How to create an opening scene in Delta Green

SGB: The Opening Scene. A Step by Step breakdown of an opening Solo Scene for Delta Green

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Thumbnail Photo by Pramod Tiwari from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/night-dark-moon-visual-art-13594334/

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The Opening of a Solo Adventure is either the easiest or the hardest part of getting started, depending on the system and your personal preference. For most open world, Fantasy adventure games, it’s usually as simple as rolling a hook and throwing your PC into the meat of the mechanics, but for investigative games or campaigns, there is often a pressure to get it right. Hopefully, this article can help you out if you’re looking for somewhere to start your own Delta Green mission.¹ Welcome to another entry in Solum’s Green Box!

Where to Start?

If you’ve read my write ups, you’ll know I usually start my missions at a diner or board room for a full briefing, in-keeping with the opening scenes of my favorite scenario’s and podcasts, but that’s more of a ‘Solo Session 0’ to keep the narrative moving, so to speak. For your first scene, if you’ve got everything together, there is a good chance you want to, you know, play the game. Starting In Media Reis is a common Solo tool, getting you right into the action without having to know all or any of the answers upfront. Rather than starting with a conversation with your Handler or Case Officer, this example is going to skip over the introduction part and get straight to the point.

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Room 303, 1st Street - The Scene of the Crime

Players will have to investigate some form of residence in their career as a Delta Green Agent, either to interview a witness, get background on a suspect or because there is a suspicious dead body found in the entryway. We are going to start as we mean to go on my having a dead body in this apartment with our player Character, Agent Nolan, on the threshold as we start the scene. Now, we need a to know a few things before we start. Let’s list the bare bones first.

Setting: 90s - Conspiracy Era.

Player Character: Agent Nolan, Medical Background with Federal Agent profession.

Alone or part of a Team? Currently alone, but is part of N-Cell.

Hook?

Here we have our player character and setting established, which already helps us to start thinking about what could be involved in this first scene. An apartment in the 90s looks different than one in modern day, and with Agent Nolan currently alone, he can’t call for back up on his cellphone like a modern agent can. These can all be fleshed out more or less as you desire, but following the ‘Jump Straight In’ Mindset, we are going to move on to our initial hook - Why is Nolan here? I’m going to use Rogue Handler to get the initial hook. Following my own advice from my How To Play Delta Green Solo article, I’m going to choose aspects of the hook, rather than rolling, to ensure I’m not throwing myself too far into the deep end.

What does the PC Know? - The Victim (Chosen)

Victim - (Rolled) - US Navy Hospital Corps

I chose the Victim as Agent Nolan has medical skills, and so it makes sense to me that part of his responsibility at the scene will be to identify the cause of death and if there is something at the scene that needs to be covered up. As the victim is a member of the US Navy, that offers us a few interesting complications or opportunities for things moving forward, such as Agent Nolan’s cover or his reason for being there. Research is an optional, but fun, part of Solo-play and it can be nice to take a break from the narrative to do some IRL research around the ins and outs of your current thread. For now, let’s keep the scene moving.

Why is Delta Green Involved?

Here we have the crux of the matter and one of the harder parts of setting up an opening scene. We have a dead Navy doctor/medical personnel in an apartment building, but what has caused this to show up on Delta Green’s radar? There are a few approaches you can take here. You could roll on sparks tables or ask some Yes/No questions to get some of the weird stuff of the case up front, but this could take some time and isn’t always necessary. One thing to always keep in mind is this; Delta Green is an extremely compartmentalized conspiracy. They do not file reports, they do not hold evidence to see if it is useful in a later case and they do not share information unless absolutely necessary. It is perfectly within the realm of DG lore that Agent Nolan’s case officer has sent him an address and a name on a piece of paper and told him ‘Good Luck, Page me if you need back up!” This is useful for us as Solo Players because it means we can avoid the Yes/No spiral as we try to figure out why we are here and just trust that it will become apparent through play. If, like me, you need it to make sense retroactively, remember that Delta Green has analysts and friendlies everywhere, and they send agents out to investigate minor, possibly unrelated cases. The lack of intel is a feature, not a bug!

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Our Opening Scene location. Stock photos can be good to spark a vision of the scene, rather than rolling on tables. Photo by bilal andırın: https://www.pexels.com/photo/urban-residential-building-at-night-14959322/

So, we are currently outside an apartment building, we have our character, and we have our hook. Now is a great time to just dive in. For this opening scene, I am going to use the modified Luck Roll Oracle outlined in Rogue Handler to keep things simple, but you can use pretty much any Oracle that you are comfortable with. I enjoy Mythic because of the Random Events and long lists of Spark Words, but if you have something you know works, use it instead. While it is nice to use system specific oracles because there is usually attention paid to mechanics and tone, I am a big believer in using what works for you rather than trying to force a system that doesn’t click, even if it is thematically more aligned. As this is our first scene, I will not be using more advanced tools, such as clocks or a progress track for now. Let us start with a simple question.

Are the police here? - 82 - No

So, we’ve likely beaten the police here, which is good as that means there is no one guarding the scene. Why does Delta Green know about this body before the cops? The only reason I can think of is that we have a Friendly² either in the building, or in the Local PD. So lets ask!

