If you have any questions about the game system or the three zines I'm currently working on, feel free to ask them here!
Hello! Love the system! Planning on running it soon. I have made a very rudimentary form fillable pdf of the character sheet that I thought I could share!
S&F 2e Form Fillable
I think you can only insert an image if you open it with Adobe Acrobat? I am unsure but couldnt get it to work with Firefox or Chrome!
Hi! I just finished running a one-shot game and what a wonderful system it is. I love it. I think it is the best implementation of GLoG I've found so far.
The only bit that I think needs a bit more clarification is Reactions when mentioned in page 5. None of my players had Tales with reactions, and all of them assumed reactions were freeform and tried to attack outside of their turn or block attacks aimed at allies. Only later we discovered Reactions were actually codified in the Tales.
I think the easy fix is replacing "Characters may take a reaction each round if able." for "Characters may take a reaction from one of their Tales each round."
Thank you for creating Shadow & Fae!
Hey! First of all: gosh, I've fallen in love with this system! Its so simple, yet has so much flavour to it! The chapters are a pretty neat approach for a class-like thing, but it has so much customization and lets the characters change their approach to the world as it changes them (and some of them are so creative) You've done a wonderful job here, and I hope you can give us more of this (please add more runes for the enchanter, I need it!).
That said, I have a few questions regarding some balance issues and text clarifications:
First - The ranger, soldier and sorcerer tales state that you (can) start with a bow, but doesn't clarify if that's a shortbow or longbow. Which was it supposed to be?
Second - If a level 10 character has 10 tales that gives them the combatant feature, they will have +10 to hit and damage (ideally giving them a minimum amount of 15 to hit and damage). Isn't that... a bit much? That way, someone would hit almost always and deal at least 30 damage in one round, which is more thant enough to to obliterate a 10HD creature, which theoretically have a maximum of 80 HP, in 3 ROUNDS! Isn't that a way this could be nerfed, like putting a limit to the bonus?
Third - It really seems like the sorcerer is a weaker version of the wizard? At least at level 1, wizards start with 2 more spells than sorcerers, and with a wider variety of them, since they can access different schools of magic, plus sorcerers' chaos magic is WAY more dangerous than wizards' and happens more frequently (wizards do not get mishaps until level 2, while sorecers have this possibility since level 2). I really enjoy the concept that sorcerers' innate magic is more unstable, but they could pass the feeling of being more powerful than the acquired magic of wizards. Something like: MD are only spent on a (5 or) 6, but you roll Dooms on a (4) 5 or 6.
Sorry for the chunk of text, I'm just excited about the system and can't stop analysing it! Again, good job here and thanks for the answers <3
No worries about the wall of text! I really enjoy writing and thinking about these games, so I'm glad mine is worthy of "The Wall" :)
1: Huh... Excellent question. I would let the player choose for now, but I'll look into clarifying that.
2: Players have a max of 4 Chapters from Tales. After that, they only gain new features from adventuring , so the max combatant bonus is +4 (though they still gain max Hope and HP from levels). If someone wants more bonus to hit/damage, they'll need a magic sword or the blessing of an archpriest, or something similar, whatever's available in the world.
3: While sorcerer magic *is* more dangerous, it is also unlimited. Wizards start with 1 guaranteed spell per day, but sorcerers never run out. This is why for a sorcerer, the spells are so much more dangerous. The question isn't when they'll run out of magic, but what chaos they'll unleash as they tap into it.
I hope that all makes sense, and again, thanks for the feedback!
Hi, congrats for Shadow and Fae, I'm really in love with it.
I have some questions:
- the rule for recovering Hope with resting is only in the referee screen but not in the manual
- monster save are explained only in the referee screen but not in the manual
- how thief recovers luck points?
- the party sheet mentions reputation, but I can't find it explained anywhere
Starting reputation would depend on how power is gained, but I suppose 8 would be normal. It goes up when the ruler does things the population really likes, there are a few examples listed. The Retainers are low-level characters that come with the domain, and can either be sent on NPC missions, or played by players in low-level games.
Does that clear it up?
Thank you very much for your answer.
