2021 Shotgun Scenario contest reviews
Overall this was a good year with 52 entries, most of which I liked or thought were good, but needed some fixes to become even better. Thank you everyone who submitted for this year and I hope to see more in the future!
Really liked it, most likely to vote
Liked it, thinking about voting it (questioning some of the design elements)
Good, but something makes me not voting it (theme, design element, formatting)
Everything else is blank. It doesn’t mean the scenario itself is bad, but it either didn’t interest me or it felt to me something I can’t run as a Handler.
Deep Fiction
At the Bottom
Magically magnetic rocks need to be get from a river. I like the artifact, but my issue is that most veteran PCs won’t open the box, so they won’t experience the effects of it at all. I also like the maps and suggestions for details. Seems a bit of a simple “Get X and bring it to Y.”, but I think it works out as a good milk run for new agents. Also, this was easy to read, so points from that. Liked it.
Locus of Control
Agents get captured by Grays. So much of this is written that these things WILL happen. It feels like PCs are put through this thing with not much agency to do anything else than go through the series of encounters, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, if the encounters had more meat to them. It is also written for Call of Cthulhu RPG, not Delta Green, which also leaves it for Handler to figure out what rolls need to be fixed. Also it might affect the deadliness of the combat as well. While the core idea is good, there needs to be more for the agents to do rather than just aimlessly wander around until the scenario ends (like where are the augmentations that are mentioned?). The formatting also needs some tidying up to make it easier to read.
Insane in the Membrane
Agents hallucinating in an fleshy asylum. Rolling for each limb seems a bit too much, same with Skin Person’s Skin Subdue ability. While I like body horror stuff, it seems a bit out of place. It’s like a set piece designed to scare the players, but there wasn’t too much horror to make it really unique. Would probably drop this in the middle of a campaign dealing with a skin cult or New Life Fertility. Good.
Irregular Bereavement Protocols
Simulacrum of forgotten Bonds come back to life. I can definitely see potential here to fuck over agents. The mechanics seem to work fine and there are good avenues of investigation. Maybe something more alarming for DG to get interested, but if any PC will interact with the item of interest, it will certainly create an interesting situation. Formatting with the chapter and different texts is also great. Liked it.
Who Do You Think You Are!? I Am!
The Thing meets Delta Green. Seems like a fun con game or a one-shot. If players are familiar with The Thing or other referenced source materials, it might become more PvP focused game, akin to secret role board games like Werewolf and what not. I didn’t find too many elements that would’ve supplied players with material to have over the shoggoth impostor, but I guess number of PCs against a single dangerous unit might be enough action wise. As a slight nitpick, I would’ve liked to have the stats for DG RPG instead of CoC 7e. Good.
Woe, Plague Be Upon Ye
Mutated Cicadas. Formatting is good, easy presentation makes it clearer for Handler to run this. Could’ve had the skill’s bolded. Feels like a classic bug hunt scenario (pun intended), but executed with good links and alright supporting mechanisms for the enemy. I’d want slightly more out of the city or from the NPCs to make it more interesting though, maybe bring out something more from the setting or having other options to deal with cicadas (though understandably, the word count might limit that).
Ideal Education
Children’s play causes them to become more Carcosenean. I enjoyed the concept for this scenario as it’s slightly different from the more classic King in Yellow inspired scenarios. However, rolling Navigate in a garden felt uninspired and not very interesting gameplay-wise. Something more doing with the play or adding more details to the garden could bring more out of the scenario, besides the hair loss and skin change, which I do find creepy. Using children might create more inner party drama, but more hardened PCs will most likely mow them down without remorse. I was also dissatisfied with no NPC stats, which makes it even more work for Handler’s end.
Lost Hallows
Skinwalker hunts at a local resort. With the scenario claiming to be narrative focused, I felt that there wasn’t really much for agents to interact with, other than killing the beast. At the end of the text there are suggestions what could happen, but there isn’t much of concrete stuff that Handler can rely on when players are exploring this resort. Points for the map and character pictures and also use of the skinwalker, but this scenario didn’t give me enough of material that I would like to improvise on.
