Shadows of Camelot is my King Arthur inspired setting for Shadowdark. You can check it out on DriveThruRPG here (affiliate). I earn a commission on eligible sales made through affiliate links, at no additional cost to you.

Hey, folks! Will from Runeforged here.

The Kickstarter for Tragedy of Ravenmere Manor, my new gothic horror, one-shot adventure for Shadowdark closes TODAY.

-Designed for level 3-4 characters

-Can be completed in ~4 hours (with options to finish faster)

-Includes both color and greyscale maps for each of the manor’s three floors

-Monster stat blocks are included on the relevant page and the PDF is hyperlinked to make the adventure as easy as possible to run at the table

-30 pages, A5 format (same as Shadowdark Core Rulebook)

-PDF and softcover versions available

Check out The Tragedy of Ravenmere Manor Kickstarter page here.

Friends of the channel OneLung and WatcherDM also have an active project. The Cliffhanger is a delve into a haunted shipwreck at the edge of a cliff, threatening to crash into a monastery in the valley below. This Gold Edition is the definitive edition, lovingly designed for Shadowdark RPG as a 32-page zine in A5 format.

The zine is packed with hand-drawn art by Frédéric Bertrand-Hudon, and includes:

• A micro hex crawl for the mountain ascent

• A haunted shipwreck dungeon with 6 keyed areas

• Slippery Slope mechanics to test your players’ luck aboard the wreck

• 6 new monsters and a terrifying campaign-level antagonist

• 10 new magic items on top of a d100 treasure table

• 2 hand-illustrated maps

Check out The Cliffhanger Kickstarter page here.

Hey, folks! Will from Runeforged here.

Tragedy of Ravenmere Manor, my new gothic horror one-shot adventure for Shadowdark is now live on Kickstarter. Here’s a link to the KS page, if you’d like to check it out for yourself: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/runeforgedttrpg/the-tragedy-of-ravenmere-manor-for-shadowdark-rpg

-Designed for level 3-4 characters
-Can be completed in ~4 hours (with options to wrap things up early if required)
-Includes both color and greyscale maps for each of the manor’s three floors
-30 pages and A5 format (same as Shadowdark Core Rulebook)
-Monster and stat blocks are included on the relevant page/spread and the PDF is fully hyperlinked to make the adventure as easy as possible to run at the table

Also, please be sure to check out Made by Idle Hands’ Kumonosu Adventure Collection which is also launching on Kickstarter today! This is a fantastic collection of ‘escape the underdark’ themed adventures for Shadowdark: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/madebyidlehands/kumonosu-adventure-collection-for-shadowdark-rpg

In my latest video, I give a quick overview and page through of the adventure. You can find that video here:

1. I sat down with Bryan from Rune & Relic Press to talk about his brand new Shadowdark supplement, the Formoria Adventure Anthology. Check that interview out here:

2. I also chatted with Fenris-77 from D77 Games, to talk about his new Alchemist Class for Shadowdark. You can check that out here:

3. Darkling Delves, my new Shadowdark Resource/Adventure Finder, for Shadowdark has also been updated to include the Formoria Adventure Anthology. You can find a link to that here.

Check out my other relevant links here. If you’d like to support my work, please consider using my DriveThruRPG and/or Amazon affiliate links.

Thanks for reading - hope everyone has a great week. More exciting Shadowdark content coming soon!

1. Yesterday, I sat down with Ross (@Gelatinous & Grim) to talk about his new zine, Final Torch 3: Shards of the Frozen North. In that video, he gave me an in-depth page through of the supplement that I think you folks will really enjoy.

2. My new Shadowdark Resources website, Darkling Delves, has also been updated this week to include Ross’ new zine. Please go check it out if you haven’t already.
   

   https://www.darklingdelves.com/

3. Work continues on my new cursed manor themed Shadowdark one-shot. Working title: The Tragedy of Ravenmere Manor.

Hope everyone has a great week!

• Grotto of the River Pirates

• Shadows of Empire: Tower of Hapshut

• Twisted Tales Vol 4

If you’d like to check out the site, you can do so here!

Also wanted to let folks know I’m hard at work on a new Shadowdark one-shot that I’d like to publish within the new few months.

Hope everyone’s doing well, more to come!

• Lovely Jade Necropolis

• Sepulchre of Dusk

• Twisted Tales Vol 2

If you’d like to check out the site, you can do so here!

Also new, original Shadowdark videos and adventures are coming soon. Stay tuned!

• 3 new supplements added: Tower of the Spectral Sorceress, Erudite GM Zine 1: Warhorse, and Hellmarch 1: Mass Combat

• New filter added to supplements page to find only stuff added since the last update (see screenshot)

• On the supplement’s page, added the creator’s name under the supplement name.

If you’d like to check out the site, you can do so here! So far, over the last week, the site’s had ~300 views and ~200 unique visitors - thanks for checking it out!

I just launched DarklingDelves.com, a curated, searchable database of Shadowdark supplements and other resources.

The goal is simple: to help Shadowdark GMs quickly find something great to run, without digging through a dozen PDFs or posts. You can filter by level, type, tags, and more to zero in on exactly what you need.

Check it out here: https://www.darklingdelves.com/

If you try it, I’d love to hear what you think or what would make it more useful!

P.S. This site is very similar to the currently offline CrawlerCompendium. I reached out to the creator of that site before I started to make sure I wasn’t stepping on anyone’s toes.

Overview

Hey, folks! Will from Runeforged here. Today we’re looking at:

• Supplement Name: Final Torch Issue 2 (Pirates of Barnacle Bay)

• Supplement Type: Setting (Cursed-Scroll adjacent, but a bit larger/longer)

• Premise: Pirate-themed Hexcrawl (with a low-level adventure).

• System: Shadowdark

• Creator: Ross Mahler

• Page Count: 109

• Level: There’s plenty of stuff to do for levels 1-10, the included adventure is for level 1-2 characters.

• What’s Included:

  • 109 page PDF (color and B&W versions)

  • Low-level adventure (Tomb of the Tides)

  • Map of the Town (Barnacle Bay)

  • Multiple Hex Maps (GM and blank player facing versions)

    • Barnacle Bay

    • Fey Ocean

  • Streamlined rules for Ships/Ship Combat

  • So many handouts!

    • White Lodge Hunting Club (monster hunting guild!) handout/tracking info

    • Treasure Maps (basically mini-dungeon maps that you can fill with level appropriate monsters)

    • Character sheet equivalents for the various ship types

  • Awesome, thematic bestiary section

• What I Liked:

  • Great production value (e.g., layout, art etc.)

  • TONS of extras

  • Simple, effective hex maps

  • Interesting and thematic locations

  • Inclusion of the “Fey Ocean” was a cool way to mix genres

  • Simple, streamlined rules for ship combat

  • Solid random encounter tables

  • Well fleshed out, yet concise overview of the main town (Barnacle Bay)

• What I Didn’t:

  • Ross makes us other creators look bad due to all the cool extras he gives away for free!

  • I don’t love the dungeon map included with the LVL 1-2 adventure. I prefer something a bit more traditional (but, to be fair, it is thematic and interesting in its own way).

