Shadowdark RPG takes the best elements of the various editions of the games we love, cuts out the bloat, and adds fresh ideas.

Character creation is fast like popular retroclones. Gear slots are simple and easy to track. Rolling for checks, spells, and attacks is uniformly roll high with tight stat modifiers. Skills are open to player creativity rather than a constraining list of options on a character sheet. Casting spells is done with a straightforward roll to cast system, with support for ongoing spells and magical mishaps. Combat is lethal - but not cheap - thanks to a round-based death timer when characters drop to 0 HP.

It's obvious that the publisher has a lot of practical experience running games. The included systems are a "greatest hits" collection from roleplaying game history.

On top of the familiar, there's plenty of compelling new ideas on display. Experience points are simple to track and award based on treasure quality. Character advancement has random talent rolls for stat increases and other fun bonuses. My favourite new feature by far is the real-time torch mechanic - it adds a ton of tension and pacing to a session.

These factors all make for a game that is easy to pick up for new players and nostalgic for old-school players. I firmly believe the new ideas here will delight players and game masters alike, regardless of their experience level. I'm excited to make this the default system I run for my games.

P.S. Wow, this publisher even updates their free stuff. I came back to check out the quick start after some time and found some new tweaks were made from the results of ongoing playtesting.