The latest licensed Dungeons and Dragons title to land on Kickstarter is Evil Dead 2, a setting book that translates Sam Raimi’s iconic cult horror for the 5e rules. New mechanics promise explosive, over-the-top gore and the potential to become a corrupted Deadite – which leads players down the path of paranoid social deduction and potential player-vs-player combat. Publisher Lynnvander Studios began crowdfunding on November 27.
Let’s say you haven’t seen Evil Dead 2 (although you probably have if you’re keen to read about its DnD book equivalent). The general gist is that a hapless youth reads from the devastatingly evil Necronomicon, unleashing its horrors on the mortal world.
The primary enemy is the Deadite, a malicious spirit that possesses a human, living or dead. The best way to deal with these is to shoot, stab, and dismember them – with as much blood spraying as possible.
The vibes are a mix of extreme darkness and extreme camp. You can see this in the way that Evil Dead 5e has approached DnD classes. Each of the 12 core classes has a new subclass option, each themed around death, decay, the occult, illusions, religious horror, or straight-up murdering monsters with a gun.
Take, for example, the Path of the Hair-Trigger Barbarian. An early Kickstarter preview reveals that this subclass is all about recklessly wielding firearms. Proficient with guns, able to ignore their most cumbersome properties, and capable of triggering opportunity attacks at a distance, this DnD Barbarian is far more threatening at range than in melee.
New mechanics will apparently help enhance the survival horror capabilities of Dungeons and Dragons. A new, hidden stat, Virtue, represents how resilient you are against evil influence. The Deadite Corruption system will be steadily chipping away at the party’s Virtue scores, and once it hits zero, friend will turn on friend.
Also, because this is Evil Dead, there’s a hilarious blood-splatter mechanic which means a devastating blow will shower nearby creatures in blood – possibly causing them to slip, become blinded, or be pushed away.
The final book promises an army of feats, weapons, curses, and monsters to support this new way of playing. There are also hints of an alternative campaign mode that sees you face off against waves of the undead, videogame style.
Lynnvander Studios’ founder Tommy Gofton is in the driver’s seat as lead designer, with Devin Wilson providing back-up as lead writer. Some familiar faces are also lending their writing skills to the project, including Shanna Germain (Monte Cook Games), Bryan C.P. Steele (Evil Genius Games), and Rob Wieland (Camelot Trigger, Save Game).
The crowdfunding campaign lasts until December 23. A digital copy of the sourcebook will set you back $25 (£20), while a digital and physical bundle costs $60 (£48). For $162 (£128), you can add a GM screen, tactical map, dice tray, dice bag, and metal chainsaw dice set to your order.
Three more limited-edition DnD dice sets are available for $257 (£203) – though this pledge doesn’t include any copies of the book. If you want everything, the maximum pledge is $390 (£308). The Kickstarter page says that estimated delivery on every pledge is June 2025.
For more official books, here’s everything we know about next year’s DnD release schedule. We can also tell you about the latest launches in detail – check out our DnD 2024 Player’s Handbook review, as you’ll need a copy to go with your Evil Dead supplement.
Source: Wargamer
