Live Play Example: Shadowdark RPG 

Such a magnificent VTT!

Owlbear is such a fantastic tool. Easy to learn and powerful enough for most needs

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I backed it!

I am very glad I am not the only person who immediately made that connection ;D

I am entirely self conscious about the fact that I think I will pronounce that wrong, haha!

@@TheArcaneLibrary Easy Peasy! It's like "Vair - degree" or Ver - degree more or less. Enjoyed the live play and an opportunity to see Owlbear Rodeo in play, which I will be looking into. Congratulations on the success of Shadowdark & the Kickstarter there seems to be no stopping this train. Next stop...1 Million Dollars!

@@TheArcaneLibrary You wrote a game. Somehow I think you've got this. ;-)

Excellent idea!! I’m going to for sure use that going forward!

@@TheArcaneLibrary You could also duplicate the involved character and monster tokens and then just drag them in one line according to the initiative in some corner of the screen or map - whatever works best for you :)

@@nschoenwald Good call! That's a nice visual way to do it!

That is so kind of you, thank you!

Yes same!!! So exited for this.

Personally this feels more to me like the D&D Gygax, Arenson and other earlier writers of the game envisioned than current Corperate WotC 5e D&D. It's definitely a more spiritually connected game to B/X and the OSR scene than 5e despite the marketing but I understand why she sold it in that manner. Plus the modernization of some of the rules isnt a bad thing at all, I think she cleaned it up nicely and added the right stuff. If I had one complaint I like a little more definition, it's extremely streamlined and I'd really like to see a bit more nuanced Advanced Shadowdark some day, either way it's it's easy fix at least for me.. I'm just happy to see a decent game get a good kickstarter reception

@@DeusMachina71 I started playing D&D back in 1978. Modern D&D is too bloated for my taste. There was a time where homebrew was making your own classes up because they didn't exist in the rules. You used this thing called imagination and creativity to design your own world and the dungeons in it. Nobody called making a dungeon a "homebrew" like it is now. I'm glad to see Shadowdark as it feels like the days of old. It takes me back to the days of my youth and all is right in the dice rolling, monster slaying, dungeons are dangerous and they don't care about your feelings world.

Perhaps, but that light goes out after an hour of real time. 😃

I like that! :D

I call that "being hit by the clue by four!"

@@Dungeoncraft01.. thx pass the gift to a library or community project please

There is usually a random encounter table included with the adventure! :) And if there's not, I have a bazillion of them in the core book so you can fall back on those. :)

@@TheArcaneLibrary phenomenal! It's apparent how much effort was put into this, y'all have thought of everything. Thanks for the response 😊

Totally fair question since it's kind of a new concept! Pretty much all treasure except for the most fantastical stuff is worth 1 XP. If the characters find something that is super magnificent (like a magic sword), I'd give them 3 XP for it. So it's not really tied to exact numerical values, but more the overall importance of the treasure. I'd say 90% of treasure falls into the 1 XP category.

@@TheArcaneLibrary thanks for the clarification! I’ve been a fan for a few years now and I LOVE seeing all your hard work paying off. It was also nice to see Jesse on the stream! I don’t think I’ve seen her since you posted the wedding pic lol. I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy of this book!

Oh, like you wouldn't believe.

Hahahahahahaa, I view success as connected to how many gameplay rounds we can fit into one session! 😂

@@TheArcaneLibrary 😂 I love it! If you sit down for OSR your asking for intensity!

Hahahahaha, this makes my day! :D Thank you!

Hhahhahaaaa, I removed hammers from the basic equipment list a long time ago during beta testing (they just take up a gear slot and serve no real purpose), and it became a long-standing joke! xD #HammerGate

@@TheArcaneLibrary Makes sense, in my house we use everything BUT hammers to hammer things. Wrenches, spoons, rocks, "... weapons or other iron spikes" LOL

The Kickstarter just hit a stretch goal where I'm going to design a new class, and ranger is taking a distant lead right now! :) I'll also be putting more classes out in Cursed Scroll zines (supplements for the game).

We'll do more of them with various groups of players and play styles! Tenkar's Tavern also just posted a live play video that is very classic "old school" style and has a great demo of combat mechanics. I thought they did a wonderful job!

​@@TheArcaneLibrary saw the live play on Tenkar's Tavern; loved it. Also watched live play on d20play and Grablag Gamers.

Ain't it the best? I love it! Didn't even get to show off that is has a built-in time where you can visibly track the torch.

I ran this with a mixture of Zoom (voice/video chat) and the online platform Owlbear Rodeo! They have great RU-vid videos for getting set up and how to use their system.

I asked the discord and then they had a link to the initial event.

Yes and good. ;D

Old Goblin Mine ClearingTrick - why wander aimlessly through the mine, when you can let the mine come to you?

@@Diablofan100 Efficient and practical - got to love it!

My guess is that Kelsey does a lot of in person play and, for combat, rolling init, highest goes first and then round the table works the fastest and she seems to like fast, smooth systems. But once you start doing that it becomes an easy idea to apply it to outside combat and have a "unified" concept of rounds. Rounds in combat and rounds outside of combat for exploration. The "go around the table outside of combat" is also useful at in person tables to make sure everyone has a chance to take part in the exploration part of the game. So, if she started doing that then unifying things like encounter rolls based on "rounds outside of combat" start to make a lot more sense. So basically, the game has some design elements for "track rounds outside of combat", but the game also doesn't break down if you don't enforce it. And that sort of relaxed, flow with it style of game also seems like an important part of Shadowdark's design. I'll also say that what works for Kelsey at her table may not work well for you and your group. For example, I may use Foundry VTT and "round the table" doesn't work well with there is no table. I'd likely just use the built in initiative tracker, everyone rolls and go in order of the rolls. That'd be easier and smoother. I also may do stricter rounds outside of combat, but that's because my brain likes more order/strictness and it's easier to accidentally skip over asking people "what is your character doing" when you're not with them in person. But everyone should play the game how it best works for them.

