Delta Green Intro

I'm going to try to give an overview of this setting the best I can without spoiling the setting for players and GMs. This uses the same classic Call of Cthulhu RPG system that we already know and love. It is also D20 compatible if you prefer the D20 version of CoC. Delta Green is a secret government unit that technically doesn't exist. DG is usually referred to X-Files for Cthulhu and on the surface that wouldn't be a bad comparison but this goes deeper and more specific than X-Files. Rather than just investigating cases of paranormal activity, DG is only interested in cases directly related to the mythos. Cults, gods, Necronomicon spells, summonings, the Mi-Go, etc. Not just random UFO, ghost, or Bigfoot sightings (unless you somehow link them to the mythos).

The setting helps give a reason why the characters are together and are obligated to investigate. They aren't just nosey neighbors, they're agents and it's their job. It's more modern so players can relate more to the setting but it may give them a false sense of security. Just because the agents are more readily armed with guns they're still weak compared to the gods and monsters. Also because DG technically doesn't exist they aren't very likely to receive help from other agencies. Still, being agents they're obligated to uphold the law. This could be different for players use to playing carefree thugs. That won't go over so well here. Everyone has to do some in-depth planning before each move.

The beauty is how the setting ties in out modern world with the cases and weaves all the cases together into a complex web. Each story is attached to one huge meta-plot but it's not annoying about it as some setting can be. It's hard to explain but when playing the game you can tell they're bigger powers at work, you just don't know what. It being in our modern world it does hit some controversial subjects. Nazis, 9/11, wars, Project Rainbow, Roswell, and in later supplements Katrina. It handles these subjects maturely and appropriately for the game setting. Cults have also modernized. They aren't screaming cannibals or cloaked serial killers. They blend in more. They're "the man". An evil force trying to control everything through their gods..

I initially wanted to go in-depth like I usually go in my reviews but I really hate to for this. It would ruin the game for so many people and I feel everyone should play it at least once. I think just giving a brief overview of the Delta Green agency and what the setting includes is enough. The secrets should only be revealed as the game is being played. :)

More information about this setting and purchasing books can be found out at the publisher, Pagan Publishing's website here. Though I should mention that the books can be hard to come by. Pagan Publishing is a small publisher and the books are usually in high demand. I think the limited quantities help keep the setting special for die hard fans.

The Call of Cthulhu Short Review & Thoughts

Call of Cthulhu is a RPG that's been around since the early times of tabletop gaming. Released in 1981 by Chaosium using their BRP D100 rules system. I briefly covered BRP in my OpenQuest review but CoC uses the full version of BRP. If you're unfamiliar with BRP I recommend checking out my OpenQuest review here. The skills and careers are based during the 1930's era but can be played during almost any time period. GMs are called Keeper of Forbidden Knowledge and players are Investigators. The appeal of CoC isn't really the rules but more for the setting although I think the rules go well with the setting.

Full BRP is slightly different than OpenQuest. The major differences are character creation and advancement. First players roll dice to determine their attributes. Characters choose a profession to determine what skills they start off with. Think of them sorta like a template for the type of character you wanna play. You can start from scratch I suppose but this might cause some balance issues between characters and slow things down. To advance skills players check off skills they've use. After a session players roll D100. If they roll higher than their current skill percentage the skill goes up. So the more players use skills the higher they advance and the harder they are to advance later on. There are more detailed difference but these are the biggest two.

Based on the writings of H.P. Lovecraft the Cthulhu mythos is a sci-fi horror setting. Ancient alien gods are worshiped by cultist. The gods don't care about humanity but are intertwined and play with humans like toys. This is a very dark and grim setting where it's very easy to die if players aren't careful. The players play as investigators who have some ties with the town and go snooping the weirdness going on. The games usually start off being subtle and evolving more evil as they go on. Characters have a sanity score and the more they know about the mythos they have to roll to keep their sanity. If they fail they'll lose sanity. As characters lose sanity the players start to lose control of their actions by gaining phobias and mental illnesses. Eventually going completely insane and become controlled by the Keeper. This game has a ton of support from Chaosium with several supplements and modules. Currently in the 6th edition but I think technically it's in it's 9th. Because CoC uses BRP little has changed through the decades with the rules. Each edition is more like a reprinting with some slight changes to refine the setting. A supplement from the 80's will work just as good presently.

