Shadowdark Shadowdark General Thread [+]

[Arilyn]

I’m on the verge of starting up a Ptolus campaign and some of the group are ambivalent towards system, and some are wanting me to “just run 5e.” One of those is my wife. How can I make Shadowdark happen instead?

Maybe offer to do one to three sessions so your group can get familiar with the game, and see how it goes before diving into a full campaign. If group is still split, vote?
Shadowdark is fantastic but if your players are unfamiliar with OSR style games, they may not appreciate fewer character options. If you think the higher lethality might also turn them off, I'd adopt the pulp mode and start characters with maximum hp as well.
Good Luck. I hope your group decides to give SD a shot.

 

[darjr]

A fellow DM wanted to have some kind of real interaction with a massive war battle but didn't want to run a war game. I suggested to use a form of "Carousing". The cost to participate would be something other than just money but money could def be a part of it.

Then it just occurred to me that this might already exist. I wonder if any ya'll have seen or heard of such a thing? Specifically for Shadowdark.

 

[Scribe]

A fellow DM wanted to have some kind of real interaction with a massive war battle but didn't want to run a war game. I suggested to use a form of "Carousing". The cost to participate would be something other than just money but money could def be a part of it.

Then it just occurred to me that this might already exist. I wonder if any ya'll have seen or heard of such a thing? Specifically for Shadowdark.

Its a good idea for abstraction, I have not seen one however.

 

[Xenolith234]

Maybe offer to do one to three sessions so your group can get familiar with the game, and see how it goes before diving into a full campaign. If group is still split, vote?
Shadowdark is fantastic but if your players are unfamiliar with OSR style games, they may not appreciate fewer character options. If you think the higher lethality might also turn them off, I'd adopt the pulp mode and start characters with maximum hp as well.
Good Luck. I hope your group decides to give SD a shot.

We played a Halloween oneshot a couple months ago of The Count the Castle and the Curse and it went great, and everybody seemed to enjoy it (except one player, but he’s always contrarian). My wife said that she liked the adventure but that system doesn’t matter so we should just play 5e (and that Shadowdark is pretty much the same so may as well play 5e)

 

[Distracted DM]

So, the last time we played, we ended with carousing, as per usual, and got the result that a bard was now friends with a party member. I was asked who the bard was, to which I cleverly responded "uh ..." (I later went back and added a new NPC bard to the players setting guide.)

I'm thinking that I should proactively create a bard and a wizard (the other result that shows up a lot on carousing tables) for each town the PCs are likely to wander into. This actually feels like a good worldbuilding exercise, making them all distinct and appropriate to the town where the carousing takes place. They wouldn't appear until the carousing roll summons them into play, but I wouldn't be stuck flatfooted in future.

How does everyone else handle "and now there's a new NPC" result on random tables?

Does SD have carousing tables? I haven't looked my books over in ages, but I'm always on the lookout for more random carousing tables in the style of the Knights of the North DCC carousing tables.

 

[Scribe]

Does SD have carousing tables? I haven't looked my books over in ages, but I'm always on the lookout for more random carousing tables in the style of the Knights of the North DCC carousing tables.

Yes, core book, and the new city cursed scroll.

 

[Arilyn]

We played a Halloween oneshot a couple months ago of The Count the Castle and the Curse and it went great, and everybody seemed to enjoy it (except one player, but he’s always contrarian). My wife said that she liked the adventure but that system doesn’t matter so we should just play 5e (and that Shadowdark is pretty much the same so may as well play 5e)

Well, if SD is pretty much the same, might as well play SD. Have fun either way.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Pick a comedian or character from a TV show, movie, or novel I like and drop them into the game. Whoever comes to mind first or pull from a list if nothing comes to mind.

Nikki Glaser showing up as a bard to roast the party would be pretty hilarious.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I’m on the verge of starting up a Ptolus campaign and some of the group are ambivalent towards system, and some are wanting me to “just run 5e.” One of those is my wife. How can I make Shadowdark happen instead?

I run both Shadowdark and a decade-plus 5E Ptolus campaign.

If your play is going to be primarily focused on The Dungeon -- an extremely fun way to play Ptolus, and Delvers Square is a great home base for such things -- Shadowdark is going to be a more satisfying dungeon crawling experience.

If, on the other hand, your ultimate goal is the super-heroic high level stuff in the setting (and its super-heroic stuff is pretty amazing), 5E is much more prepared to handle it.

I would ask your players what their focus is and let them decide. It's a great setting either way and I suspect you all will love the resultant campaign under any system.

 

[overgeeked]

Nikki Glaser showing up as a bard to roast the party would be pretty hilarious.

Dropping them into dissonant contexts is also a lot of fun. Cranky old George Carlin as a librarian. “I get no respect” Rodney Dangerfield as a petty noble. Ace Ventura as a dwarf miner.