• Final Verdict:

  • A great zine - a must-look if you like the theme!

  • Ross is quickly becoming one of my favorite creators in the Shadowdark space. You should definitely check out his work if you haven’t already.

If you’re interested, You can pick up a copy for yourself in the following places:

• Gelatinous Grim Website

• DriveThruRPG (Affiliate)

• Amazon (Affiliate)

Final Thoughts

Thank you so much for reading! If you don’t want to miss out on future updates, please consider subscribing by entering your email address below (it’s free).

If you’d like to further support this publication, please consider checking out my own published products on DriveThruRPG here (affiliate), many of which are free/PWYW.

My most recent adventure is Wicked Witch of the Woods, a level 1 dark fairy tale adventure for Shadowdark! It’s a great introduction to new players (I originally wrote it to introduce my mom to TTRPGs) or to use as a Halloween one-shot! Scales easily for to 1-6 players. Check it out here (affiliate).

Finally, if you’d like to see my other links (including a link to my YouTube channel), click here.

Sincerely,

William (Runeforged Tabletop Gaming)

Hey, folks! Will from Runeforged here. Today, we’re taking a quick look at the upcoming Dark Forest campaign setting for Shadowdark which is available to back now on Kickstarter.

Introduction

Welcome to Dark Forest, a new campaign setting book for the Shadowdark RPG, which is a streamlined, grittier version of D&D. Dark Forest is a realm tainted with ancient magic and plagued with evil, where furred and feathered animal folk strive against the ever-present forces of chaos and corruption. Think Redwall in a grimdark world of magic and monsters.

In Dark Forest, you won’t just brave dungeons; you’ll navigate the groves of colossal trees, hidden abbey crypts, and long-forgotten ruins—all while playing an otter warrior, owlfolk sage, a mouse warmonk, or one of many other ancestry/class combinations.

Overview

This book basically takes the bones of Shadowdark and builds an entirely new Redwall/talking animal setting on top of it with a variety of new/remixed Ancestries, Classes, and Monsters.

Here’s the vibe the setting is going for:

Ancestries

Notably, there are no humanoid or goblinoid creatures in the setting. Here’s some gorgeous looking art by Andrew Beckwith (you may know him from Righteous Vow) that shows off the various ancestries. Right off the bat, you can see that the artwork is this book is stunning.

Here’s a quick peak at the mechanics for some of the new ancestries, and this isn’t even half of them. There is another spread of Furred Folk options, as well as a second spread of Feathered Folk as well.

Classes

There are four new classes in the setting, basically remixes of the core four from Shadowdark. The new classes are: Warrior, Warmonk, Scout, and Sage.

Here’s a quick preview of the Warrior, along with more gorgeous art.

Reputation

Interestingly, there are rules for handing reputation in the setting as well, which I thought was a cool inclusion. This is something I imagine most GMs are tracking or would like to track in their games, and its always nice to get the option to use a pre-created mechanical framework if one’s available.

Feasting

There are also rules for feasting, which acts as a more thematic replacement for Shadowdark’s Carousing mechanic. I love seeing these types of changes in a setting book. As much as I like Carousing, I feel like it only captures the tone of a very specific type of game, and Feasting is a better fit for this setting.

Spells

Dark Forest adds several new spells and also incorporates many of the spells from the Core Shadowdark Rules. This will be a nice change of pace for folks who might be a bit tired of the core spells, but I do worry that these spell lists might become a little bloated with these new entries, and might have preferred that they replaced more spells rather than added on to the existing lists.

That said, I appreciate that they reproduced the utilized core spells in this book so you don’t have to go back and forth between books as often.

Here’s a preview of the Sage’s spell list for context:

Magical Items

There are also a variety of new magical items included. Here’s a quick preview of some of them:

Summary

There is a ton of other cool setting info in this book that I just didn’t have space in this post to show you, but let’s talk about my takeaways:

• If you are into Redwall/talking animal style settings, this might be right up your alley.

• This looks like pretty complete setting built on the bones of Shadowdark. New/remixed ancestries, classes, monsters, items etc., plus a ton of setting info and random tables to help you run the game.

  • Great if you love Shadowdark but are getting a bit tired of the options included in the Core Rulebook.

• The art in this book is absolutely stunning.

• There’s still a lot of polish left to do on the book, which is expected given its a work in progress.

  • Typos, odd formatting decisions, blank spaces for art, lack of hyperlinks etc. will hopefully be addressed before publishing.

• While this is technically made for Shadowdark, and I can’t explicitly comment on how it plays/the balance of things, I suspect that the new stuff in this book will result in a higher-powered sort of game that will lean slightly away from the core vibe of Shadowdark. This could be good or bad based on your point of view.

  • Here are some reasons I say that:

    • Everyone starts with a Luck Token.

    • You can sacrifice HP to avoid rolling spellcasting checks (VERY powerful ability - can ensure your clutch CC spells go off).

    • You can’t lose a spell until it’s succeeded at least once.

    • New ancestries and classes seem to get more stuff than the core versions. This isn’t necessarily a problem for internal balance when playing in the setting, but could result in a very different feel from “normal” Shadowdark.

If you’d like to check Dark Forest out for yourself, you can find a link to the Kickstarter here.

Final Thoughts

Thank you so much for reading! If you don’t want to miss out on future updates, please consider subscribing by entering your email address below (it’s free).

If you’d like to further support this publication, please consider checking out my own published products on DriveThruRPG here (affiliate), many of which are free/PWYW.

My most recent adventure is Wicked Witch of the Woods, a level 1 dark fairy tale adventure for Shadowdark! It’s a great introduction to new players (I originally wrote it to introduce my mom to TTRPGs) or to use as a Halloween one-shot! Scales easily for to 1-6 players. Check it out here (affiliate).

Finally, if you’d like to see my other links (including a link to my YouTube channel), click here.

Sincerely,

William (Runeforged Tabletop Gaming)

Introduction

Hey, folks! Will from Runeforged here.

Fenris-77 has just released Blood in the Water his latest installment in his ongoing Shadows of Empire supplements which are basically legally distinct Warhammer Fantasy adventures designed specifically for Shadowdark.

For fans of the channel/blog, you all know I’m a huge fan of the Shadows of Empire supplements. It’s easily one of my favorite Shadowdark settings, right up there with Formoria: The Dark Age.

Today, I’m going to take a quick (relatively) spoiler free look at ‘Blood in the Water’. I’m not going to go very deep on this one, as I just played through the first half of this adventure with the creator last night and I don’t want to spoil myself (or you) too much.

The Premise

Something is wrong in the village of Clearwater, and the Inquisition has sent you to find out what. People have been disappearing around Clearwater for years, and more recently a priest doing folklore research sent some worrying letters back to his temple about strange goings on before he too disappeared without a trace. Can you root out the evil that infests Clearwater before it’s your blood in the water?

An invesitgative adventure for levels 1-2.

Blood in the Water provides a full-realized village setting that can be used with or without the cult story as the main thrust. It could be used in any setting as a dying swamp village peopled by strange country folk.

