You know, with 9 domains and 1 class = 2 domains, there's potentially room for 36 classes, of which we have 9. This does tickle my character creation addiction.
You need to consider the domains. To say you have 20 more to go. Barbarian falls under the Warrior archetype in this game. If you want to make it is one thing, you would need Blade or Bone plus another one. I would choose Valor on that, which means it would be Bone and Valor. As Blade and Valor is filled already. But, you could go Blade and Sage. Warlock, Artificer, and Alchemist can all fall under Codex with being Midnight, Arcana, and Sage respectively. Gunslinger I can't really think of any that work. Monk could be Grace and either Valor or Splendor. Bladesinger works Arcana and Blade as one. Necromancer Bone and Arcana or Codex.
@@SwedishSalmonbox You are focused on one aspect of Barbarian as a class. But, yeah, the Barbarian archetype can be filled with a Guardian as well as Warrior. It doesn't mean they could add a Barbarian later, it just would need work to fit into the Domains. Because the best options for it (Blade and Bone and Blade and Valor are taken by Warrior and Guardian).
This is great! Very cool to see some changes since the early stages of the playtest. I think it's in a great place already so I'm excited to see what evolves from here, and to see it in action!
You mean BobTHElegend he made my Icewind Dale campaign so much better! Thanks Bob. Fyi I really like the look of DH. Some nice concepts and a bit more tactile than DnD.
Having a 50% chance something bad happens (Hope/Fear roll) is about the worst mechanic I have ever seen. Whoever came up with this idea should be fired. Did they hire people that play RPGs to develop these games? Do they not understand that streaks can happen. How fun is a game where half the time bad stuff happens. Hard pass!
@@tbiafore371 I don't think you really paid attention to the video. Succeeding/failing with fear just means the GM gets to do cool stuff in combat later on.
2 Things: 1) Spenser seems extremely happy and excited to show us the game which is very contagious. He's helped make something great that he really wants others to enjoy. 2) I feel like making spindown style counters (NOT the 'dice' type of spindown) for Hitpoints and other trackable things like Armor Slots is a better idea than marking and erasing on your character sheet over and over again. It would also fit with the theme of using things like playing cards to keep track of stuff. (I do think most of it doesn't need to be cards, but I like cards so it's fine with me.)
Feel like that could lead to some chaotic results as you will have quite a bit more HP the higher level you go, especially if you have to count how many you’ve got left
I do appreciate videos like this really getting into the system itself. Most reviewers have just been sharing their thoughts and feelings, or only saying what is or isn't DnD. So I appreciate just a detailed but direct review of the actual system itself, and letting me form my own opinions about it.
It’s more because reviewers are making evergreen content. They don’t comment on specifics of the game cause they want to video to be viable even if things change about the game, which they will if they do a simple vibe check.
@@Hexen_Wulf They're saying they prefer this to reviews, not that it is one. Because most reviews are going into someone's preferences while this actually explains how the game works
@@ASleath Alright, I guess I just am stupid. Why compare the two things? One is someone who didn't create the game talking about what they like and don't like about it, while the other is the creators of the game explaining how the game works. Saying "I like detailed instructions and tutorials more than reviews" doesn't make any sense as a sentence.
I do like the idea of doubles being a critical hit. It reminds me of the Fantasy AGE system by Green Ronin, where doubles unlock Stunt Points for cool effects. I might add Wil Wheaton's rule from Titansgrave (in which Laura Bailey was a player) for double 12s: when a player rolled 18 (triple 6s), Wheaton treated that action as a "Legendary Stunt" that automatically succeeded and would become a legend told and retold about the character in the in-game world.
The nice difference being that Daggerheart's critical hit rule skips immediately to resolution -- the thing the player wanted happens immediately and awesomely. The stunt rule in Fantasy AGE triggers a slowdown in the game as the player was surprised by a new set of decisions, leading to reading over a list of options while everyone else waited even longer for the game to continue (you can't really plan for it because it's entirely random when the stunt rule will be triggered by the dice). Daggerheart's rule carries forward the joy of a natural 20 in D&D. I'm expecting to hear shouts of "Double!" at the table.
I really like the idea of having doubles as crits. But I'm wondering: In a game of Pathfinder (first edition and my groups current ruleset) a nat 20 usally is seen as a crit. That's a five percent chance of getting a critical success. Rolling doubles for a critical success seems far more likely and coming up a lot more, or is my quick maths wrong in this regard?
@@CptKillside The possible combinations on two dice are the die values multiplied together. There are 36 possible combinations on 2d6 (though only 11 possible values added together -- there are 6 ways to roll a 7 on 2d6), and 64 possible combos on 2d8. With eight possible doubles, that's a 1-in-8 possibility of a critical hit. I can only assume that critical hits are meant to happen far more often in Daggerheart, making it a much more "heroic" game even at lower levels. These characters start off as highly capable people, which must be factored in to the group's and GM's expectations. It's probably worth noting that Spencer Starke is highly experienced in the PbtA/FitD side of game design, where rolls are made less often and always to move the story forward. In Apocalypse World, for instance, it's a 2d6 + stat (usually no more than +3), where you need a 10+ result for a complete, free success; anything less than 7 is failure, and 7-9 are partial successes. In Daggerheart they have the awesome-but-random critical hits, but pretty much any other result could be a Fear result which comes with a cost like an Apocalypse World partial success. Put it all together and you get very high highs and a wide range of interesting lows. Every roll can bring nuanced surprises.
@@CptKillside Sorry, don't mean to overload with comments but I realized after my other response that I'd forgotten something important. Daggerheart was designed to make players want to be inventive, and for players who like to try things that aren't on their character sheet. In Critical Role they've experienced a lot of cases where trying something inventive just results in a poor chance of success. I think Daggerheart's meant to encourage players to try things because things a character's good at on paper aren't _that_ much more likely to work than things that make sense to them regardless of mechanics. Every game says, "Try it and see!" Daggerheart is built so that it has more than a whisper of a chance of actually succeeding.
@SingularityOrbit thanks a lot for your answer, seems like my thoughts went in the right direction. It's not that I don't like the possibility for more heroic fights and stories, but I have to side with you, that it should be accounted for. I'm more used to the idea that a character starts pretty low down and earns their reputation through the story in which they participate in (even though I see the easy entry and striking appeal in a game that starts with more capable characters) Didn't know that fact about Spencer, but I'm also just an occasional watcher to be honest. 😅 I'm pretty curious about new systems (even though nothing could hold my attention long enough, besides Pathfinder until now) I really want to try this system and will probe my pen and paper group for some testing and their thoughts on this system for sure! Can't wait to see how developement goes.
Admittedly I'm anxious about the lack of squares since if specific ranges are necessary rather than cypher-esque range band. Especially when I heard him say "close range is the length of a pencil" because that just means you need to keep an un-sharpened pencil around and I kinda wish the game could come with a ruler or something.
@@aquamarinerose5405 I think the idea is that you don’t even need to keep those items around because it’s all arbitrary and it’s up to the players and gm to just agree… yeah you’re close, you can get to him and attack in melee this turn. This gives a little leeway for more cinematic fights “I run up to him and swing my sword yelling, you killed my father, prepare to die!” “Actually you are 35 feet away but you can take the dash action and attack next turn.”
This video was super helpful to give more context to those of us who playtested character creation. I think it is important to everyone trying it out to provide constructive criticism to make this game the best it can be. Happy Adventuring everyone!
The Character Death: Risk it All - Critical Success option is SO well thought out and fun! It's going to make for such highs at the gaming table when a player gets to pop back onto their feet mid-combat. Blessed be! Also - the 'Work on a Project' feels like such a love letter to Matt's GMing where he allowed the players to build items (Percy) or create spells (Caleb). I'm so excited for a non-crunchy way to allow players to change the world in their own creative ways! Well done, Darrington Press and Critical Role!
I already dived into the material for the players and I'm reading now the GM stuff. Pretty good balancing, some minor mistakes/typos in the sheets, but overall an amazing system to heroic and cooperative gameplay. I hope you release it in other languages too! Thanks for the superb job, guys!
i’ve been reading through the rulebook and gm stuff and i have to say. the inclusion of disabled people is already far and away the best i’ve seen in any game or gameplay and the rules aren’t even fully written yet. i am so excited to see how you guys flesh out the mechanics for physically disabled characters and deaf and blind characters. it means so much to me, and i’m sure the other disabled critters as well, to see ourselves represented like this. from the bottom of my heart, thank you guys. this is going to do really wonderful things.
Definitely going to give the playtest materials a read through. There's a lot of good ideas I can see, and I can also see some of Matt's style influencing how the game is designed. I think this is a great start, with more great stuff to follow!
