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.

 

[zakael19]

I found 4e to be more than the combat - and although Daggerheart has very different combat the out of combat experience is fairly close.

For GMs as 5e. For PCs as Lancer (and I think SotDL); you roll a number of d6s with the normal roll equal to your level of Advantage (or disadvantage) and only add (or subtract) the result of the highest d6. Levels of Advantage and Disadvantage cancel where necessary.

So if you had three sources of Advantage and one of Disadvantage you'd add the higher of 2d6 to the roll.

I dont think the out of combat experience is anything like 4e in terms of mechanics although the conversational flow etc will vary widely. You have no skills, no emphasis on XP granting mechanized Skill Challenges to navigate most situations (with their limitations on skill prof), no highly mathed scaling objective DCs (which I wish we had), etc etc.

If anything, I find the out of combat resolution closest to a streamlined FITD.

It's kinda nice that having multiple sources of Adv actually matters. I've seen 5d6 roll nothing higher than a 3 before.

 

[Neonchameleon]

I dont think the out of combat experience is anything like 4e in terms of mechanics although the conversational flow etc will vary widely.

For me the practical elements are surprisingly similar to the way I ran 4e other than that I didn't have rolls with fear and that 4e scaled a lot faster.

You have no skills,

Experiences do something similar (although mathematically they are closer to 5e's Expertise)

no emphasis on XP granting mechanized Skill Challenges to navigate most situations (with their limitations on skill prof),

This depends on how you run skill challenges. For me they were always a DM side tool (make your move but never speak its name).

no highly mathed scaling objective DCs (which I wish we had), etc etc.

Just softly mathed; the difficulty does go up over the tiers and easy/medium/hard is replaced by Advantage/Normal/Disadvantage.

If anything, I find the out of combat resolution closest to a streamlined FITD.

Huh. Ymmv.

 

[zakael19]

shrug feels nothing like how I’ve run or played in narrativist 4e, feels almost exactly like the FITD I ran before DH for the same group.

 

[Reynard]

shrug feels nothing like how I’ve run or played in narrativist 4e, feels almost exactly like the FITD I ran before DH for the same group.

I think the many inspirations in DH allow GMs to run it how they like, emphasizing the bits that appeal to them and their players. And that is a good thing.

 

[zakael19]

I think the many inspirations in DH allow GMs to run it how they like, emphasizing the bits that appeal to them and their players. And that is a good thing.

Yeah, I hope that everybody who plays and runs it at least tries to live up to its Agenda and Principles though!

 

[Reynard]

Yeah, I hope that everybody who plays and runs it at least tries to live up to its Agenda and Principles though!

I'm ambivalent. Even if you run it essentially trad, the hope and fear mechanics make it a better game than 5E.

 

[Neonchameleon]

I'm ambivalent. Even if you run it essentially trad, the hope and fear mechanics make it a better game than 5E.

Yup. I consider one of the deftest parts of design of Daggerheart to be that a 5e DM can jump straight to it, do very little to adapt (not even changing their DCs), and still get a pretty good game that does a slick 5e lite.

 

[Parmandur]

Yup. I consider one of the deftest parts of design of Daggerheart to be that a 5e DM can jump straight to it, do very little to adapt (not even changing their DCs), and still get a pretty good game that does a slick 5e lite.

That is an interesting feature of the recent batch of big games (maybe not Draw Steel!, not very familiar with it) is that they are definitely different games than 5E D&D...but they are looking to appeal to current D&D players pretty directly.

 

[Reynard]

That is an interesting feature of the recent batch of big games (maybe not Draw Steel!, not very familiar with it) is that they are definitely different games than 5E D&D...but they are looking to appeal to current D&D players pretty directly.

Those players are not only a very large pool of potential customers, many of them have been playing 5E long enough to be looking for something new -- but not "too new." If the surge came during covid, that means most 5E players have been playing it for 5 years or more. That's a long time.

 

[Parmandur]

Those players are not only a very large pool of potential customers, many of them have been playing 5E long enough to be looking for something new -- but not "too new." If the surge came during covid, that means most 5E players have been playing it for 5 years or more. That's a long time.

I think there is something to that: Cosmere in particular is very familiar in terms of the player side process, but the structure provides a very different experience focused on more narrative oriented results and play loops.