Looking for some ways to change up your Shadowdark campaigns? Maybe you want hardier characters at the lowest levels, or your thinking of alternative spellcasting checks that aren’t quite as dangerous on a mishap. Perhaps you want a morale system that’s not Wisdom-based, but also carries over some of the theory behind B/X’s 2-12 morale rating system, or can leverage detailed descriptions of monster behavior.

Whatever you’re looking to do, start here for some ideas! Read on!

Hardy Characters

Want characters with a little more survivability, but without breaking the game across levels?

At 1st level and all subsequent levels, ignore your CON mod if it is negative. You only ever factor it in if it’s a positive modifier (bonus).
At 1st level, you have hit points equal to the maximum of your Hit Die plus your CON mod. Fighter 8 + CON mod, Rogue 4 + CON mod, Priest 6 + CON mod, Wizard 4 + CON mod.

At 1st level, you have hit points equal to the maximum of your Hit Die plus your CON mod. Fighter 8 + CON mod, Rogue 4 + CON mod, Priest 6 + CON mod, Wizard 4 + CON mod.

Simpler Armor Slots

Armor taking up too much space in your inventory? Don’t like the aesthetics of writing in the same armor into multiple slots?

Suits of armor only take up a single gear slot when worn. However, carrying additional suits of armor takes up one more gear slot than normal. So, a carried suit of leather armor takes up 2 slots, chainmail 3 slots, and plate mail 4 slots.

Bonus: Containers with Slots

If you want containers to have a set number of slots, you could figure that a backpack probably has something like 5-10 slots, considering characters can carry all their gear that isn’t worn or “at-hand” (sheathed, in a quiver, etc.) with one. Since a backpack takes up only 1 slot itself, you could say that containers take up X slots, but give you Y slots. The downside is that you have to spend an action digging through them get any items stowed in them. (Of course, you’ll probably want to track inventory on a homemade sheet that best separates the slots you need per container. That’s as simple as making a few columns in a Google or Word Doc and slapping in a few tables with a number of rows equal to the number of slots the containers have.)

Small containers (like a sack or large pouch) might carry 2-4 items, but only take up 1 gear slot. A small chest might take up 1 or 2 slots, but hold 10 slots. A large container like a full-size treasure chest might be too bulky to carry more than a few feet at a time, but could hold as much as 20 slots.

Likewise, you can probably gauge what animals can carry in saddlebags with a system like this. Maybe saddlebags on a horse give you 6-10 extra slots.

Luck Tokens

Forget to hand out luck tokens on the regular, and want to encourage a little more engagement with the game mechanics?

A luck token is awarded to a PC any time they roll a natural 20 or natural 1.

This will get players itching to roll the dice, and not as heartbroken when they come up as a natural 1. However, don’t award luck points for much else (they could become too common), and think twice before allowing the GM to bank luck points, or even steal them on a natural 20 or 1 for the monsters. That creates a much more wild economy, creates an extra layer of metagame mechanics that doesn’t add much more than a “gotcha!” mechanic, and it also favors the GM who theoretically has to roll way more dice due to monsters with multiple attacks, and the sheer number of rolls against PCs.

Bonus: Players Roll Defense

Speaking of the amount of rolls players do versus how many GMs do, you can always have players roll for defense, rather than monsters roll for attack. It’s simple: when a player is attacked, they take their AC minus 10, and apply that as a modifier to a 1d20 roll. The DC is 11 + the monster’s attack bonus.

On a natural 1, the enemy scores a critical hit. On a natural 20, it doesn’t matter if you beat the monster’s attack DC or not, they simply miss automatically.

Simple Morale

Don’t like Wisdom-based morale checks? Or maybe you just want a way of converting monster morale from other systems (OSR or new-school) in a simple but evocative manner.

A morale check is an unmodified d20 vs. DC 10. During prep, your monsters can be designated Fearless (no morale checks necessary), Brave (advantage), Standard, or Cowardly (disadvantage). A failed check means they surrender or flee without discipline.

A successful check doesn’t necessarily mean they stick around until they are dead! It could mean that smart enemies flee, but do so with discipline, utilizing cover, covering attacks, short movements, etc. It could also mean they feign surrender, but attempt to the betray the party as soon as their guard is down with secret weapons, hidden attackers, etc.

With this system, you can take a look at OSR monsters and judge the numbers yourself: on a 2-12 scale, 12 is fearless, 10+ is brave, 7-9 is standard, and 6 or lower is cowardly. Or you can read the description of a monster’s behavior and judge appropriately.

Non-Real World Time

Don’t like tracking light durations in real-time? Want to sync up encounter rolls, plus add a little more versatility? Take a page from Into the Unknown‘s version of the Event Die!

First off, measure time like so:

  • 1 round = 10 seconds
  • 1 segment = 10 minutes
  • 1 shift = 4 hours

Then, roll the event die based on the type of crawling you’re doing:

  • Dungeoncrawling: Roll the event die every segment. When in the dark or causing a ruckus, roll with disadvantage.
  • Hexcrawling: Roll the event die every shift. You have advantage in civilized areas, disadvantage in enemy territory.
  • Citycrawling: Roll every hour in a city, or every shift in a town or village.

The event die is a simple 1d12 roll:

  • 1 Encounter: Roll on your encounter table.
  • 2-4 Omen: Roll an encounter — its tracks/spoor is discovered. This becomes the next encounter rolled (on a 1) unless actively avoided.
  • 5-6 Hardship: The party must overcome (or take the time to  navigate around) an environmental hazard. (Create a table or see below.)
  • 7-8 Location: Roll on your secret feature or site of interest table.
  • 9-12 Nothing happens

Hardship: Roll for a hazard. If you don’t have a table, choose a target (1d6 — 1-4 individual lowest d20 roll, 5-6 group), roll a stat (1d6 — 1. STR, 2. DEX, 3. CON, 4. INT, 5. WIS, 6. CHA), set a DC 2d6+4 or suffer a consequence (1d6 — 1. lose a luck token, 2. take 1d4 damage, 3. consume a ration, 4. lose a random item from your pack, 5. lose 1d10 gold, 6. can’t heal during the next rest).

Location: In dungeons, snuff a light source. In wilderness, activate/uncover a lair or secret feature.

Different Spellcasting Checks

Spellcasting checks are replaced by Power Checks. (However, use spellcasting checks as normal for using scrolls and wands, as well as for focus spells.) A power check is made by rolling a die based on your character level: levels 1-5 = d6, levels 6-10 = d8.

If you roll the maximum value on the die (6 on d6 and 8 on d8), the spell goes off and you might get a Surge. Roll a d4 and if you get a 4, double one numeric effect of the spell. (As per the rules for Critical Success.)

If you roll higher than the spell’s tier, the spell goes off.

If you roll the spell’s tier, the spell goes off and you cannot cast it again until you complete a rest.

If you roll less than the spell’s tier, the spell goes off, you cannot cast it again until you complete a rest, and you risk a Mishap:

  • Priest Spell: Roll a d4, and if you get a 1, you must complete Penance before you can cast that spell again.
  • Wizard Spell: Roll a d4, if you get a 1, you suffer a Wizard Mishap.

Speeding Up Power Checks

To speed up the gameplay of this new mechanic, roll your power die (d6 or d8) and a d4 at the same time. This way, you’ll see at a glance if your spell Surges or if you experience a Mishap/Penance.

Priest & Wizard Talents

This system necessitates some changes to the Talents that Priests and Wizards can pick up. Here are my ideas for that:

Priest Talent Changes

  • 2 — Gain advantage on power checks when casting one spell you know.
  • 7-9 — You Surge on the highest number on your power check die (you don’t have to roll the d4).

Wizard Talent Changes

  • 3-7 — +2 to Intelligence stat or gain advantage on casting one spell you know.
  • 8-9 — You Surge on the highest number on your power check die (you don’t have to roll the d4).

EDIT! A Different Take

A much, much simpler idea would be to use the base Shadowdark spellcasting check rules as-is, but giving spellcasters a chance to turn failed checks (even critical failures) into a success by taking damage equal to the spell’s tier. This fits the narrative of spellcasters feeling “drained” by casting their spells at times.

The balance might be a little too generous, here. Alternatives would be taking damage equal to 1 + the spell’s tier, or 2 x the spell’s tier.

Remember two things:

  • Wizards and Priests have pretty different (average) hit points. You gotta balance for both!
  • Luck Tokens are a thing, and can affect spellcasting checks!

Anybody Can Use Scrolls

Like the rule from Knave where all magic is scroll-based, and any character can use them? Try this!

Non-spellcasters can attempt to use scrolls, as can spellcasters who don’t have the spell on their spell list, such as a priest casting a wizard spell from a scroll.

In order to do so, make a spellcasting check as normal (NOTE: not the new power check I explained above!), with the added rules for scrolls as normal (i.e. the scroll is consumed whether or not you succeed). However, the DC is 15 + the tier of the spell instead of DC 10 + the tier of the spell.

After Level 10

Want to keep the AD&D style advancement going? I haven’t worked out all the details such as for additional Talents or continuing priest and wizard spell progression, but here’s a few thoughts on hit points and maybe where to start with the Talents.

Hit Points: Each time you level up starting at level 11, roll all of your hit dice, total them, then add your [CON modifier (if positive) x level]. If this total is higher than your current max HP, it replaces your max HP. If not, you gain +1 to your max HP.

Talents: One idea I have for extra Talents is to look at Five Torches Deep’s take on “archetypes” for the different classes, as well as several OSR sources on Feat-like abilities, such as Carcass Crawler Issue #1, Old School Stylish and OSR Feats.

Conclusion

These rules aren’t necessarily new or innovative, but hopefully they show how easy it is to write flexible house rules and really nail the tone you want for your Shadowdark games. More importantly, let this be a lesson in how simple it is to modify Shadowdark, because the base of it is so concise and tightly designed!