Last year, Shadowdark broke onto the scene as a breath of fresh air. It mixed the best parts of OSR austerity and 5e fluidity to make an experience that appeals to both audiences. Its embrace of third party support has mostly expressed itself in adventures and small add-ons to let groups adjust the game to their liking. Unnatural Selection, from designers Xane Daniel and Bunny Daniel, collects several new options for the game in one big crowdfunding blockbuster of a book. The folks at Dungeon Damsel Creations were kind enough to send me a preview copy to review. What parts will I add to my next excursion into the Shadowdark? Let’s play to find out.
The first part of the book features several new character creation options. The dozen ancestries include different kinds of elves, mushrooms, dragonborn and revenants. My favorite options here are the slimefolk who can mimic appearances and melt into a puddle for a few rounds. Many of the options seem geared to fans migrating from Fifth Edition who want to play their favorites from that game. The options here continue Shadowdark’s general design philosophy of keeping class and ancestry combos from being too obvious, even if there are some obvious synergies.
The book also includes six new classes. The two non-spellcasting classes still have a bit of magic to them. The beastmaster lets players transform into a specific animal while the fiend infuses hellfire into the character's attacks. Of the four remaining magic user classes, the grave warden and ovate appealed the most to me. Playing a scythe wielding necromancer fits the aesthetic of the original game well. The ovate offers players who want to play a nature themed wizard with a pet an option different from the classic ranger developed after the core book's publication.
The section on ceremonies and curiosities was the highlight of the book for me. Ceremonies are built for shaman and ovates and framed as an alternative to the carousing rules. Several players have wanted alternatives for their characters to not spend their nights in town blowing through gold on epic nights of drinking and the ceremonies are a good framework for similar effects without the fictional hangover. As written, these are an extended drug trip brought on by holy mushrooms and communing with spirits, but they could just as easily be astral projection or extended rituals at the local cleric’s church.
Curiosities offer a collection of charts devoted to weird dungeon features. The book recommends at least one per dungeon with the charts combining strange materials, unusual function and potential interactions. For example, rolling glyphs, faces and whispers might create a wall of tattooed wizard heads that can tell the history of the dungeon for those brave enough to touch the leathery, ancient skin. These creepy details are what distinguishes Shadowdark from other dungeon crawls and create memorable moments that players will take away from the table.
I was hoping that the weirdness would extend to the monster section. Unfortunately, while there are a few strange beasts, the majority of entries are predatory animals and giant versions of smaller creatures. The bigger single page beasts, like Vaelthar the Untamed offer some good examples of boss monsters but I wanted more unusual entries here.
Overall, Unnatural Selection slightly increases the magical nature of Shadowdark with more magic users and unusual elements. It feels like it's written for players who don’t want to fall completely into the grim and gritty world of old school dungeon crawls and want to bring a few more elements of Fifth Edition in the dark. The best way to use the book matches the original ethos of Shadowdark’s design; keep what works for you, leave everything else behind.
