Is Shadowdark the Best TTRPG Ever?

Written by Luke Hart

Hello folks, welcome to the DM Lair! I’m Luke Hart, and on this site, I share my nearly 30 years of game master experience so that you can run amazing games that your players will love. And today we’re talking about one of the best TTRPGs I’ve ever played: Shadowdark. I’ll be discussing 15 reasons I think Shadowdark is amazing, and why it might be a good fit for you and your players as well.

And for the record, this is an unpaid, un-sponsored, completely honest review.

By the way, if you’re interested in getting pre-made Shadowdark adventures, I share the adventures I make with my patrons. You can learn more on the DM Lair Patreon.

Watch or listen to this article by clicking the video below.

#1 Shadowdark Encourages Creativity and Using Your Brain

Many games of D&D or Patherfinder are characterized by players first looking at their character sheets and then asking, “What can I do?” But that’s not Shadowdark. What you can or cannot do isn’t strictly limited by your character sheet. Instead, the design and mechanics of the game encourage player creativity and thinking outside the box. You don’t have a list of skills that determine what you can and cannot do. Any player can try almost anything.

Furthermore, because you don’t have abilities such as Disable Traps, when you do find an obstacle such as trap in the game, it’s up to you to use YOUR BRAIN to figure out how to overcome that obstacle. In one of my Gamehole Con games, the players found a dart trap surrounding a door. Their solution was to arrange their shields so that when the trap went off, the darts would hit their shields and deflect away from them. And I’ll tell you, that was SO MUCH MORE INTERESTING than the rogue simply stepping forward and saying, “I’ll use my Thievery skill to disarm the trap.”

#2 Shadowdark Is Rules Light

This book is all you need to play the game. ONE BOOK for both game master and players. You don’t have three core books you need to buy. And forget about the cost; that’s three books you have to READ and remember the rules for. Do you know how much easier it is to play a game where all the rules for combat are on two pages? Wanna play a thief? That’s just two pages, and one of them is an illustration! Spells are CONCISE and easy to understand.

One of the defining characteristics of a rules-light game is that when there is ambiguity or vagueness in the rules, it’s up to the game master to clarify, make a quick ruling, and then THE GAME KEEPS MOVING. Now, you may argue that the same can be done with rules-heavy games like D&D 5e; but let’s be honest with each other huh? Usually in rules-heavy games, the tendency is to SEARCH FOR THE RULE because you know it’s in there somewhere, and there is often at least one person at the table who wants to follow the rules and will get upset if you don’t. Shadowdark sweeps all that frustration and tension away. It’s beautiful.

#3 Shadowdark Is Budget Friendly

The Shadowdark core rulebook only costs $60; the physical starter set is only $20; and you can get the PDF starter set for FREE! Now, there are Cursed Scroll addons that expand game options, but those are completely optional, and if you do want them, they are only $15 each. There’s no way around it. If you’re on a budge, Shadowdark is an amazing choice.

#4 Shadowdark Is Easy to Run for New Game Masters and Players

An unfortunate consequence of Dungeons & Dragons being so popular is that it’s often the first TTRPG that folks play, and I think that’s a mistake. You see, D&D can be somewhat challenging for new players to pick up. Character creation is a bit complex—and the new 2024 D&D made it even more complex, it seems—and there a lots of rules to learn; and if you’re a spellcaster, good luck!

However, Shadowdark simplifies everything, in large part because it is rules light. Example. When I first started running Pathfinder 2—a rules-heavy game by any definition—I had about 25 years of experience as a dungeon master for D&D, but it took me a good eight months to a year before I felt totally comfortable running Pathfinder 2. But as of the writing of this script, I’ve only run three game sessions of Shadowdark, and I feel pretty darn comfortable.

