Dispatch

Vol 32: Hexcrawls & Heroines

An ENNIEs sweep, a sweeping roadmap, and Foundryborne swept up. Then, a swole SRD, systemizing hexcrawls, and Pistolheart subclasses. Plus: sad sack Sallowlands, minion slaughter, and a sexy Fey court. Finally, a smart scheduler, slick statbock software, and a sweet Domain wheel.

SPOTLIGHT

With a breakout hit, a successful sequel, and a slew of industry awards on their mantle, Spenser Starke and Rowan Hall have emerged as a young Hollywood power couple, attracting some of the industry's best writers and designers to their platform while forging a reputation as nurturing collaborators and savvy strategists. There's a whimsical irony knowing they built the Spotlight they now occupy.

NEWS & RELEASES

And the Awards Go To...

Darrington cleaned up at the ENNIE Awards, taking home Silver for Product of the Year and Gold for Best Rules, Best Free Product, Best Streaming Content, and, most importantly, Best Game. Bling bling.

More, More More!

Replacing a message about just getting started with one of abundance, Elise & Co. took to the GenCon stage to lay out a three-year plan, vague in some areas but designed to signal an exit from their freshman era and confirm their commitment to what has now become a major industry platform. Chief among them: two new tentpole projects a year backstopped by a regular drip of free and paid campaign material.

Parlez-vous VTT?

Among the GenCon headlines were two "land it and expand it" announcements: Foundryborne was finally anointed as on official VTT, radically increasing the game's playable surfaces; and both the CRB and H&F will be translated into seven additional languages, chief among them Chinese. 市场份额！Related: there's now a French Reddit sub.

Sanctioned Systems

Also notable: not only will Hope & Fear be added to the SRD on 8/25 (allowing creators to add new Classes, Domains, Ancestries, etc to their tools and modules), but so will some of the mechanics from CRB/H&F campaign frames. Expect, for instance, colossi to start appearing in future instalments of Pistolheart.

Pistol Packs

Speaking of, Carlos Cisco recently took to the socials to mention the new Classes will appear in Pistolheart: Hope & Fear Subclass Pack later this month. Cisco will also include guidance on how to reskin Pistolheart material for the new Dark Heart of Andaluria frame (which he co-wrote).

Get your Schedule Together

Overshadowed by the GenCon noise was the schedule for the next instalments of (the now ENNIE Award-winning) Get Your Sheet Together. In what feels like the five stages of grief, they are: Fear, Death, Experiences, Rest, and Transformations.

Heart of Hex

A low but persistent drumbeat since the launch of Daggerheart are hexcrawls and if and how they'll work within the system. With H&F Journey to Horizon's hexcrawl rules now released, the timing for Heart of Dagger's hexcrawl system could not be better. Launching 8/25, the tool can populate 500 hexes in seconds, allowing GMs to flavour them with descriptions and 200+ hand-drawn assets, as well as shroud them in a fog of war.

DISCUSSIONS

RAW (Reviews as Written)

“Yes, a Werewolf throws the strongest Fireballs in Daggerheart. And yes, that is stupid. But it's currently how the rules work.”

That's Tenawa (aka Alexander from The New Unknown trio) in his forensic review of H&F's Transformations. It's a detailed and fair examination, a lens he goes on to apply to the Dread Domain, Assassin, Brawler, Warlock, Witch, Ancestries, Communities, Weapons & Armour, and Items & Consumables.

Dissecting Damage

Nate from Tabletop Twisty hits a nerve with his examination of health systems among D&D, Call of Cthulhu, and Daggerheart—preferring Darrington's HP/Armour/Stress system for its nuance and ability to paint a more dramatic picture of how a fight progresses and combatants unravel. Related: Stress out your enemies before a fight.

Disposable Domains

SirStanleyCPanther asks "Are there rules for spell scrolls in Daggerheart? Can a scroll contain a one-use Domain card?" to which ThisIsVictor replies "Sounds like you just created the rules for spell scrolls!" Tidy call-and-response—and great idea.

Sallowsad

Vedhar's critique—that Sallowlands is a sad and miserable setting that makes for an unwatchable AP and doesn't do justice to Daggerheart—isn't entirely off, nor is his suggestion that the original CR cast needs to embrace their system with the kind of fun and frolicking adventure that made them famous. While armchair strategist is a Reddit staple that ignores the realities of any given business—it often contains a core truth. For Darrington, that truth is that no other AP troupe will provide the kind of propulsion to Daggerheart as their founders in a long-term, upbeat campaign.

VIBE CHECK

Inkstr0ke shared their GM's Fear tracker. Holy hell.

🎯 GM TIPS

Making Minions Matter

It's both entertaining and unnerving to watch the Mr. Rogers-of-Daggerheart-explainers gleefully decapitate so many people in such a short video. Which is to say: don't miss this episode.

