I love this video, which contains some NSFW language and addresses some of the community's reactions to Professor Dungeon Master's Deathbringer game, created using the Shadowdark rules, and the project is developed in partnership with Roll for Combat.
Watch it all the way through, like and subscribe. This video is a banger and one of the best of the summer.
Shadowdark is cool, Roll for Combat is excellent, and Professor Dungeon Master is a legend who is living the dream.
"The haters are gonna hate, man."
Shadowdark is a success and the biggest threat to 5E and D&D ever to come up from the community. Shadowdark crowdfunding projects are clearing ten thousand for their first efforts, and they are the new hotness. Shadowdark is the off-ramp for D&D 5E, and that is a massive number of players leaving that game for the OSR. And Shadowdark is in the OSR.
The Roll for Combat partnership is part of the new RFC Kickstarter books for Shadowdark, with the three new tomes expanding the game. The RFC Kickstarter will seed the Deathbringer Kickstarter next year, and include early notifications and beta access. The latest RFC books are both Shadowdark and Deathbringer compatible, making this a win-win situation as everyone works together to build a publisher ecosystem.
This is a new publisher ecosystem and support model developing around Shadowdark, with bigger players stepping in. The next domino to fall will be the larger publishers working for Shadowdark, such as Kobold Press and others. Shadowdark is to 5E what Old School Essentials was to the OSR. It is a rebuild, a simplification, a refocusing, and a rebranding of the core experience.
"And this move, this move makes sure that Deathbringer won't vanish. And that matters. That matters to every player who's tired of fifth edition fluff."
Ah, yes, everyone is starting to see that D&D and the Open 5E clones are overly written, overly detailed fluff. You have to read three paragraphs of filler text to understand how cleave works. The writers are clearly being paid by the word over there. And the other half of the page is filler art. This video is filled with raw, unfiltered, and quotable quotes, and I love it.
It feels like someone slapping you in the face, handing you a cup of strong coffee, shaking your hand, and saying, "Good morning!" to you with a big smile.
Why don't some like this? "It is not for my game!" Deathbringer trying to do its own thing in this climate would have been a disaster, and the game would have been fighting for a slice of an ever-shrinking pie. We are clearly in a market contraction following the demise of D&D, and it is time for people to work together and for small players to support one another, rather than competing.
Shadowdark is the best way that 5E survives the death of D&D.
Deathbringer is a standalone variant of Shadowdark that brings awesomeness and old-school sensibilities back to the game. 5E is becoming a new game publishing ecosystem outside of Wizards and the other big players.
The Roll For Combat expansions work with anything Shadowdark, so it is a win-win-win situation. I originally was not that interested in the RFC Shadowdark books, but now I am all in. I have seen what is happening here, and it is a very good thing. A new "Rebel Alliance" is forming around Shadowdark, made of OSR players, disaffected D&D players, and many others.
This is the best chance 5E survives this generation of gaming, and also a spear through the heart of a future walled-garden "back to basics" copycat 6E, which is coming sooner rather than later.
If you love Shadowdark, jump on the RFC Kickstarter and follow Deathbringer.
If you want to save 5E, focus on Shadowdark and ignore everything else.
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