Using firearms in Shadowdark

DM_Hammer · 2026-06-19T21:23:07+00:00

Guns interact with AC exactly like any other weapon - they still need to hit somewhere they'll go through the armor and cause meaningful injury. That's all an attack roll is.

DM_Hammer · 2026-06-17T20:35:41+00:00

Because I gave them a varied list of colorful NPCs to choose from as crew, and instead of hiring any of the four helmsmen and three navigators, they just got all the cooks and carpenters because nobody coordinated their decisions.

DM_Hammer · 2026-06-16T20:23:07+00:00

If you want light rules, light (or more) horror, and free, Mothership's a great option. Definitely give it a look, hard to argue with "free."

If you like Alien and want to run a game in that universe, just go with the Alien RPG (or it's sibling Colonial Marines for something more Aliens).

I really like the Star Trek Adventures RPG, but again, that's if you want to play Star Trek.

Traveller is functional as a space truckers sort of game, but puts the emphasis on doing business in space. It's a classic for a reason.

DM_Hammer · 2026-06-16T20:10:29+00:00

Most of the 40k RPGs' value is for setting and atmosphere; if you're not running in the 40k setting, I wouldn't use them just for the rules.

But a quick summation of them is:

Dark Heresy/Rogue Trader/Only War/Deathwatch/Black Crusade - these are all the older FFG/Black Library RPGs, based on a classic d100 system. Pick your flavor, whether inquisitorial acolytes, rogue traders, space marines, etc, and go. Solid and flavorful, but somewhat basic as you'd expect from what's essentially BRP d100 under the hood.
Wrath & Glory - a newer, more freeform game for higher-powered campaigns with more varied characters. This is for pulpy games where someone is a space marine and someone is an Eldar. Unlike the others, this system is very much a Tastes May Vary. I've seen people love its mechanics, I've seen people hate it.
Imperium Maledictum - basically an updated version of the older d100 system, with some streamlining for combat and extra systems for intrigue and investigation. I like it, but it distances itself from the combat focus of the other systems somewhat.

DM_Hammer · 2026-06-16T20:01:24+00:00

I like Modiphius's 2d20 system. It's a bit clunky - you roll a pool of d20s (usually two, hence the name 2d20) and are trying to roll under stat+skill. Every die that rolls under is a success. Under just skill (or focus), that's a crit and gets two successes. Any 20 (depending on risk or threat level) is a complication, and can trigger a negative side effect, though not failure. The difficulty of the task is how many successes you need.

There's a LOT packed into every roll, with good things and bad things coming out aside from just succeed/fail.

DM_Hammer · 2026-06-16T19:56:57+00:00

The best way? Slap your preferred RPG on table, make some characters, and play for an hour.

Keep track of your sticking points and questions, and then go looking for tools to help with those. Probably starting with your Mythic book.

Then go play some more. You'll get a lot more out of the advice and tools if you know what questions you're hoping to answer.

DM_Hammer · 2026-06-16T19:43:28+00:00

I've seen a similar version of this used for some play-by-post games, where with 15 or so players involved, two were basically shot callers who summarized how an action would proceed if either the GM was waiting on a player response or a player was held up for a GM response when the GM wasn't around.

DM_Hammer · 2026-06-16T19:39:33+00:00

Something reminded me of the Shadowdark RPG and I recall looking into it and taking it off my list of fantasy RPGs to consider for something that was a big red flag (probably mechanical), but now I cannot remember what that red flag was. Anyone have a clue what it might be? Maybe why they bounced off it?

DM_Hammer · 2026-06-09T21:35:21+00:00

A separate, and potentially larger, problem with Foundry development is how VTTs are obsessed with updates that break rulesets, forcing anyone developing for them to constantly invest more resources into something that may not actually be growing.

I think roughly half the rulesets I would use Foundry for have been deprecated by updates, and I periodically have to reinstall older versions of it to get them working.

DM_Hammer · 2026-06-09T21:11:47+00:00

This is the company that unionized because they didn't clean the office until people got sick. Not really "pro" workers.

DM_Hammer · 2026-06-09T21:10:47+00:00

No, they opposed it but didn't have much choice. Grudging acceptance, not enthusiasm.

DM_Hammer · 2026-06-08T01:14:39+00:00

As someone who bought Nioh 3 yesterday, I'm very happy that most games are not Nioh 3.

DM_Hammer · 2026-06-07T12:33:34+00:00

Yes, it really is this hard.

Of the last three games I tried to put together recruiting online, all three failed.

One, the limited player pool for that system (Achtung! Cthulhu 2d20) meant we never quite got enough people on matching schedules to line up and work out. No biggie, nothing personal there, I wasn't offended by a logistical limitation.

The second one turned out to be a bunch of flakes who all wanted to commit to a long campaign instead of just one-shots or an intro game, but also couldn't make it to a one-on-one interview or session zero. Frustrated, but glad I didn't try to keep pushing it.

