Shadowdark Shadowdark Discussion Thread [+]

Fenris-77 · May 8, 2026

Byrd said:
62. Sugar of Lead
88. capitalize me please.

View attachment 436574

Edit: 66 & 67
You capitalized Ape and Anhkeg, which is inconsistent with the rest of the list.

You're a gem. Danka.

Fenris-77 · May 9, 2026

A few new Alchemist spells

So these are playtest level, reskinned from various Cursed Scroll spells enough to share. They will likely mutate as playtesting proceeds into more unique forms.

Byrd · May 9, 2026

As an outside reader:

Vinculum's Puissant Potion
"...you must bless..."
Is the blessing the spell that is being cast, or a different action that occurs during the casting? (S or V equivalent)

Psychotropic Dust
Is "within near" specific Shadowdark jargon? (If so, carry on!)
Otherwise: One near creature you target with a level less than or equal to your own...?

Love the spell names.

Fenris-77 · May 9, 2026

Byrd said:
As an outside reader:

Vinculum's Puissant Potion
"...you must bless..."
Is the blessing the spell that is being cast, or a different action that occurs during the casting? (S or V equivalent)

Psychotropic Dust
Is "within near" specific Shadowdark jargon? (If so, carry on!)
Otherwise: One near creature you target with a level less than or equal to your own...?

Love the spell names.

Yup, near is a SD range band. I'm going to take the blessing verbiage out of that spell (edit - I went with adulterate). Turning all the spells into juicy Alchemy equivalents is pretty painstaking.

In other news, Moranth Munitions (with the serial number filed off, sorta) are going make an appearance in the new potions list. It seemed like the right time. Here's a taste of the WiP. And alchemists will be able to make them. Whee!

Carceron's Fiery Cusser
Tier: potion+
Nature: clear, thick liquid the smalls of fire and death

This artifact isa somewhat delicate clay globe filled with highly explosive liquid, which may (nay really should) be thrown. When it strikes the ground it will explode doing 3d8 damage to everything within near of the target. This will require a ranged attack roll, and on a natural one you drop the cusser at your own feet and it explodes. Oops.

Fenris-77 · May 9, 2026

So the Alchemist is 37 pages long. It includes a full spell list, including 12 new spells, rules for building you own laboratory, and 20 new potions. I think $2.99 sounds like a good deal there. I know a lot of classes are a buck or whatever, but they are like 3 pages long. I'm also going to give anyone who buys the class a discount on the expanded core book, in PDF or PoD, because that's where the class will appear in its final form. The class PDF itself will be updates for free as playtesting suggests changes.

Reynard · May 9, 2026

Fenris-77 said:
So the Alchemist is 37 pages long. It includes a full spell list, including 12 new spells, rules for building you own laboratory, and 20 new potions. I think $2.99 sounds like a good deal there. I know a lot of classes are a buck or whatever, but they are like 3 pages long. I'm also going to give anyone who buys the class a discount on the expanded core book, in PDF or PoD, because that's where the class will appear in its final form. The class PDF itself will be updates for free as playtesting suggests changes.

Emphasis mine.
I am curious about this. Shadowdark does not have an SRD and its reprinting material policy is pretty strict. What is your expanded core book going to look like?

Fenris-77 · May 9, 2026

Reynard said:
Emphasis mine.
I am curious about this. Shadowdark does not have an SRD and its reprinting material policy is pretty strict. What is your expanded core book going to look like?

The Expanded Core is going to include all the mechanics from all of my published stuff, properly arranged (Bestiaries especially, but lots of other rules). I'm also going to do a whole new section on the setting itself along with a big hex map. In terms of new mechanics I have a new journey system in the works, and a dungeon encounter system for folks who don't want to use the torch timer. Plus a load of other bits and pieces. Nothing from SD core at all though, all new SoE stuff.

Edit - So I mean expanded core Shadows of Empire, not expanded SD Core.

zottel · May 9, 2026

Fenris-77 said:
Yup, near is a SD range band. I'm going to take the blessing verbiage out of that spell (edit - I went with adulterate). Turning all the spells into juicy Alchemy equivalents is pretty painstaking.

In other news, Moranth Munitions (with the serial number filed off, sorta) are going make an appearance in the new potions list. It seemed like the right time. Here's a taste of the WiP. And alchemists will be able to make them. Whee!

Carceron's Fiery Cusser
Tier: potion+
Nature: clear, thick liquid the smalls of fire and death

This artifact isa somewhat delicate clay globe filled with highly explosive liquid, which may (nay really should) be thrown. When it strikes the ground it will explode doing 3d8 damage to everything within near of the target. This will require a ranged attack roll, and on a natural one you drop the cusser at your own feet and it explodes. Oops.

That cusser is a good start, but it should throw way mormore terror in the face of the allies of the lobber (it should be lobbed, really!) some mad cackling would not go amiss, too!

Fenris-77 · May 9, 2026

zottel said:
That cusser is a good start, but it should throw way mormore terror in the face of the allies of the lobber (it should be lobbed, really!) some mad cackling would not go amiss, too!

3d8 damage in SD is a metric F-ton of damage. Cackling is implied. I also didn't want to unbalance to whole game. If playtesting suggests that it's not punchy enough I'll up the damage without hesitation.