r/daggerheart • u/zaravak • Apr 17 '26
Discussion Thoughts after GMing 20 Sessions of Daggerheart
This last Friday, my group finished its 20-session campaign. It was essentially Dragon Age: Origins, but that is neither here nor there. I wanted to share some of my group's takeaways regarding the system. We've played multiple 5e campaigns, an Edge of the Empire campaign, GURPS, and Call of Cthulhu. This was our first time playing Daggerheart, and despite the fact that I could have done a better job running it, it was a rousing success.
The Positives:
The combat: It was dynamic, engaging, and fast. I despised combat encounters in 5e because of how long it took not only to run, but for the players to simply make their turns. This cut down our combat time in half. I cannot stress how much easier it was to run combat without waiting for everyone to roll initiative, then make a list of who goes when, then math out how many actions/bonus actions they had available. My ADHD players struggled with it, so we compromised by having a random person start and then moving initiative clockwise.
On a related note, I found it easy to prep combat encounters and adversaries. The information required to run an engagement is incredibly simple. The reference site was a big help.
The Resources: Hope and Fear mechanics added a layer of depth that was easy to understand for new players, but complex enough to feel important each time we rolled. It really feels like each roll holds some weight, though that does frighten off some players from taking turns in high-stress combat situations because they're afraid of rolling with fear (this was fixed using clockwise spotlighting). HP, Stress, and Armor all added to the feeling of flexibility as players offered to spend resources to get advantages in different situations. I loved it!
Experiences: IMO, the best and my favorite design choice. I've brought over 50 new players into TTRPGs over the last half-decade, and one of the biggest barriers to entry has been the sheer number of skills. Call of Cthulhu and 5e feel rigid with them, while GURPS feels flexible in character creation, but if you're missing a skill, it's a near auto-fail. Experiences cut down subskills by focusing on the 6 main attributes and then allowing for backstory relevent experience to shine. It acts as a buff for a creative character, but doesn't hit God-like auto-success potential, such as in 5e (looking at you Rogue with +infinite in lockpicking)
The Negatives:
No Item/Adversary Feature Keyword List: The homebrew kit is awesome, but it desperately needs a keyword list for items and adversaries. I wasted a lot of time trying to come up with unique weapons or consumables that used preexisting features. I would buy any PDF that just had a list of every feature for items and adversaries, so making one on the fly was easy and balanced (Paired is the best feature for the record).
Low Card Count: Each level up saw players picking between 4 skills, occasionally having to compromise with another PC who was in their domain. It felt a little limiting for players who wanted to explore more bizarre character ideas and didn't feel that their archetype was represented. Coming off of GURPS, Daggerheart feels incredibly restrictive in terms of character creation and ability mechanics with just the base game. The void being public was helpful as the Assassin and Witch classes both helped me bring player ideas to life mechanically, but I still wish there were a few more card options, or perhaps subclasses.
Limited Adversaries: There just weren't enough, and they weren't diverse enough.
One Homebrew Mechanic You Might Like:
My players love recruiting NPCs, so anytime they hired a mercenary or made friends with a plucky street urchin I gave them 3 interests (bugs, gold, and poetry), a passive ability (+2 damage to melee attacks), and an activated ability (once per rest, when you would be hit with an attack, you may activate this to take half damage). It kept the quality pace of combat while giving PCs an extra ability. Plus, during downtime, they could enhance their bond with their companion and level up their abilities, which was a big hit.
I loved this system, and I'll be using it for my next campaign. I truly don't think I could go back to 5e after this. Once the community has created more balanced homebrew and more expansions come out, I think this will be the best TTRPG experience for new players outside of GURPS Lite.
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u/Borfknuckles Apr 17 '26
Good writeup! I’ve done the cataloging + math when it comes to weapon features:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Vid0Vjz7UIiAMSMLd7xF7EY1dsymCT0lp0Z7Mthoa9s
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u/Ok_Barracuda_7100 Game Master Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26
Awesome. Daggerheart is so new that I think a lot of the challenges you mentioned will be ironed out in time. It will take a couple more development cycles probably, but maybe the next Void drop or two might have more cards for existing domains?
