Cursed Scroll 1: Reactions

Now that I’ve looked at Cursed Scroll 3, it’s time to go back to the beginning and work through them (I’m hoping that Cursed Scrolls 4, 5, and 6 are out soon too). This first volume of the Shadowdark zine is titled Diablerie! 

Like Cursed Scroll 3, it starts off with the hex map for the Gloaming setting, along with a handy reference sheet of random encounters and rumors. I would definitely print these two pages off for my GM screen if I were running the Gloaming (incidentally, I’ve been listening for over a year to Mike Shea of Slyflourish’s prep show where he has run a full Shadowdark campaign in the Gloaming. Definitely check it out as an example of how to employ these mini settings in a long term campaign). 

This scroll offers not just two, but three completely new classes for Shadowdark; the cursed Knight of St. Ydris, the Warlock, and the Witch. These each have interesting mechanics, and the warlock features interesting patron talents that augment your regular class talent table. This provides some interesting abilities based upon your patron. I like how the patrons have specific names and descriptions grounded in the setting. The witch also has its own unique spell list with a lot of options. 

The Gloaming hex crawl includes twenty-five detailed locations, out of a total 176 hexes. There’s lots of material, and plenty of space to wander around in a campaign here. Plenty of creepy, witchcraft themed locales that you could also steal for your own settings if desired. An additional fourteen stat blocks provide more interesting Shadowdark monsters—including two of the patrons from earlier in the zine, which provide additional examples of high level Shadowdark villains that you could reskin or use to design your own.

The zine concludes with the first level Shadowdark adventure the Hideous Halls of Mugdulblub. This is one of the adventure locations in the Gloaming, and contains more info the ooze patron Mugdulblub. It’s another example of the concise descriptions that give a GM the minimum they need to run an adventure.

The Gloaming doesn’t speak to me as a setting the way the Isles of Adrik do in Cursed Scroll 3, but there’s definitely material of value here and fun themes. If any of these sound interesting then Diablerie! Is definitely worth picking up.

Cursed Scroll 3: Reactions

This will be out of order from the other Shadowdark zines, but I don’t care because I love Vikings, and that’s what this one is about. 

But first, I would be remiss for not first providing some context. The Cursed Scrolls are Shadowdark supporting products from Arcane Library. Each one essentially provides a mini-setting, and they clock in at about 68 pages, so not an insubstantial amount of content either. Cursed Scroll 3: Midnight Sun is focused on a group of Viking-themed isles, beautifully illustrated by cartographer Cameron Maas.

The first content even before the credits and the table of contents is the hex map and a lovely reference sheet with rumors and random encounters I can only assume is meant to be a GM aid for the setting. Points for presentation on this, giving a GM actionable info to drive a hexcrawl across this map! Every rumor acts as a hook and inspiration for a cool quest, and the tables for hexes are easy to use.

The setting is called the Isles of Andrik, and the intro really invokes a Northern, Viking feel. Then we get two more classes appropriate to the setting—the Sea Wolf and the Seer. The Sea Wolf art is stunning, but it’s unclear which of the artists credited provided it. The Sea Wolf class feels like a fighter with fewer martial capabilities to avoid treading on its toes, but lots of interesting flavor that supports the setting. I rolled up a Sea Wolf because I want to try out this setting in my own Solodark game. The Seer is a cool class too, but I especially love the penance that they need to do to recover spells, which feels straight out of the TV show Vikings—for fourth tier, ritualistically sink a burning longboat, and for fifth tier, ritualistically sacrifice nine humanoids. That’s metal.

The Nord backgrounds are cool and flavorful, while the old gods are really interesting too. Nothing groundbreaking here. Odin, Freya, and Loki follow their historical (and even their comic book) depictions. No Thor though. There are also new weapons (the handaxe and stave) and new armor (the round shield lets you choose to break it to negate all of the damage from a hit). 

The boat rules are also great—simple and easy to use! Kelsey understands that boats are basically cool set pieces, but mounting siege equipment on them and giving them turns makes the whole thing more complicated. You can actually be a Northern Jarl with a longship or two with these rules. I’d consider potentially marrying them up with the raiding rules from Ghostfire Games Valika Clans sourcebook (I haven’t done a deep dive on that system yet to see how viable it is to port to other RPGs than 5e). 

