#midcon-red

[agentgrange]

FIELD NOTES: POLL UPDATE & OD URANIDES

Long time no see. Apologies for the radio silence the last few weeks, agents. Had to make an unexpected dead drop in Las Vegas. Had a lot of fun *finally* playing my way through the full ARG experience at OmegaMart and visiting Zak Bagan's Haunted Museum. I have some hot takes on both, but walked away with some new ideas on fleshing out MIDCON more and the sort of Black Science threats they'd face.

Anyway, updates below where I discuss the poll's winner (OD URANIDES) and what agents should expect from this faction.

Poll came out to a tie between INCASTLE and Project Uranides, but only if you count my own vote which I only placed to see the results. That means URANIDES just barely ekes out ahead, which will be a unique challenge compared to the others. OD URANIDES, as the name implies, is actually a compilation of *twelve* networks across multiple agencies. Each have developed separately in the wake of the U.S. government's first contact with the "intraspace" entities known as the Lam in the late 1940s. Of course, this all should sound very familiar to anyone with even a small amount of Delta Green experience or cursory knowledge of Majestic-12 myth. Depending on how you want to use my writing though, OD URANIDES can either be an alternative re-imagining of the historical Majestic-12 legend or as something to add to and augment existing Majestic-12 lore in Delta Green. Instead of reacting with unity and enthusiasm for a new power to exploit, what if the twelve members of MAJESTIC reeled in horror and revulsion when faced with something they could never truly understand? What if they go their own ways hoping to forget what they saw but they can't? Imagine those arrogant "men of science" so confident in their domain over the world after their triumph of the atom, faced not with something nuts-and-bolts to scrutinize but something intangible, subjective, and abstract. Taunting them for ever deigning to think they were in control of anything. There's no putting that toothpaste back in the tube. To face the Lam and blink is to be forever drawn into their web of synchronicities while your own anxieties are made manifest through your obsessive need to find some form of closure for what you've seen. In MIDCON twelve men walked out of that meeting in 1947 in frustration and fear, and returned to their respective organizations carrying the seeds of something sinister-- a permanent gnawing urge to gain a better understanding of Intraspace. Once its planted, it grows out horizontally like a rhizome sprouting out in far off places seemingly separate from each other but if you dig just under the surface you'll see it's all still connected to where that seed first took root. From these seeds, twelve distinct memes grew to propagate American research and development in the latter half of the 20th century.

OCEANUS

THETIS

HYPERION

THEA

COEUS

PHOEBE

CRIUS

MNEMOSYNE

IAPETUS

THEMIS

CRONUS

RHEA

These URANIDES aren't coherent subprojects so much as they're twelve strains of the same virus, each mutated by the host it used to break containment. They're a predictable trace-route of otherwise impossible synchronicities that tie together seemingly unrelated Black Science projects. Its reoccurring patterns of dogs that don't bark but should have. Its impeccable circumstances that connect mad scientists and neurotic benefactors by one degree of separation because of a conversation someone just so happened to remember at just the perfect time. Its the elevator pitch for a "very good idea" pulled from thin air that some intern, who until now has been nothing but a sycophant, suddenly has the nerve to share with the executive that's been spending hours trying to think of a solution to the same problem. It's the order to the entropy thats driving humanity closer to the Lam, worming its way through the government. Agent, it's what MIDCON gets when we take the deluge of Black Science threats coming out of the world's skunkworks and learn to separate the signal from the noise. All of these projects, they're all building to something. Something great and terrible set in twelve separate places with twelve different methods all at once. Twelve parallel lines, all inexplicably pointing to one nexus. Whats that nexus? I don't know. We can't know. Not until we arrive there, not until we accidentally build it. For now, its beyond our conceptualization. Its trapped in the realm of Black Sky Thinking, until it falls from the stars into our lap like a tungsten rod.

Look, I don't mean to freak you out. Lets take a step back here Agent. Think of the rhizome again. We have to rip each of these up from the roots, and to do that we need to know where they've all branched out. The best way to do that is to find where it started, what member of Majestic-12 each came from, and work backwards from there. We haven't found out which is which yet but these URANIDES seem to have their own "personalities" and symptoms that we think came from the subconscious of the original host. Preferred pathways they use to take ideas from being a spontaneous glimmer in someone's eye to an after action report. Maybe with a bit of digging you'll get a feel for what each URANIDE is like, how to track it, and who it came from. That's our best chance to untangle this mess that's infecting the world before it all reaches that nexus.

[agentgrange]

ArcDream Publishing's change to remove the OGL is a swing and a miss for me. For those uninitiated, with the most recent news of OGL changes caused by Wizards of the Coast ArcDream Publishing has announced the outright removal of the Open Gaming License. Their justification and the way they frame it is that with the OGL changing it no longer has any purpose in their work for protecting creators, so they intend to simply remove it entirely with no intention of ever going after creators who chose to use their mechanics. Status quo, same as it ever was, just no firm policy in place.

