Getting Started With Shadowdark RPG: A Resource Guide
For TTRPG newcomers, curious converts, and those who don't know where to start.
If you’re into dark fantasy spelunking where there’s no darkvision — only traps, monsters, and other hazards — then the Shadowdark tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) is right up your alley. You’ll need (in-game) torches, though. They burn in real-time! One hour per torch. Start your timer, and let’s go score some treasure.
Short on time? You can start playing with Shadowdark’s free Quickstart Set — right now. It’s a comprehensive starter kit, including premade characters and an adventure. More importantly, it even has a game master (GM) guide and player guide, both of which are 68 pages each! A number of sessions can be run with this free resource alone.
Shadowdark has the mechanical streamlining of D&D 5e mashed up with the simplicity and dungeon-crawling sensibility of the old school. It was crowdfunded with over $1.3 million dollars and published by Kelsey Dionne under her company The Arcane Library. Kelsey is known as the “Queen of Kickstarter.” Her system is one of ascending momentum, built for longevity. Watch it actually played by the troupe of hilarious weirdos at The Glass Cannon Network, who adopted it for their flagship series.
What do you need to play? Some texts, dice, and a couple of hours. And good news: you don’t even need friends. I wrote this guide for onboarding players and GMs. It includes: free resources, what to buy, how to find groups, notes on licensing, and discussion of the upcoming world setting.
But hey, I’m not here to pressure you into buying materials against your better judgment. Let’s go over more free resources complementing the Quickstart Set. Then you can decide for yourself whether stepping into the Shadowdark is a good idea. (For your character, it is not.)
Free Online Resources
Are you an audiovisual learner? There are official walkthroughs and playthroughs at The Arcane Library YouTube Channel.
Want to play solo? Your luck roll succeeded, because that’s what the SoloDark: Solo Rules are for, featuring an intuitive yes-no Oracle system for dynamic fun that squeezes the creative juices out of your imagination.
There’s an official character creation tool called ShadowDarklings, which was acquired by The Arcane Library in 2023. This tool rolls stats for you, hooks you up with some starting gold pieces, and performs the heavy lifting of level advancement. Export character sheets to form-fillable PDFs or raw data.
Oh, and there are free adventures and monsters. Simply subscribing to the official newsletter gets you Raiders of the Hidden Temple, Doom in the Red Wastes, and all of the “Monthly Monsters.”
Like forums? There’s a bustling Shadowdark subreddit.
We’ll get into other (extremely useful) community resources later.
Paid Resources
Now that you’re convinced, obviously you want to buy stuff with the money you don’t have. Unsurprising, as Shadowdark won the 2024 Three Castles Award for best game design. Additionally, gold ENNIES for Product of the Year. Best Game. Best Rules. Best Layout & Design. It’s the bestest.
Shadowdark… in the EU: The Arcane Library is still establishing EU-based wholesalers (with translations!) at the time of this writing, so buying the hardcover in Europe isn’t straightforward yet. I’m based in Spain (more on that at the author’s other blog — Bebop Libre) and couldn’t find copies locally. I found an alternative closer than the US as explained below.
Shadowdark RPG (Core Rulebook)
Once you’ve outgrown the Quickstart Set, it’s time for the Shadowdark book (with more spells, monsters, random tables, magic items, treasure, and other intriguing miscellany). It’s about A5 “digest” size dimensionally, clocking in at 330 pages. It explains and provides examples, blending aspects of a player’s guide, GM’s guide, and monster manual. With it, you’ll learn this d20-based system (so named because a 20-sided die drives much of the action) in which magic is as useful as it is risky.
It’s a downright entertaining read, if I’m being honest.
Aside from being exquisitely well-written and packed with gritty illustrations, it flows because it’s “rules-lite.” For example, skill checks are simplified into ability checks. Depending on conditions, characters may have advantage (rolling twice and taking the higher result) or disadvantage (taking the lower). This provides great flexibility for skills. Other systems try to explicitly enumerate these, inevitably leading to ambiguity, confusion, and disagreement.
Since skills are handled loosely, the rulebook suggests that characters should automatically succeed, or at least have advantage doing certain things, based on background or training. This is one of many fantastic design choices that make Shadowdark a joy to play. It nudges players and GMs to improvise, based on reasonable assumptions, instead of scanning character sheets heads-down.
Now, in learning any RPG system, I prefer digital copies of manuals like this. It’s because I prefer typing over handwriting. As I proceed through a tome, I jot down questions (that are often answered by continued reading, or another pass). I record other notes and observations this way. That being said, owning a physical copy of the core rulebook is mandatory — in my opinion.
So when I learned that PDFs accompany print copies of official Shadowdark materials, I was a happy camper crawler.
