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Delta Green: Kali Ghati $4.99
Average Rating:4.7 / 5
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Delta Green: Kali Ghati
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Delta Green: Kali Ghati
Publisher: Arc Dream Publishing
by Trevor D. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/08/2022 09:20:19

My gaming group has met consistently for several years. We tend to play D&D. They generally aren’t open to new systems, but it’s my personal goal to bring new games to the table. In the last two years, we’ve tried five new systems. Each has been a good experience, but none have stuck. Delta Green was number six.

Preparation

I picked up Kali Ghati and read through it. It seemed like a good scenario. It is presented linearly – go to a base in Afghanistan to investigate a missing agent. Progress to the nearby town. Finally, search for the hidden village.

I then listened to a live play of the scenario where the author Shane Ivey is the Handler. It’s on Spotify and the folks who do it are Red Moon Roleplaying. That was extremely helpful and enjoyable. They didn’t do either of the combat scenarios, but it was still excellent. I took notes simplifying the adventure into 5 encounters. 1 – FOB Turner 2 – Quluj Khel 3 – Ambush 4 – Kali Ghati 5- Temple.

With the Need to Know quick-start rules, the adventure scenario, and the live play podcast, I felt prepared to run a session with only about 5-6 hours of prep time, most of which was listening to the podcast on my commute. Such a minimal time investment for a new scenario and new system was excellent!

Bringing it to the table

For ease, we used the 6 pregens in the adventure (yes, all 6 of my players showed for both sessions!) They were good characters that we all enjoyed.

We played through the whole scenario in two sessions, stopping the first session after the ambush. The initial arrival, investigation, etc was straightforward. The players adapted quickly to thinking vice rolling. They moved well between scenes and their decisions were their own.

The push towards Varjita mountain and Kali Ghati led to the ambush. That scene was awesome. Only 2 of the 6 pregens had a rifle, the rest only pistols. They had not thought to ask for rifles before. It led to a few sanity rolls for violence and was a gentle introduction to that mechanic. It also allowed a quick introduction of lethality, but on an NPC (the poor gunner in the 2nd MRAP). I didn’t offer them army NPCs. They enjoyed just trying to survive and were quite creative about it.

That first session took four hours. I thought it was a good first session and the group was high on the intensity of the fire fight.

We started session two with them moving on to Kali Ghati. They engaged the villagers in some unexpected ways, but the descriptions in the scenario module equipped me to improvise.

With guides from the village, they went up the mountain to the underground temple. An epic fight broke out and the big nasty thing awoke. The PCs ran madly for their lives. It was glorious levels of insanity, death, and chaos. The players were freaking out and absolutely loving it. When the ones who lived managed to get out of the temple, I described the loud cries of ecstasy from the village. That allowed them to choose another combat or run. They decided to go down the side of the mountain away from the village and called for evac from there.

Conclusion

As I wrapped up the session, two of them asked for closing scenes to reflect on their decisions, sacrificed bonds, and breaking points. The whole table was into it.

Three of the players liked it plenty but would rather have stronger PCs and stay with the d20 system. They are the ones who have gone patiently with me into other RPG lands but always want to return to D&D.

The other three players approached me a week later. “That was the best RPG session I’ve ever played in,” one said. The other two agreed. They want a smaller, regular Delta Green session just the four of us. Looks like I’ve finally found a new game system that might stick for a while!

Personally, I loved it. The system and the adventure are both very well done. I’m excited to take the smaller group on more investigations/adventures. Kali Ghati was a fantastic starting point and a very well written adventure. Highly recommended!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Delta Green: Kali Ghati
Publisher: Arc Dream Publishing
by Megan R. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 11/02/2018 09:54:23

The situation is simple. A Delta Green operative has gone missing from a US military base in Afghanistan. The party, also Delta Green operatives, are sent to find out what happened - and retrieve the missing person if possible. It's assumed that the party are already in Afghanistan - as soldiers, intelligence agents, civilian contractors or the like - and some pregenerated characters are provided if required. In a delightful twist, they're told that whatever they really are, they will pose as CIA agents who are posing as Army intelligence specialists and civilian advisors... and of course, they are not supposed to let on that they are CIA, never mind Delta Green!

