Welcome back, Dear Readers! I’ve been meditating on a feature of Shadowdark that I don’t think gets enough attention: the carousing tables and how they function as part of the game loop. Specifically, how you incorporate the carousing tables – and their simulacra – will shape the tone and theme of your campaigns.
For those who may not know, ShadowdarkRPG uses a very simple but effective gameplay loop. The players go to an adventure location, obtain treasure, gain experience from that treasure, and then return to a home base — a town, village, or keep — to enjoy the rewards of their adventure. Once there, they can go carousing.
Essentially, the characters spend their hard-earned treasure enjoying a few nights — or maybe a few weeks — at the local tavern or series of taverns. What Shadowdark has done is turn this into an actual game mechanic that provides additional experience points, along with a few possible bonuses or complications.
Maybe you win a knife fight and gain an extra Luck token for your next adventure. Maybe you gain an NPC ally. Maybe you end up causing trouble in the local castle keep. Whatever happens, the core idea is the same: you spend your gold to gain a bonus to a d8 roll and consult the chart. When it’s over, you’re broke again, and you need to head back out on another adventure.
That’s the game loop.
I would submit that the Shadowdark carousing tables can do far more than merely provide random events for a chance at extra experience points. Depending on how you use them, they can actually support the themes and tone of your entire campaign.
The standard carousing table evokes classic sword-and-sorcery fiction. It immediately brings to mind the scene from Conan the Barbarian after the jewel heist, where Conan, Valeria, and Subotai spend all of their hard-earned treasure drinking and celebrating in taverns over several days until they’re broke and forced to go adventuring again.
A number of third-party products have expanded on this concept with alternative downtime tables. Chubby Funsters GM Companion, for example, includes expanded options such as fighter training tables, wizard research tables, and clerical acts of devotion that primarily expand the concept to be class-specific activities. These are great, but only expand upon the sword and sorcery concepts.
Take the expanded carousing table in The Shucked Oyster by Black Lodge Games. It is a carousing table, but specifically designed for what happens at the infamous brothel. More importantly, it provides players with additional information about the brothel, pointing the PCs toward certain NPCs and other locations related to the module.
Let’s take this concept one step further.
Imagine a campaign inspired by the Crusades, where the players are holy knights entering the Holy Land to reclaim it from Saladin’s armies. In that kind of setting, returning from an adventure to spend weeks drunkenly carousing in taverns may not feel quite right.
But what if, instead, you had an atonement table?
The players could spend treasure as tithes to the church, seeking absolution for the violence they committed during their campaign. The mechanical structure remains the same — treasure is spent for advancement and potential bonuses — but the activity itself reinforces the themes and values of the setting.
I really like this module and will be putting together a comprehensive review on YouTube Channel soon.
I’ve seen something similar in a product called The Legacy of Iskald by Brynjar Már Pálsson. It’s essentially a hex crawl built around Norse and Viking themes, with keyed locations and strong cultural flavor. One of the most interesting mechanics in the book involves character death.
Instead of carousing, the surviving players spend time and treasure providing a proper burial for their fallen companion. Doing so grants experience to the group and also triggers a special roll for the player creating a new character. If the roll succeeds, the fallen hero is believed to have entered Valhalla, and the new character begins play with additional XP.
I think that’s an excellent use of the carousing framework. It takes a simple mechanical loop and uses it to reinforce the tone, themes, and culture of the setting itself.
And honestly, I think that’s one of the more underrated strengths of the Shadowdark design philosophy. If the next phase of the OSR is about developing setting material and crafting a unique experience at the table, any Shadowdark-related product will need to take this into consideration.
After wiping the egg off my face after the botched rollout of this project, I’ve learned quite a bit about Affinity Publisher and how to properly set up something for POD at DriveThru. My main takeaway?
Subcontract out the layout and formatting!
I hate it. It’s frustrating and, frankly, I’m not that good at it. In the past, I’ve used Miguel Ribeiro of The Red Room for anything that was going to be printed at Lulu.com. With the Living Darkness, I figured I would learn how to do it. Well, I certainly learned how to use Affinity, but it took too long and, to be honest, took the fun out of creating. In the future, I will be seeking someone to do the work for me.
I want to give a big shoutout to Better with Bacon, who became my layout/formatting guy. He fixed all my mistakes and learned a thing or two about DriveThruRPG’s POD process as well.
So, there you have it! Print on demand, both color and black & white are available. If I were you, I would just go with the black & white as there aren’t many color images in the zine…
My current projects right now include me bouncing between another Red Room installment, The Temple of the Coruscating Eye, a Lamentations of the Flame Princess project I’m pitching to James Raggi called, The Lost Boys of Keplar-1639c, and The Living Darkness, Vol 2, “Cursed Curiosities.”
I’m also working on an article with EruditeDm that will function as a supplement to Kelvin Green’s Big Terror in the Streets. This article will, essentially, create backgrounds for a Parisian campaign circa 1660s. A campaign that I am hoping will be run on Erudite’s channel in the not-so-distant future.
So, that’s all I got. Thank you for your patience for those waiting for POD. I hope you enjoy it.
To my knowledge, this is one of the first true megadungeons written for Shadowdark. Most third-party material I’ve seen so far leans toward smaller dungeons—adventures designed to be completed in one to three sessions. There’s nothing wrong with that format, but a megadungeon offers something fundamentally different.
A megadungeon demands long-term resource management. It turns dungeon delving into a sustained campaign experience rather than a short excursion. This isn’t something you clear in a weekend—it can easily become the centerpiece of an entire campaign. In that sense, The Crumbling Keep of Khashmur feels like a breath of fresh air in an increasingly crowded field of third-party content.
There’s a lot to like here—and a few things that don’t quite land. Overall, though, I think this is worth picking up if you want a megadungeon in your Shadowdark campaign. Personally, I’m considering placing it somewhere in the Western Reaches as an additional point of interest in an open-world game I plan to run once the Western Reaches Kickstarter has delivered.
The dungeon spans 11 levels, each presented clearly and cleanly. The book uses an A5 format, with each level given its own chapter. The single-column layout works well given the smaller page size and aligns with Shadowdark’s minimalist design philosophy.
I also like it because my eyesight is that of a 50-year-old!
The core premise is strong: a once-great keep has fallen into ruin after a curse afflicted its ruling family. The king and his household retreated deep beneath the keep, following rumors of a cure hidden below. The people still love their king and hope for his restoration, but no one has seen the family in years. Adventurers who delve into the keep never return.
