How would YOU change Shadowdark?

Shadowdark is awesome. It is really well designed and it combines much of the best of modern math and ease of play with an old school style of play. It is alo really pretty, with an implied (and now official!) setting that leans into gritty darkness without being a bore.

That all said, it isn't for everyone and many folks wish it did this or that differently. I am curious what YOU, personally, would do to make Shadowdark better for you and your group.

I have run a bunch of SD, both at conventions and as home games, and one consistent complaint I see is with random traits upon level up. If I run SD again, I think I will implement choosing advancements (with a "no advancement twice in a row" rule) to placate the players that prefer more control over character development. I already don't bother with the torch timer -- light is still important, but I have not found the real time torch to be a benefit to play -- and I would definitely look for more ways to "carouse."

Overall, as I said, SD is awesome. But no game is perfect for everyone. So how would you change it?

Change it? I wouldn't. However, I do love to create extra little bits to bolt onto it (perhaps that's what you mean anyway, IDK). For example, my most recent project adds firearms and an additional playmode for serious injury.

I have a handful of house rules right now:

You can't stabilize at zero hit points. You either have one hit point or you're dying. This way you're not in the middle of a dungeon with a zero HP character you're dragging around and the player can't just roll up a new character.

Every player starts the game with one luck point. Luck points can be shared. Luck points can be used to reroll any character's d20 roll. Luck points can't be used to force the GM to reroll.

You don't lose a spell from a failed spell check unless you've successfully cast it at least once. This way you can get at least one use of a spell before you lose it on a failed check.

Players can't use timers to track torches. Of you're in the light, lighting a torch takes no check. If you're in complete darkness, lighting a torch takes a DC 12 intelligence or dexterity check at disadvantage. Keep those torches lit!

The GM rolls the number of rounds a character has before they die in secret.

Those are my house rules so far.

SlyFlourish said:

I have a handful of house rules right now:

You can't stabilize at zero hit points. You either have one hit point or you're dying. This way you're not in the middle of a dungeon with a zero HP character you're dragging around and the player can't just roll up a new character.

Every player starts the game with one luck point. Luck points can be shared. Luck points can be used to reroll any character's d20 roll. Luck points can't be used to force the GM to reroll.

You don't lose a spell from a failed spell check unless you've successfully cast it at least once. This way you can get at least one use of a spell before you lose it on a failed check.

Players can't use timers to track torches. Of you're in the light, lighting a torch takes no check. If you're in complete darkness, lighting a torch takes a DC 12 intelligence or dexterity check at disadvantage. Keep those torches lit!

The GM rolls the number of rounds a character has before they die in secret.

Those are my house rules so far.

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That is a pretty good list based on my experiences running the game.

I’d change it (and do) to a more traditional XP system. It’s basic XP system makes more work for the DM who wants to run old school D&D modules a pain in the butt.

DarkCrisis said:

I’d change it (and do) to a more traditional XP system. It’s basic XP system makes more work for the DM who wants to run old school D&D modules a pain in the butt.

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Yeah, I have read that. I don't use it to run old school D&D adventures (mostly because I think most old school adventures are a slog) but the disparities between SD treasure and OSR treasure can be significant.

In general, i find the loose nature of SD XP awards to be a bit of a pain. I might be inclined to modify it if I run a campaign again. In my mini con campaigns (3 or 4 sessions over the weekend) I used milestone XP since there was more of a "plot".

DarkCrisis said:

I’d change it (and do) to a more traditional XP system. It’s basic XP system makes more work for the DM who wants to run old school D&D modules a pain in the butt.

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This, this and this. I don’t like the XP system in SD for that exact reason. It was difficult to wrap my head around, and it proved a barrier to using other products when it really didn’t need to be.

SlyFlourish said:

You can't stabilize at zero hit points. You either have one hit point or you're dying. This way you're not in the middle of a dungeon with a zero HP character you're dragging around and the player can't just roll up a new character.

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Hard agree with this. I just use the "Fatality Mode" to get around this problem, but yeah - having a living character who cannot act for potentially hours of real life time is Bad.

It's fun as is, but could use a touch-up:

• Get rid of the spellcasting checks (no chance of failure)
• Get rid of the classes (put all the class features in a pool and players can select any two for their PC)
• Just one Death Save (when dropping to 0 HP the player rolls once to see if the PC stabilizes or dies)

I am a broken record on this, but presentation. It would be great if one box had all the character classes and player facing info.

The new Kickstarter is at least compiling all of the new classes into one book, but I hate having to reference multiple books. Build a players guide already.