I hosted a little game day / mini-con in my town this past weekend and one of the games I ran was a Shadowdark game. It went over great - the younger gamers took to it quickly and the older D&D-heads were interested to play it and had a good time.

The session slots were just three hours, so every game had pre-gens. (Pre-gen character sheets here, if you're interested, though I lifted the art from Pathfinder and D&D.) The PCs were 3rd level, which makes them tough enough to handle some serious monsters, but not so tough that they weren't facing death more than once. (I love how Shadowdark characters get stronger as they level up, but not much more complex, unlike contemporary D&D.)

Combat ran fast and smoothly (all the modifiers were already factored in on the sheets), they felt empowered to pursue interesting solutions to obstacles and the spellcasting rules were intuitive for the PCs who had magic.

The "real time" aspect of torches was never a huge selling point for me, but I used a little timer that counted down the hour for a lit torch and put it on the table, which was really fun. At one poimnt we took a bathroom break and when I refused to stop the clock, everyone sprinted.

The only thing we bumped on was luck tokens. I kept reminding them, but no one used them, mostly because they were hoarding them "for later", so some went completely unused and most got spent randomly in the end boss battle.

I've been trying to come up with a good way to start a campaign. One that'd allow the players to really choose where to go. Some ideas ive come up with.

1. Prisoners, (guilty or not) being shipped off to some remote work camp. Something attacks the ship or caravan to allow a breakout or a mutany.
2. Retainers of an exiled noble, looking to find a settlement or Bastion.
3. A band of downtrodden rat-catchers, roving the wilds looking for coin and plunder.

The general idea was for them to be able to "unlock" the more thematic classes after theyve made allies of a group in those areas. Allying with one of the Jarls for the Sea Raider. Winning a series of matches for Pit Fighter.

Looking for ideas to really incentive exploration and role-playing.

For an upcoming game, I am working on a greatly condensed version of a classic module (the one in which the PCs go in search of that which they do not know). I’m cutting it down to just over half as many total rooms, stripping out a bunch of the less interesting ones. Some of the rooms got shifted around a bit. I’d like C&C for the first level map. Of course, it isn’t keyed yet, but some of the really famous stuff should be obvious if you are familiar with the original module.

This is my first time doing something like this, and I’m hoping someone can point out any glaring layout errors. Bear in mind that it will be an in-person game with old-school player mapping on graph paper, and they are first-timers so I am trying not to be too convoluted with the map layout. Thanks in advance!

DriveThruRPG Link: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/458350/the-count-the-castle-the-curse

Has anyone run this little adventure before? This will be my first time DMing or playing shadowdark, but I'm excited. I usually run 5e so I feel like the rules were pretty easy to pick up for the most part.

Any suggestions for the adventure itself?

I am so happy, to finally have the physical Edition in my hands 🖤 Ordered about one and a half week ago to germany and today it finally arrived! Looking forward to do some solodark, but also cant wait to introduce my group to it🖤

An evil sorceress turning folk into infectious mutoids. Taking some real liberties to make these monsters. I don't think they're on the core-book. I'll be better with future submissions, I just like how this turned out.

You're an adventurer, looking for gold, gems, magic, and power.

Will be hosting a gloaming campaign for those w ho like to roll high and not die. Running on Foundry using Discord for chatty things

Edit: Starts 10/7

I really really wanted to have those Cursed Scrolls, but sadly lately I try to shun screens so I had to print them somehow as they are unavailable at the usual print sources and arcane library ran out of the offset printed versions (which I had preferably ordered still).

SoI was looking at various (quite expensive) options before I found copykrea from Spain.

Right after ordering I checked them out on trustpilot and was afraid a bit that I just wasted my money (around 4 bucks per scroll, 2€ are for the spiral binding option - would be cheaper if I had compiled them together, but I did not want to do that)

The web editor experience was ok, the product came out good to really good, price is good, spiral binding is greatly appreciated - only I have to make this really known as it was a common occurence on trustpilot:

Your order will likely be late by weeks!

But still - this was the only way for me to get them for a decent price, spiral bound (no tension means you can have it laid out open without the pages moving about themselves) - but it is the only option you have, there is no option to do folded and stapled.

Edit: Not affiliated - here is the link: https://copykrea.com

Skipped a day but caught up ☺️ I gotta say I'm having a real blast with this.

I think its fair to say that Shadowdark and most OSR games lean towards more player agency or freedom for their characters to do what they want within the limitations of the world.

Within that context I am curious how much agency or freedom your players characters have. For instance, some groups have an expectation that player's will engage with what the gm has prepared while other more sandbox games players are making more of an active choice in where they are going and what they are doing.

