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There is a non-zero chance that if you are reading this blog within a reasonable time of it's debut, you have found me specifically because I read the Daggerheart Playtest Document and live-twote my reactions. My meager audience of just shy of 400 followers ballooned to 700+ in a five day period, simply because the SEO Gods (cruel and fickle as they are), saw fit to put my dumbass ramblings in front of thousands of people. This was a mistake, and led to the creation of this very blog.
Confetti and noisemakers all around.
Unfortunately, those stream of conscious ramblings are, again, originally to be found on Twitter. And while it's death is a slow and agonizing one, it's one I'd be stupid not to preempt by repoasting my content elsewhere. Therefore, today, I will be taking my megathread and compiling it here, editing for readability and not much else. They've already released the next patch notes. So now I have to read those too.
God fucking damnit.
March 14th, 2024
"I wanted to wait until I'd read the whole thing but I'm having Opinions while scrolling through this Daggerheart Open Beta Playtest and can't hold it in"
-Gadda, about to experience unforseen horrors
Part 1: Basic Mechanics & Character Options
One of the big things people critique Daggerheart for is the mish-mash of mechanics from other games. I didn't fully appreciate how jarring it was until I was hit with fucking FATE tags 28 pages in. HOW-EV-ER, I actually think the usage of them is??? Not bad? There's 2, you have to spend a resource to trigger them, and replenishing that resource requires generic rolls to Do Something, so it's actually pretty neat. Better than 5e Inspiration at the very least.
It's a Fiction-Contextual, Player-Chosen temporary bonus to a single roll, with an encouragement to try shit without it because you might get the shiny doodad needed to trigger it for the next roll. A smidge convoluted, but I'm ok with it. Getting a Hope point literally gives the players Hope. There's suddenly a chance that a unique element of their character's personality will give them a Good Roll sometime soon. But it's not an immediate "You win" or useless "Roll Twice pick one" mechanic. The action has to contextually make sense for the tag to be applied. For the audience it's written for, this is probably mind blowing and game changing.
Plus, the Tags can be changed or new ones acquired at level up specifically, so they're not stagnant for the life of the character. Less thrilled about the Cards, though I can see the vision. At least 2 other classes will have similar/synergistic abilities with whichever one you choose, which could lead to neat Party Dynamics.
The back page of the class sheets read like a PBTA playbook and I can't entirely hate it? Again, for the audience they're writing for, this probably feels like the most cohesive guardrails they've ever experienced in a TTRPG without resorting to a 'Storygame' proper.
*there is the sound of pages being flipped*
oh i've reached the domain card usage rules and hmm i don't like this lmfao
The concept of having to choose your cards during downtime, with the rest of your abilities being held seperately is. Technically fine. It's like "Preparing Spells" but for everyone and that in itself is neat and I GUESS it's not a bad idea to offer a mechanic for trading out cards on the fly at the cost of some resource (In this case Stress) but... I don't think people look to Roleplaying games and think "This needs TCG mechanics"
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| Me, about to be told how everybody thinks Roleplaying games need TCG mechanics, actually |
There's also an implication in this document that domain card usage is limited by the physical cards the table has access to? Like, maybe two players CANT have the same ability unless they spring for more than one set of the domain deck and I Do Not Like That.
I'm not going to read every single line of every single class just yet, but based on the Bard alone, I REALLY like how they've set these up. I can't put into words why I prefer this to 5e Class/Subclass advancement, yet I just do. I'm stealing the Guardian's "Unstoppable" feature to replace any sort of Barbarian Rage mechanic in any game I ever play, actually. I also REALLY like the Seraph class. None of the weird baggage of traditional Paladins while still tonally hitting the high notes, while taking some of the Aasimar vibes and not tying it to a specific Ancestry.
The wizard character being able to choose every long rest which result on a hope die gets them a Hope Point is actually really fucking dope. The wizard subclasses being "Book Nerd" and "Battlemage" immediately makes this the best core wizard class in any game.
