#Shadowdark

[silvercompassmaps]

The Flooding Ravine

There is an entrance to a secret dungeon in the center of the map. Once the players set off a trap, then the ravine begins to flood with water. Can your players reach the entrance in time before the force of the water carries everyone away and seals off the entrance?

This map can also be played in reverse order. The players arrive to a flooded ravine and after solving a puzzle or defeating a monster, the ravine dries up and reveals the entrance to the temple.

All 7 phases of this map can be downloaded for free here.

If you want free maps mailed to you every month, sign up for my newsletter here.

[losttrailsmaps]

Welcome to FrostFall

This desolate landscape, strewn with treacherous crevasses and hidden ice caves, challenges adventurers to navigate through the bone-chilling cold, where each step is a battle against frostbite!

Hey everyone! Welcome to another map pack, one that is inspired by many of the world's icy and unforgiving landscapes!

This pack includes 18 total maps including Icebergs, Frozen Caves, River Crossings, Winter Cities, and more!

Check out the full map pack here.

My full Table of Contents

[thehomelybrewster]

1d8 "Free" Fantasy RPGs To Replace 5e At Your Table

D&D 5e sure is a roleplaying game, and it's one that I have enjoyed a lot. However, that doesn't mean that I'd recommend it automatically for other people. This has many reasons, which I won't elaborate here. It has also shaped the perception of TTRPGs significantly thanks to its market dominance, and not in a good way.

5e has a reputation for being an expensive, complex game, and 5e players fear that other RPGs might just be the same. That it's too much of a hassle and too much of a financial burden to switch systems.

So, to help 5e players pick out a different system, I've made this handy 1d8 rolling table to help them pick a fantasy TTRPG with a combat component that they can try instead!

Let's now go through these eight nine RPGs and see what's up with them, right below the "Keep reading" section!

I'll be listing some metrics like the page count for the rulebook(s), the core resolution mechanic, how complex the game is in terms of character creation & combat, and how well-supported the game is by their publisher and the community-at-large.

1. Cairn

Author: Yochai Gal

Release Year: 2020

Cost: Free PDF, printed copies cost between $3 to $10 depending on the print quality.

Page Count: 24

Website: https://cairnrpg.com/

Resolution Mechanic: 1d20 Roll Under system for ability checks/saving throws, attacks hit automatically, "fiction-first".

Action Economy: Movement + one action per round.

Characters: Random character creation, class-less and level-less, advancement based on "Scars" (suffering damage that reduces your HP exactly to 0)

Setting: Implied. Low-magic European-style fantasy; mysterious woodlands.

Other Noteworthy Mechanics: Hit Protection and Ability damage instead of HP, Slot-Based Inventory.

Degree of Support: Very high. Available in fifteen languages (e.g. Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and German); full rules text is under CC-BY-SA 4.0; multiple published third-party adventures & supplements available; some official bonus material (e.g. bestiary, magic items/relics, and spells) is available for free on the website.

Addendum: An expanded 2nd Edition is currently on Kickstarter (ends April 26th 2024); Cairn is legitimately easy to learn, however the Hit Protection system and the connected Scars system is a very different abstraction to health and advancement compared to 5e.

2. Cloud Empress

Author: worlds by watt

Release Year: 2023

Cost: Free PDF of the rulebook and the creator-written sample adventure "Last Voyage of the Bean Barge", $20 for the print edition of the rulebook, $12 for PDF supplements, $25 for print + PDF supplements; free solo rules also available as PDF only.

Page Count: 60

Website: https://cloudempress.com/

Resolution Mechanic: d100 Roll Under system for stat checks/saving throws, critical successes or failures on doubles (11, 22, 33, etc.), 5e-style advantage/disadvantage, attacks generally hit automatically.

Action Economy: Two actions per round with no free movement.

Characters: Semi-random character creation, four classes ("jobs"), no rules for character advancement in the ruleset.

Setting: Specific. "Ecological science fantasy" heavily inspired by Hayao Miyazaki's "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind"; costly magic, giant insects, dangerous mushrooms; only human player characters.

Other Noteworthy Mechanics: Damage points culminate in Wounds; Wounds and Stress as ways to track your character's physical and mental state; slot-based inventory system.

