Shadowdark RPG Level 1 One Shot - "Against the Cult of the Crimson Hand"

The town of Ragadorn has been raided by cultists of the Crimson Hand, capturing several villagers for some nefarious purpose in service of their dark god. In a race against time, your party has been enlisted to rescue the villagers and thwart the plans of the cult and its dangerous and charismatic leader.

This is an introductory adventure. New (and returning) players welcome!

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 - and combat can be lethal, so it's often best avoided through stealth & strategy. There's the familiar 4 core classes (priest, fighter, thief, and wizard) as well as some classes that are unique to the setting. 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!

GM: Mark

OSR System: Shadowdark RPG

Setting: Ragadorn (border town in The Western Reaches)

Campaign Name: "Against the Cult of the Crimson Hand"

Session Number: 1

How to Join: (1) Click on the Discord 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/Y1B4aH-qpfoX/AgainsttheCultoftheCrimsonHand

What You'll Need:

1. Your imagination & your creative problem-solving abilities
2. (Optional) 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.
3. Design a level 1 character or select a pre-generated level 1 character sheet. I recommended selecting from one of the core classes: fighter, thief, priest, wizard (if you want to use another class please check with me first). For more info see Mark's #character-sheets channel on Discord
4. For audio & mic to talk, connect to Mark's Discord channel

Useful But Not Necessary:

1. Physical dice (d4/d6/d8/d10/d12/d20), although I encourage players to use the virtual dice roller on the VTT.
2. 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/y