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Call of Cthulhu - Delta Green - PBP Recruiting!
Aegeri
Tiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered User regular
Tiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered User regular
This is a thread for Call of Cthulhu as in the roleplaying game made by Chaosium, adding onto it the delicious variant rules and themes given in Delta Green (which really expands on playing a Cthulhu mythos game in the modern era).
Firstly, I'm using an old edition of the rules because this game I'm using Delta Green as a base for many of this campaigns themes and concepts. I think I use 2nd edition rules but I'm not sure and that isn't really that important anyway as I use everything from Delta Green primarily. So you'll probably need an explanation as to what I mean by Delta Green and the simplest explanation is that it's a modern set version of the classic Call of Cthulhu game with a strong "X-files like" sort of theme to it. Particularly it gives some really good advice for roleplaying FBI, CIA and other US government agents - but don't feel tied to this! By far some of the most interesting Call of Cthulhu characters aren't anything unique at all, just ordinary people put into a situation they can't possibly understand or comprehend. To me that's what makes Call of Cthulhu great compared to something like Dungeons and Dragons, you're not heroes you're just normal fellows in a horrible situation.
Call of Cthulhu as a system is really focused on roleplaying elements and the horror of the unknown. It's most notable for its sanity mechanic, whereby continual exposure to horrible mind bending elements eventually drives the poor investigators over the edge of reason and sanity. This does have several problems, which is why I bring it up early because this is often roleplayed terribly. Insanity can manifest in many different ways and everyone responds to things differently. Behavioural changes, doing odd things, seeing things, talking to yourself and many other subtle changes often make for the best roleplaying. Turning into a raving gibbering homicidal loon is funny - but honestly it's not very interesting when this is how everyone playing thinks a character that goes "insane" is going to act.
Invariably though, many investigators just cannot take it any more, with many characters ending their career by either going permanently marbles and being put away in an asylum (for long periods) or they take the easy rode out (the classic CoC suicide). This means over the entire chronicle, you should be prepared that your character will inevitably have to be retired - either for an extended period in the asylum or possibly horribly killed off in some sadistic manner. Death or irreversible madness is what you have to look forward to in this game, not dramatic moments of heroism that save the world - indeed its destruction has already been written - but what you can do is make sure that destruction is held off for just another day.
There are several misconceptions about Call of Cthulhu that I want to sort of dispel before I get onto making characters or anything else.
1) Monsters are invincible. No. With the exception of great old ones - and let me assure you if you get to that point you're completely screwed anyway - many mythos horrors are in fact killable. They are certainly not as squishy as a human being such as you, but an anti-tank round to the head is going to give them more than a slight headache.
This doesn't mean you want to meet monsters on the other hand. Some things are so mind bendingly horrible you will never forget such encounters. Others can absorb more than their fair share of bullets and anything else you happen to have - that is if you're even armed or if you even see what attacks you to begin with....
2) You'll go through characters like toilet-paper. Yes and no. If you're the sort that goes charging into the cultists guns blazing you're going to quickly discover that you're going to die horribly. Very, very, horribly because combat tends to be pretty lethal and you're not good at absorbing bullets. There isn't a nice chunk of HP and a second wind handy nearby. When your shit gets ruined it stays that way.
In reality though, I don't focus on much combat and you should think logically about things. Calling the Police on the heavily armed cultists to make a distraction while you deal with the REAL threat is something you should consider. In fact, try to think in any situation "How would I deal with this?" and then apply that sort of common sense to your character. Your character doesn't have to be you, roleplaying the tough FBI agent or former cop who is confident in their ability to handle a weapon (when you aren't) is the point of a roleplaying game - but thinking like a real person helps a LOT in this game. Even if the situations aren't real.
This should also mean you won't be losing your characters that you put time and effort into making every five seconds. Bear in mind though, people die easily and often. Believe me, a car crash, a lethal shower stabbing (If I'm in a dramatic mood) and a bullet to the brain is just as bad as any horrible monsters teeth and claws.
3) It's the real world. The worst thing I see in these games is people forgetting that it's not just a game but it follows the same rules and logic as real life. Your characters have the internet! They have cameras! They have cellphones! These are ALL things that you should consider in how you approach your investigations and situations that happen. If you find a horrible murder and you call the cops, the cops are going to ask you why you were there. If you keep doing this, what are the cops and FBI going to think? I can tell you that they're going to start suspecting you, especially if you start ranting about horrible creatures and black magic and such forth.
Returning to a core theme, this game is best when you think about it as the real world first and with horrible abominations that nobody truly understands outside of that. Your characters don't know about these things or maybe they have the vaguest inclination of what might be there - but otherwise it's just like our world.
