> ## Content Index
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> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Daggerheart 2026 Survey Results
- URL: https://www.daggerheartdispatch.com/daggerheart-2026-survey/
- Published: 2026-10-17T13:03:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-17T13:37:57.000Z
- Description: A thousand GMs reveal how they play, what they buy, and which tools are winning over their tables. Here’s what is and isn't working in Daggerheart.
- Author: Henry DeTamble
- Tags: Dispatch

#### 

**A YEAR AND A HALF INTO DAGGERHEART*, there’s considerably more to survey than a new rulebook. Darrington has released an expansion and adventures, a prolific creator community has swarmed around the system, and new platforms have challenged established names. With an ambitious publishing schedule, more Critical Role actual plays ahead, and the game nipping at the heels of Paizo's #2 market position, the game shows little sign of slowing down.* 

*It’s time for another snapshot—not so much of what everyone’s trying, but of what’s actually sticking.*

*Who’s actually getting to play every week? How much are GMs spending to keep those games running? And which tools have earned a place at the table—or lost one? Where did upstarts like Heart of Daggers and PocketBard land? How popular are Daggerheart Discords? What games other than Daggerheart are people playing?*

*For our second annual GM survey, we asked Dispatch readers and the Daggerheart subreddit how they prepare, play, buy, and keep their games running. Here’s what nearly a thousand GMs tell us about the game’s next chapter—and the people making it happen.*

#### ABOUT THE GMs 

### 1\. Are You a Professional GM?

- *Yes: *7.3%**
- *No: *92.7%**

Most GMs are in it for the love of the game. Just 7.3% of this year’s respondents get paid for their GM work, compared with 6.1% last year. That's a bigger pool overall given this year's sample size, but still a small part of our survey audience.

**Notable*: Nearly half of paid GMs run games multiple times a week (48.8%, versus 8.6% of unpaid GMs), yet their reported content budgets aren’t higher—likely because the same material is re-used for multiple groups. They’re also more likely to prefer homebrew: 48.8% versus 23.7%, a difference that persists among GMs running weekly or more.*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a2/a7/a2a75ea5-215f-4389-89a4-6fca188efa90/content/images/2026/10/Professional-gm_Daggerheart-Dispatch.png)

#### 

### 2\. How Long Have You Been GMing?

- *Less than one year: *8.9%**
- *1–5 years: *28.4%**
- *5–10 years: *29.3%**
- *10–20 years: *15.4%**
- *20+ years: *18.1%**

Whether you're a D&D expat or a Mothership fan, how long you’ve GM'd shapes the tools and habits you bring to a new game. So consider this a baseline question that helps us triangulate other observations, rather than one designed to elicit interesting results in and of itself.

**Notable:* That said, there was something interesting: first-year GMs account for less than half the share they did last year: 8.9%, down from 19.6%. That could mean Daggerheart is attracting experienced GMs disproportionately, or that it is drawing less interest from people newly entering GMing. Darrington's private data may have the answer.*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a2/a7/a2a75ea5-215f-4389-89a4-6fca188efa90/content/images/2026/10/GM-Experience_Daggerheart-Dispatch.png)

#### 

### 3\. How Often Do You GM?

- *Multiple times a week: *11.5%**
- *Weekly: *23.8%**
- *2–3 times a month: *37.6%**
- *About once a month: *18.8%**
- *Less than once a month: *8.3%**

How often you run games changes what you may need between sessions. A monthly game? Tinker all you want. Weekly? Give me something I can use NOW. Frequency is another baseline question that adds context around how and what you play, as well as what you do or don't buy.

**Notable:* True to the point, among GMs running multiple times a week, 66.7% select adversaries among their purchases, compared with 57.5% of those running less than monthly. Adventures lean the other way: 38.6% versus 67.5%. This checks out. Busy GMs are more likely to need encounter ingredients, while occasional GMs often need the whole enchilada.*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a2/a7/a2a75ea5-215f-4389-89a4-6fca188efa90/content/images/2026/10/GM-Frequency_Daggerheart-Dispatch.png)

#### 

### 4\. Which Games Do You Mostly Play?

- *Daggerheart: *95.7%**
- *D&D: *56.9%**
- *Pathfinder: *9.2%**
- *OSR: *7.3%**
- *PbtA / related games: *12.1%**
- *Other: *22.3%**

D&D and Daggerheart are an expected pairing with this question, but more than a fifth of respondents also name games beyond the checklist—from Call of Cthulhu and Mothership to Star Wars, Lancer, and MÖRK BORG. Natch, those write-ins come disproportionately from experienced GMs; you enter the hobby through one game, gradually explore others, and then settle on 3-5 favourites that you regularly rotate.

