Why Shadow & Fae 2e?

I got a great question on my Itch page today, and it got me thinking quite a bit about why I built the game I did, and what I learned along the way!

I've reposted my answer below, for posterity, and anyone interested.

Hello! Always exciting to hear that someone's had fun with my games.

Shadow & Fae was my first complete game, which I wrote to bring a group of players familiar with 5e into a simpler but still diverse game. It works with a unified d20 roll-high mechanic for most things, and has classes with similar features and names to the modern giant games, like PF2e and D&D 5e.

I wanted S&F to be a game I could explain quickly, run smoothly, and most of all—create new content for quickly. If one of my players asked, "Can I play a cat?" I wanted to be able to say "Yep! Here's how that could work."

Goblin Tales was inspired by a dice mechanic, originally. The blackjack roll. Instead of having modifiers and scores, players just want to roll as high as they can while staying under their score, with criticals occurring on an exact roll. I was playing around with that idea when someone else suggested classes that really felt as "Fairy Tale" as possible—thieves that stole truth itself, knights that forced opponents to take non-violent oaths, and seers ranging in flavor from the witch of the woods to the saint of the city. It's also the book that really got me thinking about Referee support. You'll notice the magic items from the Old School Referee come straight out of it, because I love the system I made there.

I started S&F2e because I wanted one game that really hit on all cylinders for me. Simple rules, great referee tools, and a lot of flavorful options for players to choose from. I also wanted to keep it more widely compatible, and I found that as much as I loved the Blackjack rule, my players preferred the simplicity of "High Roll Good", and I can't fault them for that.

The biggest addition with S&F2e, that I still kind of play with, is the Hope save mechanic. As a person who really loves stories, I wanted to put out a little bait for players to sometimes try stupid things, like insulting the mayor to his face. Or even to have specific pursuits to act on when they get the chance. My players would often get to town, sell their loot, and look at me with the question of, "Now what?" Well, what does your character want to do? And I'd get silence. Hope and Passions felt like a good way of pre-emptively asking the players "What drives your character?" I've seen it result in some great situations—insulted mayors, street brawls, goo-drinking, theft and chases, etc.—that I don't think would have happened if the players were thinking strictly rationally and strategically.

Besides the Hope mechanic, the other major change was to classes. I wanted to bring in "too-many" according to some people, because I really wanted players to be able to find something that fit well. You'll find Fighter/Thief/Cleric/Mage, but you'll also find a lot of more unique ideas, like Alchemists, Enchanters, and Savants. There are also variations on the "Core-Four" that pull out specific flavors, like Duelists, Druids, Rangers, and Sorcerers. Add in the fact that you can mix-and-match, and I've seen some really interesting character play-styles develop, like a Duelist/Alchemist inspired by the Witcher games, and an Outlander/Enchanter who prepared her own magical weapons and armor depending on what she was hunting.

That's quite a long answer, but you got me thinking!

Thanks again for playing, it really brings me joy that people are enjoying something I've made.

-Hilander