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Delta Green RPG
Impossible Landscapes
Fear Is a Fractal
...and your world is a lie. A horror freed from an antique book reverberates through reality, shaking things, reordering them and making them run like wax. Doors open to endless Victorian hallways where threats stalk the shadows on clockwork limbs, cold metal seeking the warmth of blood and bone. Madness pursues at every turn, baring its teeth to speak your name, and you can’t escape because it’s inside you.
But don’t despair. There is hope. A King waits for us. Beyond the tumbledown façade of the world, through the twists and tunnels of the human imagination, past the edge of everything sane, the King waits in the country of Carcosa. The place all madmen go. There, and only there, is the answer to everything.
The last answer.
IMPOSSIBLE LANDSCAPES is the first campaign for DELTA GREEN: THE ROLE-PLAYING GAME. Four operations sprawl across decades and the immeasurable stretches of nightmare. Harrowing investigations and the bitterest truths test the mettle of the most accomplished Agents.
PLUS:
» new entities
» new artifacts
» new tomes
» dozens of new NPCs
» rules for running surreal horror » and more
...and your world is a lie. A horror freed from an antique book reverberates through reality, shaking things, reordering them and making them run like wax. Doors open to endless Victorian hallways where threats stalk the shadows on clockwork limbs, cold metal seeking the warmth of blood and bone. Madness pursues at every turn, baring its teeth to speak your name, and you can’t escape because it’s inside you.
But don’t despair. There is hope. A King waits for us. Beyond the tumbledown façade of the world, through the twists and tunnels of the human imagination, past the edge of everything sane, the King waits in the country of Carcosa. The place all madmen go. There, and only there, is the answer to everything.
The last answer.
IMPOSSIBLE LANDSCAPES is the first campaign for DELTA GREEN: THE ROLE-PLAYING GAME. Four operations sprawl across decades and the immeasurable stretches of nightmare. Harrowing investigations and the bitterest truths test the mettle of the most accomplished Agents.
PLUS:
» new entities
» new artifacts
» new tomes
» dozens of new NPCs
» rules for running surreal horror » and more
368 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2021
26 people are currently reading
76 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
March 19, 2022
A masterpiece of modern adventure design.
Agents participate in an investigation that unseats their perceptions of the world and starts them on a road from which they cannot deviate. It might be perceived as something of a linear adventure when you cannot escape your fate, but there's a strange joy in digging through the ephemera of this gorgeous book and the events described therein.
The first adventure considers a missing person case, but the second through to the fourth deal with the ramifications of the first on the agents themselves. The campaign book presents a lengthy timeline and the book presents all manner of diversions, sub-plots, strange asides, and weird people.
To run the adventure I read this huge book twice, and I'm reading it a third time as I push toward the conclusion of the campaign. I haven't had an experience like this before -- though I know other sandbox-like investigations exist, like The Armitage Files and The Dracula Dossier for Trail of Cthulhu. Impossible Landscapes is sprawling in potential and could easily encompass other investigations to give it a sense of space and the passage of time. As is, I expect to finish after about 85 - 90 hours of actual playtime but could see it going on much longer.
Physically, the book is beautiful. The content does a great job of engaging the Handler with the world and the influences that will entrap the agents. It is not without challenge to run and would best suit a Handler with some experience of running missions and free-wheeling when the Agents go off track. Improvisation will often be required, but I never felt out of my depth because there's so much information to draw from. I could suggest that there's too much, but it would be churlish to downrate the experience of reading this glorious book for that.
I can easily recommend this solely as a read. I think any Handler owes it to themselves to try and run it. I'm already thinking about running it again.
Agents participate in an investigation that unseats their perceptions of the world and starts them on a road from which they cannot deviate. It might be perceived as something of a linear adventure when you cannot escape your fate, but there's a strange joy in digging through the ephemera of this gorgeous book and the events described therein.
The first adventure considers a missing person case, but the second through to the fourth deal with the ramifications of the first on the agents themselves. The campaign book presents a lengthy timeline and the book presents all manner of diversions, sub-plots, strange asides, and weird people.
