Cthulhupunk with Delta Green

[Strategos' Risk]

Cthulhupunk, while nifty, doesn't really do as much as it could to integrate the feel and background of a cyberpunk setting with the Cthulhu Mythos. On the subject of the latter, someone tried to add in the secret wars of DG behind the already secret world of the Mythos into GURPS Cthulhupunk, helping to flesh out the integration more. I'm planning on modifying it and adapting it to my own Cthulhupunk/Cthulhutech mash-up.

Has anyone tried doing this before? Any ideas?

Delta Green in 2045 -

Delta Green acheived a significant victory over Majestic-12 when it succeeded in getting the team of Burris and Patterson elected as President and Vice-President respectively. The ascension of Patterson to the Presidency after the assassination of Burris allowed Delta Green to pursue its goals on a national scale, and the 2010 purge of mystics and occultists was a dream come true for many Delta Green members. Thousands of cultists were slain and their artifacts seized. What no one realised until too late was that Patterson had been reading the Necronomicon, and had become corrupted. The establishment of NERCC was considered odd, but not unreasonable. By the time Patterson suspended elections in 2024, it was apparent to everyone with eyes to see - and too late to do anything about it.

The merger of almost all government agencies into the National Emergency Resource Control Commission has meant that the agents of Delta Green and Majestic-12 are far more likely to be working together than ever they were in the past. Unsurprisingly, this has led to an unprecedented level of infiltration and dubious loyalties for members of both organisations. For the most part, this is due to Majestic-12's co-opting of NERCC to serve its own ends. Majestic-12 controls NERCC, and after the death of President Patterson, that meant they ran the United States as well.

As a result, the Delta Green of 2045 is even more paranoid and secretive than that of 2001. The classic cell structure is still in use, but codenames and passwords have become more elaborate - and Delta Green is stingier than ever in giving out information. On the other hand, the wide-ranging powers given to NERCC agents, not to mention the state of more or less constant martial law that the United States exists under, make carrying out missions easier than ever.

As a result of the new secrecy, most Delta Green units are even more autonomous than has been the case in the past. They investigate and assign their own missions, and information filters up to the leadership gradually. The leaders of Delta Green in 2045 often appear weak and indecisive to the lower rungs of the organisation, but in fact, their apparent refusal to act is a logical consequence of their possession of more data than any field agent. Only they see the Big Picture, and they are prepared to play a waiting game until they can strike and conclusively remove Majestic-12 from its position of power. This goal means that many Delta Green missions concern more political than occult goals, as Delta Green attempts to forge a coalition of dissidents, revolutionaries and foreign aid to unseat ProGov.



Majestic-12 in 2045 -

MJ-12 is stronger today than it has ever been. No longer does it have to worry about keeping the real dirt from the government - since the establishment of the ProGov, it is the government. President Adam Hammond is also the head of Majestic-12, and all key cabinet posts are filled by other members of the group. Although their conspiracy is still unknown to the general public, the fact that some sort of "old boys' network" controls Washington, and thus America, is common knowledge. But to most people, this is in some ways virtuous - it's considered more honest, and less corrupt, than the old days of the military-industrial complex and the like.

Majestic-12's only real problem is with their alien allies - it's becoming increasingly obvious that the aliens have shared all the technology that they care to. And while MJ-12 isn't gaining any more from them, it's still stuck with covering the tracks of a demanding and (to human modes of thought) erratic superior power. ProGov's Vietnam-like war in Cuba, and determination not to let it go at any cost is entirely at the direction of the Grays - and even Hammond still doesn't know why the aliens want them to do it.



The Miskatonic Society -

As recently as the 1990's, the Miskatonic Society and Delta Green were allies, if uneasy ones. The Society occasionally collaborated with various agencies - Naval Intelligence, the NSA and the DEA primarily - to assist in vanquishing Mythos-related threats. It assumed that all these contacts were in the course of legitimate investigations. But in 2002, the head of the Miskatonic Society discovered that Delta Green was not the officially-sanctioned organisation that the academics had believed it to be, but a rogue army within the government. Aware of its multi-agency nature, but unsure of Delta Green's true size or the breadth of its infiltration of the myriad of government agencies, the Miskatonic Society's ruling council decided, by a majority of one vote, to break its ties to Delta Green. They did this mostly by deliberately misleading their Delta Green contacts, most of whom were field agents. That this resulted in the deaths of these field agents was regrettable but necessary in the eyes of the Miskatonic Society.

The secrecy of the Society, along with its paranoia of government interference, has meant that they have had few contacts with either Delta Green or Majestic-Twelve, although some Delta Green agents have noticed that certain civilians turn up as bystanders at Mythos-related events too often for it to be a coincidence, and have started a low-key surveillance of them, which may well lead Delta Green back to the Miskatonic Society at some point. For its part, the Society assumes it is stalked by government agencies - but it does not know for sure as yet.



The Mythos in 2045 -

This list only covers those entities and races whose circumstances are significantly altered from those presented in the Delta Green books. If these beings are not listed below, it may be assumed that they are largely unchanged from the present day.

Cthulhu: In the late 20th century, the Cthulhu cult changed its tack, and the dreaming monster recruited among the rich and powerful of the United States. Over the last 20 years, especially since the ProGov coup, its influence in the US has dwindled to almost nothing. And yet, still it lies dreaming in Ry'leh. Considering these two details, the silence from behind the Bamboo Curtain seems ominous, particularly given China's proximity to the drowned city. If Cthulhu has been infiltrating the Chinese government, it has done a thorough job. Intelligence reports suggest that almost half of China's navy consists of submersible craft - and sonar imaging over the last 13 years has shown that they have been engaged in what seeems to be an effort to minutely map the entire floor of the Pacific Basin. Or perhaps they're searching for something down there...

The Deep Ones: like many of the hidden races, the Deep Ones have experienced something of a resurgence in recent years. The deformities caused by Tolliver's Disease, not to mention the general lack of care about toxins and radioactive wastes, have led to a society that, if not accepting of deformities, is at least inured to them. The Deep Ones have intensified their matings with humans, with the resulting prevalence of "the Innsmouth Look" being more or less ignored. Someday soon, the Deep Ones will rise - and when they do, can Cthulhu be far away?

The Ghouls: The Toller...