Cthulhu Mysteries Mesoamerica Pdf Writer
Sep 12, 2012. The adventures in Mysteries of Mesoamerica are really three semi-connected stories and one outlier, “The Well of Sacrifice,” that feels like a convention game. “The Menhirs in the Grotto” resembles a more conventional Call of Cthulhu investigation, of the murders of workers at an Aztec site in Mexico. It began by publishing a Call of Cthulhu role-playing game fanzine, The Unspeakable Oath. In 1994, the company moved from Columbia, Missouri to Seattle, Washington where it incorporated. The staff at this time included John Tynes as editor-in-chief, John H. Crowe III as business manager, Dennis Detwiller as art director.
Hi folks, Shane Ivey here of Arc Dream Publishing. Dan Davenport of RPG.net hosted me in a live online chat the other day and we had a great discussion of and the One Roll Engine. The full transcript is online.
Here’s a slighly edited and reorganized version, with questions highlighted for easier reading. [19:00] My name is Shane Ivey and if you elect me president of the United States, I promise a Delta Green role-playing game before my first term is done. [19:01] How long will that term be? П™‚ [19:02] As part of Arc Dream Publishing I also oversee the RPG lines Godlike, Wild Talents, Monsters and Other Childish Things, and now Better Angels. And some others. We also have published a few fiction works and an ebook version of the Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia.
[19:02] Here in the U.S., terms are four years. But we’ll have DG well before then. [19:04] Thanks so much for the on the ORE mailing list! It’s one of my favorite ORE settings; any chance we’ll ever see more for it?
[19:06] I think so. I love it, too, and I’ve though about talking to Greg about doing a revised version at some point that’s a little easier to wrap your head around. It’s kind of hard to access unless you really study it. I love the flavor of the setting that Greg Stolze and Ken Hite created, the rough magic and superpowered spies. [19:07] I did about half of a Grim War scenario a while back but didn’t finish it quick enough.
It’s about PCs who are mutants and sorcerers employed by a private security contractor in Afghanistan. The idea was to use the company rules from Reign very prominently, with the player characters and their coworkers as one company (literally) and other factions for others [19:08] local tribes, U.S.
Army units, sorcerous terror cells, that kind of thing. [19:08] I need to revise it to suit current events or make it more alternate worldy. Sometime soon. (done) [19:09] ORE seems to be your “house system” now. Any chance of ORE Delta Green at some point?
[19:11] We may package stat conversions to go along with the RPG, to play it with Nemesis, the Cthulhu Mythos ORE game. [19:11] Awesome! [19:12] We considered doing multiple versions of the core game, but I didn’t like the risk of confusing the market.
[19:12] Do you have any advice on how to write a scenario (specificly in DG)? [19:13] How to write a DG scenario? Yeah, that’s tricky. It’s getting some concrete treatment in the RPG core books.
[19:13] You’re writing a Call of Cthulhu scenario fundamentally, so start with all the advice they give you there. But for DG you want to account for legal authority and jurisdiction — at least well enough to fake it. [19:14] And you want to make sure that all those resources come with so many strings that engaging with them makes life more risky and difficult. [19:14] DG agents are there to save lives in the big picture, and a big part of that is keeping people from discovering the supernatural horrors that they’ve witnessed. [19:15] Call in the SWAT team or the SEALs or an FBI surveillance van at the wrong time and you have only spread the horrors further. [19:16] Make the modern resources that DG agents often have a source of suspense and dread.
[19:17] Hrms. [19:17] And remember, DG agents always have guns and players LOVE to shoot things. So when you design a scenario, try to build it so shooting things doesn’t solve the problem.
At least not right away. And if it does solve the problem, make sure it comes with so many strings that it too is a source of dread. [19:17] Worms in the eyes moments like the Laundry? [19:18] I have an idea involving a lot of shotguns and a semi-formless spawn. [19:19] Sure.
As punctuation. DG thrives on being more mundane in its awfulness than the Laundry sometimes is. If a normal who’s backing you up is exposed to horrors and can’t cope, or becomes one, or threatens to tell the world — that’s a great source of fear and grim decisions. [19:19] Is Arc Dream your full-time gig, and if so, what’s a typical day like for you?
[19:21] It wavers between part time and way, way more than full time, depending on the time of year. Running up to GenCon or with a big release, it eats up all my waking hours. Right now it’s somewhere between part-time and full-time. [19:22] Daily: I spend a couple of hours, sometimes more, on blog posts and social media and other things to try to engage with our audience.
[19:22] Part of that in the near future will be trying to more proactively set up a demo volunteer program. We’ve tentatively tried to do that for years and it’s time to really do it in some way. [19:23] The other half of my time is usually production. Writing, editing, layout, corresponding with freelancers, managing product development.
[19:24] That’s the theory — half on marketing and the business side, half on production. [19:22] What’s the status of Torch for Godlike?
