This is the Book of Vile Darkness for D&D 3E. As you can see, it has a mature readers warning and Monte Cook does his damnedest to deliver a book that would freak out the concerned parents who thought D&D was the devil’s work back in the 80s.

I have a low tolerance for presenting lurid, grimdark material as “mature” when it is so often anything but. Judging from the controversy leading up to the book’s release (which featured a very upset Tracy Hickman and some idiotic marketing gimmicks from Paizo), you’d expect this to be a tasteless book. I find, though, that it is a straightforward examination of evil in D&D terms. Some parts, particularly some of the illustrations (which feature nudity and physical disfigurement), get the toe right on the line, but all told, Vile Darkness doesn’t cross it.

Cook has a talent for presenting scads of ideas that fire up the creative juices. He pairs things in unexpected ways that get you excited even as you kick yourself for not thinking of them first (A dragon possessed by a demon! A fallen druid attuned to vermin!). You’d be hard pressed to flip through Vile Darkness and not come away with a dozen ideas for villains for your campaign.

The book doesn’t celebrate evil. There is a lot of thought here about different kinds of evil as well as it’s debilitating, dehumanizing effects. The practitioners of this kind of evil inspire you to stand against them. There is, I think, a natural tendency for RPG villains to be cackling madmen – obvious threats that need to be stopped but who lack the stuff of terrifying nemeses. Much of the crunch in this book functions to externalize a certain internal vileness. This informs players of the villain’s inner life while also giving DMs the tools to make their player’s lives miserable – both of which go a long way toward designing nuanced, but also truly detestable, foes.

Probably my favorite 3E book. It also contains my favorite depiction of Asmodeus.