Book Report - Shadowdark
In the last few weeks I have read a couple tabletop roleplaying game manuals and I was a but torn on what to write about for todays blog so yeah lets talk about Game Manuals. Well books really, I think only Dungeons and Dragons calls them manuals, bit sterile sounding really. Anyways I love reading them, they give me all sorts of insight and connection to a new way of doing things, new mechanics, methods, mindsets. I find them fascinating. Not every one of them is a gem of course. I’m looking at you Shadowrun…
I got Shadowdark as a gift last week and have been consumed by it since. It is a grim fantasy setting, the term grimdark gets bandied about a lot these days but I think the term grim alone gives the vibe. The game is a bridge between modern role playing aesthetics and mechanics and old school gaming. Its entirely in black and white which I love, it’s also a small form book much like the Powered by the Apocalypse books or Blades in the Dark. So what does that mean, old school gaming? It means less bloat, less mess on the character sheet, less rules for a billion scenarios. The sheet is a single sided page, and they saved on the ink for it because it has only what you need. Stats, name and details, spells and abilities and gear slots. Done and done. No movement speed, no skills section, just the bare bones and that is enough. Speaking as someone that has introduced every edition of Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder to new people I am so happy to see a game that goes the other direction when it comes to complexity. Last night I rolled up two characters, each one took about 5 minutes and I was done. To put that into perspective, when I introduce a new person to the mainstream role playing games mentioned above, the character creation process is gonna be an hour minimum. Now that doesn’t mean its bad inherently, but it is intimidating to new players. Not everyone thinks its fun to prep for an hour or more just to play a game, and it can be so disconnected to the actual play that character creation can feel like filling out a tax form. So Shadowdark, as I said, about 5 minutes, and really there is a site I can go to that trims that down to however long it takes to click submit and print as it randomly makes a character for me. Let’s call it ten seconds. The grim vibe I mentioned comes more into the play side of things. It is meant to be tense, to be scary, to punish reckless failure and reward insane success. Monsters lurk in the shadows, your light source and rations are limited. You might make it into a dungeon, defeat the beast and get to the treasure but can you carry it out? Will your torches last or will you be stranded underground in pitch blackness as more of the creatures in the caves start to smell you, to hear you? Will starvation slow your steps just as much as the weight of your gear as you try and make it back to town? Monsters are dangerous, every fight feels like it matters and the characters don’t become demi-gods by session 5. The leveling system is wonderfully simplified but still diverse, and the challenges the characters face never seem to fade despite those levels.
So, yeah I am a convert to Shadowdark, having read thru it, I get it and I am on board. This happens with a lot of games to be honest, the more I read, the different systems and approaches I an immersed in the more I love the diversity of the storytelling games. It doesn’t mean I hate the more crunchy ones, just that I can appreciate when something comes out that makes it all run smooth like a clock. Now the real turbulence comes in as I try to figure out how to play this with other people. The reality of playing games as an adult is where the true horror genre lies. Thankfully I am getting more and more interested in solo roleplaying games.
I laughed when I titled this Book Report but man back in the day I would have loved to give my 3rd grade class a book report on a role playing game. At the time the Satanic Panic was in full swing and the seletion of roleplaying games was pretty thin. Not that it would have stopped me. Imagine how many book-it stamps I could get in elementary school for reading a 250 page game book?
Gotta get that personal pan pizza.