[19:26] Allan Goodall has the manuscript. It’s gone through a lot of hands over the last ten years. But after seeing what he did with Black Devils Brigade, we knew he was the guy. He came to Birmingham for a local convention a couple of years ago and I gave him a couple of boxes full of research books I’d collected for Torch over the years. [19:26] Is Torch a D-Day supplement? [19:27] He’s finishing up an unrelated scenario right now — Ortona, which he started for the Godlike paperback Kickstarter — and when that’s done he’ll be hip-deep in Torch. [19:27] Operation Torch is a full-length campaign about the Allied invasion of North Africa in late 1942.
[19:27] Oh duh. *smacks self* [19:27] Historically it was kind of a cakewalk in comparison to Normandy. In our version, the presence of Ubermenschen makes it more tricky. [19:28] (What was D-Day, again?
Overlord?) [19:28] Great! [19:28] Right.
D-Day was Operation Overlord, 1944. [19:29] Torch has some very cool elements that we haven’t detailed in Godlike.
Spy action in Casablanca. Dealing with Berber tribesmen. Secret submarine missions and shipboard sabotage. And that’s just the first adventure. [19:29] You say “in your version” I seem to recall that Godlike’s WW2 was supposed to go pretty much like the RL version. Is that still the case, and if not, to what degree?
[19:30] Godlike’s WW2 is deliberately very close to our own, especially in the broad strokes. But there are a lot of differences when you drill down to the details.
[19:31] The challenge for the players in Operation Torch is to make sure that their Operation Torch comes through without disaster despite Ubermenschen. [19:29] Is the New DG RPG going to have its own system or use one of the open souce systems available? [19:32] The new Delta Green RPG will be a self-contained system based largely on open-source rules from BRP. (Chaosium’s Basic Role Playing engine.) [19:33] It has a lot of tweaks to fit our particular vision of how DG and its version of the Cthulhu Mythos works, but it’ll be directly compatible with Call of Cthulhu and other BRP games. [19:29] Any projections as to releases in 2013?
[19:35] Better Angels, unless that comes out in December. [19:35] The Sense of the Sleight of Hand Man, a Dreamlands campaign for Call of Cthulhu, by Dennis Detwiller. [19:36] Tales of Failed Anatomies, a new Delta Green fiction collection. [19:36] Operation Torch, for Godlike. [19:36] Day of Days, an amazing D-Day campaign for Godlike.
[19:37] More issues of The Unspeakable Oath. [19:37] There’s more in the works but realistically I expect that’s enough to shoot for in 2013. [19:37] PDF or paper only? [19:38] for all of the above [19:38] All will be PDF and paper. The fiction collection will have hardback and ebook versions too. [19:38] Can you say a bit more about the Dreamlands campaign?
[19:40] It was funded thanks to a Kickstarter program several months ago. Dennis is mostly done with it and has played through it several times. [19:41] It starts off featuring player characters who are heroin addicts in 1925 New York City. They try something new — and run afoul of a slaver from the Dreamlands, who brings their souls over for enslavement by the Moon Beasts. Things get weirder, lovelier and more grotesque from there. [19:42] Ah So that explains how you can have a whole campaign within the Dreamlands. [19:42] re: the drug element.
[19:43] wow [19:43] Yeah. [19:43] or gouls kidnapp you from the waking world [19:43] Please tell me it’s not Lumley-ized? [19:43] looking forward to receiving it 🙂 [19:44] It’s not Lumleyized. It’s scary and weird and pretty stark. [19:44] Oh thank God. [19:44] (I still can’t believe Chaosium turned the Dreamlands into Lumleyland.) [19:45] (this is a very surreal exchange when the only Lumley I can think of is Joanna) [19:45] Dennis’ first motivation for Sense was that he heard so many people say the Dreamlands didn’t seem scary as a game setting. He wanted to fix that.
[19:46] Xyphoid: I’m referring to Brian Lumley, who introduced topless monster babes and Cthulhu’s sparkley good brother to the Mythos. [19:46] And yes, the Dreamlands rock. [19:47] Is that the first old-school 1920s CoC product you’ve put out in a while? [19:47] Or will have put out, rather.
[19:47] For Arc Dream proper I think it’s going to be our first 1920s book. Not counting articles in The Unspeakable Oath. [19:47] are there talking cats? [19:48] I don’t remember whether there are talking cats. П™‚ [19:48] Really?
I must be thinking of something put out by Pagan, maybe The Nocturnes campaign, I think it was? [19:48] Nocturnum, rather [19:50] Pagan released Bumps in the Night and Mysteries of Mesoamerica recently.
[19:50] As Kickstarter has done pretty well, will you be using that more in the future for “ify” products? [19:50] Yeah.
We’ll be using Kickstarter for just about everything. [19:52] It’s got downsides, but knowing that we will hit some minimum funding level without worrying about X number of sales after committing to freelance bills is a huge win. [19:53] That was badly phrased.
You never know that you WILL hit whatever level. But being able to say “If we get X, it’s worthwhile to commit our resources” is a big deal. [19:53] what are the downsides?
[19:54] Kickstarter itself is undergoing so much expansion right now that there’s a risk we’ll lose some backers who get burned by undelivered projects. [19:55] But from our perspective, that’s outweighed by gaining new supporters who might not have heard of us otherwise. As long as it’s expanding KS is a more and more valuable venue for exposure. [19:56] The more dangerous downside is the risk of doing the math wrong when calculating your goals. For projects where you’ll deliver a physical project, planning for the costs of printing and especially the variable costs of shipping around the world can get really tricky.
