The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Not long ago I was involved in a discussion that asked the question, 'Is Delta Green horror?' I think Project RAINBOW shows that it can be. This one is not Glocks and cell phones.

The text on the back states that the contents include:

"The secrets of the Tillinghast Resonator - what happened to the USS Eldridge - what's still happening to the USS Eldridge - how the Office of Naval Intelligence took on Majestic-12 and won - why March Technologies always has the latest miltech - game mechanics for T-Radiation and N-Space - a mind-blowing time travel scenario - and more."

Oh yes. Much, much more.

All characters presented include full stats. Some of the things you might see and interact with inside the T-field are given stats. It is hoped that your players will never see or interact with these things, since the prospects of them surviving the encounter are not very good. But if they don't get the hints or see the clues and [redacted] so they end up [redacted], you will be able to let them play out their last moments with some gruesome effects. The new devices are described, and their behaviors are given game mechanics.

There is a sidebar entitled 'What Majestic Does Not Understand....' There is a whole new threat to existence as we know it, and the clock is ticking. Luckily, people closer to the Event are working on it and adding a new definition to the term proactive.

There is a scenario seed in a Green Box. An attribute of Green Boxes that is often forgotten when topping off the ammo supply.

There is a sidebar with an addition to DG Tradecraft: Telephone Communications. Wow. Double-plus Wow. I'll never look at a phone card the same way. Wow. Hide in plain sight, even on the billing. Wow. And I am kicking myself so hard right now...

"How the Office of Naval Intelligence took on Majestic-12 and won." Another piece is on the board. It's from the back row. They are really good and have the daylight power that comes from being official. This volume didn't have the space to fully cover the significance of this, but the singular thing they did that got them into this volume, speaks volumes. It's a whole new ballgame.

There's a guy who was making flying saucers without any extraterrestrial help.

The USS Eldridge is still around; it's under heavy guard. You wouldn't want to go aboard. I don't think the DG universe will be done with the USS Eldridge any time soon.

T-Radiation and its effects could easily make PCs as jumpy as nudists at an Ebola outbreak. It leaps from people to objects to people leaving anomalies and missing evidence and locked room mysteries and I'm sorry but anything more would be telling.

But here it is folks. Pay very close attention. After reading Project RAINBOW twice, while preparing to write this, I relaxed and just thought about T-Radiation and the various ways it could be used in scenarios, the plot twists and eerie mysteries it would create. I think the question of whether or not Delta Green can be horror has been answered. Yes, it certainly can.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Bullets won't stop it, calling in Rainbow Six won't help. I'm not sure about nukes, but I suspect it would be much like nuking Cthulhu, except it doesn't have to reassemble to doom us all. If there could be T-Radiated fallout particles, and there aren't many reasons to suppose there could not, we would be in deep doodoo.

And remember somewhere the clock is ticking.

There is a new NPC, John Gates, who doesn't have any immediate utility. He could be a way to make Delta Green aware of the Event and the USS Eldridge and a few other interesting things. He could be discovered to be an "X-File" by a journalist or a private investigator and used as a way to bring a new Friendly into the fold. He could be a red herring that no one will mind chasing when they find out he's not... but that would be telling.

He could be a new Friendly. He could make a great addition to A Cell. I'm already integrating him into any future DG fiction I write.

I liked him a lot.

John Gates and the USS Eldridge are examples of something that Pagan does very well. Writing sourcebooks has the same problem as writing episodic television or comic books. You have to create a setting and characters and organizations to populate it that are interesting and continue to be interesting and can have adventures but the big issues never really get resolved so much as evolve and bring in new elements. Stephen Alzis, Tiger Transit, Club Apocalypse, The Fate, Whole Earth Enterprises, the Karotechia - the list goes on.

Does anyone else remember back when everyone pretty much dismissed the Karotechia as a couple of old farts in the Brazilian jungle that had some influence on skinheads? One commando raid and they would be over with.

There is a new scenario, 'Artifact Zero', a sly title that I just 'got' a few minutes ago. I was about to repeat my Ebola analogy when it struck me: Patient Zero. Doh!

Here is the intro:

"'Artifact Zero' is a complex scenario which introduces a group of three to six Delta Green agents to the deadly secrets of Project RAINBOW and the Tillinghast Resonator. Only experienced Keepers should attempt to run it. It deals with the rather complex issues of time travel in the most direct sense, and the investigators, if they are not careful, can easily end up becoming the first human beings ever to exist on the planet Earth."

Yeah, like he said. I would have everyone roll up two PCs, one for the probably doomed first team that gives the backup team some useful safety tips through example.

But I want to play it.

Imagine a hi tech, tome- and cultist- and GOO-free scenario without a hint of the 'supernatural' that evokes the same sort of confusion, breakdown of cause and effect, and surreal fear as a King in Yellow scenario such as 'The Night Floors'.

People will probably die. The danger and the way it is dangerous is not intuitive.

But that first team will have some great moments before they [redacted]. The idea presented in the scenario of having a computer reconstruction of the [redacted] and being there when the results are displayed so they can look at the screen and see [redacted] was worth the price of admission. Oh man, I can't wait to see their faces. And then they have to play on until finally, inevitably, they [redacted]. And by then, the rest of the team won't want to get near them.