Fairly standard stuff for an adventuring location. What makes it different is the curse and its affliction.
Mechanically, the curse is one of the standout features. Characters risk infection, and every hour they must save or suffer Constitution or Wisdom loss—eventually leading to madness or death. This creates a real ticking clock. It also forces players to spend resources outside the dungeon to manage the disease. It’s lethal, stressful, and exactly the kind of pressure that makes a megadungeon compelling.
Another major strength is the faction design. Early in the book, the author clearly lays out the various groups within the dungeon, their motivations, and how they might respond to PC actions. This is a huge improvement over older modules like The Temple of Elemental Evil, where factions are often buried inside room descriptions. Having this information upfront makes it far easier for a GM to run the dungeon dynamically.
There are also some fun and memorable magic items, including a set of amulets required to unlock a vault that may hold the cure. These provide both mechanical rewards and a strong sense of purpose for exploration.
The biggest issue is with the maps. While they are clearly drawn and easy to read, they lack a defined scale. It’s never stated whether the grid represents 5-foot, 10-foot, or larger spaces.
From what I understand, the intended scale is 5-foot squares—and that’s a mistake.
In play, especially using a virtual tabletop, this scale makes the dungeon feel cramped and awkward to navigate. More importantly, it undermines the sense of grandeur implied by the setting. A cursed keep should feel vast and imposing; at a 5-foot scale, it instead feels tight and diminished.
My recommendation: run the dungeon at 10-foot squares. You can still incorporate tight spaces and bottlenecks where needed, especially on those levels where there are natural caverns intersecting the keep’s basement.
There’s also a minor narrative issue. The royal family has been missing—and presumably afflicted—for around 20 years. Given the lethality of the curse, it’s unclear how they could still be alive. The module doesn’t fully explain whether they’ve become undead or something else entirely. It’s a small plot hole, but one that’s easy enough for a GM to patch.
The artwork is sparse, consisting mostly of standard black-and-white illustrations. That said, it fits the product. This is a gameplay-focused module, and the art does its job without getting in the way.
The book is available through Lulu, and the print quality is solid—arguably better than what you typically get from DriveThruRPG. For $30 US, you get a hardcover with 145 pages.
Despite a few flaws—most notably the map scaling—The Crumbling Keep of Khashmur is a strong entry into the Shadowdark ecosystem. It delivers exactly what a megadungeon should: depth, danger, and long-term play potential.
If you’re looking to anchor a campaign around a single, sprawling dungeon, this is well worth your time.
Hello, Dear Readers! I decided to review something that has been sitting on my shelf for a couple of months, almost a year at this point. It is Dark Visions and the Tower of Six, two products for Shadow Dark written by Zach Goins. These are products I picked up at North Texas Con in 2025. I’ve read through them, and I think they’re interesting. But I do have some comments, Dear Reader.
Because I picked these books up at Zach Goins’ table at North Texas Con, I got a free handout for another character class associated with the theme of the two products: the Knight of Saint Tyragnus. Very interesting character class. I’ll address this really quick.
I like how spells do not immediately start at first level. It takes a while to get there. However, this knight has two abilities: The Written Word allows the class to cast spells from a scroll 3 times a day. Holy Wrath allows the class to cast the spell holy weapon without making a spell-casting check or using an action. To play this class, you must be of a non-chaotic alignment.
This is a clever class that avoids the power creep I see with a lot of Shadowdark character class options made by third-party creators. It’s also very thematically consistent with the other two products, as you will see.
Dark Visions provides 3 new character classes: the Cultist, Inquisitor, and the Covenant Knight. The Cultist is a spell-casting class with its own list of spells. The cultist can start with two languages of the more fantastic kind, such as celestial, diabolic, draconic, primordial, or Sylvan. The cultist has an Ashes to Ashes Ability that allows them to burn hit points to deal additional damage to an enemy. For every 1 hit point, they roll an additional 1d4 damage. If you ever roll maximum damage, you lose an extra hit point. So there is a slight danger to using this ability. I like that. The spell list appears to be a mix of cleric and arcane-type spells, such as bane, divine favor, and fear.
The Inquisitor class must be of a non-evil alignment, which is an odd notation considering Shadow Dark does not utilize the good-evil axis. But this inquisitor actually chooses a God to serve as an enemy, giving an advantage in checks against that enemy. They can activate spell scrolls and wands using intelligence as their spell-casting stat. The ability Judgment allows them to either use a Mark of Hellfire, which targets a chaotic creature with disadvantage for 1D4 rounds, or Mark of Radiance provides a target that can shed light for 1d4 rounds if they have the same alignment as the Inquisitor.
Finally, we have the Covenant Knight. It is another spell-casting warrior class, but it’s a lawfully aligned character. It has an ability, Final Word, which allows the class to deal maximum damage on an attack several times a day, equal to half their level. Resolute and Adversity give advantage checks to resist devils and demons, and spell casting, like the cultist, doesn’t begin until level three.
All of these character classes are thematically linked to the purpose of Dark Visions: cults. The classes seem balanced and do not engage in too much power creep when compared to the original classes from the Shadowdark book.
There are some extra backgrounds and equipment in this book, but the rest of the supplement is dedicated to new deities and cults to add to the list from the Shadowdark book.
The deities range from Lawful, Neutral, and Chaotic, including Acre and Mankar, the Blind, Bellerophon, Ishthef, Leviathan, and Volvo. These new deities and cults can be used along with the main Shadowdark book.
The interesting thing about the rest of the book, though is dedicated to cults. The book calls these cults The Nine and The Seven-this might be a reference to a popular Internet conspiracy theory?
Perhaps I’m reading too much into it, Dear Reader.
But all the cults noted in the book again reference some of the deities from the main book and this new book, as well as additional ones that provide both rumors and encounter types, monster stats, and include, in some cases, magical items or one-use items that are associated with the cults, which is a nice touch. As a little added feature, there are interesting-looking sigils associated with each cult.
There was a missed opportunity here to connect the cultist character class to the cults named in the book. Rather than give the cultist the Ashes to Ashes ability, allow them to choose the cult they owe allegiance to, which gives them a unique ability?
