7 Lessons D&D Can Learn from Shadowdark

By Luke Hart

Dungeons & Dragons is the biggest name in tabletop roleplaying—but that doesn’t mean it gets everything right. Because let me tell you… the more I run Shadowdark, the more I realize just how much D&D could learn from it.

Shadowdark is fast. It’s simple. It’s brutal in all the right ways. And most importantly—it’s fun. It strips the game down to its core and rebuilds it with a laser focus on actual gameplay at the table.

Now, this isn’t just a “D&D is bad” rant. I’ve played D&D for decades. I like D&D. I literally joined an online D&D game as a player just a few weeks ago. However, sometimes Goliath can learn a thing or two from David.

So, today we’re diving into seven lessons D&D can learn from Shadowdark. Some of these are design-level changes. Some are philosophical. But all of them come from a game that’s winning players over by doing more with less.

By the way, if you like my adventures, my patrons get access to everything I create for my personal games. Right now those include D&D, Pathfinder 2e, and Shadowdark. And in the future my team and I will be releasing our own TTRPG, so naturally we'll have tons of adventures for that for our patrons!

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1. You Don’t Need 50 People to Make a Great Book

When I first picked up Shadowdark, I flipped to the credits page and saw something wild: one person—Kelsey Dionne—is listed as the writer, designer, and layout artist. Just one person. There are eight credited artists, sure, but in terms of actual book creation? That was a one-person operation.

Compare that to D&D 5th Edition 2024. The credits read like the end of a Marvel movie. There’s a lead designer, five additional designers, three rules developers, four editors, four playtest analysts—wait, they had playtesters? Because I wasn’t aware that even happened. Then there’s a swarm of artists, two art directors, three graphic designers, a concept art director, several concept artists, half a dozen consultants, half a dozen more consultants, and producers.

And yet—Shadowdark is the game with the hype. It’s building momentum. Players love it. Meanwhile, most comments I see about D&D 2024 are either frustrated, sarcastic, or confused. So maybe, just maybe, quality doesn’t scale with the size of the team.

2. Fewer Rules Actually Improves the Game

One of the first things you notice when you open Shadowdark is how little time you spend reading rules—and how quickly you get to actually playing the game. Onboarding new players? A breeze. I handed a player the book, they made a character in 5 minutes, and we were rolling dice in 10.

And because the rules are light, the game flexes. If your group wants combat-heavy dungeon crawling? It works. If you want to roleplay for an hour and a half in a tavern, or spend three sessions exploring weird fey ruins? It works. The rules don’t get in the way—they open doors instead of closing them.

Compare that to D&D 2024. Somehow, they took a system that already leaned heavy and doubled down. There are more rules, more subsystems, and more edge cases. It feels like every cool moment has to be followed up by checking three paragraphs of mechanical clarification—yes, I’m exaggerating to make a point, but not by much. Shadowdark shows us that the best rulesets don’t need to explain every possibility—they just need to trust the game master and players.

3. Gameplay Is Faster

Let me be clear—faster doesn’t always mean better. But when it comes to D&D, one of the most common complaints I hear from players is, “Why does combat take so long?”

And they’re not wrong. In 5e, even a simple three-on-three fight can drag out for 30 minutes or more. And there’s only so much the dungeon master can do to fix that. The real culprit is the sheer weight of the rules. Bonus actions, reactions, movement, positioning, spells, saving throws, class features, legendary actions—it piles up fast.

But Shadowdark? It moves. Combat is fast, brutal, and decisive. Turns go by in seconds, and you usually know who’s winning—or dying—within a round or two. There’s no bloat slowing things down. You get in, you roll your dice, and you keep the tension high.

And the best part? Players stay engaged because they’re not waiting 15 minutes for their next turn. Shadowdark shows that you can keep combat exciting without turning every fight into a tactical thesis paper.

4. It's Easier and Faster for the Game Master to Prep a Game

Right now, I’m running three campaigns: a D&D 5e game using the 2024 rules, a Pathfinder 2e game, and a Shadowdark game. And let me tell you, the difference in prep time is dramatic.

Pathfinder 2e takes me the longest to prep. No surprise there—it’s a rules-heavy system with a lot of moving parts. For most adventures, I have customize monsters, too, and that takes time. D&D is better—it’s more streamlined, and I can usually get a session ready with far less pain. But Shadowdark? It’s not even close. I can prep a Shadowdark session at lightning pace. It’s simple, it’s clear, and it’s ready to run.

I wish I could tell you why it’s like this, but honestly, I don’t know. There just seems to be a direct correlation between how many rules a game has and how long it takes to prep. If you’ve got any theories on why this happens, toss them in the comments—I’d love to hear your take.

5. It's Easier for a Game Master to Run a Shadowdark Game

And here, I’m talking about during the session—when you’re in the moment, juggling rules, players, NPCs, initiative, monsters, and trying to keep the game moving.

Pathfinder 2e is the hardest for me to run at the table. It’s packed with fiddly rules—extra modifiers, action economy quirks, conditions, exceptions to conditions—and even though I’ve run a lot of Pathfinder, I still find myself looking stuff up mid-session. It slows things down. D&D 5e is easier. Fewer mechanics to track means fewer roadblocks during play.

But Shadowdark? Shadowdark is smooth. It’s lean. If a player wants to do something and there’s no rule for it, I just call for an ability check, maybe improvise a ruling, and we move on. I’m not flipping pages or diving into a rulebook—it just flows. And sure, you can do that in Pathfinder or D&D too, but if you’re improvising or homebrewing on the fly half the mechanics anyway… why are you using a system that’s fighting you the whole time?

6. Artwork Does Not Make a Bad Book Good

Let’s be real: the artwork in the 2024 version of D&D 5th Edition is absolutely stunning. It’s some of the best fantasy art I’ve ever seen in a TTRPG book. Full-page illustrations, dynamic character designs, rich colors—you name it. But that didn’t stop the complaints, did it? Beautiful art couldn’t mask the issues people had with the rules, the bloat, or the lack of meaningful improvements—or the problems that were introduced, or the problems that were left unaddressed.

Now contrast that with Shadowdark. It doesn’t have nearly as much artwork, and certainly not at the same scale. But nobody complains. Why? Because the strength of the book isn’t in the illustrations—it’s in the rules. It plays well. It’s simple. It feels exciting at the table. That’s what people care about. The art is there to reinforce the tone, not to carry the entire product. And to be clear, I think the artwork in Shadowdark is great artwork; so, please don’t take this as me knocking the artwork. If that’s where you go, then you’re missing the point.

But, yes, we expect art in our RPG books. That’s fair. But amazing visuals can’t save a lackluster system. A good book needs good rules—and that’s where Shadowdark shines.

7. Shadowdark Encourages Player Ingenuity

One of the best things Shadowdark does is force players to stop thinking like character sheets—and start thinking like adventurers.

In D&D, players often ask, “Do I have a feature that lets me do X?” They look for the exact right spell, feat, or ability that was pre-written to solve their current problem. And if it’s not there, they freeze. Or worse—they assume they can’t do anything.

But in Shadowdark, that kind of thinking doesn’t work. The game doesn’t hand players a toolbox of hyper-defined class abilities and niche spells for every situation. Instead, it leaves space for creativity.

You see players come alive with this. Suddenly they’re tying ropes together to reach a ledge. Pouring out oil flasks to set traps. Bribing goblins with pocket jerky. And instead of asking, “Do I have something that lets me do this?” they ask, “Can I try this?” That subtle shift makes a big difference.

Shadowdark rewards players who engage with the world, not just their build. And that’s exactly the kind of gameplay I want at my table.