Degree of Support: Low-ish. Several official supplements exist, however third-party material is very sparse. May improve due to the recent establishment of a Cloud Empress Creators Fund, has a simple 3rd party license system.

Addendum: A supplement, "Cloud Empress: Life & Death" is currently on Kickstarter (ends April 26th 2024, yes, the same day as Cairn 2e) and as a disclaimer I even backed that current Kickstarter; Cloud Empress is built on the engine of the sci-fi horror RPG "Mothership"; clearly built for one-shots and short campaigns; has a wonderful resting system that encourages roleplay between players.

3. Iron Halberd

Author: level2janitor

Release Year: 2023

Cost: Free PDF of the rules; no print option available.

Page Count: 60

Website: https://level2janitor.itch.io/iron-halberd

Resolution Mechanic: 1d20 + Bonus Roll Over system against difficulty or armor rating, however most non-combat-related actions follow a fiction first approach without dice rolls.

Action Economy: Movement + one action per round.

Characters: Semi-random character creation, class-less but there are four different "gear kits" that nudge your character towards certain archetypes, levelling up with XP.

Setting: Essentially non-existant. General European fantasy with magic, gods may or may not exist/shape the world, various fantastic ancestries included.

Other Noteworthy Mechanics: Includes rules for building strongholds and maintaining warbands; slot-based inventory with a durability mechanic.

Degree of Support: None. The game is intended to be relatively compatible with other OSR content and the creator suggests using adventures made for the D&D retroclone Old-School Essentials if you wanna use pre-published ones. An official introductory adventure, "Sea-Spray Bay", is apparently in the works. No 3rd party license available, as far as I know.

Addendum: One thing about Iron Halberd I like especially is how it uses random tables for generating equipment. Most of the equipment is listed in a numerical order by category, and the various gear kits include references on different rolling formulas for those equipment categories. For example someone taking the "soldier's kit" rolls twice on the d20 Weapons table and takes their preferred pick, while someone taking the "sage's kit" only rolls a d4 on that table.

4. Mausritter

Author: Isaac Williams

Release Year: 2020

Cost: Free PDF of the ruleset available; box set with the rules and several goodies including an adventure costs $55; additional box set + PDFs containing eleven official adventures costs $55 (or $20 digital-only).

Page Count: 48

Website: https://mausritter.com/

Resolution Mechanic: 1d20 Roll Under system, 5e-style advantage/disadvantage, attacks always hit.

Action Economy: Movement + one action per round.

Characters: Random character creation, class-less, levelling up with XP.

Setting: Vaguely specific. You play as mice and everything is related to mouse-size; cats are the equivalents of devils or dragons; humans exist as a setting background but may or may not be present in a campaign.

Other Noteworthy Mechanics: Includes rules for recruiting warbands; slot-based inventory with a durability mechanic.

Degree of Support: Very high. Several official supplements exist, as well as loads of content, be it adventures or supplements, made by other creators. Available in seven languages (all of them however are European). Has a simple 3rd party license system.

Addendum: Mausritter uses the phrase "adventure site" instead of dungeons. On the website a free adventure site generator is available, as is a digital tool that can be used to generate your own item cards for the slot-based inventory system.

5. Maze Rats

Author: Ben Milton

Release Year: 2017

Cost: $4.99 for the PDF, no print option regularly available.

Page Count: 32

Website: https://questingbeast.substack.com/

Resolution Mechanic: 2d6 + Bonus Roll Over system; advantage system that uses 3d6 drop the lowest + Bonus.

Action Economy: Movement + one action per round.

Characters: Semi-random character creation, class-less but instead there are character features (e.g. spell slots or attack bonuses), levelling up with XP.

Setting: Essentially non-existant. Magic is very irregular (s. the section below), but otherwise it implies a vaguely European fantasy setting.

Other Noteworthy Mechanics: Spells are randomly generated each adventuring day and spell effects are negotiated between the GM and the spellcasting player; includes several fantastic d66 tables that can be used to randomly generate worlds.

Degree of Support: Decent. The rule text is licensed under CC BY 4.0 and unofficial translations are available. Some third-party content has been made specifically for the game.