In the back of Dark Visions are two adventures. The first takes place in a partially submerged dungeon for 1st-level characters. The second adventure is for a 1st or 2nd-level party, which is an artifact-driven adventure. These two adventures are loosely linked together with The Tower of Six adventure, creating a story arc involving the Leviathan cult.
The dungeons are pretty simple, with simple keys to read them. I like that there are full-page maps for easy reference, and then broken down into smaller images for each area next to the area’s description on the page.
The Tower of SiX is a more substantive dungeon. The pamphlet book is about 36 pages, with new creatures, new magic items, and is similar to Dark Visions. There are two full-page maps for the various levels of the 2 main areas of the dungeon, but it’s broken up into smaller images for easy reference. This dungeon is for 2nd-level and 3rd-level characters.
As for gameplay, this looks like a fun adventure. I’d like to actually run it–I’d like to run all of them! Frankly, my concern with Shadow Dark’s bare bones style of presentation is that something is lost in translation. In particular, with the Tower of Six, there’s a reference to a forgotten key in certain areas, including the Gatehouse. The entry simply states “the original Tower key bypasses the Cultist ward, successfully casting a Tier 1 plus Wizard’s spell upon it.”
I have no idea what that means, and I don’t even know where the forgotten key would be. Maybe it’s providing the Game Master with an option to make it discoverable? Maybe it is in one of the earlier adventures, and I just didn’t see it? More importantly, what does this “Tier 1 plus Wizard’s spell upon it” mean?
But that is a problem with the minimalist presentation that Shadow Dark seems to embrace. Again, this adventure seems fun. I like that there are Deep Ones to contend with; there’s a Cthulhu-esque villain involved here. I really like that there are multiple factions in the Tower of Six that players engage with. The main “bad guy faction” is the Leviathan cult. But there’s a blind mage who can assist the party. Other creatures in the tower and dungeon will not help the cultist, but can certainly also be a problem for your players.
Without spoiling too much, there is a time clock running for the Tower of Six, as the cultists will eventually release an Abolith that they’ve been worshipping. There are some interesting encounters and spell effects that can occur while going through the Tower of Six, such as waking nightmare visions and the like. But at the end of the day, many of the encounters are pretty bog-standard dungeon encounters.
The PDF of Dark Visions runs $15. The Tower of Six is $8. If you are a fan of Shadowdark, Dark Visions can certainly provide you with plenty of ideas to steer your game toward dark fantasy: a world filled with secret cults, forgotten places of power, and dark creatures lurking in the shadows. Pruchasing both gives you 3 adventures, including a larger dungeon with the potential of region-altering consequences should the aboleth be successfully summoned.
As my Shadowdark on the Borderlands campaign may start up again, I may substitute the cult leader in Keep on the Borderlands for one of the cults in this book. When Shadowdark’s Western Reaches is released, I will populate it with dark cults using this book.
Okay dear readers, in conjunction with the video I made about The Yellow Book of Breshewold by Matt Strom, I am going to pontificate on how I would address a few criticisms I have with this module and how I would run a campaign centered around this module. Per my video review, The Yellow Book of Breschewold is a wonderful setting; you will get weeks if not months of entertainment out of it for your gaming group.
As I mentioned in the video, I think there was a missed opportunity with this module. That missed opportunity is the fact that you are playing spellcasters in a magic college,a school, a twisted Hogwarts for you Harry Potter fans, and the author provides no mechanics or offers guidance to use the module as such.
Sure, the NPC school faculty are sources of rumors and intrigue within the school that double as adventure hooks for exploring the mega dungeon and surrounding countryside, but you could have attached both the mega dungeon and quest giving NPCs to The Village of Hommlet.
You know, Ina the school’s alchemist could have just been an alchemist in the town. What’s the functional difference? There isn’t.
But it is placed in a school and the author, Matt Strom, went to great lengths to give the reader an in-depth description of each professor beyond just the rumors they provide. We are given details as to each professor’s specialty and the classes they teach—going so far as to divide up the classes between apprentice, journeyman, and master levels.
So, why not develop a campaign structure around this? An enterprising GM could have an immense amount of fun working off the bare-bones LotFP system to provide options for players who are participating in this campaign. The Yellow Book of Brechewold expressly states that, as a mages school, only clerics, magic-users, or elves would be in attendance. Indeed, the book explains that PCs will attend two classes a semester for a total of four semesters. By doing this, the PC collects rumors from those professors.
Why not go a step further and turn the yellow book of Brechewold into a robust school allowing PCs to earn additional skills, spells, items, and other abilities because of their studies?
By developing a curriculum around each of the faculty, PCs can take the three classes they are limited to and modify them through study. Indeed, your party will not include specialists, dwarves, halflings, or fighters. Giving the PCs options to build the character in unique ways to fill the role from missing character class options.
Turning back to the Yellow Book of Brechewold, I am proposing to go a step further than instituting backgrounds. Rather, the player rolls up a magic-user, cleric, or elf normally. Then, selects his or her courses as if they are preparing to attend school. In addition to the rumor associated with the NPC faculty member, the PC will gain access to a bonus spell, skill point, item, or ability at the end of the class term. Each ability can be tied to the apprentice, journeyman, and master ranks. A player can seek to master an area or take a breadth of classes. The end result would be a unique character designed by the player as they explore the area around the school and the mega dungeon beneath it.
As I stated, each member of the faculty has an area of specialty.
So, for example, Aelwyd the Conjurer, has classes dedicated to the summoning of all kinds of creatures from imps, explanation of parallel realms, pixies and nymphs, binding spirits, lesser commands, demonic contract negotiation, Lords of Hell, greater commands, and slaving thralls.
In contrast you have Cretien, the Composer could provide spells or abilities dedicated to counter spells or music related skills and/or abilities. This could include a reaction roll bonus while performing a song to allowing them to maybe expend a spell slot to immediately cancel a spell cast by another wizard.
Death Comes Back ,the Necromancer I think we know where we’re going with this. We can have players being maybe getting bonuses with turn on dead spells to spells raising and resurrecting the dead to maybe even bonuses to reaction rolls when conversing with intelligent undead.
Ecbert, the Librarian knows things about ciphers and codes, fairy languages, dwarven runes, various other magic and information related to language. I mean obviously we can give characters bonuses to their language skill, access to special spells for deciphering texts such as company language or bookspeak.
We can have some fun with Felveg the Smith. His classes can provid players with bonuses to the architecture skill. Players can get a bonus language in dwarven, or, perhaps, the PC that makes it to master level create their own magic item.
