So the new Delta Green Agent's Handbook came out this week, have any of you had a chance to take a look? What do you think?
Also general Delta Green discussion, I'm looking to run a game in a few months and would like to hear tips.
Haven't had a chance to look yet.
I ran the last edition of DG at a local gaming con, people seemed to have fun but we didn't get to finish the scenario. I more blame that on the length and style of the scenario - Convergence - and con time limits than any problem with delta green as a game, though.
can someone explain ghouls in DG for me?
>>46831404
They're humans.
Prolonged cannibalism induces a massive change in the body, making them incredibly strong, nocturnal corpse-eaters.
They mostly live peacefully, beneath major cities. They're isolationist - they don't want contact with the "unripened fruits". Some wield ghoulish magic, and some outcasts live on the surface and prey on humans directly.
Ghoul magic is things like "eat a brain to gain all its knowledge" or "eat flesh to take their shape".
New Orleans has or had a powerful clan of ghouls ruling a crime syndicate. They had a killsquad of zombies in tactical gear, and various nasty magics.
>>46831404
Like everything in Lovecraftian games, they are whatever you want them to be, able to do whatever you need them too.
Delta Green agents are often working with the unknown, so they have to classify shit as they see it and if they take samples, then it can be properly codified at a later date. That's a big if though.
>>46831599
Here's the New Orleans story, I think.
>>46829132
I guess I'll start dumping this stuff again.
>>46831648
>>46831643
>>46831599
how easy it is to kill one?
>>46831661
>>46831678
>>46831689
>>46831699
>>46831643
is there anything more about the new orleans stuff?
>>46831768
there's a lot more in Target of Opportunity. lurk for that
>>46831843
already have that, I'm just collecting stuff to it because I want to run a game in new orleans.
Also why I ask about ghouls because I can't find that much stuff about them especially about their religion which the new orleans ghouls doesn't follow
>>46831861
Malleus Monstrorum and the french Codex Innommable from Sans-Detour is probably your best lead in that case. You can still study New Orleans and cannibalism and create some cult around Mordiggian from that.
I love DG stuff.
I like the sanity system, although the loss of bonds doesn't really mean much anything in one-shot games.
In the new Agent's Handbook there's an appendix at the end about tradecraft, which tells you some useful stuff about playing an agent. Does anyone have other resources or tips for (especially new) players, who don't know Deltra Green and what's it all about?
>>46832721
Read Tales from Failed Anatomies or listen to the Unspeakable! podcast episodes from last year where they made 5 stories into audiobooks.
I missed you, /dgg/
>>46833760
That's cute...
>>46834957
>>46829132
where can I get the agent's handbook?
>>46835405
http://www.rpgnow.com/product/175760/Delta-Green-Need-to-Know?affiliate_id=48458
I believe these are the full rules. I don't know where to get the Agent's Handbook other than having previously backed the Kickstarter.
>>46835405
The new one? It was just released this week from the kickstarter. There's a Case officer's handbook aka the Handler's book coming out later on.
As for the older one, I think it's just called Player's handbook. The PDF should be around.
>>46835599
I do believe the newer version of Need to Know (quickstart rules and stuff) is free. It's definately around, you could look for it at the Kickstarter page.
>>46835627
It's "pay what you want" on that link. You can pay nothing for it if you wanna learn what the game is.
>>46835604
>The new one? It was just released this week from the kickstarter.
all I see is pre-order links
>>46835144
That was a roller coaster for sure.
>>46829132
Why did Delta Green immediately abandon the "government anti-Cthulhu department" angle and instead go for a random bunch of conspiracy members who moonlight as anti-Cthulhu unit to uphold the duty that the former department had?
In my opinion it would have been cooler if the department was still in action, much like in the Laundy Files. The conspiracy members simply don't have the same gravitas as an actual agency that is meant to combat cosmic horrors.
>>46836700
It creates more of an impedance to work outside and subvert the system... The new version however has DG falling back into good graces with the government though.
>>46836896
>>46836700
I think in the newer edition it's actually both. DG started as official, got shut down, continued in secrecy by agents refusing to give up and even now that DG has been opened again some agents have refuced to come back. The players/Handler can choose which side the agents are on.
>>46837073
Yeah, you either back in the shop or you're a "cowboy" not joining the system. Trade off is less resources but more autonomy.
>>46836700
The idea is to force the party to be self reliant and responsible mostly to their own sense of right and wrong. They don't write reports, and the orders they follow leave ample room for interpretation.
DG is a setting carefully crafted to preserve key characteristics of Call of Cthulhu in an open ended campaign.
Laundry on the other hand is entirely based on the Stross novels. As a game setting it is much more survivable and reliant on levity.
But in the new edition you can play either fresh agents in the official program, or old veterans still out in the cold who don't trust all the regained legitimacy.
I skimmed through the Agents Handbook the day it came out and I'm really excited about it. Everything looks great, the art is good, though if you've been following the KS you've seen most of it already, the rules are solid and they did a really good job of explaining some of the more intricate aspects of the various government organizations and tradecraft bits that were woefully absent from the original books.
If the rest of the books they plan on releasing are this thorough and high quality DG will probably be one of the best RPGs to come out in a few years.
>>46838988
I still need a place to buy it or download it, all I see is pre-order stuff.
The Agent's Handbook is fantastic and all (I love Sanity, Bonds, and the agency writeups), but I'm dying here waiting for the books with setting info.