One Fine Mourning…
Using the metaphor of building a shotgun as a way to create a feeling of sorrow after agent dies is an interesting concept. While I don’t see this necessary as a scenario, more for a framework to build up and arc for a character. I think too many words from this document is went to build up the text rather than actually giving the context. Cut down Forward or Introduction to give slightly more ideas how to hit hard to other PCs one the agent is gone. I think there is potential to give a truly heartbreaking ending, but I don’t know if it would work too many times in a campaign, but I guess that’s not the point with this. Props for also different, yet clearly readable formatting.
Exposure Therapy
Agent gets blackmailed by their therapist. Glad to see some love with Disciples of the Worm. I’m not a fan of scenarios killing mages, but there were cool elements that I liked. The new spells were good, the setup, while I don’t think many agents would let the therapist go, is a good change of usual scenario setups. There could’ve been slightly more detail for the target or some unusual avenue, that would’ve made this more interesting to me. Maybe adding some magical trap or another NPC to Casey’s house, would’ve made it slightly more than “Oh this is your average Fate neophyte.” Also, I feel agents would not leave the therapist alone and rather get him and the people from the cult rather than going in for the Fate sorcerer, which is why I get it’s detailed, but I fear the PCs would rather ignore the quest to save a person that they really care about.
Werewolf Gimmick
Reverb influenced a girl and a werewolf themed wrestler. While the titles for parts are evocative, I found them distracting for a scenario this short. I love the idea of wrestling to help out the situation, though I don’t know too many of my own players would be into it. There are a bunch of other suggestions that I enjoy for how things go down, making the scenario not being solved by actual violence. Liked this scenario.
Flight 719
Elder Thing and a bioweapon plus a Mi-Go in a plane. Cool introduction, and I don’t mind the twist that the bioweapon isn’t as important as the Elder Thing cylinder. I do think the Mi-Go is a bit too much for the situation being, would just lead to the archeologist NPC just try to deal with the situation and maybe trying to convince her to throw it off. I also feel the plane going down is 100% going to kill the PCs if there are no pilots, so in that case this is not as great an intro scenario. UNLESS, the next scenario the PCs are people involved investigating the plane crash as DG agents, which would be dope. Good.
Freud’s Cigar
Agents investigate a mundane serial killer. I don’t know how “realistic” the scenario is portraying a serial killer with how they’ve acted, but for a shotgun scenario this felt like a really good summary of an investigation of one. There are a good amount of clues, things to check, NPCs to interact with. While I don’t personally like that the NPC will not be taken alive, I’d say it can work out different ways, if the agents are clever enough. Liked it.
Loup-Garou
Agent’s meet ghoul cult. I think the mystery here is great, with everything leading up to it being really good, I don’t know why the PCs would ever try the drug, but it’s good that the stats are there. I wish there was more to this and I think this would work even better as a fully fledged scenario. Really liked this scenario.
TOGA Party
Cryptocurrency siphoning energy to The Dark Mother. There needs to be slightly more concrete on what kind of effects blessings do. Seems to be easy to run with the setpieces, location and NPCs (points for not having 0 SAN NPCs). I couldn’t really tell if this was really deadly scenario or figuring things out real quick, but I’d consider running this, though the concept is not that interesting to me. Liked it.
The Drove
Rural Dark Mother cult breeds pigs. I feel like the ground with the rural farmers and Dark Young are overdone, but this scenario is alright. The hook is good and I don’t think many scenarios have used the dream intro. The set piece is alright developed, though maybe more unique things could’ve been added instead of the classic “local police is in the cult’s pocket” and “nobody dares to go against them, but they rumor about bad things going in the town”. Maybe pulling in something unique about the cult leaders could’ve spiced this scenario to be more captivating. Good.
