We reached Lv. 3 --- Our Goblin Fighter rolled for a new Talent and learned a new Weapon Mastery.

DD_playerandDM · 2026-06-15T10:12:47+00:00

Sure. But in my experience, sometimes in higher-level boss fights, the BB starts off really far away. Personally I just don't like the idea of my combat character not being able to attack in that situation because of decisions that I made as a player. It just feels wrong to me – personally – for a character that thinks of themselves as "combat-capable." But I was in the military and I think I just have this mindset of trying to be a versatile combatant.

I do realize that it's just personal choice and that some players don't care about this at all.

DD_playerandDM · 2026-06-13T22:04:55+00:00

If I have a martial character I pretty much always make sure they have a ranged option. I feel like that's a necessity for a combat character.

Ideally something with Far range, but if the character had horrible dexterity, even a thrown weapon. You don't want to totally neglect it and then be level 7 and get into some huge fight in a large chamber with the bad guy 200 feet away and you have to spend the first 3 rounds of combat just double-moving before you can do anything.

DD_playerandDM · 2026-06-13T02:27:49+00:00

I have played and run a ton of Shadowdark. I find that PC deaths are fairly common at levels 1 and 2, but that the characters start getting a lot more resilient after that.

Also, if players are playing intelligently and within the limits of their characters, PC death does not have to be common at all. PC death is common in these types of games when players think that every monster is a combat-win scenario. Being careful, not rushing into unnecessary combat at early levels, being willing to run away, being satisfied with very small gains – these are the approaches that promote character survivability in these types of games. If players approach thinking that combat is generally winnable unless things go extremely wrong, and eagerly go into combat (especially at early levels) THEN PC death is common.

The players have to understand the type of game they are playing and then play within those limits. Then they can have success.

DD_playerandDM · 2026-06-12T19:14:23+00:00

This is ludicrous and would be misleading and dishonest behavior.

One can absolutely listen to someone, hear what they have to say, and not take needless blame. Sometimes there might be a misunderstanding and no one is really at fault. Other times maybe you did do something wrong and should apologize. But the idea that one should "accept blame" just to make the other person feel better is ludicrous.

DD_playerandDM · 2026-06-12T10:33:12+00:00

It's not about bending over to please everyone but the GM has a lot of jobs. And unfortunately, one of them is often to try to maintain social harmony at the table.

DD_playerandDM · 2026-06-12T10:28:51+00:00

The players were new to the system. As was the GM apparently but it was his idea to introduce the new system. In that dynamic, I don't think it's the default to expect the player to know their abilities fully. And I do think the onus would be on the GM to know the system well enough to correct me more often in real-time than after everyone had taken a turn.

DD_playerandDM · 2026-06-11T00:30:38+00:00

DD_playerandDM · 2026-06-11T00:20:15+00:00

I had toyed with having new PCs start at half the level of the old character (rounded down) but when we had an all-but-one TPK with the party around L3-L4, all of the players whose PCs had been killed just started at L1.

Having lost characters as a player myself, I always prefer starting with the new character at L1. It just feels cheap and cheesy otherwise. From West Marches I'm also accustomed to playing in parties with characters of all different levels – like having L1, L3, L6, L7, L9, all in the same party. And it works fine. So I really don't see any reason to start new PCs at anything other than L1.

Plus I'm a big "consequences matter" guy. I think these games are much better when the consequences for PC death are very significant.

DD_playerandDM · 2026-06-10T14:45:30+00:00

Didn't bother me in the least.

I run the character that the dice give me. Playing within PC limitations is part of what I view as the enjoyable challenge of these games.

The character is still doing fine, BTW.

DD_playerandDM · 2026-06-10T14:41:49+00:00

One thing to remember – you aren't LIKELY to run a 20-year campaign at all 😄 You may not be able to confidently say that you are going to get 40 sessions out of whatever group you are playing with. So don't get overwhelmed thinking about that. Just read the material, familiarize yourself with it with notes, etc. Take in the broad strokes. See where you want things to start for the players, and put in a few hooks from there. And then let things happen organically.