The big problem I'm seeing in this at the moment is that it seems liable to exacerbate the problem that many people could see the game as an adversarial GM vs Players situation, which I'm sure isn't intentional. I suspect they didn't notice the problems with this because they have a really strong friend group who enjoy healthy competition but know how to be mature about it - but there's many people I've played dnd with who would not react well to this
I could also see the opposite happening ifnyiu force DMs to habe a resource to manage, but maybe the Fear die should be smaller than the Hope die to limit the resource more?
the key with combat adversity in TTRPGs is for the players to have a greater sense of tangibiliy for their character builds to shine or fall through tactics/environments & creatures. It's often best as a moment where the veil of RP is less behind the usually more free flowing space of a GM's mind. This provides players with build definition & tracking that is more accessible to raw performance statistics, which sometimes is nice to reflect upon the provided situations.
I actually love the „minor/major/severe“ damage threshold system! Really allows some new takes on the HP-system. So, you can have sturdy classes that simply have generally „high“ thressholds and fragile classes with generally low. But now you can also have classes that easily get major damage, but have really high thresholds for severe damage. I think this is really cool, gives a new dimension by which classes can be defined which I haven‘t known before.
Huge congrats to CR! And especially for allowing the community to be a part of the design process. I have no doubt everyone chipping in will want this to succeed.
This is absolutely wild. I was anticipating seeing how the CR/Darrington Press team would put a more narrative-heavy spin on a d20 system and was not at all expecting so many completely new and frankly very innovative mechanics. Fascinating blend of simplicity and depth that I'm very much looking forward to seeing in action!
My first thought on the playtest rules (which I haven't fully read yet, bear in mind): this is one of the most easily hacked rules sets I've ever seen that wasn't a rules-lite or "create your own traits" system. Starting characters have a class, start with a subclass at level 1, have an ancestry, have a community (think D&D background), and domain powers. That's a lot of decisions, true, but they're all designed to be quick to implement -- that's what the print-and-play cards are for in this design. What it really means, though, in this age of downloadable templates for everything from map tokens to playing cards, is that customizing the game to a different setting or different fantasy assumptions, or creating a new subclass, or adding in that heritage for somebody's wizard who grew up on an ancient space station or whatever, is as simple as saying, "here's a different domain power, here's your Spaceborne heritage, let's go." Everything's in its own special bit of the rules, so it's all easy to separate out for little changes.
What I like about the dual dice - hope/fear model is it helps to fill out the narrative angle of an action. This addition of chance to nuance story action is spicy and can really fill out what might otherwise be bland. Nicely done.
Loving the mechanics of this so far, especially the Duality Dice and the Character Death Options. I downloaded the beta right now and can't wait to play it.
I'm the most experienced GM in our group (we usually play D&D 5e) and when we were checking out the system yesterday, they told me I would have to GM. My forever GM brain went off and started complaining: "Really? Again? Fine... if I must..." Then I looked at the Monsters and the Fear + Action Token mechanics and my face instantly lit up with a smile because it seems like a lot of flavourful fun, now I can't wait to run the Quick Start adventure and give our feedback.
Played daggerheart one shot with my friends a few days ago! Loved it! ❤ Combat feels so natural and realistic with the tides of battle. Evasion and Armor system is immersive. So awesome!
I really appreciate that you released such comprehensive resources for the open beta. The closed beta character creation gave us so little that I felt like I didn’t have anything to say about it. My survey was basically “The rules seem interesting but there isn’t enough information to determine if certain rules are useful. More information is needed.” I don’t think I’ve ever beta tested a game that provided essentially the full rulebook. That’s very cool and I suspect I’ll have a lot more to say when I complete the next survey.
So excited to see the game in action. Having the GM using action tokens is such a fantastic way to introduce consequences to player actions while giving the GM more room to engage with fights!
Just seeing this first impressions I really really like the hit points and stress mechanics easy to understand complex enough to have fun with character creation.
My two general critiques would be this level of complexity is quite a hurdle for starting players and two this seems like it will generate a lot of varied rolls to bridge a situation. Which will lead to a lot of time lost time on just rolling. Maybe look into removing reduntant rolls. As in you don't need to roll to succeed in tasks in which your avatar is competent or maybe somehow reducing the time players need to double check rules.
I agree. The problem is the player will want to roll all the time because it’s the only way they can generate Hope. I think the hope/fear thing is a concern for me and feels like a needless layer of complexity as well. But we’ll see.
There is advice in both player and GM guides to just say yes to things the character is competent at when there's no danger. Also, there's just not that many rules. Pretty much all of the stuff that affects your character is on the sheet and cards in front of you. There's no exhaustive skill list, special key words are defined in-place. I haven't gotten to the GM's guide yet, but I'm guessing most of the special rules like falling damage or difficulty levels could fit on one sheet of paper.
@@davidskidmore3442 I've read a lot of it. The problem I have is that it doesn't take into consideration that you have a mechanic that encourages rolling, but then tells the GM to more often than not just allow players to do things... the two fight each other. Also crunch and complexity is not the same thing. Please don't get me wrong, I'm liking the potential of this, this just feels like the first draft and with the feedback I hope it gets better.
thats not true, becuase you open risk to generate fear. Narrative bonuses and rewards need to be taught as something to play for in the culture of TTRPG. if you ask to do something to gain a narratie advantage, and you get it for free, you should be happy.@@MrB_Chamberlain
As someone who is about to get into Daggerheart and plan a campaign, the simple explanation of the combat mechanics was extremely helpful. Thank you very much for that.
I love the idea of having the option to go out in a blaze of glory with a guaranteed critical success. It really lends to awesome collaborative storytelling and dramatic final moments for a campaign. Years long campaign? Final fight with the BBEG? Rolling REALLY bad all night? No problem. There’s always your last hurrah🎉
Quick impressions from the video: It overall sounds like a neat system, reminds me of a mix between D&D and Dungeon World, along with some ideas of more recent Ulisses games (Hexxen, Wrath&Glory). Noteworthy: -I enjoy the combat system with passing actions back and forth, too many RPGs have combat with extremely skewed action economy, making fights against a single big baddie kind of lame without additional rules (lair actions etc). Very excited about this. -The fact that this is also intended to be used with maps is cool and not many narrative RPGs do this. -Simplified downtime rules have worked really well in my games to speed up the action, so I like this. -Death rules seem very fun. Mid: -Class based systems are not really my style, though I will check how flexible the character creation really is. -"Succeed with a cost" systems are popular, but they place a lot of stress on the GM. Especially in a simulation-focused group, you can get into arguments how bad one cost was versus another -from what I've gathered, players roll 2D12 and GM rolls D20, I'll have to see how that plays out. Don't like: -Extra cards needed to play my RPGs (Wrath&Glory also does this and it's obnoxious) -Various confusing modifiers on skill rolls: does the token give me +1 or -1, oh yeah you roll with disadvantage, add up your score, no subtract the D6 but add the 2 from your skill and magic proficiency, did you succeed with hope or fear, no wait don't clear the dice yet!, hold up does anyone have hope to add advantage to this?
Long travel mechanics would nice which involve resource management for: * Creating a comfortable camp (making long rest even possible) * Finding the right path (or get lost, increase travel time or make an uncomfortable encounter) * Cooking! It will get you a bonus hope if done right. * Road dirt! Giving your presence an disadvantage. * Consuming supplies * Gather supplies from local surroundings Such mechanics are using in Song of the Sword by Fria ligan and allow for more non-warrior types to feel useful.
these systems are so dynamic not just for players buty also for DMs and makes it feel like they are playing along side the party. amazing job with this so far its a blast!
This sounds very promising! It sounds like less math, and more visual tools to keep the flow and storytelling going. Huge fan of that! I hope I can find a group to play this system with and try it out 👏🏻
The Dice-System remindsa me of Genesys. I really like that. I curious and we will test it out. Great work as always! Thanks for your hard work and effort!
Seems cool. Only nitpick I have is that it seems the hp system is just trying to be different for the sake of being different, but that isn't necessarily bad
I really agree. A typical hp system and be done well and originally without being complicated. It could be made different by just adding a damage threshold or reduction that improves with armor and stats. Right now it seems like a lot to just get hit.
I don't think so. It seems to me like they want to remove as much maths from the game as possible. It's faster to see that a number is over your threshold and cross out 3 nodes, than it is to subtract a number from whatever your HP is, especially if you're not particularly good at mental maths.
This is really cool. It's a very interesting ruleset, and I particularly like the way the duality dice work. The main thing I'd like to see is a class for each combination of two domain cards, but with the amount of domains added, that would be a crazy amount.
Loving the Minds Eye Theatre element, my partner is an ambulatory wheelchair user and loved the images in the Beta for the “Walking Chair” I also love the approach to magic and Evasion (AC) being way less crunchy and more whatever flavour you think fits with the character. My Wanderborne School of Knowledge Fungril is ready for their first adventure tonight
Hmm. I'm a little wary of all the resource tracking that's going to be required on both ends. Layered mechanics to the actual skill/ability checks is an interesting choice. I worry that the resource structure would have a potential adversarial effect with the GM and even amongst the players. Because the more often you fail, the more resources the GM gets to fuel the negative/bad actions. Its one thing for a player to fail and just suffer the consequences of their own actions, but this could potentially fuel things that are completely unrelated. Personally I prefer the GM just being the neutral observing arbiter rather than an adversary that feeds off of the failures the players make. (Unless that's the playstyle you prefer.) That's the main worry I'd have, so I guess if everyone understands and is open to something different then try it out. Otherwise the thought and design of this game seems pretty neat. I'll be interested to see how it continues to develop.
its just tracking actions PCs take. normally in mixed success games you attack and the world hits back at the same time or forshadows an upcoming danger. In this system the "dnd'd" it up to help the trad gamers understand it better. resulting in these action points being held aside. otherwise all the trad gamers would cry that fear makes them Feel bad for acting as they get punished for playing the game...