4) Monsters are genuinely alien - don't expect them to act anywhere near logical by a human standpoint. Fainting and falling down the stairs, with the horrible abomination closing in on you as you slip into blackness is not always the end. In many cases I won't even tell you that you're dead and need to make a new character. A few days later in gametime you suddenly wake up in hospital, to confused and concerned relatives who you mistake as horrors from another dimension lashing out before your mind catches up to reality - you're not dead... but why?
This is a core concept. Horrible abominations from beyond our world don't act in ways you'd expect. Their intelligence is genuinely alien. One monster may rip you to pieces in your sleep while another ignores you entirely. Why? Who the hell knows why, perhaps there is some plan well beyond what you can possibly perceive or know of at work. Perhaps they even need you alive or they even did something to you while you were unconscious that was far worse than ever killing you was.
Then again, I'm not about to tell you that anyway. You can forever guess if they ever did something and sometimes I might play along. Perhaps they did do something or maybe the evidence your character has is just a fabrication of their tortured mind from contact with unknowable horrors. When you cut off that strange looking tattoo you're sure you didn't have before you woke up, you know you're playing Call of Cthulhu.
I run Call of Cthulhu as a very slow investigative type game with horror and roleplaying elements being paramount. Combat is generally pretty rare - but there are all kinds of scuffles that can occur that are non-lethal (having the crap beaten out of you by the police detective who doesn't like the FBI sticking into "his" case is a classic trope for this game). Maps tend to be architectural sketches, or very simple compared to something like DnD because exploration is more about tension and no map can accurately portray how truly horrible a place like R'lyeh could be. A close approximation would be like a nightmarish MC. Escher drawing with non-euclidean geometry - basically somewhere really really terrible and almost impossible for the human mind to comprehend let alone map.
Also, the combat system is simple enough that it's not really required to have massive detail on positions and similar, just reasonable approximations of where people are when it's required. This has worked well for me because, in general, I'm a pretty reasonable guy about this and tension and story are more important to me than body count.
This game is designed in a way so that people who don't have the rules and have never played before can get right into it with minimal effort. You do make characters of your own of course (how could it be any fun otherwise?) but it will start slightly differently. Although your characters will be in the modern day, you get to start in 1928 during the infamous raid on Innsmouth by the US Government - Project Covenant. This will start you with some premade Call of Cthulhu characters, so you can get a feel for the following:
1) General mechanics - sanity and combat. Combat is rare, but it's helpful to know how it works when a kerfuffle inevitably breaks out. Sanity is something you should know about.
2) The sort of theme of Delta Green - which is about horrible conspiracies and how the government might know more about the horrors beyond than they let on (Which is why I compare it with the X-Files in this regard).
3) Establish the feel and theme of the game as well. Depending on your character submissions you may even be related to one of the pregen characters from Project Covenant!
This start is to show people who don't have the books how characters work and such forth, with the core mechanics of the game being introduced in an environment where you won't have to risk characters you spent your time making! Plus I think it's a pretty iconic location in Call of Cthulhu and to Delta Green to get the ball rolling.
Plus shooting fish men with Springfield bolt action rifles and 1911 pistols is fun no matter how you cut it.
Of course here is what I'm looking for in submissions, aside from obvious things like a name and gender this is what you need to think about:
A) What do you do? Are you a teacher? A scientist? Unemployed who spends his nights drinking himself to death and fighting people for money/fun/dick? An FBI agent? A police officer? Reporter? This is very important, because your profession really determines what sort of skills and abilities you should have. A former soldier who served in Iraq has a good chance of having some training with firearms bigger than your average pistol, your average college freshman studying biology probably not so much of a chance of knowing how to use a M14.
Diversity in skills is just as important in CoC as in DnD though. Someone who can read old archaic languages like Latin is as valuable as anyone who can fire a gun - often more-so because some things are just better killed (or stopped) in ways other than direct combat. In fact don't feel that combat skills are very essential - well except fisticuff skills because punching people is inevitable - because the smartest investigators are those that know what they're dealing with so a fight is in much of their favour as possible.
What's your family history? This makes you interesting to me because the more you provide the better. Don't even feel you need ancient mansions with disappearances in the family either. A network of people that your character knows are potential plot threads to get you involved with the game, make a gruesome murder a personal matter or just provide logical ways of advancing the plot (like staying with a friend of the family in another town/city). It also makes for great roleplaying when your characters spouse just doesn't understand why you've developed these strange "obsessions" and babble in your sleep about the eyes you see in the windows every night...