What’s Included?

• Blood in the Water PDF (82 pages)

  

• Maps:

  • 5 gorgeous, hand drawn, monochrome maps (more if you include the player-facing versions).

    

• Handouts: 3 awesome player handouts that really immerse you in the world!

Additional Thoughts

• Interesting premise. Very different feel to a dungeon-based adventure.

• Well-fleshed out town and NPCs. I was drawn into the setting immediately!

• Plenty of mystery and intrigue. It’s obvious there’s something wrong in Clearwater, but what is it, and who’s behind it?

• Player maps and handouts are absolutely gorgeous. Great for immersion!

• My only real issue with the first half of the adventure was that it was a bit light on combat compared to my personal preference, but I think that works fine given the nature of the adventure.

  • Hopefully the final battle is exciting and has TPK potential (otherwise, where’s the fun)!

• Also, I did want to note that, even on a casual read-through of the non-spoiler sections, I found quite a few typos. I’m sure they’ll be cleaned up in time, but you have been warned.

• There’s so much more to this adventure that I want to dig in and share, but I also don’t want to spoil the surprises for myself or others.

That said, I hope this has gotten you excited for Shadows of Empire: Blood in the Water. You can check it out for yourself here.

Final Thoughts

Thank you so much for reading! If you don’t want to miss out on future updates, please consider subscribing by entering your email address below (it’s free).

If you’d like to further support this publication, please consider checking out my own published products on DriveThruRPG here (affiliate), many of which are free/PWYW.

My most recent adventure is Wicked Witch of the Woods, a level 1 dark fairy tale adventure for Shadowdark! It’s a great introduction to new players (I originally wrote it to introduce my mom to TTRPGs) or to use as a Halloween one-shot! Scales easily for to 1-6 players. Check it out here (affiliate).

Finally, if you’d like to see my other links (including a link to my YouTube channel), click here.

Sincerely,

William (Runeforged Tabletop Gaming)

Note: This post contains affiliate links. I earn a commission on qualifying purchases made after clicking on those links.

Today, I’m going to be ranking Tier 3 Priest spells for Shadowdark.

If you missed out on previous entries in this series, you can find the Tier 1 Spells post here, the Tier 2 post here, the Tier 3 post here, and the Tier 4 post here.

I’ll be explaining my thought process for each decision, but a lot of this is just going to be vibes and is based entirely on my own personal experience. I get the impression my group plays the game differently than many others, so I’m curious to hear how your experience and ratings differ in the comments below.

*Dwarf Priest art by Matt Ray.

Tier List Rubric:

Let me quickly explain how I’m breaking down the rankings:

• S: Broken. I would pick this up ASAP. These are spells that consistently auto-win encounters with a single successful cast.

• A: Good. I would get it ASAP, but it isn’t quite as game-breaking as S-tier.

• B: Solid. Not a priority to pick up, but might be worth picking up eventually.

• C: Decent but simply not as good as other options. Maybe you’ll find a scroll/wand of it down the line.

• D: Terrible. I would never choose this spell to learn and would even be reluctant to use it even if I had a scroll or wand of it. There are just better things to do with your action.

  • I don’t think we’ll see many of these.

Divine Vengeance:

Thoughts:

• Basically the Wrath spell on steroids, plus it unambiguously stacks with bonuses from magical weapons, unlike Wrath which is a bit unclear based on wording.

• Also, you gain some additional utility from fly, and it’s just so very cool thematically, very reminiscent of Avenging Wrath from World of Warcraft.

• Like Wrath, however, this is mostly a damage-oriented spell that requires you give up several subsequent actions to make the most of it, so you really want to be careful about casting it at the right time.

• Situationally useful, especially if you’ve got another healer/support in your party and you can afford to spend several actions just going full crusader mode.

Ranking: B-Tier.

Dominion:

Thoughts:

• I’m just going to say it, while there is a level of GM fiat at play with this spell, if there’s no GM shenanigans involved, this spell is absolutely insane.

• Using this spell, you can summon an Archangel or Archdevil/Balor depending on your alignment for 10 rounds. I’m going to focus on the Archangel for this example, because that’s what I’ve seen used in my games (and I think it’s more likely they’ll help the party to the fullest extent without demanding some devil’s bargain).

  • In case you aren’t familiar, here are the stats for Shadowdark’s Archangel. They’re wild. It’s basically the equivalent of adding 2-3 10th level fighters to your party with added utility. The damage output, crowd control potential via Command, and ability to resist magic is NUTS.

• While anecdotal, this spell pretty much single-handedly won the final “boss” fight of my last, high-level Shadowdark campaign. The fight instantly went from nearly unwinnable to an absolute walk in the park with a single successful cast.

• It should be noted that you do need to complete penance after casting it and, depending on how your GM decides to handle that, this could be a spell you’re not using very often, but when you do… it will almost certainly auto-win that encounter.

Ranking: S-Tier, but consider talking to your GM before picking it up to better understand how they plan to rule “acts of free will to aid you” and penance.

Heal:

Thoughts:

• Perhaps surprisingly, I’m not a huge fan of the Heal spell, especially in comparison to Cure Wounds. In many cases, its not going to be healing for significantly more, it’s significantly harder to cast (plus you have fewer opportunities to get the talent that lets you cast it with ADV), and you can only cast it once before resting.

• That said, it is still another heal in your arsenal for when you inevitably run out of the others, so it’s not terrible. However, there are are several other powerful Tier 5 spells available, so it’s hard for me to rush to pick this one up.

Ranking: B-Tier.

Judgment:

Thoughts:

• A very powerful and versatile crowd control, damaging, and healing ability all rolled into one spell though, again, there is some level of GM fiat involved.

• This spell is useful not only for removing a LV 10 or less enemy from a fight for 5 rounds (potentially leaving it at 1HP when it returns), it can also be used to save an ally from near certain death, assuming they can survive the full 5 rounds it needs to take effect.

• Unlike many of the priest’s other crowd controlling effects, this is NOT a Focus spell, meaning it is much more reliable in terms of duration. That means you can banish an enemy, take a couple turns to heal up and either position yourselves for an ambush when it returns, or have plenty of time to run away if needed.

• If used outside of combat, it’s also arguably a better version of Heal (due to being usable multiple times per day), assuming your party is in your deity’s good graces.

Ranking: A-Tier.

Plane Shift:

Thoughts:

• This is a really interesting spell, and one that I find very hard to rank, but I think it might be a bit too situational for a Priest to want to pick up.

• This spell can certainly be used as emergency release valve to save a party from near certain death (especially if it can be used to teleport to a plane that’s likely to be safe - like their deity’s).

• Also, if you can cast it multiple times, you can use it was a way to teleport around any plane fairly quickly. This could come in very handy in certain campaigns where there’s a lot of time pressure to move around the world quickly.

• Still, with Priests only getting 2 spells known at Tier 5, I’d let the Wizard pick this up instead (maybe via a scroll).

Ranking: C-Tier.

Prophecy:

Thoughts:

• There’s still a bit of GM fiat at play, but this is the best version of a Divination spell we’ve seen so far and is highly likely to give you valuable, actionable information if you ask the right questions.

