Shadowdark Shadowdark General Thread [+]

[Scribe]

There already is a skill system in the game, but it's just "what would a character of your ancestry, background and class be good at? Roll with advantage using the proper attribute stat as a bonus." Maybe people need a cheat sheet for what a former wizard's apprentice might be good at, but I am dubious that is really hard for most groups to figure out. ("No, Steve, being a former wizard's apprentice doesn't mean you're good at taming an unruly horse.")

Honestly the hardest habit to break, is worrying about the nonsense edge case players.

Get rid of that mental load, and it all gets better.

 

[Fenris-77]

Holy crap. My latest map is determines to defeat me with detail, but I refuse! It is taking bloody forever though.

 

[overgeeked]

I honestly find those complaints super weird. Between the background and the class, you already know what your PC is good at, and the book gives examples of using that information with rolling to succeed.

There already is a skill system in the game, but it's just "what would a character of your ancestry, background and class be good at? Roll with advantage using the proper attribute stat as a bonus." Maybe people need a cheat sheet for what a former wizard's apprentice might be good at, but I am dubious that is really hard for most groups to figure out. ("No, Steve, being a former wizard's apprentice doesn't mean you're good at taming an unruly horse.")

I think I kind of get it thanks to a recent Sly Flourish or Questing Beast video. Gamers will optimize the fun out of the game but they will also optimize the uncertainty out of the game. You can see this when gamers complain about exactly those kinds of loose systems, referee calls, fiat, etc and they push for rigidly defined subsystems instead. They want things quantifiable so they know ahead of time, for a fact, that X will happen when they push the X button. These are related because they both come from the same place (a need to reduce uncertainty) and arrive at the same place (a boring as hell "solved" game).

Honestly the hardest habit to break, is worrying about the nonsense edge case players.

Get rid of that mental load, and it all gets better.

Exactly. If you're worried about a specific player at your actual table abusing something, don't play with them. Simple. If you're worried about some nameless, faceless potential player abusing something in the future, wait until it actually happens at the table. Then see #1.

 

[Scribe]

If you're worried about some nameless, faceless potential player abusing something in the future, wait until it actually happens at the table. Then see #1.

This was my concern. An expectation of a need to solve a potential problem, when instead it's something the DM can and should solve for.

We are not writing code.

 

[Fenris-77]

Well, I might be, but I'm the DM, so I can do what I like deploying a linux table top.

 

[DarkCrisis]

I’ve been using the SDark rules to make a hexmap and it’s so random.

How does one explain swamps next to deserts next to snowfields? So weird.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think I kind of get it thanks to a recent Sly Flourish or Questing Beast video. Gamers will optimize the fun out of the game but they will also optimize the uncertainty out of the game. You can see this when gamers complain about exactly those kinds of loose systems, referee calls, fiat, etc and they push for rigidly defined subsystems instead. They want things quantifiable so they know ahead of time, for a fact, that X will happen when they push the X button. These are related because they both come from the same place (a need to reduce uncertainty) and arrive at the same place (a boring as hell "solved" game).

The new Questing Beast video touched on this idea, although didn't credit the source that I saw, but I really hope Shadowdark DMs read Knock! and see the article about when it's not appropriate to roll at all. Once you know that you don't need to be rolling for basic (or impossible) stuff at all, it should feel a lot less like anyone's missing a skill system.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I’ve been using the SDark rules to make a hexmap and it’s so random.

How does one explain swamps next to deserts next to snowfields? So weird.

A wizard did it.

 

[overgeeked]

I’ve been using the SDark rules to make a hexmap and it’s so random.

How does one explain swamps next to deserts next to snowfields? So weird.

I treat it as an extension of the mythic underworld or whatever flavor of fantasy you want. If it doesn’t make sense in the natural world, give it an unnatural explanation. There’s a portal to a swamp dimension or a water dimension or a swamp demon is trapped nearby. Magical experiments. Anything really.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I treat it as an extension of the mythic underworld or whatever flavor of fantasy you want. If it doesn’t make sense in the natural world, give it an unnatural explanation. There’s a portal to a swamp dimension or a water dimension or a swamp demon is trapped nearby. Magical experiments. Anything really.

Operation Unfathomable, the Odious Uplands and Completely Unfathomable all work off this idea. Not only is the mythic underworld is strange, there are parts of the surface world that just aren't normal either.