[19:57] I think KS has started implementing some tools to make that specific part easier since the last time I put a project up. That’ll be good if they did. We learned the hard way that those shipping calculations can really get away from you in a big way if you’re not careful.
[19:58] You mention the new DG being a self-contained game with tweaks to BRP Can you say a bit more on that front? [19:59] Sure. The basics are pretty much the same as CoC. A bunch of stats ranging from 3 to 18. Skills ranging from 0 to 100. Hit points and Sanity points.
[20:01] The names of skills and the way they work in play has gotten a lot of attention, based on experiences that we’ve had in play. In CoC it’s easy to default to “Make a skill roll” any time the Keeper hasn’t decided ahead of time what ought to happen. For players with inexperienced Keepers that can really be frustrating, because CoC skills tend to be pretty low. [20:02] So while it’s still percentile based and it’s still uncommon to have more than one or two skills that are really good, the guidelines and rules for making a roll at all address the fact that by asking for a roll you’re making failure likely.
[20:04] Sanity is pretty much the same as it’s always been in CoC. The biggest tweak is that characters can opt to develop strong relationships with NPCs or other things that are crucial to their world-view — devotion to a job or a cause, whatever really matters to the character — as a way to regain lost SAN. [20:05] Of course, going on Delta Green ops and coming home with deteriorating SAN and horrible wounds does nothing good for real-world relationships. It’s another variant on the Onion Skin of Doom theme of CoC. [20:06] Other stuff: Um, there’s a Willpower rating. It’s the same as Magic Points but can come into play in a lot of non-magic ways. Long interrogations, trying to work for days on end, that kind of thing.
[20:07] I wrote some detailed rules for working past exhaustion and relying too heavily on uppers to keep going and on downers and booze to compensate. I’m not sure how much those will get trimmed down. I was playing a lot of Aces & Eights at the time. П™‚ [20:07] Heh. Daniel T Ferrara Pdf Converter there. П™‚ [20:09] Magic and the Mythos get a treatment from scratch. We haven’t gone into that in depth yet, but I expect it will be built to be very HPL-purist as the default with options and guidelines for incorporating other stuff to pulp it up.
[20:09] What else do you want to know? [20:10] Let’s see Are there any cinematic rules options, or is it pretty much standard CoC in that respect?
[20:11] Pretty standard CoC. PCs are slightly more resilient when it comes to hit points. I’ve heard CoC7 is doing something similar. [20:10] Is Alphose still in charge or has he gone on that green box in the sky? [20:13] Alphonse: Well, it’s tricky.
There’s Delta Green and there’s Delta Green. There’s conspiracies within conspiracies. If you’re in the inside one, you get encrypted self-erasing emails and scrambled phone calls from a guy code-named Alphonse. But he won’t ever let you see him in real life. [20:13] What else? [20:14] Any rules for psychic powers?
They’re a great way to go insane. [20:18] Psychic powers in DG are sort of a step in the direction of using magic. Either one opens up your brain to doing things that healthy brains don’t physically do. Psychic powers in DG are very hard to control and hard to predict and when they do work they tend to drain SAN rapidly. But if you want to play a survivor of Project STARGATE, you can. (done) [20:18] Hmm So is it just another manifestation of magic? Or is that splitting hairs?
[20:21] The way I see it, when humans use spells in DG they’re using the same muscles as psychic powers, but with more direction thanks to the influence of alien intelligences whose brains handle that kind of thing better than ours. [20:22] Ah So psychic powers are more internal and magic is more external?
[20:23] Magic lets you use your puny human psychic muscles to do more impressive things. [20:23] Gotcha. [20:23] As I see it in DG, anyway. Of course smarter guys than me are also involved, so we’ll see how it looks when Greg and Dennis and Ken Hite have their say. [20:23] Do you address alien technology to any extent?
[20:26] Sure. Large parts of the Delta Green setting are about people thinking they can turn alien technology to their own purposes and profit. It does not go well. It keeps Delta Green busy.
It also makes them vulnerable to meddling and espionage. (done) [20:26] Who wins in a fist fight; Stolze or Hite? [20:27] Stolze. He looks weedy but he’s a no-lie judo badass. (done) [20:29] DG aside, is ORE pretty much your go-to system now? And regardless, do you see any genres to which it is more or less suited?
[20:30] We use ORE for a lot of things, yeah. And that by itself makes us more likely to use it for new things because we’re already thinking in those terms. So it’s not like it’s our exclusive thing but we sure do like it. [20:31] For me, ORE is well suited for genres where there’s frenetic, unforgiving action. Physical action like in Godlike and Wild Talents, and emotional or interpersonal action like in A Dirty World.
The way dice works is dynamic and interesting. Crazy stuff can happen. [20:32] Now, that’s not always what you’re after. I also love FATE, and it’s better suited for games where you want the players to have more narrative agency. Earlier I talked about 2013 releases.
