Back in October, I posted eight Shadowdark house rules that spanned a wide gamut of minor tweaks to completely tone-changing system overhauls. After some excellent feedback and some time playing with them, I’ve gathered a lot of useful insights on the why’s of it all:

• Why does Shadowdark use the rules it does?
• Why do people enjoy hacking some of those rules more than others?
• What captures Shadowdark‘s tone, and what impact does a tonal shift have via mechanics?

I present to you a new take on Shadowdark house rules, some of which should be much more palatable overall, but a few of which will surely be just as divisive…

You’ll note page references are used where possible for easy reference. SDR refers to the Shadowdark core rulebook. USQ refers to Unnatural Selection‘s Quickstart.

My commentary throughout looks like this:

Commentary on the house rule, how it affects the tone of the game, or other thoughts related to it.

Without further ado:

Hit Points at 1st Level

(SDR 14) At 1st level when adding your CON modifier, ignore it if it is negative. You only factor it in if it’s a positive modifier (bonus).

A minor change, this simply makes an excruciatingly low Constitution score less of an immediate flag saying, “This character will die.”

Armor

(SDR 36) A worn suit of armor only takes up a single gear slot. Carried suits of armor take up the noted number of slots. Record this is by placing the suit of armor with an asterisk (*) in one slot, and then marking any other necessary slots with an asterisk.

Plenty of folks will hate this one! But I simply detest multi-slot items when it comes to “normally” worn gear. I get that there is some interesting decision-making and maybe even some game balancing inherent in this, but it stretches my credulity just enough to annoy me. Is heavy winter gear similarly bulky, even if it doesn’t necessarily affect your armor class? Point being, I just like inventory slots to be as simple as possible, and this is the only instance in the Shadowdark book where I see the annoyance, so I’m gonna fix it.

Luck Tokens

(SDR 79) Each PC starts a session with a number of luck tokens equal to 1d4. Upon completing a rest, your luck tokens reset: roll 1d4 once again.

I don’t know that this is a great rule, but I’m gonna try it out a bit longer; it’s been fine so far! It has allowed spellcasters to feel slightly better off when they roll well, since it’s their ticket out of a mishap or penance, but if they roll low, they have to be extremely careful for the day. (In case it’s not obvious, you can only rest once in a 24-hour period, and if the party takes long stretches of downtime, I assume zero luck points until they start adventuring again.)

Normally, you can only have one luck token at a time, but in this house rule, you can only SPEND one at a time. You don’t get any for roleplaying awards, etc.

Why? Simple: while I love meta resources, I never remember to award them. It becomes a negotiation where a player  tries to convince me their action 20 minutes ago was worth the award, so that they can turn around and spend it right now for whatever hairbrained idea they are cooking up. Therefore, I prefer meta resources that have an easy, player-facing economy for receiving them. This is probably why I love Cortex Prime so much: getting plot points is a function of rolling hitches (natural 1 on the dice) or the GM activating specific traits. The contingency builds in an obvious moment where the exchange takes place driven by the rules.

Morale

(SDR 89) A morale check is an unmodified d20 vs. DC 10. Monsters can be Fearless (no morale checks necessary), Brave (advantage), Standard, or Cowardly (disadvantage). A failed check means they surrender or flee without discipline.

Monsters can be pre-designated as one of these categories using the first letter:

• F = Fearless
• B = Brave
• S = Standard
• C = Cowardly

When using this system, refer to B/X for morale rating: 12 = fearless, 10-11 = brave, 7-9 = standard, 6 = or less cowardly.

This system is basically like death saves in D&D 5th Edition, and the math kind of vaguely resembles the math of the ratings I noted above for B/X, rolled on 2d6. No, it’s not 1:1 by any stretch, but it’s a similar enough distribution. I think it’s very easy and friendly, and makes it so that Wisdom isn’t the only measure of whether a creature is brave/cowardly or not, but rather a more individualized designation.

Though to be completely honest, in my games, I just use B/X morale as-is, complete with the 2d6 roll.

Spellcasting Checks

(SDR 44) Whenever a spellcaster (such as a priest or wizard) critically fails a spellcasting check, they can avoid Mishaps and Penance by taking damage equal to the spell’s tier.

I’m not sure how well this rule syncs up with my luck tokens house rule, overall, but so far using both hasn’t been a problem. Maybe casters are getting off more spells, but I feel like it’s more often that they are just avoiding the worst situations instead: maybe my players just roll like garbage?

The point of this is to both reduce party-nuking mishap and (admittedly somewhat boring) penance side quests or obligations, as well as to model that thing where spellcasters get tired or drained after casting spells. In this case, they are still losing access to spells on failures as well as critical failures. They are strictly mitigating the mishap/penance.

Think of it like sacrificing some lifeforce, or maybe some blood to your patron, in order to avoid catastrophic failure.

Scrolls & Non-Casters

(SDR 49) 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. In order to do so, make a spellcasting check as normal (p 44), with the added rules for scrolls (p 49). However, the DC is 15 + the tier of the spell.

Basically, this is mashing up Knave and similar games with Shadowdark: anybody can use a scroll at any time. Problem is, it’s a lot harder to cast if you’re not a caster. And if the scroll is a spell from a list that is affected by mishap or penance, then you gotta pay that price, regardless of the fact that you might be a fighter or rogue. You’ve either called on power from Things You Should Not Know, or you’ve used some patron deity’s magical essence (the scroll) to do something that isn’t in their best interests…and they noticed!

Critical Hits & Martial Feats

(SDR 89) There are two versions of this that I’m considering, and I would love the community’s feedback on both/either!

Version 1

On a critical hit, you can choose to forego doubling damage dice on weapon attacks and instead perform a martial feat. You still deal the normal damage, unless it doesn’t make sense to do so. See the list of 12 martial feats below for examples of what you can do.

Version 2

Choose one (or roll 1d12 if you can’t decide, but these options may not make sense in every situation):

1. Your foe is blinded until the end of their next turn.
2. Your foe is deafened until the end of their next turn.
3. You disarm your foe of one held item.
4. You push or throw your foe in a random direction within near.
5. You push or throw your foe in a direction you choose anywhere close.
6. You knock your foe prone.
7. You strike an unattended object within near of your foe as part of the attack, dealing damage to it. (You might use this to cut a chandelier rope, break a mirror, snuff a torch on a wall sconce, drop a banner, etc.)
8. You rally your allies with a battle cry, giving them advantage on checks against fear and morale checks for hirelings/retainers until the start of your next turn.
9. You take a defensive stance, allowing you to apply disadvantage to a single attack that targets you before the start of your next turn.
10. You damage your foe’s armor or a shield: reduce its AC by 1. If it is reduced to 10 (armor) or +0 (shield), it is destroyed. (Magic armor and shields may only be temporarily affected by this, at the GM’s discretion.)
11. You pin your foe; they are unable to move on their next turn, but can otherwise act normally.
12. You intimidate your foes; choose one foe that can see you to make a morale check on its next turn.

I love the idea of Dungeon Crawl Classic‘s Mighty Deeds of Arms, and similar systems found in Low Fantasy Gaming, Wolves Upon the Coast, and their ilk. Giving martial characters more fun mechanical things is always nice in games where spellcasters get long lists and lots of page-count devoted to spell descriptions.

But power creep is a big concern, like #10’s armor reduction. Is that ability too much, and are there others that have unforeseen, game-breaking consequences? Making all of these a decision is a concern, too, but for me that’s actually a non-starter: that could slow down the game too much for my liking. If a player has to choose between dealing damage and creating an effect or condition, damage is gonna win out nine times out of ten, but when they don’t choose that, I could see it being a bunch of hemming and hawing. Keeping these class-specific and/or relegated to a natural 19-20 feels like a great way to ensure they don’t break everything, but…it is something that could tip the balance too far away from casters, and maybe would be fine in the hands of casters for those times when they do finally rely on their weapons…

Should there be a saving throw-style resistance for some/all of these? Adding in an additional roll is rarely helpful or fun. I feel like I’ve hit a good mark of not needing that, but YMMV.

Tiefling Alternate Ability

(USQ 5) Prehensile Tail. You have a 5 foot long tail that can do anything a hand can do, including wielding a weapon or shield, making unarmed attacks, grasping things, and so on. (You cannot take more actions than normal with this ability, and you cannot “stack” like bonuses, such as receiving increased bonuses from wielding a shield in one hand and your tail.)

Unnatural Selection gives Tieflings the ability to see “heat signatures.” While I can see plenty of use for that without it completely mitigating the dangers of darkness in Shadowdark, I still feel like there’s a lot of opportunity for it to interfere with the whole “utter darkness is DEADLY” tone of the game. Recalling my favorite moment of the reverse-wagon-heist from D&D Honor Among Thieves, giving a tiefling a way to grab or hold stuff without giving them additional actions seems way more fun!

EDIT: I updated with the parenthetical note to make it clear you can’t get bonuses that were never intended by the rules. There’s got to be a more concise way to spell that out; I’d love feedback on that!

Time & Encounters Using the Event Die

Time: 1 round = 10 seconds. 1 segment = 10 minutes. 1 shift = 4 hours.

Dungeon-crawling: Roll the event die every segment. When in the dark or causing a ruckus, roll with disadvantage.

Hex-crawling: Roll the event die every shift. You have advantage in civilized areas, disadvantage in enemy territory.

City-crawling: Roll every hour in a city, every shift in a town or village; disadvantage at night.

d12 | Event

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:

• Dungeon 1d6: 1-2 take 1d6 damage, 3-4 lose a random item from your pack, 5-6 consume a ration.
• Wilderness 1d6: 1-2 take 1d6 damage, 3-4 consume a ration, 5-6 hirelings make a morale check.
• Settlement 1d6: 1-2 lose a random item from your pack, 3-4 lose 1d10 gold, 5-6 reaction rolls are at -2 with the locals until you complete a rest.

Location: In dungeons, snuff a light source. In wilderness uncover a lair or secret feature, and in settlements advance a faction’s goals.

Yeah, this totally goes back to B/X D&D, and kills the “always on initiative” that makes Shadowdark what it is. I only offer this system to show just how easy it is to “turn back the dial” so that Shadowdark is B/X once more. It’s super-simple!  (And doesn’t require you to learn THAC0 or have separate saving throw values. Good riddance!) You can change Location to be random sights/sounds, and have torches burn down every 6 segments (lanterns every 12 or 24). It’s easy to dial in what you like without page-by-page changes. It takes very little to tweak these systems and get a pretty radically different experience for time-tracking, event rolling, and so on.

Your Turn

What do you think? Do any of these really speak to you? Do any of them totally miss the mark? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!