Post Script 4 - The Blue Flu

Unpacking Operation Winter Strain

Published by arrangement with the Delta Green Partnership. The intellectual property known as Delta Green is a trademark and copyright owned by the Delta Green Partnership, who has licensed its use here. The contents of this document are ©SolumProtocol, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.

thumbnail Photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash¹

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Winter Strain marks a bit of a turning point for many reasons. It was significantly longer for the other Ops for a start, clocking in at around 37K words for the initial run through, before editing. I feel like I got to see the best of Mythic here, with so many twists and turns that it kept me guessing while still keeping the narrative mostly at the center, but I also found myself struggling to remain on target at times. There was a part around halfway where I knew the church was the place to go, but I needed to make sure. What if doing research discovers something else? How much prep is too much or too little, when you’re both the player and the GM? I have no idea to be honest. That is part of what makes it so much fun. Let’s jump into some of the mechanics before getting into the breakdown of the story and my influences for this Op.

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Mechanics - Adaption to Violence

I touched on this at the end of Chapter 2, but Kat is now adapted to violence. This lifts a small burden from me as the player/gm, because now I don’t have to roll Sanity for Violence, she just automatically succeeds. An important distinction here is that she is NOT immune to sanity damage from violence. Extreme acts of violence, such as murdering an innocent person or witness something particularly gruesome would still cause Sanity damage, but as she is adapted, it would be the smallest amount, usually 1. This has a number of interesting effects, some mechanical and some in the fiction. She loses some Charisma, and her bonds take a hit. That’s the mechanical cost, which has the potential to be very bad, as you roll a d6 and subtract that. She could have gone from 15 Charisma to 9, destroying at least 2 of her bonds. That would have been very interesting to roleplay², but instead, she lost 2. Still not great, but it could be much worse. I tried to reflect this in the fiction by having her more keen to inflict violence first, rather than previously where she maybe had been more eager to talk her way out of it. I think this gels well with her arc and how I’ve been rolling - Violence has been working very well for her!

Agents can also Adapt to Helplessness. This is represented by losing d6 POW. POW is the Sanity Stat and also dictates how much Willpower you have. Willpower is used for lots of things, but Kat mostly uses it for projecting onto Bonds. Agents can’t become Adapted to the Unnatural³. Adaption is one of the mechanics that I love, it really blends in the Roleplaying and Game experience, and it’s very interesting because it mechanically comes with a mechanical cost, as well as Roleplay/Fiction opportunity!

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Mechanics - Mythic 2e - Second Round

When I played through Kerebos, I was starting fresh. I didn’t track threads or characters from Haruspex or the Baughman Op, so my sheet was clean, which allowed for a greater level of focus. This time though, there was more to keep track of. I only have a few ‘campaign level’ threads, but I had introduced this new character, Jasper Westbrook, in my Home Scene so I knew I wanted him to be the crux of the next mission. That’s where the issue started for me. The one thing I am struggling with is Mission Generation, even from scratch, it’s hard to get a nice, solid hook that resonates enough to build an opening scene from. I ended up rolling on the Rogue Handler tables (Victim - CDC Agent) The Eldritch Horror Book of Random Tables (Man in Tan Jacket following people around) AND on the Mythic random word tables AND THEN I had to tie in the other Delta Green team. It kind of worked, but I want to improve the process somehow. Other than the opening scene, I still greatly enjoyed using Mythic for this one. The Random Events are truly top tier for keeping you on your toes, and keeping the plot moving, even with the extra threads thrown in. One thing I want to improve on is handling PC Positives. They are rare, but like with the PC Negatives, I have a knee jerk reaction - this time for giving weapons or armor. Is it possible that the thugs that were chasing Kat keep old riot gear in the back of their van? Sure - But why weren’t they wearing it? I know plot points have to be a bit muddier playing solo as it is largely improv, but still. Do better Solum!

Another area I want to improve on is Notes. Some of my notes were vague this time around, but I think they start to get better in future entries, in particular for writing down random events. There were some that I wasn’t sure if I forgot, or just didn’t write down what it was, or what it meant. I know that one of the PC positives I gave a bond to Jasper, as Kat realizes that whatever is happening to her has happened to him but I didn’t note down when. I feel like if I had two players riffing well at my table and they both had the same weird eldritch thing going on, I would give them a bond to each other, so it made sense to me at the time.⁴ Overall, I still think Mythic is an excellent tool for Delta Green if you keep your lists organized and try to make the Random Events mostly effect the mission specific threads and NPCs. How did you find it? Let me know!