Ina the Alchemist has bonuses for creating magic potions when spending time to do so. Creating poisons, maybe providing benefits to saving throws, of four poisons and other types of magical elixirs and again maybe even capstone it off for creating of a magical item or excuse me magic potion or some other such item or device.
In-One-Mind-the-Cosmos focus is on horoscopes and reading the stars. Perhaps PCs gain an extra spells such as augury and those like it.
Isolde, the Enchantress, is an easy one. PCs can gain bonuses for reaction rolls to bonus charm spells such as charm person and maybe even bonuses to save versus charm/enchantment spells.
Madoc the naturalist is another no brainer. PCs can gain bonuses to bushcraft. Maybe they can get a falcon or wofl pet at the journeyman level.
Manswort, the herbalist, which can include bonuses to bushcraft, but also healing magic and more healing potions and things of that nature.
Nazrudin, the chronicler, could provide bonuses related to lore abilities. Maybe even provide the character with insight into some of the more secretive nature of the dungeon and school itself.
Rionan the Seer can also see into the future perhaps providing PCs with scrying abilities and protections against scrying.
And finally there’s Ambrosius, he’s the headmaster and he’s related to how to run a wizard’s tower and things of that nature.Not entirely sure what how I would translate that other than perhaps give bonuses for reaction to other NPCs in the school. Sort of like a teacher’s pet type bonus.
In any event, this is the kind of thing I would recommend. Certainly, each teacher, with the exception of the headmaster, has three different levels you want to have players take the prerequisites before they gain the journeyman or master ability spell bonus skill bonus etc.
that would allow for players who want to specialize in necromancy to do so or take a more broader breadth of knowledge and taking a smattering of everything.
What kind of powers and abilities? The sky’s the limit. You can provide cross-class abilities such as bonuses to attack, maybe the ability to wear heavier armor while casting magic or wielding weapons more proficiently. You can grant cross-class magical spells like allowing magic users can cast clerical magic and clerics can cast magic user magic.
Or you can dip into some of the abilities that are found across the LOTFP product line for these classes the players can take. Like I said, what I have above is but a smattering of ideas, certainly nothing that is exhaustive.
So how would you implement this? I actually recommend using some form of 1:1 timekeeping.
Maybe not specifically one-to-one time, but something that helps manage when players will have to make choices to changing their class schedule. Time will have to pass before a PC gains the ability, skill, or bonus spell. Consider it like training from AD&D1e.
1:1 time keeping and attaching a time limit on when a PC will earn an ability, could lead to PCs being in “training jail.” Training jail refers to a PC being unavailable for an adventuring day (game session) because the character is training, the interruption of which would result in the loss of the benefit conferred. I don’t see that as a problem as the player will create a second character to play, which in turn will create a living and breathing magic school with multiple students running around trying to meet deadlines, gaining abilities, and going on adventures.
Additionally, with 1:1 time, if the players do a dungeon delve and it takes them multiple days or if they’re out in the wilds for a week, if they haven’t returned by the next game session the following week the player will need to roll up a new character. And again, that will create the illusion of the living, breathing and busy school for young gifted magic users.
A semester approximately two to three months and at the end of that two to three month cycle, the PC will gain a bonus ability, spell, etc. at the end of it. As the book contemplates two classes per semester, the PC will gain two additional abilities every two to three months. I think that’s a fair distribution and rule to go by so as not to create overpowered characters and certainly encourage the players to diversify.
Anyway that’s all I got I hope this is helpful I think this would make for a fun campaign this is something that I have for now.
Hello, Dear Viewers! Just a quick personal update. I have published my first Shadowdark Zine on DrivethruRPG. You can find it here.
The Living Darkness, Vol 1 is a horror anthology inspired by movies such as V/H/S, Creepshow, and The Twilight Zone. This zine contains four adventures that will push your players to their limits. These adventures are expansions on game jam submissions that, in order to meet page requirements, I had to cut a lot out.
The Haunting of Ashtonshire will confound your players and keep them on edge as they explore the lair of a wrathful spirit. The always-on initiative is the central focus here as the PCs contend with the Ashtonshire Witch every turn.
Your players will face mutant horrors in Return of the White Wizard, where the torch timer has turned into something far worse. Concepts of “infection” and “timer” are the focus for this adventure.
In She, your players will face a cult obsessed with youth and beauty. Will they join the cult or defeat it? I provide an option for warlocks, and this features an option to run cult lair as a gauntlet for 0-level characters, where investigation using luck tokens–treated as favor with the cult–plays a central role.
The final installment is a not-so-simple death trap. With the words I Like You your players find themselves trapped with no hope for escape. This is used as an interruption of a PC’s carousing. They may believe their adventure is over, but they are targeted by a malicious demon.
This product includes three locations to explore, new adversaries, with player and GM resources, including character options and new magic items.
The cover art is by TARMHELL. I’ve worked with him before on The Deck of Many Triggers. I absolutely love what he did here.
The Living Darkness, Vol. 1, is the first in a series of horror supplements I am writing to take Shadowdark beyond hardcore gaming. Essentially, I used game mechanics from the Shadowdark core rulebook as a focus for each adventure. For me, game mechanics need to assist in creating horror at the table. It makes the experience more visceral.
Future installments of The Living Darkness will include a cursed treasure item collection called Cursed Curiosities. I am working on a gothic horror setting supplement that will include new classes, haunting generators, new equipment and gear, and guides for running a supernatural mystery adventure. I’m also working on a gothic horror adventure that was too big to include in Living Darkness Vol 1.
I will be placing a POD version of The Living Darkness Vol 1 on DriveThru, but I am currently waiting on the proofs to come in. I will let y’all know when the proof is approved.
Today I am looking at Damsels, Adventures, and Dragons, a retro-clone published by Gorgon’s Grimoire. This second-edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons–style ruleset serves as the foundation for the company’s broader design ecosystem, including its sister game, Ghosts of Vietnam. For purposes of full disclosure, its author, Richard Littles, gave me a free pdf to review. He will also be featured on my live stream, The Second Watch with Matt & Gary Friday, Mar 13, 2026. I hope to see you there.
The publisher has released the system under an open license he has called the Family Game System, a framework intended to support multiple interconnected projects. The naming conventions reflect this approach: Damsels, Adventures, and Dragons abbreviates to DAD, while Ghosts of Vietnam becomes GOV—a playful nod to the idea of a shared lineage of games.
