Shadowdark Shadowdark General Thread [+]

[Bill Zebub]

I am circling it closer and closer. Leaning toward a sandbox environment with lots of small accessible dungeons for the players to explore. I think I want to print them out the hex map full size so they can actively draw on it what they find, and then using scratch off dungeon maps for the adventure locations.

I'm trying to remember the name of it, but there's a volume of a whole bunch of barrows full of undead to explore. I think it's OSR. I'll see if I can find it in my hard drive....

EDIT: Duh...Barrowmaze

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

For those who don't own or aren't backing the new printing of Into the Cess & Citadel, this video by one of the creators, showing how to use it to make a city, may sell you on it. (And hey, I bet this would work great with the new rules from Cursed Scroll #6!)

 

[SlyFlourish]

Reading @SlyFlourish's Best Products of 2025 list got me to thinking: Should an all-in-one boxed set, similar to what Free League produces, be the next big thing from Arcane Library? It might include a softcover rulebook (and maybe one or more players quickstart books), dice, a screen and a starting adventure with a home base village, so that people can grab a single box and jump right into Shadowdark.

Free League seems to do these for all their games, and they're fantastic, and Pirate Borg's new starter set -- coming in early 2026, fingers crossed -- will do the same.

I think the Shadowdark Quickstart pack is enough on its own. I bring it to conventions and run it a lot. I think it's great.

 

[Reynard]

I think the Shadowdark Quickstart pack is enough on its own. I bring it to conventions and run it a lot. I think it's great.

@Whizbang Dustyboots can correct me if I am wrong, but the question wasn't really about a introductory product so much as a COMPLETE product. The Dragonbane box core is a beautiful iteration of this, with rules as well as a whole campaign, plus some extra goodies. It certainly would not hurt Shadowdark to follow suit, even if they have been very successful so far as is.

 

[overgeeked]

I think the Shadowdark Quickstart pack is enough on its own. I bring it to conventions and run it a lot. I think it's great.

I watched the video. Really hoping your players enjoy Dragonbane. I’m selfishly hoping for more Dragonbane content from you.

 

[Bill Zebub]

My turn to ask for adventure advice: over the December holidays I will probably be running a mini-campaign (like, 3 or 4 sessions) for a group of kids, ages 9-14. So I'm looking for an adventure, perhaps several small dungeons, that get straight to the action without a lot of detective work, and avoid any darker themes. Would love to constrain combat to non-sapients (undead, beasts, aberrations, etc.).

Suggestions?

 

[Reynard]

My turn to ask for adventure advice: over the December holidays I will probably be running a mini-campaign (like, 3 or 4 sessions) for a group of kids, ages 9-14. So I'm looking for an adventure, perhaps several small dungeons, that get straight to the action without a lot of detective work, and avoid any darker themes. Would love to constrain combat to non-sapients (undead, beasts, aberrations, etc.).

Suggestions?

Why not roll up a handful? The dungeon creation rules in SD are inspired, and in less than an hour you can easily have a full session dungeon on hand. And this allows you to flavor to taste for your younger players.

 

[Fenris-77]

My turn to ask for adventure advice: over the December holidays I will probably be running a mini-campaign (like, 3 or 4 sessions) for a group of kids, ages 9-14. So I'm looking for an adventure, perhaps several small dungeons, that get straight to the action without a lot of detective work, and avoid any darker themes. Would love to constrain combat to non-sapients (undead, beasts, aberrations, etc.).

Suggestions?

The Gardens of Ynn might work. It's more whimsical than your bog standard SD dungeon and super-cool. Plus it's procedurally generated, so it'll scale to whatever time you have with no issues. I'm 100% on board with games that start like In the garden, behind a spray of ivy, you find a strange door...

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The Gardens of Ynn might work. It's more whimsical than your bog standard SD dungeon and super-cool. Plus it's procedurally generated, so it'll scale to whatever time you have with no issues. I'm 100% on board with games that start like In the garden, behind a spray of ivy, you find a strange door...

Well, it can be more whimsical. You probably want to keep your thumb on the scale and prevent it from going full body horror, which the later randomized depths of the garden tend to do. It and the Stygian Library ("It's based on the library from Discworld! How dark can it be?") both eventually get pretty bleak, if players keep going further and further into the weirdness.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

My turn to ask for adventure advice: over the December holidays I will probably be running a mini-campaign (like, 3 or 4 sessions) for a group of kids, ages 9-14. So I'm looking for an adventure, perhaps several small dungeons, that get straight to the action without a lot of detective work, and avoid any darker themes. Would love to constrain combat to non-sapients (undead, beasts, aberrations, etc.).

Suggestions?

Going back to the well of the 2025 Appendix N Jam, here are ones I liked, including ones that are either systemless or in an easy to convert OSR system:

• The Eldritch Staff -- Adventuring inside a magic staff! I would include some clues to how the sacrificial altar works, though. I think this adventure was eventually declared the jam winner.
• Ghost Walkers of Gjöll -- Viking-flavored mayhem, including a literal waterfall of swords, followed by an invasion of the walking dead.
• Jungle of the Jade Jaguar -- A jungle crawl including a magic sword generator. If you're a kid who plays RPGs, you will want a magic sword.
• Scrolls from Azov's Shelf -- Raid an extradimensional library! Note that it includes several simple puzzles you can look at int he preview and decide if that's going to slow your crew down too much.
• Death, Imprisoned! -- Death has been imprisoned by a witch to stop a plague. It turns out this was a terrible idea, so now the adventurers have to kill the witch and restore order. And if they die along the way, they keep going on as an "unmortal," not really dying in the meantime. This is technically dark, but can easily be pushed into comic territory (think Adventure Time).
• Agents of the Gilded Palm -- The heist was a success! Now, can you dodge the guards, rival thieves and just the chaos of city life and make it back to your treasure vault?

Alternately, I've heard very good things about the short adventures by You Can Breathe Now Games, and might look and see if any of those sound cool.

For pure chaos, you might also want to consider The Waking of Willowby Hall, which traps the players inside a castle full of ghosts being woken up by an angry giant trying to smash his way into get his golden egg-laying goose back from a rival band of adventurers.