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Narrative - Inspirations

Moving away from the mechanics for a bit, lets talk about the story! There were a lot of threads at work here, and I would love to know what everyone thinks so far, but for now, let’s talk about the main Inspirations for Winter Strain;

• The Conspiracy Sourcebook for Delta Green - This is the sourcebook for the 1990s setting of Delta Green. It’s kind of like the difference between The Similarion and the Lord of the Rings, or Ironsworn and Starforged - meaning its the same world, but different themes. The 90s setting has some of my favorite factions and NPCs - most notable Agent Nancy. Going into this, I had no plans to introduce Nancy, but when I rolled for the name of the other Handler, I rolled Nathan, which immediately made me think - Oh these guys were in N-Cell together in the 90s. Once the Trench Coat man was friendly, I started to think about who or what they could be, and it all just clicked into place. The 90s sourcebook also helped me key in some details about the Order of Midnight. I’ll for sure run a 90s game one day, there is too many cool concepts to explore to not give it a look.

• Gods Teeth: A campaign for Delta Green - At time of writing, God’s Teeth is one of the only campaigns for Delta Green, the other most notable one being Impossible Landscapes. Both are excellent, but some of the themes and background lore in Gods Teeth really inspired me. I will not be adapting any of the story, and if anyone is interested in it I strongly advise you to read the content warnings; even by the standards of the horror genre it is extremely dark and uncomfortable. To put it simply, what is happening to Kat and Jasper is inspired by Gods Teeth, but it’s too early to say by exactly how much. I want to find out as I play what’s happening in the background. I know that Bast will not be involved though.

• The Mound By Zelia Bishop and HP Lovecraft - I listened to the audiobook version of this in an anthology of Lovecraft’s various collaborations. It was unfamiliar to me in comparison to At the Mountains of Madness or Shadows over Innusmouth, and so I liked the idea of exploring a lesser known aspect of Lovecraftian Lore. The underground Mythos worshiping civilization of N’Kai is buried deep under Oklahoma, so that was the mushroom connection that Nancy was following. It’s a little tenuous, if I was writing this up as a scenario, I would include a lot more clues for that connection, but most of it was done mentally and not included because Kat would have no way of knowing.⁵

• Several Gothic Fiction Books - This one is kind of vague, but my library holds that were coming in while doing this were almost exclusively Gothic horror, with a retelling of The Fall of the House of Usher, What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher and Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia to name the two most memorable. Mushrooms, Mold and Fungi are staples of the Gothic Genre, as well as Lovecraftian Horror, so it was nice to incorporate it in what I hope was a unique way.

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Narrative - What’s happening to Kat?

So this all well and good, but what is happening to Kat? Well, so far, not a lot. Her senses have sharpened, of course, but most of her senses are still in the realm of human capabilities. While I have a few inspirations for exactly what’s happening, some of which I’ve mentioned and some I’m leaving a mystery, I want to rely on Mythic and the course of the narrative guide it. Maybe she’ll die before she ever figures it out, and I can continue the overarching mystery with another character, or maybe we’ll get to dig into a it a bit more. What I Don’t want to happen is for this to become more of a superhero fantasy. Delta Green is about personal horror as much as cosmic horror, and nothing comes without a price. As such I’m noting down a few considerations.

1. No Super Strength - As tempting as it will inevitably be to make Kat do extra damage in combat, give bonus’ to rolls or otherwise make her more deadly in combat, I’m going to try my hardest to avoid it. She’s already a good fighter, I don’t want her getting into a fist fight with a Greater Deep One unless she’s hit 0 Sanity.

2. Everything With a Cost - Currently her sense of smell and sharpened senses are mostly used to add a bit of flavor to scenes. Kat isn’t dumb though, and as a player, I know I’m going to end up using this new sense of smell to help my investigations, especially if I hit a wall in my more mundane leads. Any future abilities Kat may get (I might not give her any, depending on how the story goes) will always have a cost. Sanity or willpower, most likely, but maybe HP or Bond damage depending on the ability. Rituals always have a cost, for example, usually San and WP.

3. Keep it Grounded - This might be a struggle. To be honest, This Delta Green blog is the first thing I’ve written that isn’t some form of Fantasy, be it more typical medieval style, ancient or urban. Keeping it grounded in reality while having my main character gain unnatural abilities is going to be a challenge. I can usually do an ok job of writing characters that feel real (I like to think so anyway haha) but it’s even more of a challenge when Solo-Roleplaying, in my opinion. The longer she survives, the harder I’ll have to fight my inner urge to just give the poor woman a happy ending.

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Narrative - Long Term Threads

Now that I’m 3 missions⁶ in, we are starting to see some over arching campaign threads. How much influence they will have on the story as a whole remains to be seen, but I have split them into Major and Minor Threads below, based mostly on vibes and how likely they are to take center stage moving forward.

MAJOR CAMPAIGN THREADS

• The Order of Midnight - At this point, I think it is fair to say that these are our main antagonist for Kat. If I were writing a novel, I would go back to the prologue and sprinkle some Order breadcrumbs in Baughman’s cabin for the sake of consistency. Lester Roth, Aaron Foster and Karl Lieberman, all members of a cult based out of New York that has been active for a long time. Their sigil is a large, black oil drop on a white background. This is because when I first rolled up some random descriptors, the name I originally chose was Masonic Order of the Midnight Oil⁷. This is a terrible name, and felt awkward to type, and so I changed it the moment it seemed like the would be around for longer. Expect to see more of this cult moving forward.

