OAWYM: More Stuff Happens

Game Date: 1/22/2016
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 19
System: Shadow of the Demon Lord
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Fighter
Malcer (Daniel, subbing for Graham) - Human Warlock
Robb (Daniel) - Human Rogue
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Orc Paladin
Tatio - Malcer's Companion

The Session:

When we left off, we'd been stopped by a room with a collapsed floor, had started backtracking through the dungeon, and ran into a party of orcs.  With poor attendance this session, we briefly considered fleeing back to the floorless room, but Halfbeard charged right in and we were committed to the fight.  We spent the early rounds fighting in the doorway, with Halfbeard taking most of the damage while the rest of us couldn't get in position to be of much help.

As each orc went down, the rest of us gradually worked our way into the room.  Melcer used a Font of Healing spell, which helped us a bit.  One orc fumbled, breaking his weapon.  Val finished off the last foe with some unusually high rolls (for her).  The battle won, we continued backtracking to a secret door we'd found near the entrance of the dungeon.

We still couldn't find a way to disable the trap, so everyone stood back while Val set it off.  A spiked plate thumped against the other side of the door, Val took a few points of damage, and we entered the room.  This room wasn't worth the hype.  It was pretty much empty, but we could tell that one brick wall was much newer than the others.  Halfbeard managed to remove a brick, but couldn't see much on the other side.  He could hear something moving around, however, so we decided not to break through that way. 

We went back to the collapsed room where we'd fought the ghouls, and climbed up to a higher level.  From there we could see a courtyard below.  Robb fastened a rope and climbed down into a courtyard, while Val prepared to follow.  Then a big lizard came around the corner, and we had to make will checks.  Val and Robb each took a point of insanity, and couldn't take our eyes off the lizard.

Robb climbed back up the rope.  The basilisk did not follow.  We climbed back down into the ghoul room, and went back to the room with the missing floor.  Robb used his acrobatic prowess to cross the room, carrying one end of a rope.  With both ends fastened to opposite sides of the room, the rest of us had an easier time getting across the rickety boards. Halfbeard fell right at the end, took some damage, and we pulled him back up.  Malcer also had a lot of trouble getting across, but he made it.

At the other end, we saw more hallways and doors to choose from.  We listened to a door on our left, and heard some conversations.  We went on into the room, which turned out to be the stables.  There were four men shooting the breeze.  Val started to talk to them, but a fight was inevitable.  As we fought three of the guys, the one in the back started blowing a horn and calling for help. He exited through a door in the back, and six more orcs came running to join the battle.

Meanwhile, Melcer was attacked from behind by an "Organ Filch", a creepy Jack-the-Ripper / Phantom-of-the-Opera -looking dude, wielding a scalpel. This was a pretty difficult fight, and we used up a lot of healing resources.  The good news was that the cramped room kept us from getting surrounded, so we rarely faced more than three enemies at a time.  Robb finished off the Organ Filch.  When we were down to three enemies, Melcer hit them with a Fiery Volley, taking out one and nearly finishing the other two.  Halfbeard killed the final orc.

We hid the bodies in the loft, made sure we didn't see anyone else coming, and continued exploring the hallways.  In the side hall, we found a couple of rooms that were empty except for some rubble, and another set of stairs down.  The main hall rounded a corner and ended with two sets of double doors, one on each side of the hallway.  We looked through one of them, and saw what looked like a cemetery, with a big mausoleum-type building in the middle.

We thought about checking it out, but we needed to rest before going much further.  We took shelter in one of the empty rubble rooms, and ended the session.

OAWYM: Some Stuff Happens

Game Date: 1/14/2016
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 18
System: Shadow of the Demon Lord
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Byzun (Gary) - Human Sorcerer
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Fighter
Malcer (Graham) - Human Warlock
Robb (Daniel) - Human Rogue
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Orc Paladin
Tatio - Malcer's Companion

The Session:

Last week we arrived in Highport, and our bard nearly got in a fight with another group of adventurers at the inn. Val calmed them down, bought them a round, and sat with them for a while.  She learned that they had recently looted some ruins, and were hoping to join the Iron Circle.  They finally left for the night, and we went to bed.  The next morning we realized that one member of that party was the Halfling we were supposed to contact in Highport.

