Daggerheart General Thread [+]

[zakael19]

There’s also the bit of how the interlocking systems (recovery + fear gain) and admonition to consider combat from its narrative weight + lack of initiative mean that you’re not doing the screen transition “Roll for Initiative” but just making an appropriate GM Move or showing how the world reacts to the PC’s moves in turn.

Sometimes that means I’ve set up an encounter budget for the PCs to potentially turn to violence against, or like they did two sessions ago negotiate via good rolls and scouting choices to turn it into a counter ambush and then negotiation from position of strength.

And then sometimes they kick the door in on an uncovered spy ring, opting to tackle that right then and there and we have to tackle a big Bruiser smacking people around his trading post while his assassin partner sneaks around with shadow magic and knifes the Sorcerer & their sell swords take potshots with their crossbows.

Edit: perceptual quicker vs clock quicker may be interesting. So far it’s been both for me - but Dungeon World combat can be very time consuming but also super engaging.

 

[Faolyn]

I think it does indeed feel like a 5e D&D game out of the box, just better in ways. Especially the initiative system. That’s huge to me.

I agree here. In the D&D game I'm in, a couple of weeks ago, another player and I managed to pull off a life-and-day-saving one-two punch that would have been impossible if we hadn't rolled initiative the way we did.

Admittedly, the rarity of the setup made this event incredibly cool, but it also feels a bit artificial--this isn't something we can do unless the dice gods smile on us in the initiative order.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

Oh yeah. In theory from outside, this should be a hand in glove fit. And it wasn't just dictated at you, I've just seen far too many people dismiss the game as "a game only made for Critical Role and the critters" as if theatre kids never existed in the 70s. So more of a kneejerk thing

Appreciate the clarification—and I get it. The conversation around this game is already loaded with assumptions, and it doesn’t take much for a post to get slotted into one side or another, even if that’s not the intent.

That’s partly what I’ve been thinking about since your reply. Not so much whether people agree with what I said, but how quickly the focus shifts to where someone seems to stand. I’m more interested in how these systems reflect specific design responses—especially when you can trace those back to observable constraints, like the ones CR has run into over the years. But I realize that in a thread like this, even analytical takes can get interpreted as allegiance.

 

[Vael]

@Vael I don't personally think faster is an odd measurement, but bear in mind I was burned hard by how slow combat got in some games, particularly 3E and 4E D&D (though the very worst offender remains Champions: The New Millennium), so this matters a lot to me. I vastly prefer a short or moderate session in which we might have multiple combats and plenty of RP and exploration, not multiple combats OR that or worse, one combat taking the whole short or moderate session (obviously if you play for like 12 hours you can get a lot done regardless lol).

I didn't mean to be dismissive, obviously combat taking too long is bad. And I feel like Daggerheart is hitting those desires. Sure, only 2 sessions is hardly representative data, but each 3-4 hour session has had 2 combat encounters, some non combat scenes, char gen and leveling up and, as I noted, there didn't seem to be a lot of ... dead air time.

 

[Neonchameleon]

That's not my experience. I do play 5E with high pace though. Maybe not quite up to pace with DH

Mine is that if you assume:

• Everyone is engaged and ready to play on their turn
• Everyone has a solid working understanding of the rules they are going to use
• No one needs to look up any abilities or spells in the PHB or a splatbook on their turn

there isn't too much difference in speed. But the second happens in DH by about session 2 whereas it can take literal years in 5e. The third basically never happens in Daggerheart thanks to the cards. And the first - you go when you are ready and have a plan.

 

[darjr]

Daggerheart is back in stock at the CR store. The collector box too. https://shop.critrole.com/products/daggerheart-core-set

 

[overgeeked]

Daggerheart is back in stock at the CR store. The collector box too. https://shop.critrole.com/products/daggerheart-core-set

It already has a "low stock" indicator and it says it's a pre-order for when stock is available.

Over on Reddit people are posting about their orders being cancelled from Amazon.

 

[darjr]

It already has a "low stock" indicator and it says it's a pre-order for when stock is available.

Over on Reddit people are posting about their orders being cancelled from Amazon.

Cause it’s just the collectors box.

Ope!!!

https://shop.critrole.com/products/daggerheart-core-set-limited-edition?_pos=1&_sid=69902872b&_ss=r

 

[darjr]

I purchased one to see.