Hey Forum Friends™!
I need help with a character concept! Specifically, I need help with a Call of Cthulu character concept! Even more specifically, I need help with a Call of Cthulu character concept for a setting called Delta Green. Delta Green is basically, "What if the US government found out about supernatural stuff and had agents to deal with the stuff and to keep it under wraps?" And then the setting advances the timeline a few decades. We're going to play in the 80s.
When the GM put out a vote for the classic CoC setting or Delta Green, I voted for the classic setting, because everyday folks going up against the supernatural is more interesting to me than FBI agents and a squad of Marines doing the same. Maybe that's why I'm having trouble coming up with a concept?
A few things about the setting: there's not a specific Cthulu department or anything. The idea is that Delta Green is a covert group that spans many US agencies, with agents coming together when a threat arises. The setting does allow for non-governmental employees, but the book specifically states that there should only be one or two of these per party. Also, this is not specifically stated, but the obvious intent is that these characters have to be useful somehow to a mission. There's no reason the FBI group leader is going to call up a plumber to help out just because he's seen a weird tentacle coming up from the sewer one time.
Delta Green still has the usual CoC trappings of fear, insanity, and personal sacrifice.
Here's the concepts I've come up with so far:
1) Inspired by my trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton this summer, I was thinking of a character who's a National Park Ranger. He encountered something awful in the forest one time, and so he encountered and was useful to the Delta Green team that was handling it. He's got tracking, survival, and other wilderness skills out the wazoo.
The problem is that there's another guy who made a wilderness type character before I could get this guy made. I don't want too much redundancy. Also, it's really hard to pair up a park ranger with the professions and agencies available in the Delta Green player's guide. Not impossible, but it feels like the setting really wants characters more focused on espionage/investigation and combat.
2) The second concept I came up with is a long-distance trucker. I figure there's plenty of opportunity to encounter something spooky on an empty road in the middle of nowhere. This is kind of a shallow concept, but I could add unrelated skills if needed.
The problem is that the core concept wouldn't be valuable to the team. Would a government agent with various contacts really need a guy who has a semi when he knows helicopter pilots or military transport personnel?
3) The third concept that I came up with as I was writing this is more of a joke concept, I realized. I was going to make a postal worker, because that's still part of the federal government, and I was going to make him constantly harp about how the USPS is a laudable, honorable organization, and then I'd make him an over-the-top adrenaline junkie commando. But I realized that's a comedy character and might not be appreciated at the table.
So, that's what I've got so far. I'm just looking for broad concepts, if anyone thinks of anything, not full-on character builds. Thanks!
Yellowstone & Grand Teton makes me think of a character who is a geologist who, during a USGS-funded trip to the remote Western US, found fossils that were both too complex for their depth/age and also matched no known life on Earth at any geological era. Tugging the thread of that curiosity led them to uncover a group within USGS tasked with concealing evidence of these ancient malevolent intelligences who, in some cases, may still be slumbering instead of dead.
Their party role is as the civilian expert attached to the military unit. A single stint in any one of the armed services gives them the basics to contribute in a fire-fight, but their real specialty is being the brain that the brawn has to carry around.
A county sheriff’s deputy. There are some very large counties in the west, a person could see some strange things while patrolling the vast empty spaces.
Does Delta Green use the CoC rules? More specifically, does it use 7th edition CoC.
Asking for a friend (yo!).
Does Delta Green use the CoC rules? More specifically, does it use 7th edition CoC.
Asking for a friend (yo!).
Delta Green is actually a standalone RPG, and not just a setting or CoC. I think. Looking for an answer for you, I saw a comment that the DG rules are sort of a mix-up of 6th and 7th edition CoC rules.
EDIT: But there have been previous versions of DG that were just splatbooks for whatever the current CoC version at the time was. I think.
Yellowstone & Grand Teton makes me think of a character who is a geologist who, during a USGS-funded trip to the remote Western US, found fossils that were both too complex for their depth/age and also matched no known life on Earth at any geological era. Tugging the thread of that curiosity led them to uncover a group within USGS tasked with concealing evidence of these ancient malevolent intelligences who, in some cases, may still be slumbering instead of dead.
Their party role is as the civilian expert attached to the military unit. A single stint in any one of the armed services gives them the basics to contribute in a fire-fight, but their real specialty is being the brain that the brawn has to carry around.
A county sheriff’s deputy. There are some very large counties in the west, a person could see some strange things while patrolling the vast empty spaces.
These are pretty good ideas, thanks!
The geologist could also be an archaeologist/anthropologist. I see that the USGS angle makes the character tied to the government, which isn't a necessity, but I feel like I might have conveyed that that's my preference. It's not necessarily, but it does make fitting the character into the campaign easier.
The sheriff is also good, because it's an adaptable concept. The GM coulc just make my guy a sheriff in whatever area the first adventure takes place in.
Does Delta Green use the CoC rules? More specifically, does it use 7th edition CoC.
Asking for a friend (yo!).
Delta Green is actually a standalone RPG, and not just a setting or CoC. I think. Looking for an answer for you, I saw a comment that the DG rules are sort of a mix-up of 6th and 7th edition CoC rules.
EDIT: But there have been previous versions of DG that were just splatbooks for whatever the current CoC version at the time was. I think.
That's what I thought. I just figured I'd ask since you have first hand experience.
I see it all the time at my store but they have everything shrink wrapped.
Delta Green: The Complex adds a bunch of new careers, including six careers for the Natural Park Service - lots of options for you there. It also has a few novel options; your badass commando is a lot more grounded as a member of the Coast Guard, while you could really stand out coming from NASA!
Thanks for everyone's suggestions. I'm going with a variation of quibblemuch's archaeologist idea. I hope he doesn't die horribly or go insane! I have high hopes!
Or both.
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Thanks for everyone's suggestions. I'm going with a variation of quibblemuch's archaeologist idea. I hope he doesn't die horribly or go insane! I have high hopes!
If he doesn't you're playing it wrong.
Agreed.
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My Delta Green story has nothing to do with having ever played it, because like the guy in this story, I'm dropping this in outta nowhere.
One of the guys I used to game with would just start talking about his Delta Green campaign right in the middle of practically anything else going on (usually combat rounds in PF). He's the only one of us who plays the game and would just start talking about how his players were on missions to gather supplies for a much larger mission in the future of his campaign, apropos of nothing LOL.
Thanks for everyone's suggestions. I'm going with a variation of quibblemuch's archaeologist idea. I hope he doesn't die horribly or go insane! I have high hopes!If he doesn't you're playing it wrong.
No, things will be different this time, I'm sure of it!