**Notable:* More games often means less Daggerheart. Respondents who wrote in additional systems were less likely to have run Daggerheart within the last month—71.4% versus 82.0%—despite similar overall GM frequency.* 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a2/a7/a2a75ea5-215f-4389-89a4-6fca188efa90/content/images/2026/10/Games-Played_Daggerheart-Dispatch-1.png)

#### 

### 5\. How Do You Play?

- *Only in person: *33.7%**
- *Mostly in person, sometimes online: *18.6%**
- *Equally online and offline: *14.4%**
- *Mostly online, sometimes in person: *22.7%**
- *Only online: *10.3%**
- *Other: *0.4%**

We all know scheduling is the BBEG of campaigns. Getting everyone around a table means competing with commutes, family commitments, and whatever else goes sideways on a Saturday afternoon. Online play removes at least one obstacle: everyone can show up from wherever they are. So *where* we play may have a lot to do with how *often* we get to play.

**Notable:* The more play moves online, the more frequent GMing becomes. Just 22.1% of exclusively in-person GMs run weekly or more, rising to 32.4% for mostly in-person, 43.0% for mostly online, and 55.2% for exclusively online. That’s consistent with online play softening the scheduling battle—even if the survey can’t establish that it’s the sole cause.*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a2/a7/a2a75ea5-215f-4389-89a4-6fca188efa90/content/images/2026/10/Play-Format_Daggerheart-Dispatch.png)

#### 

### 6\. How Many Players in Your Game?

- *1–2: *3.9%**
- *3–4: *52.7%**
- *5–6: *41.8%**
- *7+: *1.6%**

Say a prayer for the 1.6%.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a2/a7/a2a75ea5-215f-4389-89a4-6fca188efa90/content/images/2026/10/Group-Size_Daggerheart-Dispatch.png)

#### 

### 7\. How Many Sessions in Your Average Campaign?

- *1–5: *5.0%**
- *5–10: *12.9%**
- *10–20: *24.1%**
- *20+: *58.0%**

Players want campaign worlds that feel alive, where decisions they make ripple through the world session after session. Critical Role and BG3 are a big influence here: while they onboard millions into the hobby, those players want to recreate what they've watched or played—sometimes to the dismay of already stressed-out GMs. That's why we asked about campaign length: just how much time does your table have to let those stories unfold?

**Notable:* The result: among GMs whose campaigns exceed 20 sessions, 33.6% name narrative-first play as their main attraction to Daggerheart, compared with 20.3% of those running shorter campaigns.* 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a2/a7/a2a75ea5-215f-4389-89a4-6fca188efa90/content/images/2026/10/Campaign-Length_Daggerheart-Dispatch.png)

#### 

### 8\. When Did You Last Run a Daggerheart Session?

- *Within the last week: *46.3%**
- *Within the last month: *33.3%**
- *Within the last 3 months: *10.8%**
- *Within the last 6 months: *4.3%**
- *More than 6 months ago: *3.5%**
- *Haven’t run one yet: *1.8%**

We didn’t ask this last year, so consider it a new baseline: how recently has Daggerheart actually made it to your table? Natch, a survey like this attracts people actively running the game—79.6% of respondents had run a session within the last month.

**Notable:* But trying Daggerheart doesn’t necessarily mean keeping it in regular rotation. Among respondents who last ran it more than a month ago, 26.7% still GM weekly or more. They’re finding time to play, just not with Daggerheart. Whether that means rotating systems, taking a campaign break, or moving on entirely is something this question can’t tell us but is worth tracking.*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a2/a7/a2a75ea5-215f-4389-89a4-6fca188efa90/content/images/2026/10/Latest-Session_Daggerheart-Dispatch.png)

#### THOUGHTS ON DAGGERHEART 

### 9\. What Drew You to Daggerheart?

- *Game mechanics: *36.9%**
- *Narrative-first play: *28.0%**
- *Less complexity: *23.4%**
- *Made by Critical Role: *6.6%**
- *Other: *5.1%**

Daggerheart’s announcement prompted expectations that Critters would flood into the TTRPG space. That isn't the audience this survey appears to capture. Instead, the game has found itself allied with multi-system gamers and/or D&D expats. This survey is consistent with that picture: 56.9% regularly play D&D, while just 6.6% identify Critical Role’s involvement as their main attraction to Daggerheart.

