John Harper’s Blades in the Dark was released in 2017, following a successful Kickstarter in 2015. Since then, it’s been taken on as a core system for lots of different games, in much the same way that Vincent Baker’s Apocalypse World did after it was released in 2010. Whilst games based on Apocalypse World are labelled as ‘Powered by the Apocalypse’, those based on Blades in the Dark are referred to as ‘Forged in the Dark’.
This Bundle of Holding is for a Forged in the Dark game, Victor Costa’s Wicked Ones. This game is most often compared to the classic video game, Dungeon Keeper. This inmediately made it appealing to me, as Dungeon Keeper is one of my favourite games.
So, then, what’s in the bundle? This is a very focused, quite small bundle consisting of three books and a handful of maps:
Wicked Ones is an interesting game. You play as monsters, and that’s something that your group does need to embrace. You play monsters with monstrous urges and instincts. You’re not playing some poor, misunderstood creature. Just get that out of your head now. That’s not something that will jive with every group, and that’s fine. Not everything is for everyone. I also love the focus on building the dungeon. That’s what I love about Dungeon Keeper, and this sort of base-building is something I really love in other RPGs. Yeah, this is solid.
The other items are spinoffs and expansions; variations on a theme. Undead Awakening takes away the dungeon-building and instead puts you at the head of a horde of ravenous zombies. Honestly, as cool as it sounds, I’m less interested in this than I am in the original.
War for the Overworld is a campaign for Wicked Ones. It’s based on the video game series of the same name. The games are essentially spiritual successors to Dungeon Keeper and I really enjoy playing them. They’re a lot of fun. I think it’s really cool that this partnership was made, as it really is a match made in Hades. The PDF brings in the creatures from WFTO, as well as a bunch of other cool, new features. This is cool, as it also gives direction for a new GM who might otherwise struggle to get started with Wicked Ones.
Finally, there’s a pack of maps. These aren’t usable game maps as such, but rather act as inspiration for establishing your setting. The maps are all really nice, and are pretty diverse in appearance and tone. it’s also really cool to see a map from Wouter Frederik Goedkoop, an artist I really like, and whom I’ve gotten to know a little bit over Discord in the past few years. His map is one of the more striking ones in the pack, and is quite different to many of the others, as it doesn’t focus on an idyllic city or island, but rather a strange, shattered, fantastical, and threatening landscape.
All that said, what sort of value are we looking at? Well, it’s alright. It’s not the sort of huge saving that we got on the recent FATE bundle, but the $12.95 price tag is pretty solid. There’s only one tier to the bundle, so there’s no comparison to be had or decision to be made. Yeah, I’d say this is a good bundle. At the time of writing, I’ve actually already bought it, myself.
You can click here to visit the bundle page at Bundle of Holding.
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