SHOTGUN CONTEST 2024: Reviews.
This is going to be my attempt to read and review as many entries from the 2024 shotgun contest as possible. This contest has become notorious in past years for the sheer volume of entries, so I will be trying to read these and give my honest thoughts on them as they are sent in. So yeah. Fun. This isn't following any sort of metric of guideline and is just what my thoughts on the scenarios.
I eventually got burnt out of reading all of these entries, and don't really feel inclined to read more. sooooo here's the damage:
THE POLYGRAPH
I found the polygraph to be an interesting setpiece, and it's a rare one. I always appreciate Delta Green scenarios that are "mundane" in that aliens or zombies or monsters are not present, but still play up the cloak-and-dagger conspiracy angle of the game. This really did it. I think this is a very nice little scenario to throw at agents to really make them squirm, and I can see Miller and Tanya being persistent nuisances to agents in future scenarios.
Solid work. I don't know it'll make the cut for voting for me personally, but a very tightly written and concise piece of writing. Cudos to the author.
Solid work. I don't know it'll make the cut for voting for me personally, but a very tightly written and concise piece of writing. Cudos to the author.
NIGHT TERRORS
Night Terrors is probably the first scenario submitted so far that I would actually consider running. I found this to be a highly compelling scenario that fits neatly into the word limit of the shotgun contest. it is clearly written with inspired and grounded encounters that I could see making for some very memorable moments at the table.
My biggest criticism is that I think the scenario absolutely needs pregens to be truly playable at a moment's notice, which is sort of the whole idea of the shotgun contest, as well a statblock for your average German soldier would have been greatly appreciated. I write this as someone who made the same mistake last year with my scenario Coke Room, but writing scenarios that don't involve normal Delta Green agents need to have pregens to be played on the fly. If it had these, I would have seriously considered giving it my vote. Solid and inspired work from the author.
My biggest criticism is that I think the scenario absolutely needs pregens to be truly playable at a moment's notice, which is sort of the whole idea of the shotgun contest, as well a statblock for your average German soldier would have been greatly appreciated. I write this as someone who made the same mistake last year with my scenario Coke Room, but writing scenarios that don't involve normal Delta Green agents need to have pregens to be played on the fly. If it had these, I would have seriously considered giving it my vote. Solid and inspired work from the author.
LOVEBITTEN
I found reading this scenario incredibly difficult to read and follow, and I don't really see much for the agents to do other than talk to some people about vampires attacking a prom, watch a video tape of said attack, learning about some teenagers who killed some vampires with a laser pistol, and then try to contrive a cover-up for the disapperance of about 210 people from a rural high school.
This investigation's main mystery isn't really even a mystery, you go and find a standing stone where the school used to be, no clues there other than the blood that oozes from it "matches all of the victims' DNA". Then the school just reappears and you get to watch a video tape depicting a bunch of high schoolers getting murdered by vampires with random people just appearing to kill teenagers and teenaged vampires. The fact that some of the survivors than show up a while later on opposite ends of the country is also puzzling, and none of this is given any explanation, nor are the agents in any position to "learn" anything or even really prevent anything from happening. You just sort of watch as random shit happens and then you're asked to contrive a cover up.
The scenario's suggested options for contriving a cover up are anemic to the point of almost being laughable. As if a rural town losing 210 of its children and teachers suddenly can more or less be swept under the rug no questions asked. Agents are suggested to "falsify evidence of arson" and "sabotage", or to procure bodies from the county morgue, I assume to pass off as the bodies of the missing? Okay, cool, you show a parent a random body and say its their kid. "No it's not" they say, or maybe you do somehow convince them that it's their child's body. "Okay, what about the other 209."
This scenario seems very confused as to what it wants to be about and what it wants to do, and that confusion just rubs right off onto the handler, and if they decide to put their players through it, they'll wind up just as confused and more than a little frustrated.
I found reading this scenario incredibly difficult to read and follow, and I don't really see much for the agents to do other than talk to some people about vampires attacking a prom, watch a video tape of said attack, learning about some teenagers who killed some vampires with a laser pistol, and then try to contrive a cover-up for the disapperance of about 210 people from a rural high school.