The Harvest
Small town serving avatar of Nyarlathotep. I don’t see too much point in the secret sub-basements personally. Vladislav having no attack stats is interesting, though he might just use the base stats when not holding the Hand of Green Man. Overall not much to say about this, just about the usual “agents go to a small town, torch a cult ceremony and be down with it” scenario. Could use something more interesting than just an avatar of Nyarly and add something more to the children, though understandably the word count didn’t allow too much. Maybe removing the history part for more details for the town could’ve helped as well.
Abnormal Anatomy
Investigating missing agents in a maze.
Very minimal, not much content. Neat.
Mirror Mirror
Agents meet mirror/future selves. The future versions of the agents through mirrors is a cool and fatalistic concept. This is a neat concept that just needs slightly more meat to make the facility more interesting. Props for the map. Liked it.
Operation Pitchblende
Agents investigate alive and a duplicate body of a rear admiral. I like the investigation matrix and the possibilities of investigating the admiral, reminds me of the stuff I remember hearing from an episode of RPPR. However, since there isn’t an end goal per say for the scenario, other than determining if the admiral is harmful, which the scenario text does not clearly imply, it gives a bit more work for the Handler and I’d rather have a small explanation no matter what it was. I know the scenario is supposed to bring horror and paranoia, but I didn’t really feel it from this, despite how good the investigation detail for running it are. Good.
With Your Name On It
Magical bullet that targets another player character. This feels less of a scenario and more of a neat artifact. Kind of reminds me of something out of Unknown Armies RPG. While there’s good potential to create weirdness to your game, it can feel a bit disjointed in a mission that might derail the game. Also the solution of throwing your affected weapon away seems a bit too easy. Good.
Masque of the Red Death
Agents must recover and stop a bioweapon attack. I feel like this scenario goes way too action movie for a DG game. Not that it is a bad thing per say, but it definitely feels different how I perceive and run DG. I do like the list detailing all the clues and scenes, it was easy to read, though I can see myself needing to go through the text multiple times to remember which part references what NPCs are doing during the scenario. I also feel that, while the scenario is combat heavy, it is also too lethal for PCs in a way that the combat might screw them over badly. Points for Edgar Allan Poe references through the text, but minus a point for asking to reference Handler’s Guide. Good.
The Audient Void
Interesting hook, kinda feels a bit too railroad-y with the show. An interesting take on the classic Lovecraft short story of the same name, with the horrible sights. I like how it turns it’s head from Nyarlathotep being an OP unstoppable character into something that PCs need to actually care about. While I do think that the agents might be too confused by the thing and let Nyarly die too early that will lead up to an unsatisfying ending, I do think the text salivates from cool details, though more of the end of the world could’ve been also neat. Liked it.
The Greater Good
Really confusing beginning, seems away from the basic conceit of DG. The formatting makes it hard to read with all the text looking so similar. This whole text feels like a campaign that is put through into a shotgun scenario text and it really doesn’t work out. Lot of thinking from Handler’s/Keeper’s part to flesh this thing out to something gameable. While the jailbreak part gives out some options that is useful parts for players, the rest of the text has lot of assumptions for what players are going to do, which also make it really hard to work with. Overall, this is an alright framework that needs to be fleshed out in a bigger text to make it workable.
“Say a little prayer for me”
Evil AI makes people kill themselves. Formatting is a bit annoying, feels “jumpy”. Infection mechanics could’ve been made out clearer. Should put the NPC info more closer to beginning to let Handler know better about the setup for the scenario. While I like the fucked upness of the scenario, I also feel that many suicides happening would be too hard to cover up, though agents could easily make it look like they were part of a suicide pact or something similar. The infection seems to take a lot of agency away, which I’m not sure that many players would enjoy. Maybe something more suggestive, yet awful could make it more fun gameplay wise. Also, no real interest of NPCs, so this might just lead up to agents torching everything. Needs some adjustments to run this and some reformatting to make it easier to read, but I see potential here.
