ShadowDark RPG Core Rulebook

by The Arcane Library

WHAT IS SHADOWDARK RPG?
Classic gaming with elegant execution.

Shadowdark RPG is what old-school fantasy gaming would look like after being redesigned with 50 years of innovation.

The game is fast, familiar, intuitive, and deadly. It’s built for sword-and-sorcery adventures where fell monsters slither in darkness and frosty gems glint upon forgotten thrones, waiting to be discovered.

In Shadowdark RPG, real time comes into play. A torch only holds back the looming darkness for one hour of actual game time! There isn't a moment to spare when your only light source is guttering low...

Get ready for old-school gaming in a whole new light!

Genres: Role Playing Games, Fantasy, Games, Gaming, Adventure, Reference

325 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2023

Reviews

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shadowdark has a somewhat storied history in the annals of TTRPGs. It was the result of a Kickstarter campaign that materialized amidst a near-perfect storm of controversy and publicity that definitely ended up being to its benefit. The Shadowdark Kickstarter went live just as the OGL fiasco hit and many players were jumping ship from the ‘official’ D&D world as Wizards of the Coast started their ongoing habit of stepping in their own shit and alienating players. Of course, the TTRPG community being what it is, there was also a huge wave of controversy and backlash against Shadowdark as nerds everywhere drew battle lines to decide whether this was Lawful Good or Chaotic Evil and would either save or destroy the hobby. Of course, neither eventuality needed to be true, but as they say there is no such thing as bad publicity and the Kickstarter ended up garnering over $1,300,000 which is pretty significant for a Table Top Roleplaying Game.

Anyway, all that aside what is the game like? Well, I think the tag line for the product was pretty accurate: “Old school gaming, modernized.” Shadowdark takes a number of tenets from the OSR philosophy (rulings over rules, player skill vs character skill, fast and deadly combat, time & gear tracking) and married them to some ‘new school’ innovations to the hobby since Uncle Gary first rolled out the devil’s game (d20 roll-over system based on skill checks, advantage & disadvantage rolls, ascending AC). It also has a few other ‘innovations’ such as abstracted distances, carousing rules for advancement/downtime options, and its hallmark: real-time torch timers whose aim is to ratchet up the tension for dungeon crawlers and hopefully reduce that interminable table talk and wrangling over what to do in which players indulge. It’s definitely in the “rules-lite” camp of RPGs, which is right up my alley, but if you prefer your systems with a lot of crunch Shadowdark may not be your cup of tea.

The book itself is gorgeous: a sewn-bound hardcover with a bookmark ribbon and beautiful cover illustration of a Ten-Eyed Oracle (definitely NOT a Beholder!) The layout is clean and easy-to-read with most elements on the same two-page spread for easy reference. The inside covers reference often-used rules, a boon to DMs, and the black-and-white art is consistently great with a definite slant in the gritty fantasy direction.

As is perhaps obvious I’m a big fan. It’s both a gorgeous product and a rule-set that streamlines out much of the unnecessary (to me at least) complexity of some other RPGs while retaining the tried and tested rules that in my mind strikes a happy medium between the simplicity and freedom of a free-form game and the complexity of a simulationist one.

[Taddow · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was a Kickstarter backer of this project and I’m happy with the end product. I started playing Dungeons & Dragons in the 80s and I enjoyed it and I currently play Dungeon & Dragons 5th Ed. And I enjoy it. Shadowdark hits that sweet spot to blend both the new and the old for me. Simple rules, easy to present to new and old gamers, common sense talk about rulings over rules and some newer rules (Advantage/Disadvantage, opportunities for characters to not perish immediately after being brought to zero hit points, to name just a couple). Sure, some of these “new” rules and concepts are just re-skinned rules from other editions of D&D or other games but many newer gamers might not know they exist or understand the concept of borrowing from other games to improve your game, so it’s a good thing to express them to a larger audience of gamers new and old.

