Identifying the key differences between the 2 systems.
With Daggerheart’s recent arrival, longtime (and even short time) TTRPG players might well be wondering just how much is Daggerheart different from D&D?
And there are similarities. They’re both fantasy TTRPGs containing vast and varied worlds of magic and monsters. Both rely on a GM to run games and narrate while players role play as adventurers. You’ll find elves, dwarves and other fantasy species as well as wizards and druids. There are also gods that meddle in the affairs of mortals. You’ll fight monsters, solve puzzles, investigate and role play, all supplemented with the aid of polyhedral dice and your character’s stats to determine success.
On the surface, the systems may seem quite similar, and certainly D&D players will find plenty that’s familiar when playing Daggerheart. But there’s plenty of differences in the details.
Over at Dungeon Mister, we’ve been scouring Daggerheart’s rulebook and playtesting the system. Armed with that knowledge, I’ve put together the main differences between Daggerheart and D&D.
Hope and fear system and the duality dice
D&D is based on the D20 system. This requires rolling a d20 and adding modifiers to determine the success of an action.
Daggerheart relies on similar principles, but the execution is different and adds narrative layers to this process. Checks aren’t made with a d20. Instead you roll a pair of d12s. One D12 represents hope and the other represents fear. You add both dice together and add on modifiers to determine success (much like D&D), but whichever die is higher (hope or fear) determines certain additional consequences.
If hope is higher (or you roll a double), then you gain a hope point which you can use to power experiences (the Daggerheart equivalent of skills), help an ally, class features or tag team abilities. If the fear die is higher, then the check, whether successful or not, comes with additional consequences. The DM also takes a fear token to fuel the actions of NPCs.
You can learn a lot more about the duality dice in our hope and fear article.
Evasion, armor and damage
If you’re in combat, then you make attacks rolling the duality dice for the check, adding modifiers and comparing the score against the evasion (or AC) of your target. This is very similar to D&D.
However, Daggerheart adds layers to this. It separates out a character’s ability to avoid an attack (evasion) and it’s ability absorb damage from a successful attack (armor). This means that, unlike D&D, armor only influences your evasion by slowing you down if it’s quite heavy; it won’t enhance your evasion.
Instead, what armor will do is absorb some of the damage dealt by an attack. But it’s also a limited resource. The lighter the armor, the less damage it will absorb before you have to repair it (something you can do as a downtime activity).
Damage is different too. You roll for damage in a similar way to D&D, but each creature has damage thresholds for minor, major and severe damage causing 1, 2 or 3 hit points of damage respectively. The tougher a creature is, the higher its threshold for losing more hit points. In addition, the more powerful your attacks, the more likely you are to deal higher thresholds of damage.
This is more realistic, but is also a more complex web of interactions for damage dealing.
Stress is a completely new mechanic
This is a completely new mechanic in Daggerheart. Certain activities might cause you stress, including using certain features. If your stress meter becomes full, you become vulnerable and will lose hit points as you gain more stress. Being too stressed might also prevent you from using certain abilities that require stress.
This adds another complication to your decision-making and the cost/reward that comes from using certain abilities. It also feeds into your rest activities as you must choose between restoring 2 out of 3 of your stats that can bring you closer to death; hit points, armor or stress.
Death works differently
If you fall to 0HP in Daggerheart, you can choose to avoid death (falling unconscious instead), risk it all to stay standing or die in a blaze of glory with one final act of heroism. There’s no death saving throws here. Also, if you choose one of the first 2 options, there’s a chance you can develop a scar which removes one of your hope slots permanently.
Interestingly, this makes death much more impactful than it is in D&D where there are often few consequences unless you actually fail 3 death saving throws.
Simplified damage types and conditions
D&D has a lot of different conditions. Some are kind of similar too (like grappled and restrained or paralyzed and petrified). Daggerheart has just 3; hidden, restrained and vulnerable. Vulnerable is kind of a catch all for any situation that is disadvantageous or enfeebling (like being poisoned or in a narrow passage etc). This simplifies the rules a lot when it comes to imposing conditions.
Along a similar vein, there are only 2 damage types; physical and magic. Again, this serves to simplify effects and mechanics.
Greater narrative focus
D&D remains a narrative-driven RPG. And that narrative can be woven in as heavily as you want. But Daggerheart takes this up a notch.
Every roll of the duality dice has the potential to create consequences that the DM layers onto the narrative. This is particularly the case when a check is rolled with fear.
On top of this is the narrative focus applied at character creation. This is loosely encouraged in D&D, but not required. Daggerheart specifically asks questions related to your character options to help determine aspects of your character and bring them to the forefront.
You also get questions about how you know other characters to try to build a narrative between the players.
Combat is more about roleplay than rules
Mechanics remain an important aspect of Daggerheart’s Combat, but roleplay is much more important here.
Rather than using initiative and an orderly method for determining who’s turn it is, Daggerheart relies on a looser and more collaborative spotlight system. There’s no strict action count either. You simply describe what you would do, and if a check is required, you roll your duality dice to determine whether you’re successful.
The DM can arbitrate what is possible to accomplish and ensure the spotlight isn’t hogged, but it’s reliant on a more collaborative mode of storytelling and approach to combat rather than the tactics and rules-focused approach of D&D.
Experiences (skills) are more loosely defined
Unlike D&D, experiences (the Daggerheart equivalent of skills) are not a set of options you can choose from with strongly defined uses. Instead, an experience can be mostly anything you choose and can be applicable as long as you can justify its application to the DM.
They are also only usable by expending hope. This is different from D&D where skill enhancements are always usable.
Completely different universe
While on the surface, we can easily see similarities between the worlds and realms of D&D and Daggerheart, they are completely different universes.
Yes, there different worlds and planes (or realms) with gods, monsters and magic. But the gods are different, the monsters are not the same and the magic manifests in alternate ways.
The nature of Daggerheart is that there are worlds and possibilities for you to set whatever story you want to tell. D&D gives you this opportunity too. But while D&D has vast swathes of lore to draw from, Daggerheart focuses on a few campaign frames (for now) as examples and inspiration for the adventure you might play.
Character creation is easier
Something that is notable in Daggerheart is that creating a character is much simpler. This is because so few of the options interact as heavily with one another.
In D&D, you might pick a class and really need 2 or 3 of your ability scores to be high to function well. You may need to pick the right background or species to ensure you get the right ability score bonuses. You may need to roll to determine what your ability scores are. And then things like armor or feats might impact some of these choices.
Often options you choose will require going elsewhere in the book to choose from dozens of other options (I’m thinking of things like weapon mastery properties, fighting styles, feats or, the worst offender, spells).
Daggerheart reduces the burden of choice significantly. Most decisions are much more isolated to simply adding a new option to your repertoire. There are still some interactions to be aware of like how armor might impact evasion or which ability score will work best with your weapons. But largely, this is a fairly straightforward and beginner-friendly process.
However, it also means less optimisation and less tactics being thrown into your character creation.
Summary
While Daggerheart’s system will feel somewhat familiar to D&D players, there’s plenty to differentiate it from D&D. If you’re looking for a new experience, especially one that leans heavily into narrative and roleplaying aspects of gameplay, then Daggerheart could be a good option to try.
