Dispatch

Vol 14: Blood Hunters & Brennan

The Blood Hunter rises, Mulligan the monarch, and three new adventure campaigns. Then, advice for captivating characters, managing meta-currency, and designing dastardly dungeons. PLUS: NPCs into allies, naval adventures, and a campaign wreathed in rot.

SPOTLIGHT

UPDATES

First Blood

Your ritual offering succeeded: Darrington dropped the Blood Hunter on The Void and Demiplane Thursday night, introducing the master of the art of hemocraft with three subclasses designed by Mercer, Starke, Crawford, and Perkins: Ghost Slayer, Mutant, and Lycan. Here’s Matt with a short video, followed by a deep dive with the entire design team from the Halloween livestream.

Return to Office

“You cannot perceive The Void. The Void perceives you.” Thus began last week’s impromptu Office Hour with Rowan and Spenser (and an off-screen Brooke), following up on Darrington's mega-livestream earlier in the month, to answer community questions, discuss Daggerheart’s game design, and briefly dip into the problem with packaged taquitos.

The Wizards in Oz

Dungeons & Daddies, the Freddiest of the Freddie Wong APs, released Con-Oz, their Daggerheart one-shot on Tuesday. Listen here.

Daggerheart Dispatch

To celebrate and promote the launch of Dispatch, the new Critical Role video game (and sadly not this publication), Jasmine Bhullar GM’d a superhero-themed Daggerheart one-shot that, among other things, featured the nerdiest Travis Willingham captured on-screen. Many giggles afoot.

Will Play for Food

Speaking of superheroes, Daggerheart contributing designer Mike Underwood took to the socials to offer his talents to anyone running one-shots to raise money for U.S food banks now that the ~~kakistocracy~~ current administration is cutting food stamps.

Forged in Obsidian

The trio of Daggerheart Obsidian plugins making their way to the start/finish line has an early winner: Daggerforge, which is now officially included in the tool’s directory. It currently provides inline Adversary statblocks as Torturo, the developer, readies Environments and HP/Stress trackers for release.

Do Androids Dream of Daggerheart?

HeartForge, the iOS GM toolkit that launched with an impressive v1, is back with the launch of the Android version and a notch on the “multi-platform” belt. Over on the Android-only side, Daggertrack—also a GM toolkit—is on offer.

Battle of the Bards

Pocket Bard, the feisty combatant for Syrinscape’s immersive audio crown, launched a full rebuild. Highlights include a new interface, better audio and soundscapes, independent ambience controls with haptic zones, 90 minutes of new fantasy music, expanded one-shots for combat and monsters, and new workflow tools.

In Character

Daggerheart.org (which desperately needs a new name) now allows you to upload character cards to their hosted character sheet. Their recent focus on toolsets has me wondering if they’re gunning for a spot alongside Duality Codex and Demiplane.

CAMPAIGNS

Rogue on the Range

Colossus of the Drylands writer (and Star Trek: Discovery alum) Carlos Cisco announced his next project, Pistol Heart—a western-themed campaign in four volumes. The first includes five new subclasses, expanded firearm options, and two western environments (including the train chase teased on the cover). Later volumes will add more subclasses, adversaries, and eventually a full Western horror campaign frame with locations, NPCs, factions, and items. Cisco plans to start small and build each release into a larger, highly polished setting for gunslingers and outlaws alike.

Xero to Hero

Xero Reynolds announced the launch of Skies of Calopa, an airship-focused adventure campaign. Similar to Cisco, Reynolds is forgoing the stress of Kickstarter and, instead, using his Patreon subs and Ko-fi tips to build the world and assets in a modular fashion. To whit, he's already released the first VTT maps.

Mad Money

Scorched Basin did not forgo Kickstarter, and closed their campaign 10x oversubscribed. This will see the system agnostic Mad Max/Dune desert adventure brought to Daggerheart, complete with, among other things, a 300-page guide, 3D vehicle plans, and new fantasy languages—an adapted American Sign Language among them.

DISCUSSIONS

Roll Call

A GM who stress-tested Daggerheart before writing a campaign worried that the Hope/Fear meta-currency was dragging down gameplay. There were too many rolls and a paralyzing amount of resources generated by them. u/Rusty-badger came to the rescue with the oft-repeated advice “stop rolling for everything, that’s not how the game is designed,” but then suggested something even more useful for D&D expats who want to roll the dice: use reaction rolls, but call out in advance that it won’t generate Hope or Fear. Full discussion.

