Shadowdark opens late pledges next week!

[darjr]

Maybe it's the English major in me, but what the author says is in the mix and isn't doesn't mean it's obvious to outside observers.

Douglas Adams credited Paul Simon's "One Trick Pony" album, which he apparently listened to on endless repeat while writing, I believe, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, but it'd be a real trick to read through the book and say "ah ha, here's the influence of a post-Garfunkel Paul Simon."

I will say that I think Shadowdark hits in that area where it can be familiar to people for different reasons. Folks who have played a lot of DCC may see and feel the DCC in it.

I've seen OSE folks call it similar to OSE and some even wondering why they would switch seeing that is so close. I can kinda see what they mean.

I've seen 5e folks, in a single exchange, talk about two opposing things they liked and disliked. I kept thinking it can't be both!

I do worry a bit that the sample had too many voids and when people see the whole thing it'll fall out of that sweet spot for them. I suspect I'm wrong, that'll it just be more of it, but I do tend to worry.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Incidentally, all the people on the Shadowdark Facebook group saying Shadowdark is "DCC lite" makes me feel like either they or I need to re-read one of these two games.

I'm not an OSR insider, but I'm picking up on a lot of hostility (jealousy? gatekeeping? misogyny? homophobia?) from some corners of the OSR community toward Shadowdark's meteoric success.

All I can say is that I've wanted to make the shift to OSR, but OSE and DCC both turned me off, and while FTD was more along the lines what I was looking for, the game itself felt incomplete and there was barely any community support for it. Shadowdark is pretty much exactly what I was looking for.

Ran another session of it tonight for my Monday night 5e group (the scheduled DM had to cancel, so I volunteered to run a last minute one-shot). Everybody showed up with characters they had easily made on Shadowdarklings.net, despite never having played Shadowdark, and we jumped right in to a great adventure. Great game.

 

[darjr]

I'm not an OSR insider, but I'm picking up on a lot of hostility (jealousy? gatekeeping? misogyny? homophobia?) from some corners of the OSR community toward Shadowdark's meteoric success.

All I can say is that I've wanted to make the shift to OSR, but OSE and DCC both turned me off, and while FTD was more along the lines what I was looking for, the game itself felt incomplete and there was barely any community support for it. Shadowdark is pretty much exactly what I was looking for.

Ran another session of it tonight for my Monday night 5e group (the scheduled DM had to cancel, so I volunteered to run a last minute one-shot). Everybody showed up with characters they had easily made on Shadowdarklings.net, despite never having played Shadowdark, and we jumped right in to a great adventure. Great game.

Shadowdarklings.net is awesome! Thank you!

 

[Jahydin]

I'm not an OSR insider, but I'm picking up on a lot of hostility (jealousy? gatekeeping? misogyny? homophobia?) from some corners of the OSR community toward Shadowdark's meteoric success.

You're not alone. I've been pretty invested in the OSR for over a decade now and can honestly say she's gotten more grief in my usual circles than any other new (to them) creator.

So many comments about her success solely being from lucky timing, OGL fallout, her "fame", "casuals" that just don't know about the "real" OSR games, etc.. instead of admitting that maybe she created a great ruleset, set it next to some killer art, and marketed it absolutely perfectly. Seriously, instead of chucking salt these people really need to pay attention and take notes!

And those are the well-meaning people... on the other hand you got people like... okay, I wont link any of them.. but they rip into her because of her gender/orientation, massive "astroturfing", hiring a ghost writer, lying about her history, etc... so frustrating.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm not an OSR insider, but I'm picking up on a lot of hostility (jealousy? gatekeeping? misogyny? homophobia?) from some corners of the OSR community toward Shadowdark's meteoric success.

I've seen that, but not on the Shadowdark FB group. If anything, everyone there is so pro-Shadowdark, they're inclined to insist that the game can cure cancer, world hunger and male pattern baldness.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Shadowdarklings.net is awesome! Thank you!

It's great and I'm sure I will use it a ton.

But I'm not sure I love it including the third party content right out of the gate. The duck and dog content costs about $6.50 (US) for each and if I were running the site, I might give them a month before including the content for free, even if the license on them says they can be freely used.

Making even a little money is a big inducement for third party creators to keep creating content.

 

[kenada]

The only OSR space I really frequent is r/osr. Shadowdark has gotten some discussion there; nothing really bad. There’s another place I checked out of curiosity, and it was terrible. I expected it to be bad, and it was worse than that. Do not make the same mistake.

 

[Jahydin]

I don't understand how out of the hundreds of OSR games to come and go, this one in particular is where I'm seeing serious discussion on "if we need another OSR game". There's like 500 versions of B/X and that's okay, but somehow this one in particular gets hesitation?

If I had to take a guess, it's just the tribal mentality of an "outsider" coming into the space since she doesn't fit the typical "OSR designer" mold.

As someone that listens to a lot of niche musical genres people build their identity around, can say I see this all the time...

 

[deganawida]

I don't understand how out of the hundreds of OSR games to come and go, this one in particular is where I'm seeing serious discussion on "if we need another OSR game". There's like 500 versions of B/X and that's okay, but somehow this one in particular gets hesitation?

If I had to take a guess, it's just the tribal mentality of an "outsider" coming into the space since she doesn't fit the typical "OSR designer" mold.

As someone that listens to a lot of niche musical genres people build their identity around, can say I see this all the time...

Yeah, I think I agree with you, that it’s less about her personally (though that’s been thrown out there in places), and more the whole tribal mentality of hardcore groups. Kind of expect someone to go really old school and call her a poseur (how’s that for a flashback to old school niche music groups?). I think that explains best the extreme reaction to the success of her first major OSR work.

Frankly, I don’t care. Looks great, is easy to follow, has a lot of ideas from various OSR systems that I’ve looked at over the last year and change, appears to play quickly, requires clever play, and has some awesome line art*. As I’ve mentioned, it’s got my interest, and I’ll be a late backer after payday.

*Seriously, I wish RPGs would go back to line art for most interior artwork. I may be the only one, but it spurs my imagination more than the art created at a computer (“painted” art on a computer lacks the texture of real paintings to me).

 

[JohnF]

I don't understand how out of the hundreds of OSR games to come and go, this one in particular is where I'm seeing serious discussion on "if we need another OSR game". There's like 500 versions of B/X and that's okay, but somehow this one in particular gets hesitation?

When folks are desperately grasping at any narrative that will explain away the great success of someone who is not exactly like them, it’s just good ol’ fashioned jealousy.