This is an extremely character driven game and one of the reasons I try not to go through investigators like wet tissue. It's just not as interesting when players feel they shouldn't bother developing their characters. I like to make comparisons to shows like Supernatural, X-Files and similar. If the main characters died every 2 episodes they wouldn't be very interesting and nobody would want to become invested in the show. On the other hand, you don't have the same "plot armour" that such a show has - an important distinction!
Beyond this, we can sort the mechanics out later (unless you have the rules already, then you can just make a character complete right off the bat!). Any questions just ask. I'm looking for 4-5 players in this game probably, but I'm not sure about the general level of interest in this forum for such a game (I don't know of any other CoC games). I do intend though to have the odd "guest" character come in when plot requires it. So even if you don't make the main "group" I will at times come back and find ways to include people who didn't quite get in for an "episode" (for lack of a better term) or so.
Firstly, I'm using an old edition of the rules because this game I'm using Delta Green as a base for many of this campaigns themes and concepts. I think I use 2nd edition rules but I'm not sure and that isn't really that important anyway as I use everything from Delta Green primarily. So you'll probably need an explanation as to what I mean by Delta Green and the simplest explanation is that it's a modern set version of the classic Call of Cthulhu game with a strong "X-files like" sort of theme to it. Particularly it gives some really good advice for roleplaying FBI, CIA and other US government agents - but don't feel tied to this! By far some of the most interesting Call of Cthulhu characters aren't anything unique at all, just ordinary people put into a situation they can't possibly understand or comprehend. To me that's what makes Call of Cthulhu great compared to something like Dungeons and Dragons, you're not heroes you're just normal fellows in a horrible situation.
Call of Cthulhu as a system is really focused on roleplaying elements and the horror of the unknown. It's most notable for its sanity mechanic, whereby continual exposure to horrible mind bending elements eventually drives the poor investigators over the edge of reason and sanity. This does have several problems, which is why I bring it up early because this is often roleplayed terribly. Insanity can manifest in many different ways and everyone responds to things differently. Behavioural changes, doing odd things, seeing things, talking to yourself and many other subtle changes often make for the best roleplaying. Turning into a raving gibbering homicidal loon is funny - but honestly it's not very interesting when this is how everyone playing thinks a character that goes "insane" is going to act.
Invariably though, many investigators just cannot take it any more, with many characters ending their career by either going permanently marbles and being put away in an asylum (for long periods) or they take the easy rode out (the classic CoC suicide). This means over the entire chronicle, you should be prepared that your character will inevitably have to be retired - either for an extended period in the asylum or possibly horribly killed off in some sadistic manner. Death or irreversible madness is what you have to look forward to in this game, not dramatic moments of heroism that save the world - indeed its destruction has already been written - but what you can do is make sure that destruction is held off for just another day.
Misconceptions
There are several misconceptions about Call of Cthulhu that I want to sort of dispel before I get onto making characters or anything else.
1) Monsters are invincible. No. With the exception of great old ones - and let me assure you if you get to that point you're completely screwed anyway - many mythos horrors are in fact killable. They are certainly not as squishy as a human being such as you, but an anti-tank round to the head is going to give them more than a slight headache.
This doesn't mean you want to meet monsters on the other hand. Some things are so mind bendingly horrible you will never forget such encounters. Others can absorb more than their fair share of bullets and anything else you happen to have - that is if you're even armed or if you even see what attacks you to begin with....
2) You'll go through characters like toilet-paper. Yes and no. If you're the sort that goes charging into the cultists guns blazing you're going to quickly discover that you're going to die horribly. Very, very, horribly because combat tends to be pretty lethal and you're not good at absorbing bullets. There isn't a nice chunk of HP and a second wind handy nearby. When your shit gets ruined it stays that way.
In reality though, I don't focus on much combat and you should think logically about things. Calling the Police on the heavily armed cultists to make a distraction while you deal with the REAL threat is something you should consider. In fact, try to think in any situation "How would I deal with this?" and then apply that sort of common sense to your character. Your character doesn't have to be you, roleplaying the tough FBI agent or former cop who is confident in their ability to handle a weapon (when you aren't) is the point of a roleplaying game - but thinking like a real person helps a LOT in this game. Even if the situations aren't real.
This should also mean you won't be losing your characters that you put time and effort into making every five seconds. Bear in mind though, people die easily and often. Believe me, a car crash, a lethal shower stabbing (If I'm in a dramatic mood) and a bullet to the brain is just as bad as any horrible monsters teeth and claws.