Addendum: The only purchase-only game on this list. However "unofficial" distribution of the PDF is very common. Also this is the oldest game on the list. Ben "Questing Beast" Milton is a prolific OSR blogger and runs a YouTube channel on the OSR. Great dude.

6. Sherwood - A Game of Outlaws & Arcana

Author: Richard Ruane

Release Year: 2022

Cost: Free quickstart PDF titled "Sherwood - A Quickstart of Outlaws" available; digital rulebook costs $7.50 and the print edition (including PDF) costs $15.

Page Count: 25 (Quickstart), 32 (Rulebook)

Website: https://www.r-rook.studio/

Resolution Mechanic: 2d6 + Bonus Roll Over system for skill checks (including attacks), 2d6 Roll Under system for saving throws; advantage & disadvantage system that involves rolling 3d6 and using the higher/lower of the two results; almost all rolls are player-facing

Action Economy: "Conversational", assumption of movement + action.

Characters: Largely choice-based character creation. Combine two (of six) background abilities with the benefits of seven different careers. Big focus on interpersonal relationships during character creation. Limited character advancement takes place during downtime.

Setting: Specific. Takes place in a fantastical version of 13th century England, with fey and magic coexisting with outlaws and crusaders.

Other Noteworthy Mechanics: The group of outlaws possesses two shared resources (Resources and Legend) that can be spent to gain certain benefits; spellcasting is divided into two categories: arcane talents and sorcerous rites, with the former being immediate and the later taking significant time; slot-based inventory.

Degree of Support: None. No further publications exist for the game and while it is published under the CC-BY 4.0 license, no third-party content exists as far as I know. It does include a guide on how to convert D&D and Troika (N)PCs into Sherwood characters, as well as three adventure seeds (one in the Quickstart, two in the rules), which is at least something.

Addendum: Might just be the game on this list that encourages the most roleplaying; the character sheet is sadly very provisional-feeling and the Quickstart feels outdated compared to the finalized rulebook.

7. The Electrum Archive

Author: Emiel Boven

Release Year: 2022

Cost: Free Rules PDF available, zines cost $12 as digital PDFs or $24 as print + PDF combos; the first zine contains the entire contents of the Free Rules PDF

Page Count: 26 (Free Rules), 72 (Issue 01)

Website: https://www.electrumarchive.com/

Resolution Mechanic: 1d10 Roll Under system, attacks always hit.

Action Economy: Movement + one action per round.

Characters: Largely choice-based; three archetypes roughly corresponding to fighters/rangers (Vagabonds), rogues (Fixers), and spellcasters (Warlocks); player characters are presumed to be human; levelling up with XP.

Setting: Specific. Mechanics heavily tie into the lore; humanity has abundant access to minerals but requires a rare substance known as Ink to operate certain pieces of tech (like guns) and cast spells but cannot produce Ink themselves; spirits of various sorts can be foes, targets of worship, or sources of power.

Other Noteworthy Mechanics: Uses a spellcasting system for the Warlock archetype that's heavily based on the one used in Maze Rats, as in it uses randomly-generated spells whose effects are negotiated between the player and the GM; slot-based inventory with a durability mechanic.

Degree of Support: Minimal. The game consists out of the free rules and (soon) two zines; a third party license exists but content produced under it is very rare.

Addendum: I need to disclaim that I recently backed the Kickstarter campaign for the second zine for this game; the free rules feature wrong page numbers in its table of contents which is unfortunate; The Electrum Archive uses incredibly simple stats for NPCs which makes creating new ones based on other games rather simple.

8. Shadowdark RPG

Author: Kelsey Dionne

Release Year: 2023

Cost: Free player and game master quickstarts exist as PDFs and are available in print for $19, the core rules cost $28 in PDF form and $57 in a print + PDF bundle

Page Count: 68 (Player Quickstart Guide), 68 (Game Master Quickstart Guide), 332 (Core Rules)

Website: https://www.thearcanelibrary.com/

Resolution Mechanic: 1d20 + Bonus Roll Over system, 5e-style advantage/disadvantage, natural 1s are critical failures and natural 20s are critical successes.

Action Economy: Movement + one action per round.

Characters: Largely choice-based; players have a fantasy ancestry and a class; levelling up with XP; class progression largely random.