To run the adventure I read this huge book twice, and I'm reading it a third time as I push toward the conclusion of the campaign. I haven't had an experience like this before -- though I know other sandbox-like investigations exist, like The Armitage Files and The Dracula Dossier for Trail of Cthulhu. Impossible Landscapes is sprawling in potential and could easily encompass other investigations to give it a sense of space and the passage of time. As is, I expect to finish after about 85 - 90 hours of actual playtime but could see it going on much longer.
Physically, the book is beautiful. The content does a great job of engaging the Handler with the world and the influences that will entrap the agents. It is not without challenge to run and would best suit a Handler with some experience of running missions and free-wheeling when the Agents go off track. Improvisation will often be required, but I never felt out of my depth because there's so much information to draw from. I could suggest that there's too much, but it would be churlish to downrate the experience of reading this glorious book for that.
I can easily recommend this solely as a read. I think any Handler owes it to themselves to try and run it. I'm already thinking about running it again.
May 15, 2021
Quite possibly the greatest TTRPG campaign ever written.
August 7, 2022
When this campaign was announced I was extremely excited. The King in Yellow, Hastur, Carcosa and the Yellow Sign are among my favorites of Lovecraftian mythos and the concept of the Yellow Sign (and the King in Yellow play) as a contagious psychological disease is very intriguing. I’ve used both concepts (under different names) in some of my non-Delta Green/Call of Cthulhu RPGs and they did not disappoint.
First and foremost, this is a beautiful book aesthetically speaking. The handwritten notes, the subtle detail changes on some of the general page header text and the sometimes hints of associations, predictions and thoughts are great for the mood of the campaign. I found myself looking closely at each page to see what details I could find. Of additional note, the artwork is excellent and does a great job of capturing the mood of the campaign. Marionettes, clowns, strange and surreal scenes, it’s all great flavor. I can see why this was nominated for the 2022 ENnies for best layout (the votes haven’t been finalized at the time of this review, but it would be my vote for the winner).
I don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll try to be vague about what I liked and did not like about this book. Of course, this is my personal take and your opinion on what you like or don’t like about an RPG campaign book may differ. To each their own.
Things I liked:
• It’s a lengthy campaign focused on the Yellow Sign, King in Yellow, etc. and it does a great job of exploring those concepts, especially the surreal and downward spiral into madness. There are a lot of interesting and unique concepts and encounters. We don’t get many official campaigns of this size exploring this part of the mythos, so this is a nice addition.
• The set-up mission (Night Floors) is a great gateway into the campaign, and it has a genuine mystery and mysterious feel. With the right pacing and use of encounters, I could see this becoming the highlight of the campaign.
• I liked how the campaign progresses to different stages and locales, but all of them are still related to each other and I think that players that like these little clues/details would really get a kick out of this.
• There are a lot of cool “revelations” that litter the campaign from beginning to end.
• There is little handholding in this campaign and its very possible that characters will go insane or perish.
• And, as I mentioned before, the art and layout are excellent.
Things I did not like:
• I really did not like the transitions between the various missions/sections of the campaign. I felt, as written, they did not do a good job of getting the player characters invested in continuing the investigation. There was a good framework to build off of, and if I end up running this, I would expand upon it and likely make it more tailored to the specific characters (I realized that this is hard to do for a pre-written campaign and trying to make the reasons as generic as possible is often the method used).
• There is a wealth of information, and I could see it being difficult to account for all the various details and such, especially when the length of the campaign references past and future aspects of the campaign. There are some reference sections available, but perhaps a flow chart, or something similar would help the Handler account and track all the information better.
• While I like threat of character death and madness, I am concerned (especially in the later parts of the campaign) if it might get frustrating for the players. There are some encounters where a character will become unplayable (due to death or insanity) merely by making a choice or a single die roll. Do I like this deadliness? Sure, to a point, and I worry about players losing engagement if the campaign just becomes a cycle of new characters.
• While the first part of the campaign is great, I did not feel the same about the later part, especially when the player characters finally get to Carcosa and attend the masquerade. I feel that a lot of player agency goes away, and it's just an obstacle course of sight-seeing. Even the big reveal at the end felt kind of lacking.
