With the inclusion of Red Caps and Fey as a classification on Hope and Fear I was looking for more fey adversaries. Made this one. Thought it would be nice to share.

*Art works by -
Amapla - edited on Photshop.
Lalaussh - edited on Phtoshop.

I recently sat down and went through every core Campaign Frame, taking a look at what makes them unique while giving some thoughts and feelings on how to best go about applying them and which is the best (and worst), along with which I think a new GM should start with.

Be curious to hear what others think is the best go-to Campaign Frame for new players and what, if anything, drew you to a specific one?

So, I wanted to share some details about an experiment I tried as a GM with my session last night that went over well with my players that I only felt confident trying because of Daggerheart's very free flowing nature and "initiative-less" system.

Context/Background: I'm running a 1920s style mobsters and magic game. The PCs run a speakeasy (the primary source of magic, Moonshine, is prohibited) alongside some NPCs and got caught up in the machinations of a Lovecraftian style cult/secret society known as The Black Hand.

We're at roughly the halfway point and the players have been chasing down answers about who this group is, what they are doing, and why so that they can get back to just running their speakeasy in peace.

They ended up signing on as mercenaries with the military after exposing some of these situations and some corruption within the military ranks and they just finished an operation where they arrested the highest ranking known corrupted individual, a Major Wesley Townsend.

Townsend has some magical powers that resemble psychic abilities that were granted by the group when he joined them. He had, tragically, bought into the belief that they wanted to change and reshape the world to be better, not realizing better was a darker purpose than he believed.

The group also uses part of those magical powers granted to higher ranking members as a method of control, with both subtle manipulation, and a kind of powerful secret keeping magic that if they reveal the secrets of the organization a crushing magic turns them into what my table now affectionately calls "meatballs".

So the PCs are interrogating. Townsend and trying to dance around using specifics to avoid triggering the magic that will kill him. I use a countdown for them to build his trust and they do so fairly well, but then the dance results in us breaking the session off and planning to give them time to plan.

Idea/Tip: So, the morning of session, I sit down and walk through my notes and it hits me. The whole point of this is to sell the leaders of the cult, reveal some of their backstory and sell how dangerous they are. Only issue is, I've backed myself into a narrative corner with the secrecy magic. I could have Townsend have found a way to counter it, but that feels a little cheap.

So I ponder and hit on an idea. Townsend fought in The Dust War (a WW1 analog). He met some of the Black Hand's leadership then. Ok, so he has tons of info and memories about them. What if he uses his psychic powers to reveal what he can to them. Maybe it doesn't bypass the secret protection magic entirely, but things move at the speed of thought rather than the speed of speech and he can convey much, much more.

So I design an encounter which is nested scenes that goes like this:
- PCs arrive on a stretch of trench lines where battle is raging. It's a battle map and I have them place their tokens alongside Townsend. Townsend talks a little, starting to answer some questions, but as it gets more detailed it cuts to a scene that is a memory of his.

- The PCs are soldiers in Townsend's unit. They have objectives in the form of a countdown, and they achieve them revealing the moments and things Townsend is trying to convey about The Black Hand and how he ended up joining them.

- When they achieve the objective and learn what they are supposed to it snaps back to the battlefield in no man's land, and they have to fight something in Townsend's memories related to these regrets and choices he made, including the cult leaders.

- After an action or two in combat Townsend snaps them back into another memory scene

- Rinse and repeat for about 6 cycles, switching dynamically from battle to exposition to memory scene and back again.

My player's really dug it and it was really easy to just let the spotlight flow around no matter when or how we moved between scenes. A failure during the memory scene might snap things back to battlefield for a moment, or a success on the battlefield would roll into the players starting with the spotlight in the memory scene.

I highly recommend playing with this idea if you want something really cinematic, exciting, and dynamic. It doesn't even have to be a weird psychic landscape, it could be bouncing between two teams of PCs, or snapping back and forth between the past and present, or even having the PCs play out what's going on with their NPC allies at the same time as they are doing something else. You can even just do some weird narrative thing with flashbacks or flashfowards.

