Quiet Nights and Peaceful Days (KS Edition)
over 3 years ago – Thu, Jan 14, 2021 at 02:11:48 AM

Shane Ivey here. Like most of us, I have been enjoying this recent period of peace* and tranquility** as that wonderful*** year we call 2020**** has moved into the new and shining hopes of 2021.*****

I've been lax on community updates lately for sheer lack of time.

Wrestlenomicon has shipped to backers and is now available to everyone.

We're putting the final touches on Delta Green: Impossible Landscapesand aim to release it in PDF next week and in hardback in May. And because it's so much larger a book than planned, the hardback price will jump next week from $40+S&H, which is presently a $50 base price on BackerKit, to its MSRP of $65+S&H. So carpe regem.

You can check your pledges at BackerKit here.

We put together a download kit of all the handouts from Impossible Landscapes, so very many handouts, which will be free with every PDF copy of the book.

We put together a reference website for Landscapes called DemonWeb101 as another elaborate handout.

We put together an optional book of deep research for Impossible Landscapes, Delta Green: STATIC Protocol, which will be available in February. You can play Landscapes without it but it is built to allow players to delve ever deeper into the fathomless lore of the campaign.

We're finally wrapping up Jack damn Frostnow that we can look out from under the weight of Impossible Landscapes and wonder what may be left of the world. Dennis will finish its illustrations in the next week or two. It will be available in February, knock on frozen wood.

We have Delta Green: ARCHINTwritten and ready to be illustrated. Look for it in March probably. We recruited Caleb Stokes (God's Teeth) to finish off ARCHINT, which was one of my smarter ideas in recent years. It felt like a good sign when we said "Can you put together six new detailed artifacts?" and he said "How about twenty?" We stuck with the six, sorry. Budgets have to mean something, people.

And Delta Green: Iconoclasts. April or May. Scott finished his work on it months ago and it has been moving to the front of the queue on my end.

We're revising and editing Delta Green: God's Teeth. And PISCES. And Deep State. We'll get Caleb to knock out some of the standalone scenarios for The Labyrinth, now that he has allowed our hooks to take hold. 

It's 2021 and it will be a very busy year.

Notes

* Your peacefulness may vary.

** So may your tranquility.

***This may have started to move beyond sarcasm.

****LOL.

*****Please, God.

Impossible Landscapes come into view
over 3 years ago – Sat, Oct 31, 2020 at 03:36:12 PM

Shane Ivey here. Dennis Detwiller and I are hard at work with graphic designer Jen McCleary preparing Delta Green: Impossible Landscapes for your computers and for unsuspecting presses far across the wilting world. This is a very special stage of production. Dennis and I have spent the past several months in deep concentration upon making the manuscript as perfect as possible. Now we see it coming to life all warm and shivering upon the page. And so we carve into it like horny serial killers seeing all the improvements still to be made.

We expect the finished PDF of Impossible Landscapes to be available in November and the hardback in March or April.

An updated, improved version of Delta Green: Lover in the Ice is available now. And it's available in paperback. The paperback edition was not a KS reward for any tier since at the time we had not planned on paperback editions, but it's out there if you want it. Ready to find you. Ready to spread. Ready to feed. Ready to seed.

Lover in the Ice will also be in the collection Delta Green: Black Sites, which is at the printer now for a hardback coming in February. The PDF of Black Sites will go out to pre-order customers soon.

Did we tell you about the audio edition of our quickstart rulebook, Delta Green: Need to Know? Listen. Learn. Force it upon the ears of your neighbors and family. (Alert: That is an affiliate link. You have been warned.)

And allow us to direct you to a new Cthulhu Mythos novel by Delta Green coauthor Greg Stolze, God Cancer. It is in its FINAL DAY at Kickstarter and is sooo very close to its metastasis. Your pledge could be the one to bring it irrupting into light and reality. God Cancer: Catch It!™

Finally for now, I hope my buddy Philip Bolger does not mind me copying and pasting his FB comments about running Delta Green: Jack Frost, which has been nearly finished for what feels like sixteen years now and is nearly finished today. Enjoy.

