This here is another one of the special rules in our Delta Green-campaign. The rule relates to investigation, and its main purpose is to circumvent investigation, or rather those situations, where the players get stuck in the investigation for one reason or another. Secondly the rule allows player to make their interpretations count – it is not uncommon that GMs replaces elements of a plot with the players ideas, if their idea is good – and with this rule, the players can choose to let their ideas be the correct independently of GMs ideas.
Here is how it works
For 5 sanity points a player can define a link between two facts. In other words a player can construct a connection between two clues, that otherwise does not exist, but becomes real once defined.
There is a third reason for the rule. A part of the Cthulhu Mythos is, that it operates by a different logic than humankinds, which is why the mythos seems so maddening. By sacrificing logic and sense (paying 5 sanity points) the players can tie clues together, that otherwise would not be related.
- In one episode (The Subterraneans, ep04) a player paid 5 sanity points to discover the secret ghoul tunnels in the subway, and thus allowing the players to track down their foes.
- In episode Black Santas, White Snow, ep11 (our second Christmas-episode) one of the players chooses to interpret a madman’s pentagrams as an Elder Sign, and uses it as a cue as how to defeat the villains.
- In a third episode, Is It Haunted?, ep13, using one of the published modules from Delta Green: Count Down, Night Floors, one player creates a lead to retrieve an agent stranded in Carcosa by using The Author’s typewriter to change “the script” bringing the lost agent back to the building.
The rule is rarely used, but it allows the players to create a certain kind of meeting and solve challenges for a price. This does not make the missions less dangerous, but it allows the players to create meaning, where meaning otherwise does not exist.
It does however require that you as a GM accepts, that your scenario can be changed in ways, that you had not planned or foreseen. It requires a somewhat open design, but it suits our play style rather well.
Roles, Dice and Fun 
I really like this! I think it would be quite difficult to both make quality linkages as the player, and to accept maddening results as the GM, but – great idea!
Thanks. Glad to hear.
Well, the funny thing is, that it is the players in my campaign, who are reluctant to use the rule. They worry, that they might screw things up, whereas I see it as an improvisational challenge.
In part it is possible to use this mechanic because of the open design, that I use for the missions. I intend to cover that in one of the upcoming posts about running a Delta Green-campaign.