Dispatch

Vol 15: Classes & Craftwork

Drakkenheim crushes Kickstarter, Foundryborne v1.2, and lab results for Blood Domain and Hunter. Then, GMing Lord of the Rings, a Severance-style campaign to send you back in time (and then forward), and designing for Daggerheart. Plus: free art, printer-friendly GM screens, and an NPC generator.

SPOTLIGHT

Yes, Age of Umbra was a few months ago, and Halloween a couple weeks ago. But that shouldn't stop us from applauding Darrington Producer Brooke Eyler for her depiction of Skreev (Liam O'Brien's Slyborne Rogue) and Misty (Ashley Johnson's Highborne Bard, above). There are cosplayers, and then there are cosplayers.

UPDATES

Drakkenheim Dunkshot

The Dungeon Dudes and Ghostfire Publishing overdelivered as the first Darrington-approved Daggerheart campaign, with Dungeons of Drakkenheim reaching its Kickstarter goal at the 13min mark (TBF, lowballed for the PR kick) and, as of this writing, 15x oversubscribed. Ghostfire released a full starter frame as part of the launch, while Kelly and Monty converted their D&D characters to Daggerheart, then hosted an AMA with Spenser Starke and Matt Mercer. Exceptional execution for a beloved property.

Hero to Zero Forge

Hero Forge did slightly less well with their launch of the Daggerheart Ancestry Collection. The custom miniature maker received immediate blowback from their subscribers for adding a separate charge for the collection, and paywalling the ability to evaluate the assets (screenshotting tokens and DIY printing them is a common practice). Hero Forge quickly walked back the offer and generously refunded buyers, but also noted that, without additional fees, licensed deals would be unsustainable—despite their own surveys telling them the (possibly silent) majority of their customers want them.

Adventuring Enneagrams

Rowan Hall took to the socials to ask what your Class choice says about you. I was left wondering what Class is addicted to chicken nuggets.

Beastform

Foundryborne—the community-built Foundry VTT module—released their v1.2 with a massive set of new features and upgrades. It’s unclear if an official module is in the works, but at this point I don’t see how anything catches up to this team—both b/c of the pace and quality of their work, and b/c Foundry attracts the kind of technically-minded GM who appreciates this open-source, hacker-ethos spirit.

Laying Tracks

Owlbear Rodeo has added a new extension for tracking resources like HP, Stress, Hope, and armour. The associated animations and SFX are lovely, while the GM<>Player status sharing looks effortless.

Grounded Fantasy

A sign of an oversaturated VTT market was news that Fantasy Grounds has gone free-to-play, hoping to make up the loss of subscription fees through new members buying more licensed goods (Daggerheart soon to be one of them). But it’ll be a slog. Peeling away even 10% from Roll20 or D&D Beyond’s tens of millions of users would still leave them short of the steady revenue once guaranteed by paid subs—and module splits aren’t nearly as lucrative.

Plucky Plugins

Daggerforge, the first official Obsidian Community Plugin for Daggerheart, quickly iterated from their recent update with a slate of new inline features, including a battle guide calculator and dice roller. That same day, BeastVault updated with an equally impressive feature suite, adding color customization and canvas integration. Clearly these two are, as per the Rezendes Chant, just getting started.

Face/Off

Old Gus overhauled character creation on the indispensable DHSRD. The guided tour of character options is ideal for those who don’t own the CRB and are playing without a VTT.

DISCUSSIONS

Blood Test

Forensic deep-dives on the new Blood Domain and Blood Hunter Class have surfaced on the sub. The verdict so far isn’t much different than a visit with your doctor: decent vitals, some aches and pains, and a few markers worth monitoring at the next check-in.

The Tyranny of Tiers

Should you give higher tier equipment to lower tier players—if not at least for the narrative fun? That was u/OgreManDudeGuy’s question that kicked off a worthwhile thread about when and how to bestow increasingly better equipment to your players. I particularly liked u/firesshadow42’s simple Game of Throne’s hierarchy: Valerian Steel (T4) vs Castleforged Steel (T3) vs Plain Steel (T2) vs Iron (T1).

