Vol 34: Seraphs & Systems
Daggerheart’s first big brand and C4 spotlight. A Darrington Guild? The Gilmore Girls, the White Horse of Lowvale, and Battlestar Galactica. Then, 20 ideas for your table, and an answer about 2 GM Moves. An Adversary forge, a player’s guide, and a spice spaceship. Plus: how to market your game.
SPOTLIGHT
The only thing more impressive than Tenawa’s Winged Wrath, a mighty Seraph/Warlock—is his output. From his build crafting to game analysis to The New Unknown—the giant sci-fi space system he's co-authoring—few people in the Daggerheart ecosystem can match his meter or technical prowess. Indeed, the sheer power behind his recent build may, in fact, simply be a mirror.
NEWS & RELEASES
I Want My DTV
A side effect of last week’s Hope & Fear release is a cavalcade of dev interviews. On offer: the launch day spotlight; Todd Kenrick’s convos on Classes and Subclasses, Transformations and Ancestries, and Adversaries and Environments; Geek & Sundry’s recent drop; and, related, Keith and Jenn talk Eidolon.
Updatessssss
Also of note, the many H&F updates: DP’s errata, the SRD, Foundryborne 2.8, RightKnight’s Adversary guide, Old Gus’s DHSRD, and Heart of Dagger’s grab bag.
[SPOILER] Willing Willingham
“I’m not saying I would have stayed alive if it was in Daggerheart, but maybe that’s something we should explore” is the most salacious quote we could pull from Travis Willingham reflecting on his demise in C4 in what is, in truth, a grounded, earnest, and, quite frankly, excellent interview with Steve Cropley from Nerdcore. Their discussion covers many CR topics, but this crowd will likely be interested in the Daggeheart bits.
The Brandit
We’re calling it: Pistolheart is the first bonafide brand to emerge from the Daggerheart system, eclipsing the CRB frame to which it was tethered and, possibly, even its creator. To play a western in Daggerheart is now synonyms with Cisco’s system, a result of craft, community, and FAFO. And while Cisco jokes “this is not a movie” of his upcoming Adventure Frame with Jack Panic, we know damn well the screenwriter will have a treatment on hand at his next general.
What We Do in the Shadows
Mystery abounds! Eberron’s aforementioned Keith Baker and Jenn Ellis are accepting playtesters for their secretive Eidolon: The Ghost Market, while Overwatch posted this cryptic poster for an upcoming live play.
Turning Gold into Bronze
The creator of the bestselling Archibald's Almanac of Adversaries and Christmas one-shot Riftmas is gearing up to Kickstart Primevil, a campaign and setting book set in an early bronze age of prehistoric beasts and wild nature. Eric Lazure from Hope Springs Eternal joins as editor.
Viral Moment
The crew of The New Unknown, busy editing their successfully Kickstarted sci-fi system, took a short rest and released a preview of Rebooted, a campaign frame inspired by Battlestar Galactica and The Expanse that focuses on the aftermath of a virus that wipes out data systems across the galaxy—something that, from time to time, we all wish might happen with today’s data centres.
DISCUSSIONS
Hopeless with Hope
“Help! I have too much Hope!” is not as common as “What do I do with all this Fear?”—but a valid problem for a new player and one the community came to solve. Chief among the advice: “Tag Team every Session and hit that Experience button as often as you can,” followed by “Don't forget about Help actions!”
Writing a Wrong
A new GM, worried they might railroad their players with a restrictive story, received sage words from ThisisVictor, who, after noting the GM’s comment “I love worldbuilding, making characters, and, most of all, writing narratives” went on to add “Great news, you’re all set! The trick is that you do the first two by yourself and the third one with the players at the table. World building and making characters is nearly all of my GM prep. But I never ever write a narrative down in advance. I don’t say “and then the players will” because that’s a slippery slope to railroading. The players will surprise you 100% of the time.”
Blades in the Dark
Two separate posts about assassins led to questions about melee, one on how to handle “no roll” Spotlights, the other on the mechanics of using Whirlwind with a poisoned blade. Both are fun “how would you rule it?” scenarios and worth a peek.
VIBE CHECK
🎯 GM TIPS
Words from the Weird
Aside from 20 great ideas you'll want to steal for your table, Val's recent video is also a testament to her growing skill as a filmmaker. Her tone, pacing, and delivery make for a delightful way to engage with game ideas, and a reminder that practice makes perfect. Compare the energy here to her "Strahd, but a woman" video from three years ago. Same person with great ideas, but contemporary Val is a force to reckon with—and one of the best DungeonTubers around.
Mechanical Misunderstanding
Rob Jon scales down his typical production to focus on the misunderstood topic of whether a roll with Fear should result in one or two GM moves. How do you handle it?
🍺 HOMEBREW
Tales of Untold Paths, Redux
We've previously featured Tales of Untold Paths, but couldn't pass up the opportunity to showcase some of the card artwork included in a recent update. Emma Banfi's geometric illustrations are a 180º turn from the formulaic fantasy format, and precisely why they feel fresh and magnetic. Together with writer Marco Pagnini's unique ideas on the Class system, they signal rising stars in the Daggerheart domain.
