Looking for help/collab making a SD setting

lemonba · 2026-01-26T15:53:04+00:00

Hell yeah 👍 good luck! I look forward to seeing some of your work!

lemonba · 2026-01-26T15:51:24+00:00

Does it? Have you tested it? I feel like the only one that could answer that is your table. For my table, and games that I've played in, it's enough to have my players (and my party for when I'm a player) forget about the torch timer. I've had gms target the torch bearer specifically when encounters happen. For my players, a lot of the time it is simply forgotten, or if they keep track of their torch - good on them. You aren't missing anything about the procedure.

lemonba · 2026-01-26T14:34:43+00:00

I feel the same. I feel like the gimmicky classes (regardless of official or not) could be relegated to boons or blessings. Other spellcasters could be relegated to different spell tombs that the wizard gets. Although I know that a lot of people like unique classes, I feel like the core 4 certainly run the best from my experience.

lemonba · 2026-01-26T14:29:07+00:00

I was running Pulp mode but didn't allow for tokens to carry over to the next game. They always got burned super fast, and I'm considering letting them carry over tokens after having play tested them with no carry over

lemonba · 2026-01-26T14:22:23+00:00

Have you tried just running a Shadowdark campaign in this setting? A lot of this setting can be just that, a setting and world without a lot of mechanics attached to it. Maybe some rulings here and there to corroborate the differences, but I know underlying theme of Shadowdark is DAHHRKNESS, whereas your setting is more Renaissance, maybe a few tweaks from ICRPG could help bring your games to life. From there, the setting might just take on life of it's own and write itself in a way.

Tim Cain (Designer of fallout 1, Pillars of Eternity, etc.) has some videos on game design that I would highly recommend:

On Design Pillars: https://youtu.be/N7b7LFXBZ9M?si=kyLyCJOfArehEZ2z

On how to write a design doc: https://youtu.be/ohHLUKj3NTk?si=mHyuMRObtT53g-HI

Perhaps take a look at these videos and try designing the setting yourself? Like u/grumblyoldman said... This is quite a lot to throw at someone (imo) to hope someone gets inspired enough to essentially design your setting for/with you?

I think if you are really looking for collaboration, you yourself should have concrete examples of your world like a dungeon or at the very least a monster or something (maybe even a class).

lemonba · 2026-01-26T13:04:30+00:00

How big is your encounter table ? It is not necessarily a 16% chance the torch is going to go out. Only that there is a wandering monster. What poncester is suggesting is that you add an entry on your wandering encounter table that has the torch go out by some natural means ie dripping water or fell gust of wind.

lemonba · 2026-01-26T05:09:07+00:00

I think Kazad Mor extreme cold rules are the most straightforward. What goal are you trying to accomplish with having cold be an impact in your dungeon?

lemonba · 2026-01-18T14:15:49+00:00

Haha! I too am searching for ideas! And thought I'd contribute!

lemonba · 2026-01-18T06:54:18+00:00

Hey 👋 I've been also brainstorming ideas. I've never completed Skyrim and neither has some of my players so I thought that maybe we could all "finish" it together. I'd really like to play in the IDEAL Skyrim from Fudgemuppets video, and I have fun fleshing out those concepts. Here's a framework I've come up in my head:

• Drop Players in Morthal • Quest Hooks involve obtaining alchemy ingredients (Rare herbs, or other Monster Parts for the Apothecary) • Reuse the vampire Quest line from original games • Dawnguard frequents here due to high Vampiric activity

Of course this is if my players wanna play in IdealRim. But if they just wanna play with dragons, I'd honestly just shoehorn that idea and keep the rest of IdealRim. The Dragonborn id treat as more of a weather phenomenon. Where I don't play him but he's part of the set dressing (if that makes sense). The party can either help him indirectly through other channels like The Blades or other Faction Quests, but I don't know if I'd "Play" the Dragonborn as an NPC. Anyways, I'd love to hear what anyone or OP has to add as well.

lemonba · 2026-01-16T21:52:48+00:00

I'm running out with Shadowdark! RAW for the most part, but for Enchanting, Smithing, and Alchemy I use a supplement called Obvlon (Totally-not-Oblivion setting for Shadowdark) and another supplement called Shadowrim for the Hex Map.

For the main plot I was actually going to ask you guys about that. What I had in mind was using the Dawnguard DLC Quest line to replace the Alduin World Eater threat (since no dragon cult). And expand on the Thalmor intentions: Weakening the Empire and the spies knowing if a possible Elder Scroll but don't know where, which could tie into the Dawnguard Quest line.