3) It's the real world. The worst thing I see in these games is people forgetting that it's not just a game but it follows the same rules and logic as real life. Your characters have the internet! They have cameras! They have cellphones! These are ALL things that you should consider in how you approach your investigations and situations that happen. If you find a horrible murder and you call the cops, the cops are going to ask you why you were there. If you keep doing this, what are the cops and FBI going to think? I can tell you that they're going to start suspecting you, especially if you start ranting about horrible creatures and black magic and such forth.
Returning to a core theme, this game is best when you think about it as the real world first and with horrible abominations that nobody truly understands outside of that. Your characters don't know about these things or maybe they have the vaguest inclination of what might be there - but otherwise it's just like our world.
4) Monsters are genuinely alien - don't expect them to act anywhere near logical by a human standpoint. Fainting and falling down the stairs, with the horrible abomination closing in on you as you slip into blackness is not always the end. In many cases I won't even tell you that you're dead and need to make a new character. A few days later in gametime you suddenly wake up in hospital, to confused and concerned relatives who you mistake as horrors from another dimension lashing out before your mind catches up to reality - you're not dead... but why?
This is a core concept. Horrible abominations from beyond our world don't act in ways you'd expect. Their intelligence is genuinely alien. One monster may rip you to pieces in your sleep while another ignores you entirely. Why? Who the hell knows why, perhaps there is some plan well beyond what you can possibly perceive or know of at work. Perhaps they even need you alive or they even did something to you while you were unconscious that was far worse than ever killing you was.
Then again, I'm not about to tell you that anyway. You can forever guess if they ever did something and sometimes I might play along. Perhaps they did do something or maybe the evidence your character has is just a fabrication of their tortured mind from contact with unknowable horrors. When you cut off that strange looking tattoo you're sure you didn't have before you woke up, you know you're playing Call of Cthulhu.
How I run the game!
I run Call of Cthulhu as a very slow investigative type game with horror and roleplaying elements being paramount. Combat is generally pretty rare - but there are all kinds of scuffles that can occur that are non-lethal (having the crap beaten out of you by the police detective who doesn't like the FBI sticking into "his" case is a classic trope for this game). Maps tend to be architectural sketches, or very simple compared to something like DnD because exploration is more about tension and no map can accurately portray how truly horrible a place like R'lyeh could be. A close approximation would be like a nightmarish MC. Escher drawing with non-euclidean geometry - basically somewhere really really terrible and almost impossible for the human mind to comprehend let alone map.
Also, the combat system is simple enough that it's not really required to have massive detail on positions and similar, just reasonable approximations of where people are when it's required. This has worked well for me because, in general, I'm a pretty reasonable guy about this and tension and story are more important to me than body count.
This game is designed in a way so that people who don't have the rules and have never played before can get right into it with minimal effort. You do make characters of your own of course (how could it be any fun otherwise?) but it will start slightly differently. Although your characters will be in the modern day, you get to start in 1928 during the infamous raid on Innsmouth by the US Government - Project Covenant. This will start you with some premade Call of Cthulhu characters, so you can get a feel for the following:
1) General mechanics - sanity and combat. Combat is rare, but it's helpful to know how it works when a kerfuffle inevitably breaks out. Sanity is something you should know about.
2) The sort of theme of Delta Green - which is about horrible conspiracies and how the government might know more about the horrors beyond than they let on (Which is why I compare it with the X-Files in this regard).
3) Establish the feel and theme of the game as well. Depending on your character submissions you may even be related to one of the pregen characters from Project Covenant!
This start is to show people who don't have the books how characters work and such forth, with the core mechanics of the game being introduced in an environment where you won't have to risk characters you spent your time making! Plus I think it's a pretty iconic location in Call of Cthulhu and to Delta Green to get the ball rolling.
Plus shooting fish men with Springfield bolt action rifles and 1911 pistols is fun no matter how you cut it.
Your characters!
Of course here is what I'm looking for in submissions, aside from obvious things like a name and gender this is what you need to think about:
A) What do you do? Are you a teacher? A scientist? Unemployed who spends his nights drinking himself to death and fighting people for money/fun/dick? An FBI agent? A police officer? Reporter? This is very important, because your profession really determines what sort of skills and abilities you should have. A former soldier who served in Iraq has a good chance of having some training with firearms bigger than your average pistol, your average college freshman studying biology probably not so much of a chance of knowing how to use a M14.
Diversity in skills is just as important in CoC as in DnD though. Someone who can read old archaic languages like Latin is as valuable as anyone who can fire a gun - often more-so because some things are just better killed (or stopped) in ways other than direct combat. In fact don't feel that combat skills are very essential - well except fisticuff skills because punching people is inevitable - because the smartest investigators are those that know what they're dealing with so a fight is in much of their favour as possible.
