Achievements and Echo Effects in The Fall of Delta Green

By Jason Kraus

Electronic games have popularized in-game achievements, while apps have seized that idea to drive user engagement. Pelgrane Press’s ENnie Award-winning Night’s Black Agents by Kenneth Hite expanded the use of achievements for TTRPGs by awarding immediate Ability refreshes during play. What follows is an effort to add Achievements to The Fall of Delta Green the same way NBA does, while respecting the tone of cosmic dread and worldly fatigue that The Fall of Delta Green enjoys.

Inspired by the QuickShock mechanics from The Yellow King Roleplaying Game by Robin D. Laws, each Achievement also introduces an “Echo Effect” that can only find resolution in play. An Echo Effect is a psychological consequence of the event akin to a QuickShock injury.

When an Achievement is awarded, the corresponding Echo Effect is also awarded on a roll of 1-2, or as the Handler chooses. Echo Effects are persistent and can cause repeated damage until resolved. Ignoring them not only expedites a character’s mental collapse but can also impact team cohesion.

The primary concept for Achievements and Echo Effects in the era of The Fall is that competence leaves scars, and that whatever salvation comes is through fellow agents.

By a campaign’s end, the agent’s collection of Echo Effects becomes their psychological dossier, as narratively evocative as their operational history jacket. And if they fall to the enemy before they see the dawn, it is a record of who they were before the darkness claimed them.

This concept can easily be recalibrated for Trail of Cthulhu and The Esoterrorists, and even to Mutant City Blues, Ashen Stars, and the whole family of games powered by GUMSHOE.

TRADECRAFT

Like a Ghost: Escape capture while under surveillance by ingenuity alone

Refresh: +3 Stealth or Athletics

Echo Effect: “Paranoid Tendencies” – Lose 1 Stability being distracted by every reflective surface

Resolution: Spend 1 Sense Trouble to verbally scan the environment, center the self, and clear the paranoia

The Perfect Spy: Maintain deep cover to turn an adversary into an asset without being exposed

Refresh: +2 Disguise and +1 Tradecraft or Reassurance

Echo Effect: “Contagious Loyalty” – Next time the agent sees the asset, pass a Stability test or hesitate

Resolution: Burn the asset or secure their defection

Turncoat’s Turn: Co-opt an adversary’s resources or contacts to the agent’s mission

Refresh: +3 Preparedness or +2 Network

Echo Effect: “Dissociative Identity” – Interpersonal tests +1 Difficulty

Resolution: Confide in another agent about who you really are

COMBAT & SURVIVAL

Through the Fire, the Roar: Survive a firefight while grievously injured or against overwhelming odds

Refresh: +3 Athletics or Firearms

Echo Effect: “Adrenaline Shakes” – Fine motor actions (Filch, Firearms) +1 Difficulty until sleep

Resolution: Spend 2 First Aid or engage in a vice to stabilize and sleep

Through the Scope, the Void: Deliver the decisive shot or strike against a non-human entity

Refresh: +3 Firearms or Unarmed Combat/Melee Weapons

Echo Effect: “Pattern Recognition Syndrome” – Lose 1 Stability and see geometric order in gore

Resolution: Spend 1 Reassurance and discuss it with another agent

Through the Dark, the Miracle: Defeat superior forces after expending every resource

Refresh: +3 Athletics or Preparedness

Echo Effect: “Residue Flash” – Bright lights trigger panic (Stability Difficulty 5 (Helplessness))

Resolution: Spend 1 Stability during a quiet scene to ground self

DUTY

Two Orders, One Trigger: Defy a superior’s directive to protect the team… or obey and doom them

Refresh: +2 Stability, Agency, or Inspiration (as appropriate)

Echo Effect: “Defiance Disorder” – Agency and Bureaucracy at +2 Difficulty

Resolution: Write and deliver a report explaining the agent’s choice in play

Chain of Mercy: Save an innocent at significant operational cost

Refresh: +1 Stability

Echo Effect: “Survivor’s Debt” – Lose 1 Stability each time the agent sees someone matching the innocent’s profile

Resolution: Spend a vignette scene checking on the innocent

Command Responsibility: Successfully command others in a coordinated multi-skill plan

Refresh: +2 Inspiration

Echo Effect: “Compulsive Hoarding” – Each teammate loses 1 Refresh point at each opportunity as the agent instinctively hoards information and resources

Resolution: Openly share compromising information or protected equipment with the team in play

SCIENCE & SORCERY

Equation of Madness: Solve a non-Euclidean or occult problem through science

Refresh: +2 Scientific ability or Occult

Echo Effect: “Residual Perception” – Lose 1 Stability and see symbols overlaying reality

Resolution: Spend 1 Stability and either 1 Occult or 1 Scientific ability to erase the symbols through a magical or scientific ritual

Field Vivisection: Perform an autopsy or experiment on an Unnatural specimen

Refresh: +2 Medicine or Preparedness

Echo Effect: “Frigid Hands Syndrome” – Touch feels numb and patients flinch as the agent’s icy grip adds +1 Difficulty to First Aid

Resolution: Spend a vignette scene to connect with another agent

Analytic Breakthrough: Make two separate Investigative discoveries that cross-confirm a Mythos truth

Refresh: +2 Technical/Academic ability or Occult

Echo Effect: “Signal Receiver” – Lose 1 Stability as random radio static forms agent’s thoughts aloud

Resolution: Spend 1 SIGINT to adjust equipment

REVELATION

Bad Moon Rising: Behold a Mythos Entity without becoming Shattered

Refresh: +2 Unnatural

Echo Effect: “Afterimage Flash” – Lose 1 Stability whenever the agent sees the Entity’s shape in reflections

Resolution: Spend vignette scene and 1 Art reinterpreting the Entity as a symbol rather than a presence

Impossible Mercy: Spare a creature or human deeply touched by the Unnatural

Refresh: +2 Interpersonal ability

Echo Effect: “Empathic Bleed” – Whatever the being suffers, the agent feels and loses 1 Stability per event

Resolution: Spend a vignette scene investigating the being’s fate and accept it in play

Silent Lucidity: Experience a shared vision or dream that advances the mission

Refresh: +2 Occult

Echo Effect: “Temporal Slippage” – Sporadically act six seconds late (Declare action then 6 seconds later, act; as determined by Handler)

Resolution: Synchronize with a teammate using a mutual spend of Reassurance

LEGENDARY

Prometheus

Perform a cinematic sacrifice with a one-liner that saves the day

Refresh: +3 Build Points to next character

Kinetic Houdini

Pull off a wildly improbable stunt that saves the day and causes the agent to go MIA

Refresh: Free Special Weapon Training to next character

Codename: Seraph

Protect a teammate from certain death through perfect timing at the cost of agent’s life

Refresh: Free Special Training to next character