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I recently downloaded the new Delta Green Agent's Handbook from the BRP site. Quite an interesting read - probably best to describe it as BRP variant set of rules, incorporating ideas from GUMSHOE and Nemesis ORE, especially around Sanity. Seems skewed in the direction of giving the player characters a bit more longevity and making them roleplay the effects of mental disintegration. Combat damage also seems dialed down although this is balanced with automatic and explosive weapons having a % chance of inflicting an outright kill. There's not much in terms of background beyond a suggestion that Delta Green is official once again which maybe points to a post 2000 setting.

Very tempted to give this a go, albeit running in the original 1990s setting to get maximum mileage from the sourcebooks.

I also grabbed the rules. They look interesting, but i have a fundamental issue with DG now 'coming in from the cold', especially from the perspective of someone who works for a Central Government organisation.

Still it has a big following and I've heard some cool actual play scenarios over at RPPR.

Marcus

Marcus Bone wrote: ↑Sat Sep 30, 2017 8:17 pm I also grabbed the rules. They look interesting, but i have a fundamental issue with DG now 'coming in from the cold', especially from the perspective of someone who works for a Central Government organisation.

Ditto Marcus - I much prefer it as a clandestine organisation within the US state. PCs should be able to access resources that enable them to investigate the mystery, but not absolve them of the responsibility of dealing with it. Also the likes of MJ-12, BLUE FLY, Outlook nutters etc should make the PCs paranoid about calling in official help.

I have the some of the older DG books (notably the big DG sourcebook and DG: Count Down) but have never run or played in any DG games. I bought them due to an overall interest in the conspiracy game genre and along with a few other games (e.g. Conspiracy X) that I bought to expand my Dark Conspiracy games, it helped formed my opinion on conspiracy genre gaming.
To that end, I am in total agreement with you gents. Having an organization that revolves around locating and containing the "unknown" as a fully-in-public-view, overt department would, in my opinion, just make the situation worse. Not just for the depratment trying to locate their targets, but also with the public (either as vigilantes, panicky citizens, disbelievers bleating about waste of taxplayer's money etc. etc.) causing general disruption/interference with missions.

I would think that being overt would cause more problems than it could solve and just as Linden mentioned, such an organization may be called in to deal with the mysterious and may have to take extreme measures to do so, but they should not be in a position to receive "official sanction" and thus be absolved of their responsibilities. Part of the thrill/stress of gaming a character in such an organization is the idea that you may get snagged by the "boys in blue" and be forced to confess what you know about the mysterious and/or that you may have to commit some crime to cover up something too terrible for the public to deal with, all the while knowing that should you screw it up, your covert department will hang you out to dry.

ReHerakhte wrote: ↑Sun Oct 01, 2017 3:10 am To that end, I am in total agreement with you gents. Having an organization that revolves around locating and containing the "unknown" as a fully-in-public-view, overt department would, in my opinion, just make the situation worse. Not just for the depratment trying to locate their targets, but also with the public (either as vigilantes, panicky citizens, disbelievers bleating about waste of taxplayer's money etc. etc.) causing general disruption/interference with missions..

I get the feeling that they are sort of going for the 'burden of running a covert operation in an overt world' approach, with bureaucracy and the like another challenge to over come. However, as I work in a bureaucracy, I'd rather not have to deal with such things in my leisure time

Marcus

ReHerakhte wrote: ↑Sun Oct 01, 2017 3:10 am
I would think that being overt would cause more problems than it could solve and just as Linden mentioned, such an organization may be called in to deal with the mysterious and may have to take extreme measures to do so, but they should not be in a position to receive "official sanction" and thus be absolved of their responsibilities. Part of the thrill/stress of gaming a character in such an organization is the idea that you may get snagged by the "boys in blue" and be forced to confess what you know about the mysterious and/or that you may have to commit some crime to cover up something too terrible for the public to deal with, all the while knowing that should you screw it up, your covert department will hang you out to dry.

I like the idea of Delta Green in that it is an unofficial organisation, but made up of people who are able to assist it by acting in an official capacity e.g. federal agents, military types, doctors, scientists. Thus the investigators have some power, but not too much. Also if they make a mess of things their superiors are, at the very least, going to wonder just what the hell they were playing at. Trying to explain they're acting on behalf of an informal anti-occult group probably isn't going to help very much.

I gather Conspiracy-X had the option of being a player character working for its equivalent of MJ-12? I'd perhaps suggest any advantage such PCs have in terms of access to offiicial resources should be balanced by a darker campaign tone: Characters having to be negatively pragmatic and make unpalatable decisions of the "it was necessary to destroy the village in order save it" variety.

My feeling is that official organisations that employ investigators have to be compromised, like PISCES , or otherwise inhibited, like GRU-SV8. They can't just be some glorfied armoury/quartermaster/general dea ex machina.

Now the subject of a Bundle of Holding offer.