New Daggerheart Campaign

[Retreater]

Instead of writing a Post-Mortem while a campaign falls apart, this time I'm going to write about the start of the campaign.

Selection of the System
I've been participating in a podcast where we actual play a one-shot and discuss it. The organizer - a friend of mine from outside my usual gaming groups - asked me to run Daggerheart for the podcast. After the episode he kept bringing up how much he enjoyed the game and suggested I could run a regular campaign of it.

About the Group
It's a small group, only 3 players and myself as GM.

Player A: My friend who had organized the podcast. We go back about 20 years through community theatre. While he had a basis in older editions, he only really got into gaming with the rise of 5E. He also runs a regular Monsterhearts game for theatre friends and 5E for his family. He has considered himself a "Forever GM."
Player B: My friend's wife, who also plays in his 5E game. She is new to the system. I don't get the idea that she's played much outside of their family 5E game.
Player C: My wife, who loves playing high-powered, epic RPGs.

Additionally, the other couple and we have enjoyed other activities together: board game nights, movies, dinners, hiking, and even traveled to Europe together a couple years ago.

About Me and Why Daggerheart
If you've read any my threads on here, you probably know how I've struggled to find a system that works. One of the biggest pressures has been the balance between challenge and fun. Some games have proven to be too balanced as to be predictable and boring (D&D 4E, PF2) or too swingy and deadly (D&D 5E, Savage Worlds). I want everyone to have a great time and exciting situations, but I tend to eventually push them too hard and end with a TPK. So I'm excited that Daggerheart puts the stakes in the players' hands - whether they live or die is the player's choice. I feel like the narrative focus lets me make the descriptions exciting without being tied to specific powers, grids, etc.
In short, I'm optimistic because Daggerheart is a narrative game and I've been running almost nothing but traditional d20 fantasy since 2000, attempting to be as RAW as possible (much to my chagrin).

The Campaign Frame
We wanted something different, so we're going with the Post Apocalyptic "Motherboard" campaign frame. Player A is excited about customizing gear with scrap in the Horizon Zero Dawn setting. Player B likes the nontraditional setting. Player C thinks sounds enough like a power fantasy and is excited to crack the "Kohd" (she likes puzzles).

Characters
Player A: Fungril syndicate rogue. A former noble, outcast from his city for stealing tech.
Player B: Galapa troubadour bard. A traveling entertainer throughout the Echo Vale, wanting revenge on her former manager who stole her earnings.
Player C: Faun "call of the slayer" warrior. A member of a resistance wanting to destroy the Motherboard.

We just had our Session Zero. I am excited to start this biweekly campaign. I plan to do level ups when the players demonstrate they know how to use each of the abilities and rules they've earned. (Right now some of them seem overwhelmed by the system, and I don't want to give them more to keep track of until they've mastered what they have.)

 

[Retreater]

Well, I haven't been posting much about this campaign, but we've been playing regularly (biweekly) for a couple months. They really enjoyed the minigame of collecting scrap to augment their weapons (Ikonis). My wife is using her "puzzle" brain to decipher the Kohd puzzles.

We had an epic fight with a gorgon that nearly petrified the bard, who ended up needing to roll a death maneuver from the damage. She took the risky option, ended up winning and staying in the fight - and helping to defeat the gorgon before the petrification set in.

They highjacked a robotic moth with stained glass wings to escape a gigantic pile of sentient scrap in the form of a towering cockroach, fought spirits made of chaotic programming language.

Last session, the faun call of the slayer passed away fighting some zombie hordes. (She took the risky death move and failed.) The group decided to retire their characters and bring in some new characters to continue the fight.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Glad you are having a good time with a system and just be careful with your tendency to push the characters to their limits.

 

[Retreater]

Glad you are having a good time with a system and just be careful with your tendency to push the characters to their limits.

Yeah. I had two challenging fights (on separate sessions) that ended up with death moves for a character each. They had the options to take the safer route, but each player took the risky choice - and one failed.
Fortunately, they took it in stride because it was their decision. Still, I do need to take a little more care with the encounter design ... and should probably make more soft moves with my Fear.

 

[Retreater]

The most difficult part (maybe the only difficult part) of going with Daggerheart for both games I'm running is the divorce from the rest of the hobby.

