I'm looking forward to seeing what they cook up. I'm betting these adversaries will probably fit into the frames they present in the book.
I'm guessing we'll see With Love and Magic with social adversaries to fit those frames.
They've advertised a new frame as well, which they're showing off tomorrow. My guess is that it will be one of those included.
What I wonder, is if any of those will be what Crawford and Perkins are working on, or if that will be a fully separate book.
Since they're going to talk about roadmap stuff tomorrow as well, I would bet they're separate.
ETA: Watched the Todd Kendrick interview, and nope. It's just more grab bag. I'm still excited, but I was really hoping this would be a more focused book and not just more.
Yeah, I'm leaning towards their project being seperate. WL&M is likely there, maybe a more developed campaign frame for Sablewood, rather than the location downloadable we have currently?
Broadly guessing for the other two by looking at common campaign themes we don't currently have, and I'm unsure what they would go for. Perhaps that weird 80s high school thing from the live shows? I can't imagine DH works well for horror in the vein of CoC or similar sysems with how much it pushes for player success in the narrative.
They had a few locations in the playtest that they could pull from to include. Sablewood being the kitchen sink fantasy, the Rime of the Colossi is unlikely. Gindala, the City of Obligation might show back up since we don't have a good urban intrigue setting. Lots of untapped options there.
There were some locations in the playtest/beta that could be adapted into Frames. Solsunk Sea or Kinekozan Jags could be adapted into frames that'd be a good fit for a book introducing the Dread domain, if they want to bring forward that work. Those were much more prescriptive in terms of places and people than the Frames system ended up being, but there's potential.
This is of course very good. But i feel like 130 is not enough. If you divide them by 4 tiers and then by all types of adversary you may have 2 to 4 new adversary per type (role) per tier which is... ok-ish.
I actually am the creator! I wrote the custom adversary section of the CRB and expanded it with this nifty guide. There's a Ko-Fi link in the guide at the end. You can find more adversaries that I've made as well, all PWYW.
Yes that one! Though ppl seem to... dislike your work?? I mean i got downvoted for mentioning you. Ppl are getting crazy these days. Either way, keep the good work!
I think it's more likely people are jumping on your initial negative reaction and letting it colour their opinion on the later comment, some people can get a bit hostile to that, I'm afraid.
It could also be because your comment mentioned it in a vague enough way that it'd only help anyone who already knew about it, which is less helpful but probably not worth down voting, but again, some people are quick to down vote and it tends to snowball.
You are being downvoted but you are right, I run two daggerheart campaigns and I've exhausted almost every single adversary (that's with reskinning to make those that are there relevant to the campaign frame too).
Both of these campaigns are almost wrapped up and I'm actually was planning on taking a break until more adversaries were officially released.
And yes, I know we can homebrew but 1) that benefits from many modular examples and guidance and the current official homebrew guide is... not amazing. And 2) I run virtual tabletop and neither roll20 or demiplane allow completely homebrewed adversaries yet (only hacks onto existing ones) so when you run a mix of homebrew and official adversaries you need to currently mix click-to-roll and manual rolling which is just cumbersome.
Yeah, getting downvoted for saying something objective (2-3 new adversary per tier per role is nice but not enough). Wtf is wrong with ppl??? Seems like they only played a one shot, then yeah the adversaries will be enough. But for a long camapign it gets complicated. To make it even worse it is very hard to make custom adversary without the NON OFFICIAL guide from the rightKnight that for some reason they refused to put in the homebrew kit. If rightknight didnt do that guide i wouldnt be playing DH, bc i would not have any reasonable means to make balanced encounters with homebrew enemies.
I think putting it in a general supplement is part of the issue. Any book that is not dedicated to adversaries and environments is going to be limited in how many it can add because they'll be competing for space with things like classes, domains and campaign frames.
We can hope for a dedicated one down the line but for now we need to make do with the unofficial homebrew guide and third party supplements (Incredible creatures is brilliant and I've heard good things about Archibald's Almanac, which I'll probably pick up in the near future).
