Shadowdark looks so good!

[Aldarc]

But yeah, my players do love the safety of 5e (they still die a lot in 5e). They love the idea, the fantasy, behind a moon druid, a rune knight, an astral monk and a clockwork sorcerer, but honestly, they dont understand how they work. All those rules and options are way too much for them; they barely remember which die to roll in-between games

So that's why I'm looking for a OSR-ish game that offers many cool character fantasies, without overloading the character sheet. Or a game that's easy enough to modify to create those concepts without spending hours on it. Hence, Shadowdark.

One d20 game that also leaps to my mind from this description would also be Index Card RPG (Master Edition).

On the other end of the spectrum, I could also see Shadow of the Demon Lord/Weird Wizard also working, but I'm not sure if that's too radical of a departure for your group or if it's too much ability over-hang. It at least does a lot of it in smaller chunks and doses.

 

[darjr]

Creating Shadowdark Characters with Character #ttrpg #osr #Shadowdark

 

[darjr]

Shadowdarklings now supports four up zero level gauntlet characters.

ShadowDark Character Generator

A character generator for the ShadowDark roleplaying game

shadowdarklings.net

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Shadowdarklings now supports four up zero level gauntlet characters.

ShadowDark Character Generator

A character generator for the ShadowDark roleplaying game

shadowdarklings.net

Hmm. Where is it getting kobolds from? They're not a core book race and I have third party sources turned off.

 

[darjr]

Hmm. Where is it getting kobolds from? They're not a core book race and I have third party sources turned off.

Those sneaky kobolds!

 

[kapars]

Hmm. Where is it getting kobolds from? They're not a core book race and I have third party sources turned off.

Someone asked what a Kobold race would be in the Discord and Kelsey replied. I assume the person who creates Shadowdarklings got permission to add it there.

 

[Krachek]

Kobold reemphasis that luck Token are renew on a session basis rather than a day basis, another nice mix with real time and game time.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Ran my first game. The Scarlet Minotaur adventure. About half of the dungeon.

They killed the Mino easy enough. And the Wight thanks to the Minos magic axe.

Really while there was several KOs not really any deaths aside from a random encounter that ended up robbing them as they were “out for gold and gems”. That could have been a TPK but I took the description to heart.

Pretty fun but not as deadly as I thought it might be.

BTW, how many slots do gems and jewels take up?

 

[Krachek]

Ran my first game. The Scarlet Minotaur adventure. About half of the dungeon.

They killed the Mino easy enough. And the Wight thanks to the Minos magic axe.

Really while there was several KOs not really any deaths aside from a random encounter that ended up robbing them as they were “out for gold and gems”. That could have been a TPK but I took the description to heart.

Pretty fun but not as deadly as I thought it might be.

BTW, how many slots do gems and jewels take up?

1 slot can be used to carry up to 10 gems.

 

[kapars]

Ran my first game. The Scarlet Minotaur adventure. About half of the dungeon.

They killed the Mino easy enough. And the Wight thanks to the Minos magic axe.

Really while there was several KOs not really any deaths aside from a random encounter that ended up robbing them as they were “out for gold and gems”. That could have been a TPK but I took the description to heart.

Pretty fun but not as deadly as I thought it might be.

BTW, how many slots do gems and jewels take up?

Could use the death at hp 0 variant mode. I’ve had some entertaining sequences of the INT 15 check to stabilize being flubbed though.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Could use the death at hp 0 variant mode. I’ve had some entertaining sequences of the INT 15 check to stabilize being flubbed though.

It could have been worse. They had 2 Priests with Cure Wounds and someone with a good INT to make stabilize checks if need be. It was a 6 player group too.

Really the death/KO count doesnt super bother me. It's more like they wasted the Mino Boss with almost no issue. It didn't help that I couldn't roll over a 7 to hit them, so really its my bad rolls..

Them getting jumped by 6 Ettercaps would have been a TPK but thats not what I was going for and since they were apparently looking to rob and not murder....

 

[DarkCrisis]

One more thing, they really liked the narrative bit of it.

Like the Fighters background was "Thieves Guild" so before they started trying to break a door down he said "Due to my Thieves Guild training I want to trap the corridor behind us." I was like yeah that's a good idea.

And the thief player loved that Thiefs just succeed at finding traps etc even though it took a chunk of time off the torch timer.

And they all loved the torch timer

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It could have been worse. They had 2 Priests with Cure Wounds and someone with a good INT to make stabilize checks if need be.

Having two healers in a group definitely changes the lethality of any fantasy game.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Having two healers in a group definitely changes the lethality of any fantasy game.

My normal group is 5 players.

Rolling random characters means you could double up on Priests fairly easy.

I was thinking that instead of random characters they all agree to a core 4 plus a 5th (Ranger or Bard).

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

My normal group is 5 players.

Rolling random characters means you could double up on Priests fairly easy.

I was thinking that instead of random characters they all agree to a core 4 plus a 5th (Ranger or Bard).

I am not hardcore enough to require my players end up with random classes. I do think, from a success standpoint, having the core four and a wildcard will probably work great.

 

[kapars]

I am not hardcore enough to require my players end up with random classes. I do think, from a success standpoint, having the core four and a wildcard will probably work great.

Based on the setting you could also consider one of the Zine classes. People say some are overpowered but I’m just not seeing that in the math. Some of the Tier 4 and 5 Witch spells are potent though.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Based on the setting you could also consider one of the Zine classes. People say some are overpowered but I’m just not seeing that in the math. Some of the Tier 4 and 5 Witch spells are potent though.

From eyeballing it, and DMing a Pit Fighter, I'd say they probably are great at low levels and then lose out by the time mid-levels roll around.

Pit Fighters are great at standing back up from hitting zero hit points, but a Fighter will ultimately get hit a lot less and -- more importantly -- will kill the monsters a lot faster.

 

[kapars]

From eyeballing it, and DMing a Pit Fighter, I'd say they probably are great at low levels and then lose out by the time mid-levels roll around.

Pit Fighters are great at standing back up from hitting zero hit points, but a Fighter will ultimately get hit a lot less and -- more importantly -- will kill the monsters a lot faster.

Yeah, testing against a Chimera at level 10 it doesn’t look great.

Pit Fighter with 18STR, 14CON, DEX 10. Leather armor, shield, bastard sword 1h.

2 talents to increase strength, 2 to +1 melee damage, 1x ignore damage from one attack

On the damage side it is d8 + 2 so 4.5 + 2 = 6.5 hitting at + 4 so hitting Chimera AC 16 at 12+ ie 45% so effective 2.925 damage per round.

Incoming damage is 36 rend and 14 fire hitting AC 13 with +7 on 6+ ie 75% and making DEX15 with +0 30% for 27 rend and 9.8 fire for 36.8 per round.

Starting with 6.5 hp and gaining 4.5 nine times leads to 47 hp. This means the Pit Fighter goes down in 1.28 rounds.

Flourish applied once adds 3.5 hp takes that to 1.37 rounds. Immunity to attack negates one rend for additional 9hp taking us to 1.62 rounds. Succeed on DC18 con check on 16+ 36% of time with advantage which we will count as 0.36 of one 9 point rend for additional 3.24 for effective 62.74 hp and going down in 1.7 rounds.

I could apply another partial flourish or factor in the 18+ on revive but I’ll stop here. Doesn’t look great with issue being low AC. Ironically this means a Pit Fighter should go +1 to melee attack over STR/CON and focus on Finesse weapons and favor DEX.

 

[darjr]

I didn’t know! Kelsey was playing Shadowdark at Gary Gygax house when the Kickstarter rolled over a million! Ha! Cool!

 

[darjr]