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Tabletop horror role-playing game and game setting From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Delta Green is a contemporary era setting for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game created by Adam Scott Glancy, Dennis Detwiller, and John Scott Tynes, a.k.a. the Delta Green Partnership, of the Seattle gaming house Pagan Publishing. The setting first appeared in a 1992 RPG scenario[1][better source needed] and revolves around a secretive organization tasked with protecting the United States from paranormal and alien threats. Delta Green combines the classic 1920s Cthulhu Mythos of H.P. Lovecraft with modern conspiracy fiction.
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In August 2011, Arc Dream Publishing and the Delta Green Partnership announced development of a standalone Delta Green role-playing game.[2] Funding began in 2015 and in 2016 the Agent's Handbook was released followed by the Handler's Guide in 2018. Arc Dream Publishing also made a partnership with Pelgrane Press to release a prequel named The Fall of DELTA GREEN using the Gumshoe System in 2018.[3]
Delta Green is a contemporary setting, starting in the mid-1990s, with intermittent updates thereafter. The game revolves around a fictitious secret organization, created by the U.S. Government following the covert raid on the town of Innsmouth, Massachusetts mentioned in H. P. Lovecraft's The Shadow over Innsmouth. The organization takes its name from its World War II-era codename.
Delta Green agents work undercover through other U.S. government agencies, recruiting across a wide range including the FBI, ATF, CIA, CDC, DEA and the U.S. Military. It appears to have "gone rogue" somewhere between the 1960s and the 1980s, following a disastrous operation in Cambodia and a "deal" struck by Reagan-era rivals in Majestic-12, ostensibly with "Greys". Delta Green must not only contain incursions from creatures from the Cthulhu Mythos, but also secret conspiracies and rogue organizations that seek to weaponize its powers.
The 2016 edition advances the history to the 2010s. In 2001, the September 11 attacks greatly affect the Intelligence Community, including Delta Green and MAJESTIC-12. Majestic was weakened and destroyed, while Delta Green has been brought back into the government fold, given a budget and official standing, using the War on Terror as a cover to their operation. There's also a group of old guard agents that were opposed to the restructure of Delta Green, preferring to maintain the old conspiracy running, forming their own splinter group known as "The Outlaws", as opposed to the official "Program".
The Fall of Delta Green, on the other hand, is a spin-off set during the 1960s. Focusing on Delta Green's operations during the Cold War, in particular in Indochina and the Vietnam War, before the fateful operation that led to the original disbandment of the organization.
The group was introduced in the seventh issue of The Unspeakable Oath, a Call of Cthulhu fanzine created by Pagan Publishing, in early 1993. Four years later, the Delta Green supplement appeared and spawned a number of its own supplements and novels. The premise is similar to The X-Files (although the original incarnation of Delta Green preceded The X-Files by almost a year[4]). Both draw on federal alphabet soup folklore, UFO conspiracy theories and other modern legends.
The Delta Green supplement lays the groundwork for organized investigations into paranormal crime and horror, setting up the initial plot and providing players with their motivations and the resources they need to carry out their tasks. It also provides a source of replacements for characters who go mad or are killed. Canonical materials revolve around threats from the Cthulhu Mythos, but the framework is very flexible. Delta Green agents typically know little about the Mythos. While the scenarios and written material is centered around the United States, there are possibilities for international games too. Delta Green: Countdown introduced counterparts in the United Kingdom and Russia, called PISCES and GRU SV-8 respectively, as well as real-life international law enforcement and intelligence agencies. While Targets of Opportunity introduced the Canadian M-EPIC.
The original 1997 edition of Delta Green was a sourcebook for Call of Cthulhu; as such, it used the Basic Role-Playing system that Call of Cthulhu had.
The 2016 standalone edition takes the percentile dice of Basic Role-Playing and Call of Cthulhu mechanics, and introduces modifications adapted for the setting. Player Characters are called Agents and the Game Masters Handlers.
Sanity is rolled when characters meet unnatural horrors, as well as in violent situations and moments when the Agents feel helpless. Agents can "adapt" to violence and helplessness after failed Sanity checks, but excessive loss of Sanity can result in agents developing mental disorders. Delta Green introduces the concept of Bonds, which are the friends and family of the Agents, and Motivations, the reasons why the Agents fight. The latter serve as character-expanding tool for players and a sanity-regulation mechanic, as they can be used to halve the SAN loss. At the point of their relationship with bonds, if the relationship points fall, the connection with the bond will be crossed out. With the bond mechanics, the Home scenes are also introduced. These are between-mission vignettes of the everyday lives of the Agents. They can be about building relationships with bonds, investigating the unnatural, or going to the therapists, among others.
Gear and equipment can be requisitioned from the government organizations under which the Agent works, through the use of the Bureaucracy skill, with more expensive and advanced equipment increasing the difficulty of the roll. A failure might result in the Agent getting fired, blacklisted, or even arrested. Items can also be purchased using the Agent's personal wealth, though this can risk the Agent's relationship with their bonds.
