ShadowDark

Hey Australia, buy ShadowDark from an Australian store! We even have free shipping options!

Classic adventure gaming for 5E and old-school players alike.

One book. Everything you need.

5th Edition D&D players will find what they've been waiting for: an intuitive and complete TTRPG that serves as a seamless bridge into the heart of the Old School Renaissance.

Old-school gamers will find a system that is familiar and nostalgic, but with major quality-of-life upgrades that modernize the old-school experience.

Your legend awaits, crawler. Lift your blade, light your torch, and plunge into the unknown depths of the Shadowdark!

Explore the World of ShadowDark

In Shadowdark RPG, you and your group of crawlers use magic, steel, and wits to delve into mysterious ruins, lost cities, and monster-infested depths. Wondrous treasures and long-forgotten secrets await you! But don't let your last torch burn out, or you could be swallowed by the Shadowdark...

What Is Shadowdark RPG?

Shadowdark is what an old-school fantasy adventure game would look like after being redesigned with 50 years of innovation.

Shadowdark RPG is fast, familiar, intuitive, and deadly. It’s built for sword-and-sorcery adventures where fell monsters slither in darkness and ancient gems glint upon forgotten thrones, waiting to be discovered.

In Shadowdark RPG, real time comes into play. A torch only holds back the looming darkness for one hour of actual game time! There isn't a moment to spare when your only light source is guttering low...

Get ready for old-school gaming in a whole new light!

Shadowdark RPG Core Rules

This stunning black, digest-sized hardcover features a silver-ink illustration of the Ten-Eyed Oracle - the most notorious and feared denizen in the ShadowDark.

Inside, you’ll find a complete, self-contained game system that blends old-school fantasy with modern design. Everything you need to play is right here in one beautifully crafted tome.

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Here's what you'll find inside:

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330 pages in a concise, two-page spread layout

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Full rules for characters, gameplay, and GMing

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239 classic monsters

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85 iconic spells

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97 mighty magic items

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Dozens of robust roll tables for just about everything

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Handy reference charts on the inside covers

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Spectacular black-and-white art

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Lay-flat, sewn binding

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A black ribbon bookmark

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Chapter markers along the side of the book

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Cursed Scroll Zine

Enhance your game world with new classes, spells, monsters, hex crawls, and critically acclaimed adventures!

Each Cursed Scroll zine is a complete, 68-page mini-setting you can drop right into your campaign.

Explore gloomy forests, shimmering deserts, and the frozen northern isles in issues 1-3!

What Makes ShadowDark Different.

ShadowDark RPG blends the best of classic fantasy with modern gameplay design.

It’s not just another retro-clone - it’s a streamlined, thrilling system where tension, danger, and story emerge in real time.

Torches burn down by the hour.

Decisions matter.

And the darkness? It’s truly dark.

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Here are the core mechanics that make ShadowDark a standout tabletop RPG:

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The four core classes: fighter, priest, thief, wizard

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A d20-based, roll-high system

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No darkvision - total darkness is dangerous

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Treasure grants XP, and tracking it is dead simple

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Roll-to-cast spells - magic is exciting and risky

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Simple distances (close, near, far)

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Monster morale and reaction rolls

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Always-on initiative - time is easy to track

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The six classic stats (3d6 in order)

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No skills - just ability checks and advantage/disadvantage

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Separate ancestry and class

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Randomized character class abilities - emergent character growth!

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Low hit points - fast and deadly combat

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Simple encumbrance (gear slots)

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Game Mastering

The Game Mastering chapter of Shadowdark RPG is absolutely crammed with advice and roll tables to help you improvise and be surprised alongside your players.

There are robust generators for traps, hazards, rumors, events, adventures, NPCs, names, rival adventurers, dungeon and hex maps, taverns, shops, and much more.

Shadowdark RPG also features rich, d100 encounter tables for 22 adventuring environments. There are 1,100 unique encounters brimming with kinetic energy!

The Monsters and Treasure chapters get the same attention to detail. Random generators combined with hundreds of monsters and treasures give you all you need to dive in and let the adventure unfold.

Can I See A Preview?

Absolutely! Download the FREE Digital Shadowdark RPG Quickstart Set here.

It has two 68-page guides (Player and Game Master), eight 1st-level characters, and an expansive 1st-3rd-level dungeon crawl, Lost Citadel of the Scarlet Minotaur.

What About Everything Else?

Mini Adventures, Character Cards, a Game Master Screen, and Cursed Scroll Zines are just the beginning!

