Is this shit the new low-effort faux-OSR Dungeon-World-esque hipster darling?
>shows "principles" in the first few pages like some gay mission statement
>muh "fiction"
>three stats because six is too many
>DM called "warden" because it's different
>shitloads of tables with no real context or instructions, jampacked together in confusing format
>giant spell list with zero rules for how they work because "lol make it up"
>glowing reviews on ScAmazon from moronic fake grogs who claim they've been running D&D since their mother shat them out and this is so superior because they basically have to make up all the rules anyway
Pretty sure Shadowdark only got popular because of the simps who were obsessed with the novelty of an OSR book written by a (biological?) woman, but this one is a complete mystery to me. It's like Maze Rats and Knave, one of those games that is fun to read and has "interesting" rules ideas but they lose all semblance of quality once you actually sit down to play them.
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Don't know or care.
You cared enough to post.
yeah it's nusr
what are you gonna do about it
>book written by a (biological?) woman
not gonna lie, I lol'd
Wash the sand out of your crack and realize not everything is made for you.
Wash the sand out of your crack and realize you are not special just because you write a pamphlet
Wah, baby needs handholding to figure out hoe to play fantasy adventures with the boys.
What a triggered snowflake.
>with the boys.
Cringe gay zoomer phrase. Makes it crystal clear that you are more interested in drinking beer and making epik jokes than playing a fantasy RPG.
>seems good enough for me and my players OP
That's because you are an ADHD-ridden fricktard.
Chargen in B/X takes less than 10 minutes and has the added benefit of being an actual game.
>realize not everything is made for you.
That's the thing. The people it is made for, are not worth living.
Who hurt you, needle dick?
you seem mad
Reddit responses.
>Its not even fun to read at this point. There's one of these every 2 weeks. They're all the same shit.
True. I guess that's why I didn't find out about it until recently. I mean it could be a couple months old. I had heard about it maybe a month or two ago. But yeah between that and the tons of other shitty booklet OSR games I suppose they're not that different.
>suppose they're not that different.
cairn is at least 3 years old. It's goal was to play dolmenwood with Into the Odd rules.
Sounds like a bunch of shit I recognize but never knew the full depth of. Damn. I guess it's just been dredged up recently.
I'm sure not shilling for it. I have my own games to shill for, and they sure aren't some lame-ass OSR ripoff.
Cope more. You probably wrote that shitty booklet. The only good part is the art.
>Are you just now realising that 99% of OSR is just lazy shit constantly being regurgitated by uncreative hacks?
No, that was realized with Old-School Essentials. It's a vain hope that people would actually make something decent out of it like ACKS or Veins of the Earth.
Dogshit on my porch is free, but that doesn't mean I should like or respect it.
If Shadow of the Demon Lord was released for free, it would still be a terrible roleplaying game. Cost isn't really a factor especially in the age of PDFs.
>Chargen in B/X takes less than 10 minutes and has the added benefit of being an actual game.
And has the added demerit of useless cruft like prime requisites, asinine movement rules, moronic and incomplete saving throws
>prime requisites
Are based. Bioessentialism is real. Also adding 10% to XP is the easiest math ever.
>asinine movement rules
True but that's due to the difficulty of tracking realistic time usage in a cave or dungeon. Cue the GURPS example where someone cleared a large dungeon in 30 seconds by using the search action and movement to kill like 5 rooms and search them for treasure in 30 seconds. You've clearly never been anywhere abandoned.
>moronic saves
The five saves make complete sense once you understand they're about consequences, not your ability scores. But that's fine, they're one of the weaker points of the OSR anyway. And again, you came up with three potentially bad rules that you can just ignore, two of which you can literally ignore to no further detriment. Whereas Cairn is missing a lot of rules you'd expect to make a game an actual game. It's just a hasty mess of thrown together tables with no real cohesion or framework.
>People keep talking about shadow dark I should probably give it a once over so that I can actually contribute to these discussions.
same, but I don't know where to find it.
>The five saves make complete sense once you understand they're about consequences, not your ability scores.
