Dreadmire (Spellbinder Games, d20)

Randy Richards
Apotheosis Publishing (2005)  
ISBN 0977338339
Reviewed by Cherie Fisher for Reader Views (08/06)


“Dreadmire” is the ultimate swamp guide to use when playing Spellbinder games.  It is a resource guide compatible with the d20 System - the rules used in Wizards of the Coast's role-playing games.  The most popular of these games is Dungeons & Dragons that is a role-playing game involving acting, storytelling, social interaction and war games.   You work with other players to create characters and develop them during each adventure. There is one Dungeon Master who controls the monsters, enemies, and adventures and referees the game. The other players create fantasy characters and work together to defeat the monsters and advance further in the game.

“Dreadmire” is a resource book filled with vile creatures, diseases and evils.  It is best described on the Dreadmire website as “During the darkness of a waning moon unspeakable things skulk from the depths of Dreadmire, infesting the surrounding heath, farmlands and ranches.  It is said that those who go in rarely return – at least not alive.  This expansive quagmire is a source of deadly diseases, demon cults, fatal venoms, immersed ruins and ancient magic.”   

The author Randy Richards spent 15 years researching and writing this book - it probably helps that he is a resident of “swampy” Louisiana.  I found the book to be incredibly detailed and a great resource for players.  He has entire chapters devoted to descriptions such as swamp ecology, swamp residents, villages and belief systems, descriptions of the swamp Gods and three new adventures.  I was also pleased to see how gender friendly the book is – not using gender specific terms and there are many female characters described throughout the book.   

“Dreadmire” takes you into another reality and becomes the survival guide that will help you to come out this quagmire alive.  Its descriptions and 3 full-length adventures involve hundreds of new Monsters, Spells, Magic Items, Special Weapons, Indigenous Classes, Unique Deities, Distinct Factions, Bizarre Mysteries, and Illustrations which will help only the very bravest to survive.

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