Strange FATE is likely also going to be there – a standalone version of that rules set. [20:33] Sorry for the diversion. [20:33] You’re publishing Strange FATE? [20:34] Yeah.
Mike Olson developed that wrinkle on the FATE engine for us in the FATE edition of The Kerberos Club. He’ll be working it up as its own thing not tied to that setting. [20:35] Ah, so he did!
I’d forgotten you were the guys behind KC. [20:30] Apologies if anything like this has already been covered, but do you have any new settings/supplements in the works for Wild Talents?
(Outside of Better Angels, which I understand uses an ORE variant.) [20:36]... We don’t have anything big immediately planned for Wild Talents. Allan Goodall has been tinkering with a medieval Japan setting for a while, but he has his hands full with Godlike for now. We’ll be putting out a bunch of adventures for existing Wild Talents settings. [20:37] Crap, I forgot another thing that’s likely for 2013: Drachenritter, a completely kickass new game by Benjamin Baugh, who did Kerberos Club and Monsters and Other Childish Things.
[20:37] Oooo. What’s the skinny on that one? [20:39] James Knevitt is working with Ben on that now. It’s very cool. It’s about medieval-style knights riding dragons and competing to protect and advance their slices of neighboring kingdoms. [20:39] System? [20:39] Like so many things that we’ve done that wound up awesome, Drachenritter started as a “What if?” thread on RPG.net.
It’s awesome. [20:40] Drachenritter uses the One Roll Engine. [20:40] (James here.) It’s very promising. Ben at his best.
[20:40] Yeah, ask James there, he’ll tell you. [20:41] Oh, hello there, James! [20:41] Aside from the dragon-riding knights, how “generic fantasy” is the setting? [20:42] It’s not generic. It’s fantasy but it’s pretty specific. No elves and dwarves and orcs, IIRC.
[20:42] Ben is working to make it its own particular flavor. [20:42] It focuses heavily on the dragons and what their existence implies for a medieval-era setting. And guys in armor with big swords. [20:42] If someone outside the company wants to do an ORE game, do you guys have a licensing procedure or submission guidelines? [20:43] We take submission proposals. Send me an email.
We don’t always move swiftly on them, but if it’s an idea that really throws sparks we’ll run with it. [20:46] Is Project NEMESIS hosted on Arc Dream’s website, BTW? I’m never sure where to tell people to get the.pdf since the NEMESIS website went dark [20:48] Nemesis is available at RPGNow and DriveThruRPG: (Link: [20:48] Doh! I never realized that [20:49] Spread the word! П™‚ It’s a fun horror system. [20:49] James, you’re our ORE line editor, remind me to polish up my unofficial Nemesis rules for The Dark Tower and put those online. [20:50] I shall do so.
[20:50] oh man that is a great idea [20:47] What’s the rationale for the loss of SAN in the usage of psychic abilities? [20:51] The basic theory is that Sanity deteriorates when the world doesn’t work the way the human brain is wired to want it to work. [20:51] Our monkey brains want gravity to pull things down and want eyes to see just what’s in front of them. [20:52] Interesting.
[20:52] When you can point your finger at an apple and make it float up in the air, or you can close your eyes and literally see a missile base four thousand miles away, there’s dissonance between what your brain has evolved to experience and what your brain is actually doing. In the game that’s SAN loss. (done) [20:53] Very Faustian. [20:53] Still curious about the offical status of DG in the upcoming RPG? [20:55] In the DG RPG, in the world of the early 2010s, Delta Green has evolved and changed a lot since the 1990s.
In a nutshell, elements of Delta Green seized a chance to worm their way into the black programs of the Majestic group and turn a lot of Majestic policies upside down. (more) [20:57] Years later, there’s an official but very black organization that draws specialists from across the U.S. Government, and sometimes from its allies, to investigate and eliminate supernatural threats. It sounds very clinical and above-board. (more) [20:58] It’s surrounded by corruption and by the inevitable byproducts of people with loose ethics hungering for things that inevitably drive them and other people insane. (done) [20:58] And thus my players are screwed, excellent.
[20:59] People in that task force have a security clearance that was deactivated more than 40 years ago in the Cold War and reactivated a few years ago at the height of the War on Terror. Saying the name of the clearance to people who aren’t cleared to hear it is itself a violation of security. [20:59] That clearance is Delta Green. [21:00] Meanwhile, there’s a cadre of individuals within that framework and some outside it who secretly work with each other and consider themselves the REAL Delta Green — the agency that Joe Camp ran and would never have turned back over to stooges in the military-industrial complex. [21:01] So you can run it in a few different ways. You can run agents who have an official (but secret, and they can hardly ever say it out loud) clearance and who have access to a lot of resources. But every time you access those resources you’re further exposing the horrors that you’re trying to stop.
[21:02] And thus you are screwed. [21:02] For reference purposes, Dennis Detwiller’s DG novel “Through a Glass Darkly” covers some of the recent history Shane is referring to.