They're not about consequence, they're about source. They added a new save when another source came up and stopped at five because space ran out on their tables, then began throwing stuff not already covered in the existing bins. If they had started with the How you resist things, they would have ended up with much a more sensible array. But the way it is, you have the same chance to resist a fireball spell as a mind control spell, regardless of the spellcaster's level, but a wand of fireballs and a dragon breathing a ball of fire have a different chance for some reason.
it relate to this meme a bit too much, ouchie ouch
How can I get myself a Tomoko of my own?
>blue check
>"I now say unto you!"
Ironic
>chargen takes all of 10 minutes if you are a slow reader
>it's free
seems good enough for me and my players OP
sounds like a skill issue on your end
sound like OP is a moron
oh no, its moronic indeed
Its not the new one, its old you're just finding out about it now.
Its not even fun to read at this point. There's one of these every 2 weeks. They're all the same shit.
There was something about the combat phase in this one that didn't even work as written or some shit I didn't bother paying attention to.
Seems like you upset the indi troony defence force though.
>There was something about the combat phase in this one that didn't even work as written or some shit
That's Mork Borg you're thinking of. I fricking hate Mork Borg. It has it's own defense force and they get all bent out of shape when you prove to them that the game is broken.
Cairn is okay, but it takes FKR too much in the minimalist direction. FKR=/=rules lite, but using all the rules/procedures that work with the world and situations you're playing with and discarding the ones that don't work at the moment or interest you or your players. FKR can use detailed wargame rules or leave a mass combat to a single roll. It depends on the players/GM and what they want to focus on.
There's a lot of free Cairn procedure books, but they are by other people, not the author.
Cairn? More like Karen
I dont mind Cairn, but I can't stand the art in the 2nd edition.
>All these defensive replies
So do we have a D&D schizo situation where somebody is a huge fan and defending the game or a Mork Borg situation where the dev is trying to shill his game here and is mad nobody likes it?
Brother, I will rape you repeatedly until you learn some fricking respect. Little homosexual.
Are you just now realising that 99% of OSR is just lazy shit constantly being regurgitated by uncreative hacks?
it's free innit? why are you upset about it
makes me wonder what happened to Tunnels and Trolls now-a-days.
>Tunnels and Trolls
I don't know anyone who plays it anymore but Ken St. Andre continues to make stuff for it. Though he does seem more focused on the offshoot game Monsters! Monsters!
I like shadowdark cause it takes like 10 mins to explain, has enough rules that resolving situations is easy but not too many as to become bogged down or restrictive and its different enough to the 4 million other retroclones to be refreshing to run while still scratching all those old itches.
I've ran a good few games of it now for a few different groups and everybody's enjoyed it.
Realistically Cairn is nothing new but the book is like a fiver off Amazon and if it gets somebody into oldschool/rules lite gaming then that's generally a good thing. Personally I'd recommend Whitebox or BFRPG over Cairn.
>Personally I'd recommend Whitebox or BFRPG over Cairn.
The former is soi and the latter is FOEshit but I agree that they are better than Shadowdark or Cairn. I can't believe these dogshit OSR ripoffs keep being rereleased every 3 months on Kickstarter and making like 80k from dumbasses who have never heard of B/X PDFs. I figured the OSE release would put a stop to them, but no.
At least with ACKS it made sense because that actually does something new with the concept but everything else just seems like a complete ripoff.
Then say game master or referee? The frick is "warden" for? It's like PbtA bullshit with "Master of Ceremonies" like okay dude you're so special for calling the game master something different.
>>DM called "warden" because it's different
the other stuff might be true idk I haven't played it but the DM isn't called the DM because the term is literally fricking wizards of the Coast copyright. You can't call the guy running the game Dungeon Master in your book unless you want to be sued. Criticizing that the DM isn't called DM is a stupid complaint given that reality.
Shadowdark is a moronic brand name. Shadows are inherently dark. It's redundant, like those fantasy novels or microbrew beers named "Black Raven."
>Low effort
Cairn isn't low effort, it's an autism project that has had too much effort put into it. It's just not good.
Niche internet journalists ought to curate a collection of OSR 'zine first-page manifestos. Underground cultural history and all that.