CoC isn't a game I play as often as I'd like. I love the setting and making adventures but it requires participation from the players. More so than most RPGs. If players are too active they will get into danger and die. Too reserved and they don't get into enough trouble to go deeper in the mythos. This game requires a sweet spot that is hard to meet for most of my groups. I think it has to do with the setting. In Lovecraft stories the characters weren't aware they were in a horror story. They acted just as they would normally any other day. They knew something weird was going on but they didn't expect monster worshiping cults. In the RPG everyone is aware they're in a horror story. Players need to be good at separating what they know with what they're characters know. In a few play troughs it gets better but it's something to be aware of. There is setting for CoC that sorta helps resolve this called Delta Green. Although still a horror game I find it's easier for players to get into that "sweet spot" and there's more mystery. Players aren't as aware of what to expect. I plan on review Delta Green is going to be a future post so check back later. :)

OpenQuest Review

I played OpenQuest up until I started my BW and BE games. Even before I got a hold of the final version of OQ I played the free version for over a year and it's derivatives even longer. OQ is in a nutshell a simplified and streamlined retro-clone of RuneQuest. Basic Role-Playing, RuneQuest (any version), Stormbringer, Call of Cthulhu, Elfquest, Ringworld, Pendragon, and a few other games all use basically the same D100 percentile dice mechanic called BRP. I've played these games a lot prior to OQ and when it comes to playing BRP in a fantasy setting I think OQ is the best because of it's simplicity. OpenQuest is published by D101 Games. The book is 188 pages long with black & white artwork throughout. The cover is very eye catching as you can see up top. The presentation is great. It has a index but the table of contents is easier to use for looking things up in my opinion. Though you won't be needing to refer to the book a whole lot in play it's nice that if it were to be needed quick research can be done.

D100 is simple enough already. You roll 2 ten-sided dice. One is tens place (00-90) and the other is ones (0-9) and you try to get a result under your skill level. The lower the result the better. So if you have a skill of 80% you just gotta get under 80. A skill at 30% means you gotta get under 30 and that's harder to do. 1's (00 on tens and 1 one ones) are critical successes and 100's (00 on tens and 0 or ones) are fumbles. In d100 the result of the tens die tends to be the most important result. The ones is just if you're barley on the edge, opposing sides got a tied result, and to determine if you got a critical or fumble. In OpenQuest there are modifiers but you don't have to keep up with a bunch of little ones. All modifiers are either +/-25% or +/-50% with the exception of some spells that are +/-10%. This gets rid of a lot of micromanagement that plagues RPGs and can sometimes be a hassle in percentiles.

Character creation is simple but different than RuneQuest. Gone are lifepaths. I don't know if this was done for simplicity or because of the way skills are laid out. Maybe both. It's a good different alternative from what is common in BRP. Each character has starting characteristics. There's eight characteristics each with a base point value of 8. Strength, constitution, dexterity, size, intelligence, power, and charisma. Players have 30 points to spend on them. All have a maximum value of 18 for humans. Characteristics can be reduced lower than 8 for some additional spending points but have set minimum values. If a player has a concept in mind this is the best method. There's a dice rolling method too if a player wants to go completely random. Attributes are second values that are directly effected by characteristics. Damage modifier, hit points, major wound level, magic points, and movement rate. There are different character creation rules if a player wants to play a non-human. It's very easy to use any non-human as a player character. From the common elves and dwarves to monsters. I played a game where the players were in a orc war-band. 2 were orcs, 1 goblin, and the other 2 were different types of undead. It's a simple and robust system.

Skills are also different than other d100 games. The skills are more broad to again cut-down on micromanagement. This is classless game but the skills are almost like career fields. This makes the characters feel more experienced and like they took an actual trade rather than picking up random skills. I like this approach because it's still more robust than classes but less hassle dealing with specific skills. When a skill is raised it's raised in increments of 5% to cut down on math and for simplify. It would be very easy to add your own skills if something you want can't be used with the skills given. I think this modification to skills is what lead to most of the major mechanical differences from RQ/BRP.