Fearsum

Should some Adversary Abilities require spending more than 1 Fear? Yes! “There are actually a handful in the CRB,” noted sub favourite u/rightknighttofight, pointing to Spectral Captain, Head Vampire, Oracle of Doom, and the Defiers Abound action in the Divine Usurpation Event, in addition to the Young Ice Dragon's Blizzard Breath. Bonus: Mike Underwood pitches in on feedback for Tier III Adversaries.

VIBE CHECK

"*I made a dice tray/fear counter* *with this marble thingy I found on the sidewalk. This is my first ever painting, so I’m over the clouds."*

“The Husk," Lia's Fae Clank. *(Or, what happens if you abandon armour in a Faerie forest?)*

🎯 GM TIPS

How to GM a LotR Battle

Can Peter Jackson teach you to be a better Daggerheart GM? Derik Malenda thinks so. The Knights of Last Call streamer uses Jackson’s Lord of the Rings—specifically the Amon Hen fight, where Aragorn defends Frodo at the Seat of Seeing against the Orc horde—to illustrate GM moves that, while mechanically correct, also serve the story and heighten the player characters’ drama.

I expected to watch only a couple of minutes of this stream but found myself nodding, taking notes, and genuinely enjoying his improvised tutorial. Malenda uses the scene to pinpoint the mix of rules, timing, and theatrics that can sharpen a GM’s instincts and, ultimately, enrich the table. Highly recommended for GMs at any experience level.

🍺 HOMEBREW

Menagerie of Mayhem

I was yo-yoing between sharing u/Tenawa’s Goblins and Dragons adversary packs and Sax’s Wound Slots & Lodging Perks for this week’s edition when Magic Mike (aka Daggerheart Contributing Designer and now Dungeons of Drakkenheim Lead Designer Mike Underwood) shared this beauty on Bluesky:

Over at his Patreon he describes it as a series of short adversary books that will eventually be combined into one larger collection, ideally with a print edition.

The books will include refined versions of Adversaries first created in livestreams—like the Trickster Spirit and Blabbering Mound—as well as others never before seen, for a total of 36 across all four Tiers of play.

Volume 1 is scheduled for early release to backers in December. After that, it goes up for sale on Patreon for an exclusive window, then through all the regular digital retailers.

Every Daggerheart GM is begging for more Adversaries. Unfortunately, much of what’s available is poorly designed or AI slop. With Mike at the helm, these are guaranteed bangers and worth every nickel you can throw at them.

🌎 CAMPAIGN FRAME

Bureau of Chronological Affairs

An excited Spenser Starke brought my attention to the 70s-inspired art direction wrapped around the curious case of The Bureau of Chronological Affairs by DNGN CLUB (aka Jack Panic).

Drawing inspiration from Severance and Loki, this original Daggerheart module bills itself as a bureaucratic time travel mystery:

At the heart of TIME/SPACE stands a vast office complex—its stairwells spiralling endlessly through every shadowed corner of the multiverse. This is the BCA, the Bureau of Chronological Affairs, long-time custodians of the universal time flow and guardians of the DOOM’S DAY CLOCK—a device that has ticked since the dawn of creation.

Or at least it did—before the entire staff of the Bureau vanished.

Now it’s up to you and a handful of freshly recruited field agents to navigate the surreal corridors of TIME/SPACE, restore the Bureau’s lost departments, and uncover the truth of what happened to the BCA.

The concept alone was enough to get the socials buzzing, but Panic—known for retro-future titles like Deepspace Void Truckers and pulpy micro-horror games like It Will Kill and The Gas Station—adds some fresh mechanics to the game that make it instantly VERY Daggerheart while entirely unfamiliar.

I particularly like Paradoxes, which aside from bending causality, includes Panic’s trademark “the more you do something, the more I remove a dice from your dice pool”—a simple hack guaranteed to ratchet up the tension as the drama unfolds.

