LOVE Demon Lord! I toned down the "grim-dark" a bit and used Kobold Press' Midgard Campaign Setting, along with a loose translation of the old D&D Scourge of the Slave Lords modules. A few 5e players didn't like the "feel" of the system/classes and dropped, but the other players had a fun time with it. Weird Wizard was NOT what I was expecting, but I'm hoping it shapes up asap.
Yep, I'll have to agree that Weird Wizard wasn't what I was expecting and honestly I'm passing on it. I prefer to adapt other campaign settings with SotDL instead, like you've done.
Call of cthulu everything you and even cthulu are all part of a greater seams dream so nothing matters. And so players will kill you because it dosnt matter . Just a dream . It's bad writing. Be prepared for the other people at the travel to betray you because it dosnt matter
This is probably my favorite RPG for the speed and diversity allowed to players and GMs alike. My first campaign was with 2 players, and was happening between sessions of another game with serious scheduling issues. We ran the Dark Deeds in Last Hope module as the intro, which I highly recommend for new players and GMs alike, and it ended badly due to player action and inaction. From there they brought the survivors to a new town (and lost most of them to a giant pig attack) and spent their novice levels making a name for themselves. Another group of refugees arrived after and the town was a bit over filled with people, but the refugee mayor offered the players work in retrieving his signet ring from the old town, leading to the players favorite quest. They got 1 horse and were chased by wolves most of the way there. The horse was killed shortly before arrival by a dire wolf, which then chased them into town and trapped them in a house, mocking them and toying with them before setting it on fire and forcing them out. They had to run through the abandoned streets in the dark with a torch to fight off that one and another that was hanging out in the town, which they did through some pretty excellent innate synergy between rogues and priests. Surviving the fight, they decided to book it through the mansion, get the ring, and get it. Mansion is of course haunted, with the shadows attacking them and the rogue getting a mark of darkness and taking a quirk to have fear of the dark. Through a combination of candles, torches, and ripping off every window curtain they could, they made their way through the mansion wounded but alive and acquired the ring, a pistol, and a randomly generated magic item (a drum that could vanish and reappear with a word), and began the nerve wracking trip home on foot, hiding from wolves and beastmen alike. This was all session 4.
SotDL is a great game, sadly too few people play it and it is hard to get converts. One campaign had a character who was a middle age healer who obtained a flesh bound book the whispered to her, of paths to great power. She had been treated poorly so was tempted down the dark path. she would often play out the book mentoring her. Another was running a game for my boys, who played 5e, Pathfinder, and other systems get trounced and one slain my simple bandits. Its also easy to port in D&D monsters (or OSR, Shadowdark ect) Great review
For those who don't know, there's a new game from the same set of rules named Shadow of the Weird Wizard, which is less grimmdark, more tactic and slightly more heroic. If you think this game is a bit too dark and deadly, that's your game.
Love to see more content and love for Robert Schwalb and Shadow of the Demon Lord! I've been running this system for years, and while I have seen several cracks in the mechanics at times, it is still the one I come back to even when I want to try something new. The curious should absolutely give it a look and I cannot recommend playing it enough.
Well said man. I still feel fondly, but yeah, problems that don't go away until you stop trying to make the game work for everything was my experience.
Great game, I've run 4 campaigns and looking forward to more. This also let me run the best campaign I have ever run, 6 months during corona online. Appreciate you promoting something that doesn't get near the attention it should. If anyone is fleeing 5e you could do a helluva lot worse than Demon Lord! Hail Satan!
