GM Companion for Shadowdark

Let's talk about Mr. Chubby Funster. Greg. If you go on RPG DriveThru and check out the Shadowdark section you'll see he had three books in the top ten. And if you look at his titles as a whole, 3 are Platinum, 3 are Gold, and 3 Electrum. Electrum? Don't get me started. That's one of those coins that is a little bit of this. Little bit of that. Not enough of either. With numbers like that Greg has sold thirteen buttloads of PDFs and books. Yes, buttload is a measurement (126 gallons). I think it's in the Bible. 

With that many sales and the number of books he written for Shadowdark Greg has earned his cred for being an authority on enhancing a Shadowdark. I speak from experience, I own nearly everything he's written (except his adventures he writes in French words). And if there is a podcast, YouTube channel, or Agway luncheon he's there. The man has turned into a PR machine. 

I kid. Not really. But I can't be too complimentary of Greg. I have to give him some shit. Because I'm going to talk about his book and it's very good. 

The GM Companion for Shadowdark is easily one of his best offerings if not the best. And one of the best 3rd party books for Shadowdark. I like to write adventures. A lot of them. When I write an adventure these days his books is close at hand if not smooshed down in front of me so I can refer to it. I want to break it down. All the fucking stuff its full of.

Point of Interest

The first section is Points of Interest. These are a collection of random d20 tables divided up into terrain types. Your party is traveling through an artic hex you can create an instant interesting 'thing'. Here my favorite party about these table. There are two columns. You roll two d20s and mix the two result together. These are my favorite types of tables because of expediential possibilities. He has 9 different terrains. Below is a sample of Artic table.

Hazards

The second section mimics the first but for hazards for each of the 9 terrain types. This time the tables use 2 d6. The first die determines the hazard and the second die determines what the hazard does to the party. The three categories are movement, damage and weakening. And of course combining effects is encouraged. Anything to make the players suffers gets the thumbs up from me. Another example of the tables found within. 

Settlements

This next section is particularly useful if a GM is struggling with a settlement along the way. The tables found here to generate a village, city or some redneck crossroads where everyone shares the same last name make it easy to give some depth. A few foothold to flesh it out before your party goes bat shit on the locals. The tables are detailed by districts. Each district type has its own d12 tables. At the end there are d20 tables providing possibility of businesses that could populate your town. Although Greg is being judgey in the one table where one of the entries is a predatory money lender. No other adjustives are in any of the other entries. I think Greg feels some kind of way about banks. 

I would have added a table here, but if you need to see 20 businesses listed then you'll need more than this book to be creative. 

Taverns

This is the obligatory tavern generator tables. It's needed. While there are several million billions of tavern tables if your going to write a book about generating colorful and handy taverns cause you know you're going to put a tavern where ever you can. Cause they are fun to have. If there is a tavern with the door hanging off its hinges, smells like an ogre's ass and the back part is one fire, the party is going in. 

The first table is to generate a name. Two columns. Roll separate. Smoosh together. You got a tavern. I rolled the Sullen Tooth. The third part of that table is what the tavern is known for. I rolled there is a magical fog that lingers around or in the Sullen Tooth.

The next d20 table is for the food and divided into poor, standard and wealthy. I'm going to say the Sullen Tooth is a standard tavern. Lets rolls on the grub table, Spiced Hoarfish. Sounds gross but that gives me an idea of where the tavern gets its supply of Hoarfish. 

Then on the drinky table. It has one column be still divided into poor, standard or wealthy to determine the number of drinks the tavern serves. And to determine what die type to roll. The lower numbered drinks are grog and gag drinks to the upper end they are the drinks one must stick out a pinky and take a whiff of it before drinking. Standard tavern serves three of these drinks and I roll a 2d8. Spiced cider, Bacon Broth Beer and Pudding Beer. Each drink has an affect noted with it.

Tavern Feast by Manolis Karavidas

Acts of Devotion 

While the rest of the party is getting trashed and causing problems, what is a devote holy man supposed to do? Watch their friends get cranked on a dwarven drink called Smegma from the Forge? Watch their thief in the party get into a fight with a bush while taking a leak and lose? Or watch the human ranger ask the serving wenches to play smell my finger? After discarding the option of smothering them with a pillow while they sleep, Greg has a couple of table that could prove to be constructive for the overworked, under appreciated man of holy. 