(guys i think me and my Bad Taste are starting to like this game)
I am now reaching the Ancestry portion which will be the final test, everybody's favorite say it with me now: IS. THIS. GAME. RACISTTTTTTTTTT!!!! [price is right theme plays]
"all ancestries are People" ok good
"there is space for more than just the 'average' of each ancestry" nice, liking this
"unique features, spells, and actions are available not stat increases" perfect no notes so far-
"IF YOU WANT TO MAKE A MIXED RACE-" NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Clanks remove the heavy backstory of Warforged and the designs offered range from puppet to shambling mass of metal to megaman x boss and I love it. Daemons are just how everybody thinks Tieflings should work in 5e, they know their audience well. Drakona remind me Guilmon from digimon. Also really enjoy how the elemental breath is triggered with a hope point, and you just pick whichever element you want.
Faun don't SPEND a resource to headbutt someone, instead they GIVE a resource to the GM that will inevitably make something more difficult for the party later. I actually REALLY like that dynamic. I'm skipping over a bunch here, but i adore that Firbolgs are oxen-people, and despite keeping Goblin as a name (eugh) they've removed the chaos-gremlin lore and added in??? Ear-language? Not mechanically, but establishing that Goblins communicate with micro-expressions is. Cool. Dwarves and Elves look nice- FAERIES ARE BUGS????? FAERIE BUGS????????????? YES. YES. YES. YES. YES.
Removing any stat bonuses or locking content off to a specific Ancestry is just a good idea overall. The features feel like What You'd Pick This Fantasy Creature To Play As FOR without getting into fucking fantasy phrenology.
Halflings having a strong sense of the world's magnetic fields, so they are basically living compasses is SO GOOD. And they keep the ye olde "Lucky" theme from 5e by passively giving their party Hope Points every session- ..... Hmm.
"Those of human ancestry are most easily recognized by their dexterous hands, rounded ears, and bodies built for endurance.... Humans are incredibly physically adaptable and can adjust to harsh climates with relative ease." I don't think it's perfect, but I will say I think this is probably the best way to handle Humans in an elfgame that I've personally seen for a while. Dwarves are sturdy. Giants have longer reach. Halflings can't get lost. Humans... are Endurance Predators. Huh. Im gonna be jangling this about in my head for a week now.
Orcs very pointedly sidestep any of dnd's nonsense, but don't currently Focus on anything either. I get that they want to have them included; Orc Characters have featured prominently in CR content. It just feels like a weak first pass. The art designs are nice. They're going out of their way to make sure there's visual touchstones for Orcs of all classes and body types to prevent the stereotypical one from 5e carrying over.
I love Ribbets.
Here's something interesting- Simiah's feature: "Nimble: Take advantage on Agility Rolls that involve balancing and climbing" I THINK this is the first time a feature has used such loose wording like this. 'balancing and climbing' aren't Named Mechanics, more of a Vibe. This will surely be rewritten, I just think it's interesting. Feels like a vestigial piece of a previous draft. Wonder what the whole book looked like at the stage this was written.
ok mixed ancestry rules is ...fine. Having read the ancestries and realizing how they're essentially specific feats to flavor the choice, mixing them then becomes a grab bag of which parts of their ancestry you the player intend to stress. I do specifically like how the book doesn't have specific names for specific combinations, and asks for the character to decide their preferred terms to use. The example was "Goblin-Orc," "Goblin (with Orc Heritage)", or self prescribed "Toothling". I myself am not mixed or a person of color, I've never struggled with that part of my identity so I can't for sure say it's GOOD. But considering how 5e/OneDND handles it, it clears the bar I guess??????
The Community Domain idea is so fucking good. Can I go on a tangent please I want to go on a tangent.
Part 1.5: Gadda Goes On A Tangent
One of my MANY gripes with Dnd-alikes is how so much of a character's existence is tied to their race. Sure, Bird people can fly and being able to fly would for sure change how you engage with the world in a society, but the result has always been Mono-cultures which are shit.
Traditionally DMs are responsible for offering colorful locations with their own unique communities in which peoples of different Ancestries MIGHT exist, but you'll still end up with your Dwarven Kingdoms and Elven forests and then you're back to square one. Or you have the One Place where everybody loves, idk, finger-painting, and you go there for a session and then leave remembering it as that one weird place you went once, like a tourist.
