Because I have lots to say about the somewhat overwhelming experience that is Gen Con, I have decided to break it up into multiple posts. This post is about Shadow of the Demon Lord.

I’ve played Shadow of Demon Lord before, but only twice, and both times as the GM, so I haven’t known if I was playing the game as intended. It turns out I had a pretty central mechanic down incorrect, which I learned in the first five minutes or so.

I appreciated the GM, Jason from Guild 9 Gaming, for his deft skill in explaining the rules to newcomers, his management of pacing, and his storytelling. I have always enjoyed this system in theory, but sitting at a table with a seasoned GM confirmed the quality that I thought it had.

Jason and his friend, who was GMing Shadow of the Demon Lord at the next table over, were introduced to the game at last year’s Gen Con, and immediately scrapped their 5th Edition D&D game in favor of it. (At least that’s the story I remember. I could have the details wrong.) They’re so into the game that they made a podcast for it that has 18 episodes, which is pretty impressive for a game they’ve only been familiar with for a year.

Guild 9 Gaming also, which I think is just Jason, his friend at Gen Con, and a third friend who couldn’t make it, sometimes play Shadow of the Demon Lord over Discord. He invited us to get in touch and join them sometime. I had so much fun and enjoyed his GMing so much, I think I just might.

As for the game itself, we also had a really fun group, including a player with an orc character who leaned in real hard, to great comedic effect. I played a changeling, but Jason introduced me to the party as a human, so I got to choose when I revealed my true form, which turned out to be when I knocked out the sheriff and stole his identity.

The system plays quick, with lots of adjudication given to the GM, and very few rules to remember in general. This gives a good focus on the storytelling, which I always enjoy, and the types of stories encouraged by this system set it apart. As I mentioned in my post about the Iron GM competition, if I do that event again next year, I’ll be proposing this system to my players instead of 5th Edition D&D, as I did this year.

A final little highlight was a fight we had with some redcaps. Jason gave a wonderfully creepy description of the creatures, which one player recognized by name from general folklore. He even did a little foley on the table with his hands to mimic the sound of their pattering feet as they ran toward us.

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Next and last post will be about miscellaneous bits from the convention.