Introducing Torchfinder: Find Official & Third-Party Content for Shadowdark 🔥
Why a TTRPG-starved guy who moved across the world built a free, open source web app for finding Shadowdark content.
Just want to use Torchfinder? Click here! Otherwise, read on for a non-technical explanation of who created it and why.
Hi, Reese here.
I’m an experienced software engineer with a special interest in role-playing games. Before moving from the US to Spain in fall 2025, I donated my old D&D materials, dice included, to friends. As much as I appreciate my stuff having been put to good use, you can only imagine a nerd’s horror in parting with such things.
After settling into my new home, my longing for TTRPGs became anguish, as if I had been teleported into the unforgiving and veiled limbo of Planescape: Torment. Okay, maybe that’s a bit extreme, but still.
Then I discovered Shadowdark. As to how, well…
Entering the Shadowdark
I’ve listened to and watched the Glass Cannon Network (GCN) since the debut of their COVID lockdown Side Quest Side Sesh Pathfinder 1E campaign, which was hilarious. This is the only podcast, by the way, that I have ever paid money for, although an absurd amount of their content is free. Historically, this troupe has filled a void in my soul when I needed it most. Hectic life circumstances made group play difficult for me, long before moving abroad. Even in times of relative stability, I was cursed with ever-dissolving IRL games. Not due to drama, but because chaos would throw friends and acquaintances off the proverbial horse.
Cursed with the Darksign though I may be, the GCN was always there. And PC RPGs, of course. Love me some Baldur’s Gate 3.
I’m getting old: Speaking of, I internalized a great deal of Forgotten Realms content as a kid without even realizing it at the time, as in Black Isle Studios’ captivating Icewind Dale released in 2000. I was around eight then… ugh. Let’s change the subject.
One of the GCN’s founders is Troy Lavallee. He’s also known as “Roger Cumstone” for reasons I’ll allow you to discover with your own search history. He began GMing a Shadowdark campaign in late 2025. And guess what? This coincided with yet another bout of TTRPG wistfulness on my part. I watched a few shows. I was taken in by the suspense, and laughing my ass off.
I was also intrigued.
Why I’ll Stay In the Shadows
That’s when I went down the Shadowdark rabbit hole, as I do anytime I’m interested in anything — such as aliens or the perfect shave.
But this RPG appealed to me because it was inspired from the old school, yet designed with modern affordances. In other words, a KISS-respecting emphasis on streamlined player experience. This is comparable to “user experience” in software and more generally design. Take that Icewind Dale game I mentioned earlier, or any video game RPG from that era… the amount of clicking needed to do anything is why I’ll need robot hands in the future.
Game mechanics from those days suffered similar follies, both that of TTRPGs and, as a result, their implementation as video games. But it’s not enough that Shadowdark features straightforward mechanics in a grimdark fantasy world, is it? It isn’t, but that’s not the whole picture.
Another thing Shadowdark has going for it is that it’s not controlled by a big evil corporation, unlike some other TTRPGs I would never name. But that’s not really it either. There’s plenty of great indie stuff out there.
Shadowdark, it turns out, has a resource that is in surprisingly short supply: a wonderful community. After looking into it, I decided that the creator, Kelsey Dionne, excels at fostering a space people actually want to be a part of.
And without going into a whole thing about the Old School Revival or Old School Renaissance (OSR), I’ll say this: I’m not impressed with the toxicity in this niche. Not online or IRL, honestly. Whether Shadowdark is OSR, OSR-ish, or whatever the hell, here’s the deal: the Shadowdark community is spectacularly positive, warm, and welcoming. In fact, I’d say this fine community is an innovation in and of itself. While no strangers to tension or crude humor, they don’t tolerate weaponization of such things either.
This, along with Shadowdark just being extremely well-designed, is why I bought materials from The Arcane Library, Kelsey’s publishing company. So I have a physical copy of the core rulebook. I supported the Western Reaches Kickstarter campaign, which is to be the official campaign setting of Shadowdark. Furthermore, I wrote a getting-started guide to Shadowdark for the curious.
I’ve learned a fair amount about the game. Part of my learning has involved building Torchfinder at Lodes & Lanterns. Personally, I wanted a tool that could sort and filter Shadowdark content, including adventures, supplements, and zines.
This tool didn’t exist, so I built it.
Forging Tools for Dungeon Delves
The datastore is small at the time of this writing. Since the whole system was recently released, the initial seed data could probably use refinement. Nonetheless, I’ve engineered everything to scale well over the ensuing years. Most importantly, the dataset is separate from the app itself, open, and already amenable to community curation.
I will not deny that Torchfinder was inspired by Adventure Lookup, a web app for locating D&D content new and old, created by Christian Flach. Flach’s web app was instructive for the design phase in terms of layout and naming conventions, so thanks, Christian! I have no idea who that person even is, but the work is solid. And as inspirational as it may be, Torchfinder has a completely different codebase (it’s not a “fork”), approach, and design philosophy.
But because this is a non-technical deep dive, I won’t bore you with the implementation details of Torchfinder. That will come later in a follow-up post. I’m confident, however, that I’ve established quite the bedrock for Torchfinder’s continued growth and maintenance. It’s on GitHub. It has an extensive wiki. It’s already feature-packed, highly-tested, and — for everyone’s convenience — I’ve defined what it will never do in the documentation. The boundaries I’ve drawn may irritate somebody, but that’s not the point: I’m just nipping “scope creep” in the bud.
That’s all for now. This blog will be periodically updated with more information. Not just about Torchfinder, but Torchtimer as well! Yes, yes, you’re welcome. Please, contain the boisterous applause.
Use Torchfinder right now! 🔥
Reese here from Lodes & Lanterns: Thanks for reading! Subscribe to this blog for more nerd stuff from me. And if you want to know more about my move to Spain, consider checking out Bebop Libre. Otherwise, ‘til next time!
Lodes & Lanterns is not affiliated with The Arcane Library, LLC. Shadowdark RPG © 2023 The Arcane Library, LLC.
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