In all cases, I am reviewing the physical copies and PDFs.
140 pages, color covers, black & white interiors.
This book covers the Jeffersontown setting introduced in the core rulebook. I have to admit, I was not going to buy this book. I was not really that interested in the J'town setting; I had my own setting, settings really, to try out and this one did not grab me.
That would have been a mistake. This book is really freaking awesome.
Reading through this book you begin to realize that all small towns are the same. I read through this and was mentally replacing J'Town details with my own old hometown Jacksonville (J'Ville, no really that is what we called it). There are a ton of great ideas here for any type of campaign.
So who should buy this?
Well if grew up in the 80s then you know this already. You lived it. But this book is a wonderful trip down memory lane. It's someone else's memory lane, but it looks like yours; it looks a lot like mine too.
If you didn't grow up in the 80s then this book is a must-have. Really sets the tone and tenor of the game perfectly.
This makes this book a must buy, I am glad I picked it up.
124 pages, color covers, black & white interiors.
Now this book. I knew I needed this one the moment I read the table of contents. This book expands the game in a number of really awesome ways. Now all classes can go to 7th level and all the core classes get a boost. That is great, and we get 13 new classes. They are Equestrian Show Rider, Equestrian Rider, Monster Hunter, Party Animal, The Performer, Phantasmagon, ROTC Cadet, Soviet Spy, Spy in Training, Street Tough, Survivalist, Teen Ninja, and the Telepath. We also get five new Magic classes! Black Witch, Mechano-Mage, Nature Witch, Voodoo Practitioner, and White Witch. All with a bunch of new spells! So yes, I am quite excited about these. Worth the price on the cover alone for me.
Additionally, we get a bunch of new skills.
The last half of the book is everything 80s. I have seen a lot of 80s guides in games before, but this one is very comprehensive. These sections include 80's Crushes/ Idols, Your Songs of the 80's, Your Movies of the 80's, Random 80's Movie Quote Table, and Your TV of the 80's. And just listing these does not do this lists justice at all. I consider myself an 80s aficionado and there are things here I had forgotten or even never knew. I am little surprised there isn't a Dark Places & Demogorgons 80s mix list on Spotify.
Really glad I got this book and I consider it a must-have for fans of this games.
Dark Places & Demogorgons: Vampire Sourcebook
With the Vampire Sourcebook, we move DP&D a little further away from "Stranger Things" and "X-Files" territory and more into the realms of "Fright Night", "Lost Boys", and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". The cover in fact is very reminicent of all the above.
We start off with an introduction to basic vampire pop-culture lore and quickly move to a list of vampire movies of the 1980s. It's a solid list, I knew all the titles so it feels complete, but I am sure there a couple Euro flicks missing. Not a big deal since that is not the focus of this book.
We get stats for a variety of vampires and plot hooks/backgrounds for all of them.
The book is designed for DP&D, but it really can be used with any OSR game.
For more 80s fun combine it with some New Wave Requiem from the World of Darkness game.
If you want to play a vampire then I suggest The Blood is the Life - Basic Vampires as a mostly compatible solution.
It is a thin book and I would have liked to see more varieties, in truth this probably the perfect size. Vampires are series-ending "Big Bads" not just your monster of the week. So characters are only likely to see one or maybe two their entire game life.
36 pages, color covers, black & white interiors.
Same size, but a step up from the Vampire book to be honest. There feels like there is more material here and I will admit I was surprised to see the page count was really the same.
We get a little background on werewolves as a horror trope. Different means of causing lycanthropy are also covered. There is also a section of infecting humans and how it alters their stats, including Player Characters. Now I would say that being a werewolf runs counter to what a GM might normally want to do with a DP&D game, I can see it coming up. Good for drama really.
Now anyone that knows me well knows I am "the Witch guy" and before that I was "the Vampire guy". So I was totally expecting this to be my least favorite book, but no chance of that! This is a great book and even better than the Vampire book.
There plot hooks, NPCs, monsters AND a complete adventure. The book is packed. Well worth the money spent.
IF you can only afford one of these books, Vampire or Werewolf, then I would put my money on the werewolf one. Plus it has some fantastic Jacob Blackmon cover art, so what could be better?
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