Daggerheart Discussion

[Kichwas]

Having only read the SRD, I would not feel qualified to make that argument with any authority,

Not dipping into the 'is it this or that style' debate per se as I haven't been reading along very much.

But Daggerheart is one of those books where the most valuable part of the book is not in the rules, and thus not carried over into the SRD.

I suppose that can lead to a valid debate over what kind of game it is - when readers of the book have a very different set of information than readers of the SRD. Does all that added info just count as flavor text or is it substance.

I personally think the book is a good buy even for people who never want to run or play it because as far as a guide to 'how to be a better GM' and 'how to be a better player' - it's better written than every last book I've read intended to actually address those topics.

Then again it's also written to favor my own preferences so bias is in play there. But I did not have those preferences before I read the book.

 

[Tigris]

In general, Daggerheart does this well, the damage threshold mechanics allow everyone to roll a lot of dice and get impressive results and then it's a few checkmarks for the DM to mark down.

It's... dare I say it ... elegant?

You roll a bunch of dice, of potentially different sizes, needing to add them together + also add a modifier together and then tell the number to the GM who then compares this to a small table to get a number from 1-3.

I would say this is the absolute opposite of elegant.


I can see that it is less tracking (although tracking damage with ticks (of 5) is not that much more complex), and I can see that it fulfills the player desire of "rolling many dice", but elegant is when you do the absolute minimum to get this result.


And getting a result from 1-3 can be done A LOT easier, like rolling a single dice. Or drawing a single card.


You even need up to 6 dice of every size you can deal damage, because damage dice scale with proficiency, so the game not just needs 2d12 +1d6 but 6d4 + 6d6 + 6d8 + 6d10 + 6d12 (+1d20).


Even doing it with "rolling many dice" could be done easier. Just say you have 6d12 in total (or 7 with special abilities).

Then depending on your attack (and proficiency) you roll a different number of d12, and depending on the enemy defense you need a different target number. The number of dice rolled (up to max 3, min 1) with this number of higher gives the damage. No addition needed, still rolling same number of dice. Also not 6x of every dice size needed just from the d12.

 

[SteveC]

You roll a bunch of dice, of potentially different sizes, needing to add them together + also add a modifier together and then tell the number to the GM who then compares this to a small table to get a number from 1-3.

I would say this is the absolute opposite of elegant.

There may be some people not familiar with Daggerheart in the thread, so I thought I'd clarify this in case they don't know.

Characters have an ability called proficiency that determines the number of dice they roll for damage. Proficiency starts at 1, and increases to 6 by the highest Tier.
Weapons have a damage die and a mod. When you hit, you roll your proficiency in dice and add the mod once. That's the damage you cause.

Opponents have three damage thresholds: Minor, Major, and Severe. You take a look at the damage you cause and if it causes any damage, that usually does minor damage. If you do Major damage or more, that's 2 HP, and Severe is 3 HP.

The GM I played with used a rule where, as soon as you did Major or Severe damage, they told you what the Threshold was, so you'd know next time how many HP you caused and could just tell them. I used that with the Quickstart, and it seems like a good option.

Now, some abilities just cause a set amount of damage, and if you crit, you cause max damage + rolled damage.

And those are the basics.

In the demo version leading up to the actual release, this was more complicated (and players I played with hated it), but the final version flows well once you experience a combat or two.

 

[Reynard]

There may be some people not familiar with Daggerheart in the thread, so I thought I'd clarify this in case they don't know.

Characters have an ability called proficiency that determines the number of dice they roll for damage. Proficiency starts at 1, and increases to 6 by the highest Tier.
Weapons have a damage die and a mod. When you hit, you roll your proficiency in dice and add the mod once. That's the damage you cause.

Opponents have three damage thresholds: Minor, Major, and Severe. You take a look at the damage you cause and if it causes any damage, that usually does minor damage. If you do Major damage or more, that's 2 HP, and Severe is 3 HP.

The GM I played with used a rule where, as soon as you did Major or Severe damage, they told you what the Threshold was, so you'd know next time how many HP you caused and could just tell them. I used that with the Quickstart, and it seems like a good option.

Now, some abilities just cause a set amount of damage, and if you crit, you cause max damage + rolled damage.

And those are the basics.

In the demo version leading up to the actual release, this was more complicated (and players I played with hated it), but the final version flows well once you experience a combat or two.

Good summation.