Shadowdark looks so good!

Jahydin

Hero
Questing beast just reviewed Shadow Dark and I couldn't click on the Kickstarter fast enough.

How cool is this cover art?
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I also enjoyed the video the author, Kelsey Dionne, put out on how this project came about.

Couldn't help but share. :)
 

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Greggy C

Hero
I couldn't find anything particularly new in terms of mechanics. Everything I could find came before in other OSR games (correct me if I am wrong).

And yet...

It is probably the best of the OSR's. OSE being a tiny book just really annoys me too much. DCC is too gonzo for me. Maze rats and most other games are just too short.
This one, while not innovative (I don't think I would use a real time torches rule) is something I would use, has the most charm and the simplest rules.

I like the art, and I hope there will be a lot more. Right now, the pages look sparse (300 words on a full-worded page is oof). I appreciate the bigger font.
I like that it focuses on rules for the game, not adding fluff just to meet some imaginary page count (cough, A5E's 100 pages before you even pick a class *).

I think, overall it will be my preferred D&D clone for ages under 15.


* Trials and Treasures, though, I could take hundreds more pages. That was a great book.
 
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There's also a Questing Beast video on it, if anyone wants to get a first impression:
For me personally, it's not that interesting. It doesn't really bring anything I'd consider new to the table (except for the emphasized real-time aspect, which I consider more bug than feature), and the impression is more that of a 5e take on OSR gaming than an actual OSR game. But for people who just want to branch out from their 5e game, it's probably fine.
 

I like that it focuses on rules for the game, not adding fluff just to meet some imaginary page count (cough, A5E's 100 pages before you even pick a class *).
Different strokes I guess. That stuff was the killer app for me. I find the way most D&D adjacent games cover the topics in those sections to be pathetically terse.
 

Burt Baccara

Explorer
I couldn't find anything particularly new in terms of mechanics. Everything I could find came before in other OSR games (correct me if I am wrong).

And yet...

It is probably the best of the OSR's.
It is more than a remix or greatest hits, it is taking all the best parts of the OSR (or more so the NuSR) and pulling them together into a complete and cohesive game.

I think the next edition of Cairn is aiming for something similar, so looking forward to another take on this.
 

TwoSix

"Diegetics", by L. Ron Gygax
It is more than a remix or greatest hits, it is taking all the best parts of the OSR (or more so the NuSR) and pulling them together into a complete and cohesive game.

I think the next edition of Cairn is aiming for something similar, so looking forward to another take on this.
Yea, I like a lot of the ideas, but I prefer the classless system and item-slot based casting for NuSR games like Knave and Cairn.
 


darjr

I crit!
The authors adventures are awesome and if this is the vehicle for those going forward it might be worth it to me.

I need to look to see how easy it would be ti use existing 5e monsters too.
 


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