• What’s happening to Kat? - See above, this will likely come up a lot! As Jasper Westbrook also seems to be affected, I imagine he will also be making an appearance when this Thread is at the forefront. Main Themes in my mind for this are Hunting and Animalistic⁸.

MINOR CAMPAIGN THREADS

• N-Cell - As I have said previously, I love Agent Nancy, and Nolan isn’t going anywhere. I’m not sure how N-Cell will fit into the overarching narrative, if they will be there to support one of the Major threads, or develop into a Major Thread of their own. I could see either working, as Nancy seems to know a bit about what is happening to Kat, and she knew what the Order was. Excited to see more of Nancy in the future.

• Bonds - I’ve been letting the bond aspect take a backseat in the narrative, and I haven’t been detailing it too much in the home scenes, but at this point, her bonds have taken some serious damage. I’ll be diving into her Bonds in a future article, but themes include; Danielle’s mystery assault, Kat’s failing relationship with her Mother and her cousin Markus. Markus is the least established out of her bonds, so I’ll be looking for ways to make him more relevant to the story.

• Kat’s Dad - Again, I’ll go more into this in the future, but I’ve had on her character sheet since Day 1 - ‘Find out what happened to Dad’ and I have done nothing with it. He disappeared before she went to college, and I had it in my head that it was related to the unnatural. I've added it to the Threads list as something that could come up, either during an investigation, or in a home scene. We’ll see. If the narrative gets too bloated, this is one I would just drop, either have it be not unnatural or just Kat stops caring as she loses Sanity.

• The Russian Mob - The Russian Mob pop up several times in Delta Green’s various supplements. I think it is because The ROC’s⁹ are rumored to be led by or involved with former Soviet Era Intelligence assets, which makes for an interesting tie in with the Delta Green Conspiracy. The Russians have their own Delta Green called GRV-8, and some Scenario’s and Sourcebooks flag those assets as working within the ROC’s to secure Mythos artifacts, or act as brokers between Mythos factions. I’m not sure if these will tie in again, especially because their involvement in Winter Strain was entirely from Random Events! But it’s an interesting connection to the Wider DG setting.

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What’s next?

So, Operation Winter Strain is finished, and it was the longest mission by far. I think it was a little bit too long, to be honest. It was enjoyable, but there was a lot of moving parts to keep track of. I’ve tried to curb my enthusiasm for Delta Green in the next Op, but we have two things coming in before then!

1. My next post will be a long overdue Session 0 for Kat. Jumping straight into the story felt right, because I was still getting the hang of who she was as a character, as well as the system, but now feels like a good time to go into more detail. The next article will be “Who is Katherine Jones?” and will include a character sheet, small character history and a summary of her bonds and skills. I’m excited to write it up!

2. Following on from that we have the first, longer form Home Scene. Moving forward, I really want to have these Home scenes go into more detail to try to highlight just how much of an effect this Delta Green Lifestyle is having on Kat. It’s also a good opportunity to explore some of the Campaign Threads and flesh out more of her life outside of work.

Once these two are done, we will be moving into the next Operation. I will still be using Mythic 2e alongside some other Random Tables I am slowly gathering. The main difference is the Hook. I have an idea for what I want the initial hook to be, it’s looking into a thread that I’ve had on the side since the Prologue. I’ll roll up some Yes/No questions, but this will be my attempt to have a smaller, more contained narrative. I’m going to try (emphasize on try) to think outside the box moving forward. Kat has been shooting and burning her way out of problems, which is fun to play, but the wonderful thing about Delta Green as a setting is that there is only so many things you can shoot and burn your way out of. Sometimes you have to cut a deal, or cut and run, or knock it up the chain of command, and it would be nice to explore that a bit more moving forward.

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I hope you enjoyed this break down of Operation Winter Strain. How did you find the Op? Anything you loved or hate? Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading! Next Chapter will be Kat’s Home Scene.

1. This is how Imagine the Monster would have looked under the microscope.

2. I would have had to take a break though, to cope with the shock haha

3. Technically hitting 0 Sanity is considered your Agent ‘Adapting’ to the Unnatural. The mechanical cost is that you don’t play that character anymore because they are insane.

4. Also I like Jasper and what him to show up again haha.

5. Also not sure if she would care haha, especially given her new shoot and burn mentality.

6. 4 if you include the prologue!

7. My background lore for them was that they were the first order of masons in New York, back when it was New Amsterdam, and they would often work through the night ‘Burning the Midnight Oil’. I didn’t include it because I don’t really like it for them anymore.

8. Specifically Hunting the Unnatural, I think, given what’s happened so far.

9. ROC = Russian Organized Crime. I’ve also seen ‘Bratva’ used, meaning Brotherhood, or OPG (Organizovannaya Prestupnaya Gruppa) which translates to Organized Crime Group.