The Objects are weird. In 1961, they came from nowhere and nowhen. They look like mundane stuff: a black comb, a white tissue, a table lamp. But wherever there is an Object, reality changes. All Objects do strange things. A Radio that makes you three inches taller, when tuned to the right station. A Comb that stops time. From the useless, to the useful, their abilities seem random and bizarre. Objects seem to seek each other.

Those that have an Object in heir possession find themselves stumbling upon the owners of other Objects. Some of these Objects, when used in combination with each other manifest strange new powers. One of these combinations is known to have torn at the very fabric of reality until it ripped. Wherever there are Objects there are cults of those who think they lead todivinity, ultimate power and sometimes even those who think the Objects should never have been to begin with. No object has yet been destroyed, and there are no known methods for destroying them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvss1ItLKfQ

Why Use Objects?

Why use Objects in your campaign? Because they're weird, because they can add an extra layer to the strange mythos of Delta Green, they can make cultists more interesting, or give players an alternative to spells (though an alternative that is no less costly to their health or sanity). They are also a point of conflict. Possession of the Objects can bring any of Delta Green, the Karotechia, the Fate, a myriad of cults or even MJ-12 into conflict.

Objects are powerful as well as mysterious so they bring out the best and worse of human greed and curiosity. Why did they come to be? How? What makes them do certain things in combination? What do they reveal about the dark universe that lies lurking beyond the veil of our limited world of phenomenal experience. The Object mythos is open-nded enough that you can exercise your creativity to give them whatever why or wherefore you wish.The Objects are also flexible. Don't like what the Ruler does? Change it. Nothing restricts effects to certain objects, and you can easily make more. What they do in combination is completely open-ended as well. Whatever makes them work is so far beyond current human understanding that they don't have to make coherent sense to us. The Objects are like adding rich seasoning to a campaign. They give it flavor, maybe a little kick, and their scent can help guide your players and their enemies to eat from the same dish. They are interesting devices and plot devices in a flexible package.

There are two elements you may want to define if you decide to use the Objects in your campaign. These are central to the example provided below:

• The Event: This is what happened when the Objects came to be. It can be as mysterious or disastrous as you like, in any year you like and in any location.

• The Origin: This is where the Objects came from. Usually, it's a certain location that The Key is somehow linked to, and the Bus Ticket leads to.

A Model Background for the Objects
An Example of How to Fit the Objects into Delta Green

As many Keepers are no doubt aware, having read the Delta Green campaign setting, the Mi-Go are desperate to understand human intuitive capabilities. Inductive reasoning is a puzzle to them. The Mi-Go are able to observe it in action by laying out a bread-crumb trail of more advanced understanding of the universe and watching humans pick up on it. The Accord gives them opportunity for this, as do their nameless and horrible experiments on abducted humans. The Objects seem random to anyone giving them a brief glance. Why does the comb stop time? Why does the knife, when used with the watch, grand telepathy? Only the Mi-Go know, because the Mi-Go made the objects and planted them on the earth in 1961. The Mi-Go don't want to be the only ones that know though. The Objects are a test of human reasoning.

The Objects function based on advanced hypergeometric principles, and their combined effects manifest the interactions of these principles. The Objects blend into human experience: they are tools. They are partially coherent in their manifestation because they are so mundane. Not some strange, non-Euclidean cone that frightens the street urchin from an alley for the rest of his life, but an ordinary container of shoe polish that he stumbles upon in the trash. Their use is not always entirely intuitive, but it is much easier for humans to see them as things to be used than a bizarre alien artifact that they cannot even begin to comprehend. Objects 'seek' each other because their uses are simplistic. Trial-and-error shows the abilities of any individual object. It is only when they are used in combination that humans have the opportunity to apply their intuition to try to understand the underlying principles. In the decades following their appearance, they have been a  center of intense curiosity. Not all those who are interested in the Objects are frantic, obsessive cults. Some are professors, scientists or philosophers. Brilliant, eccentric or both, the Mi-Go's plan has made progress when it comes to these humans. Some individuals have learned to map out the interactions between the Objects, though they may not understand the principles in their entirety, they intuitively grasp the connections between them. These individuals rarely staysane for long.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keE4lbJMmyk

The Objects appeared on May 4, 1961 at 1:20:45 in the afternoon, at the Sunshine Motel in Gallup, New Mexico. Room 10 both appeared and ceased to be during the Event. It was erased from history, no longer a part of the motel. No one remembers it ever existing, and so it ceased to exist in reality, however it also began an existence as the Lost Room, resting in some extra dimension outside normal space and time. The Key is the only thing that allows one into the Lost Room, and only things from the Lost Room are Objects. The Bus Ticket sends anyone touching it to Gallup, New Mexico just outside the Sunshine Motel.