I like how many of the elements you use are close to the Fate system. It adds so many opportunities to tell more epic stories even in Failure. Allowing players to recover from taking harder actions, failing, and putting themselves in more difficult situations
There are some really interesting ideas here, I can't wait to try it out with my group!! Let's hope one of them likes it enough to gm one session because there are some things I really want to try from the player's side and not only the GM Q.Q
As a TTRPG Artist who creates custom dice for clients themed after their characters sometimes... The idea of a Hope/fear (Good and Evil) duality dice pair based around the design/personality of a singular character fucking ENTHRALLS ME... lol (OH! and on a D12!!!??? a perfectly symmetrical, underutilized dice that dice artists LOVE working on but never get the chance to go all out because its a mid-tier dice in most games?... My Body is FUCKING READY!) I quite literally, cannot wait... Going to make a character in the system myself and design a dice set immediately lol
The "stress" feature immediately makes me think of Darkest Dungeon, where your hero's resolve is tested at maximum stress. A similar mechanic could be really cool to give your hero temporary traits. Like when you mark 5 stress you then make a duality dice roll, adding all the marked stress to your fear die and all your currently available hope slots to the hope roll (making the outcome slightly tend towards despair). Depending on your rolls you get either a bad or good trait until the next long rest.
System seems so cool! I am exciting to play it. The design seems very well suited towards encouraging roleplay and creativity. Also on an unrelated note does Spenser's speaking cadence remind anyone else of Monty from the Dungeon Dudes? So much enthusiasm and passion for what they are talking about! I love it!
Very interesting!! I'm super excited to give this a shot! I love a lot of the stuff I'm hearing. The one thing I'm not certain of is limiting the damage at 3 health for a hit, particularly when insanely outmatched or taking damage from non-combat scenarios (thinking of things like cliff-diving). As. Along time DM I can definitely roll with the punches and just tell the players my answer, but mechanically I'm curious how that would be handled (I'm sure once I'm off work and can read the PDF there will be an answer there haha)
They suggest an optional 4th level for when you take double your Severe threshold, you take 4 hp damage; but I believe they are intentionally avoiding having players ever die in one hit. As it is, an unlucky wizard (Severe is 12!) can die in 2-3 hard hits from not terribly impressive adversaries.
If you are a GM nothing stands in your way to just avoid the threshold in some situations and just say "Yeah, this dragon's attack will definetly one-shot you" or "It is totally to high to survive the fall"
Mmm, it worries me the amount of individual tokens and systems to take into account: hope, fear, stress, evasion, armor, damage thresholds, using different dice for throws (that normally would just be a d20 in other games)... I predict all sorts of mess.
This. I worry Daggerheart's committed the cardinal sin of breaking what wasn't broken in their attempts to create a "free-flowing" game. I honestly would be tempted to ditch their HP, Armor and Stress system in favour of sticking with an AC and regular damage rolls as a house rule.
An alternative thought experiment? Agility is like calculating AC - and once determined will remain relatively stagnant, with a small creep up. Hit points (wounds), are a static - and thus simple - tracker. Written into the character sheet, it really won't be a problem. Likewise, the damage thresholds will be easily worked out and - once on the sheet - easy to understand and determine. All up, the two are no harder to manage than the combination of Hit Point Total, current hit points (constantly being changed), and temporary hit points (also constantly being gained and lost, and adding complication to hits that deal more hp than one's temporary hp) Armour, similarly, will be a relatively stagnant value, clearly determined and then marked in it's clear space on the sheet - and the armour points are clear and intuitive. All up, when you consider Hit Dice as a resource, and resistance as a mechanic, as well as abilities that reduce damage taken by an array of math equations, well... then this simple armour idea doesn't seem so bad. I'd have to see more on strain, as that seems a little toe steppy on the hope mechanic - both seem like they be vying for the spot of "core resource." But if it is a resource of effort that applies to every character class's abilities? Well, then we have to say Strain is much easier to manage than "ki", "spell slots" "maneuver dice" "smites" "Key Mod/day vs Prof/day," etc, etc. I.e. strain as a single resource for triggering abilities is way simpler than the mess of different concepts between dnd classes. Finally (thank you for bearing with me!) Hope? Well, it is ingrained in the dice rolls, and no different to tracking inspiration. Except you are constantly reminded by the mechanics to use it. Gain hope, use hope. Lose hope, repeat. Fear is the DM's thing to track, moot consideration for this comment. So all up, you're only really managing hope and strain. All the rest is either passive, or a simple chain of responses (what threshold is it in? Will armour change that? Mark off armour and strain/wounds - done)
I loved Daggerheart. I loved what they did, there are a lot of things I wanted together in a TTRPG. I played TTRPG for many years and had already gotten a bit sick of it, as I didn't favor the "theatre" and something more interesting for combat that wasn't pure luck. Congratulations and excited to play!
My feedback- long time gamer. This is designed for those who loved the old middle earth style games where you have armor degradation and you are tracking a lot of things on your sheet combined with a touch of call of Cthulhu. Sensing they are all in and this is the new thing after campaign 3. I will miss exandria
There's no reason that campaign 4 couldn't be played in Daggerheart and still be set in Exandria, they own the setting, even if it has been published in D&D books.
@@Death-By-Squirrel well I don’t think they own much of what was used and would have to rename a lot. Goliaths I believe are d&d property etc so my guess is they start fresh. The cartoon changed things as they didn’t own the rights
@@davrosdavros7198 Very little of the setting is tied to D&D copywritten material. I think the biggest changes they'd need to make would be renaming a few characters (Mainly the gods, who Critical Role have been using alternative names for for a while) and races (Most of which are not copyrightable anyway, and those that are would only require minor modifications to be legally distinct)
It's a bit confusing that when you gain hit points you get closer to death, and when you clear your hit points you are healed. Would have been probably better to call them wounds or something similar, cause in most common use hit points are a positive track, meaning the more you have the better, and losing them is bad.
I loved Daggerheart's concept. One thing that I would maybe think about adding is on longer rests the player has the option of learning an ability, be it from the level of that class or previous levels that they couldn't learn or something separate that are special abilities/attacks that they have to spend the time required for the countdown. Really excited to play Daggerheart. EDIT: they can learn/get an extra DomainCard and put it in the Vault or Loadout. THIS IS REALLY COOL and I think it would work really well with what the game already has and gives to the player. That's my feedback. I hope it works and that you like it and upload the game
This is something I always wanted in TTRPG, to value dedication and show that it is possible to achieve things with patience, effort and focus, which can give encouragement to people who are weak in the party or have more things to do than just hoping to level up to win. some new skill or something he wouldn't learn from his class.
11:22 It seems like the Action Tracker might slow combat rather than speed it up. From what I understand, a player could take as many actions as they want, but the GM will be allowed to take that many actions on their turn. So you either have the GM swarming the players with multiple action tokens or players making very few actions to try and minimize the GM's actions.
Players have to take actions or they aren't going to win combats. Control switches from PCs to GM on rolls 'with Fear' or on failed rolls, so there's unlikely to end up with more than 3-4 action tokens at a time. If players have a string of luck that avoids a transfer, it turns into a long string of enemy actions... or the GM can spend Fear to jump in any time they want. Things speed up because there is no initiative order, thus no 'I don't have to act for three more players, and Jane is slow, so I'm gonna check Facebook on my phone'. If you're ready at the end of the previous player's turn, you can go. Jane can ponder her spell list while other people go, and then go as soon as she's ready.
actions tracking doesnt require players to do anything and is purely to help GMs and their monster action economy . during the live play mercer was handling all the little "trickets" and coins shit they mentioned in this video and the players didnt see or use any of it.
I like it, it slightly mimics the ebb and flow of any combat. If GM has a lot of tokens, it means their players also had a long luck streak so the GM forces are probably already somewhat weakened. If players are unlucky then GM can't just burry them under minions. I understand your worries but there's a bit of self-balancing in this.
These two giving Marisha a run for her money as "talk-with-your-hands" champion. Daggerheart sounds interesting - will add it to our pool of TTRPGs to chose from for our next campaign.
No disrespect to the clear amount of hard work and ingenuity that went into developing the system, but this puts A LOT of resource management on the players. As a forever GM I definitely appreciate the ‘buy-in’ this requires of a player, but that’s a bunch of tokens and trackers to balance at an already crowded table. I can see this being a huge draw for people who already have experience with TTRPGs, but I don’t think it’s a great system to introduce people to TTRPGs. A new 5e player can sit down and get started with, literally, a character sheet and dice, I don’t know how you keep from overwhelming the uninitiated at a Daggerheart game if you’re telling them ‘okay you need 1) your sheet 2) your domain cards 3) your dice 4) your hope tokens 5) your fear tokens…am I forgetting something.” It’s clearly very well thought out game and a great way to (ultimately) sell cards/card stock, but I don’t see it being used beyond ttrpg veterans.
