Daggerheart Open Beta Playtest

Welcome to the open beta playtest for our new game, Daggerheart! Within this document, you’ll find the rough draft of a rulebook that should help you to get started. Some important things to keep in mind as you make your way through this manuscript:

• The game is still in active development. There are parts that are outright not written yet. There are sections that are only partially written and will continue to expand. Think of this like an early-access video game–you might stumble upon portions that are unpolished, broken, or in flux. This is a look into the development process and an opportunity for you to give us your feedback before the rules are finalized. This manuscript is a living document, not yet put into any semblance of layout so that we can implement as many of your notes as possible and build this game together.
• This rulebook has not gone through an editor yet. We have one onboard who will work alongside us during this process, but they will not have the opportunity to polish until the manuscript is finalized. This means you will very likely find errors and omissions. If you spot a typo or grammatical error, please do not report this—these issues will be resolved in editing. However, if any information is confusing, missing, in an odd place, or doesn’t seem to work as intended, please tell us! We want to fill those gaps and make the rulebook as user-friendly as possible.
• The balancing of adversaries is still in an exploratory phase. Up until this release, we’ve adjusted the combat system numerous times in an effort to make it as fast and cinematic as we can, while also making it feel familiar and fair. Combat will need significant playtesting to ensure we get the right balance on class power, leveling, adversaries, and beyond–we’d love your feedback when you feel like things aren’t working.
• The development of a modular setting system is still in an exploratory stage. You will see the beginnings of it here, but the plan is to roll out more as the playtest progresses.
• The art is all subject to change. Some pieces are placeholders, others are closer to finalization, and some are simply not available yet. The domain cards all share one image per domain and all subclass cards within a class currently have the same art. Each will have their own custom art in the final release.
• We will release new updates periodically during the open beta playtest cycle. When we do, we’ll note the changes in the Change Log so that you can update anything in your current campaign that might need it.
• **Even though we are in beta, you can stream your games.**You can make DPGL-compliant content for the game. We only ask that you make it clear that your project is using the Daggerheart Playtest, as the game’s mechanics will continue to evolve and we don’t want confusion when the final game comes out. Just keep in mind you can’t publish and/or sell any Daggerheart-related products quite yet. This is because we don’t want your product to become unusable because of a change we made. Once the game is published, this restriction will no longer be in place.
• There were many inspirations for this game, we encourage you to also check them out if you like what we’re making here. For a list of touchstones and inspiration, see “Touchstones” in the Introduction.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Welcome to Daggerheart

Daggerheart is a collaborative roleplaying game set in a high fantasy world; a place of incredible magic and perilous adventure. During a campaign, you may find yourself rubbing elbows with nobles in an attempt to stop an assassination plot, diving deep into an ancient dungeon to keep a powerful creature from escaping and unleashing its power, sailing across a vast ocean to face off against a terrifying sea monster, or protecting a precious relic from falling into the hands of a dangerous enemy. No matter the adventure your party chooses to embark upon, Daggerheart provides the tools to tell a story that is both heartfelt and epic.

What is a Tabletop Roleplaying Game?

A tabletop roleplaying game, or TTRPG, is an interactive storytelling experience where players take on the role of characters within a shared world, and collaborate to tell a story about those characters. Daggerheart is meant to be played by three to six players, with one person taking on the role known as the Game Master (or GM). This player helps to facilitate action amongst the rest of the group, known as the Player Characters (or PCs), who are each responsible for playing a single character during the game. The Game Master is responsible for taking on some of the responsibilities not covered by the role of a Player Character—they may introduce complications or consequences to the narrative, embody any roles not inhabited by the other players (also known as Non-Player Characters or NPCs), and help the story progress during a session.

Like many roleplaying games, Daggerheart uses dice to determine the outcome of some uncertain events, providing an element of unpredictability to the choices you make. Even so, the game aims to embrace player agency and imagination; the type of character a player chooses to play and the decisions they make about their background and experiences will make their odds better (or worse!) on those dice rolls.

What Kind of Roleplaying Game is Daggerheart?

Daggerheart is a heroic narrative-focused experience that features combat as a prominent aspect of play. The system facilitates emotionally engaging, player-driven campaigns that are punctuated by exciting battles and harrowing challenges. The game takes a more fiction-first approach in its design, encouraging players and GMs to focus on the story they’re telling rather than the complexity of the mechanics. It asks everyone to act in good faith with one another to tell the best story they can, and looks to provide structure when it’s unclear how actions or moments might resolve within that story. The system takes a free-flowing approach to combat to avoid stopping down the game into rounds, and it doesn’t rely on grid-based movement for the maps and minis. These aspects coalesce to create a game that utilizes the kind of terrain and map-building that miniature-based systems are known for while making Daggerheart streamlined and approachable, with a focus on delivering a great narrative experience at the table.

Those who prefer a highly strategic, rules-heavy experience with more heritage from wargames may find Daggerheart doesn’t have all of the “crunch” they’re used to. Those who come from very rules-light gameplay may find some mechanics in Daggerheart engage in areas where they’re used to a more free-form approach. That’s okay! You should always play the types of games that make you and your table happy. If you’re looking to tell heroic fantasy stories with a modern approach to mechanics that focus on both the epic battles and the emotional narrative of the characters who fight in them, you’ve come to the right place.

Daggerheart utilizes an asymmetrical design. That means that it plays differently for the GM than it does for the players. Many TTRPGs have some asymmetry, with players each controlling one PC while the GM plays everyone else. But Daggerheart’s asymmetry goes deeper—players roll the 2d12 Duality Dice for their PCs’ standard actions, including their attacks. At the same time, the GM can make most moves without rolling, but they roll a d20 for adversary moves that require a roll, such as attacks and reaction rolls. Each PC gains Hope when they “roll with Hope,” while the GM gains Fear when any PC “rolls with Fear.” While PCs and Adversaries both have a mechanic called Experiences, they are used in different ways at different times. This asymmetrical design is intended to help all participants more effectively contribute to a memorable experience together at the table.

Touchstones

Daggerheart derives inspiration from a variety of sources. Below is an abridged list of media the design team drew from while crafting this game.

TTRPGs: 13th Age, Apocalypse Keys, Apocalypse World, Blades in the Dark, City of Mist, Cortex Prime, Cypher System, Dishonored, Dungeons & Dragons, Flee Mortals!, For The Queen, Genesys, Lady Blackbird, Masks: A New Generation, Pathfinder, Shadowrun, The Quiet Year, Wildsea, Slugblaster

Books: A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Wizard of Earthsea, Sabriel, The Wheel of Time, The Lord of the Rings series

Movies & Television: The Dragon Prince, The Lord of the Rings, The Witcher, The Legend of Vox Machina

Video Games: Borderlands, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Outriders, The Elder Scrolls series

Special Appreciations:

• The Genesys System was a major inspiration for the two-axis results of the duality dice.
• Cypher System’s GM Intrusions paved the way for spending Fear to interrupt a scene.
• Among many other things, Dungeons and Dragons’ advantage/disadvantage system was particularly inspirational in the dice mechanics of this game.
• 13th Age’s Backgrounds heavily inspired the Experience mechanic.
• Blades in the Dark and Apocalypse World helped shape the narrative flow of the game, and their playbooks inspired a lot of the character sheet development.
• The Wildsea’s phenomenal Reaches section on Reaches provided the chassis for the Regions section of this book.
• Enemy types and ways of managing minions are informed by Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition and the monster design of Flee, Mortals!
• The Quiet Year inspired the map-building section of this book’s campaign guidance.
• The sample session zero structure is informed by Apocalypse Keys.

Heart of the Game

In Daggerheart, players all take turns speaking at the table, describing what your characters do, the consequences of those actions, and how the narrative evolves because of those consequences. When the rules call for it, or when a situation demands, you’ll roll the dice to see what happens next. Depending on the result of those dice, the dynamics of the conversation will change.

There is no winning or losing in Daggerheart, in the traditional “gaming” sense. The experience is a collaborative storytelling effort between everyone at the table. The characters may not always get what they want or achieve their goals the first time around—they may make big mistakes or even die along the way, but the game has no winning or losing conditions. If a character dies, the party may seek out a way to bring them back to life, or that player can make a new character the party meets along their journey. If the group fails to stop the villain from enacting a terrible plan, perhaps they must face the consequences of that failure and try to make it right. If they succeeded, they may have angered or emboldened an even stronger enemy who appears to retaliate. If you’re working together to craft a narrative that is fun and exciting to everyone, you’ve already won.

The Core Mechanics

The dice players use in Daggerheart most commonly fall into two different categories—your Duality Dice and your Damage Dice. Your Duality Dice are two 12-sided dice, referred to as d12s, that are of different colors; one representing Hope and the other representing Fear. These embody the fate of the world around you, and its effect on your success. Your Damage Dice correspond to the weapon or spell you’re wielding, and expresses the deadliness of a successful attack.

Anytime you’re making a roll to see whether you succeed or fail at something, you’ll roll your Duality Dice and take the sum of their results, plus any modifiers you have that apply to the action. If that total is equal to or higher than the difficulty set by the GM, it’s a success. If it’s lower, it’s a failure. You’ll also tell the GM whether your Hope or Fear die rolled higher, and the situation around you changes based on that result. We’ll discuss this more in-depth in the “Core Mechanics” section of Chapter 2.

