Unspeakable! Special Presentation: The Unspeakable Oath and the Delta Green RPG

At GenCon on Thursday night, August 5, 2011, we held a panel discussion on The Unspeakable Oath and Delta Green. First we talked about our plans for the Oath. Then we talked about launching Delta Green as its own roleplaying game. Here you can listen to the whole thing.

Shane Ivey (that’s me), Greg Stolze, Kenneth Hite and Monte Cook were there from the beginning. Adam Scott Glancy joined in later.

Please forgive the horrible droning background noises. There was an event in the next room where they were greatly enjoying having a microphone and speakers. Special thanks to Ross Payton for recording the panel and then producing it to minimize the background noise and make the audience audible.

0:00:00 What’s planned for the Oath? That’s up to you. We look for great submissions but don’t really have a scheme for each issue.

0:05:35 What were the highlights of the Oath to you? New perspectives on the Mythos. Short, strange elements that can be put into an ongoing game. Unusual times and places. The Eye of Light and Darkness, and the art of good reviews.

0:20:30 Things people want: Scenarios for Cthulhu Dark, Trail of Cthulhu, Realms of Cthulhu. Material on HPL’s influence as game tools. What to do with Cthulhu now that he’s a plushy. Help for brand-new GMs in building scenarios. How to get the player characters involved in the first place? How to make it really scary? The tale of the horrifying immortal parrot. Making the horror unknowable again. Props and handounts.

0:45:23 Scott joins in and describes his players’ many fumbles.

0:46:30 Monte Cook’s Shandler Chronicles.

0:50:35 The Delta Green Roleplaying Game. Bringing Delta Green into the modern day and addressing the things we fear now. International influences. Choosing a system. Tailoring BRP and CoC to Delta Green. A new book, not just the old book plus new material. A supplement with the updated history for gamers who have all the old material and don’t want the whole new game.

1:02:30 Why things for Delta Green are so much more difficult in the 2010s than in the halcyon 1990s. The fragmentation of Delta Green: the conspiracy, the outsiders, and a quasi-legitimate agency. None of them is going to make player characters any happier than any other. What kind of Delta Green campaign do you want to run? Where do you want to explore your paranoia? International tensions. Updating the antagonists. The need for new adventures.

1:42:45 Pagan’s new non-Mythos scenario book with the mythological Bedouin rape monster and Blair Reynolds screaming “No! No!”

Good night, folks.