an expert in one thing or another. Need a team to handle cleanup right. Or tactical backup. And what do you say?
We’re wasting time, here.
You always say the same thing. You say, We sent your team because you’re the experts. You handle it. Same thing, every goddamn time. Seven ops. I’ve put four teammates in the ground. Another four come back after months in fucking traction. And we’re just one team. So how many is that for you?
Ops, this is Overwatch. You need to shut this down.
Agent Riggs, I’m not here to answer questions. You know that. You also know a debrief is the wrong time to blow off steam.
Sure. Fine. Friday got too close to the rogant ascendant before Sangha and MacDowell finished the Invocation of Interbeing. They knew better than to stop. It drew her in. She was all stretched out in blood that turned to sparks in the air.
I’m sorry.
Fuck yourself. Sangha said her coming in like that made the invocation stronger. Like throwing in a sacrifice. Even if she didn’t mean to. MacDowell didn’t think so. But I don’t know if he really didn’t think so or he just didn’t want to think so.
Why did she get so close to it?
Trying to get some kid out of the way. For all the good that did. One of the rogant’s kids. Probably would have been the next fucking ascendant in a few years. Why do you say you’re sorry?
Friday was a good—a good woman. Reliable.
Two kids and a piece of shit husband back home.
I know.
You were about to say a good agent. Right? A good agent. A good asset. Reliable. A useful tool.
Ops, this is Overwatch. Saying again, shut this down. Body language ain’t right. He’s about to pop.
So how many?
Pardon?
How many of us have you lost?
You know I can’t—
Jesus Christ. I’m only seven ops in and I’m old blood. I'm the old veteran. This is Russian roulette. And we keep showing up. I mean—shit. I guess it works out, right? That’s seven incursions neutralized. These things get ugly when they spread. One dead agent gets two incursions shut down, that’s got to be a pretty good deal.
Ninety-two.
Ops this is Overwatch, this agent is not I repeat not cleared for any information about the Program beyond what is strictly necessary for the performance of duties so please shut the fuck up before this gets out of hand.
I'm sorry, Riggs. I didn’t hear. What did you say?
I said, what do you mean, ninety-two? You’ve planted ninety-two of us?
As operations officer. Not counting teammates when I was in your shoes.
Overwatch Two, Overwatch Three, prepare to engage.
Overwatch, this is Two. What’s happening? They’re just sitting there.
No chatter, Two.
Riggs, listen. You want me to help you make peace with it. I can’t. I’ve spent almost twenty years in this thing. Agent and handler. I’ve run a hundred ops. Some of them saved lives. Some of them saved a lot of lives. Every last one, I asked for more resources. More backup. More cooperation. We all do. And we all get told no. And we all understand why. And we all agree. And we all beg for more anyway. Next op, I’ll ask for every kind of asset that I can’t have. I know roping in other teams raises the risks of exposure exponentially. Blowback on one is blowback on everybody. I’ve seen it happen. But I’ll still try. I’ll try. Because Friday was a good agent.
Overwatch, this is Three. We got something weird in the air here. Permission to engage? Or maybe bug out?
Well, Riggs?
Overwatch, this is Two. Got an EM surge. Upper levels, a brownstone, hundred and eight meters south. This ain’t right.
Riggs?
You fucking bitch. Sangha! MacDowell. Stand down. All of it.
Ops, get clear so we can engage.
This is Two. That surge is down.
Three?
Uh. I don’t know. I think we’re, uh, back to nominal.
Thank you, Riggs.
Fuck yourself.
Two, you will engage when Ops is clear. Three, you're on that brownstone.
We can pick this up later, agent. I’m going home.
She was worth better than this.
I know.
Friday was good. She deserved better.
You all do.
Ops, any fucking day.
We'll talk later, Riggs. Keep the bench as long as you like.
2024-09-04 21:52:49 +0000 UTC View PostFive Delta Green gamers spent two years playing DELTA GREEN: IMPOSSIBLE LANDSCAPES to incredible effect, and ran the finale in a rented bar.
BUY A HARDCOPY OF DELTA GREEN: IMPOSSIBLE LANDSCAPES NOW...
