Shadowdark Update after 9 Sessions!
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- Опубліковано 11 лют 2025
- Okay, so I've been playing Shadowdark for 2 months now, and I wanted to share why I'm loving this game SO DAMN MUCH right now!
Links:
Shadowdark Pre-Order: shadowdark-rpg...
Kazad-Mor: www.drivethrur...
Inkarnate: inkarnate.com/
Kelsey's Ranger Design: • Designing the Ranger C...
Anything that promotes creativity and promotes good vibes into the world is worth talking about. Thanks for the video Judge James, it's wonderful to hear your voice spreading creativity & positivity. Great to see you're still enjoying Shadowdark.
Thank you Ryan!!!!!
I didn’t watch the entire ranger video, but Kelsey is so great. She’s an amazing communicator.
I had it on in the background while painting a week ago or so, and it was just so refreshing to watch. Agreed, she's a wonderful communicator
Good on you for playing with younger folk! This is the best explanation of Shadowdark I have heard yet. Still doesn’t strike me as what i need, but this was the honest review I wanted to hear. Very glad that this game has inspired you, and i loved your thoughts.
Gotta train that next generation right? :)
Had a very similar experience! I ran a multi-week Friday night play test of Shadowdark using the Quick Start rules. My plan was to run through the Lost Citadel and then evaluate how it went. Well, it went really good and all my players (7 of them) have had such a fun time they just wanted to continue right away and I had to work on follow on adventure ideas. My players consist of a mix of 5e experienced teens and 40+ year old veterans of many D&D editions. I didn't expect such a positive reaction! I haven't had this much fun running a D&D like RPG probably since Castles & Crusades 2007-09. And it was 1e AD&D in the 90s before that!
I've also fluctuated with the always on initiative. If the players are all engaged and working together I just let that flow. But whenever things start to stagnate or players are fading into the background, I start up the always on initiative again to get everyone back on track and engaged. So far it's worked like a charm!
The ShadowDark play experience is very much what I thought B/X would provide when I discovered it in 1978-ish.
Your enthusiasm is contagious!
thanks for coming back!
Even when I’m not here a lot, im still here a little
Couldn’t wait to hear your updated thoughts after the kickstarter… thanks for sharing!
Thank you for watching!!!!!!
Hey! I discovered your channel, thanks to Glowburn. I'm also starting ShadowDark but I'm still very keen on DCC and MCC. I am looking forward to seeing more RPG content here.
Busy watching all ShadowDark RPG content I can find.
Hey, just subscribed!
First, glad you;re enjoying ShadowDark. I need to delve into the PDFs, but I ran a session with the QuickStart materials and it was a blast.
Second, ALWAYS good to come across other Philly-area channels!
If you’re free, or interested, I’m running a one shot day fundraiser in Palmyra, NJ on May 20. It’s 4 tables, 4 systems.
Thanks for the invite!!!! But we are doing a 4 day mini con with friends coming that entire weekend. Do you have a group and/or link to share for future stuff though?
Ah, a con in your house…nice.
@@DMTalesTTRPG Or a little crazy! 4 days, 2 tables going, 10 events on the schedule right now with 5 GMs.
@@Living4Crits that’s awesome!
It's great to see a new video from you!
I just recently migrated my group from ICRPG to Shadowdark. Everyone loves it! Having some squishy PCs has really helped emphasize strategy and creativity in encounter resolution.
Great summary of your experience! I agree that Shadowdark is not a “basic” system, rather a system that offers the right balance of mechanics and features without all the bloat. The system also features content and tools for both the player and game master. Other D20 systems that pour out player option after player option makes it challenging to run at times, while the charts and simple mechanics like rolling a d6 to determine the outcome of something random happening adds that element of uncertainty without bogging the game down with unnecessary rules. I also love the game master quick references printed in the inside cover so I don’t have to flip through pages as I learn the system. I think the true genius of the system is it’s flexibility to adapt it really to any version with little effort while providing a clean and simple template to create your own content. If you want to make a class, the one page model is amazing! Monsters are formatted to be quick and easy while still filled with tons of flavor. I’m very excited about this system, writing adventures for it, and also pulling my trove of modules off the shelf and have a hybrid (5e/OSR) system that is easy to learn and simple to run anything I have! Anyhow, thanks again and I look forward to hearing more about your experience as you play more.
Thank you for watching! We're still cooking with our campaign, and this Friday is our 12th session. I'll be running Shadowdark off book at Gen Con too. My Kickstarter excitement has definitely carried over.