Narrating a Knight

Another tin-can-man fight from Dequitem. As always, a useful resource to understand how melee can unfold, and how odd or asymmetrical moves can make a difference. Also, try narrating the action, or breaking down the action into player/GM moves (as Derik Malenda does with Lord of the Rings).

🍺 HOMEBREW

Formidable Flasks

Honey Roll's flask table ensures the next swig-'o-something will be memorable.

A Tarot Deck

Azu the Bard's weekly Daggerheart Homebrew Challenge conjured up a 24-card tarot deck that might be fun to deal in your next session.

Elise the Adversary

Above all else, we appreciate that in Parke's statblock, Elise's first and foremost tactic is to confuse people. Magic.

🌎 CAMPAIGN FRAME

Court & Shadow

As was teased prior to GenCon, Kobold Press has released their Fey Court campaign frame Court & Shadow, an adaptation (and slimming down) of a 5e book designed to help the publisher dip their toes into the Daggerheart pool. It's worth a peek if you're a fan of the original, or enjoy social Adversaries and encounters. The art, setting, and writing are top notch and what you'd expect from a seasoned team.

While it's exciting to see folks like Kobold, Elderbrain, and Roll and Play Press testing the Daggerheart market, we're reminded that the best creators on a new platform are those that rise with it rather than the dabblers from somewhere else. Early entrants have nothing to lose and go all in, while visitors have to manage the risks of over-expansion—or miss the nuances of what makes the new platform tick (ie: Carlos Cisco has a three-adjective recipe for Daggerheart characters that none of these publishers exhibit in their work).

As a result, the critique that's universal to the triflers is that their offerings feel generic, designed for another world, and either watered down or gussied up and showing at the seams. Those faults can't be said of Daggerheart's rising stars, like Mike Underwood, Carlos Cisco, Chris Davidson, or Jack Panic. Their output, small relative to the folks who grew their fortunes on D&D, feels urgent, seminal, and utterly in love with the system they support.

🎨 CRAFTY

Map Maven

The Queen of Inkarnate (aka author and cartographer Kate Korsak) is back with a new tutorial that includes the tool's most recent features. If you make maps, she's your muse. You'll come away with a better sense of how to approach a project, plus dozens of power-tips to make better and beautiful maps.

MÖRKING GAMES

MÖRK BORG's Johan Nohr co-hosts a new podcast on the art and craft of game making, from dreaming to delivery. Episode one: where do games come from?

🛠️ TOOLS & RESOURCES

After they received their pre-order of Hope & Fear, tux21b decided to create an updated Domain wheel featuring the new Classes, including those from the Void.

The Roundup:

Here's a random loot and equipment table from AttentionHorsePL that combines the CRB and H&F.
Continuing their Talespire builds of Colossus of the Drylands locations for Talespire, the delightfully named AHealingFart presents The Iron Kettle.
Zendell has built a module to help import homebrew statblocks from FreshCutGrass into FoundryVTT.
Speaking of FoundryVTT, "here's a module that combines Boss Bar and Boss Splash Screen to help you time GM narrative to the music for an epic boss reveal."
Phil from Reaction Roll ranks every campaign frame.
Need to vanquish the scheduling BBEG? IamWJC reminded us of Doodle.
In the random-but-now-essential category, Nico de Gallo shared medieval dog names.

INSPO

Seattle-based Michelle Pecoraro's illustrations have a soft, ethereal quality that blends classic techniques with high fantasy to dramatic effect. Her work spans everything from tabletop to VR, but most of you will recognize her from Pistolheart, whose new Volume 3 is crammed with her delightfully offbeat and otherworldly characters.

STORYTELLING

The Heroine's Journey

We all know Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. Luke Skywalker gets a call to adventure, is tested by enemies, faces ordeals, and inevitably transforms into his higher self.

Probably fewer of us have heard of Maureen Murdock’s Heroine’s Journey, a response to Campbell’s framework that revisits the cycle from the female perspective. I certainly hadn’t.

That’s why I was surprised and thrilled to stumble across Amy Allebest’s video. She explains the ten stages in Murdock’s Journey and holds a mirror to the vastly different experiences women face as they set out to conquer the world. Not “it’s harder,” but a different path that leads them to a place of crisis, collapse, renewal, and union.

Natch, this topic goes beyond Daggerheart and TTRPG games, but this half-hour can deepen how you think about women at your table and female characters in general. Yes, a woman does want to slay a dragon. But she may equally want to connect to a mother she left behind, or better understand how to balance the masculine and feminine in her body and soul.

Narrative-driven games like Daggerheart require an understanding of personal conflict and inner meaning as much as spell rituals and zone-based combat. That’s not to say your campaigns need become mumblecore and natter endlessly about vague feelings. But personal journeys, especially the less explored ones faced by women, can create epic dramas and revelations at your table if you give them a chance. [Ed: Re-upped from Vol 18 for new subscribers]