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.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

I don't like the assumption that a game not being rules light is a criticism.

i mean, if a game says it's rules light (as daggerheart does) when it actually isn't, i'd say that's a valid criticism. not because not being rules light is bad, but because the system is being misleading about how it actually works.

 

[Reynard]

But most damning criticism to me was the fact that due how the actions are generated, sometimes it is optimal for a PC to do nothing at all in combat. This really should never be the case.

I don't understand this. If players are engaged with the game, and they feel that they don't need to do anything at a given moment, what is the problem? It is a narrative game. The things that happen in it are supposed to form some sort of story. Sometimes, the camera lingers on one character longer than another.

The idea that it isn't fair or the character not acting is somehow being cheated only makes sense if you think the only important thing in a game is combat.

 

[Micah Sweet]

i mean, if a game says it's rules light (as daggerheart does) when it actually isn't, i'd say that's a valid criticism. not because not being rules light is bad, but because the system is being misleading about how it actually works.

Ok, I didn't know they made that claim. Some people seem to think "narrative" and "rules light" are somehow synonyms.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

Ok, I didn't know they made that claim.

here's the specific quote from the playtest (on page 7):

 

[Reynard]

i mean, if a game says it's rules light (as daggerheart does) when it actually isn't, i'd say that's a valid criticism. not because not being rules light is bad, but because the system is being misleading about how it actually works.

I think "rules light" here means that it doesn't have the myriad options of D&D. While that is one definition of rules light, I agree that it isn't quite accurate terminology for a game with a decent amount of moving parts.

 

[NaturalZero]

The game isn't rules-light, it's options-light.

EDIT: got ninja'ed right when i posted this lol

 

[Reynard]

The game isn't rules-light, it's options-light.

EDIT: got ninja'ed right when i posted this lol

Right but it does call itself rules light right in the introduction.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

I think "rules light" here means that it doesn't have the myriad options of D&D. While that is one definition of rules light, I agree that it isn't quite accurate terminology for a game with a decent amount of moving parts.

it'd still be a misnomer if that is what they meant, but i don't think it is. it goes on to talk about how combat flows and how it doesn't need grids or minis. i do think they are trying to compare the complexity to D&D, though, because of:

i'm not really sure how you refer to that first sentence as not referring to D&D. i'll note, though, that this snippet i've grabbed implies daggerheart is trying to thin the line between something like D&D and rules-light systems, so...i guess it boils down to whether or not you think the system succeeds at that.

 

[Reynard]

i'm not really sure how you refer to that first sentence as not referring to D&D.

I didn't say that.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

I didn't say that.

i...didn't say you did. i was just emphasizing how it's obviously a reference to D&D. it was a generic "you".