Shadowdark RPG - First Impressions

[@Beholder-RPG]

I really enjoy this game and it's very open for adaptating a setting and creating your own. Thank you for your clever and useful review.

[@djthorsilver]

Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed it :)

[@simob7862]

Love this, really glad this is returning

[@iremainteague5653]

Very interesting. I have been thinking of running a game in the osr style for a little while now. 5e has been my bread and butter for a couple of years now. There are a lot of osr rules systems, though. How do you choose? What is your favorite osr system?

[@djthorsilver]

There's a tonne of OSR systems, to be sure. There's an option out there for everyone at this point. I tend to prefer the B/X clones/spin-offs, like Old School Essentials and Shadowdark, but some of the 'new old-school' stuff like Mork Borg or Troika is fun too and brings modern design ideas to the old-school framework. I think it depends what you want to do within the OSR world, and how rule-light you want things to be, and also how DnD-esque you want them to be. If you want proper old-school DnD with MUCH better presentation and yet total compatibility with new and old B/X modules, get Old School Essentials. If you want deeper, darker dungeon crawls and a bit of modernisation over regular old B/X, get Shadowdark. If you want total madness and unbelievable amounts of cool modules and hilarious spell failure charts, get Dungeon Crawl Classics. If you want rules-light, classless, and elegant, get Knave 2e... I could go on, there's a lot of options :) Poke around the OSR sub-Reddit for some good recommendations.

[@user-pc5ww8fh6d]

Shadowdark, only downside is 80 bucks is 80 bucks. I printed mine through my fav professional printer, and got an 8.5x11 I expertly hand bound myself (having book binding skills is cool). And a lot less than 80 bucks. They haven't reinvented the wheel. But this wheel is a great deal better than a Hasbro wheel. A truly one book game. I have so many D&D editions and D&Dish designs, but this is the one being played. It's not Forbidden Lands and it is not Warhammer FRPG 4th edition. Also remarkable products. But some people are D&Ders and some are not. If you are a D&Der, this is hard to beat.

[@sunsin1592]

Yawn. Underwhelming recycled house rules. Not a single original thought in the book.

[@djthorsilver]

Let's say I accepted your premise here (I don't, for the record) -- this is an OSR game, where every system is 0e/1e or B/X + house rules, essentially. Heck, Old School Essentials Classic is basically B/X with better layout, but it's still a great thing to have and deserves a place on my shelf. In other words, if you're looking for hot new mechanical innovations, the RPG genre specifically devoted to resurrecting the past in a more user-friendly form may not be the best place to look. There are certainly interesting rules-light OSR-related games out there (Into the Odd, Knave, Black Hack, Troika, Mork Borg, Whitehack, etc.), but that's not really where Shadowdark sits; so maybe take a look around at those games and support those creators.

[@markgreen6018]

The torch mechanic is certainly original. Your disdain says more about you than Shadowdark.