Player Agency (Campaigns & Coffee)

On this episode, we talk about ShadowDark monsters! We look at a number of monster bestiaries, a zine dedicated to creating and adapting monsters for the game, and two dedicated monster-finding tools. What more ShadowDark? We've got more ShadowDark! d8 ShadowDark Mistakes We Made (S4E19) d12 Ways ShadowDark is Awesome! (S4E15) Shadowdark Impressions (Campaigns & Coffee) Unboxing Cursed Scrolls 3: Midnight Sun for ShadowDark Chapters 00:00 Introduction00:54 Monster 2403:02 VALHOLL!04:21 Shadowfinder Complete Bestiary05:24 Creating and Adapting Monsters for ShadowDark14:16 The Monster Overhaul15:12 Ruincairn Bestiary17:20 ShadowDark Monster Tools19:34 Conclusion and Future Discussions Listen to the Episode Watch to the Episode Watch d8 ShadowDark Monster Resources on YouTube. Show Notes ShadowDark specific Monster Resources Monster 24 Cost: $2 (pay what you want) 250 monsters by Tom Phillips, who spent 2024 creating monsters and publishing them to Reddit. This compiles his various critters into one document. Includes gaggles of hags (forest hags, tomb hags, venom hags), plenty of plants (carnivorous cave moss, blood orchid, vampire grass), and oodles of oozes and slimes (chaos pudding, green slime, umber jelly) VALHOLL! Nashcraeft #1 Cost: $6.99 A fanzine that builds on Cursed Scrolls #3: Midnight Sun. Introduces a bunch of monsters as well as a “lot system” as alternative to carousing, new magic items, new blessings, and 4 classes. Shadowfinder Complete Bestiary Cost: $25 (PDF) $29 (POD+PDF) as part of the Kickstarter Every PF 1E bestiary, #1-6, converted for Shadowdark RPG. The kickstarter is over; hopefully they’ll release this for sale when the Kickstarter-created book releases in October 2025. Creating and Adapting Monsters for ShadowDark Cost: $5 (pay what you want) Very handy, fan-created rules for making your own monsters (or converting them from other systems). Advice on creating monsters including “VIBES OVER COMPLEXITY”, “USE NATURAL LANGUAGE”, “MONSTER SPELLS ARE WEIRD”, and “RULES ARE MEANT TO BE BROKEN” Options include: BUILD BY EQUIVALENTS If your monster is like a knight, bugbear, or zombie … just use the stat block as is. BUILD BY ADAPTATION Say you want to recreate the 5e Bandit Captain, you take the ShadowDark bandit, and beef it up.  BUILD BY BENCHMARK E.g. converting Yakfolk warrior. Look at the CR (in this case, CR 3, compare it to CR3 monsters in ShadowDark, and start building. It has a talent bank describing all kinds of monster capabilities and a big list of monster spells.  It includes a bunch of horrors as well, including blink dogs, ettins, pseudodragons, unique horrors like the  “Eyeball Wall”, and a number of NPCs (pyromancer, cultist, etc.). ShadowDark adjacent Resources Runecairn Bestiary Cost: $13.49 100 Norse-inspired monsters for Runecairn, an Old School Renaissance RPG. The OSR stat blocks are close enough to ShadowDark to make conversion pretty easy. Includes sabertooth cats, grave newts, ogres, and giant octopi. The Monster Overhaul Cost: $30.00 (PDF) $60 (PDF+Print) Come for the 200+ monsters, stay for the ecology and random table pieces. Uniformly praised online. It’s got entries for NPCs (adventurers, barbarians) each with d100 names and character traits. For monsters, it delves beyond the stat block. Goblins get the same d100 names and traits PLUS physical descriptions, motivations, mounts, elite weapons, and loot.  Plus there are random tables like “50 mercenary jobs” and generic maps of locations like a wizard tower and a village. ShadowDark Monster Tools ShadowDark Tools: Monster Reference Filter monsters from the ShadowDark core rules + the first three Cursed Scrolls. Criteria include monster level, environment, type (e.g. angel, aberration), movement type (burrow, climb, fly), attack (blood drain, petrify, venom),

The edgerunners finally flipped the switch at the bottom of Elysium HQ's subbasements. As the power surged back, a wrathful AI queen named Hera burst to life, proclaiming her refusal to serve any false gods or corporate masters. She sees to draw the crew — APT, Angry Bob, Omen, and Atlas — into her web of revenge against Jason Antilles, a tech bro CIO who escaped Earth’s devastation for an orbital Olympus. Get more Cyberpunk RED: Cyberpunk RED Actual Play @ Lair of Secrets Cyberpunk RED Role-Playing Game Resources Cyberpunk RED Frequently Asked Questions Cyberpunk RED Screamsheets Chapters 00:00 Intro1:04 Recap of the last mission2:27 Hera awakens, demands loyalty5:00 Digging into Antilles’ backstory7:15 The Wrathful Queen’s digital gifts10:00 Team heals up in eerie med-labs15:00 Planning escape routes, avoiding turrets20:00 Discussing Erebus, Cerberus, and past scars25:00 Moral debates and fixer mysteries30:00 Stepping back into the hot zone35:00 Prepping next moves and research42:00 Outro and episode wrap-up Listen to the Episode Watch to the Episode Watch Cyberpunk RED Chapter 10: Hera's Wrath on YouTube. Show Notes Recap of the team’s mission: descend into Elysium HQ, flip the switch, collect payday Activation of Hera, an AI queen filled with rage against Hercules Corp and Jason Antilles Team dialogue with Hera: pledging loyalty (for now) to survive, receiving cryptic gifts (golden apple, pomegranate, persimmon) Background on Antilles, Olympus orbital, and corporate lore Tension builds over the meaning of Hera’s demands and the risks of unleashing AI beyond the Blackwall Characters reflect on past wounds (both physical and emotional) while healing in futuristic med bays Planning next steps: research Hera, investigate who hired them, understand the nature of the gifts, and strategize upcoming infiltrations Banter and camaraderie among players, with moral dilemmas surfacing Cliffhanger: the team escapes the ruins, heading into Night City’s dangerous streets on foot, fruits and fate in tow Featured Image Meta A marble bust of the Greek goddess Hera.

Grab your coffee and join the Lair crew as we unpack the challenge of fostering player agency in tabletop RPGs. We explore how to spark proactive decisions, avoid the paralysis of infinite choice, and leverage mechanics that reward bold, cinematic play. Chapters 0:00 Intro1:00 Star Wars Sparks and hesitant players3:00 Fear of splitting the party and analysis paralysis6:30 Encouraging proactive play and giving permission10:00 Using patrons and clear motivations14:00 Narrative hooks and inciting actions17:00 Video game parallels and open-world stress20:00 Mechanics: fate points, plot points, and inspiration24:00 Player chaos: volunteering as hostages26:00 Minion promotions and closing comments Listen to the Episode Watch to the Episode Watch Player Agency on YouTube. Show Notes Erin’s Star Wars SPARKS games: hesitant players and dusty Star Destroyers Fear of splitting the party and the paralysis of choice Giving players permission to act and making decisions cinematic Narrative hooks: long-lost brothers, ticking clocks, and patrons Game mechanics fueling agency: Fate Core, Cortex, Savage Worlds, inspiration points Stories from the table: defeating big bads too quickly, volunteering as hostages, “Benny from The Mummy” moments The balance between modules and improvisation Open-world video game parallels (No Man’s Sky, Red Dead Redemption, Skyrim) The episode’s closing: minion questions, potential promotions, and how to connect with the show Featured Image Meta A collection of twenty-sided dice.