Combat was also streamlined to be quicker, more tactical and deadly. The main combat mechanic introduced is Lethality, weapons that deal damage above 2d10 have a "lethality rating" from 10% to 90%, if the percentile roll is below the rating the targeted enemy dies instantly; otherwise, the damage dealt is the sum of the percentile dice.[5]
The Fall of Delta Green uses Pelgrane Press' own Gumshoe System that is also used in their other games such as The Esoterrorists, Fear Itself and Trail of Cthulhu.[3] Unlike the standard D100/BRP system that both Call of Cthulhu and Delta Green use, in which many actions are subject to D100 rolls to determine outcome, the Gumshoe system emphasizes getting characters from scene to scene quickly, gathering clues and interpreting them using minimal rolls of a 6-sided die.[6]
Fall of Delta Green also introduces new mechanics for the Gumshoe formula, adapting the new rules introduced by the standalone edition of Delta Green: Bonds and Motivations complement the sanity system (Itself based on the one used in Trail of Cthulhu), adaptation to SAN loss was included, Revelation works similarly to the "traumatic background" in Delta Green's character creation and a few new abilities were added, most prominently was the ability of "Agency" to represent the capability of the Player Character to manipulate their employing agency's (Such as the CIA, MACV-SOG or the Federal Bureau of Narcotics) resources in their investigations.[7]
The setting was first introduced in 1992 in the seventh issue of The Unspeakable Oath, Pagan Publishing's Call of Cthulhu fanzine, in the scenario Convergence, which would be later republished in the first Delta Green sourcebook. The scenario introduced Delta Green as a loose organization within the U.S. government dedicated to secretly fight the creatures from the Cthulhu Mythos.[8] Convergence was also followed by a sequel named Transference published in Volume 2 Issue 2 of the Cyberpunk 2020 fanzine The Interface, although later published material disregards this scenario.
Pagan Publishing would then expand the setting resulting in the publishing of the Delta Green sourcebook in 1997. This was followed an additional sourcebook in 1999 titled Delta Green: Countdown.[9]
On May 1, 2006, the Pagan Publishing homepage was updated with an announcement describing the reasons for the delay of the new release of Delta Green, and stating that the d20 edition of the game should be available in time for Gen Con Indy. While there were a few show copies available there were no copies available for sale to the public as most of them were "still being shipped from China".[10] As of May 2007 the book, which is a reprint of the 1997 book with the addition of D20 stats, was finally reprinted and was available in stores.[10]
A hardback compilation of the three Delta Green Eyes Only chapbooks, along with additional material, was released in November 2007. The book was published in cooperation with Arc Dream Publishing. The entire 1,000 copy print run was sold out by February 2008.[11] The hardback edition of Delta Green: Eyes Only was a finalist for the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Supplement of 2007. A softback version of the compilation followed in September 2008 and is available to retail distribution.
Pagan Publishing and Arc Dream Publishing began work in mid-2008 on a new sourcebook, Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity, which was released as a limited-edition hardback in June 2010, to be followed by a softcover retail edition.[12][13] As of August 2011 the entire 1,000-copy print run of the hardback limited edition was sold out. In August 2011, Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity won silver (2nd place) Ennie Awards for Best Writing and Best Adventure.[14]
Arc Dream Publishing released an ebook edition of the novel Delta Green: Denied to the Enemy in January 2011.[15]
As of October 29, 2015, a Kickstarter Campaign by Arc Dream Publishing funded a series of new Delta Green products, converting the setting into a standalone role-playing game.[16] On February 26, 2016, a quick-start rulebook Delta Green: Need to Know was released for free download with the Agent's Handbook following soon after on April 27, 2016. The Handler's Guide was released October 31, 2017, in PDF and on March 8, 2018, a compilation of several other Delta Green adventures released by Arc Dream was released in only one book Delta Green: A Night at the Opera, containing the adventures Reverberations, Viscid, Music from a Darkened Room, Extremophilia, Star Chamber and Observer Effect.
In February 2018, Pelgrane Press released The Fall of Delta Green, the Vietnam War game financed on the 2015 Kickstarter as a GUMSHOE counterpart to Delta Green's Basic Role-Playing.[17][16][3]
On July 9, 2018, returning co-creator John Scott Tynes started a Kickstarter campaign to fund Delta Green: The Labyrinth, a new sourcebook containing "new threats, allies, and mysteries to deepen the terrors of your campaign."[18] It was released on November 12, 2019, in PDF and July 29, 2020, in physical format.
In 2018, Delta Green won six ENnies awards. Gold in Best Rules, Best Production Values for Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game and Best E-Book for Delta Green: A Night at The Opera categories; while Silver in Product of the Year and Best Game for Delta Green: The Roleplaying Game and Best Adventure for Delta Green: A Night at The Opera.