This book is an all-inclusive rulebook- a player’s handbook, game master guide and bestiary all in one. You get a nice selection of magic items and monsters (the majority are easily recognizable from D&D) and the different take on spelling casting (for both priests and wizards) is an interesting and exciting change. The game rules favor a more grim/challenging style of play but offer several options to turn this challenge down or up further.

While I have not had a chance to test the system fully, I wonder how the game system fares (rules as written) to support higher-level play where player characters want to take a break from the after-adventure celebration night(s) on the town and get into domain play? I can think of some easy-enough rule changes to support this and I’m sure someone from the fan community will create a supplement to address this, as well as other supplements to offer additional monsters, settings, etc. There is definitely potential for Shadowdark to have a “bright” future ahead.

[Butch · Rating 5 out of 5]

This RPG book won most awards the year it came out. As an aspiring creator in the space, I needed to see what all the fuss was about. The book was worth the fuss! It is infused with deep lore that spans even the rules section. Every page is filled with brutal and inspiring flavor that makes me excited to play.

I will apologize right now to my players. Their characters will die. A lot. But their loss will be my gain as I'm kicking my feet with all the fun monsters and traps.

[Scott Fitches · Rating 5 out of 5]

The world needs an RPG like this now. Simple, but clever mechanics. Sections explaining how to role-play and game-master (often missing in RPGs because it's assumed that one knows how). Ingenious systems on how to create Dungeons, Settlements, Shops, etc.. The fact one person wrote this and then raised over a million dollars to get it created is pretty amazing. I haven't been this inspired to run a game in a decade. Kudos!

[BookEd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tremendous RPG book. It takes the classic elements of old school D&D and repackages it into a modern game with simplified mechanics. The book takes elements of all the good things from various editions and adds genius mechanics like the torch light that runs on 1 hour of actual time. I loved this. I give this a grade of A

[Jubran · Rating 5 out of 5]

A comprehensive tabletop role-playing game designed for both newcomers and seasoned players alike. Highly recommended for those seeking a streamlined alternative to Dungeons & Dragons. Packed with tables and guidelines to help you create your own content and world. Can’t wait to play it with friends!

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A smartly-organized and succinct OSR game book, ShadowDark is one of the most compelling TTRPG rulesets I've read. It brings influences from Basic D&D, 5E, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Blades in the Dark, YouTube map-drawing tutorials, and more into a tight package that's easy to digest and likely just as easy to run at the table or online. Every decision and guideline seems so correct and obvious that it's a wonder a game like this hasn't been done already. Above all, ShadowDark respects the Game Master's time, with elegant writing and many random tables with which to create anything one would need to run a successful fantasy dungeon crawl campaign. I can't wait to try running it with ShadowDark pre-written adventures, old-school modules from other games, and my own ideas.

[Nathan Ethridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll start with my only criticism to get it out of the way and sneakily work in how it's a good thing actually. ShadowDark itself is setting neutral. At first, I kind of saw this as a flaw when I put down the Core Rulebook. Ok, so who are these monsters? What's their backstory? Why are we here? WHERE are we? These were questions I had when looking at the starter adventure and considering it for my table. Coming from 5e, it was a bit jarring to see how sparse the lore was on the above questions.

Sure, Lost Mine (yes, it's singular, get it right) of Phandelver has some quirks and holes to fill in, but it has a plot a setting, and a story. All things I've been conditioned to expect from modern ttRPGs. And even if THE Forgotten Realms is a kitchen sink of every conceivable idea and theme imaginable, it still has rules and lore. It's got a background that even if my PCs don't interact with, is still there and is implied in the way the NPCs behave and speak. "Seven days in a week? Are ye daft? There's ten days in a tenday. That's why it's called that ya addlepated donkus." "Nay, yer off lass. It's not 2020-so. It's 1481, dale-reckoning of course." Etc, etc...

As a forever DM, this kind of information is important to me even if tangential. Sure, there are the rules of the mechanics, but there are also rules to the story and the world. Something one NPC does or says that might be praised in Waterdeep might be shunned in Neverwinter for example. And that's only changing cities, this concept only gets magnified by a jump in setting (or planes for that matter).