According to the designer, this core system will serve as the mechanical backbone for future releases. He also maintains a Substack newsletter where he outlines his design philosophy and discusses the creative decisions behind his projects. You can find that here.
Mechanically and structurally, the system feels very familiar to fans of the TSR era of AD&D 2e. His clone leans into recognizable conventions while positioning itself as a modular foundation for expansion. Like any OSR product, this remains a very plug-and-play ruleset.
DAD’s familiarity starts with the available character races: human, dwarf, elf, half-elf, halfling, and gnome. However, DAD includes kobolds as a playable race. The inclusion of kobolds is somewhat curious. Goblins seem to be the go-to non-humanoid race to add from a modern design perspective. From an older perspective, AD&D 1e included half-orcs. The addition of kobolds seems out of left field.
One of the strengths of this retro-clone is that the author takes care to explain the reasoning behind many of the rules and offers guidance on how to properly adjudicate them. Given that level of thoughtful explanation elsewhere, leaving out any discussion of why kobolds are included feels strange—particularly if their role is simply to serve as an alternative to dragonborn. Indeed, the kobold entry goes into considerable detail to describe them as related to dragons, going so far as to have corresponding colors to match the classic dragons of D&D lore.
Which is another deviation from the TSR era. The kobolds of yesteryear were more like dogs. Making them dragons is a modern approach.
Another oddity involves the detail given to elves but not to other races, such as gnomes and dwarves. The elf entry goes into considerable detail regarding subraces—dark elves, winged elves, water elves, and others. By contrast, the dwarf and gnome sections lack any subraces at all. As a fan of dwarves, I find this omission curious and somewhat disappointing. Indeed, the classic subraces—hill, mountain, and deep dwarves—are built into the AD&D2e core book. Considering the author went to some length to include non-standard elf subraces, like winged elves, it is clear that elves are the preferred playable race.
But I digress…
As I noted above, the strength of this book is that it includes explanations, advice, and recommendations for gameplay. The author just doesn’t place a rule or set of rules in a section for the reader to accept blindly. Rather, there is time taken to explain the decision to use the rule or rules, often with advice on how to use the rule.
Take alignment, for example. One of the strengths of the original AD&D2e alignment section was that it took two to three pages to provide an example of each alignment in play, both in combat and out of combat, specifically dividing treasure. For me, it is the gold standard for alignment discussions. DAD attempts to do this, but goes one step further. The author provides brief advice—clearly rooted in experience—on how to run evil characters, alignment changes, and how alignment effects magic and religions. Interestingly, the author includes a discussion regarding the use of alignment on the macro scale, including nation building and campaign design.
Another example of this is how magic is discussed and treated. The author notes how rare it is within the setting of the implied setting. He also expressly states the amount of discretion the GM has in determining the prevalence of magic. I prefer magic to be rare, powerful, and scary. I also believe magic is an artform unique to the practitioner—hence the need for a read magic spell. While DAD doesn’t go that far, he does spend time discussing the acquisition of spells, laboratories, libraries, and religious shrines.
The chapter on encounters is very good. The author goes into detail on how to design encounter tables, tailoring them to terrain and region. He also discusses the difference between a flat distribution (i.e. 1d6, 1d12, etc.) versus a bell curve distribution (2d6, 2d12, etc.). Notably absent from the product is a bestiary. I assume one will be released separately, or that the expectation is for Game Masters to draw from second edition resources or other OSR-compatible materials. This is, after all, an OSR product and is fully compatible with the broader OSR ecosystem.
His chapters on NPCs function very similarly: there is an explanation of how an NPC is generated and how it can function in the game world, with advice on how to adjudicate the NPC’s use.
Combat functions like any other OSR system. As with the rest of the book, there is a detailed explanation for the process, including four paragraphs to explain THAC0.
THAC0, Dear Reader, is one of those perennial controversies across social media, pitting old schoolers against new school gamers. This step-by-step explanation shouldn’t confuse anyone.
The author emphasizes that the GM’s role is to describe events dynamically so that gameplay becomes more than a mechanical sequence of “I roll, I hit.” The environment is meant to be affected as swords swing and spells are cast. This attention to narrative consequence enhances immersion. I like this a lot. It is an implicit adaptation of Matt Finch’s Rule of the Ming Vase from his OSR Primer.
The experience system of DAD takes a broader approach than simple gold for experience points or “defeat monster, gain XP.” Instead, the Game Master is encouraged to consider party goals, player contribution to group enjoyment, survival, and overall advancement. This philosophy strongly echoes TSR’s approach to second edition AD&D during what is often called the Hickman Revolution.
Old schoolers may recoil at this section, as it is this design philosophy that opened the door to more story gaming within the OSR. Indeed, Hickman is (unjustly) blamed for much of the story gaming in the hobby. That is a conversation for another time…
The major weakness of this book is the layout. It intentionally mirrors the old-school second edition aesthetic: two-column format, small type, and stock art. While nostalgic, it is not always reader-friendly. Sections are lacking headings; tables are placed at the end of chapters; and the location of the illustrations disrupts a reader’s flow. At a price point around $69.99 for a physical copy ($29.99 for a pdf), expectations for layout and visual presentation are understandably higher—even for a retro-clone intended as a universal rule set. The price is fairly steep for what you get.
I am told by the author that placing tables at the end of chapters was meant for easy reference for game play.
With the design philosophy and explanations interspersed throughout the ruleset, a GM’s guide doesn’t seem necessary. However, a bestiary would make DAD feel like a more complete game rather than a system reference document.
That said, it absolutely succeeds in serving as a functional second edition AD&D-style rules framework. For those interested in writing new modules and supplements in the 2E tradition, this is an excellent resource. DAD functions more as a System Reference Document than a game unto itself. The only other major 2E retro-clone I’m aware of is For Gold & Glory, but it attempted to incorporate many of the splat books that came out of the TSR era. It tries to be a complete game. DAD does not do that. It is a stripped-down version of 2e AD&D presented for use to develop more 2e material. In that regard, it succeeded.
I have consistently argued that the indie scene would benefit from focusing less on rule clones and more on fresh settings and supplements that expand the hobby in new directions. Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, and Krynn have, in many ways, blurred into a familiar sameness over time. When you add the dreaded phrase “reimagined for modern audiences,” you get bland settings that amount to grey goo that are lackluster and uninteresting. In a word, they are boring.
