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

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

DH064_Bard-Wordsmith-Nikki-Dawes-2560x1440.jpg


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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brodahisou

Drunken Bard
I've not read everything in the playtest but from what I have read and watching the videos this will only really appeal to people who love role playing and creating/effecting/enhancing the world that their characters live in. I can't see it appealing to those players who aren't big on role play and interacting with groups. I pretty new to RPG's and I enjoy the whole roleplaying thing, but I do find the whole concept of how involved the players are in Daggerheart both intriguing and daunting at the same time.
 

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Reynard

Legend
My thoughts after digesting it is that it is built for streaming and may not work as well for your average table. I am still going to try and get a group together willing to give it a couple sessions anyway.
 

TwoSix

Dirty, realism-hating munchkin powergamer
Well, even with just 9 decks, you should be able to make 36 classes. (I think you could do 4 closed rings of 9, but I'd have to check.) That would probably be too samey, though.

Making new decks swappable (like a new martial deck that can be used in place of Blade, for example), could be a way to add new powers without necessarily disrupting a symmetrical core.
To clarify what I mean by closed rings. With 9 power sets, there are 36 combinations of 2 sets. The 9 classes in the playtest make a ring, with each powerset used exactly twice by 2 different classes. With 36 total combinations, you can make 4 rings of 9 classes that are closed, as below. This isn't the only way to do it, of course, lots of possible combinations. You can even chain them together to make a single ring of 36.

Playtest set:

Grace/Codex = Bard
Codex/Splendor = Wizard
Splendor/Valor = Seraph
Valor/Blade = Guardian
Blade/Bone = Warrior
Bone/Sage = Ranger
Sage/Arcana = Druid
Arcana/Midnight = Sorcerer
Midnight/Grace = Rogue

Set 2:
Grace/Splendor
Splendor/Blade
Blade/Sage
Sage/Midnight
Midnight/Codex
Codex/Valor
Valor/Bone
Bone/Arcana
Arcane/Grace

Set 3:
Grace/Valor
Valor/Sage
Sage/Codex
Codex/Blade
Blade/Arcana
Arcana/Splendor
Splendor/Midnight
Midnight/Bone
Bone/Grace

Set 4:
Grace/Blade
Blade/Midnight
Midnight/Valor
Valor/Arcana
Arcana/Codex
Codex/Bone
Bone/Splendor
Splendor/Sage
Sage/Grace
 




TwoSix

Dirty, realism-hating munchkin powergamer
My thoughts after digesting it is that it is built for streaming and may not work as well for your average table. I am still going to try and get a group together willing to give it a couple sessions anyway.
As someone who doesn't consume any streaming content for games, what aspects would work better for streaming than for home games?
 

Reynard

Legend
As someone who doesn't consume any streaming content for games, what aspects would work better for streaming than for home games?
I think there is a strong spectator aspect to the way action tokens are designed, for example. The use of cards a little bit too: I can see Travis or Marisha slapping one day with gusto when a class ability becomes clutch.
 

TwoSix

Dirty, realism-hating munchkin powergamer
I think there is a strong spectator aspect to the way action tokens are designed, for example. The use of cards a little bit too: I can see Travis or Marisha slapping one day with gusto when a class ability becomes clutch.
Makes sense. My own DMing style leans towards the theatrical, so I'm generally in favor of features that enhance that aspect.

I would absolutely swoop up a bunch of tokens from the action tracker with maniacal laughter, for example. :)
 


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