Sessions & Campaigns

Each game of Daggerheart is called a session. Sessions are typically a small story that makes up part of a larger narrative that plays out over multiple sessions, known as a campaign. Sometimes, in long campaigns, you may also run arcs—multiple sessions that happen within the same campaign that are collectively focused on a specific area of the narrative. Many groups enjoy playing open-ended campaigns that last a few months, or sometimes even years, getting together every week or two to continue their characters’ stories indefinitely. But you can also choose to designate a certain number of sessions for a campaign and play the game to a pre-determined conclusion. Your group may decide you want to play ten sessions or twenty sessions with these characters before making new ones, or you may decide you only want to play one session, known as a “one-shot,” and see how things go. All of those options are wonderful ways to play— do whatever works best for your group.

The Golden Rule

The most important rule of Daggerheart is that you make the game your own. The rules included in this manuscript are designed to help you have an enjoyable experience at the table, but everyone has a different approach to interpreting rules and telling stories. The rules should never get in the way of the story you want to tell, characters you want to play, or adventures you want to have. As long as your table agrees, everything can be adjusted to your group’s playstyle. If there’s a rule you’d rather ignore, or a modification that works better for you, feel free to implement it with your table’s consent.

Rulings Over Rules

It is the job of the GM, as well as the rest of the players at the table, to prioritize rulings over rules. This text offers answers for many questions your table may have about the game, but it won’t answer all of them. When you are in doubt about how a rule applies, the GM should make a ruling that aligns with the narrative.

For example, there is a weapon in Daggerheart called a grappler—it lets you pull a close target into melee with you. If you try to use it against an entire castle, the weapon text doesn’t say you can’t do that—but it doesn’t make sense within the narrative! So the GM might let you pull a few bricks out, or pull yourself towards the wall instead.

Similarly, if your character does something that would logically result in immediate death—such as diving without protection into an active volcano—you might not get a death move, depending on the circumstances. This kind of potential consequence should be made clear to the player before the action is completed, and it should always follow the logic of the world. As a narrative-focused game, this is not a place where technical, out-of-context interpretations of the rules are encouraged. Everything should flow back to the fiction, so the GM has the authority and responsibility to make rulings about how those rules are applied.

Player Principles

Below is a list of principles for all players to keep in mind while engaging with Daggerheart.

Be A Fan of Your Character and Their Journey

Find ways to show off what your character does best and what they do worst. Push your character’s story forward and always strive to make interesting choices. Learn more about who they are through play, and let them grow with the fiction.

Spotlight Your Allies

Look for opportunities to put other characters in the spotlight. Set your allies to make a move they do well, look to them for help, or ask them to elaborate on a description.

Play to Find Out What Happens

Everything you do should flow from the fiction. Listen to the other players and the GM, and react to what they say and how they act. If you roll the dice, let the results lead you through what happens next. Embrace complications with the same vigor that you celebrate victories.

Address the Characters and Address the Players

Speak to the other characters within the world of the fiction. Lean on your connections, ask them questions, and create a story using your conversations as well as your actions. Speak to the other players outside of the fiction. Ask them what their character might do next, and what they want to see happen in the narrative, then consider their preferences when you play.

Hold On Gently

Improvisational storytelling isn’t always perfect, and that’s okay. Hold on gently to the fiction, enough that you don’t lose the pieces that matter, but not so tightly that the narrative has no room to breathe. Make mistakes and make changes. Smooth the edges and shape them to fit your shared goals.

Build the World Together

In Daggerheart, every participant is a storyteller, not just the GM. Daggerheart is a highly collaborative game—perhaps more so than other games you’re used to—and reaches its greatest potential when every player (PCs and GM) is working together. This means actively advocating for the story beats you want to see, offering suggestions to enrich the arcs of the other player characters, creating parts of the world with others at the table, and thinking deeply about your character’s motivations.

Following these principles will help to guide you in telling exciting, unpredictable, and meaningful stories together at a table.

World Overview

The world that you explore in Daggerheart will be one of great magic, wondrous landscapes, mythical beasts, and powerful foes. As you build this world together, you can use an existing location you’re already familiar with, a supplemental setting book, or use the “Running a Campaign” section of chapter 3 to collaboratively create your own world.

Because this game has established ancestries, communities, classes, abilities, and spells, some aspects of the world will exist similarly across every campaign. These can always be reflavored or modified to match the style of game you all want to play, but understanding the Core Realms is a good place to start.

Core Realms

The core realms are the starting place of reality for your world in Daggerheart.

The Mortal Realm

Most adventures are likely to take place in the Mortal Realm. This is the land, sea, and sky, where mortals live out the entirety of their lives—the plane where the majority of all material beings and objects exist. Stories say this realm was created by the Forgotten Gods during the Earliest Age, and when they were overthrown by the New Gods, many of these ancient deities were banished to remain here eternally. This realm is also occupied by the Faint Divinities, the more common lesser deities created by both the Forgotten and the New Gods to oversee the Mortal Realm.

The Hallows Above

The Hallows Above are the collection of realms where many of the gods reside, having been claimed by the New Gods at the end of the Earliest Age. Because this place is closely connected with most other realms, the gods that reside here can see and speak with the people of the Mortal Realm without leaving their domain, though their methods of communication may appear strange or obfuscated to those with whom they choose to engage. There are ways by which the gods can leave the Hallows Above to occupy other realms, but they must always sacrifice something of personal importance to them to do so. It’s rumored that this sacrifice is the cause behind some of the great calamities that have befallen the Mortal Realm.

The Circles Below

The Circles Below are the collection of lower realms where the Fallen reside. The Fallen Gods lost the Divine War with the New Gods during the Earliest Age and have since been deemed “evil practitioners of tainted magic.” Thus the Faint Divinities that were banished alongside them, commonly referred to as “demons”, as well as those sired since, bear the weight of that identifier. The Circles Below is considered a place of corruption, destruction, and endless hunger. Stories say this dominion is home to some of the most dangerous creatures in the core realms. Most other planes have safeguards against Fallen who may wish to cross over from the Circles Below. Within the Mortal Realm, it’s rumored that the use of arcane magic in acts of great evil can open a temporary rift between the two lands, allowing Fallen to pass through.

The Realms Beyond

There are countless realms beyond these—the Elemental Lands, the Astral Realm, the Valley of Death, and endless others. These are not typically accessible or traversable by those from the Mortal Realm, but some in the core realms do carry the knowledge of their existence.

Magic and Spells

Magic in Daggerheart is both very powerful and incredibly dangerous. It permeates the land and dwells within the people here. Magic exists as both a force within you that you may be able to draw on to give you aid throughout your journey, and as a force outside of you that affects the world and can be tapped into by those who know how to harness it. Depending on the kind of character you choose to play, you may or may not have the ability to use magic.

If you do have the gift of spellcasting, you’ll use magic through specific weapons, spells, and other magical means. As characters grow, the magic they can perform will grow with them through the additional cards you gain at each level. These will give you the specific parameters around the kinds of effects your magic can take.

Flavoring Your Game

You may always flavor your magic in a way that compliments your character and their style, but, unless the table agrees, that flavor shouldn’t offer any mechanical effect.

For instance, you might say that your Rogue’s magic takes the form of gadgets and inventions, or your Ranger’s magic takes the form of ancestral spirits that draw forth the forces of nature. Perhaps magic works in an entirely different way in your lore and you want to explain how every class’s magic emerges from a different source. As long as it abides by the mechanics of the game, you are encouraged to reskin any of the magic as you see fit for your character.

This flexibility extends to other parts of the game as well; Your character might have a unique weapon from their heritage, but it uses the statistics of a longsword. Your Wizard’s armor might come in the form of a set of empowered runes instead of chainmail, but they still have an armor value of 6 and armor slots that you spend to reduce damage. In this case, ‘repairing’ your armor during a rest could mean replenishing the enchantment. The “Adjusting Abilities and Spells” section of chapter 1 suggests other ways you might tailor your spells and abilities to fit your character and comfort level.

Use the portions of this book that work for your game, and let the things that don’t resonate fall away.

What Do You Need To Play?

Most of what you need to play a session of Daggerheart is included in this book, but there are a few additional components you’ll need to gather before you begin.

2-5 Player Characters

If you’re playing a PC, your responsibility is to get in the headspace of the character you’re playing and decide what they do. You’ll confront problems and obstacles the GM puts in front of you, and figure out how to tackle those problems in a way that makes your game most interesting. As a player, it’s your job to shape the story of your character through the choices you make, as well as look for opportunities to spotlight other characters at the table.

A Game Master

If you’re taking on the role of the Game Master, you’ll be playing the world as it responds to the PCs’ choices. That means you’ll set exciting scenes for the characters, manage the flow of the story and its conflicts, play any characters not represented by the players at the table (known as non-player characters or NPCs), including the various opponents and monsters the characters will face (known as adversaries). The GM will also ask questions of the players that drive the narrative forward. Often, you’ll be the one who knows the rules and can answer any questions about mechanics during play. If a judgment needs to be made during a session about a rule or mechanic, that’s either not in the rulebook or can’t be quickly referenced, you’ll be the one to make the final decision.

As a GM, it is important to remember that you are not an antagonistic force against the players. Though you’re often the one introducing the dangers and complications in a scene, it’s your job to challenge their characters in exciting and fun ways that let players showcase their strengths and face their flaws. Be a fan of the characters and a collaborator with the other players at your table.

Game Dice

Daggerheart uses the full set of polyhedral dice: d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20. When referring to dice, the game will usually indicate the amount of dice and the number of sides, like 2d6 (two 6-sided dice) or 3d8 (three 8-sided dice). At the beginning of the game, you’ll need two d12 dice of different colors (your Duality Dice ), a d6 of a distinct color (your advantage/disadvantage die), and a few sets of the rest of the polyhedral dice to share amongst the table—you may find it easier to have your own. As you level up your character, you may need more dice to represent those advancements.

