Shadowdark #1

The younger group, which has just finished the aforementioned 'Shadows of Yog Sothoth' (the 'substantially older' group are now on episode 5 of Yog Sothoth - confusing I know), have now returned to a D&D-esque experience, with the amazing 'Shadowdark' RPG.

Rather than wax lyrical about the advantages that Shadowdark has over D&D 5e, I asked an AI to do it (it summarises everyone else's opinion anyway, which of course saves me doing it...;)

 

Definitely what a cleric should look like

Shadowdark RPG (by Kelsey Dionne of The Arcane Library) is a streamlined, OSR-inspired tabletop RPG that modernizes classic dungeon-crawling while borrowing familiar 5e elements like d20 rolls, ascending AC, and advantage/disadvantage. It's not a direct 5e clone—it's based more on B/X D&D—but it's designed as an accessible entry for 5e players tired of bloat, power creep, and predictability.

. It won 4 ENNIE Awards (including Best Game and Product of the Year 2024) after a $1.3M+ Kickstarter.

The Kazad Mor 1st level adventure (available on Drivethru rpg - really well done - even the players get a map - I'm sure it's correct and there aren't some important details which only the DM gets to know )

Aspect	Shadowdark	D&D 5e	Why Shadowdark Wins
Character Creation	Roll 3d6-in-order stats (flat bonuses, often negative). Fits on a 3x5 card. 5-10 minutes.	Point-buy/standard array + backgrounds + feats + multiclassing. 30+ minutes, 100s of pages.	Faster start, encourages adapting to rolls (ingenuity over optimization). No "superhero" bloat.
Combat & Lethality	Low HP (d6-d10 + CON only at lvl 1). One-shot kills common. Tactical, with morale checks.	High HP, bounded accuracy. Fights drag; bosses need heavy homebrew to threaten.	Stakes feel real—death is frequent but fair. Rewards smart play over grinding.
Exploration	Torch mechanic: Real-time burning (12 min/torch) + random events every 6 min. Slot encumbrance.	Abstract (10-min turns). Resources rarely matter post-lvl 3.	Creates urgency/tension. Players plan routes, ration light—pure dungeon-crawl bliss.
Magic	Roll-to-cast (risky at high levels). Mishaps/corruption. No slots/prep limits.	Vancian slots/prep. Scales exponentially (wizards dominate late-game).	Dynamic, unpredictable. Fixes "linear warrior, quadratic wizard."
Player Agency	No skills/proficiencies. Solve via creativity/tools/environment. Avoidance > combat.	Skill checks/class features short-circuit challenges.	Brain over sheet. Emergent stories from player choices.
DM Burden	One 416-page book. Indexed perfectly. Random tables galore.	100s of books. Constant tweaks for balance/fun.	Prep-light, playable out-of-box. Focus on fun, not fixes.
Campaign Fit	Short delves shine; scales to long campaigns via talents/ancestries.	Heroic epics, but exploration/social often sidelined.	Better for core fantasy (delves). Free quickstart + creator kit for easy content.

(I liked this bit especially): 5e is a broad superhero simulator that's grown bloated and DM-unfriendly. Shadowdark distills 50+ years of RPG evolution into tense, replayable adventures where every choice matters. It's "old-school gaming, modernized"—lethal, fast, creative. 

The bridge on the way in, where the first of the 12 x 'zero' level characters was lost

 

That river with the lack of bridge is chock full o' red hot 'magma'

 

Episode 5 – Cannae git awah frae bonny Scotland…

Back in Arkham, Professor Schmidt has been employed by Miskatonic University for a year now and has been befriended by Dr. Edward Call – a man who has links to the shadowy organisation known as ‘The Order of Silver Twilight’. He even attends a few meetings, aware that the order has several levels of hierarchy, perhaps even dangerous hierarchy.

 Dr Call takes Schmidt to one side eventually, explaining that he is very concerned about something that is going on in the higher echelons of the society -  briefing Schmidt on the fact that (1) they are actively seeking an ancient, and potentially very dangerous, artifact and (2) it is happening in his old haunting grounds’ of Scotland.