What's your family history? This makes you interesting to me because the more you provide the better. Don't even feel you need ancient mansions with disappearances in the family either. A network of people that your character knows are potential plot threads to get you involved with the game, make a gruesome murder a personal matter or just provide logical ways of advancing the plot (like staying with a friend of the family in another town/city). It also makes for great roleplaying when your characters spouse just doesn't understand why you've developed these strange "obsessions" and babble in your sleep about the eyes you see in the windows every night...This is an extremely character driven game and one of the reasons I try not to go through investigators like wet tissue. It's just not as interesting when players feel they shouldn't bother developing their characters. I like to make comparisons to shows like Supernatural, X-Files and similar. If the main characters died every 2 episodes they wouldn't be very interesting and nobody would want to become invested in the show. On the other hand, you don't have the same "plot armour" that such a show has - an important distinction!
Beyond this, we can sort the mechanics out later (unless you have the rules already, then you can just make a character complete right off the bat!). Any questions just ask. I'm looking for 4-5 players in this game probably, but I'm not sure about the general level of interest in this forum for such a game (I don't know of any other CoC games). I do intend though to have the odd "guest" character come in when plot requires it. So even if you don't make the main "group" I will at times come back and find ways to include people who didn't quite get in for an "episode" (for lack of a better term) or so.
Aegeri on
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Though I don't really have any roleplay experience.
I'm not familiar with the system but I am so into this. I love the OP.
What time period are you setting this campaign in?
EDIT: Never mind, found it there in the middle of the OP
I'll hit up a character and edit my post as soon as I can.
Edit:
Note: As I am not familiar with locations in the USA, I will refrain from mentioning where my character was born, what elementary- / high school or university he attended. Feel free to add in any missing location information if necessary. Also I do not have the rules to the game, so stats will have to be done at a later point. Furthermore, this post is only to indicate what type of character I will be if I am included in the game.
Name: Jake Sunders
Gender: Male
Age: 22
Profession: Student / Bachelor in Comp Sci.
Background:
Jake Sunders comes from an average income family. His father, John Sunders, worked as an IT-consultant for the IRS while his mother, Jane Sunders, began her career as a physician and later followed in the same footsteps as his father, becoming an IT-consultant within the health sector. He is a lone child and thus has been given all the attention a child could want. At a very young age Jake was allowed access to the family’s computer and soon he spent whole days sitting in front of its dazzling light.
In elementary school Jake was noted for having a vivid imagination. He always dreamed of strange scenarios in which some part of the real world had been substituted for a fantasy part. These often involved Jake attaining a special power and being more “powerful” compared to his friends. These thoughts subsided as Jake entered high school, but he kept his vivid imagination.
Entering high school changed Jake from a boy to a man. He began to become more adventurous and hang out with his friends instead of finishing his studies much to the distaste of his parents. But Jake managed to find time for his studies as well and passed his high school exams. During high school Jake’s love for computers and its mechanics was rekindled and he decided to get a bachelor in Comp Sci at the nearest university as soon as he was out of high school. It was also during this time that Jake met Alex Hensen. Alex was a foreign exchange student from Europe and was spending a year in Jake’s high school. Feeling more at home in the USA than in Europe, Alex applied for a green card after he had finished his term.
It has been a year and a half since Jake enrolled as Bachelor in Comp Sci. During this time, he finally managed to get a place of his own. The family still tends to visit from time to time, insisting on making sure that Jake is well fed and is alright. He also managed to get a girlfriend, Susie Kelston, but they broke up after a few months. Jake is still unsure as to why. They still talk from time to time, but more on a friend-basis. He has somewhat reclined in his party activities, but still manage to attend a party or two once in a while. His friends scold him for spending more time with the computer than he ever did with his sole ex-girlfriend, but Jake does not see the link between his computer and his ex-girlfriend. Alex Hensen got his green card approved a year later after high school and is currently staying at Jake’s place, sharing the expenses with Jake. Alex is somewhat Jake’s opposite. He is more social and tends to attend more parties than Jake, but otherwise he enjoys the same things in life as Jake.
Jake spends his free time programming small applications trying to make a little buck on the side while studying. He is not yet a professional, but he has a few noteworthy applications. If Jake isn’t programming, he is watching various television shows, occasionally some anime and surfing the net noticeably the Wikipedia website for various information tidbits. His wide preferences in shows (from Europe to the East) and interest in Wikipedia has allowed him a greater access to various information, culture and language. However, Jake is susceptible to believe various Internet rumors and thus tends to mix lies up together with facts.