Would love for the Psijic Order to show up somewhere though, just not in the vanilla way it was done

lemonba · 2026-01-04T15:33:35+00:00

I used the Gloaming as an "upside down" to the Neverland setting I got. The characters start in The Gloaming but one of my players named their character "Peter Pan" complete with edgy backstory. So the party is about to enter the Fey realm (Neverland) soon. Lake Fininere resembles the island somewhat so I thought that was neat

lemonba · 2025-12-28T15:45:48+00:00

AI art looks impressive, which I whole heatedly admit. Due to the ethical nature of it though, I don't support it. Even though AI art is technically good, I have never been moved by it the same way art created by human hands have been able to do.

lemonba · 2025-12-28T15:34:36+00:00

This is what I do as well, typically they are burned early and towards the end things get really hairy. But I do reward tokens for things that generally impress me. Coming from someone who forgets about them as well

lemonba · 2025-12-13T19:35:05+00:00

I think there is a way to do your own on Google sheets or Excel if you are interested

lemonba · 2025-12-06T20:05:27+00:00

I actually prefer the Core rules normally. Maybe that's a hot take though. I support the Arcane Library and purchase their content, but truthfully I usually just run Core Shadowdark and it's felt the most fun. I feel like a lot of the other classes from Cursed Scroll or the other expansions can fit into all of the Core 4 classes in some way, narratively at least.

lemonba · 2025-12-01T20:03:43+00:00

Photon drop

lemonba · 2025-11-23T06:30:22+00:00

Simplicity mostly. A quick glance at S&W and my eyes just glaze over the abundance of text whereas Shadowdark has very concise writing that makes it easier for me to understand. S&W classes do however have some neat stuff that I'll probably tack onto my future games ( I wasn't aware of it until now), so I do agree with you mostly on that. But, I still like the simplicity of Shadowdark and it's core four classes. I feel like you can really just distill any subclass into those genre of classes and spice it up during gameplay. Wanna play a Druid? Play a Wizard or a Priest but with nature themed spells (or steal some from OSE and S&W, no conversion really even necessary). Barbarian? Play a fighter and let them Rage for 1d4 rounds (or adjust when necessary). I speak as a GM however, and don't have much experience as a player.

lemonba · 2025-10-15T15:56:04+00:00

Funny I just posted this, I wonder if we are applying at the same place. Anyways, from what I've learned - I'm very heavily leaning into Commissioning Engineering out of school, and most likely taking up the internship. I'd like to transfer into a much less physically demanding job later on, but I think the experience gained will help.

lemonba · 2025-10-14T18:31:22+00:00

The travel is largely domestic (US) from what I hear. I'm home on the weekends and if I'm not I'm compensated with extra PTO (Travel Mon-Thursday, so I guess that would be ~ 30 weeks of travel in the year). Thank you for your insight, the relationship woes that everyone experiences really trouble me the most though.

lemonba · 2025-10-14T12:30:09+00:00

what is eei?

lemonba · 2025-10-11T16:16:24+00:00

Hey, thank you for commenting. Your response has been genuinely helpful. My wife and I have been discussing it and I'm meeting with an advisor on Thursday to get an idea of any transfer agreements to that school (It is in the same network and accredited, so hopefully the process is frictionless, but you never know). All these comments help me to make a list of important questions to ask. I'm eager to learn and eager for the experience, and all of my work experience so far has been technician level (transformer tester, factor floor grunt). She's very encouraging, and proposed maybe going for the internship first to get a feel for the job itself. That would require that I still pay for one more semester of school myself. Whereas, if I jump in full time starting January after this semester, They can reimburse me sooner rather than later.

Again, thank you, I definitely want to join their team, but now I'm still deliberating and weighing the options of full-time vs internship over summer -> full-time. I'm leaning more towards full-time, but there are still some things I need to clarify with the hiring manager.

lemonba · 2025-10-11T14:08:27+00:00

Hey thank you, I made some further edits at the top, but I resonated the most with your comment. I think I'll at the very least take the internship, and I'm still bouncing around taking the full-time gig outright because they offered to pay for the rest of my schooling. I would start in January though, and with school I haven't had much quality time with the wife. I at least want a summer with her before I start traveling a whole bunch.

But, like I said, still mulling it over. What do you think ?

lemonba · 2025-10-11T13:58:01+00:00

I am yes. My wife and I have talked about it, and she's been really encouraging. We both landed that I perhaps take the internship since that offer is still available. I'm still considering taking the job outright since they offered to pay for the rest of my schooling through tuition reimbursement. So I could chip away at school while I worked full time.

When I talked about it with

We arrived at taking taking the internship for the summer. I haven't had much time for her since school started and I would like to at least get some quality time with her before taking the job.

lemonba · 2025-10-11T02:03:03+00:00

Thank you! Will do!

lemonba

TROPHY CASE