Is there a Friendly in the Local PD? 59 - No

Our Friendly is likely in the building and is keeping everything hush hush for the group until Nolan can do a sweep.³ In that case, let’s assume Nolan has the room number and moves into the building and meets the contact at the door. It is up to personal preference how much detail you want this friendly to have up front. Do you want this NPC to be involved or do you want to get to the investigation? For now, I am going to let the Oracle decide.

Does the Friendly know anything useful? - 60 - No

If I was writing this up long form, I might not even give this NPC a name. They don’t know anything, they’ve done their job, let’s move onto the investigation and let this NPC go to bed or return to their family. We can assume that the door is either open or we have a key as we know there is a body in the room. Nolan goes into the apartment, and what does he see? I’m going to keep this simple and say that this is a 1 bedroom apartment with combined living area and kitchen.⁴ Let’s do some rolls to see what the scene looks like. I’m going to use the tables from Rogue Handler to get a general sense of the scene.

Sights - Ethnic masks

Sounds - Footsteps from outside

Smells - Rotten Eggs

In all honesty, this doesn’t summon up too much for me. I could tie the masks in to the Victim’s Navy background, and so I would assume they have some art from their travels. Footsteps from outside I can put down to thin walls and then we have Rotten Eggs. I’m going to zoom out on the egg smell, so rather than a specific stink of Rotten Eggs, it’s more of a background, old food smell. Perhaps the Victim has been dead for longer than we assumed?⁵ These clues don’t have to mean anything right now, but the might contextualize or add to a clue we get later.

Can I see the body? 01 - Yes

In my own house rules for Delta Green, this would be an extreme yes, due to 01 being a critical for skill checks in the DG rules. So let’s assume the body is front and center, in the hallway leading to the rest of the apartment. Nolan has a Medicine of 70%, which is high enough that I will not be rolling the skill and will roll my questions safe in the knowledge that Nolan is an expert and he will not miss any pertinent information.

From my position in the door, is there evidence of violence? 93 - No

I would take this to mean that there is no blood, no broken furniture, nothing to indicate a struggle. Let’s have Nolan move up and investigate closer.

Is there a visible cause of death? +20% - 26

I gave this a +20% because I’m still thinking about why Agent Nolan, in particular, is here. I could ask a number of follow up questions here, such as “Has this person been stabbed, were they positioned ect ect.” But as we know that there is a visible cause of death, let’s ask an Open Question, and use The Descriptor Spark table from Mythic.

How did they die? ‘Gracefully Boring’

Interesting. My thought for this is a quick, efficient death. Gracefully indicates perhaps the act of an expert, so let’s say there are no defensive wounds. Boring would double down on that, so something quick, like a swift neck break with a slight look of surprise on the victim’s face. This is a dead body killed with efficient violence, so this will trigger a Sanity Check.

Sanity - 52/65 - Success.

This is a body, and Nolan is a medical professional. This would have been a 0/1, as apart from the broken neck, there isn’t anything too disturbing, at least, no to a Delta Green Agent. This is our first look at our victim, so let’s flesh out who they are exactly. There are a few tools you can use to generate NPCs, such as UNE, or a deck of NPC’s, or even just making it up, but I am a sucker for keeping things random, so I’ll roll quickly to generate a quick description

Male? 26 - Yes

Middle Age? 29 Yes

White? 35 Yes

Name (Mythic Name Table) - KR and VE

This is one of the reasons I don’t use Mythic’s name tables as much and prefer to use a d100 name table from one The Book of Random Tables, because now all I can think of is Kraven the Hunter from Spiderman. Still, that in and of itself is inspiration. Instead of rolling on the descriptor table, let’s say that this man is a tall, dark haired and muscular man in his middle years, easily capable of defending himself. We will call him Kevin Richards, so that all of the letters are used, although not in the correct order. We know our victim was killed, likely without his knowledge, by somebody or something pretty strong. I think that’s enough to warrant our next question, as per the Rogue Handler’s guide.

Is this fact unnatural? -40% 57 No.

This is the opening scene, so this question is at a-40%, decreasing by 10% with every subsequent scene you ask this question in. I love this for getting started, because it takes a load of of me to think of everything through the lens of the unnatural. I haven’t used this as much in my normal Mythic adventure, because the Random Events usually throws something unnatural at me before I have the opportunity to ask the question.⁶ Just because there is nothing overtly unnatural in this death doesn’t mean it wasn’t caused by an unnatural force. If the narrative points you towards a multilimbed, monstrous home invader later, that’s great! All this check means is that there is nothing overtly wrong with the corpse that we can notice. Now that we’ve identified cause of death, let’s take another look at the body.

Is there any tracible DNA on the body? -20% 100 - Extreme No⁷

There’s the 100, it’s good to get it out of the way early.⁸ 100 is a double 0, so it is an extreme no, rather than just a base line negative. There are lots of ways to handle extreme Yes/Nos, but I usually apply it to one aspect of the question. For this, I would rule that there is nothing to be found on the body at all. Alternatively, we could focus on the DNA aspect, and have the house be completely clean of anything tracible. I’m going to rule that the Extreme No indicates the body is clear of evidence. Apart from the wound, there is nothing of note. Let’s move on to the rest of the apartment.