We poked around town, greased some palms, and found our contact again in a boarding house called "The Swinging Man."  The Halfling was reluctant to see us at first, but we talked our way in with our usual charm. We showed him a note from the captain who sold us into slavery.  It took a bribe, but he finally told us about a nearby temple being used by the Iron Circle, and where to find the secret back entrance.

We watched the temple from a distance, paying attention to the patrols.  There was a lot of activity, with many beings going in and out of the main gates, including Orcs, Humans, and we even spotted some Ghouls.  We went around back and used the secret entrance, closing the door behind us as another patrol came into view.  We found ourselves in a narrow hallway.

We discovered a trapped secret door on our right, but walked on by because we couldn't disable the trap.  Another hallway was full of skeletons.  Malcer detected them as magical, so Val decided to decapitate them as she made her way through the room.  After dispatching the first one, the rest of them stood up to fight us.  It wasn't a difficult fight, but the narrow hallway did complicate things. 
 

Val killed one with a single hit, and Malcer damaged three with a sunlight spell. The melee fighters kept having to charge past each other, but each skeleton only took a couple of hits to kill.  During the fight, Val fumbled and broke her armor.  Once we'd killed the final skeleton, we proceeded around a corner where we found a charred door.  We broke down the door and entered the next room.

This room was a mess.  It looked like the ceiling had collapsed, and the furniture was charred.  We were attacked by several undead - five Ghouls and three "Dessicated Ones".  Most of the room was rough terrain, but it was a small room so not a lot of movement was necessary anyway.  Our enemies had attacks that would drain our blood, causing fatigue.  Malcer hit five of them with a meteor spell early on, greatly shortening the battle.  Tatio made the final killing blow.

We broke through another door, went through a short hallway, and looked into the next room.  In this one, the floor was mostly gone, giving us a good view into the cellar far below.  There was still a bit of a ledge around the room, and some fallen beams that could be used to cross.  But it looked very dangerous, and most of us don't have high agility.  We turned around, intending to more thoroughly examine the trapped door we'd passed earlier.

However, as we reentered the Ghoul room, we met an Orc patrol entering from the opposite door.  We saw five Orcs, all wearing Iron Circle armor, and we ended the session there.

OAWYM: Deus Ex Machina

Game Date: 1/7/2016
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 17
System: Shadow of the Demon Lord
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Byzun (Gary) - Human Sorcerer
Malcer (Gary, subbing for Graham) - Human Warlock
Marcella (Lanessa) - Human Bard
Tamir (Other Matt) - Human Archer
Robb (Daniel) - Human Rogue
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Orc Paladin
Dene Ledford - Val's Companion
Tatio - Malcer's Companion

The Session:
I missed the last couple of sessions, during which the party was captured by the Iron Circle, stripped of their equipment, and put to work aboard a slave ship.  I can't leave them alone for a minute.  They eventually broke out, tried to set the ship on fire, and made their way up to the deck.  We reached the door to the deck, and found the captain waiting for us, along with many crewmen.

We closed the door and tried to come up with a plan.  We were vastly outnumbered, had no armor, and only improvised weapons.  Out of character, we spent about an hour pondering various possibilities, like breaking through the walls or running out the door to jump overboard.  From the other side of the door, the captain taunted us, offering to forget this transgression if we allowed him to kill half the party.

Finally we decided to overwhelm them with sheer numbers.  The other slave rowers had refused our help earlier, but now Marcella sang a song that charmed them into helping us.  This came at a price - for any slaves that died under Marcella's charm, we would receive corruption points.  We went back to the door, shouted our best "LEEEROY JEENKINS" and swarmed the deck.

At first it was working.  The slave rowers could only do one point of damage per turn, and went down after one hit, but there were so many of them that it kept the enemies from targeting us as often.  We disarmed a couple of the enemies so we could arm ourselves, and this put us on more even ground.  But we still had no armor, so we took a lot of damage.

