Critical Role’sDaggerheartwill soon be upon TTRPG fans, challengingDungeons and Dragons' seat at the top of the industry. WithCritical Role’s upcoming game set to shake up the hobby, players should know what they’re getting into.
Followingwhat happened withD&D’s OGL in 2023, where WOTC tried to deauthorize its Open Game License, many third-party creators began to pursue the creation of their own game systems to avoid WOTC’s proposed changes. Though WOTC dropped these plans after a mass community revolt, third-party companies such as MCDM and Kobold Press continued with their plans to create new systems. Around the same time, Critical Role, the company behind theD&Dliveplay show of the same name, revealedDaggerheart—its own new TTRPG system, one that may be used to grant the team and the show more independence from WOTC’s decisions and branding.
Critical Role’s D&D Competitor Daggerheart Explained
While it’s unconfirmed whether Critical Role will be switching away fromD&D 5efor the next season of its main show, therelease date forDaggerheartis now known. The finished version of the system will be available to fans on May 20th, and will combine what’s familiar toD&Dfans (a camp most Critters will fall into) with more than a few new twists drawn from the team’s extensive experience with the medium.
The Core Mechanic of Daggerheart
On the surface,Critical Role’sDaggerheartTTRPGappears similar toD&D, pursuing similar levels of heroic fantasy. The game is also class-based, and the gameplay is based on players describing an action to the GM and the GM adjudicating whether a roll is necessary. Players can roll to see if they fail or succeed at a task, adding modifiers to the roll if they apply.
However, the big difference here is in what aDaggerheartplayer will be rolling. Rather than the d20 ofD&Dand other popular TTRPGs (such asPathfinderandShadowdark),Critical Role’s latest projectwill have players rolling 2d12 (two 12-sided dice), adding the total to get a result. This doesn’t tell the full story, though, as these two dice have separate identities, with one being Hope and one being Fear. If a player succeeds or fails a check with the number on the Hope dice being greater, the player will gain a Hope resource—which the player can use for a number of purposes, such as for the use of powerful attacks. However, if a player succeeds or fails with the number on Fear being greater, the GM will gain a Fear resource, which the GM can use to introduce twists into a game’s story or to activate new and more powerful threats in combat. If a player rolls the same number on both dice, regardless of the values, the player succeeds and gains a Hope resource.
Hope and Fear will govern the wayCritical Role’s new gameis played, with it being instrumental to the regular play and combat. Combat will work differently inDaggerheart, with initiative order being relegated to an optional rule in the most recent playtest. Player actions will still be tracked to ensure everyone gets a turn, but players need not follow an established initiative order. Instead, turns will be governed by the Fear and Hope reaped by their respective sides of the battlefield. Combat will also be different in other ways; while players will have fewer Hit Points than the average5echaracter, players will take damage in terms of ‘Damage Thresholds’. For instance, if a player takes 3 damage, they will take Minor damage and only lose 1 Hit Point.
Daggerheart’s Cards
Physical cards will be the means by which the player will access abilities inDaggerheart. The player’s Ancestry (Species/Race), Community, Subclass, and Domain will grant them cards to use in play, and they’ll be able to gain more through progression.