In contrast, gaming in historically grounded medieval Europe (as explored in RPG Pundit’s work) or adventuring in the jungles of 1960s Vietnam, such as in Ghosts of Vietnam by Gorgon’s Grimoire, feels far more compelling as potential gaming experiences. Such an approach is fresh and offers an experience unlike what I’ve had when I started playing in the hobby.
And when you really think about it, if I can buy a reprint of an earlier edition of D&D, shouldn’t indie designers be focusing on new and interesting things like settings and genres?
What I believe DAD is doing is laying the foundation for Gorgan’s Grimoire’s future products built off the system reference document he created. I have it on good authority that he has products on the way, such as Superheroic Operations Network (SON) and Myths of Malignost (MOM).
In conclusion, DAD is a solid foundation—a fine starting point for those who want a faithful second edition-style system to build upon. It has certainly sparked my interest in exploring titles like Ghosts of Vietnam, which I have now added to my must-purchase list.
Hello, Dear Readers! I’ve been working on my Gods of the Forbidden North Campaign a bit this weekend, and I wanted to share with you what I drafted. One of the PCs is a mystic (BECMI/Rules Cyclopedia). We are leaning into the asian cultural influence contained in the GotFN. We generated a shrine/monastery that houses a group of students in a style of martial arts called Crashing Mountain. The shrine is led by an aging mystic named Fang Jin.
It makes sense in light of the many diverse cultures moving to Valkengaard. So far, our campaign has Norsemen and people from the Orient inhabiting the city. Why wouldn’t there be a monastery or shrine dedicated to a martial art?
With Zak S., Nebulith, martial arts have been introduced into LotFP. His system is a bit different than the one contained in Oriental Adventures (AD&D1e). It isn’t as strict in terms of advancement for each of the martial arts contained in Nebulith. That being said, it is full of ideas to develop your own martial art technique.
With all that said, I’ve borrowed from Nebulith and Oriental Adventures to develop Crashing Mountain style kung fu. Some of the maneuvers require a prerequisite before they can be learned. They are indicated in parentheses. I hope you enjoy it!
Crashing Mountain focuses on summoning inner strength to withstand blows, to act as a sentinel against all enemies, to stand motionless against the changing tide of battle. Chi is focused on a devastating attack that can permanently incapacitate several opponents at once.
Silent Mountain – meditation technique – for every 1 hour of meditation, the mystic gains the equivalent of 2 hours of sleep. On a successful constitution check, the mystic may forego food and drink for the day. This can be done a number of times equal to 1/2 the mystic’s level before the mystic suffers the effect of starvation.
Enduring Calm – (Silent Mountain) – Meditation technique – Always in effect – Through rigorous meditation, the mystic calms his mind and makes it an impenetrable fortress against any mental attack. The mystic gains a +2 to all saving throws against enchantment, charm, illusions, and other mind-altering magical and psychic effects.
Unyielding Peak – (Silent Mountain) – Meditation technique – always in effect – An advanced form of meditation, wherein mystics are required to meditate while struck by bamboo spears. They learn to harden both mind and body. The mystic gains a +1 AC bonus
Unbreakable Mountain – Weapon technique – When using maces, hammers, or morningstars, the Mystic gains a +1 to attack. They can also shatter the weapon of an opponent with a successful attack roll. The mystic’s opponent must save versus paralysis. On a failure, the weapon is broken.
Falling Mountain – Throw technique – The mystic learns how to fall correctly. The mystic learns to fall and roll, taking the impact of the fall on the safest areas of his body. It is constantly in effect. The mystic takes half damage from any fall.
Rolling Boulder – Throw technique (Falling Mountain) – the mystic learns to instantly stand upon being knocked to the ground. This is always active. The Mystic may immediately stand without suffering any penalties to movement or attacks for being knocked prone.
Eternal Mountain – combat technique – (Enduring Calm & Unyielding Peak) – The mystic goes into a meditative trance in combat, becoming an immovable object. By foregoing any attacks, the mystic may absorb damage equal to twice his level. The damage is not deducted from the mystic’s hit points unless it exceeds twice the mystic’s level. The mystic gets a paralysis save versus any attack that would knock him down, even if the attack normally does not. Similarly, the mystic gets a paralysis save against any attack or effect that would move him, even if the attack or movement does not normally gain a save.
Crashing Avalanche – Combat technique – (Eternal Mountain) – The mystic can now absorb three times his level when using Eternal Mountain. On the round following the use of Eternal Mountain, the damage absorbed can be unleashed as pure chi energy in the form of a devastating attack against one or several opponents. For purposes of the attack, consider the abosrobed chi energy as a pool that can be used by spending 1 point per bonus to attack, 1 point per bonus to damage, or 1 point per extra attack against separate target.
Hello, Dear Readers! Today, I am going to provide you with my current set of houserules and homebrew for my Gods of the Forbidden North Campaign. Gods of the Forbidden North was written with OSE in mind. I am using the Rules Cyclopedia as I am not a huge fan of how OSE handles the later levels. It’s a quibble, but one I wanted to avoid. I’ll probably make a video about it at a later date.
Anyway, one quibble I have in favor of OSE is that I like the way it handles skills: it doesn’t use them. Rather, you select a secondary skill for your character, which represents a broad and generalized skill set that may come into play during the game. The Rules Cyclopedia, on the other hand, provides skills that function more like feats in some cases (danger sense, detect deception) or a role under ability check (engineering, singing). In many cases, either skill type ends up overriding the fundamental rules of the game in the same way magic does.
For example, Persuasion is a simple role under roll that has no effect on –and replaces–the 2d6 reaction roll. If you use the reaction roll the way I do (to determine an NPC’s reactions in social situations), skills like this completely replace the roll. Another skill, “Danger Sense,” allows a player to avoid a trap or a surprise attack with a roll under check because “they sense it.” This not only replaces the surprise check but also replaces player skill.
As a quick aside, RPG Pundit’s Encounters on the Silk Road is a great resource for using the reaction table for social encounters. Check it out!
Magic should be the only thing in a game that can do these sorts of things. Thus, I began reviewing these skills and replacing them with mechanics that augment existing subsystems within the RC. I am much happier with the way things work now.