I, personally, hate this shit for reasons I intend to outline in a far more formal letter. The bottom line is though, that the OGL originally existed not simply as an announcement to the community that derivative works are permitted but an *assurance* that policy exists to protect creators. Its all well and good to simply say "we will not ever go after you" but without a policy in place there is nothing protecting creators from recourse should their opinion change in the future for completely subjective reasons. Its effectively the difference between legalization through clear policy and decriminalization with what I imagine will be predictable results down the line.

Furthermore, ArcDream seems to be really doubling down on their IP extending to include artwork, specific lore, names, *and concepts* according to the same statement. Given that the concept of Delta Green is as vaguely uninspired as "X-files, but public domain cthulhu mythos setting using OGL protected Chaosium 'Call of Cthulhu' rules" I'm really, really displeased by that choice. While specific lore and characters is one thing I can respect, the very "concept" of Delta Green (government agents in the mythos) being solely the domain of ArcDream just doesn't make sense to me. So while I hope to continue to make work that can be easily plugged into the world of Delta Green and (God willing) be able to coexist within the same universe long term through agreements and licensing when I start actually producing content, I'm going to start pivoting to producing content that is not *explicitly* Delta Green mythos content.

Instead, I'm choosing something that I think can compliment Delta Green as well as it could other systems like Nights Black Agents or Esoterrorists. Rather than focus on the mythos as a whole, I think I really want to lean on the more psychonaut "inner space" concepts that I've talked about and how it gels with my thoughts on magic and Philip K Dick's Black Iron Prison.

I'm choosing something new. I'm chosing an insurance policy. I'm chosing my own path that will let me truly own my own concepts and build them with the community. I'm choosing... MIDCON-RED. This is a project that can still live in the same world as Delta Green, but will increasingly branch out to become its own thing. More to follow soon, if you'll have me.

[agentgrange]

[agentgrange]

What is a Syndeme in reference to MIDCON RED or Delta Green? If you are able to answer without ruining the world building you have going on?

Visit Original Link

Transcript Below

MITIGATION AND DEFEAT, CONTINENTAL READINESS TRAINING TAPES

100-SERIES, APPENDIX A

ENTRY, SYNDEME-- Used to denote separate classifications of intraspace parasite borne by social transmission.

Expounded Syndeme Theory was pioneered by Tiger Team MADCHIMP by tracking intraspace incursions using outbreak analysis. Syndeme Theory views intraspace incursions as clusters of symptoms and patterns of behavior, prone to preferred transmission vectors and hosts. At the time of it's discovery, MADCHIMP had identified six "primitive" syndemes that could be used to classify and catalog intraspace incursions. MIDCON-REDs sister agencies noted syndeme theory as an unfalsifiable curiosity while failing to see the potential, and shelved future research while MIDCON chose to develop the concept and recatalog intraspace threats to fit syndeme categorization.

Syndeme Theory further developed with the release of Richard Dawkin's "The Selfish Gene" in 1976, at a time [when] MIDCON-RED's sister organizations including MADCHIMP had gone inactive or absorbed into MIDCON. While Dawkins used the concept of memes to describe the process by which mundane ideas evolve and replicate as a social contagion, syndemes could now be understood as the process by which interspace entities propagate and spread in the minds of those afflicted, spark identifiably behavioral symptoms in the host necessary for its development, then reach maturity by manifesting intraspace entities in our physical reality.

Similar to viral strains, syndemes can be broken into subclassifications and variants. The largest taxonomic grouping of syndemes identified by Midcon-Red remains OD URANIDES, which itself is broken into Twelve global-threat level variants created at the point of exposure when Majestic-12 first converged in 1949.

Of important note is that MIDCONs understanding of syndemes and intraspace entities remains theoretical, with many of MIDCON's contemporary sister agencies misunderstanding our commitment to syndeme theory as an overreliance. To understand why we conform to this method when dealing with intraspace entities, consider the following. MIDCON has only been able to document subjective accounts of interaction on the astral plane, or those fleeting moments of contact as they pass through our dimension like the Many-Angled ones of Edwin Abbott's Flatland. Critical questions abound, such as why one syndeme variant of the same classification of URANIDE will develop into a Lam entity while another will develop into a lloigor construct. It is difficult, if not impossible, to assess the true nature of these beings through comprehensive empirical analysis. We can, however, measure them by displacement by cataloging the specific symptoms they generate in those exposed to their influence. Therefore, MIDCON's best strategy is to track and catalog clusters of intraspace incursions by patterns of behavior and transmission vectors rather than individual entities.

For example, OD URANIDES "Rhea" Variant often seeks adolescents as their preferred host. But URANIDES evolutionary niche developed within the relatively isolated world of government Black Science projects far from adolescents. Thus variant Rhea-1-o-Nine evolved to begin its lifecycle as a cognitive meme spread through the medical field-- belief in the Incastagive Learning method of teaching. This intangible idea generates behavioral symptoms where the medical professional will transmit the syndeme to adolescents through tangible abuse and trauma just as the flu is transmitted through physical contact. Once Rhea-1-o-Nine has been passed to adolescents, it will pupate within the host until it matures into an intraspace incursion which may be an invasion vector for the Lam or lloigor plexus.

