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Ending The Conspiracy
🕑 Added 2021-09-10 22:39:32 +0000 UTCThe image above is from a 1995 issue of The Unspeakable Oath, two years after Delta Green first appeared in "Convergence" and two years before the book Delta Green finally saw print.
We're reworking that book for its 25th anniversary in Delta Green: The Conspiracy. You've probably heard about its Kickstarter. It has an hour or so to go if you're a late joiner. All things end, after all. Even time has its fate coming as the all the matter that produces it dissolves into entropy.
In the meantime, we're getting together on Twitch in a few minutes to watch the Conspiracy clock count down to zero. Join us and ask questions if you like. It'll be me, Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Caleb Stokes, and John Scott Tynes.
https://www.twitch.tv/deltagreenrpg
THE DREAMING MAN
And finally, a glimpse into my own ancient archives. Back when Delta Green was new, before Countdown, I ran a DG campaign by online text chat called "Operation SANDMAN." I wrote a fair bit of material for it along the way. Is it any good? Who knows. This was 1998. I'll be reviewing it in detail, soon, because I *think* some of the ideas may have been worth preserving. We'll see.
This is a handout that I gave to the players back then.
Chemical analysis of the "Dreaming Man" drug has been conducted by chemists with Delta Green clearance within the past three months. They concluded that the drug is synthetic, combining laboratory-mixed stimulants with an unknown organic compound which could not be positively identified as either animal or vegetable in nature. Studies of the organic element's properties have been inconclusive. It is not carbon-based; nor is it based on any identified element.
The effect of ingestion is most acute when the bluish-black flakes are burned and the fumes inhaled, but longer-lasting effects can be achieved with oral and especially with intravenous ingestion, typically by mixing the flakes with water for an appropriate medium. Users under the influence of the drug report a sense of dissociation from reality, vertigo, ennui, hunger, and unnatural perceptions of distance and time. More unusual, however, is the fact these effects are sometimes experienced by individuals near a user who have not taken the drug themselves. Such transference of effect has been observed after presence for five minutes at a of proximity of about six feet. The cause of this effect is unknown.
The drug is physically addictive. The addictive component seems to be the unknown organic element, since the stimulants used are not known to produce such severe dependency. Withdrawal usually occurs after six or seven ingestions of the drug over a period of ten to twenty days. Withdrawal is more pronounced for heavier users. It typically sets in after twenty-four hours, and is marked by muscle cramps and spasms, cyanosis, nausea, vertigo, fever, and violent but vague hallucinations.
When cultured, the inert organic element of the drug undergoes startling revitalization, becoming a living organism within the host system. Additional samples of the inert organic element perform in the same manner, but they also combine with the animate element within the host system to form a single living organic mass in symbiosis with the host cells. Removed from the host system, the organic element returns to its inert state.
These effects were the same regardless of the physical state of the drug from which the sample came. The organic element rendered gaseous resolidified and became animate when introduced to a host organism and then combined with a prior animate sample.
In live laboratory test subject animals, the organic element consistently seems to accumulate in the brainstem of the subject, possibly explaining some of the drugís effects upon perception and cognition. Subjects with greater premortem exposure to the element were found with greater premortem and postmortem accumulations. It apparently becomes inert again after the death of the host.
Comments
Arc Dream Publishing
I got a copy in the mail as a subscriber back in the day. Seeing the ad was a thrill. I'd been playing homebrew DG games for friends ever since Convergence appeared in 1993 and corresponded often with John and Dennis on AOL.
Arc Dream Publishing
We might add a couple of sidebars about technology and communications but it won't be extensive.
Kristoph Yakeba
I actually ended up with a copy of that issue! It was quite a surprise to see that!
Congratulations to you, Caleb and the Delta Green partnership! I've been meaning to ask but could never make the "bugging A-cell" streams -- Will the new Conspiracy version summarize the 90s the way that Fall of Delta Green summed up the 60s? Both as a timeline, differences in cultural norms, law enforcement, and particularly a timeline of computers, laptops, the internet and cellphones. It seems a scenario set in the early 90s could have pretty different expectations from those set in the late 90s, and even those of us who were adults in these years may have a problem remembering when exactly certain technologies became more widely used. What year would a law enforcement officer be able to search a database online, etc.?
