Mysteries, the omniverse, and d10’s await in Shadowlight & Personae… check out how the game works here and get ready to bring your characters to life in the way that YOU want!

• Audience
• Setting
• Your character
• Mechanics
• Overall
• Find a copy

Audience for Shadowlight & Personae

Shadowlight & Personae was made with middle school players in mind and is a system, so you get to control the content.  The mechanics allow an equal lean towards either combat or non-combat style encounters so players have clear options to approach a problem using the method they so choose. 

Mechanics can get a bit crunchy but have a great character building example in the back of the book – I would say, considering the mechanics, middle school or tween players should be able to navigate the game and character buildings.

Setting for Shadowlight & Personae

Shadowlight & Personae is primarily a mechanics focused document, but it does have some worldbuilding elements, taking place in a multiverse-like setting that allows players to adventure across whatever kind of world they want to come up with!  There’s three types of character factions that exist in the omniverse, each with different goals ranging from wanting to stay out of affairs of the omniverse, wanting to observe and record, or wanting to interfere and manipulate the ongoings of different worlds.  This can be used as an overarching plot that connects all the omniverse elements into one coherent story.

Mechanics for Shadowlight & Personae

Shadowlight & Personae uses a d10 system where you roll a number of dice equal to a skill’s rating and with a modifier added based on the associated attributes.  You also have enhancements (trait improvements), preternae (magic or the supernatural), and spheres (impact to the world, like languages) that are determined based on your character build.  The skills, enhancements, preternae, and spheres that you choose for your character do not come from a set list – they are something that you make or determine for your character based on the vibe that you want, so you get to flavor them however you want while staying with the mechanical frame of the game.  

I think this is incredibly important to allow that freedom of description considering the omniverse setting of the game since you can have a blend of character backgrounds ranging from medieval fantasy to sci-fi to modern day urban environments. 

Mechanics are also described using a character build and play-by-play example at the end of the book to help with understanding the build process and figuring out what a round of an encounter would look like… with pictures of the rolled dice with the math on how they add up. 

I really appreciate when an example like this is given since I’m very much a “learn by doing” and a visual learner; it’s a great way to understand the mechanics. 

Overall thoughts on Shadowlight & Personae

Overall, I think Shadowlight & Personae is a fun base for going on an omniverse adventure, which has kind of been a bit of my jam lately (multiverse play is a fantastic way for kiddo to keep the same character while trying out different games).  I haven’t seen TOO many TTRPGs that are structured specifically for jumping between multiple scenarios, and it was kind of cool to see that here!

I do also REALLY like the play-by-play walkthrough – this is usually one of my favorite elements, when it does occur in a game, and it helps SO much with being able to understand the material.  It takes extra work and intentionality to include this, and it worked well in being able to line up the explanation with a solid example.

Find a copy of Shadowlight & Personae

You can find a copy of Shadowlight & Personae here on itchio!

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