Shadowdark looks so good!

[Nightfly]

Given how prolific an adventure writer she was in the 5E era, I'm glad that Kickstarter fulfillment is no longer taking up so much of her time, so she can get back to cranking out adventures again.

Yes! Although I like Shadowdark, Kelsey's real genius is as an adventure writer. Her one-page adventures for SD are absolute masterpieces of minimalism. She can evoke more atmosphere and thrills on one side of an index card than most writers can manage in a hundred pages.

 

[darjr]

Yes! Although I like Shadowdark, Kelsey's real genius is as an adventure writer. Her one-page adventures for SD are absolute masterpieces of minimalism. She can evoke more atmosphere and thrills on one side of an index card than most writers can manage in a hundred pages.

I can’t wait for more.

I look at adventures now wishing they’d had her kind of magic.

But I also think Shadowdark is real genius too.

 

[Bill Zebub]

But I also think Shadowdark is real genius too.

Yeah even without her adventures, the Shadowdark ruleset is my favorite.

 

[Arilyn]

Shadowdark is very addictive. We keep going back to it.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Part of the March Kickstarter maybe?

She keeps briefly mentioning wanting to do a mega-dungeon, so I'm guessing she will have something to show besides the next three Cursed Scrolls.

 

[Bill Zebub]

She keeps briefly mentioning wanting to do a mega-dungeon, so I'm guessing she will have something to show besides the next three Cursed Scrolls.

Yeah that's the other thing (besides a campaign setting) I would buy from Kelsey in a heartbeat.

What I don't really need more of in Shadowdark is new character options. The way Shadowdark plays, where player decisions (and teamwork) matter so much more than abilities on the character sheet, that I feel like the basic 4 classes offer sufficient variety. I mean, I love designing classes, and reading other people's classes, I just don't feel like they add as much to Shadowdark as they do to games that are built more around class abilities, like D&D.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Id like her to try other environnements with the same oppresive feeling as a dungeon such as a sinous pathways in a sunless primeval forest or deep underwater trenches.

And a few more officially released "advanced" classes such as druids, paladin, berserker etc or more spells to make more varied spellcaster without creating a new class for them.

 

[Distracted DM]

The folks who get really upset with people wanting to hack Shadowdark -- I think the Shadowdark Facebook group had to ban someone who kept ranting and raving about people going beyond the book -- are going to spiral when they see that she's created darkness-adapted vampire PCs for this adventure.

One thing I've always liked about her adventure design videos (both for 5E and Shadowdark) is how thoughtful she is in her process. In this case, she thinks about what makes horror adventures work and the impact of usually creating maps as she goes, rather than grabbing a Dyson Logos map, as she does here.

Oh I love design talk- I'll have to give the video a watch!

 

[Bill Zebub]

OMG would somebody please say something about Shadowdark? I don't want to have to keep engaging in the D&D forum. And I certainly don't want to have to go onto Discord (the horror, the horror...) for the official Shadowdark community.

 

[S'mon]

I'm all-in on Shadowdark as a system, and I personally love the aesthetic. The only thing I struggle with is that I often play with my kids and their friends, with an age range of 8+, and the horror aspect of Kelsey's adventures is often a bit too horrible for that age range. It really doesn't take much to make an 8 year old's skin crawl.

I end up editing out a lot of those features, but that some times ends up leaving the adventures a bit colorless/themeless. I could write my own adventures, but honestly finding time just to play is hard enough; I don't have time to write the adventures, too. (One of the things I love her adventures is zero prep time.)

Conversely I run Wilderlands, the setting KD "grew up" on, so for me it's perfect.