[UPDATED] Dark Horror Fantasy in Robert Schwalb's SHADOW OF THE DEMON LORD

[UPDATE - apologies; I messed up the comments section. You can now leave comments.] Robert Schwalb's (Dungeons & Dragons, A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay) Shadow of the Demon Lord, an RPG Kickstarted just back in April (it just took 5 months!) is now available as a PDF. This game is described as "dark and horrific fantasy" (it's behind DTRPG's 'adult content' filter) -- as the author says, "If you love Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, the Ravenloft and Midnight settings, Joe Abercrombie’s The First Law series, Glen Cook’s Black Company books, or heavy metal music, then this is the game is for you."
You can get it from DriveThruRPG or RPGNow here. It's also available to rate in the reviews section here.


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The End Is Just the Beginning

Sometimes the world needs heroes. But in the desperation of these last days, the world will take all those it can get: heroes, blackguards, madmen, and whoever else is willing to stand against the coming darkness. Will you fight the demons or will you burn it all down and dance among the ashes? Who will you become when the world dies?

Shadow of the Demon Lord® opens a door to an imaginary world held in the grip of a cosmic destroyer. Enter a land steeped in the chaos and madness unleashed by the end times, with whole realms overrun by howling herds of beastmen, warped spirits freed from the Underworld, and unspeakable horrors stirred awaken by the Demon Lord’s imminent arrival.

A complete tabletop roleplaying game in one book, Shadow of the Demon Lord provides everything you need to create and play characters, form groups in pursuit of adventure, and tell exciting stories with your friends. As well, the book gives Game Masters all the tools they need to create adventures, over one hundred foul creatures, a detailed region of the campaign world, and extensive advice to help run the game.

As the Demon Lord’s shadow creeps across the world, it creates the chance for heroes to seize their destinies and villains to accomplish their despicable goals. As you play the game, you and your friends tell stories about thwarting the plots of twisted cultists, hunting down and destroying bizarre demons, exploring lost lands, investigating weird mysteries, and so much more.
 
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turkeygiant

First Post
Ill give my first impression because it is going to take me longer to process this book as a whole, learn the system, read the lore and all that.

My immediate thoughts while flipping through the book was that it wasn't what I thought it would be...

The cover of the book and the art that was previewed in the kickstarter was so evocative of this world they were creating, but I feel like the book itself just doesn't sell that world very well. The art is great but it feels kinda disjointed and set against a pretty bland/cold layout that just isn't selling the tone of the setting, it feels like it could be the rule book for cyberpunk game not a bloody horror fantasy. There is a pretty good sized bestiary in the back of the book but I was surprised at how much of it was generic D&D/Fantasy fare, I was expecting more unique/new creatures and monsters than there ended up being. To my surprise he rules stand out as the thing I am most interested in trying out, I want to see how these simplified dice rolls, and tiered character progression work in practice, on paper they seem quite appealing.

My final score for this game is probably going to be lower than others but that's because it really doesn't fill the niche I was expecting it to. I was hoping for a game that focused on creating a new setting and fully fleshed out lore, a completely unique world like Exalted, Dark Heresy, Blue Rose or Southlands, the final product however just hews too close to generic D&D/Pathfinder in terms of its setting, it doesn't feel like it really shows how it is better or different. Despite being a little interested in seeing how the mechanics of the game work, they just aren't a selling point for me, there are already a million generic fantasy systems out there.

I was really hoping this would be a book about new lore and a cohesive setting but I don't feel like it measures up to what I had hoped for.
 

Hand of Evil

Hero
Epic
I still have to run a game but as [MENTION=6787083]turkeygiant[/MENTION] said, not what I expected. The system is easy to learn and you can build a character in no time but the selection of races does not invoke the world used in the game. Playable races: human, changeling (doppleganger), clockwork, dwarf, goblin, and orc, yet one of the concepts of the game is insanity and some races just do not feel to work with that rule. Also, it does seem to be setting light but that may be a stretch goal.
 

mrm1138

Explorer
An updated version of the PDF was just added to DriveThruRPG. Rather than replacing the original file, however, DTRPG has both files available. The updated version has the exact same page count, but the file size is almost twice as large. Is it just a higher res version of the book?
 

Olfactatron

Explorer
On cursory reading, it looked and felt like any number of pro-fan-made "This is what I would change about D&D" rather than a new take on anything. That said, I like it quite a bit more than 5th edition already, so I guess he did what he set out to do.

The one criticism that I would level at this point without equivocation is that the character sheet in the back of the book is terrible. There's a lot of stuff you need to write down, and it's one of the most lazily laid out style-over-utility sheets I've ever seen. You would do better to start with a sheet of blank graph paper.
 
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Chris Stenger

First Post
I probably don't have the experience you folks do, but I was pretty blown away by the book. I wasn't knocked out by the visuals, or the setting depth (because there's very little so far), but the system itself just speaks to me. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the content. Between this and DCC, I don't feel like running 5e at all right now.
 

Chris Stenger

First Post
Agreed about the character sheet. Haven't liked it since the first time I saw it previewed. I thought it was some sort of rough beta, or something, and was a touch horrified to see that it was the final.

I'll also note that as sparse as the first adventure is, I really look forward to running it. There's an economy about the way it's presented that clicks for me. It's a hexcrawl with logistical guidelines, but it requires you to fill in a ton of blanks. Very easy to make it your own.
 
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