MORE:
- Edgeheart, a cyberpunk and mecha-piloting frame inspired by Cyberpunk 2077
- Embers of the Long Dark, inspired by Frostpunk and Snowpiercer
- The Dragon's Vault, a community collective of monsters, spells, and artifacts
- The Gilmore Girls [Lorelai, Rory, Emily, Luke] thanks to The Naturolls
🌎 CAMPAIGN FRAME
The White Horse of Lowvale
The White Beast seeks revenge. It won't rest until it drags us all to the bottom of the lake.
So begins The White Horse of Lowvale, a system neutral, folk horror scenario from Fomoria creator Tania Herrero.
Evocative and flexible, the adventure draws on Herrero's formidable talents as both writer and artist, blending atmospheric descriptions and hand-made illustrations. No page is left without art.
The result is a perfect scenario for GMs who enjoy riffing on tone and mood, and players who want to weave their character ideas and actions into the game. It's art-inspired storytelling, and ideal for tables wanting some spooky time.
🎨 CRAFTY
Far from the Madding Crowd
"So, here's the thing I've noticed. Game masters spend hours on the towns. They name every NPC in the tavern. They know exactly what goes in the dungeon, which shop sells which potion, where the loot is. But when you start to ask about what's outside the town walls, they say, "Oh, hills, a forest, a mountain somewhere."
Brennan's li'l brother is back with another soothing video, this time exploring how to map and think about the countryside outside your town—you know, the parts of the world where you have no clue what's going on or why.
Role Playing a Retailer
RPG Trader now lets creators sell print-on-demand game merch. Fancy Mike Underwood's Bastion of Hope artwork on a GM screen? Pistolheart hex tiles? They may be coming to a postbox near you if the margins are good.
Darrington Guild
Is Darrington planning a DM’s Guild for Daggerheart? There are clues in the new SRD, which fulfilled the promise of open-sourcing mechanics from various campaign frames, but gave those mechanics and campaign frames generic names like “western” and “monster hunting”—reserving the brand names for themselves. You can use “shadow-touched” for a “grimdark” module, but not Soul Blight or Age of Umbra.
That’s not necessarily a roadblock for creators—Carlos Cisco jokes Pistolheart is Colossus of the Drylands with the serial numbers sanded off—but it limits where they can sell their work, generic or not.
Publishers like John Gronquist (Hack Shack Games) see the CGL firewall and SRD sandbox as ripe for a three-way marketplace: “A Community Program on Roll20/DTRPG like other major publishers have done. [Darrington] retain all control over IP, get a small royalty %, and we get to publish our stuff on the tools that many people use.”
Adds Adversary designer Chris Davidson: “For a company built on IP, a DM’s Guild makes sense. They retain the brand names, allow generics, and partner on channel sales.”
MORE:
🛠️ TOOLS & RESOURCES
If the assortment of new Adversaries in Hope & Fear isn't to your liking, why not roll your own with Adversary Forge from HideFromPewPew?
The Roundup:
- Borfknuckles has updated their Player Guide to include the new Classes, Ancestries, etc in Hope & Fear.
- Inkarnate released Forest 2.0, featuring lots of trees, bush roots, various plants, animals, and a selection of textures.
- Ziemlichwunderlich's Environment, Adversary, consumables, and item cards—along with their GM screen—is now available in seven languages.
- Here are 99 Preparatory Notes for Cities (ie. d100) from Amanda Lee.
- Minimaps is an Owlbear Rodeo extension that renders a thumbnail of the current Scene's map image inside an Action popover.
- Book of Shapes is a collection of minimal, procedural, and customizable SVG-patterns created by Nikolaj Sokolowski that might be ideal for heraldry or iconography in your sci-fi setting.
INSPO
Like many concept artists, Eric Hallquist understands scale and composition. His frames are as cinematic as they are compelling, a question in the form of a character moment. But equally remarkable is how his subjects are both confident and vulnerable, partly out of circumstance, partly a trick of light and colour.
STORYTELLING
The Horror of Dune's Spaceships
Part tribute to Denis Villeneuve, part exploration of the Heighliner frigate, The Art of Storytelling’s essay on Dune spaceships is about the unknowability of the ancient vessel. Its brutalist architecture and black maw present a sinister and terrifying image because there is nothing else to see—or at least, so little of it is exposed to you.
It’s worth reflecting on how the omission of information can unsettle the players around your table. Too often after having built something we are eager to fully explain it, to demonstrate our attention to detail and cleverness. But that can flatten the experience. Too many words are like sunshine, bleaching out the dark stains that otherwise might leach into the bones of our characters.
This may feel silly, but try reducing what you say next time you narrate a scene. Instead of more words, emphasize an important one. Lower or raise your voice, just so. Make a noise or gesture. Think about the theatrics of your scene and be choosey where to place the attention of your players.
Horror, suspense, drama: they're all built on the careful suppression of information, then the deft revelation.
ETC
A 3-Part Series on Middle Earth TTRPG Publisher I.C.E
D100 Medieval Surnames That Are Now Extinct or Critically Endangered