I should now point out that there are technically official Shadowdark settings in the Cursed Scroll zines (very important to the game, don't mistakenly overlook these). And it was here when presented with official settings and some nice hex maps that I realized that I probably won't use these and will instead either create my own, have it be neutral, or better yet - slap the Shadowdark mechanics on top of whatever setting an adventure is currently set in. Once I realized how much freedom the lack of a dedicated setting gave DMs the more I started to "get it" and the same way that I made 5e my own mechanically, I could now make ShadowDark my own narratively.

OTHER THAN THAT - I think it's perfect. It's old-school D&D but with a familiar 5e base. All these small things like equipment and lighting that slowly got magic'd or handwaved out of D&D are now extremely important here. No one (except the monsters) has darkvision (thank the stars!). It's such a grittier vibe that I get the impression used to be present in D&D but got lost in favor of heroic high-fantasy shenanigans, which can be its own fun too, but I think even the players get bored of always winning all of the time. And it's nice to not have to rely on bullshit dice rolls or pull endless rabbits out of my er.. hat to make the game work.

Also, I should say Kelsey Dionne (creator) is wonderful and has done a great job at setting the tone and direction of the ShadowDark community. This game could have easily devolved into edgelord nonsense and I believe a key part of why it didn't was because of her guiding hand. And I'll just point-blank say it's nice to have a queer creator make one of the grittiest RPGs in recent memory. It being smooth to learn and play is just the cherry on top. A lot of care was put into this and I'm so happy it exists. There were so many places this could have gone wrong or not existed at all and I don't take this game for granted. In a time when Hasbro & WotC seem hell-bent on destroying all the goodwill it had built up post-2014 5e, something like ShadowDark is invaluable to the ttRPG community.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn't my first time talking about ttrpgs (tabletop role-playing games) on goodreads and it certainly won't be my last. It's been an interesting journey that I've been on. I started with Pathfinder 1e back in high school. Had no idea that it was a spinoff of D&D 3.5e and put it down relatively quick. That system is not friendly to newcomers of the genre. I would eventually get back into ttrpgs with Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition. I couldn't tell you exactly what set me off. I know that the original Baldur's Gate plus Baldur's Gate 3 were very strong contributors.

I say all this because I need you to understand where I'm coming from as a fan of these games. I'm certainly no seasoned veteran but I'm not a complete newcomer either. I dipped my feet into being a dungeon master last Halloween. I got a group together to play a homebrew setting that I backed on Kickstarter called Steinhardt's Guide to the Eldritch Hunt. Needless to say, I was way out of my league. If you're looking into getting started in this hobby there are much easier solutions than D&D 5e.

This is where I introduce ShadowDark RPG. A promise to bring back the joy of old-school ttrpgs with the conveniences on newer systems. If you couldn't tell by my rating I think that this book knocks it out of the park. The biggest praise I can give it is how simply it's written. The book is concise, only giving you what you absolutely need as far as rules are concerned. That's great because that's going to make teaching this game a lot simpler. If you aren't pulling out your rulebook every couple of minuets that means that you (and your players) are getting to do fun stuff instead.

Some will argue the system is too barebones. No subclasses, no multiclassing, and no feats?! Yeah there isn't any of that and I think that makes ShadowDark a better game, especially for those starting out. Does this mean that I'm giving up on D&D forever? No way, especially considering how much I've invested into the system. That being said, I can see taking aspects of ShadowDark and implementing them into 5e. The torch mechanic is one of my favorites. By putting an emphasis on light and players having a time limit on 1 hour (real world time) incentivizes players to think on their feet and make abrupt decisions. Perfect if you're used to your play group pausing the game for 10 minuets at the start of each encounter to make a plan.