Do yourself a favour and, aside from exploring BCA, visit Panic’s site. Several of his module’s could be adapted to Daggerheart and give you environments (and mechanics) to explore far beyond Umbra and the Witherwild.

🎨 CRAFTY

Designing for Daggerheart

The Darrington Halloween livestream was mostly regarded as the designers unpacking the Blood Domain and Hunter—which it does. But it quickly broadens into a four-way conversation about designing for Daggerheart and how the system’s “minimum viable canon” and meta-currencies like Hope, Fear, Stress, and Armour give creators greater mechanical and narrative bandwidth than they might initially expect. Take a look (or just listen!). It’s bound to improve your campaigns or modules.

Bonus: Did you catch the impromptu Dev Chat between Rowan and Spenser? Equally valuable in your ascension to the Daggerheart Designer class.

Read to Run, or Read or Run?

"Donald Schepis, community manager and adventure designer for Pinnacle Games (Savage Worlds, Deadlands, etc) told me that adventures are meant to be READ, not RUN. On purpose. The reason: RPG companies have stats going back decades showing that 85-90% of the people who buy an adventure module just read it, and never run it. If the adventure is easy to run (Shadowdark layout method), it will not be fun to read, and 85% of their customers will opt out. They need to sell books, and readable (non-runnable) adventures sell."

That's a comment on the video RPG Content Often Sucks, where Chubby Funster ponders why RPG module design is often unplayable. I don't know if Schepis actually said this, but the comment feels true insofar as it reminds me of the publishing adage that book buying and book reading are two separate hobbies.

It's worth considering as you toil away on your Daggerheart module that what you think you're selling isn't necessarily what people think they're buying.

Kurzweil the Kind

Artist Ehud Kurzweil was kind enough to donate these two images to the Daggerheart community for personal, non-commercial use. FCG has already used them for their app background. Maybe you'd like them for your VTT splash screen or Witherwild adventure?

🛠️ TOOLS & RESOURCES

Jerry’s Witherwild map commission is stunning. Take a look at their process and go hire them for your world.

The Roundup

Do you want to track Platonic and Romantic bonds among your N/PCs?
A bit rough-around-the-edges, but this Daggerheart NPC Generator does just what’s advertised on the tin.
Your players might appreciate this Class idea list, which munges a whole lot of everything to occasionally create something inspiring.
RightToKnight has some advice on Battle Points and encounter design to lift your spirits and endanger your players.
You can thank u/JumboChicken for this printer-friendly GM screen, and u/SandMaster for this one in Spanish.
Community favourite DH Brewing has added Equipment to its statblock generator: weapons, armour, loot—go to town.
Digital GM screen Ember Screen has added a chunk of new features: multiple HP and Stress bars, a party tracker, and Markdown display mode.

INSPO

We're smitten with Armenian artist Elena Kononenko’s fairy tales, set among northern forests and swamps and filled with things lovely and loathsome. This collection is from a graphic novel, but her Insta includes some incredibly sophisticated fantasy work, as does her Patreon.

STORYTELLING

Rules of Writing vs Rules as Written

Many GMs—especially those coming from more mechanical TTRPGs—treat story as a part of the game you can’t learn. They'll pore over stat blocks, dice odds, conditions and actions…but when it comes to narrative it’s a lot of watching BLeeM or Mercer and deciding “they’re just talented” or “born with it.”

But the lads are good at improv and performance because they spend time with story. They know structure, momentum, and emotional framing. They understand plot turns and character arcs. These are learnable skills, the same way any mechanical system becomes learnable once you sit with it long enough.

That’s why The Art of Storytelling is worth your time. The videos are concise and focused on the mechanics beneath meaning: why scenes land, how archetypes function, and what happens underneath a story's surface.

My promise: A regular diet of these will sharpen the instincts you rely on at the table, and give you tools to improvise with confidence. (Plus, you get to watch a whole lot of videos about sci-fi and fantasy.)