By establishing what sort of society your character was raised in, without denoting a specific location in the game world as "The place you go for that sort of thing," it not only prevents the monoculture problem, it creates inspiration for everyone at the table to think aboutthe place their character is from while leaving the possibility that Other Places Like It are out there to experience.
I just really enjoy this concept.
Part 1 Again: Now with less Tangent
Oop found another instance of the Simiah thing: "Scoundrel: You have advantage on any rolls where you’re negotiating with criminals, detecting lies, or finding a safe place to hide." part of the Slyborne Community option. This one actually feels LESS loose. Maybe it's Rule of 3's? Knowing one could have a Highborne AND a Slyborne Rogue in the same party having Drastically different styles despite using the same class is a mark of success for this design choice. The vibes on this are strong and do a lot of heavy lifting (positive)(no really)
The Additional Player Options section includes Raw Text stating that specific wording of game mechanics isn't a reason to be ableist, and offers alternative readings for a table to use should their characters be disabled. This SHOULDN'T NEED TO BE SAID, but I appreciate them hardcoding it into their book; Deaf characters using Sign Language for "spoken" Bard spells is FIRE. Replacing "that you can see" with alternative methods of sensing someone nearby is fantastic. I'm normally against design that purposefully shields itself from bad actors, but consider again the audience this is aimed at. There WILL be well-meaning tables that stumble upon this issues and have no fucking idea how to resolve them. Guardrails. I can dig it.
I need to just copy paste this next paragraph
"Modifying spells, abilities, or other aspects of Daggerheart also extends to supporting the enjoyment of everyone at the table. We invite you to adjust the flavor of cards based on the ‘Lines and Veils’ established by the group.For example, "Conjure Swarm" may be uncomfortable for a player who has veiled small bugs, but they might still want to utilize the spell in their Druid character build. Discuss other creatures or objects the PC can conjure such as: flower petals, small birds, or even a specific bug (like a butterfly) that feels comfortable for them. All players, including the GM, should abide by the customizations made to accommodate one another."
- Daggerheart Playtest, paraphrased for Twitter Limitations
Again, this SHOULDN'T NEED TO BE SAID, but for some Critters, they've only ever played 5e. This is good content to include, even if not everyone is going to need it. I applaud them taking the time to explain this clearly in the text.
*there is a small intake of breath*
They have art of in-universe fantasy accessibility aids.
I have nodded my head along when people joke that "gay" dnd and "straight" dnd are two different games, but logical fallacies aside, I think this is the ideal game for people who prefer the "gay" style of play. This is the "be a little guy and have tea and crumpets while being emotionally vulnerable AND hitting monstees really hard with a hammer" game. And, I cannot stress this enough, that is not a criticism.Part 2: The Stuff that Should be Basic Mechanics but feels like Advanced Mathematics
Reached the part where they admit there's no Initiative. Considering the only explanation for that is "you'll read about it elsewhere", I understand a bit why some people immediately panicked. I'm panicking and I'm not even going to buy this game. We'll see how I feel later. Also, and this may get me shot, I kinda like the Hope and Fear dice mechanic. I don't know how it will fare against the traditional desire to roll a d20 and scream when it lands on 1 of two specific numbers, but mechanically I like it! Similarly, Criticals being "Whenever both die land on the same number overrides any failure" is neat! I don't think it'll come quite as quickly as the traditional D20 yahtzee moment, which all game designers struggle to dethrone.
What I think is going to happen is within a week of launch, somebody will have made a solo d20 homebrew version, and half the audience will want to switch to that until they realize it fucks up the rest of the game. Calling it now.
This current system means you can Roll higher on your Hope Die than your Fear Die while still "Failing" the Difficulty Challenge, gaining a Hope Point to use for later while getting hit on your head with rocks. That's pretty fucking good for a modern elfgame. You can also Roller higher on your Fear die, while succeeding the Difficulty Challenge, which means you do what you wanted... but there's a twist. Jesus, that's good. Rolling with Fear gives the GM a resource too- the more the table notices Fear being higher and the GM not using those points, the higher the tension at the table without the GM having to lift a single finger. Kind of brilliant.