What a great video about one of my favorite TTRPG systems. You said everything about the system that makes it so special for me. I especially like your tips and overall comments throughout the video, as they give a good perspective on what this system can do for you. I ran it also for different settings and never used the more gritty horror stuff. Probably because I always forgot to apply the Horrifying and Frightening trait. :D You can easily cut out Insanity and Corruption and don't allow Forbidden Traditions and have a great system for high fantasy. With that being said I really like that Weird Wizard is lighter on theme as it makes it much easier to pitch to other people. But if you love SotDL for its bleak and grim setting and the horror it brings then Weird Wizard could be a bit disappointing (even though the rules have some great improvements) PS: I had a lot of great moments with SotDL. From a Treeperson who morphed into a Boar that was as big as a house, to Mushroomfolk that try to reanimate every corpse they cause or a floating time mage that one shotted a whole cult in their lair while time was stopped with a force wave. There is lots of fun to be had and more people should try out SotDL or SotWW. :)
@@wasabiburger3047 I really like SotDL and SotWW as they made me a GM, and it does not feel as restraining too me as 5e or Pathfinder. I also do not hate those systems but GMing Shadow games is just so smooth
I feel like the difficulty ratting is more of a gide to the gm to know what they're putting in front if their players than really a "this is how you balance stuff"
Good video, Wasabi! Thanks for giving an excellent game proper attention. I run Demon Lord whenever people who have outgrown 5e but don't want a learning curve while learning a new game.
Literally came here because my DM is thinking of running a curse of strahd-esque campaign and thought the grim dark aspects might be good additions to his campaign
Another great video. I have heard of Shadows of the Demon Lord before, but I didn't know much about it. Thank you for the excellent discussion of it. I think I might pick it up as the 16th/17th century guns and armour needs to be used in more games
Seems worth checking out. Love the dig at alignment!! I stopped using alignment across the board around 2004. I think you are conflating peoples disgust with 5e play and their perception of the system. The game is not the system, its what happens at the table. I won't get into it beyond this. There is a reason there is a GM shortage (and its not the rules) yet there are plenty of DMs, Judges, and referees.
Yeah I'll be fully honest, I had a much more in-depth and scathing take for both sides of the argument but I realized it was 15 minutes long and just decided I think that may be best for another video instead of coming out of the gate talking about a completely different topic than what the thumbnail advertised.
@@wasabiburger3047 I could have written pages on why I think 5e is in decline but to what purpose. I am having more fun playing games I enjoy then punching of dnd. Anyways, I try to stay away from channels that do, so I appreciate your approach here. Discovery in the not-dnd space is difficult.
Ran Dead By Dawn last night with the intention of leading the survivng characters into a tweaked Curse of Strahd Campaign using this system. One of my players made the excellent point that the setting feels very much like the Old Diablo games.
I got tired of 5e for a lot of the reasons you highlighted and love the stripped down functionality of SotDL. It's a sports car compared to the bulky 5e SUV. The most obvious design improvement for me is boons/banes VS advantage/disadvantage, which allows actual degrees of improved/reduced performance based on a situation's context. Anyway, great summary. Subscribed.
Eventually I would love to! I am currently working on a different AP now slated to come out in a few months so if I do get around to an SotDL AP, it won't be for a while but I think SotDL is really well suited for great APs.
@@wasabiburger3047 I've had it for a while but haven't gotten to it. My group can only play once a month and the shorter campaigns seems perfectly suited for this system. I'm wrestling between doing SotDL or using your Hexcrawl video with WWN.
@@charlessmith491 Depending on what your group is like, doing a hexcrawl/sandbox game might not be the worst idea. I sometimes get frustrated with story/plot driven games because in a month a lot of my players tend to forget what happened last time and especially what happened before that. So at least with a sandbox game, you can focus more on just fun things session to session that might grow into larger things but overall have less worry about driving a character or plot driven story and can just ransack dungeons and do small jobs. Though, I guess you could also do that with SotDL with them having a home base and going on short missions out in the borderlands that's connected to a greater story. But anyway, I'll stop rambling now haha
Thank you! This video alone has convinced me to pick up Shadow of the Demon lord and I am prepping my next campaign in it. So far from reading the rules I am really loving the simplicity of the initiative - can't wait to see it in action. I have mostly played DnD 5e and the combat was really really getting tedious. I was really disappointed when I saw that there were no updates to the overall combat structure in DnD 5.5. As a matter of fact - it seems that it makes it even longer with the weapon masteries and that has pushed me to completely abandon DnD overall - which lead me here 🙂
I really hope you enjoy SotDL! The combat will go so fast comparatively without sacrificing player build potential (in fact increasing it), it'll blow your mind. Let me know how your SotDL campaign goes if you run it!