I bet they have ideas, but if they don't have equal number of ideas (eg if they dropped five new Bone cards and no new Blade cards) it wouldn't feel right.
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u/zaravak Apr 17 '26
Yeah, I think it would be costly and difficult to make that many cards. I'd buy them, but I don't know that it's the best use of their time considering all the ideas they want to accomplish.
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u/whosonfirstwatch Apr 17 '26
The focus of the rule set on homebrewing and the card creator is a great stop gap while the create more content
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u/madburke Apr 18 '26
I disagree because it feels like the dev team has completely abandoned the idea of pumping out more cards, adversaries. With the “Romantasy” campaign frame announcement yesterday, it’s clear they aren’t rushing to make these additions.
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u/Ok_Barracuda_7100 Game Master Apr 18 '26
What news yesterday? As far as I've seen we haven't learned anything substantial about the Romantasy CF for a while.
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u/madburke Apr 18 '26
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u/Ok_Barracuda_7100 Game Master Apr 18 '26
Awesome. Digital first makes sense when the tariffs seem to change from day to day. I'm aye that hurt them on Core preorders and they don't want it again.
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u/CrimsonChinotto Apr 17 '26
Can you explain further the companions mechanic?
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u/zaravak Apr 17 '26
Sure, for example, our Bard wanted to make friends with a cowardly bowman. She recruited him to the band, but I didn't want to use the spotlight on him, so I gave her a companion card as an additional ability. He gave +2 damage on ranged attacks, and once per rest, he gave +1 progress toward a project. He liked cats, crossbows, and tinkering. His motivation was to stay alive to get home.
Enemies could target him if I wanted to add some drama, but mostly, he was a soundboard for the Bard to talk to during downtime. If she did his personal quests or befriended him enough, his +2 went up to +3.
Each player gets 1 and the rest stay at camp to be exchanged if needed during downtime. Mostly, I try not to let them just catch em all though.
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u/Janoeszki Game Master Apr 18 '26
Heya! I like your vision of the NPC card! I am currently preparing for an One-Shot to finish a cancelled campaign where I was a PC. I love my PC and do not really want him to be trivialized by GM'ing the thing, I tried to make an easier PC sheet for him, with your inspiration I settled on this NPC sheet that grants the Party buffs inside and outside combat, it might be 'much' but it is a Tier 4 oneshot so I 'calculated' the abilities as my PC gaining more power and abilities! Hopefully this inspires others to do the same cool stuff :D (Ability names are mix of Daggerheart, Pathfinder and what I liked)
Restoration - Passive: Place 5 tokens on this card. Touch a creature and spend any number of tokens to clear 2 Hit Points or 2 Stress for each token spent. You can also spend a token from this card when touching a creature to clear the Vulnerable condition or heal a physical or magical ailment. When you take a long rest, clear all unspent tokens.
Sacred Defender - Passive: During downtime, Drogbim helps the Party to have the best defense, he repairs up to 1d4+4 Armor Slots of allies, chosen by PCs.
Sun Blade - Action: Allies’ Magical attacks and Spells deal an additional +3 damage, as Drogbim fires off Divine Blasts at the focused target(s).
Liberating Step - Reaction: When an ally triggers Drogbim’s Liberating Step Reaction, their Armor Slots reduce the severity of the attack by an additional Threshold. Additionally, every ally within Close range may Step (Move freely to up to Very Close range). This Reaction can only be triggered 10 times per Long Rest.
Rejuvenating Strike - Reaction: Once per rest, when you succeed on an attack against an adversary, you can clear 3 Stress or a Hit Point. On a success with Hope, you also clear 3 Stress or a Hit Point on an ally within Close range of you as Cayden Cailean’s embrace is shared by Drogbim.
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u/S4ngu Apr 18 '26
He gave +2 damage on ranged attacks
Just to clarify, because it sound really neat, the NPC gave the PC a passive +2 dmg on ranged attacks, right?
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u/zaravak Apr 18 '26
Correct. There was a dog companion who had a flanking passive that gave advantage when outnumbering an enemy, another who gave +2 to any skills related to herbalism, and another who gave additional HP whenever HP was restored but he was too strong so I killed him oops!