Overall, I still think this is a great product and I am interested in running this campaign for my gaming group with some modifications. I give those involved in its creation kudos for their work, and for tackling such a unique and non-traditional campaign style.
First and foremost, this is a beautiful book aesthetically speaking. The handwritten notes, the subtle detail changes on some of the general page header text and the sometimes hints of associations, predictions and thoughts are great for the mood of the campaign. I found myself looking closely at each page to see what details I could find. Of additional note, the artwork is excellent and does a great job of capturing the mood of the campaign. Marionettes, clowns, strange and surreal scenes, it’s all great flavor. I can see why this was nominated for the 2022 ENnies for best layout (the votes haven’t been finalized at the time of this review, but it would be my vote for the winner).
I don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll try to be vague about what I liked and did not like about this book. Of course, this is my personal take and your opinion on what you like or don’t like about an RPG campaign book may differ. To each their own.
Things I liked:
• It’s a lengthy campaign focused on the Yellow Sign, King in Yellow, etc. and it does a great job of exploring those concepts, especially the surreal and downward spiral into madness. There are a lot of interesting and unique concepts and encounters. We don’t get many official campaigns of this size exploring this part of the mythos, so this is a nice addition.
• The set-up mission (Night Floors) is a great gateway into the campaign, and it has a genuine mystery and mysterious feel. With the right pacing and use of encounters, I could see this becoming the highlight of the campaign.
• I liked how the campaign progresses to different stages and locales, but all of them are still related to each other and I think that players that like these little clues/details would really get a kick out of this.
• There are a lot of cool “revelations” that litter the campaign from beginning to end.
• There is little handholding in this campaign and its very possible that characters will go insane or perish.
• And, as I mentioned before, the art and layout are excellent.
Things I did not like:
• I really did not like the transitions between the various missions/sections of the campaign. I felt, as written, they did not do a good job of getting the player characters invested in continuing the investigation. There was a good framework to build off of, and if I end up running this, I would expand upon it and likely make it more tailored to the specific characters (I realized that this is hard to do for a pre-written campaign and trying to make the reasons as generic as possible is often the method used).
• There is a wealth of information, and I could see it being difficult to account for all the various details and such, especially when the length of the campaign references past and future aspects of the campaign. There are some reference sections available, but perhaps a flow chart, or something similar would help the Handler account and track all the information better.
• While I like threat of character death and madness, I am concerned (especially in the later parts of the campaign) if it might get frustrating for the players. There are some encounters where a character will become unplayable (due to death or insanity) merely by making a choice or a single die roll. Do I like this deadliness? Sure, to a point, and I worry about players losing engagement if the campaign just becomes a cycle of new characters.
• While the first part of the campaign is great, I did not feel the same about the later part, especially when the player characters finally get to Carcosa and attend the masquerade. I feel that a lot of player agency goes away, and it's just an obstacle course of sight-seeing. Even the big reveal at the end felt kind of lacking.
Overall, I still think this is a great product and I am interested in running this campaign for my gaming group with some modifications. I give those involved in its creation kudos for their work, and for tackling such a unique and non-traditional campaign style.
Read
September 10, 2025Despite not having run Impossible Landscapes, I'm honestly tempted to write a review of it just as an experience to read, because it was great. I'm not that big a fan of Lovecraftian horror; it always feel dated and overdone, but Impossible Landscapes goes down a surrealist, metafictional route that left me thinking of David Lynch and Alan Wake and frequently left me unsettled and shocked by the paths it takes. The layout was also a real highlight; the book starts off with fairly standard presentation but as it goes on it decays into the surrealism of the events unfolding, words repeating and being scribbled out, the edges of the pages replaced with scribbles. I also thought the notes in the margins were very fun, especially as the further along I read I realised who the authors of the notes were. I also liked how easy the publishers have made it for a GM to get printouts of all of the handouts within the module, because there are a LOT of handouts. It seems like it would be very, very difficult to run but I think I'm up for the challenge.
