Editing Book of Vile Darkness (section)

==4e Splatbook==
[[File:BoVD 4e.jpg|thumb|right|Objectively the best 4e cover, thank you Wayne]]
Much like its 3e counterpart, 4e's Book of Vile Darkness was a sourcebook on evil in [[Dungeons & Dragons]], divided into two physical splatbooks. The DM's book is full of advice for DMs on how to use evil or to run evil campaigns, complete with monsters, cursed items and other foulness to use against players. The Player's book, in comparison, is all about new PC goodies for malevolent (or at least seriously antiheroic) PCs, including character themes and [[Paragon Path]]s.

The '''Dungeon Master's Book''' opens with the chapter ''Evil Unearthed''. Fairly brief, this describes the history of the in-game Book of Vile Darkness, and briefly touches upon the nature of evil - not by attempting to strictly define things as evil, as was the case in 3e, but more examining general traits of evil.

The second chapter is ''Evil Campaigns'', which covers all of the issues from a DM's perspective on creating evil adventurers and running campaigns that either feature them or which are directly evil in nature, including the tricky issue of "how do you motivate an evil PC" and "what do they actually want to do". It closes with two sample campaigns that, whilst perhaps not requiring truly evil PCs, do feature a theme of battling true evil and arguably requiring some moral ambiguity; War for Hell, in which the party becomes caught up in open civil war in Baator, and Hunger of the Nine-Tongued Worm, in which the party must battle the [[tsochar]] before they can unleash [[Mak Thuum Ngatha]] on the [[World Axis]].

Chapter three, ''Vile Encounters'', opens with a discussion on how to impress upon players that they are fighting truly evil forces. This then segues into a number of new "vile themed" terrain features, followed by mechanics for cursing players and several sample curses. It finishes up with unnatural and evil-touched plagues (resurrecting some from its 3e counterpart), and an assortment of vile-themed traps and hazards for dungeons.
* Vile Terrain: Agony Amplifier, Carnage Stone, Festering Corruption, Forgotten Soul, Green Fog, Hellfire, Larvae Pool, Lingering Evil
* Curses: Accumulated Years, Misery Eternal, Sentient Tumor, Tomb King's Wrath, Werewolf Lycanthropy
* Vile Diseases: Deathsong, Demon Fever, Faceless Hate, Melting Fury, Psychic Parasites, Scarlet Plague
* Vile Traps & Hazards: Crypt Thing, Death Mold, Far Realm Anomaly, Glyph of Changes, Iron Boot, Lunacy Mist, Mirror of Life Trapping, Rot Grub Pit, Symbol of Death

Chapter four gives its identity away with its title: ''Villains and Monsters''. The bulk of it is advice on how to create and run different kinds of villain for your D&D campaign. It follows it up with several new monster themes, for customizing monsters for a specific role, a couple of new beasties to boot, an d some sample villainous organizations.
* Monster Themes: Chaos Beast, Devotee of Darkness, Doomdreamer, Maenad, Moilian Dead, Slave to the Nine Hells
* Monsters: Fallen Angel (Winter, Sorrow, Death), [[Hordeling]], Wrath Devil, Nhagruul Dragonspawn, Filth Hag, [[Tsochar]] (Parasite, Wearer of Flesh, Worm Servant, Noble)
* Vile Organizations: Chosen of the Sun (mad fanatics who commit atrocities in pursuit of stamping out evil), Dark Brotherhood (cult of [[Tharizdun]] that believes "Good" is a cosmic mistake), Disciples of Nhagruul (guardians of the Book of Vile Darkness who seek to use it to unleash an apocalypse), Kargatane (a lich's secret police that seeks immortality through transformation into vampires), Servants of Xopos ([[Slaad]] cultists who seek to facilitate wide-spread infection of mortals with larval slaadi).

Chapter five, ''Dark Rewards'', is all about potential magic that stems from a place in the darker parts of the multiverse; cursed items, unholy blessings, and twisted magical items.
* Cursed Items: Berserk Weapon, Boot of Many Steps, Cloak of Poison, Cursed Weapon, Potion of Delusion
* Divine Boons: Asmodeus's Dread Authority, Bane's Battle Acumen, Gruumsh's Bloodthirsty Wrath, Lolth's Fickle Favor, Tharizdun's Madness Spiral, Tiamat's Insatiable Greed, Torog's Inescapable Suffering, Vecna's Dark Secret, Zehir's Shadow Cloak
* Sinister Items: Bracers of Suffering, Flesh-Eating Rod, Girdle of Skulls, Midnight Blade, Obsidian Wand, Ring of Domination, Serpentine Knife of Zannad, Skull of Terror

Finally, the book closes with its sixth chapter, ''The Vile Tome'', a mini-campaign in which the party crosses paths with the Book of Vile Darkness and is given a chance to disrupt it, or even destroy it. This chapter also features the mechanics for the Book of Vile Darkness as a 4e artifact.

The '''Player's Book''', unlike its DM's counterpart, is not broken into nice, neat chapters. Instead, it opens with an immediate introduction that discusses the realities of playing an evil PC from a player's perspective - in particular hammering the point that this is ''not'' an excuse for the player to be a dick to the rest of the players or to the DM. It then examines some evil adventuring party archetypes, followed by individual "villain protagonist" archetypes, and other tips on creating villain PCs from scratch. The section discussing the difference between Anti-Heroes, Non-Heroes and Villains is actually pretty useful and worth checkin out, no matter what edition you're playing with; this is good stuff for newbies trying to get their heads into playing in more morally ambiguous campaigns, like a [[Sword & Sorcery]] game.

The next segment examines the different Power Sources in a [[World Axis]] campaign - Arcane, Divine, Martial, Primal, Psionic and Shadow - and these sources color the attitudes, behaviors, goals and desires of villainous PCs. This segment also expands the list of the [[Primal Spirits]] with the addition of Gnaw; the shunned and feared patron of scavengers, detrivores and vermin.

From here, the book presents several new villainous character themes; the Cultist, the Disgraced Noble, the Infernal Slave, the Reaver and the Vile Scholar.

Naturally, the next section is devoted to evil [[Paragon Path]]s, in the form of the Blood-Crazed Berserker, Contract Killer, Demonologist, Idol of Darkness and Vermin Lord, before ending with an [[Epic Destiny]], in the Exemplar of Evil.

It finishes its list of content with an assortment of new feats.