TONIGHT, on Delta Gr-- erm, MAJESTIC-12:

It's December of 1998, and the town of Willis, Alabama, has been hit by the worst cold snap in years. Elements of the 41st Rescue Squadron and 20th Special Forces Group are on the ground providing natural disaster relief, though a passer by would wonder why they're so heavily armed for such a duty...

The winter storm isn't relenting, and as elements of the National Air Intelligence Center's elite research outfit, PROJECT PLUTO, arrive on site, it's becoming clear that whatever is behind the storms is far more sinister than mere weather...

Two hours in, and MAJESTIC-12 is already short one researcher.

Would you believe that he tried to eat a frozen corpse?

#

So, four hours in to MAJESTIC-12's JACK FROST, and... I am impressed. It is one of the most bulky, complex, and yet totally satisfying RPG paths I've yet to run.

My players will conclude next Friday, and it's going to be great.

For me, I mean.

I expect a bunch of them will die terribly.

#

"Seeing as everyone on site who was not cleared to know about <SECRET PROJECT> is now dead, I guess we can talk about it."

--Just MAJESTIC-12 things.

#

Concluded the MAJESTIC-12 operation JACK FROST.

Shane Ivey has gone and done it again.

I don't think I've seen another TTRPG scenario that gets the feel of a sprawling operation starting to go haywire so well. The scenario is bulky and clumsy (it requires players to play secondary characters), but it is undeniably enjoyable. The balance of mystery, horror, and the ever-present threat of "Information spillage in this organization is punishable by death" was great.

I'll have more thoughts later, but look for this when it comes out, hopefully around November.

#

Hey folks-- got one slot open for a Delta Green game. Two session episode, JACK FROST, taking place in the late 1990s. We're playing this Thursday and next Thursday.

The character I've got open is a high speed Parajumper with the 41st Rescue Squadron (at least, on paper).

I like this scenario a lot-- it's sweeping in scope, and fun to manage, playing almost like an emergency management exercise or a command post exercise (with horror elements and the paranoia that command might kill you to protect bizarre secrets, of course).

Think you can take a PJ against the incomprehensible forces of the Unnatural?

I can guarantee you'll at least be enabled to die trying.

#

TONIGHT, on MAJESTIC-12:

DECEMBER 22nd, 1998

A freak cold snap has left a high bodycount in Northern Alabama. NAIC and ONI elements of PROJECT PLUTO, supported by a BLUE FLY recovery team, and, as always, the controlling hand of PROJECT GARNET, are on site, here to take whatever is of value and cover up the rest.

Will the scientists and analysts of PLUTO have a Merry Christmas? Or will they join the unfortunate ranks of the damned?!

The answer... in the comments. After we play. But no guessing on what the odds are.

#

Fascinating that with a second group of players, MAJESTIC-12's JACK FROST plays differently. It's hard to talk in details without spoiling the scenario, but man... this one's a gem. If y'all like Delta Green, Military Horror, or quality TTRPGs... this is one you're gonna need to follow.

#

Well MJ-12's JACK FROST part 2 for my Bravo element concluded tonight.

It uh... it went totally off the rails. BLUE FLY didn't trust PLUTO, PLUTO didn't trust BLUE FLY, they both hated OSI, and nobody figured out what was behind the Jack Frost cold snaps in northern Alabama, leaving a huge vulnerability for American paranormal national security. When it became apparent that MAJESTIC-12 had lost control of the situation, the few who remained agreed on a cover story... and departed.

5/10 PJs were killed.

Multiple Pave Hawks were lost conducting "clean up" operations on December 24th and in the early hours of December 25th of 1998. The reasons why will be forever lost to history.

10/10 OSI agents were killed.

2/4 Leadership elements were killed.

2/4 PROJECT PLUTO researchers were killed. The other two deserted, and are now wanted fugitives. When their occult dealings come to light... they will be wanted not just by MAJESTIC-12 and the government, but by whatever cell of Delta Green is closest to their location...

Delta Green: Conspiracies deepen
over 3 years ago – Fri, Aug 14, 2020 at 04:36:17 PM

Delta Green's work is never done. Agents close off one incursion and its destruction of the human mind and world. Another incursion irrupts into our lives and spreads like rot.

