One of the various podcasts I've been listening to recently is The Redacted Reports.
TRR is a Delta Green podcast, so we're talking an X-files vibe but more conspiratorial. Members of various branches of the US government - in this case including the military, FBI, and the EPA - are secretly recruited for an off-the-books task force investigating deeply weird things.
Disclaimer: I have mixed feelings about Delta Green as a game. In fairness, I haven't played it! I've listened to quite a lot of actual play, including the good folks over at Roleplaying Public Radio (RPPR) and some others I'll write about soon. Personally, some aspects don't work for me; they're drawing on specific genre points that I don't particularly enjoy, so this is just a case of Your Milage May Vary.
1. The game has a model where the strain of dealing with weirdness and violence slowly shreds your human connections, destroying bonds to the people in your life and isolating you; perhaps realistic, but I find it depressing, and I play games to be less depressed.
2. DG leans heavily into the American style of government, which is to say, all the law enforcement characters (and a bunch of others) are armed and prepared to kill. Characters tend to be military, ex-military-, FBI and police. The game as a whole, and many APs, tend to assume that armed violence is both expected and a necessary, effective approach to dealing with the weird conspiracies they're facing. Killing civilians and witnesses is a regrettable necessily - it may grind down the characters' sanity, but it's a grim necessity and morally justifiable, not an abhorrent absolute last resort.
But those are about the game and setting as a whole, and every group runs things differently! I do enjoy listening to DG games for the most part, even the scenarios I wouldn't want to run.
Worth noting: this is a Cthulhu, Delta Green podcast, so it does involve violence, death, and bad things happening to people. It isn't the kind of podcast that relishes the grisly details, but they do come up. In particular, the Shrimp Farm arc has a very violent climax, while Idaho deals with sex, violence, and (in a minor way) self-harm. One PC is a survivor of cult abduction, and another has war-related trauma. Abduction comes up in at least two other cases. I'm not getting into any details here, but thought I should flag it up for anyone considering trying the podcast. My feeling is that they handle these subjects well and with consideration.