2024-09-03 13:02:10 +0000 UTC View Post
TO: Alphonse
FROM: Joshua
DATE: March 23, 1998
This vellum paper fragment was recovered from the estate of a Lewis Roger Mumphry (DOB 9DEC53). Analysis at the Smithsonian indicates the paper stock was most likely manufactured in Europe in the late 1700s, and is of inferior quality. The writing style is cramped and our handwriting analysts have prepared several reports which will be forwarded to you.
Text follows:
---
On Ye Invitation and Leave-Taking of the Quiet One
To call a One from the Outside requires ye to be of strong will and little conscience, for it is conscience that hath doomed man in the future of which we cannot speak. A sigil, such as is found in the recesses of the Black Book, the second star, be it known as BELAPT must be incised upon the dirt before the sanctuary which has already felt much blood upon its soil. Then a rock, with three pinnacles must be placed before it. Upon it, a fresh token of fair blood.
The chant is such:
"Ana-Habrim, Ana-Al, Ana-Habrim"
Repeated until the moon sets and a great fatigue overcomes the operator. Then, from above the Great One will descend cloaked in a soft light, like the moon falling to the earth. It will feed upon the token, and grant the true disciple a boon. Knowledge of things to come, or secret things, brought to the mind of the believer in his dreams.
Movement between the far worlds and the stars they circle requires a sustenance found in the guts of a man, many times over. Once the place of the Token hath been set, and a time hath been set, it must not be missed, or the wrath of the One and that of his servants may doom thee. Being a time of torpor, the Others from Outside gain strength in their repose in this world, waiting for a time again where their kind shall cavort among the stars and lay waste to all who have come since their sleep.
Its will shall be plain to those as worship it, and it shall make its followers known to each other, through its link to the minds of men. Gaining their strength, they wait and wake only for the feeding, and must be placed back in their slumber lest they wake too early. The carcass of the token, once fed upon must be burned, for this shall send the Other back to his vivid dreaming.
---
Text Ends
Mumphry was the local favorite suspect for the Louisiana BI's investigation into the "Devil's Bayou" disappearances in the late Seventies. The case was dropped after a warrant was issued and his house turned up clean. The local police kept after him, though, and he led an unsuccessful lawsuit against the Pt. Palence Sheriff's department for harassment. Mumprhy was found dead in his home on 7DEC97, the victim of an apparent animal attack. His body was identified through dental records and personal effects; much of what was left was burned nearly beyond recognition. This paper was included among a bundle found within a wall safe, along with a hand-drawn map marking the location in the bayou of Sadey Lake.
So far, dragging of the lake has yielded the fragments of over thirty-four individual victims.
I guess Mumphry missed a feeding.
2024-09-03 12:52:15 +0000 UTC View Post
We often get messages asking about the various iterations of Delta Green Patreons and subscription sites. These sites developed naturally to support different needs for the property over time. But Delta Green is bigger and more vibrant than it's ever been, with a ton more waiting in the wings and an audience size which would have floored me in 1997...
...it's time to bring it all back home under one roof.
Here's the current plan:
∆ DELTA GREEN DEAD CHANNELS, AND ARC DREAM'S DELTA GREEN & OTHER REVELATIONS WILL CONSOLIDATE WITH DELTA GREEN GHOST IO: This will occur sometime near the end of September/early October. Caleb Stokes will be migrating all the Delta Green: Dead Channels and Shane Ivey will be migrating all the ARC DREAM'S Delta Green & Other Revelations content over to here at DELTA GREEN GHOST IO. Like the Delta Green Patreon, the Delta Green Dead Channels and Delta Green & Other Revelations Patreons will continue, and all Dead Channels content posted here will be posted there as well (so no need to worry).
∆ CALEB STOKES, SHANE IVEY AND MYSELF WILL POST MONTHLY TO DELTA-GREEN.GHOST.IO: Every month, along with Shane Ivey and Caleb Stokes, I will post rules, operations, monsters, spells, PDFs and sneak-peeks at future Delta Green content. Caleb will also be posting podcast and actual play content. As stated above, the content will be duplicated on the appropriate Patreons.
∆ DELTA-GREEN.COM WILL RESOLVE TO DELTA-GREEN.GHOST.IO: Don't worry, nothing will be lost. We just want one landing page for the property so all the fans can come together in one place. This means announcements will be posted here, available for all to see. To see the subscriber content, you'll still need to subscribe, of course; but they'll be more than enough free posts to make it interesting.