*there is a pause as I check the time*
how am i only 97 pages through this 377 page document i have a dayjob to attend i'm not finishing this today
I refuse to dissect the Stress, Damage Threshholds, and Hit Point section. I think it's cool, especially with Stress being also used as a resource for some abilities, so it's a balancing act of what you want to spend it on, Cool Shit or as a Pseudo third lifebar. I will tell you RIGHT NOW this is the one part of the book people will collectively bounce off of. It's complex enough to be clever but also difficult to easily grok-wait. Hold on.
*re-reads the section*
I'm having a fucking brain blast.
Near the VERY BEGINNING of the document, it said you should have a set of "Character Tokens," little doodads like plastic gems or something that matches your character's aesthetic. But it didn't explain what they're for. It just did. After you'd tallied up all your modifiers, instead of keeping that number just In your head where you'll forget it, you take an equal number of tokens and "roll" them WITH your Duality dice in one big hand. They're a visual component of the math you're doing to make it easier for anyone at the table to see.
holy fucking SHIT that's SO GOOD. I'm physically Upset at how good this is. Is this something other games have done? Is this part of the mishmash or is it just a method other players have been using for their homegames that I haven't come across myself? The document wants to get into combat now but I'm still reeling from the tokens thing, fuck all the way off you can't drop this on me and expect business as usual afterwards.
Part 2.5: Another Tangent, Sorry
If general audiences can get past the weird dice and complex HP thing, this might Actually Be the 5e Killer we've been hoping for. If AP's can get past the card deck thing, this might Actually Be the New AP Standard. I didn't want it to be either of those things, but here we are. I've been critical (lol) of Darrington Press and Critical Role as a company in the past, and can firmly say I'm Not A Fan. But goddamn if this isn't a very smart leveraging of the audience they've accrued AND a positive evolution of the 5e playstyle that's developed over the last decade, largely but not solely by their success. Nothing will ever fully dethrone 5e, not now, but from the THIRD of this playtest packet I've gone through thus far, this feels like it might get close.
(The real 5e killer will be death by a thousand cuts, as the larger community whittles down with each new game offering gimmicks specific tables prefer, until wotc is left with little to nothing to profit off of, but that's another thread)
Daggerheart will never be my game of choice. It won't convince OSR or Storygame nerds to convert from their preferred genre emulator. But for a general audience of people who've primarily or only enjoyed 5e-adjacent games? To whom WOTC and 5e is becoming increasingly unpalatable? jesus fuck.
Part 3: Finally, some Combat Rules
Combat i'm mostly skimming through instead of dissecting it properly, but here's some highlights. Aside from movement and initiative rules, if you loosely like 5e, there ya go. Once per session you can spend 3 hope to do a tag-team attack which is a neat mechanical implementation of a common homebrew rule for dnd.
There's also scenarios where an ability or weapon doesn't tell you the Number of damage die to roll; just the sided die to use. Your proficiency is the number to use. Some some shit just. Naturally scales. Huh. Neat.
Instead of actually adding clocks, they float the idea of using a die as a countdown, then swiftly move on. Considering how many other physical props this game has, that's probably for the best. Actually I think both the Bard and Guardian have dice-countdowns(or ups? I don't remember) for features, so this is tonally consistant.
Miniatures are suggested as a temporary tool to assist in visualizing; so basically whenever CR wants to have a visual set piece on their show, it's not "against the rules" or requires additional rules to include in homegames. But the actual mechanics assume theater of the mind. There's some stuff about cover and line of sight and targeting groups but most if is just what you see when you look at 5e from a distance and blur your eyes. Aaaaaaand that's combat.
Part 4: I didn't expect Part 3 to be that short, um...
