Shadowdark Shadowdark General Thread [+]

[Xenolith234]

As a general rule, I advise chopping D&D treasure amounts back by about 90% when converting them to Shadowdark. (Alternately, just change what constitutes a common, uncommon, rare and epic treasure haul for Shadowdark.)

Running Shadowdark in Ptolus would be easy in a Dungeon-facing campaign where you can send your delvers down into the Dungeon, have them bring back treasure to sell in Delvers Square and then blow it all carousing at the Ghostly Minstrel (or the Pointy Hat, if your characters are big nerds).

Do you foresee any issues with magic levels in the city itself vs what’s expected by SD? i.e. Continual Light, etc.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Do you foresee any issues with magic levels in the city itself vs what’s expected by SD? i.e. Continual Light, etc.

Eliminate any magic that gives more than an hour of light. I never thought about Ptolus having continual light. Nothing is lost by having everyone use oil lamps, etc. It's meant to be a dark and rainy city and having lots of bright light generally spoils that, IMO. (Ptolus is probably at least partly inspired by Seattle, but one could also picture Scottish cities when running the setting.)

 

[timbannock]

There are but, and I know this is heresy to some, I'd rather have something bespoke to each setting.

I'm going to publish an adventure* with a halfling town alongside an analogue of the Mississippi River. The NPCs who populate that should feel different, IMO, than the ones I might run into in, say, the Gloaming.

I also created a whole new random table of names for this halfling community, so this is something I'm big into generally. These halflings are river halflings, and not generic ones from the core book.

* Well, finish, polish and republish a half-finished one I did for a jam that I ran out of time on.

Monster Overhaul has great tables for wizards. Bard you might have to find something fitting, but considering the number of tables in that book, it shouldn't be too hard to find one that fits.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Monster Overhaul has great tables for wizards. Bard you might have to find something fitting, but considering the number of tables in that book, it shouldn't be too hard to find one that fits.

It makes me sad how few Shadowdark players seem to own The Monster Overhaul. There's a big segment of the community that, if it doesn't say "Shadowdark" or "TSR" on the cover, it might not even exist. But I suppose that's the same for many RPGs.

 

[Fenris-77]

I wasn't sure where to post this, but since I mostly design SD books I'll post it here. I'm working on a new logo for D-77 Games. I wanted something cleaner than the one I'm using currently. So far these are the three leading candidates:

 

[zottel]

I like the first one most, the other two make unpleasant runes spring to mind, sorry to say.

 

[Fenris-77]

I like the first one most, the other two make unpleasant runes spring to mind, sorry to say.

I'd be lying if I said that hadn't occurred to me, but it's not actually that close to the thing we shall not name.