How 'Hope' and 'Fear' Work In Critical Role's Daggerheart

[SakanaSensei]

Between spending fear to give enemies advantage, boost their damage, add two action tokens to the tracker, or complicate the situation, I don’t think I ever had more than four fear during my first playtest.

 

[DragonLancer]

Only one playtest session so far (second one will be this weekend) and I certainly think the GM ends up with too many. It doesn't take long to max out and then despite spending, you easily max out again. Sometimes it felt like the only way I was going to burn through these was to be a complete asshat to the players, which didn't feel right.

Now, the only thing I got wrong on that first game was forgetting it is 2 fear tokens not 1 to activate an adversary but even then once we realised I still ended up on 10 fear at the end of a four hour session.

 

[SakanaSensei]

Only one playtest session so far (second one will be this weekend) and I certainly think the GM ends up with too many. It doesn't take long to max out and then despite spending, you easily max out again. Sometimes it felt like the only way I was going to burn through these was to be a complete asshat to the players, which didn't feel right.

Now, the only thing I got wrong on that first game was forgetting it is 2 fear tokens not 1 to activate an adversary but even then once we realised I still ended up on 10 fear at the end of a four hour session.

I find it really interesting how different our experiences here have ended up! I was going into fights with only 3-4 fear to start, and I was making sure to spend down whenever PCs rolled with fear and gave me the reins.

I wonder if you’re maybe calling for more action rolls outside of combat than the developers are expecting. Are you spending to add d6s of damage to attack rolls, give enemies advantage, put more tokens on the action tracker to activate more enemies?

 

[DragonLancer]

I wonder if you’re maybe calling for more action rolls outside of combat than the developers are expecting. Are you spending to add d6s of damage to attack rolls, give enemies advantage, put more tokens on the action tracker to activate more enemies?

In the other discussion, I was asked the same thing. We kept out of combat rolls to a minimum and unless there was a need to roll we didn't bother. If the character could do something then they did it. As for everything else, yep, I was doing that.

The only thing that I thought might have made a difference was that I have 6 players where the expected was 4-5. Was that one extra player generating Fear skewing the total? I don't think so or at least not too much.

 

[SakanaSensei]

In the other discussion, I was asked the same thing. We kept out of combat rolls to a minimum and unless there was a need to roll we didn't bother. If the character could do something then they did it. As for everything else, yep, I was doing that.

The only thing that I thought might have made a difference was that I have 6 players where the expected was 4-5. Was that one extra player generating Fear skewing the total? I don't think so or at least not too much.

I’m not sure that would adjust it too much once combat starts, just because once someone fails or rolls with fear, it’s the GMs turn to start spending down.

You weren’t waiting for a failure to start having monsters go, right? Even a success with fear let’s you start spending action tokens and fear, so you should only ever be going up maybe one fear between GM “rounds,” unless I’m wildly misinterpreting the rules.

Edit: And if my way of doing it was a misinterpretation, I recommend trying it out haha

 

[DragonLancer]

I’m not sure that would adjust it too much once combat starts, just because once someone fails or rolls with fear, it’s the GMs turn to start spending down.

You weren’t waiting for a failure to start having monsters go, right? Even a success with fear let’s you start spending action tokens and fear, so you should only ever be going up maybe one fear between GM “rounds,” unless I’m wildly misinterpreting the rules.

Edit: And if my way of doing it was a misinterpretation, I recommend trying it out haha

I was triggering my adversaries to go as well. I'll keep an eye on the encounters at the next session and see if I notice I'm not doing enough.

 

[Shardstone]

I was triggering my adversaries to go as well. I'll keep an eye on the encounters at the next session and see if I notice I'm not doing enough.

Six people is a lot. I think the 5th and 6th people added to the issue. However, I think the GM needs a couple more gimmicky ways to spend fear in the RAW.

 

[SakanaSensei]

Can you walk me through how you got to such high pools of fear? I want to make sure I’m not making mistakes, my campaign starts this week after everyone loved the one shot.

My players role play, investigate, get going, and over the course of 10 rolls build up a statistically average pool of 4 fear for me to use once we start swinging.

Players act until they roll a fear or fail, meaning I start my go with either 4 (fail with Hope) or 5 (success or fail with Fear).

I spend a Fear to add two tokens to the tracker, spend another to do a scenario specific area effect, have my big monster spend a fear for advantage and another for a damage boost to really scare my players. If I had 5, I save the last fear for later, wrap up my actions for enemies until there are zero tokens left on the tracker, and pass things back to the players.

Players go until a failure (with Hope or Fear) or a success with Fear. I should only be acting again with 1, maybe 2 Fear.

I’m not doubting you in any way, for sure! I’d just like to know where I’m making a mistake.

 

[Reynard]

Sometimes it felt like the only way I was going to burn through these was to be a complete asshat to the players, which didn't feel right.

I don't understand this. That's the way the game works. That's the GM's job. You aren't being an asshat, you are providing the players with the experience they signed up for.

 

[CapnZapp]

This is why for my personal playstyle I actually prefer having that kind of "currency" only in the hands of the players. As a GM I'm used to being able to set difficulties and throw complications at the group based on what the narrative needs and if I need to remember to spend points along with those kinds of decisions I will inevitably forget.

Yes.

And worse; if the game sets the expectation bad things can ONLY happen when the GM pays the cost.

The obvious truth is and must remain: the GM can have bad things happen at any time without restrictions and without rules.

These "bad bennies" need to be specifically tied to a small subset of mechanical mishaps that's taken into account by rules balance.