History TabletopGame / DeltaGreen

* GenericEthnicCrimeGang: Tong Shukoran, the Tcho-Tcho mafia, based on UsefulNotes/TheTriadsAndTheTongs.

** Taken UpToEleven in ''Impossible Landscapes''. [[spoiler:Free will, you say? Nope, it's all theater, ''all of it'', and it's not written by you. There is no escaping the play, and the Agents ''will'' play their parts. Whether they want it or not.]]

* GenericEthnicCrimeGang: Tong Shukoran, the Tcho-Tcho mafia.

* GenreMashup: ''The Fall of DELTA GREEN'' is a conspiracy thriller, Vietnam war story, and cosmic horror mashup.

* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Let's just say that the suicide rate in Delta Green is above average.

* TheGreys: The high-tech aliens cutting secret deals with MJ-12 for fun and profit. Of course, [[spoiler:they are not what they seem.]]

* GroundhogDayLoop: Repeaters are caught in repeating patterns of their former life. An author might write and drink and never leave their room unless prodded by someone else. A bellhop might man a front desk for eternity. Until someone comes in contact with them, it is likely they perform the same actions over and over again. To them, time has ceased counting.

* HiddenElfVillage: The K'n-Yani are committed to total paranoid isolation, and Delta Green has not risked altering that attitude.

* InterserviceRivalry: All the time between the various real-world agencies. Delta Green and MJ-12 used to have this in the short period where both officially worked for the US government. The 2016 edition features ''two'' Delta Greens; the Special Access Program, a reactivated, officially sanctioned version, and "the Cowboys", DG Agents who refused to come in from the cold and thus operate as vigilantes.

* LonersAreFreaks: The Lonely, a collection of unaffiliated loners and incels who are organized through the internet by a mysterious figure known as "[=CptnSnshn=]" (Captain Sunshine). [=CptnSnshn=] has an uncanny ability to find isolated people in nearly any internet subculture and reinforce and amplify their loneliness and resentment. [[spoiler:The many persons that become [=CptnSnshn=] are actually a Phantom of Truth: an avatar of the King in Yellow, representing the entropy and destruction of social relations.]] As [=CptnSnshn=] keeps corrupting them more and more, they tend to either disappear out of existence or become [[MadBomber mad bombers]] or [[SpreeKiller mass shooters]].
* LovecraftLite: Considering the [=PCs=] are law enforcement, special forces or intelligence agents, and Delta Green is a secret organization dedicated to fighting the forces of the Cthulhu Mythos, you might be mistaken to think this is the case. But it's {{subverted|Trope}}; your big guns might win some battles against some small fry, but everyone is powerless to stop all the influence from the Great Old Ones, and in the end, they can't and won't be beaten.

* MindScrew: The Hastur Mythos. Also SurrealHorror.

* CIAEvilFBIGood: An interesting example of FBI and CIA good... and '''''NRO''''' evil. [[note]]The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Reconnaissance_Office National Reconnaissance Office]] is the US Intelligence Agency responsible for designing and operating SpySatellites. They officially [[NoSuchAgency didn't exist]] and were classified Top Secret from 1962 to 1992.[[/note]] Majestic-12 is partially inside the NRO and uses their assets for their own goals, including "section DELTA", a section of the NRO composed by TheMenInBlack that hide the existence of aliens and the paranormal, they frequently use burglary, bugging, bribery, blackmail, are not afraid to use lethal force (Although they try to avoid as the first option for [[PragmaticVillainy pragmatic reasons]]) and even sometimes act as a local support team for the greys. Otherwise [[SubvertedTrope subverted]], as the PlayerCharacters can be both FBI and CIA, and both FBI and CIA are portrayed as shady organizations. [[PlayerCharacter Player Characters]] can even be NRO employees, although not the ones in or with access to Majestic-12 operations.

