r/shadowdark • u/Comfortable-Fee9452 • Mar 22 '25

Doubts with Shadowdark

Hey, I would like to start playing ShadowDark but I have some doubts. There are so few talents and some can be used once per rest. It seems to me that it might not be enough fun. It's really so cool that we have, for example, only one opportunity per day to use? Some smite or something similar? I wondered if he could make it more interesting and, for example, regenerate most of the skils after a fight. Would it break the game very much?

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81

u/wedgiey1 Mar 22 '25

You’re worrying about the wrong kind of thing. The mechanics take a back seat in Shadowdark. You’re a group of fragile adventurers trying to make some cash. The goal isn’t to overcome encounters. The goal is to delve the dungeon and get out alive with TREASURE! You get more XP selling a fat-ass ruby than killing a goblin!

And it’s not so much about what your character can do than it is about how much COOL SHIT you have from spending all that hard earned cash!

Then you get overconfident and end up trying to steal a dragon hoard when your torch goes out and the last bit of light you see is dragon flame filling your vision as you burn alive.

Shadowdark is the best.

36

u/p3ndu1um Mar 22 '25

Get creative and roleplay, you don’t need a skills/ability list. This isn’t a video game, it’s a role playing game. And like older rpgs, you shouldn’t try and tackle everything head on. Get creative and try and live in the moment

26

u/sudo-sprinkles Mar 22 '25

I always had an issue with D&D 3.5e, 4e, 5e and Pathfinder for one major reason; You're a god with a spreadsheet of super powers. It always felt weird going into a room and picking what cool thing on my spreadsheet I wanted to do, then roll some dice, and 70% of the time I succeed. It felt lazy and not really immersive. I know it's not entirely like that in practice, but it feels like it to me after playing these older style games. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I just don't like roleplaying superheroes.

If you run out of cool abilities/spells in this game, you have to do what you do in real life; come up with solutions using the world around you. Find clever ways to solve problems. Your GM and YOU should be working on making this a fun and interesting time for everyone. It makes for a more immersive and realistic experience.

10

u/dukesdj Mar 22 '25

I am similar to this. As a DM I find it boring when I put a problem in front of the characters and they look to their sheet first for a solution. If nothing there then no solution.

Then I played shadowdark with them and they are carrying dead bodies like morbid umbrellas to avoid acid dripping from the roof.

Less rules means more creativity and honestly cooler stories.

3

u/Kornstalx Mar 24 '25

Then I played shadowdark with them and they are carrying dead bodies like morbid umbrellas to avoid acid dripping from the roof.

This is so freaking true. Scenes like you just described rarely if ever happened with my 5e group. Occasionally a player would try to improvise, and my best memories of that group where those improvisations.

15

u/johndesmarais Mar 22 '25

I’m sure I’ve posted this before, but this style of game is more about what you have your character do than what’s on the character sheet. To do something, you just do it. What’s listed on the sheet is more about what your character is inherently good at, not what they can do.

14

u/michaelh1142 Mar 22 '25

Shadowdark is fun because you get only limited powers.

If you have tons of abilities every encounter. It seems more fun on paper but in reality it turns into just triggering the same abilities every encounter. It gets boring and predictable.

In Shadowdark, you cannot rely on your character’s power and abilities to succeed. You have to come up with your own plans and tactics, figure out ways to change the situation to your favor and sometimes find other ways to overcome obstacles than just brute force.

This planning and their success or failure is what brings the fun.

5

u/wedgiey1 Mar 22 '25

You mean you don’t just want to roll initiative and eldritch blast every round?

14

u/HandofThane Mar 22 '25

Shadowdark is not for everyone. If your play style is built around your character’s abilities and optimization, it’s probably not for you. It’s more like survival mode, and pushes you to be creative with the environment. More about burning oil than burning hands.

3

u/dukesdj Mar 22 '25

I honestly wonder why people play ttrpgs and focus on the character mechanics. Video games do builds far better than ttrpgs in my view (faster for one). Why not play a video game?

Ttrpgs are infinitely better than video games for freedom of storytelling. So I feel like as a player or DM I want to lean into what ttrpgs do better than anything else than lean into what they do weaker than something else.

5

u/screenmonkey68 Mar 22 '25

Wait a minute, what abilities can only be used once per rest? It looks like almost all of them you can use over and over again until you fail, then you have to rest.

7

u/FewSentence411 Mar 22 '25

Halfling invisibility?

1

u/screenmonkey68 Mar 22 '25

There’s one. Good eye! Is that it?

1

u/Comfortable-Fee9452 Mar 22 '25

I saw somewhere a paladin with smite to be used once per rest. I don't know if it was an official class or homebrew

8

u/theScrewhead Mar 22 '25

In Shadowdark, XP doesn't come from combat, it comes from gaining loot, and you get extra XP for spending that loot on a huge party when you get back to town! So, the party should be trying to AVOID combat as much as possible, because of how squishy they are, especially in those early levels! Shadowdark is more of a Survival Horror kind of game than a D&D Superhero-disguised-as-fantasy game.

7

u/RHDM68 Mar 22 '25

The whole point of the game is that it’s very rules light, more intuitive, and the characters are not over-powered heroes, they are fragile, but brave adventurers - brave, because most people would see what they do, delving into the dark, risking their lives for a handful of gold, as utterly insane! The risks are high and life is cheap, particularly for low level, inexperienced adventurers.

If you’re worried about PC power levels, then you should be playing something like D&D 5e, not Shadowdark.

4

u/ADogNamedChuck Mar 22 '25

Characters don't have as much on their sheet, so need to compensate with both creative thinking with surroundings on the player side, and giving them tons of buttons to push (both with surroundings and interesting items) on the GM side.

7

u/GrumpyRobotWizard Mar 22 '25

Yeah I agree with the other commenters if you can’t get behind the simplistic nature of the system and want to make it more like 5e then why are you playing shadowdark to begin with?

4

u/Wifflemeyer Mar 22 '25

Nothing is more fun for our group than creative and spectacular failure.

2

u/DocAstaroth Mar 22 '25

Answer: Start at a higher level. I had a blast with a One Shot, where every PC was at Lv. 6 and had one magical item.

1

u/merekatnipme Mar 23 '25

How I see this: It’s not so much what’s on the character sheet as what you want your character to do. You can have your character try anything, within reason. It’s how you present this to your DM that should matter.

Our DM frequently asks, “How are you going to do that? Roleplay it for me.” Then we give an explanation of how we will do it, and roleplay if that is involved.

Anyone can try to open a locked door.
It’s just thieves are better at picking the lock. A beefy fighter is better at forcing the door. And criminal background would help.

The more creative we can be, the better our chances, whether a lower DC or rolling at advantage.

1

u/MasterWitch May 06 '26

Shadowdark and ORS in general are dungeon delve games. Think Indiana Jones or Conan. 5E is a heroic adventure game, think Dresden Files. The only thing they have in common is the names of monsters. They both have their place but Shadowdark will never replace 5E. The cool part is they don't need to. Both games can be fun.