I find it very difficult to review this book, as it’s the kind of thing only
an obsessive would need to have - put simply, this hefty tome tracks EVERY
SINGLE INSTANCE a particular proper noun is used in any Cthulhu Mythos
story, EVER. So you’d like to know when the first appearance of Kadath is?
There it is. How many times did the Crawling Hideous Maw appear in Ramsey
stories? There it is.

Not only does this book exhaustively detail the proper nouns, it is also a
complete bibliography: so if you’ve been missing the one Cthulhu story by
Ernest Hemingway that would complete your collection, the Old Man and the
Shivering Tentacled Old One, now you can find out all the details you would
ever need about the work.

I love Delta Green and Call of Cthulhu, and I can understand the need for a
Necronomicon of this sort to exist. I will personally never need it: I can
not imagine that my paltry knowledge of the greater darkness of Lovecraft
would ever require this dense Bible. So this is the first Pagan Publishing
I am recommending you do not buy, unless you are a serious Cthulhu Mythos
researcher.

You see, this book isn’t for gamers who play Call of Cthulhu on weekends and
use pregenerated scenarios. It isn’t even for dilletantes like myself.
It’s for people who would drive 8 hours to see a live performance of “The
King in Yellow”. It’s hardcore.

The Verdict

This isn’t a contest, where all the “cool kids” own the book - if you need
the Concordance, you’ll know it. For example, I “need” two or three
different atlases of maps for medieval France…most people would not. If
you are the kind of archivist who needs a fully comprehensive, indexed tool
to the Mythos, this is it–the print quality is superb, the binding is
sturdy and it covers everything. If you need it, you’ll know instantly that
it is everything you’ve hoped for.

“NO FUTURE. Get used to the taste of ashes.”

So reads some of the teaser text for Pagan’s new Delta Green supplement,
COUNTDOWN–and the sound you hear is GMs across the world rejoicing and
feasting and reveling in wild abandon to the Great Old Ones–Tynes,
Detwiller and Glancy, the ones who have created a book unlike any you have
ever seen before. Delta Green is an award winning and critically acclaimed
setting for Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu game which has been shifted into
overdrive by this phenomenal release.

This is no supplement. A supplement implies secondary importance, something
added to flesh out a game environment. We’re all familiar with White Wolf
splatbooks, and the standard 126-page supplement in the industry is now
running you a cool $20…and most of that is poorly laid out with lots of
space-eating art and 14-point Palatino font.

Listen to me: this book is 432 pages long. This redefines ’supplement’ as
‘gigantic opus full of more material than some game lines release in 5
products’. It’s a third longer than the core Delta Green book it came from,
a book which was saluted for its expansive coverage and vision. I could
easily see a lesser company take the first section on PISCES, the U.K.’s
ill-fated version of Delta Green, and pump it up with a little art and
release that alone as a supplement for $20…there’s enough material there,
just dilute the excellent art with some trashy standard quality pieces.

Even in that debased form, that ONE SECTION of this ’supplement’ would be
better than 3/4 of the games I read and review.

I don’t rave very often–I don’t think that gamers get the quality they
should for the prices they pay. Sure, we receive nice hardcovers these days
and the pages have a good gloss–but too often there is an idea shortage at
the most fundamental level.

COUNTDOWN gives that the finger. By my estimate, COUNTDOWN contains as much
material as you would find in four (4) $20 game books. At $40 it’s the most
expensive supplement I’ve ever seen, but it actually pulls its damn weight
and earns that price in page after page of tight, startling and extremely
well conceived pieces.

You receive details of the U.K. and former Soviet paranormal operations.
Then you also get the cults and conspiracies that act against these groups,
in separate sections that interweave beautifully. The red-herring TV show
PHENOMEN-X is given a brilliant new spin, an occult version of the
CIA-fronted “Air America” makes its debut and more.

What’s even more important are the little details– the two adventures and
full mini-campaign contained in the book interlace in both style and plot
elements with the adventures and campaigns in the original Delta Green book.
The extensive index. The appendix that lists over a hundred real-world
foreign agencies and their statistical information. A painstakingly well
written autopsy section that could have been ripped from a real coroner’s
report. Player handouts that look the part.

Finally–on a gatefold that includes a great map of Club Apocalypse is the
Delta Green character sheet, because the Pagan boys are so considerate they
don’t want you breaking the spine of your new telephone-book sized Mythos
tome.

That was the final straw for me. Upon reading this book over once, then
going back and working through it a second time, I pronounce it my first
perfect ‘10′. This is the most literate, researched, extensive and useful
supplement ever written for any role-playing game.

The Verdict

Now all the other companies have a new bar to reach for…and you, Gentle
Reader, need to go buy this book.