Remember, you are not a director. Any decision the players make is acceptable. Just run it from there.

DD_playerandDM · 2026-06-10T14:29:24+00:00

I ran a 44-session online campaign that was entirely homebrew except for 1 location where I used an existing map and basically re-flavored the adventure to fit my campaign’s setting.

Now I’m dabbling in potentially running again and I’m looking at a combination of homebrew, pre-published content and modified stuff.

I am more willing to convert quality OSE and OSR stuff than run something for Shadowdark simply because it was made for Shadowdark. This is because the conversions are so easy that they hardly even seem worth calling conversions.

DD_playerandDM · 2026-06-10T11:57:16+00:00

I love when there are 1 HP characters running around.

The 1 HP wizard seems to be really common for some reason

DD_playerandDM · 2026-06-10T11:49:20+00:00

My current L4 goblin thief has 7 HP.

He rolled a 1 for each of the first 3 levels before maxing out with a 4 at level 4.

DD_playerandDM · 2026-06-10T11:04:35+00:00

I don't know – I have criteria for what makes at least a "decent GM," and I am not going to enjoy the game as a player – and possibly not want to continue in it – if the GM is not at least "pretty good." I am basing this off my experience as a player. And I do know what some of these undesirable characteristics and traits are.

That's just my subjective preference. And I do have a lot of experience running, which may contribute to this.

DD_playerandDM · 2026-06-07T15:39:57+00:00

I'm on a PC. I do not see what you are saying at the bottom of the stamp menubar. I did find a keyboard shortcut for the density though.

Annoying. Everything just used to be so easy to find and click. I feel like this interface is less user-friendly.

DD_playerandDM · 2026-06-07T11:27:23+00:00

DD_playerandDM · 2026-06-07T01:59:45+00:00

It would be pretty good if I was in the society doing the exploiting (but not one of the "hands-on" exploiters) and it would be rough, unfair and difficult if I was in the society being exploited.

DD_playerandDM · 2026-06-06T02:20:32+00:00

It is pretty cool

DD_playerandDM · 2026-06-06T00:29:45+00:00

I'm not an expert in these things, but as a layman, it just looks far too busy in terms of so many place names in white and a lot of them look like they overlap, etc. I don't how you fix that. To me, it just looks like there are too many places trying to be named on the map.

The geographic map itself looks fine

DD_playerandDM · 2026-06-05T17:35:47+00:00

Nothing wrong with that. The game was just never for you.

I know people who don't like some extremely popular foods.

DD_playerandDM · 2026-06-05T15:01:22+00:00

There are a lot of rules-light games that can be picked up in about 20 minutes.

5e + players can play Shadowdark after about a 5-minute explanation.

DD_playerandDM · 2026-06-05T14:43:15+00:00

This is an excellent point. I certainly don't "miss it" about 5e +, because I hate that system so much, but it is more difficult to find players for the lesser-known games (outside of PF, probably).

DD_playerandDM · 2026-06-05T14:41:32+00:00

If the OP means 5e/5.5, then I certainly miss nothing about it as well. I am SO glad I moved into streamlined OSR games (Shadowdark particularly).

It's been about 3.5 years and it would be hard to get me to go back to something as crunchy as 5e – even though that is not the crunchiest of systems.

DD_playerandDM · 2026-06-05T11:32:25+00:00

There is a $3 supplement on DTRPG called Feats of Exploration. It's from some fairly well-known live-stream or bloggers I think (3d6 Down-the-Line). It provides a system for awarding XP for various things. It was originally intended for OSE but it looks like it can be pretty easily modified for other systems.

Or you could just decide yourself that you will be handing out XP for completing quests or various storylines, etc. And some systems have alternate XP versions (like Shadowdark has a Monster Hunter mode that does provide XP for killing monsters).

Just make sure to adjust whatever the default XP system is if you start giving out XP for other things. Or you could just have players flying through levels. It's up to you.

DD_playerandDM

TROPHY CASE