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Shadowdark (Shadowdark)

English Rules-light The Arcane Library English Rules-light

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Shadowdark RPG (2023)

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Contents

Overview
Active games and players
Articles & Videos
Reviews

Overview

Shadowdark RPG is a modern masterpiece of old school fantasy tabletop gaming, created by Kelsey Dionne and published by The Arcane Library in 2023. It blends the lethal, dungeon crawling spirit of the

Old School Renaissance

with streamlined, modernized mechanics inspired by the

fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons

. Description In Shadowdark, players are adventurers delving into tombs and ancient underground cities in search of gold and glory. The game is highly lethal, emphasizing player skill, resource management and creative problem solving over character sheet abilities. The dark is a physical, terrifying presence and making sure keeping the light on, is beyond vital to survival. System Overview & Key Features

Real Time Torches Torches last exactly one hour of real time. The Game Master sets a physical timer at the table. When the timer runs out, the light goes out, and the characters are plunged into total darkness where deadly monsters thrive.

Familiar d20 Mechanics The core system uses a standard 20 sided die (d20) with advantage and disadvantage, making it incredibly easy for modern players to pick up. However, modifiers are kept extremely low to maintain a grounded feel.

Randomized Character Growth Instead of picking from a massive list of feats or skills when leveling up, players roll a random talent on their class table. This speeds up character creation and forces players to adapt to the unique strengths of their adventurer.

Slot Based Inventory Encumbrance is simple and strict. Characters have a number of inventory slots equal to their Strength score or a minimum of ten. Every item, from a sword to a torch, takes up exactly one slot, making resource management important.

Additional links thearcanelibrary.com/pages/shadowdark - Official The Arcane Library website shadowdarklings.net - Shadowdarklings (An excellent online character creator)

Active games and players

Shadowdark - The Gloaming

Shadowdark - The Gloaming

Newbie friendly

The Gloaming is an ancient forest where black trees tower over mossy standing stones and mist-addled bogs. Here, fragile bastions of mankind cluster behind torchlit palisades and pray for deliverance from the demons that hatch from the forest's cursed marrow trees. The Knights of St. Ydris range out of their deepwood conclave to wage a losing war against these demons and their servants. I am looking for 1-3 more players to join 2 others. We will be playing on Roll20. The time for the game is most likely going to be Sunday evenings, 7pm to 10pm eastern US. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer.

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Hi, I am Lorgh (pronounced Lore). I am a child of the 80s and a long-time D&D geek. I'm a huge fan of fantasy specifically, but also of anthropology, history, linguistics, and literature more broadly. I love exploring, role playing, slaying monsters, and getting into the weeds of game rules and mechanics. I am also an avid world builder. I'd love to join your table for published or homebrew content, especially if you're trying out an established game system in a setting you've passionately and painstakingly built to be a living, experienced world! I reside in the Pacific Northwest of the United States and prefer to play weekday evenings (especially Fridays) via Discord voice (or similar) and whatever VTT is appropriate.

Hello, I've been playing TTRPGs on and off for about 10 years now. Played with different systems and on different platforms over the years (mostly Pathfinder 2e recently). Don't have a favorite system but hoping to play and learn AD&D, willing to learn and try new games (have a preference for fantasy settings). Timezone is CET and should be free on almost everyday of the week in the evening. Thanks.

Well met, stranger. I'm hiddenson. I've played different rpgs since the 90's, both as GM and as player, and I'm getting back on the saddle. I prefer GMing because I love world building and long-term campaigns, tuning preset worlds to my signature flavor of horror and hardcore mechanics. My style is deeply immersive, often choosing to play the right track at the right second for the right scene. That said, I enjoy the acting and teamwork part of playing, so I'd like to do that as well from time to time. I recently launched a paid Vampire: The Masquerade Chronicle, so I'm willing to trade seats if our playstyles and game list match. As this is my player profile, I'd like to focus on roleplay heavy horror games. I'd love to play other settings of the World of Darkness. I have a lot of experience in the previous edition of Call of Cthulhu set in the Roaring Twenties, so I'm sure I can adapt to the new edition easily. Lastly, I have little to no experience in the other titles, but I'd like the chance to try them out to round up the horror genre. When it comes to my playing style, I'm roleplay focused and lean into characters keen on knowledge and lore rather than riches. Think erudite professors, librarians looking for eldritch tomes, and tomb raiding archaeologists. When I GM, I lean towards Rule of Cool, and I favor players who invest creativity in their characters. Regarding scheduling, I'm available every day (but would prefer playing every other week) from 9pm to 2am GMT+2. Hit me up with your best message and let's tempt fate together!