Yeah I agree. Like I've played DND since I was in middle school and am currently DMing a campaign and I still find all the things to be overwhelming and somewhat complicated
hmm seems like it places the DM in a more antagonistic role as they are in competition for resources. Not sure if that will be a boon or not to table harmony. I do think this would make for a fun dungeon meshi style RP
It does seem like by giving the DM a d20 instead of a d12 and giving Fear bonuses sort of stacks the odds against the players, but maybe that's to encourage narrative solutions to conflict rather than outright combat?
@@tylerboyce4081 its 1d20 for the GM vs. 2d12 for players; the bias is actually the other way around. That said, Evasion is actually set up for being hit by a 1d20 roll, not by 2d12; and enemies are designed to be hit by 2d12+trait. The math works out. This also avoids the issues with big-bad-boss mobs needing special rules to have enough actions to face a party; this system gives 1 Big Boss just as many actions as the party takes against them.. and the same balance in opposite if the party is facing a horde.
not really, if you are worried about that, then make your monsters have AI. just give them 4 moves they do in a sequnces so DM doesnt chose they just play themselves and you referee
Nope, it's not just you, I also was wondering about this. I can only speculate but it might take some mental load from the GM during combat. It feels weird though when I hear it...makes me also think that not all characters are funcitoning by the same rules. That rubs me a little.
the creatures do have evasion , they have target number "to hit" then they have thresholds to convert damage into harm dealth. Armour would easily be included... just give them armour slots and damage reduction numbers.@@rockindude3001
Interesting system, which I think will tend to a more cinematic, story-telling style then D&D. I look forward to the play testing sessions to see how it works in practice.
Dnd has never felt so accessible. We always played with a more flexible rule set because we didn't have the resources or was overwhelmed with everything 5e offered. This feels easier to soak and follow and we're doing our first campaign within the week! Everyone's already excited with character creation alone.
it all sounds amazing the only thing i am not sure about is that if you roll duals when you roll basicly for death, ur back with zero health loss, feels like that substract a bit from the feeling of being hit down and having a chracter close to death instantly being at 100% again ... feels a bit weirds. i would ahev prefered them heal a bit and have like a critical success with their next move or something else then magic full healing
From what I've read and seen, this system is intended to be much more "narrative" driven and heroic, where characters shrug off hits and act like actual heroes of legend, not as much of a "level 1 is deadly" like PF2e or 5e tend to be. I guess the idea is that characters can and will bounce back, and combats seem to be more of a narrative element, rather than a book-mandated slog to go through.
The 'risk it all' option boils down to about 46% chance of just dying, 46% chance of healing a few HP and stress and getting up, and a mere 8% chance of miraculous recovery. Given the alternative option of just falling unconscious and a low chance (at low levels) of losing a Hope box, I think 'risk it all' isn't going to be that common a choice except at really dramatic times.
@@davidskidmore3442 Exactly even if 3 characters get to 0 HP in every session and they take this gambling choice every second time, it will be statistically during sessions 9 and 19 when this miracle happens. The party would lose 13 character in the meantime. Less suicidal squad might not see it for a whole campaign.
This is a very unique system and looks super cool. Can't wait to try it out! It's unclear how play order is determined in combat. My current apprehensions include: - enemies not getting turns often enough in combat - critical successes happening too often (about 10% of the time) - difficulty visualizing the hit point system narratively. This system does encourage decoupling the HP bar from actual injuries which I like, but raises the question: what does a critical success on a _risk it all_ roll look like? How is their previously mortal injury no longer a problem? Do the wounds close up instantly?
This system is not very unique at all imo, but that's saying nothing about it's quality, just pointing out that it shares many similiarites with other ttrpgs
@@bruhcoin2361 Which ones, if I might ask? I don't know of any other 2d12 roll high system, or any system that uses differentiated dice to determine types of successes and failures. Other similar _à la carte_ class systems exist, but this one is based on combinations of domains, thus allowing for 72 potential classes that are relatively easy to homebrew if the need or want arises. I haven't seen anything similar. Of course there are deep similarities to other TTRPGs, and maybe I just don't know the TTRPGs you're thinking of, but I have the impression that there are some fresh and interesting ideas in this system.
@@bruhcoin2361 They're very up front about it -- the starting document specifically points out the various systems it borrowed borrowed ideas from: Special Appreciation: ● The Genesys System was a major inspiration for the two-axis results of the duality dice. ● Cypher System’s GM Intrusions paved the way for spending Fear to interrupt a scene. ● Among many other things, Dungeons & Dragons’ advantage/disadvantage system was particularly inspirational in the dice mechanics of this game. ● 13th Age’s Backgrounds heavily inspired the Experience mechanic. ● Blades in the Dark and Apocalypse World helped shape the narrative game flow, and their playbooks inspired a lot of the character sheet development. ● The Wildsea’s phenomenal Reaches section provided the chassis for the Regions section of this book. ● Enemy types and ways of managing minions are informed by Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition and the monster design of Flee, Mortals! ● The Quiet Year inspired the map-building section of the campaign kit. ● The sample session zero structure is informed by Apocalypse Keys.
Looks really cool and fun. Just hope that the book they sell us won't have paragraphs of bizarre messaging. And calling out other books in a similar space while also ripping the concept from them. And also contradicting themselves in the process.
The only text one might call 'bizarre messaging' if you are old, is the 'pronoun' box, and a section on inclusion and safe gaming, but it's really just rules for how not to be a dick in a group of people. As great as Wheaton's Rule is, it's also clear from the internet that plenty of people need more specific advice on how to positively interact with others.
2:19 the basics
4:50 character creation
6:58 hit points & stress
8:47 game master stuff
9:48 how combat works
13:48 downtime
pin dis plz
Thank you very much for this timestamps!
Thanks Flan... I mean, HaveaBiscuitt.
Flando Jr over here
thank you!!
You know, with 9 domains and 1 class = 2 domains, there's potentially room for 36 classes, of which we have 9. This does tickle my character creation addiction.
Let's start workshopping the missing 26 classes now. I'll start.
1. Gunslinger
2. Warlock
3. Artificer
4. Alchemist
5. Barbarian
6. Monk
Just 20 more to go.
You need to consider the domains. To say you have 20 more to go. Barbarian falls under the Warrior archetype in this game.
If you want to make it is one thing, you would need Blade or Bone plus another one. I would choose Valor on that, which means it would be Bone and Valor. As Blade and Valor is filled already. But, you could go Blade and Sage.
Warlock, Artificer, and Alchemist can all fall under Codex with being Midnight, Arcana, and Sage respectively. Gunslinger I can't really think of any that work. Monk could be Grace and either Valor or Splendor.
Bladesinger works Arcana and Blade as one. Necromancer Bone and Arcana or Codex.
@@drakkonusfrostburn4038 Barbarian is Guardian, which has the unstoppable feature.
@@SwedishSalmonbox You are focused on one aspect of Barbarian as a class. But, yeah, the Barbarian archetype can be filled with a Guardian as well as Warrior. It doesn't mean they could add a Barbarian later, it just would need work to fit into the Domains. Because the best options for it (Blade and Bone and Blade and Valor are taken by Warrior and Guardian).
@@darththeo but which class should I choose in order to make an Artificer or an Alchemist?
The mission is understood. Planning campaign and session zero immediately
Dude on the left looks like he hasn't slept for 57 years
@@itariwasashi1645Just saw that. Hopefully he's okay
@@itariwasashi1645?
This is great! Very cool to see some changes since the early stages of the playtest. I think it's in a great place already so I'm excited to see what evolves from here, and to see it in action!
Looking forward seeing your videos in regards to Daggerheart as well!
well if it isnt BobTHEworldBuilder
You mean BobTHElegend he made my Icewind Dale campaign so much better! Thanks Bob.
Fyi I really like the look of DH. Some nice concepts and a bit more tactile than DnD.
Having a 50% chance something bad happens (Hope/Fear roll) is about the worst mechanic I have ever seen. Whoever came up with this idea should be fired. Did they hire people that play RPGs to develop these games? Do they not understand that streaks can happen. How fun is a game where half the time bad stuff happens. Hard pass!
@@tbiafore371 I don't think you really paid attention to the video. Succeeding/failing with fear just means the GM gets to do cool stuff in combat later on.
2 Things:
1) Spenser seems extremely happy and excited to show us the game which is very contagious. He's helped make something great that he really wants others to enjoy.
2) I feel like making spindown style counters (NOT the 'dice' type of spindown) for Hitpoints and other trackable things like Armor Slots is a better idea than marking and erasing on your character sheet over and over again. It would also fit with the theme of using things like playing cards to keep track of stuff. (I do think most of it doesn't need to be cards, but I like cards so it's fine with me.)
