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Shadowdark opens late pledges next week!

kenada

Legend
Supporter
I saw that she said that, but the end product -- to me, at least -- reads more like B/X in intention and flavor, but not so much in mechanics.

There's a unified XP system, it uses advantage/disadvantage, race and class are separated, there's a unified resolution system, ascending armor class, etc.

I guess she just built up from B/X, making the choices to use modern mechanics throughout, and just ended up at something that resembles a stripped-down 5E without that necessarily being the intention.

In any case, I think it's immensely easy for a 5E DM to run, as most of their existing assumptions hold true.
Intention and flavor sound like a pretty solid foundation to me even if the end result isn’t mechanically B/X. That’s fine if not a good idea. I did note it wasn’t a retroclone after all.
 
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Whizbang Dustyboots

Gnometown Hero
After playing a few times, I stand by my previous description: ShadowDark is a B/X-inspired, 5e-informed RPG doing its own fast and fun thing. XP for treasure and carousing, but not for killing monsters, is refreshing, and initiative always on makes play breezy.
I'm really looking forward to the carousing/pit fighting downtime play loop.

My players realizing they didn't have to fight for XP and could just steal treasure and run in Firetop Mountain was a lot of fun, until they attracted too much attention ...
 








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