Don’t know if you get get a cut, but man, Mike, you have caused me to buy more RPG goodness this year than any other creator. Keep up the great work, and thanks for all you do!
I ran Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands using Worlds Without Number instead. The players loved it. I'm running it again using Shadowdark in the fall. Great module!
This was one of my favorite videos that you've produced. Really got me jazzed up both about this module and running games in my own or other settings. One thing that might have been helpful would be a brief side by side of this and Mines of Phandelvar. Since you point out that this product has a similar scope and feel, it would be cool to get a better understanding of WHICH I (or other GM who doesn't have either) should grab.
Have you looked at the formattign on of the "official" OSE adventures? it seems like you would really enjoy the way tose are written. It's light on the block of texts, but the context of the information conveyed creates a rich adventure by combining what is written with what you unconciously read inbetween the lines. Makes it easy to change things and increadibly easy to use during a session.
that few pages of Ghosts of Saltmarsh is so good! The whole endgame of my 1.5 year adventure there is going to involve the Dreadwood and the Drowned Forest along with the Styes to deal with 3 different threats the party has been dealing with. I won't know the order they get handled but it'll be a wild ride.
I’m a huge fan of Raging Swan products. I agree with the ease of running this in Ashlar. I’ve been using Ashlar for my home brew, so it was a no-brainer when I picked up Shadowed Keep for my new Shadowdark campaign.
I've enjoyed many of your products as well as constantly checking our your channel for Lazy DM tools and tips. Although I am primarly a 5E DM/GM I have recently begun to look into the OSG-style games offered using Shadowdark RPG. I fully intend to retro many of the OSGs as well as 5E content to the Shadowdark format. I appreciate your insights on this process and would gladly accept any advice you might have to converting this module to Shadowdark ruleset and game style.
Thanks for the recommendation. Just bought it from the DriveThruRPG. And I have to say that I am pleasantly suprised when the NPC names in city of Dulwich are for strange reason mostly in Finnish 😍
Thank you for highlighting “table-ready” adventures. They are rare as you say and I always appreciate when you put one on my radar. Just ordered this one and Dread Thingonomicon based on your recommendations
Why is the Greyhawk map being shown? Maybe I spaced out, but I don't see the explicit tie-in to Greyhawk. Is it the way the cities in the Shadowed Keep are being described? That reminded me of the old Gazetteer location descriptions.
Welp, looks like another adventure to buy. My poor wallet. I was interested to hear your thoughts on Spelljammer, and I think I mostly agree. For a setting with such real potential, WoTC missed the mark. The product felt poor, and rushed. Which makes me wonder, what are your thoughts (if any) on Ghostfire Gaming's recent kickstarter Aetherial Expanse? I definitely get a "Spelljammer with the VIN filed off" vibe from it.
Nice review! i very much appreciated all of the effort that went into this module. The contents (or selected parts, plus modifications) have been easy and fun for me as DM and for different Players. Additionally for the future, please could you share a video of your advice about running towns of different sizes?
mike, do you think a dm could tie this rpg to temple of elemental evil? or against the giants? maybe turn it into your own version of queen of the spiders mega campaign?
I would love to use this with shadowdark... Is there any version( as it is for 5e, osr and pathfinder) to use specifically with SD? Or how do I convert the osr version (the one I have) for SD? At least the Noc and monsters stats .
I seriously love your videos :D but hte fact that you switch the I and the Z in the pronounciation of Tharizduns name makes me crawl up the walls :D mainly because hes the main bad guy in my homebrew campaing and you always make me doubt my own reading of the name :D :D .... first world problems. keep up the good work
Not to say the adventure isn't alright - I enjoyed running it, but it's at most mediocre when compared to some of the most 'famous' (in terms of OSR at least) OSR modules out there.
Shadow keep sounds promising. When you discussed running cities a few days back, I was thinking that cities in Faerun are too big, In the sandbox game I've DMed, Waterdeep, Neverwinter, Baldur's Gate, Silvery Moon -- they are all too big and it is challenging to make them alive and unique. Smaller settings like Phandalin, Deep Delvers Enclave are great places to start because there is enough detail to provide depth but not so much that improvisation is impossible. The result is that the smaller places make it easier to use as a guide but also encourages DMs to build up the setting with their own ideas.
My idea for setting the adventure in an established world is to place it into a loosely-defined large area such as the Border Kingdoms in the Forhotten Realms.
I'm not sure I agree with the advice against time sensitive hooks. If there are no consequences for the players' actions (or in this case, inaction), the game will feel less 'alive'. If the players chose to investigate a mysterious pillar over saving Sally who fell in the sewer full of ghoul crocodiles, then she should probably end up eaten by the ghoul crocodiles. Or someone else saves her, or she's badly injured, or something. There's no stakes otherwise.
Greyhawk is just a map. You can make your settings anything you want. I don't know much forgotten realms, but it does stop me from running an adventure. Don't sell yourself short, this is your chance to make your version of Greyhawk, which is what Gary wanted all DMs to do.
Always good to see one of my favorite indepemdemt [ublishers get recognition. I'm using The Lonely Coast book for my Castles and Crusades campaign setting, and have been really looking at using Shadowed Keep for another. I must also say, what I love about your channel is your topics and advice is great for GMs of all systems, not just D&D. I appreciate all you do.
Just used a few zombies as adds in a match last week...unfortunately the save can be a bit annoying one of them came back 4 times in a row and then i just ruled that the eldritch blast force damage put it down for good cause it was dragging things out randomly. I'd probably re look at the save as its about 60% with avg low level damage and their con bonus for poppin up again.
I am glad to see Greyhawk get some love for a change, despite your misgivings. I'd forgotten about "Shadowed Keep" although it may not be quite what's needed. It certainly looks excellent. At the moment, I'm adapting a number of old modules and making Hommlet the PCs' base. It was a case of which campaign based around which module until I realised that it would be better to mash them all together. By the way, there is a real place in England called Dulwich. It's pronounced "Dullich" so any other pronunciation sounds wrong.