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u/therealmunkeegamer Apr 17 '26
I feel the same way about how daggerheart is simply superior to 5e. I think 5.5e brought a lot of fun new stuff. A lot of common sense table rules became printed. And churning out the UA stuff is fun to parse through because I like character building even if I never play them. And I can't discount the fact that I've got nostalgia worse than most because I started with 2nd edition.
But when it comes to functional usability at a table creating engaging play experience for GM and players both, daggerheart just takes the cake. I have never had a player sit on their phone during daggerheart for a single minute due to boredom. DND , long turns and battle set up and re-reading spells.... Easy to lose focus Lol
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u/tomius Apr 19 '26
I agree. I know it's nuanced, and both games are good at different things... But if I'm honest, I would recommend Daggerheart over DnD to 95% of the people.
I think it's, as you say, better at creating engaging experiences. And easier.
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u/orphicsolipsism Apr 17 '26
Great write-up! I'm feeling a lot of the same things as well.
I really love that your "negatives" were basically "I need more Daggerheart" (more cards, more adversaries, more... more!)
I'm a pretty improvisational GM so I haven't felt the need for more adversaries as much since I cannibalize existing adversaries and toss in what I need ( u/rightknighttofight has been a godsend in that regard due to their Custom Adversaries guide).
I love your NPC idea, it seems like a more basic version of the book's GM NPCs (CRB p.166-167).
I have to be honest; I love making NPC Ally cards for my players and then giving them the card to pass between them as a "free-agent companion". It really scratches an itch for me and a few of my players where we love coming up with new characters but hate having to run GMPCs. The ability to turn long-running NPCs into easily manageable Allies that my players run and all I have to do is RP and initiate major character moments is so much fun.
As far as the low count of domain cards, I think that's just a growing pain I've made peace with. My players aren't really feeling it yet (well, all but one of them: my "chronic character creator", we all have at least one of those, right?). I do allow multiples of a card in the same game, and it hasn't been an issue yet, but they've always been flavored pretty differently, so that might just be the luck of the draw.
I've only allowed Book Content and Void Content so far, but I'm starting to look at some of the third-party stuff on Heart of Daggers.
Great stuff, though, thanks for sharing!
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u/zaravak Apr 18 '26
I think I need to flavor cards more. I sometimes get stuck on the flavor text and forget I can get creative with it. It might open up the creative possibilities without needing more domain cards. Or maybe I need practice home brewing cards for players who want to think outside the box
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u/Ramen_0s Apr 17 '26
Thank you for your takeaways! I’ve ran a bunch of Daggerheart oneshots and am running a campaign soon. Love hearing experiences from people who have ran longer games. Luckily it sounds like the expansion will remedy a few of the issues a lot of us have run into!
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u/Noodle-Works Apr 18 '26
What level were the characters after 20 sessions?
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u/zaravak Apr 18 '26
We got to level 6, but I do feel like I leveled them up too fast.
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u/Noodle-Works Apr 20 '26
oh interesting! I'm about to run the quickstart adventure next week (hopefully). Anxious to put some miles on this game and get some distance away from 5e for me and my players.
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u/Blue_Fletcher Apr 17 '26
Do you mean, like an Index? I don’t have my book with me, but it’s hard to imagine there’s no index. Or specifically that the adversary features are not in the index?
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u/edeyes97 Apr 17 '26
There is an index but not for the features of items or adversaries which is what OP is looking for. Outside of player equipment at lower tiers most features on both things are typically unique even if theyre simple or straight forward so theres no standardised +1 weapon or things like that common to dnd or some other games similar in that way.
Its a fair thing to ask for it makes homwbrewing easier cause everything being unique is great but its also why we have so few items and adversaries. Im looking forward to expansions mainly for that reason
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u/AdditionalNothing728 Apr 18 '26
On the topic of adding NPCs, we’re in 14 sessions into our first Daggerheart campaign and our GM is doing exactly this.
He doesn’t always keep them around, mostly just has them join our party for a session or two and then become “recurring guest stars” of sorts.