Setting: Vague. General (dark) western fantasy conventions apply; alignment is a force in this universe and a sample pantheon is provided; the most potent enemies in the rules are named individuals that fit classic TTRPG monster types; illustrations and lore snippets have recurring motifs.

Other Noteworthy Mechanics: The key mechanic of Shadowdark is how the game handles light, namely that light sources are tracked in real time (i.e. a normal torch lasts 1 hour), which increases tension; slot-based inventory; has a 0th-level character creation option using an eliminationist "Gauntlet".

Degree of Support: Fantastic. Several official supplements and offically sanctioned digital tools exist; lots of third-party content available under a generous third-party license.

Addendum: Definitely the most similar game to 5e on this list besides the next entry; very robust mechanically and the Core Rules features extensive lists of magic items, monsters, and spells; also for early play giving your players only access to the quickstart is a totally valid choice; and finally, before Dionne made Shadowdark, she made 5e adventures for years and it shows (affectionate).

9. Pathfinder

Authors: Logan Bonner, Jason Bulmahn, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Mark Seifter

Release Year: 2019 (initial release), 2023 (remaster)

Cost: Free and comprehensive SRD available via the platform Archives of Nethys, free "Pathfinder Primer" abridged rulebook available via the Pathfinder Nexus (powered by Demiplane), Core books are priced $20 for PDFs and $30/$60 for print as a softcover/hardcover; a Beginner Box set with shortened soft-cover rules costs $45

Page Count: 464 (Player Core), 336 (GM Core), 376 (Monster Core), 160 (Combined Beginner Box Softcovers)

Website: https://paizo.com/pathfinder

Resolution Mechanic: 1d20 + Bonus Roll Over system, 5e-style advantage/disadvantage, four degrees of success based on result compared to target number.

Action Economy: Three action points per round; various actions may require more than one point; every character can use one reaction per round of combat.

Characters: Choice-based; players first pick an ancestry and a background and a class (the ABCs) and then tend to have meaningful choices after each level-up; levelling up with XP.

Setting: Important. Golarion, the game's setting, is a world that has been long in development and it shows; powerful magic and influential gods; very clear notions of what the societies of the various peoples of the world are like and how they should behave.

Other Noteworthy Mechanics: Balance between character classes and reliable combat challenge calculations are an important design goal; weight-based inventory system; archetype system for "multiclassing".

Degree of Support: Fantastic. Loads of content gets regularly produced by the game's publisher Paizo; the Pathfinder Infinite program (similar to D&D's Dungeon Master's Guild) provides lots of lore-compliant third-party content; uses the ORC third-party license for content produced outside of the Pathfinder Infinite program. Translations into other languages available but Paizo does not provide a comprehensive list of available languages (only German and French confirmed after brief personal research).

Addendum: The most popular and commercially successful of the listed games; but also by far the most complicated, though it is easier to GM for specificallty than 5e; also I dislike how certain feats create situations where fairly mundane actions get mechanics through these feats instead of being things you can generally do; anyway the reason why it's a 9 on a 1d8 table is because if you wanted to try out Pathfinder 2e you already would have and because while Paizo is better than WotC it's still a flawed big company.

...

So this was an exhausting little project. I hope you found this helpful and I hope you give at least one of these games a shot! A follow-up to this post is not out of the cards, but I don't plan on one.

Before we go, have this poll about which of these systems you're most looking forward to try! Shame it can only be open for one week...

[haveyouplayedthisttrpg]

Have you play SHADOWDARK RPG ?

By Kelsey Dionne/The Arcane Library

Shadowdark is an "old school renaissance" game with modernized mechanics, that's primarily about exploring dungeons and finding treasure while contending with monsters. It's designed to be familiar to players of modern RPGs like 5e, with streamlined mechanics that focus on its core themes, including dungeon-crawling that's tracked in rounds, fast & low HP combat with monster morale rolls, treasure-based XP with randomized character progression, and torches that burn out in 1 hour of real time.

[rpgsandbox]

The Quintessential Guide to Dungeons

No adventure is complete without a DELVE into a dungeon filled with devious traps, monstrous challenges, and sweet, sweet loot!

