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.

 

[Umbran]

I'd say DH level 1 is equal in power and theme to D&D level 3 - but somewhere between level 1 and level 3 in terms of complexity ...

Is it just me, or is anyone else thinking, "Two. Level two is between one and three."?

 

[Reynard]

Reynard, how was your play experience. I have found it to be fun. But, at least in my opinion, it is fun because of our table, not the game's mechanics. There are some rough patches, but that has more to do with playstyle than actual mechanics.

I could summarize the game like this: It is an awesome system if you are at a table full of GMs, as they are used to the improv part of the game.

My oversimplified assessment is: I can't think of anything I can do as GM with 5E that I can't do as well or better in DH.

That doesn't mean DH is perfect, just that for generic heroic fantasy it beats 5E.

 

[Reynard]

Yes but this is your advertisement for the game... this is where you sell people on how it plays, if you dont then you're setting expectations incorrectly and you end up with an audience that leans more towards the traditional style of play... which I think has happened with DH to a point.

Why do you think this is incorrect? Nothing about Daggerheart's presentation says "no trads allowed."

 

[Imaro]

My oversimplified assessment is: I can't think of anything I can do as GM with 5E that I can't do as well or better in DH.

That doesn't mean DH is perfect, just that for generic heroic fantasy it beats 5E.

Im curious...Do you think DH does tactical combat as well as 5e? For our group at least it doesn't feel like its scratching that particular itch as well as 5e...though for cinematic-esque combat i think DH works better.

 

[Imaro]

Why do you think this is incorrect? Nothing about Daggerheart's presentation says "no trads allowed."

I wasn't saying it was right or wrong... I was moreso questioning why people would expect a totally different paradigm for an AP given what we've gotten so far.

 

[Reynard]

Im curious...Do you think DH does tactical combat as well as 5e? For our group at least it doesn't feel like its scratching that particular itch as well as 5e...though for cinematic-esque combat i think DH works better.

I personally don't think 5E is a particularly good tactical game. it lacks a lot of reasons to reposition, and if position doesn't matter, you have failed at tactics. I actually think DH does better by being a little bit vague but only specifically for the comparison to 5E. There are tons of games that do tactical play better, from SWADE (relatively simple) to PF2E (relatively complex).

 

[Neonchameleon]

Im curious...Do you think DH does tactical combat as well as 5e? For our group at least it doesn't feel like its scratching that particular itch as well as 5e...though for cinematic-esque combat i think DH works better.

Yes - but this is because I find 5e so awful at tactical combat that it doesn't so much scratch my tactical combat itch but inflames it.

Daggerheart makes no pretense at being a tactical combat game but has better enemy variety (until you run out) thanks to monster roles and easier to use monsters. And I find its tactical resource management (hope, stress, and loadout) and associated teamwork better. But I'm not remotely calling it a tactical game here.

5e (2024 is a slight improvement over 2014) makes some IMO terrible design decisions, some to enable ToTM that make far too much of the tactics boil down to just focus fire and debuff stacking (and then Legendary Resistance spoils that).

• No flanking (admittedly easily added back)
• Minimal forced movement (better in 2024) because it clashes with ToTM not opening up interactions with the environment (meanwhile DH has great Environments) or pushing people where AoEs will be for teamwork
• Disadvantage replacing Opportunity Attacks meaning casters can cast most spells in melee with impunity so the point of rushing them down is basically focus fire
• Thrown weapons using pure Str and finesse weapons using pure Dex meaning there's little point e.g. rushing down an archer and making them use their short sword not their bow or kiting or immobilising an ogre to make them throw a rock or javelin at you rather than clubbing you
• Hit point bloat making everything slow and minimal advantage for ambushes (actually made worse in 2024)

Essentially I find Daggerheart about as reasonably good a tactical game as a theatre of the mind RPG can get - which isn't very. 5e I find horrible as a tactical game, having made theatre of the mind compromises and then some silly errors that can be fixed by good third party monster design (Flee Mortals?)

 

[Parmandur]

Im curious...Do you think DH does tactical combat as well as 5e? For our group at least it doesn't feel like its scratching that particular itch as well as 5e...though for cinematic-esque combat i think DH works better.

I wouldn't call 5E a particularly tactical game (and Thank God for that), but more of a strategic game of resource attrition. And for those who handwave or don't meaningfully engage with that strategic game of attrition, I can see the appeal of a game like Daggerheart or Cosmere that aren't centered on that.

 

[zakael19]

One thing I love about DH "combat" is that I can grab an adversary and just drop em in on people and make moves with them to provoke interesting narrative moments without ever devolving into "ok, roll initiative, ok, you swing and miss? ok now..."

Like tonight we had a split party so I could showcase some character dynamics in pairings we hadn't really had a chance to explore tonight, and it was so easy to tee up a fictional attack and then pivot to the other group in their own crisis. Fun times.

 

[Imaro]

OK maybe tactical wasn't the right word but there's something about DH combat that feels more loosey goosey... even when we use measurements or a grid while 5e feels more concrete... not sure im explainng it well.

One thing my group bounced off hard on was not having initiative. I had to implement the token rule and its fine now but having freeform initiative just didn't work for us. I have a suspicion it might be because of the size of our group but also because of some players personalities.