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.

 

[Minigiant]

Me? I'm weary about all the meta currencies. I like them as a concept but this might be too many. They also might make more sense and interact far better in play than they read — like quite a few boardgames does.

This is my worry for it as well. There is a lot to track at once. 4 of them. Each with 1-10 usages.

And GMs will be rolling in Fear trying to vomit it all out while you do it.

 

[overgeeked]

At least two of the magic items are named after C2 characters. Both Essek and Caleb Widogast are name dropped.

 

[Zehnseiter]

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.

I feel the need to point out that if this is a twist to you then you played D&D way too long as this is very much not a Wizard Archetype but a D&D Trapping .....

Not only in a ton of literature but in TTRPGs as well. It is a much of a D&D trapping as the Fighter are jocks trapping D&D never managed to get rid off. Those two always feel especially artificial given that I grew up in Germany and D&D was not my first RPG. In TDE almost all spell casting Tradions can cast healing spells and the best Fighters get a higher education in special schools and academies.

 

[Shardstone]

After finishing the pdf, this is an amazing narrative combat game. Also, countdowns are the clocks of the future. Its cool seeing other game designers come to this conclusion via convergent evolution; Im using it in an upcoming book, ive seen blogs on it, etc.

The fear mechanics shine the most in combat imo. Incredibly slick. Fear + the hp, stress, and threshold dynamics are just so, so womderful.

 

[SakanaSensei]

Having given the PDF a more thorough read and made 10 or so characters in Demiplane, now, I think this is something I’m going to need to try. It hits so much of what I was trying to make myself, but a hell of a lot better.

The one shot CR ran is a fun listen, too. The team attack moments in particular stand out as really slick in that “limit break” fashion.

 

[overgeeked]

Having given the PDF a more thorough read and made 10 or so characters in Demiplane, now, I think this is something I’m going to need to try. It hits so much of what I was trying to make myself, but a hell of a lot better.

The one shot CR ran is a fun listen, too. The team attack moments in particular stand out as really slick in that “limit break” fashion.

I’m honestly surprised how close to D&D they’re staying. Down to preserving the wizard vs fighter problem. Considering how much they’re into anime and JRPGs, especially Matt, it’s really surprising there’s not more obvious anime influence. Like martials that are crazy cool and can actually do amazing things.

As you say, tag-team moves are limit breaks. There’s also solid advice on how to do multi-phase fights, a staple of JRPGs and Matt’s style. I’m just surprised there’s not more overt stuff.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I’m honestly surprised how close to D&D they’re staying. Down to preserving the wizard vs fighter problem. Considering how much they’re into anime and JRPGs, especially Matt, it’s really surprising there’s not more obvious anime influence. Like martials that are crazy cool and can actually do amazing things.

As you say, tag-team moves are limit breaks. There’s also solid advice on how to do multi-phase fights, a staple of JRPGs and Matt’s style. I’m just surprised there’s not more overt stuff.

I imagine they still want to sell to fans of D&D, and there little in this world that's more D&D than Wizard vs. Fighter debates.

That's what I find most interesting about this whole thing. CR is, to my mind, forcing their fans to decide what they care about more: the game they are playing or the people playing the game. Really curious how it all shakes out.

 

[MuhVerisimilitude]

I’m honestly surprised how close to D&D they’re staying. Down to preserving the wizard vs fighter problem. Considering how much they’re into anime and JRPGs, especially Matt, it’s really surprising there’s not more obvious anime influence. Like martials that are crazy cool and can actually do amazing things.

As you say, tag-team moves are limit breaks. There’s also solid advice on how to do multi-phase fights, a staple of JRPGs and Matt’s style. I’m just surprised there’s not more overt stuff.

To be quite honest it doesn't matter as long as casters aren't the utility demons they are in D&D. If casters are more restricted it doesn't really matter.

 

[overgeeked]

To be quite honest it doesn't matter as long as casters aren't the utility demons they are in D&D. If casters are more restricted it doesn't really matter.

We’ve touched on that in the thread already. They definitely are still OP compared to everyone else. The codex cards give bards and wizards three incredibly useful powers when every other domain card only gives one power. So a 1st level non-codex character can have, at most, two powers. While a codex class can have six.

 

[MuhVerisimilitude]

We’ve touched on that in the thread already. They definitely are still OP compared to everyone else. The codex cards give bards and wizards three incredibly useful powers when every other domain card only gives one power. So a 1st level non-codex character can have, at most, two powers. While a codex class can have six.

That does sound like a problem. I'll have to check out the playtest I guess.