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Shadowdark General Thread [+]


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Thanks again! You've produced some cool content for SD so another question: how easy or difficult could it be to port BECMI rules over to SD? Say, things like Weapon Proficiency, expanded Skills and Strongholds? I really like your mind and will be looking forward to your responses 🤓
I don't think it would be too hard, the mechanics are pretty similar.
 

The biggest problems with the Tomb of Horrors is when it's treated as just any other adventure, to be used with regular campaign characters, which is going to lead to some unhappy players.
Unfortunately WotC did exactly this with an official bestselling module :) Siderant about Tomb of Annihilation, has nothing to do with SD:
But what you write is ultimately the downfall of this module where the last dungeon is based on ToH. I am a player in a ToA campaign that ran for two years, our next session will probably be the final one. And while I like the module in theory, playing it I realized - its not the best idea to put a funhouse tournament dungeon at the end of an epic multi tier campaign. We had PCs with complicated deep backstories and character dynamics die for random traps on the first floor. Right now only 2 of the original 6 PCs are still alive (mine being one of them), the rest of the group are replacement characters that have of course not the same history and connection to the campaign.
 

Unfortunately WotC did exactly this with an official bestselling module :) Siderant about Tomb of Annihilation, has nothing to do with SD:
But what you write is ultimately the downfall of this module where the last dungeon is based on ToH. I am a player in a ToA campaign that ran for two years, our next session will probably be the final one. And while I like the module in theory, playing it I realized - its not the best idea to put a funhouse tournament dungeon at the end of an epic multi tier campaign. We had PCs with complicated deep backstories and character dynamics die for random traps on the first floor. Right now only 2 of the original 6 PCs are still alive (mine being one of them), the rest of the group are replacement characters that have of course not the same history and connection to the campaign.
I ran a very successful short campaign that culminated in a negadungeon. But everyone made characters specifically for the campaign ahead of time and I was crystal clear that this was a horror movie and it was going to end extremely badly for everyone. People got into it, embraced going further into the Bad Place and when everyone apparently died at the end, everyone was satisfied.

On the other hand, I would never do that with my ongoing 19-year campaign. Some of those characters may not survive the eventual climax, but their deaths will be meaningful and satisfying.
 




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