Good Evening Dungeon Masters, I’m Baron
de Ropp. Arcane Library’s Shadowdark, fixes everything
about fifth edition that has frustrated me since its publication, and has improved a
number of issues in various retro-clones and older editions of the game, as well. NEW PLAYER INTIMIDATION
5E is not a simple game. Sure, it’s less crunchy than Pathfinder
or GURPS, but handing a player's handbook to a new-to-the-hobby adult who has a career
and children to raise, will immediately enter a state of panic. Even making characters with experienced casual
players takes at least an hour. Worse still, until a player has actually played
the game for a few sessions and starts getting a grasp of the rules, character creation is
opaquely mathematical and full of unfamiliar jargon to people outside of a hardcore gaming
background. Clocking in at over 700 words per page, and
spread across one hundred and eighty pages, character creation can’t be called complete
until you have perused the word count equivalent of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin. Contrast this with Shadowdark, however, which
concisely describes the character creation process in only 6000 words on just forty one
pages. CHARACTERS AND ADVANCEMENT
After players finish rolling up their stats, they next choose their ancestry and class. Ancestry descriptions are straightforward
with 50 word descriptions and abilities. Class descriptions, as well as all earned
perks upon leveling up, are all contained within a single page. Further, upon advancement to every other level,
characters roll on a talent table to find out what incremental class bonus their character
will receive, whether that’s a boost to a few stats, better attack rolls, or something
else entirely. Instead of a 20 line matrix table and four
pages of ability descriptions, the whole character class advancement ordeal is handled in a six
line table. While there are players who enjoy meticulously
planning their character’s advancement, the vast bulk of players are just as excited
to crack open the book and find out what new special ability or power up they get when
they level up. Rolling for it, instead, just adds to the
fun. MAGIC SPELLS
Something I’ve lamented concerning 5th edition, is how confusing the magic system is for players
who are just getting started, or even experienced casual players who are playing as a spellcaster
for the first time. A 5th level wizard can only cast third level
spells, and knows a different number of spells than the amount they can cast per day, except
for their cantrip spells which they can cast ad nauseum. It is “exceptions all the way down.” Further, the amount of spells characters can
cast is entirely diluted by how weak they are in 5th edition when compared to prior
editions. Charm person even makes its target aware they
were charmed after the spell ends. Of course, B/X D&D, as well as other retro-clones,
have the opposite problem. It is entirely possible to roll up a first
level magic-user with a single hit point, and a single spell, that the character casts
and forgets until they take a long rest. Crom forbid, the wizard prepares and casts
a useless sleep spell on some elves, only to turn into a single unarmored hit point
until the party makes camp. Shadowdark solves both of these issues. First, spells indicate their inherent power
by simply changing the jargon from “spell level” to “spell tier.” Obviously this is a minor change, but it goes
a long way in reducing newbie confusion. Secondly, spellcasters know about as many
leveled spells as they do in 5th edition, but don't necessarily lose them after a single
cast like they do in D&D. Instead, characters may cast a spell as often
as they want, so long as they make a spellcasting check of DC 10 plus the spell’s tier rating. Only after the spellcaster fails this check
is the spell uncastable until a long rest. Furthermore, because spellcasters now have
to roll that spellcasting check, critical successes allow the caster to double any numerical
aspect of the spell, like, charming two people with a charm person, or doing double damage
with a fireball. ADVENTURING & COMBAT
While I’m a huge fan of the tactical nature of 5e combat, the gritty detail of it can
be needlessly pedantic. The difference between thirty feet and thirty
five feet is seldom worth debating in order to keep the game moving and to remain collaborative
with your players. Shadowdark implicitly gives permission to
game masters to be more handwavy with these measurements, and instead uses language like
“close,” “near,” and “far” in place of hard distances. Furthermore, resource management is made more
important, while maintaining elegance and simplicity. Torches burn out in an hour of real world
time, resting in dangerous locations has a risk and reward factor that might drain away
limited rations, and every problem I’ve ever had with the insta-death found in older
editions of D&D, or the conversely problematic immortality granted by 5e's Death Saves, is
totally remediated in Shadowdark. When a character drops to zero hit points,
the player rolls a d4, adds their constitution modifier, and has that many rounds till their
character finally dies. Stabilization is tricky too, but doesn’t
require a cleric. A DC 15 Intelligence check to apply emergency
aid will stabilize a dying character. Contrast this with 5e, where nearly every
character class has healing spells, yet it takes, on average, 5 combat rounds of enduring
death saves for a character to actually die. Considering most deadly encounters last around
7 rounds, and characters fighting in these encounters go down on the third or fourth
round, it's entirely plausible for an adventuring party to just let the downed character sit
out the combat while the remaining party members deal with the issue at hand. In the opposite extreme, characters in most
retro clones who hit zero hit points are simply dead. Period. This sense of immediate permadeath can be
really bothersome for newbie players. In Shadowdark however, by adding some unpredictability
to determine how many rounds a character has to live, even if that number might be as few
as one round, the ruleset provides a perfect balance between these two extremes. GOLD & XP
Older editions of the game, as well as a large number of retro clones, dictate that gaining
experience points should be based on gold discovered, recovered, spent, or even wasted. So, there was a lot of gold to be had in earlier
editions of the game. But, there was never a good system, besides
building a stronghold, for doing something with it. In 5e, gold is about as meaningless as a humanities
degree, yet there is still tons of it about, clogging up character sheets. However, the carousing mechanics in Shadowdark
takes all this excess gold and puts it into a fun risk and reward bonus XP system. Wasting gold on ever-more-legendary partying
grants a bonus on a carousing outcome roll, adding intoxicated revelry to the narrative
in exchange for more experience points. Just don't go overboard and come to, in a
noble’s vault, holding a prized magic item, with no recollection of how you got there. GAME MASTER GUIDE
The advice in the game master section has some of the most distilled and clear advice
found in all of RPG gaming. In fact, the advice is expressed so simply
and so concisely, reading it might be as enlightening as reading the Tao te Ching. Sure, you might understand all the words on
your first read through, but a better approach is to read one section at a time, and focus
on one or two pieces of advice as you play your next session to see how that advice reshapes
your understanding of the Game. Lastly, the random adventure hook generator,
random encounter tables, and systems for generating monsters and magic items are equally straightforward
and inspirational. GAME JAM
To Celebrate the kick off of Independent RPG month, I’m hosting a Shadowdark Independent
Game Jam! If you have ever been interested in writing
an adventure, game master supplement, bestiary, or whatever, this is your opportunity to get
started. The winner of the Game Jam will receive either
a copy of the Shadowdark core rules, or all editions of the Cursed Scrolls Zine collection,
a $50 Amazon gift card, and a set of Dungeon Masterpiece Dice! All details for the game jam are in the link
in the description, where you can also get the free Shadowdark quick start rules to help
you get going. If you would like to help me make more content
like this in the future, please consider supporting me on patreon or becoming a channel member. Thanks for watching, dungeon masters, and
until next time, good night.
