Shadowdark RPG: The Western Reaches, currently on Kickstarter, takes the d20 wonder of Shadowdark into a two-volume setting supporting hex crawl adventures and exploration. Kelsey Dionne of The Arcane Library was kind enough to talk to EN World and me again about her latest million dollar (plus) Kickstarter and her massive expansion to Shadowdark.
Charles Dunwoody (Charlie): Thanks for talking with us again, Kelsey. The Shadowdark RPG has a very lightly implied setting. The Western Reaches provides a ready-made setting for GMs to use as a two-book expansion. What prompted you to expand Shadowdark not just with additional rules and adventures but also with an entire setting?
Kelsey Dionne (Kelsey): Thanks for having me back, Charlie! The Western Reaches setting started taking shape almost on its own, and it kind of sneaked up on me. I never actually sat down to write a setting, but I kept writing Cursed Scroll Zines, which are mini-setting supplements. After creating six of them over the course of a few years, I realized I had been developing a setting all along, and it was going to end up being my next product! It's funny, because if you had asked me if I'd ever write a full campaign setting a year or two ago, I would have said I wasn't planning on it.
Charlie: Two years ago, you and I talked about the ranger and the possibility of the class being more like Aragorn. I see the ranger class preview can wear chainmail which I am glad to see as it isn’t a leather armor only two weapon class. I know you do class builds online, but for those who don’t follow you on YouTube, why do you create new classes? For example, why are they needed and what do you want new classes to accomplish that current classes do not?
Kelsey: I'm glad you appreciate the ranger's access to chainmail! I really enjoy creating new classes, and I think players appreciate the novelty of the different themes and niches new classes can dig into. While I do think the four "core classes" of Shadowdark (fighter, thief, priest, wizard) cover all of the core gameplay needs, it's also fun to make options that lean into world lore or offer extreme specialization beyond what the base classes do. For instance, one of the classes is the horse-mounted Kyzian Archer that hails from the grassy steppes in the Western Reaches. The class is a very specialized archer, and it also conveys game world lore about a specific region. Most Kyzian Archers will indeed be from the steppes, which ties the character further into the setting.
Charlie: The Western Reaches are a sandbox setting and you even take it a step further and recommend using the West Marches approach created by Ben Robbins in his blog, Ars Ludi. How did you arrive at a setting with the possibility of many players with multiple PCs? Did it start out as part of the design or grow from playtesting and or evolve some other way?
Kelsey: It really grew out of a blend of a few experiences. I had the good luck to play in a lot of open-table style games growing up, and I also playtested Shadowdark in a weekly open table I ran for many months. Although those games weren't quite to the level of a West Marches implementation, they shared a lot of its DNA. During Shadowdark's development, I also got to participate in a Wilderlands of High Fantasy game where each player developed multiple PCs (with the same DM who ran the open-table games for me as a kid, in fact!). All of those experiences left a strong impression on me. I wanted to make sure the setting I developed for Shadowdark explicitly supported that same open-table style, up to and including a full-out West Marches implementation where in-game time passes as it does in the real world (something Shadowdark already dabbles into).
Charlie: What is one of your favorite locations in The Western Reaches and why?
Kelsey: I've really enjoyed developing the locations that tie deeply into the world lore while also offering totally weird adventure hooks. I'm usually able to make these entries a bit longer in the layout because they're significant sites, and I hope they convey a lot of atmosphere and intrigue. For instance, there's a new class in the Player's Guide to the Western Reaches called the Monk of Yag-Kesh, and this is the hex entry for the monastery they come from:
Charlie: The Western Reaches grew out of your first three Cursed Scroll zines and the next three being Kickstarted right now. How did the Western Reaches grow out of these zines: was it always your intention to combine them together or did the process evolve some other way?
Kelsey: It really did kind of come together on its own against my predictions! I realize this now in hindsight, but I tend to contextualize all the material I write into a loosely interconnected setting. I even do this when I write for other systems, like 5E. So over time, I've been adding bit by bit to this "head canon" about a world that made sense in reference to itself. I wonder if this tendency comes from the fact that I usually want to run my own adventures for my players, and so I knew subconsciously the adventures would need to fit into a larger picture together. It all eventually just hit critical mass, and I realized I had a nearly-complete setting on my hands. So what you'll see in the Western Reaches is a game world that actually draws from and includes references to all the material I've developed since 2017!
Charlie: Your first Kickstarter made over one million dollars. This new Kickstarter is already at one and a third million in the first two days. Why do you think Shadowdark is so appealing and so successful? What does it offer that thousands of gamers want?
Kelsey: I can only begin to guess! But I think the idea of an old-school game that embraces some modern mechanical trappings has really appealed to a lot of people. It's approachable for people coming from the 5E space, and it's also recognizable to people coming from the old school. We also have such a magnificent and welcoming community, and that alone has added so much positivity and amazing third-party material to the space. I wonder if maybe Shadowdark's greatest appeal is that it serves as a bridge between the many generations of gamers out there, giving genuine respect to all of them.
Charlie: Any final comments you’d like to share with the readers of EN World?
Kelsey: I really appreciate the enormous support I've gotten from the EN World community! It's so exciting to finally get to share this Kickstarter with you all, and I hope it supplies a lot of ideas, inspiration, and support for playing Shadowdark in a classic West Marches style. I'm really looking forward to seeing how people make use of the material and what stories come out of it. Thanks for having me on to talk about it!
