Post by robot55 in The Tenth Tribulation comments

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wow. This is really good. Impressive how you jammed pack l of it to this concise document.

I would love your take on a couple of things:

Plot hooks - besides missing donkey, any clues for PCs on Nivendar or the rings?

When picking up a ring, or even wearing it, do they get a sense of its power or of what pledge is required of them? What would be ways to obtain that info?

Random encounters: many of them seem to fit a specific room in the dungeon only. What happens if they are rolled when the party is elsewhere? Especially as it is deadly (roll each round) this is very likely to happen.

Where would be a nice place to plant some info about Nivendar and the rings? Some mural somewhere, or maybe a history part in the book of names?

great work,

Keep writing,

Can’t wait to run this…

T.M. Lockwood5 days ago

Hey thanks for giving it a read! I really appreciate it. Great questions too! I'll give my off-the-dome answers.

For Nivedar, I think the library is a great place to learn more. Maybe the Book of Names has a reference to Nivedar at the start? If not, surely those currently wearing Rings of Torment should be able to provide some lore. I also think the Knight of Pain would be a good opportunity to do some lore drops. In my playtest that encounter was very roleplay heavy. He's got to die in an honorable death, what that looks like depends on the GM.

I think putting the ring on would be a good opportunity to describe the effects. Perhaps Nivedar himself whispers in their ear and welcomes them to his domain?

In Shadowdark, Deadly means you roll to see if there's a chance of a random encounter each round. So each dungeon turn is only a 1-in-6 chance of a random encounter. The intent is to spice things up! Hoose breaking free is a good enough reason for Encounter #2, expand on this as you see fit. For Encounter #4, I'd narrate the grinding of stone on stone. The intent is to be another hint for opening the door (as well as a possible exit if the PCs are trapped in there lol).

Let me know if you have any other questions!

robot555 days ago

yes, just one more clarification about the random encounters.

I’m well aware of the deadly, roll each round random encounter rule. What was confusing to me is I thought the numbers 1-6 where referencing a die roll. Traditionally, in shadow dark adventures when a random encounter happens, you make an additional roll to determine which opponent is encountered. But I see now that your numbering 1-6 actually refers to the location. Did I get that right?

Initially I thought “but what if I roll 6 when the party is at room 2?” But I think I understand now - there’s just 1 possible encounter per room listed…

T.M. Lockwood2 days ago

The encounters aren't meant to be tied to specific room. They are intended to be wandering encounters. (roll 1d6 on the random encounter table) That being said, feel free to run it however you want!

Let me know if you have a specific encounter you're not sure how to justify it wandering.

itch.io

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