(Delta Green) Should I Run it as Written?

[ekarney]

Hello Everyone

I've recently started running Delta Green for a group of two players, we're a couple of sessions in and things are going well, however as a GM/Handler I've noticed that I'm going relatively easy on my players, and I think it's because certain parts of the Handler's Guide are very heavy handed when telling the Handler to take away player control and make the characters helpless. However from running other games I've noticed that removing player agency, even for a tiny amount of time leads to frustration from both me and the players.

So my question is, have I been doing lack of control wrong? If so could someone please provide examples of where making PC's helpless has actually lead to a better time at the table?

[thorr-kan]

Isn't character helplessness part and parcel of Delta Green and Call of Cthulhu?

[comicshorse]

There are degree's of helplessness. Delta Green P.C.s are not going to kill the Great Old One's, they're probably not going to bring down Majestic 12. They can arrest the cult that is kidnapping female students and sacrificing them or hunt down and kill the Ghoul pack that has got a taste for fresh meat. Or even, at the end of a campaign, destroy a group like Karotechia.
If they can't do ANYTHING there's no point in playing but its a integral part of the background/world that there are forces out there more powerful and monstrous than they can know

[Duff]

That's really your call.
Will your players hate it if you take away their control?

Are you the sort of GM who can create a compelling story that will grip the players emotionally even if they can't change much?
If you are that GM, are your players the sort who'll enjoy that? It can be amazing with the right group, but if not, then don't do it.

[Alcore]

Depends on the people. One group i had were half and half role players and roll players. One staple of the system was "let the villain retreat" and half of them didn't. They were blind by some blood fury.

So half the characters died on a spaceship light years away with no way to read the controls or use them, no surviving crew (prinsoners? What's that?) And no food and water to speak of. They were pissed.


They hung themselves and they blame me. Truly i do have some blame; i handed them the rope.

[Talyn]

Personally, I'd never run Delta Green as-written, because I have zero interest in games where the PCs literally can't save the day. (See also: everything in Old WoD, some of the Warhammer 40k stuff.)

Take the fluff as written from an in-universe perspective, and a defeatist one at that, and then have your PCs start kicking ass and fixing stuff.

[druid91]

Personally, I'd never run Delta Green as-written, because I have zero interest in games where the PCs literally can't save the day. (See also: everything in Old WoD, some of the Warhammer 40k stuff.)

Take the fluff as written from an in-universe perspective, and a defeatist one at that, and then have your PCs start kicking ass and fixing stuff.

Eh. Old WoD has Mage. Which is literally 'You can save the world if only you believe hard enough' the game.