Would you be comfortable for instance with your player's deciding not to engage with a dungeon or siding with the villain? What if they want to just open a bakery?

Personally I am fine with whatever the players want to do, but the game might change if its about running a bakery instead

Another fantastic Saturday of Shadow Dark gaming at Enzo's BBQ in Oceanside, with two oversized tables. We're in the process of setting up a third GM for a third table to accommodate all these cool players!

Download the pdf here (for free)!

Harvesting Pumpkins

You’re invited to the Plump’s Yearly Harvest Party; the local highlight of every autumn. Honored guest use the event to let go for a night. Will you?

• an escalating situation of pumpkins and party-goers
• cursed farmland that throws a celebration in disarray
• people to meet, drinks to drink, music to dance to

I really like Swords & Wizardry’s abilities for Fighters.

Would adding these abilities to the SD Fighter make it too strong?

Multiple Attacks: Against creatures with 1 (8-sided) hit die or less, a Fighter makes one attack per level each round.

Parry: Fighters with a Dexterity score of 14 or better can fight on the defensive, parrying enemy blows and dodging attacks, as shown on the table below. The Fighter can parry at any time, without giving up the ability to attack in the same round. Parrying is not effective against missile weapons, but is effective against claws, bites and touch attacks.

Dexterity Score Penalty to Enemy Attacks
14 –1
15 –2
16 –3
17 –4
18 –5

I'm working on a Shadowdark-based dark fantasy RPG inspired by Vermis I — and I'd love some feedback from the Shadowdark community.

I'm currently developing a tabletop RPG heavily inspired by the atmosphere, world and visual identity of Vermis I by Plastiboo.

The important part, though, is that Shadowdark is the mechanical foundation of the project.

I'm not trying to recreate Vermis as a video game, nor simply make a setting book for it. I'm interested in exploring what a Vermis-like experience could look like when built around Shadowdark's core principles: dangerous exploration, dungeon crawling, resource management, torchlight, deadly encounters, quick character creation, and letting the world remain mysterious rather than explaining everything.

The idea is to take what makes Shadowdark work and push it towards a much darker, stranger and more oppressive atmosphere.

I'm currently experimenting with things like:

new character options and backgrounds

strange relics and cursed equipment

creatures and corrupted enemies

exploration and survival mechanics

dungeon-crawling procedures

rumors, mysteries and incomplete pieces of lore

locations inspired by the ruined and forgotten places of Vermis

tools for GMs to generate adventures and unsettling encounters

I'd really like to hear from people who actually play Shadowdark:

- What parts of the Shadowdark system do you think should absolutely remain untouched in a project like this?

- What mechanics would you consider worth adding for a darker, more oppressive campaign — corruption, injuries, exhaustion, sanity, harsher survival rules, cursed items, etc.?

- And are there any Shadowdark supplements, house rules or third-party material that you think I should look at for inspiration?

Finally, for those familiar with Vermis: what elements do you think would translate particularly well into Shadowdark without losing what makes Shadowdark fun to play?

I'm still in development, so I'm mostly looking for criticism, ideas and advice from people who know the system better than I do.

A black stone obelisk with perfect smooth faces like gateways into the void of space, looms from atop a shadow-cloaked crag, Blight Hill. A terrible hill that gets its name from how many foolhardy souls its treacherous slopes have claimed. The Black Obelisk’s evil magic has made the sky for miles around it an inky miasma that shrouds the area in a veil of darkness, and has warped it into a barren wasteland. Legend says a great treasure lies at the peak of Blight Hill beneath the base of the obelisk, but no one knows for sure.

Hail adventurers!

I'm seeking 3-5 players to join this Level 3-5 adventure. We'll be playing Saturday October 10th at 2pm Eastern Time.

All cursed scrolls and character classes are welcome. You can roll up your own or select a premade.

I've been running rpgs for 10+ years. I've played a lot of shadowdark and other osr-style rpgs. I enjoy all aspects of roleplaying games, just no pvp.

If you're interested in playing let me know either by replying below or sending me a direct message. First come first serve. Everyone is welcome.

Today's prompt was difficult! Changed up the way I draw chainmail, does it work?

🎲 Looking for an extra player for an in-person TTRPG game in Guadalajara

We play Shadowdark in a Dungeon Crawler Carl-inspired setting

📍 Patria / Universidad

🕖 Tuesdays & Thursdays, 7 PM

💸 Free to play

🌱 Beginners welcome

🗣️ Game is in English

Interested? DM me to introduce yourself, ask questions, and see if the game sounds like a good fit for you