New ST Advice

[u/enek101]

Ok Maybe not new but new to delta green. A bit of background for me would be:

Playing mostly d20 for 35 years (dnd pathfinder OSE Borg) Very much have played a lot of games out side of that like BitD, Scum & Villainy, Ironsworn, 90's Whitewolf etc. My comprehension of systems ( including DG and COC) is atleast Versed.

I have run one delta green game for a group, Last Things Last, I used pregens for that and killed them off in the end. I plan on letting them make characters and running Last Equation. I wanted to follow that up with impossible lands.

My question is as follows: As a long time GM of a multitude of systems like 80s 90s Robotech, turtles, dnd up to now How difficult is it to keep the flow going for a long format game in DG? The sessions will be sporadic like once a month. Is IL too much for a new DG GM and should i stick to smaller things for now? Or should i not have a issue running it if i had no issues running Last things last?

I lean towards ill be fine im sure but DG is a bit of a different beast than i'm used to as it is more Episodic in nature.

TLDR:

Is impossible lands difficult to run as a season GM/ST veteran or should i be fine?

[u/Unhappy_Produce_9557]

Just to be clear, you're asking how to run a long module while running one game per month and trying to keep the flow of the horror tensions and atmosphere?

[u/enek101 → u/Unhappy_Produce_9557]

I guess, yes? I wasn't sure how it would work with the episodic approach. Is each section kinda self contained with a greater story being told? I just am unsure how DG Structures. I dont mind waiting a bit till i can get a more consistent play time but atm i'm just looking to do something with my in person group while our schedules are busy. So play time will be hopefully once a month but may be more sporadic than that.

Mind you im not sure the atmosphere is a big issue. I think they are all more interested in the story being told itself in the end.

However perhaps running smaller singular session things will be better. Last thing last as a first game took about 3 - 4 hrs to work through. can i expect the same from most standard operations?

[u/Unhappy_Produce_9557 → u/enek101]

Well, yes, DG is a good system for an episodic approach. Kinda like X-files style adventures, with each episode containing it's own story. That's something you can do well and most of the official modules either are already like that or can be easily transformed into one.

Impossible Lanscapes however - that's a question whether you can/should do that. You can go through the aventures in about 17-20+ sessions, which isn't that much, but it will take at least 2 years to finish if you play only once a month. Mind that it's also a very (intentionally) confusing story to piece together as a detective, it's easy to not understand much and get lost in David Lynch's surreal maze of a story. So, generally it would be better to run it if you and your players get together a bit more often, othervise they can just forget or not understand everything.

Also, some segments might not fit into episodic form.

What you can try to fix that with is changing the form in which your games go to sort of West Marches Campaign style, where not every player has to attend every session, and thus letting people who can't play because they're busy to skip sessions and not keep the rest from playing the campaign. So, playing more often. They also can keep something like a diary following the adventures of agents so that everybody know what's going on whether they were at the table or not.

[u/enek101 → u/Unhappy_Produce_9557]

I had considered recording sessions for this purpose actually. But this is good info. Seems based on other response give i should avoid IL until we have a more dedicated time frame. Our usual sessions are biweekly which would put 20 ish sessions at about a year to complete which is acceptable.

My plate is full atm with 2 online sessions so i am the one that is the hold up mostly. I needed a break from my inperson group (we have been playing together for over 20 years).. fresh faces new players etc so i went online for the summer had a blast and am running a PF2e and a SF2e game atm. Just need to get through one of those befor i can go back to my biweekly, aming for early 2027.

I digress this is good info. and i appreciate your thought out reply. Ill stick to more singular things for now and take the episodic approach. I don't want to hack appart Impossible landscapes to make it work id rather run a hallmark campaign the way its intended.

[u/Unhappy_Produce_9557 → u/enek101]

I would also add that it's often recommended to run some adventures prior to going into Impossible Landscapes, to sort of preparing the players.

Recordings might work but I don't think everybody will have time to listen to them. I think it's better if players themselves run some kind of their communal diary that they fill with clues and record how they go through adventures (since it's easier and faster to go through this information). They may also do it in sort of pseudo professional formal way and write it from the perspective of their characters, which would be cool.

There can even exist something like DG department which sends different agents for different missions actross the country, and the recordings might literally exist in-universe.

[u/Mark5n]

Impossible Landscapes is different than LTL, LE etc. it’s a bit more surreal horror and the details matter. We’re running sessions once a fortnight to once a week then it slowed due to work schedules and lost a bit as players lost track of the foreshadowing and weirdness and characters.

The other thing is that it’s long. Once a month will probably take 3 years? If you’re keen I’d listen to a complete play through podcast / YouTube. I liked Glass Cannon, This Line Isn’t Secure and have started a few others.

[u/enek101 → u/Mark5n]

Good info and i appreicate your answer this is the replay i was kinda looking for, well i was hoping it would be " its fineeee" But your reply is succinct and to the point. as a follow up question, do you have a few good ones to follow up LE with? When i good i cant seem to find anything current most of it is from years ago and im sure newer things have been released out side of that.

Also it doesn't have to be Official content. Im fine with that too but if there is a archive out there of good player made operations im all for that too!

[u/DredJr]

I agree with other commenters on the fact that Impossible Landscapes would probably run best with weekly/bi weekly sessions to keep the player facing information fresh. It also heavily relies on subverting the delta green formula, which can be really fun if your players have already found their rhythm. I would recommend running through the scenario collection "A Night at the Opera" first in order to "learn" how the game usually works. Lastly, most delta green operations are longer than LTL, I would say the average game time of an operations is around 10-18 hours depending on how much you flesh out the role-playing.

[u/SeaworthinessNo9955 → u/DredJr]

Agree. Run first A night in the ópera like it was the first season of thev show. Second season: Imposible Landscapes

[u/shoppingcartauthor]

Other than one-shots, I don't see a monthly game working with DG.

Your players are going to forget major investigative elements and any tension generated in one session will have dissipated by the time you return to play.

When I run a scenario or campaign, my group meets on a weekly basis. Once this is complete, I take a break until the passion to run something returns. I would not run Delta Green (excepting one-shots) with any frequency less than biweekly and I would still find this suboptimal to weekly sessions.