The Lost Room and Its Properties
The Lost Room, or Motel Room 10 is a strange place. It can only be entered via a door on which the Key has been used.

The Key - Opens any hinged door with a pin tumbler lock and turns it into a portal to the Lost Room. From the room, the user can exit to any location of their choosing provided that location has a door of similar construction.

It is a normal, clean motel room in general appearance. A single made bed, old TV, and bathroom. The only door out is the single used to enter and exit. There is a single, curtained window that opens out onto a bleak desert landscape with a single road and a sign saying Sunshine Motel.

Something always feels wrong about the Lost Room. People inside it feel nervous, their stomachs knot, or they merely get the distinct impression that something is wrong. Depending on the Keeper's level of sadism, being in the Lost Room can provoke sanity loss. If the door to the Lost Room is closed from the outside, any objects left in it will do one of two things the next time the door is opened to the Lost Room. If the item left in it is an Object, the Object will be reset to its original position. The Toothbrush will be on the sink, or the Pen on the bedside table. If the item left in it is not an Object, it is lost forever to elsewhere when the Lost Room `resets', with no known method of retrieval. Items do not work within the Lost Room. If the Key is placed in the Lost Room and it is reset, it will reappear in Motel Room 9. For instance, if an Agent opens a door with the Key, the door will open into the Lost Room. If the Agent, leaving the door open, places the Toothbrush, and a gun on the bed, closes the door then the next time the door to the Lost Room is opened, the Toothbrush will be on the bathroom sink and the gun willbe nowhere.

All Objects originated in the Lost Room. When it was created/erased from history, The Key appeared in the possession of those that ran the Sunshine Motel: Gus and Arlene Conroy. Not long after, Arlene Conroy had discovered the Objects and began the first Object cult: he Collectors. The Collectors would last for five years before they would be destroyed and its members driven insane by their experiments.

In 1962, a Shan found its way into the mind of Arlene Conroy. It did not take long for it to twist Arlene's obsession over the Objects to its own purposes. Its advanced and alien intelligence rapidly increased Arlene's ability to understand the objects. Unfortunately, it bent this to its Azathoth worshipping zeal. In 1966, the Collectors pursued an experiment known in Object history as the Conroy Experiment. By nailing the Ashtray, Cigarette, Clock, Toothbrush, Watchbox, and Nailclippers onto the door of Room 9 in a certain configuration (the room adjacent to the Lost Room, if it still existed, or ever had) and opening it with the Key, Arlene Conroy managed to tear open reality, driving all those present insane, and sucking Arlene through into the Court of Azathoth. The door, if it had remained open, would have unleashed untold destruction into the world. Fortunately, in a moment of insane clarity, Arlene Conroy desperately pushed it shut as she was flung into the awaiting abyss. Motel Room 9 is now a much stranger place, making the now-abandoned Motel even more mysterious. Weird, blasphemous things happen there. Since the Conroy experiment, the Objects have been scattered across the United States (and sometimes to other continents). Many cults, more malicious in intent than the Collectors (and often as malicious as the Shan that controlled Arlene Conroy), have sprung up. The Event and Objects have worked like a prism, creating a myriad ofcolors of theories and religions built around the Objects.

The Objects and Delta Green
This section will summarize how the Objects might relate to the various organizations and groups in Delta Green.

Delta Green: The most open-ended by far. Depending on how you run A-Cell, the Objects may be strictly off limits, severely restricted, or more open for use. A-Cell may not know much about them, or they may know enough to know the dangers they pose. This is also open-ended because the Keeper is in a better position to determine how actively the players should be able to access the Objects, much like spells or other powerful abilities.

The Fate: The Fate has indirect and direct control of most of the Objects. It has funds, secrecy, and it has its fingers in enough pies that all the individual scum running around with Objects are subject to its whims. This can provide some interesting interaction between the players and the Fate. Stephen Alzis now has even more in the way of services to offer, and the Objects' natural tendency to gravitate towards each other ensures that anyone who accepts an Object from Alzis or the Fate will remain within convenient reach. The Objects' tendency to reduce people to loopy, needy `Object losers' provides the occasional Adept as well. A number of otherwise lowlife criminals have probably risen to power within the criminal underground via the Objects as well. Because the Fate is in controlof most Objects, the Objects have remained almost entirely under the radar of the government.

The Karotechia: The Karotechia don't have many Objects at all. They have been busy pursuing much of the Occult that was known about during WW II or before, and the relatively recent appearance of the Objects and their relative obscurity has kept the Karotechia from knowing a whole lot about them. The Karotechia has yet to piece it all together, but based on what limited knowledge they have, they are very interested, and if they ever find out more, will become one of the most ruthless and obsessive collectors of Objects.

