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As such, I probably spend more time in this review criticising the few bad aspects than praising the many good aspects. Readers should keep this in mind.
This limited-release Hardback (apparently, soon to go to paperback) is a compilation of Delta Green: Eyes Only Volumes 1, 2 and 3 chapbooks: Machinations of the Mi-Go (MotMG), The Fate, and Project Rainbow. As the originals were stamped on hand-beaten foil sheets made of pure unobtainium, this development is most welcome.
In addition to the reprints, two new scenarios “Holy War” (for The Fate) and “A Night on Owlshead Mountain” (for MotMG) are provided to complement Project Rainbow’s “Artifact Zero”. An appendix on "Tradecraft" (all that CIA spy-stuff, up to and including torturing innocents until they tell you what you want to hear: SAN rolls please) is included, as is what was an appendix to The Fate, “Policing Millennial New York City”.
Presentation: The book is a nice solid hardback, on high-quality, faintly glossy paper. It is well laid out and easy on the eye. A full-color cover gives hints at the horrors within, and this is backed up by the “casefiles” reproduced on the inside covers, which accurately suggest that the hapless PCs will need a strong stomach and a will of iron to come out ahead. Artwork is copious and engrossing black and white pencils and inks, and conveys the vital CoC impression of creeping menace perfectly. A complaint occurring in reviews of some of the original chapbooks was that they didn’t include maps or other diagrams, even when giving room-by-room descriptions of The Fate’s underground dungeons, and this has now been fixed, and fixed well.
Content: This book largely consists of reprints of material that was published between “Delta Green” and “Delta Green: Countdown”. As such, it is slightly dated. It doesn’t address the big “World of DGness” question, “what happens after 9/11?”, though the scenario “Holy War” does bring a campaign right up to December 2001. At some points this datedness can feel a bit awkward; for example, in Project Rainbow, 2008 is referred to as a point in the distant future at which MJ-12 will have developed technology they don’t have yet. With this caveat in mind, let’s get down to it.
Machinations of the Mi-Go and its accompanying scenario are, for my money, the strongest parts of this book. They cover the mind- and body-wrenching technology of the Mi-Go and their puppets (human and non) perfectly (some material on braincases is reproduced from the also excellent “A Resection of Time”). “A Night on Owlshead Mountain” is a great Cthulhu scenario packed with overlapping mysteries, alien agendas, cover-ups to be maintained (a vital part of Delta Green), and innocent bystanders to sacrifice for the greater good, that makes full use of the chapbook material.
The Fate, although packed with sinister detail, is not quite so good. It does a good job of setting out the uber-villainous cult which dominates New York City’s occult underground and organized crime, although some organizational details are confused rather than clarified (I’m still not sure of just who are “The Fate”, who are “The Lords” and who are “The Network”, all names which sometimes seem to apply to the whole organization and sometimes just to parts of it). The Fate also includes some funky tomes and a nice discussion of the Library Use skill.
However, the big problem with The Fate is that they don’t follow "the law of geometrical progression of evil". They are the end-of-level boss you meet on the first screen. They have no weaknesses or cracks that PCs could insert a crowbar in without getting casually slaughtered. This point is indirectly admitted in the scenario “Holy War”, which includes a back-story to the effect that Delta Green has to ask The Fate’s permission before doing anything in New York City. That’s right, your PC has to ask the villain’s permission. If you disobey, you die. Just like that. Why get out of bed?
Combine this with a surfeit of detail at some points (was it really necessary to list ALL the spells that have ever been printed under Stephen Alzis’ description? Why not just say “he knows every spell that ever existed” and leave it at that? Similarly, is a description of 300 years worth of property records for The Fate’s holdings really necessary? I couldn’t figure out why PCs would bother finding this information, or what they would do with it when they had it), and an annoying vagueness at others (despite said 300 years of records, we still don’t know who owns Club Apocalypse) and I was left dissatisfied.
Some of the points left vague are remedied in Countdown – Keepers of the Faith, which with hindsight looks like a section cut from The Fate. Though it’s years ago now, this material could have been better distributed between the two books.
“Holy War”, the Fate scenario (which is new to this book), is stronger than the source material, and provides that point of crowbar insertion by postulating a split within The Fate, fuelled by the rivalry of two Great Old Ones. Still, as the blurb says, “the scenario is largely dominated by the actions of NPCs”. The “you are helpless to confront The Fate” theme is still reinforced. For example, it’s suggested that one of the villains will come to Delta Green for protection, but “in exchange” for ratting on The Fate, he will expect DG to help him in his promotion of Great Old One worship, including the human sacrifices, or he won’t play ball. The text is written as if players would actually go along with this. Nuh uh. If you’re going to be in the DG witness protection scheme, buddy, you sing, you sing loud, and you sing everything, or we’ll throw you right back to the wolves. Even given the split in the Fate, the front-line power thrown into the struggle by the various sides means that PCs would have to be the kind of maniacs who sling SAN-shattering spells like there’s no tomorrow and carry shoulder-mounted rocket launchers everywhere into the bargain to seriously have a chance of affecting the outcome.
Given all that, it’s a fascinating story, and if your PCs can cope with being supporting actors they will probably enjoy it.
Project Rainbow, one for the conspiracy theorists, is based upon the notorious Philadelphia Experiment, which it blends well with the Lovecraft story “From Beyond”. Project Rainbow does not suffer from uber-the-top-ness in the way that The Fate does. It is, however, overly self-contained, to the point where unless your players enjoy uncovering conspiracies for the hell of it, it would be difficult to tie into a campaign. Project Rainbow includes an experiment that could conceivably destroy the planet, combined with the safe resolution of that experiment by Majestic-12, who are taking a break from the role of Bad Guy. If the PCs were to somehow interfere on general principles and stop MJ-12 from resolving the situation, then they’ve destroyed the world. Attaboy.
Combine this with an absence of any links to the “wider” mythos, and you have a secret that, once uncovered, should be quickly covered up again (although running a scenario in which the players have to turn around and re-cover-up everything they just found could be rather fun). Again, this potential flaw is repeated in the accompanying adventure, “Artifact Zero”, in which some archaeologists have uncovered something horrible. The best resolution is to just bury it again and walk away. But is that going to satisfy players who want to feel they’ve accomplished something? I’m not sure.
In defence, a possible hook to the Karotechia is mentioned, but left unexplored. For Pagan completists, it would also be possible to link this scenario to their 1890s "Golden Dawn" material.
Of the appendices, “Tradecraft” is brilliant, a vital addition which is used to good effect in a few points in the scenarios. I believe this to be an extract from a never-published whole chapbook on DG tradecraft, and I was left wanting more. “Policing Millennial NYC” is a waste of space. It has been outdated by 9/11 and contains little information that could not be found with a NYC phone book and city directory. This appendix would only appeal to the sort of players or keepers who really care about the exact real-world location and number of personnel of the FBI office the PCs are operating from. I can understand that Arc Dream/Pagan wanted this to be a full reprint of the Chapbook, but this section would have been much better if “Tradecraft” had been doubled in length instead, or replaced with some New York-based NPCs from the other rumoured unreleased chapbook Agents, Bronsons and Friendlies.
Overall, “Delta Green: Eyes Only” is an exceptional book, but one not quite as good as “Delta Green” or “Delta Green: Countdown”, which still means that it’s better than anything else on the market.
Disclaimer: The reviewer paid for his own copy of DG:EO, but also received 2 free copies to be (and which were) distributed as prizes for a Delta Green scenario at Arcanacon, a convention in Australia. He is very grateful but has tried not to let this influence him.