Feel like that could lead to some chaotic results as you will have quite a bit more HP the higher level you go, especially if you have to count how many you’ve got left
Can we get a video from the Game Master perspective in creating creatures and other things from a GM perspective?
I do appreciate videos like this really getting into the system itself. Most reviewers have just been sharing their thoughts and feelings, or only saying what is or isn't DnD. So I appreciate just a detailed but direct review of the actual system itself, and letting me form my own opinions about it.
Well this wouldn't be a very good review, considering they're the ones who created the game. I'd say it's more of an overview.
It’s more because reviewers are making evergreen content. They don’t comment on specifics of the game cause they want to video to be viable even if things change about the game, which they will if they do a simple vibe check.
@@joemarais7683This isn't a review. It's the creators of the game explaining their game. Maybe I just don't understand.
@@Hexen_Wulf They're saying they prefer this to reviews, not that it is one. Because most reviews are going into someone's preferences while this actually explains how the game works
@@ASleath Alright, I guess I just am stupid. Why compare the two things? One is someone who didn't create the game talking about what they like and don't like about it, while the other is the creators of the game explaining how the game works. Saying "I like detailed instructions and tutorials more than reviews" doesn't make any sense as a sentence.
I do like the idea of doubles being a critical hit. It reminds me of the Fantasy AGE system by Green Ronin, where doubles unlock Stunt Points for cool effects. I might add Wil Wheaton's rule from Titansgrave (in which Laura Bailey was a player) for double 12s: when a player rolled 18 (triple 6s), Wheaton treated that action as a "Legendary Stunt" that automatically succeeded and would become a legend told and retold about the character in the in-game world.
The nice difference being that Daggerheart's critical hit rule skips immediately to resolution -- the thing the player wanted happens immediately and awesomely. The stunt rule in Fantasy AGE triggers a slowdown in the game as the player was surprised by a new set of decisions, leading to reading over a list of options while everyone else waited even longer for the game to continue (you can't really plan for it because it's entirely random when the stunt rule will be triggered by the dice). Daggerheart's rule carries forward the joy of a natural 20 in D&D. I'm expecting to hear shouts of "Double!" at the table.
I really like the idea of having doubles as crits. But I'm wondering: In a game of Pathfinder (first edition and my groups current ruleset) a nat 20 usally is seen as a crit. That's a five percent chance of getting a critical success. Rolling doubles for a critical success seems far more likely and coming up a lot more, or is my quick maths wrong in this regard?
@@CptKillside The possible combinations on two dice are the die values multiplied together. There are 36 possible combinations on 2d6 (though only 11 possible values added together -- there are 6 ways to roll a 7 on 2d6), and 64 possible combos on 2d8. With eight possible doubles, that's a 1-in-8 possibility of a critical hit. I can only assume that critical hits are meant to happen far more often in Daggerheart, making it a much more "heroic" game even at lower levels. These characters start off as highly capable people, which must be factored in to the group's and GM's expectations.
It's probably worth noting that Spencer Starke is highly experienced in the PbtA/FitD side of game design, where rolls are made less often and always to move the story forward. In Apocalypse World, for instance, it's a 2d6 + stat (usually no more than +3), where you need a 10+ result for a complete, free success; anything less than 7 is failure, and 7-9 are partial successes. In Daggerheart they have the awesome-but-random critical hits, but pretty much any other result could be a Fear result which comes with a cost like an Apocalypse World partial success. Put it all together and you get very high highs and a wide range of interesting lows. Every roll can bring nuanced surprises.
@@CptKillside Sorry, don't mean to overload with comments but I realized after my other response that I'd forgotten something important. Daggerheart was designed to make players want to be inventive, and for players who like to try things that aren't on their character sheet. In Critical Role they've experienced a lot of cases where trying something inventive just results in a poor chance of success. I think Daggerheart's meant to encourage players to try things because things a character's good at on paper aren't _that_ much more likely to work than things that make sense to them regardless of mechanics. Every game says, "Try it and see!" Daggerheart is built so that it has more than a whisper of a chance of actually succeeding.
@SingularityOrbit thanks a lot for your answer, seems like my thoughts went in the right direction. It's not that I don't like the possibility for more heroic fights and stories, but I have to side with you, that it should be accounted for. I'm more used to the idea that a character starts pretty low down and earns their reputation through the story in which they participate in (even though I see the easy entry and striking appeal in a game that starts with more capable characters) Didn't know that fact about Spencer, but I'm also just an occasional watcher to be honest. 😅 I'm pretty curious about new systems (even though nothing could hold my attention long enough, besides Pathfinder until now) I really want to try this system and will probe my pen and paper group for some testing and their thoughts on this system for sure! Can't wait to see how developement goes.
I love how we can measure distance without counting squares and can use items everyone should have!!
Admittedly I'm anxious about the lack of squares since if specific ranges are necessary rather than cypher-esque range band. Especially when I heard him say "close range is the length of a pencil" because that just means you need to keep an un-sharpened pencil around and I kinda wish the game could come with a ruler or something.
Abstract distances are the worst thing for me
@@jazz8000 I agree. It's more confusing.
@@aquamarinerose5405 I think the idea is that you don’t even need to keep those items around because it’s all arbitrary and it’s up to the players and gm to just agree… yeah you’re close, you can get to him and attack in melee this turn. This gives a little leeway for more cinematic fights “I run up to him and swing my sword yelling, you killed my father, prepare to die!” “Actually you are 35 feet away but you can take the dash action and attack next turn.”
@@jazz8000 Gotta disagree since I've played Shadowdark and had no issues
This video was super helpful to give more context to those of us who playtested character creation. I think it is important to everyone trying it out to provide constructive criticism to make this game the best it can be. Happy Adventuring everyone!
The Character Death: Risk it All - Critical Success option is SO well thought out and fun! It's going to make for such highs at the gaming table when a player gets to pop back onto their feet mid-combat. Blessed be!
Also - the 'Work on a Project' feels like such a love letter to Matt's GMing where he allowed the players to build items (Percy) or create spells (Caleb). I'm so excited for a non-crunchy way to allow players to change the world in their own creative ways!
Well done, Darrington Press and Critical Role!
Congratulations to everyone at CR and Darrington Press! I'm so excited to jump into this new system 🗡
will you do some sort of content on it?
@@Nuggetmonk doing a livestream later today looking through the playtest and planning a one shot for next week!
That Crit on "Risk it all" is an awesome rule and every character in every class has it. LOVE IT! can't wait to play!
I think it should be a rule that when player kills a boss GM has to... absolutely HAS TO ask: How do you want to do this?
Zzzzz
I’m sure people do or at least are trying to find a new way of saying it.
Why
Haha, good one, I'm gonna need you to f aaaaaall the way off
I ask that any time my players drop something to 0hp or get a critical hit... any chance to have a player narrate the action.
I already dived into the material for the players and I'm reading now the GM stuff. Pretty good balancing, some minor mistakes/typos in the sheets, but overall an amazing system to heroic and cooperative gameplay. I hope you release it in other languages too! Thanks for the superb job, guys!
i’ve been reading through the rulebook and gm stuff and i have to say. the inclusion of disabled people is already far and away the best i’ve seen in any game or gameplay and the rules aren’t even fully written yet. i am so excited to see how you guys flesh out the mechanics for physically disabled characters and deaf and blind characters. it means so much to me, and i’m sure the other disabled critters as well, to see ourselves represented like this. from the bottom of my heart, thank you guys. this is going to do really wonderful things.
Happy to see Spencer again and you can clearly see how excited he is. Love his passion
Definitely going to give the playtest materials a read through. There's a lot of good ideas I can see, and I can also see some of Matt's style influencing how the game is designed. I think this is a great start, with more great stuff to follow!
The big problem I'm seeing in this at the moment is that it seems liable to exacerbate the problem that many people could see the game as an adversarial GM vs Players situation, which I'm sure isn't intentional. I suspect they didn't notice the problems with this because they have a really strong friend group who enjoy healthy competition but know how to be mature about it - but there's many people I've played dnd with who would not react well to this
That makes sense; there are some GM’a who may get carried away with a cool story twist and wipe a party.
I could also see the opposite happening ifnyiu force DMs to habe a resource to manage, but maybe the Fear die should be smaller than the Hope die to limit the resource more?
How so?
the key with combat adversity in TTRPGs is for the players to have a greater sense of tangibiliy for their character builds to shine or fall through tactics/environments & creatures. It's often best as a moment where the veil of RP is less behind the usually more free flowing space of a GM's mind. This provides players with build definition & tracking that is more accessible to raw performance statistics, which sometimes is nice to reflect upon the provided situations.
I actually love the „minor/major/severe“ damage threshold system! Really allows some new takes on the HP-system. So, you can have sturdy classes that simply have generally „high“ thressholds and fragile classes with generally low. But now you can also have classes that easily get major damage, but have really high thresholds for severe damage.
I think this is really cool, gives a new dimension by which classes can be defined which I haven‘t known before.