Character Tokens

Character tokens are small objects that represent the look and feel of your character. Gather about seven tokens per player. Some players may require more or less, depending on their character’s needs.

As you play the game, you’ll use these to help track several things:

• When you roll dice, you’ll add tokens to help you easily count your modifiers on the roll (see “Counting Character Tokens” in chapter 2).
• When you make an action roll while in combat, you’ll add one token to the action tracker (see “Action Tracker” in chapter 2).
• When you use a spell or ability, its card might ask you to place a token on it.

These tokens not only make your rolls and actions easier to resolve, but also provide an opportunity to further express the color palette and style of your character at the table. You can use whatever small objects you’d like (plastic gems, pennies, buttons, etc.), but we recommend they be no larger than a quarter and sit on the table without rolling away. They should ideally have a distinct appearance for your character, so they won’t get confused for somebody else’s tokens at the table.

Game Cards

Along with this rulebook, you’ll also need the cards that come with the core set: Ancestry, Community, Foundation, Domain Cards, and the Action Tracker. If you don’t have a physical set of cards (or need extra copies), you can download and print the cards at home; the “Reference” [pending] section also contains the text for cards from the core set.

Character Sheets & Notes

The “Reference” [pending] section contains character sheets and guides you’ll use when building your characters. If you’re utilizing pen and paper, you’ll want to have these printed out and available for use at the table. If you’re planning to use a digital version instead, ensure you have a laptop or tablet available to view and edit your character sheet & guide during the game.

We also recommend paper and writing utensils (or a digital equivalent) to keep notes during the session. This allows you to record important details that the GM or other players share.

Optional: Maps and Miniatures

Using maps and miniatures to represent the scenarios the players are facing, especially during battle, can help to illustrate the scene that is before them, rather than relying solely on the theater of the mind. When drawing or building a map scale, distance, and details are not always going to be perfectly accurate, and that’s okay. The maps and the miniatures should never limit your imagination, only provide extra spatial context so that everyone can picture the scene clearly.

A Table For All

Daggerheart is a game for all ages, races, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, religions, and identities. It is the responsibility of every player in the game to ensure that the table you share is a place where everyone is empowered, respected, and safe.

Because of the nature of open-ended storytelling in roleplaying games, it’s possible to touch upon topics that might be difficult or sensitive for some players. In games of Daggerheart, no part of the fiction should ever take priority over the health and well-being of any player. It’s important to remember that what might just be an imaginary scenario for you could bring up a real life topic that is very sensitive or uncomfortable for somebody else. When you gather your group to play for the first time, make sure that you talk through what kind of experience you are all looking to have, and bring up any themes or topics you’re looking to avoid. All players at the table should abide by this social contract, and feel free to add or modify it at any time, as needed.

The “Session Zero and Safety Tools” section of chapter 3 presents resources you can introduce into your game to help navigate any difficult scenarios together.

Using This Book

The Daggerheart Core Rulebook is divided into four sections to help navigate the rules efficiently.

Chapter One: Preparing For Adventure

This chapter covers everything you need to know to make a character in the Daggerheart system.

Chapter Two: Playing An Adventure

This chapter details the core mechanics of the game you’ll need to be able to play a session, as well as how to level up your character, multiclass to access new domains, and use special equipment you may discover during play.

Chapter Three: Running An Adventure

This chapter is the section specifically for the GM of the group, giving you the tools you’ll need to run sessions and campaigns of Daggerheart. In addition to detailing the core GM mechanics, this chapter guides you on using safety tools, running session zero, customizing campaign maps, planning story arcs, and more.

Chapter Four: Adversaries and Environments

This chapter provides rules and stat blocks for filling your world with challenging adversaries and dynamic environments. You can use the pregenerated adversary and environment stat blocks, or follow this chapter’s guidance on improvising your own.

Chapter Five: Creating Your World

This chapter presents inspiration for creating one-shots, locations, factions, and more.

Chapter Six: Customizing Your Game

[Coming soon] This chapter explains how to customize your game, including optional player tools, guidance on homebrew, creating custom adversaries and equipment, and templates for custom cards.

Appendix

Lastly, this is where all character sheets, character guides, domain deck text, and any other reference documentation for the game can be found.

Chapter One

Preparing for Adventure

Preparing for Adventure

In this chapter, you’ll learn the information you need to know as a player to prepare for your first game of Daggerheart. This will walk you through creating a character and provide details around each of the game’s classes, ancestries, communities, and domains.

Character Creation

Unless you’re taking on the role of the GM, the first thing you’ll need to do to start playing Daggerheart is create your character. When making this character, you’ll be responsible for crafting their physical appearance, personality, and prior experience, as well as their relationships with the other characters. Some of these decisions are purely narrative, meaning they only appear in the game through your roleplaying—but others are mechanical choices that affect the actions you’re more (or less) likely to succeed at when rolling your dice.

This section guides you through the steps to build your character. You don’t need to complete character creation in the order laid out here, but it’s advised you choose the class you’re playing first. You can accomplish the rest of character creation in any order you’d prefer.

Getting Started

When you’re ready to start creating your character, you’ll need a character sheet and character guide. You might also want to brainstorm some basic ideas for your game and character, both alone and with the other players.

Have a Session Zero

If you’re preparing to start a new campaign with your group, it is highly recommended that you use your first session together to build characters and talk about the world you’ll all be playing in, often called a Session Zero (see “Session Zero and Safety Tools” in chapter 3). This is the best way to ensure that all players are on the same page about the kind of campaign you’re going to play, the tone and feel everyone is excited about, everyone is excited about, and creating characters that work well together in a party.

Think About Character Concepts

Before you make any definitive choices, you might want to briefly look at all of the materials available to you and formulate an idea for what kind of character you want to make. This doesn’t need to be specific and isn’t required to begin, but having a basic concept to start from like “a circus performer who uses magic” or “a captain who lost their ship at sea” might help you make choices as you move through each step.

Get a Character Sheet and Guide

As you begin creating your character, you’ll use a character sheet and character guide to record your decisions and abilities, so make sure you have paper or digital copies of the sheets available to you before you begin. You can see a completed character sheet in the “Example Character” section.

Note that there is not a single, generic character sheet or guide for you to use; they are all customized for the class you are playing (see “Step 1: Choose Your Class”). You can find these available for download online, or you can copy them from the “[Section Pending]” in this book.

Record Your Level

All characters in Daggerheart start at level 1. Record your level in the appropriate section at the top of your character sheet, and make sure to change it every time you level up. It’s not recommended to start your campaign at a higher level, unless under specific circumstances set out by the GM.

Record Character Details

At any point in the character creation process, feel free to fill out your character’s names and pronouns on the top line, as well as the Character Description details on the Character Guide sheet. For some people, naming and deciding on the look of their character comes first, and for others, it takes time to discover what’s right. As long as you have a name and description by the time character creation is completed, it doesn’t matter what order you do these in.

Step 1: Choose Your Class

The first step of character creation is to choose the class you want to play, then take the character sheet and character guide that corresponds to that class (see “Get a Character Sheet and Guide”). You will utilize both throughout the process.

Each class is an archetype of a character that determines what abilities you have access to throughout the campaign. For example, you might choose to play the Guardian if you want to be the tank of your group who runs into fights head first and protects others with their own life. You might choose to be a Wizard if you want to use unique spells to solve problems, heal party members, and fight off threats.

Once you’ve chosen a class and taken the appropriate character sheet and guide, you’ll also choose a subclass. Take that subclass’s Foundation card into your hand. The subclasses are subsets of each class that help further define the kind of character you’re playing.

Class Feature

Every class begins with a unique class feature (or several). You don’t have to write this down—it’s already provided in the bottom left of that class’s character sheet. These are unique features available only to your class, so be sure to consider them when building your character.

If your class feature asks you to make a selection during character creation, make sure you select one of the options before you transition into your first session. This book details each class feature in its respective class section (see the upcoming “Class” section).

Class Options

The available classes and subclasses in the base set include the following. You can learn more about each of these Classes and their Foundations in the upcoming “Class” section.

Bard

Class Foundations: Wordsmith or Troubadour

Play the Wordsmith if you want to use clever wordplay and captivate crowds.

Play the Troubadour if you want to play music to bolster your allies.

Druid

Class Foundations: Warden of the Elements or Warden of Renewal

Play the Warden of the Elements if you want to embody the aspects of nature.

Play the Warden of Renewal if you want to use powerful magic to heal your party members.

Guardian

Class Foundations: Stalwart or Vengeance

Play the Stalwart if you want to take heavy blows and keep fighting.

Play the Vengeance if you want to strike down enemies that harm you or your allies.

Ranger

Class Foundations: Wayfinder or Beastbound

Play the Wayfinder** if you want to hunt your prey using deadly force.

Play the Beastbound if you want to form a deep bond with an animal ally.

Seraph

Class Foundations: Winged Sentinel or Divine Wielder

Play the Winged Sentinel if you want to take flight and strike crushing blows from the sky.

Play the Divine Wielder if you want to dominate the battlefield with a legendary weapon.

Rogue

Class Foundations: Nightwalker or Syndicate

Play the Nightwalker if you want to use the manipulation of shadows to maneuver through your environment.

Play the Syndicate if you want to have useful contacts everywhere you go.

