The coolest Dead by Daylight crossover yet is coming soon with Dungeons & Dragons

A new map with new survivors and a famous new villain are about to pour out of D&D, and right into Dead by Daylight.

What a lich

For better than 50 years, Dungeons & Dragons has been one of the biggest names (if not ‘the’ biggest) in tabletop role playing. It was massively huge in the 80s and even the 90s, though did get somewhat quiet again until recently. Among other things, a certain hugely popular PC RPG saw to that, along with what’s something of a tie-in TV show, with Stranger Things.

The most recent season of that brought an arch-villain that the kids called “Vecna”. For those who don’t know, Vecna is also the name of a D&D supervillain. A lich, Vecna is a powerful necromancer, and all-around bad guy. And now he’s making his way to another tie-in property with Dead by Daylight.

Vecna has taken up control of a place called the Forgotten Ruins, which will be the newest map coming to Dead by Daylight. The multiplayer, asymmetrical survival game will do a heck of a lot more than that though, as it’ll also be bringing in magic.

Vecna will carry Book of Vile Darkness along with him, allowing him to cast four powerful spells. Using that, Vecna will hunt down the survivors with flight, a “phantasmic hand” that can do tasks for him, a sphere that can cancel out survivors’ magical items and reveal their positions, and the ability to conjure “flying spectral entities that pass-through obstacles and cause harm to all they hit”.

The Whispered One. Lord of the Rotted Tower. The Master of Secrets. Few dare speak his true name. Vecna’s thirst for dark knowledge led him to many strange realms, but a clue found by a servant ignited a new obsession. It spoke of an unknown land. A realm of fog, home to an incredible dark energy.

Driven to harness this power, Vecna spent endless nights fixated on how he might wield it. When he finally found a way in – when The Fog came – excitement washed over him. He’d conquered and ruled countless Realms before, why would this be any different?

Behaviour Interactive press release

Wield the power of the Forgotten Realms

You might notice that we mentioned “magical items” that survivors will be able to wield in the new addition. And yes, Vecna won’t be the only one with a few tricks up his sleeve, as his prey will be able to create a copy of themselves to fool the arch-fiend, use Still Sight (to “see the auras” of nearby generators, totems, and chests), and use a little Bardic Inspiration. That little number will have players rolling a d20 to give others a potential “Skill Check buff”.

And yes, before you ask, you play as a Bard in this new Dead by Daylight quest. Of course that means you’re not a powerful magic-wielder or warrior. That’d even the playing field a little too much, though as you can see above, the Elvish Aestri Yazar and human Baermar Uraz aren’t completely without their abilities.

There’s more too, as Chests will contain further bonuses and buffs for those playing as survivors. Crack a Chest and roll that d20 again (we’re not kidding with that, by the way), and you could get something special. Rolling a 2 or a 3 will result in a standard DbD item, while coming up with anything from a 4-19 will nab you mystical Gauntlets or Boots, and even allow you to defeat one of Vecna’s spells.

So what about rolling a 20? Well, that’ll get you a “powerful Magical Item”, which is essentially a perk. The Eye of Vecna will let players become invisible for a little while after leaving a Locker, while The Hand of Vecna will grant the power to teleport between Lockers. Great for a quick escape, though using one of those items will syphon off a Health State. So use ’em wisely.

Oh, and we should mention what might happen with a roll of… 1. If they’re unlucky enough to come up with that roll, players will “have a nasty surprise waiting for them.” We can certainly imaging what that might be.

The magical action will hear up this summer, as Dead by Daylight: Dungeons & Dragons arrives on June 3rd, 2024.