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]

This. I don't think that DH is a GrimDark system. But it provides significant tools that support attempted GrimDark play in ways that D&D is entirely devoid of. I'm trying to think of a less GrimDark system than D&D 5e that allows for the possibility of death. I'm grading on a curve here.

Killing PCs in 5E is not hard if that's your goal.

It just isn't fun.

 

[Parmandur]

This. I don't think that DH is a GrimDark system. But it provides significant tools that support attempted GrimDark play in ways that D&D is entirely devoid of. I'm trying to think of a less GrimDark system than D&D 5e that allows for the possibility of death. I'm grading on a curve here.

Kind of by design intent, sure.

 

[Imaro]

This. I don't think that DH is a GrimDark system. But it provides significant tools that support attempted GrimDark play in ways that D&D is entirely devoid of. I'm trying to think of a less GrimDark system than D&D 5e that allows for the possibility of death. I'm grading on a curve here.

Honestly... I think the long rest variant, exhaustion rules, disease/contagion/curses rules, madness/fear & mental stress rules, and so on are just as good if not better than scars... and this is before we get to 3pp sources.

The argument that DH somehow supports a grimdark game better than D&D is justnweird to me... maybe you prefer scars to all the ways D&D can support such a game but they are both high fantasy super-heroic base systems.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Killing PCs in 5E is not hard if that's your goal.

It just isn't fun.

And death is always the least interesting thing that counts as a long term consequence.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Honestly... I think the long rest variant, exhaustion rules, disease/contagion/curses rules, madness/fear & mental stress rules, and so on are just as good if not better than scars...

Long rest variant - like DH except that the Age of Umbra rules are more restrictive. Exhaustion rules are IMO much more annoying and bolted on compared to stress. Disease/contagion/curses - why not DH? Madness? Mental stress - psychic damage? Really? Again you've had to go looking to find something worse than DH does by default with Stress. (Fear rules again are clunky)

And if we're going diving through optional rules I start pulling Transformation cards out of the void and writing my own. Or just using what existing monsters have.

and this is before we get to 3pp sources.

The argument that DH somehow supports a grimdark game better than D&D is justnweird to me... maybe you prefer scars to all the ways D&D can support such a game but they are both high fantasy super-heroic base systems.

The argument that a set of optional rules that vary between bad (psychic damage and the Frightened condition) and that Daggerheart already has (restricted long rests) somehow bring D&D even close to the same level as Daggerheart is just weird to me.

And this is before we get to borrowing the few things D&D does well and putting them on a much cleaner and more flexible system.

 

[Imaro]

Long rest variant - like DH except that the Age of Umbra rules are more restrictive. Exhaustion rules are IMO much more annoying and bolted on compared to stress. Disease/contagion/curses - why not DH? Madness? Mental stress - psychic damage? Really? Again you've had to go looking to find something worse than DH does by default with Stress. (Fear rules again are clunky)

And if we're going diving through optional rules I start pulling Transformation cards out of the void and writing my own. Or just using what existing monsters have.

The argument that a set of optional rules that vary between bad (psychic damage and the Frightened condition) and that Daggerheart already has (restricted long rests) somehow bring D&D even close to the same level as Daggerheart is just weird to me.

And this is before we get to borrowing the few things D&D does well and putting them on a much cleaner and more flexible system.

Look im not going to debate personal preference with you... if you think scars and some homebrew transformations are sufficient for you to have a good grimdark game... knock yourself out. IMO neither do grimdark well, which was my point. You seem more focused on proving DH is better than D&D than how well it actually does grimdark fantasy.

Edit: I do think youre doing quite alot of heavy lifting with stress which really only causes a single condition... vulnerable if/when you actually run out of it... its basically just mental hit points.

 

[Reynard]

Edit: I do think youre doing quite alot of heavy lifting with stress which really only causes a single condition... vulnerable if/when you actually run out of it... its basically just mental hit points.

It also means future stress causes HP damage, which is a big deal.

 

[Neonchameleon]

It also means future stress causes HP damage, which is a big deal.

And it means you can't use abilities that cost stress, which is also a big deal

 

[Imaro]

It also means future stress causes HP damage, which is a big deal.

And it means you can't use abilities that cost stress, which is also a big deal

And yet exhaustion is a better and easier mechanical representation of wearing a character down that can't be totally erased (like stress can) with a single long rest...

 

[Reynard]

And yet exhaustion is a better and easier mechanical representation of wearing a character down that can't be totally erased (like stress can) with a single long rest...

I don't think you are appreciating the combat impact of running out of stress. It means no more beating Thresholds. it means using adversary and environment abilities to cause stress and just doing damage.

Also, exhaustion is an okay system for representing "tired" but IME barely comes up. in 5E, "exhaustion damage" from creature attacks and spells should be a thing.