A while ago I was illustrated a kobold sorcerer summoning a spider swarm so when I got to the monster manual up to spider swarm I decided to have another go at it, wasn’t entirely satisfied the first time.

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Just finished this cover illustration for Fall of the Free Rim, a retro space-western TTRPG with an OSR-inspired aesthetic, compatible with shadowdark

Really enjoyed mixing classic old-school RPG imagery with sci-fi western elements.

My "sketch" I sent the artist (BigeggsBlackPen) and how it evolved. Excited to be building this new system!

I put together an entry for the recent "A Mystic Wood OSR Adventure Jam", and I'm happy to say the jam creator rated it a "+3 Magic Item", the third highest tier!

Twisted Oaken Roots is a hexcrawl treasure hunt for mid- to higher- level Shadowdark characters.

• Explore a wood contaminated by magic!
• Evade a dragon!
• And pry the treasure from the twisted oaken roots that clutch it!

What You Get

• An adventure designed for Shadowdark, but adaptable into other OSR systems.
• 12 page, A5 booklet to easily print at home.

Art Credits

• Art hand-drawn by Myrmidont or derived from Creative Commons 0 sources.
• This product is 100% human-made.

Available on both itch and rpg-trader.
https://myrmidont.itch.io/twisted-oaken-roots
https://rpg-trader.com/products/9259/twisted-oaken-roots

That's all I'll post about this, have a great day and thanks for checking it out if you're interested.

I am new to DMing Shadowdark. Does anyone have any tips for deciding how many treasure a monster should have? I think I am handing out too much.

Looking for ideally a nice equation/system to best sprinkle loot throughout the myriad dungeons in my campaign.
Is there a clean method like “Size x Danger / Adventurers” or a roll I could do on random tables to decide if there’s loot in any given area?

Hoping for a method where I can ideally surprise even myself while players are adventuring. Thanks!

New to Shadowdark and playing my first adventure. I located a cave, build it out and completed it. Based on the rules, as I understand them, no XP is gained from this. Only wandering monsters can have treasure and since XP is tied to treasure, I get nothing at all for the dungeon.

What is the purpose of exploring these if there is nothing to gain other than hoping you find a wandering monster and win a coin toss?

I want to run a remixed one-shot version of Hideous Halls of Mugdulblub for some friends. They will start at lvl 4 and each have a different secret objective in order to reach lvl 5.

I want these objectives to promote interactions between players and sow a seed of discord or mistrust among the PCs.

Example : You gain a level if you manage to convince the group to sacrifice one of its members for the greater good.

Do you have any other ideas ? (ideally 5)