Ad Spot – The Secret Art of Game Mastery

Speaking of new game masters, I know exactly how frustrating and overwhelming it can sometimes be. Besides just learning the RULES of the game system you’re running, there are lots of other skills such as designing adventures, managing the table, and dealing with problem players that a GM needs. And that’s exactly why my team and I wrote the Secret Art of Game Mastery. We packed our decades of GM experience, advice, and tips into this one book so that you won’t have to suffer quite as much as we did back in the day. And with the Secret Art of Preparation and the Secret Art of Notetaking, you’ll get the templates you need to create your games and keep track of your ongoing campaigns. We even have this beautiful game master screen available. Beautiful artwork on one side, and plastic sleeves on the reverse so that you can put cheat sheets specific to YOUR game and the system YOU run. I’ll drop links down in the description and pinned comment if you’re interested.

#5 Shadowdark Combat Feels Like Combat Should Feel

One of the things that often frustrates me in D&D is that combat often seems like it takes forever. It varies by group, sure, but a single combat often takes 30 minutes to an hour, especially once you get into the mid levels. At the higher levels, combats often take even longer. Now, there isn’t inherently a problem with something taking LONGER, but the problem with a COMBAT taking too long is that a SLOW combat often feels like a SLOG because there is a reduced sense of excitement and tension.

But Shadowdark isn’t like that. Combat is FAST and TENSE and DESPERATE and FRANTIC and HARROWING. It feels like combat should feel! And I gotta tell you, as someone who loves combat in my TTRPGs, this is an awesome feeling. I love the talky talky, too—I’m a thespian, I’ll admit it—but I love me a good combat, too.

#6 Works for Both Small and Large Groups of Players

Because of the dungeon master shortage in D&D, something that often happens is that when a DM does start up a game, they often find themselves with tons of folks who want to play. So, they may have 8 to 10 people lining up and beating on the doors. But the problem is that D&D 5e is NOT DESIGNED for that many players; it works best around 4 players, and 6 players is REALLY PUSHING IT.

The main reason that a large group might cause a problem for a game is the AVERAGE TURN LENGTH. If you have eight players and each player takes 5 minutes on their turn, that means it will be OVER 30 MINUTES that you’ll be WAITING until it’s your turn again. That is a GRUELING time period to do nothing. And if you’ve ever observed large D&D groups, what you often notice is LOTS OF SIDE CONVERSATIONS…because the players are bored waiting for their turns. And the side conversations cause a distraction WHICH SLOWS DOWN GAMEPLAY even more. It’s a death spiral.

So, the KEY for a game system to accommodate large groups is to REDUCE the average turn length. And a big way to do that is to reduce COMPLEXITY, particularly the complexity of the rules. You see, there is an inverse relationship between game complexity and how long it take you to do a thing.

In my experience with Shadowdark, it takes between 30 seconds and 1 minute to resolve one player’s turn. That means for that same group of eight players it’s only four to eight minutes before it’s your turn again. This keeps the game more interesting for everyone at the game table. This is also part of what makes combat fast-paced and more exciting.

#7 Shadowdark Has Ultra-Fast Character Creation

When I’m a player and not a game master, I’m reckless and do really stupid stuff. This results in my characters often dying, which I don’t mind in and of itself, but what I do HATE is needing to spend HOURS creating a new character. In fact, in my Pathfinder 2 game, my current character is one of five TWIN SISTERS so that when she dies, I can literally just use the same character sheet.

But character creation in Shadowdark isn’t like that at all. Simple, streamlined, easy to fill out. What’s more, there is an online character generator for Shadowdark that allows you to create a random character with a click of a button. You can then, of course, customize it as desired. Oh, and did I mention the online character generator is FREE. That’s right, you don’t have to pay a monthly subscription—or buy digital books for physical books that you already own—in order to use it.

#8 Shadowdark Is Great for Both Theater of the Mind and a Grid

Something I’ve found with rules-heavy game systems like D&D 5e and Pathfinder 2 is that they are great on a grid, but running them theater of the mind can be challenging. I’m not saying it isn’t possible; but it’s not easy.

