[Let's Read] Shadow of the Demon Lord

crkrueger · May 30, 2016, 04:21:08 AM

Hmm, is there any indication that Diabolus, like the Great Fey, is being shaped or affected by being worshipped by "good guys"?

Skywalker · May 30, 2016, 05:06:11 AM

Quote from: CRKrueger;900724Hmm, is there any indication that Diabolus, like the Great Fey, is being shaped or affected by being worshipped by "good guys"?

Nope. It's a thing that is mentioned to happen in general to the great fey and Diabolus has recently holed himself up in his castle for some reason, but any specific change is just conjecture (though backed with some logic). The bad outweighs the good by a mountain load. Especially as the Cult of the New God can be a pretty horrible group of people on the whole.

3rik · September 30, 2016, 09:04:55 AM

Quote from: Skywalker;900595Terrible Beauty (the Fae book) and Exquisite Agony (the Hell book) are now out, with Uncertain Faith (the Religions book) and Glorious Death (the Giant book) are due in the next month or so. Quality continues to be high with the Fae/Devil cosmology proving to be dark and intriguing. Lots of cool analogies to Legend, Labryinth, and Hellboy 2

I'm deciding which of the supplements to add to my next binge order at DTRPG. I plan on at least adding the Companion and Tombs of the Desolation. I'm on the fence about Terrible Beauty and wonder if it would require Exquisite Agony. Is Glorious Death comparable to Desolation?

Skywalker · September 30, 2016, 02:49:25 PM

The books have mostly got better as things have progressed.

Probably the most all round useful after the Companion is Uncertain Faith. It's a great book covering religion of most of the cultures and races.

I would then look to get Terrible Beauty and Exquisite Agony as they are good companion pieces. And provide a glimpse as to the reality behind Uncertain Faith. I expect the upcoming Void book to be the same.

Glorious Death is better than Tombs of Desolation, but I would get these last as they deal with geographical specific locations. I like GD more as I felt it provided a new style of play "Vikings!" but ToD is good for a Crusader State game.

Spinachcat · September 30, 2016, 04:18:57 PM

Skywalker, are you running Shadows? How is the campaign going? What's your thoughts (and your player's response) on the system and setting in actual play?

Skywalker · September 30, 2016, 04:38:38 PM

I am running it intermittently when our D&D5e game isn't run due to player absences. The game runs very well, both mechanically and in terms of the adventures. Rank 0 was brutal and ranks 1 to 2 felt more like WFRP than D&D.

I have also run a one off at rank 4, so I am aware that the PCs do rise in competence, though having a PC die of fright showed me that it remains different from later versions of D&D.

My players love it. It seems a bigger hit than either WFRP 2e or D&D 5e has to be honest, but I think a lot of that is actualy attached to the adventures.

The rulebook and Companion provide heaps of options too. I probably won't ever need to explore the PC options in the supplements to be honest.

3rik · September 30, 2016, 05:44:34 PM

Quote from: Skywalker;922698The books have mostly got better as things have progressed.

Probably the most all round useful after the Companion is Uncertain Faith. It's a great book covering religion of most of the cultures and races.

I would then look to get Terrible Beauty and Exquisite Agony as they are good companion pieces. And provide a glimpse as to the reality behind Uncertain Faith. I expect the upcoming Void book to be the same.

Glorious Death is better than Tombs of Desolation, but I would get these last as they deal with geographical specific locations. I like GD more as I felt it provided a new style of play "Vikings!" but ToD is good for a Crusader State game.

I'm not particularly looking to expand or flesh out the religions/cosmology but more interested in some geographical detail and (N)PC options. Would you still recommend Terrible Beauty, and Exquisite Agony, or does the core rulebook offer enough broad strokes on the whole Fae thing to make do?

Skywalker · September 30, 2016, 05:50:57 PM

Cool. The cosmological expansions have been the best things to date IMO. But if you just want PC options and geographical detail, I would suggest:

- Companion
- Uncertain Faith (every religion gets its own Paths and spells, and it has considerable cultural information)
- Terrible Beauty (elves and faerie places)
- Glorious Death (half jotun and the icy lands)
- Tombs of Desolation (revenants and vampires and a hostile land to adventure in)

The recent PDF series are probably more to your liking though as some focus on PC options or geographical regions.

jux · October 05, 2016, 10:01:25 AM

I really do not get the "setting" in SotDL. It just has too much stuff to be taken seriously. There's like every little fantasy trope in existence. That is not believable to me.
I take this game as a general fantasy system like D&D. I certainly am not interested expending what is offered in the core book.

I would hope they make a new setting book where the fantastic stuff is tuned down. Humans vs demons or something.

But most of all, I hope they continue on making small 3-page scenarios that can be injected to whichever setting.

Skywalker · October 05, 2016, 03:00:36 PM

It's definitely D&D like in it's broad inclusiveness. However, with each release I am finding the overall view of the setting is becoming even more coherent. Schwalb had this all in mind with the setting from the get go. The religion and cosmology in particular feels very lived in and real in terms of its impact on the world.

Scrivener of Doom · October 05, 2016, 11:25:58 PM

Quote from: jux;923445I really do not get the "setting" in SotDL. It just has too much stuff to be taken seriously. There's like every little fantasy trope in existence. That is not believable to me.
I take this game as a general fantasy system like D&D. I certainly am not interested expending what is offered in the core book.

I would hope they make a new setting book where the fantastic stuff is tuned down. Humans vs demons or something.

But most of all, I hope they continue on making small 3-page scenarios that can be injected to whichever setting.

I am hoping to run it at some point and I plan to use Midnight instead of Rul. There are bits of Rul that I do like but I've been wanting to run Midnight for more than a decade and I think it would work really well with the SotDL rules.

Skywalker · October 31, 2016, 03:09:53 PM

Last of the supplements for SotDL came out today: Hunger in the Void.

Its another 80 pages filled with loads of goodness, both mechanics and setting. The artwork is as seriously dark and fucked up as the text

More big twists in the cosmology too:

Spoiler

The Demon Lord is the broken carcass of God seeking to undo what he created. Mortals are demons bound in bodies of flesh and blood.

On top of the New God being the Devil, who is actually the greater fey lord Diabolus, the cosmology is fucking twisted as all hell at this point

.

3rik · March 11, 2017, 04:45:02 PM

Currently there's a Kickstarter running for a SotDL version of the Freeport setting. I'm not familiar with Freeport. Apparently it's some kind of fantasy-pirate setting, but I have no idea if it's any good. What do you think, Skywalker?

Llew ap Hywel · March 11, 2017, 04:56:54 PM

This was bought for me by a friend, fantastic read and from the sounds of it definitely worth playing.

Skywalker · March 11, 2017, 10:02:46 PM

I love Shadow of the Demon Lord, and like Freeport. Freeport has a long history and is generally regarded.

On saying that, I am not backing this KS as I don't feel much need to run Freeport with SotDL, as I am having enough fun running the existing setting material. I will pick up the DL Companion 2 via DTRPG.