Misappropriated
Agents come across a summoning ritual scroll. Seems like an average ”go investigate mystical artifact, end up with stopping a violent ritual”, but with a neat real life background and cultural backdrop, that I haven’t seen much use in these scenarios. Clear formatting and good bullet points for keeping clues in hand makes it stand above similar material I’ve read. Good.
Unsanitary Conditions
Reality bending art curses a trash compactor. Crazy idea that leaves more to be desired than just taking a huge SAN loss. Could use NPC stats, if one or two of them goes crazy. The suggested solution really didn’t also make me feel like players would find this too satisfying gameplay-wise. Also just found the whole family of going one at the time dying morbidly hilarious, reminded me of the deadly joke skit from Monty Python.
Identity Crisis
Doppelganger of an agent strikes against the group. This is more of a framework to create a scenario around, with different suggestions. I didn’t care for the suggestions and I’d rather have a clear suggestion of what was going on, be it a protomatter clone or a different timeline version of the agent. This makes the easy setup a bit more annoying as I have to figure out before the session what I would actually want to do with the material.
With Friends Like These
I have not read the original shotgun scenario, so I can’t attest to its relation to it. There seems to be a lot of setup, to what appears to be for the players an ambush, which I don’t like. It’s an easy way to kill them without them knowing at all. And while paranoia is part of Delta Green, I think there could be more interesting outcomes rather than A) Agents dying from the shootout, or B) Sorensen will die without players knowing why they got attacked. Also, if he was forgotten by A-Cell, how do they realize the bureaucratic error anyway?
We Don't Talk Like We Used To
Agents and Bonds get trapped in King in Yellow world. I found the doll mechanics fun, though the situation might be a bit forced in and only best used during a campaign. The suggested scenes were okay, but didn’t grab me. I liked the NPC mechanics and the rituals seemed fine as well. Overall, a good interactive setpiece to put in the middle of your KiY campaign. Plus for the good formatting. Liked it.
Snake Oil
Scientists fuck around with worms in human bodies. I found the Worms being from Mi-Go fine, but March Tech made me feel not as interested in them. The line of investigation was clear and simple to understand, so I’d think this would be pretty easy to run, especially for introducing people to playing Delta Green. What confused me in the worms’ stats was how long the egg process took, even though it’s mentioned in the beginning of the scenario, so that could’ve been there. While there isn’t too much going on, I still liked this scenario.
For What Ails You
Not really into March Tech vs DG vs Yithians shtick overall, but the setup doesn’t bother me too much. Don’t need to write down all the solutions to how clues are found, just need to bring up what clues are available. Bonded mechanics of the Remedy seem fine, but I don’t think there’s not really encouragement for PCs to actually try it. Perhaps setting up seeing the effects of it on someone else, to make it more intriguing for them. Isn’t gamma radiation really hazardous though? This scenario doesn’t really need the Yithian AND the March Tech connection, just either one would’ve been fine to have something weird going on, while also having investigation and a cool interactive artifact to deal with.
The One That Got Away
The Witch and The Wardrobe: Dreamlands Edition. Don’t really care for the surprise attack that the sorcerer makes. Overall, it feels like a half-ready railroad that needs some refurbishment to be interesting enough for me to run. Just have the agents already go to the Dreamlands, because that’s the part. Or have players play different agents that go into the shootout at the ranch and then jump there. Obviously this is limited by wordcount, but I think the history and the stuff before the Dreamlands should be cut, in order to make way for the cool setting and stuff in it.
Pattern Recognition
AI casts ritual magic. The actual IT stuff is cool, so this scenario really lies on agents with high SIGINT and Comp Sci, otherwise it doesn’t seem as fun for the rest of the group. The line of investigation seems to go nicely, points for the bolded keywords. Pattern B could be utilized a bit better, maybe when an agent is driving a car or is in the middle of something dangerous, but overall I like all of them. Other than that, a bit of a cliché ending for other AI casting ritual scenarios like Operation God Object, but different enough with how the AI works and what is the goal of its creators. Liked it.