DELVE is a complete guide to building and surviving deadly dungeons with 200+ pages of dungeon-building tools and plug-and-play dungeons – and more monsters, treasures, player options, and traps than you can shake a 10-foot pole at!

Want dungeons that are fun, thrilling, and easy-to-run without hours of tedious prep? DELVE is your guide – available for both 5E D&D and Shadowdark RPG!

Lair, shrine, tomb, crypt, catacomb, jail, vault – regardless of the form it takes, the dungeon is at the heart of all fantasy TTRPGs. There’s no better place for heroic adventurers to prove themselves as they match their wits against traps, monsters, and other deadly challenges – if they survive, of course...

With its unique blend of classic advice and modern resources, DELVE gives gamemasters a masterclass in building, designing, and running dungeons so they’re both fun for the players and easy for the GM!

DELVE also gives you 10+ original dungeons for 1st to 10th-level characters using a unique and innovative presentation that emphasizes ease-of-play and adjustability, making each dungeon easy to run with minimal preparation and adaptable to different levels, themes, and campaigns!

From the Shrine of the Oozing Dragon to the Tomb of the Sunken Star and the Lair of the Frog King, each dungeon comes complete with entertaining puzzles, devious traps, flavorful monsters, and awesome treasure!

We fear the dark because of the monsters that lurk within – and DELVE has more than enough mysterious monsters to excite and challenge your players! 

From slime-oozing kobolds to the teeth-eating calcivore squid, every dungeon in DELVE is filled with unique monsters that’ll strike terror into the hearts of even the bravest adventurers!

Each monster is crafted to be tactically challenging for the players and easy-to-run for the GM – no boring bags of hit points or mile-long statblocks here! Monsters also come with boss actions, exploitable weaknesses, and insight into what the characters know about them and the loot that can be harvested from their remains.

And with awesome monster cards for each of the 40+ original monsters in DELVE, running encounters has never been easier. These tarot-sized (Shadowdark RPG) or postcard-sized (5E D&D) cards have all the information the GM needs to run the monster – plus full-color art to impress (and terrify) the players!

Treasure, loot, bounty, spoils, MacGuffins – the name doesn’t matter, players WANT 'em!

No need to worry, for DELVE has an abundance of cool new magic items for characters to explore! So how does an Oozing Staff or a Fallen Star Amulet sound – or maybe a Dwarfmaid’s Delight Warhammer is more like it?

Whether it’s fun or power the heroes are after (or maybe that’s one and the same to them?) DELVE has them covered. With 40+ new magic items for 5E and Shadowdark RPG, there's no shortage of new treasures to explore – each carefully balanced and with unique and entertaining magical properties!

Some heroes train all their lives to explore dungeons – and some are even made there, deep within those dark, hazard-filled halls.

With DELVE, players get new options to create dungeon-inspired characters. Play as the Relic Hunter fighter or grab the Glyph Mastery feat for 5E D&D – or how about starting your adventuring career as a Stoneborn or an Undead Adventurer?

If you're thinking "oh-oh, but the revised Player's Handbook is right around the corner!" fret not – all the new 5E subclasses, races (or species), and feats in DELVE will be perfectly compatible with your favorite version of Dungeons & Dragons 5E!

And for Shadowdark RPG, dungeon-inspired class talents lend new flavor to delving heroes – 

Remember, samples are just that – samples. All content in DELVE will be thoroughly playtested, proofread, and vetted before being released in the final book!

CLICK HERE to download monsters, treasure, and a player race for 5E D&D!

CLICK HERE to download monsters, treasure, and a player ancestry for Shadowdark RPG!

Kickstarter campaign ends: Fri, May 31 2024 10:59 PM BST

Website: [Bob World Builder patreon] [twitter] [Eventyr Games]

[littlepinksapphire]

Shadowheart, watching as Durge tears apart her enemies with gory glee: I don’t believe in the glorification of murder… I do believe in the empowerment of women.

[lichward]

Halfling seer..

[amummy]

I made a kobold witch for a shadowdark game named Quo. He is very stupid

[rbarnettart]

And another design. I’ve already started carving both this, and the previous knight. We’ll see how they print up tomorrow!!

So here is a Kuotoa priest.

Have Faith, Child.