∆ A NEW ONLINE AGENT GENERATOR WILL BE AVAILABLE HERE FOR FREE: We are in the midst of getting our free Agent generator up on the site as well. This will have 1 click Agent creation with all the bells and whistles, along with the ability to modify generated Agents. You will not need to be a subscriber to gain access to it.
As usual, our goal is to do what's best to keep the unbroken record of delivering Delta Green content that is above and beyond what is expected. Thank you for helping us make this possible.
Feel free to post any questions you might have below.
2024-08-30 18:48:17 +0000 UTC View Post
Due to Patreon changes (yet again), creators are being forced to switch from per-creation billion to subscription billing. Patreon claims this is because of Apple, but it's not — it's just a way for them to normalize revenue. I prefer per-creation billing, as do many others, but we don't get a vote.
Unfortunately, creators have no choice but to comply. The switch over will occur in the first or second week of September (they couldn't be more specific than that).
What this means for Delta Green Patreon contributors:
Sometime in September, you will have to select one of the two tiers available (I will post an announcement when the switch on Patreon is possible, as it requires Patreon corporate permission to go live):
-Delta Green Clearance ($6/month): Access to everything.
or
-A-Cell Clearance ($15/month): Full access to all content plus one-on-one question and answers with Dennis Detwiller.
This is the second time in as many years that Patreon has screwed up my business. If, like me, you are sick of Patreon's fickle management, you can join us over at https://delta-green.ghost.io, a much more user friendly service.
This other site will likely be the Delta Green site (delta-green.com will resolve to it), and we're in talks to consolidate the various DG Patreons all under one banner there. It is by no means a done deal, but we're deep in talks about it, and it will hopefully come to pass soon.
I will maintain both Patreon and https://delta-green.ghost.io indefinitely, their tiers will be identical, and future content will be identical.
For those catching up, I've launched a second site for Delta Green subscribers, now available at both https://delta-green.ghost.io and www.patreon.com/detwiller. Both sites will be maintained identically and indefinitely.
For the second time in as many years, and despite previous assurances, Patreon now requires a switch from per-post to monthly payments. As a result, the Delta Green Patreon will mirror the pricing of the https://delta-green.ghost.io site: $6 a month (or $15 for higher contributions), equivalent to the previous $1 per post (with 6 posts per month). The change will likely take effect on Patreon next month. I will post again before the switch over goes live.
Ghost.io is superior in many ways. For one, it offers a yearly payment option with a discount (get 1 month free when doing so), and second, instead of 5%, I am charged by Stripe 2.9%. Last, unlike Patreon, ghost.io is not between me and my payments, I deal instead directly with Stripe — a huge, stable and reputable service that (unlike Patreon) is not known for its fickleness.
So, on to some numbers from ghost. It's been 3 days since the www.delta-green.ghost.io site went live.
• 61 subscribers have signed up on www.delta-green.ghost.io.
• 41% have paid annually upfront (they get a free month by doing this).
• 59% have paid monthly.
• This totals $2,659.73 CAD upfront and $394 USD monthly recurring income.
• 51 have signed up for the Delta Green Clearance Tier ($6 USD a month).
• 10 have signed up for the A-Cell Clearance Tier ($15 USD a month).
• 38 have signed up directly.
• 11 were referred from the Patreon.
• 2 were from Gmail or Google.
• I have moved over 85 posts from Patreon to ghost.io (I should have the whole site ported by September 1).
Overall, I count this as a resounding success. My motivation was to safeguard against a more and more unstable behaviour of Patreon. With ghost.io, in case Patreon turn up some day and go, "sorry, we take a 50% cut" — which seems far less fanciful than it once did — I can move whatever subscribers might follow me over to an already live ghost.io site.
I'd like to take a moment to thank those Delta Green agents that have, throughout these trials and tribulations, supported the conspiracy, on Patreon and ghost.io and in print. Your support is amazing and deeply (deeply) appreciated. With your help, more horrors of Delta Green have been loosed on the world...
Thank you.
Be seeing you...
Crowdfunding has always been a strange beast. And when you marry that concept with tech (like Patreon), it requires careful consideration of the rising and falling of the market, the ongoing costs, the technical risks, as well as a million other things on a day to day basis. It is a lot to manage.
The truth is this, though it has served me well for almost a decade, Patreon has twice in as many years completely disrupted my business model with random corporate choices for which they took no responsibility, all the while taking more and more of the money my art earns. In other words, they've made my job more difficult for less money and have blamed others for their choices. I have zero doubt they will do it again, at increasing intervals, to goose their numbers for an acquisition.
