"Treasure lasts, but characters don't."
That needs to be on a t-shirt, preferably surrounding a line-art graphic of one character looting the body of another.
Maybe rephrased to, like, "Characters are temporary, but treasure is forever."

To answer, the time when a thief (or any other player without advantage) would roll checking for traps is when there is a time limit or an immediate danger, such as during combat or in the dark.

Playing in an open table game which is on Session 100 in just over 1 year.  There have been 39 Player Deaths with most being L4 and below, but with on L7 going down.  Three PCs have made it to L9 and about a dozen are spread across L7 and L8.  Most players have several PCs.  Personally I have a L7 Thief, L7 Wizard (RIP), L3 Wizard, 2 L3 Priests, and a L2 Fighter.  Each of them has story threads and history developing around them.  Great Fun!

I would love for K.D. to come on and talk about a few of the issues you encountered.

old guy here.  Only being able to backstab once, right at the beginning of the combat was the way we always ran it back in the day.  I had a hard time getting my head around anything else when I got back to gaming with 5e.  Much prefer Shadowdark at this point.

I loved Shadowdark, and I ran that campaign very differently than I did 5e. I really focused on dungeons and location based adventures. Especially multi level dungeons so the players would need to go back multiple times to get all the loot.

Thanks for all the Shadowdark content! It was such a relief to hear I wasn't alone in experiencing some of these pain points. Hearing your thought process around resolving them, and applying the Shadowdark rules to a broader campaign was fascinating!

I overlooked ShadowDark because of the lack of classes.  However, now that I've bought two of the three 'Zines from their site, as well as download a trio of free classes (Bard, Ranger, and Roustabout).  I would happily play this game as a Sea Wolf (a Viking who gets benefits from praying to one of three different Norse god for the day).

The best thing I like about it is the simplicity, the skill check magic system instead of Vancian magic slot nonsense, and random leveling up bonuses.

couldn't agree more with everything you said. - shadowdwrk GM who is 130 sessions into an open table game.

This is how Detect Traps spell works in Shadow Dark. You get another player character to investigate an area you think a trap is on, and if the trap is sprung you have detected the trap. You know there was a trap. Your spell's material component "one player character, aware or unaware they are the material component for this spell'. Alternatively, animals can be used, including player character pets and other animal companions, special mounts, and even spell caster familiars. "Your cat familiar is going to see if there is a trap".

I started playing RPGs with 5E, and even though I mostly GM other systems now, your Lazy DMs guide is still the best way I have found to prep any system. It's little wonder then, that this is the best (i.e. most useful) Shadowdark review I've come across to date, after having watched at least 5 others. Thanks for all you do!

I think it is worth mentioning: one of the reasons people find OSR games to take little to no prep is that they run adventures, such as Gardens of Ynn, that take little preparation beyond reading through the module once.

This series has been incredibly useful and entertaining. Sad it’s over, but glad it happened

ShadowDark hype train! I'm here for it. 💚 Glad to see you covering this Mike.

I also had the "this feels like it did when I was a kid" feeling about the game.

I appreciate that the review gave the things you and your players liked – and that you said you loved Shadowdark – but that you also listed some of the negatives or issues you guys encountered.

I’m running a campaign that is over 20 sessions deep and I have played in over 30 other sessions. I love the system – mostly for its simplicity and speed of play – but I really appreciate your experienced view as someone who has run it for a year.

I love all Sly Flourish videos. I enjoy many facets of Shadowdark. I can't wait to run things officially

You and I came up with exactly the same solution to the damaged when down situation! So far, I've found it works well.

Im going to be running two long ShadowDarkRpg campaigns. One of which will be streamed. So 2025 will be my year of ShadowDark.

Fantastic Commentary  --- Some of my Game Night people at my church had asked about trying out something like D&D (many have never played any tabletop RPGs) --- I have the Shadowdark Book already but will pickup the Quick Start Kit (just did) and print what I need ---  Thanks for the Video!   Has inspired me to give it a shot!  🙂