The Unbinding: My New Shadowdark Campaign

Where light fails, heroism begins.

I’ve been dreaming about running an online Shadowdark campaign for months now, but it wasn’t until this weekend that the conceptual pieces fell into place.

The breakthrough happened when I stopped trying to figure out the “ultimate” campaign set-up to wow others with and relaxed into something that I would be stoked to run.

I started creating some conceptual movie posters in ChatGPT for inspiration and then brainstorming some broad world-building parameters. I’ve landed on something that I think has the potential to provide an incredible experience.

Here’s the poster and the pitch.

Something has broken beneath the world.
No one knows when it began, only that the dark feels heavier now—thicker, older.
Light flickers where it once held. Forgotten places stir.
Priests speak of the end of days,
scribes debate whether something ancient has slipped its chains,
while the omens spoken by seers say the world is trying to forget us.
Most who set out looking for answers never return.
Those who do, return changed.
And yet… a few still walk into the dark with their eyes open, torches lit,
and the quiet hope that there is a light that can overcome the darkness.

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I envision The Unbinding as an open-table West Marches style campaign. Adventurers set out from a shared home base, explore forgotten places, and return before the end of each session to regroup, recover, and prepare for what comes next. It’s a format that encourages emergent storytelling, meaningful choices, and classic themes of heroes pushing back the darkness, both literally and figuratively.

This is the kind of campaign I’d love to run—something that feels cinematic, like stepping into a story whose script has yet to be written.

The flame is lit. If something in this calls to you, I’m gathering those ready to follow it.

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