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Articles & Videos

Delving Into Shadowdark

Shadowdark: The REAL TIME Old-School RPG

Bob World Builder

You Don’t Need 1200 pages to Play D&D | Shadowdark Basic Rules

Other entries

Tools & Platforms

RPG Soundboard

RPG Soundboard is an audio companion for tabletop RPG game masters, featuring a user interface designed for easier, live playback. Load your own music and sound effects, organize them across multiple soundboards and playlists, and increase the immersion of your table. System Overview & Key Features Multiple soundboards & playlists keep separate setups for each campaign, each with independent playlists, players and sound types 30+ real-time audio effects apply DSP room presets live during playback: Dungeon, Tavern, Forest, Castle Hall, Crypt, Dragon Lair, Battlefield, and more Remote control Any device can host or join a session: start a server on your PC, phone, or tablet and connect from any other device on your local network, with real-time sync across all connected clients Sharing screen a dedicated presentation window your players can watch, with a custom background. Supports chroma key (green, blue, black) for OBS and streaming setups 3D dice roller roll dice directly from the sharing window and display animated results live for your players Drag-and-drop reordering rearrange players on the fly with animated swaps Cross-platform Windows, macOS, and Linux Sound Types Tag any sound player as Ambient, SFX, or Music using color-coded categories. Create your own types to match your workflow /images/general-media/1778834657_sIRN1b1s.PNG Your audio files stay on your machine. The app never uploads them anywhere. Links rpgsoundboard.com - Official website reddit.com - Reddit subreddit youtube.com - Youtube channel

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Tabletop Roleplaying Games

Mindjammer

Mindjammer is a transhumanist space opera tabletop role-playing game designed by Sarah Newton and published by Mindjammer Press, with distribution handled by Modiphius Entertainment. Originally released in 2009 as a campaign setting supplement for Cubicle 7's Starblazer Adventures, it was completely re-engineered and released as a standalone core rulebook in 2014 utilizing the Fate Core system framework. Description The ENnie Award-winning transhuman science-fiction RPG setting returns, in a new edition updated and massively expanded for the Fate Core rules. Mindjammer is an action-packed tabletop roleplaying game about heroic adventurers in the galaxy of the far future, filled with virtual realities, sentient starships, realistic aliens, and mysterious worlds. Using the popular and award-winning Fate Core rules, Mindjammer lets you play hardened mercs, cunning traders, steely-nerved pilots, intrigue-filled spies and culture agents, aliens, divergent hominids, artificial life forms, and even sentient starships. Links mindjammer.com - Official website drivethrurpg.com - DriveThruRPG store

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Tools & Platforms

Memory of Ord

Campaign Management

Memory of Ord is a free community tool for Draw Steel. Its systems, monsters, and gameplay loops are baked into the tool's terminology, defaults, and features. Your story structure, visualized Scenes, combats, montages. Every beat and detail as a node. Each carries the details that matter to your table: default options drawn from the Draw Steel core books, fully extensible, and visually customizable. From tonight's session to the full campaign Every node can be a container for deeper content nested inside it. Compose quests from individual scenes, combine those into adventures, and layer them together in a full campaign. Work top-down for structure or bottom-up from inspiration. Zoom into the details for your next session; zoom out to see the threads coming together and identify connective gaps. Remix, borrow, and share This game is social and fun, and designing for it should be too! Pull in community content to fill gaps, mold it as needed, and share your own work when it's ready. Links memoryoford.com - Official website

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