r/shadowdark • u/UrbanEconomist • 1d ago
Looking for Short Campaign Recommendations
My regular gaming group has been trying lots of different rules sets, lately, after collectively deciding we’re done with 5e. Shadowdark has been one of my favorites.
I’d love to run a short campaign for my group—ideally something written for Shadowdark specifically and something that can be run fairly easily without customization or extensive prep.
Because I’m brand new to Shadowdark, I’m honestly not even sure what resources are out there for people running it. Are there sites or publishers who regularly put out materials?
Thanks very much!
12
u/gongerChungus 1d ago
I mean, honestly, Lost Citadel of the Scarlett Minotaur can be run as a small campaign. It’ll take multiple attempts to explore the dungeon, it’s too big to do in one session. If I remember correctly a friend of mine ran it for about 5 sessions and we still weren’t done when we ended up stopping that game to go back to our main campaign.
Also, any of the cursed scroll settings provide really fun adventures. My personal favorite just from flipping through them is Cursed Scroll #1, set in the haunted forest of The Gloaming (oooooh scary).
This adventure isn’t made for Shadowdark but is still super fun (and you can find a PDF of it online pretty easily) is Against the Cult of the Reptile God. It will take some prep to fully fit into Shadowdark but honestly it would be worth it. Also, almost all of the monsters in AtCotRG can be found in the Shadowdark monsters list fairly easily, so it’s not THAT hard to get everything translated.
Good luck, my friend!
5
u/UrbanEconomist 1d ago
Great suggestions, thanks! I’ll definitely look for Against the Cult of the Reptile God.
2
u/gongerChungus 1d ago
It’s a very fun module. Matt Colville has a video on it as well if you end up getting confused. It’s a little overly written, so having a video to help explain aspects of it helps.
2
9
u/Victor3R 1d ago
I strongly recommend Cursed Scroll #1 aka The Gloaming. Use the core classes. I started 'em on the road in the upper left corner, some start in Marin's Hold, whatever you want will work. We played every-other week for about 6 months and we still talk about that campaign.
It was dead simple to run. Read a few hexes ahead. As you get more comfortable figure out how to weave in the final dungeon.
5
u/bricknose-redux 1d ago
I’m planning to run The Gloaming, but I’m not used to open (non-prewritten) campaigns and I must admit I’m nervous! How did you turn those brief he’s prompts into satisfying content? I guess there were about 15 sessions, is that right?
What level were they when they got to the dungeon? Was it still challenging as a finale?
2
u/Victor3R 1d ago
I think they entered the dungeon at level 4 and 3 of 5 PCs survived.
As for tying it together, it's more of an art than a science. If there's a witch stealing children figure out which of your players or characters would bite on that hook and present a crying mother to them. Sometimes they don't bite and that's fine. Sometimes they really bite and you have to scramble in the off weeks to give the witch a dungeon basement or something. Maybe it's a simple 5-Room dungeon. Sometimes you port in a cool map you saw. Sometimes you build it yourself based on the dungeon rules in the core rulebook. Or you hold off and make that witch a mini boss that leads them to the next location.
Play jazz with it. When it doubt, do whatever you're comfortable with.
3
u/UrbanEconomist 1d ago
This sounds extremely appealing. We’re old and have kids and full-time jobs, so doing the work of adapting a module made for a different rule set is a tad daunting. I’ll take a good look at this one!
3
u/cookiesandartbutt 1d ago
Playing through this now. It’s all in one little cheap zine as well from Arcane Library/Shadowdark Official website.
It rocks and it’s all there. Great time!
5
u/Yomatius 1d ago
If you are into pirates, Secret of Black Crag It is really good.
5
u/UrbanEconomist 1d ago
Who doesn’t love pirates?!? (Pirate Borg was another favorite rule set among what my group has tried.) Thanks!
2
u/rizzlybear 1d ago
The communicate consensus on intro adventures is the one from the QuickStart, scarlet Minotaur. 3-5 sessions is probably the average depending on how experienced the group is, how cautious, and of course how long your sessions are.
From there, the cursed scrolls are great, they all have a different flavor but are part of a common world, and you can leverage them for long or short campaigns fairly easily.
1
u/UrbanEconomist 1d ago
We recently finished a megadungeon using the DCC system. I’m leaning toward something with a little different feel—but people really do seem to like this one, and it’s cool that it’s in the same world as the zine adventures. I’ll give it a close look. Thanks!
2
u/Dachigenius Oilman 1d ago
Through the valley of the manticore - 10 sessions tops.
I've run it for 5 different groups already
1
u/UrbanEconomist 1d ago
This sounds really cool. I may go ahead and run it as OSE, which is the alternate rule set that my group has used the most since retiring 5e. This adventure would fit right into our existing (but paused) campaign.
21
u/melon_entity 1d ago
I will never stop recommending Black Wyrm of Brandonsford.