Shadowdark Shadowdark General Thread [+]

[SpellObjectEnthusiast]

So I have some questions for those who have been running Shadowdark in an on-going campaign. Given the game's mechanics lending themselves to a more lethal gameplay style, how often do you actually have PCs die? Also how do you handle PC replacement? Does the player starting a new PC start at 1 even if the others are higher level? How does that level variance tend to work in play?

The closest experience I have to running something like Shadowdark in an on-going campaign was AD&D 2e back in the 90s and playing with the "hovering on death's door" optional rule we didn't tend to have many PC deaths. I'm a bit fuzzy on how we handled replacement PCs, but I vaguely remember a new PC starting 1 level below the lowest level PC in the group to keep them somewhat in line with the rest of the group's power level.

I haven't run shadowdark in a campaign, but I have run OSE, which is even more lethal than SD.

I've run two campaigns of about (12-15) 2.5 hour sessions each. I've had one character death in each campaign. I have replacement characters come in at ~1 level below their previous character, which keeps them able to roughly contribute on the same level as the rest of the party.

Ultimately, the number of actual PC deaths will come down to how ruthless your dungeon and adventure designs are. If you have lots of hidden traps, save-or-die effects, hostile factions, and/or powerful/large groups of enemies, you will have more PC deaths than if your adventures feature lots of neutral factions, obvious/soft traps, and small/balanced groups of foes. You as the adventure designer get to choose how deadly the adventure will be.

 

[Spiral159]

That's been my experience as well. Lots of very, very close calls.

We haven't had a Paladin yet; when somebody plays one I'll be curious to see how much impact that has.

I have been playing with just the four core classes for right now. I am now starting to branch out and adding to that, but I am curious how mounts are going to work in a more dungeon crawl setting that won't end up looking like trying to get a Warthog through a Halo level.

 

[Xenolith234]

Just ran into it on DTRPG: anyone have any experience with Shadowfinder? Looks tasty ...

Is it just a PF bestiary conversion or a full rules hack?

It's all (as far as I can tell) of the PF1e bestiaries converted to Shadowdark.
Source: I backed it.

 

[Spiral159]

It's all (as far as I can tell) of the PF1e bestiaries converted to Shadowdark.
Source: I backed it.

I would want it for only one monster in the book. My personal favorite monster. The Akata. God I love that little guy.

 

[Arilyn]

So I have some questions for those who have been running Shadowdark in an on-going campaign. Given the game's mechanics lending themselves to a more lethal gameplay style, how often do you actually have PCs die? Also how do you handle PC replacement? Does the player starting a new PC start at 1 even if the others are higher level? How does that level variance tend to work in play?

The closest experience I have to running something like Shadowdark in an on-going campaign was AD&D 2e back in the 90s and playing with the "hovering on death's door" optional rule we didn't tend to have many PC deaths. I'm a bit fuzzy on how we handled replacement PCs, but I vaguely remember a new PC starting 1 level below the lowest level PC in the group to keep them somewhat in line with the rest of the group's power level.

We start at max hp. The two of us who have run longish campaigns make sure to telegraph danger, use the monster morale rules and have critters/factions that can be negotiated with. The players are careful and usually play smart. The high lethality is often exaggerated, as long as there is not constant fighting and "gotchas." But it depends on your group. I know some tables fling their characters heedlessly into peril because of the speed of character creation and the expectation of high character death.

We bring in replacement characters at one level lower.

 

[Xenolith234]

I would want it for only one monster in the book. My personal favorite monster. The Akata. God I love that little guy.

Oh man, funny you mention that. I used one of those in the PF2e campaign I ran and I infected two of my PCs. They almost died.

The akata is also in the book - I just checked. I will say that the akata here does dex damage, which the PC dies at 0 dex and spawns a creature. Not quite the same flavor as the akata parasite thing.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

So I have some questions for those who have been running Shadowdark in an on-going campaign. Given the game's mechanics lending themselves to a more lethal gameplay style, how often do you actually have PCs die?

I ran a bunch of one-shots before the full book was even out. In those games, characters died. They let their torches go out in battle (oops!), they spam-cast their spells until they were on empty when the door opened to reveal a swarm of skeletons (oops!) and so on.

I'm now running a sandbox campaign and no one's dying. They scout, they gather intel, they keep lines of escape open, they always have torches, etc.

I think there probably is, for many groups, a brief period of lethality before everyone -- including the DM -- adjusts a bit. If you are fighting everything you see, you're both ignoring the reaction and morale rules, but you're also playing based on 5E assumptions.

The first time my group saw a group of probable enemies -- pale deep goblins, looking at them from across a cavern -- and both sides backed away from the fight, it felt like something clicked into place for us.

The closest experience I have to running something like Shadowdark in an on-going campaign was AD&D 2e back in the 90s and playing with the "hovering on death's door" optional rule we didn't tend to have many PC deaths. I'm a bit fuzzy on how we handled replacement PCs, but I vaguely remember a new PC starting 1 level below the lowest level PC in the group to keep them somewhat in line with the rest of the group's power level.

I think either a level below or at the same level with zero XP are both fine, but it's really a matter of taste.

 

[Scribe]

I think there probably is, for many groups, a brief period of lethality before everyone -- including the DM -- adjusts a bit. If you are fighting everything you see, you're both ignoring the reaction and morale rules, but you're also playing based on 5E assumptions.

This right here.

 

[Spiral159]

I'm now running a sandbox campaign and no one's dying. They scout, they gather intel, they keep lines of escape open, they always have torches, etc.

What does scouting look like in your campaign? My thief player said that since she's bringing a light around to see, she can't really sneak around so she threw away the idea of scouting.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I have been playing with just the four core classes for right now. I am now starting to branch out and adding to that, but I am curious how mounts are going to work in a more dungeon crawl setting that won't end up looking like trying to get a Warthog through a Halo level.

I was very opposed to the mount being such a large part of the Paladin class for exactly this reason. I suppose it's still a pretty cool class if you just consider the other features, but it feels like you're getting shortchanged if you don't spend a lot of time on your mount.

Or maybe it's just that the text of the mount ability takes up so much space? Maybe if the ability was just a couple of lines it wouldn't feel so off.