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).