What is your favorite conspiracy RPG and why? Delta Green, Dark Matter, Conspiracy X or maybe the Laundry?

Call of Cthulhu... and Kult (for the setting, not so much the rules).

GURPS Illuminati, because of the cover.

DELTA GREEN hands down. It's one of the best campaign settings ever published for any RPG ever, is just beautifully well-written and illustrated, and revitalizes the genres of both Lovecraftian Horror and UFO Conspiracy.

The one caveat: It's very, very late 1990's. I'm not sure it would work Post-9/11.

Dark Conspiracy

While the rules didn't quite fit a horror game (since they heavily favored the PCs) I liked the near future setting (2013 when the game was released in the early 1990s, so like 20 years ahead). Not quite cyberpunk, but very close.

Also like how it borrowed the basic elements of modern day conspiracies (aliens, ancient evils) but didn't just use the same tropes, exactly.

Conspiracy X is my favorite.

Call of Cthulhu, pretty much since the 90's I've been playing it like an episode of the X-Files.

I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.

Quote from: Just Another Snake Cult;732227The one caveat: It's very, very late 1990's. I'm not sure it would work Post-9/11.

People keep saying this and I keep not getting what they mean by it. What, intelligence agencies spontaneously shut down after 9/11?

Quote from: Warthur;732265People keep saying this and I keep not getting what they mean by it. What, intelligence agencies spontaneously shut down after 9/11?

Disclaimer: It's been a while since I've read it (didn't like it due to it being so dated and sold my copy for twice what I paid for it)

But for instance, much of the focus was on domestic terrorism - militia type like the Oklahoma City bombing. I guess some people still like to hyperventilate over that today (the Tea Party frequently gets called terrorists for instance) but in reality, it was simply an isolated incident that was in response to Waco and Ruby Ridge.

Another very '90s thing was chapter about a Vampire (the RPG) like club and some sort of secret organization attached.

And then a lot of it was based on '90s UFOlogy. Roswell, MJ12, there were NPCs based on people like John Mack, John Lear, and Whitley Strieber. At the time it was a bit overwrought, but in retrospect, it's just goofy. After that whole Alien Autopsy fiasco, it's hard to take it seriously.

That's not to say it's not an excellent product, it really is well put together, but it's very much grounded in a '90s worldview. Maybe in another 10 years it will seem better due to nostalgia, like '70s and '80s stuff do

Dark Matter.

Technically Call of Cthulhu and Beyond the Supernatural fit as well under certain circumstances.

Quote from: Warthur;732265People keep saying this and I keep not getting what they mean by it. What, intelligence agencies spontaneously shut down after 9/11?

Delta Green came out when there was massive suspicion that the government was working counter to the public's interest, prying into their lives, experimenting on them hand in hand with big business, and that agencies were beholden only to their masters.  

Post 9-11, a lot of what would have lit people up in the '90s is now at least moderately supported.  If you had told people that the government kept records on all their calls, emails, and social contacts in the '90s, people would have been outraged.  Now, people kind of shrug and a lot of them are willing to put up with it given that the enemy is "so much worse," and besides, I have nothing to hide, right?

Delta Green were an illegal operation, maverick cowboys on the vague edge of illegality fighting the good fight.  A Delta Green for the modern day would likely be something the government had no problem backing, and which happily felt justified in violating rights to protect the world from the Mythos.  And that appears to be what Pagan is doing with the new revision, at least partly.  It's less conspiratorial horror a la the X-Files -- or at least, that's only going to be one of multiple options -- and also institutional horror, along the lines of 24, where the question is what will you do in the name of security and safety?

To answer the original post, it really depends on what I'm looking for.  If I'm looking to play the conspiracy, then I go to Conspiracy X.  If I'm looking to play investigators fighting against big conspiracies, I play CoC or Delta Green.  If I'm looking to play white trash and scum in over their head in a lot of petty conspiracies, I go with Unknown Armies.  If I want monster hunters fighting against one another and various horrors, I'd probably use Hunter: The Vigil.  If I want to run Vikings versus Conspiracies I run Werewolf: The Apocalypse.

Regardless of which I use, I tend to steal from the rest for my games.  I ran a Delta Green game which used the Freak and epideromancy, I ran a Mage game where I had a lot of conspiratorial stuff going on, including Alex Abel, the Fate and Directorate X.  It's easy to cherry-pick cool stuff.  I admit to never using Dark*Matter as a ruleset, but it is chock full of incredibly cool stuff to steal for other games.  

I'm eagerly awaiting Sine Nomine's new Mythos game -- I got a preview of it, and the keyword system and sandbox nature of it looks outstanding.

Quote from: Future Villain Band;732293Post 9-11, a lot of what would have lit people up in the '90s is now at least moderately supported.  If you had told people that the government kept records on all their calls, emails, and social contacts in the '90s, people would have been outraged.  Now, people kind of shrug and a lot of them are willing to put up with it given that the enemy is "so much worse," and besides, I have nothing to hide, right?

If that's the case, why's the Edward Snowden thing such a big story?

(Disclaimer: it may not be as big a story in the US. I am regularly shocked by what the US media fails to report.)

Quote from: Warthur;732265People keep saying this and I keep not getting what they mean by it. What, intelligence agencies spontaneously shut down after 9/11?

People say the same about games with a build-in apocalypse. It's too 90's. I don't get that either. It's cool or it isn't.