• Shadow of the Weird Wizard (SotWW) is a heroic fantasy tabletop RPG in a setting where refugees are fleeing a civil war into a strange land touched by a Wizard of godlike power who has disappeared leaving treasures, monsters and strange experiments behind
  • the author Robert J. Schwalb was the lead designer of Dungeons & Dragons 5e (D&D 5e)

History behind Schwalb

  • Schwalb initially proposed a streamlined system for D&D 5e but was rejected
  • the streamlined system (character classes, combat etc) became the Demon Lord Engine first published in Shadow of the Demon Lord (SotDL), 2015
  • SotDL is a horror fantasy tabletop RPG set in a falling world featuring Insanity and Corruption as a game mechanic that gained popularity
  • not everyone was comfortable with the horror themes and Shadow of the Weird Wizard was created to fill that

Kickstarter Info

  • uses one d20 and several d6
  • earlier beta versions of the game featured zone combat, this has been changed to grid based combat
  • free play-test found here
  • pledge tier: $49/$99 (digital/physical)

a more comprehensive information on the system and differences with SotDL (may be outdated)

reviews for Shadow of the Demon Lord

other 3rd party games running on the Demon Lord Engine are Asunder, and When The Wolf Comes