Friends, if there is one Role Aids product you should have on your shelf, it is this box set, Realms of Fantasy: To Hell and Back (1993). I have had it on my shelf for a while and kind of paid it no mind, partly because of use of a colored Doré engraving from Inferno just makes the thing seem so generic. Especially as it came out in the shadow of the very Vertigo-esque Role Aids sub-line, Demons, which was a far glitzier series of box sets. But this is the one. Pure gold. Probably my very favorite Role Aids product.

Inside are two primary books, by the late, lamented Nigel Findley. The first essentially translates Dante’s Inferno into game terms, from the first circle to the ninth. The second half of that book presents Dis, the city of hot iron, in fairly vivid detail. Grade-A stuff, distinct in character from and very much anticipating Planescape, which was still a year off.

The second book is perhaps even more interesting, because I simply didn’t expect it. Here we have profiles of other realms: Atlantis, Avalon, Faerie and, most intriguing, Selene, the city of vampires. The first trio adhere, essentially, to what you expect, with just a little bit of spice added by Findley. The fourth though, was a complete surprise, based on a vampire novel by Frenchman Paul Féval, one of three he penned decades before Stoker’s Dracula. I have never heard of this before and it is so exciting: in the original novel, the city is made of black jasper and situated near Belgrade, but normally invisible to mortal eyes until Ann Radcliffe (yes, the author of The Mysteries of Udolpho) and a band of unlikely allies lay siege to it in order to rescue a kidnapped friend. I need to read this ASAP.

There is also a pile of maps and a sheaf of monster sheets, full of interesting critters. The art throughout is excellent: the historical images, credited to P. Domain and Clip “The Clipper” Art, mix well with new work by Julian Jackson and Joe Develasco. Get this. You won’t be disappointed.