I have years of experience in tech, and especially SF tech, and I can see the writing on the wall, there. Patreon are likely nearing the end of their investment runway (10 rounds of funding), and are almost certainly lining themselves up for sale. That alone dooms that platform. It will almost certainly not survive such a purchase. At least not in any useful form.
So my plan is this: over the next four months, I will migrate the Delta Green Patreon page over to Ghost.io; a much more reasonably priced crowdfunding service, which is, in a lot of ways, more creator-centric and creator-controllable than Patreon (and whose company is in much earlier funding stages). I will keep the Patreon running and in sync with the Ghost.io platform for as long as is needed, but keep in mind: Patreon is requiring all patrons to switch from per post payments to per month payments.
• PATREON WILL CONTINUE: I will continue to run the Patreon and will update it just as much as before. I am forced however, to switch over to the monthly fee by November (as opposed to the current structure, which is per post payment). Likewise, you will be forced to do so as well — I will update the Patreon when and how to do this. Since the current Delta Green Patreon minimum cost is $1, and I post 6 times a month (for a total of $6), the monthly fee will be a one-time $6 a month charge (the same). Of course, if you want to contribute more...please do!
• GHOST.IO IS LIVE: I am currently porting the content from the Delta Green Patreon over to the Delta Green Ghost.io site. I have all of 2024 over there already and will soon have all of it. You can go there and sign up now for the same price ($6 a month, though they offer a discount if you sign up yearly). There is also a $15 per month tier — to cover those high-rollers that have spent such things in the past (you know who you are).
• WHEN YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE, MOVE FROM PATREON TO GHOST.IO: By November, please consider switching over to the Delta Green Ghost.io site, but either way, you will be forced (by Patreon, not me) to switch over to a monthly fee on Patreon. I'd prefer to have everyone under one roof at Ghost.io (it would make my job easier). But I'll maintain the Patreon as long as any significant count of contributors are there.
• WHAT YOUR MOVING TO GHOST.IO MEANS TO ME: It means a lot of things really, but the most important is this: Patreon will not be taking a huge chunk of the money you are kind enough to pay me for my art, and Ghost.io's fees are a fraction of what Patreon requires (and keep increasing).
FEEL FREE TO POST QUESTIONS BELOW.
More on what the Patreon changes mean later, and what it means for the Delta Green Patreon, but for now, briefly:
1) If you pay through Apple iOS, I would recommend you change to web payment.
2) I will be forced to charge a monthly subscription instead of per post. Most here pay about $5-$6 per month for 5-6 posts (and I've been giving away 300+ pp full colour PDF books!), so if most pledge $4-$6 monthly, things should remain as they are.
3) If revenue drops dramatically, I'll have to figure out if it's affordable to even do it. I love it, but I have a ton of other paying work to do! And now, what's REALLY going on:
I do well on #Patreon. I have almost 2k patrons. I imagine I'm in the top whatever count of #TTRPG people on the platform. I see a lot of comments about this and that. But I also did many years in #SF #tech. Here's what's likely going on:
#Apple has always taken 30%. #Epic sued them for several billion over it, and Apple is cracking down on people that circumvent it. Do they deserve it? The app store is REALLY fucking expensive to run, but is it that expensive? Probably not. But they certainly don't make their profit from it.
Patreon is funded by venture capitalists who are ALWAYS looking for an exit. They want to sell the company and cash out. That is their entire purpose in life. There is no other goal for that company. Artists rights, making artists earn a livable wage, blah blah blah. Corporate PR. Nothing more.
They are on their 10th round of funding. And their "space" — organized payment solutions for artists with some simple database management will be valuable ground for...not that much longer. Soon, someone will ship an out of the box home solution to it and Patreon will be dead.
Dead also equals "all the VC money goes up in smoke", so they are very likely trying to bind up all the loose ends in the company, put a bow on it, and sell it all to some horrific concern which will try to exploit it, and in doing so, almost certainly cause it to fail.
Of note is this: Patreon has been trying to kill "pay per post" for years, and have now folded it under the "Apple is demanding 30%!" umbrella to blame Apple for this too.
This removal is almost certainly for other reasons to goose their profitability to make a more attractive purchase target.
