Ill-Advised Combat Options in Delta Green (Patreon)

Combat in Delta Green is almost always a bad idea. The Delta Green rules are built to make violence ugly, fast, and dangerous. Players have a much stronger chance of survival if they gather information and plan carefully before the guns come out. But this is a tabletop RPG. Players are notorious for shooting first and planning later.

Here are some tweaks and clarifications that have come up in my games.

HOW MANY BULLETS?

The number of shots fired in a single firearm attack depends on the weapon used—a bolt-action rifle fires one shot while a semi-automatic pistol might fire two or three shots—but it’s always a single attack roll and a single damage roll. —Agent’s Handbook, page 50

We deliberately decided not to have “shots per round” rules in Delta Green, because we wanted the action to MOVE. We did include a “rapid fire” option in the first printing of the Agent’s Handbook, allowing two attack rolls at −20% each, but that only confused things. We took the option out of the second printing.

And we decided not to specify how many bullets get fired in an attack roll, because it can vary so much with the circumstances. 

All of that leaves a level of abstraction that’s meant to be made concrete in play by the Handler and players. For some gamers, that’s too much abstraction. 

If you want numbers, use these:

• A pump-action or bolt-action weapon (or with any weapon after taking a turn to aim): 1 shot per attack
• A semi-automatic weapon or a repeating weapon like a revolver: 1D4 shots per attack
• A fully automatic weapon: As given in the Agent's Handbook

If the roll for how many shots empties your weapon, resolve that attack roll as usual. But then of course you need to reload.

SNIPER RIFLES

Some readers see the stats for sniper rifles and think they are nowhere near accurate enough. Let’s walk through it.

A typical sniper rifle is considered a “heavy rifle” in the DG rules. That has a base range of 150 meters and does 1D12+2 damage.

In Afghanistan and Iraq, it became common to use antimateriel rifles like the M82A1 Barret and the McMillan Tac-50 as sniper rifles. In DG, that’s a “very heavy rifle.” It has a base range of 250 meters, and a Lethality rating of 20% instead of ordinary damage.

Next, let's look at range modifiers.

• Up to base range (150 m for a "regular" sniper rifle): +0%
• Up to 2× base range (300 m): −20%
• Up to 5× base range (750 m): −40%

I think you could reasonably extend that to add an option for shooting up to 10× at a −60% penalty. We didn’t add that in the book, because once we start adding exceptions for every rule, the rulebook becomes nothing but exceptions and footnotes. I would allow it in play for an Agent that takes Special Training in long-range sniping with the Firearms skill. I'd require Special Training because at those distances, shooting involves physics and mathematics far beyond just going to the range every day.

If you're going to snipe, you're going to take the Aim action first. The Aim action means you spend a turn aiming. That grants a bonus of +20% to your next attack roll, as long as you don’t take damage before taking the shot.

Now, let’s say you want to be a world-class sniper. Your Agent is a special operator or FBI SWAT team member. That gives you 60% in Firearms. You apply one of your bonus skills to Firearms, adding +20% , for a skill of 80%. Not good enough! You take the “hard experience” background option for a damaged veteran, and put one of your +10% skill bumps on Firearms. Your Firearms skill is a world-class 90%.

(Good luck with all that, btw.)

You have a “heavy rifle,” such as an M24 sniper rifle or an L115A3 long range rifle. It has a telescopic sight, which (in DG) doubles the firearm’s base range if your Agent spent the previous turn taking the Aim action. 

The rifle's base range is 150 meters. You take a turn to aim. The scope doubles the base range to 300 meters. Aiming grants a +20% bonus. 

• Out to 300 meters (base range with the scope), your chance to hit is 110%. 
• Out to 600 meters (long range with the scope), it’s down to 90%
• Out to 1,500 meters (extreme range with the scope), your chance is 70%.
• If your Handler lets you go with the Special Training option for 10× base range at a −60% penalty, you’re at 50% out to 3,000 meters.

The longest-range confirmed sniper kill in history, with an L115A3 long range rifle, is at 2,475 meters by British Army Corporal of Horse Craig Harrison in November 2009. 

With 90% Firearms and the right equipment, your Agent can match that with the flip of a coin.

If you still want sniper rifles to be more dangerous in Delta Green, get one of those .50 caliber monsters for your Green Box.

AM I DEAD?

On paper, it’s pretty clear. At 0 HP, you die unless the Handler decides there’s some way to save you. As a Handler, I lean heavily on that “unless.” 

A dying Agent who desperately needs care is usually more interesting, more of a challenge for the players, and endlessly more tense and suspenseful than an Agent who is meat on the ground. 

So I often let the players keep a 0 HP Agent alive if they succeed at First Aid. But that lasts only an hour or so. If they can get the patient somewhere to undergo a Surgery roll in that golden hour, that might save the Agent for good. 

If the Agent got to 0 HP from a Lethality roll or a single attack, that gets way less likely. First aid and surgery aren’t going to do much good if your head gets bitten off.

THE WONDERS OF PHARMACOLOGY

I wrote this into the scenario Hourglass for the Meth Family Robinson. But I’m sure your players have poor enough judgment to want to give it a shot, too.

Taking a solid hit of PCP or crystal meth can grant a +20% bonus to CON tests to resist shock and pain. But it incurs a –20% penalty to everything else, including SAN tests. 

If you develop a disorder while repeatedly using hard stimulants, the disorder is likely to be addiction. If addicted, you get the CON bonus only if you take enough for a –40% penalty to everything else. And if the addiction takes hold, you HAVE to get that fix when times get too hard.

Enjoy.