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.

 

[Dire Bare]

Eh, I don't see them abandoning Dungeons & Dragons. To quote the man himself:

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I don't think this was ever about wanting something different to play, or "beating them at their own game," or anything like that. They play D&D because they love it, not because there's a lack of better options.

I'm confidant that if you asked Mercer today . . . he'd enthusiastically say it again, "I love Dungeons & Dragons!!"

However . . . does he love 5th Edition? Probably, but I feel like he loves D&D more broadly, and Daggerheart is VERY D&D. The ruleset plays differently, is less crunchy, more free-form . . . but the basic ideas and tropes are very much D&D.

I don't think the Critical Role crew are bitter towards WotC, a bit wary perhaps, but I think fans convinced they are jumping to leave 5E in the dust in favor of Daggerheart are putting their own biases into the mix. I would be very surprised if the main CR campaign switches from D&D 5E to . . . anything else, really.

 

[Reynard]

I'm confidant that if you asked Mercer today . . . he'd enthusiastically say it again, "I love Dungeons & Dragons!!"

However . . . does he love 5th Edition? Probably, but I feel like he loves D&D more broadly, and Daggerheart is VERY D&D. The ruleset plays differently, is less crunchy, more free-form . . . but the basic ideas and tropes are very much D&D.

I don't think the Critical Role crew are bitter towards WotC, a bit wary perhaps, but I think fans convinced they are jumping to leave 5E in the dust in favor of Daggerheart are putting their own biases into the mix. I would be very surprised if the main CR campaign switches from D&D 5E to . . . anything else, really.

I think it is also worth considering that their deal with Amazon may well have informed them that being so deeply entrenched with someone else's IP might not be the best choice.

 

[nyvinter]

It might be possible they're keeping Exandria in D&D, but if it were me I'd really want a campaign in another system and world after 9 years (on stream).

 

[overgeeked]

Digging deeper I'm loving all the Countdown timers and clocks they're using as examples. Fantastic stuff. I think they're explaining Fronts perfectly without resorting to jargon that might confuse people.

The 4E style monster roles, minions, and hordes are great. Especially hordes.

The loot, consumables, and magic items are impressive. This is more than some full games have and this is a beta. Wow.

Some of the PC options are wildly disparate in power. The dwarf can spend 3 Hope to cut damage in half. The elf can enter a trance and roll d8s equal to their Stress, remove all Stress, and if any of those d8s form a matching pair, also clear all HP. The catfolk can take a Stress on an Agi check to re-roll their Hope die. The orc can roll 1d6 every time they're supposed to mark off Armor, if they roll 5+ they gain the benefit of using Armor without marking Armor. The halfling gives everyone in the party 1 Hope at the start of each session and can re-roll 1s on their Hope die.

Very clearly some races are way more loved than others.

 

[Distracted DM]

It might be possible they're keeping Exandria in D&D, but if it were me I'd really want a campaign in another system and world after 9 years (on stream).

I've been running in my own setting for about as long- I could change systems but I'm still very interested in exploring and expanding the setting through further play. A setting can be a vast and changing ocean, always more to explore

 

[NaturalZero]

Digging deeper I'm loving all the Countdown timers and clocks they're using as examples. Fantastic stuff. I think they're explaining Fronts perfectly without resorting to jargon that might confuse people.

The 4E style monster roles, minions, and hordes are great. Especially hordes.

The loot, consumables, and magic items are impressive. This is more than some full games have and this is a beta. Wow.

Some of the PC options are wildly disparate in power. The dwarf can spend 3 Hope to cut damage in half. The elf can enter a trance and roll d8s equal to their Stress, remove all Stress, and if any of those d8s form a matching pair, also clear all HP. The catfolk can take a Stress on an Agi check to re-roll their Hope die. The orc can roll 1d6 every time they're supposed to mark off Armor, if they roll 5+ they gain the benefit of using Armor without marking Armor. The halfling gives everyone in the party 1 Hope at the start of each session and can re-roll 1s on their Hope die.

Very clearly some races are way more loved than others.

Fungril was the ancestry that immediately caught my eye because I've wanted a fungus PC race in DnD. It has the worst feature, hands down. It's something with no mechanical benefit and might not even have an RP benefit, depending on the session.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

Fungril was the ancestry that immediately caught my eye because I've wanted a fungus PC race in DnD. It has the worst feature, hands down. It's something with no mechanical benefit and might not even have an RP benefit, depending on the session.

...you know. i thought you were exaggerating.

dear god, you were NOT exaggerating.

 

[Jahydin]

Skimmed it tonight and nothing is clicking for me at all. Was Mercer involved at all? I don't see his influence anywhere...

 

[DragonLancer]

From one reading and watching the preview videos on the Critical Role Youtube channel, the following are my thoughts.

1. It feels more rules light than D&D5. I was hoping for something between D&D and Pathfinder. Simple system but with more options. I don't think there are enough class abilities and spells.

2. Only 10 levels means campaigns will be rather shorter than what is perhaps standard for something like D&D. That was a bit of a surprise.

3. Other than zombies, skeletons and a couple dragons there aren't any generic monsters. If I want to run a band of goblins as an encounter, do I need to create them as I would a player? That seems a bit strong.

4. Not so keen on the money system. Was it so hard to keep to gold coins? Feels a little computer gamey that they unlock new weapons/armour that they couldn't buy previously just because they leveled.

I'm running a playtest session for my usual Pathfinder group this Sunday. I have no doubt we'll have a fun session but other than one guy who also plays 5E, I can't see the others being interested in playing a campaign due to the lack of crunch. Hopefully though I can find some others to try it out.

 

[darjr]

OK the tech panel is neat. Cool idea.

https://x.com/blikimor/status/1767609196303061487?s=46