• However, this spell does require penance after being cast so check with your GM about how much a pain that’s going to be before you commit.

• I’d be tempted to pick this one up as my last Tier 5 spell, but there’s a lot of other good options as well.

Ranking: B-Tier.

My Final Rankings

• S-Tier (Broken):

  • Dominion

• A-Tier (Good):

  • Judgment

• B-Tier (Solid):

  • Divine Vengeance

  • Heal

  • Prophecy

• C-Tier (Mediocre):

  • Plane Shift

• D-Tier (Terrible):

  • N/A

For me personally, I’d pick up Dominion and Judgment as my two Tier 5 spells but, again, there’s an argument for taking nearly any of these spells depending on your party composition, personal creativity, and GM permissiveness.

Let me know in the comments whether you agree or disagree with these rankings and what two spells you’re most likely to pick up on your own priest.

Leave a comment

Final Thoughts

Thank you so much for reading! If you don’t want to miss out on future updates, please consider subscribing by entering your email address below (it’s free).

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

If you’d like to further support this publication, please consider checking out my own published products on DriveThruRPG here (affiliate), many of which are free/PWYW.

My most recent adventure is Wicked Witch of the Woods, a level 1 dark fairy tale adventure for Shadowdark! It’s a great introduction to new players (I originally wrote it to introduce my mom to TTRPGs) or to use as a Halloween one-shot! Scales easily for to 1-6 players. Check it out here (affiliate).

Finally, if you’d like to see my other links (including a link to my YouTube channel), click here.

Sincerely,

William (Runeforged Tabletop Gaming)

Note: This post contains affiliate links. I earn a commission on qualifying purchases made after clicking on those links.

Leave a comment

Every year, my group gets together around Halloween to play a Horror/Spooky-themed TTRPG one-shot. It’s become a tradition that I really enjoy.

For others who have this tradition, or want to start it, here are some relevant Shadowdark/OSR adventures you might want to look at.

Some of these I’ve run myself, but most were recommended by other members of the Shadowdark community.

Let me know any good ones I missed down in the comments!

I6 Ravenloft

Description: The classic AD&D horror module. Face off against the vampire Strahd in his foreboding castle.

System: AD&D (can easily be converted to Shadowdark)

Page Count: 37

Suggested PC Level:

• AD&D: 5-7.

• Shadowdark: 5 (see article below).

Suggested Session Length: 5 hours.

Additional Resources: Sly Flourish Article on how to run this for Shadowdark.

Check it out for yourself here (affiliate).

The Count, the Castle, and the Curse

Description: Basically a remix of I6 Ravenloft built specifically for Shadowdark (kind of), with some additional fun twists and mechanics added on top (at the cost of additional mental load).

System: Shadowdark, but there are several new/changed mechanics to facilitate the intended style of play (DCs for everything increases with stress level, changes to rules for death/dying etc.)

Page Count: 42

Suggested PC Level: 1-3.

Suggested Length: 4-5 hours.

Additional Resources:

• See my review of this on YouTube.

• See a recap of my group’s playthrough on YouTube.

• Get my (slightly modified) version of the VTT map for this adventure.

Check it out for yourself here (affiliate).

A Very Merry Shadowe’en

Description: A small hexcrawl with an explicitly Halloween-y theme (including 3 Hags)!

System: Shadowdark

Page Count: 8

Suggested PC Level: “Low Level”.

Additional Resources: Check out RedMageGM’s video on this adventure here.

Check it out for yourself here.

Halls of the Blood King

Description: With the rising of the Blood Moon, the accursed abode of the Blood King returns to this world. The lord of all vampires comes to claim the blood that is owed to him. His halls contain treasures and secrets that would make any ambitious adventurer abandon reason and caution to seek them out. Will you risk your soul for gold and glory in the Halls of the Blood King?

Yet another take on a vampire’s abode, but this one is very well-regarded in the OSR community. Worth a look if you’re looking for an OSE adventure, or are willing to do some conversions. One thing to note is that it may be hard to finish this one in a single session (37 keyed areas)!

System: Old-School Essentials (can be converted to Shadowdark).

Page Count: 48

Suggested PC Level: 3-5 (OSE).

Additional Resources: Check out Questing Beast’s review of this adventure here.

Check it out for yourself here (affiliate).

Horror in the Cornfield

Description: Mr. & Mrs. Fearmonger hold an annual, spooky fall event – a corn dungeon filled with creepy surprises. The dungeon costs a mere 1 cp to enter, but the couple earn extra income from the concession stands and games located near the entrance.

There’s only one way out of the corn dungeon, which is located at its end. Every year, a few participants try to circumnavigate the dungeon by creating their own trails through the corn. This year, the Fearmongers were visited by a charming woman who gave them a unique corn to plant. The woman explained that she had heard of the Fearmonger’s corn dungeon, and how people often cheated their way through it. But she had something special for them – a wondrous blend of corn that tethered to the other stalks with thick, impenetrable vines, making cheating nearly impossible.

However, the salesperson didn’t tell them that they were a herald for a devious demon, nor that the magical corn created chaos and misery.

System: Shadowdark

Page Count: 32

Suggested PC Level: Unclear (not sure if listed). Creatures range from levels 0-8, but skew lower (0-2).

Check it out for yourself here (affiliate).

Shadow of the Cursed Cathedral

Description: The sanctity of this place has been fouled. For nearly a century, the faithful of Saint Terragnis have made their pilgrimage to the cathedral in the town of Bailith to pay devotion and see the holy relics of their deity. It was built on the site of the battle of Bailith, where the church of Saint Terragnis fought a demon named Vanthaxis, the Shadowed One, and forced him back into the abyss whence he came.

But since a month ago they say the cathedral is cursed and the high priest himself has deserted it. No one venturing to the sacred edifice has returned, and a foul presence hangs like a nightmare over the town. Only the desperate and destitute now remain in Bailith. With the cathedral unguarded and abandoned, its treasures and valuable artifacts are ripe for the picking by any soul brave or foolhardy enough. Not to mention the fame and glory that wait for anyone able to drive back the darkness and cleanse this once holy place.

The party will investigate the town, meet the poor souls that remain and investigate the dark curse surrounding the cathedral and the catacombs below it. They will face shadowy demons, duplicitous priests and fierce rivals.

A very cool, Diablo 1 adjacent adventure. Strong horror elements. May take a couple sessions to complete (32 keyed areas).

System: Shadowdark

Page Count: 74

Suggested PC Level: 5-7.

Additional Resources: Check out my review of the module here.

Check it out for yourself here (affiliate).

Wicked Witch of the Woods

Description: My new, 1st level one-shot adventure inspired by dark fairy tale stories like Hansel & Gretel. Perfect to be run as a Halloween one-shot.

• Designed to be accessible for new players (and GMs).

• Can be finished in a single 2-4 hour session.

• Comes with maps for each of the relevant locations (and multiple variants).

• Includes 6 pre-generated characters, so you can jump right into the game!