* CIAEvilFBIGood: An interesting example of FBI and CIA good... and '''''NRO''''' evil. [[note]]The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Reconnaissance_Office National Reconnaissance Office]] is the US Intelligence Agency responsible for designing and operating SpySatellites. They officially [[NoSuchAgency didn't exist]] and were classified Top Secret from 1962 to 1992.[[/note]] Majestic-12 is partially inside the NRO and uses their assets for their own goals, including "section DELTA", a section of the NRO composed by TheMenInBlack that hide the existence of aliens and the paranormal, they frequently use burglary, bugging, bribery, blackmail, are not afraid to use lethal force (Although they try to avoid as the first option for [[PragmaticVillainy pragmatic reasons]]) and even sometimes act as a local support team for the greys. Otherwise [[SubvertedTrope subverted]], as the PlayerCharacters can be both FBI and CIA, and both FBI and CIA are portrayed as shady organizations. PlayerCharacter can even be NRO employees, although not the ones in or with access to Majestic-12 operations.

* DeadlyEuphemism: The targets of the PISCES elite's bimonthly 'fox hunts' are people taken from prisons, asylums and homeless shelters. Their disappearances are covered up as deaths, escapes, or they are simply forgotten as these victims are chosen specifically because they won't be missed. They are subjected to the terror of the hunt and the horrors of what happens upon capture.

** All manner of individuals who come too close to the truth about the true masters of PISCES find their way to the secret facility of Magonia, kept isolated from the rest of the population and even the warders until Shan-infested PIA interrogators learn all the prisoner has discovered about PISCES, as well as who they've told. Once their secrets have been stripped away, they are dropped by helicopter into the North Atlantic, there to die of hypothermia.

* HuntingTheMostDangerousGame: Every two months, the Shan-infested elite of PISCES gather in the private estate of their leader Marjorie Rittingham and participate in a traditional British fox hunt, except that the fox has been replaced by a human victim.

** In 1968, several PISCES agents were taken over by the Shan. By 1988, the Shan had managed to infiltrate one of their own into PISCES leadership. They continue to control PISCES to this day through the infected director of PISCES, the Duchess of Staffordshire.

* ShoutOut: PISCES is named after a organization with the same name from ''Literature/GravitysRainbow''.

* CovertGroupWithMundaneFront: The "EPIC" in M-EPIC stands for ''Environment Policy Impact Commission'' and it's part of the Department of Environment of Canada. The group uses this cover so they can easily secure any rubber stamps from the Parliament without any questions.

** The "EPIC" in M-EPIC stands for "Environment Policy Impact Commission". It's a deliberate name to mask their operations under the guise of environmental investigations and it makes the organization obscure enough to take it from the public eye.

* DoubleReverseQuadrupleAgent: Agent Renko from ''The Labyrinth'' [[spoiler:''might'' be this; in theory he is a GRU SV-8 agent spying on Delta Green, but at the same time he actively helps the [=PCs=] and he is shown to be dissatisfied with his work at GRU. In reality, he is whatever the Handler wants him to be: [[TheMole A Mole]] trying to infiltrate and spread disinformation inside Delta Green, or maybe he is trying to defect to Delta Green and gives intel slowly to not be targeted by GRU, or maybe he is really trying to infiltrate but is BecomingTheMask, or maybe he's TheChessmaster and Double Reverse Quadruple Agent, playing all sides at the same time.]]

* GeneralRipper: Satchel Wade is a Colonel but this trope still applies. He is ardently anti-unnatural, advocating constant use of military action against it, he wishes to enter in Delta Green's [=ExComm=], but since he lacks the bureaucratic connections, he instead plans and carries out mission after mission in Southeast Asia, hoping to earn a spot by sheer guts and hard work. Unfortunately for Delta Green, his ambitions leave him open for external influences - such as his Khmer mistress Li - and he starts to use any means necessary, which in this case means the unnatural and even a tribe of Tcho-Tchos, turning him into a [[Film/ApocalypseNow Colonel Kurtz]] {{Expy}}. His recklessness and misguided ambition is what lead to him organizing Operation OBSIDIAN, ending up into the fall of Delta Green.

* TakingYouWithMe: Reginald Fairfield's last stand.

