First things first, this is a beautiful product. Arc Dream Publishing does a great job with the covert ops decoration–bits and pieces of classified documents, blurry, black and white photographs, documents with blood drops, etc. Combine this with beautiful cover art of a sufficiently horrid monster and you’ve got a product which says “Buy me. Play me.”
The section on what a role playing game is, the materials you need and how to play is clear and concise–which has not always been the case with role playing games. This is followed by an equally quick and informative section of advice for the Handler (the person overseeing the game.)
Next we have an example of play. I have always found these tedious and poorly written. This was great. It manages to be dark and gritty, yet have a tiny touch of wry humor which doesn’t spoil the mood. It also read very quickly, and immerses me in the desperation of the scene. Plus, I’ve never read an example of play in which one of the PCs is brutally killed.
Then comes character creation. This section is somewhat redundant, in that it gives information regarding making your character, then provides further aspects of those same concepts. This section also provides the character sheet. It is very tidy and has enough space to fill in your character’s information–not true of some games. Again, the character sheet has a very cool, government agency look to it.
After character creation comes a selection of sample characters. This is helpful in two ways. It clarifies character creation, almost certainly answering any remaining questions, and provides ready-made characters which allow you to jump right into play.
Having finished with character creation the book moves into the game mechanics. In a mere seven pages, the writers describe when to make dice rolls, how to handle chases, combat, and sanity. Despite brevity, this section is clear and informative–it’s everything you need to know.
Delta Green, Need To Know winds down with a short scenario. This, of course, is for the Handler’s eyes only, not for the Players to read. Remember, pre-made characters are included in the book, so everything you need to play Delta Green is included.
You have three purchasing options:
You’ll find the complete publication at https://shop.arcdream.com/collections/role-playing-games?page=3 This is a soft cover book, with a beautiful, rigid, Handler’s screen with all the needed game information. This is a very reasonable $24.99;
The booklet only, at the same web page, is $9.99, and;
a PDF version is available at https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/175760/Delta-Green-Need-to-Know for “Pay What You Want.”
Please be cool and throw them some dollars.
My name is CthulhuBob Lovely, I live in my childhood hometown of Columbus, Ohio, and have a son and two daughters. I volunteer at MisCon, which occurs each year on Memorial Day Weekend in Missoula, Montana and help out at other shows.
In my younger years I had seen H.P. Lovecraft’s books in the collection of my older brother, Brian, who is also responsible for introducing me to Monty Python, Star Wars and many other things geek.
I began running and playing Dungeons and Dragons in 1977 at the age of 15, and Call of Cthulhu since its original publication in 1981.
I believe geekery and gaming can have positive effects on math, reading and writing, and social interaction skills, as well as family togetherness. I have three published stories online at
http://www.bewilderingstories.com/bios/lovely_bob_bio.html