So, here's the truth. Due to the nature of "line must always go up" businesses, ALL concerns like this will always exist in 3 phases:
1) NEAT!
2) Wait, this was working, why are you doing this?
3) Dissolution.
Patreon was at NEAT! for a long time. Longer than should have been possible, really. But now, we're clearly at the end of phase 2.
Next up will be "Patreon has been bought by <HORRIFIC COMPANY> but no changes are planned!"
Then out come the chainsaws. Artists best get used to it.
How do I feel about it? It sucks horribly. Trust me, I have a TON to lose from such an outcome. But how I feel about it and what they are going to do have absolutely zero relationship.
The goal of Patreon is not to support artists, it never was, it is to sell the company at a multiple of what was invested.
2024-08-11 16:07:41 +0000 UTC View PostThose choices that manufacture horror at the game table — what generates fear and
terror— I've found, can be elusive to many Handlers. Clearly, for Delta Green Handler's,
this is a vital skill to develop and hone, and, based on a common theme on posts I've
seen, more than a few have a hard time knowing where to start. It's not surprising, it's
difficult to generate any feeling under any circumstances at a game table.
When the guy shows up, he's one of those fucks from network broadcast. I mean, those guys never fucking change, even back when I was at it with the Post and did that stringer shit for Eyewitness news, it was like they grew this type of guy in the fucking lab somewhere. A man-child. Young and bright eyed, with glasses and some sort of sad excuse for facial hair that was supposed to get his ass over the hump to respectability.
Ethan something or other. A Current Affair. Hey Mr. so-and-so, I understand you were on Son of Sam in 1976 and 1977, and I'm like, sure there, Ethan, I was. And he starts taking notes. And I'm thinking a lot of things, like how I can see goose shit all over the walk in the February sun on the little man-made lake here at Freeport Retirement. About how the bag man did that thing he did back in 1977. About the little mob man. And in the end I think, you know, fuck it. My kidneys are shot, my liver is swollen, and when I have to take a shit I can't catch my breath near the end.
Fuck it. It's been years.
So, I tell him everything and it goes like this:
I tell him how the first Son of Sam letter took me to a bunch of book stores in New York in 1977 looking up Beelzebub. How that lead to the Club uptown and how I found that ring of hangers-on there who all seemed to treat the murders in the same way a field botanist might treat a robust, but otherwise mundane plant, "oh, that". These people were rich, they were connected, and they were fucking bored. Drugs, dancing, fucking. Lots of blow. It was the seventies after all. And how I fell in with these guys, charging the Post for drinks the whole time.
It had reached a point to where I didn't really even care about the case anymore when I was there, just getting laid, and it was a good place to go and get laid, let me tell you. It was alright. And the shootings went on. And the letters came. And for about a month I frequented the club until I got to meet the proprietor, this uptight freak in a suit who looked like Bowie and everyone called B. And soon after that I would always drink for free.
Sometimes, some of the people I knew there would make guesses about the killer or the killings. "He's collecting souls, like Zodiac," one fucker who would later be found in a footlocker filled with lime said to me one night, "he knows what he's doing." It was about then I started to see people I recognized from photos over the crime beat desk a lot. Castellano guys, you know. Lots of highly-placed drug dealers. Lots of juice.
And then there was the bag man. He was always out of place there, really. Had this crazy Vietnam vet look. Hair like something pulled out of a vacuum, sores on his face, long, yellowed uncut fingernails. And his bag. He carried one of those green garbage bags everywhere with him. I mean, it's not weird to have something like some homeless dude in a club, but it IS weird for him to stay there. To be let in again and again, and to be given drinks and shit. Anyway, he was welcome.
And near the end of my time there, I saw the bag man talking with lots of people. With B. With a bunch of well-dressed mobster types. With a member of a band that had just sold out Madison Square Garden. I saw a lot of weird shit. And sometimes, he'd let them reach in the bag, and they'd pull out something small and not really visible. Something they could cup in their hand.
I once asked a guy I saw get a poke in the bag what he got, and he turned and looked at me like I had just told him to go fuck himself. This was a shiny-jacketed little mob fuck, those of the converging eyebrow, and I held my hands up, like "hey, fuck, sorry." He stalked off.
Finally, it got to me.
