So here's what the most recent Daggerheart playtest packet says at the beginning about what type of RPG it is meant to be. This is from the "Introduction", beginning on page 10 of the playtest.
What Kind of Roleplaying Game Is Daggerheart?
Daggerheart is a heroic narrative-focused experience with combat as a prominent aspect of play, facilitating emotionally engaging, player-driven campaigns that are punctuated by exciting battles and harrowing challenges. The game takes a more fiction-first approach in its design, encouraging players and GMs to focus on the story they’re telling rather than the complexity of the mechanics. It asks them to act in good faith with one another to tell the best story they can, and looks to provide structure when it’s unclear how things might resolve within that story. The system has a free-flowing approach to combat to avoid stopping down the game into rounds, and it doesn’t rely on grid-based movement for the maps and minis. This is all purposeful in creating a game that utilizes the kind of terrain and map-building that miniature-based games are known for while making Daggerheart streamlined, approachable, and focused on delivering a great narrative experience at the table.
Those who prefer a highly strategic, rules-heavy experience with more of a heritage from wargames may find Daggerheart doesn’t have all of the crunchy bits they’re used to. Those who come from very rules-light gameplay may find some mechanics engage in areas where they’re used to a more free-form approach. That’s okay! You should always play the types of games that make you and your table happy. That said, if you’re looking to tell heroic fantasy stories with a modern approach to mechanics that focus on both the epic battles and the emotional narrative of the characters who fight in them, you’ve come to the right place.
Daggerheart utilizes an asymmetrical design. That means that it plays very differently for the GM than it does for the players. Many TTRPGs have some asymmetry, with players each controlling one PC while the GM plays everyone else. But Daggerheart’s asymmetry goes deeper—players roll the 2d12 Duality Dice for their PCs’ standard actions, including their attacks. At the same time, the GM can make most moves without rolling, but they roll a d20 for adversary moves that require a roll, such as attacks and reaction rolls. Each PC gains Hope when they “roll with Hope,” while the GM gains Fear when any PC “rolls with Fear.” PCs and Adversaries both have a mechanic called Experiences, but they are used in different ways at different times. This asymmetrical design is intended to help all participants more effectively contribute to creating a memorable experience together at the table.
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The text then goes on to list the touchstones for the game. It lists different media and then provides a list of RPGs that deserve Special Appreciation, and explains why.
Touchstones
Daggerheart gleans inspiration from a variety of sources. Below is an abridged list of media the design team drew from while crafting this game.
TTRPGs: 13th Age, Apocalypse Keys, Apocalypse World, Blades in the Dark, City of Mist, Cortex Prime, Cypher System, Dishonored, Dungeons & Dragons, Flee Mortals!, For The Queen, Genesys, Lady Blackbird, Masks: A New Generation, Pathfinder, Shadowrun, The Quiet Year, Wildsea, Slugblaster
Books: A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Wizard of Earthsea, Sabriel, The Wheel of Time, The Lord of the Rings series
Movies & Television: The Dragon Prince, The Lord of the Rings, The Witcher, The Legend of Vox Machina
Video Games: Borderlands, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Outriders, The Elder Scrolls series
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 this book’s campaign guidance.
● The sample session zero structure is informed by Apocalypse Keys.
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Looking over the use of the word "narrative" in this section, it seems mostly to be a plain langauge use. They simply mean a narrative...a story, or if that word bothers you, an account of connected events.
"Narrative-focused" reads like they're making it clear that they care much more about a satisfying story than they do about following the rules to a tee.
"Emotional narrative" simply references the characters' development across play. How they grow and change (or don't) as play progresses.
"Narrative game flow" is probably the most confusing use, because it is evoked in reference to Apocalypse World and Blades in the Dark. I think this is most likely related to the lack of initiative and rounds... relying solely on the fiction to dictate the pace of events, and for consequences to impact play, creating a dynamic play state.
There are more uses of the word "narrative" in the sections that follow. Reading it, I really don't think they mean it in any other way than its plain usage.
Now, having said that, looking at the list of inspirational games, and also seeing other phrases throughout such as "fiction first" and "play to find out"... their "Golden Rule" which is similar to a Rule Zero, though it adds in a meaningful "...with your table's consent', the list of player principles... all these things certainly speak more toward a style of play in line with Narrativism/Story Now. The GM principles listed later in the book (page 141) are very clearly inspired by those in Apocalypse World.
However, there are also clear influences from plenty of other types of games, and plenty of evidence in the text that speaks to a pretty traditional approach to play. I haven't played it yet, but I expect that it'll likely play like a pretty neo-trad game, with some Narrativist/Story Now elements mixed in.