(But also, unsurprisingly, contains major, major spoilers.) [21:02] What kind of spoilers? [21:03] Please don’t tell me them. [21:03] Or you can run it as moles within the larger framework who are breaking the law left and right without even the gloss of a National Security Council clearance. You can keep things more secret but you’re always one step away from prison or a black site cell in Ukraine.
And thus you’re screwed. [21:03] Well at least tell me if they’re in the core book coming out. [21:04] “Through a Glass Darkly” hits the point of transition. That gets explored in more detail in the DG RPG core books.
[21:04] My players already have trust issues with an organization that does not pay them but asks them to do very questionable things. [21:05] Yeah. In the new game their trust issues will not be resolved. [21:05] Cuz I don’t like keeping stuff secret even from the GM. That’s just 90s White Wolf junk there. [21:06] Oh, I see what you mean, Geek2theRight. No, we will not hide a bunch of critical stuff from you in the core books.
Some elements may get more detail and scope in later sourcebooks, but the essentials will all be in the core books where they belong. [21:06] Yay!!!
[21:07] Consider me sold then. I love conspiracy stuff when it’s at least in a GM section. [21:06] Are there any genres or types of games you think ORE isn’t good for?
[21:08] I answered that a bit earlier, Squide, sorry. Check the transcript when it goes online. П™‚ Nutshell: I think ORE is not well suited for games that gives a lot of narrative agency to players. At least, the ones that we’ve done. A Dirty World and Better Angels (and some bits of Candlewick Manor) comes closest.
[21:07] I heard that Dr. Camp retiers in a DG book.
Is that a currently published book or the upcoming book? [21:09] Helios: Dr. Camp’s fate is described in detail in the novel “Through a Glass, Darkly.” It’s available at arcdream.com and amazon.com, among other places.
[21:10] Excellent. [21:12] Could you modify the Dirty World charcater sheet so that it includes a definition of combat potental on the back?
[21:13] Not a bad idea. I have added that to my projects list and will take a look. [21:12] Well, first, I’d like to thank Shane for taking the time to speak with us this evening! [21:14] Thanks for facilitating, Dan!
It’s been fun. Thanks for the questions, everybody. [21:14] So long and thanks for some of the fish. П™‚ See you later!
New to this project? Thanks to the success of this Kickstarter project, we’re offering all kinds of possible rewards: • Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game (in two editions!). • The Fall of Delta Green from Pelgrane Press. • A walking or stumbling mountain of downloads by the Delta Green team, some new and some old. • Big sourcebooks and campaigns as we hit new goals. But don't try to sift through all those details right away! Bni Purpose And Overview Pdf Writer.
First decide which core game you want. Pick the starter tier that gets you that game.
You can customize after that. What Your Base Pledge Gets Pick the AGENT'S PDF pledge (just $20) and you get: • Delta Green: Agent's Handbook in PDF, all the rules you need to play.
• The Delta Green quickstart guide in PDF with pregenerated characters and the scenario 'Last Things Last.' • 'Kali Ghati' in PDF, a scenario with pregenerated characters.
• 'The Children of Atlach-Nacha' in PDF, a new threat to confront your agents. • 'Down in the Delta' in PDF, a short story.
• 'Protocols: The Unripened Fruit' in PDF, a feature about the challenges of agents dealing with corpses. • 'Making Horror Scenarios' in PDF, a guide to creating your own terrors. • In the Court of the Yellow King in PDF, a short play. • 'I Have Seen the Yellow Sign' in PDF, a feature about the threat posed by the King in Yellow.
• 'The Last Show' in PDF, a short story. • 'Redacted: Fusion Centers' in PDF. • 'Redacted' The Collectors' in PDF. • 'Redacted: Big Data' in PDF.
• 'Redacted: Beltway Bandits' in PDF. • Delta Green: Control Group in PDF, a campaign of five scenarios with pregenerated characters, at least 256 pages long. • 'Lover in the Ice,' Caleb Stokes' horrifying scenario customized for Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game. Customizing Your Rewards Want more? We offer more. So much more. • The Agent’s Handbook has the core rules to play Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game, suitable for all players.
• You can get the Agent's Handbook just in PDF if you prefer. • There’s also a double-size GM edition, the Case Officer’s Handbook. You can upgrade to that if you want, replacing the Agent’s Handbook with the Case Officer’s Handbook. Or you can get a copy of the Case Officer’s Handbook to go with your Agent’s Handbook, so your players can use the Agent’s Handbook while you run the game.
• You can get the Case Officer's Handbook in hardback, which comes with the PDF as our gift, or just in PDF. • You can get past Delta Green books as PDF and ebook downloads.
• You can get new Delta Green books, scenarios and articlesthat we’ve unlocked in this project. • You can add a copy of The Fall of Delta Green in PDF or hardback to some other reward. To get one of these bonuses, just follow these steps: • Look up its cost on the big. • Add that amount to your pledge.
After the project ends, we’ll send a survey to find out exactly what you should receive. Picking a Different Backer Reward Tier If you find yourself adding a lot of Add-On Rewards, you might want to choose one of the other. Some of them bundle many Add-Ons together. The Agent's Handbook and the Case Officer's Handbook Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game will be available in two ways, the Agent's Handbook and the double-sized Case Officer's Handbook.
