Link here. (https://scholomance.substack.com/p/tabletop-review-shadowdark-rpg-by)
Normally I would copy and paste it here for people to read. However, it is about 8,000 words with a lot of special formatting.
Instead, I will just do the Final World section. Obviously if Pundit decides this is unacceptable, he is more than welcome to delete it.
Final Word
I wanted to like Shadowdark. Kelsey Dionne seems like a genuinely good person, and deserves success.
In reality, my biggest point of frustration is that you can tell some things about Kelsey from reading the book:
- She is excellent at descriptive writing and setting tone.
- She is certainly a good GM, and the advice given in the Game Master section shows that.
- She definitely understands the OSR ethos and gives good advice on adhering to it.
However, the rules seem inconsistent, and the natural language in which they are written is somehow made worse by randomly inserted keywords.
This is exacerbated by the fact that this is not a rules-light release. Shadowdark is over 300 pages long and around 180 pages of that is just rules. Moldvay Basic/Expert Dungeons & Dragons is 130 pages including rules and monster statistics.
I am giving Shadowdark a 6/10.
Shadowdark has definitely had a proof-reader because there are no obvious errors in grammar or spelling, but the lack of a listed editor suggests that the book has not had the editing pass it desperately needs.
There are good ideas throughout, but they never come to a cohesive whole. Experienced GMs can probably carve out components to be used for their own houserules.
In my opinion, this is a very solid first ruleset release from Kelsey. She has had experience in writing adventures for 5th edition, but they require completely different styles of writing.
Partway through writing this, I realised that I would have quite liked a book of Kelsey's DMing advice and managing game feel. I think she would have done an absolutely brilliant job of that.
On the other hand, she made ten times my yearly salary in a month with Shadowdark, so maybe she should not take my advice.