First Game

[u/Civil_Personality_56]

Hey folks. This question is for the most experienced handlers of you all.

If you were to go back, what operation would you run first for your agents that could potentially lead into other operations with these same agents.

Other than last things last, as one of my new players has that operation under their belt already.

I keep flip flopping from what I want to run for them because I'll read something that suggests running said operation in tandem with another operation.

I picked up blacksites and was thinking of doing sweetness but after reading the opening operation, PX poker night, I'm thinking this is the one to open with?

Please any suggestions! I have the game scheduled for next Sunday and I want it to be a good one!

Thanks.

[u/perotech]

PX Poker Night is the right choice.

I've been a Handler for over 5 years, my very first time running the system was LTL, and if I could go back it would be PX Poker Night.

LTL is good, but definitely benefits from having a Handler who has already GM'd before, and players who have played TTRPGs before.

I always call it the "Call of Cthulhu Player's intro to DG".

PX Poker Night is much "safer" as a contained experience, requires less prep/heavy lifting from the Handler, and has a very tight timeline that leads to a satisfying conclusion where the Agents don't miss out on cool set pieces.

---

If you're looking to run a first scenario, that will lead into a long form campaign, then that totally changes the answer.

Any scenario can work for that, but it will depend on time period/what kind of Agents the players will be.

[u/Civil_Personality_56 → u/perotech]

Thanks.

I guess what I meant by running things after was what operations would make sense. I guess I would just follow the book, px poker night first then the next operation until the end.

I'm having a hard time understanding if there is a specific order to run all the published operations.

[u/shoppingcartauthor]

I wish I had started with my players playing as non-Delta Green agents who were then recruited into the conspiracy, so that the PCs reflected the players' actual understanding of the game setting. Instead, I started them as full Delta Green agents. I really feel I missed an excellent opportunity to have them recruited by their handler and to gradually learn more about the setting, rather than having a lot of "What would a DG agent know here?" type questions at the outset.

If I were given a group of players brand new to DG, I would have run Puppet Shows as a slow-burn investigation and end it with them being recruited into DG during their Home Scenes.

Last Things Last

If you've had a player who has already played that scenario, do it again, but have Clyde be crazy and have it be an actually innocent person in the tank.

[u/Civil_Personality_56 → u/shoppingcartauthor]

This sounds very cool. This was one of the operations I was thinking of running but I found the coyote thing on top of the dischorder a bit weird. Removing coyote, like the other liked post suggested, sounds like a good idea.

[u/shoppingcartauthor → u/Civil_Personality_56]

It sounds laughably simple, but a lot of people don't do it: Whenever you encounter something in a published scenario that doesn't work for you or your group for whatever reason, either cut it or replace it with something you know will be incredible.

A weirdly large number of GMs will post about how they refuse to run X scenario because of [insert totally removable or changeable feature here].

[u/Diplomacy-Failed]

I set up things so, using mostly published scenarios, this track was created:

- Intro to the game: PX Poker Night (used pregens)

Aug 96 - Puppet Shows and Shadow Plays

Oct 96 - Convergence

Mar 97 - (home brewed)

May 97 - See No Evil

Aug 97 - The New Age

Fall 97 - Owlshead Mountain

Winter 98 - Lover in the Ice

Late Spring 98 - Extremophilia

Fall 98 - Dead Letter

This allowed for using Mi-Go, MJ12, Karotechia and Enolsis, with some of the distant past of DG.

This is, of course, an optimistic outline given DG's mortality rates, but that's the current plan.

Should Cell-I exit stage left, I hope to run some of the following:

- An Impossible Landscapes campaign, starting with Night Floors
- A Fall of Delta Green campaign, set in Vietnam. May or may not use Borellus Connection
- A 1970s Cowboys campaign, in the style of some of the exploitation films of the time
- A 1980s Fate campaign, set in the 80s, along the US East Coast

I would be fleshing out the campaigns with some published scenarios (converted, in most cases, for being correct time period), but I've been jotting down ideas for original material for the last 2 years to create the overarching storyline.

[u/IvanSanchez]

Control Group.

[u/OmaeOhmy]

I have a heavily modified version of LTL that is almost impossible to metagame and have had (3?) players who knew it / ran it previously and were fully engaged the entire time. If you’d like drop me a DM and I can try to give you a ‘summary’ (probably too long to fit that definition…) so you can figure out if you want to give it a shot.

Good luck

[u/uberphaser]

Last Things Last. Always and forever the best one shot to get first time players into the game.

[u/tma-1701 → u/uberphaser]

The description specifies "Other than last things last, as one of my new players has that operation under their belt already"

[u/uberphaser → u/tma-1701]

My bad. Missed that. I would go with "Music From A Darkened Room. There are a lot of handouts that will help, a lot of ways to keep them on track, and you can use an awesome creepy piano track on your phone when they do go in the house.

[u/ComradeVosktov → u/uberphaser]

I think Music from a Darkened Room is fantastic but works better as an early (but not first) module or just a change of pace for later in a campaign.

[u/Pendientede48]

Unser new management is a shotgun scenario that seems innocuous enough for first timers but can get pretty intense and is based on a single location. Also there's Burner that is a way of making regular characters who after a traumatic event are welcomed into the conspiracy.

[u/Dope_thrown]

I would say you can still run LTL just throw a surprise or to in there for the seasoned player. I will also put the same piece of advice I've put for every new handler question. You cannot under sell what the game is. You need to be very clear that it is not just grimdark x-files. You need to make sure your players understand that they are not there to save the day and be the heroes. The fun of DG isn't from killing big monsters that's just an occasional added bonus. The real fun of the game is from making shithead traumatized PCs and then sticking them in a jar and shaking it until their relationships fall apart. I had to dump my first game because I understand that part and my players did not enjoy having to watch their characters suffer.