Daggerheart General Thread [+]

[aramis erak]

Wait, you didnt see the game explicitly say you’re not supposed to spotlight one adversary on the same GM turn unless it has a specific feature?

not quite; it was in my notes, but didn't stick in my (neurodivergent) brain.

Leaders, or leader-style multi-activation abilities really help an encounter feel better IMO. With most Evasions and attack bonuses leading to roughly a 50% chance to hit on the GM side there can be a lot of “activate and nothing happens” if you just do an attack.

Yeah, It's quite amusing to have 4 Ribbets death-from-above on a PC...

 

[Swanosaurus]

I'm a third through the corebook (after playing one game as a player), and I'm still surprised how much I love this. I was never much into the class-bound playing style, I always felt boxed in by it, but I must say that DH seems to embody the best of it. What it has going for it:

I can easily see how reflavouring would work for most classes - maybe it's just because I'm coming at this fresh, but I can imagine creating a psionic noir gumshoe as a bard here with little trouble. Part of it is relative freedom in choosing cards from your domains. It never felt like this in any versioin od D&D.

I really love the initiative system, which solves one of my biggest GMing problems (because I ALWAYS lose track of initiative). Just keep track of fear points, and let everything else happen as the players come up with it.

It's pretty well-written. I'm having fun reading it.

There' surely a lot more. There also some visible downsides; while it's great that there's no artificial restrictions on who can use which kind of weapon and armor, that also means that weapon and armor stats have next to nothing to do with any remnants of simulationist ideas about them and are obviously there purely for game balance (so everyone can just pick whether they want better damage thresholds or be better at Evasion). It feels a little off, but I think I can live with it, and it's probably a good trade off in favor of not restricting a player from flavouring their Wizard as plate-armor wearing battle-axe wielder. If I'm not misunderstanding, you can absolutely do that without breaking game balance (though it probably would be more effective to use some weapon that's not based on strength ...).

 

[Reynard]

Turns out the Vault Guardisan, witha little reskin, make for excellent Steam Legion troops.

What is the Steam Legion? In Arcanopolis, they are an army of automotons gone made because their creator powered them by trapping both a water spirit and a fire spirit inside. Designed to free laborers of the degradation of work, the mad Steam Legion now attacks union halls and industrial facilities in a corrupted attempt to "free workers."

I am really looking forward to this convention campaign. I hope it goes well and I can expand upon it further.

 

[Neonchameleon]

If I'm not misunderstanding, you can absolutely do that without breaking game balance (though it probably would be more effective to use some weapon that's not based on strength ...).

Ehh... you can either make strength your best stat and give up a single point of knowledge/casting or you can make strength your second best stat and give up a single point to hit with your weapon. Either way it's not a big deal.

 

[SteveC]

I was able to run the Quickstart adventure for friends at Gamehole Con. Everything went really well, and the resident CR fan laughed when I asked him "how do you want to do this?" on a critical roll.

Everything went exceptionally well, and the players told me they really liked the hit/damage/armor system. Which is great because my other group didn't care for it. The group like the init system (or lack of one) and because they know each other well, they seamlessly took actions that made the game hum in combat.

I asked them as much about the game as I could. I asked right away if we are doing more Spirited Away-style creatures or Pan's Labyrinth. And they enjoyed the more sinister run of the adventure as a result.

One thing I laughed about was that the person playing the Sorcerer only discovered their "chaos bolt" power at the end of the game. We narrated a horrible memory coming out of something the bad guys do and it was her old master reminding her that the chaos magic is older than the world itself.

We had talked about how the ritual in the game is to define who will own the forest for the next hundred years, and the sorcerer tore apart the monsters with magic that was even older than what was being used in the forest. It was a pretty bad ass moment.

So I have three more people who are looking at picking the game up and for that I'm happy.

 

[aramis erak]

Ehh... you can either make strength your best stat and give up a single point of knowledge/casting or you can make strength your second best stat and give up a single point to hit with your weapon. Either way it's not a big deal.

Or pick a weapon with your casting mod and not have to worry about it.

 

[Swanosaurus]

Or pick a weapon with your casting mod and not have to worry about it.

Yes, that's how stereotype seems to be (very mildly) encouraged, but all the other options seem to be fine as well, I can't see how they would break your character. And that's really cool: So I'm allowed to pick the battle-axe as a wizard, I won't be nerfed whether I do or I don't, but there's still some mechanical differentiation.

 

[Reynard]

Superhero death move idea: Survived, But Changed
When the character reappears after an apparent death, the player must permanently vault a total number of "levels" of Domain Cards equal to their character level and replace them with an equal number of levels, and explain how they have transformed.