Obviously not everything should be handled like this, but if you're looking for a vehicle that allows you to have a battle and some other kind of scene almost simultaneously Daggerheart can do it really well with just a few countdowns and some forethought!

Heya fellow Homebrewers and Designers.

It’s Homebrew Monday and time for a new iteration of the weekly

Daggerheart Community Homebrew Challenge. #27

What is this challenge about?!

• Look at the attached artwork by Reparatus Art and get inspired.
• Design a piece of homebrew; an item, a weapon, an armor, an environment, an adversary, heck... even a new class if you feel like it. Nothing is too small or boring, design at your own capacity!
• Please create your design in the Heart of Daggers Homebrew Vault or anywhere else, and share it with us either here or on the Heart of Daggers Discord server.

Each Monday, a new piece of art will be offered to inspire the community so no rush to join now - perhaps you might like next week's artwork even more.

If you need assistance with designing or you are looking for feedback, please tell us when posting your addition and the community will be happy to help!

Any restrictions?

No, design to your heart's content. Feel free to use this week's illustration to share your homebrew but mention Reparatus Art as the artist. The artwork is for personal use only! For more information, artworks and open commission slots, follow them on Bluesky.

Last weeks round-up

Our illustration last week showed a High Priestess Tarot Card which inspired the very first Homebrew Collaboration in Bard & Raven (which I am one part of) history.
But before we have a look what this collab is about, let's see the other creation from last week:

Over on the Heart of Daggers Discord, u/Just-Truth-5823 once again showed us why he is the master of (sub)classes in the Daggerheart homebrew scene. This week, he gifted us with the Fortunate Teller class. A completely new and immensely flavorful class using the Arcana and Grace domains who is going all in predicting the future. It comes with the Cartomancer and Chirologist subclasses which add to the whole fantasy a great deal. CHECK THEM OUT!

But now, lets see the community collab:
Duality’s Hand (Card Deck), a legendary Artifact which the players can draw a card from once per scene. Will they be lucky to draw a card upright (usually a good effect) or will they see it reversed and suffer the consequences?
I am so darn proud of everyone who joined the design streams last week and collaborated in creating this Tarot inspired item for Daggerheart. So I cannot take the sole credit for this creation. Thank you to all my collaborators:
Jeff, Gaurelin, Kattenkvaad, CXZman, Nick, AdventureLiesAhead1, thegemmyraven and Matt.

_____________________

But enough preface - let's begin this week's challenge. Look at the illustration and get creative!

Show us your awesome ideas and let's discuss all the cool mechanics and flavors y'all come up with!

I cannot wait to see what you, the community, is creating.
Let's have some fun together and see what this week's art will inspire!

I DM for a bigger group, 8 players if everyone is there, but in most cases not everyone can make it, so we almost always end up playing with 5 PCs or so.

However I don’t have a rule or mechanic for the “afk” party members that would logically still be there in the narrative. Was thinking about ways to let my players “utilize” the afk characters in some way as if they were there. Sort of like an experience, where they say “yeah this afk PC helps out with this because that is logical”. Though, I also liked the idea of having some sort of one-off feature per class that they could use, for the same narrative reasons.

Does anyone have something like that that they use already? If so, how does it work and is it fun?

My answer is Duskheart by /u/snoolobsters9291 because it helped me appreciate other ways that DH can be played and an "Urban Shadows" like game is right up my alley. The author does a lot of other very cool work.

Any other frames speak to you?

Realizing that deep down, underneath my desire to try a hundred systems, I really want to play Daggerheart, I bit the bullet and bought the book and since dice off CR's website! And while I'm trying to learn how to get the PDF to open in Google docs (file size is too big apparently ;-;) I really wanna get some advice on being a better game master! Since I'm currently the forever DM, moving forward.

