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Lords of Darkness, the second book in the FR Softcover Supplement line, is chock full of ideas for any Dungeon Master running a Forgotten Realms campaign. Since things are sort of lumped together here, I'll do my best to do a chapter by chapter rundown.

Chapter 1: Major Organizations This chapter forms the meat of the book, presenting in detail the groups you love to hate- The Church of Cyric, Cult of the Dragon, the Drow, the Night Masks, the Red Wizards of Thay, the Shades, and the Zhentarim. Each description runs an average of about a dozen pages at least, detailing everything from organization to leaders to group solidarity and even a sample stronghold for the group. On top of this, sidebars provide adventure hooks and extraneous information throughout. A DM could run an entire campaign off of any one of these groups, easily.

I especially love the way they've done the Red Wizards in this edition. Instead of staying holed up in their towers, they've branched out and planted Enclaves in tons of major cities throughout Faerun, selling everything from magic items to mundane goods to illicit products like drugs and slaves. They offer goods at reduced prices, thus enticing folks to shop with them and thus finance their organization. I could see a million adventure ideas with this, and now, if you need a Thayvian, chances are you can find him without any trouble, in most cities. They present them almost like a mafia organization, and I love the layout to death.

Other standouts are the Cult of the Dragon, which is presented in a great context here, showing the depths of their quasi-religious devotion to the cause. Also, the look into the Shades history was interesting.

The most disappointing organization here is the Zhentarim. After the whole "Manshoon clone" debacle, they've just seemed old and tired, trying to dredge the bottom of the barrel for new ideas. I'm kinda tired of them, and I think they should move over to let the Red Wizards take their rightful place as *the* preeminent masters of nastiness. Ah well. Rant over.

Chapter 2: Minor Organizations Groups detailed here include the Arcane Brotherhood, the Beholders, the Church of Bane (minor?!), the Church of Shar, the Daemonfey, the Eldreth Veluuthra, the Fire Knives, House Karanok, the Iron Throne, the Kir-Lanans, the Knights of the Shield, the Kraken Society, Malaugryms, Mind Flayers, Monks of the Dark Moon, People of the Black Blood, Monks of the Long Death, the Rundeen, the Shadow Thieves, and the Twisted Rune.

My favorites of this group include the Eldreth Veluuthra, basically a group of elven supremacist terrorists. I've never quite seen this idea carried to this level before in a supplement, and I like it. Also, House Karanok presented an interesting twist in that they worship spheres of annihilation. Mind Flayers are always fun to read about.

With the good comes the bad. The Monk organizations need to go. They all seem to be carbon copies of each other, and it just doesn't click with me. Also, I can't stand the kir-lanans. Never heard of em before, don't wanna hear of em again.

Despite the few pitfalls, this chapter is still decent, but not as good as the first. Gobs of adventure ideas and campaign hooks remain present, but I would have liked to see more of the new and improved Church of Bane.

Appendix: Tools of Darkness A buffet of eeeeeevil. The appendix provides all sorts of stuff in small doses. Not much is standout here, except for the catalogue of Faerunian narcotics. I've never seen drugs detailed like this in a D&D product, and I gotta say that I like the dark edge it adds to this supplement. Running a campaign centered around the drug trade would be interesting and generally original for a D&D campaign.

All in all, this book is great for DMs who want a little shove on their creativity. The amount of detail given to the major organizations is insane. This supplement has a dark feel that I feel is painfully absent from most D&D modules (aside from Scarred Lands and Ravenloft supplements), and I think it's a good inclusion to the FR line.

If you go for tons of adventure hooks, by all means get this product.