Name: Judah Von Huron
Gender: Male
Age: 31
Profession: He would claim "unemployed," but moderately wealthy and: is an ex-police officer, current aide-of-sorts to his brother an NY senator, and holds a de jure seat on the board at the Von Huron Defense Corp. though he's never been to a meeting.
Judah’s father (Victor Von Huron) left the family midway through his wife’s pregnancy, and Judah’s mother (Hannah Von Huron) left within the year he was born to go look for him. His mother was later found in Iowa, dead for some time. His father was never accounted for. Judah was cared for (with moderate diligence) by his brothers and other relatives, during the time they weren’t fighting over the estate and their primary source of income, the Von Huron Defense Corporation. He acquired a distaste for the upper-class lifestyle he was brought into, but accepted his status and its rewards nonetheless.
He left New York for school, and after graduating from Florida State university with a double major in Criminology and Sociology he joined the Tallahassee (Florida) police department--a possible attempt to integrate himself into a lower class. He was on the force for two years before quitting. During this time, his eldest brother Alexander was elected to his senatorial seat.
A few months afterward, he was witness to a teen-aged girl being carjacked and attempted to stop it. The incident ended with Judah in the emergency room, having been beaten and run over. He lost the use of his legs, and now uses a wheelchair. He retreated back to the Von Huron estate, and so began a dark period in his life.
Just recently, Alexander mysteriously stepped down from his position and was replaced in special election by the middle Von Huron brother, Mitchell. Some speculate him (Alexander) of becoming mentally unfit for his duties as of late, though his statement of resignation offered no hint; he had rarely made waves in the senate, and his recent years have shown no change.
Only recently has Judah begun to be publicly visible again, feeling a yearning for … something—to get outside himself again. He’s been unemployed for nearly seven years now, turning down offers to assist in his brothers’ political machinations. But when Mitchell asked him for his assistance in nabbing their elder brother's vacant seat, Judah joined him. Nothing permanent ... but he's trying it out, now that Mitchell won. It's how he found himself in his first relationship since being paralyzed, dating Priya Green, who’s been an aide for both of his brothers.
Hopefully the plot is wheelchair accessible? Though, I'm kind of thinking it won't be (which will be the exciting part). But I dunno, if you think it's a bad idea let me know. I've never played in this setting.
EDIT: just changed a couple of small things (profession and some niggling things in his description)
Echo that. I've always wanted to play CoC, but I've never gotten around to picking up the books.
Name: Bill Jansen
Age: 42
Profession: Private Detective
He sat at his desk, cigar in his mouth, photo album laid out before him. It was late, judging by the emptiness of the whiskey bottle in front of him, but he had no inclination to go to bed. He flipped through the pages, a battered green lamp the only source of light on the corner of his desk.
He passed pictures of his family. His mom and dad. They'd been decent enough parents, though his father was somewhat of a drunk, and his mother a tad high strung, but they'd raised their kids as well as they could. He'd had a brother, Jake, but Jake was hit by a drunk driver at the age of twelve. His parents hadn't taken it well, but Bill was 16 by then and could take care of himself.
He remembered his home, how it looked like every other house on the block. He remembered hating that, hating the conformity. Everyone wearing the same uniform as school, it was sickening. He'd been a trouble maker, probably trying to lash out against the sameness, to be different.
More pictures, him and his buddies smiling at the police academy, having barbeque's, his wife and kids. He'd been on the force for over 15 years, detective for a good chunk of that time because he had a good eye and a quick mind. He'd gotten married to a beautiful woman, and they'd had two wonderful kids. Now, his family was gone. It turned out, Bill was more like his daddy then he wished. He worked and drank too much, and finally he ended up alone.
He started drinking on the job, and ended up shooting an innocent man. He wasn't the same after that. They gave him a desk job and soon after, he quit. He couldn't sit at a desk all day everyday, doing paperwork. Same thing all day every day. So he left, bought an office, put ads in the paper offering his services as a private dick. He had experience, but who needed a private detective these days anyways? So far he'd found out two husbands had cheated on their wives, what a great goddamn job.
The pictures ended, leaving him staring only at white space. He sighed. Good thing he had a small cot at his office for just these occasions. He dropped into it and passed out.
I think I may have screwed up tenses there somewhere but oh well, you get the picture.
Age: 30
Profession: Aristocrat/Cat Burglar
Eric Von Fortis was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Educated at the finest British boarding schools, he quickly became bored with his idle and lavish lifestyle. Upon returning home from college for a break, he found his mother dead in the kitchen, lying in a pool of her own blood. Devastated, he took a brief hiatus from school to deal with the grief of his mother’s passing.
While cleaning out his mother’s closet, he literally tripped over a safe hidden in the floor. Inside was a small piece of what appeared to be an amulet. Eric was sure this is why his mother was killed; now, he intended to find out what it meant.
He has taken to cat burglary to locate and obtain the other pieces of the scarab along with the excitement it provides (though he’d never admit this). He has stolen over a dozen relatively minor historical trinkets using a combination of stealth, technology and analysis human nature. After going after a "bigger score" by stealing a priceless scepter from the International Gallery in London said to act as a compass to the pieces of the artifact, he decides to lay low in the U.S. until "the heat dies down." Despite evading the police and Interpol, Eric gets the nagging feeling that someone or something is also after the other pieces purloined artifact.
Age: 23
Profession: Student/Marine Biologist
She sighed as she hung her labcoat on the peg by the door, patting her pockets absent-mindedly to ensure that she had all her belongings. As she left the building, she flipped her cellphone open. "Yeah, mother. I just had to work a little late. Jason will be bringing pizza over, you don't need to cook anything for me. Thanks, mom!" She paused for a moment and smiled. "Love you too!"
Snow dusted the streets as she walked home, her mind idly wandering as she thought about the specimens brought in that day. They were... weird. Not quite like any squid she'd seen before. Dr. Jordanson was excited, really excited. A new species was always a great find, and the laboratory could use some more funding. Something about it creeped her out, though. The tentacles were just a touch asymmetrical, and something about the teeth in its beak were... weird.
She shook her head to clear her thoughts as she walked up the steps of the house, slipping inside quietly to avoid waking up her baby brother. Her mother had yet to talk about who the father was, but it was nice that she had someone else to take care of now that Jeanne was preparing to move out.
The low rumble of Jason's laughter echoed from the kitchen, followed by the wafting smell of pizza, and Jeanne followed the noise, carefully sneaking up and hugging him from behind, giving him a peck on the cheek.
"I hope you saved some for me, the lab's been crazy. We pulled in some new squid specimen, everyone's excited."
Age: 25
Profession: Doctor of Medicine, St. Vincent's Hospital, NY
Apologize for length.
Birth Date- 12-1-1981
Profession: Artist/Soldier
Bael oddly and suddenly transitioned into painting and managed to get into the prestigious Yale program. Arden lived very little of a social life and developed very few connections. He dedicated himself utterly to his work. However a realization had hit him one day , the day of his exhibition. When Bael's work was shown, all it evoked in people was fear or feelings of disgust. Some thought this brilliant , nothing intellectual about it to be sure, but the works ability to capture "raw filth".
Bael was disgusted and wanted to destroy the work as his intentions were slightly more ....admirable. After this incident Bael would drop out of school. Despite potential for a scholarship.
A Delta Green associate happened to see Bael's argument over to destroy his work, and took an interest.
He approached Bael in private with some evidence, he offered to explain more if he was willing to believe.
Soon Bael would receive ROTC training as well as some special training from DG members.
Father is a Pharmacist, Elijah Bael
version 2.
Born- 12-1-1981
Status: Active
Arden Bael seems to represent an opportunity rarely afforded to Delta Green. Unlike others under the influence of the “King in Yellow”, Arden has seemingly strayed from his chosen path. MRI scans show somewhat odd activity in his right temporo-parietal junction which could help explain why he hasn’t fully indulged in either sociopathic or purely hedonistic endeavors. As opposed to indulging in the manipulation of others the influence has caused seclusion and some dementia. We do not believe this to be derived from horrific visions as seen in the case of Henry Wilcox. Or for the influence to have the same devastating long term effects.
We first became aware of the influence, while Bael was a student at Yale. One of his professors had noticed the sign in one of Bael’s paintings and asked him further in depth about it. Said agent was able to gauge Bael for more information surprisingly easily. And we we’re able to do a background check that showed a pattern of influence in Bael’s work even as a child.
need to fine tune it, just wanted to get a rough draft down
Age: 57
Profession: Retired from Department of Defense/Hobby Farmer
After he left the military he got a job as an analyst at the DoD and eventually rose to a mid-level manager and eventual department head in the financial tracking division.
He has a 12 year old daughter and 3 sons in their late twenties/early thirties from his recently deceased wife. After retirement he bought a small plot of land with an overgrown apple orchard and spends his time tending to it and trying to keep up with and raise his daughter.
He dislikes computers and only has an email account to keep in touch with his grown sons and their families. His daughter made a Facebook page for him but he just checks his friends and families pages when they post new pictures.