This investigation's main mystery isn't really even a mystery, you go and find a standing stone where the school used to be, no clues there other than the blood that oozes from it "matches all of the victims' DNA". Then the school just reappears and you get to watch a video tape depicting a bunch of high schoolers getting murdered by vampires with random people just appearing to kill teenagers and teenaged vampires. The fact that some of the survivors than show up a while later on opposite ends of the country is also puzzling, and none of this is given any explanation, nor are the agents in any position to "learn" anything or even really prevent anything from happening. You just sort of watch as random shit happens and then you're asked to contrive a cover up.
The scenario's suggested options for contriving a cover up are anemic to the point of almost being laughable. As if a rural town losing 210 of its children and teachers suddenly can more or less be swept under the rug no questions asked. Agents are suggested to "falsify evidence of arson" and "sabotage", or to procure bodies from the county morgue, I assume to pass off as the bodies of the missing? Okay, cool, you show a parent a random body and say its their kid. "No it's not" they say, or maybe you do somehow convince them that it's their child's body. "Okay, what about the other 209."
This scenario seems very confused as to what it wants to be about and what it wants to do, and that confusion just rubs right off onto the handler, and if they decide to put their players through it, they'll wind up just as confused and more than a little frustrated.
This investigation's main mystery isn't really even a mystery, you go and find a standing stone where the school used to be, no clues there other than the blood that oozes from it "matches all of the victims' DNA". Then the school just reappears and you get to watch a video tape depicting a bunch of high schoolers getting murdered by vampires with random people just appearing to kill teenagers and teenaged vampires. The fact that some of the survivors than show up a while later on opposite ends of the country is also puzzling, and none of this is given any explanation, nor are the agents in any position to "learn" anything or even really prevent anything from happening. You just sort of watch as random shit happens and then you're asked to contrive a cover up.
The scenario's suggested options for contriving a cover up are anemic to the point of almost being laughable. As if a rural town losing 210 of its children and teachers suddenly can more or less be swept under the rug no questions asked. Agents are suggested to "falsify evidence of arson" and "sabotage", or to procure bodies from the county morgue, I assume to pass off as the bodies of the missing? Okay, cool, you show a parent a random body and say its their kid. "No it's not" they say, or maybe you do somehow convince them that it's their child's body. "Okay, what about the other 209."
This scenario seems very confused as to what it wants to be about and what it wants to do, and that confusion just rubs right off onto the handler, and if they decide to put their players through it, they'll wind up just as confused and more than a little frustrated.
CORRIDOR/TOWER
This one very clearly takes inspiration from Exit 8, a horror game last year about trying to escape a weird subway station tunnel while weird shit keeps happening to you. It reminds me a lot of The Night Floors by Dennis Detwiller, in that your agents are stuck in a weird, impossible space trying to escape while surviving a bunch of weird encounters. Corridor/Tower copies the progression mechanic from Exit 8 beat-for-beat (turning back and walking the opposite direction at specific times can let you progress to the next stage or can get you into a "dangerous event or monster encounter"), something that I can easily see getting very messy if and when you are working with a group of players and they get split up. The monster encounters are okay, but nothing really inspired.
This scenario doesn't really strike me, it reminds me of BESTOW in a lot of ways, though it doesn't really do anything that would make me go "I'll run this instead of BESTOW". It being something that can be recurring in a campaign is a nice touch.
This scenario doesn't really strike me, it reminds me of BESTOW in a lot of ways, though it doesn't really do anything that would make me go "I'll run this instead of BESTOW". It being something that can be recurring in a campaign is a nice touch.
RELIEF
This one I found interesting. I like the threat and the "black-hole spawn" are neat. Reminds me lots of The Lonely. A bit big to realistically be ran as a shotgun scenario maybe, but who knows. Not bad.
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ELIAS WELLS
This one is interesting. I like the clue involving the two maps and the house has some adequately intersting setpieces in it for scares. I'm not sure what to think of the finale, but it's far from the weakest i've encountered so far. I'm a little annoyed that the villain of the scenario doesn't get a statblock, though.
OPERATION CAULIFLOWER E.A.R
I liked this scenario for the same reason that I liked the Polygraph. It's a mundane scenario that still manages to deliver on a pretty high degree of tension. What I don't really like is that the agents don't get to really do anything until Harry and Hunk are going at it, although if your group is good with roleplay this might not be an issue, though for pick-up games, that's not something you can always rely on. The scenario could have started in media res with Harry and Hunk's game of five-finger-fillet with the rest being a quick "this is what you were doing".
Not bad, and I appreciate the list of other little things you can add or subtract from the scenario to help ratchet up the tension.
