# ShadowDark tags: #game/rpg/shadowdark ![[ShadowDark (cover).jpg|600]] **ShadowDark** is what happens when someone takes the old-school dungeon crawl, strips out everything that isn't the part where the torch runs low, and sells it back to the hobby as a virtue. Written and designed by Kelsey Dionne and published in 2023 by The Arcane Library, it's a rules-light, intuitive fantasy game built on three words: speed, danger, and simplicity—which is marketing-speak for "we know you're nostalgic for 1974 and don't want to read a 400-page rulebook." You and your companions descend into the Shadowdark—any place where darkness, danger, and myth hold sway—in search of gold and glory, and the whole machine is tuned to make you feel every guttering flame and every low hit point. It took Product of the Year honors in 2024, which says less about the game and more about how badly the hobby wants the good old days back. Probably both. ## Core Resolution Mechanics Characters run on six stats—Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma—rolled 3d6 in order, ranging 3-18 with modifiers from -4 to +4, because the hobby still loves a bit of cruelty at character creation. You pick an ancestry (Dwarf, Elf, Goblin, Half-Orc, Halfling, or Human), each with a small talent, and a class: Fighter, Priest, Thief, or Wizard. There's no skill list to speak of; your background—a d20 table of Urchins, Banished, Wizards' Apprentices, and the like, the usual fantasy resume—covers the rest. You can start at 1st level, or at 0 level as a fragile peasant who survives the Gauntlet to earn a class at all, because nothing says fun like starting as a glorified commoner. The core roll is a d20 plus your stat modifier against a Difficulty Class. The four standard DCs are Easy 9, Normal 12, Hard 15, and Extreme 18. Advantage and disadvantage roll two d20s and keep the better or worse result, and they cancel if you've got both. A natural 20 always succeeds and, on an attack, is a critical hit that doubles the damage dice; a natural 1 always fails and might send your swing into an ally. When the GM just needs a coin flip, it's a d6—1-3 is bad for the players, 4-6 is good. Checks are reserved for when failure has consequences, the task needs skill, or time is pressing. You don't roll to do what you're trained to do, and social encounters run on what you actually say rather than Charisma checks—a radical idea this hobby still hasn't fully accepted. The GM can hand out luck tokens for heroism or good roleplaying; you hold one at a time and cash it in to reroll any roll, or pass it to a companion. It's the game's way of pretending the referee is fair. Combat runs on initiative (d20 + DEX) in turn order. On your turn you take one action and move near, splitting the movement however you like. Melee attacks are d20 + STR against the target's AC; ranged are d20 + DEX. Damage is the weapon's dice plus bonuses. Enemies check morale once they're cut in half and flee on a failed Wisdom check. At 0 HP you're dying on a death timer of 1d4 + CON modifier rounds—roll a d20 each turn and a natural 20 brings you back with 1 HP, or a companion can stabilize you with a DC 15 Intelligence check. Death is permanent; dead characters are retired, and that's the point. The real star is time and light. A torch lasts one hour of real time, and the game tracks it in real time—that's the whole tension, and the whole gimmick. In total darkness you're at disadvantage on sight-based tasks and the environment turns deadly, with random encounters rolling in. Treasure earns XP, and carousing converts coin into XP between adventures, so the incentive is to get in, grab the loot, and get out before the flame dies. It's the rare game that makes greed the point and says so out loud. ## Edition Changes **ShadowDark** launched in 2023 as a single lean core book after a Kickstarter the nostalgia economy swallowed whole, and it's stayed that way on purpose—no edition sprawl, no splatbook avalanche, which in this hobby is practically a moral stance. The core tome packs in random encounter tables for every terrain, a monster generator, treasure and magic-item tables, and a full GM section on running the game. The free Quickstart set and the Shadowdarklings generator handle onboarding, and the line has grown through small Cursed Scroll zines and an official campaign setting, The Western Reaches. One book, and the point is that it stays one book—until the market inevitably decides otherwise. # References - [ShadowDark RPG - The Arcane Library](https://www.thearcanelibrary.com/pages/shadowdark) - [Shadowdarklings - Character Generator](https://shadowdarklings.net/) - [Shadowdark Tools - Reference and Planning Tools](https://www.shadowdarktools.com/)