Filipino Box Spring Hog - A Delta Green Scenario

Filipino Box Spring Hog

Los Angeles, April 30, 1992. Day 2 of the Rodney King Riots. A handful of Delta Green Agents decide this is the perfect cover to settle some scores. Blame the whole thing on “looters”.

This one came together pretty fast once I decided to do a scenario based on the song. The NPCs are drawn from both the final studio version off Mule Variations and the early demo Old Man Waits recorded for Bone Machine.

Spider

I used these pregens, rather than force the players to make new Agents for the Classic Delta Green era, who were just going to get mulched in a gunfight anyway. They arrived at the scene and peered at the BBQ through the old wood fence around the vacant lot. I let them choose between taking a free round of shooting, or making a Stealth roll to get the to-hit and damage bonus but risk blowing the ambush. They flubbed the ambush and the shooting started.

FRAST took a fatal shotgun blast after having his protective armor melted by a mouthful of acidic jungle juice

FRANK almost followed suit, but the scorched remains of his PASGT vest deflected the buckshot away from his heart, at the cost of a ricochet taking his eye out

FLINT went berserk on hearing the violin's fleshy hum, but was blinded by the acidic booze cloud and spent most of the fight clawing at his eyes and striking anyone who tried to flush them with water

FRANCIS kept shooting through the chaos. The worst had already happened to him.

In return, the cultists went down in a hail of gunfire. Spider expertly played dead, and got in one more pluck at her jawbone violin before being shot to pieces - laughing all the way. Jack ran for it and made it to the tanning salon down the block, where he was shot and killed by the grizzled ARVN colonel hiding behind the counter.

The team decided to dump FRAST's body somewhere it wouldn't be found for a few days. Cause of death was a gunshot wound, and in the blistering LA heat, Natural decay would cover up the disturbing "melted candle" effect the violin's fleshy hum had inflicted on him. By the time anyone found him, he'd be just another victim of the day's chaos - shot, killed and forgotten.

Bones

Delta Green has a tendency to end with a bug hunt - the moment when the Agents identify the cultist or the monster or whatever, and go kill it with weapons. There are two ways to stop this from getting stale.

1. Write scenarios with other possible outcomes, and make it actually possible (though not necessarily easy) for the players to discover and achieve them
2. Make the combat encounter more interesting than just rolling to hit over and over

This one-page scenario and the Bronze Colossus are my latest attempts at option 2.