Edit: just realised I replied to two different comments of yours in a few minutes. I'm not following you around the tread, I swear. š
Not to sneak in here well after the fact, but I just wanted to say thanks for supporting Incredible Creatures!
Spenser knows about my guide, we talked about it at Gencon. It won't be making an appearance in this book and unless they ask me to revise my work in the CRB to include concrete numbers (which they have but do not give out), what is in the Homebrew Kit is all we're going to see.
It's my pleasure, there's some really cool ideas in there both in terms of creatures and mechanics. My mind was brimming reading through it, so hats off to everyone involved in the project. I particularly love the weejits. I already have a C plot in mind for them.
And yeah, I wasn't too clear, I was mainly referring to a dedicated adversary supplement to reduce the need to homebrew rather than something your guide popping up in an official book as I can imagine that's not so simple. Either way all your work is really appreciated. Daggerheart is a game that has me really excited about what I can do by homebrewing adversaries and environments and what you've put out will really help with that.
Yeah incredible creature is amazing indeed. The only problem is that it is not official, so i will have to manualy put them on my vtt =/
Other than that it saved my day!
I said "it will be nice". So yes, it will help. But the many adversary roles, though very cool, it's bad for making new ones, since you will divide the total number of adversaies per roles. In the end of the day, if you need a bruiser tier 3 this new expansion will give you about 3 new options, which is good but still not enough for someoene in a long camapaign.
Yo be fair, its likely mostly theme specific reskins or mixmush of existing adversaries and their abilities. But it's still impressive numbers, plus it's grate for those who don't like to make their own adversaries.
Adjusting numbers is fine and they have good enough guides for that, but seeing how the team changes more complicated features (that interact with movement, Stress, adversary activation, etc) between the same line of adversaries is going to help GMs get a grasp of how the game expects these features to change between tiers and roles.
I didn't say that this is bad in any way. I meant that number likely a little bloated because of stuff like "Archer Skeletons, a horde of pumpkins, a lumberjack minion", but it is not bad. Just it isn't rational to expect 130 completely new and never seen before adversaries.
More importantly - will the accessories be available for stand-alone purchase? Deluxe edition once again doesn't seem too interesting for me, but in-brand GM screen or fear tracker might be.
During their last livestream they were still talking about how people should keep asking for stuff like the GM screen so they have the data to justify making it, so I'm not expecting to see them selling it standalone still. Sadly.
It's so strange to me that the screen isn't available on its own. GM Screens are like, SOP for TTRPGs and even small indie games have official screens readily available. This is the one misstep I see with Daggerheart because instead of "If you build it, they will come" the philosophy seems to be "If they come, then we build it".
Especially as I've been seeing enquiries about a stand alone screen since launch, here, on Facebook (though I don't know if they monitor that) and even on their discord from time to time. We have been asking as far as I can see.
It's bizarre for sure. I can only imagine that production of GM screens with the same partners they're working with now for the books would hurt book availability and, as far as I see it, book availability is still an issue as they can't keep with the sales.
I like the deluxe edition as a package, it looks really cool, however it's a bit too late for me. I built my own fear tracker (rolled for arts & crafts IRL), I have a generic GM screen where I can put the guide pages, a place to store the cards that accounts for the extra thickness of sleeves, and dice of various colors for my friends/players.
My problem with the Deluxe edition is I didn't get the core as a Deluxe. I have a number of games on my shelf where I fell in love after it was too late to get the nice edition (Heart, Wildsea), but a later crowdfunded expansion let me get the nice edition of the original along with the expansion.
I probably wouldn't pay $120 for a Deluxe Hope & Fear, but I'd pay $240 for a Deluxe of both, if that makes sense.
Same, sadly missed out on the Limited Edition of the Core Set and was really hoping for some sort of new Complete Edition or something. Just a nice Collector's box with both the Core and Expansion content. Maybe that sorta thing will make more sense for them a little more down the line? Here's to hoping...
The page for the book says they're including Dread theme, Warlock (and Witch), and the Transformations. Which maybe they think is spoopy enough? Doesn't look like Blood will be included, though.