Overall, ShadowDark RPG is fantastic. I love it a lot if you couldn't tell. I think this is perfect for people interested in ttrpgs but aren't sure where to begin. If you want to be a dungeon master you literally just need this book. You can download a free copy of the quick-start guide (for players and dms). If you end up liking it you can spend around $20 to get a PDF of the core rules or spend $60 for a hardcover copy as well as the PDF. This is a stark difference from D&D who expect players (specifically those interested in being Dungeon Masters) to buy 3 hardcover books at $60 each (Core book, Monster Manual, Dungeon Master Guide). As of writing this I just finished my session 0 with my playgroup and everyone is excited. I'm optimistic that I'll be playing this rule system at my table for many years to come.

P.S. There's a ton of random tables in this book which makes me so incredibly happy.

[Haakon · Rating 5 out of 5]

How it was to read
Another OSR game was prolly the last thing I needed in my bookshelf, but the hype machine around this was impossible to resist.

ShadowDark is one of those current generation of OSR products that gets a lot said with few words, has a sleep layout, a more readable letter size, puts everything in neat sections, uses the inside cover for most of the importan rules and is generally an amazingly well put together book. It should also be said this was a fairly good read from cover to cover, in the sense it never felt like reading legalese, which makes the book a bit better as just a reading thing than other OSR products.

The rules is in the same boat there. I get Shadow of the Demon Lord vibes from just a stat+die vs a DC, and some backgrounds and skill things might give you an advantage. And there's some more class traits than OSR games usually has in the form of talents you randomly get, making your character have some stuff on the sheet you can say it does better than other characters to give it more of an identity mechanics wise. The game even has the audacity to give one of the sacred cows a new paintjob, with spells requiring a check to cast them and potentially never really running out of them making a level 1 wizard or priest fairly different from their OD&D counterparts.

Other than that there is a lot of usual OSR-style product things in the book. Lots of random tables for generating things on the go, lots of monsters with small neat statblocks and maybe a small ability to flesh them out more in play. Treasures, especially magic treasure, has the same philosophy of making everything feel special and provide ways to do that. Some of the "premade" magical items have some small twists that makes them stand out more and provides good examples for what to strive for when you make your own.

The most contentious issue with the game might be the slot based system and the importance of light. I already like slot systems (use them both in YZE and OSE-variants) and enjoy Darkest Dungeon inventory stuff, but I've had a lot of players that dislike the logistics side of play not feel this bit. And might put people playing games where inventory management isn't a thing off fast.

I think the biggest asset of the game is that the core engine of just rolling high with some stats and getting some stuff when you level without hitting a bloat point. To me it seems like the best D&D-like game to play with new players or if playing with people coming in from other games, so that's what I am going to be using it for. And you can use all the tables and items in other OSR games too, obviously, which I am also going to do.

So the book seems like a nice purchase even if it's just for reading and data mining.


How it was to play
This is the caveat of this review - I have not played it yet. Will update once I have a few games under my belt.

[E Kummeneje · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not incredibly impressed by the rules as such, but they've done a very good job if viewed as "remove EVERYTHING unnecessary from 5e, add only what absolutely necessary". It's cut down to the bone, no skills, barely any minimalistic feats, fairly few spells. Added are a few things like light measured in realtime, magic being more volatile/dangerous, bits like that. Surprisingly, no horror/stress/panic system at all.

Actually there's nothing I find overly exciting or impressive, but when you read it all in context and put together; for example the innumerable random tables (fantastic in any system!), how monsters are described, hints in the direction of gameplay style etc, what emerges is a very successful ultra-light 5e hack.

I think I personally enjoy more intrigue and social encounters than Shadowdark seems to assume (i.e. nearly none), so I'm not sure if I'd love it for a long campaign. But seems great for oneshots and smalled sequences. Big bonus for having an integrated random character rolling system.

A few words about the book itself, I have the deluxe edition which I'm led to believe only has a different cover. The book is basically at the edge of beong able to support itself (it's almost too big for its binding), and I suspect it may tear or fail within time. The paper is glossy but seems somehow cheap, very easily takes marks and smudges. On the plus side, it's incredibly quick to read, with big text, small pages and many tables for later lookup. The art tries it damndest to call back to 1E and 2E, but I like it the best when it does it's own weirdly comic thing.

