You're my hero. I've been looking at Shadowdark for a while, and I think this video has finally convinced me. It's going to make it easier on my wife, who is intimidated by the 5e of PF2e character sheet.
Everything about shadowdark is pretty great honestly. Trying to figure out how many extra points to to give to your half-orc barbarian of the totem class blah blah blah “Bruh I’m a fighter. Let’s go”
Happy to help! Remember, that quick start PDF is free, but if you're already familiar with 5e and PF, springing for the core SD book while it's in stock will give you lots of other tight resources to pull from.
I beyond adore Shadowdark. I've been trying and struggling to run DND for a group of my students who all had limited gaming experience and some what limited literacy skills. It was such a travesty that I was in the process of making a D6 stripped down game. After watching some of your videos about Shadowdark I gave it a try and let me tell you it's a night and day difference! Just ordered the big core book after running with the quickstart for a while.
I've been playing D&D at least once a week since 1979. I've run just about every edition and similacrum out there. In my opinion, the Shadowdark quick start is the absolute best way to get into "the game". Great video Bob! For those of you reading this that haven't tried Shadowdark, stop what you're doing and go order the quick start!
Shadowdark is the way. I’ve been trying to find a system to plant my flag in for a while and after running a handful of sessions in Shadowdark I’m done looking. It offers what i need and is very concise.
Dude, we switched from 5e to SD a few months ago. Changed our table; breathed new life into it. This game is so well designed, more than you would assume at first glance. The way the mechanics interact and bounce off each other create incredible and dramatic sessions!
This is incredibly helpful, thank you! Always happy for more ShadowDark love. Also as a bonus tip for others! d4 Caltrops has a d100 table for "Priesthood Penances & Cleric Contritions". It makes failing as a priest all the more fun!
My partner wants me to run a dnd campaign again with some people who haven’t played before and I’ve honestly been dreading going through character creation again. Even with experienced roleplayers it takes more than an hour the first time… Just playing Shadowdark instead is a great idea! Thank you
@BobworldBuilder - Character creation is one of my favorite parts of gaming. In Rolemaster ( a VERY !!! crunchy game system) I actually created my own "module" by consolidating all of the 12 books needed to create characters into a consolidated flip book I nick-named "Character Law".
Freaking cool video! Shadowdark is such a fun system, ran it dozens of times already. Mixing Shadowdark & DCC stuff is especially fun. You are doing the Dark Gods work , Bob, thank you
I love that you are making videos about shadowdark (shadowdarkings is just pure fun to do, i make characters when on the train!). Very excited to see you are making a book too! Cant get enough of this shadowdark stuff. :)
Thanks, Bob. I've been running Shadowdark on and off for a year now, and my main gaming group of stalwart 5th edition players are now favouring Shadowdark for our game sessions. As the DM, I prefer the rulings over the rules approach, and we love this game. Tellingly, we all have the 2024 D&D rules, but we haven't even cracked those books open yet. We're too busy having laughs and thrills, keeping the torches lit in the depths of the shadowdark. I loved this video, thanks!
Just ran my first Shadowdark session this past weekend, and it lives up to the hype. Lightning-fast, and full of great nail-biting moments of suspense. It's D&D with all the rust scraped off.
Thanks for the great video, Bob! I am starting a new ShadowDark campaign this Friday and shared this with my players. Looking forward to running this for the first time.
Those are some amazing practical effects Bob! Shadowdark is awesome! I haven’t had the opportunity to play yet but I have made a couple of characters and own the book. Everyone praises it so much about how fun it is, and easy to get into.
Love the more casual feel in your videos. Not sure I needed another Shadowdark themed video... but the personality can sell a lot, and why I've considered the Patreon. Cudos to the authenticity!
I picked up SD 3 weeks ago, I read the starter set in a couple hours, built a small adventure and ran a game for my group the same weekend. We have had 2 sessions since then. It's a HIT!! I highly recommend it!!
I love how your answer to D&D is always Shadowdark (lol). I totally agree! ;-) I had already been running Shadowdark for a Library Tweens club, but now that I am officially the GM for the same library's Teen D&D club, I might start them off on Shadowdark too (unless they are more experienced, and then I'll run D&D).
We need a behind the scenes for this video. How many times did Grace hit you with the book before you got the shot? Did she ever "forget" and throw the new Player's Handbook at your face instead?
