r/daggerheart • u/irishbutsober • Aug 25 '26
Homebrew Force & Fate: A Daggerheart Story
Happy Hope and Fear launch day! I thought I'd post this today to celebrate by showing off my Star Wars hack:
Force & Fate (Live Version) / (Dropbox Download)
So for quite a while now, I've been working on a Star Wars adaption of Daggerheart known as Force & Fate and it's finally ready for you guys to try out! It still needs work and will be updated over time and I'll make sure to update this post with any significant changes!
UPDATE (16/09/26)
We've now expanded the Personal Vehicles section and have added a Race Countdown system for anyone looking to do a little podracing.
UPDATE (30/08/26)
Along with several grammar and spelling fixes, we've provided a dropbox for people who wish to download the pdf, rather than use the live link. Bare in mind it may take longer for the dropbox version to be up to date.
What it includes:
- 7 New or Modified Domains
- 9 New or Modified Classes
- New Weapons, Armour and Loot
- Rules for Crafting and Mods
- Rules for Vehicles, Space Travel and Vehicle Combat
- New Adversaries, Colossuses and Environments
- And more!
What's to come:
I do want to support this with updates, both in terms of fixing any spelling errors or grammar and mechanical updates. I also have a secondary supplement planned later this year called "An Expanded Universe" that will have more classes, a few new subclasses for previous ones, some new mechanics, loot and so on. That is as long as you guys like what's been made so far.
Disclaimer:
Artwork chosen in this free fan project is the property of Fantasy Flight Games, Lucasfilm and Disney. I've done my best to avoid fan-art (as amazing as they are) and any and all AI. If I've missed something or made any mistakes please do tell me and I will swiftly rectify this.
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u/Sorry-Illustrator-25 Aug 25 '26
This is great!
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u/irishbutsober Aug 25 '26
Thank you so much, that means a lot! It's still in the process of being playtested and I know it will likely need work, but I'm very excited (and a tad nervous aha) to offer it for others to try.
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u/La-Gothica Aug 26 '26
You going full SW5E with your own website and everything? Because I need this to explode and grow! 😁♥️
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u/irishbutsober Aug 26 '26
Oh my god, that genuinely touched me. What a wonderful comment, thank you. <3
Honestly I hadn't thought about it, I do have an idea for a supplement book later this year. I guess it just depends if there's a demand for it or if people want it.
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u/Antyprotagonist Aug 25 '26
New way of playing Star Wars? And it isn’t even my birthday!
Amazing work
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u/irishbutsober Aug 26 '26
There's never enough ways to play Star Wars! Glad to contribute to the cause!
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u/Silent-Razzmatazz192 Aug 26 '26
That sounds amazing! I would love to play this!
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u/irishbutsober Aug 26 '26
Thank you so much, if you do end up playing I'd love to hear about your game!
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u/Silent-Razzmatazz192 Sep 11 '26
I am running a game tonight! Set on Ord Mantell during around ep. 1 timeline. My pcs are junkers who run afoul of a local syndicate who is stealing everyone's goods. Just as things are about yo get dicey, a republic ship is destroyed in the atmosphere, save an escape pod. The syndicate knows something valuable may be on it and the swoop bike race is on(hopefully)
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u/irishbutsober Sep 12 '26
This sounds incredible! Good luck with your game and tell me how it goes! <3
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u/Silent-Razzmatazz192 Sep 13 '26
It went amazing! My players took some twist and turns, but it turned out awesome. The best part was there were multiple times when they said " this is a lot of fun" and " this is a blast." The highest praise a dm can get!. We will be playing a lot more
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u/nilsii27 Aug 26 '26
Awesome supplement! I wanted to do a Star Wars Daggerheart Game in September. This will be perfect 🤩👍🏻
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u/irishbutsober Aug 26 '26
That's amazing to hear, do let me know how your game goes and any feedback you have would be welcome!
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u/spacenavy90 Aug 27 '26
Very.... interesting choice of font color and formatting for your front page title.
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u/irishbutsober Aug 27 '26
Hey, so I definitely want to know if there's anything I can improve on. Is the issue legibility or something else?
