Vol 9: Chaos & Consequences
A cursed MMO boots back up, Waterdeep’s defences crumble, and a new AP kicks off in the sun-scorched Drylands. We dig into extreme damage, gender gap in game design, and how Hope and Fear really roll. PLUS: long rests, Gothic typefaces, GM boards, and the purpose of action scenes.
SPOTLIGHT
UPDATES
Bard Out of Hell
Darrington dropped the second video in its “look how fun and easy it is to port Bell’s Hells D&D characters into Daggerheart” series, this time featuring Robbie Daymond’s bard, Dorian Storm. There’s no listed schedule, so it’s anyone’s guess how many of these will be produced—or which main or supporting cast members might appear.
Mergers & Acquisitions
Rumours out of PAX West is Acquisitions Incorporated, the OG of APs, is switching from D&D to Daggerheart. AI was so popular—as a comic, then podcast, then live show phenomena—that WoTC made it canon and published it as an official D&D campaign. Notably, Chris Perkins—formerly a game designer at Wizards, now at Darrington—is a key AI partner, player, and GM. Bonus: Watch Perkins’ WotC alum Todd Kenreck port his D&D Vampire to Daggerheart.
Legends in the Making
Mikey Gilder from AP Legends of Avantris sat down with Producer Pete from The Character Sheet to discuss their upcoming Colossus of the Drylands campaign. The conversation touched on the collaboration with Darrington, working with the Daggerheart system, and, intriguingly, whether the homebrew from the campaign could make its way into a new sourcebook.
Final Fantasy
Darrington’s Campaign Frame miniseries came to a close on Friday with the political fantasy Five Banners Burning, a framework written by Dispatch favourite Mike Underwood. Speaking of, Mike released a well-timed video this week—How to Run an Unforgettable Daggerheart One-Shot.
Not Their First Rodeo
Last week’s Owlbear Rodeo drop was amplified this week by u/russrmc, who dropped a mega-post about using the tool and explaining how to install the GMs Daggerheart Grimoire, the community-made plugin that enables Owlbear to help run your table. Also noted were the new range finder and duality dice roller.
Blazing Embers
Can anyone keep up with Ember Screen’s rapid-fire release schedule? They’ve added stat blocks, saveable Encounter widgets, ten (10!) UI themes, and a ton of polish to both the desktop and mobile views.
DISCUSSIONS
Daggerheart is a Single-Mode Game
What’s the difference between “dual” and “single-mode” TTRPGs? Everything, suggests u/Necessary-Grape-5134, who argues that D&D gameplay suffers from managing two separate-but-distinct modes—exploration and combat—which creates a binary that often forces non-combat encounters into combat. In contrast, Daggerheart’s single-mode design allows all encounters to remain fluid, following the story and characters rather than rigid mechanics. Of course, there were no other opinions to be heard.