I regret not taking a picture or something, but that was actually me lowering, raising, and even throwing the book lol, rigged it up around a pull-up bar, and I think might be able to see my hand in the corner during the toss xD
Shadowdark has been great for getting me back to the feeling of playing DnD Basic when I was a kid, but without all the non-intuitive weirdness that came with it. Looking forward to Delve as well.
I like the simplified spell casting. Knowing the spell until you fail a spell roll could take care of the spell slot economy. I will need to check out Shadowdark.
This is awesome. Just what i was looking for. Ive been wanting to run a second game for awhile but have been wary about how I could prep and have figured id need to develop a lite version. Looks like theyve already thought that out. My games are almost exclusively low level as well so the leveling system seems like a perfect fit. Super exicted to try this out. The world of ttrpg is large and intimidating to explore at times so I really appreciate you making this content!
0-level ShadowDark characters are not guaranteed to start with weapons! This created a TPK when I ran two against the Forgotten Forge adventure from 3.5 Eberron Campaign Setting.
Did you make any significant adjustments? Forgotten Forge is designed for 1st level 3.5 characters, who are much more powerful than 0 level SD characters.
Bob, finally able to watch your video right before work, within an hour of posting. Hard to do when posting during work day. When is your audience available to watch within an hour?
Thanks! I've always stuck with morning Eastern Time because it's when I uploaded while I had my other job, and I feel like other US timezones (most of my viewers) see it throughout the day. With the way UA-cam has been changing though, might be worth tinkering with upload time...
Shadowdark is the greatest RPG ever. I highly recommend getting the book (hard copy or PDF) - it's the entire thing for players and DMs, monsters and items the whole bit.
The three pillars of D&D are Combat, Exploration and Roleplaying... Wizards kind of forgot that, and just trippled down on combat, with pages and pages of combat feats, spells, and abilities, all to sell books and make players feel powerful. Meanwhile roleplaying gets four general skills and a page and half of text that most DMs don't even read, and Exploration has been pretty much forgotten. Shadow Dark remembers the three pillars. It keeps the rules light and the characters moderate in power, so they can't just bulldoze their way through every encounter, and actually have to roleplay and think to survive. Shadowdark is prime example what D&D is supposed to be.
I like the idea that magic users can lose confidence in a particular spell, meaning they won't be able to cast it again for a while after failing once.
I've been using Shadowdark for a bit, love the simplicity of it, For my character i have a Necromancer Vampire that uses a elixir potion to stay in day light for a few hrs a day ,we don't use spell checks tho, I have it where if they have basic spells they can keep using them if there more powerful they can only use them every 5 turns. & I do the forbidden & sacrilege DMPC, since there's only 2-3 in total usually in my games. One of campaigns my party were comically fighting over who would get a Silver Dagger has advantage over undead, after a Boss fight, Good Times.
I don't think I've seen it in a store yet. I'd ask the store owners or maybe ask around in the SD discord. If anyone's managed to get the store stocking it, it'll be someone in that server!
Did that very thing with my SD character - hit "random", saved PDF, and have enjoyed one of the better characters I've ever played - Hrogar the Half-Orc ranger :)
Among the myriad things Shadowdark does better than 5e or Pathfinder, spellcasting is the absolute best. Spellcasters casting spells all the time instead of showing up, using a spell, and then wondering when they can rest again to get that spell back? It's SO good, especially for spells like Magic Missile where you cast with advantage, so the chances of not having that spell available are very low. Shadowdark is the best.
WOW This sounds like the Original D&D basic, the Red one that was released in the 80's, that was where i started playing - then got the first DnD advanced then did 3 & 3.5 and now Fifth edition Wow remembering the F*cked up stuff we did in Basic system - so cool Yes - Original DnD Nerd here
i'm running cyberpunk and we invited someone new to our group.... they came with a massive backstory and ideas about what they wanted to do..... I'm like... uh we're rolling random characters and doing this gig this week... pls lower your expectations while we fumble through learning this combat system and making dumb references to edgerunners....
What spell did you use to levitate the Shadowdark quickstart rules? I love all Bob World Builder videos! Shadowdark is great however, I would love to see videos about your game Delve. Would really love to see some live play games of it as well. I keep searching the UA-cam but have not seen any yet.
