Vol 20: Slashers & Shadows
Panic attack, melee math, and necrotic adventures. Then, deep dives with the devs, ten house rules for your table, and the final hours of the final girls. Plus: some golden nuggets, Incan intricacies, and rules for hexcrawls and traversals. Finally: learning the medieval mindset.
SPOTLIGHT
We continue to be enchanted by the subversive, counterintuitive ideas and the gonzo, joyfully anarchic aesthetic of Jack Panic/DNGN CLUB. His collection of (often free) campaigns and mechanics are a celebration of how far you can push Daggerheart, from a down-and-out Baba Yaga to a 70s roadside slasher grind. How lucky we are to spin in his manic pixie dream whirl. À suivre.
NEWS & RELEASES
GM²
Variety, the 120-year old Hollywood tabloid that documented the most influential industry in the world, saw fit to host a conversation between two people famous for being GMs solely because they’re GMs. Wild. And overdue.
Dream Team Stream
Starke & Hall were back on the channel for their first dev stream of the year, covering topics from combat resource management and temporary effects to running investigations and collaborative world building. The stream broke after an hour, so here’s Part I and Part II. Bonus: @Starocotes summarized the important bits in German.
Dirty Laundry
Viva La Dirt League’s Rob Hartley is making the rounds to discuss Azerim, the Kiwi comedy troupe’s Daggerheart series. The GM noted the chaotic nature of the cast and their refusal to remember rules has made their actual play more instructive than most since he has to repeat everything several times to get the lads on book.
Ox Bows AP
Speaking of comedy APs, UK-based Oxventure announced they’ll launch a new, long-term Daggerheart campaign after they wrap the final season of Wyrdwood. (You may recall they ran a DH one-shot last year.) With Azerim in New Zealand, Drakkenheim in Canada, and Johnny and the crew in the Isles, Daggerheart’s dominion over the Commonwealth grows further still.
Final Girls
Olympic Medalist Laurie Hernandez joins Gina Susanna and Gnome Anne for the sensational one-shot “How’s My Driving?” (pictured up top), a Daggerheart hack of DNGN CLUB’s roadside horror game and billed as “a bonding trip to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers quickly devolves into a Thelma & Louise slasher nightmare.”
Oh, hallo!
Our friends in Germany have translated the Quickstart Adventure, character sheets, and play guide as they await the official localization of the CRB.
HoD Heads Up
"Pretty much a VTT but not quite for legal reasons” platform Heart of Daggers dropped another impressive list of feature updates. Additionally, they’ve also launched Artist Guild, a free portfolio for fantasy illustrators looking to connect with the Daggerheart community.
Look What the Cat Dragged In
Toe Beans, the adorkable magical cat cafe Kickstarter we profiled in the last edition, was funded in 40 minutes, hit their first stretch goal within an hour and two more within a day, and earned the coveted “Projects We Love” designation by the platform. Cats, people. Don’t say Tumblr didn’t teach us anything worthwhile. (PS: Oh, and pretty pink dice!)
DISCUSSIONS
Conditional Logic
An “I played Daggerheart for the first time and…” list of loves/loaths kicked off a chonky thread with suggested remedies for unbalanced Adversaries/encounters, and how to think about Conditions.
Melee Math
On a separate post, @Torneco shared their “+2/-2 Rule for Adversaries” to help tweak encounter balance and add story depth. Some examples:
“Some monsters are weak to some effects. Maybe that ogre is really dumb, or that wizard is frail. So, in some cases, the monsters have "-2 against mind attacks", or "-2 against physical attacks". Same thing when a adversary is really good against something. A villain has "+2 against deception and lying" or "+2 against fire attacks.”