**Notable:* For an audience already familiar with D&D, Daggerheart’s appeal spans three ways of doing things differently: game mechanics (36.9%), narrative-first play (28.0%), and less complexity (23.4%). Together, they reinforce the appetite for familiar heroic fantasy with more flexibility and less accumulated rules baggage—a combination several write-ins explicitly describe.*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a2/a7/a2a75ea5-215f-4389-89a4-6fca188efa90/content/images/2026/10/Daggerheart-Appeal_Daggerheart-Dispatch.png)

#### 

### 10\. Rate the Importance of These Game Elements

No surprises here. Hope & Fear and Duality Dice lead the rankings, followed by Improvisational Play and Spotlight. The results reflect what we see in the community every day: Daggerheart's signature mechanics are also its most appreciated features.

**Notable:* Countdowns rank last overall, but experienced GMs value them considerably more. Among GMs with 10+ years of experience, 46.0% rate Countdowns highly, compared with 36.8% of less experienced GMs. The same pattern appears among those running longer campaigns (43.4% vs. 35.0%). It suggests that experienced GMs place greater value on tools that manage pacing and escalating tension.*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a2/a7/a2a75ea5-215f-4389-89a4-6fca188efa90/content/images/2026/10/Game-Element-Importance_Daggerheart-Dispatch-1.png)

#### 

### 11\. What Do You NOT Like About Daggerheart?

- *Fear accumulation and management: *19.3%**
- *Not powerful enough for high-fantasy gaming: *8.0%**
- *Initiative-less combat: *7.3%**
- *Too complex for a narrative-first game: *6.9%**
- *Other: *58.5%**

The write-ins on this question overwhelmed the fixed choices, with 58.5% opting to provide their own answers. Much of the criticism echoes what you read on the sub and servers: too few published adventures (16.7% of write-ins), frustrating combat balance (11.2%), and character customization that can feel restrictive or repetitive (9.7%). 

**Notable:* A recurring criticism is that Daggerheart occupies the mushy middle between narrative freedom and mechanical structure. And, true to the point, some want clearer, more prescriptive rules, while others feel the game retains too much complexity from D&D. As one respondent put it, “It just sort of moved the furniture around in terms of rules complexity.”*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a2/a7/a2a75ea5-215f-4389-89a4-6fca188efa90/content/images/2026/10/Daggerheart-Dislikes_Daggerheart-Dispatch.png)

#### CONTENT & COMMUNITY 

### 12\. Do You Prefer Published or Homebrew Material?

- *Published: *74.5%**
- *Homebrew: *25.5%**

Given how much homebrew is shared across the sub and servers, it's surprising that only 25.5% of GMs actually prefer it over published material. Put another way: GMs clearly like making and sharing their ideas with the community, but by and large the community wants official (ie. Darrington Press) or official-looking (well-produced 3PP) material for their games.

**Notable:* That preference for published material holds even among veteran GMs. Just 28.0% of those with 10+ years of experience prefer homebrew, compared with 24.3% of less experienced GMs. Online play, however, tells a different story: 33.0% of online GMs prefer homebrew, compared with just 20.3% of those playing in person.*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a2/a7/a2a75ea5-215f-4389-89a4-6fca188efa90/content/images/2026/10/Content-Preference_Daggerheart-Dispatch.png)

#### 

### 13\. What is Your Retailer of Choice?

- *Heart of Daggers: *34.6%**
- *DriveThruRPG: *23.2%**
- *Kickstarter: *9.1%**
- *Itch: *3.8%**
- *Patreon: *2.0%**
- *I don’t purchase content: *10.1%**
- *Other: *17.2%**

We didn’t ask this question last year, but Heart of Daggers’ rise has been hard to miss. Launched around the same time as The Dispatch, it has become this survey’s retailer of choice, taking 34.6% of responses compared with DriveThruRPG’s 23.2%. Itch’s 3.8% is also striking: for all the creators using it as a storefront, relatively few GMs name it as their preferred place to buy.

