Shadowdark Shadowdark General Thread [+]

[Fenris-77]

I think that much like real life, what that OSR maxim is aiminf at is that the players should always be looking for any advantage they can wrangle out of a given situation. Use the terrain, use available props, use your bacgrounds, use you equipment, and in general use all the cunning you can summon. I would agree that combat is a key part of the game though, for sure.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I think that much like real life...

Or in other narrative forms. Imagine a modern action movie in which our team of crack commandos and super spies keeps getting into firefights without any preparation or planning. Boooooooring.

And not just combats. What kind of protagonist doesn't drop a surprise on the other party in the middle of a big negotiation because they've done their research beforehand?

 

[overgeeked]

Yeah, clearly a stand-up fight is a fail state of OSR/NSR game. But given how deadly combat is I would still argue combat with lots of rolling is a fail state. The best option is always going to be avoiding combat entirely or, failing that, massively tilting the odds in your favor with smart play and clever planning.

 

[overgeeked]

Or in other narrative forms. Imagine a modern action movie in which our team of crack commandos and super spies keeps getting into firefights without any preparation or planning. Boooooooring.

Right? Besides, you’d also think they were incompetent psychopaths.

And not just combats. What kind of protagonist doesn't drop a surprise on the other party in the middle of a big negotiation because they've done their research beforehand?

Just don’t mention how often protagonists fail, face challenges, or deal with twists and complications.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Yeah, clearly a stand-up fight is a fail state of OSR/NSR game. But given how deadly combat is I would still argue combat with lots of rolling is a fail state. The best option is always going to be avoiding combat entirely or, failing that, massively tilting the odds in your favor with smart play and clever planning.

I think that's true outside of combat (and honestly is something I used to say about 5e as well): rolling dice and leaving your fate to RNG should be a last resort.

Which is probably yet another thing that chafes for a lot of modern players: they think the game should be about rolling dice. Their thinking is that if you can automatically find a trap by looking in the right place, it's both "mother may I?" and it somehow detracts from the satisfaction of having invested points in "detect traps" or whatever.

 

[overgeeked]

I think that's true outside of combat (and honestly is something I used to say about 5e as well): rolling dice and leaving your fate to RNG should be a last resort.

Which is probably yet another thing that chafes for a lot of modern players: they think the game should be about rolling dice. Their thinking is that if you can automatically find a trap by looking in the right place, it's both "mother may I?" and it somehow detracts from the satisfaction of having invested points in "detect traps" or whatever.

Yep. Absolutely another fairly clear example of the massive divide in approach and playstyle and preferences and etc.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Ok, I got sucked back into that other thread because some of the gross misunderstandings being expressed, but I really am boycotting it now. Some people don't actually want to understand, they just want to argue.

 

[TiQuinn]

Ok, I got sucked back into that other thread because some of the gross misunderstandings being expressed, but I really am boycotting it now. Some people don't actually want to understand, they just want to argue.

I do wish that some people would just remain in this thread and not threadcrap the other one.

 

[Velderan]

Ok, I got sucked back into that other thread because some of the gross misunderstandings being expressed, but I really am boycotting it now. Some people don't actually want to understand, they just want to argue.

I got sucked into it at the beginning because of the obviously bad experience OP had described from the game being ran poorly, but it quickly became apparent based on the descriptions of the Cursed Scroll contents that there wasn’t a constructive conversation to be had there.

Anyhow..

I have started messing around with the Foundry implementation of the game. Crawl Helper seems like a good module for when you want to keep things in initiative order. The Shadowdarklings importer being native to the rule module is great, plus the built in macros for importing monsters seems like a huge time saver for homebrewing stuff.

 

[numtini]

I have started messing around with the Foundry implementation of the game. Crawl Helper seems like a good module for when you want to keep things in initiative order. The Shadowdarklings importer being native to the rule module is great, plus the built in macros for importing monsters seems like a huge time saver for homebrewing stuff.

Crawl helper is really fantastic. Also grab the community tokens -- they will auto-map graphics to all the creatures in the system. I think you have to either use a macro or just reimport the monsters from the compendium.