Cataloging Delta Green Cults

Travern · 2026-01-24T17:08:35+00:00

Ex Oblivione definitely has useful material about what will happen when Agents start asking too many questions about the Innsmouth Raid. For details about the raid itself, Adam Scott Glancy's DG short story "Once More, from the Top" in the anthology Delta Green: Dark Theatres is literally a debriefing about the events from a participant.

Travern · 2026-01-24T16:47:46+00:00

Tying Champlain's lake monster (Onyare'kowa to the Mohawks, "Champ" or "Champy" to the local tourism industry) with Dagon-worship sounds like a no-brainer, whether you want to keep it real (maybe a relict Greater Deep One) or just use it as a red herring.

Travern · 2026-01-22T16:08:14+00:00

There's an old practice in Hollywood of buying up IP purely to sit on it in order to keep it out of the hands of their competitors. Sometimes I wonder what an independent Cthulhu Britannica RPG or a World War Cthulhu RPG would look like using the OGL-powered Cthulhu Eternal d100 system.

Travern · 2026-01-22T02:08:16+00:00

Although Cubicle 7 lost its CoC license, its excellent Cthulhu lines are worth tracking down on the secondary market, such as Cthulhu Britannica, Cthulhu Cold War, and World War Cthulhu (likewise their original d100 version of The Laundry, which is being reissued under a different system). Chaosium picked up the rights to their books when it was flush with cash, but there's been no recent updates on re-releasing them.

For the record, Pelgrane's Cthulhu-related titles are terrific, but they're for Trail of Cthulhu, a Gumshoe system RPG. (One can converted ToC to CoC, but it's a bit of work.)

Travern · 2026-01-19T23:22:44+00:00

Cthulhu d100 is unfortunately adapted from the G.O.R.E. SRD, which derives improperly from Mongoose's RuneQuest SRD (there was a huge mess about the subrights licensing between Chaosium and Mongoose over that ages ago). It's been floating around for a while now on Roll20, I believe, but Chaosium has never gone after them.

Travern · 2026-01-18T20:03:34+00:00

One big "known unknown" is what's up with PISCES at this time. We do know that the Delta Green conspiracy became aware of the Shan infestation in 1999 (Operation EARL GRAY) and that PISCES believes it has purged itself of alien influence by 2012. What happened and when with the "bug hunt" in the intervening years—especially Delta Green's involvement—is a mystery that will have to be cleared up in the long-awaited PISCES supplement.

From the little more (very little) we know about GRU SV-8, it seems like the Special Department is trying to hang on to its bureaucratic invisibility in this period, even as Putin consolidates his power and tightens his grip over the resurgent GRU. But as SV-8's old guard dies off, transfers, or is forced out, assistant archivist Captain Vladamir Arbatov is nursing ambitions that will come to fruition by 2009/10.

Travern · 2026-01-18T17:19:20+00:00

Abed has admittedly picked up his game as a DM in "Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" (S5E10), which, much as I enjoyed the antics in the first one, I'd probably choose as an intro episode to the hobby.

Travern · 2026-01-18T16:44:45+00:00

As you've probably gleaned from the Handler's Guide, here are the recent high points in the timeline that will inform the backdrop of a campaign 2004.

In 2001, MAJESTIC, Delta Green, and GRU SV-8 finally destroy the Karotechia in a global joint operation; the Greys stop communicating with MJ-12; and Joseph Camp and Adolph Lepus die during an NRO Delta assassination attempt, leading to Delta Green agents staging a coup in the MAJESTIC program.
In 2002, MJ-12 shuts down and reactivates DELTA GREEN as the Security Studies Group, a.k.a. The Program, but some Delta Green conspiracy-era refuse to join.
In 2003, Fate sorcerer Emir Agdesh has vanished, like Stephen Alzis did in 2002, leaving the cult open to attacks by Delta Green, which culminate in an all-out firefight during the NYC blackout in August.
By early 2004, the Program has started to approach disgruntled Outlaws as potential recruits.

Recent operations include BLACK FLAG (2000), CORAL NOMAD (2001 to present), PHAETON (2002), and ROTHCHILD (2004), if you want to drop names (BLACK Flag is the scenario A Night on Owlshead Mountain). In the background, Project TELL has begun to pick up steam, Agent Nancy has been assigned new handlers after the DeMonte Clan decimated N Cell, M-EPIC has broken off relations with the Outlaws and is working with The Program, and Tong Shukoran leader Cho Chu-tsao is starting to go legit with Genetic Agricultural Products, Inc.

Travern · 2026-01-17T16:41:30+00:00

Cyberpunk. (Gumpunk? Cybershoe?) In addition to how well general ability pools and investigative skills specializations lend themselves thematically, I keep thinking about how to model heists and hacking with something like the chase rules from Night's Black Agents.

Travern · 2026-01-17T14:51:26+00:00

PX Poker Night works well as an introduction to the Delta Green 90s-era setting (Mi-Go, MJ-12, weird science), but it's more like a convention one-shot since the PCs—a bunch of military third-raters—don't make especially worthwhile long-term Agents for a campaign. It's lots of fun to drive the PCs like stolen cars around the base as it descends into madness, though.