Oaths are dope story tools and provide an awesome way to mechanically reward your players for setting their own story goals. 

The section on reinforcements seems a bit distinct from the rest of the setting material, but I think that’s because you can use it for any zero-level gauntlet that you are running in Shadowdark, regardless of the setting. It simply provides interesting explanations for random new characters to be in a dungeon. 

Wortwick Monastery provides an awesome two page dungeon location for a sea wolf raid you can use in your game. Mythic Mountains RPG channel actually starts their campaign in the Cursed Scroll 3 setting using this dungeon. The description is spare, but I appreciate how so much info is able to be communicated so concisely. 

The next section that impresses me this way is the hex key. In all of three pages, a complex setting with dungeons, epic monsters, and political intrigue is outlined. 

The Horde of the Wolf King is set up as a level zero gauntlet, but there’s no reason you can’t take this lovely dungeon and use it as part of a longer campaign. There’s also lots of cool lore in the descriptions that can be mined for the setting.

Overall, I think Cursed Scrool 3 is a great offering. I always wish there were more content and setting info, but for a relatively small setting you can use as a sandbox for Shadowdark play I think it hits the spot. The other point I wanted to highlight is that this, like everything I’ve encountered from Arcane Library, is outstandingly well written. It was easy to get through this page count, and everything made sense, unlike other denser tomes. Love the flavor and I think a lot can be pulled out of Midnight Sun.

Exploring the OSR

Let me preface this: I have enough 5e material to last probably the rest of my life. At least based upon my schedule as an adult and bandwidth for prepping and playing games. So I probably won't get as much opportunity to dive into Old School play as I might like. My players are mostly family members at this time in my life, and they're still grappling with the rules of 5e as they get into TTRPGs (I mean this literally: many of them probably still don't know that grappling is even an option as an action).

That being said, it is obvious that there is plenty of material, mechanics, and lessons to be gleaned from the original games, the “retro-clones,” and games with modern mechanics and old school flavor. So I would like to try OSRIC, Labyrinth Lord, Swords & Wizardry, For Gold & Glory, Empire of the Petal Throne, Swords & Glory, and more. On the scifi side, I'd love to try out Traveller in one of its many forms. Then there’s also the new games with OSR sensibilities, like Cairn, Knave, Shadowdark, and more.

For all of the systems listed above, I have copies of the core rules. Over time in future posts, I'll take a deep dive into the rule book and then provide a reaction article summarizing my thoughts regarding the material. I'll also examine character creation, as building a character in different systems, which is something I love to do.

Dragonlance Shadow of the Dragon Queen - The Final Battle

Spoilers follow for the adventure...

Opening trawl to explain the time jump:

The battlefield before Kalaman has been cleaved open with arcane fire. You have at last returned, having destroyed the floating city that the dragon army discovered in the Northern Wastes and sought to use to destroy Kalaman. Now you must defeat the Death Knight, Lord Soth, master of the mysterious and haunted Daargard Keep. Your travels have taught you much of this tragic figure. Cast out into the Shadowrealm for failing the gods, first murdering his wife and child out of jealousy and infidelity and then failing to prevent the Cataclysm that wreaked havoc on the world a millennia ago. He stands at the gates of Kalaman, bound by a fell pact with Takhisis, the evil dragon queen, to destroy her enemies and the free people of Kalaman. Soth descends upon a Death Dragon, a powerful corpse animated by its own bitterness and hatred…

Soth immediately unleashed a ball of cataclysmic fire that washed over the heroes on the rocky promontory from which they looked out across the blasted landscape. This punishment didn’t let up, as Asterius absorbed the brunt of the attacks to protect his friends. Soon Lord Soth landed and dismounted his dragon. The dragon took to the sky and swooped in to attack Fallon, while Sith went toe to toe with Asterius, battering the paladin with crushing blows. Asterius and Davgin made their own strong attacks, diminishing the Death Knight, and Gringle landed a devastating arrow attack. Fallon took claw and bite attacks from the dragon, barely staving off unconsciousness. 

