u/bricknose-redux

The MB and other Borg rules state that monsters and NPCs roll a straight d20 against the DR, no modifiers. Fair, but should DRs be modified based on which creature is doing what?

For instance, let’s say a PC wants to break down a door. It’s a sturdy, banded iron door. DR 16, let’s say.

Then, a troll comes along and wants to break down the same door. Is it still DR 16, despite the troll reasonably being bigger and stronger than any PC? Or is it more like a DR 12 *for a troll* to break down the door, relatively speaking? Meanwhile, a goblin would be DR 18 or even higher to break down the door (or it just wouldn’t be possible)?

What if the PCs wanted to brace the aforementioned door against a troll entering? Would that still be on the troll to roll, possibly against a harder DR representing the PCs working against it, or would it become a DR 14 Strength or something on the PCs to brace the door?

On a different note, I presume that ability contests flip the burden, so an NPC urchin trying to pickpocket a PC would require the PC to test DR Presence or Agility against something like 14 to catch or spot their pocket being picked, is that right?

I’m eager to run more Shadowdark, but it can be difficult to find more than a couple of players to run the game for. Most adventures seem designed for 3-5 players, and in my experience that does work best.

Does anyone have any tips for making adventures work for just two players? Assume the players are new to Shadowdark, OSR, and TTRPGs in general. In that context, having players run two characters can be challenging because it asks too much and splits their focus.

Today, I'll be running an open table Shadowdark game at my local game shop, and it occurs to me that I don't have a great way of distinguishing my table as running Shadowdark. Personally, I don't use the basic Shadowdark GM screen, and even if I did, it doesn't actually say "Shadowdark" on it anywhere, nor does the book cover.

Can anyone recommend some high-quality, printable cover art that actually says "Shadowdark" on it? Preferably landscape letter, but portrait is fine.

EDIT: I feel like my ask is being misunderstood. Most online images I found are fairly low res, less than 1000 pixels in each dimension. When printed, that will be blurry or visibly pixelated and look terrible.

Maybe that doesn’t matter too much, but I was hoping for a trove of free official art or banners of high quality that would print up well.

Yesterday, I ran the Trial of the Slime Lord level 0 gantlet. I think that it went fairly smoothly overall as I try to memorize SD’s rules so I’m not forgetting or searching for things like encounter distance/reaction rolls or morale checks (coming from a 5e background, it can be easy to instinctively just have monsters attack on sight or run them too off-the-cuff rather than as the dice dictate).

One thing I still struggle with is running crawling rounds in a way that lets me clearly identify how many rounds have passed or when to roll for random encounters.

I had only two players, so I had each one run two active characters at the same time. So, for each player, I’d ask what each of their characters was doing before moving to the next. That became difficult to gauge, because the players naturally wanted to loosely cross-collaborate. One player character did something, then the other player wanted one of their characters to jump in and work off of what the other character did immediately. When I reined that in by enforcing the order strictly, then there were a lot of “I wait until the other player character finishes what they are doing”, which killed the momentum and chemistry.

So between players jumping in to work together and role playing, having their characters converse and plan, it became very confusing for me to tell whose turn it was, how many functional rounds had passed, and whether or not it was time to roll an encounter check. I used a round tracker sheet, but in some ways trying to notate which round we were on only confused me further because I was trying to track numbers and note what was happening in a structured way while players were actively talking and doing things.

Is there an easier way to track crawling rounds without having to stop players from collaborating or talking out of turn? I like the “what do you do?” “I do this.” “Oh, yeah, then I’ll do that!” “My character grumbles something about this being heresy while they do that.” natural bouncing around that allows me to sit back and simply respond to actions rather than constant notation and order regulation.

Exploding dice are fun! My experience with TTRPGs is primarily through D&D 5e and rules-lite D&D retro clones like Mork Borg or ShadowDark. Some borgs and optional SD rules have exploding dice on weapons, but high is definitely fun, but since the system is designed for crits to double dice or damage and not for exploding dice, it can create some pretty wild, swinging effects that also feel out of balance.

Can anyone recommend any OSR/rules-lite systems with a core design similar to Savage Worlds, with stats-as-dice and rolling exploding dice against a fixed success value (4+, if I recall), but with more of a MB/SD approach to lightweight rules rather than SW’s very extensive skills, feats, etc that add complexity and crunch?

I’m impressed by how well-rounded and complete the Mork Manual is, while still feeling distinct mechanically and in flavor from ShadowDark or other OSR games I’ve tried. It feels like a true adaptation of Medieval folklore fantasy, with all the weirdness that came with it.

Has anyone tried running Mork Manual for longer term campaigns (10+ sequential sessions), adapted prewritten campaigns for it, or tried any great third party MM campaigns/adventures they can recommend?

For context, I’ve been playing 5e for some 6-7 years and DMing for under a year. I’ve run one Mork Borg session as a GM and my impression is that its grim-dark brutality is fun for low-investment one-shots, but I prefer longer campaigns to have a bit more survivability/depth in order to retain investment.