System: Shadowdark

Page Count: 23

Suggested PC Level: 1

Additional Resources: Check out my flip through of the adventure here.

Check it out for yourself here (affiliate).

Final Thoughts

Thank you so much for reading! If you don’t want to miss out on future updates, please consider subscribing by entering your email address below (it’s free).

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

If you’d like to further support this publication, please consider checking out my own published products on DriveThruRPG here (affiliate), many of which are free/PWYW.

Finally, if you’d like to see my other links (including a link to my YouTube channel), click here.

Sincerely,

William (Runeforged Tabletop Gaming)

Note: This post contains affiliate links. I earn a commission on qualifying purchases made after clicking on those links.

Today, I’m going to be ranking Tier 3 Priest spells for Shadowdark.

If you missed out on previous entries in this series, you can find the Tier 1 Spells post here, the Tier 2 post here, and the Tier 3 post here.

I’ll be explaining my thought process for each decision, but a lot of this is just going to be vibes and is based entirely on my own personal experience. I get the impression my group plays the game differently than many others, so I’m curious to hear how your experience and ratings differ in the comments below!

*Dwarf Priest art by Matt Ray.

Tier List Rubric:

Let me quickly explain how I’m breaking down the rankings:

• S: Broken. I would pick this up ASAP. These are spells that consistently auto-win encounters with a single successful cast.

• A: Good. I would get it ASAP, but it isn’t quite as game-breaking as S-tier.

• B: Solid. Not a priority to pick up, but might be worth picking up eventually.

• C: Decent but simply not as good as other options. Maybe you’ll find a scroll/wand of it down the line.

• D: Terrible. I would never choose this spell to learn and would even be reluctant to use it even if I had a scroll or wand of it. There are just better things to do with your action.

  • I don’t think we’ll see many of these.

Commune:

Thoughts:

• Normally, I find these Divination spells a bit situational but given that this version gives you direct access to your deity for 3 questions, this seems much more reliable and less subject to GM fiat than previous similar spells.

• As we’ve mentioned earlier, knowing whether there’s an ambush waiting for you in the next room can be a literal life saver and it’s hard to compare that kind of knowledge to more traditional spells.

Ranking: This is a solid A-Tier spell for me and one I’m very likely to pick up, even with my limited spell selection at Tier 4.

Control Water:

Thoughts:

• This is far too situational for me to want to pick up, especially considering the fact that Priests only ever get two Tier 4 spells. This makes much more sense on the Wizard spell list, because they can learn the spell from a scroll.

• Also, this spell is very much subject to GM fiat, so make sure you know your GM pretty well before you consider picking this up.

• Admittedly, it would be very cool to use this spell to devastating effect in a session, and it’s one of those cool “underdog” picks, but I just can’t bring myself to rate it highly.

Ranking: C-Tier.

Flame Strike:

Thoughts:

• An average of 7 damage per successful cast feels pretty underwhelming at level 7 when you can first pick it up.

• Everyone in your party likely has the ability to deal damage (probably much more than this by level 7+). There are better ways to spend the spell selection and, likely, better ways to spend your action as well.

• That said, it’s not terrible. The spell does twice as much damage as a mundane crossbow and is (probably) much more likely to hit.

Ranking: B-Tier, bordering on C.

Pillar of Salt:

Thoughts:

• Situationally very useful, but perhaps a little less powerful in practice than it is at first glance.

• It does have the power to take a LV 5 or less creature out of the fight (sometimes permanently), and that is definitely noteworthy.

• But the LV restriction and Focus component combined with that fact that you can only get this at level 7+ makes it a bit underwhelming.

• The Priest already has some very powerful crowd control spells that require Focus (Blind and Command) that DON’T have a LV cap, so I think you can safely skip this one in most cases.

• Finally, the chances of making a DC 14 spell check 3 rounds in a row (for a permanent effect) is far from guaranteed, making this ability somewhat unreliable.

Ranking: C-Tier.

Regenerate:

Thoughts:

• Another solid healing spell with the added benefit of regrowing lost limbs.

• Again, the Focus component on this hurts a bit, especially since it’s DC 14 to cast (and the Priest has so many excellent Focus spells they’ll want to be casting), but it’s hard to pass up an additional healing spell for when your other heals fail.

Ranking: A-Tier (though it might have been a bit lower in a stronger line-up of spells).

Wrath:

Thoughts:

• As much as I love the concept of this spell, it’s hard for me to recommend.

• As we’ve mentioned before, most other party members are capable of dealing damage, and I think Priests are better off taking the spells that bring effects others (generally) don’t have access to.

• Based on the wording, I think this becomes even less attractive if the attack bonus doesn’t stack with a magic weapon.

• Regardless, I think you need to ask yourself - how often is my LV 7+ Priest in fights where they can afford to spend multiple actions attacking?

  • If the answer is “a lot”, then maybe consider picking this spell up as your last selection. If not, I’d skip this one, even if it is really cool thematically.

Ranking: B-Tier, bordering on C.

My Final Rankings

• S-Tier (Broken):

  • N/A

• A-Tier (Good):

  • Regenerate

  • Commune

• B-Tier (Solid):

  • Flame Strike

  • Pillar of Salt

  • Wrath

• C-Tier (Mediocre):

  • Control Water

• D-Tier (Terrible):

  • N/A

For me personally, I’d probably pick up Regenerate first then Commune as my second spell. Overall, I I find the Tier 4 Priest spells to be pretty underwhelming which, honestly, is probably fine because the class seems so strong overall.

Let me know in the comments whether you agree or disagree with these rankings and what two spells you’re most likely to pick up on your own priest.

Leave a comment

Final Thoughts

Thank you so much for reading! If you don’t want to miss out on future updates, please consider subscribing by entering your email address below (it’s free).

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

If you’d like to further support this publication, please consider checking out my own published products on DriveThruRPG here (affiliate), many of which are free/PWYW.

My most recent adventure is Wicked Witch of the Woods, a level 1 dark fairy tale adventure for Shadowdark! It’s a great introduction to new players (I originally wrote it to introduce my mom to TTRPGs) or to use as a Halloween one-shot! Scales easily to 1-6 players. Check it out here (affiliate).

Finally, if you’d like to see my other links (including a link to my YouTube channel), click here.

Sincerely,

William (Runeforged Tabletop Gaming)

Note: This post contains affiliate links. I earn a commission on qualifying purchases made after clicking on those links.

Leave a comment

Today, I’m going to be ranking Tier 3 Priest spells for Shadowdark.

If you missed out on previous entries in this series, you can find the Tier 1 Spells post here and the Tier 2 post here.

I’ll be explaining my thought process for each decision, but a lot of this is just going to be vibes and is based entirely on my own personal experience. I get the impression my group plays the game differently than many others, so I’m curious to hear how your experience and ratings differ in the comments below!

*Dwarf Priest art by Matt Ray

Tier List Rubric:

Let me quickly explain how I’m breaking down the rankings:

• S: Broken. I would pick this up ASAP. These are spells that consistently auto-win encounters with a single successful cast.

• A: Good. I would get it ASAP, but it isn’t quite as game-breaking as S-tier.

