Delta Green: Bonds and Home (Patreon)

I'm going to experiment with this revision in my DG games. Try it and let me know what happens. It is meant to remove the need to distinguish DG Bonds from non-DG Bonds. It intends to simplify a couple of facets of gaining new Bonds and resolving home pursuits. It encourages players to play out Bond drama in a little more detail during Home scenes. And it causes DG-related Bonds to deteriorate over time unless you take risky steps to maintain them or you strengthen them in crises.

AGENTS: BONDING WITH DELTA GREEN

(As written until the following passage begins.)

After the crisis, when things are calm, your Agent gains a new Bond with each Delta Green teammate (up to five) present for that disaster, and increases any Bonds that were already there. 

For each teammate with whom your Agent doesn’t already have a Bond, add a new individual Bond. Its value is half your Agent’s CHA. Having gained this Bond, your Agent immediately loses 1D4 points from one other Bond of your choice (if you have any). 

For each teammate with whom your Agent already has a Bond, add 1D4 to it. Having improved this Bond, your Agent immediately loses 1 point from one other Bond of your choice (if you have any).

If you prefer not to gain Bonds from the crisis, you can attempt a SAN roll to resist. With a success, you do not gain or improve any Bonds after all. With a critical success you even improve one current Bond of your choice by 1D4. With a failure, you gain or improve Bonds as described. With a fumble you lose 1D4 from a prior Bond (if you have any) and then alter Bonds due to the crisis.

HOME

(As written, but each home scene is resolved in three specific steps.)

Step 1: What Changed

(As written in "What Changed.")

Step 2: Personal Pursuits

(As written in "Personal Pursuits" with the following changes. Remove each instance that has the effect of “This reduces one Bond (other than a Bond for Delta Green) by 1 as you let other responsibilities lapse.”)

Revised—Fulfill Responsibilities: If your Agent focuses on obligations and relationships, each Bond roll you make in “Step 3: Bonds” is one step better: a success is a critical success, a failure is a success, and a fumble is an ordinary failure. 

New Pursuit—Favors and Obligations: Your Agent takes extraordinary steps to support a Bond. Work with the Handler to describe what the Bond needs and name a skill your Agent can use to help. Attempt a skill test and describe the results. Success adds 1D4 points to the Bond, or the maximum of 4 with a critical success. Failure adds nothing. A fumble reduces the Bond by 1.

Step 3: Bonds

Work with the Handler and other players to invent and describe a crisis that threatens each of your Agent’s Bonds. A crisis could be driven by external events and consequences. Or it could erupt entirely due to the Agent’s internal conflicts and resentments. It could be a catastrophic event. Or it could be an otherwise minor conflict that tips the relationship toward deterioration.

For possible elements of a crisis, look to your Agent’s disorders, to injuries suffered on the last Delta Green operation, to secrets unreasonably kept on behalf of Delta Green, to adaptations to helplessness or violence, to professional or legal blowback, to financial troubles, to harm done to other Bonds that affect this Bond, or to any other trauma that has come up.

For each Bond, describe how the Agent attempts to resolve the crisis and attempt a Bond×5% roll. A success means no change to the Bond, and a critical success even adds 1 point to its score. A failure subtracts 1 point from the Bond. A fumble costs 1D4 from the Bond.

The Agent can let a Bond’s crisis play out without attempting to resolve it. That means failure without a roll, without the possibility of success or the risk of a fumble. The "fulfill responsibilities" pursuit has no effect on a Bond if you choose not to roll dice to protect it.

Attempting to resolve a crisis with a Bond who is involved with Delta Green is often risky. The Agent may need to make a Luck roll to avoid catching the attention Delta Green and coming under suspicion as a security risk. The repercussions are up to the Handler.

EQUIPMENT AND VEHICLES: SPENDING YOUR OWN MONEY

(Remove all references to Bonds being “non-Delta Green.” Losses can come from any Bond but the Handler always chooses which Bond suffers.)