I started the hobby with DnD 3.5. We ran with it for years but my players prefer 5e for convenience, despite me building a custom playset for 3.5 with a reference sheet. Lately we got experimental and started different ttrpgs like Vampire, Lancer, and Pathfinder. I'm eager to try this one out as well.
Oh nice! I was looking at Lancer about 2 months ago and it felt like just a crunchier SotDL since the rule core was so similar. I hope you enjoy SotDL if you end up trying it out :)
Great work!!!.. I was sitting on the fence for a year on this one..I like what you said.. time to play!!!... P.S. what song is the one playing right at the beginning?
Great video! Heard about Shadow of the Demon Lord, never tried it though. But after watching this I'm really excited to give it a try! The whole paths thing, easy to read book sections and interesting magic system seems very good and interesting to play. Thank you for sharing your experience and thoughts.
Would love to hear your thoughts about worlds without number vs SOTDL! I was super into SOTDL conceptually as my brain likes the character build/narrative play style but found that demon lord's non-combat side super anemic.
I think the comparison between Worlds Without Number and SotDL falls kind of flat. For me they are totally different systems. WWW has a skill system where you can progress in particular skills to improve your chance on success while Demon Lord uses professions to grant boons from the narrative character background if they are trying to achieve something their profession usually is good at. (e. g. a Hunter tracking an enemy) I really like the more free form nature of professions instead of Skills, but if you really want Skills to enhance characters in non-combat situation you can have a look at Forbidden Rules (an official rules supplement for more optional rules)
Have you ever played Star Wars D20 System RPG? It was made in the 3rd Edition/3.5 era. Out-of print now but can be found on ScribD. I never knew it existed until recently & it blew my mind. I like to make Star Wars I to a Grimdark srtting using Grimdark(Half-Off) as a starting reference
So far I just run my own content going off of what I am in the mood for. I bought several SotDL campaigns but they didn't really get my neurons firing when I read them. Funnily, I was actually thinking of running a few to make a video on them to review a few since I like actually running stuff before reviewing it. But from the ones I grabbed none of them really made me go "Oh I need to run this right away" over my own creative ideas.
@@wasabiburger3047 Nice insight! Did you use any of the tables in the Core book for the campaign? Or just used prior experience as a DM to bring it all to life?
I still have yet to run this system but it is definitely on my list of upcoming options for my next fantasy campaign. I will say though your video game example sounds like maybe you are just terribly into RPGs? Especially since most of the games like a TES game can be completed in as much or as little time as you want; you are not forced to max out every character you play or do 100% of side content. A Resident Evil game is fun but is most emphatically not an RPG experience, likewise just putting the players on a path they have to be railroaded through is not really an RPG. The most paramount aspect of what makes an RPG an RPG and not just any other game is that it is defined and directed by player choices. The GM is best as a steward of the world and referee, not as the author of a story. I'd highly recommend reading Principia Apocrypha. While it is framed as being for "Old School" games it really is the true core of what a role playing game is as opposed to say, a war game or an action game or similar. As an aside, as you talk about the dragonfire radioactive wasteland, I strongly recommend you check out the CRPG Shadowrun: Dragonfall as this is a significant plot point in that game and the Shadowrun CRPGs are ones you can beat without having to sink tons of hours into them
I mean this bluntly not rudely since without tone it may come off this way but I think you just misinterpreted or misunderstood a lot of what I said. I am a huge proponent of player choice over the GM being an author, however with the context I was talking about with games like 5e specifically, the way I see a lot of people run those games are very linear with an authorial GM that still allows for player choice but will still end up generally where the GM wanted them to by the end of the campaign. I don't have an issue with that playstyle, but it is not my preferred style. Also, I know that Resident Evil isn't an RPG and that you don't have to complete everything in TES, it's been a while since I did this video but if I remember correctly, my point wasn't about comparing the games literally or taking what I said at face value but comparing quality over quantity since I find Bethesda games fairly shallow for what they are going for whereas modern Resident Evil games nail what they are attempting despite them being in different genres and styles. I love the Shadowrun series, that one and Hong Kong are both really great and I am looking forward to the upcoming RPG by the same people coming out. Anyway, I hope that clears some of that up!