They would be willing to go anywhere or to anyone for help. That option is discussed.

The book is 5.5in (13.97cm) wide, 8.5in (21.59cm) tall, and .75in (1.9cm) thick. The spine is glued. The paper is crisp and solid, the pages are framed by designs and there are 152 of them. The page I ate was too bland for my tastes. It was the Bibliography, which reads better than it's tastes and included references to other Delta Green books, "A Brief History of Time', books on the Philadelphia Experiment and parallel universes and unsolved mysteries and references for most of the organizations or historical occurrences in the book.

Two entries were unexpected and intriguing: 'Replay' by Ken Grimwood and 'Slaughterhouse Five' by Kurt Vonnegut, two of my favorite books.

There is no index. It would have been nice, I wondered why there wasn't one. I was using the TOC for looking things up, and since it is broken into plenty of small bits and organized in a semi-outline fashion, it was doing the job. But an index would have been nice for fine tuning my searching.

The book can only be sold through mail order due to contractual obligations.

There are no internal illustrations other than a map for the scenario because of the printing process that keeps a small press run affordable.

There are no blank pages whatsoever.

I'm assuming that the number of pages was also an issue for the cost of the press run, and compromises had to be made.

There was another question that came up when discussing whether or not Delta Green was horror, and that was whether or not Delta Green was 'Lovecraftian'. The missing index gave me an answer in an unexpected way. While reading, sometimes I would find myself going back a few pages and reading a few paragraphs over carefully to double-check some sequence of events. Did I miss something? Often, I found a question that would start a whole cascade of new questions and spewing scenario seeds.

Here's one: the USS Eldridge is the quintessential plague ship. It was taken from where it came from and taken all the way to where it is. How? There's a scenario waiting to be written, but you would have to be ONI or Majestic-12 characters to play it. Wouldn't that be interesting?

While flipping back and forth and mumbling to myself, I realized that I was turning into a Lovecraft character, poring over a tome.

I will be using things from it for a long time. It is a unique thing and doesn't lend itself to easy categorization and doesn't fit any of the standard templates for review. Change the templates, they leave out the best parts and don't ask the right questions.

Your mileage may vary drastically from mine. It might be because you are still using gasoline. This is one of those new carburetors that use tap water.