Sorcerer

Class Foundations: Primal Origin or Elemental Origin

**Play the Primal Origin if you want to extend the versatility of your spells in powerful ways.

Play the Elemental Origin if you want to channel raw magic to take the shape of a particular element.

Warrior

Class Foundations: Call of the Slayer or Call of the Brave

Play the Call of the Slayer if you want to strike down adversaries with incredible power.

Play the Call of the Brave if you want to use the might of your enemies to fuel you.

Wizard

Class Foundations: School of Knowledge or School of War

Play the School of Knowledge if you want to have a keen understanding of the world around you.

Play the School of War if you want to utilize trained magic to enact violence.

Step 2: Choose Your Heritage

Next, you’ll choose your character’s heritage. This aspect of your character includes two elements—their ancestry and their community.

Choose Your Ancestry

A character’s ancestry reflects their lineage and impacts the way they physically look, as well as granting them a unique ability from their ancestry. Take the card for one of the following ancestries, then write its name in the Heritage field of your character sheet:

Clank

Drakona

Dwarf

Elf

Faerie

Faun

Firbolg

Fungril

Galapa

Giant

Goblin

Halfling

Human

Inferis

Katari

Orc

Ribbet

Simiah

You can learn more about these ancestries in the upcoming “Ancestries” section.

Choose Your Community

Next, you’ll choose a community from the available Community cards. Your character’s community informs the culture they grew up in and might also play a part in the way they look, act, or approach situations. Communities can be influenced by details such as their physical location, values, and goal. Each community also comes with a mechanical benefit that you’ll be able to utilize during the game. Take the card for one of the following communities, then write its name in the Heritage field of your character sheet.

Highborne

Loreborne

Orderborne

Ridgeborne

Seaborne

Slyborne

Underborne

Wanderborne

Wildborne

You can learn more about these communities in the upcoming “Community” section.

Languages

In Daggerheart, you’re not asked to pick specific languages for your character. This game assumes that everyone speaks a common language (it’s up to you whether that’s through mundane or magic means), and that sign language is widely understood across cultures and communities. If you’d like to have specific regional languages in your campaign, talk about it with your table.

Step 3: Assign Character Traits

Next, you’ll assign values to the character traits on your character sheet. These values reflect your natural or trained ability in each of the core six stats—Agility, Strength, Finesse, Knowledge, Instinct, and Presence. The verbs after each trait (such as Sprint, Leap, and Maneuver) are examples of actions you might take that would involve that trait; these words are just inspiration, and they don’t limit what that trait might be used for.

Agility: Sprint, Leap, Maneuver

A high Agility score means you’re faster on your feet, nimbler on difficult terrain, and quicker to react to danger. You’ll roll with Agility to scurry up a rope quickly, sprint to cover, or bound from rooftop to rooftop.

Strength: Lift, Smash, Grapple

A high Strength score means you’re better at feats that test your physical prowess and bodily fortitude. You’ll roll with Strength to break through a door, lift heavy objects, or hold your ground against a charging foe.

Finesse: Control, Hide, Tinker

A high Finesse score means you’re dexterous and accurate. You’ll roll with Finesse for tasks that require fine motor control - being precise, careful, and quiet—like using fine tools, escaping notice, or striking with an exacting aim.

Instinct: Perceive, Sense, Navigate

A high Instinct score means you have a keen sense of your surroundings and a natural intuition. You’ll roll with Instinct to sense danger, notice details in the world around you, or track an elusive foe.

Presence: Charm, Perform, Deceive

A high Presence score means you have a strong force of personality and a facility with social situations. You’ll roll with Presence to plead your case, intimidate a foe, or get all eyes on you.

Knowledge: Recall, Analyze, Comprehend

A high Knowledge score means you know information others don’t and understand how to apply your mind through deduction and inference. You’ll roll with Knowledge to interpret facts, see the patterns clearly, or remember important information.

Distribute Trait Modifiers

Trait modifiers are the values associated with each trait. When you make an action roll using one of these traits, that trait’s modifier adjusts the roll’s final result by that number.

Distribute the following starting modifiers across your character traits in any order you wish: +2, +1, +1, 0, 0, -1.

When distributing these modifiers, consider what actions you want to be good at, what weapon you want to use during your attacks, and what kind of spellcasting you’ll be doing, if any. We’ll cover weapons and spells in future sections, but if you don’t know how to distribute your stats, you may always refer to the Character Guide for suggested stats. You can also change these stats around as needed during character creation, as well as after your first few sessions of play if you feel like you made a wrong decision.

Step 4: Record Additional Character Information

It’s time to take a quick break from making choices, and instead fill out a few sections of your character sheet.

Evasion

Your Evasion score reflects how hard it is for enemies to hit you (see “Evasion Score” in chapter 2). Your class’s starting Evasion score appears right beneath the Evasion field on your character sheet; record this in the Evasion field. When an enemy makes an attack against your character, the GM rolls against your Evasion score to see if they are successful. Each character’s Evasion may look different within the narrative—a Wizard may avoid blows with shimmering arcane shields or by batting away an adversary’s spells, while a Ranger nimbly dodges out of the way of blows, and a Warrior employs a mix of parries, blocks, and dodges.

Hit Points and Stress Points

Your character’s health and well-being are represented by Hit Points and Stress Points. Hit Points (sometimes called HP) are an abstract reflection of your physical fortitude and ability to take hits, both from blade and from magic (see “Damage Thresholds and Hit Points” in chapter 2). Stress Points reflect your ability to withstand the pressures of dangerous situations and mental strain (see “Stress” in chapter 2).

You can describe your Hit Points and Stress Points any way you wish, but they generally represent your character’s ability to get knocked down and keep coming back. You’ll mark your Hit Points and Stress when these situations arise—the fewer marks you have against them, the better.

Your class has a certain Damage Threshold, indicating how much damage you can endure before marking each Hit Point. Find your class’s starting Damage Threshold at the top of the “Hit Points & Stress” section of your character sheet; record these three numbers in the corresponding fields. In the “Hit Points and Damage Thresholds” section of chapter 2, you’ll learn how many Hit Points to mark on your character sheet each time the GM tells you to take damage.

Hope and Fear

Hope is a currency that represents the way fate can turn in your character’s favor during the game. You’ll start with two Hope at character creation: mark these in the Hope section of your character sheet.

Any time you “roll with Hope” on your Duality Dice—meaning your Hope die rolled higher than your Fear die—you will gain an additional Hope (to a maximum of six). During the game, you can spend your Hope to help allies, apply your life experiences to challenges, and empower your spells and abilities.

If you instead “roll with Fear” on your Duality Dice—meaning your Fear die rolled higher than your Hope die—the GM records this in their notes, and they can later spend that Fear on certain effects. Sometimes a Fear roll also introduces other complications into a scene (even if you succeed on your roll).

For more information on Hope and Fear, see “Rolling Hope and Fear ” in chapter 2.

Step 5: Choose Your Starting Equipment

Next you’ll choose starting weapons, armor, and other items for your character.

Choose Your Weapons

You can use physical weapons to attack your foes—and if you have a Spellcasting Trait (such as from your subclass), you can also wield magic weapons. At character creation, you can choose one primary weapon and one secondary weapon, then equip them (if you wish). Note that if you choose a primary weapon that requires both hands, you won’t be able to equip your secondary weapon at the same time.

You can find weapon suggestions at the top of your character guide, but if you’d like to choose your own, you can find all starting (Tier 1) weapons in “Primary Weapons Tables” and “Secondary Weapon Tables” in chapter 2. (These are also available as a separate sheet to print out for your table in [section pending].)

At Level 1, your Damage Proficiency is 1—this means you’ll generally roll one damage die for your weapon attacks. In the “Active Weapons” section of your character sheet, this is recorded in the “Proficiency” field. When you equip weapons on your character, record their details in that section as well. See “Using Weapons” in chapter 2 for more details on using weapons.

Tip: On your character sheet in the section labeled “Damage Dice & Type,” record your damage dice with the Damage Proficiency value already written in (like “1d6” instead of “d6”), reminding you how many weapon dice to roll. Whenever you increase your Damage Proficiency, also increase the number of dice in the Damage Dice section to reflect this change.

Choose Your Armor

You can use armor to reduce incoming damage from attacks. At character creation, you can choose one piece of armor and equip it (if you wish). You can find armor suggestions at the top of your character guide, but if you’d like to choose your own, you can find all starting (Tier 1) armor in “Armor Tables” in chapter 2. (These are also available as a separate sheet to print out for your table from the Daggerheart website or in [section pending].)

When you equip armor on your character, record its details in the Active Armor section of your character sheet, then in the Armor box at the top left of your character sheet, record your Armor Score. Your Armor Score includes your armor’s base value plus any permanent bonuses you have to your armor from other abilities.

When you take damage, you can fill a box next to your Armor Score, then reduce the damage by your Armor Score. (You can even check multiple boxes to negate more damage from a single attack). See “Armor” in chapter 2 for more details on using armor.

Choose Other Starting Items

Your inventory can include most anything else you’re carrying with you. The top of your character guide lists all your starting inventory items, including the following:

• Torch (useful for things like illuminating a dark room)
• 50 feet of rope (useful for things like rappelling down a cliff)
• Basic supplies (useful for things like camping in the wilderness)
• A handful of gold (record this in the Gold section on the left of your character sheet)
• Your choice of a minor health potion (heal 1d4 Hit Points) or a minor stamina potion (clear 1d4 Stress)
• Finally, the “And Either” option on your character guide is specific to your class (see the “Class” section). You might also be asked to choose what you carry your spells in.

