Daggerheart Sold Out in Two Weeks, Has Three-Year Plan in Place

A recent interview with Business Insider revealed just how well Daggerheart did for Critical Role's Darrington Press when it first launched earlier this year. Ed Lopez, Critical Role's chief operating officer, revealed that Daggerheart sold out in two weeks. According to Lopez, Critical Role anticipated that their stock would last a year, but the game was forced to go into reprints in a hurry. "The amount of units that we ordered we thought was going to last us a year, and it lasted us literally two weeks," Lopez said. "It's a great problem, it's a Champagne problem, but it's now changing our view in terms of what this product can be."

Lopez also revealed that Darrington Press has a three-year plan in place for Daggerheart, which includes the already announced Hope & Fear expansion, which adds a new domain and several new classes and backgrounds to the game.

Lopez also spoke about the hires of Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins, stating that the two would be working on both Daggerheart and D&D material for Darrington Press. "We really want their creative juices brought to the world of 'Daggerheart.' That being said, we're also doing a bunch of 'D&D' stuff, and who better to bring in than the guys who used to do it?" Lopez said.

 

[Imaro]

Based on the "nobody runs a full Adventure Day!" discourse that people engage in online for 5E...the market for "not very challenging combat but with fun dice rolling" is pretty significant.

I agree... I just find it funny that in general its looked at as a negative fo DnD but its ignored, hardwaved away, a gm should fix it issue, etc. for DH... on top of it being an encounter difficulty vs day difficulty system (which feels like it should be easier to balance).

Im running an A of U campaign and the by the book adversarries with the by the book BP budget just dont instill the awe or fear the setting seems to be going for.

 

[Imaro]

It would be different for a couple of reasons. The rules are very different in DH. I mean, the players create much of the lore and add to the setting often. That nullifies (or at least makes it difficult) to create a scene by scene paced adventure, which is what APs do. The second reason they would be different is they want it to be. From a business perspective, they want to try and differentiate themselves.

So why wasnt the quick start different in the ways you list? This is the intro for deciding whether this game is right for you and it displays none of the differences you listed above.

 

[Parmandur]

I agree... I just find it funny that in general its looked at as a negative fo DnD but its ignored, hardwaved away, a gm should fix it issue, etc. for DH... on top of it being an encounter difficulty vs day difficulty system (which feels like it should be easier to balance).

Im running an A of U campaign and the by the book adversarries with the by the book BP budget just dont instill the awe or fear the setting seems to be going for.

It seems that a lot of people have friction with the 6-8 Encounter Dungeon between long rests style are precisely who are enjoying Daggerheart's style. Seems logical and consistent more than funny, honestly. They feel they are fighting 5E to have set piece fights, Daggerheart tees up setpiece fights without wrestling the system.

 

[zakael19]

I agree... I just find it funny that in general its looked at as a negative fo DnD but its ignored, hardwaved away, a gm should fix it issue, etc. for DH... on top of it being an encounter difficulty vs day difficulty system (which feels like it should be easier to balance).

Im running an A of U campaign and the by the book adversarries with the by the book BP budget just dont instill the awe or fear the setting seems to be going for.

Have you looked at the AOU adversaries they built for the show, and the recommendations they have to make it deadlier? There's a set of like 'AOU actual' vs 'standard campaign play' versions to kinda show what the designers did.

FWIW, it's not spelled out in the book (oops), but if you build a full-points encounter it's supposed to be a per-rest budget.

 

[SteveC]

So why wasnt the quick start different in the ways you list? This is the intro for deciding whether this game is right for you and it displays none of the differences you listed above.

I think it's because a heavy narrative players create content is something extremely difficult to do with a short quick start. I've run both the Fabula Ultima and Daggerheart Quickstarts, and I did my very best to encorporate those rules in the games. I ran both of them with experienced roleplayers and they really enjoyed that part of the experience. I suspect that would have been very different with players with less a diverse gaming background, and I imagine the need to have something short that showcases the rules won out.

 

[Imaro]

It seems that a lot of people have friction with the 6-8 Encounter Dungeon between long rests style are precisely who are enjoying Daggerheart's style. Seems logical and consistent more than funny, honestly. They feel they are fighting 5E to have set piece fights, Daggerheart tees up setpiece fights without wrestling the system.

But if your complaint is about challenge, neither seems to offer a solution with single or small # of encounters without tweaking.

Over the longterm DnD says do this many encounters and attrition will create a challenging encounter...

DH seems to say eventually there will be a famine of hope/flood of fear situation that makes a challenging encounter but you wont know when... which IMO seems counter intuitive to its narrative leanings. So I've gone with tweaking specific encounters, which because im not as familiar with DH has been its own challenge.

 

[Imaro]

Have you looked at the AOU adversaries they built for the show, and the recommendations they have to make it deadlier? There's a set of like 'AOU actual' vs 'standard campaign play' versions to kinda show what the designers did.

Yes I've been mod'ing my encounters and I've gotten to where I can kinda hit the challenge level my group enjoys but the small number of adversaries and especially AoU specific ones definitely makes this a pain point.

FWIW, it's not spelled out in the book (oops), but if you build a full-points encounter it's supposed to be a per-rest budget.

Wait...what? So these are encounters that should be forcing them to rest... or am I misunderstanding your statement?

If so thats even more wonky for my group as I know they can handle 2-3 before feeling like they need a rest.

 

[Imaro]

I think it's because a heavy narrative players create content is something extremely difficult to do with a short quick start. I've run both the Fabula Ultima and Daggerheart Quickstarts, and I did my very best to encorporate those rules in the games. I ran both of them with experienced roleplayers and they really enjoyed that part of the experience. I suspect that would have been very different with players with less a diverse gaming background, and I imagine the need to have something short that showcases the rules won out.

I just think its hard period, regardless of length and its easier and more profitable to give people a trad AP with a few narrative sprinklings (like those in the quickstart) vs. an AP that actually is written for DH's play paradigms. Don't get me wrong I hope someone does step up to the challenge... I just dont think anyone will.

 

[zakael19]

Yes I've been mod'ing my encounters and I've gotten to where I can kinda hit the challenge level my group enjoys but the small number of adversaries and especially AoU specific ones definitely makes this a pain point.


Wait...what? So these are encounters that should be forcing them to rest... or am I misunderstanding your statement?

If so thats even more wonky for my group as I know they can handle 2-3 before feeling like they need a rest.

No, per some of the adversary designers, the budget/math is supposed to be "per short rest" not necessarily "per encounter." For the average 3-5 PC group facing a mix of adversaries, they should feel the need to recover if you drop a full encounter on them; or you can have a few smaller encounters. If you're not seeing good challenge (assuming you've already baked in the +dmg? if nothing else use that for free for a harder feeling campaign as it'll push the average math up into Major), consider adding in some of the more interesting Environmental actions you can spotlight or prompt reaction rolls via; add in the smaller Hope die corrupted ground; etc.

Your group might be excellent optimizers, but I'm really not having an issue chunking my two groups as I desire to challenge them; and then having smaller fights that fulfill a more narrative need.

Edit: oh, and having them mark a stress as a consequence is a great way to push down towards Vulnerable (and make resting recovery have more of a hard choice between armor/hope/hp/stress).

 

[mamba]

It would be different for a couple of reasons. The rules are very different in DH. I mean, the players create much of the lore and add to the setting often. That nullifies (or at least makes it difficult) to create a scene by scene paced adventure, which is what APs do. The second reason they would be different is they want it to be. From a business perspective, they want to try and differentiate themselves.

I guess we will see what Dungeons of Drakkenheim for DH will look like. From the pitch it sounded like they are working closely with the DH creators.