"Hey man," I shouted to the bag man one night over, "I Just Want to Be Your Everything", and he looked up at me. His eyes were yellowed and he smelled like rubbing alcohol and BO. He looked past me and then suddenly leaned in. I thought he was going to bite me. Fuck, I don't know why.
"Wanna see a trick?" He wheezed in my face, and I could smell him falling apart, inside. He opened his plastic bag.
He was gone by the time I uncrumpled the paper in my hand. It was one of those little notepad pages, stained with something like spaghetti sauce. I still have it.
It read:
D. Berkowitz
35 Pine Street, Yonkers, NY.
Now, I had no fucking idea who that was of course. Because that was August 9, 1977. I know this because Francis Gary Powers died that day and the woman I was dating had to write the obituary that morning and had spent an inordinate amount of time bitching about it to me.
Anyway. They busted Berkowitz outside of his apartment building on August 10, 1977. You can guess the address.
Pretty good fucking trick, huh?
2024-08-09 15:15:52 +0000 UTC View PostLast night Arc Dream Publishing received its 15th ENNIE (I think it's the 15th, I'm not sure) — a gold ENNIE for the best long form adventure for the superlative GOD'S TEETH campaign by Caleb Stokes.
Congratulations, Caleb! And thank you to everyone who supported us in bringing this horror to roiling life. There is much more to come.
A rainy day here gave birth to two new images (the flashlight guy is the last image for THE NEW AGE) and the disintegrating fellow is the first image for ARTIFACT ZERO. Woot!
2024-07-29 21:49:25 +0000 UTC View Post
"Ulisses Spiele and Arc Dream Publishing are thrilled to announce that Ulisses Spiele will be bringing Delta Green to Germany!
Delta Green, originally published in 1997, is one of the most influential role-playing games blending horror and conspiracy. It set a standard that has endured for horror role playing for decades since. Ulisses Spiele intends to translate the Arc Dream Publishing edition of Delta Green, including some of the extensive support material achieved through successful crowdfunding campaigns.
“Ulisses Spiele is the leading publisher for role playing games in Germany,” said Shane Ivey, President of Arc Dream Publishing. “Their team is as passionate about immersive and chilling role-playing games just as much as we are! Their adaptation will be true to our vision of Delta Green and bring even more fans to this extraordinary game.”
“It is a huge honor for us to work with Arc Dream Publishing and bring Delta Green finally to Germany.,” said Markus Plötz, President of Ulisses Spiele. “Delta Green has set new standards for Lovecraftian horror. Finally, nearly 30 years after its initial release, the German community will be able to experience this phenomenal game as well.”
To bring Delta Green to German audiences, we are excited to announce the launch of a crowdfunding campaign, starting in August.
Join our Newsletter now and make sure you wont miss the start. Stay tuned for more details!"
Dennis here...just a note, this is the first of seven translation deals we've signed for Delta Green (Portuguese, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Ukrainian and Japanese).
Keep an eye out for further announcements!
2024-07-26 17:57:19 +0000 UTC View Post
All the art is done and it goes to layout. Woot!
2024-07-23 13:34:25 +0000 UTC View Post
Fuck man, that wasn’t me. How old do you think I am? That was Forrestal, he of the cement poisoning, yeah. Couldn’t hack it.. I never met him, no…and how old do you think I am, again? I would have been like one. Fuck. I am strictly a child of the 1980s. Pac-Man. Defender. Robotron 1984. Late 1980s. That’s where I came in. That's my mindset. That where my mandate started.
Anyway, shit was falling apart for half a decade before I got there. Hangar 18. In Search Of. That fucking Roswell book. Eyeroll.gif. The meat of the story was already in the hands of the public, in an “inspired by true events” way. So they brought me into GARNET. Yeah, that’s what it was called. I didn’t name it. It was a lot of shouting heads at the time. Old white people in a wood-panelled room in Maryland trying to distill political invisibility from a million different leaks.
So, one day I say, hey, we don’t try to squash this shit, man, we lean into it. We take the curve at high fucking speed until the wheels wobble right the fuck off, and the story becomes a rotting wreck in the desert that no one even notices anymore as they drive past.
So they let me run with the MAJESTIC papers leak because it had already been out for most of a decade and they still wouldn’t go away. Stanton fucking Friedman amirite? They were getting some traction because, fuck man, they were real. Duh.
