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Delta Green: Agent's Handbook
 
$19.99
Average Rating:4.9 / 5
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Delta Green: Agent's Handbook
Publisher: Arc Dream Publishing
by Michael [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/04/2023 15:32:50

DG Quickly became one of my favorite games after my first session. It's one of those special games that has an easy to understand rule set along with an evocative background. If you're a player this is the only book you'll really need. Beware though, once read you may find yourself like me wanting to pick up all the other books you can get your hands on.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Delta Green: Agent's Handbook
Publisher: Arc Dream Publishing
by Guillaume [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/04/2023 11:22:41

If you want more after "Need to Know", this is the perfect way to dive deeper into Delta Green



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Delta Green: Agent's Handbook
Publisher: Arc Dream Publishing
by Nicholas M. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/30/2023 18:23:42

The player's guide for one of my all time favourite games. I've been running Delta Green for about a year and a half and I'm constantly impressed how the rules support the tone of the setting, while just getting out of the way when you don't need them. The book is clearly organised, well-edited and is a solid read as well. I am a huge fan of the lethality rules and the Home sceen rules in particular and this version of Delta Green is my favourite implementation of d100 skill-based rules. If the themes appeal at all, give it a go.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Delta Green: Agent's Handbook
Publisher: Arc Dream Publishing
by Cody B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/19/2023 16:43:51

This book has the perfect amount of information to get your group using the Delta Green system, including adding home sections for additional role-playing depth. It's an incredibly robust system for running current day horror games, with a ton of role-playing and quick and brutal combat.

Advice for Handlers: don't be afraid to drop certain things to keep the pace up. Horror is all about atmosphere, which is controlled by pacing, and it's daunting to use all the rules encompassed in this book all the time. I'm so happy they've mapped out everything the way they have, but just be aware that it can get overwhelming.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Delta Green: Agent's Handbook
Publisher: Arc Dream Publishing
by Andreas S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/15/2022 12:30:30

One of the greatest systems of all time. Amaaaazing scenarios.

Although, it is kinda heavy if you are not a native english-speaker (or really good at english). There is a lot of verbigeration going on ontop of a lot of very official-sounding fancy words. The text (in both the rule books and scenarios) could have been trimmed down a lot in my personal opinion. I often see the writer use two or even three adjectives to describe something. And often the adjectives are just synonyms of each other. They over-explain/over-clarify sometimes and that just makes it confusing.

So the real horror from this game is trying to translate the 35 page scenarios into your own language. ~Sincerely, a Swede.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Delta Green: Agent's Handbook
Publisher: Arc Dream Publishing
by Jayson O. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/13/2022 23:07:37

I really love this system. It's so different from pretty much every other sytem I've gotten to play.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Delta Green: Agent's Handbook
Publisher: Arc Dream Publishing
by Thomas V. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/28/2020 00:29:21

This is probably my favorite RPG of many tried but absolutely one of the best games ever made. I have GMed several scenarios for two groups and more one-shots, so I have spent a lot of time with it. The new version has improved the rules so that they become very fluid. The addition of bonds and willpower creates a frame for the players to roleplay their characters in a way many other horror RPGs does not (usually boils down to blind survival, throwing the RP element out the window). The lore is close to Call of Cthulhu but the angle of "the people are the real threat" is far superior, as it no longer feels as a tacked on thing onto our world. Lastly, all released books are to a very high standard, especially this one and the Handler. There is so much info on everything you need to run. I cannot recommend this game enough.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Delta Green: Agent's Handbook
Publisher: Arc Dream Publishing
by Augusto O. K. K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/30/2020 16:40:10

Delta Green: Agent's Handbook is the "Players Guide" for the standalone version of Delta Green, and must have if you want to set a Delta Green game. This book contains the rules for the game, the complete character creation, a chapter with profession options from various American government agencies (extremely well-researched by the way), and "Tradecraft", more or less a guide for how to players act like spies.

