Delta Green: COUNTDOWN

"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.