And whatever other official materials you skip, you’ll want the core rulebook to stay in the Shadowdark for the long haul. Bare-minimum requirement, print or digital. Players don’t necessarily need anything else, apart from the upcoming(!) Player’s Guide to be discussed below — which will include more classes and other info to expand their horizons. GMs, however, will naturally seek more materials as they learn about the system.
But before we get ahead of ourselves, here are some options for finding a core rulebook:
Print & PDF (US — ships from The Arcane Library)
Print & PDF (EU — ships from Germany via Sphärenmeisters Spiele, which is how I got mine)
Print & PDF (UK — in-person collection only from Dungeonland)
PDF Only (The Arcane Library)
Dude, where’s my PDF? Print purchases include PDFs. If you can’t find your download link, send the receipt to contact@thearcanelibrary.com. Berlin-based Black Dog Comics stocks Shadowdark, but their product pages don’t mention PDFs — so if you buy from them, you may need to email a receipt to get yours.
Cursed Scroll Zines
The Cursed Scroll Zines extend the Shadowdark universe with additional content: classes, adventures, monsters, etc. They’re like magazines of expansion content, described by The Arcane Library as “mini-settings.” Pretty cool. They’re also optional. Buy one. Buy them all. Whatever you need to run a campaign with friends or by yourself. Think of these as potent, mind-altering spices for your Shadowdark brew.
The zines are available in print (including PDFs) from The Arcane Library (US). They can be shipped internationally (make sure you use a shipping method that covers duties). Or just get the PDFs. EU print availability through third-party retailers varies — check Sphärenmeisters Spiele or Black Dog Comics based out of Germany, which ship across the EU, or the retailers mentioned in the core rulebook section above. For the UK, try Dungeonland or The Shop on the Borderlands. Stock comes and goes.
What can you expect from the zines? (The first one is a great place to start.)
Cursed Scroll Zine, Vol. 1: Diablerie!
Misadventures with knights and eldritch beasts in the marshy hex crawl (an exploration-driven foray across a map divided into hexagonal tiles) of an ancient forest called the Gloaming. Witches and mutant catfish included.
Cursed Scroll Zine, Vol. 2: Red Sands
Efreet devils stalking canyons between hidden oases and buried ruins, while sandstorms reshape the dunes trod by barbaric riders and assassin-sorcerers. Bring water.
Cursed Scroll Zine, Vol. 3: Midnight Sun
Cursed shores and frozen fjords where longhouse debauchery goes quiet when the raiders pass through. Drakes overhead, Old Gods underfoot.
Other Official Materials
Here’s more official Shadowdark stuff you can buy:
You can actually buy a print (and PDF) of SoloDark: SoloRules.
Same goes for the Quickstart Set, and even a pack of four.
Five mini-adventure cards.
There’s of course apparel and other items available at The Arcane Library.
About the Campaign Setting…
The campaign or “world” setting is… developing. It and three additional zines have been successfully crowdfunded with over three million dollars. It’s called The Western Reaches, to be articulated in the main by separate Player’s Guide and Game Master’s Guide books. According to the Kickstarter, the new GM guide merges the hex crawls from zines 1-5 and, on top of that, “about 10 Cursed Scroll zines worth of new hex crawl material.” This unifies the zines into a single coherent world.
Yes, the blighted forests of the Diablerie and the blistering desert of the Red Sands share a map and history. Flee an efreet into the Gloaming. Get your whole party killed — a TPK, or total party kill — courtesy of a mutant catfish.
Time-sensitive note: Check out the setting on Kickstarter. Rewards for pledges are available until February 28th, fulfilled internationally (good news for those of us outside the US). The reward tiers work out to be cheaper than buying retail later, FYI. And backers enjoy early access to digital content (via BackerKit which syncs with Kickstarter)!
On The Arcane Library’s wholesale page, it would appear that the products associated with The Western Reaches world setting will be available for pre-sale to retailers in April of 2026. Details are still emerging. In the meantime, you can lean on the zines you have or whatever campaign settings you’re already familiar with. While conversion for mixing and matching systems might be needed, it’s possible with some effort. You can find conversion guidance online, but there are other Shadowdark-compatible materials you should be aware of.
Licensing & Third-Party Fun
Shadowdark’s license permits certain kinds of free and for-profit third-party content, the telltale sign of a healthy, lasting creative ecosystem.
You — yes, you — are legally allowed to make money from content made to be compatible with Shadowdark, provided you follow all of the conditions of the licensing as explained in this FAQ. The license and some logos are included in the Creator Kit. So you can’t do everything, but you can do a lot. For instance, you cannot present your work such that it might be confused as an official source.
Most people will want to use others’ content, so here are some places to look:
There’s a free 28-page Shadowdome Thunderdark megadungeon generator. Curious? Read Why Megadungeons? by Warren D.