I liked it a lot.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Project: RAINBOW
Author: Dennis Detwiller Category: game Company/Publisher: Pagan Publishing Line: Delta Green Page count: 152 ISBN: 1-887797-21-1 SKU: PAG2106 Capsule Review by Mark McFadden on 05/16/00. Genre tags: Science_fiction Modern_day Horror Espionage Conspiracy	Not long ago I was involved in a discussion that asked the question, 'Is Delta Green horror?' I think Project RAINBOW shows that it can be. This one is not Glocks and cell phones. The text on the back states that the contents include: "The secrets of the Tillinghast Resonator - what happened to the USS Eldridge - what's still happening to the USS Eldridge - how the Office of Naval Intelligence took on Majestic-12 and won - why March Technologies always has the latest miltech - game mechanics for T-Radiation and N-Space - a mind-blowing time travel scenario - and more." Oh yes. Much, much more. All characters presented include full stats. Some of the things you might see and interact with inside the T-field are given stats. It is hoped that your players will never see or interact with these things, since the prospects of them surviving the encounter are not very good. But if they don't get the hints or see the clues and [redacted] so they end up [redacted], you will be able to let them play out their last moments with some gruesome effects. The new devices are described, and their behaviors are given game mechanics. There is a sidebar entitled 'What Majestic Does Not Understand....' There is a whole new threat to existence as we know it, and the clock is ticking. Luckily, people closer to the Event are working on it and adding a new definition to the term proactive. There is a scenario seed in a Green Box. An attribute of Green Boxes that is often forgotten when topping off the ammo supply. There is a sidebar with an addition to DG Tradecraft: Telephone Communications. Wow. Double-plus Wow. I'll never look at a phone card the same way. Wow. Hide in plain sight, even on the billing. Wow. And I am kicking myself so hard right now... "How the Office of Naval Intelligence took on Majestic-12 and won." Another piece is on the board. It's from the back row. They are really good and have the daylight power that comes from being official. This volume didn't have the space to fully cover the significance of this, but the singular thing they did that got them into this volume, speaks volumes. It's a whole new ballgame. There's a guy who was making flying saucers without any extraterrestrial help. The USS Eldridge is still around; it's under heavy guard. You wouldn't want to go aboard. I don't think the DG universe will be done with the USS Eldridge any time soon. T-Radiation and its effects could easily make PCs as jumpy as nudists at an Ebola outbreak. It leaps from people to objects to people leaving anomalies and missing evidence and locked room mysteries and I'm sorry but anything more would be telling. But here it is folks. Pay very close attention. After reading Project RAINBOW twice, while preparing to write this, I relaxed and just thought about T-Radiation and the various ways it could be used in scenarios, the plot twists and eerie mysteries it would create. I think the question of whether or not Delta Green can be horror has been answered. Yes, it certainly can. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Bullets won't stop it, calling in Rainbow Six won't help. I'm not sure about nukes, but I suspect it would be much like nuking Cthulhu, except it doesn't have to reassemble to doom us all. If there could be T-Radiated fallout particles, and there aren't many reasons to suppose there could not, we would be in deep doodoo. And remember somewhere the clock is ticking. There is a new NPC, John Gates, who doesn't have any immediate utility. He could be a way to make Delta Green aware of the Event and the USS Eldridge and a few other interesting things. He could be discovered to be an "X-File" by a journalist or a private investigator and used as a way to bring a new Friendly into the fold. He could be a red herring that no one will mind chasing when they find out he's not... but that would be telling. He could be a new Friendly. He could make a great addition to A Cell. I'm already integrating him into any future DG fiction I write. I liked him a lot. John Gates and the USS Eldridge are examples of something that Pagan does very well. Writing sourcebooks has the same problem as writing episodic television or comic books. You have to create a setting and characters and organizations to populate it that are interesting and continue to be interesting and can have adventures but the big issues never really get resolved so much as evolve and bring in new elements. Stephen Alzis, Tiger Transit, Club Apocalypse, The Fate, Whole Earth Enterprises, the Karotechia - the list goes on. Does anyone else remember back when everyone pretty much dismissed the Karotechia as a couple of old farts in the Brazilian jungle that had some influence on skinheads? One commando raid and they would be over with. There is a new scenario, 'Artifact Zero', a sly title that I just 'got' a few minutes ago. I was about to repeat my Ebola analogy when it struck me: Patient Zero. Doh! Here is the intro: "'Artifact Zero' is a complex scenario which introduces a group of three to six Delta Green agents to the deadly secrets of Project RAINBOW and the Tillinghast Resonator. Only experienced Keepers should attempt to run it. It deals with the rather complex issues of time travel in the most direct sense, and the investigators, if they are not careful, can easily end up becoming the first human beings ever to exist on the planet Earth." Yeah, like he said. I would have everyone roll up two PCs, one for the probably doomed first team that gives the backup team some useful safety tips through example. But I want to play it. Imagine a hi tech, tome- and cultist- and GOO-free scenario without a hint of the 'supernatural' that evokes the same sort of confusion, breakdown of cause and effect, and surreal fear as a King in Yellow scenario such as 'The Night Floors'. People will probably die. The danger and the way it is dangerous is not intuitive. But that first team will have some great moments before they [redacted]. The idea presented in the scenario of having a computer reconstruction of the [redacted] and being there when the results are displayed so they can look at the screen and see [redacted] was worth the price of admission. Oh man, I can't wait to see their faces. And then they have to play on until finally, inevitably, they [redacted]. And by then, the rest of the team won't want to get near them. They would be willing to go anywhere or to anyone for help. That option is discussed. The book is 5.5in (13.97cm) wide, 8.5in (21.59cm) tall, and .75in (1.9cm) thick. The spine is glued. The paper is crisp and solid, the pages are framed by designs and there are 152 of them. The page I ate was too bland for my tastes. It was the Bibliography, which reads better than it's tastes and included references to other Delta Green books, "A Brief History of Time', books on the Philadelphia Experiment and parallel universes and unsolved mysteries and references for most of the organizations or historical occurrences in the book. Two entries were unexpected and intriguing: 'Replay' by Ken Grimwood and 'Slaughterhouse Five' by Kurt Vonnegut, two of my favorite books. There is no index. It would have been nice, I wondered why there wasn't one. I was using the TOC for looking things up, and since it is broken into plenty of small bits and organized in a semi-outline fashion, it was doing the job. But an index would have been nice for fine tuning my searching. The book can only be sold through mail order due to contractual obligations. There are no internal illustrations other than a map for the scenario because of the printing process that keeps a small press run affordable. There are no blank pages whatsoever. I'm assuming that the number of pages was also an issue for the cost of the press run, and compromises had to be made. There was another question that came up when discussing whether or not Delta Green was horror, and that was whether or not Delta Green was 'Lovecraftian'. The missing index gave me an answer in an unexpected way. While reading, sometimes I would find myself going back a few pages and reading a few paragraphs over carefully to double-check some sequence of events. Did I miss something? Often, I found a question that would start a whole cascade of new questions and spewing scenario seeds. Here's one: the USS Eldridge is the quintessential plague ship. It was taken from where it came from and taken all the way to where it is. How? There's a scenario waiting to be written, but you would have to be ONI or Majestic-12 characters to play it. Wouldn't that be interesting? While flipping back and forth and mumbling to myself, I realized that I was turning into a Lovecraft character, poring over a tome. I will be using things from it for a long time. It is a unique thing and doesn't lend itself to easy categorization and doesn't fit any of the standard templates for review. Change the templates, they leave out the best parts and don't ask the right questions. Your mileage may vary drastically from mine. It might be because you are still using gasoline. This is one of those new carburetors that use tap water. I liked it a lot. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Project: RAINBOW