Darker Dungeons X review

The previous edition of Dark Dungeons (gold logo, no X) was my first D&D and I’ve since gone back and read every other edition and many of the clones, played many of them too.

On a meta level, I agree with the decision to merge in Darker Dungeons, and I appreciated the commentary so much. That made it worthwhile to read the book even if I’m not gonna use it.

It does make more sense to release a Darker Dungeons sequel than a clone of a game that is now once more readily available.

However, I disagree with every single change in the character’ chapters! MU and elves swapped? Where’s my Elric? Mystics are lupines now but not werewolves. (Which also exist...?)

On the domain and War Machine level is where this variant is the most worthwhile; it seems like it builds upon the Immortals Companion and simplifies it even further. The “public works” innovation from IC was a brilliant simplification, compatible with the full rules a few pages earlier when you do need the specifics. I love these chapters, they have all the deets I love from the vanilla RC War Machine and none of the cruft I didn’t love. It almost makes me feel bad for buying a POD RC (which I got primarily for War Machine, and as a reference for old school that’s easier to find things in, and clearer written, than the Old School Essentials clone set) since I’m more likely to use this ruleset. Or, to build on it, since it’s so generously open source, which is one of the best features of this fantastic publisher’s games.

Overall a fun read, clearly written, I like it. I really don’t wanna play it as is because of the way the character-level game works with the sword-wielding MUs and such. It’s easy to swap everything back, it’s all clearly labeled (kudos for that!) but I’d rather use the RC than an un-Darkered DDX.