Bravery: This skill allows a PC to avoid a fear-based attack on a successful ability check! Terrible design! Rather, it now gives a PC +1 to save versus fear effects.
Deception: This skill is tough to replace. Thus, it can only be used after an encounter. It represents the PC walking away from the encounter with doubt about the veracity of the exchange.
Danger Sense: Rather than allowing you to avoid surprise or a trap altogether, I give a +2 saving throw bonus against anything that requires enhanced reflexes. Ex: avoiding dragon fire or a rolling boulder trap. However, a poison needle trap doesn’t count.
Alertness: Rather than being surprised on a 1-2 on a d6, you will be surprised only on a 1. Thus, it is possible that the group is surprised, but you are not.
Stealth: This skill is particularly egregious. If you have a 15 dexterity, at level one, you have a 75% chance to stealth through particular terrain. A level one thief cannot beat this. Therefore, this skill grants a PC to move silently and hide in shadows as a level 1 thief. Additional points can be spent to improve to the next level of thief. This will require training time. (1 week per additional point spent).
Caving – Borrowing from ACKS2 – On a successful skill check, I will examine the PC’s map and let you know if you made a mistake and where it is located so you can fix it.
Blind Shooting is dumb, so I’ve banned it. Deceiving is superfluous, so it is banned as well.
A note on Persuasion, Bargaining, and Intimidation: I expanded on the reaction table a bit. If a PC has one of these skills, they will get a +1 bonus to the reaction roll. I’m also allowing the reaction roll to be modified by another stat depending on how the PC approaches the situation.
You tell me what you are trying to do. (i.e., I wish to convince the Valkengaard city guard of our position through logic and reason.)
Provide the table with a short description of what the action looks like.
”I politely explain to the city guard that we couldn’t possibly be guilty of the murder because the evidence points to the actions of a murder hobo. We are flush with cash. Ergo, we aren’t murder hobos!”
I make the 2d6 reaction roll. However, rather than being modified by just charisma, you can choose to use the following stats instead.
Logic & Persuasion – modified by Intelligence
Bargaining or emotional appeal – Modified by Wisdom
Fear & intimidation – Modified by Strength
Additionally, if you have proficiency in Bargaining, Intimidation, or Persuasion, you may add 1 to the reaction roll.
Additionally, as many of us know, being a thief is incredibly unforgiving at the lower levels of BECMI, RC, and OSE. They die a lot. To make the thief a bit more interesting to play and to blunt the difficulty just a bit, the following ability scores will modify specific thief skills by 5% per bonus modifier. For example, a dexterity bonus of +2 will confer +10% to the appropriate thief’s skills.
Strength: Climb walls
Dexterity: Open Locks, move silently
Wisdom: Find traps, hide in shadows
Intelligence: Remove traps, Learn language
My gaming crew is composed of modern gamers who enjoy character builds. The Rules Cyclopedia (and OSE) do not provide too much in the way of options, so in addition to the changes I made to the skills section noted above, I’m incorporating RPG Pundit’s alternative magic systems from The Old School Companion 3. I really like RPG Pundit’s companion series. I highly recommend them. The third in the series is my favorite precisely because of this alternative magic system.
1 – For every non-weapon proficiency point a PC spends on Alternative magics, a PC may select an alternative magic system: Enchantment, Glamour, Miscellaneous (ritual magic), the Path of Trees, Magical Stones, Northman sigils, Dream Magic, and Cult of the Saints.
2 – Many of the magic systems have a leveling system. To unlock higher levels, a PC must spend additional non-weapon proficiency points. E.g., to unlock the second tier of enchantment, you will need to spend an additional non-weapon proficiency point to have access. A PC may do this at character creation or at a later level. Training time will be required.
3 – Exceptions:
Northmen characters (Whudjan)(Chaotic) who have Mysticism as a skill gain a +1 to any Runic magic.
Enoruuk characters (Neutral) who have Mysticism as a skill gain a +1 to any Path of Trees magic.
Lawful characters (Hadean) who have Ceremony as a skill gain a +1 to any Cult of the Saints magic.
Dwarven characters can use Mining or Stone Crafting to gain a +1 to any Magical Stones roll.
Elven characters can use Singing or Music to gain a +1 to any Glamour magic roll.
Halflings may use nature lore to gain a +1 to any Ritual magic roll.
Clerics gain a +1 to use those magics associated with their alignment
Lawful – Cult of Saints
Chaotic – Northmen Runes
Neutral – The Path of Trees
As you can see with the alternative magics written by the RPG Pundit, I tried to connect them to the specific cultures of Titherion. My hope is that it will reinforce the world, assist with the worldbuilding, and (hopefully) the immersion for the players.
Anyway, that’s what I have for you today, Dear Readers. I hope you find this useful. tried to err on the side of simplicity.
Hello, dear readers. It’s been a while since we last chatted. I’ve been incredibly busy with new projects, such as The Second Watch, a livestream I host every Friday night at 11:00PM Eastern Standard Time. I’m also dipping my toe into writing a horror anthology for the Shadowdark system. I’m calling it the Living Darkness, Vol. I. It is an expansion on a few game jam supplements I drafted over the past few years. Much hit the cutting room floor that I liked so…I’m rewriting them! It should be ready by September. Fingers crossed.
Today, I am making this humble offering of a campaign idea that I have in mind that I may never get to run! The last one is here. This new one dives into The Wretched RPG, specifically Wretched Country, Wretched Folklore, Wretched Dixie, and a little help from RPG Pundit’s Wild West timeline. Running a campaign inspired by HBO’s 1883 would be awesome. Sprinkle in some mythical monster-related creatures, and I think you have a neat campaign to run. I did a little internet research into the Oregon Trail to help with this idea.
Technically, the Oregon Trail spanned approximately 2200 miles from Missouri to Oregon. They had to cross the Rocky Mountains, and many didn’t make it. Much of where they crossed took place in Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Idaho. It is estimated that over 400,000 settlers used the trail. The Great Migration started in the mid-1840s before the Civil War broke out. And, of course, the covered wagon was a prominent feature of these caravans heading west. They faced attacks from Native American tribes, sickness, extreme weather conditions, and the loneliness of the prairie.