Hi, great comment. I am thinking about picking this up instead of B/X to run dolmenwood. Does it have enough long term depth - travel, camping, character advancement? I have been looking at rules light systems and realised some of them are not enough
"It's a free video. Nobody's getting paid here."
I feel that. I've had some folks give me crap on my videos about various production things and/or my speech patterns. Folks, I'm recording it on my phone. I don't have editing software, or skills, or the interest to learn them. It's free. I've got less than 400 followers. Most of my videos get like 40 views. I don't make a dime and likely never will. Just relax.
Useful and entertaining ramblings lol
A good e-reader option, which I use, is a Kindle that I hacked to run Google Play where I keep all of my PDF books. Affordable and a good size.
How hard is it to hack that way?
This was great to watch. I’ve recently started GMing and was surprised by the amount of creativity I had pent up. I picked up a pre-written one-shot and all of a sudden it was a full scale homebrew campaign that we’ve been playing for months. But one thing that became immediately apparent was how much I actually didn’t like 5e. I’m hoping to switch to Shadowdark as soon as I can convince my players.
I think one of the great things about Shadowdark is how close it is mechanically to 5e, while still having that great, light, old school aesthetic.You'll get 'em wrangled!
Loved the video.
Dude! Looking for a SD group (for myself and for my 11yo Shadowdarklings). I’m in Roxborough.
Are you on the Shadowdark Discord server? I was gonna start trying to see who was gonna be at PAX Unplugged this year.
@@Living4Crits Dezhmud Scarn, The Red.
I run a high school group and I have to agree with the always-on initiative. It's tough when the players get so excited.
Yeah I think it would work better with older players
Love your channel
Thank you so much Mike! 8 years in it's still a hot mess... but it's my hot mess :)
@@Living4Crits wish judge Evie luck with the theater, I was in shows when I was younger and my little brother is a theater teacher
@@mikeharrison6039 Will do!
The freedom of play and creativity that the rules-lite approach makes space for really is inspiring isn't it?
I'm 2 sessions into my first PF2E adventure after 2 years of ICRPG and had my first "hey that's a really cool creative idea, but you need to be 3rd level and have X materials and Y feat in order to craft a ghillie suit" moment last week.
It felt bad to disappoint the player and not reward his engagement with the game, but the importance of feats in the system gave me pause.
The beauty of rules-lite isn't just that it's quick to pick up, it's that it gives you what you need to adjudicate at the table, on the fly, without the rules getting in the way.
Question for you as someone who found your channel because of Savage Worlds; where would you put SWADE on this rules vs. improv spectrum (with Pathfinder at one end and ShadowDark or Knave on the other)?
That's a great question!
I think Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE), sits towards the top of a rules vs. improv spectrum when it comes to my personal taste, but far less crunchy than Pathfinder, or D&D 3/4 in my opinion.
But even saying that, I think Savage Worlds does an absolutely outstanding job of ensuring that when there is a rule, its not cumbersome or onerous to manage. If you're looking for a game that can give you an engaging, tactical experience without having rounds that can take hours and hours, Savage Worlds is your game!
Right now I'm GM'ing 2 RPG's every week, Shadowdark on Fridays (7 sessions in), and SWADE Deadlands on Saturdays (45 sessions so far, into our 2nd plot point campaign.) On Wednesday nights I'm a player in Shadow of the Demon Lord (I've been in 20 sessions of this campaign.)
@@Living4Crits thank you for the thoughtful response!
After reading the SWADE Core rules, you're right; it has tons of options to add interesting detail (crunch) to the game and the rules to support it, but theyre concise and simple enough that they don't seem a chore to implement.
I'm thinking of running a modern day spec ops meets supernatural horror (Task Force Raven looks rad) adventure in SWADE after this PF adventure as a palate cleanser.
Excited to see how the experience compares to the polar opposites that I've been running. Keep up the great work btw - sounds like you're a GMing machine!
That's fair - and I honestly prefer a looser rulings over rules style, so it didn't feel right to me either haha. I am trying to play it by the book as much I can to start, at least until I can get a feel for the system and see what is has to offer.
Hi. I wish I could game design with you. I backed Shadowdark and have played Battle Tech.
A great ttrpg that is similar to Shadowdark and Battle Tech is called
D100 Dungeon.
I like to combine these TTRPGs' with The XP system of Dungeon World and the Oracle of Scarlet Heroes.
The dwarf is from HeroQuest, no?
Yup! Didn't turn out too bad after painting.
nice
I was the same with Ultima!
I'm 58. You do not have old eyes. Lol
Well I don't have young eyes.
Louder audio next time please
14:50