Final yr, Shadowdark broke onto the scene as a breath of contemporary air. It combined one of the best elements of OSR austerity and 5e fluidity to make an expertise that appeals to each audiences. Its embrace of third occasion assist has principally expressed itself in adventures and small add-ons to let teams regulate the sport to their liking. Unnatural Choice, from designers Xane Daniel and Bunny Daniel, collects a number of new choices for the sport in a single huge crowdfunding blockbuster of a e-book. The oldsters at Dungeon Damsel Creations had been variety sufficient to ship me a preview copy to assessment. What elements will I add to my subsequent tour into the Shadowdark? Let’s play to search out out.
The primary a part of the e-book options a number of new character creation choices. The dozen ancestries embrace totally different sorts of elves, mushrooms, dragonborn and revenants. My favourite choices listed here are the slimefolk who can mimic appearances and soften right into a puddle for a couple of rounds. Most of the choices appear geared to followers migrating from Fifth Version who need to play their favorites from that sport. The choices right here proceed Shadowdark’s normal design philosophy of protecting class and ancestry combos from being too apparent, even when there are some apparent synergies.
The e-book additionally contains six new courses. The 2 non-spellcasting courses nonetheless have a little bit of magic to them. The beastmaster lets gamers remodel into a selected animal whereas the fiend infuses hellfire into the character’s assaults. Of the 4 remaining magic consumer courses, the grave warden and ovate appealed probably the most to me. Enjoying a scythe wielding necromancer suits the aesthetic of the unique sport properly. The ovate presents gamers who need to play a nature themed wizard with a pet an choice totally different from the traditional ranger developed after the core e-book’s publication.
The part on ceremonies and curiosities was the spotlight of the e-book for me. Ceremonies are constructed for shaman and ovates and framed as an alternative choice to the carousing guidelines. A number of gamers have needed options for his or her characters to not spend their nights on the town blowing by means of gold on epic nights of ingesting and the ceremonies are a very good framework for related results with out the fictional hangover. As written, these are an prolonged drug journey introduced on by holy mushrooms and communing with spirits, however they might simply as simply be astral projection or prolonged rituals on the native cleric’s church.
Curiosities provide a set of charts dedicated to bizarre dungeon options. The e-book recommends at the very least one per dungeon with the charts combining unusual supplies, uncommon operate and potential interactions. For instance, rolling glyphs, faces and whispers would possibly create a wall of tattooed wizard heads that may inform the historical past of the dungeon for these courageous sufficient to the touch the leathery, historic pores and skin. These creepy particulars are what distinguishes Shadowdark from different dungeon crawls and create memorable moments that gamers will take away from the desk.
I hoped that the weirdness would prolong to the monster part. Sadly, whereas there are a couple of unusual beasts, nearly all of entries are predatory animals and large variations of smaller creatures. The larger single web page beasts, like Vaelthar the Untamed provide some good examples of boss monsters however I needed extra uncommon entries right here.
Total, Unnatural Choice barely will increase the magical nature of Shadowdark with extra magic customers and weird parts. It feels prefer it’s written for gamers who don’t need to fall fully into the grim and gritty world of old-fashioned dungeon crawls and need to deliver a couple of extra parts of Fifth Version at nighttime. One of the best ways to make use of the e-book matches the unique ethos of Shadowdark’s design; preserve what works for you, go away the whole lot else behind.
