Shadowdark Shadowdark General Thread [+]

[renbot]

How do people handle

Sneak attack- if it’s a crowded room with 1 enemy vs say 6 how often can a rogue sneak that 1 enemy

Area affect spells - can you place the blast so that only 1 enemy can be targeted and say the rest is absorbed into a neighboring room

What rules did you think needed clarifying

Per Kelsey:

How often should thieves be able to sneak up and backstab a creature?

Usually at least once per combat, and potentially more times if the thief invests the effort in hiding out of sight and sneaking around to an unaware creature. I don’t feel this should be given as readily as in a system like 5E D&D – it really requires the thief to go fully out of sight and then sneak around, undetected, into a surprising new position.

 

[Mannahnin]

Area affect spells - can you place the blast so that only 1 enemy can be targeted and say the rest is absorbed into a neighboring room

After running an adventure in which a Wizard had advantage on casting Web, I wasn't entirely happy letting him "waste"/cut off part of the AoE into a wall and thereby avoid all the party easily in a confined area. I haven't come to a resolution I'm entirely happy with.

 

[Reynard]

After running an adventure in which a Wizard had advantage on casting Web, I wasn't entirely happy letting him "waste"/cut off part of the AoE into a wall and thereby avoid all the party easily in a confined area. I haven't come to a resolution I'm entirely happy with.

When I run Shadowdark, I do not allow this sort of thing. The spell does what it does and if your friends are in the way, well, make a decision.

 

[Mannahnin]

When I run Shadowdark, I do not allow this sort of thing. The spell does what it does and if your friends are in the way, well, make a decision.

That's the way I'm leaning, but I don't want to bone them.

 

[Reynard]

That's the way I'm leaning, but I don't want to bone them.

It's Shadowdark: they bone themselves.

 

[Bill Zebub]

They were boned when you all decided to play Shadowdark.

EDIT: Although it does occur to me that I'd like some kind of simple, Shadowdarky rule for partial success in this situation. Maybe the simplest version is GM-adjudicated stakes, offered before the roll. It might be how many friends you will hit, or some options the player can choose from (E.g. "4 enemies and 2 friends, or 3 enemies and 1 friend, or 2 and 0...") or even a situational house rule: "You'll hit all your friends, minus 1 for every 3 you roll above the TN..."

 

[Spiral159]

The Bone is just how it be sometime lol. Been running the Black Wyrm of Brandonford for my group recently, and last night I felt like one of my players got the OSR experience. He lost an arm in one battle then went down to 6 CON in the next battle. Fun times, they all loved it.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

They were boned when you all decided to play Shadowdark.

EDIT: Although it does occur to me that I'd like some kind of simple, Shadowdarky rule for partial success in this situation. Maybe the simplest version is GM-adjudicated stakes, offered before the roll. It might be how many friends you will hit, or some options the player can choose from (E.g. "4 enemies and 2 friends, or 3 enemies and 1 friend, or 2 and 0...") or even a situational house rule: "You'll hit all your friends, minus 1 for every 3 you roll above the TN..."

Or make a roll using their spellcasting trait and decide whether avoiding your friends is an easy, normal, difficult or nearly impossible task, using the difficulty scores inside the front cover.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The Bone is just how it be sometime lol. Been running the Black Wyrm of Brandonford for my group recently, and last night I felt like one of my players got the OSR experience. He lost an arm in one battle then went down to 6 CON in the next battle. Fun times, they all loved it.

I've been looking at picking up that adventure to run a short mini-campaign with it. (My impression is it'll take three to four sessions to complete.) I love everything I've heard about it so far.

 

[Spiral159]

I've been looking at picking up that adventure to run a short mini-campaign with it. (My impression is it'll take three to four sessions to complete.) I love everything I've heard about it so far.

I've enjoyed it thus far. I am on session 4 of this adventure and can easily see it going for another 2-4 sessions. The sessions run between 2 1/2 to 3 hrs a week, and my players take their time with the adventure.

I personally love how much little stuff there is to do and how many paths lead to dealing with the Wyrm. I feel like if I ran this back with a different group I would be doing all new stuff.