Shadowdark Finally Played Shadowdark

[Arilyn]

It's vital that SD not be played like 5e or even 2e. Danger should be telegraphed so players can make informed choices. Combat will happen, of course, but players should have chances to avoid it, bluff or intimidate their way through. Yes, you lose spells on a failed roll, but if you succeed, you keep the spell. You mentioned that your GM bumped up your levels. We found that you don't lose many spells at higher level and characters get pretty tough. If the characters are constantly dying, and it's not deliberate recklessness, something is off.

I played in a long running SD game. We got to level 7 with very few deaths and no TPKs. Only change in that campaign was starting with max hp. Oh, and we don't do the crawl turns, but that is not relevant to deadlines.

 

[Retreater]

Danger should be telegraphed so players can make informed choices.

In every game I played, the danger was poorly telegraphed, whether in my friend's game or the professional convention games. None of the games used Morale or Reaction rolls ... just fights to the death (usually the PCs).
Concerning spell failure ... I think I had a +2 to cast (from a Talent and ability score). I needed a DC 11 for a successful cast. That's a 45% chance of outright failure and losing even a 1st level spell. After that, you're playing a character that can't cast an important spell. Congratulations, you've got a dagger for the rest of the session.
This eliminates an important part of the game - preparation and niche protection. Imagine preparing holy weapon that you need to damage the enemy you studied. It fails to go off. The party can't injure the villain. Your cleric loses the cure spell on his first attempt and the party can no longer heal. You're dead in the water.
To me, this isn't fun. (To be fair, I also don't like DCC funnels.)
To me, Shadowdark (at any level of play) is an extended DCC funnel.

 

[Arilyn]

In every game I played, the danger was poorly telegraphed, whether in my friend's game or the professional convention games. None of the games used Morale or Reaction rolls ... just fights to the death (usually the PCs).
Concerning spell failure ... I think I had a +2 to cast (from a Talent and ability score). I needed a DC 11 for a successful cast. That's a 45% chance of outright failure and losing even a 1st level spell. After that, you're playing a character that can't cast an important spell. Congratulations, you've got a dagger for the rest of the session.
This eliminates an important part of the game - preparation and niche protection. Imagine preparing holy weapon that you need to damage the enemy you studied. It fails to go off. The party can't injure the villain. Your cleric loses the cure spell on his first attempt and the party can no longer heal. You're dead in the water.
To me, this isn't fun. (To be fair, I also don't like DCC funnels.)
To me, Shadowdark (at any level of play) is an extended DCC funnel.

If this is how your GMs are running SD, no wonder you had a frustrating time. Kelsey wrote great advice for running the game in the text. If it's followed the game will be challenging, but not super deadly, and a lot of fun.

 

[Scribe]

In every game I played, the danger was poorly telegraphed, whether in my friend's game or the professional convention games. None of the games used Morale or Reaction rolls ... just fights to the death (usually the PCs).

So the experienced, and 'professional' DMs all failed to actually run the game.

 

[Retreater]

So the experienced, and 'professional' DMs all failed to actually run the game.

I sent bad reviews for the Lurking Fears crew to Arcane Library on the provided surveys, FWIW.

Still, I think the math behind the game isn't tuned to what I would enjoy. You fail a lot more than I think is acceptable.

 

[Scribe]

Still, I think the math behind the game isn't tuned to what I would enjoy. You fail a lot more than I think is acceptable.

Nothing wrong with that. When I sat down and finally looked at the 5e math I realized it's way to easy for what I find acceptable.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

To me, Shadowdark (at any level of play) is an extended DCC funnel.

Yeah, that is a bad DM implementation. In my Shadowdark campaign, there's been one round of combat in the last two sessions, because the PCs are being cautious and only fighting when they feel guaranteed of victory.

It does sound like you had unpleasant games, and I feel for you. Even before the CSIO stuff, I had noped out of DCC convention games because of the love of meatgrinder funnels, which I don't find particularly fun or interesting. (A DM being able to kill PCs isn't cool or interesting. You can always just cause the roof to cave in and kill them. Whoopdity doo.)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I sent bad reviews for the Lurking Fears crew to Arcane Library on the provided surveys, FWIW.

I saw them recruiting on the Shadowdark Facebook forum. It definitely seemed like they didn't have any in-house knowledge of the game but were just responding to the commercial demand. I will certainly avoid them until I hear some better reviews in future.

 

[billd91]

You can't judge a system based on some wacky crazy-pants implemetantion, or on small sample size outcomes. Other forums have a decided lock on that kind of shizz. We can do better.

Honestly, if that were my experience, I absolutely could (and would) judge the system based on that. This wasn't simply a one and done - it was giving a full three strikes, including a weekend-long go at it as one of those three. How much misery does someone have to endure before deciding a system that they aren't liking isn't for them?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Honestly, if that were my experience, I absolutely could (and would) judge the system based on that. This wasn't simply a one and done - it was giving a full three strikes, including a weekend-long go at it as one of those three. How much misery does someone have to endure before deciding a system that they aren't liking isn't for them?

Yeah, it's a rational choice. It does sound like the Lurking Fears people and other con DMs really crapped the bed, though.