MrTemplar
Explorer
Like Daggerheart, I was not sure I would like the game before I purchased. Way back in 77, when we played DND in the white box, and the supplements like Greyhawk, etc. I did not enjoy the game and quickly found other systems, and when I did play, it was with a DM that would be have been great no matter what the system. A bad DM/GM is no fun in any system, but in the earlier iterations of Dnd and now OSR, it really ruins the game.
I finally have played Shadowdark, and we are four games in with one week left to finish the adventure. While there are things I would homebrew if I were running the game, the game has been fun. We have had a lot of people go down, come back, go down, and back up thanks to having 2 priests (we are playing with an old DnD sized group of 8). Combat has been very fast despite the large number of players, and my character, a thief, has only taken 2 points of damage total so far, mainly because I rely and my short bow and movement and stealth/hiding to stay out of melee range. There has been some luck. In one combat last night, with a total of 8 attack rolls in one round against us the DM hit no one--he rolls to hit in front of the party, so there is no ambiguity as to his results. Alas, that same combat, he did kill our toughest fighter, and by then the Priests had failed their healing spells, and medicine checks all failed. Despite that one death, the number of times we made it through by the skin of our teeth were quite a few. It was fun.
I think Shadowdark preserves the best of what I remember of the old school original days of DnD; like any OSR it is easy to homebrew if so inclined--I want to bring in some of my favorite races from the Arduin Grimoire trilogy (the original, which itself as a homebrew version of the OD&D).
Daggerheart provides our group with the heroic fantasy, more collaborative style TTRPG. DnD 5e will fade into the background, although we did agree to play one last campaign in it. But Shadowdark and Daggerheart are part of our regular rotation now.
I finally have played Shadowdark, and we are four games in with one week left to finish the adventure. While there are things I would homebrew if I were running the game, the game has been fun. We have had a lot of people go down, come back, go down, and back up thanks to having 2 priests (we are playing with an old DnD sized group of 8). Combat has been very fast despite the large number of players, and my character, a thief, has only taken 2 points of damage total so far, mainly because I rely and my short bow and movement and stealth/hiding to stay out of melee range. There has been some luck. In one combat last night, with a total of 8 attack rolls in one round against us the DM hit no one--he rolls to hit in front of the party, so there is no ambiguity as to his results. Alas, that same combat, he did kill our toughest fighter, and by then the Priests had failed their healing spells, and medicine checks all failed. Despite that one death, the number of times we made it through by the skin of our teeth were quite a few. It was fun.
I think Shadowdark preserves the best of what I remember of the old school original days of DnD; like any OSR it is easy to homebrew if so inclined--I want to bring in some of my favorite races from the Arduin Grimoire trilogy (the original, which itself as a homebrew version of the OD&D).
Daggerheart provides our group with the heroic fantasy, more collaborative style TTRPG. DnD 5e will fade into the background, although we did agree to play one last campaign in it. But Shadowdark and Daggerheart are part of our regular rotation now.