Record these items in the “Inventory” section of your character sheet. You can be creative with how you use these items, though this is subject to GM discretion. In general, your equipment is available for you to use during your adventures in any way that fits your shared story.

You may also talk to your GM about any other items you’d like to have at the start of the game. In general, items that don’t provide a mechanical benefit and that make sense for the character you’re playing should be permitted, and there aren’t rules limiting your inventory to a certain size, but your GM always makes the final call.

Step 6: Create Your Background

Next, explore your character’s background by filling out the “Background” section of your character guide. Several prompts are provided to jumpstart inspiration, but you or the GM can modify or change these questions to fit the character you’re looking to play. Think of the prompts as a jumping-off point if you don’t know where to start, but they should never inhibit your creativity.

The decisions you make about your background are purely narrative, but they can deeply impact the kind of character you’re playing and the story the GM might prepare for your adventures. Over the course of character creation, feel free to adjust some mechanical choices you’ve made in earlier steps, allowing them to better reflect this background as the shape of your character comes into clearer focus.

If you are planning to play in a campaign, once you finish the background questions, you can continue developing your character in whatever way works best for you. There are many character backstory tools you may wish to use—just remember to give the GM your backstory as well so that they can work any people, places, or ideas from it into the campaign they’re running. You may also choose not to do any more background work, instead finding out more about your character as you play. Whatever you find fun and allows you to play your character in a way that feels appealing and exciting is what you should lean into.

Step 7: Choose Your Experiences

In Daggerheart, your Experience is one of the core ways you’ll express your character’s backstory and expertise through mechanics. An Experience is a word or phrase used to encapsulate a specific set of skills your character might have because of the exciting life they’ve lived.

You start with two Experiences at character creation (each with a +2 modifier), and you’ll earn more throughout your adventures. Before choosing, you’ll want to have a solid idea of who your character is; the Backstory questions are especially helpful with this. When you’re ready, work with your GM to pick two Experiences that have shaped your character.

There’s no set list of Experiences to choose from (though some examples are offered below). Instead, choose a word or phrase that embodies something distinctive about your character. Each Experience should be specific. For example, “Talented” or “Focused” are too broad, as they can be applied to almost any situation; instead you might use “Swashbuckler” or “Magic Studies”. Additionally, your Experience can’t give you spells or specific game abilities. For example, “Take Flight” or “One-Hit Kill” are too mechanically-oriented; you might consider “Acrobatics” or “Assassin” instead.

You are also encouraged to add flavor to your Experience to give it more varied use in play. For example, instead of just “Assassin,” you could choose something like “Assassin of the Sapphire Syndicate.” This kind of detail gives your GM an exciting faction to weave into the campaign, and also makes it easier to use this Experience outside combat. For example, if you encounter an ally of the Syndicate, you might be particularly adept at negotiating with them based on your Experience.

Experience Examples

Backgrounds like: Assassin, Blacksmith, Bodyguard, Bounty Hunter, Circus Performer, Con Artist, Fallen King, Field Medic, High Priestess, Merchant, Noble, Pirate, Politician, Runaway, Scholar, Sellsword, Soldier, Storyteller, Thief, World Traveler

Characteristics like: Affable, Battle Hardened, Bookworm, Charming, Coward, Friend to All, Helper, Intimidating Presence, Leader, Lone Wolf, Loyal, Observant, Prankster, Silver Tongue, Sticky Fingers, Stubborn to a Fault, Survivor, Young and Naive

Specialties like: Acrobat, Gambler, Healer, Inventor, Magical Historian, Mapmaker, Master of Disguise, Navigator, Sharpshooter, Survivalist, Swashbuckler, Tactician

Skills like: Animal Whisperer, Barter, Deadly Aim, Fast Learner, Incredible Strength, Liar, Light Feet, Negotiator, Quick Hands, Repair, Scavenger, Tracking

Phrases like: Catch Me If You Can, Chef to the Royal Family, Fake It Till You Make It, First Time’s the Charm, Hold the Line, I Won’t Let You Down, I’ll Catch You, I’ve Got Your Back, Knowledge Is Power, Nature’s Friend, Never Again, No One Left Behind, Pick on Someone Your Own Size, Street Doctor, The Show Must Go On, This Is Not a Negotiation, Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

Once you’ve worked with the GM to decide what your two starting Experiences are, record them in the Experience section of your character sheet; assign +2 to both.

Tip: If you’re not sure what Experiences to take, consider the style of the campaign you’re playing in and the actions you’ll want to perform. In a standard, battle-focused campaign, it’s never a bad idea to take your first Experience in something that will help you with combat and your second Experience in something outside of combat. As a Warrior, you might choose “Battle Commander” as your first Experience and “I’ve Got Your Back” as your second—both of these could be useful in combat situations, but aren’t necessarily restricted to them. As a Wizard, you might choose to take something like “Mage’s Apprentice” and “Inconspicuous”– the “Mage’s Apprentice” will definitely help in casting spells, but could also make you good at analyzing magical effects or ancient scrolls. “Inconspicuous” could keep you out of the limelight back in town so you may be able to perform more clandestine actions where others would normally draw attention to themselves.

Using Experiences

Any time you make an action roll (see “Action Rolls” in chapter 2), if you feel like an Experience could help you succeed, you can spend a Hope to add its modifier to your roll. Sometimes, you might feel like more than one of your Experiences is a good fit for the situation (for example, if you’re trying to sneak past a guard in the dark, and your Experiences include “I Live in the Shadows” and “Stealthy”). If it fits the story, you can apply more than one Experience modifier to a roll, spending a Hope for each.

Changing Experiences

You’ll have the opportunity to gain new Experiences as you gain levels (see “Leveling Up” in chapter 2). But you’re also not stuck with the ones you’ve already chosen, if you later discover during play that an Experience you previously chose isn’t feeling right anymore. For example, the GM might notice that the way you’re using the Experience isn’t a good fit for your group’s collaborative story. Or you might feel one of the choices you made doesn’t match how you’ve come to understand your character. That’s totally okay! When you or your GM realize this, work together to find the Experiences that best reflect the kind of character you’re intending to play, and the kind of actions that character would be good at because of their history and perspective.

Step 8: Choose Your Domain Cards

Domains are the core building blocks of a class in Daggerheart. In the Core Rulebook, they consist of Arcana, Blade, Bone, Codex, Grace, Midnight, Sage, Splendor, and Valor. Each Domain has a Domain Deck—a deck of cards that contains a set of abilities and spells with a central theme or focus. For details on what each Domain represents and how to use your Domain Cards, see the upcoming “Domains” section.

Each class in Daggerheart is formed by combining two of these Domains—for example, the Warrior is Blade & Bone, the Druid is Sage & Arcana, and the Rogue is Midnight & Grace. This combination is noted on the top of your character sheet, and the colors and symbols are found on your Class Foundation card.

To create your new character, look at all of the Level One cards from your class’s two domains and choose two to begin the game, returning the rest to their respective decks. You might take one from each Domain, or choose two from a single domain, whatever you prefer. These cards grant you special spells and abilities; you’ll be able to choose another each time you gain a level.

Shared Domains

Every class shares its domains with at least one other class. For example, Blade is shared between Guardian and Warrior, Sage is shared between Druid and Ranger, and Grace is shared between Bard and Rogue. If a fellow player’s class has the same Domain as yours, you’re encouraged to coordinate with them and choose different cards from that Domain Deck (even if your group has multiple copies). This gives everyone a chance to shine with their own special abilities. However, if the GM and players agree, feel free to make an exception. Sharing cards is especially common when more than one player chooses the same class, or when three (or more) players share the same Domain. As always, it comes down to open communication between the players and the GM. If you and another player agree to use the same card, but your group doesn’t have multiple decks, you can download and print extra copies at home.

Step 9: Create Your Connections

You’ve almost finished creating your character! Now it’s time to forge your Connections. These represent the relationships and personal history between you and the rest of your party members.

Once all players feel comfortable with their finished (or almost-finished) characters, summarize your characters for each other. At minimum, share your Name, Pronouns, Character Description, Experiences, and the answers to your Background Questions, but feel free to include other details you’d like the players to know.

Once everyone has shared who they’ll be playing, work together to decide how your characters are connected and how you feel about each other. The Connections section of your character guide provides inspiration for these connections— it is recommended you pick at least one question to ask another PC—but you’re welcome to create new questions. You can always turn down a question or relationship from another player if it’s not a good fit or not a relationship you’re interested in exploring. While it’s great to create Connections with every player, it’s perfectly okay if you’re not sure about some of them yet— you can always discover your relationships through play. These Connections are just a starting block to build on during the game.

After Connections are complete, you’re ready to play! The remainder of chapter 1 contains resources to use when building your character, such as information on domains, classes, ancestries, and communities. Chapter 2 presents the rules you’ll use to play the game.

Building Higher-Level Characters

More guidance here coming soon!

Example Character

This section provides an example of how a finished character sheet might look. If you’d rather not go through all steps of character creation, feel free to use the details on this sheet as inspiration for your own character, changing any details you wish.

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Domains

Domains are the core themes that make up each class. The combination of two domains forms the basis for each class’s abilities and spells, which you’ll gain from your domain cards. As you begin character creation, consider which of the nine domains you’re interested in, as that might affect your choice of class. Near the end of character creation, you’ll pick your first domain cards from your chosen class’s domains.

Reading Domain Cards

During step 8 of character creation and as your character levels up, you’ll gain increasingly powerful domain cards, which provide abilities and spells you can utilize during your adventures.

