Daggerheart has been Officially Released

[Morrus]

I'm not sure how you can have reviews of a game that just released today. They ran a whole campaign in less than 8 hours? I'll wait for the eventual Quinn's Quest review.

Not a full campaign, of course, or even necessarily a play, but a lot of reviewers do get stuff in advance (often with an embargo). So they may have had time to at least have read it thoroughly.

 

[dbm]

There was also a beta programme, and some people have reviews out based on experience with that. Once they see the final rules they will know if most of their experiences likely still stand or if the final release changed things likely to impact them.

 

[Arilyn]

Grimasaur of Gamergate fame didn't like it? Wow. I'm shocked. Shocked!

And Dave Thaumavoe really likes the mechanics but feels the game isn't for him. This one is really short, not really a review. It's a giveaway.

 

[Morrus]

Plus I'm pretty sure there are channels out there which have been livestreaming a campaign for several weeks already.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I'm sure I'll pick it up -- at least the PDF if available. I was kinda meh on it early on just with it being another DND clone, but I think they've done some interesting mechanics for it.

Reading through the rules it's definitely got quite a serious mix of influences rather than being a D&D clone in the way it actually plays. Impressed me more than I expected, rules-wise.

PtbA but very specifically Dungeon World is clearly a major one, maybe the most major one, to the point where it's fundamentally operating in the same way DW does re: players and the DM making moves, and some of them are even worded the same way! (For example: "Reveal an unwelcome truth or unexpected danger." is a DM move - I dunno if that's the exact same wording as DW or AW but it's very similiar!) The initiative structure - or rather complete lack thereof is also very similar to DW - whoever goes, goes and potentially the same person goes repeatedly, with the DM going only when the PCs fail rolls or succeed with Fear (again similar to when a DM would make a hard move in DW), spending Fear to keep going.

They do offer an alternative system, where the PCs have three tokens, and each "go" uses up one, and they don't get the token back until every PC has used them all up, but it's a strictly optional rule (and the way the DM acts remains the same).

The resolution system, whilst allowing 5E-like or even slightly higher levels of bonuses/penalties is also, fundamentally, in terms of the results it produces, very like PtbA/DW, in that the possible results are:

1) Critical success
2) Success with Hope
3) Success with Fear
4) Failure with Hope
5) Failure with Fear

Which kinda map fairly well to the ol' 10+, 7-9, 6 or less of PbtA, just with slightly more nuance. It's a bit more D&D-like in that you're rolling against a variable target number and potentially accruing bonuses etc. (not just your stat and maaaaaybe a bonus from a specific ability).

But on the flipside, they don't have a small fixed set of moves like DW does (it does kind of have moves, but they're less explicit).

Also like DW and a lot of PbtA games, there are no skills per se - only more nebulous "Experiences" which you can spend 1 Hope to apply to a roll.

The Hope/Fear system is unlike anything in D&D or DW though, and I'm absolutely blanking on the RPGs where you hand a token to the DM on certain roll results, despite having run them - hopefully someone can name some of these! Certainly it's another influence though!

Overall the D&D influence seems to mostly be on the basic conceptualization of the classes and to a lesser extent species that the players can be. It's slightly a pity to me class-wise as it feels like they could have gone more off-book here, but I imagine that may well happen later on, as the system they have is fundamentally easy to expand.

 

[dbm]

I'm absolutely blanking on the RPGs where you hand a token to the DM on certain roll results, despite having run them

GM intrusions from Cypher system are similar (I think it is name-checked in the inspiration section). I seem to recall a similar mechanic from the 2d20 games, though I haven’t played those personally. Some of the mechanical options in Cortex Prime also seem similar where a bad roll can result in the GM putting a complication on your character or the scene.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Guess they didn't feel it was worth the… investment

Bit surely they've got a vested interest in selling every bit of merch they possibly can? Why skip on anything that might make a dime? It's all about the merchandising! Critical Role, The T-Shirt! Critical Role, The Coloring Book! Critical Role, The Lunchbox! Critical Role, The Breakfast Cereal! Critical Role, The Flamethrower!

 

[stormwriter]

GM intrusions from Cypher system are similar (I think it is name-checked in the inspiration section). I seem to recall a similar mechanic from the 2d20 games, though I haven’t played those personally. Some of the mechanical options in Cortex Prime also seem similar where a bad roll can result in the GM putting a complication on your character or the scene.

They actually mention Genesys, Cypher, Cortex Prime, Blades in the Dark, City of Mist and Dishonored 2d20, among others as inspirations in the book’s introduction. They even state that Genesys was the main inspiration for the roll system and Cypher for the GM intrusions.

 

[Bomberooski]

Anyone find this IN a store?

 

[dbm]

I did, in the UK. I don’t know if they got it through distribution, however.