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Critical Role's 'Daggerheart' Open Playtest Starts In March

System plays on 'the dualities of hope and fear'.

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On March 12th, Critical Role's Darrington Press will be launching the open playtest for Daggerheart, their new fantasy TTRPG/

Using cards and two d12s, the system plays on 'the dualities of hope and fear'. The game is slated for a 2025 release.

Almost a year ago, we announced that we’ve been working hard behind-the-scenes on Daggerheart, our contribution to the world of high-fantasy tabletop roleplaying games.

Daggerheart is a game of brave heroics and vibrant worlds that are built together with your gaming group. Create a shared story with your adventuring party, and shape your world through rich, long-term campaign play.

When it’s time for the game mechanics to control fate, players roll one HOPE die and one FEAR die (both 12-sided dice), which will ultimately impact the outcome for your characters. This duality between the forces of hope and fear on every hero drives the unique character-focused narratives in Daggerheart.

In addition to dice, Daggerheart’s card system makes it easy to get started and satisfying to grow your abilities by bringing your characters’ background and capabilities to your fingertips. Ancestry and Community cards describe where you come from and how your experience shapes your customs and values. Meanwhile, your Subclass and Domain cards grant your character plenty of tantalizing abilities to choose from as your character evolves.

And now, dear reader, we’re excited to let you know that our Daggerheart Open Beta Playtest will launch globally on our 9th anniversary, Tuesday, March 12th!

We want anyone and everyone (over the age of 18, please) to help us make Daggerheart as wonderful as possible, which means…helping us break the game. Seriously! The game is not finished or polished yet, which is why it’s critical (ha!) to gather all of your feedback ahead of Daggerheart’s public release in 2025.
 

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Reynard

Legend
Supporter
That's basically it! Don't really care to defend my position too much other that to assert, if this assertion hasn't been made before, that the game borrows blindly and sloppily.
You are welcome to believe that, of course, but I don't see it. it reads fine to me, and it plays fine if the live stream was anything to judge by. Not to say it is perfect, but I think the overall design is pretty solid for what it is aiming at (which is decidedly NOT a D&D clone).
 

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andreszarta

Adventurer
Come on friends! Fear and Hope, the central thematic axis of the game, as clumsy meta-currencies that clash with the purposed "Story Centric" ambitions stated by the game? Commoditization, as an answer to help determine legitimacy of actions, was Fate's misguided answer towards narrative gaming. We tried that already!

They are a pacing tool...where the agent is random generation and the subject are the humans at the table. It is us who are being paced...
 

Reynard

Legend
Supporter
Come on friends! Fear and Hope, the central thematic axis of the game, as clumsy meta-currencies that clash with the purposed "Story Centric" ambitions stated by the game? Commoditization, as an answer to help determine legitimacy of actions, was Fate's misguided answer towards narrative gaming. We tried that already!

They are a pacing tool...where the agent is random generation and the subject are the humans at the table. It is us who are being paced...
Oh. You just don't like those particular mechanics. you aren't actually judging the system, just its individual components.
 



FitzTheRuke

Legend
I think it's fine to criticize the game as a bunch of not-quite-there disparate mechanics.

However, it's still in PLAYTEST mode, and there's a very good chance (like 100%) that it's going to be polished before publication. If anything, it's pretty surprising how close it is to a working game, when you compare it to a lot of playtests out there.
 

I’m noticing an interesting dichotomy form between people who’ve only read the playtest, and people who’ve played the playtest. Obviously, I can’t see everything that’s being posted, but it seems like the game might play better than it reads. Most post-played reports I’ve seen have been positive. I’m scheduled for a session this weekend, I’m looking forward to seeing what my thoughts are after playing it.
 

SteveC

Doing the best imitation of myself
As someone who's read the playtest, plans on playing as soon as my group can figure out the logistics, the design looks perfectly reasonable. I've played all of the games that this one shows influence by and I was able to understand things just fine. Made a character in about 20 minutes and I'm ready to play.

I think this is a good example of games that people don't like the mechanics and what the game is trying to accomplish and confusing that with, well, confusing or incoherent design. It is likely not going to be a lot of gamers' thing, but that doesn't mean it doesn't explain itself well. Not going to yum other people's yuck, so that's about all I have to say about that.
 

Micah Sweet

Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
Scars sounds like a potential doom spiral.

Scars aught to come with some kind of advantage as well as a drawback.
Why? The death mechanic is one of the strongest parts of this system IMO. for a narrative game like this it is an excellent interpretation. Death, if it happens or just threatens to, is painful and has lasting effects. Giving PCs who get scars an advantage would IMO fo nothing but weaken a valuable narrative tool.
 

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