I had liked what i saw briefly last night and thought, hey I haven't done one of these on here. So I'm gonna just kinda live chost and go through the system. I might make additional posts on here and break it up into sections. Let's see
Alright, quick discussion to align our thoughts and get us on the same page. Disclaimer first: I have never consumed any Critical Role, I have zero opinion on it or any of the creators on it. Like I know Matt Mercer runs it through cultural osmosis and that it has a lot of voice actors. That's it. The only Actual Play I go to is Friends at the Table and I'm a season behind there.
Patrick H Willems did a video on film analysis awhile back and said that all art critique really is, is to look at something and describe what you see and to ask why. But more than that we are going to assume that people made the choices they did on purpose. Art is full of happy accidents, but even if you added an errant stroke- you chose to keep it there instead of breaking out the turpentine. There is intention even in the alchemy of our accidents. So that is to say, I'm going to be trying to look at this game in a fairly good light. I'm not coming at this to tear it down- I already took a brief glance at some of it and was surprised. That being said, there may still be things that are not to my taste and I can be... vitriolic at times with some choices games make (although Daggerheart already dodged the big one)
Fundamentals
We have some direct mechanical inspirations here and I really appreciate how this is called out. There is also a great selection of indie games and doing it this way let's players know that hey did you like this part? Go check out that other game. While much is taken from D&D, the key thing they call out is advantage/disadvantage which people do really like. It's a lot more impactful and fun than +2/-2.
Here is the core mechanic which is very similar to some stuff I've seen but is unique on the whole. You are rolling 2d12+modifiers. You add them together to see if you beat the DC, and which d12 is higher, black or white, will determine mixed successes/failures. The White die is Hope and the Black die is fear. So if you roll higher with hope you rolled with hope, etc.
Hope and Fear also appear to be a currency you are gaining when you make these rolls. I'm guessing this allows the gm to intrude but youll get hope on roughly half your rolls, I wonder what happens if you run out or what you do with it.
The interesting thing here is that doubles is a critical no matter if you hit the DC or not. So you could roll snake eyes and succeed. The odds of rolling doubles on d12 is 12/144 or 1/12 or... 8%. So more than the 5% odds of rolling a 20 but not as much of an increase as rolling a 19 or 20. You've also got twice those chances of getting a crit in FitD(provided you are rolling at least two dice). So I honestly like this. I don't mind giving the players this extra swing and it is fun to succeed even on low numbers. We will get to crit hits later in combat, but they are RIDICULOUS.
This paragraph got edited in because this is where this book should explain a mechanic it doesn't way later. So if Hope is highest, that player gains hope, and if Fear is highest the GM gains fear. Fear can be spent by the GM to do bad shit, but Hope's use isn't explained until page 98, so let me explain that real quick. So you get hope if white is greater or equal to black, so over half your rolls generate hope, its an easy resource to gain. You can spend it three ways: You can use hope to use your experiences(explained below) to gain its bonus to a roll. It is also how you aid allies, burn hope and describe you you aid them and they get an advantage die. This is a fun thing actually, because you CAN get multiple advantage dice with lots of people aiding, but you only count the highest d6 and add that. Finally, some abilities require hope being spent to activate.
Alright, we have a fairly basic player principles section and nothing stands out to be talked about: be a fan of your players, etc, etc. No setting included which, I am glad about because I was dreading LORE (TM) but we are told there is the mortal plane, heavens above, and hells below. Magic is powerful and present and many characters have access. In a very dungeon world way I can see people having fun looking at this at a lego kit and going okay here are the core assumptions and what we know to be true, and build up from there.
The game uses the standard dice set for various rolls (mostly weapon damage I believe). Beyond that you need the black and white d12s, a d6 in color of your choice(for advantage/disadvantage). The game also wants you to pick out some tokens to represent the character. Finally the game uses some custom decks of cards for abilities that can be printed out.