I would say it's almost as combat focused as D&D. I look at it a bit like an alternate timeline 5e where it isn't weighed down by all the baggage that 5e has so that it can just focus on what it is good at which is creating engaging stories and fun, snappy combats with meaningful character arcs whereas 5e tries to do everything. As for social interactions it feels more like a lot of OSR games where it leaves it pretty open for you to run them how you want. There are no insight/intimidation/persuasion/deception skills, it pushes you more towards just actually RPing and maybe a check here or there if your GM rules it a certain way and not giving you skills to fall back on instead of engaging. Though there are abilities and spells that can affect social interactions for extra options for creativity. Honestly, the short answer is if you like some of what D&D is trying to do you just wish it was done well, SotDL is the way to go. If you hate every last thing about 5e and want to run for the hills and play Into the Odd or Mork Borg or something super lean, you might still like SotDL but it may just not be for you.
@@wasabiburger3047 As years passed and I learned other systems I grew tired of how heavy D&D leans on the combat simulation and how it fights you to do anything else with more depth. Then I started to really enjoy VtM because it gives you tools for deep roleplay even having sessions with almost no rolls if the group chooses to. But we reached a point in the game where in a combat scenario we need sometimes 5 rolls to resolve a single action, I thought I could take but it's cumbersome. Then came the Cypher System, it was love at first table. Rules light base with all the knobs to make it more crunchy if you want to, full of tools to inspire creativity and improvisation, and to encourage the players to make almost any character they want. The system doesn't fight you, it gives you a flexible workbench. Now that said CS stands on a different paradigm from most other games I played. So I still like to look at more conventional options. SotDL seems to be in that vein. I would maybe make it a little less deadly for a campaign because I like to develop character arcs. And for social interactions, while I am personally OK with leaving it all up to roleplay I also understand it makes harder for players with a less outgoing personality let's say.
I go into more roleplaying stuff in the last section of the video but also I am not really sure what you're looking for. The setting is a fairly generic Warhammer Fantasy grimdark one so there isn't much to talk about. As for roleplaying hooks, it is a game based off of D&D, so it's all the same roleplaying hooks you'll find in other games. It's a fantasy RPG in a hobby choked with them and it is a video aimed at people who are already in the hobby. The main separation is mechanics, especially when that is the main selling point of this mid-crunch game. When I talk about Trophy Dark, I'll be talking a lot more about narrative, roleplaying and atmosphere.
@vehemetipolygoniae2197 crunch is just framework that supports the game ideas for me. Good fluff on bad mechanics is irritating but workable. Bad fluff on good mechanics just turns into an exercise in futile frustration.
Man! I'M FRAGGIN' PSYCHED! I have the Limited Edition cover of Hubris coming thru the mail! I'm psyched! Going to hex out the world of Hubris to play in it for years
As soon as I saw the title of this on my RUclips front page I exclaimed, "Fuck yeah!" so loudly I startled the dogs.
LOVE Demon Lord! I toned down the "grim-dark" a bit and used Kobold Press' Midgard Campaign Setting, along with a loose translation of the old D&D Scourge of the Slave Lords modules. A few 5e players didn't like the "feel" of the system/classes and dropped, but the other players had a fun time with it. Weird Wizard was NOT what I was expecting, but I'm hoping it shapes up asap.
I've played a ton of 5e and I genuinely like this better.
Yep, I'll have to agree that Weird Wizard wasn't what I was expecting and honestly I'm passing on it. I prefer to adapt other campaign settings with SotDL instead, like you've done.
