Shadowdark Shadowdark General Thread [+]

[Bill Zebub]

I've been listening to the mastering dungeons podcast and they mentioned that in the old school days (specifically around Village of Homlet time) people wouldn't just have one character, but two characters. Has anyone tried this for the lower level side of Shadowdark? I think if I remember right it's mentioned doing this in Gauntlets, but I'm thinking of into the early levels.

Frequently when playing with my two sons (including earlier today) they run two characters each.

 

[Emerikol]

In the old days 9 characters was commonplace in the literature. I rarely had that many. We have on occasion played multiple characters per player. Probably not best though for new players. I think many games assume more characters than people actually have and thus the TPKs.

 

[SpellObjectEnthusiast]

Unlike TSR dnd, kelsey specifically designed Shadowdark to work better for smaller parties. Notably - the game lacks rules for hirelings/retainers, overland mercenaries, and lacks the extremely high "number appearing" stat on its monsters.

You shouldn't need more than 1 pc per player unless you only have 1 or 2 players.

 

[numtini]

We regularly play 2 characters in one of the DCC games I'm in and I'm not a big fan of it long term. It tends to reduce identification with the character and turns it more into a war game sort of feeling. I find that I tend to identify with one character and it feels more or less like I'm playing one character and running the other one--if that distinction makes any sense.

 

[Bill Zebub]

We regularly play 2 characters in one of the DCC games I'm in and I'm not a big fan of it long term. It tends to reduce identification with the character and turns it more into a war game sort of feeling. I find that I tend to identify with one character and it feels more or less like I'm playing one character and running the other one--if that distinction makes any sense.

Yeah, that too. We run two characters out of a sense of necessity, but players don't identify in the same way. They don't 'inhabit' a single character.

Slightly off topic, but I want to point out that running small parties is hard because the swinginess of combat RNG increases with fewer participants and fewer dice rolls. Even if you reduce the challenge by cutting the opponents in half, there is a much greater chance of a TPK, or of boring/trivialized victory, because one side or the other gets lucky.

 

[Wolfram stout]

I saw where Glass Cannon announced their up coming campaign is going to be a Shadowdark game. I don't know if that is considered big or not. But I have generally enjoyed their non-pathfinder streams.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

There are a ton of free or almost free four-page Shadowdark adventures in itch.io's Appendix N jam. This aesthetic really appeals to me, much moreso than the classic Shadowdark look (sorry, Shadowdark purists), along with how it impacts the content of many of these.

 

[Scribe]

There are a ton of free or almost free four-page Shadowdark adventures in itch.io's Appendix N jam. This aesthetic really appeals to me, much moreso than the classic Shadowdark look (sorry, Shadowdark purists), along with how it impacts the content of many of these.

Any in particular? I keep scrolling and scrolling lol

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Any in particular? I keep scrolling and scrolling lol

Still reading through them, but they've all been at worst average and in some cases, very cool. I've honestly lost track of a bunch of the ones I liked, since I've just read through so many. (Four pages is a short adventure, especially since most authors use one page for a retro paperback cover.)

I think Scrolls from Azov's Shelf in particular is probably worth having in your back pocket as a DM any time you have to stash a MacGuffin somewhere.

The Null Conclave is also a good little dungeon with amazing layout and design. (While still being very readable, which some of the other highly-designed ones aren't.)

Also, the system neutral Jungle of the Jade Jaguar is worth downloading just to marvel at how gorgeous it is.