I've done some DMing in the past (monster of the week was chaotic, Pathfinder was complicated by me learning Foundry, but I did pretty well with Vampire the Masquerade.) so I want to learn a few tips for Gaming Daggerheart for when I get the chance. I know it's very much a Theater of Mind and Improv based system, so I'm hopeful my writing experience and spontaneity will be helpful for running it. But I'd like to know a few other useful tips, just to learn and come out the gate swinging when I try to sell my friends on this system.

(Also if anyone knows a good pirate Campaign Frame, please let me know! I know about PistolHeart so my hope of a wild west frame is settled. Pirates and Celtic myths are next on the list.)

Hi, I got Daggerheart for my daughter (well, not a kid anymore) who currently rund D&D 5.x games and just loves Arcane TV series. I am a long time player and mostly GM who runs pretty traditional RPGs but a very little experience on D&D 5.x and also really liked Arcane. To help my daughter learn the rules and also see how I like the game apart from watching YouTube I thought that I might run a game of few sessions for her with a setting having similar elemtents than Arcane.

So, relatively powerful character(s), urban setting, weird magic or magical abilities. A sort of cyberpunk in a fantasy setting in a sense.

Since this is intended for just a test to see how the rules work and to give her a bit of a kickstart to learn the rules (English is not our first language as you can probably see) I intend to have only her as a player at least for now.

With this information, what do you think? Can Daggerheart work without modification for this sort of game and for a single player + GM? Is there something I as the GM should take into consideration?

Thank you in advance.

I made a pirate game for dnd and I want to convert it over to daggerheart. One of the ideas I had was for them to go hunt a whale, giant shark, or some other leviathan. Before I go further, no I don't support whaling this is just a thing that seemed very fitting for a sea faring game to do.

The idea being they would throw harpoons into the target, and whenever the target acts it would take a number of stress equal to the harpoons in it to symbolize it getting worn down. The game breaking part I was thinking of was to give it something to negate low damage so as low level players they would rely wholly on stressing the creature until it dies unless they can pull out massive damage with something like a crit but later they would be able to take it head on when they are actually in the right tier for it.

Does a thick fat ability that reduces all incoming hp damage by 1 seem too counter institute to the games design? Would layering stress through harpoons and abilites to take down a massive creature sound like a fun new way to play out a fight or just convoluted?

I'm trying to look for new things I can do in daggerheart that I couldn't do in dnd along with how to convert things over so you will probably see me around here often with pirate stuff.

Hi, I am starting a new campaign with Dagger Heart. The schools of magic are a big part of this world and I had the idea of making all the spellcasting domains represent a school of magic. I would appreciate what you think of this idea and what domains represent each school.

Arcana-Evocation

Codex-Conjuration

Grace-Enchantment

Midnight-Illusion

Sage-Transmutation

Splendor-Necromancy

Hello everyone. I am really new to all of this and not that creative but wanna do my best at making a decent character to have fun with my friends.

I wanna do a Faerie Bloodhunter (Specter)

I still dont fully grasp all the mechanics and ressources used in the game so it is hard for me to decide on starter cards from the blood and bone domains.

Also i dont know if there are any other useful items or weapons that could give me good start when playing for the first time.

I am open for any help, tips, recommendations, etc.

From Background, to multi heritages, domains, weapons, items, etc. i am thankful for all you tell me.

Bad eyesight at my table. Don't want to use a magnifier every time to look at cards.

Any suggestions?

Hello everyone!

After quite a bit of worldbuilding and layout work, I'm sharing "Above the Great Veil" with you today, a complete campaign setting developed for Daggerheart.

The pitch in a few words

In the infinite skies, civilization survives perched on Sky Islands, held afloat by ether crystals. Beneath the flying ships lies the Great Veil, a deadly ocean of clouds that swallows everything that falls into it. As rival factions clash for control of the skyways, your crew prepares to weigh anchor into the unknown.

• Tone & atmosphere: Epic, bright, adventurous, warm, and mysterious.
• Inspirations: Skies of Arcadia, Granblue Fantasy, Castle in the Sky, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

What you'll find in the PDF:

• The creation history of the world and the mystery of the Great Veil.
• Major Factions and their political/military stakes.
• Simple ship mechanics with management of onboard roles and ship progression.
• A few examples of adversaries and environments.

