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.

 

[Fifth Element]

Why?

They explained why in some detail. Currently moving a weapon from inventory to active involves actually moving the weapon's info from the inventory section to the active weapons section. It would be better to just have checkboxes to show which weapons are active.

 

[TwoSix]

They explained why in some detail. Currently moving a weapon from inventory to active involves actually moving the weapon's info from the inventory section to the active weapons section. It would be better to just have checkboxes to show which weapons are active.

But again…why? You just declare in the story that you’re now using your inventory weapon as your active weapon. Why would anyone possibly demand that you erase something on your sheet and put in a new value, just for a few rounds of combat?

That seems like an aggressive amount of formalism that isn’t needed.

 

[Reynard]

They explained why in some detail. Currently moving a weapon from inventory to active involves actually moving the weapon's info from the inventory section to the active weapons section. It would be better to just have checkboxes to show which weapons are active.

I mean, no one is forcing you to constantly erase and shift your weapons on your actual character sheet. it is a ridiculous complaint with no basis in what people need to do to play the game.

ETA: Rereading both the post and the rules, I understand where Fifth Element is coming from now and I agree: use cards or a checkbox for indicating where weapons are "stored" and the problem is solved.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

But again…why?

Same reason for having anything written down: people forget stuff.

And an active weapon tickbox would be really easy to implement. That's the point of a playtest isn't it? Look for things that can be improved - especially the low hanging fruit.

 

[Campbell]

I am not personally worried about a lack of initiative, mostly because actually having played Ironsworn and Blades in the Dark with people has shown me it isn’t a problem. But if it does become one, I’ll add one rule: when you place your action token, before you take your turn, tell another player they are on deck. They will be the next PC to act.

Quick, gives quiet people time to think of what they will do (something I notice often as a need), and has the whole table be responsible for keeping the spotlight moving.

I really like this. Pretty much like Marvel Heroic popcorn initiative for player characters. Might play around with this when I do a playtest one shot.

 

[Campbell]

I have not had a chance to run a live session yet, but I have run a few a solo test combats using different sets of the pregens and the first encounter from the quickstart adventure and it felt pretty fluid. Very dynamic. The momentum and frame shifts seem like they could feel pretty movie like. Big standout for me was how quickly I was able to process the damage math and hp loss in my head (compared to subtraction) and how short individual moments of spotlight were compared to D&D turns.

Obviously, I will have to see it in motion with other players. I tend to have a pretty easy time learning new rules so I expect there will likely be some growing pains for the people I play with.

 

[Reynard]

I have a session scheduled for April 12. I am hoping someone has thrown together a Roll20 character sheet by then. I don't need a ton of automation but it would be nice to be able to use maps and tokens. otherwise I figure we will just use Discord and Demiplane.

I am on the fence about using the provided adventure, or coming up with something of my own. How are other folks testing re: scenario?

 

[TwoSix]

Same reason for having anything written down: people forget stuff.

And an active weapon tickbox would be really easy to implement. That's the point of a playtest isn't it? Look for things that can be improved - especially the low hanging fruit.

Oh, if it's just an issue with the layout of the default character sheet, that's fine. The "I have to erase" construction of the original complaint made it seem like some kind of rules issue that didn't make sense.

I make most of my characters freehand on looseleaf or Notepad++, so I don't usually initially process issues about character sheets as actually just being about, well, character sheets.

 

[Reynard]

Oh, if it's just an issue with the layout of the default character sheet, that's fine. The "I have to erase" construction of the original complaint made it seem like some kind of rules issue that didn't make sense.

I make most of my characters freehand on looseleaf or Notepad++, so I don't usually initially process issues about character sheets as actually just being about, well, character sheets.

Taking the time to re-examine the actual sheet, I think I understand the complaint: there is, in fact, a mechanical difference between a weapon in inventory versus being "active" on that inventory weapons do not grant access to their Features. As such, it is important to know what is where. Constant erasing is, of course, a silly solution and a checkbox is infinitely more practical. Weapon cars would be even more practical for in person play, at least.

 

[Aldarc]

Oh, I would try to run it “by the book” at first. But I can foresee it quickly spiraling out of control as three 12 year old girls yelled over each other trying to take their actions all at the same time, and me trying to rein them in and discern what each of them was saying. Or, if I turn out to be a crappy Daggerheart GM, I would probably have to keep prodding them to do something as they sat around goofing off instead of paying attention.

I would recommend trying Dungeon World or Blades in the Dark first, because Daggerheart is in some ways more akin to these games than a traditional d20 game. There is no initiative in these games, but that fact has never been an issue in my games. That may be different for you and your table. Experiences will vary. But no initiative doesn't mean that everyone blurts out what they want to do. The game is a conversation. In many of these games, the GM will frame the scene and then turn to a single player and ask them "What do you do?" You may take them through several actions or rolls, and then turn to another player and say, "The monster is about to hit your friend Named PC #1, what do you do?" The GM is very much in the driver's seat with the conversation.