March 6, 2024
You can't really judge these books the same way you do with fiction. Yet this book straddles the line between a manual and a work of art: and it excels at both.
November 12, 2024
Best RPG scenario I've ever read, bar none. X-files meets Twin peaks, and all this is expertly placed inside the cthulhu mythos.
August 1, 2024
A Delta Green campaign module based on the King in Yellow, where investigators start with an investigation into a missing persons case tied to the King in Yellow and get sucked into that world.
Book 1: Delta Green - Agent's Handbook* ★★★★★
Book 2: Delta Green - Handler's Guide ★★★★★
Book 3: Delta Green - Impossible Landscapes* ★★★★★
Book 4: Delta Green - Hourglass ★★★★
I'm into the idea of being cursed with knowledge. Once you know something, you can't unknow it. Memes are contagious, they spread uncontrollably. Crafting an entire investigative RPG campaign around thatis really cool.
There's a lot to like in this module! I really like how it's split up into multiple sub-campaigns so players can dip their feet into the campaign without committing to years worth of roleplaying right from the start.
If players choose to stop after the first sub-campaign, they'll still get a conclusion on the story so far and closure for their characters.
This splitting up of the campaign into parts also alleviates the harsh requirements on the GM to read through and understand absolutely everything in the 400+ page text to run the game for their players.
I'd love to run this.
Book 1: Delta Green - Agent's Handbook* ★★★★★
Book 2: Delta Green - Handler's Guide ★★★★★
Book 3: Delta Green - Impossible Landscapes* ★★★★★
Book 4: Delta Green - Hourglass ★★★★
I'm into the idea of being cursed with knowledge. Once you know something, you can't unknow it. Memes are contagious, they spread uncontrollably. Crafting an entire investigative RPG campaign around thatis really cool.
There's a lot to like in this module! I really like how it's split up into multiple sub-campaigns so players can dip their feet into the campaign without committing to years worth of roleplaying right from the start.
If players choose to stop after the first sub-campaign, they'll still get a conclusion on the story so far and closure for their characters.
This splitting up of the campaign into parts also alleviates the harsh requirements on the GM to read through and understand absolutely everything in the 400+ page text to run the game for their players.
I'd love to run this.
Read
January 9, 2025How? Part of my Delta Green collection, including
Impossible Landscapes, a King in Yellow-based campaign
The King in Yellow Tarot deck
The Yellow Sign clasp
(the latter two from the 2021 Kickstarter).
What? Right up front: I didn't read Impossible Landscapes carefully, because I am hoping to play in it one day before I die. Hmmm, maybe I should run it?
But from a flip through: there's a great intro on what surreal horror means, especially for a campaign involving the Yellow King, where the nature of reality is in question. Like: getting shot is horrible -- but surreal horror could involve having stage-style red streamers coming out of the wound instead of blood. There's a lot of really weird, deep, wonderful history of the King in Yellow, both as a character and as a play; and then there's the four adventures that take you from a missing person all the way to Carcosa.
The Tarot deck is beautiful and feels cursed in just the right way; the clasp is very nice looking.
Yeah, so? This isn't really a review in a traditional sense. For one thing, I barely looked at the material I'm reviewing. For another -- true of all reviews, but truer here -- I cannot be impartial because the King in Yellow pushes at some of my favorite themes/boundaries.
Impossible Landscapes, a King in Yellow-based campaign
The King in Yellow Tarot deck
The Yellow Sign clasp
(the latter two from the 2021 Kickstarter).
What? Right up front: I didn't read Impossible Landscapes carefully, because I am hoping to play in it one day before I die. Hmmm, maybe I should run it?
But from a flip through: there's a great intro on what surreal horror means, especially for a campaign involving the Yellow King, where the nature of reality is in question. Like: getting shot is horrible -- but surreal horror could involve having stage-style red streamers coming out of the wound instead of blood. There's a lot of really weird, deep, wonderful history of the King in Yellow, both as a character and as a play; and then there's the four adventures that take you from a missing person all the way to Carcosa.
The Tarot deck is beautiful and feels cursed in just the right way; the clasp is very nice looking.