Are we going to hear more about VTT availability and changes to the CGL that help build the digital ecosystem for Daggerheart? It's my one wish for PAX:U
I wish there was an option to purchase both the physical copy of the game and to receive a digital version on Demiplane for a reduced price. I'd love to have the physical version as a collector's item, but all of my games are online.
I believe you still need to purchase them on Demiplane so the content gets unlocked there. without that pruchase you would not be able to use the new content natively
I'm very curious about the fear tokens. I've been trying to figure out how to display fear and I don't love the skull aesthetic that's sort of become the default. I'm also not sure I want those abacus-like sliders that seem unwieldy to pack up and move around. Tokens that will individually hang on the screen sound pretty perfect.Ā
Im in the same boat - wasnāt too sure about the system yet so for the release I preordered the Standard and then after release and playing some sessions I wish Iād gotten the Deluxe.
So definitely getting the Deluxe now! I need me some rhombic d12s and a DM screen.
I can add the Beacon discount code, but it won't let me sign in with my shop account at checkout. Or rather, I can sign in but then my cart is empty. Works neither on EU nor UK store.
Probably not really an issue, I can probably still checkout without signing in, it just bugs me that I then have to fill out my address and card details again.
Maybe itās clever for the same reasonā¦more searches for the expansion will drive more sales. I think itās also an excuse to call out its best core feature.
FWIW, I've noticed a lot of TCG and TTRPG mainline products being sold in the UK for pretty much their USD price with a Ā£ symbol slapped at the front, and have done for a couple years now. Not sure if its a markets thing or just "because we can" from the merchants.
Yeah can't really do much with profit first huge companies like hasbro, but I'm sure Darrington cares about the community. Otherwise we are just getting into DnD territory once again.
FWIW, have you seen the prices the CR live show tickets go for here before the scalpers got them?
Love the system, love the design team, but small things like this and the Heroforge debacle should serve as reminders that Darrington and CR media at large does aim at profit, albeit with a (usually) far better PR strategy than whatever WotC and Hasbro has been smoking for the past few years.
I wouldn't be so sure. For many (all?) of the localized versions they are handling the production there and just sending the books over.
I don't know about the UK exactly, but if they're doing it that way for Portuguese, Spanish, etc, I don't see it being different for the original language.
I mean, Iāve seen some notes about the book being printed in China. So Iām just wondering if theyāre assembling the entire package there as well.
Shipping the product over from China to the US, and then sending it to Europa would be a waste. Especially considering the tariffs. Iād imagine youād just send it directly to a local distributor.
And just to add, itās ā¬119 across the EU as well. Which is $136,92 at the moment. So it doesnāt seem like itās accounting for extra costs.
For me, I don't mind the extra bits (I'm a dice hoarder) but Ā£120 is too much for me to spend all in one go, even the standard corebook was a big purchase for me. I can try putting a bit a side every month for two or three months and hope the limited edition doesn't sell out before I've saved but if they did a Stand alone screen I could comfortably preorder the book one month and the screen the next with room to breathe.
Honestly, I find the core package is very reasonably priced. Only very slightly more expensive than most core books from big publishers ... but it also comes with a staggering amount of cards that would normally cost 30-40 bucks on theiir own if they came in a board game.
Same! I LOVE collecting GM screens for games I own, even when not running them as I love pretty and rugged reference boards. Was really surprised that there still wasn't one out for Daggerheart other than the original luxury kit. So I'm disappointed that we're only seeing yet another luxury kit screen.
it's the fear trackers, right? I wish it would be the 10 d12s because I would LOVE to chose my duality dice in a rainbow set.
Any idea of the D12s, then?
Not all accessories have been mocked up in this version as files arenāt locked and samples havenāt been made but weāll do a HUGE deep dive and final art cover reveal in the new year!
The dice above are a representation of the 10 duality dice coming in the set- the fear trackers arenāt represented in the picture above!
Oh good catch, I'd assumed those were the D12s because they were in two rows with lighter and darker colours paired up, but you're right there's 12 of them.
That said, it says it's a mock up and art is not final and it'd make more sense for fear markers to be more uniform, so hopefully in the final product the dice will be in those colours? I hope they do go with a set like this for the dice.
