Shadowdark Shadowdark Discussion Thread [+]

[Fenris-77]

I think it's a good idea, but obviously, putting the award into the hands of the competitors to decide makes it way too easy to game the system.

Not much choice when there's no GM or equivalent.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Not much choice when there's no GM or equivalent.

Yeah, I know. I'd probably scrap it but have a big penalty if there's a problem that outside parties notice. (If you're doing this at an FLGS and a big argument breaks out, or whatever.)

 

[Fenris-77]

I played that tournament scene pretty intensively for more than a decade. I wouldn't say that a LOT of guys are jerks, but the minority who are, are enough of a pain that it's worth disincentivizing. There was a big effort on Games Workshop's part for some years to push the "total hobbyist" aspect for their tournaments and the ones they provide prize support for at independent shops. Winning games, painting your army well, being a good sport, even for a few years making and using an army list which was specifically tailored to represent the background fluff well and not load up on limited "elite" units.

Of course there was always debate about this in the community, some folks pushing it back that GW should just make more restrictions on army lists if they wanted the background honored more, etc. A lot of independent tournaments just focused on winning battles, or did simplifications like "just give your opponent a pass/fail on sportsmanship". Here's an example of a system I wrote back in 2011:

The Pass or Fail Method of Tournament Sportsmanship Scoring - Articles - DakkaDakka

This sounds like the same period I was a serious tourney guy. Part of my success was down to my ability to beat the pants of people and still have them enjoy the game. Plus I was pretty good painter. GW tried lots of fixes and they all had problems. The fact that your article is on Dakka tells me everything I need to know.

 

[Mannahnin]

This sounds like the same period I was a serious tourney guy. Part of my success was down to my ability to beat the pants of people and still have them enjoy the game. Plus I was pretty good painter. GW tried lots of fixes and they all had problems.

Yup. Roughly 2000-2013ish. GW tried stuff, Adepticon tried stuff, the NOVA and Frontline tournament scenes tried various systems. There are lots of possibilities but no perfect solutions.

The fact that your article is on Dakka tells me everything I need to know.

...such as? I moderated on Dakka for about a decade too.

 

[Fenris-77]

Yup. Roughly 2000-2013ish. GW tried stuff, Adepticon tried stuff, the NOVA and Frontline tournament scenes tried various systems. There are lots of possibilities but no perfect solutions.


...such as? I moderated on Dakka for about a decade too.

Dakka was where serious tournament people when to talk about serious tournament things.

I loved Adepticon the couple of early times I went. The team tourney thing was a hoot.

Edit - I can see now how my comment about Dakka might have been read as a shot. It was not. I loved my time posting on Dakka.

 

[Mannahnin]

Dakka was where serious tournament people when to talk about serious tournament things.

I loved Adepticon the couple of early times I went. The team tourney thing was a hoot.

Edit - I can see now how my comment about Dakka might have been read as a shot. It was not. I loved my time posting on Dakka.

Roger Roger. I thought I recognized your handle (and maybe avatar) from Dakka when I first stated posting here.

Yes, the Adepticon team tournament was utterly epic. From the first time I attended to the last it was always the center and the highlight.

 

[Fenris-77]

Roger Roger. I thought I recognized your handle (and maybe avatar) from Dakka when I first stated posting here.

Yes, the Adepticon team tournament was utterly epic. From the first time I attended to the last it was always the center and the highlight.

Yes, same user name. Maybe not the same avvy, I'm not sure. I've been Fenris-77 for a looong time on teh interwebs. I'll get that name on the back of Toronto Raptors jersey and come full circle.

 

[Bae'zel]

That sounds really fun! Can you maybe post a short report about how it went, what worked well and so on?
I have Mikes go at Ravenloft on my bucket list, and recently have purchased Shadows of Empire as well. And Darkest Dungeon is a huge influence on the vibe I am going after frequently.
So, to sum it up, would really love to see how it goes!

UPDATE

The session went really well!

We had 5 players (all boys aged 13-14) who all had experience with 5th ed D&D.

I had pre-printed out some characters based on the Darkest Dungeon heroes, keeping things simple.

I gave each player a sheet of grid paper to help them map things out (this was the hardest part, describing rooms, theatre of the mind style). But that was okay, because the castle is meant to be a hectic nightmare speed run anyway, so we all expected some disorientation.

The real-time limit, and the turn structure, kept things moving. The free-flow nature of Shadowdark allowed for some great improvisation (eg, pulling a vampire spawn into a shaft of sunlight in the Chapel saved the day).

We had 2 deaths: one character boldly strode through a narrow hallway guarded by two wraiths who immediately drained ALL of his CON to the horror of the rest of the party. The replacement character was soon rescued.

It was extremely fun and easy to run. I took @SlyFlourish 's guidance and placed a silver weapon or two about to give them a chance (a single silver arrow and a silver sword), although at one point they found a treasure room in the adventure itself with a +2 weapon, so they were set.

When the time was almost out, they chose their battle ground: the chapel where Strahd's brother lay, where there was a shaft of sunlight over the altar. It was perfect, and it saved their lives.

They only found one artefact: the Tome, which I used as a "read aloud the prayer rituals and Strahd can't charm - hypnotize anyone". One player sacrificed a few turns doing this; it took him a while to realize that he could get his rescued NPC (a clueless damsel would-be future victim of Strahd) to read it instead.

The wielder of the +2 weapon got killed by Strahd and everyone kept passing the sword around to defeat him. It sounds really cliché, but the final blow was really epic and everyone cheered out loud because it was so deadly and close of an encounter.

I'm excited to do this again, for sure.

 

[Fenris-77]

There's been some discussion on the Arcane Library discord about setting up a peer-reviewed co-op webstore for (primarily) 3PP Shadowdark stuff. Part of the rationale is to not have content drowning in slop as happens on DTRPG, but also to be able to enforce an actual no-AI policy. If anyone is interested let me know. Right now it's just an idea, but if enough people like that idea it might turn into a thing.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

There's been some discussion on the Arcane Library discord about setting up a peer-reviewed co-op webstore for (primarily) 3PP Shadowdark stuff. Part of the rationale is to not have content drowning in slop as happens on DTRPG, but also to be able to enforce an actual no-AI policy. If anyone is interested let me know. Right now it's just an idea, but if enough people like that idea it might turn into a thing.

Past efforts to curate Shadowdark third party stuff has basically just been a list of the dozen or so most popular products and nothing more. I'm dubious that future efforts will do better.

The answer is for DTRPG to let people filter out AI slop, rather than just having publishers make a declaration. If you could easily search for only human-made stuff, that would solve the problem. And it's what DTRPG needs to do anyway.