Plenty Of Time To Die: A Shadowdark Review

This classic dungeon crawl experience raised over a million on Kickstarter

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Blockbuster Kickstarters tend to be examples of the old adage of “An overnight success years in the making”. The recent Shadowdark one that raked in over a million USD is a perfect example. While The Arcane Library wasn’t as well known as some third party 5e creators, it was doing excellent work in the 5e space and racking up a fan base that reacted well to Shadowdark. It also likely hit at just the right time as D&D fans were looking for a new flavor of dungeon crawl. Creator Kelsey Dionne was kind enough to give me an advance copy of the full PDF and discussed the game at Gary Con where she was running full table demos for enthusiastic backers. How does the game recapture that dangerous feeling of classic dungeon crawls while still keeping popular elements of 5e? Let’s play to find out.

Shadowdark throws things back to a classic dungeon crawl experience with quick character creation, deadly encounters that players must weigh between fighting, avoiding or outright fleeing. Dionne has said that she wants to deliver those old school elements but not be stuck with legacy mechanics. Take the best stuff from those older sourcers but also elements from more modern designs. There are also a few things in the game that make it unique. The most well known one is the use of a real life timer. Torches last one hour in the dungeon and things get much more difficult in the dark. Time and light also seem like resources that can endanger characters beyond the claws of monsters and the spikes of traps. Staying out of the dark becomes something the DM can use to complicate encounters. Monsters go after whoever holds the light source first. Players have to find a place to stash the torch during a treacherous climb. That timer also puts pressure on the players to act rather than planning to plan.

Character creation wears its ancient influences on its bracers. Six traits, 3d6 for each all the way down with four classes to choose from. All of these classes fit on one or two pages for ease of reference and simplicity of choice. That randomness extends to a handful of charts where players can roll for a completely random character. The breeziness of the process makes it easy to ditch a set of rolls for a new character or not get too broken up should that character become a grue snack early on in the game. Randomness continues as characters grow with level ups coming off of a chart that contains the usual mix of class talents, ability improvements and such. Rolling a 12 means the player chooses, otherwise progression is left a little to chance. XP is handled by collecting treasure, allowing for players to grow without having to throw down in combat. As someone who prefers to design characters, this isn’t my usual cup of tea, but I’ve also come to enjoy playing characters as they lie too. Gaining a +1 to longsword attacks tells an emergent story based on what happened in the dungeon. It brings to mind those moments where a fighter pulls out their trusty weapon and says “We’ve been through a few things, haven’t we?” that fits this kind of story better.

There are also modern bits of design in Shadowdark. The most obvious lift is advantage and disadvantage but there are others that stand out from the general classic D&D base. Ancestry is another, both in using the modern terminology and being a broad feat-style bonus rather than a predetermined number of bonuses and penalties. These characters also are given smaller, wider bonuses as they level rather than cranking up the math to higher levels. Armor Class goes up, ability scores turn into d20 modifiers and casters only lose spells on a failed casting roll. Though the fights are brutal, death saves of a sort exist. Characters have 1d4 plus their CON modifier to either roll a 20 on their turn or get healed/stabilized. Enough of these elements exist that make this an excellent game for older D&D players to show new 5e fans how things were done in the “old days” without worrying about explaining THAC0 or why the wizards must carry around a dagger.

A few elements blend the old school and the modern together. Players gain XP for gaining treasure but they also gain it for spending treasure on raucous nights at the pub. The more players spend, the more XP they gain. There are charts of course, that offer other consequences of those blurry nights of carousing. Consequences that can tie in to later adventures. When that mysterious tattoo the wizard picked up during their last trip to town starts glowing in the dungeon, it’s a good way to weave a longer story into the game.

And if the rules included aren’t enough, Shadowdark provides options. Even something central like the torch timer has options as something the players can watch on the clock or something the DM tracks behind the screen. GMs can turn the dial towards hardcore with choices like death at zero hit points or making stabilization harder or they can lower the difficulty through more use of luck tokens or giving out XP for dead monsters. Though the four basic classes offer a lot of options more official ones, like the Pit Fighter and the Hell Knight, have been seen in upcoming Cursed Scroll supplements. Kickstarer backers also chose the ranger and the bard to be developed as stretch goals. The lightness of the classes means making one that feels like an old favorite very easy for homebrew and third party options.

Beyond official expansions, rules edits or third party community choices, Shadowdark captured one of 5e’s most underrated strengths: adaptability. With a minimum of prep time, I feel like I could run everything from King’s Festival to The Lost Vault of Tsathzar Rho tonight for a mix of players who’ve never played and ones that have been around since the 80s. Shadowdark cuts most of the fat of other versions of D&D, leaving a lean, mean dungeon crawling machine.

You don't have to take my word for it. This Shadowdark Quickstart contains everything you need to try out the game.
 

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Rob Wieland

Rob Wieland

That arrogance you speak of isn’t present in Shadowdark, nor does the author of Shadowdark annoyingly put herself in her own rule book repeatedly. The self-assured constant Pat on the back that Goodman gives himself comes across as incredibly insecure. Goodman probably is a good guy in real life, but he when reading the DCC rulebook you get the sense that he thinks himself the second coming of Gary Gygax. Incredibly off putting, and another reason that I wish I could get my money back. Shadowdark plays awesome. DCC probably plays great as well, I wouldn’t know, I haven’t played it. But at least in Shadowdark I don’t feel like I have to acquiesce to the author’s repeated declarations of genius.

You should give the game a try, though it is a game where you need to embrace what its going for; its not a generic run any kind of story game, and it'll be easy to find it abrasive if you come into it close minded.

Goodmans authorial voice aside, it is a great system and oodles of fun, and its referenced often because of that, in addition to the many innovations it has (including the ones Shadowdark was informed by)
 

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Divine2021

Adventurer
You should give the game a try, though it is a game where you need to embrace what its going for; its not a generic run any kind of story game, and it'll be easy to find it abrasive if you come into it close minded.

Goodmans authorial voice aside, it is a great system and oodles of fun, and its referenced often because of that, in addition to the many innovations it has (including the ones Shadowdark was informed by)
Oh yea, I picked up the Lieber stuff cause I’m increasingly obsessed with Fafhd and Grey Mouser stories. What I wrote above seeks to compare and contrast what we both find off putting and enjoyable in two different product lines—in particular when it comes to tone. Nothing more, nothing less.
 




JohnF

Adventurer
Soanyone still following this thread: what old school (actually old, or OSR) modules have you run with Shadowdark?
No one has gotten there yet, but I'm using I1 Dwellers in the Forbidden City in a slightly different part of Hepmonaland's jungles than indicated in the 80's Greyhawk box (the only Greyhawk for me).

I've swapped Yuan-ti for Viperians (same thing), Beastmen for Mongrelmen, and Kobolds for Tasloi (but I'm keeping the giant wasp-riding because giant wasp-riding). I've made Shadowdark Bullywugs to not only keep them in the Forbidden City, but to make a "randomized" bullywug village in Pelisso Swamp just for the fun of it (the fun is the randomized element -- any time players go there, I roll on my own charts to see what's up today in that very chaotic place. DMing is fun for me when even I don't know what's going to happen).

As for Horan and Kwaimo...hmmm... Well, let's see which group gets there first and what their level is, and I'll decide then what happens, like a lot of other things in the module (for example, the creepy "Bugbear bachelors" who need wives. Eww.)

It's an open-table game/tropical treasure hunt sandbox this summer at my place. Take a boat to Xerbo's Cove (a pirate-founded trading village with secrets) from Duxchan and explore! (It starts at C2-105 on the Darlene map, more or less). Some of Kelsey's mini-adventures have been dropped in, too.)
Xerbos Cove Map.jpg


Thanks Kelsey and Shadowdark for making this so easy for my revolving door of seasoned and novice players! The summer has been a blast so far!
 


Reynard

Legend
Supporter
I was reading more thoroughly last night and I think I am in love with the random dungeon generation. I have seen the drop-a-handful-of-dice technique used for hexmaps before, but never dungeons. It's really cool.
 

Bill Zebub

“It’s probably Matt Mercer’s fault.”
Having reread it again, I can actually identify a big problem with it and its the same fundamental issue I have with the Pathfinder family; its soulless.

Having actually played Shadowdark quite a bit, I don't find it soulless at all. Or, to be more accurate, the sessions themselves have not been soulless. They have been some of the best gaming sessions I've experienced in years.

I can imagine somebody finding the book itself not to their tastes, and then describing it as "soulless". There's not a lot of prose, not a lot of backstory and exposition and (bad) fiction. And if that's what somebody is looking for...90s era walls-of-text...then, yeah, this one will disappoint. It simply presents the rules of the game. To give it soul you have to breathe life into it at the table.

And personally if I were forced to choose where to put the life, the soul, I would put it into the gameplay, not the rulebook.
 

Having actually played Shadowdark quite a bit, I don't find it soulless at all. Or, to be more accurate, the sessions themselves have not been soulless. They have been some of the best gaming sessions I've experienced in years.

I can imagine somebody finding the book itself not to their tastes, and then describing it as "soulless". There's not a lot of prose, not a lot of backstory and exposition and (bad) fiction. And if that's what somebody is looking for...90s era walls-of-text...then, yeah, this one will disappoint. It simply presents the rules of the game. To give it soul you have to breathe life into it at the table.

And personally if I were forced to choose where to put the life, the soul, I would put it into the gameplay, not the rulebook.

Thing is, if the book has no soul, Im never going to read it again, nevermind actually play it.

Thats why with Pathfinder, a set of games I also find soulless, Ive found myself wanting to play Paizos adventures far more than their actual game. Their APs have always been consistently excellent in this regard.

And from what Ive seen of the adventures 3PP content for Shadowdark, that will likely be the same case.
 

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