For safety the game brings up lines, veils, and the x-card. Which... industry standard at this point. The only other tool they bring up is an open door policy, that players can walk away at any time and not be punished or judged. I honestly like this because they point out it can be for any reason and might just be you need to leave early. But it is also meaning the game doesn't end if someone has to check out- I have seen too many tables where someone has felt hostage because they didn't want to ruin another's time. It's perfectly fine to leave and let the story progress and get caught up. (Yes this is a call out post to my players who refuse to do anything if the table isn't full)
Last thing I want to note is that rolls in this game are made with 2d12 but advantage is a d6, so instead of throwing another d12 into the mix, the d6 is going to add or subtract from your total. Still a really nice boon/penalty but without the terrifying swinginess you can get with a +/-12. I like it.
Character Creation
We are going to go in order but one thing I will say is I think Daggerheart introduces the concepts in a weird order, first up is class.
Okay, we have 9 starting classes in this playtest.... which is odd. Classically there are 11 fantasy classes, 12 now since the Warlock has been core two editions in a row (even though I still hate D&D's version). So what has hit the cutting room floor.
Daggerheart has Bard, Druid, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, and Wizard for 1 to 1 class adaptation. The other classes are Guardian, Seraph, and Warrior.
Barbarian, Cleric, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, and Warlock are all missing. Barbarian and Fighter seem to have been spread between Warrior and Guardian depending on whether you want to focus on damage or tanking. Seraph is our Cleric and Paladin class. Monk seems to have hit the cutting room floor but the game has a lot of interesting hand weapons that it'd be easy to build something that would work.
Warlock is also missing, and honestly I'm fine with that... because this is a playtest. I'd love to see them figure out something actually fun and unique for the idea. The game also has no assumed lore besides a heaven and a hell, and we have Seraph combining Cleric/Paladin into a class so I wouldn't be shocked if we saw a class combining Warlock/Antipaladin into something later. However... that would also mean creating some new decks- Let's talk about the decks!
Each deck is a suite of abilities and represents a specific domain, each class gets access to two domains with it sharing each with another class. For instance, the Rogue shares Midnight with Sorcerer and Grace with Bard.
The Domains are: Arcane(innate magic), Blades(weapons/training), Bone(swiftness/tactics), Codex(studied magic), Grace(charisma), Midnight(shadows/secrecy), Sage(plants/animals), Splendor(life), Valor(protection)
Each domain has three level one cards and at the start you get to pick two of those six to start with. That means if you like you can be a rogue with 2 midnight cards and zero grace. Switching out cards is something you can do during downtime, so you can customize what you might need and figure out specific combinations. (There are rules about creating loadouts that can easily be swapped and "vaulting" cards but that isn't important until you hit around level 5)
Here's a domain card. In the top left we can see the level and a sigil for it being a midnight card. This one is going to give us advantage on picking non-magic locks, disarming traps, or stealing items. This card fucking rules and why would a rogue ever have it unequipped? This is the interesting thing. See you can swap your cards out for free during downtime, but you can also do it on the fly by paying the cost in the top right. Pick and Pull is a 0 stress card. That means you never need to go in with it equipped, because it will be free to just throw out. Instead the question will become what do you keep when
Now you pick your Heritage. This is made up of your Ancestry and Community, fairly standard stuff but let's see how they do it. Daggerheart has 18(!) starting ancestries and it's pretty easy to go that high since most of them are just a single ability but to be fair some of them are fun abilities. As for the races themselves... it's just the most popular races from D&D of the last decade. Like, come on. I can willingly accept some staples but there really isn't anything unique or new here.
So we get a very brief overview of each ancestry- a single line or two to describe what is true about them, a picture, and an ability. This is leaving a very large blank space for players but I wish they inspired me to ask more questions? Give me a hint of something, a thing to be answered, etc. The closest we get is that daemons(tieflings) are descendants of Fallen gods which at least ties them into the world somehow? Like okay, that tells me something true and lets me build off of it and we can ask some questions about how people treat you, what does that mean etc.
Whereas the entry for goblins says they are small humanoids with large eyes and massive ears... that's IT.