• I'm not following what is going on with D&D. I'm not going to be using or buying the new Forgotten Realms books.
• There's really nothing going on with Daggerheart. It's not like Darrington Press has exciting new adventures or bestiaries coming out.
• I'm not buying miniatures to paint to support my DH games. I'd be locked into overpaying on HeroForge and supporting a bad economic model.
• A blessing and a curse - you can't really spend time prepping for the game, because the sessions are intended to be more narrative and driven by the player actions.
• The online places I normally go for community aren't really discussing it.

 

[Retreater]

Five month check-in. Running my Motherboard campaign biweekly (Tier 2, but we they chose to restart with new characters) and a weekly Witherwild game (end of Tier 3).
We like the epic feel of battles. The initiative system feels very organic. The powers are great. Some of the monsters are just amazing to run.
What's not awesome:
1) My Tier 3 group never, ever swaps their cards in their load it. The mechanic never crosses their mind. When I bring it up, it's like an unnecessary hassle, like changing your cellphone company.
2) No one cares about magic items, consumables, etc.
3) I don't use environments. They don't work well for my group.
4) Social enemies are worthless and better ignored.
5) Minions, also worthless. They are so ineffective they shouldn't require Fear to spotlight. Low damage. Pitiful accuracy.
6) "Solo" monsters aren't - like, you still need 3-4 other enemies (and I have small groups)
7) I've "run out" of enemies for the different tiers. I've exhausted everything in the book and encounters are starting to feel samey. On the same coin, there's a lot of duplication in the hero powers too, across both groups. (This is sort of showing me that Daggerheart is good for maybe 2 campaigns - just not enough material.)
8) I miss the 50 year history of D&D with classes, spells, magic items, monsters, campaign worlds, etc. Daggerheart just feels shallow compared to most other fantasy TRRPGs.

 

[Reynard]

Five month check-in. Running my Motherboard campaign biweekly (Tier 2, but we they chose to restart with new characters) and a weekly Witherwild game (end of Tier 3).
We like the epic feel of battles. The initiative system feels very organic. The powers are great. Some of the monsters are just amazing to run.
What's not awesome:
1) My Tier 3 group never, ever swaps their cards in their load it. The mechanic never crosses their mind. When I bring it up, it's like an unnecessary hassle, like changing your cellphone company.
2) No one cares about magic items, consumables, etc.
3) I don't use environments. They don't work well for my group.
4) Social enemies are worthless and better ignored.
5) Minions, also worthless. They are so ineffective they shouldn't require Fear to spotlight. Low damage. Pitiful accuracy.
6) "Solo" monsters aren't - like, you still need 3-4 other enemies (and I have small groups)
7) I've "run out" of enemies for the different tiers. I've exhausted everything in the book and encounters are starting to feel samey. On the same coin, there's a lot of duplication in the hero powers too, across both groups. (This is sort of showing me that Daggerheart is good for maybe 2 campaigns - just not enough material.)
8) I miss the 50 year history of D&D with classes, spells, magic items, monsters, campaign worlds, etc. Daggerheart just feels shallow compared to most other fantasy TRRPGs.

There are a couple good monster books out on DTRPG, and of course the official Hope and Fear supplement is out this summer.

I am surprised about environments. What doesn't work for you?

 

[Retreater]

I am surprised about environments. What doesn't work for you?

The encounter economy is the main issue. Most powers require no resources to use. In D&D, characters give up spell slots.

Much like the 4e skill challenges, they feel very artificial. And unlike their 4e counterparts, they are balanced too much on the "easy side" - which makes it difficult to impose the actual challenges that make the environments interesting.
The difficulties should probably be at least +3 higher because characters are going to be burning Hope to aid each other, using experiences, and bypassing the challenges altogether with their powers that require no recharge.