>>46839024
I got it because I backed the KS. I don't know if they are for sale anywhere else yet but I'd guess once they start sending out the physical books they'll be up for sale on Arc Dream or something.
>>46836700
I always thought DG as an illegal conspiracy made up of volunteers made for more interesting character motivation. With Laundry and the official Delta Green you have people fighting cosmic horrors maybe out of a sense of duty or desire to protect their country, but they also have the benefits of a government job and and people above them giving them orders. The cowboys on the other hand have one guy simply telling them to get the job done. They can make themselves unavailable, explain that they just can't deal with the stress, that the organization is simply better off without them but they don't. If anything that's written about the setting is true, a Delta Green agent is virtually guaranteed to ruin their lives and careers before going insane or worse. Creating a DG character forces the player to ask the question "What makes this person continue to work for an organization that will take everything from him and whose only goal is 'delay the inevitable'." and I'm much more interested in the person whose answer isn't "well if I keep doing it for a few more years I'll get a sweet pension".
>>46839531
can anyone tell me about the Dreamlands? how does that work? Who is the boss there?
>>46839993
Just read a few stories.
It's a mirror world with vastly different rules, and nobody really knows those. Dreamers can travel there in their sleep, normal people need help. Many features are defined, like the Plateau of Leng. But mostly it's whatever mindfuckery you want. Strange landscapes, strange structures and settlements, weird creatures and societies. More Dadaist than Fantasy at times.
>>46839826
Don't the cowboys get their orders from the A-cell? Or does the official DG work that way too?
Also I don't think you can just apply for a job at the official DG. You get recruited, if you have useful skills and have encountered something bad enough for you to be willing to throw away your life for the good of humanity. And while they're an official branch, it's still a conspiracy, they can't just tell someone they're DG. I mean do they even get paid for that stuff?
In any case I don't think the agents are motivated by what people in regular jobs are. They'll keep fighting the impending doom for one more day, if they can.
>>46840288
I only read the hunt for cthulhu comic. What kind of stories do you advise? Also who are the dreamers?
>>46840630
>the hunt for cthulhu comic
That sounds tedious.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamlands#Bibliography
>>46840710
Pretty sure he means Fall of Cthulhu.
>>46840503
I don't think A-cell gives orders, their just the ones you call when shit is out of control, or more than usual, I suppose. From the materials I read, the idea was more that the agents in the field were supposed to continue on with the mundane until a lead on something out the ordinary pops up and then you get down to business. You report in to A-cell whats going on and request what resources may be outside your ability to obtain, but your expected to handle the mission with out guidance.
Official DG might work in a more bureaucratic sense, still some autonomy, but any major actions you take will require some oversight from someone up the chain of shadowy desks, the payoff being access to more resources and simply being able to walk right into places where a cowboy will have to sneak into.
>>46840849
that's the one, I's midnight here and I didn't slept much so I chalk it up for that
>>46840849
The series by BOOM! studios? God that was some good shit, if only to watch Nyarly get one-fucking-upped by the guy he had been fucking with the whole series. Sad their spinoff never went anywhere, but I think they were burned out on the whole mythos thing.
>>46835144
I laughed at that one.
>>46836700
In addition to what everyone else said, even if you're running it in the 90's, you can do the "Government anti-Cthulhu department". The problem is that isn't Delta Green. It's MAJESTIC. Who are the real heroes of the setting.
>>46836896
The other thing to remember is that working within the system has its own problems for the "New" Delta Green. Because New Delta Green is MAJESTIC+Delta Green. And that means being tied into the Military Industrial Complex. So yeah, sure, you can get a drone strike on your position (if your superiors deem it necessary and deniable), but your bosses also want you to recover the cult sorcerer because they believe that his knowledge of certain hypergeometric equations may have prove useful in a battlefield situation.
>>46839826
I imagine most of the people who'll get played in the New Delta Green are the people you're talking about. The people who've got motivations and ideas beyond "Well, I'm getting paid for this at least". Those people are running the desk jobs, and dissecting the things Agents bring in. The people on the ground will have to be motivated by something more than just money. Because let's be honest, if your sole motivation is money, then government work is never going to be the best way to make profit out of the Mythos.
>>46840503
The tricky thing with A-Cell is we don't know yet what A-Cell looks like for the cowboys any more. A-Cell as was is dead. ALPHONSE is gone. ADAM is dead. ANDREA... I doubt was ever human in the first place. Who's pulling the cowboys' strings?
Really, I'm just looking forward to the fluff more than anything else. The system's fine and all, but I don't play DG for the system.
>>46840503
As far as old DG is concerned orders from A-Cell mostly consist of "something weird is going on at this place. Take care of it."
>>46836700
Here's the thing about conspiracies; they're never run perfectly. People are fallible, people are stupid and greedy, people fuck up, people die, people get found out. That's why DG isn't part of the government any more.
It's a "fuck you" to the very 90's conspiracy theory trope of the Illuminati and Men In Black images, the all-knowing government agents. A conspiracy of that size, scope and knowledge simply couldn't exist in secret and sustain itself and its secrecy. MAJESTIC-12 are the government conspiracy who are big enough and brutal enough to sustain their own secrecy - and their fucking idiots.
In a way, that's the even scarier though, right? At least if the Illuminati are evil geniuses, they can run shit effectively (if evilly).
>>46845273
>digging it up in the first place.
>not using grenades ducttaped to C-4 to get rid of the damn thing.
