Podcast: the Redacted Reports

One of the various podcasts I've been listening to recently is The Redacted Reports.

TRR is a Delta Green podcast, so we're talking an X-files vibe but more conspiratorial. Members of various branches of the US government - in this case including the military, FBI, and the EPA - are secretly recruited for an off-the-books task force investigating deeply weird things.

Disclaimer: I have mixed feelings about Delta Green as a game. In fairness, I haven't played it! I've listened to quite a lot of actual play, including the good folks over at Roleplaying Public Radio (RPPR) and some others I'll write about soon. Personally, some aspects don't work for me; they're drawing on specific genre points that I don't particularly enjoy, so this is just a case of Your Milage May Vary.

1. The game has a model where the strain of dealing with weirdness and violence slowly shreds your human connections, destroying bonds to the people in your life and isolating you; perhaps realistic, but I find it depressing, and I play games to be less depressed.

2. DG leans heavily into the American style of government, which is to say, all the law enforcement characters (and a bunch of others) are armed and prepared to kill. Characters tend to be military, ex-military-, FBI and police. The game as a whole, and many APs, tend to assume that armed violence is both expected and a necessary, effective approach to dealing with the weird conspiracies they're facing. Killing civilians and witnesses is a regrettable necessily - it may grind down the characters' sanity, but it's a grim necessity and morally justifiable, not an abhorrent absolute last resort.

But those are about the game and setting as a whole, and every group runs things differently! I do enjoy listening to DG games for the most part, even the scenarios I wouldn't want to run.

Worth noting: this is a Cthulhu, Delta Green podcast, so it does involve violence, death, and bad things happening to people. It isn't the kind of podcast that relishes the grisly details, but they do come up. In particular, the Shrimp Farm arc has a very violent climax, while Idaho deals with sex, violence, and (in a minor way) self-harm. One PC is a survivor of cult abduction, and another has war-related trauma. Abduction comes up in at least two other cases. I'm not getting into any details here, but thought I should flag it up for anyone considering trying the podcast. My feeling is that they handle these subjects well and with consideration.

So, The Redacted Reports.

First up, this is an audio-only podcast. Joy! I have no interest in the video strand of roleplaying podcasts that has emerged; it's simply not my thing. So for those who share my preference, be reassured, The Redacted Reports are for your ears only.

I started listening a while back, I think about halfway through Shrimp Farm (one of the missions). The characters (and players) quickly earned my affection. I enjoyed right off the bat that two of the characters were a medic (Rory) and an environmental scientist for the EPA (River), and the FBI agent (Rowan) was firmly of the investigative rather than murderous type. Even Rooster, the 'generic marine' of the group, has nuance and depth that plays out over the course of several seasons and becomes a firm favourite.

About the campaign

The group play with some subtlety and humanity. Each case is approached as something they can potentially 'win', and they avoid the callousness that can easily become default in the DG setting. Deaths are unavoidable, but wherever possible, R Cell try to save lives and resolve problems with brains rather than violence.

The seasons cover a good range of different mysteries and themes. Aliens, cults, horrors from the depths of the wilderness, weird science, space-time weirdness, psychic powers, folk horror, drugs, and conspiracies all come into play across the course of the campaign so far. There are occasional interconnections and shoutouts to past history, but not enough to become Byzantine; it feels to me that it adds a sense of pleasing depth to the campaign and makes it seem more real. However, it might not be to everyone's taste. The GM, Dan, clearly puts a lot of thought into things, laying down teasers and clues in advance that crop up substantially later.

There's a definite strand of oobly weirdness to this version of the DG universe. There are time/reality shenanigans of some kind, and at least one minor character seems to be prophetic - though not in a particularly controllable or always helpful way. Again, if not your thing, you may not enjoy it so much. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of time/reality weirdness (I got tired of the Tom Holt books because that was their main shtick, for example) and here it hasn't bothered me.

The investigations are a mixture of prewritten scenarios and homebrew content, usually in combination. The podcast does flag up which scenarios are in play (usually at the end of each recording) so you can double-check you aren't listening to a scenario you're currently playing, and so on.

Metagame stuff

The group makes full use of the "Downtime" mechanic that explores what happens to characters between missions. Their personal lives are clearly important, and the people in those lives just as much. If you're in it for the scenarios, bear that in mind. However, it's worth noting that the personal and DG lives do cross over at times, sometimes in dramatic ways - particularly for Rowan.

The Redacted Reports is primarily a traditional game, with events dictated by what happens at the table and with the dice. The downtime sessions are more freeform, and at times there are more narrative story-focused sections. It never seems to move into full-blown "story first" territory, which is a relief for me - I'm not much interested in listening to a preplanned story with a veneer of gaming behind it. There are some specific elements that are planned, like character developments - such as what happens to Rooster - but it hasn't been an issue for me so far. The Rowan-focused arc is also largely a story interlude rather than a scenario, but again, it didn't bother me.

So far, I've enjoyed the podcast and I like the characters. I wasn't a fan of how Shrimp Farm ended (quite a downer), but for the most part I've had a good time and am looking forward to seeing what else the crew will do. I'm also still waiting to find out what's going on with that journalist from Shrimp Farm.

The crew have occasional Q&A sessions, which includes talking through decisions in- and out-of-character, how sensitive topics were handled, and so on. The players and GM make an effort to look into these topics, and address them without letting them become the focus of the game. For example, Rowan's history with cults clearly influences how she deals with related cases, while Rooster's trauma affects how he relates to the rest of the team, as well as making him the designated driver.

Audio

The Redacted Reports has good, clear audio. I don't know their exact recording setup, but it's easy to hear everyone and tell who's speaking, and there is very little cross-talk. The players speak clearly. I mostly listen to podcasts while walking beside busy roads on my commute, through cheap earphones; I haven't had any trouble following the podcast. Similarly, the volume is pretty consistent - I haven't had any horrible audio spikes (on another podcast, someone's inexplicably unedited Suddenly Dog! nearly sent me falling under a lorry).

I'm generally a no-frills audience - I got started on Whartson Hall ("put a recorder on the table and press play, it'll be fine") and YSDC (high quality, no SFX). The Redacted Reports does have some editing and music, but not to a level that I personally find intrusive. It doesn't interfere with the actual gameplay, and they don't jam it with SFX in an attempt to make it a full-blown audio drama.

Overall

As you can guess by the fact I'm discussing it here, I like The Redacted Reports and am happy to recommend it to fans of weird investigation RPGs.