Delta Green: Need to Know

Lovecraftian terrors in a contemporary setting

Most TTRPG fans are familiar with Call of Cthulhu, but Delta Green is far less well-known. It’s very similar to Cthulhu, but somewhat more streamlined and with some interesting tweaks. DG was actually a CoC sourcebook back in 1997, but became its own system in 2016.

We’ll be taking a look at Delta Green’s free introduction to the system – Need to Know. It’s very similar to Cthulhu’s quick-start PDF; you get a brief intro, the bare-bones mechanics, and a scenario.

The Delta Green intro scenario is very short, but that’s not a bad thing for a new system. Explaining the mechanics and going through the content took my group about three hours; I fleshed out one of the locations and there was a lot of roleplay (naturally).

Cthulhu vs Delta Green

Call of Cthulhu is generally set in the 1920s, whilst Delta Green is more contemporary. Not to say you couldn’t use either system for any time period, but those are what they are built around. You can hack just about any game into any setting if you’re determined enough.

A modern setting makes a huge difference to the feel of a game; being able to Google information is a stark contrast to spending 6 hours in a library. You can get around quickly, reach people on their mobile, and generally have access to greater firepower. GMs (Handlers, in Delta Green) have the advantage of actually living in the period. It’s what you know, second nature, easy as breathing. A Victorian setting is wonderful for a break from reality, and the lack of technology can give you a greater feeling of control.

Cthulhu scenarios tend to involve cults and outright horrors that will tear your mind apart – players will investigate, expose, and stick it to the man. In Delta Green you are ‘the man’ – you’re a government agent out to contain and conceal madness in the world. You’re basically Mulder and Scully.

Mechanics

While it’s tempting to compare each mechanic to Call of Cthulhu, that would be unfair to Delta Green. It stands apart on its own two feet. This is just an overview – download the starter PDF if you’d like the rules in more depth.

Skill checks

There are relatively few dice rolls for skill checks in Delta Green. Rather than asking a player to make a psychology roll to determine if they think a character is lying, you will simply check their competency against the target. A basic civilian might require 20, but a con artist could be much higher.

This is very, very nice for curbing breaks in roleplay. It also means that the player doesn’t always know if they succeeded or failed. They would know that they bungled things on a dice roll of 92, which can either lead to everyone else at the table trying the same thing until they succeed.

Players also tend to distrust information they are given on a bad roll. We all know the difference between player and character information, but this makes it easier to manage.

Having the player’s key skill levels to hand makes slightly more work for the keeper. One can simply ask for their skill, but it’s slicker if they don’t even know a check is being made. You still roll for very challenging activities, or those in the heat of the moment – such as jumping through a window during a chase. There’s no need to roll in most calm and collected moments.

Critical successes and failures

A critical success occurs when you roll 1, or any matching numbers less than or equal to your skill level. So if your skill level is 30, you have a critical success if you roll 1, 11, or 22. Critical failures (fumbles) occur when you roll 100, or any matching numbers greater than your skill level – so 33, 44, 55, 66, 77, 88, 99, and 100 with a skill level of 30.

Good things happen on a critical success and bad things happen on a fumble. This is an elegant way of representing degrees of success.

Sanity

You are going to have some harrowing experiences as a field agent; you will see and possibly do things that push your poor little mind to its limits. Sanity represents your current mental state, and there are repercussions if you lose too much too quickly. A sanity check involves rolling against your current sanity score. Like any other check, rolling above your score is a failure. A critical success or critical failure results in taking the minimum or maximum sanity damage.

Getting punched might cost you a single point, watching a friend die horribly is 1d6 of sanity loss, and killing an innocent is 1d10. If you lose 5 points in a single instance, you go temporarily insane – curling up in a ball and crying for your mommy, or running screaming from the situation. You gain a mental disorder if your sanity drops down to your ‘breaking point’.

The disorder received will depend upon what tipped the character over the edge. The three classes of sanity loss are violence, helplessness, and the unnatural. A victim of violence might develop PTSD, a victim of helplessness may gain an addiction, and someone exposed to the unnatural could suffer from amnesia. There are several options for each category. If you suffer sanity loss but don’t go insane – you tick a box next to the class. Reaching three ticks in one category leads can lead to a permanent stat reduction and/or an immunity to a particular type of sanity loss.

Reaching a sanity of 0 signifies that you’ve gone batshit crazy and are no longer able to function as a human being – that character is toast. But fret not, there are options for reducing sanity loss. You can sacrifice a personal relationship…

Bonds

Delta Green agents have bonds, representing their relationship with friends and loved ones. These can increase and decrease as the GM sees fit, but you can actively reduce them to soak sanity loss. Players roll a d4, then reduce the incoming sanity damage, their willpower, and a bond by the result.

Bonds can also be used to break free from temporary insanity. Focus on getting back to your sweetheart and you might just be able to pull it together – at a cost. Maybe resentment develops and you feel they just can’t relate to the horrors you endure on a daily basis. An agent’s life is grim, and the longer your stay in the job, the more your relationships will crumble.