Glory is too much to ask. But we can seek commiseration. Recently the authors of your Agents' misfortunes met on Twitch to talk about Delta Green, new developments, tradecraft and terror.

Conspiracies themselves tend to spread and deepen until the stench of them is too much for even the most careless witness to ignore. A team of MAJESTIC researchers and BLUE FLY commandos learn that to their peril and sorrow in late 1998 in the long scenario Jack Frost, now in its final stages of revision and under illustration. 

Our last playtest is about to end. The final product will likely be available in November.

Nebraska's plains holdother another horror that emerged in 1998. Explore it with PX Poker Night, fully edited and updated for Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game and illustrated throughout. A small crew of Air Force misfits look forward to one good night a week. This week, that night will turn very bad.

Purpose draw us in deeper. In 1995, Agents enter the Macallistar building in New York. They find there the Night Floors, regions of living, waking dream and nightmare where the supposed stability of human reality yields to the decay of Carcosa. The scenario "The Night Floors" appeared first in Delta Green: Countdown. It is much, much expanded and deepened in Impossible Landscapes, a huge campaign that offers to show your Agents the Yellow Sign and invites them to the stages where set pieces and costumes gather dust for the performance we call life. Impossible Landscapes is in design now.

Rewards beyond these accumulated in Delta Green's KS project, years ago. Drafts of PISCES and Deep State are under review and in development. The ARCHINT download collecting tomes and artifacts ought to be available in December. Falling Towers still draws lines of power and death about itself. 

Awards too have gathered. The Labyrinth won the Gold ENnie for Best Supplement in Gen Con Online, where volunteers ran dozens of Delta Green games for newcomers and veterans alike. Special rewards go out to those volunteers next week. The Labyrinth is available to everyone now in print, in pdf, and in retail.

Countless other conventions have canceled or gone online this strange year. With Gen Con Online behind us we invite volunteers to run Delta Green for more fans in other events. Look for details soon.

Iconoclasts too comes nearer publication, overlooked as it was in our discussion of rewards. Adam Scott Glancy's 32-page scenario will be a 128-page campaign of Agents pursuing the accidental release of a lethal god into warring Mosul in 2016. We expect to see the Iconoclasts PDF in December or January.

Sites hopeless as death can be found beyond America's endless wars, of course. With PX Poker Night complete, Black Sites goes into production in October and should be available in hardback in March. 

Kickstarter was home last year to another bringer of strange joy to Yuggoth, the amusing card game Wrestlenomicon. It ships from the manufacturer at the end of this month and will ship to backers in October. Backers and pre-order customers, log in to BackerKit to review your information and payment. Orders will be locked down and collected this Monday, 17 AUG 2020.

So our work goes on. Haphazardly. Inexorably. Driven by inspiration. Sometimes that inspiration distracts or diverts. Sometimes it falls prey to the crushing weight of the world falling all around. We struggle on for the hope to offer meaning or catharsis or simple entertainment. What visions and movements we feel inside yearn to reach you. We urge you to acquiesce.

Soon.

Impossible Landscapes and Iconoclasts and Jack Frost approach
almost 4 years ago – Sat, Jul 11, 2020 at 08:00:24 PM

 Help Delta Green: The Labyrinth Win an ENnie! 

John Scott Tynes’ Delta Green: The Labyrinth is nominated for the ENnie Award for Best Supplement. And Arc Dream Publishing is up for Fan Favorite Publisher. Voting ends Sunday, 12 JUL 2020. We hope you’ll join us in voting “1” for The Labyrinth and Arc Dream. And we urge you to do it right away. Time bends in on itself and leaves missed opportunities forever lost in whorls of causality, unobserved, indeterminate, meaningless in the unwatching and unthinking gaze of Azathoth.

Then watch the ENnie Awards show online Friday night, 31 JUL 2020, and see what miracles you have wrought!

 Status of the Delta Green RPG Kickstarter

The last elements are falling into place. Falling, falling. Dennis Detwiller’s massive King in Yellow campaign Impossible Landscapes is in its final round of editing now and goes to layout next week. We expect to see it in PDF in the fall and in hardback in winter.

