Category Archives: Hidden Gems

Hidden Gems

Hidden Gems: Shadowdark

Among the OSR, Shadowdark is a household name already. An old-school style RPG built in the style of classic 1st edition B/X D&D but using modern 5th edition D&D rules. It won several Ennie’s including Best Design last year and stands as one of the premier OSR games for the modern era.

What makes Shadowdark special in my eyes is the fact that it brings back that classic “Dungeon Survival” playstyle popularized by classic 1st edition D&D, but without all the weird (funky) rules that make most modern gamers eyes roll to the back of their head.

This is for the most part a very stripped-down version of 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons, which means that if you are a 5e player or have a 5e group, you could run Shadowdark with minimum explanation required.

Shadowdark is supported by the arcane library, a fantastic site with tons of great material already published for this specific game. If you’re like me and you need a bit more “umf” than most OSR games offer, here you can find tons of additional classes, races and options to give this very simple game a little extra juice.

Shadowdark also borrows heavily from the brilliant editing done on other modern OSR translations like Old School Essentials giving us this amazing book that is table-ready. An easy-to-use reference that allows players to go from “I know nothing” to “Having fun playing an RPG” with virtually no effort.

Considering modern games like the 2024 Edition of Dungeon and Dragons are going the other way with its 600+ page player handbook, personally I think the timing of Shadowdark is impeccable. Right now players and GM’s are faced with the daunting task of having to figure out another D&D ruleset that has more instructions than a Boeing 747 flight manual. In contrast, Shadowdarks pick up and play ultra-light ruleset is looks very attractive by comparison.

If you are a 5e player and you are looking for something a bit lighter, with a bit more focus on rulings over rules and some clear meta-game goals, Shadowdark may be the right game for you and since the basic book is a free PDF, it costs you nothing to check it out!

Hidden Gems

Hidden Gems: Pox Nora

Hidden Gems is going to be a new article series that focuses on a “short articles” format and approach. This is a slightly new direction I’m going to take this blog where I, as it says on the tin, I will expose readers to some hidden gems (games) that they might not be aware of in a brief outline, short/brief article about it. The goal will be to produce more articles, more often but with a little less definition. It will not come at the exclusion of more robust articles but in addition to.

In today’s article, we will discuss a little PC game, Pox Nora, that you can pick up for free on Steam.

Released back in 2006, this game fell under the radar of most largely because of its rather unusual business model and playstyle.

Pox Nora is a collectible card game that is played as a turn-based strategy game that blends tactical gameplay, collecting and RPG-like combat and advancement mechanics. It’s wildly different than anything we are familiar with today, the closest thing that I can think of is the now-defunct Magic The Gathering Tactics.

Magic The Gathering: Tactics we had a lot of hope for, but Wizards of the Coast and Sony really shit the bed on this one by creating a business model that was so outrageous that people were boycotting it before it was released. It didn’t help that the game sucked some serious balls on top of it.

What is unique about Pox Nora is the overwhelming dedication its original developer has for the game. Even though back in 2009 Sony Entertainment swallowed up Octopi Media Design Lab (original developers) and almost brought the game to a destructive end, in 2014 Desert Owl Games picked it up which it turns out is a studio made up of many former members of the original development team.

Pox Nora is a highly balanced, very addictive, easy-to-learn, impossible-to-master tactic combat game with a huge focus on “deck building”, combining that addictive core of Magic: The Gathering with tactical combat. I imagine its what Wizards of the Coast probably hoped Magic: The Gathering Tactics would end up being. I personally think it’s one of the most overlooked games in PC gaming history. It has a great competitive edge for PvP action, and lots of potential, some of which came to fruition as a single-player (solo) game while simultaneously this very endless replayability on all fronts.

Pox Nora is a very basic-looking game, though I would argue very pretty considering its nearly 20 years old. For people who play tactical games, graphics are usually not your primary concern, most seek a challenging and fun game and Pox Nora is that if its anything.

This is a phenomenal game, It is free to play and actually, these days even building up your collection can be done very easily without spending a penny on the game and even if you do drop some real coin on it, you won’t be disappointed as Desert Owl Games is a very fair developer that doesn’t price gauge and has a long dedicated history of keeping this game going.

Great game, go try it right now!