Well said! :)

Owlbear Rodeo.

RU-vid

You would want to use an oracle system to help with that, but yes! I'm planning to do solo gameplay with Shadowdark using the Mythic GM Emulator! :D

It's not yet out for sale, but I'm going to open up late pledges on the Kickstarter on April 18th or 19th! :) You'll be able to pledge for any of the tiers and get the associated digital PDFs right away. 👍

What about floor murals?! ;D

@@TheArcaneLibrary Not murals! (Latin 'murus' = 'wall') 'Florals', maybe - haha iss funy joke yes!

@@notreallydavid Hahaha!! I like it. :) Even if that's not the exact word, I now want to use it that way!

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@@Dungeoncraft01.. wrong channel, Donkey. And clearly not official.

Awwwwww so true! But still delicious in their own way!

I can see how some people could justify those points as potential issues, but it was exactly this sort of mindset that made 5E less satisfying for me, and drove me back to OSR and other systems. Your mileage may vary, but for me, playing an RPG has always been much more fun for me and my players when we were fragile and were left to fill in a lot of the blanks ourselves. 1) Having vulnerable characters forces creative thinking or embracing the joy of rolling(meeting) a new character. 2) As recently mentioned on the 'BECMI Berserker' channel, the content of your character comes from the player, not from expanded character/class/feat options. As an example, just starting with a 'DWARF FIGHTER with a MISTRAL background' character could be played as a) generic Scottish Lothario, or b)a failed Music Idol who have decided to get back at their critics, or c) something completely different.

The key to understanding the OSR mindset, especially coming from more modern iterations that try to have a rule for everything, is realizing that more rules = more restrictions, not more options, and that high hit points are more suited for people who want to plan out a character build and play tabletop Skyrim, like on Critical Role or at most 5E/PF2E tables. OSR games are about facing intense and overwhelming danger, having to be creative in situations where the party cannot possibly win in a fight, sometimes having no survivable option but to flee and come back another day, and sometimes dying and getting retired to a place of honor among the dead. Powerful characters are a problem for GMs because it doesn't take long before every foe has to be a world-breaking juggernaut for the party to even break a sweat and, even then, the PCs rarely face any real danger. Modern games play mostly like character building vanity projects. Death is highly unlikely, permanent dismemberment or maiming can be hand-waved away by a low-level cleric, characters can heal from the most gruesome injuries that put them at death's door by getting a good night's sleep, and, even when there's the rare character death, it's usually no time before they're back on their feet and none the worse for wear. If that's your cup of tea, Shadowdark and especially more traditional OSR games probably aren't for you, honestly.

@@EaterOfWorlds78 Yes, well said. The possibility of easy death is the single greatest game mechanic. It keeps the tension very high and that's good for the game. Figuring how to navigate a hostile world while being weak is the spice of a great campaign. "Modern games play mostly like character building vanity projects." I loved this line, it sums up why I ran screaming from 5e.

The "characters start level 1 at max HP" is a fairly common OSE/BX house rule and works pretty well. Luck tokens and the 1d4 rounds til death I think will also help keep the game from being as deadly as BX/OSE. But there's nothing wrong with using other mechanics to make death not quite as likely. I think the full core book has optional rules for tweaking 0 HP to be more and less deadly. We'll probably also have a glut of third party creators creating more classes. I'm sort of looking forward to seeing a good complete set of 5E classes.

@Mark Mealman There will certainly be lots of 3rd party classes, as well as official expansions, as well as plenty of homebrewing; and that's perfectly fine. I would just hate to see it hacked into a 5E clone by adding tons of skills, feats, and character options that end up expanding only what PCs CAN'T do rather than what they can. When it becomes a situation where you can't start a campfire or even attempt to do so because you didn't select the appropriate feat from a list of 500 to put on your 12-page character sheet but you can punch a dragon to death, the plot is lost altogether.

I dunno, we're just having fun and goofing off a bit! :)

​@@TheArcaneLibrary Some roleplaying is fine, but it's way too much bad acting to the point I couldn't stand watching the video anymore. But I will say this, the GM did a good job.

Part of the use of meta talk was because this was a demo and I wanted viewers to understand some of the rules behind it! Normally I don't think we'd go so heavy on it. Also, one of the players has only played TTRPGs a handful of times, so we wanted to help her out a bit. :)

I think there's a bit of table culture involved here, and is an orthogonal issue to the game system of course. Some players (the humans in the seats) enjoy system mechanics and when there's some shared knowledge of the mechanics, a little of the "meta" becomes a shared experience. It is a game, has rules and mechanics, rather than a GM blackbox for actors...in _some_ table cultures. Those cultures often feature open-rolling by the GM as well. Plus there's the benefit of getting more noive players up to speed and comfortable. I mean great if everyone is a veteran, but it's not always the case. Especially in recent months as some groups are trying out a non-WotC offering. On-boarding. But totally contextual and whatever is working and fun, is correct.