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. 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. Welcome to the RPGBOT Podcast. If you love Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, and tabletop RPGs, this is the podcast for you. Support the show for free: Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any podcast app. It helps new listeners find the best RPG podcast for D&D and Pathfinder players. Level up your experience: Join us on Patreon to unlock ad-free access to RPGBOT.net and the RPGBOT Podcast, chat with us and the community on the RPGBOT Discord, and jump into live-streamed RPG podcast recordings. Support while you shop: Use our Amazon affiliate link at https://amzn.to/3NwElxQ and help us keep building tools and guides for the RPG community. Meet the Hosts Tyler Kamstra – Master of mechanics, seeing the Pathfinder action economy like Neo in the Matrix. Randall James – Lore buff and technologist, always ready to debate which Lord of the Rings edition reigns supreme. Ash Ely – Resident cynic, chaos agent, and AI's worst nightmare, bringing pure table-flipping RPG podcast energy. Join the RPGBOT team where fantasy roleplaying meets real strategy, sar