Player Seeking GM: Shadow of the Demon Lord

I was listening to Sly Flourish's Lazy DM Talk Show, and he was talking about Shadow of the Demon Lord, a TTRPG with heavy character customization.

I wanted to see if anyone here has the books, and would be willing to run a game here so I can try it out.

Giant fan of SotDL -- running a long-running game on a different PbP site that looks to be heading to wrap up soon. I like the game more in the early levels than the late, but it's a pretty special game and Schwalb is a really good guy. Chargen especially is super-cool, and there are so many supplements.

Not planning on running it on GP any time soon, though. Too many other things stacked up I want to run first...

I appreciate this review, at least! Thank you!

Do you have any adventures you would suggest as an intro to the game?

Love the Lazy DM Talk Show! I've learned a lot from him over the 7ish years I've been tuning in to one or more of his various podcasts, blogs, and books.

Rob Schwalb's story of how and why he created Shadow of the Demon Lord is really interesting, and he talks about it on the Talking Tabletop podcast episode 31 with Jim McClure.

Thanks Len!

There are loads of adventures, most of them nice and crisp and short. I would go the "Starting" route -- which basically means a bunch of zero level characters who have not yet chosen their first path.

Examples: Blood Will Run (Novice), Dead by Dawn (Starting, and my very favorite), Fine Country Folk (Novice), Tales of the Demon Lord (Campaign), The Apple of Her Eye (Novice), The God Below (Novice), The Slaver's Lash (Starting), The Witching Wood (Starting), and one that many people start with, Dark Deeds in Last Hope (Starting).

Presuming Flourish covered how dark this game can be, so be aware of that going in.

Thanks for this! Yes, Mike Shea does mentioned the heaviness and darkness and such. The art is also pretty telling of that grim nature, though it is evocative.

I'm currently running a campaign here. I already have 5 players but if you just want to read along to get a sense how it plays on PbP you can find it here: https://gamersplane.com/forums/7070/

This system and setting sound right up my alley, though this is the first I've heard of it. I'm glad you put it on my radar, Hero!

Of course C1NDER! I just found a Bundle of Holding for some assets with that game system.

It was only $30 USD for a bunch of PDFs, which is super cheap!

I'll be reading that thread, nezzeraj. Thanks!

Been looking to play some SotDL ever since I read it, so real happy to see this thread (and thanks for the link to your game, Nezz). I'll be keeping an eye out if any such game is arranged or an ongoing game has a spot open, I'd even volunteer to run one but I'm not that familiar with the rules/world yet and lack any other book besides the core and player's guide.

I have a soft spot for running settings like SotDL, aka the big bad is a world going under. (Another similarly themed RPG is Midnight, which I got great mileage from) Tempted, tempted ...

Dark_RaideR, as far as I am concerned, you are the resident knowledge expert (aside from nezzeraj, who is already running a game on "the plane").

Would you mind trying to run it?

That's quite flattering, HeroAmongMen. Also, Bedzone, Midnight is indeed pretty amazing.

I dug up a few starting adventures I got (The Witching Wood, A Year Without Rain, The Slaver's Lash, Survival of the Fittest, Dark Deeds in Last Hope) and refreshed my memory of them. Slaver's Lash starts with the players captured by orcs and trying to escape, which I'm not really into for various reasons, while Survival of the Fittest is essentially a hexcrawl that's bound to drag in PbP format, so I'm probably picking one of the others. Need to also refresh my memory of the world and game system, so it'll be a little longer while I re-read the rulebook.

If I'm reading this right, it's C1NDER, Bedzone II and HeroAmongMen interested thus far. I'll send everyone a PM once I pull the trigger and set the game up.

I would also be interested in joining if there is a spot open

This sounds like my type of game, so I'd love to be included if there's room! When I first started gaming, I always tried to get my D&D players to start at level 0 without a class... they were never as stoked as I was.

He's not just an expert, he's also made a video about it and it was the first to come up when I searched YouTube for an overview. By the way I suggest people watch it if they can spare 45', it's a good first presentation before you get into the nitty gritty of the rulebook itself.

Between that and a quick re-read of the book, I'm set and all that's left is to pick a starting adventure. It seems it'll ultimately come down to the composition of the party, as one of the two takes place in a rather isolated community and is harder to accomodate Clockwork or Orc characters.