**Notable:* Two connections stood out. GMs who choose Heart of Daggers are considerably more likely to buy environments than those who choose DriveThruRPG (66.1% vs. 46.0%), while adventure purchases are almost identical between the two groups. DriveThruRPG, meanwhile, has a more experienced customer base: 47.7% of those choosing it have been GMing for 10+ years, compared with 31.4% for Heart of Daggers. It's easier to buy from the retailer with whom you started, vaulted a credit card, maintained a library, and receive their marketing recommendations.*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a2/a7/a2a75ea5-215f-4389-89a4-6fca188efa90/content/images/2026/10/Retailer-Preference_Daggerheart-Dispatch-1.png)

#### 

### 14\. How Much Do You Spend on DH Content in a Year? 

- *Less than $20: *9.7%**
- *$20–50: *22.9%**
- *$50–100: *33.1%**
- *$100–200: *22.4%**
- *$200+: *12.0%**

*Includes other-system content intended for conversion.*

The surprise here is how few surprises the spend results contain. Most GMs report or anticipate spending less than $100 a year (65.7%), and cross-question comps confirm familiar patterns: frequent Discord visitors are more likely to spend $100+ (given they're deeply invested in the system); as are those who find the community more welcoming than other TTRPG communities. Lower spenders lean more toward homebrew, while higher spenders are more likely to name Czepeku for their maps.

Regular OSR players lean toward higher spend—but this is unsurprising given they're clearly buying and running a few systems. GMs running more than monthly are more likely to reach the $200+ bracket, but weekly and multiple-weekly GMs are almost identical there. And bigger tables don’t appear to mean substantially bigger budgets. Taken together, these are all recognizable purchasing habits, resulting in fairly pedestrian conclusions.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a2/a7/a2a75ea5-215f-4389-89a4-6fca188efa90/content/images/2026/10/Annual-Spending_Daggerheart-Dispatch.png)

#### 

### 15\. What Do You Mostly Buy?

- *Adventures: *50.4%**
- *Campaign Frames: *40.3%**
- *Adversaries: *70.7%**
- *Environments: *51.6%**
- *Player-facing content: *30.8%**
- *Maps: *26.2%**
- *Audio or video enhancements: *12.2%**

Adversaries lead the shopping list at 70.7%, but we’re coming off *Hope & Fear* adding 130+ of them. Will the appetite drop by next year? Adventures, selected by 50.4%, will be worth watching too: with Darrington's commitment to two major projects and a digital adventure pipeline, the growing official offering may change what GMs go looking for elsewhere.

**Notable, if not obvious:* GMs drawn to Daggerheart’s lower complexity are more likely to buy campaign frames than those naming another main attraction (52.9% vs. 36.5%). These aren’t beginners looking for guidance: most of those frame buyers have been GMing for five years or more—reinforcing the appeal of Daggerheart’s promise of easier prep and play.* 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a2/a7/a2a75ea5-215f-4389-89a4-6fca188efa90/content/images/2026/10/Content-Purchases_Daggerheart-Dispatch-3.png)

#### 

### 16\. How Frequently Do You Visit the Subreddit? 

- *More than once a day: *16.1%**
- *Once a day: *22.2%**
- *A few times a week: *33.5%**
- *A few times a month: *16.8%**
- *A few times a year: *6.2%**
- *Never: *5.1%**

People like their Reddit. More than a third of respondents (38.3%) visit the Daggerheart sub daily or more, and nearly three-quarters (71.8%) check in at least a few times a week. It’s *the* hub for sharing ideas, finding information, and keeping up with what’s happening in the game and its community.

**Notable:* Daily visitors aren’t running games more often: 33.8% GM weekly or more, compared with 36.2% of less frequent visitors. They are, however, a bit more likely to report campaigns exceeding 20 sessions (62.5% vs. 55.2%). In all likelihood, they're dropping into the sub between sessions rather than between different campaigns or games.* 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a2/a7/a2a75ea5-215f-4389-89a4-6fca188efa90/content/images/2026/10/Reddit-Visits_Daggerheart-Dispatch.png)

#### 

### 17\. How Frequently Do You Visit a DH Discord Server?

- *More than once a day: *11.0%**
- *Once a day: *3.5%**
- *A few times a week: *11.5%**
- *A few times a month: *18.8%**
- *A few times a year: *10.1%**
- *Never: *45.0%**

Discord is a far more concentrated corner of the community than Reddit. Almost half of respondents (45.0%) never visit a Daggerheart server, and a majority (55.1%) visit less than a few times a month. Just 26.1% check in a few times a week or more—a smaller audience making Discord a regular part of their hobby.