Is there any sign of a forced entry? 100 - Extreme No

Well that’s statistically unlikely, but hey. If dice weren’t little shits, Table Top games wouldn’t be so fun. For the Extreme No here, I would rule that there is no sign of an intruder at all. Nothing seems to be disturbed, the windows are latched, the door was locked when we came in. My mind goes two ways here. Either it is an unnatural, incorporeal foe, or there is somebody/something still in the room with us. Let’s ask a quick -40% question to see.

Is there anything unnatural about that fact? -40% 52 No

At this point, you have to go with your gut. This is a perfect opportunity to put some action into the scene, if that’s what you are looking for. But, we know that there is no evidence of someone being here. So Instead of a home invader, I’m going to look back at some of our Scene setting prompts.

Is there anything noticeable about the art in the apartment? +20% 65 Yes

I added 20% here, because the 2 Extreme Nos had me stumped. If using a basic oracle, I think it’s ok to add advantages here and there, as long as you don’t fall into the trap of adding a bonus 20% to every question you ask. In this case, it was a good thing I did, because I am rolling high today.

Open Question - What is notable about the art? ‘Create Power’

Nolan only has the base in Occult at 10%, so this wouldn’t be anything overtly Occult. I would interpret this as a lot of militaristic and violent art. Let’s do a skill check just to make sure there isn’t anything more.

Occult - 18/10 Failure

So close! We’ll make a check next to our Occult skill but leave it there. A few more questions

Is anything missing? 91 No

Has anything been moved? 63 No

Is there anything Unnatural about the art? -40% 71 No

So, the dice indicate that there isn’t anything directly tying the art to the crime, so no evil paintings.⁹I would make a note of the art and try to tie it in later as it was deemed ‘notable’ by the oracle without being tied to the current thread. This has been a lot of dead ends, and right now, we don’t have any leads or anywhere to go after this, short of questioning everyone the victim had ever interacted with. As such, we are going to add a 20% bonus to our next few questions.¹⁰

Does the victim have a journal? +20% 9 Yes

Is there anything else of note in the room? +20% 8 Yes

In Mythic, those would be Extreme Yes’ but we are just using our basic oracle, so we have a couple of normal leads. I’m going to say Nolan is aware of the amount of time he’s spent here so he scoops up the journal to review later and we’ll ask one more Open Question to see what else there is of note.

Open Question - ‘Trust Innocent’

A small picture on the fridge, a stick figure family. Written in crayon along the bottom. “I love daddy.” A child’s drawing, the victim had the Trust of an Innocent child, despite their garish and violent taste in art. Let’s close out with one more question.

Is there anything unnatural about the last fact? -40% 87 No

Worth a shot. I thought maybe there was a monster in the picture, but it’s just a nice drawing from the Victims daughter. We will end the scene with Nolan leaving the apartment with the picture and the journal.

Bookkeeping

It always good to end each scene with a small summary of what you’ve found, and what you can act upon. I usually have a list of Threads/Leads that I tick off or scratch out as the investigation goes on. It would look like this.

Investigate Crime Scene

Identify Cause of Death

Read Journal for clues

Investigate Daughter/Family Connection

Who is Kevin Richards?

Honestly, not a lot to go on, but it’s early days. In the next scene, the Unnatural question is asked at a -30%, so Nolan may have more luck finding the connection while studying the journal. Or maybe he wants to call his handler and start asking some questions, or getting more of a profile on who this Victim is, and why the Group is interested. For now though, we end our scene here.

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I hope you enjoyed this breakdown of an Opening scene, it was a lot of fun to write. Even while writing something informative, the dice like to play games with me! Let me know what you thought about this one and if there are other types of scenes you would benefit from having broke down like this. Thanks for reading!

1. Hopefully, some of these tips will be useful for any investigative horror game, but I have the most experience with Delta Green.

2. A Friendly is a Delta Green contact with enough knowledge of the unnatural to know who to report weird stuff too, without knowing about the wider conspiracy.

3. When playing, you’re instincts are very important. You’re first thought could be different from mine, and your second and third thoughts too, so try to ask questions you genuinely think are pertinent. Maybe you can think of a whole host of reasons why the cops aren’t here yet, and maybe you can only think of 1.

4. Alternatively, you could roll to generate the number of rooms using a d4 or d6 and then roll on descriptor tables for each room as you enter, but its the first scene, so let’s keep it simple.

5. I use these tables sparingly because I have a tendency to zoom in on them and try to make them relevant. It is perfectly fine to ignore anything that jars with the current scene.

6. A boon and a curse! But also one of the main reasons I love Mythic.

7. The -20% here is due to the Gracefully Boring open answer. Because it smacks of the work of a professional, it seemed unlikely to me that there would be DNA evidence.

8. You will roll 100 far more often than statically likely. Or at least, it will fell that way

9. Not Yet, anyway!

10. Completely unnecessarily, as it turns out.