Finally Soth battered down Asterius, and as he lay on the ground the Dark Knight stabbed him with his terrible sword. Soth then went after Gringle. Fallon managed to raise Asterius and he hauled himself back to his feet. Soth brought down Gringle, slashing the goblin with his sword, then striking him as he lay dying on the ground. Gringle lay dying on the ground as Soth turned and pointed at Asterius, saying “Be gone, Solamnic scum!”

Asterius disappeared, finding himself banished to a pocket dimension. The Paladin immediately began healing himself. Meanwhile, Gringle expired on the ground.

At this money, as Fallon clung to life fighting the dragon, Davgin made his move, casting powerful magic that finally killed the Death Knight. With his concentration broken, Asterius reappeared, and the remaining heroes killed the dragon. 

In the last precious moments, Asterius cast revivify on Gringle. They had won. Their forces routed the dragon army, and saved Kalaman.

After their adventures, Gringle retired, finally purchasing himself a property which he named Greenwood, and made himself Duke over. Davin opened a magic shop. Fallon journeyed and traveled, continuing to learn. And Asterius returned to the Solamnic knights, marshalling their forces to completely defeat the dragon armies…

GM Reflections

You may notice a dramatic time jump. I had another session where the players went back to Kalaman and discovered the massacred city council and they were about to follow Lord Sith into the catacombs when we decided that we were ready to be done.

My players got tired of this campaign, and honestly I did too. The railroad was too railroaded. My efforts to break out of this by adding in intrigue from Kingdoms & Warfare didn’t gel with the style of game that the players wanted to play (the system was essentially too complicated for them to easily grasp and not the experience they were interested in at this point). 

So we discussed it, and decided to have a final battle to resolve the campaign. We leveled up their characters to twelve (which is the highest level session I’ve ever had thus far). I was surprised in some ways by how limited their power actually still was. Limitations on spell preparation still can make an impact in what is available to you in combat. I also picked a map with broken up terrain and lava, and added a dynamic effect—another first for me. It worked well in impacting their tactical choices.

I pulled punches in the fight. I probably could have banished Asterius earlier, but I was worried about a TPK. I thought the stakes were suitably high at the end with Gringle dying and Asterius gone. Then they were able to manage to bring Asterius back, and mop up, while maintaining the pacing. At no point did the fight feel like a slog as normal ones occasionally do, I think partly because of the legendary actions. I’ve run legendary monsters before, but not two at once, which was a lot to manage.

Overall, a fun session, but a campaign I’m glad to have finished.

Solodark

I just took a look at Solodark, the free rules for running the amazing Shadowdark RPG as a solo game. To be honest, there’s not a lot of material here, but what does exist is interesting.

Essentially the understanding is that you basically have everything in the Shadowdark core rules to run the game by yourself, so no systems other than initiative in combat have any mechanical changes. What you do lack is a GM to answer questions, which is why you are provided the details of the “Oracle Die.” This is a d20 roll with a variety of outcomes to determine yes/no questions and add twists to the responses with a random table of verb and noun prompts. The creator, Kelsey Dionne, has made several great videos showing how she’s employing these rules as an example.

When I have the opportunity I’d love to try out a Solodark campaign and I’ll put out write ups of my experiences. In the same vein I’ve been meaning to try out Ironsworn for the same reason—and a close friend recommended it.

On the larger subject of solo RPG play, I think it’s a great exercise in creativity, particularly as Kelsey demonstrates, because the player must creatively and imaginatively interpret ambiguous results. I could see it being a great creative writing exercise to get through writer’s block. It’s also just a great practice for a GM, interpreting new results and creating the story on the fly so you can nimbly respond and interpret your players’ actions in a multiplayer game. For this same reason I plan to spend some time soon looking at Ironsworn as well.

