Shadowdark Shadowdark General Thread [+]

I seem to have a problem. I do not buy too much RPG content, after all I'm mostly just into Shadowdark now, but I seem to keep buying digital assets off of DTRPG to make my own stuff...
You mean like individual stock art stuff? Is it a fantasy project? If so the public domain has a lot of great images. Not so much for sci-fi or some othe genres.
 

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You mean like individual stock art stuff? Is it a fantasy project? If so the public domain has a lot of great images. Not so much for sci-fi or some othe genres.

Yeah real traditional fantasy (as I see it), I had a folder for public domain as well, but hobby stuff fell off the rails around summer last year, and I'm just getting back to it now.

Goal is to have my book done for end of year.
 




Yeah real traditional fantasy (as I see it), I had a folder for public domain as well, but hobby stuff fell off the rails around summer last year, and I'm just getting back to it now.

Goal is to have my book done for end of year.
I have some sources if you want to take a gander at different stuff. I got almost all the B&W art for SoE from the same place.
 

Heh, good to know on the treasure. My first instinct would have been to just divide by ten, as that is what I have always heard regarding old systems -> shadowdark.
I decided to go back and review Stonehell's 0 and 1st level to refresh myself, and I'm going to apologize and amend my advice. Bearing in mind that treasure xp is not divided among the PCs in Shadowdark (everyone gets the same award), I don't think doubling or tripling is actually needed. Dividing by ten for the actual monetary values should be fine.

More practical advice-

If you review Awarding XP on page 117 of the Shadowdark rulebook, you'll note that it gives guidelines rather than strict values. I recommend going through each level of the dungeon (but just starting with the surface and 1) and making a note to yourself beside each treasure stash of whether you think it's a 0pt haul (trivial), 1pt, or 3pts. Generally speaking, one or more consumable magic items (potions and scrolls) in a find means it's a 1xp treasure, and one or more permanent magic items is a 3xp treasure.

It's the monetary treasure that's more of a judgement call, and the standards for what constitutes a 0, 1, or 3pt haul will increase as the PCs gain in level. For monetary treasure, I suggest starting out by awarding 1xp for treasures worth at least 30gp in total (after you divide the published value by 10), assuming the PCs can carry out at least that much value (if there's a big hoard of copper they can't carry all of, only the stuff they successfully retrieve counts). And 3xp for treasures worth 100gp or more after dividing by 10. At least while the party's average level is 1st. Probably 2nd as well. And start increasing those thresholds once the PCs are averaging 3rd level.

If a treasure contains multiple items, default to the single higher value. So, say, a haul with some money, two potions and a magic weapon, just award 3xp to all the PCs.

One other thing I'd do if running Stonehell in Shadowdark is go through all the simple +1 (and higher, later) weapons and armor that don't have any other properties, and for each of them roll on the Qualities chart on page 282 of the rulebook, to give it benefits and/or curses. This makes those simple + items more interesting and magical.
 
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I've misplaced things in the last 9 months or so, but I was looking at sites like this.

I use rather a lot of Rackham's stuff in Shadows of Empire (including the colour plate that's on the cover of the core book).
 

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