Daggerheart General Thread [+]

[Elvish Lore]

(Actually this last I find an improvement on both Genesis (Age of Rebellion) and PbtA - in both those systems you need to be always "on"; in Age of Empire in particular I sometimes struggled to work out what to do with the Boon/Threats while just banking the Fear/Hope feels less wasteful in Daggerheart)

100% this.

I recently wrapped a year long Genesys urban fantasy campaign and the amount of cognitive overload I was dealing was exhausting. Running DH with very similar ideas of 'bad meta-currency accrual' is just way easier. Even before I started reading DH, I was thinking of hacking into Genesys some means of banking Threat/Despair.

 

[SteveC]

However, one gripe that my group has is that there are a lot of extra steps involved in combat that often end up not actually doing much of anything. I believe there are a lot of good ideas contained within the game, but I am currently not sure that they are implemented in a wholly satisfying way.

For example, the idea of the wound points (or whatever they are called... I forget) and armor reducing damage is something that makes sense. One of the group members has run FFG Age of Rebellion in the past. But I don't quite grasp why there are so many additional steps to accomplish what other games do with "Soak" or "armor as DR." Even when that means other games also have a lot of steps, the steps at least seem to be meaningful. Currently, I am not sure that I understand having so many extra steps in Daggerheart for those extra steps to usually not matter in a meaningful way.

For what it's worth, this was the issue in the playtest that caused one of the players to ragequit. Back then, you'd subtract your armor score from the damage of an attack, and then compare it back to the table, so you might spend a slot and not have it make any effect, or have to spend multiple slots to do so.

In the final game, you determine severity, then spend a slot to simply reduce it by 1. I think that's a lot simpler and it has worked for a different group I ran for.

What you get rid of here, is dealing with large numbers. A 5E monster can easily have over 100 hit points (or even more) and having to subtract is something of a barrier for players. Just having a small number of hit points and then converting damage into 1-2-3 damage is clever. The question is, is it too clever? Does it offer enough as opposed to dealing with big numbers? Don't know yet.

 

[Reynard]

Check threshold/use armour are two steps.

Of course subtracting is normally slower than checking so it comes out in the wash unless you have very low damage numbers. I think it's mostly familiarity.

But it isn't extra steps for a soak system, just a different intermediate step. Sure, it is an extra step from D&D, but that wasn't the claim.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

The CR US shop has boxless copies available. Just the book and loose cards in a bag.

https://shop.critrole.com/products/boxless-daggerheart-standard-bundle

At a $5 discount I’d rather wait lol

 

[overgeeked]

This is a plus thread. If y'all wanna argue about the system, kindly take it elsewhere.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

This is a plus thread. If y'all wanna argue about the system, kindly take it elsewhere.

And on that note... my copy arrived today!

I'll be reading it over the weekend.

 

[zakael19]

Had something wild (for me) last night, an in-person session 0 just down the road from the house with a bunch of other locals. As noted previously, I had them pick an instinct/belief as one experience.

We have:

• Felian, orc/human mixed ancestry seaborne Ranger, from a clan of religious zealots who cast him out (his personal item is earrings made from his snapped off tusks when they expelled him). Trying to find his own way as a tracker: "anything can be done if you try hard enough"
• Berel, a halfling slyborne wizard, an orphan who found magic tomes when his crew stole from the Royal Wizards and fell down that rabbit hole. Striking out on his own in search of richer patrons and forbidden knowledge. "Knowledge is worth (almost) any price)
• Sergius, giant/firbolg mixed ancestry Toilborne Seraph/Paladin of the Lady of Peace, called north to face some threat of evil and prove himself as a worthy Paladin. "ALL life should be protected."
• Ruha, Faun Ridgeborne elemental Sorcerer (earth flavor), part of a nomadic troupe that connects far-flung Faun tribes of the forest and plains. "People should not be constrained"
• Nameless (pending, last minute add when somebody else dropped), Infernis Highborne warrior, father is an advisor in a Duke's household, she is off secretly in service of the duke but also to get away form her father's expectations for a bit. "Defiance - refuse to back down, give in, give up."

 

[Reynard]

This is a plus thread. If y'all wanna argue about the system, kindly take it elsewhere.

A plus thread doesn't mean we can't have a discussion.

But, the real reason to take it elsewhere is it was mostly off topic.