A Routine Audit
Agents sent to collect mind-bending rocks. I remember reviewing this last year and it seems that the author has fixed most of the issues I had with this. With more clearer formatting and images and the references to 7th edition removed, this becomes much easier to run in DG. Though information is still a bit hard to find (there could be another reference for the GALLOP artifact at the end), it tells itself to a great amount of detail. Though I might not find myself running this for it’s dungeon crawl nature, I still liked it.
A Silent Night
Nativity of Jesus, but in Delta Green. Too blocky formatting with small font size makes it hard to read. Nifty concept, but doesn’t do anything for me personally. It seems to lead up to firefights against cultists, which is something done so many times. Even The Divine Child and The Mother, while fun and have fitting mechanics, just yell to me this is a bug hunt scenario that is solved by shooting/burning/driving over all the bad guys.
The One and Only Gun Story
Magical gun terrorizes people. I think magical items like this are okay, if you want weird magical shit being to the point of your campaign, but in my games I like it more occult and ritualistic. Also, having a madness inducing gun doesn’t seem really fun, as firefights are already costing a lot of sanity if the agent isn’t adapted to it. The mystery around the item is also pretty low after it’s first encounter, so I don’t see too much gameplay value out of it.
Special Delivery
Extract and escape with an advanced AI. I think this scenario relies too much on stuff happening according to the text, especially when agents are supposed to decrypt the terminal. There should be slightly more detail on the set piece to provide a bit more stuff for Handler to rely on when running the extraction sequence.
Alteration
Agent gets killed and resurrected. I like the mechanics for the resurrected, though the sanity loss for them in this is insane and I would be amazed if they manage to stay within 50% of it before this scenario. The investigation part seems a bit barebones, could’ve added something more interesting about the NPC, to make it more memorable. I also liked that you don’t have to kill Baxter, but to utilize him later on. It feels like this scenario has pretty good stuff to interact and roleplay with one player, while the rest of the group have to follow through. I’d see this would split the table, which is something I’m not too fond off. However, I still think this is a good scenario.
Halt! Who Goes There?
British soldiers raid through Goatswood. A neat PISCES introductory scenario. While railroad-y in a way, I think it provides enough combat and horror, though not much investigation. I could’ve liked slightly more detail on the setting as I’m not familiar with it, but I guess that’s something that can’t be really done for a shotgun scenario. The sorcerer setpiece with Withering cries for a PC kill, but for an intro game, that’s not too bad. Points for providing pregens. Liked it.
Hemimetabolism
Domestic violence victims assassinate men with spiders. The mundaneness, if you can call it that, of the killings was pretty interesting and I found the cult’s inner workings fascinating. I’m not arachnophobic, but this definitely creeped me out in the beginning. Really good way to start introducing Atlach Nacha stuff in DG. If there would be criticism, it’s only that the inactivity is actually a good idea and can cause some frustration in hindsight for players, but that’s only a small issue. I Really liked this scenario.
An Apple a Day
Program and Outlaw agents close in on a March Tech hospital. Lots of misspellings, seemed to have needed a type check. While this setup might be fun in a campaign with Program butting heads with Outlaws, this seems a bit too barebones for me to run. The artifacts could be something more than “curing all cancer”, since that seems to be more interesting part. For investigating, there should be clear findings from the clinic director that could be found out and the PCs could leverage in the future. Also, while I have no problem with rolling Alertness multiple times to figure out the outcome, I feel like there should be more setpieces or something to make it more clearer to for players what they’ll find.
Telling the Bees
Intelligent bees kill people. I liked the mechanics for the bees’ venom and the fact that you didn’t have to kill them and instead just tell them in Aklo to leave. The line of investigation seemed clear, but seemed missing something. I think the farm section could’ve had some other interesting element to make it more evocative. Other than that, good scenario.