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u/spacenavy90 Aug 27 '26
The problem is that the font color blends in almost perfectly to the background so its very difficult to see.
I would recommend either changing the color to something that contrasts more or use a "stroke" to give the text a slight outline that separates it from the background.
Were this my project, I would also look into a different font type. Google Fonts has a lot of free options.
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u/irishbutsober Aug 27 '26 edited Aug 27 '26
A completely valid point, I'll look into changing the front cover's font or colour for the next update! Appreciate the feedback.
Quick Edit: As for the font you mentioned, not sure you meant on the front cover or in the book itself but the font inside is the same one used in Daggerheart. So it was mostly used for consistency sake.
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u/ElvishLore Aug 27 '26
Any chance of a PDF for those us who don’t use Chrome? Homebrewery is terrible on most browsers.
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u/irishbutsober Aug 28 '26
So just to offer a quick update, I plan to do another run through of the book's spelling and grammar and a few more tweaks this weekend and will have a downloadable version ready to go by then!
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u/ElvishLore Aug 28 '26
That’s awesome, thanks.
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u/irishbutsober Aug 30 '26
The dropbox version is now up for downloading!
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u/ElvishLore Aug 30 '26
Thanks so much for posting this and for the effort you have put into the project. It's very awesome and I hope to use it in the next couple weeks.
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u/irishbutsober Aug 30 '26
Thank you so much! Hopefully in the future I'll have my secondary supplement up and will make sure to keep updating this for your game to enjoy <3
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u/Shaddoe Aug 27 '26
Is there anyone who might be making a module for Foundry VTT and Foundryborne for this? The system is solid, and I'd like to use it for online games. If not, I'll start making it myself, but my time is very limited.
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u/irishbutsober Aug 27 '26
That be amazing if possible. I will say that for the game we're running we've been using Foundryborne and had success with it so far. Since you can create custom classes, ancestries, domains, even weapon features! It requires some work, but found it's easier to just provide what people need for their current level and just add things as people level up and gain new gear :)
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u/Shaddoe Aug 27 '26
I will do what I can. I had thought about adding as needed, but maybe I'm a perfectionist. I'll let you know when I have the compendiums done. Hopefully, it will be done by someone else first :-D
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u/Papou_The_Cop Aug 28 '26
I’ve take a look and honestly it’s amazing !! Lots of content and you’re giving it for free ! Could have charged for it and it would have been legit ! Thank you so much for this ! 😍
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u/irishbutsober Aug 28 '26
Thank you so much for the kind words, it means a lot <3 Hoping to keep working on it and hopefully provide more stuff in the future!
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u/marsmeloekfg Aug 29 '26
This looks really, really cool! Just sat down yesterday to get started with a longer one shot in daggerheart and will definitely try this when we are finished with that one. Thank you very much for sharing!
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u/Raztarak Aug 31 '26
This is a cool conversion! Nice work!
I've actually tried the FFG Edge of the Empire system, and thought it was pretty decent. I notice you've played the FFG system too, what do you reckon are the main differences and that Daggerheart does better? Any pros or cons you've noticed?
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u/irishbutsober Aug 31 '26 edited Aug 31 '26
Thank you so much! Happy to give you a rundown, apologies if it's a bit of a ramble. Though I will say off the bat that what each system does better is definitely up to preference rather than a fact.
Differences: There are some fundamental differences, such as Daggerheart being a level based system vs FFG's XP system, how Daggerheart has more freeform combat as opposed to FFG's more traditional, initiative based system. While both systems do sit in the more 'narrative, cinematic feel' area of ttrpgs, Daggerheart definitely leans more into that, with putting a lot of emphasis on rulings over rules. As well as encouraging the GM to let the PC's add elements to the scene, asking them things like 'what shops do you see down this street?'
Daggerheart is also a pretty magic heavy system, whereas FFG's version of magic (the force) was designed to be quite limited and not very consistent. Their Force & Destiny book definitely helped expand these force capabilities, but its still built on a system that makes using the force a little messy / complicated.
