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A guide to creating your dungeon crawler to bear their torch into the dark, monster- and treasure-filled catacombs of Shadowdark RPG.

How to Make A Character for Shadowdark

Yuri Perkowski Domingos is a Brazil-based fantasy and RPG artist, part of the artists' collective Ink Potion Studios. He uses pointillist techniques to give his pieces a unique texture. Most of his work is in black and white, but his portfolio also includes the occasional piece in psychedelic color.

Yuri Perkowski Domingos

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Fantasy Grounds

There's plenty you'll find familiar! Shadowdark uses a d20 system where you want to roll high, and has the same six stats that D&D does. It also uses an advantage/disadvantage system for when there's something affecting the potential success of your roll. The basic conceit of the game will resonate as well: you are an adventurer seeking wealth, fame, and glory in the dungeons of bygone ages, and you'll fight monsters and loot rooms to do it!

Though there are only four classes, there are plenty of ways to differentiate them, including your character's ancestry and background, and no two characters will advance the same way. The classes will be familiar as well: the fighter, priest, thief, and wizard are the classic four from nearly all the way back in the game's history!

What's the same about Shadowdark if I'm coming from Dungeons & Dragons?

Shadowdark streamlines much of D&D's more complex rules into a simple and intuitive system. The classes are stripped down to the "core four" and ability checks replace most skills. Darkness is extremely important to Shadowdark (it's right there in the name!) so you'll find no darkvision here; everyone needs torches! And they're precious resources, as they last only an hour of real time before they burn out and leave you in darkness! You might have more but only so many--a simple inventory system makes every choice about what you bring with you into the dungeon (and what you can take out) a meaningful decision.

Magic spells are more impactful and more dangerous, as you have to roll to cast them. Hit points on the whole are lower, making combat a fast, deadly proposition you'll want to choose carefully. And your experience points don't come from monster-slaying, but rather how much treasure you're able to extract from the dungeon!

What's different about Shadowdark if I'm coming from Dungeons & Dragons?

Shadowdark takes inspiration from the Old School Renaissance, or OSR, a movement in RPG design that seeks to reconstruct a playstyle implied by early versions of Dungeons & Dragons in the 1970s and 80s. This style was fast, challenging, more focused on creative problem solving than stats, skills, and abilities, often deadly, and centered emergent, natural narratives over pre-planned plots presented by the Game Master. Most prominently, B/X D&D (released in the early 80s), and the OSR games it inspired have their DNA in Shadowdark.

There's also inspiration from lots of modern games, including the New School Renaissance, or NSR, which evolved from the OSR, and D&D 5th Edition. Shadowdark resembles an updated version of classic Dungeons & Dragons with modern design sensibilities.

One of Shadowdark's most exciting mechanics is the torch timer; a torch only burns for one hour of real time! That means players are always on the clock in the dungeon; every moment counts. While you can of course pause the timer for breaks, generally, your time ticks down while you're discussing what to do, taking actions, searching rooms, and fighting monsters. If the timer runs out, and you don't have another torch to light in your inventory, you're left in darkness, and since characters can't see in the dark, you'll be left vulnerable to the creatures who thrive in the deep places of the dungeon, and maybe even lost...

You should play Shadowdark if you're looking for a fast-paced, exploration-focused game where combat is quick and deadly, players are challenged to come up with creative solutions to fantastical challenges, and you love dungeon delving adventure! If you like elements of horror and darkness in your fantasy, Shadowdark has what you're looking for. Shadowdark has simple rules, exciting action, and an atmosphere of tension and fear that will have you on the edge of your seat every minute you spend in the monster-filled, treasure-hiding dungeon!

The core mechanic of Shadowdark is rolling a d20, adding a bonus from your abilities, and trying to beat a target number representing the difficulty of your task or the strength of your opposition. Gameplay typically sends characters into a dungeon or wilderness shrouded in darkness to search for treasure and/or slay monsters. Play proceeds in turns, which always take place in initiative order, so each player can decide what they're doing at any given time. Characters have a limited inventory, measured in gear slots, which determines how much they can bring in and take out from the dungeon.

Characters gain experience and level up based on how much treasure they can successfully extract from dungeons, which is complicated by deadly monsters and creeping darkness. They need torches to see, and each torch only burns for one hour of real time (the GM usually has a timer running as play proceeds) before the characters are left in terrifying darkness. Characters who use magic and cast spells can wield game-changing power at a cost: they must roll to cast their magic without incident and risk losing the spell or worse if they fail. Manage light, food, weapons, magic, hit points, and other resources to survive the deadly dungeon and return filthy rich! 

