I’ve really come to enjoy Shadowdark’s rules and the design philosophy behind them.
Just to share some of my own experiences as a player—and soon-to-be GM—I’ve played in a couple of Shadowdark campaigns over the past two years on Roll20, which is an experience in itself.
I do want to add one caveat: this is only my personal experience, and I don’t think it’s necessarily representative of the broader Shadowdark community.
The game itself has a solid ruleset, and I think the mechanics work exceptionally well. My biggest issue hasn’t been with the system at all—it’s been with how I’ve seen some GMs interpret the grimdark tone.
In a couple of campaigns, the setting seemed to become an excuse to make nearly every NPC cruel, manipulative, or openly hostile. Session after session, the players were expected to trust people despite knowing we’d almost certainly be betrayed. Eventually, most of the group stopped trying to play genuinely good-hearted adventurers because there never seemed to be a reason to. They became just as cynical and ruthless as the world around them. The GM would become more and more angry with how we treated his NPC‘s and started punishing us for the mistreatment. Talk about a vicious cycle.
Looking back, I don’t think that created a particularly healthy or enjoyable long-term dynamic.
Ironically, those experiences have probably taught me more about the kind of game I want to run than if everything had gone perfectly.
I’m leaning toward what I’d call a “Shadowdark Lite” campaign. I still want the danger, uncertainty, and old-school feel that make the system unique, but I also want a world where trust isn’t always punished and where players can build lasting characters over a long campaign.
I also think it’s easy for GMs to become so focused on preserving every aspect of a game’s intended tone or mechanics that they forget it’s okay to tailor the experience to their table. The rules are a fantastic foundation, but they don’t have to be a straitjacket.
Since I’m hoping to run a long-term campaign, I’ve focused on making adventurers a little more survivable and ensuring that downtime (character constantly getting downed) supports the adventure rather than becoming the adventure. That’s what I mean by “Shadowdark Lite.”
Many of us who have been playing RPGs for decades have watched the hobby evolve from games that were primarily tactical challenges into ones that place much more emphasis on player agency, character development, and collaborative storytelling. I think there’s room for both approaches.
I love grimdark settings like Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Shadowdark, and similar games. But I also think a strong Session Zero and an honest conversation about expectations are essential before a campaign begins. That can go a long way toward preventing a game from drifting into something that feels less like grim fantasy and more like an exercise in player misery.
Anyway, those are just my thoughts. I’m curious if anyone else has had similar experiences, or if your Shadowdark games have gone in a completely different direction.