For my online Shadowdark game on Start Playing, we use grid and minis for exploration and combat because, well, VTTs lend themselves easily to that style of play, and I enjoy grid and minis. And it works great. However, for the Shadowdark games I ran at Gamehole Con, I ran most of the game theater of the mind—used Universal Dungeon Terrain, which Professor DM from Dungeoncraft swears by—for the combats. It worked amazingly well, and that was MY FIRST TIME using universal dungeon terrain. Honestly, I did it on a whim because I didn’t feel like drawing out a grid for the combats, and it was a great decision.

Now, to date I haven’t run Shadowdark 100% theater of the mind, but as an experienced game master, I can tell you that from the way the system is designed, it would lend itself very well to that style of play.

#9 Shadowdark is Great for Combat-Heavy or Combat-Light Gameplay

If you’ve ever watched a D&D actual play on Twitch or YouTube, it’s quite possible you wouldn’t even know which game system they are using if they didn’t tell you in the title. And that’s because a lot of these games involve mostly talky talky and minimize exploration and combat. And when you’re running a game like that, the only game mechanics you rather need are ability checks, which form the core of any Shadowdark game session.

So, yes, Shadowdark is themed as a gritty, old-school-esk dungeon crawler—but it doesn’t have to be. With little to no effort, it could easily be tweaked to accommodate games that focus mostly on social interactions—what most people call “roleplaying” even though the entire game is roleplaying, but I’m just going to zip it because I’m sure you’ve heard this rant before.

#10 Shadowdark Is Dark and Gritty

I gotta tell you, after a decade of playing D&D 5e—which is essentially a high-fantasy super hero game where villains are speed bumps and character death is practically unheard of—Shadowdark is breath of fresh air. The core concepts of perilous magic, fast and deadly battles, and clever gameplay being imperative to survival really scratch an itch for me.

And for me personally, I love dungeon crawls. Most of the games I run, whether it’s D&D, Pathfinder 2, or Shadowdark are dungeon crawls. The dungeon is where I thrive as a game master. And the Shadowdark system really leans into that. You don’t HAVE to run a dungeon crawl with Shadowdark—I think it’s flexible enough to accommodate other play styles, and you could certainly run a different style of game with it—but you can tell that’s what it was really designed for.

#11 Shadowdark Is Not Balanced

Well, let me put a caveat on that. It’s not so much that the game system isn’t balanced, but that the dark and gritty playstyle that it was designed for practically begs you to UNBALANCE your game. And, honestly, the game is more fun when you throw crazy, COMPLETELY UNBALANCED encounters into the mix from time to time.

In one game, the players came upon a group of ten bandits led by a dwarf, and if they had fought them—well, that probably wouldn’t have been a good idea. But the players didn’t fight. Instead, the cleric gave a compelling and amazingly moving in-character speech and convinced the dwarf to repent of his ways and lead the bandits out of the dungeon to start up an orphanage. Yes, I realize that may sound ridiculous to you, but if you were there, I think you may have agreed that it was an EPIC moment. This player’s speech was seriously killer.

Now, sure, unbalancing your game is something you can technically do with ANY GAME SYSTEM, but some systems handle this better than others. With D&D it can work if done properly, but a system like Pathfinder 2 really wasn’t meant for wildly unbalanced encounters. The thing with Shadowdark is that the game system lends itself VERY WELL to unbalanced encounters and wild moments.

#12 In Shadowdark… YOU. CAN. DIE.

And you probably will.

At the end of my first online game session on Start Playing, the level 1 group found themselves surrounded by six giant centipedes, and by the end of the first round, the wizard was down and dying. For one of my Gamehole Con Shadowdark games, one of the players was practically churning through characters.

Now, I know that character death may not be some people’s cup of tea, but I love it. Not because I’m cruel and heartless and want to see my players crying in the corner. No. Tabletop roleplaying games are BETTER, are MORE EXCITING, are MORE MEANINFUL when death is a possibility. And the adrenaline highs are fast and frequent when you know that death lurks around almost every corner.

And because creating a new character is fast and easy, when someone DOES DIE, they are back in the game and playing within a few minutes.

