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Shadow of the Demon Lord |
$19.99 $18.99 |
Average Rating:4.7 / 5 |
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Excellent content.
Absolutely shitty binding.
Schwalb's work and art and writing, and the overall composition and layout of the book are excellent. I adore the setting and the flexibility that it offers, both in character creation, sheer spell amount, and classes, and the setting.
My issue here lies with DriveThru.
The printing was lazy, the binding is terrible and the covers are already beginning to warp within merely a month or two of receiving the damn book. Not to mention it arrived to me dented.
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Fantastic product - the setting is dark and scary, the mechanics flow nicely and overall the quality tis top drawer. Throughly recommend.
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I have read through a lot of the PDF, and the system seems so cool! I look forward to play this!
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Excellent Dark Fantasy TTRPG system. Super fun, easy to learn, smooth to run!
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I had spmehow never heaard of this, and that is aa shame. I was looking for something different, yet famiuliar. I found it here. Superb system and an interesting setting. Not only that - I ordered the soft cover book and it arrived within 3 days.
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I have heard such great things about this game. Almost everyone who's actually played it gushes about it.
But the textured backgrounds behind all the text makes it such a chore for me to read that I couldn't get past the first few pages.
This isn't a review of the actual content. The way it's presented is simply not accessible to me.
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I really like this RPG quite a lot. It's like someone who was really good at game design took a long look at D&D 5e and then redesigned it to be much more intuitive and easy to learn. And the setting is quite well-developed and interesting as well. It's clearly very heavily inspired by Warhammer Fantasy, but it's still unique enough to stand on its own.
This core rulebook does pretty much everything perfectly. The graphic design is unique and yet easy on the eyes. The rules are very clearly explained with plenty of examples. There's a very extensive section on the history and geography of the setting. And the section for gamemaster is very lengthy and helpful, probably the most helpful of any GM section in any RPG book I've ever read. And the bestiary is lengthy and full of cool descriptive text. The only thing I wish this rulebook had was a starter adventure, though reading through the fluff sections will give you plenty of inspiration for adventure ideas.
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Shadow of the Demon Lord is one of the best games out there. The rules are simple to understand, combat is quick and exciting, and the setting is modular simple to customize to the needs of your gaming group. SotDL is also well supported and has lots of adventures, class guidguideses, supplements as well as fan created content.
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I don't usually go out of my way to review things I purchase on dtrpg. I've been a long-time DM of D&D since 2nd edition and every edition since (though I only dabbled in 4e). I've been a GM of Warhammer 2nd, 3rd (crazy dice and all) and 4th. I've dabbled in many systems but always returned to D&D. Even with my love of D&D, this game is a thing of beauty. It feels like the best aspects of D&D 5e and Warhammer 2e had a baby. My only regret regarding this system is that I didn't find it sooner. The following are just some reasons I now prefer this game to D&D.
- Modifiers. This game has fewer modifiers as a whole. Magic items don't give out bonuses to hit. Attribute bonuses are more limited in what they affect. Str applies a bonus to hit but not damage, for example. The result is a system that scales incredibly well, meaning higher levels don't mean immortality.
- Paths. Paths offer more diversity in character type than any Class (D&D) or Career (WFRP). Every character could start with the same Novice Career, but due to how the Expert and Master Careers stack, there would be a significant difference between them.
- Lethality. The setting is more dangerous than 5e, and comparable, perhaps slightly less lethal, than WFRP. Permanent death in D&D is nearly impossible, so death is rarely a legitimate fear. Again, scaling comes into play here and higher-level characters are less complex than their equivalent in D&D. One additional note in regards to lethality is that healing doesn't rely on lucky or unlucky rolls.
- System. Universal mechanics throughout the system. The game doesn't add complexity to every aspect. Special maneuvers are generally just a single Bane to complete. This isn't to say that 5e adds a lot of this, but there is a noticeable difference in implementation between the two. The only significant subsystems are corruption, which is a deterrent for murder hobos, and insanity. Challenge rolls, the equivalent of Skill checks, are adjucated quickly and with a set DC for all checks. The GM only determines the difficulty through the use of Banes/Boons.
- Options. This leads to.....lots of options for attacks available to all characters. Driving attacks, charging attacks, guarded attacks, lunging attacks, shifting attacks, unbalancing attacks, feints, called shots, distant shots, and staggering shots. And, it's still true to point #4.
- Traditions. The versatility of the magic system within the paths is great. The paths themselves already added a ton of uniqueness, but now you get to throw a bunch of traditions into the mix to specialize further. So many cool spells. There is some very disturbing stuff in this book so this game is not for the faint of heart.
- Spellcasting can go wide or deep, and both are strong. And if you have spells, you will have some tough decisions ahead of you.
- Rewards. The system rewards all methods of play by default, not just combat. You gain "XP" not through defeating creatures but by completing adventures or objectives. 5e has options for this but it isn't the standard.
- Teamwork. The initial paths all have some thematic healing ability, and several of their initial abilities encourage working together.
- Expansions. This item isn't about this book specifically, but the expansion material, which is usually relatively cheap, takes some aspect of the game and expands it while offering new features. Many games feature this, but this game does it well and allows you to pick and choose what you want to experiment with without a significant investment.
Not everyone will like all of these aspects, but if these things ring true, I highly recommend you check this game out. It's worth your time and investment. I only wish it received more coverage than it does.
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Very easy to read. The player character build path is really clear.
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I took it as an alternative to D&D, and was very happy with the rule set, and the quality.
It solved most of the heavyness, rolls are quick and meaningfull, advancements are fun, and it was easy to plan online.
I recommend.
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Every bit of praise this game has received is deserved. The one thing that hasn't been mentioned is how well organized the books are. They are easy to find and reference items quickly. As a long time Game Master this is extremely helpful.