Not bad, and I appreciate the list of other little things you can add or subtract from the scenario to help ratchet up the tension.
OYSTERS AND SALT BEEF
This is an odd one. I'm not sure if this was the intention of the scenario, but it does do a decent little job of showing just how fucking evil the Program is for Operation SOMERSAULT. I didn't find it amazingly compelling though, but might not be a terrible scenario to throw into a long-form campaign.
RED MINSTREL
I appreciate this one for being a scenario set outside the United States, which is something that we generally don't really have enough of. I will say that this is a pretty direct case of "full-length scenario has its arms and legs sawed off to fit inside the shotgun-scenario-sized briefcase". The Nahual are cool antagonists.
SUBJECT 'T'
Reads like one of Dennis two-minute terrors or whatever they were called. It's not bad, but is pretty bare and doesn't really hook me enough to make me want to insert into my game.
SIGMA LYCANTHROPUS
Now this one really hooked me. I wasn't so sure at the beginning, I was sort of thinking "so wait, why don't we just make this about the 90s Karotechia instead making a new backgroud for this new karotechia" and then i saw why. Really unique scenario with some unique concepts. My biggest crticisms are that I would have made the March Tech facility a bit more focused in what it's actually researching, rather than just a collection of three different scary things, and that this scenario really would have worked with pregens that came ready to play, though having character creation guidelines is a plus.
A CANTICLE OF WHISPERS
This had some interesting stuff, though I was a little confused reading it. Not bad.
BLOOD OF THE COVEN, WATER OF THE WOMB
The primary thing that annoys me here is that the hook is laughably weak. A deputy finds a discarded fetus, goes to a teenager he knows is pregnant and sees that she's still pregnant. That's not evidence of the unnatural, that just means you went to the worng pregnant lady's house dawg. I know it later states that later the fetus was shown to be 50% ruby's genes, but even then that's a pretty flimsy pretext for Delta Green to say "yep, definitely wizard stuff going on here". I wasn't overly impressed by the rest of the scenario.
HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS
I privately suspect the same author is behind this as Sigma Lycanthropus, seeing that they're both scenarios wherein you play the "bad guys" in typical Delta Green, and also have the same flaws. I'll say that the idea that the Program is sharing a containment facility with bitcoin miners and hutterites is a bit silly, but i can tolerate a bit of silly. No pregens is a bit of a bummer, again.
BLUE-ON-GREEN
This is an interesting setpiece to throw in, this certainly smacks of Caleb Stokes or Ross Payton's tastes. I could see this band of dickheads being a interesting challenge to throw into a scenario as a red-herring plot element, though I'd be hesitant to just run this on its own - which sort of defeats the purpose of it being a shotgun scenario.
OPERATION DEATHRATTLE
well its not everyday you read a scenario where the world is fully fucking ending. interesting. I skimmed this one and thought it had some neat ideas, it being a scenario where the world is ending makes it a little hard to run it as part of a campaign, unless you like how the world ends here, in which case knock yourself out. This could be & should be a bigger scenario.
DEAD MAN'S HAND
I didn't think I'd like this one as much as I did. Cool stuff. the L'Gy'Hxian behaving like one of the mimics from Prey 2 makes for a neat little bad guy to deal with.
FALSE TIDES
Interesting scenario, though I wonder how often you will have agents that will actually put it together that they're being used by SV-8 to kill a bunch of Aleutians and won't just thoughtlessly massacre a whole bunch of innocent people because "muh deep ones".
LET ME GROW, LET ME DIE
Not a bad concept, reminded me of the logging camp sinister seed from the jam earlier this year i think it was. Didn't really jump out at me as something I desperately needed to play. not bad, but so-so.
THE MADNESS THAT SILENCE BRINGS
This one was aight. wasn't overly compelled by the static monster.
FEEL THE RHYTHM
Pretty standard set up, not bad. Instrument of the Old Ones is a decently interesting monster, but nothing that really strikes me.
OPERATION PACIFIC DREAM
I liked this one. I'm a sucker for stuff that goes international and I like the enemy in this scenario. Bonus points for making me laugh with the victim's bad replica katana giving a penalty to interacting with the Japanese and a bonus to interacting with fellow american dipshits.
SOARING SUN
I didn't mind this, it pulls an "occam's razor" type twist that works decently because it still gives the agents a reason to give a fuck about what's going on but I also just don't find those kinds of twists overly enticing.
