Ok? But I was suggesting since it’s a fiction-first / scene framed game looking at how it handles the genre might be useful for people wanting to tackle this idea. The Trophy SRD is free.
Daggerheart General Thread [+]
- Thread starter overgeeked
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Ok? But I was suggesting since it’s a fiction-first / scene framed game looking at how it handles the genre might be useful for people wanting to tackle this idea. The Trophy SRD is free.
Elvish Lore
Adventurer
Yea, if I were to institute Aspects into the game, I would use one Hope to set up a temporary Aspect on a scene. I actually found in play people were maxing out on Hope and setting up Aspects seems like a fine outlet for that resource. Also, it'll correct itself if there's an issue - if they start running out of hope, people won't use the Aspects because they'll need it to power abilities, spells, their own Experiences, helping, etc. If they find themselves with a mound of Hope, they'll use to set up Aspects.
Personally, I think there's enough going on mechanically with difficulties and circumstances that apply advantages and disadvantages, Aspects complicate scenes unnecessarily and tend to formalize those ideas without much benefit.
But it sounds like it's something you and your group want. Go for it!
Personally, I think there's enough going on mechanically with difficulties and circumstances that apply advantages and disadvantages, Aspects complicate scenes unnecessarily and tend to formalize those ideas without much benefit.
But it sounds like it's something you and your group want. Go for it!
Re: DaggerHeart and dungeon crawling, I think (based on a read, not played it yet) that this will be tricky. My experience of trying to run dungeon crawls using Savage Worlds is that dungeon crawling is a campaign theme that relies heavily on resource attrition as a driving force. Try to run that kind of adventure with a system that isn’t built for attrition and you start to get into difficulties. Either there aren’t enough ways to degrade the party, or you end up hammering them into the ground. And I don’t think core DaggerHeart is designed for attrition; the numbers aren’t big enough for that.
If I was going to run a dungeon session with DaggerHeart it would look like the exploration in session 2 of Age of Umbra - narrative and slightly zoomed out exploration until you hit a focus scene involving some kind of exploration challenge or combat. And that’s the way I run dungeon-like adventures with Savage Worlds, too. When my friends in the group have tried to run dungeons more classically in Savage Worlds we have usually run into difficulties where the party are over taxed by the experience since even ‘speed bump’ combats are potentially lethal if you use the full combat system (Savage Worlds has an answer to this - Dangerous Quick Encounters - but you need to know to use them as a GM).
I think the closest you would get to classic dungeon crawling attrition in DH is that there can only be three short rests before you need a long rest. The short rests let you top up your numbers periodically, of course, so the characters would be worn down partially, top up, then repeat until they need a long rest. You could make long resting in a dungeon difficult or impossible to strengthen that limit. The challenge would be how you apply other growing pressure on the party? Since there are no spell slots (the closes being per rest or per day abilities) you would probably need to create a new long term penalty / debuff.
Thinking about it, one possible mechanism might be to limit maximum load out of domain cards? Drop to max-4 after the second sort rest in a dungeon, then max-3 after the third? You’d need to think that through carefully but it would be significantly limiting while not insurmountable since you can switch domain abilities into your loadout by spending stress. You may need to account for cards with ‘per rest’ limits more rigorously since they would be a classic to use then swap out.
If I was going to run a dungeon session with DaggerHeart it would look like the exploration in session 2 of Age of Umbra - narrative and slightly zoomed out exploration until you hit a focus scene involving some kind of exploration challenge or combat. And that’s the way I run dungeon-like adventures with Savage Worlds, too. When my friends in the group have tried to run dungeons more classically in Savage Worlds we have usually run into difficulties where the party are over taxed by the experience since even ‘speed bump’ combats are potentially lethal if you use the full combat system (Savage Worlds has an answer to this - Dangerous Quick Encounters - but you need to know to use them as a GM).
I think the closest you would get to classic dungeon crawling attrition in DH is that there can only be three short rests before you need a long rest. The short rests let you top up your numbers periodically, of course, so the characters would be worn down partially, top up, then repeat until they need a long rest. You could make long resting in a dungeon difficult or impossible to strengthen that limit. The challenge would be how you apply other growing pressure on the party? Since there are no spell slots (the closes being per rest or per day abilities) you would probably need to create a new long term penalty / debuff.
Thinking about it, one possible mechanism might be to limit maximum load out of domain cards? Drop to max-4 after the second sort rest in a dungeon, then max-3 after the third? You’d need to think that through carefully but it would be significantly limiting while not insurmountable since you can switch domain abilities into your loadout by spending stress. You may need to account for cards with ‘per rest’ limits more rigorously since they would be a classic to use then swap out.
Aldarc
Legend
Is it possible to do dungeon crawls in PbtA? Yes. See Dungeon World. More specifically, see Perilous Wilds which is probably one of the most praised supplements for a game. It gets praise even in OSR circles. DH would potentially need its own version of Perilous Wilds.
Do these look like OSR dungeon crawls or run like them? No. Attrition is IMHO less the goal. Instead it's the story beats of dungeon crawling: splitting the party, alerting guards, traps triggered, cave-ins, etc. I promise you that the GM Moves are there in Daggerheart since most are lifted from PbtA. Again, I would potentially only add Supply/Resource in addition to HP and Stress, but even that isn't needed.
Do these look like OSR dungeon crawls or run like them? No. Attrition is IMHO less the goal. Instead it's the story beats of dungeon crawling: splitting the party, alerting guards, traps triggered, cave-ins, etc. I promise you that the GM Moves are there in Daggerheart since most are lifted from PbtA. Again, I would potentially only add Supply/Resource in addition to HP and Stress, but even that isn't needed.
Yeah, exactly - scene based dungeon crawling. Similar to how Trophy handles it, and how I do sites in Stonetop.
The trappings of a dungeon, with the focus in on those moments you'd see in a movie/novel of danger, discover, excitement. I think that's a lot of fun regardless of system.
I guess you could also use Stress/resting as a meter? You could use a Countdown as a like Wandering Monster check, and tick it on rests or as consequences etc.
Edit: is anybody really going to try and pick DH up to do like "actual" OSR style play? You'd have to hack so much into it, even more than 5e. You can hit the vibe of it (again, Trophy is the trappings of OSR dungeons without almost any of the actual procedures), but I think that's about it.
I would say "No" except there will always be someone who chooses the wrong tool for the job and then complains how it is a bad tool.
Faolyn
(she/her)
Level Up does that as well, with a generic Supply that counts as either a day's rations or as a simple, one-use travel item (like mosquito netting, useful for traveling through a swamp or jungle). A lot of Exploration Challenges cause you to lose Supply on a bad roll. It should be a snap to create one for DH and say that a roll with Fear opens up the possibility of losing one for whatever reason.
Teemu
Hero
Party supplies could be a countdown that ticks down when the GM spends Fear to do so or when you rest. Something like that. Once you’re out of supplies you can no longer rest or maybe all the downtime actions give less. So something like only Tier number of Stress or HP with the corresponding short rest action, or 1d4 with a long rest. Many options to pursue. Daggerheart definitely does have resource attrition.
Yeah I was gonna say that’s just a countdown dice. Can do a simplified “carry X supplies normally, add X but take disadvantage to certain actions / Reactions for being burdened…”
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