Shadow of the Weird Wizard Is Finally Here!

Long anticipated, it’s here! You can grab the PDF from DriveThruRPG. In fact, it has hit the #1 spot on the site. By Rob Schawlb, SotWW is the sequel to Shadow of the Demon Lord and presents a more family friendly version of the game system. https://www.youtube.com/live/Hl_Rev4jtGs?si=BPBnqnvZ_oA9PyKD Shadow of the Weird Wizard® is a fantasy roleplaying game in which you and your friends...

Long anticipated, it’s here! You can grab the PDF from DriveThruRPG. In fact, it has hit the #1 spot on the site.

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By Rob Schawlb, SotWW is the sequel to Shadow of the Demon Lord and presents a more family friendly version of the game system.


Shadow of the Weird Wizard® is a fantasy roleplaying game in which you and your friends assume the roles of characters who explore the borderlands and make them safe for the refugees escaping the doom that has befallen the old country. Unsafe are these lands: the Weird Wizard released monsters to roam the countryside, cruel faeries haunt the shadows, undead drag themselves free from their tombs, and ancient evils stir once more. If the displaced people would rebuild their lives, they need heroes to protect them. A brand new game built using the system powering Shadow of the Demon Lord, this game gives you everything you need for you and your friends to champion the innocent, to brave grave dangers, and right terrible wrongs, all while exploring the wild frontier of the borderlands!

Some saw him as a mad sorcerer who commanded eldritch powers of staggering might. As proof, one only has to look at all the abominations he set loose in the lands—the hybrid beasts, the multilegged hulking collectors, floating eyes that hang in the air trailing their nerve endings. And then, far, far beyond the edges of the new lands rose the walls of the Forbidden City and the clockwork peoples who dwelled there in seeming servitude to the dread mage who ruled over all he surveyed.



But the Weird Wizard is gone. His shadow remains, but the figure casting it disappeared and none, not even his closest servants, know where he went. It might be coincidence that his absence preceded the bloody civil war that tore the Great Kingdom apart and that precipitated the violent struggle between the other nations in the west, or the Weird Wizard might have had some stabilizing influence that enabled civilization to flourish once more following a far older, nastier decline. Too, he could have been the source of the conflict and abandoned the world to its fate.

Either way, the instability sends people by the thousands spilling into the borderlands. As this territory grows more and more crowded, refugees are looking to the east to make their homes. The first forays into the strange place have ended with disappearances and death, and the few people who have returned carry tales of hostile inhabitants, cruel faeries, and hideous, ravenous monsters. If the new lands would be tamed, there must be peace with the inhabitants.

Such efforts demand heroes. Luckily, there might just be a few around. This book shows you how to make a hero who can meet and triumph over the greatest challenges of exploring a world that stands in the shadow of a Weird Wizard.

 

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timbannock

Hero
Supporter
The preview could certainly do with being a lot longer. This (and Shadow of the Demon Lord before it) is a game that I've had a lot of interest in, but at the same time, I extremely picky about what I'm throwing my money at, so it'd be nice to see how more of the rules sections are laid out.
 

Retreater

Legend
The preview could certainly do with being a lot longer. This (and Shadow of the Demon Lord before it) is a game that I've had a lot of interest in, but at the same time, I extremely picky about what I'm throwing my money at, so it'd be nice to see how more of the rules sections are laid out.
From the provided table of contents, there seems to be no bestiary included (unlike SotDL) - so I guess it's not really a "complete game." Wonder if you'll have to buy a copy of Demon Lord to play this?
Not gonna lie, it's kind of a disappointing initial reaction. Between this and the vaporware that is 13th Age 2E, there's no real fresh, heavy-hitter games I'm looking forward to in 2024. Just all 5e, all the time.
 


Retreater

Legend
Somebody didn’t like the layout. Not very informative.

The review text...
"I think it's highly unfortunate that this is releasing in its current state. While the core game itself feels solid enough if you can get through it, a lot of the rules here, and most importantly, the Layout, feel like a major step backwards from Shadow of the Demon Lord.
Perhaps this is just an early draft still, but this is just not the game I thought I backed last year. I'm not sure how an iteration on a solid game managed to backpedal so many good design choices from the original.
In its current state, Shadow of the Weird Wizard feels like the predecessor of Shadow of the Demon Lord, not the refined sequel."

Seems to be more issues than just the layout. The Table of Contents seems to indicate fewer features than SotDL - and it seems like an add-on to another game system than something that can be run on its own.
 

J.Quondam

CR 1/8
From the provided table of contents, there seems to be no bestiary included (unlike SotDL) - so I guess it's not really a "complete game." Wonder if you'll have to buy a copy of Demon Lord to play this?
It's referred to as a "player's sourcebook" on the publisher's website, which suggests to me that it's one volume of a set of core books. Presumably the monsters, etc, will come out later in a GM's book. (There's a question in the dtrpg comments asking about this, too.)
 

Retreater

Legend
It's referred to as a "player's sourcebook' on the publisher's website, which suggests to me that it's one volume of a set of core books. Presumably the monsters, etc, will come out in GM's book later. (There's a question in the dtrpg comments asking about this, too.)
Ah. Thanks for the info.
Still, that's something that should be a little more apparent in the marketing and description since those features were core in the other book.
It's kinda like if WotC didn't release spells in the Player's Handbook 2024.
 

From the provided table of contents, there seems to be no bestiary included (unlike SotDL) - so I guess it's not really a "complete game." Wonder if you'll have to buy a copy of Demon Lord to play this?
There is a GM's guide that will come out later. So you don't have to buy Demonlord stuff, but you will need another book.

Generally, I share the concern raised in the review you quoted (and art direction is not great either). I think rating it 1 star seems rather excessive, though. But from skimming through the PDF I got, I do find it to be a step down from the Demonlord.
 

Not gonna lie, I have bought almost every single Demon Lord book and supplement that's out there, but when I saw the early drafts of this I just asked myself "why would I want this?". Rob Schwalb is an amazing game designer but I think I have everything I'd want in SotDL, so I'm happy that I passed on this Kickstarter.
 

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