Can't wait to play this weekend! So excited!!!
Huge congrats to CR! And especially for allowing the community to be a part of the design process. I have no doubt everyone chipping in will want this to succeed.
This is absolutely wild. I was anticipating seeing how the CR/Darrington Press team would put a more narrative-heavy spin on a d20 system and was not at all expecting so many completely new and frankly very innovative mechanics. Fascinating blend of simplicity and depth that I'm very much looking forward to seeing in action!
they nailed the pbta+Dnd concepts together perfectly. a true middle man to bridge that divide
Unbelievably excited for the launch of Daggerheart and also unbelievably humbled to have my name amidst the credits in the description.
I absolutely love this duality dice system! Can't wait to dive in!
My first thought on the playtest rules (which I haven't fully read yet, bear in mind): this is one of the most easily hacked rules sets I've ever seen that wasn't a rules-lite or "create your own traits" system. Starting characters have a class, start with a subclass at level 1, have an ancestry, have a community (think D&D background), and domain powers. That's a lot of decisions, true, but they're all designed to be quick to implement -- that's what the print-and-play cards are for in this design. What it really means, though, in this age of downloadable templates for everything from map tokens to playing cards, is that customizing the game to a different setting or different fantasy assumptions, or creating a new subclass, or adding in that heritage for somebody's wizard who grew up on an ancient space station or whatever, is as simple as saying, "here's a different domain power, here's your Spaceborne heritage, let's go." Everything's in its own special bit of the rules, so it's all easy to separate out for little changes.
I am so excited right now... Time to make a few tweaks to my character and then get into the game!! Let's do this!
What I like about the dual dice - hope/fear model is it helps to fill out the narrative angle of an action. This addition of chance to nuance story action is spicy and can really fill out what might otherwise be bland. Nicely done.
Nice to see that the D12 will be getting more love with this system ❤
It’s cool that the mechanics for the GM make it feel like they are getting into the play more.
Loving the mechanics of this so far, especially the Duality Dice and the Character Death Options. I downloaded the beta right now and can't wait to play it.
I'm the most experienced GM in our group (we usually play D&D 5e) and when we were checking out the system yesterday, they told me I would have to GM. My forever GM brain went off and started complaining: "Really? Again? Fine... if I must..."
Then I looked at the Monsters and the Fear + Action Token mechanics and my face instantly lit up with a smile because it seems like a lot of flavourful fun, now I can't wait to run the Quick Start adventure and give our feedback.
The duality dice seems like a cool system! I like that both the GM and player can get tokens to affect gameplay
Played daggerheart one shot with my friends a few days ago! Loved it! ❤ Combat feels so natural and realistic with the tides of battle. Evasion and Armor system is immersive. So awesome!
Sounds pretty cool and fairly easy to understand. Can't wait to see the finished product!
I really appreciate that you released such comprehensive resources for the open beta. The closed beta character creation gave us so little that I felt like I didn’t have anything to say about it. My survey was basically “The rules seem interesting but there isn’t enough information to determine if certain rules are useful. More information is needed.”
I don’t think I’ve ever beta tested a game that provided essentially the full rulebook. That’s very cool and I suspect I’ll have a lot more to say when I complete the next survey.
So hyped for Daggerheart!
Ditto.
So excited to see the game in action. Having the GM using action tokens is such a fantastic way to introduce consequences to player actions while giving the GM more room to engage with fights!
I absolutely can not wait for this games full launch. Gonna be playtesting the hell out of it!
Just seeing this first impressions I really really like the hit points and stress mechanics easy to understand complex enough to have fun with character creation.
My two general critiques would be this level of complexity is quite a hurdle for starting players and two this seems like it will generate a lot of varied rolls to bridge a situation. Which will lead to a lot of time lost time on just rolling. Maybe look into removing reduntant rolls. As in you don't need to roll to succeed in tasks in which your avatar is competent or maybe somehow reducing the time players need to double check rules.
I agree. The problem is the player will want to roll all the time because it’s the only way they can generate Hope. I think the hope/fear thing is a concern for me and feels like a needless layer of complexity as well. But we’ll see.
There is advice in both player and GM guides to just say yes to things the character is competent at when there's no danger. Also, there's just not that many rules. Pretty much all of the stuff that affects your character is on the sheet and cards in front of you. There's no exhaustive skill list, special key words are defined in-place. I haven't gotten to the GM's guide yet, but I'm guessing most of the special rules like falling damage or difficulty levels could fit on one sheet of paper.
@@davidskidmore3442 I've read a lot of it. The problem I have is that it doesn't take into consideration that you have a mechanic that encourages rolling, but then tells the GM to more often than not just allow players to do things... the two fight each other.
Also crunch and complexity is not the same thing.
Please don't get me wrong, I'm liking the potential of this, this just feels like the first draft and with the feedback I hope it gets better.
thats not true, becuase you open risk to generate fear. Narrative bonuses and rewards need to be taught as something to play for in the culture of TTRPG. if you ask to do something to gain a narratie advantage, and you get it for free, you should be happy.@@MrB_Chamberlain
Cool! At the first glance, like the "armor need to be repaired" and "changing the round to be more dramatic"!
I’M SO EXCITED TO TRY THIS OUT! One potential hiccup - if y’all play this for C4, is Laura gonna giggle every time bone gets mentioned????
Good point. Maybe a synonym instead? Something reflecting how Bone is rigid and strong...like "Stiff"!
...Wait, Laura, NO! 😅
As someone who is about to get into Daggerheart and plan a campaign, the simple explanation of the combat mechanics was extremely helpful. Thank you very much for that.
I love how the gm plays. They have reasources like a REAL PLAYER
I love the idea of having the option to go out in a blaze of glory with a guaranteed critical success. It really lends to awesome collaborative storytelling and dramatic final moments for a campaign. Years long campaign? Final fight with the BBEG? Rolling REALLY bad all night? No problem. There’s always your last hurrah🎉
Truly a great birthday gift for me today.
Happy Birthday mate!
Happy bday!!
Happy Birthday!
Happy day of birth fellow human
Happy birf!
Quick impressions from the video: It overall sounds like a neat system, reminds me of a mix between D&D and Dungeon World, along with some ideas of more recent Ulisses games (Hexxen, Wrath&Glory).
Noteworthy:
-I enjoy the combat system with passing actions back and forth, too many RPGs have combat with extremely skewed action economy, making fights against a single big baddie kind of lame without additional rules (lair actions etc). Very excited about this.
-The fact that this is also intended to be used with maps is cool and not many narrative RPGs do this.
-Simplified downtime rules have worked really well in my games to speed up the action, so I like this.
-Death rules seem very fun.
Mid:
-Class based systems are not really my style, though I will check how flexible the character creation really is.
-"Succeed with a cost" systems are popular, but they place a lot of stress on the GM. Especially in a simulation-focused group, you can get into arguments how bad one cost was versus another
-from what I've gathered, players roll 2D12 and GM rolls D20, I'll have to see how that plays out.
Don't like:
-Extra cards needed to play my RPGs (Wrath&Glory also does this and it's obnoxious)
-Various confusing modifiers on skill rolls: does the token give me +1 or -1, oh yeah you roll with disadvantage, add up your score, no subtract the D6 but add the 2 from your skill and magic proficiency, did you succeed with hope or fear, no wait don't clear the dice yet!, hold up does anyone have hope to add advantage to this?
Long travel mechanics would nice which involve resource management for:
* Creating a comfortable camp (making long rest even possible)
* Finding the right path (or get lost, increase travel time or make an uncomfortable encounter)
* Cooking! It will get you a bonus hope if done right.
* Road dirt! Giving your presence an disadvantage.
* Consuming supplies
* Gather supplies from local surroundings
Such mechanics are using in Song of the Sword by Fria ligan and allow for more non-warrior types to feel useful.
these systems are so dynamic not just for players buty also for DMs and makes it feel like they are playing along side the party. amazing job with this so far its a blast!
This sounds very promising! It sounds like less math, and more visual tools to keep the flow and storytelling going. Huge fan of that! I hope I can find a group to play this system with and try it out 👏🏻
The Dice-System remindsa me of Genesys. I really like that. I curious and we will test it out.
Great work as always! Thanks for your hard work and effort!
Seems cool. Only nitpick I have is that it seems the hp system is just trying to be different for the sake of being different, but that isn't necessarily bad
I really agree. A typical hp system and be done well and originally without being complicated. It could be made different by just adding a damage threshold or reduction that improves with armor and stats. Right now it seems like a lot to just get hit.
Play with it and give them feedback, maybe it will end up being a pain point for alot of people and will be changed.
So what your saying is, your nitpicking just to nitpick???
@@Finnegaust feedback.
I don't think so. It seems to me like they want to remove as much maths from the game as possible. It's faster to see that a number is over your threshold and cross out 3 nodes, than it is to subtract a number from whatever your HP is, especially if you're not particularly good at mental maths.
This is really cool. It's a very interesting ruleset, and I particularly like the way the duality dice work.
