Enough content in this guide to run a few sessions and really get an idea how the system works. Great guide!

There is so much about this game that resonates with the games I want to play.

• Easy character creation and emergent character developement through exploration and recovered loot
• Tension and the threat of the ever encroaching darkness through the real time torch timer
• Rules and GM tools that just feel intuitive and natural

You'll see nods to many elements of the great rule systems, new and old. All combining in wonderfully illustarted and consise player and GM guides

With the publisher's extensive catalog of wonderful 5e adventures, I'm really excited for what is to come See for yourself. Grab and copy, a beverage of choice and see if you feel the same way

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.

Who could have guessed that a Quick Start for a game that I had never heard of (which I grabbed for free and then forgot about for months) would end up becoming my go-to system of choice?

It's obvious even from the preview images here that the quick start booklets are oozing with style, and the artwork will no doubt have you immediately captivated. Where Shadowdark truly shines though, is after you get past all of that and find that there is genuine substance in the text. The rules (or rulings, hehe) framework established here is possibly the most inspiring thing I have come across in my tabletop RPG experience as a whole. The mechanics, in everything from the character creation to the deepest delves are kept punchy, quick and rules lite, but the execution manages to carry a significant heft, still feeling purposeful and fulfilling, without letting the excitement get lost in the details.

The short of it is that there is so much content packed into this "quick start" that it could pass for an entire game on its own, and if you hadn't been told otherwise, you would probably never have known differenty. The best part though, is that we are going to get even more coming soon! I haven't looked forward to a Kickstarter as much as this!

I can't say enough about ShadowDark RPG. I love everything about this game: the simplicity of races and classes, the random class talents, and, above all, I LOVE the torch timer. I've run a few ShadowDark games this year (including a Level 10 playtest with the author) and I adore how easy it is to run. There is very little thumbing through books to look up rules; the Game Master is encouraged to focus on quick rulings to keep the game going, rather than looking up that specific rule (take that, lawyers!). Combat is quick and dangerous in ShadowDark; players must be careful and decisive if they want their characters to crawl another day. ShadowDark is a game that deserves to be on everyone's shelf and their tables. So what are you waiting for?! Smash that Add to Cart button and start playing ShadowDark today!

I am a dad who plays a lot with kids. I’ve been using the Quickstart for a couple months now, and it is far and away the best way I have found to introduce new players to fantasy roleplaying. (The ones I tried before Shadowdark were 5e, B/X and AD&D.)

The basic mechanics are similar to 5e, which means it feels familiar to those who came into the hobby through 5e. “Roll to cast” replaces cantrips to make spellcasters relevant at low levels.

Various aspects of the rules help to keep things moving even in large groups: an emphasis on random character generation, clockwise turn order (even outside of combat), one action per PC per round, omission of separate saving throws (they are resolved as in 5e through ability checks).

Really, couldn’t recommend it enough.