08/20/2025

Happy Wednesday, and welcome back to Tabletop Thoughts!

Today, I released another YouTube video about stealing an adventure from Basic Fantasy RPG and using it in Shadowdark. I talked about this concept a few weeks ago on this website (https://tabletop-thoughts.com/2025/08/14/how-to-adapt-basic-fantasy-content-for-shadowdark/) and how to avoid some of the pitfalls of just using the adventures as is.

A few months ago, we created this overland hex map using the random tables in the Shadowdark core rulebook. You can watch the video here:

As part of the creation of the map, we rolled up a temple north of the starting town (later named Honeywood) that has a large dungeon complex, and the inhabitants were cultists. Building on that idea, I found an adventure in Adventure Anthology Three that fit my concept of the temple and dungeon underneath. Basic Fantasy RPG is a wealth of information that is free to download and use in your home campaign.

During the video, I walk you through my thought process for converting the Cult of the Green Skull adventure into something suitable for my Shadowdark campaign. We discuss how to tie it into the campaign setting and where to drop adventure hooks and rumors. We remove some of the overpowered creatures (There is a werewolf in an adventure for Level 1 to 2 players!!) and change some of the other adversaries to fit the theme of the campaign.

You can watch me go through my process here:

Using Shadowdarling.Net, I made the basic sheets for Kyros the Elf Wizard and Jevren the Human Priest. This is a great online app that allows you to create characters quickly using a varaiety of sources.

I would probably change the Turn Undead for Jevren into Create Undead to account for the skeletons and zombies in the dungeon. He is following a demon of undeath, so why not give him that power?

There is no name for the demon given in the adventure, so I would give it one from my Shadows of the Sundered Throne Campaign (there are 4), a known demon like Orcus, or make up a name before the adventure. Zevren should be saying the name during the encounter (“You think you can stop the will of Orcus?!?”). I didn’t go and get all of the gear for the NPCs, since why would you be carrying all of your stuff when you are home? There is a lot of treasure in the adventure. If this is the 1st stop for the party, finding more coins than you can carry might give them a hint to hire hirelings to do things like carry a torch or treasure.

If there is anything that you would have done differently, please leave a comment and let us know. It is always good to discuss different strategies and ideas. That is how we develop and move forward.

Keep on gaming!