Looking for review for Shadowdark SRD proposal

[RagingRoosevelt]

Hi! My friend is getting into Shadowdark and I wanted to support them with adding support in Fantasy Statblocks for it. I've put together what I think is a reasonable layout and have started creating monster statblocks, copied from the official rulebook. I'd like for this to eventually be able to become one of this project's SRDs and so to that end, I hope that I could get pointers if I'm heading in a good direction before I commit and get the rest of the monsters produced.

I've attached a copy of the layout I've built (Shadowdark.json), and here are a couple of sample monster YAMLs, with the corresponding statblocks, compared to how they look in the official rulebook:

berserker.md:

columns: 2
forcecolumns: true
layout: Shadowdark
source: CRB
sourcebook: _Core Rulebook_, page 199
name: "Berserker"
description: Howling, battleraging warriors.
level: 2
alignment: Neutral
abilityMods: [2, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0]
speed: near

ac: 12
armorclass:
  - name: AC
    desc: "12 (leather)"

hp: 10
health:
  - name: HP
    desc: "10"

attack_actions: 1 Greataxe or 1 Spear
attacks:
  - name: Greataxe
    desc: +2 __Damage__ (1d10)
  - name: Spear
    desc: +2 (close/near) __Damage__ (1d6)

abilities:
  - name: Rage
    desc: 1/day, immune to morale checks, +1d4 damage (3 rounds).

columns: 2
forcecolumns: true
layout: Shadowdark
source: CRB
sourcebook: _Core Rulebook_, page 197
name: "Bandit"
description: Hard-bitten rogue in tattered leathers and a hooded cloak.
level: 1
alignment: Chaotic
abilityMods: [2, 0, 0, -1, 0, -1]
speed: near

ac: 13
armorclass:
  - name: AC
    desc: "13 (leather & shield)"

hp: 4
health:
  - name: HP
    desc: "4"

attack_actions: 1 Club or 1 Shortbow
attacks:
  - name: Club
    desc: +1 __Damage__ (1d4)
  - name: Shortbow
    desc: +0 (far) __Damage__ (1d4)

abilities:
  - name: Ambush
    desc: Deal an extra die of damage when undetected.

The items I have on my roadmap are

• add tokens
• get dice parsing working
• decide how I want to add traits, especially since the rulebook doesn't have any traits (humanoid, animal, undead, etc) mentioned in it

How does this look? Would you adjust how I'm tackling these?

As far as making sure the license of Shadowdark is compatible with this sort of compendium, in the rules, there is this in the license (Core Rulebook, page 325):

You may not print verbatim passages of text (no matter the length) from the game, with the exception of monsters, spells, and magic items.

From what I can tell, it seems like that's intended to support VTTs and tools like what we're working on in Obsidian.

[OldManUmby]

As far as your coding is concerned, someone else will have to respond on those details. Looks good though.

Obviously, you can use the dice mechanics itself.

However, there is no SRD for ShadowDark. Not certain I can speak for this community necessarily, but I suppose you could create a compendium of monsters, spells, and magic items, but I would check with the Arcane Library first.

However, we could not republish any of the other ShadowDark material here without permission from the publisher.

---

SHADOWDARK RPG THIRD-PARTY LICENSE VERSION 1.1

"You may freely use and reference the general concepts of Shadowdark RPG, such as the rules and game mechanics. You may use the names of the game's beings, locations, spells, and items. You may not use the game's art. You may not print verbatim passages of text (no matter the length) from the game, with the exception of monsters, spells, and magic items."

[RagingRoosevelt]

The last bit about it being OK to reproduce the text verbatim for monsters, spells, and magic items was what made me think there was hope. I posted a thread on the Arcane Library's discord but haven't yet heard back. I was planning to send an email directly to confirm our reading was correct and matched the spirit of their license.

If they respond in the affirmative, do you know if that is sufficient from Obsidian-TTRPG-Community's side?

Something I think I'm not fully understanding is the distinction between a SRD and a compendium.

[OldManUmby]

As I mentioned, ShadowDark has no SRD. Kelsey Dionne only allows others to use monsters, spells, and magic items — nothing else from the book. Reading from my copy, that means pages 54-73 (spells), 194-265 (monsters), and 298-321 (magic items). Using any other text word-for-word would be a copyright violation, digital or otherwise.

What is an SRD?

Because game mechanics are not copyrightable, many tabletop RPGs (these days) have an SRD (system reference document). Typically, everything contained in an SRD is "re-printable" across most formats; however, this can vary for each SRD and publisher. Generally, an associated license accompanies most SRDs; it is the license that you must follow - to the letter - to avoid copyright infringement. This permits people to create a great many publications (or products) without having to rewrite every sentence and paragraph trying to "describe" the game mechanics. Instead, you reproduce what you need from the SRD, so long as you follow the license. I hope that explains what an SRD is.

No ShadowDark SRD?

In this case, Arcane Library has decided not to release an SRD. ShadowDark is such a rules-lite system that an SRD would practically reproduce the whole book. So, instead, she published a license that states specifically which parts of the book you can reproduce without copyright infringement. In this way, she did not have to publish an SRD.

Having access to the spells, monsters, and magic items is more than enough for a third-party publisher to create adventures, and perhaps supplements. The rest of the book you can only reference the rules by directing people to specific page numbers, etc.

What is a Compendium?

"Compendiums," as they are utilized here, is simply the folder containing the game data (rules, text, and tables). That's it. A compendium is merely the folder that contains the SRD, homebrew material, etc.

I know it can be confusing sometimes, but that should explain things a bit more. Hopefully, I didn't step on any toes here in the community for answering your questions.

It would be great if you could contribute a compendium containing ShadowDark's monsters, spells, and magic items for Obsidian.

THX!