I hate how you have to use the clickbaity "D&D" title and thumbnail, but I understand why it needs to be done. I volunteer for a program that teaches kids to play D&D at the local public libraries. I have told the organizer that I feel Shadowdark would be a much better game to teach to the kids, but I've been told that all the library cares about is that we get good turnout and teaching D&D gets much greater turnout than any other game that is advertised.
Just call it D&D but run Shadowdark lol. Apart from the name Shadowdark it’s still what the average person would think “D&D” is, maybe even more so since most popular media depicts an OSR-type game when they show it.
I don't think there's an official Shadowdark druid yet, but I googled "shadowdark druid" and found some options. Also Delve will have a sort-of druid SD class based on oozes specifically :)
I wish I could buy the Shadowdark book here in Europe… I mean I can, through their website, but shipping and customs double the book‘s price, which is a pity- a pdf just isn’t the same
My holdouts on Shadowdark are that races seem to pigeonhole class/role choice and random rolling for character advancement. I generally like to run games with a lot of player agency in who they get to be as characters... This game looks like it's great for pick up and play silly fun times, but I'm sensing that it might not run as well for compelling narratives as traditional 5e. Can anybody convince me otherwise, or is Shadowdark just not for me? Or would agnosticising racial traits and allowing level up choice (no rolling) maybe alleviate my hesitation?
In practice, I suspect only the half-orc’s bonus to melee doesn’t dovetail as readily with wizards as it does with every other class. Invisibility and more HP, for example, are pretty useful no matter who you are. A similar game with more character control is Knave 2e, where what you pack is how you stack: everyone has a number of items they can carry, and your assortment of tools, spell books, armor, and weapons is what you can do. Simple but customizable. With Shadowdark, instead of rolling, you could pick a talent you don’t yet have from the class table (any, if you’ve picked them all already). Part of the appeal, however, is the surprise, like opening presents. Narratively, decide if you want a game that focuses on specific characters whose survival is only risked during climactic moments or if, Game of Thrones style, your story centers on an aspect of the setting or the fate of a group or crew, while individuals are always vulnerable. Shadowdark has “luck tokens” that can manipulate the genre. I’ve run games of Shadowdark where even the “1 max hp”characters survived by sneaking and attacking at range, but randomness and lethality can add to narrative twists and drama. There is also a rules-lite adventure game called Fabula Ultima, which is only distantly D&Dlike but has rules devoted to cultivating Final-Fantasy-style thematic character drama. It, too, has a quickstart, called “Press Start”. The best way is to taste a session or two yourself; I’ve seen free online previews of Shadowdark, Knave, and Fabula Ultima.
I love the concepts of Shadow Dark but, iirc, there’s too much rigidity to its turn order? Like the entire game being performed in turns feels a little too specifically tight imo. I’ll need to re-read the books because I do love what they have and they’re super simple but that sticking point and the dedication to “grit” is kind of a turn off. I know that’s the point, for me, it detracts from it.
Videos like this (non-official D&D) are only possible with Patreon!
➡Consider joining here: www.patreon.com/bobworldbuilder
Would you cover Legend in The Mist? It's perfect for people who intimidated by number heavy games. One dice mechanic handles everything
You're my hero. I've been looking at Shadowdark for a while, and I think this video has finally convinced me. It's going to make it easier on my wife, who is intimidated by the 5e of PF2e character sheet.
Everything about shadowdark is pretty great honestly. Trying to figure out how many extra points to to give to your half-orc barbarian of the totem class blah blah blah
“Bruh I’m a fighter. Let’s go”
do it, you will not be dissapointed.
Happy to help! Remember, that quick start PDF is free, but if you're already familiar with 5e and PF, springing for the core SD book while it's in stock will give you lots of other tight resources to pull from.
Its very elegant, and well worth the hype. :)
I've been using Shadowdark to teach new players for a year now. It's perfect for new players. And grizzled, rules-weary veterans, too.
Booklet to the face immediately made like the video.
That was just good old-fashioned hilarity.
Slapstick comedy?
Slapbook comedy✅
Same
I’m here for it! I’ve “tricked” several people into playing a game simply by rolling up a character against their will. 😁
Yeah, but I think the D&D5e'24 PHB across the face would've had more impact! ;)
I beyond adore Shadowdark.