• B: Solid. Not a priority to pick up, but might be worth picking up eventually.

• C: Decent but simply not as good as other options. Maybe you’ll find a scroll/wand of it down the line.

• D: Terrible. I would never choose this spell to learn and would even be reluctant to use it even if I had a scroll or wand of it. There are just better things to do with your action.

  • I don’t think we’ll see many of these.

Command

Thoughts:

• A powerful crowd control spell or even a way to inflict indirect damage on the enemy (walking them into a pit/chasm/lava.

• Could potentially take out an enemy with a single successful cast (though requires good rolls and another hazard to be present).

• Also, great for preventing single enemies from running away to get their friends.

• One hiccup is that it is a focus spell and therefore 1) a bit unreliable in terms of duration (though even 1-2 turns with it up can be huge) and 2) using it prevents you from using other good focus spells like Blind or Protection from Evil.

Ranking: A-Tier.

Lay to Rest

Thoughts:

• Highly situational but can literally one-shot undead creatures that may be significantly more powerful than you.

• Originally, I was going to rank this a bit higher, but I realized there are very few level 7-9 undead in the Core Shadowdark book (pretty much only Wraiths).

• I tend to run a lot of undead, so it’s been more useful in our campaigns.

Ranking: B-Tier.

Mass Cure

Thoughts:

• Not quite as potent (per target) or reliable as Cure Wounds (DC 13 vs 11), this is still an excellent spell and great for situations where most or all the party has taken damage or (especially) is dying.

• The fact that this can be cast from near range is also quite handy.

Ranking: A-Tier.

Rebuke Unholy

Thoughts:

• Basically Turn undead but for different (and more) creature types.

• A bit situational, but it’s one of the few spells that wipe an entire group of creatures with a single successful cast, turning a near TPK into a total victory.

• Unlike Turn Undead you don’t get it for free, and I feel like these creature types aren’t quite as common as undead (except “creatures of the wild”, but it’s still very good.

Ranking: B-Tier.

Restoration

Thoughts:

• Another situational, but strong, spell.

• Though there may be a bit of disagreement about what exactly constitutes a curse, illness, or affliction it could potentially cover a wide range of otherwise devastating debuffs and crowd control effects.

• While these afflictions don’t show up on every creature, they are exceptionally dangerous and having a way to deal with them can be a life saver (literally).

Ranking: A-Tier (though somewhat GM dependent).

Speak with Dead

Thoughts:

• Like other divination spells, difficult to rank (highly GM dependent). Could lead to info that prevents falling into a trap/ambush or could be useless depending on situation.

• Unlike previous level divination spells, I feel like this version is much more reliable, and less GM dependent. You should be able to get actionable information from every cast.

• Also like those other spells, it does feel really great when you get it and it pays off big, so I see the appeal.

Ranking: B-Tier

My Final Rankings

• S-Tier (Broken):

  • N/A

• A-Tier (Good):

  • Command

  • Mass Cure

  • Restoration

• B-Tier (Solid):

  • Rebuke Unholy

  • Lay to Rest

  • Speak with Dead

• C-Tier (Mediocre):

  • N/A

• D-Tier (Terrible):

  • N/A

For me personally, I’d probably pick up Rebuke Unholy, Mass Cure, and Restoration as my 3 picks, but I can see arguments for all the others as well. This was a tough tier to rank!

Agree? Disagree? Let me know down in the comments!

Leave a comment

Final Thoughts

Thank you so much for reading! If you don’t want to miss out on future updates, please consider subscribing by entering your email address below (it’s free).

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

If you’d like to further support this publication, please consider checking out my own published products on DriveThruRPG here (affiliate), many of which are free/PWYW.

My most recent adventure is Wicked Witch of the Woods, a level 1 dark fairy tale adventure for Shadowdark! It’s a great introduction to new players (I originally wrote it to introduce my mom to TTRPGs) or to use as a Halloween one-shot! Scales easily to 1-6 players. Check it out here (affiliate).

Finally, if you’d like to see my other links (including a link to my YouTube channel), click here.

Sincerely,

William (Runeforged Tabletop Gaming)

Note: This post contains affiliate links. I earn a commission on qualifying purchases made after clicking on those links.

Leave a comment

Today, I’m going to be ranking Tier 2 Priest spells for Shadowdark. If you missed out on the post where we covered Tier 1 spells, you can find that here.

I’ll be explaining my thought process for each decision, but a lot of this is just going to be vibes and is based on my own personal experience. I’m curious to hear how your experience and ratings differ in the comments below!

*Art by Eric Lofgren

Tier List Rubric:

Let me quickly explain how I’m breaking down the rankings:

• S: Broken. I would pick this up ASAP. These are spells that consistently auto-win encounters with a single successful cast.

• A: Good. I would get it ASAP, but it isn’t quite as game-breaking as S-tier.

• B: Solid. Not a priority to pick up, but might be worth picking up eventually.

• C: Decent but simply not as good as other options. Maybe you’ll find a scroll/wand of it down the line.

• D: Terrible. I would never choose this spell to learn and would even be reluctant to use it even if I had a scroll or wand of it. There are just better things to do with your action.

  • I don’t think we’ll see many of these.

Augury:

Thoughts:

• Difficult to rank. Depends on player creativity and GM fiat/skill.

• Potential to be very powerful at the right table or absolutely useless at the wrong one.

• I think there are other more reliable picks, and I would be hard pressed to want to pick this up early, but I could see myself picking it up as my 3rd Tier 2 spell, on occasion.

• That said, I really enjoy using this spell, and it’s always nice to have a wand or scroll version!

Ranking: B-Tier (but, at the right table, could be much higher).

Bless:

Thoughts:

• Potentially very strong.

• Probably ideally used on self or other casters to give a better chance of not losing a crucial spell (like Cure Wounds), especially if that spell is already cast with ADV.

• Luck Tokens are pretty universally useful, so not a niche spell in the same way some other spells in this tier are.

Ranking: A-Tier.

Blind/Deafen:

Thoughts:

• An extremely powerful crowd control spell that can be used on a vast majority of creatures (regardless of level or creature type).

• This is one of those spells that can “win” an encounter with a single successful cast, especially if it’s against a solo monster (doubly so if you get a bit lucky on focus checks).

• The Focus component of this spell can make it a bit unreliable (in terms of duration), but even just a round or two of Blindness can easily swing an encounter in the PCs favor.

Ranking: A-Tier (though you could make an argument for S-Tier).

Cleansing Weapon:

Thoughts:

• A solid combat spell that works against all creature types with a bonus vs undead (commonly encountered foes).

• Unlike Holy Weapon, the damage bonus is significant enough that it’s very likely to reduce the number of attacks/hits required to take down one or more creatures during an encounter.

• Probably not my first pick up, but it’s pretty universally useful, so I’d be tempted to grab it eventually.

Ranking: B-Tier

Smite:

Thoughts:

• I really want to like this spell, but there are simply too many other options and it just doesn’t do enough damage to justify taking it.

• In many cases, the priest just shooting a crossbow will be almost as effective (albeit probably less likely to hit and/or be magical) while not eating up a valuable spell known.

