Writer's Room: Glass Hound, 2024 Shotgun Scenario

This is a series where I look back on work I've done in the past, pointing out what worked, what didn't, and what I'd change if I did it again. It's also 100% me smelling my own farts, but I do like reading other people do retrospectives like this, so hopefully you get something out of this too.

Glass Hound

This is a Delta Green scenario that I wrote for the 2024 Shotgun Scenario Contest, which is an annual scenario writing contest with a 1,500-word limit (excluding stat blocks and other supplementary material). It won first place that year, and even got played through on the Technical Difficulties Gaming Podcast! Needless to say, I'm very proud of this one. I also have some sharp criticisms. Let's get to it!

For convenience's sake, especially for mobile users, I'm going to reproduce the text of the scenario here in black, and put my commentary in blue. You can find the original scenario here.

Glass Hound in a Glass House for a Glass Hound in a Glass House for a...

First off, the name. I knew I wanted something that would stick out from the crowd, as there were 84 other entries and most people do not have the time to read through every scenario. I kind of stumbled onto the alliteration, then figured that at the very least, people would notice such a long title. And they did!

Summary

The Agents were seen unleashing havoc last night, when they were actually celebrating New Year’s Eve. They must investigate their doppelgangers, then become them.

This summary section is absolutely essential, it's the first thing that readers are going to see, and for many of them it will make or break whether they keep reading. It has to be short, sweet, and exciting, and it's also the only place you're encouraged to repeat information in the document.

Background

March Technologies has discovered that, by operating in areas devoid of sharp angles, they can time travel without summoning a hound. However, this merely delays the inevitable, as time travellers are essentially marinating in whatever draws the hound’s lethal attention. Once someone slips up and summons a hound, it will catch the scent and hunt down every repeated time traveller across any time or space. If March Technologies isn’t stopped, this tech will spread widely, creating a powder keg that will decimate the population in 2030.

The most efficient solution is to destroy the lab with the first working prototype on New Year’s Eve 2024, thus delaying research and alerting Delta Green. The Agents went back in time to do this, creating a time loop. Now, they must always go back in time, stop March Technologies, get their ‘next’ selves to repeat the cycle, and assume their ‘new’ identities in the ‘next’ timeline.

Don't read into the logic behind this too hard. If you do, you'll realize that I should be calling this jumping to an alternate universe, not time travel. Idk man, it works well enough.

Time Travel for Dummies

Imagine time travel as jumping to a new timeline. Each loop will be different. As long as March Technologies is stopped and the loop is restarted, the mission is a success.

I wrote this part after the first playtest, when the players spent upwards of an hour disentangling the physics of time travel. DO NOT CUT.

This whole Background section is written for dual purposes, so that on a first read-through it orients the reader, and in play the exact same text is given out to the players as a handout. With such a small word count, every word counts, so you should avoid repeating the same idea twice if possible.

Briefing

At 10am on January 1st, 2025, the handler furiously shows the Agents security footage from the local March Technologies laboratory last night.

I kind of regret not making the company doing this research more interesting. Just a different name and a reference to their being a subsidiary of March would be better. As is, I just went with the first solution that came to mind, which keeps it simple but is a missed opportunity to be more interesting.

The Footage

At exactly midnight last night, (# of Agents) armed intruders appeared from nowhere outside the break area and threw an egg-shaped device at the celebrating scientists. It produced smoke for 10 confusing seconds until a cloud of glittering ‘glass shards’ emerged, swirled around the egg-shaped device, and disappeared. It reappeared seconds later, instantly reducing the nearest scientist to a bloody pulp, and disappearing with the body. This process repeated itself, one fleeing scientist at a time (1/1D4 SAN to the unnatural).

Meanwhile, the intruders ran the other direction to gun down security, seamlessly intercepting all except one guard, who landed a single non-lethal shot. They used a keycard they already had to enter a secured rounded chamber and steal an identical egg-shaped device.

The intruders removed their ski masks and looked directly into a camera. They look exactly like the Agents (0/1D6 SAN to helplessness). Then they left in a white truck with a crate in the bed. They already had the keys.

At 164 words, this is a pretty long section of exposition. I couldn't really make it any shorter without making it less interesting, and it is all essential information for setting up the rest of the operation. If you're going to require players to sit and listen for a minute, it had better be good. I think "the shooters have your faces" justifies it, as the first 'bang' of the operation.