The first table is determined by the amount the priest is willing to devote to the act. The amount you give is accompanied by flavor texts of what happens followed by a bonus. Now the person of holiness is supposed to do this for altruistic reasons but we all know that's complete bullshit. Their true god is XP! 

The second table is to determine how please your god is. You roll a d8 and add your bonus on the table that goes to 14. Read the flavor text and gather all that sweet loving XP. In addition the priest can gain fanatics, allies, luck tokens or a frickin marriage partner. I can see players using their luck token to reroll on this table.

Then Greg adds tables like these for the other three classes. It adds a cool element to to off time. I think off time, between adventures are difficult for GMs to handle. Especially with games that don't have rules set into place for it. But with these tables you can divide up the time and have the players still be productive.

World Below or How I Built a Dungeon and Learned to Love the Ettercap 

Okay. This is where I rub my hands together and say, this section is worth the price of admission. This section takes the adventure from the original Shadowdark rule books and turns it up to 11. This section is divided into 5 sections: Dungeons, dungeon hazards, dungeon traps, NPCs and rival crawlers. 

Dungeons

I'm not dicking around with this section. I'm going right to the page I use the most. I have it marked so I can find it easily. It's the room type table. The original table is Shadowdark has a d10 table with 9 entries. Greg's table is a d20 with 14 entries. What are the additional entries? Each of these entries has additional tables to refine the result. 

• Change Over Time: Change the room every time the party leaves/returns. Love this addition. It allows the area to change and keeps the party alert. Tracking back to the entrance may not be as simple as retracing their steps.
• Magical Power: Magical effect that can harm/help the party. The PCs walk in an are revolted by the smell of charred flesh. A corpse in the room is blackened and smoldering. But I swear I saw it move.
• Combat Aftermath: Corpses of 1d4 monsters of average PC level. This is one of those entries I enjoy putting into my adventures. The hint of some extreme action occurred giving the place an active dynamic and depth. 
• Dead Zone: Hinders or completely negates a certain activity. I've used this in the past. When my PC priests find themselves in abyss and they are summoning their godliness I have them roll with disadvantage because of the roaming charges. 
• Unique Item: An object with properties not immediately visible. Objects with hidden properties is something I enjoy. It gives the eggheads in the party something to explore, research or if you have a player like Joe he slams it on and watches his hand rot. 

These additions and the tables that accompany the entries make dungeon/adventure creation a lot of fun. It provides juxtapositions you may have not thought of. Like in other of his table I roll twice for some rules and combine the results to come up with some great idea seeds.

I'm going to wrap this up but there are sections for Hazards and Traps. NPCs and rival crawlers with expanded tables. There is a lot of additions from Greg's Players Companion to Shadowdark. If you don't have that one get that one. 

Then to end the book Greg has a fantastic collection of monster and treasure tables. The monster tables are broken down in levels, 0 thru 9. I addition he's statted an assortment of monsters that are in the traditional games. He statted a rot grub. Just for that I approve. 

Then the treasure tables are broken into Dungeon Dressing, things of little monetary value but the party may find useful. Then the loot tables are broken into levels of 0-3, 4-6, 7-9 and 10+. Is that all. Nope. He put a lot of effort into this section. Then collection of boons. Tables to create random potions. Tables to create random suits of armors. My only critique of this section is Greg added tradition, other suits of armor in his PC Companion, but did not include them here. Time to break out my Sharpie and modify. Then you find tables for magic items and magical weapons. At the end he includes a health chunk of original magic items.

As you can read this fucking book is packed. I am not going to call the GM Companion for Shadowdark a 3rd party supplement. It is THE 3rd party supplement. There is no hyperbole in my statement when I say when I write an adventure this book is open next to me. 

A lot of Shadowdark people have already bought it, but my pitch is to those who don't play Shadowdark. Maybe you play one of the thousand of RPGs available these days. This book only benefits you no matter the system. It is written in simple and straight terms. Easy to manipulate into your game.

Alright. I'm done giving Greg props. His head won't fit in his car. But I guess there is one more thing. He's got a Kickstarter running right now, ShadowCity: Blood and Neon. So far all the early opinions are glowing positive.