GloomRaider - a small TTRPG (free stuff), like Shadowdark

GloomRaider... guy says "Gloomraider is an RPG based on Shadowdark, but with many changes or adjustments taken from or inspired by the 1970s and 80s editions of D&D. In this video I .."

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fwn-bE69QA0&t=1048s
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhy5HbZ8qHA&t=1060s

It is interesting, and I'll say very cool for gamer folks to make their own thing to such a degree it's an official release. Wish I had the time and umph to make one. 

Well, here is a lot of it for free or pay what you will:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/513378/gloomraider-osr-rpg-quick-start-basic-rules 

Free module, basic on purpose: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/515076/gloom-beneath-the-sorcerer-s-tower-osr-adventure-for-gloomraider-rpg?src=also_purchased 

• I need to go review it, once they make me wait long enough ... reading this free module, it sounds really solid (if simple). 

Personally, if it has ascending AC, I wouldn't mind giving it a try. I like what he says here:

Thanks! In short I'd say GloomRaider is like Shadowdark for AD&D instead of 5e. The primary difference is the way various mechanics are handled. I go more with old school D&D mechanics as opposed to 5e mechanics. If you are familiar with all the editions of D&D, you'll see bits and pieces of many of them in GloomRaider, like: - Ability score modifiers are the traditional bell curve -3/+3 (Basic D&D editions) - Modifier improvements are more tied to leveling than increasing ability scores (Pre-WotC D&D) - Racial ability score adjustments (AD&D) - Racial traits (AD&D) - Spells (AD&D & Basic D&D) - Casting spells includes "Vancian" style - Monsters (AD&D) - Class traits more in-line with AD&D Things from Shadowdark that I handle differently: - Advantage/Disadvantage is adding or subtracting 1d4 - Class traits are a bit different, but generated similarly to Shadowdark - Incorporates "roll-to-cast" spells differently - Gear slots is very similar but has slight differences The one-hour real time light is unchanged from Shadowdark. In general GloomRaider is more like AD&D and Basic D&D than 5e and Shadowdark, but is easily adapted into Shadowdark as houserules.

Official description partly says this, which I like:

You have been blessed with certain gifts above the average folk in the world that you have chosen to put to use to either defend the world from those denizens of the dark or simply to raid into the gloom to return with riches and glory. You are known to the common folk as a gloom raider! A hero to some, a menace to others.

The idea behind GloomRaider is to take place in a "world of megadungeons". To do that, take any medieval fantasy/D&D setting (published or homebrew) and advance it 2,000 years after a post-Medieval apocalyptic event where gods, angels, titans, demons, devils, and dragons warred for control of the world. The common peoples living on the surface went underground for protection, carving out vast labyrinths in which they lived for a thousand years before being forced to escape back to the surface. And for another thousand years they've been remaking their civilizations in the sunlit world. Those old underground homes are now the "megadungeons" of the Gloom, as numerous under the lands as cities and towns are on the surface.

Gloomraider is an alt-D&D RPG that came out of work I had been doing to create my own OSR RPG since 2009 after running the Castles & Crusades RPG for a couple years. It is a mix of AD&D, B/X D&D, with some 3e D&D elements and heavily influenced by the Shadowdark RPG, plus some of my own additions.

And he said all money (from the small pay what you will thingie) will go to paying for custom art to put in the main books. Cool.