The first thing to understand is that DG is a game of Conspiracy Horror. Conspiracy involves betrayal. DG agents betray their own law enforcement duties in order to destroy and be destroyed by the supernatural.

There is no one you can trust except for your own cellmates, and even they can betray you. You cannot even trust A-cell, for if they perceive that you are becoming a threat to the conspiracy, then you will disappear. Secrets must be kept, tru7hes must be destroyed. By Delta Green, by Majestic-12, by the Fate, the Karotechia, the Skoptsi, the Shan, and by every conspiracy hidden in the shadows like vermin.

Horror involves Stephen King's three measures; the Grotesque, Horror, and Terror. The Grotesque is simply revulsion, our natural desire to avoid contact with icky stuff like slime and bugs and collectable card games. When the lights go out and something wet spurts into your face, that is gross. Horror is the shock of seeing that which is not possible. When the lights go out and come back on, only to reveal a creature gnawing at a (seemingly human) thigh bone, that is Horror. Terror is fear of the unknown. After the screaming stops and you're wandering around in the dark, you are feeling terror.

Even more important than the basics, is the concept of Cosmic Horror. This is a term that HPL used to describe the utter and foolish insignificance of the human species. GURPS CthulhuPunk mentions that when faced with the tru7h of that which is reality, homo sapiens sapiens is revealed for what it is; a fundamentally inadequate species created by an accident, and intrinsically doomed to extinction without exception.

What this means is that Agents must die. They *must* die. Desperate men fighting a futile struggle, only frequent death applied whenever they make errors of ignorance or intelligence will convince them that this is not your average game.

You can take it easy on them later, when they have learned their lessons and paid their dues. You don't have to hide this fact from them. Just tell them up front to make three or so characters, because they will need back ups after their primary characters die. Let the dice fall where they may when shooting with cultists and other conspiracies. If they ever run into any major monsters, they should die or become insane, with the shaken survivors (if any) refusing to return.

In Call of Cthulhu, magic is the representaion of an alien science that supercedes ignorant human understanding. Using it always results in madness and death.


Credits: The Man in Black is : Kenneth Scroggins