 

[zakael19]

Five month check-in. Running my Motherboard campaign biweekly (Tier 2, but we they chose to restart with new characters) and a weekly Witherwild game (end of Tier 3).
We like the epic feel of battles. The initiative system feels very organic. The powers are great. Some of the monsters are just amazing to run.
What's not awesome:
1) My Tier 3 group never, ever swaps their cards in their load it. The mechanic never crosses their mind. When I bring it up, it's like an unnecessary hassle, like changing your cellphone company.
2) No one cares about magic items, consumables, etc.
3) I don't use environments. They don't work well for my group.
4) Social enemies are worthless and better ignored.
5) Minions, also worthless. They are so ineffective they shouldn't require Fear to spotlight. Low damage. Pitiful accuracy.
6) "Solo" monsters aren't - like, you still need 3-4 other enemies (and I have small groups)
7) I've "run out" of enemies for the different tiers. I've exhausted everything in the book and encounters are starting to feel samey. On the same coin, there's a lot of duplication in the hero powers too, across both groups. (This is sort of showing me that Daggerheart is good for maybe 2 campaigns - just not enough material.)
8) I miss the 50 year history of D&D with classes, spells, magic items, monsters, campaign worlds, etc. Daggerheart just feels shallow compared to most other fantasy TRRPGs.

1) Interesting, but not surprising assuming this is the same group you've been running for all these years?
2) Ah, just like every other TTRPG. I've given my Thursday group a couple of custom magic items that they've been really enjoying using. Generally, giving them an off-spotlight reaction.
3) Fair, I've only started using them recently (or pseudo-environments in that I've like, speced out traps and stuff in my notes). A note: they're a good add to a "boss" type fight because they're an additional spotlight, and a way to cache a mechanic you want to add danger or intensity (or just, make the move regardless).
4) I dont know about worthless, but I haven't had a significant enough social encounter to feel like I needed to increment it yet. Mike Underwood's monster add-on has a lot of genuinely interesting social adversaries that go far beyond the core book.
5) Remember that any damage is either a HP or an armor slot marked, but yeah I haven't used them - I've been using Hordes if I want the fiction of this. I don't know why they gave so many of them -s to hit, 4e's Minions are meant to be juuuust dangerous enough that if you ignore them it's bad news bears. Given DH's math (any damage is a minor threshold which is at least armor, unless you've a handful of high tier abilities), it would be interesting to have them be a little more dangerous.
6) Yeah, this is common knowledge? They should've called them Elites, except the T4 multi-phase ones.
7) A level 10 character in DH has 12 domain cards base, unless they spend level ups on more. THat's out of a potential 42 cards they can choose from? Is this a you perception, or a player perception?

 

[Retreater]

2) Ah, just like every other TTRPG. I've given my Thursday group a couple of custom magic items that they've been really enjoying using. Generally, giving them an off-spotlight reaction.

Yeah. I guess there are just some iconic ones in other systems that get more use because powers/spells are more limited?

4) I dont know about worthless, but I haven't had a significant enough social encounter to feel like I needed to increment it yet. Mike Underwood's monster add-on has a lot of genuinely interesting social adversaries that go far beyond the core book.

In the core game, social enemies are way underbaked. HP and thresholds are too low, their powers too weak. As they are, it would be better just to wing the encounters.
Also, I'm hesitant to get any other resources (I guess for the same reason many players use DND Beyond). I do all my prep and run encounters from Fresh Cut Grass. Those PDFs aren't on there. They'd be a headache to implement at the table.

Given DH's math (any damage is a minor threshold which is at least armor, unless you've a handful of high tier abilities), it would be interesting to have them be a little more dangerous.

Their math doesn't work. A PC will wipe out half of them with one strike, trimming down their damage to a neglible amount. Plus their attack bonus is unlikely to connect anyway.
At minimum they should get getting an attack bonus equal to the number of minions.
Why waste a fear on a +1 to hit and do 1 damage?

6) Yeah, this is common knowledge? They should've called them Elites, except the T4 multi-phase ones.

Bruisers are already the Elites.
What this causes is an impossibility to challenge characters at the higher end of their tier. I guess unless you pull from the next highest tier?

7) A level 10 character in DH has 12 domain cards base, unless they spend level ups on more. THat's out of a potential 42 cards they can choose from? Is this a you perception, or a player perception?

Mine almost always take the new cards. But you'll see a lot of retreading. For example, Druid and Ranger are both Sage. I have a Druid in one game and a Ranger in both games. I've seen almost every Sage power.
And like 4E D&D at-will and encounter powers, these get used EVERY encounter. The game is just extremely samey.