I've been trying and struggling to run DND for a group of my students who all had limited gaming experience and some what limited literacy skills.
It was such a travesty that I was in the process of making a D6 stripped down game.
After watching some of your videos about Shadowdark I gave it a try and let me tell you it's a night and day difference!
Just ordered the big core book after running with the quickstart for a while.
That is excellent! Love to hear how trying something new made it work!
I've been playing D&D at least once a week since 1979.
I've run just about every edition and similacrum out there.
In my opinion, the Shadowdark quick start is the absolute best way to get into "the game".
Great video Bob!
For those of you reading this that haven't tried Shadowdark, stop what you're doing and go order the quick start!
Haha now that's a testimonial! Thank you
Shadowdark is the way. I’ve been trying to find a system to plant my flag in for a while and after running a handful of sessions in Shadowdark I’m done looking. It offers what i need and is very concise.
Well done for exploring other games! I shudder to think of how many people try dnd once or twice, don't jive with it, then just abandon RPGs forever!
What a timely video! We started our ShadowDark session zero last night. Sending this to the group. Thanks Bob!
Wonderful! :) Thanks for commenting, man!
Shadowdark is one that has slowly won me over. I’m looking forward to really trying it out.
Give it a go!
I’ve been running a shadowdark campaign for almost two years, and it’s been a blast!!!
That's awesome! Many people still think it's only good for dungeons or shorter games, so spread the word far and wide!
Dude, we switched from 5e to SD a few months ago. Changed our table; breathed new life into it. This game is so well designed, more than you would assume at first glance. The way the mechanics interact and bounce off each other create incredible and dramatic sessions!
Shadderdark and OSE (inc Dolmenwood) are hands down my favorite D&Ds.
Maybe "Torch Game" would be easier to rattle off.
@ I’m reminded of that Family Guy episode where Stewie can say “cool” and “whip” correctly, but always emphasizes the “h” when saying “coolwHip.” 😅
This is incredibly helpful, thank you! Always happy for more ShadowDark love. Also as a bonus tip for others! d4 Caltrops has a d100 table for "Priesthood Penances & Cleric Contritions". It makes failing as a priest all the more fun!
Sounds like a great resource! Thanks for mentioning it
Thank you for the link. I'm going to check this out right now.
Amazing resource! Thank you so much for sharing it!
Bob, you and your channel are an absolute delight.
I really appreciate that! :)
Great video! What do you mean “make one up”? There has to be RULES! And RULES about RULES! Without 500 pages of rules, gaming is just chaos.
I read your comment twice before deciding that your funny! 🤣
"How will I know a fireball does fire damage unless the rulebook tells me!?"
Shadowdark is the reason my group actually plays regularly.
My partner wants me to run a dnd campaign again with some people who haven’t played before and I’ve honestly been dreading going through character creation again. Even with experienced roleplayers it takes more than an hour the first time… Just playing Shadowdark instead is a great idea! Thank you
@BobworldBuilder - Character creation is one of my favorite parts of gaming. In Rolemaster ( a VERY !!! crunchy game system) I actually created my own "module" by consolidating all of the 12 books needed to create characters into a consolidated flip book I nick-named "Character Law".
Shadowdark is my new favourite game. Thanks for talking about it.
Freaking cool video! Shadowdark is such a fun system, ran it dozens of times already. Mixing Shadowdark & DCC stuff is especially fun. You are doing the Dark Gods work , Bob, thank you
I love that you are making videos about shadowdark (shadowdarkings is just pure fun to do, i make characters when on the train!).
Very excited to see you are making a book too! Cant get enough of this shadowdark stuff. :)
Thanks, Bob. I've been running Shadowdark on and off for a year now, and my main gaming group of stalwart 5th edition players are now favouring Shadowdark for our game sessions. As the DM, I prefer the rulings over the rules approach, and we love this game. Tellingly, we all have the 2024 D&D rules, but we haven't even cracked those books open yet. We're too busy having laughs and thrills, keeping the torches lit in the depths of the shadowdark. I loved this video, thanks!
Honestly this system sounds so fun. Might just look into it for short games. Thanks for covering how to make a character
Shadowdark: all of the fun and none of the fuss. Peak TTRPG.
Well said!
Shadowdark and your presentation of it, is some of the best in the RPG community now.
