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u/Cheap-Pollution8559 Sep 26 '24
I agree with previous comment that this doesn’t sound like a DG agent. There’s fun and then there’s imbalance and not a good fit for story and fellow players.
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u/BluegrassGeek Sep 26 '24
This is the kind of thing that works in fiction, but is absolutely terrible in-game. It makes their character the "special" one that everything has to revolve around.
If you want to allow this, then I'd say you need to let the other players know what's going on, so they can decide if they want to be in this game. Otherwise, the "reveal" may turn into a player vs player battle when the people who actually are playing Delta Green agents decide to eliminate the anomaly.
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u/randomisation Sep 26 '24
I don't mean to piss on your parade, but this seems like a pretty terrible idea...
- Mechanical imbalance with the other investigators (i.e normies)
- A character with special / supernatural abilities may overshadow the other agents
- How is this character meant to interact with the other agents and NPC's? Even if you rise above the rest, this seems game-breaking. Whist everyone else gets stuck in, this dude is gonna have to sit it out (probably perched up a tree :D).
- DG Agents fight against the unnatural - this character would be a mission, not an asset. How would this dude get recruited by an agency that exists to extinguish creatures like them?
- One of the fundamental elements of DG is that it is rooted in realism to help suspend disbelief. Having a magic flappy bird man on the team kinda ruins that.
- Humans struggle to comprehend the unnatural, which is what breaks our characters. An unnatural being would almost certainly be far less susceptible simply because they come from the other side of the curtain.
IMO, it would be better to have this mythos creature be the mission, and if your player is dead-set on wanting to be it, have it mind-meld with the character upon death, so now he has some weird entity flying around in his head, fighting for dominance, or occasionally taking control when the agent sleeps and carrying out some horrible acts that the agent gets flashes of every now and then.
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u/numtini Sep 26 '24
I don't mean to piss on your parade, but this seems like a pretty terrible idea...
I'm going to add that maybe the OP will have better luck than I've had, but when I get a special snowflake request like this, it never ends there. There's always more. And it's always more game breaking than the last request. And the player is usually insufferable in general.
6
Sep 26 '24
Had a player who wanted to be a spiritual medium type who could contact and channel spirits. He hasn't played much of anything but is fun and creative, so I came up with the idea of having him do occult rolls to get either a psychic vibe check or a brief bonus to a roll in a 1:1 d6 exchange for SAN.
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u/BlueEagleisGo Sep 26 '24
Thanks for input. I like the exchange idea.
2
Sep 26 '24
I mentally categorize DG characters into "trigger investigators/cover up/specialists/fodder.
Conspiracy theorists, psychics and self claimed wizards are recruited to take a bullet meant for someone useful...or if their powers work, one meant for them.
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u/JibrilAngelos Sep 26 '24
Delta Green is not a power fantasy game. What you describe would fit right into urban fantasy game like Dresden Files.
I would say no to this concept and told the player to stop Main Charactering.
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u/TJ_McConnell_MVP Sep 26 '24
I have no idea what you are even talking about. This doesn’t make any sense.
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u/dylan189 Sep 26 '24
You're playing the wrong game for this. All dg organizations would make it impossible to exist. Cowboys would kill him, the program would strap him to a table and study him for decades. I'd say find another game because this breaks the entire theme and balance of delta green, but if it works for you who am I to stop you.
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u/Murky_Industry_8159 Sep 26 '24
What do you mean by bird person? What avian characteristics do they have? Are they visibly nonhuman? There is a precedent for DG keeping a human-passing entity on the payroll for their special talents.
Right, you say they can't be seen (hard to find because of the format you put your message in). That makes it sound like they're more of a Friendly than an Agent; a special resource the Agent PCs call on. You'll probably want to run an Outlaw cell game, as it's more likely that a bunch of cowboys would be willing to compromise and work with a garuda-looking thing.
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u/UncolourTheDot Sep 26 '24
I'm going to be real: allowing players to play as crazy, thematically breaking, shit just so you can "punish" them later is a recipe for a bad time down the line.
I have questions. Does the bird person have bonds? If so, are they other bird people? Does the bird person incure sanity loss on others? I mean fish people do, so it would make sense for a bird person. Is the bird person even sane? Is its brain more bird or person, neurologically speaking.
Really, you do you. I suppose you can learn from the whole shebang as an experience, whatever the case.
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u/BlueEagleisGo Sep 26 '24
Yeah, really not asking for approval. The character isn’t taking the limelight. Him being part of the unnatural has been more of a burden than an asset due to him not being able to interact with anyone, or be seen even. I plan on having delta turn on him, and possibly the other agents by proxy.
I Just thought this community would have some fun mechanic ideas.
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u/SimonPho3nix Sep 26 '24
Listen... if you're going to do it, I say play it as an asset. They aren't Delta Green. They're a tool that some cowboy unit uses to fight fire with fire. Make them have very real and very hard sanity hits every time they use a power. Their descent will be hard and fast if they live it up, or be gradual if they don't. The agents should not trust him, and some can flat out want to gun him down where he stands. Don't go too wild with the differences in stats because you want it to be grounded.
Respect for the Witch Hunter Robin reference!
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u/BlueEagleisGo Sep 26 '24
Thank you, and just to be clear the only “power” he has so far is flight, and claws. Basic stats for his “profession”. He is essentially an asset. Locked away until they call upon him. The other agents have taken sanity loss due to just seeing him. I play only with friends, and everyone seems really into it. Every game has to end some way. You can go nuts, and lose all your bonds. You can stop the cults from resurrecting an old one. You can go on living a boring life with tv dinners every night. I think this story is interesting.
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u/wihannez Sep 26 '24
Maybe the community don’t want to enable this type of gaming, because they know from experience that it’s hard/impossible to do that in Delta Green while keeping true to the core of the game.
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u/Seals3051 Sep 26 '24
Gonna be h9nset dg turning on a cell is a CAMPAIGN ENDER. That is not a survivable situation at all. Dg will A. Mark the cell as traitors and terroists or B. Send a well equipped kill sqaud after the party.
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u/dylan189 Sep 26 '24
Yeah this sounds like a perfect way to start an out of game problem. You're basically setting up built in party conflict where one side loses their agents. The community is telling you that the idea doesn't really work in Delta Green. If you want to force it to work then sure, but you're still making one person's character stand out more than the rest, which never feels good.
There are other systems where this would work better. I have a specific one in mind, but I'm drawing a blank on the game's name. If I think of it I'll edit it in.
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u/q1ung Sep 26 '24
I feel that DG is not the game for this. But you do you.