Free one shots. Shots in the Dark for Shadowdark. Tools-tables. A Review of sorts (I guess).

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKgs4FDEWIY talks about Shots in the Dark, for Shadowdark. 

Download here, shared and free for all apparently: https://sarahangell.itch.io/shots-in-the-dark-1

REVIEW, SORT OF:

Which ones to use, which ones to skip. It's just my opinion, I'm sure they are all very good if you like their style. I get hung up on anything that brings me out of the ancient feel of medieval fantasy/sword and sorcery/that sort of thing:

1. Skip or lotsa changes. Spores from the Undercity. Mushroom-men, cool. But Don't like "Spore addict" so I'd change that.... takes me out of the feel of the game. I keep seeing "addict hideout" and stuff, so that's a problem. 
2. Skip, hard skip. Flooded Crypt of the Necromancer.... Rock n roll monster, AKA mixing genres = not my style. Too much to change to bother. 
3. Seems good. The Rotting Gardens of Rafflesia.  Atop a rise in a quiet swamp clearing, you spy a white stone archway....
   
4. Skip probably. Ill-Gotten Gains. Pirates. 
5. Good. I think I like this one. The Doom of Caer Ferros. Has interesting vertical dungeon stuff. Easy and Medium undead.
6. Good. The Mines of Gloomwind Ravine. Have to recover the Eye of Ord. Has more fun monsters than most so far. 
7. Probably fine. The Monster Under the Tower. About a weird mage. Has a lab... .... Super short. Something like 1 miniboss, 1 boss, 1 minor monster swarm. 
8. Looks good. Vault of the Once Great Thief. Plenty of Kobolds, a sorcerer. Sounds fun. 
9. Maybe. Pirates though. The Forgotten Isle of the Hydra Cult. Great B&W drawing at the end. 
10. Seems good BUT... the child killing is pretty detailed though, maybe too much.  The Blackbridge Labyrinth. Has some fun rumors and stuff. 
11. Skip or change a lot. The Tarwell. Hissing pipes? Valves? Feels not medieval and genre mixing.... 
12. Fine. The Scorchard. Spigot? Otherwise fine. 
13. Fine, not my fav. Thrice Sealed. Harpies. Holy weapon. 
14. Good. Warrens of the Deepwood King. Mushroom men. Fairies. 
15. Seems good. Elemental Mistakes. What does "deadly" mean exactly on pg. 49? Lotsa elementals. Rather long. 
16. Hard skip - Spaceships. Frozen Tomb of the Nameless One. Spaceships. 
17. Good. Terror of the Demon Cyst (Rename to Demon Heart or something). Level 5 (Shadowdark/OSR level that is). Interesting monsters. The gross "cyst" is well too gross and not cool (I would rename it completely), but otherwise interesting stuff. 
18. Skip. The Word-Eating Wyrm. Level 6 (Shadowdark/OSR level that is). 
1. Bibloraxi? Kinda goofy/cheesy name referencing the book thing, but even super pro authors are guilty of this kinda naming stuff. I'd rename him to "Bloraxi" or something better. 
2. The Paper Cut Tribe? Also too silly in name, I'd change it. 
3. Sepia-scaled? Sepia? It evokes modern things... editing photos, etc. OK, sure, it's from old Greek and a cuttlefish, but you just can't use that word in this game for me. At least in the "read outloud" description they describe it  as "papery brown scales". But then again, papery. OK, it eats books, and now it's a paper dragon? 
4. I guess this is way too much pulling me out of the D&D feel of things, I'll pass. 

TOOLS:

Pg. 63 and 64 and probably beyond have some awesome random tables... seems to be for that last book dragon adventure but can use for whatever I bet.  

DUNGEON EVENTS

Examples... By Mike Kuhns (CritFail.Press). Roll a d8. I'll list some I like:

• On a 1 - Competition. 3 or 4 less than savory sorts also enter dungeon for plunder. They'll backstab you later. 
• An Acolyte (SD pg. 194)
• An Apprentice (ShadowDark pg. 196)
• A Bandit (SD 197)
• Thug (SD 259). 
• On a 2 - "One the doorstep".  An army of hostile raiders arrives outside the dungeon. Periodically, they send troops into the dungeon. Whenever the party enters a room, 1:6 chance that 1d4+2 Soldiers (SD 252) are present!
  
