A Dark Double Feature

John McGuire and Levi Combs have a pair of horror themed Shadowdark RPG adventures crowdfunding at the moment that you need to know about.

Of A Harmonious Nature is a folk horror adventurer for 4-6 characters of levels 3-5. It will be 80 pages and will be a hardcover tome "written to be the best parts of an A24 film, in the Hammer Horror style." Confront fanaticism and corruption and maybe you'll be able to stop the ancient entity known as Prastr-Vem. You can check out a preview here.

Nothing Left To Lose, a 48-page zine for 4-6 characters of levels 3-5 that is "SAW in the H.H. Holmes "Murder Castle"." After a failed mission the characters (fully equipped) wake up with their allies and have to find their way out of a place of danger. Will they survive or just be more playthings for their sick captor?

Check out the campaign here. I backed at the Early Bird: Double Feature - Collector's Edition and am stoked. That pledge scores you the hardcover and zine, pdfs, and a miniature of Prastr-Vem. Because I'm an Early Bird I also get a glow in the dark version of the mini. I also decided to splurge and order several of the bookmarks for the adventure, since there are extra game mechanics associated with them.  

This one is gonna rock y'all.

What's Shadowdark RPG?

 As I mentioned at the end of February I would be moving into my own place and hopefully running some Shadowdark RPG soon. While I'm not ready to host any games yet, this past weekend I moved into my new place. It feels good having a little place to call my own again. 

I'm sure some of you are already fans of Shadowdark RPG, but I thought I'd talk about the game for those unfamiliar.

In many ways Shadowdark RPG is a simplified version of 5e. It uses d20's with DC's for checks, has the classic six stats, and uses advantage/disadvantage. Characters pick a class, gain experience, and level up.

There are definite differences as well. Like old school games, the game focuses on exploration and gaining treasure. It's also quite deadly. The game is played in initiative order, even outside of combat. Casters don't have spell slots and must make spell checks. They can cast spells until they fail a check. Instead of encumbrance, characters are limited by gear slots. Distances are abstracted to close, near, and far, rather than measured on the battlefield. Additionally when characters level up, they randomly improve traits or gain new features. 

One of the most notable differences between Shadowdark and traditional D&D is the Shadowdark itself. No characters have dark vision in Shadowdark, but monsters do. This means that torches are a vital part of adventuring. This leads to one of the most novel features of the game, the Torch Timer. When a torch is lit a one hour timer is started in real time. While delving if the time runs out before another torch is lit the characters find themselves in total darkness, surrounded by encroaching monsters. 

Does this sound cool to you? If so you can download the Quickstart for free from The Arcane Library. It gives you everything you need to play levels 1-3 (including a really nice adventure). 

Drizzt and Guenhwyvar Delve Into The Shadowdark

I’ve really been diving into Shadowdark RPG and looking for online resources. While his content is primarily focuses on drow lore and D&D 2024 content, I found some Shadowdark RPG  stats on The Drow Historian Patreon.

You can get a quality pdf version here and if you're a drow fan, you should support the Patreon.

A New Game?

I've been wanting to run something for a few years now. Unfortunately, I given my current living situation, it didn't seem right to try. Since I'm going to be working again soon I've started looking for a place to rent. If that happens I will definitely start running a game. While I have many games I want to run, including DCC supers and D&D 2024, I think I'm going to go with Shadowdark RPG. I know it was the new hotness a few years ago and I still see a lot of buzz about it online. I've not played it, but I do own the core book and the first three official zines. 

Since I never got use use Punjar with DCC, I thought I might make it the primary city for the game. I'll go through the gazetteer I have and Shadowdark-ify it. I also just got my pdf copy of Into the Cess and Citadel and I know it will be a fantastic resource. This will also be a great time to break out my wood miniatures from SeveredBooks. I grabbed the ones pictured below at Origins last year, but I've gotten several more sets since then.

Have you played Shadowdark? If so, what are your thoughts? Also, if you haven't looked at the game, the quickstart is free.

Satanic Panic

If you want a zine relevant to gaming in the 80's, I highly recommend picking up Satanic Panic from Bloat Games/Bloat Zines. Written and layed out by Mr. Bloat himself, the zine addresses (as the cover says) "why parents in the 1980's lost their fuckin' minds over D&D." The zine is predominantly black and white, though red is used to highlight things and it makes it pop. Christopher Torres and Phil Stone's art is featured throughout the zine. This one is metal and aesthetically pleasing. Although its professionally printed, it has a great punk/metal/DIY vibe.

This one is personal. As he mentions in the zine, Eric's life was made a living hell by ignorant religious folks because of the things he loved as a kid. This is really shown in his scathing takedown of Pat Robertson. I also appreciate Eric discussing the origins of the hysteria and highlights what fueled it. I had no idea that it started in Canada or the full story of person Mazes & Monsters was "based on," Dallas Egbert. Eric's a smart and insightful dude and I appreciated reading his thoughts on things. 

This zine is a hybrid of Bloat zines. In addition to discussion of the topic, it also includes game stats for a few systems and random tables (because random tables):

• d66 Reasons Your Mom Thinks You Are A Satanist
• Ratt Pobertson (5e and Shadowdark) - a craven goblin liar definitely not inspired by a hate-spewing religious leader mentioned earlier.
• Garzax (Demon) with Cultists (OSE) - demon lord of gluttony and his followers
• d12 Raise Your Horns For Satan (the devil's music)
• d12 Occult Inspired Movies
• d66 Games Like Old School D&D
• Satanic Cult Members and Cult Leader Necromancer (SURVIVE THIS!!) - ready to use cult stats for use with Dark Places & Demogorgons and SURVIVE THIS!! games

You can order Satanic Panic from the Bloat Games shop. Don't worry, the zine is only 13 bucks, despite the listed price.