How to Play Shadowdark RPG in 5 Minutes

Making a character for Shadowdark is easy and fun--but it might be a little more random than you're used to! Characters have six stats, which you roll randomly with 3d6 down the line. Some games might allow you to move your stats around, but the main way to generate stats is to roll them randomly in the order they appear, resulting in a completely random character emerging from the dice rolls! These stats tell you what your character is generally good and bad at. Next you'll pick an ancestry, what kind of being your character is, and a class, what kind of adventurer they are. Both of these will give some bonus traits and abilities and possibly affect your stats.

From there, you'll equip your character with gear and any magic spells they know, choose or roll a background for some skills they have from before they became an adventurer, roll your hit points to see how hard they are, and fill out any last pieces of information about their personality, their philosophy, any gods they follow, and their combat statistics. In no time, your crawler is ready to delve into the dungeon!

How to Make a Character for Shadowdark

Shadowdark is a great simplification of the core DnD5e d20 system with modern old-school vibes some will know as the OSR (Old School Revival/Renaissance). For those who love the danger/survival-horror of Level 1, Shadowdark is all about it!

My favourite part of the game is the slightly randomised levelling with all classes, making character growth (mechanically at least) a surprise and exploration. The other favourite mechanic is the Downtime Gold to Experience gameplay loop. It clearly tells the players what they need to do: find treasure in the dungeons, bring it back, spend it all, and repeat! Depending on how much gold you spend, a roll to see what happens is modified, and will likely spawn new story hooks or minor awkward situations. A very fun way to add a bit of reprieve from the dangerous dungeon crawling.

Definitely consider running/playing Shadowdark, especially if you are familiar with with DnD5e and want to focus on the horror of the dark. With its clean layout and simple rules, you'll be crawling (and dying) in dungeons in no time.

So much fun. Shadowdark started out compatible with the 5th edition Open Gaming License, with all the less fun stuff trimmed away. It captures the spirit of old-school gaming, with the improvements in gameplay and accessibility that come from decades of classic RPGs. While it shines in a dungeon delve, there's enough here to run a long-form campaign with an overworld.

Don't forget your torch.

Had an amazing time running Shadowdark as a DM on Startplaying Games. 
The game is fast paced and has that wonderful old skool Dungeons and Dragons feel about. It has slight changes to the old style rules that add an extra layer of fun, with torch timers, ways for spells to go horribly wrong and it cuts out all the things that make an RPG slow to play in. 
Over all highly recommended if you fancy a game hit me up.

Shadowdark RPG

Shadowdark is a new take on the classic genre of dungeon fantasy tabletop roleplaying games, designed with modern sensibilities built over 50 years of iteration. At its core, the game streamlines the basic system of Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition (with plenty of inspiration both from earlier versions and the Old School Renaissance movement, or OSR) to make the game faster, more intuitive, and more dangerous. 

Players take on the role of fantastic sword-and-sorcery heroes, who wield weapons, skills, and magic both arcane and divine in pursuit of wealth and glory. They'll delve into dark, ancient dungeons crawling with monsters and full of forgotten treasure with only their wits, their strength, and the light of their torches to guide them. Combat is quick and deadly, requiring players to think creatively and eke out any advantage they can to triumph over lethal and terrifying monsters.

Shadowdark includes elements of survival horror as well, like the "torch timer," where your characters torches only burn for one hour of real world time, meaning your party is in a race against the creeping darkness to escape the dungeon alive! If you're looking for a cross between modern D&D and OSR games, Shadowdark is your game!

Originally created by: Kelsey Dionne of The Arcane Library

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Classes

“Blood-soaked gladiators in dented armor, acrobatic duelists with darting swords, or far-eyed elven archers who carve their legends with steel and grit.”

Fighters are the combat specialists of Shadowdark, and no one can match their prowess on the battlefield. They can make the greatest use of weapons and armor, and are often the most survivable character in your party. When the going gets tough, count on the Fighter.

Fighter

“Crusading templars, prophetic shamans, or mad-eyed zealots who wield the power of their gods to cleanse the unholy.”

Priests are blessed warriors with both some combat prowess and spellcasting ability. They can use holy magic to heal and bolster their companions and turn away the abominable undead in the dark places of the world. If you need a light in the shadows, look to your party's Priest.

Priest

“Rooftop assassins, grinning con artists, or cloaked cat burglars who can pluck a gem from the claws of a sleeping demon and sell it for twice its worth.”

Thieves are skilled scoundrels who can sneak and hide in the shadows, scale walls, pick locks, and disable traps with relative ease. They can also ambush foes from hiding with their backstab ability. If you need dirty deeds done for a fair share of the treasure, make sure a Thief is on your side.

Thief

“Rune-tattooed adepts, bespectacled magi, and flame-conjuring witches who dare to manipulate the fell forces of magic.”

Wizards are masters of powerful arcane magic, able to warp reality with a few words and gestures. While they cannot wield many weapons or wear much armor, and they can hardly take a hit in combat, their magic can turn the tide of battle, provided they can cast their spell without losing it! If you want a magical ace-in-the-hole, bring a Wizard down into the Shadowdark.

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