Good friend Chris recently told me about the Shadowdark RPG and it seemed a good fit for someone like me who mainly plays wargames with just some occasional roleplaying. I bought the quickstart guides first and was so impressed that both Chris and I got the full rules printed and bound for us. Today was my first chance to get a game in with another of my main gaming friends Ian taking on two characters (fighter and priest) and my daughter Jenny also taking on two characters (wizard and thief).
For our first adventure I re-wrote an old D and D starter adventure of mine dating back to the 1980's, placing it within the land of Camberlann, an old campaign world of ours.
All set to play.
A fuzzy photo of the PC's approaching a poor woodcutters hut near to the village of Wyrms Fell.
This encounter sent the adventurer's off on a quest to rescue the woodcutters daughter from some goblins holed up in a cave system nearby.
Quickly overcoming some goblin guards and finding some treasure under the giant statue (big chap waving a sword about). All seemed to be going well until Ralinna the halfling thief fell off the bridge taking a wound as well as a soaking.
No worries, Lothielle the Elf Wizard soon charmed him.
After locating an ancient, hidden dwarf forge the PC's find a way out of the cave system only to come across a beastman fighting a giant centipede. A quick melee solved that problem and the players emerge higher up the hill.
After totting up their treasure the PC's escorted the woodcutter and his daughter back to their home. After resting overnight to heal their wounds the PC's continued onto Wyrms Fell to stay at the Dog and Dagger Inn. A spell of carousing saw Lothielle survive a dagger throwing contest whilst her three fellow adventurer's all woke up in the stocks for setting fire to a building. Yan the half-orc fighter found a pewter amulet with a wheel symbol on it in his pocket yet he has no clear memory of it getting there? Wyrms Fell is currently rife with rumours of a newly found old temple and possibly the site of an old Chaos Knight's tomb. I wonder where the PC's will venture next and who will come looking for their amulet?
Shadowdark plays very well. Quick character generation and an equally fast system of game play leads to a fast moving game. The numerous random charts available add to the flavour of the session and we used several of them to great effect. With the adventure completed and some carousing and trading done, most of the PC's are roughly half way to second level, better funded and with some new equipment. We are all looking forward to our next game.
It sounds like you had a great time. Good to hear that the system runs well
ReplyDeleteIt was great fun. I intend to have a reread of the rules before we play next to further help game flow.
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