The AGENT’S HANDBOOK is a full-color book with all the rules and tools you need to play: fast character creation, the core game mechanics, detailed rules for combat and sanity, equipment, details on agents’ careers and Bonds (their most crucial personal relationships), and useful profiles of the government agencies most often involved in Delta Green games. The CASE OFFICER'S HANDBOOK includes everything in the Agent’s Handbook plus chapters on creating scenarios; running campaigns and customizing the setting; creating and customizing Cthulhu Mythos tomes, monsters, spells, and alien artifacts; cults, factions, and threats; and more. If you get the Case Officer's Handbook as a Kickstarter reward in PDF or hardback, we'll send you the PDF of the Agent's Handbook too. The Agent's Handbook will be published first. That way you won't miss out. Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game is easily compatible with any past Delta Green publication. Upgrading from Agent's Handbook to Case Officer's Handbook Many Backer Reward Tiers include the Agent's Handbook either in PDF or as a hardback that comes with a free PDF.
You can 'upgrade' your Agent's Handbook to the Case Officer's Handbook if you wish. See the FAQ for instructions. Rewards Funded By This Project Here are the downloads and books that this project has funded. Some are available free to all backers. Others you can get as Add-On Rewards. See the Add-On Rewards Table (scroll down) for the cost of getting each of these rewards.
Just add the listed amount to your pledge. When the project ends we'll send instructions for choosing which books and downloads you want. THE AGENT'S HANDBOOK: Everything you need to play Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game. Available in full-color hardback and PDF. PDF included in tiers that get 'All New PDFs Funded by This Project.'
'VISCID': A new Delta Green scenario by Dennis Detwiller, wherein the agents find that even magic has a half-life. PDF included in tiers that get 'All New PDFs Funded by This Project.' 'OBSERVER EFFECT': A new Delta Green scenario by Shane Ivey. Most physicists think a new lab's experiment to study the nature of reality won't reveal a thing. Your Delta Green agents are about to learn otherwise. PDF included in tiers that get 'All New PDFs Funded by This Project.'
OPERATIONAL HISTORY: A new 128-page timeline of the world of Delta Green -- much more than we can fit in the Case Officer's Handbook -- written by Gil Trevizo with Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, and Shane Ivey. PDF included in tiers that get 'All New PDFs Funded by This Project.' FUNDED! THE CASE OFFICER'S HANDBOOK: This expanded book will have everything from the Agent's Handbook plus a Game Moderator's view of the setting and ton of new material for running Delta Green campaigns, customizing the setting and the threats, and keeping your players surprised and scared. You can upgrade your Agent's Handbook to the Case Officer's Handbook if you wish. See the FAQ for instructions. PDF included in tiers that get 'All New PDFs Funded by This Project.' 'DOWN IN THE DELTA': Adam Scott Glancy's story of Delta Green confronting horrors in New Orleans, told as emails to A-Cell from an unhappy agent. 'ARCHINT': A new collection of new artifacts and spells created using the guidelines in the Case Officer's Handbook.
PDF included in tiers that get 'All New PDFs Funded by This Project.' FUNDED! 'THE CHILDREN OF ATLACH-NACHA': a horrifying new threat for Delta Green. 'PROTOCOLS: THE UNRIPENED FRUIT': A report on ways Delta Green agents must deal with unwanted corpses.
FUNDED! HANDLER'S SCREEN WITH QUICKSTART RULES AND STARTER SCENARIO: A GM screen for your table, short 'quickstart' rules to teach new players fast, sample characters, and a short starter scenario to begin play immediately. PDF included in tiers that get 'All New PDFs Funded by This Project.'
'MAKING HORROR SCENARIOS': Suggestions and examples for creating horror for your players in Delta Green. 'ICONOCLASTS': A new scenario by Adam Scott Glancy, wherein Delta Green learns of the repercussions of ISIS zealots destroying artifacts that were better left alone.
PDF included in tiers that get 'All New PDFs Funded by This Project.' 'THE STAR CHAMBER': A new scenario by Greg Stolze, wherein Delta Green agents must untangle conflicting narratives from a mission that went very wrong. Greg calls it ' Delta Green meets Rashomon.' PDF included in tiers that get 'All New PDFs Funded by This Project.' 'IN THE COURT OF THE YELLOW KING': A short play by John Scott Tynes.
'KALI GHATI': A scenario by Shane Ivey set in the drawdown of the U.S. Presence in Afghanistan. We used it to playtest combat rules earlier in development of the game. This expanded version is a more complete scenario.
'I HAVE SEEN THE YELLOW SIGN': A look the challenges of containing the King in Yellow 'infection' in the Information Age. IMPOSSIBLE LANDSCAPES: A sourcebook and full-length campaign where Delta Green agents face the influence of the King in Yellow, written by Dennis Detwiller with Daniel Harms, Robin Laws, and John Scott Tynes. PDF included in tiers that get 'All New PDFs Funded by This Project.' 'THE LAST SHOW': A short story about the King in Yellow, written by Dennis Detwiller.