The main thing I'd like to see is a class for each combination of two domain cards, but with the amount of domains added, that would be a crazy amount.
the duality dice mechanic is pretty cool
Loving the Minds Eye Theatre element, my partner is an ambulatory wheelchair user and loved the images in the Beta for the “Walking Chair” I also love the approach to magic and Evasion (AC) being way less crunchy and more whatever flavour you think fits with the character.
My Wanderborne School of Knowledge Fungril is ready for their first adventure tonight
Hmm. I'm a little wary of all the resource tracking that's going to be required on both ends. Layered mechanics to the actual skill/ability checks is an interesting choice. I worry that the resource structure would have a potential adversarial effect with the GM and even amongst the players. Because the more often you fail, the more resources the GM gets to fuel the negative/bad actions. Its one thing for a player to fail and just suffer the consequences of their own actions, but this could potentially fuel things that are completely unrelated. Personally I prefer the GM just being the neutral observing arbiter rather than an adversary that feeds off of the failures the players make. (Unless that's the playstyle you prefer.)
That's the main worry I'd have, so I guess if everyone understands and is open to something different then try it out. Otherwise the thought and design of this game seems pretty neat. I'll be interested to see how it continues to develop.
its just tracking actions PCs take. normally in mixed success games you attack and the world hits back at the same time or forshadows an upcoming danger. In this system the "dnd'd" it up to help the trad gamers understand it better. resulting in these action points being held aside. otherwise all the trad gamers would cry that fear makes them Feel bad for acting as they get punished for playing the game...
I like how many of the elements you use are close to the Fate system. It adds so many opportunities to tell more epic stories even in Failure. Allowing players to recover from taking harder actions, failing, and putting themselves in more difficult situations
There are some really interesting ideas here, I can't wait to try it out with my group!! Let's hope one of them likes it enough to gm one session because there are some things I really want to try from the player's side and not only the GM Q.Q
So far so good. I love the D12 is getting a lot of love and how streamlined actions are. Looking forward to the beta
As a TTRPG Artist who creates custom dice for clients themed after their characters sometimes... The idea of a Hope/fear (Good and Evil) duality dice pair based around the design/personality of a singular character fucking ENTHRALLS ME... lol
(OH! and on a D12!!!??? a perfectly symmetrical, underutilized dice that dice artists LOVE working on but never get the chance to go all out because its a mid-tier dice in most games?...
My Body is FUCKING READY!)
I quite literally, cannot wait...
Going to make a character in the system myself and design a dice set immediately lol
"Man no one uses d12s in DnD"
Daggerheart: Allow us to introduce ourselves
It's my favourite shaped dice and used so little :
The "stress" feature immediately makes me think of Darkest Dungeon, where your hero's resolve is tested at maximum stress. A similar mechanic could be really cool to give your hero temporary traits. Like when you mark 5 stress you then make a duality dice roll, adding all the marked stress to your fear die and all your currently available hope slots to the hope roll (making the outcome slightly tend towards despair). Depending on your rolls you get either a bad or good trait until the next long rest.
This sounds insanely fun! Really cool concepts as well!
I absolutely LOVE the damage system! It actual feels like an RPG! Not a minmax fighter with arbitrary health numbers you can just heal when you rest.
Sounds exciting! I can’t wait to try it.
I really like the simplistic measurements using cards, pencis and paper
Woo hype so excited for dagger heart
Great to hear some additional game mechanics for the fantasy roleplaying with combat world!
Some REALLY good ideas in this game. I had my doubts, but this looks really good. I'd love to try it. Thanks for the video y'all!
We are super excited to play test this weekend!
This is amazing! So hyped to try it out!
System seems so cool! I am exciting to play it. The design seems very well suited towards encouraging roleplay and creativity. Also on an unrelated note does Spenser's speaking cadence remind anyone else of Monty from the Dungeon Dudes? So much enthusiasm and passion for what they are talking about! I love it!
Very interesting!! I'm super excited to give this a shot! I love a lot of the stuff I'm hearing. The one thing I'm not certain of is limiting the damage at 3 health for a hit, particularly when insanely outmatched or taking damage from non-combat scenarios (thinking of things like cliff-diving). As. Along time DM I can definitely roll with the punches and just tell the players my answer, but mechanically I'm curious how that would be handled (I'm sure once I'm off work and can read the PDF there will be an answer there haha)
They suggest an optional 4th level for when you take double your Severe threshold, you take 4 hp damage; but I believe they are intentionally avoiding having players ever die in one hit. As it is, an unlucky wizard (Severe is 12!) can die in 2-3 hard hits from not terribly impressive adversaries.
If you are a GM nothing stands in your way to just avoid the threshold in some situations and just say "Yeah, this dragon's attack will definetly one-shot you" or "It is totally to high to survive the fall"
just add a new threshold that is called Lethal.
I love this. It is simplified but still so engaging. I can't wait to get the full game when it comes out next year with all the cards and fun stuff!
Mmm, it worries me the amount of individual tokens and systems to take into account: hope, fear, stress, evasion, armor, damage thresholds, using different dice for throws (that normally would just be a d20 in other games)... I predict all sorts of mess.
This. I worry Daggerheart's committed the cardinal sin of breaking what wasn't broken in their attempts to create a "free-flowing" game. I honestly would be tempted to ditch their HP, Armor and Stress system in favour of sticking with an AC and regular damage rolls as a house rule.
An alternative thought experiment?
Agility is like calculating AC - and once determined will remain relatively stagnant, with a small creep up.
Hit points (wounds), are a static - and thus simple - tracker. Written into the character sheet, it really won't be a problem.
Likewise, the damage thresholds will be easily worked out and - once on the sheet - easy to understand and determine.
All up, the two are no harder to manage than the combination of Hit Point Total, current hit points (constantly being changed), and temporary hit points (also constantly being gained and lost, and adding complication to hits that deal more hp than one's temporary hp)
Armour, similarly, will be a relatively stagnant value, clearly determined and then marked in it's clear space on the sheet - and the armour points are clear and intuitive.
All up, when you consider Hit Dice as a resource, and resistance as a mechanic, as well as abilities that reduce damage taken by an array of math equations, well... then this simple armour idea doesn't seem so bad.
I'd have to see more on strain, as that seems a little toe steppy on the hope mechanic - both seem like they be vying for the spot of "core resource."
But if it is a resource of effort that applies to every character class's abilities? Well, then we have to say Strain is much easier to manage than "ki", "spell slots" "maneuver dice" "smites" "Key Mod/day vs Prof/day," etc, etc.
I.e. strain as a single resource for triggering abilities is way simpler than the mess of different concepts between dnd classes.
Finally (thank you for bearing with me!)
Hope?
Well, it is ingrained in the dice rolls, and no different to tracking inspiration. Except you are constantly reminded by the mechanics to use it.
Gain hope, use hope. Lose hope, repeat.
Fear is the DM's thing to track, moot consideration for this comment.
So all up, you're only really managing hope and strain.
All the rest is either passive, or a simple chain of responses (what threshold is it in? Will armour change that? Mark off armour and strain/wounds - done)
Love what I'm hearing. Can't wait to dive in and stress test this thing!
I loved Daggerheart. I loved what they did, there are a lot of things I wanted together in a TTRPG. I played TTRPG for many years and had already gotten a bit sick of it, as I didn't favor the "theatre" and something more interesting for combat that wasn't pure luck. Congratulations and excited to play!
Sounds like a lot of fun with a new play style. Can't wait to jump into a session!
My feedback- long time gamer. This is designed for those who loved the old middle earth style games where you have armor degradation and you are tracking a lot of things on your sheet combined with a touch of call of Cthulhu. Sensing they are all in and this is the new thing after campaign 3. I will miss exandria
There's no reason that campaign 4 couldn't be played in Daggerheart and still be set in Exandria, they own the setting, even if it has been published in D&D books.
@@Death-By-Squirrel well I don’t think they own much of what was used and would have to rename a lot. Goliaths I believe are d&d property etc so my guess is they start fresh. The cartoon changed things as they didn’t own the rights
@@davrosdavros7198 Very little of the setting is tied to D&D copywritten material. I think the biggest changes they'd need to make would be renaming a few characters (Mainly the gods, who Critical Role have been using alternative names for for a while) and races (Most of which are not copyrightable anyway, and those that are would only require minor modifications to be legally distinct)
I watched it twice, and now I understand the rules. lol I'm definitely going to suggest this to the group. Sounds fun!
It's a bit confusing that when you gain hit points you get closer to death, and when you clear your hit points you are healed. Would have been probably better to call them wounds or something similar, cause in most common use hit points are a positive track, meaning the more you have the better, and losing them is bad.
yeah ive heen calling them harm
I rationalize it as "hit points meaning literally the times you were hit", kind of like calling them harm points
Really hoping to see you guys run some sessions for this because I am so confused on all the systems, but definitely here for it!
I loved Daggerheart's concept.
One thing that I would maybe think about adding is on longer rests the player has the option of learning an ability, be it from the level of that class or previous levels that they couldn't learn or something separate that are special abilities/attacks that they have to spend the time required for the countdown. Really excited to play Daggerheart.
