I tried to ask this in the Delta Green Reddit but it was extremely unhelpful! What do you think is the difference gameplay wise between Delta Green 2017 and Fall of Delta Green. Besides being different systems do you think there is a different style of play? What is stopping someone using Gumshoe for a modern day game and 2017 for a game set in 1969? Thanks!
I love this question, I'd actually love to do a full breakdown of these two editions someday the same way AlfaBusa broke down the different editions of World of Darkness. I actually wrote *so much* the first time I got this question my phone died while I was editing it down and I lost all of it. So here's my second attempt. Bare with me:
I prefer GUMSHOE, regardless of time period. A lot of my players though like the classic D100 system. I think that mostly comes down to chance and progression. Classic Delta Green actually rewards you for fucking around and testing fate by granting you one or two percentage points every time you fail a role. I can understand why it feels like it encourages you to take more risks and play outside your characters comfort zone, and unlike GUMSHOEs point spends there's no reason not to try something you're bad at every time. You aren't going to run out of spends, and baring an alien parasite feasting on your brain your skills can only go up. Sure, you might fumble so bad that you blew yourself up with a claymore but... at least it'll be funny, right?
To most people GUMSHOE / Fall of Delta Green is the much more grounded hardboiled version of the two. You aren't a bunch of cowboy murderhobos, you're professional murderers. Your character knows their strengths and weakness, and they're one of the best in the world at what they do. Skills aren't so much how probable a character is to succeed at a task but "what skill does your character use to succeed." They have a tool belt of experience to fall back on, and they really are that good. But while most investigations will never leave your character at zero spends left, I can understand why people don't like the idea that your character can theoretically just run out ideas and use up that tool belt or point progression being something given out by the Handler in between sessions rather than something that can be earned in the moment to moment gameplay. Broadly though, on the surface Fall of Delta Green agents seem much more buttoned up (and, dare I say, flat) than their roudy D100 siblings who act like they just fell ass-over-teakettle into a Mi Go hive. And for some people thats not as fun.
EXCEPT THEY ARE TOTALLY WRONG BECAUSE GUMSHOE CAN BECOME 🤡 CLOWNSHOES 🤡 WITH THIS ONE WEIRD TRICK.
The best addition to Fall of Delta Green is actually Nights Black Agents. Here's four things from Nights Black Agents you can add to FoDG to COMPLETELY change how you play the game, give it a tier one operator high speed low drag coat of paint for any era, and WELL OUTWEIGH the perceived benefits of d100 DG:
Preparedness and Bureaucracy Rework-- Preparedness alone in Fall of Delta Green is a game changer by answering the dilemma of "man every time I need a new gun I need to roleplay going to the Gun-Carry, Gun-Ross army-navy surplus store and counting out our petty cash fund to determine exactly how many bullets I have. What if I just had an Uzi under my jacket with enough ammo to wipe out this entire bowling alley?"... or you know boring shit like "man I wish I had a crowbar RIGHT NOW, hey DM do I have one?" NBA has optional rules to take the same rules that govern Preparedness and apply them to Bureaucracy. Instead of a numerical value of "how good am I at arguing with my parent agency about the collateral I need to requisition the communal AC130" you can instead skip the arguing and treat it like an elevated preparedness role. Your character works within the system offscreen to retroactively get access to privileges only afforded to members of your organization. Simply think "boy I wish we had gunship cover right now" and with an appropriate Bureaucracy roll your character already filed the mission paperwork three weeks ago. Your patron organization is only going to stick their neck out for you so many times though, so unlike other stats Bureaucracy doesn't replenish at the end of a mission. Your character will have to invest progression points into Bureaucracy if they want to keep dipping into it, and can expect to get shit-canned if it hits zero.
Network-- What if you need something done off the books? What if you really wish you had a guy who knows a guy who's willing to move an ungodly amount of Crank no questions asked, and you need them right now without having to consult your character's tragic backstory? Wonder no more, by letting Agents put points into Network they can create Brampton the Hells Angel Biker on the spot for all their black budget needs. Like Beurocracy, Network doesn't replenish on its own but players are allowed to keep the contacts they spend points on between missions to create a web of off-the-books contacts, informants, and assets.
Cover-- Did one of your Agents get caught in a C O M P R O M I S I N G position? No they didn't! With Cover, that State Trooper didn't stop Agent Yancy Grange. They stopped Rusty Sheckleford, beloved member of the Galveston Texas community with the IDs and paper trail to prove it! There's no limit to the amount of aliases you have, but like Bureaucracy and Network Cover doesn't replenish on its own. Once you hit zero your covers blown-- someone somewhere put the pieces together and any future attempts at using your alias will get you recognized.
Roleplay based skill feats like TECHNOTHRILLER MONOLOGUE-- NBA is filled with a ton of these and I encourage handlers to pick and chose which ones to offer to their players to dial in the exact level of pulp they want in their campaign setting, and Technothriller Monologue is my favorite. With a sufficiently high Firearms skill Agents can get the equivalent of an Action Surge by describing in Tom Clancy-esque detail exactly how they squeezed the trigger before canoe-ing a cultist so badly they blow out their brains through the back of their neck.