Over the course of these tapes, you will be given enough examples to assist in determining what classification of URANIDE an intraspace incursion may be based on a close analysis of its specific syndeme. Correctly identifying a syndeme often plays a critical role in tracking its spread, finding its vulnerabilities, and even predicting future incursions.

[agentgrange]

[agentgrange]

Hello! I’ve been loving your MIDCON-RED writing and I was wondering if there was a way to support you - or if you were ever planning it release it on Itch, DTrpg or a similar platform? Apologies if you’ve already answered this!

Thats incredibly encouraging hearing people might want to support me! As of now though, I've actually never published my own scenarios before and only used them for private games and internal testing. Frankly, I find putting my work out there intimidating and want to focus on just getting confident with formatting things into usable resources. My goal is to release some polished two-or-three page resources for free made up of little vignettes of some of my ideas, organized into little resources that people can plug into their own stories and ideas. My hope is that by releasing those I can get the feedback and experience necessary to make more complex resources that build on that formula. When I get there, I'll most likely try to have them hosted on DTrpg for download and pin them on this blog for notice. Thanks again for the interest, it really drives me to keep working at it!

[agentgrange]

MIDCON-RED INITIAL BRIEFING I

Field transmission to any agents still out there, thanks for your patience on any significant updates over the last few weeks. Inconsistencies with scheduling has really hampered a lot of the testing I wanted to do on some content, which has been disappointing but something I've decided I won't let get in the way of putting things out there anymore. As I've mentioned before, I'm still producing content that fits within the world of Delta Green but exists within its own continuity available to plug and edit hopefully as people see fit under MIDCON-RED. This is meant as part of an early draft for a wider chapter that I hope to release as a PDF sourceguide when completed. As a work in progress, please excuse any edits or imperfections while I continue to hammer this out.

Mitigation and Defeat, Continental Readiness should be an organization that fans of Delta Green will get a distinct feeling of jamais vu as they get to know it. Most know the story of the OSS's disillusionment and reorganization into the CIA, but few talk about the multitude of agents cut out of the new organization while people like Allen Dulles were permitted to run roughshod and flourish in post-war America. See, the OSS reached far and wide for talent to defeat the Axis with no compunction against working hand-in-hand to achieve the impossible with a new, unorthodox class of Agent-- many of whom sympathized with self-admitted socialists who found themselves the biggest target of Axis atrocities. But then the war ended, and these "red sympathizers" had to be sacrificed on the alter of the US Congress to bring forth the Central Intelligence Agency we know today. One of the CIA's first acts of business after removing the old guard? Incorporate former adversaries as scientists, doctors, and military men into their ranks as assets in the coming Cold War. Now true enough, some of these former-OSS agents that were cut loss had been communists. But the majority of them were just seen as nothing more than liabilities. Agents too brazen and independent hired for their initiative who would never follow the marching orders of a centralized intelligence community. More importantly, many of them had seen what those Axis scientists had been working on. They weren't "brilliant men following orders." They were flim-flam men given far too much money and far too little accountability dead set on voiding humanity's warranty by messing with the tamper tape on our collective unconscious. They were hammering away at a load bearing wall, and were stopped just short of bringing the entire house down on all of us-- And God, they'd just been handed another sledgehammer. No. These agents couldn't accept Operation Paperclip, and for that they were shut out. But they knew those strange projects were still going on in the corners of the state department. They knew someone had to be able to do something, a secret Opposing Force in the government to work against the drowning tide of the CIA crashing against our people and culture. Thus a plan was formed. A plan you may find out more of in the future, where loyal friends in the National Parks Service swept away those assets left in the OSS Training fields after the Second World War. Former agents that were left for dead were given a home, and a secret plan was put in place to establish a series of outposts in every national park in the United States. Nominally, this project was to provide all the necessary equipment should the country be made to mobilize for war and the National Parks would once again need to cooperate with the military to provide land for muster, training, or if all else fails a battlefield. Hidden under the cover of Mission 66 MIDCON-RED would exist and operate right under the nose of the defense and intelligence community, all the while formulating their plans to take revenge on those that spurned them. For years they waited, picking their targets carefully to disrupt the inevitable cataclysm if their opponents are left unchecked knowing full well they'd be tried for treason and espionage if discovered-- or worse. Far, far worse. It took a full decade to build MIDCON-RED into an inter-agency task force under the National Parks Service while hiding its true purpose. But that first decade has strained the relationship between the former OSS operatives and the civilians who have staffed the parks for generations. A house divided cannot stand, and this nation's wilds hold their own secrets and priorities that may take precedence if they wish to keep this conspiracy a secret. It may prove that the Parks Service's insistence on hosting their own secret army of wetwork operatives might not have been wholly altruistic afterall.

As agents of MIDCON-RED, your first objective is counteracting the forces of Black Science that threaten to disrupt the balance of power in this country from within. But that's not the only threat you'll face. As Black Science pushes and pulls at the fabric of reality, places in this country where the veil has always been thin may rip apart without warning and the National Parks Service will need your help to contain these incidents. You will need to balance these two priorities if you wish to succeed. More on what threats you should expect, chiefly the major factions at play, later.