Legends & Lairs: Darkness & Dread

by Mike Mearls

Beautifully designed and illustrated in the Legends & Lairs tradition, Darkness & Dread offers a wide variety of exciting new features, including: New rules for madness, fear, and other psychological effects, new monsters utilizing fear, a complete pantheon of god-like beings that grant their followers powers and madness, new prestige classes, feats, and spells designed for survival in a dark fantasy campaign, and information on integrating the horrific into your world setting.

Genres: Role Playing Games, Gaming

157 pages, Hardcover

First published June 22, 2004

About the author

Mike Mearls is the dark hope of chaotic evil: young, handsome, well endowed in abilities and aptitudes, thoroughly wicked, depraved, and capricious. Whomever harms Mearls had better not brag of it in the presence of one who will inform the Demoness Lolth! Has been sent into this area to rebuild a force of men and humanoid fighters to gather loot and restore the Temple of Elemental Evil to its former glory. Of course, Mearls is but one of many so charged, but he is looked upon with special favor and expectation. He and his minions have been careful to raid far from this area, never nearer than three or four leagues, traveling on foot or being carried in wagons of the traders from Hommlet. None of the victims are ever left alive to tell the tale, and mysterious disappearances are all that can be remarked upon, for no trace of men, mounts, goods, wagons, or draft animals is ever found.

Evil to the core, Mearls is cunning, and if the situation appears in doubt, he will use bribery and honeyed words to sway the balance in his favor. He is not at all adverse to gaining new recruits of any sort, and will gladly accept adventurers into the ranks, but he will test and try them continually. Those who arouse suspicion will be quietly murdered in their sleep; those with too much promise will be likewise dealt with, for Mearls wants no potential usurpers or threats to his domination.

(Major points to anyone who gets the above reference)

When not cribbing the bios of well known AD&D 1st edition villains, I'm a game developer at Wizards of the Coast. I work on the Dungeons & Dragons paper and pencil RPG and the Dungeons & Dragons miniatures game.

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice d20 supplement with some great options for re-gearing a d20 game towards horror/dark fantasy. I view the character generation as the weakest part, as it necessitates making a whole separate game, which the book really doesn't support. The best part in the rules support for fear and madness, and structuring campaigns against creatures that just can't be hacked and slashed away.