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This is the best classic fantasy sytem made yet. It is extremely easy to modify to fit one's needs in genre, does away with the worse norms of other classic fantasy rpgs, and has a wealth of options. Its cheap and has a wealth of expansions to boot! Buy this asap if you like this sort of game.
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Dark fantasy in a brutal world - a Mephisto review
Shadow of the Demon Lord
For the world of Urd the end is near. The mighty empire crumbled after its army of orc slaves has killed the emperor in a bloody uprising. But this civil war is only a symptom of a much worse truth: the shadow of the demon lord has fallen on Urd, and the terrible entity of the void is pressing to destroy the world. The cracks between the worlds are still too small for the Demon Lord himself to break through, but his influence is continually expanding...
Even with the significant threat in the background, at first Shadow of the Demon Lord seems like just another fantasy roleplaying game in which daring heroes face the forces of evil. However, if you take a closer look at the roleplaying game, you quickly realize that at least heroes are less than radiant. Even the selection of races for the player characters is not the typical standard. While humans and dwarves are certainly found in most fantasy roleplaying games, there are also unusual candidates: Goblins - outcasts of the fairy folk who live in the dirt and have disgusting habits; Orcs - the bestial slave soldiers who have fought for their independence; Clockworks - mechanical creatures powered by stolen souls and changelings that can change their appearance. The game statistics are not determined by the roll of dice but are fixed. Physical traits, strange habits and backgrounds can be rolled to emphasize further that the player characters also have their dark sides.
The characters start at level 0, with the whole group always advancing one level - up to the maximum of level 10. The game is designed so that at level 0, the characters are ordinary people who have regular professions. From level 1, players choose an apprentice path that includes the usual classes such as warrior, priest, rogue and warrior. At the next levels, expert and master paths are added, which further develop the character and give them special abilities or access to individual magic schools. These career paths are not hierarchical, but the player can choose freely: A character who started as a warrior can also learn magic later. Magic is divided into a vast arsenal of different schools, each with their own spells and in some cases special rules. Some schools change the personality or appearance of a character - and some evil schools corrupt it. Despite all the advancements, the characters always have a limited number of health points and are also threatened by corruption and madness, which can make life even harder for them.
Many of the rule mechanisms are based on D&D and Warhammer and developed further in a meaningful way. For example, there are advantage and disadvantage dice, which are included as d6 with the standard d20 roll.
The game world is presented with a wide range of regions and challenges. Rules, tips for the gamemaster and the inevitable bestiary round off the book.
The book's illustrations make it clear that Shadow of the Demon Lord is a tough setting, and the game starts by stating very clearly that the player characters not only have a good chance of dying, but that their death is definitely a relevant game element. The world is dirty, ugly and brutal, and there is little room for shining heroes.
Thus, Shadow of the Demon Lord succeeds in carving out its own niche in the broad field of fantasy setting. From my point of view, this is a unique roleplaying game. The rules are coherent, the background is exciting, and the game has its own flair. However, Shadow of the Demon Lord is certainly not a roleplaying game for everyone, because of the very dark and drastically brutal world (both in description and illustration). The clear message that players have only little chances here will not please every gaming group. Friendly fantasy is something else, but here players will find a very exciting and also quite easy to learn challenge (which is probably brutal enough to kill the player characters often).
(Björn Lippold)
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I really love the system, and the game play is great. It is one of my favorate D20 systems, and the setting is great too. If you like 5E D&D, you will like this. It gives players a lot of options for character creation while balancing the classes (paths) for the characters better than how 5E does it. I will say that two things bug me about it: lots of splat book and the tone of the fiction doesn't match the tone of the mechanics. These are minor gripes... but to be fair let me explain.
There are a ton of splat books that provide a lot of additional options for players; which is good... but each splat book is its own very specific section of options. On the one hand I like how focused that is as far as the topics (all fae in one, devils in another...), but I dislike how there is a lot of GM info, like monster stats and certain lore info that deals with things that are secret to most of the people of the world (like who the Old Gods are and who the New God is) within these products. I would prefer to have seperate books for player options and DM Splat matterial; that way one can make a preistess of the New God without nessicarily giving away his true nature in case your players don't want to ruin the surprise (or the DM wants to use the surprise).
Second, the mechanics don't support the tone in my experiance. The tone in the fiction and lore of the book is bleek to say the least... adventures in the shadow of the demon lord after all. The game play I tried to run the first time rules as written, and I found it to be fairly hard to die. It is not a bad thing if that is what you are expecting, but I was a little disillusioned with how a lot of the game play works out with the base math based on the tone of the product's description. It will take several rounds of chipping health away from each other to decide a combat, and there is a lot of flavor text to the spells, effects, and path abilities that just doesn't come up an any relavent way; ie, the spell Desire's End does 2D6 damage and makes the target's genitals scrivle up and fall off. Kind of a magically punching below the belt kind of thing; ok... but 2D6 is not a lot of Health to be taken off, so this is interesting flavor with no real mechanical bite to it. Weapons do not do a lot of damage compared to how much Health most things have; we experianced easy fights lasting 3-5 rounds with a party of 4 and most creatures are only a threat if you wear down the party over the course of several rounds. It kind of feels like you are fighting with wiffle ball bats. I was expecting combat to be fast and brutal, like GURPS or Call of Cthulhu; this feels a lot more like 5E D&D.
Long story short, if you like D&D 5e, you will like this. It is particularly good if you like to multiclass and spend an hour going over character creation options that turn out pretty well ballanced. It really is a well constructed game to have this amount of variety without leaving anything too unbalanced. I do think it is worth the cost just for the art. You will have to buy a few splat books to get all the options, but nothing new if you play in class based systems.
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