Daggerheart 1.3 playtest dropping Tuesday.

[Reynard]

In a couple hours I am running my first DH playtest. Here is the blurb I sent the players:

The first night it happened, the folk of Deepwold thought it was a fluke: a town youth disappeared from their room with no clues as to how. Then it happened again. Fate, it seems, has brought your heroes to Deepwold just as fear and desperation are taking hold. Luckily, Grame Morta, Wize of Deepwold, has asked you to investigate before the townsfolk do something rash. Hunters have discovered tracks that lead into the Blackfen, and Grame begs you to go there and find the lost youths. What secrets lie in the fen? or Deepwold for that matter...?

I am basically going to wing it based on that seed. I plan on using two Environments (the river crossing and the underground cave) as a base. I think (but may change my mind) that old Grame is responsible, having sold the youths to some fae thing that lives in the cave (the PCs are unlucky to have arrived; she just needs to get rid of them).

 

[Reynard]

It was a but of a slow start as we had some technical issues, but in the end the PCs entered the village and got directions from Grame Morta with the help of a halfling hunter named Baldur to get into the fens and find the lost youths. They found them swimming and playing in the moonlight, but it was clear they were suffering and their smiles were magically forced. the PCs approached to help and drew the wrath of 3 dryads that were toying with the youths. The fight took a significant amount of real time because we wanted to make sure to understand the rules and stuff, but in the end the PCs defeated the dryads. We ended with them having to choose to go deeper into the fens where more powerful fae ruled, or go back to Deepwold and confront Grame Morta. We will try and schedule another playtest session in the near future to continue the story.

There was abit of confusion about ow action tokens worked, as well as how to implement collected Hope, but we all chalked it up to new game issues. We want to to give it another go and see if we can wrangle the rules a little better,

 

[SteveC]

I just got a message that 1.3.1 dropped. Once I'm able to download, I'll see what's new. You might want to check it out.

Edited to add: it looks like the change in 1.3.1 is to update the sample adventure to the 1.3.0 rules. So that;s it.

 

[overgeeked]

Spoilers for C3E91. If you want to read about one of the Daggerheart rules in action, read this article on Polygon.

 

[Snute]

Exactly. That’s the assumption at least. CR will have to figure out where they want the game to go and if they’re willing to take the resultant sales hit. They helped bring in tons of new people and make D&D a pop culture fad again. They’re not going to keep all of them when they put out and/or move to playing Daggerheart.

I think you might be overestimating the rules impact on the CR experience.
Most watchers are likely in it for the world buiding, story and foremost the characters. The rules have always taken a backseat for CR.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Spoilers for C3E91. If you want to read about one of the Daggerheart rules in action, read this article on Polygon.

Is there a possiblity to summarise what this is about without major spoilers? Given that this is a D&D game I am rather perplexed what it has to do the DH...

 

[OB1]

Is there a possiblity to summarise what this is about without major spoilers? Given that this is a D&D game I am rather perplexed what it has to do the DH...

Non specific C391 Spoiler

Spoiler: Spoiler

One of the characters sacrifices themselves to take out the big enemy they are fighting in the episode. It's similar to the Blaze of Glory mechanic in DH but also well within the rules of 5e. I think people are overstating the DH effect.

 

[mcmillan]

Is there a possiblity to summarise what this is about without major spoilers? Given that this is a D&D game I am rather perplexed what it has to do the DH...

Putting somewhat vague description behind this block since even knowing the relevant rule is a bit of a spoiler

Spoiler: Daggerheart rule that became D&d relevant

There was a character death that had results inspired by the blaze of glory death result - with the cast even going as far and callling out the connection. As OB1 said, not that this couldn’t happen in D&d (I’ve even done something similar twice in my dming time) but the article does note that it seems to be on the mind of the cast and is an example of how it could be used in Daggerheart

 

[Reynard]

Non specific C391 Spoiler

Spoiler: Spoiler

One of the characters sacrifices themselves to take out the big enemy they are fighting in the episode. It's similar to the Blaze of Glory mechanic in DH but also well within the rules of 5e. I think people are overstating the DH effect.

The point of the argument is that there isn't a rule for that in 5E (or any version of D&D) even if it is something some tables have been doing. It was codified in DH, because it isn't an uncommon rule in narrative games in general, but D&D isn't a narrative game.

I'll actually be curious to see if something like it shows up in the 2024 DMG and, if so, how folks respond.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

The point of the argument is that there isn't a rule for that in 5E (or any version of D&D) even if it is something some tables have been doing. It was codified in DH, because it isn't an uncommon rule in narrative games in general, but D&D isn't a narrative game.

I'll actually be curious to see if something like it shows up in the 2024 DMG and, if so, how folks respond.

I think it would be fine as an optional rule.