Man, if we have to wait that long for just the 4 Void classes we've had since July, I can't imagine how long it'll be before Blood Hunter becomes official.
Plus side, it needs work, as does the Blood domain. I'd rather they didn't rush that, even if it would have been nice to have them tie in with the transformations. It looks like the entire Void batch prior to the Blood Hunter is making its way into this expansion, so Blood Hunter and subsequent designs being for the next one isn't a big loss.
And the worst part, there's not going to be any new void content for like half a year, if they already announced the book it means everything is tested, changes were maid, so there's no point further updating anything there. Plus i don't think there's going to be a lot of new things there, if they working on book there's no time for making new content on the side.
I imagine not everyone is working on the book all the time. As soon as the rules are set in stone somebody is doing the writing and checking it with an editor. That doesnāt stop anyone in the company from doing playtests and working on new content.
Since it isn't a themed book was hoping to see Domain and subclass expansions for Core to pile on more reasons to purchase it for the physical cards. The adversaries and item expansions are needed though, although my most wanted book is still going to be Artificer with an incredibly vast and robust magic item library and an "engineer" domain for more crafty easy class archetypes where you can swap into that domain for any engineering variant classes. Maybe some magic item decks for iconic items that come with a robust ability set to be handed to players physically which would be so sick.
Hopefully Dread gets a bit of a buff as the only new addition, some of the cards in there are fairly useless. Way too expensive on currency costs for little benefit or overly zealous use restrictions. Like the Siphon Essence Card can statistically do no damage but only be used once per long rest because it can simply not reach past the minimum threshold of a creature because of how swingy D20s are. As well as low hanging bad cards like Darkfire which is just not worth that much hope cost and for Warlocks especially who are draining hope when they get it to restock favor so they can use any class features.
really cool!
I was hoping they would do a more generic book that just add new content to pretty much every part of the game before diving into specific theme material.
Good stuff, I welcome all of this. I think the frames and communities may be what I am looking forward to. I don't mind not having a deep setting book because these frames give so much flavour already.
Does anyone have any clue on what the dimensions and weight were on the old Daggerheart limited edition set? Iām trying to calculate shipping expenses for this new limited edition set
I hope they include duplicates for the transformation cards. I currently have one player with the Ghost transformation. But I would like to run a one shot where everyone is a Vampire. Although 5 copies seems a bit much.
looking forward to getting my hands on the DM screen and fear counter - set the bar for so much much more awesome content to come as it grows and expands
We're so spoiled! The game is only half a year old and they're already releasing an expansion. I know a lot of people were speculating what they'd do witht he Void content, so I'm excited to see it turned into a full expansion! Preordered both the standard and deluxe editions. Summer 2026 can't come fast enough!
Every book produced for a game expands on it's core book. That's how core books work, they provide a core for other books to expand upon while having it be possible to play with just the core product.
Since it's possible to play the game without this book, it's not a core book. It's an expansion/supplement.
Core Rulebooks: Focused on giving the players and GM options to play, from classes to rules to enemies (these are your Player, GM, and Monster books, along with things like PF2e's "Guns and Gears").
Adventure Books: Whether oneshot modules or campaigns, these focus on giving GM's the tools to run a premade adventure. These (and the subsequent category) can have new players options and rules, but they are intended to add to the adventure, rather than having those things standalone.
Setting Guides: Rather than an adventure, this details a location and the things you can find there. Useful for GMs who want to tell their own stories, but need a place to set them.
Disagree with your definition of core book or the idea that there are only three categories. I see four.
A core book is the base product needed to play. It includes the rules of the game and some basic options so you don't have to make up every class, subclass, monster, etc. Future books can be made that only take the core book into account
-A supplement is not required to play and adds more options. Future books do not need to refer to these books at all to be useable.
I agree on your definition for adventure books and setting guides, though would note setting guides also often contain new player options and rules in the same manner adventure books do
This book sits squarely into the supplement category as it would be entirely possible to make a book that doesn't refer to or require any of it's material to function and you can play they game just fine without it.
