The Stochastic Game

Ramblings of General Geekery

This is what’s going on in the Mitchester Arms TTRPG pub tonight… don’t ask.

The Spider-Man / Sauron meme with a few tweaks:

Spider-Man: "You can compute Strike Ranks on the fly, and you're using it to turn people into dinosaurs? But with tech like that, you could cure CANCER!"

Sauron: "But I don't WANT to cure cancer. I want to play old-school fantasy RPGs!"

These past couple years I’ve been writing “timetables” for my convention one-shots, so I can better manage pacing and not get rushed at the end. Here’s the one I have for Delta Green’s Operation FULMINATE. Comments welcome!

Delta Green
Operation FULMINATE

Introduction (00:05)

•Social presentations, make name signs
•One break or two? Content Warnings?
•Who knows about Delta Green?
    ◦“Call of Cthulhu meets X-Files”
    ◦Deadly, the truth is often costly or inaccessible
    ◦BRP-based, percentile dice, etc.

Characters (00:10)

•Let people pick their character
•They can change the gender/backstory/etc.
•SAN rolls, Willpower, Bonds, etc.
•Remember this is a convention game:
    ◦We don’t know the difference betweenyour character and yourself. Telegraph your roleplaying.
    ◦The adventure is straightforward!
•Pick a Delta Green cell letter (E to V), pick a codename.

Mission Briefing (00:20)

•Case information, time limit
•Reiterate mission orders

Trailhead Ranger Station (00:30)

•General area information, lake, trails, dam,ranger station, etc.
•Meet the Rangers, meet Brandon
•Foreshadow the strangers

Freeform Investigation (01:00)

•Explore the trails, look for the strangers, fight some zombies, etc.
•Brandon has powers?
•The rainstorm gets worse!

Break (02:00)

•Check-in with the players

Showdown at the Station (02:10)

•Try to get everybody back to the station before night
•Brandon’s parents arrive?
•The strangers attack?

Outro (3:45)

•Wrap up, answer questions

I forgot to watch this but it’s a little bit interesting, at least for fans of Ultima like me: Richard Garriott should be able to get the Ultima copyright back next year. It’s not much (all the juicy stuff is in the trademark, and I think it’s all only for the first game) but it’s still something.


My plans for @KamCon are coming into focus: I’ll be running Delta Green (Operation FULMINATE, plus two “demo games” of LAST THINGS LAST), and Call of Chtulhu (my own scenario The King’s Daughters). Also somehow I’ll be a guest on two panels, for some reason?