Other D&D Variant [+] Curse of Strahd in Nimble vs Shadowdark

[timbannock]

I have just stumbled into the rare opportunity of running a campaign length game for a party of mostly new-to-TTRPG players through Curse of Strahd... But I'm deathly sick of 5E, and they don't really care about system, so I'm between Shadowdark and Nimble. Two very different experiences, in terms of character survivability and lots of other elements.

So consider this a "sell me on" thread for which one you'd use and, most importantly, why. And maybe specific things you'd do with each...?

 

[Bill Zebub]

I don't know Nimble other than that it exists, so I'll be curious to see responses to your question, and how people compare the two systems.

 

[zottel]

I don't know much about nimble, except that every youtuber seems to gabe a crush on it.
I can say, however, that Shadowdark works really well for Strahd. The tone of the game, the lethality, the vibes. Mike Shea has some.good resources on running Curse of Strahd in shadiwdark, and the distracted dm I think has an adventure that plays on Strahd, but loks very unique. Might be worth checking out.
My guess is, if you want to go very heroic, Nimble might be better than Shadowdark, but I would go with Shadowdark, personally.
If you already started with a system, I'd be curious to read your experiences.

 

[timbannock]

I don't know much about nimble, except that every youtuber seems to gabe a crush on it.
I can say, however, that Shadowdark works really well for Strahd. The tone of the game, the lethality, the vibes. Mike Shea has some.good resources on running Curse of Strahd in shadiwdark, and the distracted dm I think has an adventure that plays on Strahd, but loks very unique. Might be worth checking out.
My guess is, if you want to go very heroic, Nimble might be better than Shadowdark, but I would go with Shadowdark, personally.
If you already started with a system, I'd be curious to read your experiences.

Thanks for the info!

You'll get a chance soon, most likely: I am indeed starting it up and will be blogging about it on my site (timbannock.com) eventually. After a fun but ultimately false start with Shadowdark (largely thanks to Sly Flourish, like you mentioned, as well as LichHouse on YouTube), my group and I decided on Tales of Xadia, based in part on an article I wrote a while back, as it turns out. We just wanted to focus on the roleplay, so that won out over both SD and Nimble.

I'll try to remember to post here once I have my experiences written down.

 

[GMMichael]

I'll bid against Nimble given that its homepage has at least two typos and three of my least favorite RPG terms. However, it has great art, a tiny character sheet, and nice 5e streamlining that probably warrant a one-off trial when you have a Shadowdark session that's short on players.

 

[timbannock]

Perhaps humorously, I ultimately went with a complete left turn: Tales of Xadia - The Dragon Prince Roleplaying Game.

 

[Mannahnin]

Perhaps humorously, I ultimately went with a complete left turn: Tales of Xadia - The Dragon Prince Roleplaying Game.

How's that going?

 

[GravyFingerz]

I have no experience with Nimble, nor running Shadowdark, but I do own the Shadowdark rulebook and some of the Cursed Scroll zines and I like the system, it feels like a novel fusion of the OSR ideals and modern mechanics. Considering that you're allowed to cast spells until you fail and that it's pretty rules light, I feel like it would be a good choice.

Perhaps humorously, I ultimately went with a complete left turn: Tales of Xadia - The Dragon Prince Roleplaying Game.

Ahhh, you zagged instead of zigged. I love cortex+ and so for me, this also feels like a win for games I like.

 

[timbannock]

How's that going?

I've posted about it on my site actually:

timbannock.com

Overall good. Prep was honestly super easy. Players are a little undecided about the time it takes you build each dice pool, so after another session or two we'll put it to a vote whether to continue with TOX or go with Shadowdark.

Nimble is unfortunately out of the running due to the combat focus. The players just aren't into the mechanical side of tactics, but they enjoy tactical infinity. Thus SD is the fallback. I am hoping they get keen on TOX though, because I love it.