First Impressions - Shadowdark RPG (D&D 5e OSR emulator)

Shadowdark. Lurking on my desk.

So I told myself that I didn't want to back Shadowdark when it was crowd-funded; I have (and love) OSE and the most recent version of Swords & Wizardry, not to mention Blueholme. Why would I want a D&D 5e hack when I have the originals in nicely written and cleaned up forms?

The funding ended, but then the whispers began. People I knew tried the Quickstart and later the initial PDF release and loved it. Bloggers I followed were running campaigns and that curiosity arose, the same curiosity that tempts me to buy another mega-dungeon or short adventure 'just to see what they're like'. Eventually, I cracked and skimmed the Quickstart and saw a game closer to the OSR than fifth edition, with a cleanliness and focus to the mechanics. I ended up ordering the core book and the screen.

TL;DR: Shadowdark takes elements of the post D&D 3e game engine, building a delightfully light & coherent take on the original D&D games, in a similar vein to the Black Hack. It is very well done, and emulates the style of play strongly, stripping everything back and building it up again. OSR compatible modules should be a breeze to run on the fly. I like what I see, and I'd like to try it out. 

Despite being a cleanly laid out 326-page black-and-white hardcover with a further four reference pages printed in the inside cover pages, Shadowdark is a quick read, taking me just an evening to complete. There are lovely illustrations throughout, and the text is laid out in a sans-serif font that does the trick of being large but not-quite too large.It's clean and easy to reference. There's a single ribbon. 

Comparing the size of Shadowdark and Old-School Essentials

Shadowdark is just a little bit bigger than Old-School Essentials' Classic Fantasy Rules tome. OSE feels more information dense because it uses a smaller serif font so needs less pages. I find the layout of OSE better to read personally, but both are good.

Shadowdark has the classic six stats, rolled on 3d6 in order, with the usual modifiers applying. There's an option to re-roll if no stat is higher than 14. There are six ancestries: Dwarf, Elf, Goblin, Half-Orc, Halfling and Human. Each ancestry gives you an advantage. Humans get an additional starting talent, Halflings can become invisible and hide once a day. Elves get a bonus for being far-sighted and so on. There are no stat modifications.

I'd be tempted to go back to rolling 4d6, discarding the lowest and swapping a pair around if wanted.

Hit points are scaled back from fifth edition, matching the more traditional hit dice per level of 1d4 for Thieves and Magic Users, 1d6 for Priests and 1d8 for Fighters. These are rolled randomly, so the fragility of OSR games is in place.

I'd be tempted to give maximum hit points for starting characters, unless I wanted to go full survival horror. Again, very much how I played in the 1980s.

Character class descriptions give what armour and weapons can be used and some basic class abilities. There's a table of talents. You get one at first level and more as your progress. These replace the proficiency bonus usually seen in D&D 5e and are rolled on 2d6. You can get improvements on class abilities, bonuses to attack or to stats and other benefits. Priests do get spells at first level (unlike B/X), with two available. Wizards get three spells at first level.

Spells are cast by rolling using the intelligence (wizard) or wisdom (priest) modifiers vs a DC of 10 plus the spell's tier (level). A fail means that the spell doesn't work and you can't cast it again until you rest.

Conflicted by this; a starting spell caster has perhaps a 50% chance of the spell working. I think I'd probably rule that a spell roll failure still has it going off, but you lose it as described.

Spells always fail on a roll of 1 and wizards get to roll on a mishap table which gets more dangerous by tier. Priest just end up annoying their deity and needing to do penance to be able to case that spell again. However, rolling a 20 doubles one of a spell's numerical effects. The spell lists follow and should be recognisable if you've ever played D&D. There's no call out to whether a spell needs verbal or somatic elements. 

Characters also get a background that gives them advantage on skill rolls or in situations when it may be helpful for you. Alignment is a thing, but limited to chaotic, lawful and neutral. Again, very much in line with B/X and its predecessors. There's a two-spread with some gods for characters to draw upon. Each level and class combination has a different title based upon alignment. There's a list of languages for wizards and priests to draw upon. 

There is an option to use a funnel approach and start with 0-level characters.

Armour class is ascending, starting at 10+Dex modifier. You get starting gold to equip and can carry 10 items of equipment (or your strength stat's worth if that's higher). There's a basic dungeon crawling kit and all the classic equipment and weapons. No table of pole-arms though. Experience to level up is 10XP per level, so second level is 20 XP, fourth 40XP etc. Treasure is categorised from poor through to legendary, and is the way that you gain most of your experience. You can get 1XP for clever thinking, and also the GM has the flexibility to give more for oaths, secrets and blessing and meaningful tokens and trophies.

Character generation is followed by a set of tables to generate random characters.

Core game engine is 5e d20 roll high with advantage/disadvantage, and auto-success for 20 and auto-fail for a roll of 1.  There are four standard Difficulty Classes, starting with Easy at DC9, then increasing in steps of 3 to Extreme at DC18. Contested rolls are resolved by the highest roll. 