** ''Delta Green'' to ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu''. ''Call'' focuses on the the supernatural aspects of the mythos and its unnameable monsters, in fighting horrific [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]] and their derranged cultist followers. ''Delta Green'''s writing tends to be more tragic and hopeless. It leans a lot on the human side of it, with the sanity system mixed with the bond system emphasizing the spiral of self-destruction leading to some PersonalHorror, likewise with "human" opposition, with the powers of the Mythos merely enabling the already corrupt humans to do atrocities, and the conflict between the Agents and their employing organization: [[ToBeLawfulOrGood following orders and following their consciences]]? It also leans a lot on our understanding of the universe, focusing on the the ExistentialHorror of Lovecraft, their mission is Sisyphean, as they can only delay the inevitable and cannot see the end in sight.

->''[[Literature/{{Trainspotting}} Choose]] federal law enforcement. Choose the military. Choose NASA or the CDC. Choose lying to your superiors. Choose to ruin your career. Choose no friends. [[TheMasqueradeWillKillYourDatingLife Choose divorce]]. [[DrowningMySorrows Choose life through the bottom of a bottle]]. Choose destroying evidence and [[ShootTheDog executing innocent people]] [[HeKnowsTooMuch because they know too fucking much]]. Choose black fatigues and matching gas masks. Choose [[GunNut an [=MP5=] stolen from the CIA loaded with Glasers, with a wide range of fucking attachments]]. Choose blazing away at [[EldritchAbomination mind numbing, sanity crushing things from beyond the stars]], [[SanitySlippage wondering whether you'd be better off stuffing the barrel in your own mouth]]. Choose Literature/TheKingInYellow and waking up wondering who you are. [[AteHisGun Choose a 9mm retirement plan]]. [[Main/DoNotGoGentle Choose going out with a bang at the end of it all]], PGP encrypting your last message down a securely laid cable as an NRO Delta wetworks squad busts through your door. Choose one last Night at the Opera. Choose Delta Green.''
--> —'''Anonymous'''

An acclaimed sourcebook for the famous ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' tabletop roleplaying game, which would later become its own standalone game. Delta Green tells the story of the eponymous organization, a secret United States agency born of the Federal raid on [[TownWithADarkSecret Innsmouth, Massachusetts]] in 1928 and tasked to protect the country from paranormal threats. After an operation gone horribly wrong in Cambodia in 1969, Delta Green was officially shut down -- but its leaders, aware of the things lurking in the cracks of reality, continued the fight illegally, stealing resources from the government, carefully picking new members from the federal agents community, and generally acting like rightfully pissed off {{Cowboy Cop}}s in their battle against the Unnatural. Not until the 1994 assassination of Major General Reginald Fairfield, Delta Green's ''de facto'' leader, would it take up its current incarnation: a deeply hidden conspiracy in the labyrinthine world of the United States federal agencies, structured in semi-independent cells.

An acclaimed sourcebook for the famous TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu tabletop roleplaying game, which would later become its own standalone game. Delta Green tells the story of the eponymous organization, a secret United States agency born of the Federal raid on [[TownWithADarkSecret Innsmouth, Massachusetts]] in 1928 and tasked to protect the country from paranormal threats. After an operation gone horribly wrong in Cambodia in 1969, Delta Green was officially shut down -- but its leaders, aware of the things lurking in the cracks of reality, continued the fight illegally, stealing resources from the government, carefully picking new members from the federal agents community, and generally acting like rightfully pissed off {{Cowboy Cop}}s in their battle against the Unnatural. Not until the 1994 assassination of Major General Reginald Fairfield, Delta Green's ''de facto'' leader, would it take up its current incarnation: a deeply hidden conspiracy in the labyrinthine world of the United States federal agencies, structured in semi-independent cells.

The tone of the book is even [[CrapsackWorld bleaker]] than standard [=CoC=]: where the basic game has investigators struggling against Mythos creatures and the cultists that serve them (and DG does include its fair share of battle against these forces) the primary adversaries are evil and/or utterly amoral humans that (attempt to) use the forces of the Mythos for their own benefit, and are becoming as amoral as them. The Stars are Coming Right, and there may not be anything that Delta Green, or anyone else can do about it...

* WitchSpecies: Deep Ones are adept at what some call hypergeometric principles, and by human standards they are powerful spellcasters. To them, magic is used like man uses speed, strength, agility or any inherent biological trait. It is a genetic tool like any other.

* DarkerAndEdgier: The Gothic translation of the ''Al Azif'', known as ''Dauthsnamjansboka'', was much bleaker and less allusive than other versions.