MJ-12: MJ-12 has been kept out of the loop when it comes to the Objects. The Mi-Go have given the government its own tests, and want to keep the government focused on those. The government needn't be interfering in the progress with the Objects, nor splitting its attention. MJ-12 will certainly raise its eyebrows if it sees an Object in use, but investigation will lead to much information but few Objects, as the Fate keeps them hidden underneath its cloak. MJ-12's best bet in running into and obtaining Objects are the Object Cults and possibly Delta Green.

The Objects
Below is a non-comprehensive list of the Objects and their powers.

Ashtray - Amplifies noise for the bearer twofold.
Axe - Rotating the head allows one to 'tune' in to various communication signals. Sometimes strange noises or bizarre transmissions are picked up on. Tends to drive people insane.
Bar of Soap - Turns water into sand.
Bible – Eating a page allows one to `feel' the Objects. Tends to drive the people insane.
Bus Ticket - When touched, transports the person touching it to <Origin of Objects>.
Chair - Anyone seated in the chair will have their hair (on face and scalp) grow at a rate of an inch every ten-minutes.
Chest of Drawers - Sends objects placed in it back in time to 1961. If a written note is attached, they will appear in any place specified by the note. Otherwise they appear in random locations on any continent on earth. Anyone sent through the chest comes out gibbering like a madman.
Chewing Gum - Holding a stick of gum up and flicking it will cause anything in a five foot by five foot by twenty foot path in front of it to be pulled strongly towards the user.
Cigarettes (Bullseye Brand) - When lit and smoked, provides illumination like a powerful flashlight from the smoker's eyes.
Clock - Sublimates brass almost instantly from solid to gaseous form and vice-versa when wound. The hands are frozen at 1:20:45
Coat Hanger - When a piece of clothing that is still on the coat hanger is worn, the wearer's strength is increased.
Comb - Stops time for the user when the comb is run through the user's hair, but only for 10 subjective seconds. While time is stopped, the holder can move and pick up objects, but only if they are not held in place. Multiple rapid uses of the Comb can cause nausea and insanity.
Cufflink - Lowers blood pressure of wearer.
Cufflink (Second) - Increases blood pressure of wearer.
Deck of Cards - Induces startling visions in people to whom it is shown and allows its owner to determine if such persons are telling the truth. Can also be used to temporarily incapacitate victims. Its psychological aftereffects are devastating. This is a cellophane sealed deck of cards with the Joker set on the outside. Tends to drive people insane.
Deodorant - Ignites anything it touches.
Desk - Rearranges papers placed on it in a seemingly random, but consistent, arrangement. (Any set of papers X will be rearranged in the same way no matter how many times they are placed on the desk). The owner may start to see significance, real or imagined, in the way the papers arrange themselves. Tends to drive people insane.
Dress Shirt - Wearer walks half an inch above the ground.
Drinking Glass – Increases gravity for anyone who drinks from it by a factor of one and a half.
Eyeglasses - When worn, inhibit any type of combustion within a 20-foot radius, ranging from open flames to internal combustion engines and gun discharges.
Flask - When opened, allows the holder to suffocate a targeted victim.
Flashlight - Anything it shines on has its inertia increased greatly.
Floor Lamp - Causes dust to form around it when left on.
Foot Powder (Dr. Scholl's Brand) - When applied, allows the user to breath underwater. User will also feel a disturbing pulsing, throbbing sensation when underwater. Tends to drive people insane.
Glass Eye - Can restore or destroy all flesh.
Ice Bucket - Anything placed in it becomes invisible and undetectable except to touch.
Jacket - Makes the wearer's shadows permanent. The longer a shadow is cast, the darker the shadow left behind is.
Key - Opens any hinged door with a pin tumbler lock and turns it into a portal to the Lost Room. From the room, the user can exit to any location of their choosing provided that location has a door of similar construction.
Kleenex – Reflects energy when held to one's nose. This can be quite uncomfortable if you are trying to blow your nose.
Knife - When brushed across a page of text, the user instantly becomes aware of and memorizes that text. When combined with the Wristwatch, it grants telepathy. When combined with Mythos tomes the effects on the user's sanity are devastating.
Left shoe – Increases atomic decay exponentially within a 15 foot diameter around the wearer.
Left shoelace - The wearer becomes incredibly slow if tied into a "Better Bow" knot. In addition to the effects of being slowed down, the subject is also incredibly resilient to attempts to apply force to it, and its metabolic rate also plummets. The slowed wearer sees everything else moving at a rapid pace. If the knot becomes untied, the wearer returns to normal speed and is no longer nigh-impervious to physical force.
