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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nightfly" data-source="post: 9613627" data-attributes="member: 89601">I actually sympathize with this view, although I think "nearly identical" is a reach. The game that's most like Shadowdark in my eyes is The Black Hack, and those two are not identical. Black Hack has a wonky way of handling armor that never quite clicked with me, and its leveling system is pretty bland compared to Shadowdark's cool talent tables, just to name two examples. So it's not as though Kelsey just repackaged that system -- or any other system -- and made bank off it. Shadowdark is very thoughtfully curated and it's all killer no filler.There's also the fact that Shadowdark seems more like a complete game to me than some of those others. I dig Black Hack and Cairn, but they sort of feel like pamphlets, things you download for free or for maybe 4 bucks on itch.io. Shadowdark has a vibe of being professional, fleshed out, and polished. That might be more presentation than substance, but presentation matters. Mork Borg didn't invent very much new but the book is absolutely stunning. That counts.Finally, you have to consider how great Kelsey's marketing has been. She had a large, loyal fanbase from her excellent 5e adventures. She's done an amazing job of using social media and YouTube to get across her vision for Shadowdark to tons of 5e players who otherwise have no interest in the OSR. Gobs of people are buying Shadowdark who might never even have heard of Old School Essentials or Dungeon Crawl Classics. And of course, success breeds success. One of the main reasons to play Shadowdark instead of another rules-light OSR system is that so many more people are playing Shadowdark already. I'd love to give Black Hack a try but I've never found a game of it.</blockquote>

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