Sleepy Cannich, about to be overwhelmed by maniacs, and that's just the player-characters

One of Hancock's last letters - not suspicious at all...

 

A stolen, strangely futuristic 'print' that Call has acquired and given to Schmidt.

He shares letters from Henry Hancock, a former big game hunter, who had undertaken previously to help Call, and relocating with his colleague to Scotland – keen to find the components of a hidden disc, now divided into 3 parts, and secured at various locations near Cannich. Schmidt telegraphs ahead (through Call’s Postal contact – Sophie), asking his contacts in Scotland, McDaid and McLeoid, to research the area south of their previous adventure, where the matters have taken place. They determine the presence of an old Roman temple, and a man called Belphogor…who is mentioned in some of the data that Call has given to Schmidt.

He takes passage back to Britain, and then Scotland, reunited with his erstwhile companions, except Sinead who seems to have disappeared. They take stock of the research they have gathered (including mention of a woman called Margaret, a man called Belphegor and a French witch), and head for the remote town of Cannich, but 20 miles south of their adventure a year earlier. Using Hancock’s letters, they try to find the house he had purchased, passing another group of farmers, who take interest in their movements. MacLeoid asks if they might consider a trade of Poteen later…the interaction not going as well as hoped. At the nearby cottage, a large expensive car sits, garnering their attention…

A large expensive car..?

The Hancock House...not at all secure...

The party eventually find Hancock’s house, which shows signs of recently having been visited…by a wide wheeled …large expensive car, and the house has been broken into… 

And speaking of quality of writing, who doesn't remember 'Epic Rap Battles of Historeeeee' :

 

 

Movie Recommendation

 No game this week, though here is a 'Lovecraftian, and yet not Cthulhu' style movie recommendation...really original piece.  

 

Episode 4 - A Fistful of Dynamite

The characters pull away from the eastern side of the Lough, immediately being pursued by groups of the MacAllen clan using their own boats. Having  gained some time, they stop at the island mid-way, with a view to setting Macguffin’s unstable dynamite to destroy the first of the obelisks. Schmidt notes that there is a symbol on this one – and that it seems older than the other one previously observed; the symbology is clearly some sort of ancient map, and he takes a rubbing. The party wastes no time and sets a short fuse, taking to the boat, with the MacAllens in hot pursuit.

'Stop the carefully constructed wooden aquatic craft.'

Having sensed that they are tampering with the pentagramic pattern denoted by the obelisks however, the Lloigor attacks them mid channel. In a rush of violence, using its powers to set MacGuffin alight, and then rush toward Schmidt with jaws opening wide. In the confusion, McQuaid falls into the water, and a flurry of close range shots, and tossed dynamite from Sinead, create chaos.

Apparently the 'Watcher' from the Lord of the Rings was a Lloigor, who knew...

With Schmidt between its jaws, (and impossibly small amounts of damage done despite a fair crit) the beast is driven off, explosives detonating inside its jaws as it submerges; reaching the far bank in time, gives the characters time to ambush the onrushing boats of MacCallen cultists (with the help of the now dead MacGuffin’s remaining Lewis Gun ammunition).

The carefully drawn white-board map, becomes a mess...

 They head for a second obelisk, hoping to eliminate the threat, once and for all. This second set of detonations is much more successful; Sinead looks on at the practicality of her expertise; as the pentagram is finally broken, the Lloigor rears up in agony out of the lough, falling (apparently dead) onto one of the MacAllen boats, the rest withdrawing in apparent disarray.

Days later…and silence settles upon Lough Fein and the town of Gregor. The characters tie up loose ends, exploring the now quiet MacAllen farms (and finding a random copy of Cultes des Ghoules, and relocating Erma to Inverness, after Sinead (as a random act of poison laden vengeance) sorts out Erma’s husband (and not in a good way).  