The standalone Delta Green is a fantastic system, the themes and setting of the game work very well. I'd say it can be darker then standard Call of Cthulhu, it spices up that formula with paranoia, the dissolution of daily life, the apocalyptic dangers that are ever more present and just the general dickness of mankind. It's the great irony of DG: You might have big guns, but that isn't enough to defeat them, it will never be. As a side note, I like how the Agent's Handbook doesn't contain actual Delta Green lore, this serves well for two purposes: That the players not knowing the actual threats and history of the organization can make the general sense of paranoia and mystery better ("who are those guys", "who we really work for", etc) and fixes the problem from the old DG books where players and Keeper stuff were in the same book (after the keeper-only chapter), so no more "oops, accidentally read the whole chapter on the bad guys"), the other is that the amazing rules (covered below) can be used for more than playing as creepy Man in Black agents.

On rules: It's Call of Cthulhu, but better. The DC is the skills in your sheet: roll below them, they have been reorganized for the more modern setting. Combat is made more tactical, fast-paced and chaotic, almost as an actual firefight in real life, initiative is now whoever has more dexterity goes first, and the new "lethality" rule makes stuff faster and deadlier:. If you roll the "lethality" in that range, the weapon just kills the target instantly. The new Sanity system is a bit inspired in Unknown Armies: You roll if you character experiences "violence", "helplessness" and "the unnatural", and you can "adapt" for the first two by rolling bad three times (but never the unnatural). You can gain mental ilnesses (PTSD, Alchoolism, etc) from those encounters. The real meat is the new "bond" system, your character has a few bonds which are family, friends, coworkers, and each one has a score, you can make SAN loss less worse in exchange for your relationship with the bonds, so your PCs relationship with friends, family and will get worse and worse as you become more alienated and your life desintegrates. There's also new requisition rules, for getting stuff, more more simplified in relation to CoC.

If you want to play a horror game, this game is for you. If you are a seasoned (hell, or new) CoC player, this game is for you. Absolute recommend for anyone trying a new and spooky game.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Delta Green: Agent's Handbook
Publisher: Arc Dream Publishing
by Alex N. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/19/2020 02:03:02

This book is nuts. Possibly the best ruleset and telling of the Mythos I have come across. Combat is raw and makes sense, skill checks vs automatic gained knowledge is fantastic, and dealing with the slow descent into sanity.... gorgeous. This is a masterclass example of what RPG's should be. Even as the Handler in my games I am sucked into the setting that is filled with despair and shocked by brief moments of hope that filter through. Everything has a price, each victory is more meaningful, everyone knows they are going to die or go insane but this game has a way of convincing you to fight on and cherish every moment. My group has had to house rule only a few things and we havent played with every single rule for the sake of streamiling 'Home Scenes'. But the beauty of this game is nothing feels left out even when we do that. Its much like dining at a sickening buffet set out for us by the King in Yellow Himself.....



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Delta Green: Agent's Handbook
Publisher: Arc Dream Publishing
by Mike D. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/26/2018 16:06:21

Staring into the eye of madness, the abyss, the apocalypse... if you need a one-sentence description of Delta Green, that would do. I have been a fan of Delta Green since it first appeared as a modern-day era supplement for Call of Cthulhu. I loved it then, but this is my hands-down favorite now. There are many horror-themed games on the market, but few are willing to cross that invisible line into a world where death and madness are not possibilities, they are inevitable. Delta Green pulls no punches and I love it all the more for that.

Yes, characters are fighting the "good" fight, but that's only a single (and perhaps least interesting) facet of the game. It's that downward spiral your characters inevitably slip into that really gives some gravitas and meat (pun intended) to the setting. Could you run a Mythos version of the X-Files with this? Sure. But, you'd be better off seeking your entertainment elsewhere. Pushing back the unknown, one mission at a time- that's DG. Watching your relationships disintegrate before your eyes because you can't tell them what you have seen or done, and those things invariably making you a colder, harder person... that's DG. Driving down the country road, your clothes covered in your partner's (who is dead in the seat next to you) blood and you have to get rid of the body because no one can know about how he died or why... that's DG.

I cannot give this game high enough marks. It's damn-near perfect. If you love horror and mystery that does not hold your hand, you need to buy Delta Green!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Delta Green: Agent's Handbook
Publisher: Arc Dream Publishing
by Bernardo E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/29/2017 13:19:33

Had an opportunity to play Delta Green at Big Bad Con a few weeks ,ago. Get this game! If you like Tom Clancy and the Xfiles, then this is the game for you! It's got great mechanics where the focus is the story. I was fortunate that we had 6 players so it was a great dynamic. I'm looking forward to the upcoming Handler's Book!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Delta Green: Agent's Handbook
Publisher: Arc Dream Publishing
by Edward K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/02/2016 11:49:12

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Delta Green

Originally posted at www.throatpunchgames.com, a new idea everyday!

Product- Delta Green System-Delta Green Producer-Arc Dream Price- $20.00 here http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/181674/Delta-Green-Agents-Handbook?affiliate_id=239993 TL; DR-Great RPG with one big problem 87%

Basics- ia ia cthulhu fhtagn- BUT NOW WITH GUNS! Delta Green is Call of Cthulhu if run by the government as secret agencies vie for power and try to keep the horrors from beyond time and space from destroying the world or taking over the United States! Can you handle the truth?

Mechanics or Crunch-Let’s break the mechanics up and give the basics as well as my assessment.

Base Mechanics-Delta Green is a classic percentile based system. You have a skill or an ability rating, and you roll under that number to succeed. As I grow older, I like this no fuss/no muss methods of rolling dice to avoid overly math-y systems.

Difficulty-When a situation is harder or easier than normal, the GM might ask you to add or subtract 10% or 20% to or from your skill or ability total. Again, it’s a simple and easy way to modulate difficulty.

Combat- Combat is basically simple. Characters act in dexterity order from high to low. On your turn you do one action. These actions range from move, shoot, or aim among other things. For actions that require a roll, you roll under a skill as above. There is no given dodge roll if you are attacked. If you haven’t acted in a round, you can forgo your next action to try to dodge an attack by rolling under the attack roll. Damage is a single dice roll that subtracts from a hit point total. Go too low on the hit point total and you pass out. Also, some weapons have a lethality rating. If you roll in that range, the weapon just kills the target in one go!

Personal Life and Sanity- Just like other horror RPG, Delta Green has a sanity system. Characters lose sanity and gain mental illness as they go crazier and crazier dealing with horrors beyond time. This system throws in bonds as a serious component as men and women lose family members, friends, and loved ones. Think of the PTSD struck veteran, but now add the fact that he/she deals with monsters beyond human ken. Players may lose family members or whole families as they slowly go deeper and deeper into the world of Cthulhu slipping away from normal. That level of commitment to roleplaying in the mechanics is awesome.

Advancement-Advancement is a snap in this game as well. When a player attempts a roll in this game and they fail, they mark the skill with an X. At the end of the game session, any skill that you failed that you had at least 1% in, you gain an additional 1%. Also, between sessions, a character can gain 1 in an ability or they can gain 1d10 in a skill if they spend time working on it. If they do, they lose 1 level in a bond as they lose touch with someone they felt was important!

Summary- I really want to like this game more than I do. The addition of solid role-playing psychology makes this a great way to blend the theme and mechanics of a world where things just can’t be and can’t be dealt with rationally. However, combat just makes me irrationally angry. I don’t like systems where you can’t move and act. That’s a minor issue as if all the players and monsters abide by this rule, I can deal. However, the rules as written basically make it better to have a lower dexterity. You get to react to an attack, but people who go fast can’t. I can understand not being able to take your next action if you dodge, but this game penalizes people who go first. Sure, it can be a minor issue if you don’t fight much, and I can deal with not having a dodge roll at all. But, this irks me deeply to my core. Therefore, it’s an ok system with a serious flaw. 3.5/5

Theme or Fluff-I mentioned above how much I love the commitment to theme the game has in its mechanics. This game might even be darker than Call of Cthulhu as this game brings the role of sanity and psychology to the forefront in a very post-9/11 way as the psychology of the soldier is experienced first hand. The book is full of stories and fragments of people trying to handle the unhandable. It’s deep and immersive in a way I can really dig, safely and from afar. 5/5

Execution-This is a well put together book. It flows well, has great art, and the PDF is well done and hyperlinked. I like the index, the layout, and the whole book overall. Some things could use a bit more organization, but the book is an exhaustive reference on both the government and the paranormal for new players. 4.5/5

Summary-Delta Green is a great RPG with one serious flaw. Now, as a gaming group, you can play this however you see fit. It’s a flaw that you can fix by all deciding that this is how the game runs. It’s a flaw I will fix instantly in my tables, but the rules as written make me spitting mad. And it’s just that one part. The rest is amazing. I love the depth of little extra bits that the authors throw in about government jurisdiction and random trivia that are in the book. The art is great and the treatment of psychological factors in our veterans is phenomenal. Sure, this is a just a game, but the level of depth that game goes into to use these conditions as things a person would experience if they experienced Lovecraftian horrors is excellent. I like everything in this EXCEPT one thing. If you can get past that one thing, this is a great RPG that really updates Lovecraft to the post 9/11 world. And since it’s under $20, it’s well worth the look even if you just use it for a guidebook to government organizations in your horror games. 87%



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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Delta Green: Agent's Handbook
Publisher: Arc Dream Publishing
by Anders H. L. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/23/2016 13:48:21

The rule system The rules are presented in a clear and concise way and I think they are well adapted to the setting. For those anxious about leaving Call of Cthulhu, I can comfort you with the fact that the new DG rules stay in BRP-land as they are built from the Legend SRD (from Mongoose Publishing). This means that DG now has more in common with all the games derived from the first Mongoose RuneQuest SRD - Mongoose RuneQuest, Legend, RuneQuest 6/Mythras, OpenQuest 2, Renaissance etc. In fact, this game is closer to 6th edition CoC than the new 7th edition CoC rules. Over all, the game is vastly simplified (shorter skill lists, more generic weapon lists and so on) in comparison with the old DG books which had tons of new stuff for CoC. And this is a good thing in my book.

At the same time, some new mechanics get introduced: Critical successes are now 01 and doubles (11, 22, 33 etc) under your skill. So if you have a skill of 40% you will crit as in the example above. At the same, fumbles funcion the same - 00 and doubles over your skill are fumbles (in the example 44, 55, 66, 77, 88 and 00 would be fumbles. I like this system as it allows crits and fumbles to scale after actual skill level. Another new thing is the Luck roll that now is a flat 50% chance that things will go your way. Or not.

Opposed tests are resolved by both parties rolling and the highest success wins, which has been standard in the RuneQuest SRD line of games for many years. Willpower points are also new. They can be thought of as mental fuel or mental hit points. You don't want to run out of them. They are based on POW.

Combat is a bit different than both old DG and new CoC 7th ed. A combat turn is a few seconds long and a PC can make ONE action in that amount of time. If you choose to Parry or Dodge, your action is gone for the combat turn. There are a bunch of combat actions described, both offensive and defensive, allowing for a resonable amount of combat tactics. Another cool new thing is the Lethality Rating for more dangerous weapons. This is basically a % roll to determine if a target survives a hit by the big bad gun. If successful, the target (if human at least) immediately drops to 0 hp. This is to avoid the old rules where you had to roll separately to determine number of hits from autofire which could mean a lot of rolls. If you're not a fan of the Lethality rule, there are also optional rules more in the vein of the old autofire rules.

Good old Sanity has also gotten an overhaul. Basically, there are three conditions that might cause SAN loss - Violence, Helplessness and the Unnatural. This is cool, as now your sanity isn't threatened only by monsters and their kynde, but also by malign actions of other people or feelings of not being able to do something. Very much in the line of what DG is about. Otherwise thresholds are pretty the same: 5 or more SAN in a roll is temporary insanity and 0 SAN is permanent insanity. Sanity Points are POW x 5 as before. The concept of Breaking Point is however new. This is described as SAN minus POW and if your PCs loses SAN below the Breaking Point, they get a Disorder and must reset the Breaking Point to current SAN minus POW. The effects a PC suffer when being temporary insane or having a disorder are very good and designed to both realistic and playable. Another cool thing is that a PC can adapt to violence and helplessness (but never to the unnatural), meaning that being in those situations won't call for a SAN roll any more. However, the PC also loses Charisma and from his or her Bonds. Bonds are also a new concept - it can be the relation with a spouse or kids, or with other agents or groups. Bonds are what connects the PC to humanity. So, losing your Bonds will make you more inhumane and also more susceptible to psychological trauma. This feels realistic and might form a very good basis for role-playing. I must confess that I haven't grasped the concept of Bonds 100% yet, but I guess it will be clearer in actual play.

When it comes to PC wealth, expenses and bying of gear, DG introduces a fairly abstract system where you don't have to track every dollar for your PC. Some stuff are day to day cheap and the game just assume that the PC can afford it. Other things are more expensive or restricted and it's up to the GM to decide if the item is obtainable. I like it, but this is one of the things that must be tested in-game.

The concept Contrary to "standard" Call of Cthulhu, where most investigators are average Joe's and Jane's, DG assumes that the PCs are members of a monster-fighting organization and that most PCs (or Agents as they are called in DG) are employed by some Federal Agency. Consequently, most occupations in the book are just that. Examples are FBI, DEA, the military, CIA and so on. There are also a bunch of more civilian occupations in the book as well as advice on how to creat your own occupations. The old DG books had the US agencies in the core book and then lots of international agencies in the other books, supporting Agents from nearly all countries. The new DG book is focussed solely on US agencies, which I feel is resaonable but I still miss GRU-SV8 (Russian) or PISCES (British). Hopefully, they will be in the forthcoming books from Arc Dream. And I'm so planning to do the Swedish agencies, DG style :)

The verdict The new version of Delta Green promises to be an awesome game. The books released so far are pretty and sturdy, with well-written and appropriate rules for the setting/game concept. If you like old Delta Green I'm sure you'll gonna love new Delta Green. However, for players and GMs new to DG, the Agent's handbook is a bit thin on the DG "mythos". Hopefully, this will be remedied in future publications. And don't forget - the old DG books are now available in PDF form from DriveThruRPG, so they can be mined for ideas, adventures and background.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Delta Green: Agent's Handbook
Publisher: Arc Dream Publishing
by A customer [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/01/2016 21:24:25

You can find my complete review at http://www.theredactedfiles.com/?p=2635

All together it feels like a more grown up and subdued approach to this standard horror convention. And in that, I think it succeeds at being even more effective at portraying the brutal costs your character is paying to stay in the fight. This is Delta Green after all: the results of mission accomplished is that life can continue to suck just like it always has.

And that's why I think I take greater satisfaction from the escapism of a game like this rather than Dungeons and Dragons. I am not special. I am flawed and broken and incomplete: I'm just human. But I'm going to do what it takes to keep my little corner of the world together just that little bit longer. And when my character trades two quarts of blood to keep that gate to the unknowable closed, I'll walk away from the table and get ready to go out tomorrow and feel that grim satisfaction of giving all I've got to make sure the world sucks a little bit less than it could Otherwise, because that's what it means to be Delta Green.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Delta Green: Agent's Handbook
Publisher: Arc Dream Publishing
by Shane M. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/28/2016 14:32:27

Delta Green has long been my favourite horror setting, and this rulebook delivers exactly what i am lookign for in DG rules-wise in spades. The sanity system tweaks, the bonds, the simple ways to do modern combat, the elegant skill system that custs down on rolls. Brilliant stuff. This would also work for any modern horror or investigative game.

The book itself is gorgeous and solid, and the PDF is just as nice to look at.

If you want dark modern horror with personal cost you will not regret buying this.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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