Shane Ivey’s scenario “Jack Frost” has been fully revised and rewritten and edited. Its revised version is in playtest now and we may to see it in PDF and paperback in September. Dennis Detwiller is building ARCHINT.

Gil Trevizo withdrew from developing Operational History for personal reasons but it is now in the eminently qualified hands of Chris Spivey of Darker Hue Studios (Harlem Unbound, Haunted West).

Adam Scott Glancy turned in a comprehensive post-playtest revision of “Iconoclasts” a long while back and it waits on Ivey’s desk for review and final editing. We likewise have a first pass of PISCES in hand for team review.

Chris Gunning is developing Deep State. Ivey’s campaign Falling Towers will be the last to come together. Elements of it have been coagulating for 22 years. It will ripen quickly.

We Have Not Yet Begun to Update You

Gen Con Online... Black Sites... The Way It Went Down 2... Wrestlenomicon... Swords & Sorceries... Gunslinger... See the latest Delta Green newsletter and plumb depths beyond dreaming.

The dice sing a tune to which the false people dance
almost 4 years ago – Wed, May 20, 2020 at 05:31:02 AM

The dice sing a tune to which the false people dance while the book leads you all on. And whether you want it or not, you dance. 

We dance. 

We all dance this way, hand in hand, until the end of the world.

Impossible Landscapes still occupies most of our labor. Presently 156,418 words, it will likely be 320 pages long. It has undergone three rounds of editing and revisions and has at least one still to go before layout. It is possible that we send it to layout in July and have a PDF in August and a hardback in December.

Remember, you can review your rewards in BackerKit by logging in here with your Kickstarter email address: https://delta-green-the-role-playing-game.backerkit.com/ 

A family of three still “lives” here: Aneate, Lemark, and Besar Barré—mother, father, and child. Each has a blood-stained pillowcase over their head, marked by a bullet hole and muzzle burn, slick with blood and brains. Their features are hidden beneath the cloth. But they go about their daily lives, unperturbed.

Other rewards linger. We present them in order of hypothetical nearness to publication. Quantum mechanics and Delta Green deal in probabilities, never certainties until observation fixes an object into a final state. Some of the projects could come sooner but I prefer to remain conservative in my equivocation.

ARCHINT: PDF, about 32 pages. Needs its first draft completed. Then review, revisions, art, maps, copy editing, layout. ETA: Maybe July.

Iconoclasts: PDF, about 64 pages. Needs a final review to see if it needs further playtesting. Then copy editing and layout. ETA: Maybe August. 

Jack Frost: PDF, about 32 pages. Needs final revisions and probably a round of playtesting. Then further revisions, copy editing, layout. ETA: Maybe September.

PISCES: Hardback and PDF, about 192 pages. Needs first-draft review and revisions. Then playtesting, final revisions, art and maps, copy editing, layout. ETA: Maybe January 2021 in PDF and May 2021 in hardback.

Deep State: Hardback and PDF, about 192 pages. Needs its first draft completed. Then review, revisions, playtesting, revisions, art, maps, copy editing, layout. ETA: Maybe March 2021 in PDF and July 2021 in hardback.

Operational History: PDF, about 80 pages. Needs its first draft completed. Then review, revisions, art, maps, copy editing, layout. ETA: Maybe April 2021.

Falling Towers: Hardback and PDF, about 192 pages. Needs its first draft completed. Then review, revisions, playtesting, revisions, art, maps, copy editing, layout. ETA: Maybe May 2021 in PDF and September 2021 in hardback.

Recording 10: A teenage boy is heard running a sink full-blast while chanting, “Show me more, show me more, show me more.” Occasionally a squeaking sound is heard. Eventually, a second voice speaks in a low, slow, croaking voice. It sounds like a very old and sick man speaking between bellowing gasps for air. Over the course of 2 minutes and 24 seconds, it says: “And so we come to our end, of sorts. A play that contains multitudes. All who died. All who live. All who yet shall. Upon this stage with us forever.”