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

System plays on 'the dualities of hope and fear'.

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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.
 

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TwoSix

"Diegetics", by L. Ron Gygax
To be more positive, defining the core of the class as the combination of 2 shared power sets is genius and I love it.

Just with the 9 power sets they've provided, you have the bones to make 36 different classes.

Edit: Can't count correctly.
 
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SteveC

Doing the best imitation of myself
I emailed my group about the playtest and one of the players responses was "YES!!!" So I thanked them for volunteering to run. I think my work here is done.

But seriously: I think that there are going to be some folks here who will really dig the game and some who will hate it with the intensity of 10000 suns. I'm not sure who those people will be so I suggest grabbing the download and looking at it for yourself.
 


Aldarc

Legend
I'm assuming they think the more narrative, storygame elements will be the more controversial ones?
Yea, I'm pretty impressed by it, but it's wearing its 4e influences AND its PbtA influences on its sleeve. Add that to the Critical Role aspect, and this is going to attract a TON of criticism.
Pretty much. I think that even things like "no initiative" is scaring some people who have never encountered games without it.
 




SteveC

Doing the best imitation of myself
Is there a writeup of this somewhere (that isn't a 3h video)? I can't access the playtest currently.
The Daggerheart channel on Youtube has much shorter videos about how to play the game and create a character. You can also get the playtest both at the Daggerheart site and at Drivethrurpg. And if you have a question, I'm glad to answer it from what I know.
 

CleverNickName

Limit Break Dancing (He/They)
I still can't get over how well-done this playtest is. From the writing and the artwork, to the distribution and the marketing, everything is so professional, so polished. It's easy to see how much talent, thought, and labor went into this project.

Whether or not you like Daggerheart, this should stand forever as a masterclass in "How to Promote Your New RPG."
 
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