On April 18, 2019, the sourcebook Delta Green: The Complex was released, containing information on federal agencies and related professions that didn't appear in the Agent's Handbook, such as the ATF, NSA, Booz Allen Hamilton, United States Coast Guard among other federal law enforcement, intelligence, military and private contractors agencies that work for the US government.[19] Later on April 24, the collection of scenarios Delta Green: Control Group was released in PDF format,[20] the scenarios in Control Group are meant to be introductory for both players and their characters, the scenarios use pre-made characters that are not in the Delta Green conspiracy. 2020 saw the release of Black Sites, similar to A Night at The Opera, it's a hardback collection of scenarios previously available only in PDF or paperback.[21]
On January 25, 2021 Delta Green: Impossible Landscapes was released. It is Delta Green's first full-length campaign, centered around Hastur, The King in Yellow and Carcosa, with a bigger focus in surreal horror.[22]
On August 10, 2021, Arc Dream started yet another Kickstarter campaign called Delta Green: The Conspiracy. The project is an updated re-release of the original Delta Green sourcebook (now retitled Delta Green: The Conspiracy) with new art, layout and aligned with the new edition's rules. The campaign was a success and it raised $513,158, more than any previous campaign.[23][24] Beside the original sourcebook, the campaign also funded the rest of the original line of Pagan Publishing sourcebooks: Delta Green: Countdown (as Delta Green: The Millennium) and Delta Green: Eyes Only (as Delta Green: Machinations). Targets of Opportunity was divided in two books: Legacies, with the chapters of the Black Cod Island, M-EPIC, the Disciples of the Worm, and the DeMonte Clan, and Transcendence with the chapters of Cult of Trascendence. The scenarios in the original sourcebooks won't be released with the new ones; instead they will be released separately as paperback and then in one hardcover book called Delta Green: Incursions. Delta Green: Agencies will contain the U.S. and international agencies profiled in the annex of Delta Green and Countdown. The only new material will be Delta Green: Shotgun Scenarios. A "shotgun scenario" is a short standalone scenario that can fit into other, larger campaigns or scenarios. Many of them will be fan-made, coming from the community-ran Shotgun Scenarios fan contest.[25]
April 2022 saw the release of Iconoclasts, Delta Green's second campaign. It is set in 2016 during war against the Islamic State in Iraq, tasking players to infiltrate and investigate mysterious events going on inside the territory of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.[26][27]
On October 13, 2023 Delta Green's third campaign God's Teeth was released. The campaign is set in 2001 and plays out over a 19 year timespan.[28][29]
In 2024, Brazilian publisher RetroPunk started a crowdfunding campaign for the Brazilian Portuguese edition of Delta Green.[30]
Scenarios by Dennis Detwiller, published online and (since Sep 2014) through Patreon:
Adam Scott Glancy wrote a regular column titled "Directives from A-Cell" in the first six issues of Worlds of Cthulhu magazine. The column was then transferred to The Unspeakable Oath from Arc Dream Publishing, starting with issue 20. The latter magazine has featured a lot of Delta Green-related articles since 1993.
Fantasy Flight Games Live Action RPG supplements:
In the March 1997 edition of the British game magazine Arcane (Issue 17), Andy Butcher said "Right from the first page of the book, it's obvious that Delta Green is something really special." Butcher complimented the book for "a wealth of rich detail, intricate plotting, and great imagination. The result is truly inspiring." He concluded by giving the book at excellent rating of 9 out of 10, saying, "One of the biggest, most detailed, best conceived and inspiring sourcebooks ever released for any game system. An absolute must for any Call of Cthulhu referee considering a modern-day campaign, and highly recommended even if you're not."[31]
In the July 1998 edition of Dragon (Issue 249), Ray Winninger called Delta Green "one of the richest, most detailed, and most complete sourcebooks ever published." Winninger found that this book "successfully melds Lovecraft's eerie mythos with modern UFO and conspiracy folklore to produce a compelling hybrid setting all its own." Winninger gave the book a perfect rating of 6 out of 6, concluding, "The book contains all the material any Keeper could possibly expect, all of it first rate: the illustrations are excellent and helpful, the included adventures are top-notch, and the price is remarkably reasonable [...] Products like this come along only very rarely. For Call of Cthulhu fans, Delta Green is a must buy. For everybody else, it's still probably worth a look."[32]
In Issue 3 of the French game magazine Backstab, Stéphane Bura wrote, "Seldom has a role-playing product inspired in me such a sense of despair and helplessness in the face of the threat it offered." He concluded by giving the book a perfect rating of 10 out of 10, saying, "Even if you wouldn't normally play a contemporary role-playing game, buy this supplement anyway. This is the must-see product that will set the bar for excellence for a few years to come."[33]
In his 2023 book Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground, RPG historian Stu Horvath noted, "A rich narrative web increases the horror for the players, even if the players don't experience the full story. There is a thrill to combing through the histories and timelines, making connections, and developing theories." Horvath concluded, "Delta Green more often pits players against other humans, rather than monsters, which, in turn, places an increased value on examining the human toll of the missions ... It doesn't always ring true, but it represents a vast improvement over sanity systems that feature pulp-inspired caricatures of mental health."[34]
The following novels and short stories share similar backgrounds to Delta Green:
Other role-playing games with similar premise:
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