THE VARGINHA INCIDENT
This scenario wastes its word count giving backstory to a Brazilian Delta Green and a dogfight between the Brazilian military and UFOs in which a half-dozen fighter jets are destroyed by aliens that the Brazilians somehow manage to cover up and you're told to just run with that. The Brazilian Delta Green also just left an alien in a freezer and fucked off, leaving their specimen to thaw in a freezer in their old ass derelcit facility. This scenario could have saved so much of its word count and made itself about twice as interesting if they just dropped all the stuff with the Brazilian Delta Green and Majestic and instead just made it a scenario about Delta Green agents fighting the Karotechia (you know, the guys from the canon who are already chillin' in the brazil?) Gameplay didn't really stand out enough to me to wash down the annoyance of the backstory.
WIZARDS!
This scenario had me with its little blurb on the shotgun scenario page and then totally lost me in the write up. Would have been cooler if it featured Mellonbread's G-Cell and then a gang of dipshit wizards that G-Cell ends up getting into a fight with.
FROM THE DUST
See above but other way around. Wasn't really into the blurb on the main page but this one really grew on me, though it's not totally my favorite. I think featuring the Crawling Ones is an inspired choice, though I would have also looked to The Festival, the story the Crawling Ones originate from, and lifted some material from that to really make the cult in this scenario unique (Tulzscha, Byakhees, etc.). Shub is cool (I am a unapologetic Skoptsi liker, after all) but there's a million Shub scenarios and no Tulzscha ones, oh well!
BETTER LEFT FORGOTTEN
PvP scenarios are rare for a reason. They can very tricky to run, especially as a pick-up game, and especially in a scenario where the agents don't realize one of their own is the bad guy. I'd have to see how this did in playtesting before I can really say its good or not.
FIRST DAY JITTERS
S'alright, a handler's summary would have been appreciated. This one isn't bad though.
SWEET AS HONEY
Bees! Not really my style but it wasn't bad.
TIMELESS PURSUIT
This one's pretty cool. I sort of wish the thing possessing the guy was something other than a Lloigor but that's just me. I though the addition of the K'n-Yani was neat.
CRYPTOPHASIA
The mechanics for Aklo as a language virus here are really fucking cool. I like them.
CARGO
I like the premise for this one, though reading it I could see this scenario quickly becoming an immense headache for players and the handler, as a huge part of it is just jurisdictional dick-measuring against like a dozen other agencies.
THE NIGHTSIDE OF EDEN
This one has lots of art which I know bothers some people, I am not one. Very complex scenairo with an odd layout. I can't say I hate it, but I don't know if I'd play it.
EX LIBRIS BERMUDA CARDIFF
All Welsh are Yithians.
Neurocysticercosis - or How I Learned to Love the Worm in my Brain
Big fan of this one actually. One of the few Shan scenarios I've seen in a while and a very investing one at that. This one is likely going to be getting my vote.
GLASS HOUND IN A GLASS HOUSE
This one also is very strong.
ALPHABET SOUP
This scenario succeeds at being a genuinely disturbing piece of writing without crossing any major lines. I like it a lot.
My Scenarios
I wrote Visitation and Basilisk, Vistation is the one that seems to have gotten the most amount of positive attention, but Basilisk is the one I actually prefer. A consistent criticism I've gotten with Basilisk is that the index is about the length of the scenario itself, a few people have even argued that the inclusion of physical descriptions and motivations / disorders counts as scenario text and aught to have been disqualified. I won't go so far as to say that these are invalid criticism, but I strongly disagree with them.
Even bare-bones statblocks will grossly inflate the word count, but beyond that, it's my opinion handlers will appreciate more detailed statblocks for NPCs and villains rather than just "idk they have a gun it's at 30% i guess". Likewise with the named characters and their entourages having different stats. And I felt the small blocks of text for players to read to help them get into character with their pregen would help enhance the scenario.
Vistation is better for index length and such, a criticism for this one is that it's too era and setting specific, though this seems like something most players would be willing to overlook. They're not going to be talking to Delta Green's leaders during this operation or calling in a hellfire missile, so I think the average play group will go along with "just pretend your characters are as they are now but its 1999" for pickup games.
Vistation is better for index length and such, a criticism for this one is that it's too era and setting specific, though this seems like something most players would be willing to overlook. They're not going to be talking to Delta Green's leaders during this operation or calling in a hellfire missile, so I think the average play group will go along with "just pretend your characters are as they are now but its 1999" for pickup games.
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