I’ve read a handful of RPGs devoted to Wild West themes, and the one that stands out the most to me is Wretched Country. It is cinematic and captures the zeitgeist of the time better than most others. The Wild West was brutal, gritty, and the lines between good and bad, right and wrong, were not always clearly defined. It was a lawless land. With Wretched Country, you get a game that embraces that ambiguity. Indeed, the very first step in character creation is picking a vice (or virtue) that defines your character. Coupled with its status as an OSR-adjacent game, you have a fun time on your hands. It should not be discounted that The Red Room’s inspiration comes from cinema that has firmly established the myths and tropes of the American West in the minds of moviegoers and the public at large. The game is cinematic. It invites you to embrace the cinematic experience with streamlined play, compelling character flaws, and interesting scenarios.
My supplement, Wretched Folklore, not only adds many options for your players, but it expands the supernatural elements of Wretched Country with unique monsters, more shamanistic rituals pulled from actual history, as well as rules for prairie madness and weather. Coupled with the disease rules included in The Wretched RPG and Wretched Country, your team of wagons will have a lot to contend with.
RPG Pundit’s The Pundit Files 25 provides a comprehensive timeline for events occurring in the wild west that you can incorporate or use for inspiration for adventures, NPCs, and events during your campaign. I cannot recommend this enough. He’s done the historical research for you!
There is another supplement I would consider picking up: Wretched Dixie. It is a free supplement as it was an entry into The Red Room’s Winter RPG Game Jam. Therein, it gives you a brief timeline of the Civil War, additional backgrounds for characters, and basic mass combat rules. While I think more could be said for a setting set during the Civil War, this is worth picking up as a reference, as many a cowboy, bandit, and desperado were former Confederate soldiers disaffected by the war, or who lost everything for their cause. It is an excellent resource for background information that players can use when developing their wretched PCs. The thing I want to focus on right now, however, is the mass combat rules.
These mass combat rules are abstract and are not granular like you would see in something like Chainmail. This is okay, because we are playing a game that is more cinematic than granular; the broad strokes used by these mechanics make mass combat simple. I think this is a strength of the supplement because the mass combat doesn’t need to be front and center. However, I would suggest the following changes to incorporate Wretched Folklore.
The Shaman’s Ghost Dance ritual provides bonuses to combatants who participate in the ritual. I would consider each native American unit to have bonuses to the mass combat roll equal to the shaman’s level, distributed evenly to each unit of native American warriors controlled by the shaman to a maximum of +1 per unit.
Skill
Target Number
Leadership
10
Persuasion
12
Intimidation
12
Military History
10
I would also recommend incorporating the use of skills to provide additional bonuses to the roll. I recommend allowing players to get an additional +1 when using the following skills. This will give players a bit more influence on how the battle plays out. I recommend only allowing one skill to be used at a given time.
The rules from Wretched Dixie will go a long way to help you resolve mass combat when bandits, natives, and other creatures of the wilderness attack your wagon trains!
Speaking of Wagon Trains
The Wagon, also known as the Prairie Schooner, was a bit of a paradox. It had to be strong enough to make the 2000-mile trek, but light enough not to overtax the mules and oxen pulling the wagon. Most pioneers used the typical farm wagon with a canvas cover stretched over a hooped frame. A family of four could manage with a single wagon, although space was tight. If a family could afford it, they would take a second wagon as the wagons were loaded up with supplies: typically, food, clothing, and personal items of significance or importance. Heavy items would, eventually, be left on the prairie.
The wagon’s bed was a rectangular wooden box, usually 4 feet wide by 10 feet long. At its front end was a jockey box to hold tools. Its undercarriage was composed of the wheels, axle assemblies, the reach (which connected the two axle assemblies), the hounds (which fastened the rear axle to the reach and the front axle to the wagon tongue), and the bolsters (which supported the wagon bed). Dangling from the rear axle was a bucket containing a mixture of tar and tallow to lubricate the wheels.
The wagon could transport loads up to 2500 pounds. Two mules or two oxen were enough to pull a wagon moderately encumbered. The wagon could typically travel 15 miles a day, with 18 to 20 miles on the prairie being considered a good day.
Encumbrance points
Miles per day
0-10
24
11-15
18
16-20
12
21-25
6
26+
0
Supplies needed to be carefully considered, given the small space the wagon carried. To avoid making this too nitpicky, I’ve tried to abstract the concept of resource points from The Wretched RPG settlement rules and borrow a bit from Lamentations of the Princess encumbrance rules. To determine how fast a wagon will go, the following encumbrance rules will apply.
For every adult riding on the wagon, the wagon is loaded with 5 encumbrance points. Children take up 3 slots, with infants taking up 1 slot.
To track food, we will use resource points. Thus, a family of four will consume up to 1 resource point per day of travel, if we assume three square meals per day. Settlers supplemented their meals via hunting and harvesting game from the land. Starvation was a real concern. Food taken on the journey included rice, flour, beans, bacon, dried meat, hard tack, cornmeal, dried fruit, and eggs. Eggs and bacon were typically stored in barrels of cornmeal to keep them fresh for longer.
Item
Resource points
Item slots
Acquisition TN
Prairie Schooner(wagon)
n/a
n/a
12
Mule
n/a
n/a
8
Oxen
n/a
n/a
10
Cattle
n/a
n/a
10
Horse
n/a
n/a
12
Food
2d6
1 item slot per 2 resource points
8 +2 per additional d6 resource points
Wooden chest (for clothing and small items)
n/a
2 slots
TN 5
Personal items (chairs, tables, etc.)
n/a
1-2 slots depending on size
TN 5
Chuck Wagon – Can stretch out food for the whole wagon train. A cook will need to be hired. A cook will expect payment with a TN 15. The chuck wagon was smaller, but it carried an iron stove and supplies for cooking. Typically, two mules would suffice to pull the wagon. For every successful cooking check TN 12, the chuck wagon will reduce the number of expended resource points for the day by 25%.
Supply wagon – carry additional cargo: food, personal belongings such as furniture. A typical supply wagon could be pulled by a single ox.
Starvation – Starvation occurs when there aren’t enough resource points to feed the wagon train. Every week of rationing incurs a -1 to the Wits roll for Prairie Madness roll from Wretched Folklore.
In The Wretched RPG, PCs can supplement food through hunting, fishing, and foraging. It was not easy on the prairie. With a successful TN 15 roll, the PC can find 1d6 resource points plus 1 additional resource point for every point rolled above 15.
Will this outline work for a campaign, Dear Reader? What do you think? Let me know in the comments.
Lord Matteus' Ancient Tomes and Wondrous Items 