Left sock – Causes amnesia in the wearer. Most memories return when it is removed. Sometimes memories that weren't there before are added.
Letter Opener - If used to scratch one's head, gives the user the benefit of a good night's sleep, without the sleep. This bypasses REM sleep, which can be unhealthy for one's psychological wellbeing. Tends to drive people insane
Lightbulb – Causes a strong power surge in a ten mile radius of whatever socket it is screwed into.
Liquor Bottle – Speaking into the top of the Liquor Bottle allows you to throw your voice.
Matchbook – Creates static noise in telephones or radios within a fifty foot radius when opened.
Magazine (Life Magazine, July 7 1961) – Hypnotizes the reader.
Magnifying Glass – Traps sound waves within a seven foot radius sphere.
Nail Clippers – Lethally irradiates nearby insects (including cockroaches) and plants.
Nail File - Induces a brief, but deep, sleep when light reflects off its surface into the subject's eyes.
Newspaper – The reader gains an extrasensory awareness of all events within thirty feet while reading the Newspaper. The reader is overcome by boredom that increases in intensity as they continue reading. Tends to drive people insane.
Overcoat – The wearer instantly knows the age of anything they examine for a period of five seconds.
Pants – When worn with a matching hat, instills intense fear on those within 17 feet of the wearer.
Pen - The ballpoint tip instantly microwaves any subject upon contact.
Pencil - Creates a 1961 US penny when the eraser is tapped against a solid surface.
Postcard – Appears to have only length and width, but no depth. Will cut through any material known to man if its edge is used.
Quarter - Temporarily brings memories to life when swallowed, lasting 2-3 days at the most (the user can shut it off at will and it presumably ends automatically when the coin is passed by bowel movement).
Rabbit's Foot – Causes the owner to compulsively lie.
Radio - Makes the user three inches taller if tuned to the right
station.
Razor - Shatters glass on contact.
Right Slipper – Remains suspended in the air wherever it is let go of.
Ruler – Causes the holder to hear whispering voices. Sometimes they are coherent, and sometimes they say very useful things (providing accurate predictions of the future or giving information that is needed). Mostly, it's gibberish. Tends to drive people insane.
Scissors - Rotates targeted items in three-dimensional space. The axis of the rotation can be either inside or outside the target. Targeted items can be of any size or mass.
Shoehorn -- 2+2 equals 5 for the owner and all those who interact with them. Tends to drive people insane.
Shoe Polish – When applied to the strings of an instrument, gives it strange acoustic and tonal qualities. Hearing such music played too often tends to drive people insane.
Shot Glass – Anyone drinking wine from the Shot Glass gains X-Ray vision for as long as the alcohol remains in their blood-stream. X- Ray vision is blocked by lead and similar materials/shielding. Sometimes the drinker sees strange things… things they cannot account for. Tends to drive people insane.
Suit Case – If the Suit Case is closed with anything inside, when it is opened, whatever was inside is inverted. Needless to say, this is lethal to living organisms.
Sweatband - Improves the performance of the wearer based on others' expectations.
Table Lamp – When turned on, instills intense satisfaction and pleasantness in those within the same room. May cause a psychological dependency.
Tie – Gives the wearer the sensation of swimming.
Timetable "Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company" label. – Becomes immensely cold at the times listed each day.
Toothbrush – Gives the user an innate understanding of and talent with computers and mathematics for the remainder of the day on which they brushed their teeth with it.
Tweezers – Increase friction several-fold within a 19 foot radius when pressed together.
Umbrella - Causes anyone who looks upon the user to recognize him as someone familiar.
Wallet – The money on any person touched by the wearer is instantly transferred to the Wallet. The wearer also suffers from any illness the person touched had at the time.
Watchbox – Dampens entropy for 34 feet.
Wristwatch - Hard-boils an egg placed within the band. The hands are frozen at 1:20 (the time of the Event). When combined with Knife, it grants telepathy.


Soon to Come (if there's enough interest):
Suggested Object combination powers.
Specific Object cults.
List of Object ownership or location.
Possibly more ideas for the origin and purpose of the Objects and nature of the Lost Room.

Credits
Inspired by The Lost Room, a Sci-Fi Channel original Mini-Series
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Room
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objects_from_The_Lost_Room 

Comments

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John Larkin     | 12.34.246.7 | 2007-04-12 22:10:24 Looks really interesting. Please continue!

Roumois Loig     | 80.219.83.176 | 2007-10-15 17:45:38 Oh Yeah! This rocks! But in my oppinion it's more of an 'Unknown Armies' setting than Delta Green, isn't it?

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.