Jonathan is overprotective of his daughter. Cassandra looks a lot like his late wife.
Just wanted to get a rough idea out there. Since our characters will be dying a lot I thought it would be good to have some built-in replacements. If it's OK, and I get to play, I want to use Jonathan's sons and eventually daughter to continue once he is driven mad/killed. Since this is often how Lovecraft wrote his stories where a descendant will unearth their father/mother/great uncle's crazy writings or go to help or investigate a family member that went mad.
Age: 29
Profession: Dominatrix
Backstory:
Her rebellious streak had not faded by the time she entered college. She wanted to be financially independent, not so reliant on her parents, so she went job hunting. She had a few crappy, boring jobs that didn't pay enough, but then something serendipitous occurred. A friend of hers, Tracy Danfield, suggested domination as a line of work, which piqued her interest. Tracy had some connections and pulled some strings, and Erin found it to be a fantastic fit. Not only was the money good, but she really began to love the work. It tugged at something inside her, and she knew this was more than just a job.
Now, in the present, she has blossomed as a professional domme and she makes quite a comfortable living. She graduated from her college with a BA in literature, English, and the humanities, and she returned later to earn her Master's. She moved past her rebellious phase years ago, and she no longer employs atheism as a weapon against her parents. She's more of an agnostic now, unwilling to commit to any particular belief without studying the matter further (which she just never seems to have time to get around to). Her relationship with her parents improved considerably before her father's passing. Her mother still lives and they talk about once a week. Tracy Danfield has become her best friend, and Erin has taken a lover named Alam Ibrahim.
For hooks, if none of the stuff in her backstory is useful her involvement could always come through one of her clients.
Michael Mooney
Age: 25
Occupation: Combat Medic
Background:
He has recently returned to his parents house in Southern Maine after his latest tour, he is finally questioning whether or not he should hang up his combat kit and return to his career as an EMT.
I can flesh out more details if that's necessary, I am not sure how much you are looking for.
Will get a character up soon.
Edit: Here he is:
Name: Marcus Mooney
Age: 32
Occupation: Reporter/Pundit:
Marcus has always been dedicated to the truth. Those fights, that started in grade school, but went on throughout high school? They all started from the lies of others, that concerned others. "James is an alcoholic!" Punch. "Martha's totally pregnant, what a slut!" Smack. Marcus could not abide by that. Call him old-fashioned. Not only for that, but because he thought that trait of his, along with his will and perseverance, would make him a perfect fit as a reporter later in life.
He was partially right. His burning desire for the truth, and his methods of obtaining it(not always legally), sent his star rising at the local suburb paper. Then the Chicago Tribune. Finally, he was noticed by CNN, and recruited to become one of their "talking heads." But by that point in his life, something had happened to Marcus.
That indomitable will that helped get him that far had vanished. His job now was talking about inane drivel that people considered to be news half the time, and arguing with pundits of a marginally different distinction the other half. These people wouldn't know real news if it jumped up and bit them in the face, he thinks to himself daily. Sure, being a "reporter" for the most popular news network in America means that he had some pull, and he still had a few connections left from his glory days. But to get to this seat of what some would consider power, he used up most of his inner strength, and now that he is finally in a position of comfort, he doesn't want to leave.
Which, considering the impending events, is just bad luck for him...
Chicago Megagame group
Watch me struggle to learn streaming! Point and laugh!
Will create a character as soon as I can.
Talk about coincidence. Good thing Mooney is like the Irish equivalent of Smith!
hee hee
Chicago Megagame group
Watch me struggle to learn streaming! Point and laugh!
That's awesome.
It was pretty much a blast, and none of our characters died (not for lack of trying. A very lucky roll saved all our lives, and then a series of very lucky rolls saved one character.)
It's a shame you'll have to put this on hold. I'd like to have tried my hand at rolling up a character for myself, instead of using a premade one.
One of the major issues that came up in the game we were playing was language. A lot of this stuff tends to happen at the far, far fringes of globalized society, and I'd say that the majority of checks we were making were the few of us with scores of maybe 20-35 in some remote African language trying to translate the words of panicked tribal villagers.
Also, the prerolled characters were much less diverse than the cast I see submitted so far, if that means anything. If I recall, all but one of the characters (the "wacky" choice - a professional debunker a-la the Masked Magician) had a career for some agency of the US federal government, and certainly none were younger than 29 or 30. It was emphasized to us that this was very much an undercover continuation of the old agency, our handler was a 60-something old guard Delta Green, and we were tapped for this because of skills we possessed and past experiences with and a willingness to face the unknown.