Instructions

The handler has digitally proven that the Agents were celebrating New Year’s Eve at midnight yesterday, which is why they’ve been protected so far. They must lead this investigation, and take the fall if they can’t pin the blame elsewhere.

I set the operation on New Year's Eve so that there would be a guaranteed reason for all the Agents to have an alibi the night before. Imagine my surprise when almost every Agent I've run through this has insisted that they stay home alone on New Year's Eve. They're another breed.

Every scientist is missing, even those that weren’t at the office party. A lone surviving security guard is hospitalized in critical condition. Delta Green has wiped the footage and stalled the official response in interagency confusion.

That last sentence is a bit of a cop-out. I generally encourage forcing the Agents to deal with the hard problems themselves. I handwaved it to get to the good part, but focusing more on the cleanup effort would be an interesting way to wrap things up. In practice, I've just never had time, and player interest definitely starts dying out once the raid is over.

Interruption

Near the end of the briefing, a local bond calls an Agent. Apparently, the Agent just parked a white truck without plates at the bond’s house, with instructions to call the Agent for an explanation now, at 10:15am (0/1 SAN to helplessness for that Agent). They were frantic, wearing only their underwear, and left in a waiting taxi. They left the truck’s keys in the ignition. The bond is confused, worried, and wants the suspicious truck removed right away.

This is 'bang' number two, and it's always great seeing how people react, and works wildly differently depending on the bond. Some play along, some insist that it's a joke, some kind of read the bond in.

This is also where the scenario's railroad tracks become apparent. I think it's fine, because it's a fun railroad to ride on. But it's good to be aware of when you're creating a fragile game structure like this, and do your best to both encourage players to play along and think through what would happen if they don't.

Special Delivery

The bond has a million unanswerable questions for the Agent, and quickly notices their outfit change, missing limp, and improved demeanour. If the Agent doesn’t placate them, reduce their bond rating by 1. If the Agents wait too long, the bond opens the package and has far more troubling questions.

The Package

A 4’ cubed wooden crate which contains:

• One bloodstained, patchy, but clean outfit for each Agent, including gloves and a ski mask.
• Several sticky, well-used firearms. Each Agent chooses a shotgun or automatic rifle. Everyone gets a security guard’s Glock 22. Any Agents currently carrying firearms recognize dirty duplicates in the crate (0/1 SAN to helplessness).
• Two ratty kevlar vests. One is shot through (only provides 2 Armor).
• Thousand in soiled wads of cash.
• A keycard for Dr. Louis Ramsey, Head of Research, with a sticky note that says “Password: sBHde3osH2fzt9Ld4a”
• The SIT Alpha.
• A Hand-Drawn Map.
• Scattered Notes.

In my first playtest, I said that the outfits in the crate were gross and smelly, and they absolutely refused to put them on, made fun of the idea that they wouldn't at least wash the clothes before passing them on, and made fun of themselves for making such a big stink of it. It literally took like 30 minutes. It was a blast. Playtesting is fun. And now the outfits are clean.

You may notice those references to the SIT Alpha and a Hand-Drawn Map. The map is fine, it's a handout, but the SIT Alpha... I didn't realize until rereading the scenario a year later that I fully buried any description of it in the stat blocks. That's 200 words! I would tear this scenario apart if I read that now! Anyways, I bring no excuses, only explanations. Learn from my mistakes, kids.

Scattered Notes

Dozens of pages have been typed, stained, written over, laminated, reprinted, and summarized an unknowable number of times. Some passages written in the same Agent’s handwriting are mutually contradictory. They communicate everything in the Background section, and the following instructions:

1. Take everything from the crate.
2. Put everything on your person in the crate, including clothes, keys, phones, and weapons. Leave it at (a specific Agent)’s home.
3. Drive the white truck to the laboratory. Park a couple blocks away. Bypass police.
4. Use the device outside Dr. Ramsey’s office. Aim for midnight. Expel breath before activating.
5. Kill security. The hound should prioritize scientists over you. AVOID THE HOUND. The insulated storage room is safe, but don’t let security trap you in there.
6. Take the device from the insulated storage room using Dr. Ramsey’s keycard.
7. Show your faces to the camera.
8. Leave within 10 minutes in the white truck by the door. Same key works. Remove plates later.
9. Clean up and put everything on your person in the crate.
10. Park the white truck at (bond from Special Delivery)’s house. Tell them to call at 10:15am. Go alone. Call a taxi ahead. Leave quickly.
11. Hide near (specific Agent from step 2)’s home. Wait for the next loop to drop off the crate. AVOID YOURSELVES.
12. Cover up the mess.

