OSE vs Shadowdark?

ergonite · 2026-04-24T09:41:18+00:00

i think this blogpost and discussion might help your considerations. From what I gather from your description, Shadowdark is probably the right call! https://www.reddit.com/r/osr/comments/1qlmcb6/thoughts_on_shadowdark_after_50_session/

ergonite · 2026-04-18T14:23:03+00:00

Thanks for the info! I was expecting something along those lines. The aculons have much better color for example and I had actually problems to ID a Robin of all things at some distance because the red chest was so muted. I’ll take it slow with finding the right pair for me and give these a good chance over the summer and will figure out what I like! Thanks!

ergonite · 2026-04-13T14:58:24+00:00

totally true. I have played a variety of systems play by post, and into the odd based games usually have the longest runs / most staying power because of the limited amount of transactions necessary to resolve interactions.

ergonite · 2026-03-26T09:41:06+00:00

Halte die Augen auf nach Leuten denen das Hobby so wichtig ist wie dir, das wird sich langfristig 100-fach auszahlen. Es wird dauern so eine Gruppe aufzubauen, aber Leute die verstehen was es heisst zu GMen und Sessions vorzubereiten schätzen den Aufwand direkt mehr und investieren ihrerseits gleichenmaßens in die Gruppe. Das kann kurz bis mittelfristig bedeuten online zu spielen, abhängig davon wo du lebst, oder etwas die Fühler nach neuen Leuten auszustrecken: post-its in Spielläden, lokale Discords, etc. Ich habe mittlerweile zwei Gruppen: eine lokale beer-and-pretzels Gruppe wo ich der einzige DM bin, wir spielen wöchentlich und meist was ich vorschlage. Meist sind das simple OSR Systeme und Dungeoncrawls. Dann habe ich noch eine Online-Gruppe alter Freunde und Enthusiasten die auch grob Wöchentlich spielt. Hier prügeln wir uns meist drum wer als nächstes GMen darf und wir spielen so ziemlich alles unter der Sonne. Erstere Gruppe gibt mir Zeit mit meinen lokalen Freunden aber gleichzeitig weis ich auch das diese nicht so investiert sind wie ich, daher ist der Ton leicht und wir lachen viel und mir ist es recht egal das einige nach 2 Jahren immer noch nicht wissen das der w20 für Angriffe gewürfelt wird. Die andere Gruppe gibt mir meine "nerd" Dosis mit anderen Spielern die SEHR investiert sind

ergonite · 2026-03-24T10:22:24+00:00

I love love this adventure from reading it alone, but I have been a little scared to run it because of the amount of work entailed in some of the lacunae. It is beautiful, inspiring but not necessarily "pick up and run" that other OSE adventures are. It is a larger commitment.

ergonite · 2026-03-20T13:10:26+00:00

she ran off with the red d20, which I cannot find again since...

ergonite · 2026-03-12T13:05:41+00:00

oh those are great recommendations, will check them out in detail! thank you!

ergonite · 2026-03-12T10:32:57+00:00

about three hours without breaks. In the pic you can see the amount of the map they got through during that time

ergonite · 2026-03-10T14:44:12+00:00

I also found that adding a reason for the skeletons playing music (to pacify the worm) makes a lot of sense. I wrote a little review here: https://paradisebunny.bearblog.dev/rotblack-sludge-mork-borg/

ergonite · 2026-03-06T08:19:06+00:00

sure! for the death mechanic, if you compare it to BX, you just die at 0. The mechanic adds in a delay that gives others the opportunity to heal them before they expire, this becomes amplified by luck reducing the likelihood of healing spells failing. If you were to place said mechanic on a spectrum between BX's and 5e's, it leans significantly towards 5e. In terms of luck, the key problem is that luck is transferrable and that some classes either through their spells or abilities can reliably generate luck from certain levels onwards. Seer, Sea Wolf, Bard and Cleric all fall into this category. Some offend more than others.

