Shadowdark Ruleset Feedback Thread

[Lawlesslisa]

Hello,
I am looking to use this ruleset for a Gods of the Forbidden North campaign, which uses the OSE ruleset, but both its author and others have said that using Shadowdark is very feasible. The main issue for me using this ruleset is the level cap of 10 for Shadowdark. I read a recent inquiry about leveling past ten in Shadowdark and some ideas on how to do it. Kelsey Dionne, author of Shadowdark, responded to that thread 7 months ago with this:

u/thearcanelibrary avatar
thearcanelibrary
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7mo ago
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Edited 7mo ago
I think this is a logical way to extrapolate leveling! I like the fixed HP gains by class. You also could unlock higher ability score caps and bonuses after level 10 (maybe going up to 20 or 22 with +5 and +6) the way some legendary beings have done to show their transcendence past mortal boundaries.

I think odd-level talent rolls as normal wouldn’t be off the mark with that since the PCs will be leveling very slowly at 100 XP per (I agree with that call).

The only fiddly bit is spell progression for higher level PCs. You could continue to extrapolate it out until priests and wizards can max out their access to existing tier 3-5 spells… hmmmm. Or perhaps make a custom signature spell that is tier 6 (the “mythic” tier, haha)!

All in all, the characters would probably remain at a “can still crawl dungeons” level if you extrapolate out the growth a bit. Even 10th level PCs in Shadowdark are not invincible by any stretch, so it might be possible to keep that dynamic going out past level 10 without bleeding into the needs and wants of domain level play. It’d be an interesting experiment!

-Kelsey

Edit for my horrible thumb typos!

I went into a character in this ruleset, and I could raise the str/int/etc. attributes to whatever number I wanted but I could not adjust the resulting + bonus. Would it be possible to let those +bonuses for attributes continue to increase (+5 for a 20, +6 for a 22, etc.)?

Thank you for your time.

[bayne7400]

So if Arcane Library were to codify this in a supplement I might could go do it but this ruleset is built upon the Core Rulebook. The rules say 18+ is a +4 modifier.

As a work around you can always use effects. You can add this info on the notes tab and it will automatically add when you drag the player to the CT.

[Calisto]

I am not sure the Character Effects for spellcasting bonus are working as expected. I added [SPELLCAST: 1] to Character Effects under the Notes tab and with a +0 on Int a level 1 Wizard should have a +1 overall on casting rolls. I'm not seeing this, does this setup look correct?

Are there any sample characters with effects added that could be shared as examples to import into our own campaigns? I recall having that with the 5e ruleset way back when and those were very helpful.

spellcast.png

[vegaserik]

I am not sure the Character Effects for spellcasting bonus are working as expected. I added [SPELLCAST: 1] to Character Effects under the Notes tab and with a +0 on Int a level 1 Wizard should have a +1 overall on casting rolls. I'm not seeing this, does this setup look correct?

Are there any sample characters with effects added that could be shared as examples to import into our own campaigns? I recall having that with the 5e ruleset way back when and those were very helpful.

spellcast.png

Make sure you're on the combat tracker for the effect to apply I believe.

[Calisto]

That was it vegaserik, thank you very much!

[sedgetone]

I have a little request regarding some of the master table entries. Can you add |hide after| entries to the columns please, it makes using the output in Story Templates a lot easier to work with. Here's an example of a template, I've duplicated the Adventure Generator Master and added the hide options. Then put together a simple template to show an example of the differences in simplicity on the call using the edited version:

screenshot0001.png