# Wicked Ones tags: #game/rpg/wicked-ones ![[Wicked Ones (cover).jpg|600]] **Wicked Ones** is a **[[Forged in the Dark]]** game from Ben Nielson and Victor Costa that flips the fantasy script: instead of heroes raiding a dungeon, *you* are the monsters — the bugbears, demons, goblins, kobolds, and orcs — building the lair, launching raids on adventurers, and scheming in the dark. It's **[[Blades in the Dark]]** turned inside out, and it delights in the reversal: the party of adventurers is now the natural disaster you're trying to keep out. ## Setting There's no heroic civilization to defend here — you're the underworld's answer to the surface's endless supply of would-be legends. The monsters of the world scrape together a **dungeon** of their own, digging chambers, recruiting minions, and piling up defenses against the deluge of adventurers who keep showing up to try their luck. It captures the fantasy of running a lair as its own living enterprise: every expansion is a gamble, every raid is a score, and the adventurers are just another faction with a grudge. ## Mechanics The engine is the standard **Forged in the Dark** action roll — a d6 pool equal to your action rating, keep the highest die, with **6** a clean success, **4/5** a partial with a consequence, and **1–3** a failure — and position, effect, stress, and resistance all work as you'd expect from the family. The signature twist is the **dungeon as your crew**: you build and upgrade the lair, manage its defenses, and raid the surface for loot while the adventurers come to you. Everything about the crew structure of a FitD game is re-pointed at a hole in the ground full of monsters, and it fits better than it has any right to. ## Editions - **Wicked Ones** (2022) — the single core edition, released at v1.4. It's since gone **CC0**, released by its creators into the public domain, so the whole game is freely shareable. *In the library* (core, the Free Edition, and the supplements). ## References - [Wicked Ones — Official Site (banditcamp.io)](https://banditcamp.io/) - [Wicked Ones Review — TheGamingGang](https://thegaminggang.com/game_reviews/rpgs/revel-in-being-the-monstrous-villain-wicked-ones-reviewed/) - [Wicked Ones TTRPG Review — Popgeeks](https://popgeeks.com/wicked-ones-ttrpg-review/)