Some domain cards provide moves you can make (see “On your Turn” in Chapter 2), like a unique attack or a spell you cast. Others offer passive benefits (which always apply while you hold that card), new abilities during downtime or social encounters, or even one-time benefits.

Class

During character creation, you’ll choose one of the classes in this section, along with one of its subclasses. Your chosen class grants the following features:

Domains. Each class lists which two domains serve as the basis for its abilities. This determines which domain decks you can choose cards from during character creation and when leveling up.

Starting Evasion Score. Each class has its own starting Evasion score (see “Evasion”). When the GM makes an attack roll against you, this is the number they need to meet or beat in order to hit.

Damage Threshold. Each class has a unique Damage Threshold (see “Damage Thresholds and Hit Points” in chapter 2). These determine how strong your class is against incoming attacks.

Class Items. Each class has a unique set of items they begin the game with.

Class Feature. Each class has a unique move (or set of moves) you can utilize during play.

Unique Hope Feature. Each class has a special move they can use by spending three Hope. These are named for the class, a la “Bard’s Hope”.

Your chosen subclass grants the following features:

Spellcast Trait. If you’re a spellcaster, this is the character trait your subclass uses any time you’re required to make a spellcast roll.

Foundation Feature. This feature is the unique move you gain from your subclass’s Foundation card.

Specialization Feature. As you gain levels, you’ll have a chance to choose your subclass’s Specialization card, gaining a unique move (or set of moves) from it.

Mastery Feature. As you gain levels, you’ll have a chance to choose your subclass’s Mastery card, gaining a unique move (or set of moves) from it.

Bard

Those who become bards are truly the most charismatic members of all the realms. Members of this class are masters of captivation and may specialize in any of a variety of performance types, including: singing, playing musical instruments, weaving tales, or telling jokes. Whether performing to an audience or speaking to an individual, bards will excel. There are many schools and guilds where members of this profession come together to bond and train, but there is a fair amount of ego within those of the bardic persuasion. While they may be the most likely to bring people together, a bard of ill temper can just as easily tear a party apart.

Domains

Grace & Codex

Starting Evasion Score

9

Damage Thresholds

Major 6, Severe 12

Class Items

A Romance Novel or a Letter Never Opened

Bard’s Hope

When you or an ally Close to you makes a Presence roll and either succeeds with Fear or fails, spend three Hope to negate that roll’s consequences by intervening.

Class Feature

Rally

Once per session as your party prepares to enter a dangerous or difficult situation, describe how you rally them and give yourself and each of your allies a d6 Rally die. Anyone with a Rally die can spend it to roll it, adding the result to an action roll, reaction roll, or damage roll, or clearing Stress equal to the Rally die result.

At the end of each session, all unspent Rally dice are cleared. The Rally die you distribute increases to 1d8 at level 5.

Bard Subclasses

If you’re creating a bard, choose either the Wordsmith or Troubadour subclass.

Wordsmith

Play the Wordsmith if you want to be persuasive and powerful using clever wordplay.

Spellcast Trait: Presence

Foundation Features

Heart of a Poet: When speaking to a person you’re trying to impress, persuade, or offend, you can spend Hope and add 1d4 to the action roll against them.

Rousing Speech: Once per long rest, you can use an action to give a heartfelt, inspiring speech. All allies who can hear you clear two Stress.

Specialization Feature

You know your moving words can boost the morale of the group. Once per session, when you use your skills as linguist to encourage or exhort an ally, you can do one of the following:

• Allow them to find a mundane object or tool they need.
• Help an Ally without spending Hope.
• Give them an additional Downtime move during a rest.

Mastery Feature

The Rally die you distribute increases to a d10.

In addition, whenever you Help an Ally, if you narrate the moment as if you were writing the tale of their heroism in a memoir, your advantage die to help them is a d10.

Troubadour

Play the Troubadour if you want to play music to bolster your allies.

Spellcast Trait: Presence

Foundation Feature

When you take this Foundation, describe what instrument you are practiced in. You can use an action to perform each song once per long rest:

***When you play a relaxing song,*you and any Close allies heal 1 Hit Point.

***When you play an epic song,*make a Close target temporarily Vulnerable.

***When you play a heartbreaking song,*you and any Close allies take a Hope.

Specialization Feature

Your rallying songs also help steel the courage of those who listen. Anybody who receives a Rally die from you via your Rally ability may also gain a Hope or clear a Stress.

Mastery Feature

Your craft rivals the greats, your skill and creativity unbounded. You may perform each of your Foundation songs an additional time per long rest.

Background Questions

Answer the following background questions or make your own.

• Who from your community taught you to have such confidence in yourself?
• You were in love once. Who was it with, and how did they hurt you?
• You’ve always looked up to another bard. Who are they and why do you idolize them?

Connections

• What made you realize we were going to be such good friends?
• What do I do that annoys you?
• Why do you grab my hand at night?

Level Up Options

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Druid

Becoming a druid is more than an occupation, it’s a calling to those who wish to learn from and protect the magic of the wilderness. Those druids who practice the often quiet work of channeling flora are likely to be underestimated; while those who channel the brutal forces of animals may be a terrifying thing to behold. Druids are known to cultivate their abilities in small groups, often connected by a specific ethos or locale. Through years of study and dedication, druids can learn to transform into beasts and shape the earth and all its organisms.

Domains

Sage & Arcana

Starting Evasion Score

8

Damage Thresholds

Major 7, Severe 14

Class Items

A Small Bag of Rocks & Bones OR a Strange Pendant Found in the Dirt

Druid’s Hope

Spend three Hope while in Beastform to increase your damage thresholds by +3 until you drop the form.

Class Features

Wildtouch

You can perform harmless, subtle effects that involve nature at will. (Ex: causing a flower to rapidly grow, summon a slight gust of wind, start a campfire, etc.)

Beastform

Mark a Stress to transform into a magical creature of your level or lower from the Beastform list. While transformed, you can’t use your weapons or cast any spells, but you gain the features, attack trait, and evasion bonus of the creature. You can drop out of this form at any time. When in Beastform, your armor becomes part of your body and you mark armor slots as usual; when you drop out of Beastform, those marked armor slots remain marked.

If you mark your last Hit Point or Stress, this form automatically drops.

Druid Subclasses

If you’re creating a druid, choose either the Warden of the Elements or Warden of Renewal subclass.

Warden of the Elements

Play the Warden of the Elements if you want to embody the natural elements of nature.

Spellcast Trait: Instinct

Foundation Feature

Elemental Incarnation: Mark a Stress to embody an elemental spirit from the list below. The embodiment lasts until you take Severe damage or until your next short rest. This feature can overlap with Beastform.

Fire: When an enemy in melee range deals damage to you, they take 1d10 magical damage.

Earth: You gain +1 to your Armor Score.

Water: When you deal damage to an enemy in Melee range, all other enemies within Very Close range mark a Stress.

Air: You can hover, gaining advantage on Agility rolls.

Specialization Feature

Once per short rest, while in Elemental Incarnation, you can assume an elemental aura matching your embodied element. The aura’s effects apply within your Close Range, following you until Elemental Incarnation ends.

Fire: Whenever an enemy marks at least 1 Hit Point, they also mark a Stress.

Earth: Your allies gain +1 to their Armor Score.

Water: After an enemy deals damage to you, you can mark a Stress to move them anywhere within Very Close range.

Air: When you or an ally take damage from an attack beyond Melee range, reduce it by 1d8.

Mastery Feature

While in your Elemental Incarnation, you further embody the spirit and gain the following benefit for that element:

Fire: Your Proficiency increases by +1 for attacks and spells that deal damage.

Earth: When you mark an Armor Slot, roll 1d6. On a roll of 5 or 6, clear an Armor Slot.

Water When you are hit by an attack, you can mark a Stress to make the attacker Vulnerable.

Air: You gain +1 Evasion and can fly.

Warden of Renewal

Play the Warden of Renewal if you want to use powerful magic to heal your party members.

Spellcast Trait: Instinct

Foundation Features

Clarity of Nature: Once per long rest, you may create a space of natural serenity around you. After spending a few minutes resting within the space, you can clear Stress equal to your Instinct trait, distributed as you choose between you and your allies.

Regeneration: Use an action and spend 3 Hope to clear 1d4 Hit Points on a creature you are touching.

Specialization Feature

You can now use Regeneration on a creature within Very Close range, instead of touch.

Warden’s Protection: Once per long rest, you can use an action to magically repair armor outside of downtime. When you do, you or one ally in your Close Range can clear a number of Armor Slots equal to your Instinct.

Mastery Feature

Your animal transformation embodies a healing guardian spirit. While you are in Beastform, when an ally within Close Range marks 2 or more Hit Points, you can mark a Stress to reduce the amount of Hit Points they mark by 1.

Background Questions

Answer the following background questions or make your own.

• Why was the community you grew up in so reliant on nature and its creatures?
• What was the first bond you made with a wild animal? Why did it end?
• Who had been trying to hunt you down? What do you think they want from you?

Connections

• What did you confess to me that makes me leap out into danger for you every time?
• What animal do I tell you that you remind me of?
• What affectionate nickname have you given me?

Level Up Options

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Using Beastform

When you use Beastform, choose a creature category of your level or lower. At your GM’s discretion, you can describe yourself as transforming into any animal that reasonably fits into that category. Though you can’t use your equipment or spells while transformed, you can still use other features or abilities your character has access to (such as using your Wildtouch class feature).

