Publisher(s) Pagan Publishing Genre(s) Horror | Publication date 1997 System(s) Call of Cthulhu | |
Designer(s) Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, John Scott Tynes | ||
Delta Green is a setting for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game created by Adam Scott Glancy, Dennis Detwiller, and John Scott Tynes, a.k.a. the Delta Green Partnership, of the Seattle gaming house Pagan Publishing. In August 2011, Arc Dream Publishing and the Delta Green Partnership announced development of a standalone Delta Green role-playing game.
Contents
Premise
Delta Green is a contemporary setting, starting in the mid-1990s with intermittent updates thereafter. The game revolves around a fictitious secret organization, created by the U.S. Government following the covert raid on the town of Innsmouth, Massachusetts mentioned in H.P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth. The organization takes its name from its World War II era codename.
Delta Green agents work undercover through other U.S. government agencies, recruiting across a wide range including the FBI, ATF, CDC, and DEA. It appears to have "gone rogue" somewhere between the 1960s and the 1980s, following a disastrous operation in Cambodia and a "deal" struck by Reagan-era rivals in Majestic-12, ostensibly with "Greys".
The group was introduced in the seventh issue of The Unspeakable Oath, a Call of Cthulhu fanzine created by Pagan Publishing, in early 1993. Four years later, the Delta Green supplement appeared and spawned a number of its own supplements and novels. The premise is similar to The X-Files, although the original incarnation of Delta Green preceded The X-Files by almost a year). Both draw on federal alphabet soup folklore, UFO conspiracy theories and other modern legends.
The Delta Green supplement lays the groundwork for organized investigations into paranormal crime and horror, setting up the initial plot and providing players with their motivations and the resources they need to carry out their tasks. It also provides a source of replacements for characters who go mad or are killed. Canonical materials revolve around threats from the Cthulhu Mythos, but the framework is very flexible. Delta Green agents typically know little about the Mythos.
History
In 1998, Delta Green won the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Supplement of 1997. The setting also won two awards in 2000: Best Game-Related Novel of 1999 for Delta Green: The Rules of Engagement and Best Roleplaying Supplement of 1999 for Delta Green: Countdown.
On May 1, 2006, the Pagan Publishing homepage was updated with an announcement describing the reasons for the delay of the new release of Delta Green, and stating that the d20 edition of the game should be available in time for Gen Con Indy. While there were a few show copies available there were no copies available for sale to the public as most of them were "still being shipped from China". As of May 2007 the book, which is a reprint of the 1997 book with the addition of D20 stats, was finally reprinted and was available in stores.
A hardback compilation of the three Delta Green Eyes Only chapbooks, along with additional material, was released in November 2007. The book was published in cooperation with Arc Dream Publishing. The entire 1,000 copy print run was sold out by February 2008. The hardback edition of "Delta Green: Eyes Only" was a finalist for the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Supplement of 2007. A softback version of the compilation followed in September 2008 and is available to retail distribution.
Pagan Publishing and Arc Dream Publishing began work in mid-2008 on a new sourcebook, Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity, which was released as a limited-edition hardback in June 2010, to be followed by a softcover retail edition. As of August 2011 the entire 1,000-copy print run of the hardback limited edition was sold out. In August 2011, Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity won silver (2nd place) Ennie Awards for Best Writing and Best Adventure.
Arc Dream Publishing released an ebook edition of the novel Delta Green: Denied to the Enemy in January 2011.
As of October 29, 2015, a Kickstarter Campaign by Arc Dream Publishing funded a series of new Delta Green products, starting with a standalone rulebook and followup sourcebooks designed to update the game modern times.
Pagan Publishing game books
Arc Dream Publishing game books
Additional material by the original creators
Scenarios by Dennis Detwiller, published online and (since Sep 2014) through Patreon:
Adam Scott Glancy wrote a regular column titled "Directives from A-Cell" in the first six issues of Worlds of Cthulhu magazine. The column was then transferred to The Unspeakable Oath from Arc Dream Publishing, starting with issue 20. The latter magazine has featured a lot of Delta Green-related articles since 1993.
Other publishers
Fantasy Flight Games Live Action RPG supplements:
Ronin Arts:
Pyramid Magazine:
Dungeon Magazine:
Shadis: