Dennis DetwillerRecensioni

Woah. I only have access to the first 249 pages but reading this draft I already questioned my sanity three times. This campaign is unsettling in a way I experienced never before. Not once was the spirit of the King in Yellow captured in such an adequately disturbing fashion. I can not wait to GM this.

An esoteric and eclectic collection of stories inspired by The Horror on The Orient Express supplement from Chaosium. Ranging from pulp to surreal horror, these really had an entertaining effect on me, with me enjoying them immensely. Admittedly,this scratches an itch for me, with me loving both Europe in the golden age of travel, the Orient Express and call of Cthulhu. What's not to like? With only one exception all are great stories. Recommended.½

One of the most flexible and innovative gaming systems around. Highly modifiable to any campaign setting involving people with extraordinary powers. An expansion of the system first presented in Godlike.

Absolutely superb with excellent chapters on various disparate topics, all of which of great interest to the Delta Green Keeper of Arcane Lore. The material in this gem could be mined for many years. Highly recommended

Peut être le meilleur des romans Delta Green. Detwiller reprend tous les fils scénaristiques qui pendouillaient des romans précédents et les rassemble pour faire une jolie trame. L'auteur n'hésite d'ailleurs pas à mettre un gros coup de pied dans la fourmillière de l'univers Delta Green, montrant par là que les meneurs de jeu qui se servent de cet univers n'ont pas à en respecter le contenu comme un dogme ranci. Rafraîchissant.

L'écriture est plus serrée, plus nerveuse, plus dure et même si Detwiller n'a pas la plume d'un Lovecraft, ça reste aisément mieux écrit qu'un Follett et moins fouillis qu'un Ludlum.

Je l'ai dévoré d'une traite.

Encore un livre Delta Green. Celui-ci décrit un certain nombre d'opérations OSS/PISCES/DELTA GREEN pendant la 2° GM. Très très sympa. L'auteur exploite très très bien l'univers du jeu et les non-dits de deux nouvelles de Lovecraft.

Cependant, même si j'ai adoré, l'auteur oublie à la moitié du roman de traiter la 2°GM ainsi que la probable expédition nazie qui serait la conséquence logique de la première moitié du roman. C'est vraiment vraiment dommage.½

This is a supplement for the Delta Green campaign setting for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game. It is a limited edition hardback compendium of the three extremely limited edition Delta Green Eyes Only chapbooks. This volume includes the contents of those three chapbooks along with two all new scenarios. The production values are definitely better than on the original softback DG books.

I'll provide a brief rundown of its contents along with my assessments.

SPOILERS ABOUND. Read at your own risk.

1. Mi-Go: Enlarges the material provided in the main book. There's nothing earth-shattering here, but it does provide much needed additional information on Mi-Go physiology and culture (such as it is), along with some details on what Yuggoth is like (this portion is a personal favorite). (Hint: You do not want to visit, and you certainly don't want to live there.) My favorite of the three organizations in the book.

2. The Fate: Significantly elaborates on -- and sometimes contradicts -- the material presented on this organization in the main book. This was the organization that most needed fleshing out in the main book and it gets al that and more here. I would venture to say that the Fate is nigh-unusable as presented in the main book; this treatment is invaluable if you intend to use them. My complaint with this section is that pages upon pages of material are provided on boring, mundane details of their operations, like a list of three centuries worth of land use and ownership records for the property for their headquarters. How exactly would this be used in play? In general, I have somewhat of a problem with the Fate, as presented in DG: they are simply too powerful. I know, that's an odd complaint for Call of Cthulhu, but I think that PCs going up against these guys are bound to be frustrated continually.

3. Project RAINBOW: Provides details on a new WWII-era US government black program and subsequent cover-up. This is the "Philadelphia Experiment" on the destroyer USS ELDRIDGE. It was accidentally sent to another dimension/time where the laws of physics are somewhat different. The technology that did that is still around and causing problems. The level of detail on the survivors of that experiment is impressive, if boring, but I suppose necessary if the player-characters are to truly investigate the incident.

4. Tradecraft: A brief section, but useful. It provides some additional details for players who may not have a military or intelligence background.

5. Three adventures. They are as follows:

A Night on Owlshead Mountain: Concerns the Mi-Go. They long ago abandoned a human servant (crazy old, but immortal, mountain man) and he and a Dark Young that has accidentally been recently freed are causing problems. It's not a bad little adventure.

Artifact Zero: Concerns Project RAINBOW. Revolves around an archaeological dig. I don't like this one because the plot will actually have the best outcome if the players do nothing. Yuck. I hate adventures like that, and some Call of Cthulhu adventures are very prone to that failing. It is also extremely bloated with superfluous forensic data on the various victims. Most of that could have been summed up as "after the forensic analysis is completed, the corpse and person X appear to match up."