As the slaves died, we took a lot of corruption points, occasionally requiring us to roll for Marks of Darkness.  Robb received a permanent wound that oozes black sludge when he's angry.  Byzun gained a silver pentagram on his forehead.  And odd cry can be heard whenever Tamir speaks.  Marcella is now allergic to holy symbols, and she gained eight insanity points.

We kept hacking away, and it looked as if we might actually have a chance.  Then one of the bad guys cast a sleep spell which took out nearly all our remaining rowers at once, as well as a few main party members.  We knew at this point that a TPK was inevitable, so we decided we at least wanted to take out the captain first.  Dene spent his next couple of turns waking up Byzun and Marcella.  Tatio was killed by a "Killing Touch" spell, and Melcer was incapacitated.

Val dealt a killing blow to the captain, and we started calling for the surrender of the rest of the crew.  Of course they didn't surrender.  Worse, the captain stood back up, reanimated.  Then Marcella was killed.  We knew we were toast.

And then...

Dene exploded.  An incinerating blast spread outward from Val's companion, disintegrating everyone on the deck, except for our party members.  Iron Circle crewmen and rower slaves alike turned into ash, and we stood there astonished.  Dene had transformed into an avatar of the Raven Queen, Val's patron deity.  Val fell to her knees in worship.

The Raven Queen told us that it was too soon for us to die, as she still had need of our services.  She revealed that a renegade god was trying to seize power, and that we needed to continue our voyage to Highport.  She brought Tatio and Marcella back to life as revenants, and removed some of the corruption we'd received during the fight.

After the Raven Queen left, we searched the ship until we found our stolen equipment.  As an ex-pirate, Marcella took charge and had us sail the ship to Highport.  About a week later we pulled into the docks and disembarked.  We visited the blacksmith to remove our remaining manacles, and booked a hotel room.  We asked around town for information, but didn't find any.

At the inn, we saw another group of adventurers celebrating and dividing up loot.  Marcella offered to sing them a song about our exploits, but they kept putting her off.  Finally deciding they were being rude, Marcella smacked one of them.  We ended the session there.

OAWYM: Decisions, Decisions...

Game Date: 11/26/2016
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 14
System: Shadow of the Demon Lord
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Byzun (Gary) - Human Sorcerer
Grim Stormheart (Eric) - Dwarf Assassin
Malcer (Graham) - Human Warlock
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Orc Paladin
Dene Ledford - Val's Companion
Tatio - Malcer's Companion

The Session:
I missed last session, but I'm told they continued to party in town, met lots of new people, and Byzun got in a fight with a false prophet. Today the High Priest of Sarthal met with Byzun.  The priest asked about battle with the prophet, and gave Byzun a pouch full of money.  When the hour of the Feast arrived, we all put on our formal attire, and enjoyed a night of food, shmoozing, and dancing.

Dene wanted to dance with Val as much as possible, but other guests kept cutting in.  One woman in particular kept asking Val to dance, which angered Dene.  Val managed to calm Dene down, promising to dance with him more in the future.  (Note to self: Decide Val's sexual orientation.)  Later in the night, as our party all sat down together, Dame Gold joined us and asked a favor.  She wanted us to meet her just before dawn, to discuss another job.  We got in a night's rest, and went to meet with the Dame.

Gold swore us to absolute secrecy, then revealed that her brother was stricken with lycanthropy.  This brother, Hassan Gold, was currently bedridden in another city, on an island about a week's journey away.  Dame Gold gave us a potion that would cure Hassan's disease.  The catch is that it only has about 40 days of potency left, so time is of the essence.  The current protector of the potion, a Dwarf named Grim, was assigned to join us.  We left right away, riding towards a coastal town where we intended to book a ship.

After a few hours on the road, we realized we were being followed.  One of Gold's servants was riding hard to catch up with us.  His horse gave out and we turned around to speak to him.  "Disaster!" he gasped, and told us that Gold's manor had been raided and burned.  We rode back and investigated.  The manor was indeed now in ruins, many were dead, and many more were missing.  The Dame was nowhere to be found.

