Great synopsis, I agree with all of it.

It's nice to see someone younger trying out Shadowdark. It's a different mindset, but once you get used to it there will be MUCH less DM and player prep needed while still delivering a fantastic TTRPG experience.

This game is intuitive to run and fun to play. Minmaxers probably won't like it, but players who don't want to slow the game down to look through books will love it. Also, lethality doesn't mean characters have to die. It just means they need to be strategic and realize not every monster is there for you to walk up to and start hacking away. This makes the game more suspenseful and thrilling.

@DungeonMasterJosh

11 ай бұрын

Agreed. I just had my group decide not to fight something in our last session for that reason which is such a contrast to how 5e usually is where you just fight everything, for the most part.

This is going to be my pitch video for enticing others to try this game. Thank you for explaining the tone and feell of Shadow Dark so concisely and clearly!

@DungeonMasterJosh

11 ай бұрын

Thank you for the comment! I hope it helps get the rest of your group playing. I've been really enjoying it.

@tc0930

11 ай бұрын

Yeah, solid video. I have had the SD rules for a few months and I finally got to play over the weekend. A lot of fun. I'm planning on writing a campaign as well and you have to really think about a campaign differently when you can basically expect all of the characters to be killed at one time or another :-) I plan on addressing that issue and I am certainly considering it as I work on the campaign setting.

I would love to hear more about how do you turn curse of strahd into shadowdark!! Great video!

@DungeonMasterJosh

11 ай бұрын

I'm actually trying to record everything with that series and how I go about the conversion. If I'm able to make the videos somewhat concise and interesting look for the in a couple weeks.

It's worth noting that while the Bard is not a spellcaster, they can ise magic items like scrolls and wands. They're pretty cool.

This is the first video to explain what is different and that you liked about Shadowdark other than just talking about the art and you did it in just ten minutes without talking hyper fast. Thank you for the good summary.

DM Josh, Shadowdark has definitely been on my list, so great video! I have ran DCC (a lot) which is also a super popular OSR game (like Shadowdark). Have you considered reading and running through that system next since you've tried Shadowdark?

I love Shadowdark. I played D&D back in the BECMI days but moved on to other systems that I preferred. In recent years, nostalgia brought me back when I came across Old School Essentials. Then I saw Shadowdark and I have to say it's now my go-to for D&D-style games. My only minor quibble is the alignment system because not every Chaotic being is evil and not every Lawful being is good. So I take the view that roughly 90% of the population is neutral.

@DungeonMasterJosh

9 ай бұрын

Agreed but the alignment doesn't bother me much as that is a pretty easy thing to adjust to whatever you want.

Subcribed thanks to subtitles!

Josh, it's like you have played this game before. Nice summary 😉

@DungeonMasterJosh

11 ай бұрын

I have and I really enjoyed it! It even inspired me to run my own Shadowdark campaign that I've been having a lot of fun with.

@HowtoRPG

11 ай бұрын

@@DungeonMasterJosh Cool. Hail to the mighty Bob.

I think a lot of death comes from bad decisions, or punching above your level. My adventuring party has only had one death after several sessions. We definitely had several close calls though. Im sure the experience varies table to table though, my experience may not be anywhere close to someone else's.

The no Str bonus to damage is interesting. The no Con bonus to HP after 1st Level is a thing?

Here are some rules that Dungeon Damsel goes over that may help people decide to try Shadowdark. kzread.info/dash/bejne/gWaVpdV-ppjfnZs.html

Seems a little too "hardcore" for my taste, being an old D&D/1e/2e/3.5/4e player it somehow feels even worse than Basic D&D. Especially the "fail spell check" which just isn't a fun mechanic IMHO. Deadlier combat isn't a good thing IMHO, it just means you don't bother to flesh out characters because it's useless if they die in the first encounter, and then nobody really has any fun at all or longterm attachment. Also the torch mechanic just seems silly to me; shades of an old NES/DOS game called Shadowgate where if your torches went out, you automatically died. I saw this mentioned and it was really being hyped up. After seeing this though It's definitely not something I want to look into, but glad I found a thorough review to make that informed decision. Great overview, even if it turns out it's not for me.

Rules light rules. Shadowdark is so much easier to run and the crit fail magic table adds some real sweat to the decision to cast a spell or not. This system is streamlined DnD, and keeps things fast and fun.

My favorite RPG I've ever played. Healing spells, full HP resting, and death timers make for longer lasting PC's than "die at 0" games. But they aren't as powerful and bloated as games like 5e. Good in-between

Your legit, nice video too

@DungeonMasterJosh

11 ай бұрын

Oh thanks!

I will never survive this systems. I'm constantly stalked by nat-1s. I won't even make it out of the level 0. Lol.

@DungeonMasterJosh

11 ай бұрын

Level 0 is pretty deadly. All of my players lost 1 character during their gauntlet.

@irogt

11 ай бұрын

@@DungeonMasterJosh Thanks, I hate it. Lol. I kid. It does sound fun. I just think my fear is too real.

@Redlurk3

5 ай бұрын

​@@irogtDon't worry everyone does (quite a bit😂) played SD a bunch this last year Anyways it's always fun to roll up a new character!

Meh; just another set of house rules cribbed from various other systems. Who hasn't already done this on their own? Just don't get the the hype around this.