**Notable:* That small-but-active group is mostly sitting on the Heart of Daggers server. While there is a pre-established community server, and one maintained by Darrington, HoD has become the gathering place for committed creators and GMs. These folks are considerably more likely to use HoD for encounter planning (39.0% vs. 20.6%) and character sheets (40.0% vs. 18.7%). They also GM more often and are more than twice as likely to report annual content spending of $200+ (21.2% vs. 8.7%).* 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a2/a7/a2a75ea5-215f-4389-89a4-6fca188efa90/content/images/2026/10/Discord-Visits_Daggerheart-Dispatch.png)

#### 

### 18\. How Welcoming is the DH Community Compared to Other TTRPGs?

- *More welcoming: *45.7%**
- *Equally welcoming: *50.0%**
- *Less welcoming: *4.3%**

Nearly half of respondents (45.7%) find Daggerheart’s community more welcoming than other TTRPG communities. That’s not particularly surprising for a fresh space attracting lots of D&D expats. A community as large and longstanding as D&D’s carries decades of disagreements, entrenched opinions, and accumulated baggage. Daggerheart hasn’t had the time to acquire all of that *yet*.

**Notable:* Foundry users are a little more reserved in their praise: 36.8% find the community more welcoming, compared with 49.5% of other respondents answering the VTT question. We’ll leave it to you to decide why that might be. But reserved doesn’t mean dissatisfied: most Foundry users (56.4%) find the community equally welcoming.*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a2/a7/a2a75ea5-215f-4389-89a4-6fca188efa90/content/images/2026/10/Community-Welcome_Daggerheart-Dispatch.png)

#### GM TOOLS & RESOURCES 

### 19\. Worldbuilding

- *Google Sheets/Docs: *34.0%**
- *Obsidian: *27.3%**
- *Heart of Daggers: *7.2%**
- *Notion: *4.5%**
- *Legend Keeper: *3.2%**
- *Other: *23.7%**

Worldbuilding is note taking: imagining NPCs, locations, and possibilities, then putting them somewhere you can find them again. Google and Obsidian still account for most responses—61.3% combined, compared with 63.3% last year. The more noticeable change is Notion, down from 12.2% to 4.5%. 

**Notable:* Obsidian’s strengths are ideal for a growing world. Among GMs using it for worldbuilding, 66.4% report average campaigns exceeding 20 sessions, compared with 55.7% of those using other approaches. These aren’t simply the longest-serving GMs, either: Obsidian users are less likely to have 10+ years behind the screen (25.7% vs. 36.9%). A documented/searchable library of characters and consequences has plenty of value before you hit veteran status.*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a2/a7/a2a75ea5-215f-4389-89a4-6fca188efa90/content/images/2026/10/Worldbuilding-Tools_Daggerheart-Dispatch.png)

#### 

### 20\. Encounter Planning

- *Heart of Daggers: *25.5%**
- *FreshCutGrass: *25.1%**
- *Foundry: *10.4%**
- *Obsidian: *9.8%**
- *Roll20: *4.9%**
- *Alchemy: *2.5%**
- *Other: *21.9%**

Last year, FreshCutGrass dominated encounter planning with 68.7% of responses. In the ensuing 12 months, Heart of Daggers emerged as a serious competitor, narrowly overtaking FCG: 25.5% versus 25.1%. Obsidian also grew—from 4.0% to 9.8%—but the big story is that encounter planning is now a two-horse race.