I liked the tone and the straight to the point attitude. Thanks Bob, let's have more fun playing DnD together.
Just ran my first Shadowdark session this past weekend, and it lives up to the hype. Lightning-fast, and full of great nail-biting moments of suspense. It's D&D with all the rust scraped off.
I am so excited for Delve. Especially since I'm starting a new game soon and I know that at least one monster in there is gonna be very useful for me
Thank you!! The monsters alpha PDF should be going out to backers today! More parts coming soon before the full PDF is done in Feb!
Sounds like a fun system. The magic rules sound fun
Thanks for the great video, Bob! I am starting a new ShadowDark campaign this Friday and shared this with my players. Looking forward to running this for the first time.
Awesome! Thanks for sharing! :)
Those are some amazing practical effects Bob! Shadowdark is awesome! I haven’t had the opportunity to play yet but I have made a couple of characters and own the book. Everyone praises it so much about how fun it is, and easy to get into.
Thanks a lot! It was not so easy to rig up the book/string haha
Shadowdark is my game of choice at the moment.
I love ALL Bob World Builder videos!
Thanks for commenting :)
Our first Shadowdark session is on Saturday ! Looking forward to it !!
Have fun!!
@@BobWorldBuilder Thanks brother !
Bob World Builder, always making gaming better for everyone.
Love the more casual feel in your videos. Not sure I needed another Shadowdark themed video... but the personality can sell a lot, and why I've considered the Patreon.
Cudos to the authenticity!
Thanks very much! And yes Patreon is why I can publish videos about games like this :)
I've heard a lot of folks mention Shadowdark. But I never knew it was this easy or, well, this agreeable. I might need to give it a try sometime.
I picked up SD 3 weeks ago, I read the starter set in a couple hours, built a small adventure and ran a game for my group the same weekend. We have had 2 sessions since then. It's a HIT!! I highly recommend it!!
Bingo!
I love how your answer to D&D is always Shadowdark (lol). I totally agree! ;-)
I had already been running Shadowdark for a Library Tweens club, but now that I am officially the GM for the same library's Teen D&D club, I might start them off on Shadowdark too (unless they are more experienced, and then I'll run D&D).
I love all Bob World Builder videos!
We need a behind the scenes for this video. How many times did Grace hit you with the book before you got the shot? Did she ever "forget" and throw the new Player's Handbook at your face instead?
I regret not taking a picture or something, but that was actually me lowering, raising, and even throwing the book lol, rigged it up around a pull-up bar, and I think might be able to see my hand in the corner during the toss xD
Shadowdark has been great for getting me back to the feeling of playing DnD Basic when I was a kid, but without all the non-intuitive weirdness that came with it. Looking forward to Delve as well.
I like the simplified spell casting. Knowing the spell until you fail a spell roll could take care of the spell slot economy.
I will need to check out Shadowdark.
Thanks for showing the quick start. Seems like a good way to go!
Thank you for this vid; some folk got really mad on another channel when I said creation shouldn't take more than ten minutes. 🙃
MOAR SHADODARK!!! MOOOOOAAAAARRRR!!!!
Also, I think the stoneborn are my favorite ancestry.
Love the intro, you have such a fun sense of humor
Thanks very much!
This is awesome. Just what i was looking for. Ive been wanting to run a second game for awhile but have been wary about how I could prep and have figured id need to develop a lite version. Looks like theyve already thought that out. My games are almost exclusively low level as well so the leveling system seems like a perfect fit. Super exicted to try this out. The world of ttrpg is large and intimidating to explore at times so I really appreciate you making this content!
Love Shadowdark.
This sounds very cool. May look at simple systems next.
"Delve is coming soon" >> "Delve is coming not soon enough" :D
Kickstarted this one. Money well spent.
Shadowdark is great. Running two campaigns with it atm.
4D6 drop the lowest forever! And I Love ALL Bob World Builder videos!
Haha thanks for commenting!
Excellent intro to this cool game! Thanks for sharing. 🍪☕
Lol...that intro. Hilarious 😂
Alright alright alright, thanks Bob, i'm sold!
Looking forward to Delve. I backed the Shadowdark version, natch.
Thank you! The alpha PDF of the monsters should be going out to backers TODAY!
This sounds really fun. I’ll have to check out the system!
