Shadowdark Shadowdark General Thread [+]

[Nilbog]

Anyone know when/if shadowdark is getting a full UK release?

Can only seem to purchase it directly from the arcane library and shipping is prohibitively expensive

 

[Fenris-77]

Anyone know when/if shadowdark is getting a full UK release?

Can only seem to purchase it directly from the arcane library and shipping is prohibitively expensive

I don't think Arcane Library does 'releases' like this. Despite the popularity of the game they are still a very small design house. The KS was a way to access the books without some of the same shipping costs. Logistics is big business, and small publishers aren't equipped to make the jump into the big leagues at the drop of a hat.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You would have a more flexible approach if you used the base of whichever human got bitten, instead of the animal. So, your base lycan is your average peasant with the improvement, as you note, based on a standard level boost. But you could also have bigger, nastier humans as the base, like the level 6 evil knight (or whatever). So for a given task you just pick a combination of human template and were template that combine to give you roughly the level you're looking for. Plus you have all the abilities of enhanced human to play with.

If I wanted werewolves in my own setting, I'd do up a whole range of levels, starting from the base one in SD but adding (off the top of me head) a bigger brute, a sneaky hunter, a shaman, and a werelord leader.

That's a good approach. This campaign isn't going to be heavily lycanthrope-focused -- this family is just killing (and eating!) new settlers to the region and are a problem to be solved by the players so that their home base can grow.

But I might have the patriarch of the family be bigger and more powerful for sure.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I don't think Arcane Library does 'releases' like this. Despite the popularity of the game they are still a very small design house. The KS was a way to access the books without some of the same shipping costs. Logistics is big business, and small publishers aren't equipped to make the jump into the big leagues at the drop of a hat.

She's distributing to the EU on the current campaign via a place in Denmark, per the comments on the latest Kickstarter update.

It might be worth investigating if making a late pledge for just the core book would be cheaper than ordering directly from the Arcane Library site right now, @Nilbog.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You could also over stat the wereboars, but add a deliberating weakness to some or all of them. Maybe the ritually blinded themselves, are bound to a relic, or can't abide strong scents. Pig iron could be a fun weakness, for the pun alone. 'Creating & Adapting Monsters for use in Shadowdark RPG' by Michael Putlack, as well as the Shadowdark core book, has some more weaknesses to use.

I gotta say, swapping their weakness to silver out for a weakness to pig iron is extremely compelling. One of the problems with lycanthropes in D&D generally is that they all tend to be "werewolves, but make them bats," which has pretty quickly diminishing returns, IMO.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I gotta say, swapping their weakness to silver out for a weakness to pig iron is extremely compelling. One of the problems with lycanthropes in D&D generally is that they all tend to be "werewolves, but make them bats," which has pretty quickly diminishing returns, IMO.

Having slept on it, I'm going to make these guys werehogs, rather than wereboars, use the pig iron weakness and maybe not make them infectious. Instead, I might give them some sort of icky devouring ability for mid-combat buffs or healing. (I generally like my Shadowdark to be horror-adjacent.)

 

[zottel]

Having slept on it, I'm going to make these guys werehogs, rather than wereboars, use the pig iron weakness and maybe not make them infectious. Instead, I might give them some sort of icky devouring ability for mid-combat buffs or healing. (I generally like my Shadowdark to be horror-adjacent.)

The devouring sounds rad! Could even roll for buffs or debuffs, or maybe the players manage to get them to feed on something dangerous/weird.

 

[Reynard]

Having slept on it, I'm going to make these guys werehogs, rather than wereboars, use the pig iron weakness and maybe not make them infectious. Instead, I might give them some sort of icky devouring ability for mid-combat buffs or healing. (I generally like my Shadowdark to be horror-adjacent.)

This is a prompt not a criticism:

If they aren't infectious, how did they get that way? Perhaps someone tried to eliminate the evidence of a murder and the hogs devouring the flesh of a victim changed them?

 

[Mannahnin]

Maybe it's a curse? Perhaps one that derives from humans falling into cannibalism?

 

[Maccwar]

Anyone know when/if shadowdark is getting a full UK release?

Can only seem to purchase it directly from the arcane library and shipping is prohibitively expensive

After the Western Reaches kickstarter fulfilment it will be easier to get hold of on this side of the Atlantic. There are a few shops which have it available for in store purchase (but not online orders) around the UK but I'm not aware of any near Sheffield. The Shop on the Borderlands was selling them online at a huge mark-up as they had bought them at retail price but they seem to have sold all of their standard copies.

If you had come along to the Furnace RPG convention in Sheffield back in October you could have picked up a copy from the stall there and played in one (or both) of the sessions I ran during the weekend. I will probably be running more again this October as well.