SAN loss: 1/1D6 to the unnatural.

Opening the box, reading the scattered notes, and reading the background section is a lot of exposition (respectively 100, 225, and 188 words). That's a third of the scenario to convey all at once! Again, it's new and interesting information the whole way through, so I haven't ever had people fully bounce off it, but it can definitely slow things down. This is 'bang' number three, which helps. I also provide it as a handout every time, which means it can be referenced in-game while the Agents argue about what to do, without the Handler having to jump in with (too much) clarification.

While I never instructed the Handler to do so here, I always played this up by having whatever the Agents try to do to the documents have clearly already been done hundreds of times before. Go to scratch out an instruction? It's been scratched out and rewritten countless times, with conflicting notes in your own handwriting arguing both points. Draw a smiley face? Add it to the pile. When Technical Difficulties played through it they did the same thing, despite me never writing that down, so I must have communicated the vibe well enough that the improv went with it. Which is super neat!

Under Pressure

The Agents could theoretically wait years before going back and still fulfill the time loop, but the world won’t let them wait that long.

Their ‘prior’ selves have all the Agents’ knowledge and abilities and are suicidally desperate to assume their new identities. They avoid direct interactions if possible, preferring to threaten bonds or leak secrets.

Delta Green, if informed, decides that restarting the loop is the least risky option, and needs to get on with the coverup. If the Agents resist, they’ll first be blackmailed with security footage, then ordered at gunpoint.

Here you can see more of the rails showing, with both the 'prior' Agents and Delta Green pressuring the Agents to go through the loop. This gives the Handler more tools to reinforce the linear nature of the scenario, while also making the world feel consequential and active.

I had to cut a whole section here where I encouraged Handlers to let Agents go off the tracks if they want to. There wasn't much I could add, because that means basically winging the rest of the session, but it is absolutely essential that players be allowed to decide their own destiny like that, even on a railroad like this. My second playtest group gave Delta Green the device, told them everything, then decided not to restart the loop. When Delta Green tried to force them, they all separately went rogue. One of them died, the other two escaped to Latin America. It's one of the best sessions I've ever run for that group, and they didn't even play the scenario right!

The Laboratory

The modern building is lousy with tinted glass walls and located in a busy commercial area. While investigations are stalled, emergency responders have already removed the bodies, and local police are controlling traffic within a block of the lab. Agents must sneak or talk their way in with one skill roll, as befits their approach. On a failure, they’re forced to rush, leaving a sticky situation for their ‘prior’ selves to solve.

If Agents agree to continue the loop, going to the laboratory is run as a single skill challenge, to keep things interesting but moving quickly.

Here is where I should've put the text about the SIT Alpha, since this is where Agents (if they're following instructions) are supposed to use the damn thing. For our sake, and because I'm not including stat blocks in this blog post, I've reproduced the text here.

SIT (Spacetime Insulated Transporter) Alpha

Simple artifact. Activation: minutes; 1D4 WP, 1D4 SAN.

An oblong, egg-shaped device with a creamy silicone shell and a curved touchscreen. Once the 18-character password is inputted, users must input the desired date and time. A solid grey fabric akin to a parachute emerges, which must be wrapped around everything to be transported, including the device. It’s large enough to encompass an SUV.

I used the wording "large enough to encompass an SUV" because I thought it was evocative, but in the Technical Difficulties playthrough, it looks like they confused it for instructions to wrap the fabric around the white truck, and bring it back in time with them. The description for how the truck got there is never actually described in the scenario, just implied, which in retrospect makes it harder for strangers to run. My bad. Sigh. The idea is that the truck belonged to one of the lab techs, and is always conveniently parked just outside with the empty crate in the back. In one loop, the Agents took the key and drove off with it, and in every subsequent loop, they passed the same key forward. So, the same key has been used hundreds of times to start a different but identical truck every loop.