Addendum to EN5ider Issue 3 Reactions

Several months ago I examined the first four issues of EN5ider, ENWorld’s long running Patreon magazine for 5e D&D. In my Empire of the Ghouls campaign, I finally had a chance to use issue three, which provided a framework to run an archery contest. I reskinned it as an axe-throwing contest during a beer fest for the goddess Ninkash in the Ironcrag dwarven canton of Gunnacks. It went phenomenally.

The players enjoyed the flavor I added through describing the contest, and of course got a laugh out of the constant rounds of beer the dwarves served (“We get to day drink and throw axes?”) I also threw in a churlish rival—the cousin of an ally NPC they’d met upon arriving in town. There was never any threat of violence, but it added dramatic tension as they advanced through the contest. I will note that I chose the region column on the table and it did seem like a lot of rounds to get to the finals, particularly when they get three shots a round to attempt to score three points and advance. They both were eliminated in the sweet sixteen round, but made a good lucky run of it. It did seem like if I hadn’t added the fun descriptive elements and if my players weren’t as engaged that it could have fallen flat though.

On the broader topic of festivals in games, I really enjoyed this first foray. I think it’s a cool idea to have some interesting mini games that riff on core mechanics which the players can choose to engage with or note. Describing the event can add flavor and world building (for instance, I had them attend a banquet in the temple of Ninkash the night prior. As a goddess of hospitality, they were given free room and board there. Lumbering keg golems moved around the tables, providing beer to them and their dwarven hosts).

Dragonlance Shadow of the Dragon Queen - The Battle of Steel Springs (Part I)

Spoilers follow for the adventure…

Players defeated the mummy knight and discovered a horde of treasure, including a scroll of remove curse, hidden in his sarcophagus. The scroll was the object of their quest, which would allow Davgin to remove the curse from the rapier Fallon bought.

The party returned to Kalaman to find it strangely quiet. Except for the city guard and their own company most of the army was absent. They went to Castle Kalaman to investigate.

First they found Rookledust in her workshop, which she emerged from disheveled, whilst a whir of clockwork and machinery sounded out from inside. She was largely unhelpful, having spent the past several days working.

Next they went to Marshal Vendri’s office, finding a disheveled aide-de-camp examining maps and dispatches. She recounted how the Marshal had taken the bulk of the army to attack the Red Dragon Army’s supply lines toward Estwilde, while afterwards Lord Bakharis had taken most of the remaining troops against orders to attack the enemy near the ford of Steel Springs on the Inkwater River.

The heroes rested for the night, still exhausted from their adventure in the tomb, and then set out with their other troops towards the ford to attempt to save Bakharis’ force from destruction by his own hubris.

The march took two and a half days. Their scouts reported that the troops were in combat on the Western side of the Inkwater, being driven towards the river in disarray.

Attempting to save the army, the adventurers committed their own forces to battle, managing to drive off several enemy units and rally some of the remaining units of Bakharis’ force.

GM Reflections

This session provided me the opportunity to employ the mass combat system again from Kingdoms & Warfare. The players seemed to enjoy it more this time. They are once again back on the railroad though, with little time to rest. I would put more effort into building out a node-based plot, but the players have already expressed that they are excited to try a new campaign, but don’t want to simply end this one. So I’ll do my best to advance them in level and bring this to a satisfying conclusion.

Ptolus Session Plan - 1 October 2024

Strong Start: Random Enounter during journey through Midtown to quest—Female centaur warrior galloping quickly through the streets.

Old town random encounter: 2 elf commoner children on their way to school. Shop keeper warns them to hurry so they don’t get caught in the street when the Republican rally starts.

Scenes: Rally—see speech by Helmut Itelstein (sic) from Alexandrian, and crowd rules from the same. Use commoner mob stat block for crowd and guards for city guards.

Hedgehog Tavern: Missing person quest. (Things might get interesting as Oldtown may be under curfew). Run investigation as already developed.

Secrets & Clues: 

• Helmut is a priest of a temple (observatory) in the Temple District.
• Commissar, city council, and the church oppose the Republican movement for different reasons.
• Strange hooded people frequent the Temple of the Ebon Hand, as if they wish to hide their identities.

Additional secrets & clues are in my personal notes for the mystery adventure.