Demon's Lair. With a title like that I expected something different, what I got was more of the same. Demon's Lair is made up of two books at $14.95 a piece, the Demon's Lair Tome of Rules and the Demon's Lair "God" Guide. Sounds interesting so far, right?

Unfortunately, as it turns out Demon's Lair is no more that a standard class-based fantasy game with only couple of new races outside of the standard fantasy meliu.

The combat system, and skill-check system are also pretty typical. About the only interesting item in the game is the magic system. Okay, maybe not the system itself - it's also a standard level-based, MP driven system. But I do like the fact that they offer more than one method of casting spells. Magic-users can only choose one method to learn, and each mage's method might be subtly different than another mage's. Meaning that a grimoire found in a dungeon-romp might still be worthless, despite the powerful spells written in it, due to an enchanter's inability to utilize that method of magic.

The "God" Guide does have a pretty nice section on the different types of players, and how do deal with them. It also lists different facts about the world, equipment, and enemies. I did like the enemy category of "Ickies", which include "slimes", "oozes", "drips" and "puddings". Puddings included varieties such as "Chocolate", "Mystic", and "Tapioca". I got hungry every time I read the book.

Beyond it's love of fine desserts, and an interesting (but slight) twist in it's magic system, Demon's Lair doesn't have anything particularly special about it. It's simply a standard fantasy game.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 3 (Average)