Converting Dark•Matter's "Exit 23" into Delta Green

Converting Dark•Matter's "Exit 23" into Delta Green

So, I'm looking for a different take on getting PC's into Delta Green in the first place, and I thought of the old Dark•Matter intro adventure "Exit 23." It's a little too "Dark•Mattery" to use as is; and I'd probably want to replace the winter demon with something a little more Mythos-esque; inject a little more gruesomeness and grittiness, but I still think it's probably a good base to build off of.

I haven't yet given a whole lot of thought to how to "Mythos up" the adventure, though, so any ideas the group here has would be much appreciated...

For those not familiar with "Exit 23" essentially it's this: six (or however many PCs you have) complete strangers are stuck in a convenience store during a complete white-out blizzard chewing the fat, waiting for the weather to improve when there's some kind of strange horrible shrieking and tearing noise. Something has literally torn it's way through the door and apparently made a beeline for the men's restroom. Inside, the PCs find the body of a man frozen and gored by icicles. He's got some weird papers on him I.D.ing him as a member of the Hoffman Institute (sorta like the Delta Green organization, but slightly more above the board and not officially connected to the government) and a strange snow globe kinda thingy. If the PCs look closely at the snow globe, they find that it is a detailed model of the gas station where they're currently sitting.

Anyway, the PCs have to figure out that the snow globe is a "magical artifact", has summoned the winter demon (who is sorta like a big frozen werewolf, but who can turn into a whirlwind of snowflakes); figure out a way to defeat or banish it, and fend off various cultists who want to get the globe back--apparently this Hoffman guy had taken it from them somehow. Right here is a more complete write-up of the game as it played out at a convention where I ran it.

Anyway, like I said, I want to "Mythos it up" a bit and make it a bit more sinister and disturbing than it already is as a lead-in to a Delta Green or Delta Green like Cthulhu campaign. Any suggestions?

I developed and ran an Exit 23 rip-off set in a Wal-Mart. Instead of the winter-demon and Hoffman stuff, I used a Delta Green org, an anti-Delta org and Mythos-style monster. The size of the Wal-Mart gave me a lot of 'interaction' scenes with various insane patrons that were trapped in the store with the heroes, as well as the remnants of the anti-Delta org. The roving creature kept the characters moving around nicely. Additionally, the Wal-Mart setting gave the heroes some weapons and equipment, which proved ineffectual, but made them feel better once they gathered and inventoried them.

And I had to name it: This Wal-Mart is Soooo Big.

I have a fairly detailed write up of it if you want to see it.

Well, the obvious way is to connect the winter demon with Ithaqua somehow. If you want to tie it more closely into the DG background, you could have the creature be something which escaped from a Grey or MJ-12 holding facility.

I like the idea of having an opposing organization show up to cause trouble for both the PCs and the creature. It underlines the fact that there's people with resources out there who know about the supernatural, and maybe even condone it. It's a way of underlining the conspiracy feeling of the setting.

One thing occurs- if you're doing an actual Delta Green game, I think it's generally assumed that the PCs are government agents of various types. So having them all meet in the game gas station might be a little weird, unless they're on another assignment of some sort.

The point is, this is how they get involved with Delta Green--it's meant to be a gateway adventure into Delta Green.

I suppose I could always just run the puppets and shadows adventure in the book, but one does want variety from time to time.

ragboy--I'd love to see your write-up. Feel free to email it to jdyal at wowway dot com.

Ah. See, I thought you'd already had that worked out.

I think the best way is to run the recruitment similar to what's done in the DG starting adventure (that was "Puppets", wasn't it?) So, the characters make it out of the blizzard after fighting off the monster and possibly cultists or MJ-12 agents or greys or whomever. Then, a few weeks later, strange things start to happen, and they get contact by Ms. Green to become friendlies for the organization.

If you want something a little more dramatic, as in "now that you've killed the monster you're agents working for us", you could have a DG team pick them up after the incident and "inform" them that they've been recruited. The PCs may not go along with it, though.

Joshua Dyal said:

ragboy--I'd love to see your write-up.

Click to expand...

I just sent it. I didn't mention the aftermath in the actual adventure, but essentially the characters get approached by <insert Delta Green org here> immediately after exiting the Wal-Mart and get either recruited or apprehended. Any left-over arcane junk is confiscated either way. The 'incident' is written off as a fire and the characters were given a chance to escape before the fire-trucks and whatnot arrive.

Anyway, lemme know if that was useful.