Delta Green Designer Notes: Disorders in the Agent's Handbook (Patreon)

We have sent the Agent's Handbook and the Handler's Guide to press for new printings. I took that as an opportunity for a task that's long overdue: improving the descriptions and rules for long-term mental disorders in Delta Green. These corrections have been made in the PDF edition at DriveThruRPG so update your Agent's Handbook now. Other changes are listed at a new, comprehensive Delta Green Errata page. 

STEP 1: COMMITMENT

Disorders come to the fore when traumatic events trigger acute episodes. I wrote the original rules for that process early in development, alongside the rules for bonds, projection, and temporary insanity in DG. I liked the way they worked well enough, but they had a problem that comes up often for rules-heads like me. What works instinctively well for me at the table and may even have passed muster in playtesting can almost always be improved by simplification.

STEP 2: PROCESS

How did disorders work originally? When you lose SAN or run into an event that particularly pertains to the disorder, you have to make a Sanity roll or the disorder takes over. You can use projection to attempt to repress it, getting another chance at the Sanity roll. 

The problem: Too many rolls! To even get to that point you have to make a SAN test and roll for the amount lost. You probably have tried to block the loss with projection already, rolling for the WP and Bond loss. And now you make one or even two more rolls to see if the disorder kicks in. That's the kind of thing that works great in my own disordered brain, but ugh. On top of that, the main trigger is "lose even 1 SAN." That means it ought to come up ALL THE TIME. Players are supposed to constantly be rolling dice to see if their disorders are messing with them. That's so onerous that most people ignore it instead.

STEP 3: CHANGE

I wrote into every disorder the events most likely to trigger it. It's no longer the ubiquitous "lose 1 SAN" and the incredibly vague "if it relates to the disorder." Some disorders are triggered by SAN loss, but I increased the requirement to 2+ lost. Going from 1 to 2 doesn't look like much of a change but in my experience it carves out about half the possible triggers. Those disorders kick in  for serious traumas. 

Other disorders are triggered by situational triggers. Depression and PTSD are the two that kick in with exposure to events that remind the Agent of past trauma. If you pick up one of those, jot down your Agent's worst events as reminders. Addiction hits with a loss of 2 SAN or if you go too long without feeding it. Sleep disorder doesn't really have an acute phase or triggers: it's more like every night is a new trigger.

Since episodes are no longer ubiquitous, there's no automatic SAN test to resist them. If one kicks in, you can choose to try to repress it through projection. Or you can ride it out.

I revised the effects of some disorders with their frequency in mind. Disorders that are likely to be triggered more often have somewhat less profound effects than those triggered rarely. A few dissociative disorders that have the most profound effects. Conversion disorder, dissociative identity disorder, and fugues essentially take an Agent out of the action. They kick in only after temporary insanity or when an Agent reaches the Breaking Point. Sleep disorder applies constantly so its impact is an inability to recover Willpower Points, more easily handled at first. 

And I varied the effects of some disorders. An acute episode of depression is not a flat penalty to actions. Instead it incurs a WP cost to take actions. Others come with penalties to different kinds of rolls. 

STEP 4: TERMINATION

These revisions make disorders a more natural part of gameplay and give them more variety and suspense. Of course, the rules for disorders ultimately come down to the same core design for everything in Delta Green: let the Handler make it up with an eye toward a mood of terror that creeps and gathers and then erupts and overwhelms. Go forth with your hard-won autonomy and create the worlds of your Agents' dreams.