So, what do I do? I anonymously release the MAJESTIC papers to a dozen different targets over a nine month period. At a glance, they all look the same, right? You’ll like this. They look the same, but they aren’t the same. All the security mark-ups, names, and titles are fudged with. A stamp from 25 years too late. A classification from 10 years too early. A font change that shouldn’t be. I didn’t change a single classified fact.
It was easy. Inside a week half of MUFON couldn’t agree on their veracity. Inside a month, our speed was picking up. Shit would drop, we’d find and plug the leak, and, at the same time, release more of it, only, you know, fucked up slightly — ever so slightly. Then let the rubes do the rest. It became rote. It became policy. I became the leader of GARNET because everyone else couldn’t see the jazz Forrestal came up with for what it was: mockery and ridicule is the most feared social response to the American animal.
A half decade of smooth sailing. Lots of work but nothing too strenuous. Lots of stuff to do, but the fire had gone low for the moment. The worst shit we had was fucking Bob Lazar, and he practically covered himself up. I just let that fucker dig himself a hole. Hey Bob, here’s a new shovel from your friends over at the agency…
Then X-Files shows up like a bad fucking hangover of the 1950s, right? Let’s all become interested in this shit all over again, America. Cool? Cool.
Well, fuck me.
So then, my MOGUL song and dance. Rendlesham forest counterintelligence. Alien autopsy. And sweet goddamn, it really did feel like it was going to spill there at some point. But again, laugh, point, mock, tweak, smile and move on.
We turned a corner with the MOGUL report, but it didn’t feel like it at the time. For a couple of months it felt like it wasn’t sticking, and even I began to doubt myself, but then it all settled in. Then the Alien autopsy and the fucking wrong type of telephone on the wall. I mean, we didn’t even do that one. Someone pointed it out on a message board and ZIP! problem solved. Only, that was the right phone. You can fill in the rest.
Haha. I know.
And then, of course, the program ate its own fucking face. I mean, you can’t concentrate that type of power in a dozen people with oversight on everything and expect it NOT to explode at some point. People get greedy. But I was always good at tea leaves, I was always modest in my needs. I laid low for a couple of years in my hidey hole without saying a word betting that I was too valuable to cap.
When the new program called me back in the new commander gave me back my mandate and I got back to work. Welcome to fucking Youtube. iPhones. And holy hell, you’d think my job would go right to shit, huh?
Well, you might be surprised.
By the time the real shit hit the fan in 2019, the entire flooding of information sources online was almost wholly automated. Our detection group would find a hit in a video or a photo, or in keywords and the algorithm would go to work. Good shot of a UFO? Upload two-dozen other clips of it that don’t look nearly as good. Fake witness accounts of the original witness bragging about “faking” a sighting, and Bob’s your uncle.
And then, rising up like some nightmare, fucking AARO, the Gimbal video, Elizondo and Grusch. Holy fuck.
Let me tell you man, my ulcers had ulcers.
So, you’ve been here two years now? You want a preview of coming attractions? OK. It goes like this: 2025-leaks begin to confirm all these crazy stories. SERPO. Underground bases. Nordics. Photo and video leaks of the Eisenhower meeting an alien at Holloman. Crates of Roswell photos. The Kitchen Sink. This comes out, day in, day out for a year or more, right?
Then — we’ve got this guy, right? — skunk works guy, he leaks the all environment vehicle, the AEV. It’s an Air Force project that, from the right angles, looks like a weird flying disc, right? Doesn’t have engines or wings. Unlike anything in the air. There are live videos. Hours of footage. They’ve been flying that shit for decades. He leaks it and goes: the US has had inertial and mass reduction technology since about 1949, and has utilized it in limited places, because it is wildly and prohibitively expensive to create. It's code-named GALLOP.
But that’s not all. A high ranking retied general in the Air Force — just a mensch — comes forward and says, "I worked for the counterintelligence on GALLOP, and it's a crazy story." This is played out over months, right? Some vague articles. Then some obscured face interviews. Then his identity is revealed. Then the real interviews: 60 minutes, etc.
Roswell, crashed discs, coverup, all the files, photos were a counterintelligence op against the Soviets to prevent them from discovering the actual truth. The Soviets had just stolen the A-Bomb, see? And the US needed something inscrutable and bizarre to draw the Soviets off from their new math for GALLOP. So just like they had assembled plywood and blow-up armies to fool Hitler, they grabbed on to the Flying Disc craze and built a fake phenomenon and history to fool Uncle Joe.