Call of cthulu everything you and even cthulu are all part of a greater seams dream so nothing matters. And so players will kill you because it dosnt matter . Just a dream . It's bad writing. Be prepared for the other people at the travel to betray you because it dosnt matter
A 10 or 11 Session game with my group is an epic 1-2 year campaign, because of scheduling ^^
This is probably my favorite RPG for the speed and diversity allowed to players and GMs alike. My first campaign was with 2 players, and was happening between sessions of another game with serious scheduling issues. We ran the Dark Deeds in Last Hope module as the intro, which I highly recommend for new players and GMs alike, and it ended badly due to player action and inaction. From there they brought the survivors to a new town (and lost most of them to a giant pig attack) and spent their novice levels making a name for themselves. Another group of refugees arrived after and the town was a bit over filled with people, but the refugee mayor offered the players work in retrieving his signet ring from the old town, leading to the players favorite quest. They got 1 horse and were chased by wolves most of the way there. The horse was killed shortly before arrival by a dire wolf, which then chased them into town and trapped them in a house, mocking them and toying with them before setting it on fire and forcing them out. They had to run through the abandoned streets in the dark with a torch to fight off that one and another that was hanging out in the town, which they did through some pretty excellent innate synergy between rogues and priests. Surviving the fight, they decided to book it through the mansion, get the ring, and get it. Mansion is of course haunted, with the shadows attacking them and the rogue getting a mark of darkness and taking a quirk to have fear of the dark. Through a combination of candles, torches, and ripping off every window curtain they could, they made their way through the mansion wounded but alive and acquired the ring, a pistol, and a randomly generated magic item (a drum that could vanish and reappear with a word), and began the nerve wracking trip home on foot, hiding from wolves and beastmen alike. This was all session 4.
That's awesome!
great vid
SotDL is a great game, sadly too few people play it and it is hard to get converts.
One campaign had a character who was a middle age healer who obtained a flesh bound book the whispered to her, of paths to great power. She had been treated poorly so was tempted down the dark path. she would often play out the book mentoring her.
Another was running a game for my boys, who played 5e, Pathfinder, and other systems get trounced and one slain my simple bandits.
Its also easy to port in D&D monsters (or OSR, Shadowdark ect)
Great review
For those who don't know, there's a new game from the same set of rules named Shadow of the Weird Wizard, which is less grimmdark, more tactic and slightly more heroic. If you think this game is a bit too dark and deadly, that's your game.
Yep and I'll be doing another video on it once it fully releases. Interested to see how it compares!
Love to see more content and love for Robert Schwalb and Shadow of the Demon Lord! I've been running this system for years, and while I have seen several cracks in the mechanics at times, it is still the one I come back to even when I want to try something new. The curious should absolutely give it a look and I cannot recommend playing it enough.
Well said man. I still feel fondly, but yeah, problems that don't go away until you stop trying to make the game work for everything was my experience.
Great game, I've run 4 campaigns and looking forward to more. This also let me run the best campaign I have ever run, 6 months during corona online. Appreciate you promoting something that doesn't get near the attention it should. If anyone is fleeing 5e you could do a helluva lot worse than Demon Lord! Hail Satan!
What a great video about one of my favorite TTRPG systems. You said everything about the system that makes it so special for me. I especially like your tips and overall comments throughout the video, as they give a good perspective on what this system can do for you. I ran it also for different settings and never used the more gritty horror stuff. Probably because I always forgot to apply the Horrifying and Frightening trait. :D
You can easily cut out Insanity and Corruption and don't allow Forbidden Traditions and have a great system for high fantasy. With that being said I really like that Weird Wizard is lighter on theme as it makes it much easier to pitch to other people. But if you love SotDL for its bleak and grim setting and the horror it brings then Weird Wizard could be a bit disappointing (even though the rules have some great improvements)
PS: I had a lot of great moments with SotDL. From a Treeperson who morphed into a Boar that was as big as a house, to Mushroomfolk that try to reanimate every corpse they cause or a floating time mage that one shotted a whole cult in their lair while time was stopped with a force wave. There is lots of fun to be had and more people should try out SotDL or SotWW. :)
Thank you for the kind words! And I love your last paragraph, that sounds insane! :D
@@wasabiburger3047 I really like SotDL and SotWW as they made me a GM, and it does not feel as restraining too me as 5e or Pathfinder. I also do not hate those systems but GMing Shadow games is just so smooth
I feel like the difficulty ratting is more of a gide to the gm to know what they're putting in front if their players than really a "this is how you balance stuff"
Awesome! So glad to see Demon Lord love!
Need to get this game. Keep hearing good things about
Good video, Wasabi! Thanks for giving an excellent game proper attention.
