Desdichado
Legend
Dark•Matter bouncing ideas around thread -- Detroit Gamedayers stay out!!
Well, here's the deal; I was thinking that "hey, we don't have any Cthulhu" at this latest Detroit ENWorld Gameday and then I was thinking "Hey, Monte Cook (co-author of both d20 Call of Cthulhu and Dark•Matter once said he'd use the CoC rules for a d20ization of D•M". That's how my game started; Dark•Matter with the d20 CoC ruleset.
But then I started thinking, "hey Delta Green is this setting book that's supposed to be modern, gray alien conspiracy theory stuff with a Cthulhu twist" so I picked that up and quite frankly, I think the DG take on the grays is way more interesting than the D•M take. For the uninitiated, the grays are merely automatons controlled by the mi-go, who perpetuate a ruse, pretending to be these relatively benign aliens who need to experiment with human DNA to perpetuate their species (they are asexual clones who cannot reproduce naturally, they claim.) They've made bargains under the Reagan administration with a secret government group, Majestic-12. In reality, though, the grays are looking for humans to experiment on for the mi-go, who essentially want to psychologically dissect their brains. For whatever reason, they are accelerating their program, to the chagrin of the government, and some of the abductees are not coming back.
And finally, I said, "hey, the mi-go are kinda wimpy and slightly silly enemies; maybe I can buff that concept up somewhat by making them operate more like the slake-moths of Perdido Street Station, hence my other thread on d20 slake moths. The abductees that are not coming back are having their memories drained by the mi-go/slake-moths, and their vegetable bodies being frozen for later genetic experiments. Usually, at any given time at least one mi-go/slake-moth is in the vicinity, and they keep open a gateway to Yuggoth itself in the Antarctic, Yuggoth being their homeplanet that may be Pluto, or Sedna, or some other distant and cold planet/KBO in our solar system.
So that's my generic background. Here's the more specific background -- the grays have a base in Antarctica, where they fly the victims of abductions for experiments. This is already known to Majestic-12 and the Hoffman Institute (for which the PC's will work) but not to the researchers who live and work at the Vostok Research Station, the most inland research station in Antarctica (other than the south pole station itself... ) Somehow they apparently have stumbled onto the grays and investigated, and are now missing. This is where the PCs are called in to find out what happened.
I've got a few ideas for what the adventure itself will entail, including having government officials from another agency trying to stop them, poking around through the gray base, facing off against a mi-go/slake-moth, and if they survive that, maybe even putting on spacesuits and making a visit to Yuggoth itself. Before I flesh out all that, though, I want to see if I can get some feedback on the idea; how would you pull it off, tie it all together, etc.?
Well, here's the deal; I was thinking that "hey, we don't have any Cthulhu" at this latest Detroit ENWorld Gameday and then I was thinking "Hey, Monte Cook (co-author of both d20 Call of Cthulhu and Dark•Matter once said he'd use the CoC rules for a d20ization of D•M". That's how my game started; Dark•Matter with the d20 CoC ruleset.
But then I started thinking, "hey Delta Green is this setting book that's supposed to be modern, gray alien conspiracy theory stuff with a Cthulhu twist" so I picked that up and quite frankly, I think the DG take on the grays is way more interesting than the D•M take. For the uninitiated, the grays are merely automatons controlled by the mi-go, who perpetuate a ruse, pretending to be these relatively benign aliens who need to experiment with human DNA to perpetuate their species (they are asexual clones who cannot reproduce naturally, they claim.) They've made bargains under the Reagan administration with a secret government group, Majestic-12. In reality, though, the grays are looking for humans to experiment on for the mi-go, who essentially want to psychologically dissect their brains. For whatever reason, they are accelerating their program, to the chagrin of the government, and some of the abductees are not coming back.
And finally, I said, "hey, the mi-go are kinda wimpy and slightly silly enemies; maybe I can buff that concept up somewhat by making them operate more like the slake-moths of Perdido Street Station, hence my other thread on d20 slake moths. The abductees that are not coming back are having their memories drained by the mi-go/slake-moths, and their vegetable bodies being frozen for later genetic experiments. Usually, at any given time at least one mi-go/slake-moth is in the vicinity, and they keep open a gateway to Yuggoth itself in the Antarctic, Yuggoth being their homeplanet that may be Pluto, or Sedna, or some other distant and cold planet/KBO in our solar system.
So that's my generic background. Here's the more specific background -- the grays have a base in Antarctica, where they fly the victims of abductions for experiments. This is already known to Majestic-12 and the Hoffman Institute (for which the PC's will work) but not to the researchers who live and work at the Vostok Research Station, the most inland research station in Antarctica (other than the south pole station itself... ) Somehow they apparently have stumbled onto the grays and investigated, and are now missing. This is where the PCs are called in to find out what happened.
I've got a few ideas for what the adventure itself will entail, including having government officials from another agency trying to stop them, poking around through the gray base, facing off against a mi-go/slake-moth, and if they survive that, maybe even putting on spacesuits and making a visit to Yuggoth itself. Before I flesh out all that, though, I want to see if I can get some feedback on the idea; how would you pull it off, tie it all together, etc.?
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