Joe Stalin would look at the pretty balloons, and not the actual tech, right?
And this fiction was real, or, at least, it really operated. Entire departments. Agencies. Divisions. All bent on studying these fake things made by other departments who thought they were the ones producing the counterintelligence on the UFO phenomenon, but who were actually making propaganda. But compartmentalized. Contained, so it felt real. The people who served in them, believed them. They had to believe them, right? Lots of money got sucked into these projects. HUGE amounts of money. And if these fictions didn't exactly line up? If the facts didn't play out when they were carefully examined? Well, that was just an error in the cover-up, right?
It just gives me chills.
So then, after the AEV leak, the office of the President confirms the story, they apologize for the lives lost in the MAJESTIC counterintelligence op and the money “stolen”. They say that there are no aliens, no Roswell UFO, no flying discs except the ones operated by the US Air Force since the early 1970s, with test craft going back to the mid 1950s. This culminates with congressional hearings and a big three TV demonstration of the vehicle, and interviews with some scientists working on the math.
We end it on an upbeat note; if this tech didn’t cost what it costs and take as long as it takes to harness, we could change the world for the better for pennies on the dollar. America is working on that, right now. Same old card trick, slightly different shuck and jive.
And…that's how you put the genie back in the bottle…
Go ahead and say it kid. I’m fucking good, right?
2024-07-16 14:45:23 +0000 UTC View Post
Agents! Slake the hunger of the Nameless God if only for a moment.
Vote DELTA GREEN: GOD'S TEETH for best Long-Form Adventure and Arc Dream Publishing for Fan's Favourite Publisher now, in the ENnie Awards. Spread the word. We need your help!
vote.ennie-awards.com/vote/2024/
As a thank you, DELTA GREEN: DEAD DROPS PDF will go out to everyone who has contributed to any Delta Green Kickstarter. And Patreon members, thanks for all the feedback!
Here it is!
(Go here to pre-order the hardcover!)
-D
2024-07-11 18:48:46 +0000 UTC View Post
I know I'm preaching to the choir, here, but I would be amiss not to point out the deal is coming to an end.
24 hours remain in the #DeltaGreen Humble Bundle.
Over $397,000 worth of Bundles have been sold.
All that and we've managed to raise $20k for Covenant House!
2024-06-28 22:02:21 +0000 UTC View Post
An image of the dead man trapped in a chair, and of a few confounded agents on one of the Mi-Go satellites...
2024-06-26 17:18:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Greetings Agents. Here's DELTA GREEN: DEAD DROPS, a new hardcover collection of Operations for Delta Green for proofreading. It is still very much in progress.
But we're looking to fix any typos or errors as we head towards final. That's where you come in.
Please submit all feedback to acell@me.com before July 1 (please don't post it in comments...it'll be lost).
Happy hunting.
(And sorry for the relative silence here, I've been sick as a dog. Luckily I'm on the mend!)
I always paint these things that are incredibly overcomplicated. Let's have a million people. A million boxes. A million shelves. A million bugs.
You'd think I'd learn by now.
2024-06-10 12:52:39 +0000 UTC View Post
I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but I'd be remiss not mentioning it. $326 dollars worth of Delta Green digital books are up on the Humble Bundle for just $18, including all the core books, IMPOSSIBLE LANDSCAPES, ICONOCLASTS and GOD'S TEETH.
So far, we've sold 3,273 bundles and have raised $5,584 for Covenant House, and we have 18 days to go. Covenant House's goal is to provide safe housing and holistic care to youth ages 16–21 experiencing homelessness and survivors of human trafficking, and we support them wholeheartedly. I know most of you already have these books, but get in there and help out, if you can!
Check out the Delta Green Humble Bundle Here.
By request, an article on using law enforcement in your Delta Green games:
2024-05-30 15:09:27 +0000 UTC View Post"I can't express how many times I've heard a Handler say, "well, the player characters were Federal agents/police/marshals, so dealing with local police/getting the file/talking with witnesses was no problem," and every time I hear it, I cringe.
No. A thousand times no. Even when it is easy and the Agents are known to the local police as law enforcement, it should never feel easy. The players are part of a conspiracy that those law enforcement officials must never uncover, and this primary conceit must factor into all decisions and interactions. That secret should be a burden for the Agents — a constant fear of being found out they carry with them everywhere."
