Critical Role's 'Daggerheart' Open Playtest Starts In March

On March 12th, Critical Role's Darrington Press will be launching the open playtest for Daggerheart, their new fantasy TTRPG/

Using cards and two d12s, the system plays on 'the dualities of hope and fear'. The game is slated for a 2025 release.

Almost a year ago, we announced that we’ve been working hard behind-the-scenes on Daggerheart, our contribution to the world of high-fantasy tabletop roleplaying games.

Daggerheart is a game of brave heroics and vibrant worlds that are built together with your gaming group. Create a shared story with your adventuring party, and shape your world through rich, long-term campaign play.

When it’s time for the game mechanics to control fate, players roll one HOPE die and one FEAR die (both 12-sided dice), which will ultimately impact the outcome for your characters. This duality between the forces of hope and fear on every hero drives the unique character-focused narratives in Daggerheart.

In addition to dice, Daggerheart’s card system makes it easy to get started and satisfying to grow your abilities by bringing your characters’ background and capabilities to your fingertips. Ancestry and Community cards describe where you come from and how your experience shapes your customs and values. Meanwhile, your Subclass and Domain cards grant your character plenty of tantalizing abilities to choose from as your character evolves.

And now, dear reader, we’re excited to let you know that our Daggerheart Open Beta Playtest will launch globally on our 9th anniversary, Tuesday, March 12th!

We want anyone and everyone (over the age of 18, please) to help us make Daggerheart as wonderful as possible, which means…helping us break the game. Seriously! The game is not finished or polished yet, which is why it’s critical (ha!) to gather all of your feedback ahead of Daggerheart’s public release in 2025.

 

[Reynard]

Stuff is layered on top of that without heavy thoughts on balance or a rules skeleton to enforce a style.

This is obviously complete nonsense. You might not like what you did, but it is very clearly intentionally designed.

People really need to figure out "I don't like it" is not a synonym for "it is bad."

 

[Minigiant]

This is obviously complete nonsense. You might not like what you did, but it is very clearly intentionally designed.

People really need to figure out "I don't like it" is not a synonym for "it is bad."

Daggerheart literally has a light rules skeleton.

It's not "I don't like it".

It's "I dunno. Throwing hard 3e/5e feats and archetype biases on a rules lite core skeleton is how mid-high level 5e broke. And this has fewer guardrails than 5e and no initiative system. I dunno. You sure WOTC didn't make this. "

 

[Reynard]

Daggerheart literally has a light rules skeleton.

It's not "I don't like it".

It's "I dunno. Throwing hard 3e/5e feats and archetype biases on a rules lite core skeleton is how mid-high level 5e broke. And this has fewer guardrails than 5e and no initiative system. I dunno. You sure WOTC didn't make this. "

Do you think the only style of game that is rules lite is OSR?

 

[Reynard]

Also, aren't GM Moves essentially the opposite of OSR style play?

 

[Minigiant]

Do you think the only style of game that is rules lite is OSR?

Not rules lite

Simple Rules Skeleton. A low amount of rules need to learn in order to play all aspects of the game before you consciously make character choices.

 

[Reynard]

Not rules lite

Simple Rules Skeleton. A low amount of rules need to learn in order to play all aspects of the game before you consciously make character choices.

And you think only OSR games provide that? Or is it that you are familiar with OSR games and not PbtA/FitD games and therefore assume it must be OSR? Because lots and lots of different games, of many different styles, start with a simple rules skeleton.

 

[Minigiant]

And you think only OSR games provide that? Or is it that you are familiar with OSR games and not PbtA/FitD games and therefore assume it must be OSR? Because lots and lots of different games, of many different styles, start with a simple rules skeleton.

I said OSR because OSR games have more dynamic DCs and bonuses whereas PBTA/FBTA have fewer and more are about rolling your predetermined moves straight up.

 

[SteveC]

So I'm thinking about this "it will be optimal for one character to take all the actions in combat" and I'm not seeing it. I've written up a few characters and with all of them I asked the question "what does this character do in combat?" I know that combat and action scenes are going to be a big part of the game, so I want to know what I'm going to do in them. If I don't have a good answer for this that means "no, I won't do anything, you just go again" is my best answer, that's not the character I'm going to play.

If you look at the classes, they all have something to do in combat. I'd say it's a fault in a game where a character has little or nothing to do in something the game makes important. And I'm not seeing that here.

 

[Minigiant]

So I'm thinking about this "it will be optimal for one character to take all the actions in combat" and I'm not seeing it. I've written up a few characters and with all of them I asked the question "what does this character do in combat?" I know that combat and action scenes are going to be a big part of the game, so I want to know what I'm going to do in them. If I don't have a good answer for this that means "no, I won't do anything, you just go again" is my best answer, that's not the character I'm going to play.

If you look at the classes, they all have something to do in combat. I'd say it's a fault in a game where a character has little or nothing to do in something the game makes important. And I'm not seeing that here.

Proficiency and Domain Balance

1 high level character can being dealing 6dX+Y with a hand of combat heavy cards and another can be doing 3dX+Y with a hand of utility cards

There's no enforced baseline competency past level 1. So player 2 is dealing less damage AND giving the GM more actions and fear as the game gets harder.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I feel like this ignores or discounts the fact that a story is being told here. That is the point of the system. Both the GM and the players are working together to create the most interesting narrative. Trying to overly restrict the design in order protect against the jerk player is a bad idea. Just tell the group to kick the jerk player out. If someone is not interested in being part of the collaborative telling story process, they should not be at that table.

Black Widow clears the building whilst Happy Hogan is still on the first mook is also a story.