So, if I understand correctly, if the party wants to recruit a follower or a specialist, they must roll 2d6: if the total exceed their reputation, the recruit them; if not, they recruit them anyway but the reputation drops 2 points down. Is it correct? Or the reputation rule is used only for organizations and npc different from hirelings/specialists?
What happens if the reputation drops to 0? They can't recruit of ask help anymore?
PS: I think I'll use this game to run my future campaigns, I really like it. Can't wait to read future zines
Hi! I finally got around to reading S&F2e and it looks really great. At our table we've previously played some Shadow & Fae 1st Edition and Goblin Tales and we loved both.
I'm curious: what would you say are the biggest changes you've made to the rules between 1st and 2nd edition and what motivated those changes? You've mentioned that this version is a culmination of lessons you've learned writing a bunch of games, and it would be really interesting to hear what those lessons were.
Thanks and well done!
Hello! Always exciting to hear that someone's had fun with my games.
Shadow & Fae was my first complete game, which I wrote to bring a group of players familiar with 5e into a simpler but still diverse game. It works with a unified d20 roll-high mechanic for most things, and has classes with similar features and names to the modern giant games, like PF2e and D&D 5e.
I wanted S&F to be a game I could explain quickly, run smoothly, and most of all—create new content for quickly. If one of my players asked, "Can I play a cat?" I wanted to be able to say "Yep! Here's how that could work."
Goblin Tales was inspired by a dice mechanic, originally. The blackjack roll. Instead of having modifiers and scores, players just want to roll as high as they can while staying under their score, with criticals occurring on an exact roll. I was playing around with that idea when someone else suggested classes that really felt as "Fairy Tale" as possible—thieves that stole truth itself, knights that forced opponents to take non-violent oaths, and seers ranging in flavor from the witch of the woods to the saint of the city. It's also the book that really got me thinking about Referee support. You'll notice the magic items from the Old School Referee come straight out of it, because I love the system I made there.
I started S&F2e because I wanted one game that really hit on all cylinders for me. Simple rules, great referee tools, and a lot of flavorful options for players to choose from. I also wanted to keep it more widely compatible, and I found that as much as I loved the Blackjack rule, my players preferred the simplicity of "High Roll Good", and I can't fault them for that.
The biggest addition with S&F2e, that I still kind of play with, is the Hope save mechanic. As a person who really loves stories, I wanted to put out a little bait for players to sometimes try stupid things, like insulting the mayor to his face. Or even to have specific pursuits to act on when they get the chance. My players would often get to town, sell their loot, and look at me with the question of, "Now what?" Well, what does your character want to do? And I'd get silence. Hope and Passions felt like a good way of pre-emptively asking the players "What drives your character?" I've seen it result in some great situations—insulted mayors, street brawls, goo-drinking, theft and chases, etc.—that I don't think would have happened if the players were thinking strictly rationally and strategically.
Besides the Hope mechanic, the other major change was to classes. I wanted to bring in "too-many" according to some people, because I really wanted players to be able to find something that fit well. You'll find Fighter/Thief/Cleric/Mage, but you'll also find a lot of more unique ideas, like Alchemists, Enchanters, and Savants. There are also variations on the "Core-Four" that pull out specific flavors, like Duelists, Druids, Rangers, and Sorcerers. Add in the fact that you can mix-and-match, and I've seen some really interesting character play-styles develop, like a Duelist/Alchemist inspired by the Witcher games, and an Outlander/Enchanter who prepared her own magical weapons and armor depending on what she was hunting.
That's quite a long answer, but you got me thinking!
Thanks again for playing, it really brings me joy that people are enjoying something I've made.
-Hilander
Changing the death system was mainly an issue of simplicity for me. I was really pushing myself to keep the rules as small as possible.
That said, I think you could absolutely swap in the old wounds system for the death roll. Combatants, rather than their d6 death roll benefit, can take +1 wound per chapter of combatant before dying.
Great Question!
I counter: Do you know the exact price of all items on the real world?
An adventurer can likely estimate the rough value of an item, but a merchant would know down to the copper the value of every item in a dragon's hoard, and know what to keep vs. what to leave behind, if it came down to it.