[Keith Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dungeons & Dragons adjacent games tend to fall into three categories. Games like Castles & Crusades and Old School Essentials try to recreate an older version of D&D. Systems like Tales of the Valiant and Level Up 5E take the current version of the game and modify it to fit their own ideas. Finally games like Dungeon Crawl Classics and Pathfinder start out as one or the other, but evolve over time into something unique. ShadowDark falls somewhere in between the first two categories, as it seems to take Original D&D and update it to match the ease of play of modern D&D. It is both a simplified version of D&D, and kind of a darker hardcore version as well. I believe with time it may grow into a solid member of the third category. It already has the coolest magic item since the Deck of Many Things: the Bag of Badgers.

[Pádraic]

Haven't read the full core book here, but instead the player quickstart and GM quickstart (a cool 60+ pages each but excellent layout and general brevity makes that seem a good deal less).

And my thoughts are more or less the same as what I had when I skimmed the preview docs when the kickstarter was on--there aren't really enough innovations here to justify the ecstatic response this game received. It's just 5th edition dragged kicking and screaming back to the dungeon. A project it succeeds at! But I'd rather build something new from the ground up, fit for purpose, than hew away parts from the foundation of a system that isn't fit for purpose, if that makes sense.

[Francisco Becerra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the bland son of D&D BECMI and 5e. Make no mistake: the decisions of selecting the sufficient rulings to be minimalist and functional work splendidly, and the unsurmountable amount of tables to generate almost anything are very useful. The equipment slots and the torch mechanics are very good. The writing is an ode to precision. But utter lack of setting or the hint of one, the absolute replacement of narrative through mechanics, and its focus on OSR minimalism are a drag to me. I personally want to be inspired by a setting, not just having a buch of derivative rules, even if they’re neatly packaged.

[Matthew J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

From what I understand, a lot of the idea behind this was to streamline D&D 5e, and capture some of the illusive (and I'd argue, largely apocryphal) "Old School" vibe. Whatever any of that might mean, what we've got here is a pretty straight-forward, clearly explained D20, Class/Level based system that feels tonally a lot like Dungeon Crawl Classics, but system wise is much simpler and more grounded.
I like it. I'm definitely hoping I can give it a try sometime soon. I love DCC's hellzapoppin', everything AND the kitchen sink sensibility. But I also like diving into similar thematic territory with a much simpler system. It's nice to have options.

[Ben Gutteridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't had the chance to play/run it yet, but this is a masterclass in RPG writing: simple but clever rules that utilise common sense and leave ample room for flexibility; a succinct but thematic writing style that respects the GM/player's time; heavily stylised, old-school art and formatting. The random tables are a godsend; you could run great TTRPGs sessions for decades using only this book as a resource and never run out of inspiration. Kelsey Dionne has pulled off something pretty spectacular: the best of modern D&D and old-school renaissance together in one beautifully made A5 book.

[Jonathan]

Great ruleset for a streamlined 5E Dungeons and Dragons with a darker feel. Character creation is on one spread and this book contains everything for the Game Master to do their thing. Made my job easy when I ran a one shot for strangers.

[John Dahlke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very neat, rules light RPG. Familiar monsters and character archetypes but very cool system.

[Brendan Rather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clear, concise, and imaginative. I look forward to using these rules as a framework for future games.

[Oscar Cecena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple and fun!

This system is the answer for players who want a less crunchy system but still like the overall feeling of 5E (not giving any money to WotC is the cherry on top for me). I also love the size of the book, the black hardcover, and the overall layout of the pages, it just feels nice to hold in your hands.

As a GM, I love how easy it is to run a session. While I prepared the session, the players were building characters. It took us about 30 minutes to set everything up for a 4-hour session.

[Billy Kid · Rating 4 out of 5]

OSR RPG system that cleaned up the Ennie awards in 2024. There's a succinctness and clarity to the rules which also seems to cover all the bases unlike other OSR systems I've read. I'm excited to finally do some old school dungeon crawling with these rules.