This article originally appeared in d20 Weekly
Devilish Dens
Published by Fast Forward Entertainment
Written by Anne Brown and Kevin Melka
48 pages; $12.99
Devilish Dens, like its predecessor Demonic Lairs, is an anthology of adventures centered upon the fiendish beings described in The Encyclopedia of Demons and Devils. As the title implies, each scenario is essentially an Outsider's lair providing challenges for mid- and high-level characters. To wit, the demons whose lairs are detailed sounds like a roll call of the most powerful and insidious beings in Hell, including Abaddon, Asmodeus, Azazel, Beelzebub, Flauros, Iblis, Lilith, Kosk, Marchocias, and Shaitan.
As with many Fast Forward Entertainment releases, the production values are merely average. The cover artwork by Jim Holloway, a Dungeons & Dragons legend to be sure, is dark and gothic, and perfectly suited to the product. Unfortunately, there is absolutely no interior artwork, which is disappointing in that a few illustrations would have been extremely useful in conveying the dark and sinister feeling of the lairs themselves. The cartography is simplistic in the extreme, offering very little detail.
On the bonus side of the ledger, the layout is professional if not exactly innovative, there is little wasted space, and the text is fairly dense. The end result is a product that provides fair value and which is easy to read.
All of the lairs are created to be effortlessly dropped into any game world, a task at which it largely succeeds. In fact, there are few if any that . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: January 8, 2003
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