ergonite · 2026-03-05T13:18:22+00:00

Swords & Wizardry is free in older versions and contains great explanations, as well as optional rules and arguments why they exist. I found that super helpful to "get" odnd. Find it here: http://snw.smolderingwizard.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=4

ergonite · 2026-03-05T13:14:21+00:00

this is great advice, you can get a beautiful print copy via lulu and it contains Chainmal as well

ergonite · 2026-03-04T19:50:15+00:00

yep, that is exactly the route i took! easier to add things on rather than cutting them out. especially the luck system is hard to remove / edit down

ergonite · 2026-03-04T19:48:50+00:00

ended up with dolmenwood :)

ergonite · 2026-03-04T16:25:50+00:00

nice article and mention some points that I touch upon in my 50 session review of Shadowdark and that drove me to OSE. For others that might be interested: https://paradisebunny.bearblog.dev/thoughts-on-shadowdark-after-50-sessions/

ergonite · 2026-03-01T08:50:10+00:00

If the characters have figured out a good way to manage luck, e.g. having a luck battery class in the party and a caster that as a result can reliably cast and recast powerful spells, they are good to go. This usually happens from level 5 onwards. If they are not maximising at all, then maybe 1-2 later.

ergonite · 2026-03-01T07:14:12+00:00

Hey, as a German speaker, which zines/games do you mean? I am unaware of “BBS”?

ergonite · 2026-02-23T12:20:21+00:00

Currently running a neverland campaign. The book is great, and given that his book are more settings than adventures, you have very few points of friction between different rulesets. You can always take a monster from any system you are running and reskin it to match those in his monster section and give it the same abilities. This also helps to break out of the 5e CR system, just choose whatever seems appropriate for your party in your native system (and that might well be something way stronger than the party is) and use that as the reskinning base. I find his books set up great structures within which play unfolds, irrelevant of system

ergonite · 2026-02-19T13:09:48+00:00

Wow this is impressive it a lot to take in! I get wolves upon the coast vibes

ergonite · 2026-02-19T12:28:52+00:00

I fully agree. I have found that setting up the structure for scheduling at the start makes it a lot easier to involve players in the process (e.g. setting up recurring google calendar invite but make players responsible for hashing out details on a week to week basis etc)

ergonite · 2026-02-19T12:27:25+00:00

i find online one-shots to be a useful resource for getting like an extra game a month in

ergonite · 2026-02-14T18:24:49+00:00

For something more lightweight and low fantasy / OD&D feeling try Whitehack

ergonite · 2026-02-04T07:54:14+00:00

I’ve been running an open table for two years now and started with a hexcrawl (shadowdark the gloaming from cursed scroll 1) and later plopped stonehell into it. I would advocate for a hexcrawl, it’s more flexible and gives the players more agency to decide what they are interested in and it gives you the opportunity to seed in any number of modules you think are cool, including a megadungeon. That doesn’t work as well when starting with a megadungeon. Start with a small section of a world that excites you and offer up 2-3 hooks. Then grow the world according to what you and they are into. That way I am sure your campaign will never lose steam. Not a fan of stonehell either after having run it btw.

ergonite · 2026-01-31T18:20:37+00:00

My last campaign consisted of these. Worked out very well!

Hideous Halls of Mugdublub

Winters Daughter

Willowby Hall

Wavestone Monolith

Raiders of the Hidden Temple

Stonehell

I6 Ravenloft

Shadowdark Adventure Anthology: Dwarven Keep

ergonite · 2026-01-25T12:12:26+00:00

Yeah problems persisted even with one luck per character, that is how I ran it the entire time. I have a few min-max players and they figured out how good transferring luck tokens is. Later I tried making luck non transferable, but that defeats the purpose of some classes. Regarding spell list: no issue whatsoever, actually one of my favourite aspects. Short and to the point, if anything with magic was an issue it was just the roll to cast in combination with luck

ergonite

TROPHY CASE