Publishing for Shadowdark RPG

We're proud to say that Shadowdark RPG does not use the Open Game License, so third-party creators can publish Shadowdark RPG material royalty and worry-free!

Check out a few examples of the fantastic work by Shadowdark RPG creators:

Shrine of the Jaguar Princess, a FREE 50+ page sword-and-sorcery dungeon crawl into the hidden shrine of a long-lost civilization, written by Sersa Victory: [ View Here ]

Soulblight, a complete campaign setting full of blood, magic, and legend, written by Laurin-David Weggen: [ View Here ]

Kazad-Mor, a delve into dwarvish ruins infested by an ancient evil, written by Taylor Seely-Wright: [ View Here ]

New Shadowdark RPG Classes, including mighty barbarians, wild druids, and sword-wielding spellcasters, written by Jake Savala: [ View Here ]

Expanded Talents, a character supplement that adds/expands class talents and enables using ancestry-as-class, written by James Mishler: [ View Here ]

Writing and Design

Kelsey Dionne is the founder of The Arcane Library, a TTRPG publishing company based out of Las Vegas. Her adventure, The Secrets of Skyhorn Lighthouse, is the highest-rated adventure of all time on DMs Guild and has over 130,000 downloads. Her claim to fame is that she once met Gary Gygax when she was a young gamer, and he encouraged her to become a Dungeon Master. She's very glad she took his advice!

Art Team

Lucas Korte
Is an artist and illustrator who works primarily in the underground death metal scene. His international roster of clients include Blood Incantation, Tomb Mold, the Black Dahlia Murder, and many more. He received his M.F.A. from the University of Notre Dame after studying biology at Wayne State University and fine art at the College for Creative Studies. After teaching art at the University of Notre Dame, Korte and his partner moved to Lancaster PA, where they currently reside. Korte is a lifelong lover of early sword and sorcery illustration and Lovecraftian cosmic horror.

Yuri Perkowski Domingos
A Brazilian artist and member of Ink Potion Studios. He's passionate about the art of old Warhammer and Fighting Fantasy books. Yuri works with his own pointillism technique and has illustrated for Old School Essentials, Warlock! and many other indie TTRPGs.

Matt Morrow
has been creating illustrations professionally since 1996. He worked for a computer magazine as an in-house illustrator until 1999, where he crafted hundreds of editorial illustrations. Since then, Matt has been juggling being a stay at home dad with three great kids and working on
freelance projects in various areas such as newspapers, children’s books, RPGs, and drawing subjects from hedgehogs to zombies.

Brandish Gilhelm
"Strength, honor, and beer." Brandish is the head of Runehammer Games
and has published numerous bestselling industry-shakers includingIndex Card RPG,EZD6by DM Scotty, and5E Hardcore Mode.

Jessee Egan
Kelsey's wife and the true force of nature behindShadowdark RPG, since it wouldn't exist without her creative direction, marketing skill, art contributions, and encouragement. Also, she makes sure Kelsey remembers to eat during writing benders.

David Wright-Spaner
The video and audio visionary behind Shadowdark RPG! David is a vastly talented digital multimedia artist and consultant, voice over actor, and Game Master, as well as one ofShadowdark RPG's very first playtesters.

Abdul Latif
A horror and necro-surrealism artist based in Indonesia whose work appears in numerous band logos and album covers in the death metal scene.

Matt Ray
Matt Ray's iconic pen-and-ink style of classic fantasy illustration has been featured in notable publications across the TTRPG industry, including Back to BasiX,DungeonDelve, and Old School Essentials.

Mark Lyons
Mark's ink illustrations can be found in Old School Essentials and numerous retro adventures from the OSR scene, as well as the comic anthology Strange Stories for Strange People.

Best RPG Dice for ShadowDark Adventures.

Ah, dice - those strange, beautiful little shapes of chaos. ShadowDark runs on classic polyhedral dice, and every roll can change everything.

Whether you’re looting a dungeon or lighting your last torch, we’ve got the dice (and storage) you’ll want by your side.

Other RPGs & Essentials!

Role-playing games are a chance to collaboratively tell a story in real time - and to step into someone else’s shoes for a while. They invite you to explore bravery, strategy, leadership, morality, survival, and imagination.

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At Brain Spice, we stock a variety of RPG systems and essentials. Some of the collections you’ll find include:

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Dungeons & Dragons

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ShadowDark

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Dragonbane RPG

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RPG Dice

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Miniatures

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RPG Accessories

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Whether you’re a seasoned Game Master or just rolling your first d20, we’ve got something for your next adventure!

Shop ShadowDark today!