Magic is different if you're not familiar with RQ. Magic is open to everybody. Now that's easy to change if you don't want that but it was this way in RQ and it's that way in OQ. It's not bad though. It's common magic and it's fairly simple stuff. A character with just common magic isn't going to be a spell slinging wizard. It makes sense though. In the real world anybody can be a fighter but unless you specialize in fighting you're not gonna be better than average. In OQ there's Sorcery and Divine magic. These are the specialized magic fields and where more powerful spells are but they have more requirements to meet. Shamanism and the spirit combat rules to go with Shamanism are also included. So there's a lot of variety in this game when it comes to fantasy magic all using the simple and robust OQ philosophy. Keeping up in RQ tradition is the influence of religions and cults. Different gods and practices give different skills, spells, and special abilities but also require their followers to do things to appease them. Cults are more influential on Divine magic but they effect the social views of all characters and the setting one way or another.

Combat is fast and gritty. Players have a list of different combat actions. Defense, close, ranged, and unarmed all have a set of actions. When fighting the opposing sides roll. The one with the lowest roll wins and is successful with their action. If taking a defensive action the offensive attack is avoided. If taking offense they roll damage dice according to their weapon and the if the opposition is wearing armor a fixed value is subtracted from the damage. OQ uses a fixed hit points system as opposed to hit locations like most BRP games. If a character receives damage that is more than 1/2 of their original hit points in one hit the victim has to roll for a critical wound which will be nasty. Mangled limbs, loss of a limb, brain damage, eye torn out, and broken bones. These are like the Stormbringer 5th edition rules and fit right in with the simple minimal counting approach of OQ. I really liked this change and it made combat brutal without being a chore like how hit locations can be. Fantasy settings tend have a lot of fighting but in OQ it shouldn't be the only option characters have to solve a problem.

Improving a character in OQ may seem a bit slow than other RPGs but keep in mind characters start out being proficient to begin with. This might just be my opinion because BRP games never really focused on maxing characters out so much they essentially just become stat blocks with no personality or drive. There's similar rules in OQ like the previous mentioned Burning Wheel called motives. These are different than beliefs but their purpose is the same overall. To give the characters goals to accomplish and to be rewarded for them. It's a different improvement method than most BRP games but just as effective. It's more story-driven in OQ and I think that was the author's intent. Players can practice skills outside of questing to speed improvement up. There's also hero points which allow the player to change the situation they're in through plot editing. 

There's more rules for ships, mental damage, travelling, mounts, objects, healing, poisons, disease, encumbrance, suffocation, thirst and starvation, falling, illumination, and burning to death. These are all towards the back and are only needed when the situation comes up. They're all simple to apply and can make a situation more interesting in gameplay. In the back is also the monster list and the information needed to use them as characters. There's also ways to figure up random items or treasure they will have if defeated. There's about 40 in total (counting the elemental separately) and an animal list with another 25. So the selection is really good and making your own creatures here won't be a problem. (I'm glad to see the Durulz from Glorantha here ;)

There's a pre-made setting called the Empire of Gantan. It's a cool base for a setting that GMs can build on. It's like a fantasy Byzantine empire. Religion, conquest, politics, combined with magic and monsters. It's clearly inspired by Gloarantha and I think it's purpose was to make OpenQuest easier to tie in with that setting or to be built on by GMs. It comes with some sample adventures to show off the system and to give a feel of the setting. Not bad for starting out if you're just trying this game out from scratch or need some quick ideas.

You can get OQ at http://d101games.co.uk/books/openquest/. The publisher uses Lulu print on demand so if you order it will take about a week longer than most orders because of the time needed for Lulu to get around printing and binding. OpenQuest is a simple and robust game out-of-the-box but easy enough to customize and add in your own stuff. It's very easy to add RuneQuest and BRP rules if something from them fits your campaign better. This goes along great in the family of D100 games because of it's different twists on the system.