Not to get too off topic, but I wonder why you say this.
I will tread lightly, as I don't want to derail... but in an attempt to stay on topic i will try to demonstrate where 2d20 succeeds as a system and Daggerheart fails (for us)=
Daggerheart has no player-choice for generating Hope and Fear. The metacurrency of the game is entirely dependent on luck of the roll. This leads to common problems we have seen in every daggerheart game session. If you roll Fear a few times in a row (success on roll or not) = you generate no Hope, with prevents you from using most aspects of a character, and prevents using player agency options for Hope spends. This happened 100% of all scenes to at least 1 player or more. Since most scenes only need about 3 rolls per player, it meant that every scene 1 or more players were unable to do much besides the most basics. not fun at all.
- Daggerheart has no mechanic to overcome this problem. And we saw it happen enough that it impeded fun in play.
Further, Daggerheart generates Fear per-player. Which given a nearly 50-50 chance of rolling with Fear most of the time, that meant that after 2 rounds of play the GM already had more Fear than they could spend. They could choose to spend it, but then the game became punishing and very much no fun at all.
- Daggerheart has no mechanic to overcome this problem. And we saw it happen enough that it impeded fun in play.
TL/DR = we have seen this enough in other people's games and online games that we don't think its uncommon, though we do think its
often ignored since it seems some players are used to "roll, fail, nothing happens" so they are caught up in the high chance of success of the rolls, more than the use of Hope and Fear.
So for us, the Hope and Fear mechanics broke the game, because in too many cases the high success rate made the Hope and Fear problem worse as players who rolled Hope often,
overly overly dominated the scene (since that allows them to use their abilities so much more than others)
...
2d20 Also grants players Momentum (metacurrency) based on rolls. The difference being
major - it is not a 50-50 Momentum to Heat result. Heat is not generated by player rolls (with the rare exception of sorcery in Conan). So EVERY roll has a chance to generate Momentum by merely rolling number of success beyond the DR. Difficulty Ratings (DR) range from 0 to 5. With most being 1, 2 or 3. Dice are rolled at often Target Numbers of 10 to 14, we tend to see 30% to 50% of
every die coming up a success. (even more so if the die comes up a "1") Since 2 to 5 dice are rolled, we tend to see players succeed on the roll AND generate Momentum. For systems that use Damage dice d6s,
additional Momentum is gained on the Damage Die roll. Then there are Talents each system has which
auto-grant 1 or more Momentum on a successful roll. It also has a few options for players to gain Momentum outside of dice rolls. Usually its "start action with 1 momentum automatically or some variant of that.
- The net result is that most every roll generates 1 to 4 momentum.
- additionally 2d20 has a Group Momentum pool you can add to. So this allows players to ensure everyone has Momentum to spend and gives players who generate a lot of Momentum an incentive and means to share the wealth so to speak. (you can only keep so much person Momentum, so any extra is wasted, might as well toss it into the Group Pool...)
The second part is that abilities and Talents often do not require Momentum to use in 2dd20. Instead most all spells, powers, and techniques have a core effect that is just useful and cool, and then you get to bump it up or customize it with Momentum spends.
- This led to players always being able to use all aspects of their character, and it became more of "how big do you go this time" kind of fun.
On to Heat...
Heat in 2d20 is generated two ways, at the start of a session, a pool of 2 or 3 per PC. The GM gets more when players, who are out of Momentum or want to do a risky tactic, offer to give the GM 1 or more Heat to do whatever it is the system allows. This goes a LONG ways towards ensuring 2d20 never has the problem Daggerheart has
- players can always have 'Momentum', thus they can always use all their special abilities. its just that sometimes it has a price.
...............
TL/DR = 2d20 is a game where
players are in control of the flow of Metacurrency.
While dice rolls are the main generator of the Momentum,
it is not the only way.
While the GM starts with Heat, the players from that point on "press their luck" and grant more, but
also get to do more.
2d20 is far more rewarding of the flow of metacurrency.
Also, have you seen the Momentum spends in Conan? shoot howdy does that game do some bombastic and neat stuff!!!