The Beastform list divides the creature categories by level. Each entry includes the following details, as seen in the Agile Scout example:

Creature Category. Each category’s name describes the common role or behavior of creatures in that category (such as “Agile Scout”). This name is followed by a few examples of animals that fit in that category (such as fox, mouse, and weasel).

Character Trait. While transformed, add the listed trait bonus to your relevant trait. For example, when transformed into an Agile Scout, you add +1 to your Agility. When this form drops, you lose this bonus.

Attack Rolls. When you want to make an attack while transformed, you use the listed range, trait, and damage dice. For example, as an Agile Scout you can attack a target in melee using your Agility. On a success, you deal d4 physical damage using your Proficiency.

Evasion. While transformed, add the listed Evasion bonus to your normal Evasion score. For example, if your Evasion is usually 8, and your new form says “Evasion: +2,” your Evasion becomes 10 while you’re in that form.

Advantages. When you make an action or reaction roll related to one of the verbs listed for that form, your form makes you especially good at that, so the GM will usually give you an advantage on that roll. For example, an Agile Scout gains advantage on rolls made to sneak around, search for objects or creatures, dodge hazards, and related activities.

Features. Each form includes a couple unique features. For example, an Agile Scout excels at silent, agile movement—but they’re also fragile, making you drop out of Beastform faster.

Beastforms

Tier 1

Agile Scout

(FOX, MOUSE, WEASEL, ETC.)

+1 Agility |  Bite Melee Agility d4 (phy) |  Evasion: +2

Take advantage on: Deceive, Locate, Sneak

Agile: Your movement is silent and you may spend Hope to get anywhere within Far range without needing to make a roll.

Fragile: When you take Major Damage or greater, you drop Beastform.

Household Friend

(Dog, cat, rabbit, Etc.)

+1 Instinct |  Melee Instinct d6 (phy) |  Evasion: +2

Take advantage on: Climb, Locate, Protect

Companion: When you assist another PC, the advantage die you roll is a d8.

Fragile: When you take Major Damage or greater, you drop Beastform.

Nimble Grazer

(Deer, Goat, Gazelle, Etc.)

+1 Agility |  Melee Agility d6 (phy) |  Evasion: +3

Take advantage on: Leap, Sneak, Scout

Elusive Prey: When you would be hit by an attack, you may mark Stress and roll 1d4. Add the result to your Evasion for this attack.

Fragile: When you take Major Damage or greater, you drop Beastform.

Pack Predator

(Wolf, Coyote, Hyena, Etc.)

+2 Strength |  Melee Strength d8+2 (phy) |  Evasion: +1

Take advantage on: Attack, Sprint, Track

Pack Hunting: When you make an attack roll on the same target as an ally right before you, add an additional d8 to your damage dice pool.

Hobbling Strike: When you hit with a melee attack, you may mark a Stress to make the target temporarily Vulnerable.

Aquatic Scout

(Fish, Eel, Octopus, Etc.)

+1 Agility |  Melee Agility d4 (phy) |  Evasion: +2

Take advantage on: Navigate, Sneak, Swim

Aquatic: You can breathe and move naturally underwater.

Fragile: When you take Major Damage or greater, you drop Beastform.

Stalking Arachnid

(Tarantula, Wolf Spider, Etc.)

+1 Finesse |  Melee Finesse d6+1 (phy) |  Evasion: +2

Take advantage on: Attack, Climb, Sneak

Webslinger: You have the ability to create strong web material that can be useful in both adventuring and battle. It is resilient enough to support a single creature. You may make a target within Close range Restrained by making a successful Finesse roll against them.

Venemous Bite: When you hit with a melee attack, the target becomes temporarily Envenomated. An Envenomated creature takes 1d10 phy direct damage each time they act. This condition cannot stack.

Tier 2

Armored Sentinel

(Armadillo, Pangolin, Turtle, Etc.)

+1 Strength |  Melee Strength d8+2 (phy) |  Evasion: +1

Take advantage on: Dig, Protect, Locate

Armored Shell: You have resistance to physical damage. You may also mark an armor slot to tuck into your armor. If you do, physical damage is also reduced by your armor score (after being halved), but you can’t perform any other action except moving without leaving this form.

Cannon Ball: You can mark stress to be thrown or launched at an opponent. An ally makes an attack roll with Agility or Strength against a target within Close range. On a success, deal d12+2 damage using the thrower’s proficiency. If there is another enemy very close to the target, on a success you can also spend a Hope to ricochet off the first enemy and hit the second for half damage.

Brutish Beast

(Bear, Bull, Moose, Etc.)

+1 Strength |  Melee Strength d10+4 (phy) |  Evasion: +3

Take advantage on: Navigate, Scare, Protect

Rampage: When you are rolling damage from an attack, for every 1 you roll you may roll another d10 and add it to your damage roll. Before making an Attack roll, you can mark a Stress to gain +1 Proficiency to the attack.

Thick Hide: You increase your Damage Thresholds by +2 in this form.

Mighty Strider

(Camel, Horse, Zebra, Etc.)

+1 Agility |  Melee Agility d8+1 (phy) |  Evasion: +2

Take advantage on: Leap, Navigate, Sprint

Carrier: You can carry up to 2 willing allies with you when you move.

Trample: You may mark a Stress to move up to Close range in a straight line and make a melee attack against every target you pass in that movement. Each target hit takes d8+1 (phy) damage using your proficiency and is knocked down, becoming temporarily Vulnerable.

Striking Serpent

(Viper, Cobra, Etc.)

+1 Finesse |  Very Close Finesse d8+4 (phy) |  Evasion: +2

Take advantage on: Attack, Climb, Deceive

Venemous Strike: Strike out at any targets within Very Close range. Any you are successful against are temporarily Envenomated. An Envenomated takes 1d10 phy direct damage each time they act. This condition cannot stack.

Pouncing Predator

(Cheetah, Lion, Panther, Etc.)

+1 Instinct |  Melee Instinct d8+6 (phy) |  Evasion: +3

Take advantage on: Attack, Climb, Sneak

Fleet: You can spend Hope to move anywhere within far range without needing to make a check.

Takedown: Mark a Stress to move into melee range with a target and make a basic attack against them. On a success, take +2 proficiency on the damage and cause the target to mark Stress.

Winged Beast

(Raven, Hawk, Owl, Etc.)

+1 Finesse |  Melee Finesse d4+2 (phy) |  Evasion: +3

Take advantage on: Deceive, Locate, Scare

Bird’s Eye View: You can fly at will in this form. When you are flying and look down at the landscape below in an attempt to understand a situation better, make an action roll. On a success, you gain new, useful information here. Take advantage when you or an ally make a roll to act on this information.

Hollow Bones: You reduce your Damage Thresholds by -2 in this form.

Tier 3

Great Predator

(Dire Wolf, Sabretooth Tiger, Raptor, Etc.)

+2 Strength |  Melee Strength d12+8 (phy) |  Evasion: +2

Take advantage on: Attack, Sneak, Sprint

Vicious Maul: When you successfully attack a creature, you can spend a Hope to add +1 to your Proficiency for the attack and make the target temporarily Vulnerable.

Carrier: You can carry up to 2 willing allies with you when you move.

Mighty Lizard

(Alligator, Crocodile, Gila Monster, Etc.)

+2 Instinct |  Melee Instinct d10+7 (phy) |  Evasion: +1

Take advantage on: Attack, Track, Sneak

Snapping Strike: When you hit an opponent with a melee attack, you may spend a Hope to hold that opponent in place with your jaws and make them Restrained and Vulnerable.

Physical Defense: Increase your Damage Thresholds by +3.

Great Winged Beast

(Giant Eagle, Falcon, Etc.)

+2 Finesse |  Melee Finesse d8+6 (phy) |  Evasion: +3

Take advantage on: Locate, Deceive, Distract

Bird’s Eye View: You can fly at will in this form. When you are flying and look down at the landscape below in an attempt to understand a situation better, make an action roll. On a success, you gain new, useful information here. Take advantage when you or an ally make a roll to act on this information.

Carrier: You can carry up to 2 willing allies with you when you move.

Aquatic Predator

(Dolphin, Shark, Orca, Etc.)

+2 Agility |  Melee Agility d10+6 (phy) |  Evasion: +4

Take advantage on: Track, Attack, Swim

Aquatic: You can breathe and move naturally underwater.

Vicious Maul: When you successfully attack a creature, you can spend a Hope to make them temporarily Vulnerable.

Legendary Beast

(Upgraded Tier 1 Options)

Evolved: Pick a Tier 1 Beastform option and become a larger, more powerful version of that creature. Retain all traits and features, save for the following bonuses:

• Add +6 to your damage rolls in this form.
• Add +1 to the trait increased by this form.
• Increase the evasion bonus by +2.

Legendary Hybrid

(Griffon, Sphinx, Etc.)

+2 Strength |  Melee Strength d10+8 (phy) |  Evasion: +3

Hybrid Features: Choose any two Beastform options from Tiers 1-3. Take their features and advantages.

Tier 4

Massive Behemoth

(Elephant, Mammoth, Rhinoceros, Etc.)

+3 Strength |  Melee Agility d12+12 (phy) |  Evasion: +1

Take advantage on: Locate, Protect, Scare, Sprint

Trample: You may mark a Stress to move up to Far range in a straight line and make a melee attack against every target you pass in that movement. Each target hit takes d8+10 (phy) damage using your proficiency.

Undaunted: Raise all your damage thresholds by +2.

Mighty Carrier: You can carry up to 4 willing allies with you when you move.

Terrible Lizard

(Tyrannosaurus, Bronchiasaur, Etc.)

