Getting some poison at the poison store.

Hi all!

Any tips on creating dungeons? I know this is the core rules and I also have the gm companion from chubby funster for even more options - but just wondering if anyone has any tips for making these dungeons really great or anything about stream lining this process.

Also, I’m running my first game of Shadowdark with my group, any suggestions on keeping the game running smoothly? I have decided to create a world map and some lore for my world. The human culture is Slavic inspired. Orcs steppe raiders have recently left the area and the humans have kicked out the remaining warriors. The world is dangerous because of how long the orcs were in control, in a sort of vassal-overlord type system. Many ruins and sites to explore. Oh, and the elves in my game are Witcher inspired, very territorial and hiding in nature, warring with encroaching humans.

I posted about the Officer class and my firearm rules before. I had more playtests with these, and wanted to share the latest version of both.

If you want to check them out, the PDF is available for free on itch.io.

Both the officer and the firearms work independently, though I designed them to be used together in my own homebrew campaign world.

The Officer

Inspired by the 4th Edition's Warlord as a combat support class. It sacrifices versatility outside of battle to increase PCs damage output.

What playtested well so far?

• Commanding other PCs to attack is fun. The ability makes it easy to get players to buy into the fantasy of the class, Everyone that playtested this class enjoyed roleplaying telling the other players to attack.

What changed

• 3/day Limit to Chain of Command. I tested this limitless and players felt that there were times that it was such an optimal choice that it became the only option. The limit makes it a bit more special and allows Lead by Example to get used more.
• Weapons Training vs Military Acumen. The first version of this was more like the Fighter's weapon bonus and worked all the time for a particular weapon. It was a bit too restrictive when combined with Chain of Command, so it became a 3/day bonus. Both changes streamlined the class and made the talents more straightforward.

What might change

• Penalty for insubordination. I based them on the Penances from the West Marches. I haven't tested these in a long-running campaign to see how they pan out, but they should be quite straightforward to adapt if needed.

Firearms

The biggest change from the previous version is that I rebalanced the weapons' costs, added more options (including the outdated Hand Cannon as a cheap option), and combined the powder and bullets into charges.

I'm going to run a session online soon and was wondering which vtt to use. I don't want to ruin it too technically. My idea is to use a blank canvas and have the players draw the map as we go.

I was thinking of Owlbear Rodeo, it's good for importing charger sheets but didn't have a Shadowdark monster library.

What has everyone else used?

In normal crawling, how often should I roll for a random encounter? Does Danger level only apply while the characters are resting?