'REDACTED: FUSION CENTERS': Detailed player-facing write-ups of organizations that are only summarized in the core rules: the ATF, the Secret Service, ICE, Customs and Border Protection, the Coast Guard, and FEMA. 'WORMWOOD ARENA': A new scenario by Greg Stolze in which Delta Green agents must go undercover to learn the true goals of a cult with ties to the unnatural.
PDF included in tiers that get 'All New PDFs Funded by This Project.' CONTROL GROUP: An introductory campaign by Greg Stolze, written to teach new players the rules and to create a team of Agents out of those who survive along the way. All backers get the PDF FREE. “REDACTED: THE COLLECTORS': Detailed player-facing write-ups of organizations that were only summarized in the core rules: DIA, NSA/CSS, NRO, ONI, NGA, NCTC.
'REDACTED: BIG DATA': Detailed player-facing write-ups of organizations that were only mentioned or summarized in the core rules: DARPA, Nuclear Security Administration (NEST), NASA (Dryden AFRC). 'REDACTED: BELTWAY BANDITS': Detailed player-facing write-ups of organizations that were only mentioned or summarized in the Agent’s Handbook: Constellis Group, CACI, RAND, Booz Allen Hamilton, Lockheed Martin. DEEP STATE IN PDF AND FULL-COLOR HARDBACK: A sourcebook detailing the diaspora of secret MAJESTIC-12 programs.
Built around an alien threat that seemed to vanish, these projects failed, changed, evolved and in some cases grew throughout the Global War on Terror and as a consequence of conflicts with Delta Green. PDF included in tiers that get 'All New PDFs Funded by This Project.'
PISCES IN PDF AND FULL-COLOR HARDBACK: A sourcebook detailing the British paranormal investigation program, sometimes ally to Delta Green and sometimes bitter rival, as well as Delta Green's programs overseas and the challenges agents face on foreign soil. PDF included in tiers that get 'All New PDFs Funded by This Project.' Final Goal—Make It Happen! AT $340K, FALLING TOWERS IN PDF AND FULL-COLOR HARDBACK: A campaign of Delta Green agents taking on the infamous cult known as the Fate in the 2000s and a sourcebook for New York City campaigns in the modern day.
ADD-ON COST: $50 for hardback plus free PDF; $20 for just the PDF. PDF included in tiers that get 'All New PDFs Funded by This Project.' What Is Delta Green? Deception is a right.
Truth is a privilege. Innocence is a luxury. Born of the U.S.
Government’s 1928 raid on the degenerate coastal town of Innsmouth, Massachusetts, the covert agency known as Delta Green spent four decades opposing the forces of darkness with honor, but without glory. Stripped of sanction after a disastrous 1969 operation in Cambodia, Delta Green’s leaders made a secret pact: to continue their work without authority, without support, and without fear. Delta Green agents slip through the system, manipulating the federal bureaucracy while pushing the darkness back for another day — but often at a shattering personal cost. Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game is a tabletop role-playing game of conspiracy, suspense, and Lovecraftian terror. Players' characters are agents of Delta Green: federal agents and special forces operators; academics who’ve seen too much and physicians who study the aftermath of horror; scientists and other specialists; and sometimes just bystanders who get caught up in events beyond anyone’s control. Their first priority is to quarantine and stop unnatural horrors, because the unnatural is real and it kills. Delta Green was directly inspired by the horror fiction of H.P.
Lovecraft and other Cthulhu Mythos authors. Just as Lovecraft’s stories were about the intersection of cosmic terror and cutting-edge technology in the 1920s and 1930s, Delta Green is about that intersection today. In every game of Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game, agents investigate horrifying events, seek ways to thwart them, and try to save anyone else from being exposed. They face lethal threats and awful discoveries. To keep a low profile, they rarely have the knowledge or resources they want.
They often must make terrible choices for the greater good, as best they can perceive it. The longer an agent is active, the greater the toll those stresses take on the agent’s health, sanity, career, and family. Delta Green’s creators Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, and John Scott Tynes began working with longtime colleagues Shane Ivey (The Unspeakable Oath, Wild Talents) and Greg Stolze (Unknown Armies, Godlike) on the core rules of Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game in 2011.
We’ve spent the last few years developing Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game, iteration after ruthless iteration. Whole chapters and approaches to the rules have come and gone.
Extensive playtesting helped us hone it to deliver game-play that's fast, suspenseful, thrilling, and chilling. The Fall of Delta Green We’re helping our friends at Pelgrane Press produce a companion game, The Fall of Delta Green. You can order it as part of your pledge in this Kickstarter project and get it before anyone else. Written by Kenneth Hite (Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game, Trail of Cthulhu, Night’s Black Agents), The Fall of Delta Green uses a version of the Gumshoe RPG system customized for Delta Green, combined with features of Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game. The Fall of Delta Green will be a standalone RPG of its own set in the 1960s, the last days of Delta Green’s first incarnation — the years that led to the group being officially dismantled, only to go underground to keep up the fight.