• I think this spell would really benefit from a general damage increase, maybe with bonus damage versus undead and/or demons.

• As it stands, there’s just too many other better choices and, in many cases, a simple crossbow will serve the priest (almost) as well.

Ranking: C-Tier (bordering on D-Tier).

Zone of Truth:

Thoughts:

• Another spell that, like Augury, is difficult to rank and somewhat dependent on player creativity and GM fiat. Has the potential to be very powerful if used to gather information that could very easy save the party’s life (such as avoiding an ambush, learning of an assassination plot etc.) or mostly useless.

• Realistically, I wouldn’t pick this over the other options in this tier, but it would definitely be handy to have as a wand or scroll.

  • For whatever reason, I find it very satisfying to effectively use non-combat/utility spells like this one. I just think it’s a shame this spell is competing for attention with more combat oriented spells in this tier.

Ranking: C-Tier (but, at the right table, could be much higher).

My Final Rankings

• S-Tier (Broken):

  • N/A

• A-Tier (Good):

  • Bless

  • Blind/Deafen

• B-Tier (Solid):

  • Augury

  • Cleansing Weapon

• C-Tier (Mediocre):

  • Smite

  • Zone of Truth

• D-Tier (Terrible):

  • N/A

Agree? Disagree? Let me know down in the comments!

Leave a comment

Final Thoughts

Thank you so much for reading! If you don’t want to miss out on future updates, please consider subscribing by entering your email address below (it’s free).

If you’d like to further support this publication, please consider checking out my own published products on DriveThruRPG here (affiliate), many of which are free/PWYW.

My most recent adventure is Wicked Witch of the Woods, a level 1 dark fairy tale adventure for Shadowdark! It’s a great introduction to new players (I originally wrote it to introduce my mom to TTRPGs) or to use as a Halloween one-shot! Scales easily to 1-6 players. Check it out here (affiliate).

Finally, if you’d like to see my other links (including a link to my YouTube channel), click here.

Sincerely,

William (Runeforged Tabletop Gaming)

Note: This post contains affiliate links. I earn a commission on qualifying purchases made after clicking on those links.

Leave a comment

Today, we’re doing something a bit different! I’m going to be doing a tier list of Tier 1 Priest spells for Shadowdark. If folks enjoy this, we’ll keep doing it.

I’ll be explaining my thought process for each decision, but a lot of this is just going to be vibes and is based on how my own group plays the game, which may be very different from how yours plays the game.

*Friar art by Eric Lofgren

Tier List Rubric:

• S: Broken. I would pick this up ASAP. These are spells likely to auto-win an encounter with a single successful cast.

• A: Good. I would get it ASAP, but it isn’t quite as game-breaking as S-tier.

• B: Solid. Not a priority to pick up, but might be worth picking up eventually.

• C: Decent but simply not as good as other options. Maybe you’ll find a scroll/wand of it down the line.

• D: Terrible. I would never choose this spell to learn and would even be reluctant to use it even if I had a scroll or wand of it. There are just better things to do with your action.

Tier 1 Priest Spells:

Here we go!

Cure Wounds:

• Explanation:

  • Keeps people alive and is much more reliable and effective than stabilize.

  • Scales decently with level (in a way most other spells do not).

  • Almost universally useful.

  • Auto-pick spell. So clearly better than most other spells. If you don’t take this, I need you to tell me why in the comments.

• Rank: A-Tier (Good), though I could maybe be persuaded it belongs in S-Tier.

Holy Weapon:

• Explanation:

  • Looks better than it is. I think most people forget to consider that, sometimes, just using the priest’s action to attack (assuming a decent attack bonus) is likely to deal about as much damage (and doesn’t require a spell).

  • The +1 to hit is unlikely to turn a single miss into a hit over the course of even a 5 round combat (and many combats are shorter than that).

  • Situationally, can be good for making a weapon magical (to bypass monster immunity to non-magical weapons). Eventually, the party will have magical weapons and this will cease to be an issue.

• Rank: C-Tier (Mediocre)

Light:

• Explanation:

  • Fighting or exploring in the dark is bad for your health.

  • Some of this spell’s value will depend on how often your group runs out of torches. If they never do, this may be less useful.

  • Still, the ability to have light while not occupying a hand with a torch does have benefits.

  • Finally, using the Light spell is more reliable than trying to light a torch in the dark (and failing to do so may be lethal), so it definitely has its place.

• Rank: B-Tier (Solid). There’s an argument for bumping it up to to A-Tier.

Protection From Evil:

• Explanation:

  • While a bit situational (only useful vs Chaotic creatures), this spell is incredibly strong.

  • DISADV on attack rolls and hostile spellcasting checks is good enough by itself, not even counting the situational utility of preventing or dispelling possession/compel/beguile etc.

  • The Focus component makes it a bit unreliable, but it also means you can have this spell active for a very long time using only a single action if you get a bit lucky and/or if you get the ability to cast it with ADV.

  • My favorite use for this spell is to cast it on a high AC character (often myself as the priest) and then move to block a hallway/door or otherwise make the character the center of attention. The amount of damage that can be mitigated with this spell is obscene.

• Rank: A-Tier (Good)

Shield of Faith:

• Explanation:

  • This one’s very meh. I can’t see myself picking it because there are just too many better options and you only get 3 Tier 1 spells known max.

  • It can only be cast on yourself and, unless you’re getting attacked 10+ times within 5 rounds, there’s a decent chance it won’t have any effect at all.

  • Worse still, this spell pales in comparison to Protection from Evil while serving a similar function. Yes, it can used against foes of any alignment and is more consistent in terms of the # of rounds it’s up, but there’s also a pretty big chance you’ll cast it and it won’t have any impact at all.

  • Situationally, if the DM is targeting you mercilessly (with non-chaotic creatures), there’s an fringe argument for picking it up.

• Rank: C-Tier (Mediocre)

Turn Undead:

• Explanation:

  • A bit situational, but extremely powerful spell.

  • It is VERY good at what it’s supposed to do and is one of those spells that will (often) singlehandedly win an encounter.

  • Also one of the few spells that scales really well with level.

• Rank: S-Tier (Broken)

My Picks for Tier 1 Priest Spells

• S-Tier (Broken):

  • Turn Undead

• A-Tier (Good):

  • Cure Wounds

  • Protection from Evil

• B-Tier (Solid):

  • Light

• C-Tier (Mediocre):

  • Holy Weapon

  • Shield of Faith

• D-Tier (Terrible):

  • N/A

Agree? Disagree? Let me know down in the comments!

Leave a comment

Final Thoughts

Thank you so much for reading! If you don’t want to miss out on future updates, please consider subscribing by entering your email address below (it’s free).

If you’d like to further support this publication, please consider checking out my own published products on DriveThruRPG here (affiliate*), many of which are free/PWYW.

My most recent adventure is Wicked Witch of the Woods, a level 1 dark fairy tale adventure for Shadowdark! It’s a great introduction to new players (I originally wrote it to introduce my mom to TTRPGs) or to use as a Halloween one-shot! Scales easily to 1-6 players. Check it out here (affiliate).