Holy War: Concerns the Fate. Deals with an internal schism and a scheme perpetrated by a worshipper of Glaaki who plans on opening a new lake portal/temple to it in New York. Not bad, but doesn't do much with New York City, which has been established as the Fate's playground. It also revolves too heavily around the actions of various rival cultist NPCs, leaving the PCs without enough to do.

This is a good book, but it has some flaws. If I had one criticism of it, I would say that it has a tendency to descend into boring minutiae that is of very little relevance to most campaigns.

Review copyright 2008 J. Andrew Byers

A novel of WWII espionage and Lovecraftian horror, Denied to the Enemy is based on the Delta Green setting for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game. Filled with interesting takes on the Cthulhu Mythos in the wartime setting, the book might not have much appeal for anyone other than those already interested in these subjects.

Classic campaign setting for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game. Think of it as a kind of X-Files RPG, but with characters as coming from the military or any federal agency, not just the FBI. The overarching backstory and plot drivers come from the Cthulhu Mythos, rather than the less coherent fever dreams of Chris Carter.

Here is a brief rundown of the contents of the book and associated notes:

SPOILERS ABOUND. Read at your own peril.

1. The Big Picture: The basic rundown for the game. The big bad guys of the game are the Mi-Go (the Fungi from Yuggoth) and elements of the US government.

2. Delta Green: Framework for the game. DG is a secret organization of mostly government employees who hunt various Mythos critters and stop nefarious plots in their spare time. Good thing the feds give pretty generous leave time. It works well as a means of getting PCs involved.

3. Majestic-12: Deep black government organization working with the Greys to exploit the technology that they've passed along. In exchange, they work to hide the evidence of "Grey" operations. Here's the catch: the Greys are really just biomechanical puppets tele-operated by the Mi-Go, who pass humans crumbs so that their remaining operations on earth don't get interfered with too badly. It's a fun premise that works.

4. Karotechia: Evil old Nazis in South America who have found a couple ways to create types of immortality. Of course, they dabble in Cthuloid stuff. Fun foes, but ultimately just a minor threat.

5. Saucerwatch: UFOlogists. Not terribly interesting. They fit in the genre just fine, but they'rekind of boring and I doubt that they'd be very useful or fun in play.

6. The Fate: Magical criminal syndicate operating out of a Studio 54-like club in NYC. Their leader is almost certainly an avatar of Nyarlathotep. Fun, great potential as villains, but they're described in really terse terms. Needs much more elaboration (which is provided in the DG: Eyes Only book). This group should have been better fleshed out. As is, they're too vague.

7. Miscellaneous bits: This includes a bibliography, glossary of intelligence terms, security classifications and markings (several errors in this section), and some key documents. All in all, not bad. It should give players lacking a military or intelligence background an idea of where to begin.

8. Federal agencies, new skills, and notes on firearms: Gives brief rundowns on about three dozen federal agencies and what characters from those agencies should look like. These are all decent templates for player-characters. (But who would really want to play a postal inspector when you can play a SEAL?)

9. The Adventures: There are three, two short and one long. See below.

10. Puppet Shows and Shadow Plays: Short adventure, serves as a means to introduce some PCs to DG. I question the wisdom for including this adventure for two reasons: (1) it requires the PCs to all be FBI agents, which runs counter to the whole DG concept of an inter-agency task force; and (2) it deals with a lone alien serial killer that is creepy, but not part of the Cthulhu Mythos. Think of it as one of the X-Files monster-of-the-week episodes. Fun, but there's no tie-in to the metaplot here. [I have since discovered an interesting reference to another member of the alien's race in Delta Green: Countdown, which also mentions that the aliens have been detailed in Ye Booke of Monstres, which was then subsumed into The Creature Collection, and is currently in print as part of malleus Monstrorum, all from Chaosium.]

11. Convergence: Short adventure involving a plot by the Mi-Go to experiment on a whole town by introducing "proto-matter" into their bodies. Looks like a fun adventure, but basically, anyone who drinks the water in town -- which will almost certainly include all the PCs -- will die at the end of the adventure once a Mi-Go contraption is destroyed. I hate killer adventures like that.

12. The New Age: Long, two-part adventure involving a thinly veiled Scientology-like cult that is using and abusing Mi-Go technology. Has high potential to end in a major raid and bloodbath for all concerned. As written, the PCs should *not* raid the cult's headquarters because that plays right into the Mi-Gos' hands (er, pincers). Essentially, it's better to just let the Mi-Go's scheme run it's course and they will only achieve two of their four objectives. That's not a very fun way to end a long adventure like this.

All in all, I like the campaign framework for the DG a lot, though I would have liked to see some adventures that allow the PCs to make more of a difference and not necessarily end in doom.

This is a really good book and I'd heartily recommend it to anyone interested in updating the Cthulhu Mythos for the 1990s and (conceivably) beyond, along with fans of the X-Files and similar media. It's a campaign idea that screams for a post-9-11 update.

Review copyright 2008 J. Andrew Byers½