From Jonathan Becker, Comes Chaos

A "Book of Vile Darkness" for B/X

A good sword & sorcery adventure needs a good antagonist—likely more than one.

In a sword & sorcery role playing game, such as Dungeons & Dragons, non-living challenges like traps (a poison needle), natural hazards (falling rocks), or environmental conditions (terrain or weather) can fulfill this requirement. Typical antagonists, however, are either monsters or non-player characters.

B/X D&D, with it’s three-valued morality of Law-Neutrality-Chaos, can include Lawful or Neutral antagonists. Given many players’ tendencies to mix-it-up with NPCs, such opponents aren’t necessarily uncommon.

A significant (and perhaps disproportionate) number of antagonists, however, are Chaotic. As described in the Basic rules, Chaos lends itself particularly well to a variety of rivals, foils, and villains:

“Laws are made to be broken, as long as a person can get away with it. It is not important to keep promises, and lying and telling the truth are both useful.

To a Chaotic creature, the individual is the most important of all things. Selfishness is the normal way of life, and the group is not important. Chaotics often act on sudden desires and whims. They cannot be trusted, and their behavior is hard to predict…Chaotic behavior is usually the same as behavior that could be called ‘evil’.”

Given the importance of Chaos in adding conflict to B/X D&D, a setting supplement expanding on this alignment can help Dungeon Masters keep their games both interesting and challenging. “Comes Chaos”, from Jonathan Becker (author of the “B/X Companion”, and the B/X Blackrazor blog), essentially fills for B/X the same niche Monte Cook’s “Book of Vile Darkness” (BoVD) fills for D&D 3e.

Cook’s work is a product of the game system for which it is written. Seeking to provide “a detailed look at the nature of evil”, BoVD includes "rules for drug use, demonic possession, torture, and ritual sacrifice". At nearly 200 pages, it’s longer than the entirety of the B/X rules.

“Comes Chaos” is much more streamlined, confining itself to the 64-page format of the Basic and Expert rule books. Rather than embarking on an overview of evil in its various forms, Becker hues close to the concept of “metaphysical” Chaos presented in the sword & sorcery fiction underlying B/X—especially the works of Michael Moorcock (Becker specifically acknowledges the Elric books, but I believe the Corum novels may also be an influence).

This is a strength. Where BoVD can be overwhelming, filled with philosophical musings and abstruse mechanics, “Comes Chaos” retains a tight focus on what’s useful to the game. Chaos demons play a big role in the setting, so it includes rules for possession. Becker mentions blood sacrifice, but doesn’t feel the need to expand on a topic anyone familiar with dark fantasy and horror can improvise without assistance. He doesn’t mention drugs or torture at all.

What Becker does provide are rules for running a game steeped in the “Chaos” end of the Law-Chaos continuum. This includes modifications to the seven B/X classes, and the introduction of a class unique to the “Comes Chaos” setting—the Chaos Sorcerer. A “corruption” system provides the mechanism by which characters fighting Chaos may also be seduced by it—including physical mutations caused by its malign influence. Characters may even become champions of Chaos, if the player so chooses.

To be clear, the setting provided here is not a world, as is typical with D&D. Instead, “Comes Chaos” describes what happens to the mortal world—any mortal word—when the forces of spiritual disorder break through from the dimension of Primal Chaos, “…a realm of chaotic, immortal entities of hideous form and monstrous appetites.” It isn’t a campaign world in-and-of itself, it’s a toolkit for breaking a campaign world—whether your current world, or one you create for the purpose—or at least for threatening to break it, should the player characters fail to save the day.

As such, the setting describes four “demon gods of chaos”, intended to drive much of the action within a “Comes Chaos” campaign. It also includes descriptions of “dark sorcery”—new spells, and new takes on existing spells, specifically designed for use in a world invaded by Primal Chaos. The sourcebook also introduces, and provides rules for, a new type of wilderness—the wastelands—where Chaos reigns supreme.

Primal Chaos-themed monsters (“beasts and demons”), a “grisly damage” hit location table (to go along with the general theme), new magic items (“unholy treasures” created by demons, which “cannot be duplicated through normal magical research”), and advice for DMs on running a “Comes Chaos” campaign (including special rules for villainous campaigns where the PCs are not “good guys”) are a fair representation of the additional material the supplement includes. Interested groups will find excellent support for Chaos-focused campaigns.

If I were to change anything about “Comes Chaos”, it would be to make it more generally applicable to standard games, by dialing back certain setting-specific rules.

In the default “Comes Chaos” setting, for instance, reversed spells are disallowed. For clerics, reversed versions of the standard cleric spells are unavailable. For magic-users and elves, the standard and reversed versions are available, but must be learned as separate spells for the caster’s spell book. The rules don’t explain the reasons for these restrictions.

Another example is the manner in which the new Chaos mechanics are applied. While the corruption system applies universally, other Chaos-related rules only apply to characters who have “fallen to darkness”. While Chaos is ravaging the land, threatening to destroy the world, Chaotic player characters can continue to serve Chaos, and even fight against the encroachment of Primal Chaos, without being part of the overall problem. Effectively, “Comes Chaos” has four alignments—Law-Neutrality-Chaos, and then a form of “super Chaos”, where these additional mechanics apply. I would prefer Chaos to be Chaos, and once Primal Chaos begins to break through, all followers of Chaos begin to feel its effects.

A final case is how all magic—even standard spells cast by the standard classes—is explained as a manipulation of Primal Chaos. Given the corrosive nature of this force in the “Comes Chaos” setting, it seems strange that Lawful spellcasters can harness this power without contravening their own alignment.

These, however, are minor quibbles. I can simply modify or ignore any elements I don’t like. The text itself includes the very B/X advice “Ignore what doesn’t fit, and use what does.” No supplement is going to fully satisfy every player and DM, and there’s no reason why it should.

Becker has produced an excellent setting supplement, which can help any DM imbue their campaign with a deep sense of how Chaos operates, and the threat it poses to the campaign world. I highly recommend everyone add a copy of “Comes Chaos” to their B/X library.