Yeah! Give it a shot!
Thirty seconds in and was going to suggest Shadowdark RPG 😉
0-level ShadowDark characters are not guaranteed to start with weapons! This created a TPK when I ran two against the Forgotten Forge adventure from 3.5 Eberron Campaign Setting.
Did you make any significant adjustments? Forgotten Forge is designed for 1st level 3.5 characters, who are much more powerful than 0 level SD characters.
Sitting around a table with friends creating characters during campaign 0 is an experience in itself.
Great video!
Bob, finally able to watch your video right before work, within an hour of posting. Hard to do when posting during work day. When is your audience available to watch within an hour?
Thanks! I've always stuck with morning Eastern Time because it's when I uploaded while I had my other job, and I feel like other US timezones (most of my viewers) see it throughout the day. With the way UA-cam has been changing though, might be worth tinkering with upload time...
Trying Shadowdark in my next campaign!! This gives the boost I needed to start! Thx Bob as always!
Best opening EVER!!!!!!
Great Video! Love Shadowdark and I can't wait to get my hands on Delve!
Shadowdark is the greatest RPG ever. I highly recommend getting the book (hard copy or PDF) - it's the entire thing for players and DMs, monsters and items the whole bit.
Love the Shadowdark system. Looking forward to your Delve products to add to my game.
The three pillars of D&D are Combat, Exploration and Roleplaying...
Wizards kind of forgot that, and just trippled down on combat, with pages and pages of combat feats, spells, and abilities, all to sell books and make players feel powerful.
Meanwhile roleplaying gets four general skills and a page and half of text that most DMs don't even read, and Exploration has been pretty much forgotten.
Shadow Dark remembers the three pillars.
It keeps the rules light and the characters moderate in power, so they can't just bulldoze their way through every encounter, and actually have to roleplay and think to survive.
Shadowdark is prime example what D&D is supposed to be.
I like the idea that magic users can lose confidence in a particular spell, meaning they won't be able to cast it again for a while after failing once.
I've been using Shadowdark for a bit, love the simplicity of it, For my character i have a Necromancer Vampire that uses a elixir potion to stay in day light for a few hrs a day ,we don't use spell checks tho, I have it where if they have basic spells they can keep using them if there more powerful they can only use them every 5 turns. & I do the forbidden & sacrilege DMPC, since there's only 2-3 in total usually in my games. One of campaigns my party were comically fighting over who would get a Silver Dagger has advantage over undead, after a Boss fight, Good Times.
Well done timing the spellcasting section EXACTLY one minute after you said "literally one minute" 😂
Great Open!
Love me some Shadowdark... so good
Trying to get into it this weekend.
Now if only my FLGS would start carrying Shadowdark. Do they even distribute the zines/core rule books?
Have you asked if they can order it for you?
@@heyyitskelvi I've been hoping as it gains in popularity they would start carrying it. I think it is time to ask next time I go by
If you have the book, maybe offer to run a game and they can try to sell some inventory that day
I don't think I've seen it in a store yet. I'd ask the store owners or maybe ask around in the SD discord. If anyone's managed to get the store stocking it, it'll be someone in that server!
Comment for the algorithm
Did that very thing with my SD character - hit "random", saved PDF, and have enjoyed one of the better characters I've ever played - Hrogar the Half-Orc ranger :)
Great job promoting a great system.
Bob, beware low flying pamphlets in future recommendation videos!
Great video Bob, Thanks.
Among the myriad things Shadowdark does better than 5e or Pathfinder, spellcasting is the absolute best. Spellcasters casting spells all the time instead of showing up, using a spell, and then wondering when they can rest again to get that spell back? It's SO good, especially for spells like Magic Missile where you cast with advantage, so the chances of not having that spell available are very low.
Shadowdark is the best.
I still don't know how many pages of DnD spells enter in the Words "You can cast any fire-based spells".
I jaut late-backed the Delve Kickstarter! Will I still receive a survey or link to a pledge manager website to finalize the order?
WOW This sounds like the Original D&D basic, the Red one that was released in the 80's, that was where i started playing - then got the first DnD advanced then did 3 & 3.5 and now Fifth edition
Wow remembering the F*cked up stuff we did in Basic system - so cool
Yes - Original DnD Nerd here
i'm running cyberpunk and we invited someone new to our group.... they came with a massive backstory and ideas about what they wanted to do.....
