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.

 

[Reynard]

Yeah, on the same wavelength but not similar enough that they are influencing each other directly. Inspired by similar antecedents, however: the main deisngers for Cosmere are FFG verbs who were leaders on the Genesys, Star Wars, and Warhammer system that had a similar multi-dimensional success/fail with good/bad metacjrrency rider.

Hope and Fear also give some Threat and Momentum vibes from 2d20.

 

[Parmandur]

Did any of those also have 3 action economy or did that come from mixing in a bit of PF2e?

Not sure offhand, I would guess Pathfinder. I do know that the Cosmere action economy was designed for future proofing: they plan to have AD&D style Vancian casters and Elantrkans who will get big magic "I win buttons"...that will take 6 or more actions of uninterrupted casting.

 

[zakael19]

I've heard anecdotally that for some tables it can be very fun for the GM to have a visible representation of their Fear points to build up the tension if they keep earning them, but aren't using them. You know there's a big whallop coming!

The book instructs GMs to try and always ensure players can see their Fear count. In part because there's actually a number of player abilities that have options to remove GM Fear.

Another thing it shares with Cosmere is lack of an initiative order. I've heard this works well in person. Playing Cosmere virtually, it means turns take longer than they do in 5e.

I play DH both online and in person, turns are really quick. We use the little Dagger-form measuring tool somebody made to get a quick vibe on ranges as needed, and you have the simple choice of Action, Move + Action, or do a little thing that doesn't take an Action roll and then the previous. Because there's no set order, I just manage the spotlight following the flow and drama of combat.

supposedly balancing for different party sizes is automatic and infinitely easier than 5e

I'm not sure what this means regarding automatic? You have an encounter budget that is set by #PCs; and it really caps out at 5 (as the book notes) - but that's manual calculations. I think 4 is probably the sweet spot fwiw. It's mostly easier, but there's some edge case and art in there both when it comes to how you spend Fear, compensate for where people are within a Tier's power rating (are they fresh T2s at level 2 with no gear? A full T2 encounter using the total budget with solos and such might demolish them), etc.

It's just a little more consistent and you don't ever have to worry about "oops killed half the party, I thought that was a regular encounter" thanks to how DH handles death.

 

[Parmandur]

Did any of those also have 3 action economy or did that come from mixing in a bit of PF2e?

OK, looking into it, for Genesys games each character takes one Complex and two Simple actions per turn, but the narrative die rolls can result in more or less actions occurring. Initiative is in a rolled order, but it is flexible slots that the party can decide who goes when.

 

[Parmandur]

Hope and Fear also give some Threat and Momentum vibes from 2d20.

Oh, yeah, big time. That sort of positive/negative rider mechanic has been used a lot in the past 15 years or so.

 

[djotaku]

Oh, yeah, big time. That sort of positive/negative rider mechanic has been used a lot in the past 15 years or so.

it's always new to someone. Like my kids hearing a remix or cover of one of my songs and thinking it's new. (Bonus points if my version was a cover or remix of my parents' music)

 

[Reynard]

Oh, yeah, big time. That sort of positive/negative rider mechanic has been used a lot in the past 15 years or so.

It is one of my favorite mechanics, especially at con games. When I run Savage Worlds, for example, I use a player pool of Bennies that, when used, go into a GM Bennie pool (and back when I use them). Keeps everyone on their toes.

 

[zakael19]

Yeah, on the same wavelength but not similar enough that they are influencing each other directly. Inspired by similar antecedents, however: the main deisngers for Cosmere are FFG verbs who were leaders on the Genesys, Star Wars, and Warhammer system that had a similar multi-dimensional success/fail with good/bad metacjrrency rider.

The Daggerheart book explicitly credits the Genesys system for inspiration for the "two axis system of the Duality dice" while they tweaked the Cypher intrusions to their own thing for Fear spending.

 

[Parmandur]

The Daggerheart book explicitly credits the Genesys system for inspiration for the "two axis system of the Duality dice" while they tweaked the Cypher intrusions to their own thing for Fear spending.

Makes sense, so similar influences.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Yeah, on the same wavelength but not similar enough that they are influencing each other directly. Inspired by similar antecedents, however: the main deisngers for Cosmere are FFG verbs who were leaders on the Genesys, Star Wars, and Warhammer system that had a similar multi-dimensional success/fail with good/bad metacurrency rider.

I tend to think of Daggerheart as D&D 4e meets Apocalypse World meets a "greatest hits of narrative game design of the past 25 years" and Genesys is one of the systems they explicitly credited. Meanwhile I tend to think of Cosmere as D&D 5e meets Genesys meets a selection of games from the past 25 years including Apocalypse World (and there's a lot of 4e in 5e of course). So yes very much overlapping influences.

I'm not sure whether Cosmere started with the 3 action economy from PF2e or the 2 action economy from WFRP 2e and other places.