Dead By Daylight announces D&D Collab

I quite enjoy the recent trend within the last few years where different franchises cross over within games. Now, I find this executed best when the game in question and secondary crossover IP share genres or some design trends (looking at you, Fortnite). Fortunately, the universe of Dungeons and Dragons is quite broad in scope, and the game is inherently built on flexibility in terms of setting and characters. Therefore, it’s quite exciting to hear that the high fantasy universe will be coming to the multiplayer horror game Dead by Daylight.

This collaboration will take place in June and will feature a new killer and a new survivor (two for the price of one), a new map, the Forgotten Ruins, and some Dungeons and Dragons-inspired gameplay features. If you’ve watched Stranger Things it may not be a surprise that the newest killer joining the roster is none other than Vecna himself. The Lord of the Rotted Tower wields his Book of Vile Darkness which allows him to cast four unique spells:

Fly allows him to soar through the map and easily pass over obstacles, while Flight of the Damned will conjure spectral entities to attack players. Additionally, Vecna can cast two disruption spells in the form of Mage Hand and Dispelling Sphere. In-game, Mage Hand will block the use of pallets, while Dispelling Sphere will lay a detrimental area-of-effect status that reveals Survivor positions and disables the use of magic items.

The newest Survivors consist of two Bards; Aestri Yazar and Baermar Uraz, The Troupe from Chapter 32 of Dungeons & Dragons. Each character is equipped with three unique perks: Mirrored Illusion, Bardic Inspiration, and Still Sight. Bardic Inspiration seems especially valuable as it allows players to roll a D20 and bestow their allies with a random skill check buff. Even if you aren’t playing one of the new Bard characters, you’ll still be able to utilize some D&D-flavored abilities when playing within the Forgotten Ruins. There are seven chests on this map which will open with a roll of the dice and bestow various rewards.

Rolling a 2 or 3 will give you a regular item. rolling a 4 through 19 will give you either a set of gauntlets or boots that can be used to counteract one of Vecna’s spells. Finally, rolling a 20 will bestow you with one of the two legendary magical items, The Eye of Vecna or Hand of Vecna. The Eye grants brief invisibility, while the Hand allows you to teleport between Lockers. Each use of these items will deteriorate your health by one point, requiring strategic thinking to utilize them effectively.

The Dead By Daylight D&D crossover will launch on June 3rd for PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4/5, Nintendo Switch, Android, and IOS. If you find yourself especially interested, there is a limited-time play test build available right now on Steam.