The background information for the Handler (GM) explains what the missing man was doing, and why he was in this particular base in the first place. There's also comprehensive information about the base itself and the few people still there - it was in the process of being handed over to the Afghani Army as the Americans reduce their presence in country. Gathering information about the agent's disappearance will require a lot of interaction, and all that's needed to role-play this to effect is provided. Everything seems to be centred on a mysterious village called Kali Ghati, which nobody seems prepared to admit exists, let alone want to go there.

This should be enough to get the party wanting to go there. Naturally, it's not exactly safe driving through Taliban-infested country, never mind the sort of issues Delta Green is there to combat... and there's a neat firefight to get through before they actually reach the place (not to mention that they might be on foot by then, with a harsh environment to contend with along with all their other ills). Eventually they'll get there, and find a weird bunch of villagers to interact with - again, you're given what you need to make them come alive in the game.

The climax of the adventure takes place in a cliff-top temple, which the party will have to climb up to and explore... and survive, if they can. Overall, it's a neat little adventure suitable for use as a one-off or campaign starter (for either of which you might use the pre-generated characters) or, if you have a reasonably military-oriented group, something you can weave into an existing campaign. Alien horrors, unfamiliar cultures, sheer desperation that could so easily turn into despair... it's all here.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Delta Green: Kali Ghati
Publisher: Arc Dream Publishing
by A customer [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/11/2016 17:45:53

This scenario is an interesting read, and it is not a bad script for a Cthulhu-themed movie. Unfortunately, it is probably not a good scenario to run as a game. Alas. I'd only recommend it if the DM is either willing to use the PDF as a starting point then make major modifications to the scenario, or if you have players who are big fans of action & combat.

The fundamental issue is that there aren't really any points in this scenario where the players get any actual agency to make a decision, to choose whether to trust someone, to understand a situation and make the right call. The only way that you can really derail the scenario is via doing well or poorly in combat, and, well, that isn't really what Cthulhu is usually about, right? It'd certainly be very anti-climatic, IMHO, to have the party slain in straight-up combat against normal humans with guns. There are games that are based around small-squad tactics which you can play instead if you want to do that that have much better systems than Delta Green does for handling combat situations and making that interesting and gripping. The PDF is rather blase on this point, lightly recommending that characters with non-combat oriented investigators can simply take over US Army NPCs provided in combat. I don't think "drop your current characters and play War in Afghanistan Simulator with these soldiers" is what most people are expecting here.

Anyway, I don't want to spoil the scenario too much, but there's likely to be one combat on the way to Kali Ghati, then another combat at Kali Ghati. There isn't really a good way to avoid these combats short of "roll lucky" or "abandon mission". There isn't a solution or a way to fix things other than shooting your way out. There isn't a way to usefully earn the trust of the opposition. This is fine in Dungeons & Dragons / Pathfinder, not so fine in Cthulhu IMHO, whose system for combat is not great. Play to your strengths, not your weaknesses!



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
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Delta Green: Kali Ghati
Publisher: Arc Dream Publishing
by Edward M. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/29/2016 10:12:48

Delta Green is the roleplaying result of August Derleth and Tom Clancy getting trapped in a teleporter accident. Full of veresimilitudinous military/intel action in a world where you could actually see humanity interacting with the denizens of Lovecraft's feverish "imagination."

This little adventure plaes the PCs in the ever-unpleasant hinterlands of the Hindu Kush in the even more unpleasant world of 2015 (or thereabouts). It's not a big adventure, but as usual for CoC, the implications of failure could be huge. I was particularly amused by how it takes account of likely PC actions like calling in airstrikes, using drones and trying to run off on their own...

Advantage: It's so realistic! Disadvantage: It's so realistic!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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