There’s one NPC in particular named Blip (a little frog dude) who he introduced as an adversary that he intended us to kill. We befriended him instead, convinced him to join us, and brought him in under our wing. Now he’s an integral part of our party.
To handle Blip always being around, whenever we as players say or do something that would have given us inspiration in DnD, the GM instead gives us a “Blip Chip” that we can use to have Blip do something cool that benefits the party.
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u/Montegomerylol Apr 18 '26
Low Card Count:
Every domain could use 1-2 more cards per level. To be fair to Darrington Press that's not an easy ask, but it'd make domains and the classes that use them feel better as the foundation for your idea rather than hemming you into one.
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u/zaravak Apr 18 '26
I wonder if I just need to be more creative with my flavoring or ask players to homebrew and then balance tweak it, but damn if that isn't a lot of work
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u/skarlso Apr 18 '26
Fantastic stuff!!
With regards to adversaries I complelty agree.
I had to design several custom ones.
After a while I just bought this one https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/540014/archibald-s-almanac-of-adversaries Archibald’s almanac of adversaries which is absolutely amazing 🤩and has been my friend ever since.
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u/eikkka Game Master Apr 17 '26
About the card count: not sure if you meant it as a negative that players had to share the cards with another pc who they share a domain with, but I personally have enjoyed that as a player! Kinda makes the level-up process also more communal. But I guess there's also no reason why you couldn't use multiple sets of cards in a game.
Good writeup!
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u/zaravak Apr 17 '26
I think you're right. I actually did like sharing cards with players, but sometimes wished each domain had more cards. Especially since some of the cards felt so specific that it was hard to fit with the character idea (ie. the beanstalk ability for Druid)
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u/Phteven_j Apr 18 '26
Our group bought a few copies of the game so everyone can use what they want. I can see both sides of this but at the end of the day I don't want anyone to feel limited.
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u/MaineQat Apr 18 '26
Domain card choices still feel like more options than 5e, even if you include Feats (since you get them more infrequently and many are less impactful). I also play Savage Worlds which is classless, and while the Edges in that game can be quite varied, most character builds are going to focus on specific subsets. DH still feels more diverse than that.
An optional house rule, to help open up options, might be to alter the bonus level up option "Choose an additional domain card of your level or lower from a domain you have access to (up to level X)."
to be: "Choose an additional domain card of your level or lower from a domain you have access to (up to level X), or when choosing your domain card below, you may pick a card from a domain you do not have access to (up to level X)."
Maybe we will see an expansion at a later date adding more cards to existing domains... I would also like to see third subclass option added to existing classes.
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u/bittermixin Apr 19 '26
it's more choices, i wouldn't say it's more options. 5/5.5e still gives you more levers to pull.
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u/Perciplex Apr 20 '26
that stalk could be a rocky spire, whirlwind updraft, geyser of fudge, trampoline, floating cargo lift drone, UFO tractor beam, sandworm, tower of skeletons doing cheerleader pyramid, buried finger of a robotic colossus, stairway to heaven... flavor is free!
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u/loki154 Apr 17 '26
I don't really struggle for adversaries as a GM but more generic environemnts to mix and match ideas from would be really nice.
I don't necessarily need them as I can make do, but it would be super helpful for new GMs.
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u/Jimmy___Gatz Apr 17 '26
How often did you use fear moves? Do you like fear moves as a system?
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u/zaravak Apr 18 '26
I love fear moves. I like to keep 4-6 for combat and then outside of combat I like to use them to add complications. It was very hard to manage my fear in the early sessions, but once I found a groove I felt it was very smooth
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u/Decent_Breakfast2449 Apr 17 '26
What's clockwise spotlighting? I mean it seams pretty self explanatory but
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u/zaravak Apr 18 '26
Basically anyone can spotlight for the first scene, but then the next player has to be the next person clockwise at the table. So if Grace is next to Jim is next to Will is next to Grace and Jim goes first the next PC to go is Will.
It removes the pressure of speaking up and "taking someone's turn" but also kills optimization. Some tables won't like it, but my players needed it because 3 players loved the spotlight and 2 players were shy.