**Notable:* GMs using Obsidian for encounter planning are more likely to name narrative-first play as Daggerheart’s main attraction (36.5% vs. 27.4% of those using other approaches), which fits with our Worldbuilding observations: Obsidian is just a Cmd/Ctrl+O away from pulling up a stat block when you need to "Yes, and..." a PC's decision or Success-with-Fear.* 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a2/a7/a2a75ea5-215f-4389-89a4-6fca188efa90/content/images/2026/10/Encounter-Planning_Daggerheart-Dispatch-1.png)

#### 

### 21\. GM Screen

- *Official physical screen: *37.2%**
- *Heart of Daggers: *13.5%**
- *Demiplane: *8.4%**
- *Foundry: *7.7%**
- *Google Sheets/Docs: *5.8%**
- *Obsidian: *5.1%**
- *Alchemy: *1.8%**
- *Other: *20.4%**

Heart of Daggers has become the leading digital GM screen, taking 13.5% of responses and outpacing both Demiplane (8.4%) and Foundry (7.7%)—established platforms with substantial resources or communities behind them. Meanwhile, EmberScreen, last year’s leading purpose-built digital screen at 7.2%, has all but disappeared: just two standalone mentions. The official physical screen, which we didn’t list separately last year, naturally leads the overall category at 37.2%.

**Notable:* Two unsurprising patterns. One, the platform you use to prepare your game often becomes the one you reference while running it: 82.4% of HoD screen users also plan encounters there, and 89.1% of Demiplane screen users use its character sheets. Two, GMs using the official physical screen are more likely to report annual content spending of $100+ (42.6% vs. 29.9%). Shocking! People who buy the accessories tend to buy more stuff 🤯*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a2/a7/a2a75ea5-215f-4389-89a4-6fca188efa90/content/images/2026/10/GM-Screen_Daggerheart-Dispatch.png)

#### 

### 22\. Note Taking

- *Google Docs: *27.5%**
- *Obsidian: *23.5%**
- *Notion: *4.4%**
- *Discord: *4.0%**
- *Heart of Daggers: *3.8%**
- *Legend Keeper: *2.2%**
- *Other: *34.6%**

Worldbuilding and note taking occupy two sides of the same coin: prep before a game, take notes during and after a game. So two observations. One, the results between them are understandably similar. And two, for that reason we'll merge them for next year's survey.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a2/a7/a2a75ea5-215f-4389-89a4-6fca188efa90/content/images/2026/10/Note-Taking_Daggerheart-Dispatch.png)

#### 

### 23\. Maps

- *Czepeku: *25.5%**
- *Inkarnate: *13.9%**
- *Dungeon Draft: *9.5%**
- *Dungeon Scrawl: *2.5%**
- *Other: *48.5%**

Czepeku has taken the lead in maps, rising from 20.6% last year to 25.5%, while Inkarnate falls from 22.7% to 13.9%. Dungeon Scrawl’s share is also lower, down from 7.2% to 2.5%, while Dungeon Draft emerges at 9.5%. Ready-made maps have gained prominence, but making your own remains a big part of the picture.

**Notable:* Inkarnate’s smaller share still contains plenty of sustained worldbuilding: 71.6% of its users report average campaigns exceeding 20 sessions, compared with 59.5% of respondents using other map approaches. That fits the appeal of making maps for a world your players will keep exploring and changing over a long campaign.*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a2/a7/a2a75ea5-215f-4389-89a4-6fca188efa90/content/images/2026/10/Map-Tools_Daggerheart-Dispatch.png)

#### 

### 24\. Digital Character Sheets

- *Demiplane Nexus: *28.5%**
- *Heart of Daggers: *24.7%**
- *Foundry: *15.3%**
- *Alchemy: *3.4%**
- *Other: *28.1%**

Heart of Daggers has nearly caught Demiplane Nexus in digital character sheets: 24.7% versus 28.5%. Last year’s independent challenger, Duality Codex, has all but disappeared from the responses, while Alchemy now registers at 3.4%. Once again, HoD has established itself alongside a much larger platform in a remarkably short time.

**Notable:* Character sheets and VTTs pair up. Among Roll20 users answering the sheets question, 73.6% use Demiplane—an unsurprising connection given their shared ownership. Owlbear Rodeo users, meanwhile, favour Heart of Daggers: 43.6% use its sheets, compared with 28.2% using Demiplane. For these groups, one platform holds the characters while the other hosts the table.*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a2/a7/a2a75ea5-215f-4389-89a4-6fca188efa90/content/images/2026/10/Character-Sheets_Daggerheart-Dispatch.png)

#### 

### 25\. VTTs

- *Foundry: *29.3%**
- *Owlbear Rodeo: *18.7%**
- *Roll20: *16.3%**
- *Discord—voice/video and dice bot: *7.7%**
- *Alchemy: *5.7%**
- *Other: *22.2%**

Last year, Roll20 led the VTT field at 35.7%. This year, Foundry takes first place at 29.3%, while Owlbear Rodeo rises from 16.3% to 18.7%, overtaking Roll20, now at 16.3%. As with Heart of Daggers, Owlbear's accomplishment is impressive for a small platform competing with a much larger, better-resourced incumbent.