GOLD/CURRENCY IS TRACKED IN HANDFULS, CHESTS, HOARDS, AND FORTUNES. FUCK YOU FOR WANTING A DETAILED FANTASY ECONOMY. OH I COULD KISS THE DESIGNER ON THE LIPS FOR THIS. I'M SO HAPPY RN.
"These values are abstracted so that they do not need to be tracked as closely. If you want to tip a coin to a waiter or flip a coin into a well, you typically won’t need to worry about tracking it." I'm in love? This is, 100%, not for everyone. But mechanically, there is no longer any hard numbers to push murder-hoboing or looting in search of gold. For the vibe of the game they want, this is VERY IMPORTANT.
Short Rests and Long Rests have specific lists of Downtime Actions. Also Short Rests and Long Rests are specifically DOWNTIME. Not just the nebulous offscreen behavior between adventure modules.
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| holy fucking shit |
i don't even know what to say here. no wait yes i do THIS REMOVES SO MUCH RESPONSIBILTY FROM THE GM TO MAKE SURE CHARACTER DEATH IS RESONANT AND FEELS GOOD. By placing the choice for how a character narratively bites it into the hands of the player themselves, they've given control of what could be that blorbo's final moments while removing the responsibility from the GM to adjucate anything more than the results of a die roll.
GM overload is one of my many MANY gripes with 5e and while I'm not going to say this game has fixed the problem, it's clearly aware of it and wanting to mitigate it.
Ok, flow of combat time, the game won my heart then took me out back to shoot (at you?) no, it's foot. This is where everyone is getting iffy about it and I immediately see the problem.
Part 5: I Immediately See The Problem
The INTENT with the action tracker is to have a back and forth pull wherein the more the players act, the more the opponents can act. And I respect that. In PRACTICE what's going to happen is there is now ANOTHER resource to keep track of, the triggers for adding or removing them feeling somewhat loosely defined, on top of all the other bookkeeping expected of the player. -I- get it, it's like the Digimon Card Game tracker. but until there's a visual example and not just a textual one, I don't think the average player is going to get it. And that's a capital P problem. I don't think it needs to go, just another pass at the document to better explain how it's used.
The action tracker and flow of combat assumes a GM that is capable of performing this activity already. Matt won't have any issue with it. The audience at home will be able to follow along with the visual it gives. Players in homegames are gonna be overwhelmed and confused lol. At least that's my personal opinion. Maybe the audience is smarter than I'm giving them credit for, or maybe the dedicated Live Actual Play attached to the project will replace the text well enough that nobody ever struggles with it.
It wasn't until I reached the section about Leveling up that I realized they really did just jettison the idea of XP, huh. It's Milestone leveling all the way, baybee. Similar to Gold being abstracted, this is probably the best decision.
"When you multiclass, you also must cross out one available “take an upgraded subclass card” option on the level up sheet, meaning you won’t be able to gain the mastery card for any subclass... You can only multiclass once during a campaign."
Specific Class features are re-written when taken via Multiclass which feels a smidge clunky but makes sense. Better than removing Multiclassing entirely (someone will want it) or writing every class with Multiclass in mind (it'll fuck up the identity of every class)
I'm skipping most of the Equipment section as it's what you'd expect from a 5e-ish Elfgame. I do like that they specify that "Two-handed" means "You shouldn't have a sub-weapon", because they want you to have as many fictional hands as you want without mechanically - OH. THIS MEANS A TWO HANDED WEAPON CAN BE HELD BY SOMEONE WITHOUT A LIMB. YOU JUST FIGURE OUT HOW TO JUSTIFY IT IN THE FICTION AND KEEP PLAYING. WE LOVE AN ALLY???????
Loot is specifically done with Consumables or Relics with effects. Not Magic Items, mind you, just Effects. Again, preventing Murderhoboing while giving rewards for exploration. There's no economical benefit to killing and taking every scrap of cloth on a bandit's corpse.
Part Three is Running an Adventure and is specifically intended for GMs. Not Exclusively, mind, but it's meant for them specifically. I unfortunetly will need to pause here, but promise to continue the thread to cover the remaining... I'm only halfway through the fucking doc?!
Until next time,
Farmer Gadda
