Review: The Book of Vile Darkness

NOTE: This review is the beginning of a new direction my reviews will be taking. I will spend more time discussing the production quality of the product and the value for money. I will provide a four star rating based on the only thing that matters, "Is this product worth a place on my bookshelf?".

The Book of Vile Darkness is a role playing supplement for the Fourth edition of Dungeons and Dragons. It contains a 96 page Dungeon Master's Book, a 32 page Player's Book and a double-sided battle map featuring 3 encounter areas all contained in a thick paper sleeve.

Before I begin, over the course of my role-playing life I have not been keen on the inclusion of evil characters to a party in my campaigns. In the rare occasions where I have allowed them, I required a pretty detailed list of reasons as to why a player should be permitted to play an evil character. 

The Ecology of The Cheating Player

One of the most difficult things a DM will have to deal with over the course of his gaming lifetime is the cheating player. One cheating player can cause your game to become unbalanced very quickly, spoiling the fun for everyone! How is a DM, especially a beginning DM, supposed to deal with this destroyer of game worlds. In my years of playing this, and quite frankly dozens of Role-Playing Games, I have had more than a few players cheat. This article will provide new DMs with a few tried and true techniques to minimize the effects cheating will have on your game.