Non-D&D books for D&D gamers - Delta Green: Countdown

This article is part of a series of reviews of non-D&D game books which might nevertheless be of interest to D&D gamers.


When Delta Green was published by Pagan Publishing, it earned entirely justified rave reviews for updating the Cthulhu Mythos to the 1990s by blending UFO lore, government conspiracies, and the tales of H.P. Lovecraft into a seamless whole. A few years later, Pagan Publishing released an even larger (424 pages long!) companion volume entitled Delta Green: Countdown - a book that, in my opinion, transcends the subject matter of its predecessor to become the single best RPG supplement of all time. While still written for the 1990s, the concepts, themes, and ideas in its chapters can easily be lifted for other times and genres - including fantasy games. I should know, for I have done so to create some of the most memorable adventures I have ever run.

To explain why I feel this way, I will unfortunately have to reveal some serious spoilers for several of the chapters. Needless to say, those who do not wish to be spoiled should stop reading now!









In this chapter, we are told of the alien, insectoid Shan, who can pass through organic matter and control humans by "flying" into their brains, and they have used this to infiltrate powerful government and corporate officials. These creatures have a serious weakness, however - they panic in the face of sunlight. This weakness has been used by the so-called "Army of the Third Eye", a group of former victims who try to liberate others under the influence of the Shan - through a process called trepanation, i.e. by drilling a hole into their skulls.

So imagine the following scenario in your fantasy campaign: The PCs learn of an "evil cult" that kidnaps high-ranking guild members and officials of a particular city, drills holes into their heads, and then somehow brainwashes them into joining their cult. The guild masters have offered a high bounty on killing the leaders of the cult. Will the PCs stop to ask questions first, or will they automatically assume that the Army of the Third Eye is as evil as their reputation? And once they figure out the truth, will they be able to stop the demons from enslaving the rest of the town?



This chapter details a throughly disturbing cult of Russian exiles. Their rites of initiation involve castrating themselves and then sacrificing the cut parts to an avatar of the evil fertility deity they worship. In their new home, they now present a wholesome front and have taken to adopting children from orphanages to replenish their numbers.

This cult can be used with few changes in a fantasy setting, and they are so throughly mad and corrupt that most player characters will be so disturbed that they will be extremely motivated to stop this menace once and for all.



A crime ring joins up with a cult to produce the most effective mind-bending drug ever. Unfortunately, the drug has some rather nasty side effects... including a tendency for the drug users to attract extradimensional creatures.

This makes for a great investigative scenario - the PCs can try to figure out just who - or what is behind a strange series of disappearances in a city. Add in some rather shady government connections that no one in power is keen to reveal, and the PCs could end up in all kinds of trouble if they aren't careful - even beyond the prospect of facing some very powerful magic users.


If some good-guy organization ends up with a large number of mysterious artifacts, where do they put them? And will they be tempted to use their obvious power?


Describes a religious conflict between two groups of ghouls - one preaches that ghouls should only feast upon those already dead, while the other is all too willing to kill to get new meat. If the PCs encounter the first group, will they stay their hand, or will they slay the "evil monsters" - thus allowing the second group to gain power and threaten the city?


There is an otherworldly force out there. It preys on the artistic and the alienated, and those who have touched it will find that reality gradually warps around them until they are abducted to the alien city of Carcosa. Can the PCs rescue those in its grasp? Or will they loose touch with reality themselves?



These short summaries are insufficient to convey the brilliance and detail in this volume. Suffice to say, if you can find this book anywhere and a halfway reasonable price, pick it up - you won't be disappointed.