Shadowdark Shadowdark Discussion Thread [+]

[Reynard]

The Glass Cannon Network, which is otherwise playing a very grim campaign set in the Gloaming, but they also let everyone carry multiple luck tokens (a carryover from how they run their other actual plays) and it's definitely made the player characters a lot less squishy, although I would still say the PCs' best choice would be to leave the region ASAP.

When I want to hero up SD, i do max hp at level 1 plus 3 luck tokens. It works pretty well, but people can still get killed if they try and treat it like 5E.

 

[Fenris-77]

When I want to hero up SD, i do max hp at level 1 plus 3 luck tokens. It works pretty well, but people can still get killed if they try and treat it like 5E.

I'd kill them for trying to do so.

 

[Keldryn]

I've thought about this one, though worried that it would devalue the results on the Carousing table which give the character a luck token. Do you do anything in place of that?

No... I've been using the carousing tables in CS6 for a few months, and there are only two entries out of 100 on each of the Benefits and Mishaps tables that affect luck tokens.

I'd like to change to having new characters begin with a luck token (Beginner's Luck), but as I mentioned I constantly forget about awarding luck tokens in play (unless something in an adventure or random table specifies granting a luck token). Also, the players are really used to getting to start with a luck token.

They still just manage to scrape by much of the time.

I would probably just let the PC have the second luck token from carousing, but it has to be used first. One of the PCs has a Kytherian Cog, so I just let him have two luck tokens at the start of each session.

Essentially, as the DM I am allowed to violate the one luck token rule, but the players are not (Bless spell, bard/seer abilities, etc).

 

[Mannahnin]

No... I've been using the carousing tables in CS6 for a few months, and there are only two entries out of 100 on each of the Benefits and Mishaps tables that affect luck tokens.

I'd like to change to having new characters begin with a luck token (Beginner's Luck), but as I mentioned I constantly forget about awarding luck tokens in play (unless something in an adventure or random table specifies granting a luck token). Also, the players are really used to getting to start with a luck token.

They still just manage to scrape by much of the time.

I would probably just let the PC have the second luck token from carousing, but it has to be used first. One of the PCs has a Kytherian Cog, so I just let him have two luck tokens at the start of each session.

Essentially, as the DM I am allowed to violate the one luck token rule, but the players are not (Bless spell, bard/seer abilities, etc).

Makes sense! I was leaning toward that solution myself.

I should download CS6 for those expanded carousing charts.

 

[Keldryn]

Makes sense! I was leaning toward that solution myself.

I should download CS6 for those expanded carousing charts.

The CS6 tables have been extremely entertaining ("A sorcerer tricks you into looking into a Mirror of Mischief"). There are a few entries that are a bit too specific to the City of Masks, but when the characters aren't there and someone rolls one of those, I'll either ask them to reroll, or I'll pick an adjacent entry that sounds fun.

 

[Fenris-77]

Makes sense! I was leaning toward that solution myself.

I should download CS6 for those expanded carousing charts.

I struggle as a third party guy with all the non-usable stuff that's out there for SD. I don't want to just do my own versions, as that seems silly, but I also want to make is easy for people who play in my setting to use the new rules.

 

[Reynard]

I struggle as a third party guy with all the non-usable stuff that's out there for SD. I don't want to just do my own versions, as that seems silly, but I also want to make is easy for people who play in my setting to use the new rules.

Sometimes I really wish that Shadowdark would have been under ORC or otherwise used a Share Alike license just because it would be neat to see what people did refining and building on one anothers' SD tools. At it is, the Shadowdark License is pretty limited from that perspective. That said, folks could certainly open their own content up by putting it under CC or whatever.

 

[Fenris-77]

Sometimes I really wish that Shadowdark would have been under ORC or otherwise used a Share Alike license just because it would be neat to see what people did refining and building on one anothers' SD tools. At it is, the Shadowdark License is pretty limited from that perspective. That said, folks could certainly open their own content up by putting it under CC or whatever.

I'm not really complaining, the license as-is has been very good to me. But with a ton of new stuff on the horizon it all gets a bit sticky. I'm just trying to focus on other useful bits for now and I'll see what shakes out in months after Ashalom is published while I'm working on the new core rules PoD for Shadows of Empire.