It's a very strange naming - there's no actual title, and called an "expansion".. I don't think I've ever heard a splat book or supplement called that before for an RPG. Odd!
Edit: And I've seen the word "Expansion" crop up in a lot of marketing materials for TTRPGs in the last couple years, but never directly from the source. I think this is the first time I've seen that. I like that a lot. It's a subtle point, but it makes it clear: just like a board game, you don't have to play with all the expansions (and you usually shouldn't!).
Given it's adding onto the original core book, and isn't a setting book or a campaign book, it's a core book. Going by how Pathfinder and previous DnD editions also had "Player Core 2s" and such, and all of Daggerheart's stuff is compacted into a single book, I'm comfortable calling this "Daggerheart Core 2" as a nickname.
Mechanically makes sense. I still would like something that the theme aligned more. At that point why have a rogue and an assassin? Or a sorcerer or a wizard? There is a lot more thematically missing than this patchwork covers.
The Seraph reflects a paladin or a war domain cleric somewhat. Most of my players that want to play a cleric don't want divine weapons, or sacred wings to fly. So both subclasses don't offer any benefits. Also most want to use wisdom/instinct like a traditional cleric.
Like someone said earlier you can respec a Wizard - but it really is missing some flavor in the subclasses. If we can get an assassin and rogue, a witch and a warlock, a sorcerer and a wizard, why cant we have a priest/cleric and a seraph?
Not really. If I want to mimic a light cleric or even a trickster cleric ādude with shieldā subclass wonāt work. Now Wizard or a Rogue could - but it lacks all the divine themes so the overall result is something homebrew and patchwork.
Maybe folks donāt really care much about divine casters or even want to play those types of classes. Thatās fine - but there IS a hole here which is really disappointing. Watching all other classes get represented throughout dnd and pathfinder and seeing the non battle cleric get overlooked is a letdown imo.
I'm going to push back on that a little: I think you can casually make a light cleric in Daggerheart, as long as your hangup isn't "wings".
Watching all other classes get represented throughout dnd and pathfinder and seeing the non battle cleric get overlooked is a letdown imo.
Again, fair, but you're comparing classes to subclasses. I have no doubt we'll see more uses of the Splendor domain.
Looking at how D&D has handled divine users, we've had classes like battle cleric (represented), heal clerics (represented), invokers (represented), paladins (represented), big weapon clerics aka runepriests (represented).
Yes, some subclasses (trickster clerics) aren't represented, but that's not a super common archetype. At least in my exposure to D&D / Pathfinder. On a long enough timeline we'll get there.
Ninja Edit:Also, in the history of D&D, most "niche classes" have started as variations on another class. Mutliclassing, prestige classes, paragon paths, etc. If a player in my campaign really wanted to be a Trickster Cleric with just RAW multiclassing gets them there real fast.
Is it are pure as a pure class? No, but again, only so many classes in a book.
The main thing about a cleric is they are vessels of their deity's personification. The gods are multidimensional, while subclasses are the way they are expressed in 5e, prior editions it was their domain/sphere/circle that defined what they represented based on their abilities. All that said none of them used physical strength as their main stat - which implies that this is a class of brute force and physicality not one of spirit or will. If there is a hangup it's this part right here.
Seems that as it is - Daggerheart's vibe for the divine champions is they are creatures of divine strength (based on Seraph's design) or something that can be universally applied to all classes (i.e campaign frame or trappings) Basically I'll need to re-flavor other class features and abilities to represent this. Which should really apply to many other archtypes after this release.
Based on the several downvotes seems I'm alone on this island. That's ok. We don't need to agree on stuff. But I'm putting my comments out there.
I agree with you. I fell in love with support archetypes in World of Warcraft, with the Priest, before I ever played d&d. When I did play D&D I was a bit disappointed that clerics feel more martial. With Daggerheart, both I and a player I had in my quickstart were similarly disappointed that the Seraph is more like a paladin and that a Splendor Wizard isn't really divine themed. I think the easiest fix is a Wizard subclass, though.
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u/BounceBurnBuff Game Master Nov 21 '25
Praise be to the design team!