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

Dirty, realism-hating munchkin powergamer
Yes, they are strong choices. Trouble is, the casters are dramatically stronger. For example, most classes get one feature per card but some of the casters get three spells per card.
Hmm. I mean, since the domain powers are supposed to be freely swappable, the domains should be roughly (theoretically) balanced, right?

Like, if the Codex domain is just flat out better than the Blade domain, that’s a design bug, not a feature.
 

overgeeked

B/X Known World
Hmm. I mean, since the domain powers are supposed to be freely swappable, the domains should be roughly (theoretically) balanced, right?
Should be.
Like, if the Codex domain is just flat out better than the Blade domain, that’s a design bug, not a feature.
Exactly.

Arcana. Level 1. Wall Walk. Spend Hope to allow one target to walk on walls and ceilings for 10 minutes.

Bone. Level 1. Nimble. Add Agi to Evasion.

Codex. Level 1. Book of Illiat. Sleep as a short-range at-will. And a Hope-fueled attack spell. And a single-target Telepathy as an at-will.

Yeah. I’d say Codex (i.e. wizards) are dramatically OP compared to the rest.
 

TwoSix

Dirty, realism-hating munchkin powergamer
Total tangent; I wonder if they thanked Sanderson in the credits. The whole "each class has exactly two powersets, each of which is shared with exactly one other class" is exactly the how the Knights Radiant orders are set up in the Stormlight Archive.
 

overgeeked

B/X Known World
The domains to classes are weird.

Wizard is codex and splendor, meaning they have access to healing spells. But not the arcana domain.

But yeah. Every codex card has three powers. Bards and wizards have access to codex. You get two cards at first level. If you take two codex cards, you have six powers compared to everyone else’s max of two powers. As you level you get more cards in your loadout (active cards) so if you keep picking codex cards, you’re gaining three powers every time while everyone else only gets one per card.
 

TwoSix

Dirty, realism-hating munchkin powergamer
Arcana. Level 1. Wall Walk. Spend Hope to allow one target to walk on walls and ceilings for 10 minutes.

Bone. Level 1. Nimble. Add Agi to Evasion.

Codex. Level 1. Book of Illiat. Sleep as a short-range at-will. And a Hope-fueled attack spell. And a single-target Telepathy as an at-will.

Yeah. I’d say Codex (i.e. wizards) are dramatically OP compared to the rest.
Yea, I see what you mean. A lot of the problematic spells, the versatile ones, are keyworded as "Grimoire". Every other power is either an "Ability" or a "Spell". According to the Playtest main rules document. "Grimoire" powers are restricted to the Codex domain (by design, not by rule), but don't appear to have any other special rules or restrictions around them.

Not sure if they're going to add special rules around the keyword, or if the individual components of the power are supposed to be less powerful. Definitely something to flag during the playtesting.
 

TwoSix

Dirty, realism-hating munchkin powergamer
The domains to classes are weird.

Wizard is codex and splendor, meaning they have access to healing spells. But not the arcana domain.

But yeah. Every codex card has three powers. Bards and wizards have access to codex. You get two cards at first level. If you take two codex cards, you have six powers compared to everyone else’s max of two powers. As you level you get more cards in your loadout (active cards) so if you keep picking codex cards, you’re gaining three powers every time while everyone else only gets one per card.
I'll be honest, I kind of love how giving Wizards the Splendor domain positions them more as abjurers/protectors/healers by default. It's a solid twist on what is (to me) the overly familiar, near cliched, Wizard archetype.
 


Minigiant

Legend
Supporter
To be clear, I think the cards are really neat! Just for those who don't like that presentation, like you say, I don't see them as essential at all.
It's just Pretty Feats.

I like Pretty stuff. I appreciate Pretty stuff. But it's just a feat system on their own pretty cards.
 

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