Vol 19: Prompts & Pugilists

SPOTLIGHT

If Jack Panic and Carlos Cisco are the Daring Designers of the nascent Daggerheart scene, Rob Jon's Lair takes the Creator Crown—a TTRPG YouTuber who brings an unprecedented level of craft and imagination to the task of explaining the system to GMs and players. His joyous videos are so utterly unique it feels like Rowan, Spenser, Matt, and Elise ritualistically conjured him into existence from their burrow in Burbank. (Incidentally, RJL is working on a book of example GM moves for common player actions.)

NEWS & RELEASES

Aftershow Acknowledgements

Viva La Dirt League’s loony Daggerheart adventure Azerim premiered on Beacon and starts streaming on YouTube this Tuesday. At the premiere aftershow on Discord, GM Rob Hartley noted many of the things we’ve heard since the game’s launch: the design is ideal for narrative-first play, the lack of turn order can be tricky with chaos goblins, the dice math takes time to master, and Environment stat blocks are a genuine innovation.

High Rollers

Rigamaroll is a new AP featuring actors from Arcane, Blood of Zeus, and Brooklyn 99—which might explain why their first episode popped on the sub and drew 15k+ views on YouTube, dwarfing most of the amateur APs that have launched and fizzled. For those still learning the game, the production includes on-screen explainers during some sequences.

Game Day Play

Critical Role took the upcoming Hope & Fear expansion set for a whirl during their Staff Game Day. Someone caught it on video. (PS. Final shot is the other side of Elise's desk. You know what to do.)

Platform Pugilists

Is there an Environment stat block for platform wars? It would surely feature Passives like “About Time” for Daggerheart Nexus, who finally launched Campaigns and SRD integration; “Rapid Release” for Heart of Daggers, with a redesigned Encounter experience for players; and “Crafty Capybaras” for Foundryborne, who added several toggles, effects, and macros to their growing feature set. 

Knowing the Unknown

The Sci-Fi scientists behind The New Unknown expansion book dropped some tantalizing layouts from the book, along with details of new Classes and Domains. The more we see, the more the scale resembles the reveal in that scene.

Bon Jovial

♫ Shot through the heart / Cisco's to blame / He made Pistolheart a cool game ♫ (aka: Colossus of the Drylands writer and designer Carlos Cisco, who blew everyone out of the desert with Pistolheart Vol 1, dropped a sneak peek at the art of Vol 2 and dude, it’s bandits-on-boars.)

Magyar Mages

The Budapest barbarians have joined the party as Daggerheart’s global localization continues. Leading the Hungarian promotion is @Adika88, who seems perfect for the job. Előre!

CROWDFUNDING

Cozy Catnip

Cats? Cafes? Magic? That’s the pitch behind the upcoming Toe Beans Kickstarter, a cozy drop-in/one-shot from Steph and Logan at Fistful of Crits, artists and designers from the UK’s northern reaches. The upcoming module promises a scholarly cafe owner, a herd of magical cats, social encounters—and IRL recipes for your group. Add adorable artwork and you’re set for a rainy day.

Sky High Fantasy

The creator of the Incredible Creatures Kickstarter (2,000% oversubscribed) is back with Fractus, a setting and adventure series set in the sky after an earth-shattering event changes gravity and the world’s weather. The module is promising three adventures, multiples Frames, modular locations, new Ancestries, airships…you get the idea. Skyward ho!

Shipped, Shop

Wondrous Environments, another oversubscribed Kickstarter, is now available for purchase. So too is Mike Underwood’s Menagerie of Mayhem, which boasts 35 new Adversaries from one of Daggerheart’s most influential designers. 

Crowdfund Counsel

Thinking of crowdfunding your module? The Dragon Dowser team are offering free, hour-long coaching sessions to help you avoid rolling with Fear.

DISCUSSIONS

XP For Thee

Experiences can be fuzzy for players and GMs, so this thread about how to apply them—and make them central to the narrative—is worth spelunking. I personally liked how this player and GM collaborated to grant an Experience after a character levelled up.

Sheet Metal

Answering “What is the best argument to refute "Armor slots are just extra hp?”, @borfknuckles knocked it out of the park with a listicle that hit 300+ upvotes on a post with only 80. (Also, can we just agree that armor slots are simply a narrative layer and maybe not overthink it? Sometimes, skin. Sometimes, metal. Mix and match. Have fun.)