Finally, if you’d like to see my other links (including a link to my YouTube channel), click here.

Sincerely,

William (Runeforged Tabletop Gaming)

Note: This post contains affiliate links. I earn a commission on qualifying purchases made after clicking on those links.

Leave a comment

In this post, I’m going to be working through why my most recent Shadowdark campaign failed and what I’ll be taking into consideration for future campaigns.

What was Reclamation of Dwarfhome?

It was my dwarf-centric Shadowdark campaign that revolved around retaking the long-lost capitol of the once-mighty dwarven empire. The players would be taking on the role of elite special forces ranging out ahead of the main dwarven force to 1) perform reconnaissance 2) take out key enemy leaders and 3) take and hold key strategic positions until the main dwarven force could arrive to reinforce them.

From the beginning, I had also planned to convert this campaign into a published campaign supplement for Shadowdark that would include 10 adventures, a large point-crawl map of Dwarfhome, and several new dwarf-themed classes.

You may have already spotted several issues that led to the implosion of the campaign.

This is also the third time I have tried to run this campaign (previously I was going to run it in 5e, then Dragonbane ). The previous attempts died after characters were created but before we started our first session. These are basically the ONLY campaigns I’ve ever started but not finished.

Is the dwarf campaign simply cursed, or is there something else going on?

Something is WRONG!

I knew something was off last week when I was prepping for my weekly session (it would have been session 3 of the campaign). I just could not get motivated to work on it. I’d sit down and stare at my screen for 15 minutes before getting distracted, opening another browser tab and doing something completely unrelated.

This kept going for several days. Ultimately, I ended up pushing the session back a week. But, the next week, same issues, day after day, and I wasn’t getting anything else constructive done either.

The reality is, if I don’t want to do something, and there isn’t some huge external pressure being applied to do it, it’s really hard to force myself. So, I didn’t.

I cancelled the campaign instead, and I think that was the right decision.

Why Did the Campaign Fail?

So why did the campaign fail? Here are the primary reasons I’ve identified.

1. Bad Timing/Rushed

I knew I wanted to wrap this campaign up in 10-12 sessions (my preferred campaign length) of playing weekly. That means that we really needed to start ASAP if we wanted to avoid running into the holidays, which I have found really destroys the momentum of campaigns.

As a result, instead of building out most of the campaign before hand, I was doing everything week to week. For a normal game that would be fine, but for a campaign I wanted to turn into a supplement for others to play, it was a lot to put together in one week (more on that below).

2. Wrong System

Simply put, Shadowdark was not the right system to run this type of campaign (e.g., linear, narrative, heroic). I originally planned to run this campaign in 5e or Dragonbane (which are very different games from Shadowdark).

I figured I could make it work for Shadowdark too because it felt like a big dungeon crawl (even though it actually wasn’t). I could have made it work with various rules tweaks, but it would have taken an immense amount of effort to make it work for both my group AND for other groups who prefer a more standard Shadowdark experience.

3. Running for My Table vs. Publishing For Others

The truth is, my players don’t really like Shadowdark all that much. Though they’re generally happy to play whatever I’m willing to run, they’d really rather be playing a more heroic game, with higher-powered characters and (with maybe one exception) more character customization options.

As a result, I make changes to the core system to accommodate that playstyle (start at max HP, pulp mode etc) while, at the same time, trying to design a campaign that would still be fun for the “typical” Shadowdark table.

For example, when I ran this for my group, I was going to do it in just 10-12 sessions, roughly one session per level and just fill in the gaps with narration. This is a much more linear/narrative driven experience than I think most Shadowdark GMs (and maybe players) want to play. To fill this gap, I was going to create a large point-crawl for the roughly 50 areas in Dwarfhome to allow GMs to run a longer, more “standard” Shadowdark campaign in this setting, even though those are not the types of games I like to run.

Also, my players (and I) prefer color maps/tokens etc. whereas the art I needed to get for the published book would be black & white or monochrome.

I was basically doing everything twice (for different audiences), and it was just too much. On top of that, I just wasn’t sure how well the campaign supplement would have been received by the core Shadowdark audience. It would have been hugely disappointing to put 6+ months into creating it only to confirm what I already suspected (that the core Shadowdark audience would bounce off of it).

4. Scope too Large

Any one or two of the above factors together would not have been enough to break the campaign (as I tackled many similar issues with Shadows of Camelot), but all of them together was just too much, and I ultimately decided that there was probably a better way to be spending my time.

Lessons Learned

So, what did I learn from this failed campaign?

1. Careful About Long Campaigns Late in the Year

The holidays kill games. I will try, in the future, not to start long, half-baked campaigns so close to the holidays. In previous years, I’ve run loosely connected one-shots that could reasonably be ended after any session, and that worked really well!

I’ll probably try that system again, either this year or next year.

2. System Matters

Shadowdark was the wrong system for the type of campaign I wanted to run. I either needed to run this more heroic/epic campaign in a more heroic/epic system or changed the campaign to be more of a standard dungeon crawl.

In the future, I’m going to think more about matching the right system to the right game.

3. You Can’t Serve Two Masters

This is a tough one. Selling RPG supplements is a large part of my current income (and I’d eventually like to earn full-time income from it, so making money off of what I create is really important). I also find it really hard to make things I’m not 100% passionate about, but I’m also struggling with the fact that I want to create something different from what I think the core Shadowdark community is interested in.

I think I need to sit down and really think about what it is I want to be making and do everything I can to find an audience of folks who likes that stuff, rather than trying to conform to what I think most people want.

I’ll try that for a while and see how it goes. If it doesn’t work, I’ll course correct.

4. Smaller Scope

No matter what I make next, it will be much smaller in scope than what I had planned for Dwarfhome. This is doubly important because I also want to try a Kickstarter, which I’ve never done before, and I feel like that process will be a lot more manageable with a smaller project.

Then, once I get a feel for crowdfunding (and get a bit more experience creating), I’ll hopefully feel more comfortable tackling a larger project.

What’s Next?

I’m not sure! I’ll probably spend more time working on my YouTube channel and this Substack for a couple weeks until I find something that really speaks to me. Here are some things that are top of mind:

• More Shadowdark (but things that better lean into the system’s strengths):

  • One-Shot adventures I could make and/or run for Halloween.

  • Creating adventures designed to be run solo (and/or for 1 GM and 1 Player).

  • A Brothers Grimm/Folk Horror Setting for Shadowdark (maybe with a dose of gothic horror/monster hunting thrown in).

• Other TTRPG Systems:

  • I want to try Draw Steel, Dragonbane, Daggerheart, Fabula Ultima, and others, but level of effort getting them set up does seem a bit high.

• Other Tabletop Games/Genres:

  • Miniature Skirmish games like Rangers of Shadowdeep, Five Leagues from the Borderlands, Mordheim, Frostgrave etc.

  • Adventure Board Games: Hero Quest, Warhammer Quest etc.

Let me know down in the comments if you’re excited about any of these!

Final Thoughts

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Sincerely,

William (Runeforged Tabletop Gaming)

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