Operation NIGHTFALL or Blast to the Past
Good formatting, easy to read. More weird gun shit huh? Also, rarely have I seen a sequel to a scenario from a different creator in the same year the original was written nonetheless! The weapon itself I found myself to understand, but figuring out the killings seemed a bit more confusing. Really liked the random tables. Overall confusing, but interesting scenario. Liked it.
TO THE WINDOW, TO THE QUOLL
Grugs and Agents time hunt a mammal. Fun crossover concept, with neat setpieces. Good lighthearted fun if you wanna introduce Moss Covered Arrowhead to the players or change the scene after running some MCA for them. I would’ve liked to have stats for the prehistoric creatures though, to give it more flavor. Good.
You're the Shan Now, Dog
Agents meet PISCES ghouls and a Shan. Much of the lore could’ve been compressed more into the characters, which seem cool. The text they have is enough to run them, but stating them would’ve been more helpful. There isn’t much “story” content here. While there’s background for the K-9 Unit, the actual text how they react with agents or the setting to meet up with Arbor. I think the setup need to be stronger to support these interesting characters. Good.
One Too Many Nights at the Opera, or Looking for Lovecraft in All the Wrong Places
Agents follow up on other agents on a wild goose chase. Lots of NPCs and setpieces make the town feel alive, which I like. However, I’m not a big fan of mundane scenarios with nothing Unnatural going on. Clues really don’t point in any one certain direction, which I fear makes players frustrated really fast. I get that not every mission should be about a huge Unnatural event, but as a Handler I appreciate a certain thread or plotline to focus through, be it possible UFOs, a cult, a weird creature or whatever. Here I didn’t get that and it left me feeling iffy on the material.
When The Boat Comes In
Escape from Innsmouth: PISCES edition. Good formatting and clear bullet point clues makes this really easy to read and run. I like that the people in town are not into magic nor Unnatural, just fucked up yokels. Haven’t seen much Deep One stuff for PISCES, so this is a good addition to that. I also liked the NPC interactions and what not, which shouldn’t on paper lead to a firefight (especially hard in UK). I didn’t find anything notable that bothered me with this scenario, really liked it.
Operation Ask Alice
Agents search for a missing agent in Dreamlands. I like the pointcrawl concept and proceeding through it, thought the mechanics for observation seem a bit confusing for me, which might imply it being a bit hard to run at the table. Also, I didn’t quite get how you are supposed to kill Dream Haunt (or if at all, if I misunderstood the text) or how you are supposed to control the drones. This could use slightly more explanation or simplification of some of the mechanical stuff, which I get is hard with the text limit, but important to make it easier to run. Good scenario overall.
The Lord and Heaven
Agents need to save a child from an Amish community. This scenario is questionably long, with some of the lore in the theology explanation and slightly in the NPC section. I really liked the maps for the area. I think the info dump in the beginning is necessary (especially when I don’t know much about the subject matter), though it might eat up some time, before going to the actual meat of the scenario, the Amish compound. I don’t know if I like sneaking missions in DG that much, but I at least feel the scenario isn’t a 100% guaranteed firefight. Overall, the detailing is good and I wouldn’t cut it out. Could see this used for players to show how NPCs see Unnatural through their own worldviews. Overall, I liked this scenario.
A Thicc Sickness
Agents involved with a drug bust get attacked by minotaurs. Some notable typos, but nothing that made the text too hard to read. I was a bit confused with the switch for the terms from minotaur to akeloi. While the setup is fine, I think the leadup from the meeting to attack from the minotaurs seems a bit too quick. Also, I could see the agents just getting the drugs and just trying to leave, since nothing really screams to them to stay to go against the monsters. There’s some interesting lore in the appendix, mention of El Yunque being my favorite, but I can’t figure out how to make it useful for the scenario being. Maybe if someone uses this for a campaign starter to investigate these occult drug dealers, it could be a good reference, but the scenario itself just didn’t do much for me for a basic shootout set piece. Some sort of conclusion or trails leaving for the next could’ve been nice as well.
