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Title: Secrets of the Dread Realms and Dungeon Master's Screen by Andrew Cermak, John W. Mangrum, Andrew Wyatt ISBN: 1-58846-076-2 Publisher: White Wolf Games Studio Pub. Date: November, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95

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Average Customer Rating: 3.33 (6 reviews)

Rating: 4
Summary: not bad
Comment: In all honesty I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this book, because the book bills it as "nasty tricks to use on your players" when it really should have been... "The semi-complete list of darklords." I have no idea why the witch-hunter prestige class was in this book, as it was completely out of place, but the rest of the book was actually very well done, with a map (albeit small) showing which domains were controlled by which darklord and then a listing of the darklords.

These listings make up the meat of the book and are definitely worth the price of admission for those who do not have the older 2nd edition info. They tell you the history, personality, looks, powers, current position, and weaknesses of the darklords. Every single entry was done to my satisfaction and merited 5 stars for that information alone. The reason the last star dropped off is that the information wasn't complete. They show you the list of all the darklords in Ravenloft and then give you info on only half of them. I would have paid for another hardcover overpriced S&S book if it had just listed them all.

The only other issue I have with the book is the stats on the darklords themselves. As a DM I have been running Forgotten Realms campaigns for many years now and have become accustomed to incredibly powerful NPC characters that the PCs are in mortal fear of. No player is going to bum rush Elminster, even if he is wielding a +5 sword. Forgotten realms contains epic level characters using the WotC Epic Level handbook to full effect. The Secrets of the Dread Realms lists Azalin as an 18th level lich necromancer. Perhaps I am just jaded from my other campaigns, but isn't that a tad weak? Why didn't they bump up the power level of the darklords to reflect the new source material from WotC?

In any case, it was well worth the money I spent, but it could have been much better. The DM shield was actually quite handy as well, and definitely more appropriate for a Ravenloft campaign.

Rating: 2
Summary: Informative; But Better Can Be Obtained
Comment: I've had an ongoing Ravenloft Campaign now for over 10 years. We started with the old Realm of Terror boxed set for AD&D when it came out in 1990. When 3rd edition came out, we decided to look at the Ravenloft twist and what they had done with it. The core book was decent, yet it left out the darklords. Upon reading through the book, we found out that we would need to purchase this book to get information on those darklords.

We never did buy the book. After all the reviews we read it doesn't appear to be money well spent, more like money wasted. To hear that not all the darklords are even described is disheartening, as that was the only reason we looked to buy this book.

For those of you that are simply looking for information on the darklords, this product wouldn't be worth it. Not enough of them are described. In the transformation from 2nd ed. to 3rd ed., the basic lands all but stayed the same. Only one or two from the Realm of Terror failed to reappear in 3rd edition. And those that did make the transformation still have the same basic lords. There are a few new ones that "took over", and if they're depicted then it might be worth it. But on the whole, I'd advise something more.

If you can get your hands on the old Realm of Terror boxed set, do so. It has the description and personalities of the darklords. Of course, Realm of Terror is 2nd ed, so you'd have to do a little of your own work to transfer the darklords stats into 3rd edition playability.

And if you can get your hands on the 2nd ed module, "When Black Roses Bloom", you'd also find stats for Azreal in that adventure packet.

Just some alternatives, else you'd have to get this thin product.

Rating: 2
Summary: Somewhat disappointing . . .
Comment: I really liked the d20 Ravenloft book, but this one fell short. It only covers about half of the lords and includes a prestige class that should have been in the first book. Here, the class just takes up space that could have been better used with more darklords. Or, better yet, they could have made the book bigger to include more of the lords. I would have gladly paid more for a more complete work.

On a positive note, the updated stats for the lords are useful and necessary for a Ravenloft game. And we do get new artwork for Azalin and Azrael . . .