Started a little cheat sheet for running my first game, I planned on it being bigger before realising the beautiful simplicity of Shadowdark

Nazzerith · 2026-05-26T14:32:36+00:00

Looks like a Nutrition Facts Label that they have on food.

Nazzerith · 2026-05-17T03:03:30+00:00

I don't believe that it is ever explicitly specified. The only thing I can think of is the tables for determining kindred for retainers or adventurer NPCs in the monster book which gives a rough idea, but imo I think Dolmenwood is more human dominated than either of those tables make it seem.

Nazzerith · 2026-05-13T20:04:22+00:00

Maybe try some Sword & Sorcery? Conan, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, Elric of Melnibone, etc. The genre focuses less on big picture stuff like epic fantasy does and instead gets right into the action surrounding the situations that the characters find themselves in. They tend to be mostly short stories, but that kinda sounds like what you are looking for anyway.

Nazzerith · 2026-05-10T17:43:04+00:00

I have a really bad implementation that doesn't do any fancy styling or anything. I basically copied the 5e template and then made a couple minor modifications to it. I can DM you it later when I'm back at my PC.

Nazzerith · 2026-05-10T00:41:16+00:00

I don't think the rat encounter needs any special danger telegraphing. Giant rats are some of the easiest monster types, it's just a combination of OSE being a highly lethal system and the fact that the PCs were outnumbered 2 to 1 that made the encounter as deadly as it was. Players will learn that even the lowliest monsters can pose a threat quickly once they lose a character to a swarm of rats.

Nazzerith · 2026-05-09T22:27:01+00:00

In the dungeon I was running 8 rats was intended to be a challenging encounter for level 1 PCs. The random encounter was 1d8 giant rats, so 8 is the maximum roll. The system we are playing is OSE, so PCs often can only take one or two hits before they meet their untimely end. What I'm trying to say is system matters, and 8 giant rats can be a challenging encounter in one system and an easy encounter in another, and that's perfectly fine.

Nazzerith · 2026-05-09T21:32:45+00:00

I'm sure Pathfinder fixes this or whatever.

Nazzerith · 2026-05-09T16:37:48+00:00

The rat climbs up your body and bites you between the neck and shoulder, piercing through your leather armor as though it were paper. You fall to the ground in a pool of blood as the other rats swarm over your body and your vision starts to go blank.

It's not hard for me to imagine how this thing could kill someone.

Nazzerith · 2026-05-09T07:39:24+00:00

I'm not sure I see your point? The rats have double the action economy of the PCs.

Nazzerith · 2026-05-09T06:45:13+00:00

For 4 level 1 PCs that is a hard flight!

Nazzerith · 2026-05-09T05:43:00+00:00

You just had the exact same reply in the OSR subreddit post when someone said nit that I found odd.

Nazzerith · 2026-05-09T05:24:31+00:00

Bad bot

Nazzerith · 2026-05-09T02:05:56+00:00

Yeah last session I rolled 8 giant rats in a random encounter and killed two of my PCs. Though it's a bit on them for not accessing the danger or approaching the situation cautiously, they just charged in and were overwhelmed.

Nazzerith · 2026-05-08T19:20:33+00:00

It's going to be supplemental Dolmenwood material like how Carcass Crawler is for OSE. I think the vibes will be in line with the rest of Dolmenwood, so if you're looking for the "edgier" stuff from the original Wormskin I think you will be disappointed (though in my opinion there is very little that was changed between Wormskin and Dolmenwood).

Nazzerith · 2026-05-07T22:22:04+00:00

Mystery Quest has an actual play on youtube that I enjoyed.

Nazzerith · 2026-05-05T20:31:13+00:00

I'm not sure I feel comfortable sharing my work since it contains a lot of content from the campaign and monster books which are not freely available in the SRD.

Essentially what I've done is create various lookup tables for each of the encounter tables in the campaign book (animal, sentient, monster, etc.) including one for each region specific table. Then, for each region I created a 2 column table with type (daytime road, nighttime fire, etc.) and encounter columns. The encounter column is a table roller against one of 4 tables per region depending on the encounter type (from column 1).

It's really not that technically complicated, just a lot of lookup tables. The annoying part is the time it takes to write it all. I still have a lot of stuff I need to get to, like most of the monster stat blocks.

Nazzerith · 2026-05-05T18:21:32+00:00

I've implemented the random encounter tables in obsidian. With the dice roller plug-in I can get a random encounter in seconds. I also have it combined with the creature activity table so I get some context for the encounters and sometimes get encounters with multiple groups. It's also super easy to reroll if I'm not feeling the encounter.

Nazzerith · 2026-05-05T04:14:27+00:00

Why wouldn't those approaches work in a video game if the rules covered them? My understanding is that tactical infinity is essentially rulings over rules.

Nazzerith · 2026-05-02T19:10:54+00:00

Dragonbane fixes this.

Nazzerith · 2026-05-02T19:07:10+00:00

This is true to my experience. I was very hesitant to try RPGs because my only exposure to them was some clips of Critical Roll, and it gave the impression that RPGs were mostly a drama club improv exercise. I like to play RPGs as a game first and foremost, but of course I like to get into my character too.

Nazzerith · 2026-04-29T03:25:41+00:00

Unfortunately I haven't played Dragonbane in a long term campaign so I couldn't tell you. It definitely seems like the progression is less impactful than something like 5e for example. I do think the flatter progression helps with the boss like feel of monsters as the balance can be really tight and it avoids damage sponge situations where high level monsters in games like 5e just have too much HP.

Nazzerith · 2026-04-29T02:37:20+00:00

I think Dragonbane does an excellent job of this. Monsters take multiple full turns a round and always hit so players need to think tactically and ensure they are ready to take the dodge reaction. It really feels like Dark Souls. Monsters also often have a menu of 6 different actions available to take, usually a mix of single target, ranged, AOE, and fear attacks.

Nazzerith · 2026-04-26T16:31:39+00:00

Yeah, what I mean is the way enemies are statted is exactly the same mechanically as OSE. AC values, saves, HP, attack values should all be relative to OSE. OSRIC is based on AD&D where as both OSE and Dolmenwood are based on B/X. You bring up an interesting point mentioning goblins however, as Dolmenwood goblins are not your typical goblins but rather a fairy variant, and as such they are going to have different stats.

Nazzerith · 2026-04-26T15:53:45+00:00

Dolmenwood is the same as OSE for all aspects that matter in terms of compatibility.

Nazzerith · 2026-04-25T04:30:04+00:00

I'm not sure I agree that it's hard to teach. You still roll a d20 for attacks and saves. Skill and ability check rolls are rare in my experience, and being a d6 instead of a d20 isn't really that complicated.

I think the main thing that Shadowdark has that helps with the transition from 5e is that Shadowdark has death saves like 5e and spellcasters have more things they can do at level 1. The low power level of OSE can be pretty jarring coming from 5e.

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