HOW TO PLAY SHADOWDARK 2 - CHARACTER CREATION: Live Fast, Die Hard, Leave a Lootable Corpse

Welcome back to Shadowdark, where character creation is quick, the dice hate you, and your carefully crafted adventurer might get murdered by a household rat. This week, Tyler walks Randall and Ash through building characters using randomly rolled stats, questionable class choices, and whatever equipment they can afford. Randall builds a fighter who probably should have been a wizard, Ash creates a two-hit-point thief, and everyone prepares for the inevitable meat grinder. The good news? Making characters is easy. The bad news? You're going to get really good at it.

• The Arcane Library - All official Shadowdark content available in physical/digital here

• ShadowDarklings Character Generator

• RPGBOT.Podcast Episodes

• ShadowDark RPG Adventure Designer Kelsey Dionne

Show Notes

In Part 2 of our Shadowdark RPG How to Play series, Tyler, Randall, and Ash tackle character creation in Kelsey Dionne's old-school dungeon crawler. From rolling 3d6 ability scores and choosing ancestries to picking classes, backgrounds, talents, and equipment, we walk through building a Shadowdark character from scratch.

Randall rolls his way into an unlikely elven fighter, while Ash embraces the chaos with a halfling thief sporting two hit points and a dangerous amount of confidence. Along the way, we explore Shadowdark's four core classes, randomized character advancement, inventory management, and why bringing enough torches matters more than your tragic backstory.

Then it's time to prepare for the Shadowdark level-zero gauntlet. Armed with questionable stats, random equipment, and absolutely no survival instincts, our disposable adventurers are ready to discover whether character creation is actually just the first step toward character disposal.

Key Takeaways

• Shadowdark character creation is fast, simple, and built around old-school D&D randomness.
• Ability scores use 3d6 rolled in order, with limited opportunities to reroll particularly bad results.
• The six core ancestries provide straightforward traits, while fighter, priest, thief, and wizard offer distinct approaches to surviving the dungeon.
• Class talents are randomly determined, making character advancement unpredictable and optimization less important.Backgrounds provide situational advantage on relevant checks without complicated skill lists.
• Alignment, deities, and character titles add personality and flavor without slowing down character creation. - Starting gold, gear slots, weapons, armor, and torches force players to make meaningful equipment choices before entering the dungeon.
• Level-zero characters begin with random abilities, ancestry, and limited equipment, often without a weapon.
• The Shadowdark gauntlet encourages players to bring multiple disposable characters, with survivors earning a chance to advance to level one.

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