EDIT: they can learn/get an extra DomainCard and put it in the Vault or Loadout.
THIS IS REALLY COOL and I think it would work really well with what the game already has and gives to the player. That's my feedback. I hope it works and that you like it and upload the game
This is something I always wanted in TTRPG, to value dedication and show that it is possible to achieve things with patience, effort and focus, which can give encouragement to people who are weak in the party or have more things to do than just hoping to level up to win. some new skill or something he wouldn't learn from his class.
thats not resting then. learning a ability takes effort and thats not restful
this is freaking amazing guys! Thank you for making a RPG simple and full of tactics! Starting to playing in 3, 2, 1 ...
11:22 It seems like the Action Tracker might slow combat rather than speed it up. From what I understand, a player could take as many actions as they want, but the GM will be allowed to take that many actions on their turn. So you either have the GM swarming the players with multiple action tokens or players making very few actions to try and minimize the GM's actions.
Players have to take actions or they aren't going to win combats. Control switches from PCs to GM on rolls 'with Fear' or on failed rolls, so there's unlikely to end up with more than 3-4 action tokens at a time. If players have a string of luck that avoids a transfer, it turns into a long string of enemy actions... or the GM can spend Fear to jump in any time they want. Things speed up because there is no initiative order, thus no 'I don't have to act for three more players, and Jane is slow, so I'm gonna check Facebook on my phone'. If you're ready at the end of the previous player's turn, you can go. Jane can ponder her spell list while other people go, and then go as soon as she's ready.
actions tracking doesnt require players to do anything and is purely to help GMs and their monster action economy . during the live play mercer was handling all the little "trickets" and coins shit they mentioned in this video and the players didnt see or use any of it.
I like it, it slightly mimics the ebb and flow of any combat. If GM has a lot of tokens, it means their players also had a long luck streak so the GM forces are probably already somewhat weakened. If players are unlucky then GM can't just burry them under minions. I understand your worries but there's a bit of self-balancing in this.
These two giving Marisha a run for her money as "talk-with-your-hands" champion.
Daggerheart sounds interesting - will add it to our pool of TTRPGs to chose from for our next campaign.
No disrespect to the clear amount of hard work and ingenuity that went into developing the system, but this puts A LOT of resource management on the players. As a forever GM I definitely appreciate the ‘buy-in’ this requires of a player, but that’s a bunch of tokens and trackers to balance at an already crowded table. I can see this being a huge draw for people who already have experience with TTRPGs, but I don’t think it’s a great system to introduce people to TTRPGs. A new 5e player can sit down and get started with, literally, a character sheet and dice, I don’t know how you keep from overwhelming the uninitiated at a Daggerheart game if you’re telling them ‘okay you need 1) your sheet 2) your domain cards 3) your dice 4) your hope tokens 5) your fear tokens…am I forgetting something.” It’s clearly very well thought out game and a great way to (ultimately) sell cards/card stock, but I don’t see it being used beyond ttrpg veterans.
Yeah I agree. Like I've played DND since I was in middle school and am currently DMing a campaign and I still find all the things to be overwhelming and somewhat complicated
I found myself smiling and grinning A LOT. Can’t wait to try it!
hmm seems like it places the DM in a more antagonistic role as they are in competition for resources. Not sure if that will be a boon or not to table harmony. I do think this would make for a fun dungeon meshi style RP
It does seem like by giving the DM a d20 instead of a d12 and giving Fear bonuses sort of stacks the odds against the players, but maybe that's to encourage narrative solutions to conflict rather than outright combat?
@@tylerboyce4081 its 1d20 for the GM vs. 2d12 for players; the bias is actually the other way around. That said, Evasion is actually set up for being hit by a 1d20 roll, not by 2d12; and enemies are designed to be hit by 2d12+trait. The math works out. This also avoids the issues with big-bad-boss mobs needing special rules to have enough actions to face a party; this system gives 1 Big Boss just as many actions as the party takes against them.. and the same balance in opposite if the party is facing a horde.
not really, if you are worried about that, then make your monsters have AI. just give them 4 moves they do in a sequnces so DM doesnt chose they just play themselves and you referee
This is a great move for CR. Excited.
I think enemies should have armor and evasion stat. It gives the feeling that all creature follows the same rule. Maybe that’s just me
Nope, it's not just you, I also was wondering about this.
I can only speculate but it might take some mental load from the GM during combat. It feels weird though when I hear it...makes me also think that not all characters are funcitoning by the same rules.
That rubs me a little.
the creatures do have evasion , they have target number "to hit" then they have thresholds to convert damage into harm dealth. Armour would easily be included... just give them armour slots and damage reduction numbers.@@rockindude3001
I love the states!
Sounds like a pretty intreasting game. Cant wait to try it out.
Interesting system, which I think will tend to a more cinematic, story-telling style then D&D. I look forward to the play testing sessions to see how it works in practice.
Dnd has never felt so accessible. We always played with a more flexible rule set because we didn't have the resources or was overwhelmed with everything 5e offered. This feels easier to soak and follow and we're doing our first campaign within the week! Everyone's already excited with character creation alone.
Great explanatory video. Looking forward to running the one shot!
it all sounds amazing the only thing i am not sure about is that if you roll duals when you roll basicly for death, ur back with zero health loss, feels like that substract a bit from the feeling of being hit down and having a chracter close to death instantly being at 100% again ... feels a bit weirds.
i would ahev prefered them heal a bit and have like a critical success with their next move or something else then magic full healing
From what I've read and seen, this system is intended to be much more "narrative" driven and heroic, where characters shrug off hits and act like actual heroes of legend, not as much of a "level 1 is deadly" like PF2e or 5e tend to be. I guess the idea is that characters can and will bounce back, and combats seem to be more of a narrative element, rather than a book-mandated slog to go through.
The 'risk it all' option boils down to about 46% chance of just dying, 46% chance of healing a few HP and stress and getting up, and a mere 8% chance of miraculous recovery. Given the alternative option of just falling unconscious and a low chance (at low levels) of losing a Hope box, I think 'risk it all' isn't going to be that common a choice except at really dramatic times.
@@davidskidmore3442 Exactly even if 3 characters get to 0 HP in every session and they take this gambling choice every second time, it will be statistically during sessions 9 and 19 when this miracle happens. The party would lose 13 character in the meantime.
Less suicidal squad might not see it for a whole campaign.
Adrenaline is a hell of a drug
This is a very unique system and looks super cool. Can't wait to try it out! It's unclear how play order is determined in combat. My current apprehensions include:
- enemies not getting turns often enough in combat
- critical successes happening too often (about 10% of the time)
- difficulty visualizing the hit point system narratively. This system does encourage decoupling the HP bar from actual injuries which I like, but raises the question: what does a critical success on a _risk it all_ roll look like? How is their previously mortal injury no longer a problem? Do the wounds close up instantly?
I think the HP is easier personally. Knick, Cut, Gash.
This system is not very unique at all imo, but that's saying nothing about it's quality, just pointing out that it shares many similiarites with other ttrpgs
@@bruhcoin2361 Which ones, if I might ask? I don't know of any other 2d12 roll high system, or any system that uses differentiated dice to determine types of successes and failures. Other similar _à la carte_ class systems exist, but this one is based on combinations of domains, thus allowing for 72 potential classes that are relatively easy to homebrew if the need or want arises. I haven't seen anything similar. Of course there are deep similarities to other TTRPGs, and maybe I just don't know the TTRPGs you're thinking of, but I have the impression that there are some fresh and interesting ideas in this system.
@@bruhcoin2361 They're very up front about it -- the starting document specifically points out the various systems it borrowed borrowed ideas from:
Special Appreciation:
● The Genesys System was a major inspiration for the two-axis results of the duality dice.
● Cypher System’s GM Intrusions paved the way for spending Fear to interrupt a scene.
● Among many other things, Dungeons & Dragons’ advantage/disadvantage system was particularly inspirational in the dice mechanics of this game.
● 13th Age’s Backgrounds heavily inspired the Experience mechanic.
● Blades in the Dark and Apocalypse World helped shape the narrative game flow, and their playbooks inspired a lot of the character sheet development.
● The Wildsea’s phenomenal Reaches section provided the chassis for the Regions section of this book.
● Enemy types and ways of managing minions are informed by Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition
and the monster design of Flee, Mortals!
● The Quiet Year inspired the map-building section of the campaign kit.
● The sample session zero structure is informed by Apocalypse Keys.
Looks really cool and fun. Just hope that the book they sell us won't have paragraphs of bizarre messaging. And calling out other books in a similar space while also ripping the concept from them. And also contradicting themselves in the process.
The only text one might call 'bizarre messaging' if you are old, is the 'pronoun' box, and a section on inclusion and safe gaming, but it's really just rules for how not to be a dick in a group of people. As great as Wheaton's Rule is, it's also clear from the internet that plenty of people need more specific advice on how to positively interact with others.
Gott say this souds like an awesome game. Pumping up the story potential of the game with elegant design that does not get on the way of the story.