Legends & Lairs Darkness & Dread.pdf

Darkness & Dread

Credits

MANAGING DEVELOPER

Greg Benage

WRITING

Mike Mearls

INTERIOR ILLUSTRATIONS

Steven Bagatzky, Andy Brase, Mitch Cotie, Jesper Ejsing, Cos Koniotis, Jim Nelson, Torstein Nordstrand, Tyler Walpole

CARTOGRAPHY

Ed Bourelle

GRAPHIC & COVER DESIGN

Brian Schomburg

EDITING

Greg Benage

‘d20 System’ and the ‘d20 System’ logo are Trademarks owned by

Wizards of the Coast and are used according to the terms of the d20

System License version 1.0. A copy of this License can be found at

www.wizards.com.

ART DIRECTION

Greg Benage

Dungeons & Dragons® and Wizards of the Coast® are Registered

Trademarks of Wizards of the Coast and are used with permission.

LAYOUT

Greg Benage

This work, or parts thereof, may not be copied without permission.

PUBLISHER

Christian T. Petersen

PRINTING

Bang Printing

FANTASY FLIGHT GAMES

1975 W. County Rd. B2

Roseville, MN 55113

651.639.1905

www.fantasyflightgames.com

Darkness & Dread

Contents

CHAPTER ONE

Characters

CHAPTER TWO

Horror Campaigns

CHAPTER THREE

Research and Investigation

CHAPTER FOUR

Black Magic

CHAPTER FIVE

Monsters

100

CHAPTER SIX

Horror Adventures

108

CHAPTER SEVEN

Northwall

121

Introduction

own sake. The human cultists that serve them are

often mad or driven by unknown motives. Some of

the opponents in this type of game can be defeated

with weapons and spells, such as cultists or minor

creatures, but the most powerful creatures are

beyond the power of mortal arms and magic. A

knowledgeable scribe who can research an ancient

incantation needed to bind and trap a monster might

prove more useful than a knight in full plate. In

terms of the game system, the creatures you face

may have CRs that are four or five points higher

than the party’s level.

Welcome to the world of horror roleplaying. Other

games focus on horror set in different time periods,

such as the modern day or earlier eras. This book

assumes that you play and enjoy fantasy games but

want to inject some horror elements into them. This

book is structured so that you can make your fanta-

sy game slightly darker and more horrific. You can

pick and choose the background material and rules

to add a touch of horror to an existing campaign.

Alternatively, you can use all of the optional rules to

fundamentally change the basic rules of your cam-

paign, transforming the game from high heroism

and adventure to one of desperate struggles, mad-

ness, and doom.

Characters are more vulnerable, placing a premium

on non-combat options. Fighting should be your last

resort in a dark fantasy game. Characters have fewer

hit points (or are easier to defeat if you use the

optional rules), granting luck a much bigger role in

a fight. A single, lucky hit can take down even the

most experienced character. If you find yourself in a

situation where combat is your best option, you may

have made a terrible mistake.

What’s Different?

If you are an experienced fantasy RPG player, this

section is meant to highlight the differences

between the rules presented here and the ones given

in the core rules. Note that not all of these differ-

ences necessarily come into play. The rules materi-

al in this book is optional, and everything is

designed under the assumption that you plan to

cleave as closely to the core rules as possible.

However, the optional rules require no conversion

or alteration of existing material. They are designed

to seamlessly enhance, modify, or replace portions

of the core rules.

Death is a common event. Characters die or descend

into madness with a frightening regularity in dark

fantasy games. Try not to get too attached to a PC—

his next encounter could be his last. This high

lethality helps keep the tone of horror and fear in

place while reminding you that the world of dark

fantasy is a dangerous place. The new classes for

dark fantasy only go up to level 10 to reflect this

high level of lethality. While this might seem daunt-

ing, it makes surviving to high levels a truly tri-

umphant achievement.

With that in mind, here are the core differences

between a normal fantasy game and a dark fantasy

one. Note that these differences cover play style and

how the game works, not necessarily any rules dif-

ferences.

What’s the Appeal?

With these changes in mind, you might be puzzled

as to why dark horror gaming is enjoyable. We play

games to have fun, not to watch as our characters

succumb to ultra-powerful monsters. The key to a

horror game is that you must use your own plan-

ning, inventiveness, and quick thinking to survive.

You cannot simply rely on an optimal selection of

feats or magic items to pull through an adventure.

Roleplay becomes much more important, while

good tactics trump class abilities and spells.

The characters are heroes because of what they do,

not what they can do. In a dark fantasy game, your

character must choose to be a hero. The PCs’ spells,

weapons, and items are rarely powerful enough to

defeat the monsters they face. Instead, self-sacrifice,

clever thinking, and good planning play a much

larger role. You cannot simply draw your +4 keen

greatsword while the wizard unleashes meteor

swarm when a monster shows up. Characters

receive fewer spells that are less potent in combat,

while even combat-centered characters have far

fewer feats. Finally, PCs receive far fewer magical

items. Rather than rely on the dice or your class

abilities, roleplay and good tactics are the keys to

triumph.

In some ways, horror gaming is more “pure” in that

you’ll find less help from the rules to allow your

characters to survive. Successful players use the

environments around their characters to succeed.

Rather than simply kick down a door and defeat the

monsters behind it, you need to rally the village’s

peasants to burn down the thing’s lair, research a

spell in a library to find a ritual that can trap it, or

lead it into the valley where your friends can destroy

a small dam and drown it. Horror gaming presents

problems that are more open-ended than in other

games where combat is usually the best way to

overcome an obstacle.

Monsters are terrible threats, not mere annoyances.

The creatures that characters face in dark fantasy

games are usually unknowable, powerful, and

malevolent. They rarely have human emotions

or goals. Instead, they crave destruction for its

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