Shadowdark Shadowdark General Thread [+]

[Nilbog]

Anyone know when/if shadowdark is getting a full UK release?

Can only seem to purchase it directly from the arcane library and shipping is prohibitively expensive

 

[Fenris-77]

Anyone know when/if shadowdark is getting a full UK release?

Can only seem to purchase it directly from the arcane library and shipping is prohibitively expensive

I don't think Arcane Library does 'releases' like this. Despite the popularity of the game they are still a very small design house. The KS was a way to access the books without some of the same shipping costs. Logistics is big business, and small publishers aren't equipped to make the jump into the big leagues at the drop of a hat.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You would have a more flexible approach if you used the base of whichever human got bitten, instead of the animal. So, your base lycan is your average peasant with the improvement, as you note, based on a standard level boost. But you could also have bigger, nastier humans as the base, like the level 6 evil knight (or whatever). So for a given task you just pick a combination of human template and were template that combine to give you roughly the level you're looking for. Plus you have all the abilities of enhanced human to play with.

If I wanted werewolves in my own setting, I'd do up a whole range of levels, starting from the base one in SD but adding (off the top of me head) a bigger brute, a sneaky hunter, a shaman, and a werelord leader.

That's a good approach. This campaign isn't going to be heavily lycanthrope-focused -- this family is just killing (and eating!) new settlers to the region and are a problem to be solved by the players so that their home base can grow.

But I might have the patriarch of the family be bigger and more powerful for sure.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I don't think Arcane Library does 'releases' like this. Despite the popularity of the game they are still a very small design house. The KS was a way to access the books without some of the same shipping costs. Logistics is big business, and small publishers aren't equipped to make the jump into the big leagues at the drop of a hat.

She's distributing to the EU on the current campaign via a place in Denmark, per the comments on the latest Kickstarter update.

It might be worth investigating if making a late pledge for just the core book would be cheaper than ordering directly from the Arcane Library site right now, @Nilbog.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You could also over stat the wereboars, but add a deliberating weakness to some or all of them. Maybe the ritually blinded themselves, are bound to a relic, or can't abide strong scents. Pig iron could be a fun weakness, for the pun alone. 'Creating & Adapting Monsters for use in Shadowdark RPG' by Michael Putlack, as well as the Shadowdark core book, has some more weaknesses to use.

I gotta say, swapping their weakness to silver out for a weakness to pig iron is extremely compelling. One of the problems with lycanthropes in D&D generally is that they all tend to be "werewolves, but make them bats," which has pretty quickly diminishing returns, IMO.