Shadowdark Shadowdark General Thread [+]

[Velderan]

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.

I backed this KS for a PDF to get more carousing options. It just closed a few days ago so still waiting on fulfillment but excited to see what options it provides.Beyond that, I forget who mentioned it in another thread (@overgeeked?), but Pirate Borg has a pretty good carousing table to borrow.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

We've passed 30 days since the last update, and Kelsey is pretty responsive to the nag messages from Kickstarter, so I'd expect one soon.

And we got an email on the Shadowdark mailing list today, including a special solstice event (Darkest Day) and an update that the campaign is on track to deliver in "late spring," which I'd guess ends up being May/June.

 

[Scribe]

May/June.

 

[Distracted DM]

I backed this KS for a PDF to get more carousing options. It just closed a few days ago so still waiting on fulfillment but excited to see what options it provides.Beyond that, I forget who mentioned it in another thread (@overgeeked?), but Pirate Borg has a pretty good carousing table to borrow.

They had late pledges open, so I hopped in while the getting's good Thanks for the tip!

 

[Distracted DM]

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

Oyyyy... new city cursed scroll... that led me to the western reaches kickstarter, which has late pledges open... oyyyy...... my wallet...... I don't even have tables that play SD.. argh...... so tempting

edit: Crap I backed it. The physical Western Reaches stuff with the books and the zines. Damn you Scribe. (Thanks for the heads-up)

 

[Scribe]

Oyyyy... new city cursed scroll... that led me to the western reaches kickstarter, which has late pledges open... oyyyy...... my wallet...... I don't even have tables that play SD.. argh...... so tempting

edit: Crap I backed it. The physical Western Reaches stuff with the books and the zines. Damn you Scribe. (Thanks for the heads-up)

 

[Mannahnin]

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.

As a longtime wargamer I have a natural instinct to want to run massive battles as miniatures wargames (and Delta's Book of War is a great simple system based on OD&D and Chainmail for that), but I've come to accept over the years that the substantial majority of D&D players aren't really into that, and prefer to keep the focus on the PCs.

To that end, the best simple abstraction I've seen is this system. Make the big battle the backdrop, create key skirmish scenes/objectives for the PCs, then either decide by DM fiat or make one big abstract roll with a minor modifier or two based on how the PCs did and larger logistical considerations (like one army outnumbering the other, or having a castle in a defensive effort, or one side being struck by plague):

 

[Reynard]

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.

The War Machine mass combat system from BECMI/Rules Cyclopedia can be used with any D&D adjacent game, including Shadowdark. It is a really great abstract system with just enough depth to make choices feel important with getting bogged down in minutia.