Combat

Participants act in order of dexterity. They get one action per turn, of which they can choose:

• Take aim – 20% to your next attack
• Attack – Be that melee or firearm
• Called shot – Aim for a specific area to avoid armour
• Disarm – Knock an opponent’s weapon aside
• Dodge – Get the hell out of the way – at any point in the round
• Pin – Restrain an opponent
• Escape – Break free from being pinned
• Fight back – Perform a counterattack – at any point in the round
• Move – Walk, run, or sprint somewhere
• Wait – Hold your action until later in the round

Where rolls are opposed (such as attack vs fight back, a critical success beats a regular success. If both succeed equally, the highest roll wins. So if Jake has a melee skill of 60 and rolls 58, and James has a skill of 50 and rolls 23 – Jake wins. I assume this is to represent someone with a higher skill having the edge, but still maintaining a bit of randomness.

Dodge lets you apply your roll to every incoming attack in that round. Fight back lets you counterattack once – it is treated as a dodge for additional attacks.

Some weapons have a lethality rating, which is a really cool trait for devastating weapons. Unlike a regular weapon such as a pistol or knife, lethal weapons don’t simply inflict 1d10 or 1d6 damage.

On a success attack, roll the percentage dice. 10 or less results in instant death for those on the receiving end, 11 or more and you add the two dice together and use that for the damage. 77 on percentage dice would be 14 damage. Explosives have a kill radius as well as a lethality rating – affecting everyone within an area.

This makes Delta Green combat incredibly savage. Not even body armour can save you from a successful lethality roll. You do not want to be on the receiving end of a machine gun.

Luck

Luck is a static value, it’s always 50. That means a player has a 50% chance of succeeding. Unlike Call of Cthulhu, you cannot spend luck to improve a roll.

Luck is a great way of resolving things outside the control of players and NPCs. Trying to hail a cab late at night, whether or not a shop has what you need – that sort of thing. It can also be useful to resolve prior actions – did a character think to bring their bolt cutters on a nighttime escapade?

Home scenes

Characters have a home scene during downtime between missions. What they do can have several effects. One could spend time with a loved-one and improve a bond, visit a therapist, or try and improve a skill. You can also study the unnatural.

Improving skills comes at a cost to bonds – after all, you’re spending your free time elsewhere. Visiting a therapist can improve your sanity; it can even reduce the sanity of your counsellor if you are honest and they believe you. These scenes are great for making characters more three dimensional.

Scenario

As previously mentioned, Last Things Last is a very short scenario – there are only two locations to explore. The starter pack comes with lots of pregenerated character sheets.

Don’t read this part if you’re going to be a player.

The mission

Agents start by being summoned to a Post Office. This could be anywhere – the premises do not matter. They just need to meet their handler and be given instruction.

Former agent Clyde Baughman has died at the ripe old age of 74 – pretty good for a field agent. Players are tasked with cleaning up his house, ensuring that no Delta Green material has been left behind. Players are given basic family details and a key to his home.

We spent the best part of an hour describing where the characters were, and how they were approached by the organisation. You can have some fun fleshing out the feel of the system.

One was approached in a supermarket and activated with a code phrase; a note with the time and place was slipped into his pocket. Another was simply sent a vague email with the Delta Green logo. The third was summoned to an office and informed they were being assigned to an inter-agency task force.

Baughman’s home

The place is sparse. Some completed crossword puzzles, drawings a granddaughter, and a set of labelled keys to a cabin are about all the players discover. This sets them on the path to the second location – the cabin in the woods.

I left a bunch of keys unlabeled. The neighbour popped round, and after being convinced that the group were removal men, suggested that they did not forget the basement. This was accessed from outside.

The padlocked basement was full of Delta Green files! They loaded up the van, discovered the keys to the cabin, and put in a request for any additional properties under Baughman’s name.

They also booby trapped the van doors, just in case…

The cabin

The cabin houses a few DG artefacts, some reworked plumbing, an outhouse full of jerry cans – and a giant septic tank containing Baughman’s reanimated wife. There’s also a note asking whoever finds it to pour the petrol into the tank and set it alight without looking inside.

Clyde Baughman resurrected Marlene using a ritual, but that which returned was not his beloved. He never had the stomach to destroy her, and simply locked the thing in the tank.

My agents discovered Marlene before checking out the cabin. She convinced them to help her out, and they partially bought her story of abuse and sorrow. One character kept a gun trained on Marlene whilst the others investigated the cabin.

The note was discovered, and at that moment, an unnatural scream was heard outside as Marlene lunged at her watcher. He had a successful lethality roll and turned her into mincemeat. The others agents hastily incinerated the mangled corpse.

Returning to the post office, they toss the van keys to their handler and disappear off into the sunset. Everyone forgot about the booby trap in the van; very unfortunate. I’ll use this as a hook for the next Delta Green scenario.

Thoughts

I ran the free scenario (Last Things Last) on Friday, and this is definitely my new favourite system. The Handler’s Guide and Agent’s Handbook are on the wish list!

It’s elegant, but comprehensive enough to put serious meat on its bones. I adore the passive success/failure on most skill checks, and the brutality of lethal weapons really kick the perils of combat up a gear. Bonds are an interesting mechanic, and wonderful if you can get your players to roleplay the effects.

DG has a lot of scope for roleplay freedom, which makes it a good fit for our group. I’m going to be running Masks of Nyarlathotep soon, and I think I’ll be using Delta Green’s passive checks.

Further information

The Glass Cannon Network have an absolutely brilliant Delta Green podcast series called Get in the Trunk. I cannot recommend it enough, either as an introduction to the system or pure entertainment.