There's no skill system as such, as you roll with stat modifier, but you do get advantage if your background supports the action. It's recommended that you succeed at what you are trained to do in most cases (including look for secret doors, reading magical runes if you're a wizard). Social encounters only use a Charisma based roll if there are particular negative consequences, a need for skill or time pressure. Otherwise you base it on the interaction at the table.

A new mechanic is a luck token. Players can only have one of these each at any time, but can pass them to a companion. They allow a reroll of any roll that you've made. The rate that players get these is at the GM's whim. 

There's a guidance on just rolling a d6 when it's really a random choice (high is better, low is worse)

Time is tracked in real time except when the plot moves on. Each player takes a turn, and when all players have done so, a round has happened. There are ten rounds in an hour. Torches also only last for an hour. 

Initiative is a d20 roll with the dexterity modifier, highest roller goes first, then move clockwise around the table. Alternatively, you can do it narratively freeform. In a turn, players can move and act, or move twice, so the action economy is much more simple than core fifth edition. Surprise gives advantage and a free turn for those doing the surprising.

A roll of 20 will do double damage as a critical or double a spell attack. If you reduce a creature to 0 hit points you can decide to knock it out instead. Opponents who lose half their number (or hit points for a solo opponent) will make a moral check (wisdom based) or flee. Characters hitting 0 hit points are unconscious and dying. This triggers a death timer of 1d4 + CON modifier rounds (minimum one round); if you aren't healed or stabilised in that time you die. Each round, a player can roll a d20 and will gain a hit point back and recover on a roll of 20. Stabilisation is an intelligence-based check by another character.

Light is important; the GM is encouraged to be strict on tracking light and emphasising the danger. If you run out of light sources, you're at disadvantage and the environment and encounters will become more deadly and frequent.

Hiding and sneaking is dexterity based, and usually hidden creatures will be spotted if looked for in the right place. A wisdom check will be needed if someone has successfully snuck or hidden.

Resting requires rations and an uninterrupted 8-hour period of sleep and recovery. If undisturbed, all stat damage and hit points, along with any talents or items that reset. The environment influences the change of a stressful encounter that will interrupt rest, so total darkness means there will be an encounter check every hour. 

Downtime allows a number of actions; you can carouse (a way to convert your treasure into XP) or learn new skills. You can't earn another classes skill but you can learn auxiliary things they do.  To carouse, you pick an amount of money ranging from 30 gold to 1,800 gold (a night out through to a two-week bender). This gives a modifier to a roll on the carousing table which gives XP, contacts and potential elements to influence the story going forward. There's an example game of chance, and then the section rounds out with an extended example of play.

The GM section opens with strong guidance on the core ethos and reminders about how the style of play here differs from fifth edition as written. You're reminded to telegraph danger, give meaningful choices and the clues to understand them, and to be unpredictable. Character vs player skill is discussed, along with moving from rules to rulings. You're there to have fun, but you are a neutral arbiter. This is very much the agenda/principles section that is common with other games today. 

There's discussion about how to attack the character's sources of light, and how to tweak the game so it plays differently. For example, in pulp mode you can have any number of luck tokens and used them to create critical hits, get extra actions or force the GM to re-roll. In deadly mode, you have a single round to stabilise or heal and the roll needed to do so is higher. 

There's a long section of random encounters, traps, hazards and rumours, followed by an extensive bestiary. The only notable difference for the monster descriptions compared to OSR sources is the addition of modifiers for stats. A number of the creatures are unique. I started to do some analysis of the spread of these so I could convert creatures that weren't included on the fly, but then realised someone on Itch.io had already done it. In truth, unless a scenario has a unique creature you won't need these. There's a random monster generator if you want to roll your own. 

The treasure section includes random tables, more mundane treasures like luxury items and painting, an extensive list of magic items and how to created them, and the more intangible boons (oaths made to with you, secrets and blessings).

The end papers are packed with useful references.

The screen is a four panel portrait screen the same size as the book. It has a focus around encounters and treasure and complements the end papers. The artwork is great too.

So what do I think?

I don't that Shadowdark is a fifth edition game as such. Most fifth edition games are built as heroic fantasy variant. Rather, Shadowdark takes elements of the post D&D 3e game engine, building a delightfully light & coherent take on the original D&D games, in a similar vein to the Black Hack. It is very well done, and emulates the style of play very well. Whereas OSE and other retro-clones maintain the quirks of the original game, this strips everything back and builds it up from the start. I'm pretty confident that I could pick up an old module or something written for the OSR and run it while converting on the fly. I like what I see, and I'd like to try it out. 

Recommended.

2 March 2024

You may notice that some of my comments in italics stray away from the more brutal take that some OSR GMs take; I've never enjoyed games where the characters are so vulnerable that they are unlikely to survive the first blow they take. I am happy to be a neutral arbiter, but I'm enough of a fan of the characters that I want them to start their journey with a chance.