While I am hesitant to criticize Mr. Detwiler's latest work, as I'm a big fan of his writing and Delta Green and the modern Cthulhu Mythos (cosmic horror is very frightening to me, on a personal level, which makes it a fun topic for horror), and I've very much enjoyed the DG line up until this point, I have one big problem with this product: it focused a little too much on "right-wing" conspiracies and stereotypes for me. After reading the scenarios, I felt like only my political viewpoint was being mined for "cosmic evil" ideas, while the other mainstream platform was "left" unscathed. Even if the author is opinionated on such topics (and he has every right to be), he should consider in future works that probably half of his fans might get annoyed by this.
My advice to the author is that, going forward, he should tap into both right-wing and left-wing conspiracies, basically in an effort to undercut both sides, which would show the meaninglessness of it all: an obvious theme in Lovecraft's original work. By focusing only on one side, the author is implying that the other side is not horrific. But this doesn't really jive with the Cthulhu Mythos at all, given its nature that Great Cthulhu and the Outer Gods could care less about our little political viewpoints. I felt that the old DG sourcebook seemed far more neutral on these matters...it just used anything and everything, regardless of source or viewpoint, and attacked it all (like South Park, lol).
Anyways, I'm not mad or bent out of shape about this. And I'll still buy more of the products. (They're really very good! The art is great, the writing superb, and the ideas are just mind-blowingly evil...fun for all ages, lol!) Just wanted to give the author a chance to hear a fan out about something he might not have personally considered.
I give it a 4 for production value and writing and content, but take 1 star off because of the obvious political slant.
|