Once the device is activated, the fabric seals and squeezes everything inside it closely together. Everyone is jostled around, can’t breathe, and can faintly see flashing lights in impossible colours outside the fabric. On top of losing 1D4 WP and 1D4 SAN, anyone who doesn’t fully breath out before takeoff takes 1D4 point of damage as the air is violently forced out of their lungs. This process only takes seconds, but feels like an eternity.

I submitted this scenario for playtesting in the Star Chamber, and the playtester said that the suffocation in this part genuinely scared one of their players, which was very nice to hear.

At the end, the fabric burns away completely, and everything inside lands in the exact same location on Earth at the specified time and date. This is likely lethal for anyone who arrives in an already-occupied space. If this device is used anywhere except the insulated storage room, a Hound of the Angles appears at the start of the next round.

That last sentence is both restating in-world logic, and yet another rail on this railroad track. Agents can't use the device to go anywhere except this one place and time, because otherwise the Hound will just kill them right away.

The Raid

A raid scenario is a quick combat scenario where the PCs have to use the layout of the location to their advantage in the fight. This usually means scouting ahead, multiple entrances, and active enemies, and should be supported with a map, location descriptions, and guidance on who is where and how they respond. This entire scenario came about when I realized that, if you travelled back in time, you could study not just the map, but the exact behaviour of the enemies you're about to fight and predict their movements. That means that their intended movements can be drawn directly on the map, which helps clarify the situation immensely for everyone involved. It also means you can take on a much tougher enemy, which in a game as lethal as Delta Green is a literal lifesaver.

Assuming the Agents use the device anywhere except the insulated storage room, a Hound of the Angles appears at the start of the next round from the SIT Alpha, which it consumes. It then targets lab technicians, killing one every two rounds. Anyone who attacks it or approaches within 3m must roll Luck or the hound targets them instead next round.

The 6 security guards cautiously approach as indicated on the map. Generally speaking, they fire at the first Agent they see, avoid walking where other guards died, and panic if they see the hound.

The 17 lab technicians panic and scatter.

The insulated storage room’s door is magnetically sealed, and the walls and windows are bulletproof. Dr. Ramsey’s keycard unlocks the door. Otherwise, it takes five minutes and a successful STR*5 roll with crowbars to pry open. Inside, the SIT Alpha is freely displayed in an all-white room, like an Apple ad.

The fire exits are locked from the outside, but open to any keycard.

Note that I never described the locations or movements of any participants in the raid, or described how to navigate the building, because that's on the map. In retrospect, again, this meant that I got around the word count by sneaking in scenario-critical information in the handout. Honestly, though, the way it's written is the most concise, easy to run way of communicating all this information, so I think this is less egregious than completely forgetting to describe the SIT Alpha.

Surprise Attacks

Agents who predict where and when they’ll encounter a security guard get a free attack against them with a +20% bonus before combat starts. They only need to roll Stealth if they’re moving at the time, or if the guard might see them.

This is essential to tipping the balance of power into the Agents' hands. Straightforward shooting while outnumbered is otherwise a death wish, but I actually have never had an Agent die in this scene. Get severely wounded, sure. Go insane seeing the hound, absolutely. But never die.

SAN Losses

• Seeing the hound: 1D6/1D20 to the unnatural, or 1/1D6 for anyone who avoids seeing it.
• After the first kill, or at the end of combat: 1/8 to violence.

Complications

• Dr. Ramsey’s keycard or the key to the white truck don’t work in this timeline.
• Dr. Ramsey locks himself in the insulated storage room, driving the hound berserk.
• A security guard starts in the bathroom instead.

This list of complications is technically optional, but serves to dynamically increase the difficulty of the situation if the Handler thinks that things are going to be too easy for their Agents, so I fought hard to keep it in the document.

Conclusion

If the Agents successfully restart the loop, they regain 1D6 SAN and are free to resume their ‘next’ selves’ identities, starting with covering up this operation. If they stray from the intended path, roll with it.

Anything they did to annoy their ‘prior’ selves, they must now endure from their ‘next’ selves. Additionally, introduce some incongruities to remind them that this world is not their own:

• An Agent is stiffed by their ‘next’ self, who kept their phone, keys, clothes, or weapon.
• An Agent’s phone has a different password.
• Their ‘next’ selves fired at police before time travelling.

This is always a fun, fourth "bang" to throw at the players. Your wife hugs you when this is all over, but her eyes are green now. And having to clean up after your 'next' selves is hilarious.