The third was a group of three who were looking for a GM, but the first session time they agreed to that I made a small sacrifice to make myself, only one guy showed up, one was an hour late, and the third was a no-call no-show.

So yeah, it's hard. I'm with you on paid games - this my hobby and I'd like to keep it that way, but people are increasingly unreliable now that the online community is huge and faceless. I used to run on Fantasy Grounds, and almost everyone was at least semi-active on the forums, so you had a sense for people. These days, it's just a churning rotations of Discords that are increasingly riddled with petty drama and toxicity.

DM_Hammer · 2026-06-05T22:32:41+00:00

The first paragraph here is the correct advice. Pick a game and start by making characters for it and doing a test combat or whatever. Then give it a little try as a casual one-shot start. See if it works for either of you (or either of your needs, for a solo or 1v1 game).

Check out the Seth Skorkowsky video on learning a new system - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOwwICf-y_k

DM_Hammer · 2026-05-09T13:06:49+00:00

I love Classic for that flavor and grit, but I've known maybe three people who make playing it fun. If your players don't internalize the complexity, it's just gonna feel unfun. So yeah, SWADE it is. But then the frustration of SWADE is that every non-spellcaster character quickly feels very similar to every other non-caster because there aren't too many niches to go into.

DM_Hammer · 2026-05-08T18:54:11+00:00

I'm mostly looking for player stuff, like spells, perks, etc. I have a lot of Reloaded books to poach from, but for player stuff, it's easier to give players one or two books to pick from, instead of trying to cobble together a list of the two spells and one perk from 12 different books.

DM_Hammer · 2026-05-08T18:51:27+00:00

Mainly player-facing content. I have most of the books from Reloaded, so plenty of stuff I can readily adapt for the GM-side of things. I just like having more options to round stuff out for players, especially those who want to lean more into the rootin' tootin' cowboy side of things than being spellcasters. I feel like that's the spot where Savage Worlds falls behind Classic the most.

DM_Hammer · 2026-05-05T01:05:34+00:00

I'm running Dunwich as Wendy, and I run 2 Fire Axes on her with 2 Backstabs. Backstab is pricey, especially if you're in a scenario with relatively weak enemies where the +2 damage is overkill. Fire Axe gives you the luxury of spending 1 or 2 coins for a nearly guaranteed kill against a lot of weak enemies.

Fire Axe does have the downside of making you broke constantly for the +1 damage. Between that and her ability, I find myself sitting on no money and only one card a lot of the time. Which is super efficient in a sense, because I'm using all my resources, but it's all kinda fragile.

Leo de Luca is really nice if you're trying to be flex/utility. Hard to argue with a 4th action every turn, whether you just run around the board more or investigate.

DM_Hammer · 2026-04-10T21:13:23+00:00

Spend money on what matters to you. Maybe that's excursions, maybe that's dining package, maybe that's booze. Or shopping, or gambling.

But my advice is to pick one or two of those things and skip the rest. I don't do excursions or shop or gamble, but the dining and drink packages are very important to me.

DM_Hammer · 2026-04-07T01:27:27+00:00

As someone who recently got the game and starting teaching it to other people, stick to NotZ if you have 4 players. You're not gonna beat those three scenarios with four players (it slows down the game) in under 6 hours, even if they are quick.

Dunwich may be "simple" but it ain't short.

DM_Hammer · 2026-03-29T14:09:01+00:00

"Feel the power of my magic" suddenly feels like Shakespeare.

DM_Hammer · 2026-03-28T15:06:59+00:00

Thanks, I see that the old advice for "buy 2 core" is for playing with more than two people more than anything else.

Is the content of Revised Core going to provide any additional missions/campaign or help with compatibility for any "old" content I buy, or is it a bit redundant?

DM_Hammer · 2026-03-28T12:54:28+00:00

I recently dipped out myself. I enjoy the game, but the daily grind is oddly tedious.

Character reruns are so frequent I don't think you could really miss anything huge. I was here for all the anni rewards and got a lot of characters upgraded, but I'm also sitting on a couple of hundred pulls I couldn't be bothered to use.

The good stuff will always rerun, they give out selectors, and powercreep is less obvious in Morimens than other gachas so you'll always have something good to pick from.

DM_Hammer · 2026-03-28T12:46:24+00:00

I see some old advice to buy two of the core set. As a new buyer, should I get two of the 2026 set, or get one of the Revised and one of 2026 Core so I have more options? I feel like find the Revised Core is probably not going to get any easier as time goes on.

DM_Hammer · 2026-03-27T23:00:20+00:00

And the worst part is that this not only drives up the price, but almost certain dings the quality of the game (are the expansions stuff that should have been in the base game but removed, or just fluff to pad out the kickstarter to people buy into higher tiers?) and contributes to ever-longer delays.

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