[ache-of-saint-vick]

Since I'm building up to run a Ravenloft campaign using Shadowdark rules at some point this year, I wrote up a setting-appropriate Rumors table; this reflects 3e-era lore because the Arthaus era fucks and 5e sucks. Without further ado,

Rumors of the Mists:

01. The Count of Barovia is sick, and there's fear of a succession crisis if he dies without an heir

02-03. A new island has been sighted in the Sea of Sorrows, and it appears to be uninhabited

04-05. The prettiest girl in the last town you visited is starting to grow horns from her forehead

06-07. Gravediggers have found a chained coffin buried lid down in an unmarked grave

08-09. The fearsome dragon of the Mountains of Misery was sighted silhouetted against the moon

10-11. The Vistani dragged some poor fool back to Barovia for a "family reunion" at Castle Ravenloft

12-13. Captain Ysmault has been lost at sea; his poor wife is being hounded by creditors

14-15. Falkovnian chain gangs are being used to forage for bat guano and saltpeter; is war coming?

16-17. Foul horrors of undeath are swimming out of the Necropolis to terrorize the living

18-19. The Ba'al Verzi have been hired to kill someone who looks exactly like one of you

20-21. Gundarakite rebels are spending lots of money. Where did they get it? What's their plan?

22-23. Captain Ysmault has returned! He says his ship somehow ran aground in a landlocked desert

24-25. Omens suggest the inhuman El-Koth are stirring in the hinterlands of Hazlan

26-27. One crypt in the cemetery doesn't belong to any family, and has treasure buried inside

28-29. Someone in the next town wants to run away but can't subdue a Mist Ferryman alone

30-31. Baroness Lyssa is hosting a party in Zeidenburg, but needs guests willing to travel there

32-33. A new Mistway opened on the Nocturnal Sea; nobody wants to risk a ship to explore it

34-35. The Dilisnya family is summoning younger members to a meeting; what are they planning?

36-37. A Zhakatan temple has been unearthed, and the ancient dead enshrined in it are angry

38-39. The Wild Hunt Club of Vechor has lost one of its guides and is looking for a replacement

40-41. Someone is sending abhorrent love letters to the Vistani camped around Tser Pool

42-43. Two women on the mainland are feuding to be the bride of Blaustein's pirate king

44-45. Werewolves are attacking Captain Snowmane's riverboat as it sails the Musarde

46-47. Bodies are being found in the river in Lekar, completely drained of blood

48-49. Only thirteen years remain until the Time of Unparalleled Darkness is upon us

50-51. A windmill in Barovia is grinding the bones of everyone who's gone inside to investigate it

52-53. Captain Ysmault is setting forth again

54-55. The Darkonian Church of Ezra has ordered its faithful to stockpile nonperishable foods

56-57. A gambler won the deed to the House on Gryphon Hill playing Thieves and Wizards (yes I know it's called Wizards and Thieves, but Thieves and Wizards flows better)

58-59. Someone is kidnapping men and replacing them with cursed dolls

60-61. The druids of Immol will enchant a blade for whoever leads a raid into the Forlorn Vale

62-63. A boatload of immigrants has arrived from famished Paridon... with impostors among them

64-65. Rats and ratcatchers in Pont-a-Museau are contracting a disease that drives them mad

66-67. A swordsman from Rokushima has claimed a bridge and demands to duel any who cross it

68-69. The Boritsi family is offering a reward for the return of a holy relic from their chapel

70-71. The tyrant of Invidia's troops have raided Zeidenburg; the Count of Barovia is threatening war

72-73. Elf children are having nightmares about a white tower looming over a mysterious city

74-75. Someone is poisoning unopened Borcan wine; this could be the next Andraal 735 fiasco

76-77. A hideous man with half his body melted has been sighted in the seamy slums of Kantora

78-79. The mayor is being very evasive about where they were during the last two full moons

80-81. Outlanders seek a sword Rudolph Van Richten brought back from Barovia as a trophy

82-83. The moon over Vechor turned blood red and lightning flashes are visible on it at night

84-85. Have you heard the new Harkon Lukas song? It's a wonder the composer hasn't come forward

86-87. A power struggle is brewing between two high-ranking leaders of the Kargat

88-89. A mad monk has been caught in the act of burglary and refuses to explain why