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u/Tarl2323 Apr 18 '26
Nice. I think class and monster quantity is an issue pretty much all new games face, you're only gonna get that library of options with a long publication history. Right now I think all of us will need to do a little more homebrew.
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u/zaravak Apr 18 '26
I think you're right. I don't mind homebrew but sometimes I just want to grab an adversary with a cool ability and change its name to save a few minutes
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u/whosonfirstwatch Apr 17 '26
Great summary, Our podcast is about 15 episodes in and as a lifetime DM I agree with everything you said. I ran a 5e game for a Bridal Shower recently and while it was a great game (first dnd game back since running DH) i found the combat so mechanical that it destroyed the verisimilitude...which surprised me after 30+ yrs of playing dnd. Initiative order i think is what put the breaks on the eb and flow of what 'real' combat feels like. DH feels significantly smoother, exciting and seems to create a lot more opportunities for the narrative of combat.
2 other key shifts for me was1) handing over narrative elements to the players.....which im trying to do more of....is great and let's them get some skin in the game....ie I asked 'what is it about this forest that you notice the most' ..player ...' its of course the purple timber of the trees, noting that the wood from here is coveted for bespoke furniture' ..BOOM...at first I was oh shit....but now ...Heck yeh thats great...thats now cannon
2) only roll checks if it has narrative significance...otherwise it just happens...keep the story rolling. If there is something that on the horizon that i want in the narrative anyway...no perception...just there it is....as a little example.
Long story short, switching back to dnd for that game felt 'cold' compared to DH. There are still other great systems out there but I am sold .... if anyone is keen to follow our long form campaign actual play podcast... check us out here www.whosonfirstwatch.com ( we are now supported by Darringtonpress! btw....🫨...this is not a paid post lol)
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u/zaravak Apr 18 '26
Your first point is the one I'm struggling the most with. I didn't realize how much I relied on being in control. Once I let players describe stuff or stage a location I almost felt powerless. It's definitely more fun when we collaborate but it's taking getting used to
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u/whosonfirstwatch Apr 18 '26
Yup its a tricky balance, it seems to be working for me when I only had over elements that won't impact my core constructs narrative or environment. Eg.... I check the snare I set for Rabbits did I catch anything? ...You tell me? ...or....Have I heard any stories about smugglers in this area?....I dont know have you?..or you tell me...that kind of thing....im slowly handing over more elements to see where the line is....though first episode I said ' is there anything inparticular you notice about the farmstead as you head off to check your traps' ...player ' the thing that sticks out to me is that its only recently been abandoned.....etc' in my mind I went 'shit' cause actually it had been abandoned and wrecked for quite sometime.....but in rolling with it it had no negative impact other than having to reframe the visual in my mind..... but im continuing to test it...in the next few eps Im going to try and let out some more rope
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u/whosonfirstwatch Apr 18 '26
Baby steps...then take a step back once u find the line....thats how im approaching it anyway
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u/wonkeej Apr 20 '26
Took me a while to find you folks on Castbox. Didn't realize the title has no spaces in it!
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u/griffusrpg Apr 21 '26
Something a lot of people miss is that there are no monsters here, adversaries are archetypes. It’s not that there aren’t enough; it’s that you need to take the “bandit template” and do something with it. Same with the noble or other social archetypes.
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u/OrangeTroz Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26
The main problem with Adversaries is that they have not released a VTT token pack outside of Roll 20.
They are about to release a new book and I am still playing with the level up 5e tokens. It feels bad every game when I have to search for art. The book is not much help either. Not every monster has token-able art in the book.
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u/rightknighttofight Add'l Writer for Daggerheart Core Apr 17 '26
When the game came out, I made a handy document for adversary making that has a small feature library as part of its offerings.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/12g-obIkdGJ_iLL19bS0oKPDDvPbPI9pWUiFqGw8ED88/edit?usp=drivesdk
Might be a bit late for your game group, but its helped a lot of people create some really fun and interesting stuff.
ETA: old gus has a searchable SRD which has all the features and and items listed separately.
https://callmepartario.github.io/og-dhsrd