We looked for clues.  Rumor had it that the raiders left in ships with black sails.  We found a dead raider, who sported a blue and orange fish tattoo.  We discovered a journal in his possession, poorly written but still useful.  Between the journal entries and the direction the ships were seen retreating, we estimated where we could find the raiders.  Having memorized the contents of the journal, Malcer handed it over to the guards.

So now we faced a big decision.  Two possible quests - Continue to deliver the cure to Hassan, or follow the raiders and hopefully rescue Dame Gold?  It was a tough call, and we talked it over for a bit.

Hassan's medicine delivery had a strict time limit, due both to the potency of the potion and the advancement of his disease.  Besides, even if we did rescue the Dame, she probably wouldn't be too happy to see us if it meant we'd let her brother die.  On the other hand, if Dame Gold dies, there will be no one to pay us for saving Hassan.  And Gold's situation might have an even tighter schedule than Hassan's.  It's hard to say since we don't even know who has her and what they're planning to do with her.

We finally decided Hassan was the more pressing of the two.  We booked an inn in town, intending to leave at first light.  Before bed, we sat down in the inn's tavern to talk about the situation.  Soon a messenger entered and told Val to meet him outside.  Val went out alone, but told Dene to watch from the door.  When Val got outside, the messenger was gone, but a Tiefling was waiting for her.

He told her that the Iron Circle wasn't finished, and handed her a bloody sack.  The bag contained the head of one of our former contacts, a man who had helped us fight the Iron Circle earlier.  Then the Tiefling drew his sword.  Val charged, and the fight was on.  Dene reentered the inn and alerted the rest of the party.  Meanwhile, a Dark Adept and an Iron Defender joined the fight outside.

The fight lasted a few rounds.  Val hit the Tiefling with Divine Smite, taking off a large chunk of hit points.  Most of the party surrounded the Iron Defender, and Tatio finished it off when it provoked an opportunity attack.  The Dark Adept channeled "The Fury of the Demon Lord", which amplified his powers.  Byzun kept losing control of his magic, making small explosions at the end of each round, one of which finished off the Tiefling.

The Dark Adept cast a large zone of darkness, but Grim and Val had no problem seeing in it, so they continued to whack at him.  Tatio dealt the killing blow, ending the battle.  We stood there a moment, pondering the ramifications of this encounter.

So... at this very moment, the Iron Circle might be reasserting their power back in Albridge, rendering our previous victory moot.  Meanwhile, Hassan Gold is dying and needs the medicine in our possession.  And meanwhile, Dame Gold may be the captive of raiders, facing an uncertain fate.  Three possible quests, all needing immediate attention.

We turned in for the night, and ended the session there.

OAWYM: Here's Your Skull

Game Date: 11/12/2016
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 12
System: Shadow of the Demon Lord
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Byzun (Gary) - Human Sorcerer
Robb (Daniel) - Human Rogue
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Orc Paladin
Dene Ledford - Val's Companion

The Session:
Last week we defeated Lord Nazin Redthorn, and returned to town. We did a few things in town and prepared to head for Sarthel, where we're supposed to deliver a magic skull.  We were also pursuing some of the remaining Iron Circle terrorists, but they had a couple of days head start. 

We left a few party members in Albridge to help wrap things up, but they'll catch up to us later.  After half a day on horseback, we passed through Harken village, where everyone was putting out fires and tending to their wounded.  The Iron Circle had attempted to torch the village on their way through. 

We kept on, eventually camping in the Elven woods.  Just before dawn, we saw some magical sparks around our campfire, and heard some laughter.  Some invisible fey creatures were teasing us.  Val set out some treats for them, and they left us alone.  We rode on through the day.

The next night, a giant spider called a Shadoweaver attacked us during the night.  It had the ability to vanish at will, and it did so after every attack.  It had some powerful poison attacks, but we outnumbered it and took it down in a couple of rounds.  Robb managed to harvest some spidersilk from the corpse.  The next morning we continued our ride.