**Notable:* Foundry users are just as busy GMing, but less recently active in Daggerheart. Some 39.8% GM weekly or more, almost identical to 39.3% of other respondents answering the VTT question. Yet only 69.2% ran Daggerheart within the last month, compared with 82.9% of the others. Their calendars still have games on them; Daggerheart just hasn’t reached the table as recently.* 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a2/a7/a2a75ea5-215f-4389-89a4-6fca188efa90/content/images/2026/10/Virtual-Tabletops_Daggerheart-Dispatch.png)

#### 

### 26\. Audio/Sound Management

- *Manually: *36.4%**
- *Spotify: *27.0%**
- *YouTube: *36.2%**
- *PocketBard: *13.0%**
- *Tabletop Audio: *10.6%**
- *Syrinscape: *2.0%**
- *Other: *26.2%**

Familiar options still lead audio and sound management: manual playback (36.4%), YouTube (36.2%), and Spotify (27.0%). The new presence is PocketBard, selected by 13.0% of respondents and now ahead of Tabletop Audio (10.6%) among the separately named specialist tools. (It wasn’t separately reported last year, but it has clearly found a place at the table.)

**Notable:* PocketBard’s audience leans toward shorter campaigns. Just 40.0% of its users report average campaigns exceeding 20 sessions, compared with 62.5% of respondents not selecting it. They’re also less likely to have 10+ years behind the screen (21.5% vs. 34.0%). Its emergence appears to be driven more by GMs earlier in their experience and running shorter campaigns than by veterans soundtracking sprawling epics.*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a2/a7/a2a75ea5-215f-4389-89a4-6fca188efa90/content/images/2026/10/Audio-Management_Daggerheart-Dispatch.png)

#### 

### 27\. Group Scheduling

- *Group Messaging (Messenger, WhatsApp, iMessage, etc.): *55.9%**
- *Discord Events: *22.1%**
- *Google Calendar: *7.4%**
- *Other: *14.6%**

For all the tools we use to prepare and run games, getting everyone together still mostly happens in the group chat. Messaging apps lead scheduling at 55.9%, barely changed from last year’s 54.1%. Discord Events has edged up from 18.4% to 22.1%, while Google Calendar remains almost unchanged at 7.4%. 

**Notable:* Discord Events users are more likely to GM weekly or more (48.3% vs. 31.8% of those using other scheduling approaches). That fits the pattern we saw earlier: the more play moves online, the more frequently GMs run games. Scheduling through Discord is a natural extension of gathering there to play.*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a2/a7/a2a75ea5-215f-4389-89a4-6fca188efa90/content/images/2026/10/Group-Scheduling_Daggerheart-Dispatch.png)

#### ABOUT THIS SURVEY 

*This survey was conducted in September and October 2026 by The Dispatch, a publication focused on Daggerheart and its growing ecosystem. Just under a thousand responses (987) were collected through The Dispatch and the Daggerheart subreddit, then combined with each answer given equal weight. Unanswered questions were excluded from that question’s percentages. Participation was voluntary, so the results describe our survey audience rather than a representative sample of all Daggerheart GMs.*

*The survey included a mix of multiple-choice, multi-select, and open-response questions. It collected information about GM experience and behaviour—how often respondents run games, their campaign lengths, whether they play online or in person, spending, and community participation—alongside tool usage across core areas like worldbuilding, encounter planning, character sheets, VTTs, maps, audio, and scheduling.*

*The goal of the project is to track how GMs prepare and run their games as Daggerheart moves beyond its launch into a more established phase, with growing libraries of content, developing tools, and familiar habits taking shape. Building on* [*last year’s baseline*](https://www.daggerheartdispatch.com/daggerheart-gm-tools-survey-2025/)*, these findings provide an annual snapshot of how play patterns and preferences evolve alongside the game.*