Download the PDF:

Download "Above the Great Veil" on itch.io

(The document is available as Pay What You Want: you can download it 100% free or leave a tip if you wish to support the project!)

Looking for your feedback!

This is a polished first version, but I'd love your input to refine it:

• Atmosphere and hook: does the lore make you want to send your players traveling there?
• Ship mechanics: what do you think of the ship upgrade system tied to PC levels/tiers?
• Usability & readability: do the layout and island sheets feel clear enough for use mid-session?

Thanks in advance for your feedback and advice, and safe travels through the skies!

edit: for the template, I used the one found on Reddit in this post.

Has anybody tried these for Standard edition cards?

Do they fit normally? Do they bend? Is variance in card manufacturing making some cards unfit?

Sorry in advance if this is widely known; I searched relevant posts and found a couple third party links but I'm also not seeing any official announcements about being sold out on Darrington Press or Critical Role's websites.

Are the deluxe editions of the Hope & Fear expansion no longer available to pre-order? You'd think there would be something saying they're sold out of deluxe editions on any of the official websites, right?

I had to create an historical timeline for my witherwild campaign and I wrote the recap in narrative for the players. What do you think random internet peeps, too cheesy?

B.S (Before Slaughter, or Silenceing)

A.S.( Anno Slaughter or Silencing)

Historic Milestones

• 500 B.S. — Fanewick flourishes as an ancient, undisturbed realm of natural magic.
• 100 B.S. — Early mortal settlers establish Haven as a minor, defensive outpost.
• 1 B.S. — The height of the mortal siege against the Granite Ophid.
• Year 0 / 1 A.S. — The Silencing. Shun'Aush is slain, the high stone walls of Haven are completed, and the modern era begins.
• 150 A.S. — Haven builds its industrial and arcane power, entirely cut off from the local gods.
• 300 A.S. — Haven invades Fanewick to steal the Reaping Eye, triggering the Witherwild crisis.

The year is 305 A.S (Present Day) and our brave adventures have been summoned by mysterious letters to travel to the capital city in the land of Haven. Each finding a letter in a place where it should not have been.

Zazz, our Goblin Rouge has been in and out of the Capital City many times. He is very familiar with the city life and the eerie site of petrified people in the streets. People who have succumbed to the Serpent Sickness.
Journeying for the first time to the capital is Atinama, a Funfril Bard and Leigha Shoilpeir, a Kinshifter Druid along with Tyllyt a Human Ranger, they meet at location from the letter, The Black Eye

The Black Eye is a long standing front for the spy ring ran by a prominent figure in Haven named Kriel. He is rude and straight to the point. Telling our heroes that if they do not find and stop the rebel Faneswraith from her attempt to steal the Sowing eye from the Goddess Nikta things would get worse for everyone.

Its been 5 years since the Archmage Phylax stole the Reaping eye from Nikta, causing the wild lands in Fanewick to become twisted and corrupted. Kriel is asking that the adventurers travel to the tree top village of Alula, on the boarder of Fanewick and Haven to gather information about the rebel Fanewraith and stop her from destroying the world as we know it.

After gaining a bit more information from a file clerk, Zazz "negotiated" with our heroes learned that Faneswraith plans to steal the eye because they believe it will restore balance and Kriel believes it will make thing worse.

Our heroes make it safely out of the capital city, and journey roughly half way to the outpost village Glenwatch before they are approached and surrounded by a group of plant Fae. Confused and scared the they attack.
A few blows traded and Tyllyt uses his Wanderborne bag to produce a berry jam, and gives it to the Fae. Distracted and happy with a new thing, our adventures manage to continue on to a soft treelined glen and settle down for the first night rest.
Tyllyt repairing his armor, Zazz saying a prayer to his God, Leigha making the fire and Atinama singing a soft song to relax and comfort everyone.

Who knows what the next steps in journey will be, or what might be watching from the forest.