Yeah, so? This isn't really a review in a traditional sense. For one thing, I barely looked at the material I'm reviewing. For another -- true of all reviews, but truer here -- I cannot be impartial because the King in Yellow pushes at some of my favorite themes/boundaries.
June 9, 2025
Impossible Landscapes is a campaign book that will bend your mind. It's not just the landscapes that are impossible - the sheer scope of the operation is ambitious to a ridiculous degree. I don't think many people could do it justice (I sure can't), but after reading this tome from front to back... I can't help but want to give it a try.
Even removed from its status as a Roleplaying Game supplement, Impossible Landscapes is a trippy, gripping masterpiece to behold. In a book full of crazy twists and turns... the twist at the end of Act 2 absolutely blew my mind. I knew right then that, much like the Yellow Sign (have you seen it?) I had to share it with as many people as I could.
I only hope they are ready to behold The King's majesty. He wears no mask. No Mask!
Even removed from its status as a Roleplaying Game supplement, Impossible Landscapes is a trippy, gripping masterpiece to behold. In a book full of crazy twists and turns... the twist at the end of Act 2 absolutely blew my mind. I knew right then that, much like the Yellow Sign (have you seen it?) I had to share it with as many people as I could.
I only hope they are ready to behold The King's majesty. He wears no mask. No Mask!
January 6, 2023
As much an art object as an RPG campaign, this screams to be mined and creatively re-configured rather than being run straight (which is how most people use campaigns anyway, but it feels like this one is particularly happy for you to do that). Full review: https://refereeingandreflection.wordp...
October 18, 2024
Одна з найкращих кампаній (цклів пригод для Настільних рольових ігор) у Лавкрафтіанському всесвіті з усіх що будь-коли були написані. Король у жовтому, Хастур, Каркоза - і всеохопний дуж вишуканого безумства на рівні кращих історій Томаса Ліготті. Навіть якщо ви не цікавитеся настільними ролівками, але полюбляєте лавкрафтіанські жахи - книга обов'язкова для прочитання.
December 16, 2025
An insanely ambitious campaign. I have some reservations about actually running it, but the sheer technical feat of the thing amazes me. I may revisit this review once I've actually got it to the table and decided whether this juggernaut is even manageable. Stars will be added or subtracted accordingly.
April 26, 2023
The timeline of events takes up the first 64 pages of a 340 page adventure (more if you count STATIC Protocol which is another 45 pages - or so)
Not a complaint, just a "Wow. I haven't started the adventure proper yet."
Not a complaint, just a "Wow. I haven't started the adventure proper yet."
February 20, 2022
There’s a lot here I find inspiring, but so much that I’d want to change if I ran the campaign. And it’s really badly organized for use at the table.
August 15, 2022
A surprisingly entertaining read even if you never plan/get to run it as an actual operation/adventure.
December 15, 2022
Never has a published adventure been so well constructed, so aware of itself, and so frightening to behold as an actual adaptation of the book it warns us about.
Have you seen the Yellow Sign?
Have you seen the Yellow Sign?
December 10, 2024
Brutal. De las interpretaciones que mas me gustan de Hastur, Carcosa y el rey amarillo.
April 12, 2025
I don’t normally count RPG books on my Goodreads, but I’m counting this. Along the shore, the cloud waves break, the twin Suns sink behind the lake the shadows lengthen in Carcosa.
October 20, 2025
A flawed masterpiece.
December 28, 2020
Woah. I only have access to the first 249 pages but reading this draft I already questioned my sanity three times. This campaign is unsettling in a way I experienced never before. Not once was the spirit of the King in Yellow captured in such an adequately disturbing fashion. I can not wait to run this.
edit: After finishing the re-read of the complete and layouted version I am positively certain that this book will win all possible ennies in 2021. This is no ordniary roleplay campaign. This is way beyond anything that was ever published in this hobby.
edit: After finishing the re-read of the complete and layouted version I am positively certain that this book will win all possible ennies in 2021. This is no ordniary roleplay campaign. This is way beyond anything that was ever published in this hobby.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews