Tag: arcane library

8 house rules for the Shadowdark RPG
8 house rules for the Shadowdark RPG

Shadowdark House Rules: Take Two

11/21/2023 / / 0 Comments

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…

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Adventure Tracker for D&D 5E and Shadowdark

Try This Adventure Tracker for Dungeons & Dragons and Shadowdark In Your Game Sessions

11/16/2023 / / 2 Comments

Right before the pandemic, I purchased a slew of tools geared towards optimizing my Dungeons & Dragons game sessions. Among them were a whiteboard GM screen with clips, Inkwell Ideas’ 5E Creature Decks and Deck of Beasts, Pathfinder Pawns, and so much more. Then the pandemic torpedoed the use of most of those things, so I really leaned into going digital. This included taking a multi-day intensive course on organization over at Johnn Four’s Roleplaying Tips. That really expanded my Google Drive, Docs, and Sheets campaign management skills, and helped me reorganize almost every resource I use.

As I’ve gotten back into both in-person and online remote play more often in recent months, I realized I could leverage a much more robust — and still streamlined — way of managing each game session’s encounters. Hence my new Adventure Tracker, which has a lot of really handy features specific to any Dungeons & Dragons or Shadowdark, but applicable to any OSR or D&D-adjacent game. Read on to learn more!

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8 house rules for the Shadowdark RPG
8 house rules for the Shadowdark RPG

Try These 8 Shadowdark RPG House Rules Today

10/11/2023 / / 0 Comments

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!

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