I run Demon Lord whenever people who have outgrown 5e but don't want a learning curve while learning a new game.
i have played a full campaign of this and loved it and am trying to play curse of strahd on it and im having a blast
Literally came here because my DM is thinking of running a curse of strahd-esque campaign and thought the grim dark aspects might be good additions to his campaign
@@SamanthaVimes177 a lot of the grim dark aspects are specifically because of text but its worked perfectly.
Another great video. I have heard of Shadows of the Demon Lord before, but I didn't know much about it. Thank you for the excellent discussion of it. I think I might pick it up as the 16th/17th century guns and armour needs to be used in more games
Seems worth checking out.
Love the dig at alignment!! I stopped using alignment across the board around 2004.
I think you are conflating peoples disgust with 5e play and their perception of the system. The game is not the system, its what happens at the table. I won't get into it beyond this. There is a reason there is a GM shortage (and its not the rules) yet there are plenty of DMs, Judges, and referees.
Yeah I'll be fully honest, I had a much more in-depth and scathing take for both sides of the argument but I realized it was 15 minutes long and just decided I think that may be best for another video instead of coming out of the gate talking about a completely different topic than what the thumbnail advertised.
@@wasabiburger3047 I could have written pages on why I think 5e is in decline but to what purpose. I am having more fun playing games I enjoy then punching of dnd. Anyways, I try to stay away from channels that do, so I appreciate your approach here. Discovery in the not-dnd space is difficult.
I'm convinced to check it out, thanks for another great video WB!
Great work on the editing and presentation of the material!
I have the mat that you showed at the start of the combat section. It's pretty nice. It has flat top hexes on the other side
Schwab needs marketing for his games. This game IS good but it has nearly zero word of mouth
Ran Dead By Dawn last night with the intention of leading the survivng characters into a tweaked Curse of Strahd Campaign using this system.
One of my players made the excellent point that the setting feels very much like the Old Diablo games.
Damn, that sounds amazing. I would love to hear how that tweaked Curse of Strahd game goes with SotDL!
You hate star wars? :(
I got tired of 5e for a lot of the reasons you highlighted and love the stripped down functionality of SotDL. It's a sports car compared to the bulky 5e SUV. The most obvious design improvement for me is boons/banes VS advantage/disadvantage, which allows actual degrees of improved/reduced performance based on a situation's context. Anyway, great summary. Subscribed.
Are you going to run some games for SofDL? There is a criminally small amount of actual plays on TY for this.
Eventually I would love to! I am currently working on a different AP now slated to come out in a few months so if I do get around to an SotDL AP, it won't be for a while but I think SotDL is really well suited for great APs.
@@wasabiburger3047 I've had it for a while but haven't gotten to it. My group can only play once a month and the shorter campaigns seems perfectly suited for this system. I'm wrestling between doing SotDL or using your Hexcrawl video with WWN.
@@charlessmith491 Depending on what your group is like, doing a hexcrawl/sandbox game might not be the worst idea. I sometimes get frustrated with story/plot driven games because in a month a lot of my players tend to forget what happened last time and especially what happened before that.
So at least with a sandbox game, you can focus more on just fun things session to session that might grow into larger things but overall have less worry about driving a character or plot driven story and can just ransack dungeons and do small jobs.
Though, I guess you could also do that with SotDL with them having a home base and going on short missions out in the borderlands that's connected to a greater story. But anyway, I'll stop rambling now haha
I've been trying to remedy that!
Thank you! This video alone has convinced me to pick up Shadow of the Demon lord and I am prepping my next campaign in it. So far from reading the rules I am really loving the simplicity of the initiative - can't wait to see it in action. I have mostly played DnD 5e and the combat was really really getting tedious. I was really disappointed when I saw that there were no updates to the overall combat structure in DnD 5.5. As a matter of fact - it seems that it makes it even longer with the weapon masteries and that has pushed me to completely abandon DnD overall - which lead me here 🙂
I really hope you enjoy SotDL! The combat will go so fast comparatively without sacrificing player build potential (in fact increasing it), it'll blow your mind.
Let me know how your SotDL campaign goes if you run it!
@@wasabiburger3047 Will do 🙂
SotDL Rpg truly is one of the best d20 based rpgs out there. Good review and happy to see someone talking about it!