We then get community and shit, I really wish they had given more love to them because they are great and I want more. We only get 9 communities that fit broad categories for the community you were raised in and give specific bonuses. The most boring of these grant advantage in specific scenarios, Slyborne provides it when negotiating with criminals, detecting lies, or finding a place to hide. Meanwhile, Seaborne gives you an additional downtime action when you rest and Orderborne let's you come up with virtues you follow and turn your hope die into a d12 when you embody one. To repeat, there is an option that can give anyone the cool paladin oath shit. So yeah, these are dope and I hope we see more. I'd like it to be a thing where there are a few great options and people can really sink their teeth in rather than going, well I'm a guardian so I took Ridgeborn for the Armor bonus.
Character Stats... errr Traits.
Alright so we have our traits which are low numbers and just the bonuses (yay). For the most part they are familiar, but this lets break down the differences from the dragon game.
Strength is itself and Charisma has become Presence. Intelligence has become Knowledge while also taking some aspects away from Wisdom. All the sensory aspects of Wisdom have become Instinct(love this, senes being its own stat is a go to move for me). Finally Dexteriy has been split into agility and finesse. Agility is your running, jumping, go fast, athletic stat. Finesse is about your fine manipulation and thief shit. I actually really dig those getting split. Interestingly we no longer have a stat representing vitality. So players can't have a stat that directly increases/decreases their health.
You will also see some actions, Daggerheart doesn't use a list of skillsand instead you just roll traits for the appropriate action you are taking. The one's listed after each trait is an example.
However, there is a section that also represents skills and those are Experiences. You start the game with one at +2 and one at +1. These are you history, your knowledge, and if they could apply, you can spend Hope to add them to the roll. Players need to be specific and while the game does a good job saying this they really need to underline that players can't use this shit to get an experience bonus on every attack roll. Some player is gonna try and put down Trench Fighter or War Veteran as a specific answer and I will have to throw them in the river. Assassin is a good example because thats a particular type of fight and action. Like, Veteran counting on a battlefield or warzone? Absolutely, you are in your element. It will not help you fighting those thieves in the market my guy. Costing a resource definitely makes this something that you can be free with, but its also pretty easy to get Hope, so don't let it get abused.
Now you get to choose some gear and weapons... They seem to be MOSTLY balanced. They are split between magic and physical weapons. If you can cast spells you can pick a magic weapon
Physical Weapon Rules seems to be
Melee: 2 handed weapons deal d10+2. One handed deal d8. Weapons seem to gain tags that will increase range, add damage, and if they got one they also got a negative tag.
So a Battleaxe is d10+2. The Warhammer is d12+2 and you suffer -1 to agility rolls. There are some that don't make sense like the Sabre being a flat d8 one hander while the longsword is that with a +1 to hit and the shortsword is the same as a sabre but d10. Interestingly, you get the weapon use different traits to attack with, some make sense... On the other hand I have zero idea why you would use instinct to fight with a quarterstaff.
You also get to pick a secondary weapon, so if you have a magic weapon you can grab a physical weapon to bypass damage, grab a ranged weapon or shield, or grab an offhand dagger to boost your damage. My personal favorite is the Grappler, which lets you hook enemies and drag them close.
While we have a wide variety of weapons we only have 4 armors listed: Leather, Breastplate, Chainmail, and Full Plate. And... yeah it's time
Combat
Next you record Evasion, HP, Stress, Hope, and Damage Thresholds, we are gonna take those in turn. But what is really interesting that Evasion and Damage thresholds are determined by your class. For example here, the Rogue has the highest evasion at 12 while the Guardian is at 6. The GM rolls a d20, not d12s. This is actually great for the players because average roll for 2d12 is 13 and a d20 is 11. So the GM has a lot more swinginess. This means at the jump the Rogue is gonna dodge roughly half attacks at +1, while the Guardian gets only dodges one in 5.