I'm like... uh we're rolling random characters and doing this gig this week... pls lower your expectations while we fumble through learning this combat system and making dumb references to edgerunners....
What spell did you use to levitate the Shadowdark quickstart rules?
I love all Bob World Builder videos!
Shadowdark is great however, I would love to see videos about your game Delve. Would really love to see some live play games of it as well. I keep searching the UA-cam but have not seen any yet.
You’ve sold me on shadowdark, but do you also have a video on how to streamline creating a 5e character?
I hate how you have to use the clickbaity "D&D" title and thumbnail, but I understand why it needs to be done. I volunteer for a program that teaches kids to play D&D at the local public libraries. I have told the organizer that I feel Shadowdark would be a much better game to teach to the kids, but I've been told that all the library cares about is that we get good turnout and teaching D&D gets much greater turnout than any other game that is advertised.
Just call it D&D but run Shadowdark lol. Apart from the name Shadowdark it’s still what the average person would think “D&D” is, maybe even more so since most popular media depicts an OSR-type game when they show it.
What i tell them to do when i get picked to be GM, you choose something and get to add 1 thing of flavor text.
I haven’t tried Shadowdark but DragonBane character creation was fast too.
Is there a Druid in any of the lil sourcebooks by any chance? :o
I don't think there's an official Shadowdark druid yet, but I googled "shadowdark druid" and found some options. Also Delve will have a sort-of druid SD class based on oozes specifically :)
I wish I could buy the Shadowdark book here in Europe…
I mean I can, through their website, but shipping and customs double the book‘s price, which is a pity- a pdf just isn’t the same
This has been my nightmare for a while
lol...well ya... i also took some inspiration from SD for my version of DND :) pc creation for us is about 5 ish minutes :)
I see a Keith Parkinson in the background.
OR ..! Discard new school altogether and go back to TSR's BECMI. Or Old School Essentials is a really good clone of B/X.
My holdouts on Shadowdark are that races seem to pigeonhole class/role choice and random rolling for character advancement.
I generally like to run games with a lot of player agency in who they get to be as characters...
This game looks like it's great for pick up and play silly fun times, but I'm sensing that it might not run as well for compelling narratives as traditional 5e.
Can anybody convince me otherwise, or is Shadowdark just not for me?
Or would agnosticising racial traits and allowing level up choice (no rolling) maybe alleviate my hesitation?
In practice, I suspect only the half-orc’s bonus to melee doesn’t dovetail as readily with wizards as it does with every other class. Invisibility and more HP, for example, are pretty useful no matter who you are.
A similar game with more character control is Knave 2e, where what you pack is how you stack: everyone has a number of items they can carry, and your assortment of tools, spell books, armor, and weapons is what you can do. Simple but customizable.
With Shadowdark, instead of rolling, you could pick a talent you don’t yet have from the class table (any, if you’ve picked them all already). Part of the appeal, however, is the surprise, like opening presents.
Narratively, decide if you want a game that focuses on specific characters whose survival is only risked during climactic moments or if, Game of Thrones style, your story centers on an aspect of the setting or the fate of a group or crew, while individuals are always vulnerable. Shadowdark has “luck tokens” that can manipulate the genre. I’ve run games of Shadowdark where even the “1 max hp”characters survived by sneaking and attacking at range, but randomness and lethality can add to narrative twists and drama.
There is also a rules-lite adventure game called Fabula Ultima, which is only distantly D&Dlike but has rules devoted to cultivating Final-Fantasy-style thematic character drama. It, too, has a quickstart, called “Press Start”.
The best way is to taste a session or two yourself; I’ve seen free online previews of Shadowdark, Knave, and Fabula Ultima.
The characters are easy to make but leveling up just isn't satisfying, kinda like 5e.
I love the concepts of Shadow Dark but, iirc, there’s too much rigidity to its turn order? Like the entire game being performed in turns feels a little too specifically tight imo. I’ll need to re-read the books because I do love what they have and they’re super simple but that sticking point and the dedication to “grit” is kind of a turn off.
I know that’s the point, for me, it detracts from it.
Yeah I don't like the default turn order either. It describes a "freeform mode" right after which is how most people play RPGs (as far as I know)