I started the hobby with DnD 3.5. We ran with it for years but my players prefer 5e for convenience, despite me building a custom playset for 3.5 with a reference sheet. Lately we got experimental and started different ttrpgs like Vampire, Lancer, and Pathfinder. I'm eager to try this one out as well.
Oh nice! I was looking at Lancer about 2 months ago and it felt like just a crunchier SotDL since the rule core was so similar. I hope you enjoy SotDL if you end up trying it out :)
You should. It’s so much fun!
Great work!!!.. I was sitting on the fence for a year on this one..I like what you said.. time to play!!!... P.S. what song is the one playing right at the beginning?
I'm glad you liked it! and the song is: "Daisuke Teiko Beats 12"
It's my main system after leaving D&D. I also love their simple to run pre-made adventures.
Great video! Heard about Shadow of the Demon Lord, never tried it though. But after watching this I'm really excited to give it a try! The whole paths thing, easy to read book sections and interesting magic system seems very good and interesting to play. Thank you for sharing your experience and thoughts.
Great review and agree with most of your views!
Dragon Awakens sounds fucking AWESOME!!
Would love to hear your thoughts about worlds without number vs SOTDL! I was super into SOTDL conceptually as my brain likes the character build/narrative play style but found that demon lord's non-combat side super anemic.
I think the comparison between Worlds Without Number and SotDL falls kind of flat. For me they are totally different systems.
WWW has a skill system where you can progress in particular skills to improve your chance on success while Demon Lord uses professions to grant boons from the narrative character background if they are trying to achieve something their profession usually is good at. (e. g. a Hunter tracking an enemy)
I really like the more free form nature of professions instead of Skills, but if you really want Skills to enhance characters in non-combat situation you can have a look at Forbidden Rules (an official rules supplement for more optional rules)
Steal everything. I always have. Everything in inspiration
I still need to pick up SotDL. I have some of the PDF's, but I need to have a physical copy if I hope to read it in earnest.
Have you ever played Star Wars D20 System RPG? It was made in the 3rd Edition/3.5 era. Out-of print now but can be found on ScribD. I never knew it existed until recently & it blew my mind. I like to make Star Wars I to a Grimdark srtting using Grimdark(Half-Off) as a starting reference
giving me some stuff to think about
Did you run any of the published adventures or homebrew all your quests/adventures?
So far I just run my own content going off of what I am in the mood for. I bought several SotDL campaigns but they didn't really get my neurons firing when I read them. Funnily, I was actually thinking of running a few to make a video on them to review a few since I like actually running stuff before reviewing it. But from the ones I grabbed none of them really made me go "Oh I need to run this right away" over my own creative ideas.
@@wasabiburger3047 Nice insight! Did you use any of the tables in the Core book for the campaign? Or just used prior experience as a DM to bring it all to life?
I still have yet to run this system but it is definitely on my list of upcoming options for my next fantasy campaign. I will say though your video game example sounds like maybe you are just terribly into RPGs? Especially since most of the games like a TES game can be completed in as much or as little time as you want; you are not forced to max out every character you play or do 100% of side content. A Resident Evil game is fun but is most emphatically not an RPG experience, likewise just putting the players on a path they have to be railroaded through is not really an RPG. The most paramount aspect of what makes an RPG an RPG and not just any other game is that it is defined and directed by player choices. The GM is best as a steward of the world and referee, not as the author of a story. I'd highly recommend reading Principia Apocrypha. While it is framed as being for "Old School" games it really is the true core of what a role playing game is as opposed to say, a war game or an action game or similar.
As an aside, as you talk about the dragonfire radioactive wasteland, I strongly recommend you check out the CRPG Shadowrun: Dragonfall as this is a significant plot point in that game and the Shadowrun CRPGs are ones you can beat without having to sink tons of hours into them
I mean this bluntly not rudely since without tone it may come off this way but I think you just misinterpreted or misunderstood a lot of what I said. I am a huge proponent of player choice over the GM being an author, however with the context I was talking about with games like 5e specifically, the way I see a lot of people run those games are very linear with an authorial GM that still allows for player choice but will still end up generally where the GM wanted them to by the end of the campaign. I don't have an issue with that playstyle, but it is not my preferred style.