• On a 3 - Earthquake. Random things fall, party must dodge.  An earthquake strikes and the PC’s must make a DC 12 DEX check to dodge the falling debris. The earthquake may have altered the state of the dungeon or its inhabitants.
• On a 4 - Magical roiling purple storm. Makes magic suck (OK this might be too much, but maybe once in a blue moon). DC on spell checks incr by 2. Magic weapons stop working for a while. Storm ends in 2d12 rounds. 
• On a 5 - Adventure relocation. Crazy magic moves whole dungeon.  Roll 1d8: 1. Desert 2. Tundra 3. Lava flats 4. Forest 5. Jungle 6. Rocky coastline 7. Bustling city 8. Swamp
  
• On a 6 - Lights and Doors. Magical wind shuts doors and blows out nonmagic light. I've seen this before. Ravenloft maybe the first. 
• On a 7 - Growing Roots.  Sharp metallic spikes erupt from the ground throughout the dungeon, dealing 2d6 damage to anything they touch (DC 9 DEX to avoid when travelling).
• On an 8 - A new dragon has already taken over named Rexxicorius. 

 RANDOM ENCOUNTER GENERATOR

By Charlie Sloper

Roll as many times as needed, normally thrice (((this is a table with 4 columns, doesn't show up well in text here))) (((For example, roll a d20 three times, if you get a 1, then a 2, then a 2. You would have an UNDEAD DESPAIRING LICH.))) I would of course reroll silly or overly gross stuff. 

d20 Adjective Verb Noun

• 1 Undead Rampaging Tax-Collector
• 2 Furious Despairing Lich
• 3 Murderous Summoning Dragon
• 4 Flaming Vomiting Ooze
• 5 Exhausted Dying Priest
• 6 Anxious Gambling Troll
• 7 Lonely Fleeing Politician
• 8 Disgusted Growing Goblin
• 9 Slimy Healing Pirate
• 10 Drunk Dueling Acrobat
• 11 Crystalline Cooking Bard
• 12 Petrified Painting Tree
• 13 Gargantuan Praying Urchin
• 14 Generous Drinking Crow
• 15 Clockwork Digging Clockmaker
• 16 Wealthy Sleeping Witch

 

ADVENTURE FILLER If your shot fired too rapidly, the way home may bring...

d20 Encounter

• 1 An archmage sets the party to finding flowers. [roll again for where]
• 2 Eight 8 bandits ambush the party, but half of them got lost / are late.
• 3 A merchant tries to make camp, dryad keeps stealing his firewood.
• 4 A bard locked himself out, asks the party for help. It isn’t his house.
• 5 A druid stuck as a wild boar charges the party, mad with fear.
• 6 An assassin (targeting a PC) is trapped amidst scorpions. Scattered
• clues (broken scorpion tank, picture of PC, poisoned dagger).
• 7 A knight asks party to witness duel with a reaver who murdered the
• knight’s family. She knows she will lose, but is honor bound to fight.
• 8 A priest tries to convince mob to burn PCs as witches. He’s bad at it.
• 9 Dueling gangs each say they’re secretly guards and want PC help!
• 10 A pirate with a treasure map flees 3 crewmates, right into the party!
• 11 Twelve 12 goblins perform “Saga of the Ice Queen”, pickpocket attendees.
• 12 5 bickering fairies rope PCs into tea party, leaving offends them.
• 13 Two 2 trolls make PCs settle argument: whose skin has the best fungus?
• 14 Two 2 giants play chess with humanoids - and they’re down a few pieces.
• 15 Orc noble & 4 orc retainers conscript party to fight native centaurs
• 16 Five 5 ettercaps celebrating, invite PCs to swing at pinata full of spiders.
• 17 4 musical skeletons need a singer to help impress their mummy.
• 18 Nightmare looking for its master! Communicates with fire belches.
• 19 Vampire attacks! But too heartbroken to kill anyone. Starts crying :(
• 20 The Wandering Merchant moving clearance! [roll 2d6 treasures]

Table by Samantha O’Brien. #2-4 by Javelin. #16 by MochNessLobster.