#13 Shadowdark Does Monsters Right

There are two extremes that make for a BAD MONSTER in my book. The first extreme is a monster whose stat block is too complex, taking up perhaps an entire page in the book. When stat blocks are too long, IT SLOWS DOWN GAMEPLAY, and makes it harder for the GM to run the monster, unless they study the stat block extensively in advance and take notes.

But the converse is true, too: a monster that is TOO SIMPLE is BORING. Giants are the quintessential boring monster in D&D: sacks of hit points that just do damage. Nothing special about them. No special attacks or abilities. Just throw rocks, thwack with clubs, rinse and repeat.

Now, when you first look at a Shadowdark monster’s stat block, you may think, “Gee, that looks really simple.” And they are fairly simple, but almost every single monster has one unique ability. One special defense or attack or whatnot that sets them apart from other monsters that your players have seen before. Shadowdark monsters blend simplicity with uniqueness so that they are both easy and quick to run at the table, but also offer special experiences for your players.

#14 Shadowdark’s Light Mechanic Adds Great Tension

A defining feature of Shadowdark is LIGHT…or the lack thereof. When you are “crawling” as they say into the Shadowdark—any place where danger and darkness hold sway—light sources are one of your most precious resources. You see, characters CANNOT see in the dark; that ability is reserved for monsters only. Thus, you must carry either a torch or lantern to see. And if you can’t see, things get bad very fast.

So, in Shadowdark, a core game mechanic is tracking light sources and the duration remaining on them. Now, this may seem tedious at first glance, but I assure you, Shadowdark has a streamlined system for this that works really well.

This mechanic of needing to have and track light sources adds GREAT TENSION and DRAMA to the game. Case in point, for my online game, the group has had torches run out IN THE MIDDLE OF COMBAT more than once, and it resulted in a bit of stark terror until a character was able to light up another torch.

And, because inventory slots are strictly tracked, YOU CAN’T CARRY UNLIMITED TORCHES. At times you must literally choose between carrying a light source or that gem-crusted goblet. And I will say, inventory tracking isn’t tedious either. Shadowdark implements a slot system that is simple and easy to use.

#15 Shadowdark Spellcasting Is Amazing

There are three things I love about spellcasting in Shadowdark.

First and foremost, the spell descriptions are short, concise, and simple. Few things irk me more in D&D 5e than when a player casts a spell whose description is several paragraphs long; the bog on the game is severe…wow…

Second, in Shadowdark, to cast a spell you make a spellcasting check. If you pass the DC, you successfully cast the spell…and can CONTINUE to cast the same spell on subsequent turns as long as you pass the check. There are no slots, no limited castings; it’s unlimited casting as long as you make your check. If you FAIL your check, you can’t cast that spell again until you take an 8 hour rest.

Third, if you CRITICALLY FAIL your spellcasting check, one of two horrible things happens. If you are a wizard, you roll on a critical failure chart that has some delicious, fun results. If you are a cleric, your deity becomes displeased with you, and you CAN’T CAST THAT SPELL AGAIN until you make atonement with your deity.

In one of my Gamehole Con Shadowdark games, a player’s character had just died, and they chose a cleric for their next character. Then, wouldn’t you know it, the first time they went to case Cure Wounds, they rolled a natural 1 and lost the ability to case that spell. And that was HORRIBLE at first, but it lead to that amazing game moment where the player convinced the dwarven bandit to repent, abandon their chaotic ways, and start up an orphanage.

Anyone who says that dark, gritty, old-school games like Shadowdark are only good for combat-heavy hack-and-slash games—well, they just don’t know what they are talking about.

Shadowdark Adventures

By the way, if you’d like to get the Shadowdark adventures I design for my own personal games, they are available to DM Lair patrons. Now here’s the thing: they are not “professionally” published in beautiful PDFs with artwork and all that jazz. However, my adventures are very well fleshed out. I’m an experienced writer and a professional game designer—so, they are very solid. With a little polish we probably COULD publish them, but that’s a topic for a different Luke with more time on his hands.

You can learn more about my Shadowdark adventures on the DM Lair Patreon.