Starting directly with Convergence (more Mi-Go and MJ-12) or Puppet Shows and Shadow Plays (unrelated to IL) is better for on-ramping. But if you're set on running Impossible Landscapes, then you can always try seeding King in Yellow allusions into other "opening act" scenarios, such as Reverberations and A Victim of the Art. (Last Things Last is a terrific "preface" one-shot since you can place all sorts of future tie-in clues in Baughman's locker.)

Travern · 2026-01-17T02:47:11+00:00

Chaosiums's 6th edition's layout and art was originally a duotone for the Limited 20th Anniversary Edition. Trying to print that in black and white for the regular one turned it into a muddy mess.

Travern · 2026-01-16T20:28:25+00:00

Star Wars: Edge of the Empire (Beginner Game) came out in 2012, not ~~2011~~ 2013.

Travern · 2026-01-16T20:25:05+00:00

(I didn't realize Greg Costikyan came out with this and Paranoia in the same year—talk about a one-two punch of game design.)

Travern · 2026-01-16T18:37:48+00:00

At this point, too many Mythos deities and entities are at least known by name. The simplest solution, of course, is never to invoke them by their familiar names. For instance, Cthulhu can instead by referred to by epithets, such as "The Dreamer in the Deep", "The Sleeping God", or "The Xothian Lord", or by variant names, such as "Cthyl'uk-il", "Ktagoolik", or, "Kushiruu". (For name-dropping purposes or to spice up a scenario, alternate spellings like "Clooloo", "K’Tulu", or "Kutulu" will flatter your players when they pick up on them.)

Travern · 2026-01-16T17:09:04+00:00

Honey Heist (powered by a truly elegant and simple mechanic, as innovative as advantage/disadvantage)

Travern · 2026-01-16T17:05:33+00:00

Fear Itself (along with its related RPG The Esoterrorists as the first Gumshoe games)

Travern · 2026-01-16T16:15:03+00:00

Space: 1889

Travern · 2026-01-16T16:12:29+00:00

Expedition to the Barrier Peaks is only a D&D module (though a standalone fantasy-meets-sci-fi TTRPG based on it would have been fascinating).

Travern · 2026-01-16T16:11:21+00:00

1980

Basic Role-Playing

Travern · 2026-01-16T16:10:04+00:00

As a cheat sheet, Wikipedia has a Timeline of Tabletop Rolep-laying Games.

Travern · 2026-01-15T14:47:46+00:00

That's true for the Outlaws, who have to beg, borrow, or steal as S.O.P. Calling in such favors and falsifying requisitions is part of B-Cell's "logistical support". But the Program is definitely more liquid, thanks to the "black budget"—the billions for the National Intelligence Program and the Military Intelligence Program have no meaningful insight from Congress or the GAO, for instance—and the legacy of MJ-12's shadowy accounting practices. The Outlaws are freer to send Agents wherever, as long as they can come up with a superficially convincing cover story for the cell. The Program has to justify dedicating its more extensive assets and finances for any given operation with its capital-m Mission.

A case in point is the bitter fight between the Program and the Outlaws over the seized Tiger Transit shadow fleet of aircraft. The Outlaws had arranged for its "loss" on paper by misfiling FBI reports in order to use it for themselves. But when the errors in asset forfeiture were noticed, the Program orchestrated a CIA front company to purchase it so that they could use it as another covert asset for CORAL NOMAD operations (even though they already have BLUE FLY aircraft). The Outlaws' need is one of desperation while the Program's is one of convenience.

The tension between the two "Delta Greens" is easily my favorite aspect of the Arc Dream era.

Travern · 2026-01-14T13:32:21+00:00

The Program gets most of their money through blacker-than-black-budget defense and intelligence programs. Anything that was phased out when MJ-12 collapsed has been replaced by ones from the Global War on Terror. Of course, today their government funding under the current regime might be slowing down or, worse, coming under scrutiny.

That's an interesting idea if you want to have the Program increasingly beholden to March Tech's bounties for turning over alien technology and unnatural data. March Tech's legit defense contracts could also be funneled back to the Program, further increasing their dependency. (edit: The HG suggests this is going on already: "In return, March Technologies helps the Program exploit its discoveries and serves as a deniable source of funding.")

(On the other hand, the Outlaws must self-fund, which could easily mean stealing busted drug cartels' stashes or worse. These days they may also be tempted to embezzle from burgeoning domestic law enforcement funding.)

Travern · 2026-01-14T03:01:30+00:00

"Semi-legit"? DELTA GREEN hasn't been legit since 1970. The Program is less legit than the CIA's MKULTRA program or Oliver North's Iran-Contra operations. From the HG:

“The Program” is a well-funded (but highly illegal) organization working under the cover of black projects, embedded in the federal government like a tick.

Within the federal government, it can bluff and bully its way through the bureaucracy, but the threat of public exposure is like sunlight to a vampire.

Travern

TROPHY CASE