'A sordid, undefinable stench settled over the place, and the ancient spirit slept...' H.P. Lovecraft

 The characters go their separate ways, Sinead disappearing into the Scottish criminal underground, Schmidt returning to London, where he discovers that he has been offered tenure at Miskatonic University in Arkham, where he will be contacted by members of the Order of the Silver Twilight…

The characters may have bigger fish to fry...

The coming campaign - Shadows of Yog Sothoth

 The best quote from the pending campaign (starting just after the Scottish episode) has to be with regard to the characters' adversaries who range from...

'...living wizards to undead horrors and alien monsters, who plan to raise dread R'lyeh, the city of Great Cthulhu, from the bottom of the sea, and [thereby] unleash the Elder gods upon a terrified world. If the players' investigators do well, they will save the world. If they do poorly, well ...'

 

Watch this space. 

 

 

Episode 3 - Goin' Underground

 Schmidt, McDaid and Macleod, having agreed to help Paten MacGuffin in his search for vengeance, start to cross the Loch toward the ruins of Castle MacLaraig.

Sinead Maguire, who has stayed back at the guesthouse keeping an eye on the still mourning Elaine, assembles and takes stock of her ‘bag’o’bombs’, keeping a close eye out for interference from the MacAllens. (Uncannily, rolling a straight 100 fumble on her ‘spot hidden’…oops).

Flash back to the chaps on the Lough …as McLeod’s eagle eyesight at night, spots a group of torches, heading north along the western bank, toward the castle. Reckoning they can make it there first, and choosing a route that avoids McLeod’s estimation as to the epicentre of the pentagram, the party rapidly beach the boat, and make their way through the marshland to the ruined castle.

As the torchlit procession makes its way toward the ruins. McLeod spots the fact that the eight MacAllens fiends, have a captured and bound Elaine and Sinead with them. (Rolling a fumble for a spot hidden rarely bodes well for the roller…and Sinead discovers that she has been nabbed by the MacAllens…along with Elaine, clearly with the help of Erma’s husband at the guesthouse).

The true horror..uhhh maybe

 

A quick search of the castle reveals a trapdoor, but there is no time to investigate that just yet, as there is an ambush and a daring rescue to spring! Having MacGuffin with his Lewis gun (well stocked with ammunition) pays dividends as his vengeance eventually plays out, bullets flying in the night at the head of the MacAllen column as it rounds the bend into the ruins, the captives safely in cover, and the ends of the column being shot to pieces. Schmidt shouts ‘get down’ in German, knowing that Elaine at least will understand it, though gaining a strange look from MacGuffin, whose memories still lie in the mud of the western front trenches.

plotting a route that avoids that hatched bit in the middle...

 

The ambush, potato chip flank...as the party shoots up the MacAllen column...

 A turn of surprise actions, and accurate close range fire from the party makes short work of the inbred and hulking MacAllens, and the slaughter is complete… Releasing the ladies, the party leaves Elaine and MacGuffuin on watch (Macguffin takes great pleasure in disposing of the bodies), the rest descending below to check out the dungeon level of the castle, before any more of the MacAllens turn up.

McDain and McLeod take the lead, knowing that it is ‘SAN roll’ time… The disgusting remnants of horrible rituals are found in two of the chambers; in one, leathery paralysed corpses posed in horrific death throes, whilst in another, the charred bones of the MacAllen’s nefarious activities (or the activites of something else…). In some cases evidence of spontaneous combustion seems obvious. Despite the potential for it all to become too much for the investigators, they have seen worse on the western front, and keep their stiff upper lip intact (SAN rolls passed).

The charnel house room is last in the tour however, decorated with ancient and recent blood stains and the stench of vile depredations. In the corner of the room sits a strange curved mirror, an ancient gallic text carved crudely onto its dark oak frame. Despite her best efforts, Sinead can not translate it (which is probably a good thing). McLeod has a strange feeling examining the thing. The party endeavours to destroy the mirror, drawing straws to see who gets to carry out the deed.

NOT the mirror in the bathroom...

