Behaviour Interactive has brought many iconic horror icons into Dead by Daylight, allowing players to play as or outsmart them in a dangerous game of cat and mouse. Most recently, the team partnered with Wizards of the Coast to resurrect the iconic Vecna from his Dungeons & Dragons crypts into the mist, where this powerful Lich hunts victims on behalf of the Entity.

Dead by Daylight and Dungeons & Dragons’ collaboration gives players the chance to play as Vecna, the first magically empowered Killer. We sat down with Behaviour Interactive’s Senior Creative Director Dave Richard and Principal Game Designer Janick Neveu to discuss how the team brought this collaboration to life.

“There were a few rules that [Behaviour Interactive] wanted to follow for the whole Dungeons & Dragons chapter,” Richard explained, describing the work at Behaviour. “The first was to really nail the juxtaposition between a fantasy world and the dark, horrific world of Dead by Daylight. How could we take all the elements that we expect from Dungeons & Dragons and translate them into something that was more grounded, horrifying, and visceral? The second was to bring the chaotic aspect of a D&D game.”

Translating an open-ended tabletop fantasy game into a cat-and-mouse horror game is a complex challenge. Almost anything can happen in Dungeons & Dragons if the players or the Dungeon Master directing the story imagines it. Player agency is key, and the Behavior team has done its best to incorporate this level of control by pitting Survivors against Vecna with elements of a classic Dungeons & Dragons game.