Running Daggerheart: A GM’s First Impressions

What it’s like to sit in the GM’s chair for a Daggerheart adventure.

Hope & Fear

The game’s core mechanic – rolling two d12s for every test, one for Hope and one for Fear – immediately changes the dynamic at the table. In Daggerheart, when a roll is made the success is based on the total number rolled, but depending on whether the Hope or Fear dice has the higher number there can be positive or negative consequences. 

This push-pull tension creates moments where players are emotionally invested in their rolls, not just looking for high numbers but hoping their character’s story beats succeed. 

This created a fun atmosphere where there was a lot of attention even on the most trivial of roles, as players waited to see what would spin off it and how it would affect their characters’ individual story. This was a fun element throughout the session and kept players attention, though I must confess the novelty wore off a little bit as a DM, as the longer the session stretched the more fatigued I felt describing both the results of roll and the emphasis of Hope or Fear. It also did make everything take a little longer, so overall story progression was a little slower too, but players didn’t seem to mind.

You can learn a lot more about the duality dice in our hope and fear article.

Character creation

Character creation is quick and simple. There are far less options to choose from than those presented in D&D, and they are presented in a modular step by step fashion that’s very visual. Picking your character’s race, background, class and a few extra details only takes a few minutes but the outcomes still feel satisfying and the unique combinations of these options plus domain cards and experiences, felt unique, at least for a first time player. 

Generally I would be concerned over time that the lack of options would begin to feel like a lot of the characters will be mechanically similar, but Darrington are already pushing out classes for playtesting, so the options probably won’t be so slim for long.

There are also some great prompts for players to ask each other about inter character relationships that get the ball rolling quickly so the party already felt like it had some history.

Overall I would say the character creation part of the game is a big win, its breezy without feeling insubstantial and players are free to start filling in the narrative blanks without crunchy systems occupying brain space that is instead dedicated to roleplaying ideas and personality. 

Combat – A different kind of challenge

Combat in Daggerheart is where things get tricky for a GM used to rigid systems. There’s no initiative order so pacing and action order become flexible with the DM interjecting by spending Fear, as accrued through the story so far and as the battle progresses. Where D&D players could get used to the turn order and potentially zone out between turns, this isn’t really an option in Daggerheart. Players choose to act when they like (with a little consensus from the group). As such players also need to be on their toes, as you don’t know which players are acting next and how this will affect the complexion of the battle.

Distance is also a little more vague with designation like ‘melee’ and ‘close range’ being a little more loose then D&D’s more precise measurement in feet. I suppose this is meant to keep things a little more loose with less focus on having the exact movement to reach something and of what makes sense for a good fight. Without firm mechanics, I found myself improvising more than usual, which again led to a slight sense of fatigue. I’m quick to acknowledge that some of this is just due to the perils of using a new system. However my first impression is that there is less emphasis on exploiting pseudo war game tactics and more on keeping combat as another chapter in the story.

Facilitating roleplay and collaborative storytelling

This is one of Daggerheart’s strong suits for me as a GM. The system actively encourages “yes, and” improv-style play, where I collaborate with players to build scenes, relationships, and world details in real-time. At points you are prompted as a GM to ask the players what they notice about the forest setting, rather than telling them, indicating that this is more of a collaborative story approach.

The rulebook’s GM tips, inspired by theater and improv, helped me guide the story through a series of fun scenes, where each character gets to shine, either through dialogue, unique abilities or using their Experiences. The players and I created little arcs together, with mechanics like Hope and Fear driving tension and release.

However, this approach demands that everyone at the table (GM included) be willing to share narrative control and embrace unpredictability. Some players and DMs could find this a little labor intensive, but the rewards are clear and the characters felt well developed in a matter of hours.

Managing the GM role and Fear

The Fear mechanic is central to pacing and conflict, yet tracking and balancing Fear points can be awkward. Sometimes I forgot to accrue the Fear points as I was paying attention to verbalising the story. Other times I found it tricky to know when to use the Fear points in battle, deciding when to jump in and attack added a layer of complexity I was not expecting, particularly as I wanted to balance how hard the battles were without overwhelming the players.

The system expects me to improvise constantly, adapt to off-the-wall player choices, and steer the story without heavy handed railroading. This probably would be easier with practice, but I did find this side of the system to be among the most complicated.

Strengths & Weaknesses from a GM’s view

Strengths:

• Mechanics that reward players looking for more narrative choices and emotional beats
• System encourages players contributing in storytelling and collaborative worldbuilding
• Flexible, fast moving combat focused on story rather than tactics
• Great GM advice in the manual that is grounded in improv and theater techniques
  

Weaknesses:

• Combat rules lack clarity, requiring more on the fly adjudication
• Managing Fear can feel like a lot of effort
• Requires a group (and GM) experienced or willing to improvise freely
• Risk of the story derailing without strong group buy-in and focussed DMing
• Less support for tactical or simulation style play

Is it worth it?

I was looking forward to playing Daggerheart, I am a long-time Critical Role listener I was excited to see the system that was so heavily linked to Matt Mercer and his crew. 

Getting started was simple, the manual is excellent and far more accessible than the newest D&D player’s handbook. The new mechanics definitely facilitate rewarding play for the table, pushing them to tell stories with the characters they make over optimising them for best results. 

However a thought nagged me afterwards that was difficult to shake – even though the system works, do we need it? The new mechanics are really fun, but achieving more of a narrative theme in your game can be achieved without them. Things like more thematic character building, reacting more to player choices or prompts for inter-character relationships are things that can even be pushed into D&D games without much upheaval. 

Some of the new mechanics actively feel like hard work, to achieve what can be done without them. It’s all subjective, but considering the weight of learning and buying into a new system, I didn’t necessarily feel I needed it in the end. It didn’t really feel that different to what I already had in D&D, albeit a bit more liberal. Of course, this is different if you have a lot more time for exploring new RPG systems or if it’s the first one you are learning. 

Final thoughts from the GM’s chair

Daggerheart has some fun innovation finding interesting and new ways to keep players engaged, involved and invested in their characters. It’s easy to learn, has hidden depth and the book makes all of this as simple as possible. 

I do feel there’s significantly more emphasis on the DM to maintain a strong sense of narrative, which at times felt tiring. However, all the while it has a fresh feeling, with Hope and Fear being the standout addition. It made each moment of the game feel significant to somebody’s personal story, which was often enough to make the effort worth it. 

Overall the system has a lot of promise, particularly for groups craving something new. There’s shared DNA with D&D and other long standing RPG systems, so you are never far from what you know, with enough new bells and whistles to keep you intrigued. 

However, if your group is not actively looking for a new RPG system, there may not be enough here to incentivise them to pull away from what they have. The setting is marketed as a bit of a blank slate, but feels more like standard fare, while races and classes largely feel like reskins of RPG classics. Ultimately while the weight is pushed towards heavy roleplay, that could probably be achieved in another system by just asking more of the players.

In the end, it really comes down to your group’s level of curiosity in new things. Daggerheart has enough to reward that curiosity if the desire is there, but I don’t feel the setting and the mechanics add up to something everybody has to rush out and try.

To the credit of Darrington Press, the quick start adventure provides a great introduction, with a little bit of everything baked in. I’d certainly recommend giving it a try as an on-ramp to getting into Daggerheart. 

Spotlight on Daggerheart