It will include detailed guidelines to easily convert to and from Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game. • MORE: Backers can get The Fall of Delta Green either in hardback with a free PDF or just in PDF. Either way, it's available as an Add-On Reward (see below). Add the appropriate amount to your pledge. After the project ends, we'll send a survey to confirm what you want. HARDBACK WITH FREE PDF: Add $50 to your pledge.
(See the FAQ about shipping and handling.) JUST THE PDF: Add $25 to your pledge. The following Reward Tiers (and only these reward tiers) now come with the PDF of The Fall of Delta Green at no additional cost: • 'Every Single PDF' • 'Every Single New PDF' • 'Operator With Every PDF' • 'Agent's Hardback and Every PDF' • 'The New Age' • 'The Old Ways' • 'Alphonse Lives!' How Does This Project Work? Choose one of the Backer Levels on the right side of the page. You can change your pledge and your Backer Level at any time before this project ends.
As we reach new Stretch Goals, you can reserve additional books (see 'Add-On Rewards,' below) by increasing the amount of money you pledge. After the Kickstarter ends, we'll contact you with instructions to specify which books and downloads you want. Add-On Rewards—Funded by This Project These books and downloads are available as additions to your pledge. SCROLL UP TO 'REWARDS FUNDED BY THIS PROJECT' TO SEE THE LIST. Add-On Rewards—Previously Published These downloads are available as additions to your pledge. To reserve one just add the listed amount to your pledge. When the project ends we'll send instructions for choosing which ones you want.
• $15— (PDF) • $15— (PDF) • $15— (PDF) • $15— (PDF) • $5— (PDF) • $5— (PDF) • $10— (EBOOK) • $10— (EBOOK) • $10— (EBOOK) • $10— (EBOOK) • $10— (EBOOK) • $20— (PDF) • $5— (PDF) • $5— (PDF) • $5— (PDF) • $5— (PDF) • $5— (PDF) • $5— (PDF) • $5— (PDF) How Will the Funds Be Used? We'll use this project to fund creation of the game and its sourcebooks and delivery to backers.
Developers and Key Personnel DENNIS DETWILLER—WRITER, EDITOR, ILLUSTRATOR: One of the co-creators of Delta Green and co-owner of Arc Dream Publishing, Dennis also created or co-created the tabletop roleplaying games,,, and. Currently design director at Harebrained Schemes (), he was previously VP of Creative at and produced bestselling mobile and console games for,, and (). He's still asked to autograph cards he painted in the early years of.
ADAM SCOTT GLANCY—WRITER: One of the co-creators of Delta Green, Scott is president of, where the first Delta Green books were produced. He oversees its line of Call of Cthulhu sourcebooks to this day: most recently,, and the forthcoming. JOHN SCOTT TYNES—ADVISOR: One of the co-creators of Delta Green, John founded Pagan Publishing and the seminal Cthulhu Mythos gaming magazine. He led the production of the first few Delta Green game and fiction books:,,, The Rules of Engagement (collected in ), and. He co-created Atlas Games', which is soon getting a long-awaited new edition of its own. For years he designed PC and console video games.
These days he manages the for Microsoft. SHANE IVEY—WRITER, EDITOR: Co-owner of Arc Dream Publishing and a former newspaper copy editor and magazine editor, Shane has managed and edited the last few Delta Green game and fiction projects:,,,,, and. He's editor-in-chief of and has spearheaded game lines including,,, and. GREG STOLZE—WRITER: A contributor to past Delta Green books (Alien Intelligence, Targets of Opportunity, Extraordinary Renditions), Greg is also co-creator of Unknown Armies with John Scott Tynes, Godlike with Dennis Detwiller, Wild Talents with Detwiller, Shane Ivey, and Kenneth Hite, Nemesis with Detwiller, Ivey, and Adam Crossingham, and author of,, the Wild Talents setting books,, and (with Kenneth Hite), and the almost-but-not-quite Delta Green novel. KENNETH HITE—WRITER, EDITOR: A contributor to past Delta Green books (Targets of Opportunity, Extraordinary Renditions) and the author of the upcoming Gumshoe game The Fall of Delta Green, Ken is the creator or co-creator of,,,,, and many other award-winning works. Risks and challenges Delta Green has inspired legions of die-hard fans for more than 20 years.
Those fans can tell you that Delta Green projects don’t happen quickly -- but when they’re done, they’re more than worth the wait. We always err on the side of taking extra time to get a Delta Green project RIGHT rather than rushing one that could stand to be a little better. To mitigate the risk of delay, we’re assigning each book in this project to a team of writers who can back each other up and keep the book on schedule. We rely on a small number of creators who have a proven track record with Delta Green, people who know the setting, who know what makes it tick, and who trust one another with their visions. What about the worst-case scenarios, the horror stories that give Kickstarter backers and creators bad dreams? There’s no chance of those. We have been crowdfunding since before everyone heard the word, from Greg Stolze’s innovations in Meatbot Massacre in 2005 to Delta Green: Tales from Failed Anatomies in 2014.
We know how to avoid the truly catastrophic risks that plague so many publishers on Kickstarter. Finally, Arc Dream Publishing backs everything up with an ironclad guarantee, the same now as when we started publishing in 2003. If you’re dissatisfied with our work, we will refund your money.