 Just as McDaid and Sinead are about to use shotguns to destroy it...something stirs…dust on the floor swirls, and small motes of burning ember seem to float up in a vortex, an image, then a solid form, of the vile dreaded head…of the Lloigor forming from the bloated charged air in the vile dungeon… ROLL YOUR SAN!

...just the tip, of the Lloigor

 

Both pass, running like hell (but lose a point anyway), slowed by that burning sensation in their chests, a heat, a flame, an agonising pain as their burning lungs strive to find oxygen as the thing makes them pay for their transgression.

Luckily they make it out in time, despite some lung damage to both, and race to the surface, just in time for MacGuffin to warn them, that torches, many torches, can be seen moving from the MacAllen farms…toward the castle.

The next day is Samhain…Halloween…a festival bloodily celebrated through the MacAllen’s ghastly rituals. Perhaps the dreaded inbred sect of evil, wishes to start its celebrations, a little bit early…with the investigators as the prize.

 

Episode 2 – Can’t Stand the Standing Stones’ Stand-off!

 With the resulting standoff in MacKenzie House, Sinead Maguire , now with MacLeod pointing a pistol at her, and seemingly also supported by his two new friends, drops her bag and raises her hands. She opts not to reach for the oh-so-tempting bottle of unstable nitro, that has got her out of so many situations in the past.

She does opt to produce her one bargaining chip – the Willard Gibson notebook that she found whilst staying in his old room. This then appears to placate the rest of the party, and bearing in mind the potential dangers (and her bag full of dynamite), they agree to work together, at least for a time.

 There are several points to decipher in the notebook. Willard had made friends with a man called Paten MacGuffin up the lough, and had conversely managed to annoy the vile and malignant MacAllens, whom Erma MacKenzie, upon being assessed by the wily Schmidt (rolling a 01 on psychology) is terrified of. 

 Further ‘intense probing’ reveals that not only have the vile MacAllens killed Paten’s wife, and caused upset in the town, but they are somehow linked to the 'thing' in the Lough, and vile bouts of ‘keeping it in the family’. Sinead resolves to stay at the guesthouse for the evening, and keep an eye of Willard’s daughter Elaine, who heard the entire discourse.

See the toepath..just there...yep that's it...

Resolving to walk the toe-path around the lough as darkness falls (I mean, why wouldn’t you?), they discover the wreckage of wooden boats on the shoreline. They also encounter one of the deformed MacAllens, with an even more deformed dog called ‘Satan’ who crosses their path, the off kilter moron assuring them that they are being watched. No shots exchanged (at least in terms of lead) ,the two parties move on. 

According to AI this is a 'mad inbred Scottish farmer from 1925 with a dog called Satan and a shotgun'

As it grows dark, moonlights glints off something in the tree line, and they discover an out of place, rune marked, horribly black obelisk style, standing stone …which appears to be acting as part of a magnetic field (confirming Schmidt’s earlier research regarding standing stones). It has also been cleaned of muck, perhaps even unearthed by the local mad men MacAllens?

I asked AI for a black obelisk - this was option B...

 

The lands surrounding the Lough seem controlled by the MacAllens, except for one area, a well positioned  and stockade protected farm…Paten MacGuffin meets them with his friendly shotgun in hand, though McDaid manages to fast-talk him with regaled tales of the war and the party’s knowledge of Willard Gibson, and they are allowed into the farmhouse.

Inside is a mess, since the death of MacGuffin’s wife Sara, though they do see an intact rowing boat (called the ‘Sara’). MacGuffin confirms their worst fears regarding the stones, of which it seems there are five. Consulting the map of the area, MacLeod correctly assesses that they form the shape of a dreaded pentagram, and whatever is in the lough, might rise at  the epi-centre.

 MacGuffin is distraught since the death of his wife, at the hands of the MacAllens. He wants only vengeance, and the characters might be just the vehicle he has been waiting for …combined with the boxes of unstable dynamite and a handy-dandy Lewis Gun, currently needing a little oil, in the barn…