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d8 Shadowdark Hacks (S5E3)

Leave a Comment / Podcast, Regular Episodes / By / / Hacks, House Rules, Rules Hacks, Shadowdark

With help from the Lair community, we collected eight house rules for Shadowdark. On this episode, we run through these rule hacks, offering our thoughts on how they might impact the game. Most of these are not rules we’ve tried ourselves, so we’d love some more field reports!

And yep, we’re looking for even more rules variants. Leave your feedback and/or house rules in the comments, or email us at podcast@lairofsecrets.com.

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Show Notes

1. DM Scottie’s house rule for luck dice

  • Details:
  • Our thoughts:
    • David – Getting luck or luck dice for failure is interesting. It gives you something for losing a turn in combat. It will change how Shadowdark plays though. You can’t give dice to others like you can with luck. You can accumulate a lot of dice, making it nearly impossible to fail. It can tilt Shadowdark back to superheroic fantasy like 5e is.
      • Nothing wrong with this. Be aware if you use this house rule, it will change the game a bit more in the player success direction. 

2. Dice instead of Luck Tokens

  • Details:
    • Use d6 per level (level 1 gets 1, level 2 gets 2). Can be used to add or subtract from rolls at the table and can be shared with others, but can only spend an amount equal to their level.
    • Provided by BrentNorton1602
  • Our thoughts:
    • David – I think this sounds like a good idea. This gives you the ability to push you just over the edge, but at low level you can tell if spending luck would be worthwhile or not.
      • You do lose the chance for a big swing from a 1 to a 20.
        • At low levels you may not have a chance to succeed like you would with a luck token.
      • It’s a lot less of an impact than DM Scottie’s house rule.

3. Clerics have miscast tables like wizards

  • Details
    • The gods are fickle, plus it’s easier if the system is the same for all casters. 
    • Provided by BrentNorton1602
  • Our thoughts:
    • Hmmmm. Kind of like the arbitrary nature of needing to atone. 
    • Cleric chart vs. Wizard chart.
      • All wine turns to vinegar until you atone.
      • A plague of frogs. 🙂 
      • Enemies of the deity send someone after you.
      • Elite warriors of your faith come to beat the crap out of you. 

4. Experience per session, not per monster or treasure.

  • Details:
    • 1 xp per session. 2nd lvl you need 3xp. At 3rd you need 4 new sessions. Easier to keep track of.
      • Is the number of xp needed equal to the level you are going toward?
    • Provided by BrentNorton1602
  • Our thoughts:
    • David – It would be easier to keep track of. I see two issues with it:
      • What about carousing and downtime? Does that XP go away? There’s a knock on effect to the game economy if you get rid of carousing, and remove a reason to go out and get treasure.
      • This would mean that getting to 5th level would take a very long time/# of sessions. It also takes away the need to gain treasure or do things in the game that would gain you XP.

5. Max hit points at first level

  • Details
    • Provided by BrentNorton1602
  • Our thoughts:
    • David – If you want a less deadly game at first level, I think this is a good option. It doesn’t lead to a great party cohesion if characters die right off the bat.

6. Magical Tattoos

  • Details:
    • We have a magic tattoo system and use warp stone, moon stone. Spell casters need to find or buy moonstone and have it turn in ink and tattooed on to their bodies. 1 pound per tier of spell.
    • Provided by BrentNorton1602
  • Our thoughts:
    • We’d like to know more! 

7. Don’t Lose a Spell Until You’ve Succeeded At Least Once

8. Removing character classes that generate luck

  • Classes like the Bard and Seer generate too much luck during games (or so I have heard)
  • Having luck easily at hand removes a lot of the risk in Shadowdark
    • Things like spellcasting become easier and more certain
    • Luck is sometimes hoarded for spellcasters so they don’t fail
  • Maybe this should be: Don’t allow more than one luck to be spend for spellcasting?
    • “You *must* use the new result” could be interpreted as only a single luck can be spent on a roll
      • Do you allow multiple luck to be spent on a single roll?

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    Black-and-white artwork from the Shadowdark core rule book.

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