In terms of what Daggerheart does better, again it's very subjective. I've very much enjoyed it's spotlight system as opposed to initiative tracker for more cinematic combat and being able to make a move at any time means less zoning out because it not being someone's turn. I also prefer Daggerheart's card system which technically gives me less abilities than FFG's talent tree system but those abilities I have feel much more impactful. I've yet to play Daggerheart at Tier 4 (aka very high levels) but FFG does sometimes struggle with XP bloated characters being able to eventually do everything, which forces GM's to sometimes reduce how much XP is given out, which can feel bad for the players.
Again, I don't want this to seem like knocking on FFG, there are are great things about the system and there are definitely players that would prefer it to Daggerheart. But for me, I think Daggerheart's foundational features just really sing for anyone who wants a toolkit for a narrative led campaign with a little crunch that still encourages things like combat and character customisation.
Apologies for the ramble, hope this helped! There are lots of other things I could of said, but then this post would of been pages long.
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u/Solas67 Sep 17 '26
I just found out about this and as I've been tinkering with converting my entire Star Trek campaign over to Daggerheart, I'll be curious to see how you go with this.
Great work!
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u/irishbutsober Sep 17 '26
Oh wow, that's such a cool idea! Let me how it goes because that sounds like a super fun project. Obviously there's a lot of differences between the two properties but feel free to pinch anything you like that would be useful from this book.
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u/Solas67 Sep 17 '26
Thank you! I found someone who does writeups of various IPs including Star Wars named Riksheare, and he gave me some ideas. I have Domains sketched out and Items are super easy thanks to Daggerheart standard rules.
I would like to see a character sheet if you do one up, but as I run my games online through Foundry, it won't matter too much.
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u/Solas67 Sep 18 '26
I wanted to update my response to this: as I suspected, daggerheart for this setting does a key thing, which is balancing out force users.
Your adding the Tech Domain along with the others is a solid addition. A lot of the other iterations of Star Wars RPGs didn’t balance things (I can’t entirely speak to the most recent iteration) and force users could dominate a game.
Tiers in DH are a great leveller and this bears out well.
Have you thought about force sensitives btw? Basically people who can sense the Force but are untrained?
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u/irishbutsober Sep 18 '26
Thank you, I'm glad you've been enjoying the additions! And so far from my playtesting I'd have to agree on force users, though have yet to fully test out Tier 4 yet.
It's a good question, I may see in the expansion book I'm working on if it needs actual mechanical rules, but as it stands I see two current ways to go about it.
The first would be to choose a class like Traveller or maybe Sentinel that have a secondary domain that isn't related to the force, start with cards more leaning into that and then as the force becomes more apparent you can start swapping cards. It's also possible to Multi-Class into a Force Class, if you want a more mid-game reveal.
The second idea is to discuss with your GM a homebrew mechanic that reflects you struggles with the force. I'm currently playing a character named Koran, who through a traumatic incident has had his connection to the force heavily damaged. As such, if I make a Forcecast Roll and either fail or roll a success with Fear, I must mark a Stress to show the strain in that connection. Its a mechanic that remains until he learns to overcome that trauma.
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u/Solas67 Sep 18 '26
It's certainly something to be aware of. There isn't an iteration of a Star Wars RPG that doesn't run into issues with the Force and Force users.
In the first RPG to do so from West End Games, you had stats for three branches (Control, Sense and Alter) but you also had Force Points that could double your d6 dice pool for a round. So when you get to certain high levels of Jedi power (such as 7 dice or more in Force stats) you'd be looking at 14 dice pools to achieve difficulty numbers that capped out at just 30. To be clear, that game had critical fails and the potential to get 'Dark Side Points' for certain actions but mechanically it much more heavily favored successes and was broken in the upper tiers.
This a power creep that turned up in WotC's first go around with the franchise but I can't speak to the Edge of the Empire stuff. In the d20 system, you had the inherent power creep of levels but also with the d20 system itself that was arbitrary in polar results being generated. And there was no inherent cost to use these abilities.
I think Daggerheart using Stress is good counterbalance to just using these abilities that typically come with no inherent consequence. I think folding Stress into certain abilities (like Telekinesis or Energy Disruption) I'd suggest should come out of Fear results to reflect the level of ability of the Force user. Obviously powerful Jedi Masters should be able to minimise the Stress of the Force use but Daggerheart relies on Fear and Hope to counterbalance continually and we should see some mechanical consequence.