Charles Dunwoody (Charlie): Thanks for talking with us again, Kelsey. The Shadowdark RPG has a very lightly implied setting. The Western Reaches provides a ready-made setting for GMs to use as a two-book expansion. What prompted you to expand Shadowdark not just with additional rules and adventures but also with an entire setting?
Kelsey Dionne (Kelsey): Thanks for having me back, Charlie! The Western Reaches setting started taking shape almost on its own, and it kind of sneaked up on me. I never actually sat down to write a setting, but I kept writing Cursed Scroll Zines, which are mini-setting supplements. After creating six of them over the course of a few years, I realized I had been developing a setting all along, and it was going to end up being my next product! It's funny, because if you had asked me if I'd ever write a full campaign setting a year or two ago, I would have said I wasn't planning on it.
Charlie: Two years ago, you and I talked about the ranger and the possibility of the class being more like Aragorn. I see the ranger class preview can wear chainmail which I am glad to see as it isn’t a leather armor only two weapon class. I know you do class builds online, but for those who don’t follow you on YouTube, why do you create new classes? For example, why are they needed and what do you want new classes to accomplish that current classes do not?
Kelsey: I'm glad you appreciate the ranger's access to chainmail! I really enjoy creating new classes, and I think players appreciate the novelty of the different themes and niches new classes can dig into. While I do think the four "core classes" of Shadowdark (fighter, thief, priest, wizard) cover all of the core gameplay needs, it's also fun to make options that lean into world lore or offer extreme specialization beyond what the base classes do. For instance, one of the classes is the horse-mounted Kyzian Archer that hails from the grassy steppes in the Western Reaches. The class is a very specialized archer, and it also conveys game world lore about a specific region. Most Kyzian Archers will indeed be from the steppes, which ties the character further into the setting.
Charlie: The Western Reaches are a sandbox setting and you even take it a step further and recommend using the West Marches approach created by Ben Robbins in his blog, Ars Ludi. How did you arrive at a setting with the possibility of many players with multiple PCs? Did it start out as part of the design or grow from playtesting and or evolve some other way?
Kelsey: It really grew out of a blend of a few experiences. I had the good luck to play in a lot of open-table style games growing up, and I also playtested Shadowdark in a weekly open table I ran for many months. Although those games weren't quite to the level of a West Marches implementation, they shared a lot of its DNA. During Shadowdark's development, I also got to participate in a Wilderlands of High Fantasy game where each player developed multiple PCs (with the same DM who ran the open-table games for me as a kid, in fact!). All of those experiences left a strong impression on me. I wanted to make sure the setting I developed for Shadowdark explicitly supported that same open-table style, up to and including a full-out West Marches implementation where in-game time passes as it does in the real world (something Shadowdark already dabbles into).
Charlie: What is one of your favorite locations in The Western Reaches and why?
Kelsey: I've really enjoyed developing the locations that tie deeply into the world lore while also offering totally weird adventure hooks. I'm usually able to make these entries a bit longer in the layout because they're significant sites, and I hope they convey a lot of atmosphere and intrigue. For instance, there's a new class in the Player's Guide to the Western Reaches called the Monk of Yag-Kesh, and this is the hex entry for the monastery they come from:
Charlie: The Western Reaches grew out of your first three Cursed Scroll zines and the next three being Kickstarted right now. How did the Western Reaches grow out of these zines: was it always your intention to combine them together or did the process evolve some other way?
Kelsey: It really did kind of come together on its own against my predictions! I realize this now in hindsight, but I tend to contextualize all the material I write into a loosely interconnected setting. I even do this when I write for other systems, like 5E. So over time, I've been adding bit by bit to this "head canon" about a world that made sense in reference to itself. I wonder if this tendency comes from the fact that I usually want to run my own adventures for my players, and so I knew subconsciously the adventures would need to fit into a larger picture together. It all eventually just hit critical mass, and I realized I had a nearly-complete setting on my hands. So what you'll see in the Western Reaches is a game world that actually draws from and includes references to all the material I've developed since 2017!
Charlie: Your first Kickstarter made over one million dollars. This new Kickstarter is already at one and a third million in the first two days. Why do you think Shadowdark is so appealing and so successful? What does it offer that thousands of gamers want?
Kelsey: I can only begin to guess! But I think the idea of an old-school game that embraces some modern mechanical trappings has really appealed to a lot of people. It's approachable for people coming from the 5E space, and it's also recognizable to people coming from the old school. We also have such a magnificent and welcoming community, and that alone has added so much positivity and amazing third-party material to the space. I wonder if maybe Shadowdark's greatest appeal is that it serves as a bridge between the many generations of gamers out there, giving genuine respect to all of them.
Charlie: Any final comments you’d like to share with the readers of EN World?
Kelsey: I really appreciate the enormous support I've gotten from the EN World community! It's so exciting to finally get to share this Kickstarter with you all, and I hope it supplies a lot of ideas, inspiration, and support for playing Shadowdark in a classic West Marches style. I'm really looking forward to seeing how people make use of the material and what stories come out of it. Thanks for having me on to talk about it!
