There are plenty of games where players fight against a conspiracy. The leates Dungeons & Dragons adventure, Vecna: Eve of Ruin pits players against a secret cult that’s spread across the multiverse. But one of the best horror games on the market lets you be part of a conspiracy.
Delta Green is a modern day horror game that cast players as members of a conspiracy inside the United States government. They use the countries’ vast resources to investigate and battle elements of the Cthulhu Mythos. They also moust confront the cost of their vigiiance with scenes at home watching as the things they fight for slowly, but inevitably, slip away.
Humble Bundle is currently hosting a collection of several books to raise money for Covenant House. The bundle is available through June 22nd, 2024. Here are some of the outstanding titles in the collection, though everything included is worth checking out.
Delta Green Core Books
The Agent’s Handbook contains all the rules needed to play the game. Mythos fans familiar with Call of Cthulhu will see a lot of similarities with a precentile system, Sanity score and professions. Delta Green began as a sourcebook for the classic horror game.
This edition has made a few changes to make the challenge of investigating the Mythos hit harder. Players define character bonds, like spouses and partners, that can absorb the loss of Sanity in the field at the cost of coming home to a deteriorating relationship. Combat is short and brutal, with many guns having a Lethality rating that can kill many mortal beings in a single attack.
The Handler’s Guide contains the secret history of Delta Green from its beginnings in the aftermath of the Innmouth raid to its current status as a pair of duelling conspiracies with in the govvernment. It also contains writeups of various monsters from the Mythos and beyond. The book rounds out with advice on how to run the game for new Handlers.
Delta Green Sourcebooks
Delta Green began as a sourcebook for the classic RPG Call of Cthulhu released in 1997. The Conspiracy updates the mechanics for the newer game while also digging into the state of the organization at the end of the millenium. It’s a great book for fans who remember the original game as well as new players who might not have been old enough to enjoy it.
Delta Green agents come from all over the government, so long as they’ve had a brush with the weirdness of the Mythos. The core book detail angencies that are the most likely to be involved with investigation like CIA and FBI. The Complex not only expands into more obscure agencies but introduces rivalries and elements of bureaucracy that can complicate cases even further.
Handlers will find a lot of useful information in The Labyrnith. It includes potential allies, unfortunate innocents and scheming cults to drop into their games. It also includes evolutions of these elements as the game wears on and they become more and more exposed to the truth of the Mythos.
Agent Dossiers include several pre-made characters to use with the game. These are great for groups who want to jump into the action right away. They are also useful for those unfortunate moments when an agent dies in the field and the game doesn’t want to stop to make a whole new character.
Delta Green Adventures
The are six stand alone cases in Night At The Opera, the title of which comes from the code phrase that tells Delta Green agents they are on the clock. All of the scenarios are great but “Music From A Darkened Room” stands out in this collection. It’s a spooky ghost story with a bleak ending that establishes just how hard it is to fight the good fight.
The adventures in Control Group are built t be extra difficult with only one or two survivors coming out of each. They can be added into any campaign. Playing them back to back offers Handlers a chance to build a hardened cell from the survivors.
Impossible Landscapes offers a campaign framework entered around The King In Yellow. The idea is to open with the first adventure, play out a full campaign, and then end with the apocalyptic finale included here. “The Night Floors” offers the perfect introduction to this surreal side of the horrors of the Mythos.
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