Remember how I said that my group loved Delta Green? Delta Green rocks. Published in 1997, Delta Green is a Call of Cthulhu campaign fueled by technothriller intrigue and action against millennial cults, immortal Nazis, shadowy government conspiracies and indescribable alien horrors, with a creamy Lovecraftian centre. Given its interest in American UFO conspiracies, it was, of course, focused on American agents battling the darkness, and the comprehensive career list in the back of the book only covered the admittedly many “alphabet soup” agencies of the US Federal Government.
What made the setting so relatable? Delta Green was set in the contemporary world, but with a layer of paranormal weirdness. Take any city, any country as a campaign setting, then sprinkle with UFO sightings, conspiracy theories and urban legends. It’s the richest campaign world of all.
Then, in 1999, Delta Green: Countdown came out and exploded the borders of the game. The Countdown sourcebook added many new horrors to the campaign world, but more importantly, it added new conspiracies and monstrosities in the UK and Russia, and expanded the character generation options allowing for player characters from across the world, from the Argentine Federal Police to VEVAK in Iran (sadly, no Malaysian agencies were included).
Today, Night’s Black Agents is the worthy successor to the Delta Green campaign.
Ken Hite has created a role-playing game that assumes by default that our heroes are going to speak multiple languages, cross seven borders in the course of six sessions, and hunt supernatural masterminds all the way from Saint Petersburg to Tunis.
We’re not just talking about standalone adventures in different locations, we’re talking about an interconnected international conspiracy that the Director gets to create, adding nodes and sub-nodes that can cover half a dozen countries, easily. Black helicopters in NATO bases. Shadowy masters who manipulate the European Commission into banning chemicals deadly to vampires. Russian Mafiya gangs that control huge swaths of Eastern Europe.
The rulebook provides flexible rules that help the Director to quickly and easily construct the Conspyramid, a structure that serves as a campaign map of wealth, blood and violence. And it’s easily expandable. On a whim, I decided that our campaign should take a detour to Eurovision 2013. And just like that, I linked the existing conspiracy nodes on my campaign map to Copenhagen, Malmö and Stockholm.
The game encourages you to make it big and international, but it also encourages you to zoom in and do loving, breath-taking research about cities, civil societies and criminal groups in foreign lands. It’s a game that wants you to add a Living Planet Guide to your gaming collection as a sourcebook (Kenneth Hite used the Western Europe and Eastern Europe guides, I use the Scandinavia guide). It makes me want to travel, I tell you.
And this vital, exciting campaign world appeals to my players. We are Gamers of KL, a multi-ethnic and multi-national bunch. One of my players is Canadian. Many of our group have been to Europe, the USA, and various Asian countries. We welcome the chance to broaden our minds about the world, and to dream big action-packed dreams about it.
And I think you will, too.
- the Director
What made the setting so relatable? Delta Green was set in the contemporary world, but with a layer of paranormal weirdness. Take any city, any country as a campaign setting, then sprinkle with UFO sightings, conspiracy theories and urban legends. It’s the richest campaign world of all.
Then, in 1999, Delta Green: Countdown came out and exploded the borders of the game. The Countdown sourcebook added many new horrors to the campaign world, but more importantly, it added new conspiracies and monstrosities in the UK and Russia, and expanded the character generation options allowing for player characters from across the world, from the Argentine Federal Police to VEVAK in Iran (sadly, no Malaysian agencies were included).
Today, Night’s Black Agents is the worthy successor to the Delta Green campaign.
Ken Hite has created a role-playing game that assumes by default that our heroes are going to speak multiple languages, cross seven borders in the course of six sessions, and hunt supernatural masterminds all the way from Saint Petersburg to Tunis.
We’re not just talking about standalone adventures in different locations, we’re talking about an interconnected international conspiracy that the Director gets to create, adding nodes and sub-nodes that can cover half a dozen countries, easily. Black helicopters in NATO bases. Shadowy masters who manipulate the European Commission into banning chemicals deadly to vampires. Russian Mafiya gangs that control huge swaths of Eastern Europe.
The rulebook provides flexible rules that help the Director to quickly and easily construct the Conspyramid, a structure that serves as a campaign map of wealth, blood and violence. And it’s easily expandable. On a whim, I decided that our campaign should take a detour to Eurovision 2013. And just like that, I linked the existing conspiracy nodes on my campaign map to Copenhagen, Malmö and Stockholm.
The game encourages you to make it big and international, but it also encourages you to zoom in and do loving, breath-taking research about cities, civil societies and criminal groups in foreign lands. It’s a game that wants you to add a Living Planet Guide to your gaming collection as a sourcebook (Kenneth Hite used the Western Europe and Eastern Europe guides, I use the Scandinavia guide). It makes me want to travel, I tell you.
And this vital, exciting campaign world appeals to my players. We are Gamers of KL, a multi-ethnic and multi-national bunch. One of my players is Canadian. Many of our group have been to Europe, the USA, and various Asian countries. We welcome the chance to broaden our minds about the world, and to dream big action-packed dreams about it.
And I think you will, too.
- the Director
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