The next town was called Bell Well.  It had a lot of empty buildings, but the remaining population was pleasant enough.  We stopped at a saloon/pawn shop called "The Cock and Balls".  The proprietor was very friendly, and we bought some potions and had a nice meal before resuming our trek. 

The woods thinned out and we rode on through some meadows, until we reached a crossroads.  There we faced a group of Iron Circle soldiers.  Two Lackeys, another iron dog, and a Watch Commander.  We thought it was going to be a fight, but we managed to convince them that we'd been sent by Lord Nazin.  They let us pass and we rode on.

We reached a caravan of merchants called the "White House".  It was the same merchant company that had hired us earlier, and they let us join them.  The next five days were uneventful, and we finally reached Sarthel, the City of Silver.  It was impressive, larger and fancier than any cities we'd visited to date.  As we entered we were warned that the unauthorized use of magic is not allowed in this city.

We asked the White House where to find our contact, Dame Gold.  We were directed to a large manor in the nicest section of town.  The Dame greeted us and led us into her lab, where she opened the box and examined the skull.  Satisfied with the artifact, she paid us and asked us to stay for a while.  There is a party coming up in a few days, "The Feast of Edoira", and she would like us to attend.  We agreed, and she even gave us a little extra money to buy some nice clothes.

We did a bit of shopping in town, and ended the session.

OAWYM: Have Fun Storming The Castle

Game Date: 11/5/2016
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 11
System: Shadow of the Demon Lord
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Byzun (Gary) - Human Sorcerer
Corbin (Daniel) - Human Wizard
Falling Leaf (Skye) - Pixie Sorcerer
Malcer (Graham) - Human Oracle
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Orc Paladin

NPC Companions:
Dene Ledford - Val's Companion
Robb - Corbin's Companion
Tatio - Malcer's Companion

The Session:
I missed one session, in which we escaped from prison and rescued the Baron Stockmer from his own keep.  Today we returned to the keep so we could confront the evil Lord Nazin Redthorn.  The pixie Falling Leaf joined our party, and we approached the keep after dark.  We considered several plans before finally sending in our invisible pixie friend.

Falling Leaf went in through one of the arrow slits, and saw several sleeping Iron Circle soldiers.  She explored several rooms of the keep, passing through the kitchen and going up two flights of stairs.  On the third floor she found a room full of enemies, including a clockwork dog.  The dog detected Falling Leaf, so she proceeded back down the stairs as fast as possible. 

She returned to the party and gave us the layout of the keep.  We decided to sneak in and take out the sleeping guards.  Falling Leaf used a shrink spell on the door, and we entered through the kitchen.  One of the guards was awake, and the fight was on.  After we took him out, we went into the adjoining room and killed the sleeping soldiers there.  Then we started up the stairs.

On the second floor we fought two more soldiers, one of which started knocking loudly on a side door.  We finished him off, but the door opened revealing a room full of foes, and more enemies started coming down the stairs from the third floor.  We faced several assorted baddies, including a Tiefling spellcaster, that mechanical dog, and Lord Nazin himself. 

The battle took a while, and it was difficult because of the layout of the room.  With the one doorway and the narrow stairs, we had to do a bit of repositioning to let all our melee fighters reach the enemies.  Falling Leaf had a plethora of healing spells and kept us on our feet.  Lord Nazin had a lot of hit points, but we managed to keep him prone and blinded for much of the battle.  Our most dangerous foe was the Tiefling, because she kept casting dangerous spells.

Eventually we finished off Nazin.  Corbin dealt the final blow.  But then the Tiefling cast a spell that made Corbin's eyeballs explode.  He is now permanently blind, at least until we find a way to regenerate his eyes.  When it was down to three enemies, one of them fled, provoking three OAs which killed him. The final two enemies surrendered.  We tied up the prisoners, took Nazin's head, and returned to town.

Afterthoughts:
So far this has been a D&D 5e campaign, but today we decided to play using Shadow of the Demon Lord rules.  I'm enjoying learning the new system.  I love D&D 5e, but I also like shiny new things and this one is pretty interesting.  I like the simplicity of it, and the variety of races.  I hope to play a pixie of my own at some point. 

