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Get Delta Green Security Clearance With New Bundle of Holding – It's All Very Lovecraftian (UPDATE)

By Christopher Helton

The Bundle of Holding is back, this time with a classified set of horrifying roleplaying books set in a world of espionage and Lovecraftian terror. Delta Green from Pagan Publishing and Arc Dream Publishing is one of the most highly regarded gaming settings being produced. With most of these books sadly out of print, and going for hundreds of dollars on the secondary market, these PDFs are the only way to get this setting. In addition, 10% of all money spent on this bundle with go to charity, in this case Doctors Without Borders and the FBI Agents Association Membership Assistance Fund. All of the electronic files purchased through the Bundle of Holding are also 100% DRM free.

What is this Delta Green and why should I be interested in a rehash of some old episodes of The X-Files in a roleplaying game? Delta Green is a setting for Chaosium Games roleplaying game Call of Cthulhu, where characters attempt to thwart the machinations of the various cults and organizations worshipping the horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos. In 1992, Delta Green first appeared in a then modern day Call of Cthulhu adventure in the gaming zine The Unspeakable Oath (nearly a year and a half before the first episode of The X-Files hit television).

The concept of Delta Green within the book is the idea that a conspiratorial organization rose up within the United States government after the raid on Innsmouth outlined in H.P. Lovecraft's novella The Shadow Over Innsmouth. With the revelation of alien beings and worshippers of Elder Gods, elements within the government decided that it was necessary to fight against these things. A loose organization, called Delta Green, formed to battle these things.

The Delta Green book outlines the history of Delta Green and its fights against horrors around the world. It also outlines other organizations within the world who work with, and against, the group. The timeline of Lovecraft's world is also updated to the late 1990s, showing that the horrors of the Mythos have not been at rest since the 20s and 30s. Delta Green also ties the Cthulhu Mythos into the zeitgeist of New Age philosophies and UFO phenomena. The world is rich and highly detailed, with new creatures, cultists, weaponry, spells and Mythos books and items for your Call of Cthulhu campaigns. If you want to move your Call of Cthulhu games out of the eras of the 1800s or 1920s, this is the book to help you with that.

What have the Mi-Go been doing on Earth all of these years, and how does it figure in with the conspiracy of Majestic-12? What as the truth behind the Philadelphia Project and where did all of those sailors end up? Without giving away any spoilers, these questions and more are answered within Delta Green: Eyes Only. Originally a series of pamphlets expanding the world of Delta Green, a successful crowdfunding campaign saw them compiled and expanded into a new book that built upon the world that the Delta Green characters exist within.

Both of these books are the core collection, a $35 value that you can get for only $8.95. By spending over the threshold amount (as determined by what people are spending on the Bundle, you can also get more game supplements and Delta Green fiction.

With Delta Green: Countdown, the setting takes on an international focus, with horrors and the government agencies fighting them in the UK (including the Shan and The Army of the Third Eye), Russia and the Far East outlined. There are also more options for characters with new skills and occupations for your modern era Call of Cthulhu games.

In Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity you get new scenarios set in the Delta Green universe, along with new organizations and conspiracies to bedevil the characters. Want to know how Lovecraft's ghouls dealt with the disaster of Hurricane Katrina? Targets of Opportunity will answer your questions.

There are some many surprises and secrets to be found in any of the Delta Green supplements that it is honestly hard to write about them without spoiling the contents, but still try to talk about what makes them great. For me, these books were some of the best supplements for the Call of Cthulhu game written, right up there with the world spanning Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign from Chaosium. The only glaring omission from this Bundle, and the one thing that would make it self contained is that Chaosium Games didn't get in on this and supply a copy of their currently available edition of the Call of Cthulhu rules. I know that they are working on a new edition for release later this year, but not getting into this bundle is definitely a missed opportunity for Chaosium. Perhaps they will do their own Cthulhu bundle at some point, with the core rules and some of the great supplements for Call of Cthulhu that they have put out over the decades. It would make for a great transition to the next edition of the game.

And then the Delta Green fiction collection and novels Alien Intelligence, Through A Glass Darkly and Denied To The Enemy all help to expand the world of Delta Green along with the game materials themselves. The Alien Intelligence fiction collection is available in PDF form, while the other two novels are in the ePub format (I use the OverDrive Media Console for handling ebooks on my phone and tablet, and it handles these ePubs just fine). With Denied To The Enemy you get to see what the Delta Green organization dealt with during World War II and with Through A Glass Darkly looks at the world of today. Both of the novels are from Delta Green partner and architect Dennis Detwiller (who has also worked on Magic: The Gathering and the [Prototype] console game).

This Bundle will not last forever. You have until Wednesday, April 2nd to take advantage of the deal for this Bundle of Holding.

[*Update: The Delta Green Bundle, at the time of this update has gone over expectations, making over $21,000 currently. The Bundle has expanded, with a closing date of Wednesday, April 9th.]

Christopher Helton is a blogger, podcaster and tabletop RPG publisher who talks about games and other forms of geekery at the long-running Dorkland! blog. He is also the co-publisher at the ENnie Award winning Battlefield Press, Inc.  You can find him on Twitter at @dorkland and on G+ at https://plus.google.com/+ChristopherHelton/ where he will talk your ear off about gaming and comics.

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