Delphi Council Dispatches Issue 3 by Mark Malcolm is a role playing game supplement published by Ulisses Spiele through the Ulisses Spiele Scriptorium Community Content Programme for use with Torg Eternity.
The supplement is available as a 29 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover, two the front matter and two are an ad.
The Introduction explains that a DCM Dispatch isn’t a full adventure with scripted encounters and scene structure, instead being a story prompt and other parts that can be used to develop a scenario. Each also comes with a survey to fill in afterwards that can be used to steer the overall campaign. There are some general rules on the scenarios, guidelines for making them and the different scenario elements. This is followed by a brief sample dispatch. Each has a title, code, the core of the mission, possible complications, suggested ideas for Cosm cards, connections and subplots, new stuff, survey links, survey questions, deadline (which is when the survey results and the change to influence things expire), tier, log sheet and rewards. They also explain any missions that the dispatch follows on from.
Black Knights Fall is set in Ireland in Aysle where an archmage is opening a college of magic. He’s trying to secure magic tomes, but every time an adventuring party is sent out to retrieve them, Black Knights with covered heraldry take it, and the Storm Knights are recruited to find a tome, discover who the knights are and if possible stop them.
Montu at the Gates is set in Texas in Core Earth. The Delphi Council has noticed attempts to hack one of their subsidiary group’s computer systems as well as attempts to access physical locations. The Storm Knights are tasked to find out who the hacker is, and to do so quietly.
The Occupation of Harar is set in the Nile Empire. Harar is having issues with hyenas in the area proving unresponsive and a growing population of what seem like mindless zombies, and the Storm Knights are sent to investigate.
Shards of Slavery is set in the Living Land and the Storm Knights are sent to aid the reclusive Jaguar Clan and head to Meretika, which was first discovered in The God Box.
Appendix A: New Stuff has some new items and creatures used in the Dispatches.
Delphi Council Dispatches Issue 3 in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with enough different sections that these would have been useful. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a two-column format and some minor errors were noticed. There are some stock colour images. Presentation is okay.
This is the third Torganized Play collection, though the Dispatches will work outside that programme. These adventure frameworks are essentially standalone, though Shards of Slavery does require the existence of Meretika, discovered in The God Box, be known. As these are adventure frameworks rather than complete adventures, the GM will need to do some work to flesh them out, even though they are have a lot of detail. Delphi Council Dispatches Issue 3 can be found by clicking here.
Leave a Reply