Lords of Darkness
Lords of Darkness Capsule Review by Fenrir on 21/02/02 Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 4 (Meaty) An excellent source of adventure ideas for any Forgotten Realms DM. A few dead weight minor organizations detract from the overall, but not a great deal. Nice work. Product: Lords of Darkness Author: Jason Carl and Sean K. Reynolds Category: RPG Company/Publisher: Wizards of the Coast Line: Forgotten Realms/D&D Cost: 29.95 Page count: 191 Year published: 2001 ISBN: 0-7869-1989-2 SKU: WTC11989 Comp copy?: no Capsule Review by Fenrir on 21/02/02 Genre tags: Fantasy	Lords of Darkness, the second book in the FR Softcover Supplement line, is chock full of ideas for any Dungeon Master running a Forgotten Realms campaign. Since things are sort of lumped together here, I'll do my best to do a chapter by chapter rundown. Chapter 1: Major Organizations This chapter forms the meat of the book, presenting in detail the groups you love to hate- The Church of Cyric, Cult of the Dragon, the Drow, the Night Masks, the Red Wizards of Thay, the Shades, and the Zhentarim. Each description runs an average of about a dozen pages at least, detailing everything from organization to leaders to group solidarity and even a sample stronghold for the group. On top of this, sidebars provide adventure hooks and extraneous information throughout. A DM could run an entire campaign off of any one of these groups, easily. I especially love the way they've done the Red Wizards in this edition. Instead of staying holed up in their towers, they've branched out and planted Enclaves in tons of major cities throughout Faerun, selling everything from magic items to mundane goods to illicit products like drugs and slaves. They offer goods at reduced prices, thus enticing folks to shop with them and thus finance their organization. I could see a million adventure ideas with this, and now, if you need a Thayvian, chances are you can find him without any trouble, in most cities. They present them almost like a mafia organization, and I love the layout to death. Other standouts are the Cult of the Dragon, which is presented in a great context here, showing the depths of their quasi-religious devotion to the cause. Also, the look into the Shades history was interesting. The most disappointing organization here is the Zhentarim. After the whole "Manshoon clone" debacle, they've just seemed old and tired, trying to dredge the bottom of the barrel for new ideas. I'm kinda tired of them, and I think they should move over to let the Red Wizards take their rightful place as the preeminent masters of nastiness. Ah well. Rant over. Chapter 2: Minor Organizations Groups detailed here include the Arcane Brotherhood, the Beholders, the Church of Bane (minor?!), the Church of Shar, the Daemonfey, the Eldreth Veluuthra, the Fire Knives, House Karanok, the Iron Throne, the Kir-Lanans, the Knights of the Shield, the Kraken Society, Malaugryms, Mind Flayers, Monks of the Dark Moon, People of the Black Blood, Monks of the Long Death, the Rundeen, the Shadow Thieves, and the Twisted Rune. My favorites of this group include the Eldreth Veluuthra, basically a group of elven supremacist terrorists. I've never quite seen this idea carried to this level before in a supplement, and I like it. Also, House Karanok presented an interesting twist in that they worship spheres of annihilation. Mind Flayers are always fun to read about. With the good comes the bad. The Monk organizations need to go. They all seem to be carbon copies of each other, and it just doesn't click with me. Also, I can't stand the kir-lanans. Never heard of em before, don't wanna hear of em again. Despite the few pitfalls, this chapter is still decent, but not as good as the first. Gobs of adventure ideas and campaign hooks remain present, but I would have liked to see more of the new and improved Church of Bane. Appendix: Tools of Darkness A buffet of eeeeeevil. The appendix provides all sorts of stuff in small doses. Not much is standout here, except for the catalogue of Faerunian narcotics. I've never seen drugs detailed like this in a D&D product, and I gotta say that I like the dark edge it adds to this supplement. Running a campaign centered around the drug trade would be interesting and generally original for a D&D campaign. All in all, this book is great for DMs who want a little shove on their creativity. The amount of detail given to the major organizations is insane. This supplement has a dark feel that I feel is painfully absent from most D&D modules (aside from Scarred Lands and Ravenloft supplements), and I think it's a good inclusion to the FR line. If you go for tons of adventure hooks, by all means get this product.