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.

Not DnD - Shadow of the Weird Wizard

Shadow of the Weird Wizard voted as one of the most anticipated ttrpgs of 2023 by EN World users. Join us as we discuss Rob Schwalb's family-friendly incarna...

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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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[The Soloist]

I really love the System of Demon Lords and this Version uses mostly the same Rules but has two changes that I really like .. the Initiative (faster and tactical) and Magic Systems (now easier and you are not gimped if you learn it later) got an overhaul. So I would heartly recommend i for those who like Demon Lords but want as less Grimm Version of it. Also the Books has much more Expert Paths than the old Book, so you have tooooons of Charakter Options.

But I have to say that I massively dislike the new Layout. In DL every Novice and Expert Path got its own page and Picture, but in WW they included much more paths but the Layout suffers immensly for this .. Pahts and Headers often start in the middle of the page, Headers look too much the Subheaders, most paths have no Art. And overall the Art doesn't grab me at all. That said in actually play, this thankfully doesn't matter that much.

For those who want to buy it, you have to know that without the bestiary it is not really playable at the moment (dont know if the DL Monsters would work well). So only buy it if you want to read and study the rules, but it would be better to wait for the Secrets book.

Thank you for this. I hope more people talk about the game system. Does the magic system use spell points, spell slots or something else?

 

[eyeheartawk]

I find it kind of strange that what started of as "Shadow of the Demon Lord but with the all the icky setting stuff taken out for people who hate fun" turned into "Shadow of the Demon Lord but with all the icky setting stuff taken out for people who hate fun, but also lots more crunch".

I remember having a couple of beers with Rob at a Gary Con several years ago, this was just as Shadow of the Demon Lord was releasing, and he was criticizing the then new 5e for being made too crunchy, over his objections. Kinda strange that we ended up here then.

 

[Aldarc]

I find it kind of strange that what started of as "Shadow of the Demon Lord but with the all the icky setting stuff taken out for people who hate fun" turned into "Shadow of the Demon Lord but with all the icky setting stuff taken out for people who hate fun, but also lots more crunch".

I remember having a couple of beers with Rob at a Gary Con several years ago, this was just as Shadow of the Demon Lord was releasing, and he was criticizing the then new 5e for being made too crunchy, over his objections. Kinda strange that we ended up here then.

A lot of these added rules emerged as a result of (a) experiences with SotDL, and (b) playtesting SotWW. A number of playtesters and GMs wanted more guidance on rulings.

 

[doctorhook]

I find it kind of strange that what started of as "Shadow of the Demon Lord but with the all the icky setting stuff taken out for people who hate fun" turned into "Shadow of the Demon Lord but with all the icky setting stuff taken out for people who hate fun, but also lots more crunch".

I remember having a couple of beers with Rob at a Gary Con several years ago, this was just as Shadow of the Demon Lord was releasing, and he was criticizing the then new 5e for being made too crunchy, over his objections. Kinda strange that we ended up here then.

I never played SotDL so I can’t speak about it, but SotWW truly doesn’t seem very crunchy, it just has some mechanical guidance. (E.g.: How high can you jump?) Lots of that guidance appears to be flexible or optional, not binding parts of the rules.

 

[Bolongo]

Just browsing through it, I also dislike the layout. That's subjective, though.

The other thing that makes me sad is that he hasn't broken free of having both scores and modifiers for attributes. I guess the reason is that the scores are used as DCs a lot. It just seems to me that the modifiers are what players will care about most of the time, the DCs are more GM-facing and the GM could easily remember that DCs are 10 + whatever value.

 

[eyeheartawk]

I never played SotDL so I can’t speak about it, but SotWW truly doesn’t seem very crunchy, it just has some mechanical guidance. (E.g.: How high can you jump?) Lots of that guidance appears to be flexible or optional, not binding parts of the rules.

Yeah, that's true.

I'm not saying it's too much crunch for me ( I like a good FATAL circumference table) but just marked it as odd considering his rather vociferous contention when I talked to him about too much prescribed specificity in RPGs.

That said my biggest complaint about Shadow of the Demon Lord is the magic system. Namely, that as a wizard, unless you're stacking banes, you get worse as you level. That is because the save DC for your spells remain the same but the enemies you fight become more powerful to keep pace with your leveling, thus as you level they make the saves more often. Did they address this?

 

[The Soloist]

Just browsing through it, I also dislike the layout. That's subjective, though.

The other thing that makes me sad is that he hasn't broken free of having both scores and modifiers for attributes. I guess the reason is that the scores are used as DCs a lot. It just seems to me that the modifiers are what players will care about most of the time, the DCs are more GM-facing and the GM could easily remember that DCs are 10 + whatever value.

Well, if you want to attract D&D players, keeping attribute scores makes sense.

 

[Bolongo]

That said my biggest complaint about Shadow of the Demon Lord is the magic system. Namely, that as a wizard, unless you're stacking banes, you get worse as you level. That is because the save DC for your spells remain the same but the enemies you fight become more powerful to keep pace with your leveling, thus as you level they make the saves more often. Did they address this?

Never played or read Demon Lord, so don't know how much has changed.

Skimming through Weird Wizard, a lot of spells just have automatic effects. Some need ability rolls from the caster to hit, some allow ability rolls from the target to avoid stuff. The terms "saving throw" doesn't exist, and I can't find that casters have any "save DC" that is unique to them. As far as I can tell, anytime it just says "make an Agility roll" or the like, it's against DC 10. Mages gain an ability at level 5 that gives them a boon to all attack rolls, and their targets a bane to all resist rolls.

How this is balanced I won't know until we get some stats for opponents.

 

[Bolongo]

Just browsing through it, I also dislike the layout. That's subjective, though.

Maybe I should explain this for those who don't have access to the doc.
They use the style I remember most clearly from D&D 3e, where the text just runs on with no breaks or spaces between paragraphs, and new sections just start wherever. So you can get a new header at the bottom of a page with virtually no text under it, for example.

 

[The Soloist]

Maybe I should explain this for those who don't have access to the doc.
They use the style I remember most clearly from D&D 3e, where the text just runs on with no breaks or spaces between paragraphs, and new sections just start wherever. So you can get a new header at the bottom of a page with virtually no text under it, for example.

That happens when you have too much text and want to fit everything in a fixed number of pages (because of your KS budget). As a graphic designer, I've had that done to me many times. Either you reduce the font size or remove illustrations. Most of the time I was told to remove illustrations because the text is essential and going with smaller font size irks customers (who often refuse to wear glasses when they need them!)