All the Wrong Moves

Another D&D expat found the lack of initiative was allowing noisier players to dominate the scene, and that—oddly—the GM seemed to dominate the turn order. u/GMOddsquirrel got right to the point: “your GM doesn't understand that you're not meant to burn Fear like oil every single combat AND your fellow players need to learn how to share.” (r/dnd GMs raise your hand for every time you found yourself replying “your GM is doing it wrong” to a frustrated player.)

That's Me in the Spotlight

A chaser to these two discussions was u/NicoDeGallo’s feedback that a GM should direct the spotlight when it supports the narrative. It’s a lengthy response to another GM who was unsure how to prompt players to engage.

VIBE CHECK

Say hello to Ascalaphos, a nomadic apothecarist as illustrated by Adrien for their campaign. *"While Cal seems harmless enough, he’s very good with knives and hiding in the dark :)"*

u/TheHi6hli6htReel began sketching their campaign characters, noting *"I’m a very visual person and no matter how many notes I write about an NPC, physically drawing them has somehow really let me dive into their character for the session."*

🎯 GM TIPS

Rob Jon is back with 10 GM Moves for Social Encounters—an under-examined topic that can create a lot of GM anxiety and, by consequence, player frustration. Thankfully, the artful documentarian—whose 5-part Sablewood Adventure series should be mandatory viewing for those joining the Daggerverse—is back with a series of smart, playful, and mercifully concise examples that should help any GM level up in just 13 minutes.

Bonus: Monsieur Underwood shows you how to make and use social adversaries.

The Mulligan Effect

Brennan Lee Mulligan was already a superstar GM before helming C4, but now that we’re through the campaign’s overture and the rave reviews are pouring in, a few videos caught our attention that you may find intriguing, if not helpful.

Phil from Bonus Reaction analyzes Mulligan’s impact on Critical Role, and conversely, CR’s impact on Mulligan. He then takes a deft look at BLeeM’s GMing style and contrasts it with Mercer’s.
Daði from Mystic Arts goes even deeper on BLeeM’s style, often teasing out idiosyncratic observations you might not have made. (Also, Daði’s voice. Listen just for that.)
Finally, Flamey examines how C4 differs from the first three CR campaigns, unpacking narrative and structural differences that will impact the storytelling and possibly your own GM approach.

Bonus: Here’s BLeeM himself on how to be a chill GM.

🍺 HOMEBREW

The Death Riders

I’m a fan of Death at Helfast Spire, the OSR-flavored DH one-shot that Bob “World Builder” Mason published in July. The blackness, the horror—the cover art! Apparently I wasn’t alone, either. It became an immediate top seller for DriveThuRPG and, according to Mason, is one of his most successful titles ever—surpassing his D&D work.

During a recent chat I asked him about the Death Riders, one of the spookier adversaries he built for the module.

“The Death Riders were inspired by the fantasy novel: Death Riders of Hel by Asa Drake (C. Dean Andersson). I was blown away by an opening battle scene in which nine of these black riders (obvious nod to Tolkien) leap the walls of a remote town, and the main character watches in horror as her militia falls, one by one, merely when their swords strike the riders! Brutal!

As is, that deadly encounter would be a nightmare in an RPG, so I tempered the Death Riders’ abilities and numbers just enough to keep them plausibly deadly. Also, I kept their utter weakness to sunlight as another fun “solution” to facing them.”

Mason is busy expanding the world for both Shadowdark and Daggerheart.

“I’ve been working on another adventure in the same mini-setting, turning the briefly mentioned “Coal Catacombs” into a dungeon for Shadowdark RPG. But as that project expands into classes, monsters, magic items, and sidequest locations, some version of it will splinter back into Daggerheart.”

While we wait for the expansion packs on Mason’s Patreon, here is the Death Rider statblock on FreshCutGrass if you’d like to add some dark energy to your campaign.

Bonus: Sorry—Death Riders aren’t dark enough for your savage soul? Maybe you’d like Shia LaBeouf, the cannibal.

🌎 CAMPAIGN FRAME

Wreathed in Rot

Wreathed in Rot is a moody and harsh campaign frame set in a city cut off from the world by an expanding, unnatural forest. Expeditions beyond the walls are the only way to understand what caused the isolation and whether escape is still possible.

It introduces new mechanics for breaking points and burdens that measure how fear, trauma, and exhaustion reshape a character over time. Survival depends as much on managing stress as it does on strength or skill, and every journey into the forest leaves its mark.

