Intro to Shadowdark RPG

Introduction:
One of our members, Mark, has been gracious enough to offer to serve as GM for an introductory adventure using the Shadowdark RPG ruleset! Created by Kelsey Dionne and published in 2023 after raising $1.4 million on Kickstarter, Shadowdark is an old-school fantasy adventure game redesigned with 50 years of innovation. It won the Three Castles Award for best role-playing game design and the gold ENNIEs for Product of the Year, Best Game, Best Rules & Best Layout and Design!

Shadowdark RPG is fast, familiar, intuitive, and deadly. It’s built for old-school dungeon crawls and experience points (XP) are awarded for finding treasure, not killing monsters. Combat can be lethal, especially at lower levels, so it's often best avoided through stealth & strategy. There's 4 core classes: priest, fighter, thief, and wizard. Players generate character statistics and class abilities through randomized dice rolls. Gameplay focuses on risk evaluation, resource management, and problem-solving. Shadowdark uses a 20-sided die for action resolution. One of its unique features is that real time comes into play - a torch only holds back the looming darkness for one hour of actual game time!

OSR System: Shadowdark RPG

Setting: The Western Reaches (implied setting, still in development)

Campaign Name: "Lost Citadel of the Scarlet Minotaur"

Session Number: 2 - but new players are welcome!

How to Join: (1) Click on the Zoom link on the scheduled date/time - we'll just use it for audio; (2) We will be using a virtual tabletop (Owlbear Rodeo 2.0) to play; click on the following link and the GM will grant you access to the tabletop (no account or downloads needed): https://www.owlbear.rodeo/room/plKq1vWEBhu9/TheRudeFolk

What You'll Need:

1. Your imagination & whatever roleplaying skills you can muster
2. A downloaded copy of the The Shadowdark RPG's "Player Quickstart Guide". https://www.thearcanelibrary.com/collections/shadowdark-core-rules/products/shadowdark-rpg-quickstart-set-pdf.
   * NOTE: The set also includes the Quickstart GM Guide, which contains the adventure we will be playing at the back. I suggest avoiding that to enjoy the game!
3. Design a character or select a pre-gen (eight of which are included in the Quickstart set). A blank character sheet can be directly downloaded from https://www.thearcanelibrary.com/blogs/shadowdark-blog/shadowdark-rpg-character-sheet. Also, an easy option for character creation is to use the character-generator page https://shadowdarklings.net/create. - CORE CLASSES ONLY PLEASE (fighter, thief, priest, wizard)
4. The Owlbear VTT has a built-in dice simulator, but if it freezes up it may be good to have a set of standard RPG dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20).
5. Zoom app (free for users) - https://zoom.us/download

Useful But Not Necessary:

1. I strongly recommend that someone have graph paper so that you can map your progress in the dungeon -- the tabletop will only show your immediate surroundings...
2. You might want to bring a backup character (muahahahaha....)
3. You may want to check out this article with handy tips on "How To Survive An Old-School Dungeon" - https://www.cbr.com/dd-old-school-dungeon-survival-guide/