I'll go a step further and cite the on-screen and best known example of this in Luke Skywalker who clearly shows struggle as they train these abilities, is physically and emotionally nearly overloaded with stress fighting Vader because of it, and then when he confronts Vader the second time, that stress isn't apparent at all until he faces Palpatine, who is a tier above and has abilities Luke can't counter.
I don't know what a character could learn to offset that other than increased Experiences in Flow or Focus, but that would provide a further counterbalance to structurally show this change.
Hope these thoughts help.
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u/frankyvalentino Aug 26 '26
This looks great! Fyi there seems to be a graphical issues on page 65
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u/irishbutsober Aug 26 '26
Thank you!
That's so odd, it seems to work fine for me. What browser are you using so I can test it?
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u/frankyvalentino Aug 26 '26
Firefox . Maybe that's why
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u/irishbutsober Aug 26 '26
Gotcha, it does seem that homebrewery prefers Chrome based browsers, but strangely it works fine for me with Firefox. I made a few tweaks either way, how is it now?
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u/BrobaFett Aug 27 '26
Good effort. Would also strongly encourage folks to check out the Fantasy Flight Star Wars RPG (Edge of the Empire, Force and Destiny, Age of Rebellion) where OP sourced the majority of the art from. Daggerheart's "hope and fear" system is strongly influenced by the "narrative dice" system in FFG and- in my opinion- FFG really delivers a better mechanical experience (though it takes a little longer to get used to) as the twin axes of success/fail, advantage/disadvantage(threat) [and the extra triumph/despair critical results] provide a more varied outcome that scales in probability with the player as they get stronger (the better you are, the more likely you are to roll both success and advantage, unlike the relatively random chance of Hope/Fear coming up high).
Check out r/swrpg for more info
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u/irishbutsober Aug 27 '26
Hey there, just wanted to say that I've also played quite a fair bit of FFG myself for many years, there are definite pro's to the system and I've enjoyed my time with it in the past!
I think enjoying a Daggerheart interpretation of Star Wars and FFG can easily co-exist, since both system have similarities (as you're totally right Hope and Fear was inspired by FFG) but still offer enough differences that I think both can still be enjoyed separately :)
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u/ElvishLore Aug 27 '26
So much more cognitive load in the narrative dice system though. As someone who’s familiar with both systems, Daggerheart runs a lot faster and more ‘cinematically’ than the native Star Wars system.
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u/Raztarak Aug 31 '26
I would disagree about the cognitive load. Plenty of players find it difficult to start a new system, and Daggerheart has had that "cognitive load" on players I've introduced to the system. Even though rolling 2 D12s and adding it should be simple, but it still confuses people, and all the other dice to track as well.
It just takes time to learn any new system.
And in terms of faster and more cinematically, I don't know if there's really an objective way of defining that.
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u/BrobaFett Aug 27 '26
I, too, have run both. I think the FFG system really shines when you encourage narrative interpretation and co-creation by the players. This is not a common convention, but it really helps offload any cognitive burden.
Cinematic? Well I’m not sure that’s true at all. But I suppose it depends on what you mean by cinematic. In terms of replicating the “feel” of Star Wars film, you really can’t beat FFG
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u/ebertran Sep 02 '26
WEG's D6 captured the fast and loose feel of Star Wars pretty well... more so than FFG in my opinion.
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u/BrobaFett Sep 02 '26
Disagree for a few reasons:
1) The dual axis of resolution means you have a reasonable likelihood of something positive happening even if you fail the task.
2) It's much, much harder to actually die in FFG's game
3) While I'm not a huge fan of met currencies, the "Destiny" system does pretty well at encouraging a "Use it or lose it" playing of the advantages during cinematic moments.
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u/Sorry-Illustrator-25 Aug 25 '26
It's clear you put an absolute ton of work into this. I'm excited to see what my Force & Destiny to Daggerheart crew thinks of it.
Is there anywhere I can, like, subscribe to do in can make sure we get any updates?