90-91. For the first time in years, the Carnival is headed back down the Old Svalich Road

92-93. The prettiest girl in the next town is sleepwalking and waking up on Old Craven's grave

94-95. The Tepestani Inquisition warns that a vile fey of darkness has escaped and roams the land

96-97. Honest Igor was just here the other day, but left in a hurry when he heard you were coming

98-99. A freestanding staircase with a door at the top has been sighted in the forest nearby

00. Azalin Rex has hired someone to explore the furthest corners of the Mists for unclear reasons

[hadesttrpg]

Shadowdark Campaign, Looking for Players! (West Marches)

Hello I am Hades! I am running a Shadowdark game that is inspired by Old-School RPGs and Dark Fantasy games like Elden Ring, Darkest Dungeon, etc.

The game is POC and LGBTQIA+ friendly (I'm a POC myself). If you're new to Shadowdark worry not as the game is open to all experience levels!

Pitch

Welcome to the world of Sil'Den, a land where the boundaries between life and death have been shattered. Long ago, the gates to the Underworld were sealed shut, preventing souls from crossing over when they die. Over time, these lingering souls have evolved into terrifying and deadly creatures that now roam the land, posing a threat to all living beings.

You are Exorcists on the continent of Eros, a land where the impact of the sealed gates is particularly strong. In the great cities, people huddle together in fear, while in the wilds, the undead creatures run rampant. Magic is unpredictable, and the very fabric of reality seems to be fraying at the edges.

But you are not alone in this world. There are those who seek to reopen the gates to the Underworld, hoping to restore balance and order to the universe. There are factions that seek to exploit the chaos caused by the undead creatures, using them for their own purposes. And there are others who simply want to survive, carving out a life for themselves in this dangerous and unpredictable world.

As Exorcists, you will have the opportunity to explore the continent of Eros, uncover its secrets, and face off against the dangers that threaten its inhabitants. You will encounter strange and terrifying creatures, navigate treacherous terrain, and battle powerful foes. But you will also have the chance to forge alliances, make friends, and perhaps even uncover a way to restore the balance between life and death.

Additional Info - Exorcists work for the Church of the Absolver, taking on missions to rid the world of the Returned. - Dying in this game prompts a roll to determine what type of returned you come back as. If you're really lucky, you'll come back as a Revenant. - Certain regions react poorly to failed spellcasting, causing random magical events to occur. - Killing a humanoid will always lead to a Returned, so burn the bodies before they get the chance to come back!

If you're interested, please fill in the following form: https://forms.gle/US18ocd2iGT3G42Y8

I will be contacting people through Discord to have an icebreaker conversation about the game! Thank you for taking the time to check it out!

(Art by Stefan Koidl)

[oldfatwarlock]

I think for 2024 I’ll try taking a break from Deconstruction and being angry at God and bad theology, and concentrate on things that being me joy like art and (solo) tabletop roleplaying games. 🙂

[losttrailsmaps]

Welcome to the Swamp of the Bloodsucker!

The name "Bloodsucker" derives not from the mundane, but from the magical inhabitants of the swamp. These are not ordinary mosquitoes, but rather ethereal swarms of insects that feed on the blood of living creatures. Unlike regular mosquitoes, you cannot kill these insects by physical means...

This map set includes 14 swamp-themed battlemaps, many of which are free to download here!

My entire map table of contents.

[keplercryptids]

my physical copy of shadowdark arrived and it's so beautifullll. i have no idea when I'll get a chance to run this ttrpg but. i will be looking at this pretty book in the meantime.

[ink-candlestick]

Sibling characters from the ttrpg group I’m part of. A priest and a (as soon as her brother dies) witch

[legendl0re]

So I wanted to present an idea to the collective, as we mine 5e and other games for good nuggets of ideas.

What do you guys think on taking subclass abilities from 5th edition classes and turning them into magic items to give players in Shadowdark? Such as the Battlemaster’s Maneuver beings like a tome depicting battle stances for a Fighter, or the Life Cleric’s additional healing in the form of a holy amulet they can wear.

Obviously SD has its own magic items which are super dope, but I wanted to know if you guys think? I’ve had a lot of fun with it as a concept but haven’t had a chance to implement it.