Okay, let's talk about how this works because I think this might be actually brilliant. Because there is a dichotomy with rpgs. We LOVE low numbers. That boss has 560 HP? Jesus we are going to be here for the next 3 sessions. What does a 46 AC even look like. While having bonuses that never go over 5 makes things instantly make sense to our dumb monkey brains. However... We also LOVE number go up. Specifically with damage, I want low numbers but I will record my damage high scores on my sheet and I'm not the only person I know who does that. You are rolling the dice over and over and sometimes you get that crit hit jackpot and it rules.
So let me break this down step by step:
I roll to attack versus your evasion. If it hits I roll damage, 13 in this case.
We compare the damage with out thresholds, 13 is major damage. So it you'd lose 2 HP.
You can spend Armor uses to reduce the incoming damage by your armor score and hopefully lower it's value. Our hypothetical hero has an armor value of 5, so they spend 1 use to make the damage 8, below their major threshold of 9, and now they only take 1 damage.
Some caveats:
You can spend more than one armor use at once.
If you reduce damage to 0 you take nothing. But if you take damage between 0 and your minor threshold you suffer 1 stress.
I fucking love this. I think this is a really cool way to do it and keep numbers low WITHOUT just... doing the thing where everyone goes, okay my weapon does 2 damage. Now there is still some excitement and swinginess. Which brings us to proficiency and crits.
Proficiency is how many weapon dice you roll during your attack, you start at one, but this is how you get them BIG numbers. When you crit on an attack though, you deal the maximum damage you could get... and then roll your damage on top of that. So if you deal 2d8, the max is 16, you roll 8, that's 24 damage going at your foe. Crits are almost always going to be severe.
Now, I mentioned stress before- that is generally going to come about from abilities that use it to activate, abilities that target it, or taking low damage. When you run out of stress, you can't activate abilities that require stress and if something would cause you take stress you instead lose 1 HP. So it's both something of a buffer shield and a resource you can spend.
So that's... yeah evasion, armor, hp, stress, thresholds. Cool. OH WAIT BABY WE GOTTA TALK ABOUT DEATH.
God, I was so excited by this. Do you know how long it's been since I saw a death move that wasn't a fucking coward. So this triggers when you hit 0 HP. Not negative some arbitrary number. ZERO. (also for those wondering yes I do skip to death rules in games now, you can't judge me- i am too powerful)
When you hit zero you get three options: Live, Die, or Risk it All. To be clear I am pumped right now. I got goosebumps.
Blaze of Glory is choosing to die and taking one final action that is an automatic critical. This is a popular pbta move and I've always been a fan. It's a chance for the player to end things on their own terms, but then they are gone.
Avoid Death and Face the Consequences. Normally I'd joke and call this the coward's way but this is appropriately rough. You get knocked out, you are out of the situation until someone heals you or the party takes a long rest. You choose your own live over helping the party, that's the coward shit... but no because YOU MAKE IT WORSE. The GM immediately gets to make a move and make the situation even more dire because of your absence. THEN you roll your fear die and if its equal or under your Level you take a Scar- in fiction this can be the players choice of how they are affected. But in mechanics it means you permanently cross out a hope slot, you can't carry as much now. I am chanting with the crowd, WE LOVE LASTING CONSEQUENCES.
Risk it All. Some days you just gotta roll the dice, you throw away the certainty of a critical success or of living and double down on getting to keep fighting right NOW. You roll your 2d12. If Hope is higher, you stand back up and get to split the Hope die's result between stress and hp as healing. If fear is higher, you die- go directly to hell, do not pass go, do not take a final action.... But Mitch, what if you crit? Oh... you heal stress and hp TO MAX.
I love these, they are all fun options and players get to pick. Obviously I will be implementing a houserule where those who avoid death must wear the coward's crown for the remainder of the day while those who risk it all get to wear the hero's sash. But your tastes may vary.
And fuck- this went on for way too long. I will break into the other sections later kids. I'd also like to spend a section digging deeper on the classes themselves, and maybe give a quick example of character creation? We will see.
If you somehow made it through this and do wanna see more, please comment because the interaction will drive me to keep writing.