Also, I know that Resident Evil isn't an RPG and that you don't have to complete everything in TES, it's been a while since I did this video but if I remember correctly, my point wasn't about comparing the games literally or taking what I said at face value but comparing quality over quantity since I find Bethesda games fairly shallow for what they are going for whereas modern Resident Evil games nail what they are attempting despite them being in different genres and styles.
I love the Shadowrun series, that one and Hong Kong are both really great and I am looking forward to the upcoming RPG by the same people coming out.
Anyway, I hope that clears some of that up!
So is it as combat focused as D&D? How does it handle social interactions?
I would say it's almost as combat focused as D&D. I look at it a bit like an alternate timeline 5e where it isn't weighed down by all the baggage that 5e has so that it can just focus on what it is good at which is creating engaging stories and fun, snappy combats with meaningful character arcs whereas 5e tries to do everything.
As for social interactions it feels more like a lot of OSR games where it leaves it pretty open for you to run them how you want. There are no insight/intimidation/persuasion/deception skills, it pushes you more towards just actually RPing and maybe a check here or there if your GM rules it a certain way and not giving you skills to fall back on instead of engaging. Though there are abilities and spells that can affect social interactions for extra options for creativity.
Honestly, the short answer is if you like some of what D&D is trying to do you just wish it was done well, SotDL is the way to go. If you hate every last thing about 5e and want to run for the hills and play Into the Odd or Mork Borg or something super lean, you might still like SotDL but it may just not be for you.
@@wasabiburger3047 As years passed and I learned other systems I grew tired of how heavy D&D leans on the combat simulation and how it fights you to do anything else with more depth. Then I started to really enjoy VtM because it gives you tools for deep roleplay even having sessions with almost no rolls if the group chooses to. But we reached a point in the game where in a combat scenario we need sometimes 5 rolls to resolve a single action, I thought I could take but it's cumbersome.
Then came the Cypher System, it was love at first table. Rules light base with all the knobs to make it more crunchy if you want to, full of tools to inspire creativity and improvisation, and to encourage the players to make almost any character they want. The system doesn't fight you, it gives you a flexible workbench.
Now that said CS stands on a different paradigm from most other games I played. So I still like to look at more conventional options. SotDL seems to be in that vein. I would maybe make it a little less deadly for a campaign because I like to develop character arcs. And for social interactions, while I am personally OK with leaving it all up to roleplay I also understand it makes harder for players with a less outgoing personality let's say.
I already do, I already do.
Demon Lord is currently my favorite game, although Weird Wizzard seems to improve on every aspect.
Think I'll just stick with Metal Gods of UrHadad
Have you seen the new shadow of the weird wisard?
You could easily modify this system to omit the d20 entirely.
Grimdark is trashy in the first place but it's completely overdone at thus point
Demon Lord caught my eye. Paths lost me
To be fair, 5e is in fact trash of the lowest form.
Forgive me, but this whole recommendation is far too interested in crunch and mechanics. Not enough looking into the setting and roleplaying hooks.
I go into more roleplaying stuff in the last section of the video but also I am not really sure what you're looking for. The setting is a fairly generic Warhammer Fantasy grimdark one so there isn't much to talk about. As for roleplaying hooks, it is a game based off of D&D, so it's all the same roleplaying hooks you'll find in other games. It's a fantasy RPG in a hobby choked with them and it is a video aimed at people who are already in the hobby. The main separation is mechanics, especially when that is the main selling point of this mid-crunch game. When I talk about Trophy Dark, I'll be talking a lot more about narrative, roleplaying and atmosphere.
It's a game, i'm interested in the mechanics. If i wanted to just roleplay, i would go take theatre classes!
@vehemetipolygoniae2197 crunch is just framework that supports the game ideas for me. Good fluff on bad mechanics is irritating but workable. Bad fluff on good mechanics just turns into an exercise in futile frustration.
For all have sinned and the wages of sin is death but the free gift of god is eternal life in Christ Jesus god alone
Man! I'M FRAGGIN' PSYCHED! I have the Limited Edition cover of Hubris coming thru the mail! I'm psyched! Going to hex out the world of Hubris to play in it for years