The fact that it was so easy to make Corbin's eyes explode is a bit of a concern for me.  I'm not a very hardcore player, and at our level we shouldn't be facing a lot of "save or die" spells.  But SotL appears to be a more deadly system than D&D.  Officially I'm not fond of tough systems like that, but it fits the mood I've been in lately.  Only time will tell if I enjoy playing this as much as D&D, but for now I'm happy to give it a few months.

Shadow of the Demon Lord: First Impressions

Game Date: 10/22/2016
Location: The Game Keep
System: Shadow of the Demon Lord
DM: Rusty

The Party:
B'omarr (Matt) - Clockwork
Grakas (Gary) - Gnome
Torstein (Daniel) - Jotun/Skinchanger

The Session:
Today we didn't have enough people for our normal game, so we tried out a new game - well, new to me, anyway.  Not knowing much about the system, I decided to roll all of my character's traits randomly, including the race (or "ancestry").  I was pleasantly surprised at how quick character creation was.

I ended up with a spider-shaped construct with a religious background.  A devotee and temple ward of the "Cult of the New God", he was the last survivor when a plague wiped out his temple.  Now he wanders the world looking for a place to fit in. He has a strange and unsettling appearance, and has a determined and obnoxious personality.  I named him B'omarr, and if anyone at the table got the Star Wars reference, they didn't mention it.

My companions were a gnome named Grakas, and a giant wereboar named Torstein. We were an odd looking party, with Torstein towering over the rest of us.  We had been hired to protect a caravan which was on its way to a small town called Fletcher's Rest.  A group of bandits had ambushed the caravan, and the three of us had fled into the woods.  We began the session lost in the woods, hoping to find our way to town.

We spent a long time wandering through the woods, making really bad checks, and climbing trees to get our bearings.  Eventually we came upon the bandit camp, but saw more enemies than we thought we could handle, and retreated without being seen.  We kept wandering until it was too dark to continue, and we camped for the night.

The next day we continued getting lost, until finally five bandits attacked us.  As the fight began, Torstein picked up both Grakas and B'omarr and tried to make a run for it.  It was a hilarious sight, this giant fleeing from the humans, holding a gnome and a mechanical spider under his arms.  The bandits were faster than us, so we didn't get too far.  We did manage to leave two of the bandits behind, but the other three stayed on us.

We realized we weren't going to be able to stay away from them, so we fought.  We traded blow for blow until there was only one bandit left.  It was close, but we managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  As the largest target, Torstein went down first.  Grakas and B'omarr kept on hitting, but we just couldn't hack it.  With his last breath, Grakas exploded (apparently gnomes can do that here), which finished off our party but not the bandit.  TPK.

Afterthoughts and First Impressions:
Shadow of the Demon Lord is a very interesting game, but I didn't get to see a lot of the really distinctive elements of the system.  So forgive me if I'm way off base on some of my impressions.  Before the game I jumped around the rulebook, skimming here, skipping there, and giving a few sections an in-depth reading.  But that's no substitute for actual gameplay, and I can't wait to see more.

I'm not in love with the title of the game.  "Shadow of the Demon Lord" sounds more like a module than a system.  However, I'm used to playing games with more universal applications - meaning, D&D rules work well for a lot of different fantasy universes (Greyhawk, Dark Sun, Eberron, etc).  But SotDL's rules appear to be designed to complement the world in which it takes place, and might be more difficult to divorce from the setting.  In that context, "Shadow of the Demon Lord" is a perfectly appropriate title, but it still wouldn't have been my first choice.

I notice the rulebook has a Forward, a Preface, and an Introduction... clearly these people have difficulty getting things started.  But now I'm nitpicking.  My next issue was that there weren't enough races in the core rulebook.  I've since learned that there are a lot more in the splatbooks, but I'm such a fan of fantastic races that I would have liked more available in the core book.  I do like how they allow humans to have a wide variety of unusual skin colors. 