--> [[spoiler:[[WhamLine Only one of us has ever left.]]]]

* LovecraftLite: Considering the [=PCs=] are law enforcement, special forces or intelligence agents, and Delta Green is a secret organization dedicated to fighting the forces of the Cthulhu Mythos, you might be mistaken to think this is the case. But it's brutally [[SubvertedTrope subverted]]; your big guns might win some battles against some small fry, but everyone is powerless to stop all the influence from the Great Old Ones, and in the end, they can't and won't be beaten.

* EliteMooks: "NRO section Delta", the main arm of Majestic's Project GARNET (MJ-2). A secret unit inside the National Reconnaissance Office formed by CIA, NSA, DIA and SOCOM operators which act as Majestic's cleanup, coverup, security, counterintelligence and wetwork division (Although they are intentionally fed layers of misinformation to not discover what Majestic is really working on). MAJESTIC even started a prototype SuperSoldier program with NRO-Delta agents.

** Delta Green fights to keep the existence of the paranormal a secret from the public at large, why? Because the unnatural is ''real'' and it ''kills''. The 2016 edition states that part of the job is already done, even in the world of the internet and smartphones: Most manifestations are very rare by itself, occurs in private or isolated places, society is naturally skeptic about anything supernatural and Delta Green itself suppress the rest, even if involves [[HeKnowsTooMuch ''neutralizing'' innocents.]]

* ConspiracyKitchenSink: The original premise of Delta Green was a Conspiracy Kitchen Sink mixed with the Franchise/CthulhuMythos: TheMenInBlack (Majestic-12) have a secret alliance with TheGreys [[spoiler:who are puppets of the mi-go]], [[{{Ghostapo}} Occultist Nazis]] hiding [[ArgentinaIsNaziland in South America]] secretly taking back their power back through the forces of the mythos, TheIlluminati is a cult of Nyarlathotep, the CIA drug traffic program in Southeast Asia and Central America involved the Tcho-Tchos and their own Air America-like covert company "Tiger Transit", the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Experiment Philadeplhia Experiment]] was a failed Delta Green experiment, and the historical [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skoptsy Skoptsi]] cult was not an heretical sect of Orthodox Christianity but a pagan cult of Shub-Niggurath. The later editions dropped the "All conspiracy theories are true" as they lost their place in the 21st century zeitgeist and the popular conspiracy theories are... [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment let's just say they are quite controversial and offensive]]. The new edition instead creates new conspiracies ''based'' on the current zeitgeist but not ''the'' conspiracies from modern zeitgeist.

* TarotMotifs: The "The King in Yellow" Tarot Deck in ''Countdown''. As the name implies, it is a tarot set cryptically themed after the Hastur mythos. Featuring unique descriptions for the art of both Major and Minor Arcanas. The most major change is that card IV (The Emperor) has become card XXI and is named ''[[GratuitousFrench Le Roi en Jaune]]''. The book gives tips on how the Handler can [[InvokedTrope invoke]] this trope and use the King in Yellow tarot in the games.

* AliensAndMonsters: And not all of them are [[CombatTentacles betentacled.]]

** [[spoiler:Hastur. Unlike vanilla ''Call of Cthulhu'', Hastur is not a God or Old One, but an infectious and pervasive force of decay. Knowing about Hastur or its related mythos trappings allows such decay to happen on a person's psyche, and "infected" people would become of a vector to spread Hastur's influence. Even worst is that it can infect ''places'' too, which also become [[AlienGeometries "insane" in their own way]]. Both places and people can infect eachother and vice-versa, until they are all pulled to Carcosa. In ''Impossible Landscapes'' it's reflected by the Corruption mechanic.]]

* InfectiousInsanity: One of the plots of MJ-12's Project OUTLOOK is to create a "psychological virus", a way of causing a cascading spiral of riots and unrest through manipulation of the media.
** [[spoiler:Hastur. Unlike vanilla ''Call of Cthulhu'', Hastur is not a God or Old One, but an infectious and pervasive force of decay. Knowing about Hastur or its related mythos trappings allows such decay to happen on a person's psyche.]] It's reflected by the Corruption mechanic.