The Bundle of Holding offers time-limited deals on bundles of sourcebooks, adventures, and toolkits for TTRPGs. They had a Shadowdark-compatible offer going for a time, the materials of which are still readily available, such as Belowdown and Hyborian Adventures by Menagerie Press. Or if you’re into cults, there’s Dark Visions and its sequel The Tower of Six by RPG Ramblings.
Soulblight by Laurin D. Weggen is a compelling and popular setting expressly compatible with Shadowdark, containing additional… urges… classes, loot, and over a hundred monsters.
itch.io and DriveThruRPG are good places to find and buy ebooks for third-party content made for compatibility with Shadowdark.
The newsletter promotes third-party content and creators. Kelsey frequently supports up-and-coming Shadowdark-compatible content.
LFG? Looking For Group?
Unless you’ve gone full SoloDark, you’re probably wondering about how to play with other people after familiarizing yourself with various resources. The Shadowdark community lives on Discord, which is one place where you can start online groups and receive instantaneous feedback from passionate players and GMs. It’s extremely active. Just be nice and follow the rules. As a result, you’ll get tips and can even receive feedback on homebrew content (custom rules, monsters, adventures).
Joining the Discord community is straightforward. You’ll be walked through a tutorial to help you acclimate. If you say hi, you’ll be met with a warm welcome. There are FAQs and support threads of all kinds. People share content, thoughts, and laughs.
If there are barriers to starting an in-person group with friends or at a local gaming or comic book store, Discord or other online spaces are a great entrypoint into the Shadowdark.
Virtual Tabletop Options
Whether you’re playing online or in-person, virtual tabletops (VTTs) are extremely useful. They’re shared digital game boards with maps, tokens, and rules automation. Players should be vaguely aware of VTTs, but will ultimately be dragged into whichever their GM chooses unless successfully petitioning otherwise. Players can skip this section if they want. Let’s proceed into VTTs, mainly for the sake of GMs.
For those short on patience, Foundry VTT with Molten Hosting is a very popular setup right now. Foundry probably has the best Shadowdark integration. Owlbear Rodeo is very minimalistic and requires zero commitment. Alternatively, Fantasy Grounds is basically turnkey but may require rebuying content. Skip to the next section if that’s all you care to know about VTTs.
Otherwise, here are more deets about (some) options…
Foundry
This VTT has a community-maintained Shadowdark system that tracks gear slots and light sources (critical for real-time torches), preloaded with monsters, items, and a starting adventure. Foundry has a bit of a learning curve, but it pays off massively. For the programmers out there, it has excellent support for creating plugins (packages). Most importantly, for GMs, the VTT is a one-time purchase (around $50 USD or €43 EUR + tax) — no subscription, but there’s a catch: hosting is not included.
Hosting Foundry: You could self-host with, say, an up-to-date container image, just mind your security hygiene. There’s dedicated hosting as with Molten Hosting, The Forge, Sqyre and playit.gg. Expect to pay roughly $4–$13/month depending on needs. (I’m not endorsing anything — just letting you know what’s out there.) You can possibly host for free with Oracle. For a comprehensive guide on that and other options, please refer to Foundry’s hosting wiki.
Owlbear Rodeo
The no-fuss VTT. System-agnostic, browser-based, and no accounts needed for players. It doesn’t know or care what Shadowdark or any system is. So if all you need is a shared map and tokens, it’s worth a look. It tries to be as simple as rolling out a physical map and tossing miniatures on it. With the free tier, GMs get two rooms with full feature access. If they need multiple rooms, generally for juggling multiple campaigns, they can expect to pay ~$4–8/month.
Fantasy Grounds
This VTT has a different value proposition. It carries officially licensed Shadowdark modules, including the core rulebook and zines. It handles hosting, so there’s far less deciding and fiddling than with Foundry. It’s also free as of November 2025 — previously $50. But of course there’s a catch: you’re buying content piecemeal (adventures, rulesets, supplements) that you may already own in PDF or print form.
Now Go Die
In the Shadowdark, your characters will die. Horribly. At regular intervals. That’s the deal. Commit to the roleplaying over any individual character. Don’t take it (too) seriously. Character death is opportunity.
“We all loved Dickhead Ballerstein,” your group may say in mourning, “but in his absence there will arise yet another stupidly-named character, such as Son of Dickhead Ballerstein.”
So go have fun! And watch out for stingbats.
Full disclosure: No affiliations, no kickbacks. I just like Shadowdark. I’m Reese, by the way. I hope you enjoyed Lodes & Lanterns’ first post! This is a blog about role-playing games, video games, sci-fi, and fantasy. Subscribe if you’re into that.
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