There are several unusual mechanics, some of which I've considered in my own homebrew RPG ideas.  At level one, you don't have a class, just your race.  You don't get experience points, instead the entire party levels when it seems appropriate to the story.  There is no rolling initiative, instead the party goes in whatever order they like, partly based on how many things they want to do on their turn.  These are all really fun things, I definitely approve. 

There's a boon/bane system for adding extra d6's to help/hurt your d20 rolls.  It's interesting, but I haven't decided if I like it yet.  Rolling multiple d6's and only taking the largest roll is a great way to set a maximum result (6), but still have a point to rolling extra dice (for the extra chances of getting that 6).  It keeps the math from getting out of hand but still motivates you to get as many boons as possible.  Not long ago I was telling a friend about the “Hero Kids RPG” (I keep hoping he’ll try to get his kid interested in RPGs, but it ain’t gonna happen), which uses that sort of rolling throughout.

I did not get to see the Insanity rules in action, which is a shame because it looks like a major part of the system.  Whenever I see “Insanity” on a character sheet, I know it’s going for a specific genre.  Most systems have sanity rules in there somewhere (even if it’s just effects from specific monsters), but if they actually have you track it on the character sheet, you can expect it to be used with some regularity. 

I’m generally skeptical of insanity rules, because I’m afraid some DMs will overuse the concept.  I think some will have you have you roll sanity checks in situations that most people would find scary and disgusting, but not necessarily insanity-inducing.  Call of Cthulhu gets a pass because the creatures actually have psychic powers that can damage mental stability.  I assume SotDL’s universe has something similar (probably involving the eponymous Demon Lord and the whole “the end of the world is coming” theme), but I haven’t seen those elements yet.

Exactly what has the potential to drive people insane is obviously going to vary from person to person.  I once knew someone who lost four family members simultaneously (both parents, sibling and sibling’s spouse), due to a bad car wreck.  She had a nervous breakdown, quit her job, and moved to another state to live with some other family members.  Of course she didn’t go insane, but it was a few weeks before she could handle the stresses of everyday life.

I recently read the creepypasta “NoEnd House” (because it’s going to be a TV miniseries next year), and while it’s no “The Shining”, it had some imagery in there that I could see challenging someone’s sanity.

And now that I've typed all that it occurs to me that I'm basically talking about the plot of "The Killing Joke".  The Joker has a very bad day and it drives him insane, so he wants to prove that everyone's sanity is just as fragile.  But his experiment fails, because that's not how sanity works.  It's not just about bad experiences or seeing something brutal.  For most, there's either a chemical imbalance in the brain, or an entire childhood full of unhealthy experiences that keep the adult mind from being able to handle stress.  In the Joker's case, it could have been either of those (or something else), and his bad day was just the straw that broke the camel's back. I'm not saying an adult can't be driven insane by a few isolated incidents, but I doubt it's common enough to be tracked on a character sheet.

Note I feel the same way about fear effects in D&D.  If a creature has a magical fear aura, fine.  But being afraid just because it’s a dragon or zombie – when that character is a professional warrior who has already defeated both creature types in the past – is silly.  It just seems sort of random to me when this brave fighter hacks his way through dozens of monster-filled rooms, then suddenly turns around and flees because this monster’s a little scarier looking.  But in "All Flesh Must Be Eaten" (for example), the fear effects made a lot more sense. It's all about the setting.

Anyway, I obviously have strong feelings about the how insanity and fear are instituted in RPGs, but I'll hold of judgement here until I've seen it in action.

Final Thoughts:
I don't know if I would want to play this game indefinitely.  D&D will probably always be my go-to game for long running campaigns.  But I'd love to play SotDL for a few months at a time.  It looks simple enough to learn quickly, and it uses several ideas I would have thought of myself.  It's a bit dark for my tastes, in fact the entire setting is depressing to the core.  As a fan of optimistic stories, I don't know if my psyche could take this degree of grimdark week after week.  But overall it looks like a blast to play.   And lets face it, I automatically approve of any system where gnomes explode.