Influenced by Annihilation, The Mist, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the frame mixes psychological horror with slow discovery. Each session tests what the city and its people are willing to sacrifice to endure, and what remains human once the forest begins to fight back.

🎨 CRAFTY

Community (the one without Alison Brie)

If you make things to share with other people, Matt Coleville’s “Community” video is worth your time. In it, he reflects on his own journey building the MCDM community that has morphed into Draw Steel, and offers advice on how to do it for your own work.

Related: Clayton Notestine teaches you How to Promote Your Work

Risk vs Reward

Two can’t miss threads from the co-founders of Evil Hat Productions (Fate, Blades in the Dark, and Thirsty Sword Lesbians, among others): the first where Ken Hicks lays out their budget for a title on Kickstarter, and then a much deeper reflection by Rob Donaghue on risk and how it’s shaped their 20-year run.

Love Crafting Dungeons? (Of course you do.)

Ben Milton included some great links about dungeon design in his newsletter The Glatisant. I found these particularly thoughtful:

🛠️ TOOLS & RESOURCES

I'm a Bard, not a Bruiser.

This week's T&R is heavy with some fantastic finds. So much so that I found the lift too much for the standard heading/entry. So! Bullet points this time around:

Owlbear Rodeo fans will enjoy this (incredibly soothing) video showing off the VTT’s features for in-person, hybrid, and fully online play using a couple of Sablewood Messenger encounters. Highly recommend.
Ivory Creative Press has a guide for Turning NPCs Into Fighting Allies. Their original preview post had some great discussions.
ziemlichwunderlich (say it three times) released a crafty Crafting & Downtime system to give players downtime actions that feed back into their characters, classes, and the campaign. Handy if you find Downtime Actions a bit loose-y goose-y.
Archibald's Almanac of Adversaries—aka The Big Book of Baddies—is a DH-compatible bestiary containing 300 adversaries, 25 environments, and 6 ancestries.
Hello. A Dropbox with all the cards from the starter set (sans artwork) as JPGs. Handy backup and alternate set.
IceBreaker42 shared the 3D print file for a very clever player tracking tool that doubles as a ruler for calling Close and Very Close ranges.
If you like free 3D print files, some handy SRD-based Condition Rings for when the going gets tough on the tabletop.
Here’s a Notion character sheet from ArchCodex29 that works well if you, indeed, love using Notion.
Another great dark music score. Use it for the Wreathed in Rot campaign frame above.
Sail, Swab, Scurvy is built for systems other than Daggerheart, but its focus on naval adventuring is ideal fodder for campaign structures, player roles, and combat that is more story-focused than tactical. It’s cheap, too.
The TTRPG Safety Toolkit is well written, presented, and documented.
Moreso than most subs, I find r/imaginarydwellings to be a great source of location inspiration, backstory, and, well, fantasy real-estate porn. Enjoy!

And this is just too fucked up not to share.

INSPO

"I was always the kid who drew in school, but really I think it was the 1-2 punch of experiencing the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpiece, Princess Mononoke, during my formative years in high school in the late 90s that sent me down the path on which I still find myself walking."

That's South Carolinian artist Cory Godbey from an interview with Ross Connell on the excellent More Games Please blog discussing Godbey's work on the board game The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship. Godbey also dips into his process and inspirations, sharing a dozen paintings, drawings, and sketches worth your time and attention.

STORYTELLING

League of Lessons

A few years ago, Michael Tucker started the excellent YouTube channel Lessons from the Screenplay, deftly articulating how to craft intriguing and captivating characters—much of which is applicable to GMs and players.

Here’s his take on creating the ultimate antagonist, putting The Dark Knight’s central duo in the spotlight.

Tucker then launched Story Mode On, doing similar teardowns of popular videogames—this time with their writers and game designers. Here’s his exploration of The Witcher’s “Bloody Baron" questline, aided by lead designer Paweł Sasko and writer Karolina Stachyra.

Tucker has since gone on to work with BioWare on the next instalment of Mass Effect—a job he scored from a pitch he made on his LftS channel when he asked, “what if the next big Game of Thrones-like show was Mass Effect?”

As Tucker focuses on what is undoubtedly a massive project, he’s left behind a treasure chest filled with some of the most concise, usable video guides for creating characters, conflict, and story beats for GMs and game designers trying to find the snap, crackle, pop in their worlds.