+3 Strength |  Melee Strength d12+10 (phy) |  Evasion: +2

Take advantage on: Attack, Deceive, Scare, Track

Devastating Strikes: When you deal Severe damage to a target with a melee attack, mark a Stress to make them mark +1 HP.

Massive Stride: You may move up to a Far distance without rolling and may ignore most rough terrain due to your size.

Mythic Aerial Hunter

(Dragon, Pterodactyl, Roc, Wyvern, Etc.)

+3 Finesse |  Melee Finesse d10+11 (phy) |  Evasion: +4

Take advantage on: Attack, Deceive, Navigate, Locate

Deadly Raptor: You can fly at will while in this form and move up to Far range during an action. When you move at least Close range before making an attack and succeed, you may re-roll all damage dice that roll below your Proficiency, taking the new result.

Carrier: You can carry up to 3 willing allies with you when you move.

Epic Aquatic Beast

(Whale, Giant Squid, Etc.)

+3 Agility |  Melee Agility d10+10 (phy) |  Evasion: +3

Take advantage on: Locate, Protect, Scare, Track

Ocean Master: You can breathe and move naturally underwater. When you succeed on a Melee attack, you may grapple the target and make them temporarily Restrained.

Unyielding: When you should mark armor slots, roll 1d6 per armor slot marked. For each 5+, don’t mark it.

Mythic Beast

(Upgraded Tier 1 or Tier 2 options)

Evolved: Pick a Tier 1 or Tier 2 Beastform option and become a larger, more powerful version of that creature. Retain all traits and features, save for the following bonuses:

• Increase your damage die by one size (d6 becomes d8, d8 becomes d10, etc.)
• Add +9 to your damage rolls in this form.
• Add +2 to the trait increased by this form.
• Increase the evasion bonus by +3.

Mythic Hybrid

(Chimera, Manticore, Cockatrice, Etc.)

+3 Strength |  Melee Strength d12 (phy) |  Evasion: +2

Hybrid Features: Choose any three Beastform options. Take their features and advantages.

Guardian

Guardians represent an array of martial professions, and such a title speaks more to their moral compass and incredible fortitude than the means by which they fight. Those of this class may choose to join groups of militants, for either a country or cause, but guardians are more likely to follow those few they truly care for, majority be damned. Guardians are known for fighting with remarkable ferocity even against overwhelming odds, and are more likely to utilize defensive tactics that protect their cohort rather than charge forward with abandon. Woe be unto those who harm the ally of a guardian, as they will not soon forget such a grievance.

Domains

Valor & Blade

Starting Evasion Score

8

Damage Thresholds

Major 8, Severe 16

Class Items

A Stone Totem from Your Mentor OR a Secret Key

Guardian’s Hope

Spend three Hope to clear up to three armor slots.

Class Feature

Unstoppable

Once per Long Rest, you can choose to become Unstoppable. You gain an Unstoppable die, which begins as a d4. Place it on the spot to the right, starting with the “1” value facing up. Whenever you deal one or more hit points to an adversary, increase the Unstoppable die value by one. When you increase the value above the die’s highest number or when the scene ends, remove the die and drop out of Unstoppable. At Level 3, upgrade your Unstoppable die to a d6. At Level 7, upgrade it to a d8.

While Unstoppable you:

• Gain resistance to physical damage.
• Increase your current Armor Score by your Proficiency.
• Add the current value of your Unstoppable die to your damage dice total.
• Cannot be Restrained or Vulnerable.

Tip: If your Unstoppable die is a d4 and the 4 is currently facing up, you’ll remove the die the next time you should increase it. However, if your Unstoppable die has been upgraded to a d6 and the 4 is currently facing up, you’ll turn it to 5 the next time you should increase it; you’ll only remove it after it passes a value of 6.

Guardian Subclasses

If you’re creating a guardian, choose either the Stalwart or Vengeance subclass.

Stalwart

Play the Stalwart if you want to take heavy blows and keep moving.

Foundation Feature

When you take this foundation, increase all of your Damage Thresholds by +1.

When you take physical damage, always reduce it by your armor score before applying it to your thresholds. You can still spend armor slots to reduce it further.

Specialization Feature

When you take this specialization, raise all of your Damage Thresholds by +2.

When a Very Close ally takes damage, you can mark an Armor Slot to reduce the damage by your Armor Score.

Mastery Feature

When you take this mastery, raise all of your Damage Thresholds by +3.

When an ally within Close distance has 2 Hit Points or fewer and should take damage, you can immediately mark a Stress to sprint to their side and take the damage instead.

Vengeance

Play the Vengeance if you want to strike down enemies that hurt you or your allies.

Foundation Feature

When you take this Foundation, gain an additional armor slot immediately.

When you are hit by an enemy in melee range, immediately roll a number of d6 equal to the amount of hit points you marked. For each result of 5+, deal a hit point back to the enemy.

Specialization Feature

When an enemy damages an ally within your Melee range, the next successful attack you make against that enemy with has +1 Proficiency.

Mastery Feature

Spend 2 Hope to prioritize an enemy until your next rest. When you make an Attack Roll against your prioritized enemy, you can switch the values on your Hope and Fear dice. You can only prioritize one enemy at a time.

Background Questions

Answer the following background questions or make your own.

• Who from your community did you fail to protect, and why do you still think of them?
• You’ve recently been tasked with protecting something important, with the goal of delivering it somewhere dangerous. What is it and where does it need to go?
• You consider an aspect of yourself to be a “weakness.” What is it, and how has it affected you?

Connections

• How did I save your life the first time we met?
• What small gift did you give me that you notice I always carry with me?
• What lie have you told me about yourself that I absolutely believe?

Level Up Options

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Ranger

Rangers are highly skilled hunters who, despite their martial abilities, will rarely lend their skills to an army. Through mastery of the body and a deep understanding of the wilderness, rangers transform themselves into sly tacticians, accustomed to fighting without the aid of an organized military force. Many rangers do, however, fight alongside an animal companion with whom they’ve forged a powerful, spiritual bond. By honing their skills in the wild, rangers become expert hunters and trackers, and are as likely to catch their foes in a trap as assail them head-on.

Domains

Bone & Sage

Starting Evasion Score

10

Damage Thresholds

Major 7, Severe 14

Class Items

A Trophy From Your First Kill OR a Seemingly Broken Compass

Ranger’s Hope

Spend three Hope and Increase your Evasion by +1 until your next short rest.

Class Feature

Ranger’s Focus

Spend a Hope and make an attack with your weapon. On a success, you temporarily make that target your Ranger’s Focus, along with doing damage from the attack. Until your Ranger’s Focus ends or you make a different creature your Ranger’s Focus, you gain these benefits:

• You know precisely what direction they are in.
• All damage rolls you make against them also deal a Stress.
• When you miss them with an attack, you can end Ranger’s Focus to reroll your Duality dice and take the new result.

Ranger Subclasses

If you’re creating a ranger, choose either the Wayfinder or Beastbound subclass.

Wayfinder

Play the Wayfinder if you want to hunt your prey using deadly force.

Spellcast Trait: Agility

Foundation Features

Apex Predator: Mark a Stress to increase your Proficiency by +1 on a damage roll. Additionally, whenever you deal Severe damage to an enemy, they also mark a Stress.

Path Forward: When you’re headed for a place you’ve previously visited, or you carry an object with you that has been there before, you can identify the shortest, most direct path to your destination.

Specialization Feature

When you’re attacked by your Focus, your Evasion against the attack increases by +2.

Mastery Feature

Before you make an Attack Roll against your Focus, you can spend a Hope. If that rolls succeeds, you remove on Fear from the GM’s Fear pool.

Beastbound

Play the Beastbound if you want to form a deep bond with an animal ally.

Spellcast Trait: Agility

Foundation Feature

You have an animal companion of your choice (at GM’s discretion). They always stay next to you unless you tell them otherwise.

Take the Ranger Companion sheet. Whenever you level up your character, also choose a level up option for your companion from this sheet.

Specialization Feature

When you take this Specialization, gain an additional level-up option for your companion immediately.

When an enemy attacks you while they’re in your companion’s Melee range, you gain +2 Evasion against the attack.

Mastery Feature

When you take this Specialization, gain 2 level up options for your companion immediately.

Once per long rest, if the damage from an attack would mark your companion’s or your last Hit Point, and you are within each other’s Close range, the other rushes to their side and takes that damage instead.

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Background Questions

Answer the following background questions or make your own.

• A terrible creature hurt your community, and you’ve vowed to hunt them down. What are they, and what unique trail or sign do they leave behind anywhere they go?
• Your first kill almost killed you too. What was it, and what part of you was never the same after this event?
• You’ve traveled many dangerous lands, but what is the one place you refuse to go?

Connections

• What friendly competition do we have?
• Why do you act differently when we’re alone than when others are around?
• What have you asked me to keep an eye out for, and why are you worried about it?

Level Up Options

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Rogue

Rogues are scoundrels, often in both attitude and practice. Broadly known as liars and thieves, the best among this class move through the world entirely unknown. Utilizing their sharp wit and blade, rogues may trick their foes through social manipulation as easily as breaking locks or climbing through windows. Members of this class are masters of magical craft, adding an array of deadly tools to their arsenal. Rogues frequently establish guilds to meet future accomplices, hire out jobs, and hone heavily-guarded skills, proving that the phrase “there’s no honor among thieves” is just another lie added to their arsenal.

Domains

Midnight & Grace

Starting Evasion Score

11

Damage Thresholds

Major 6, Severe 12

Class Items

Forgery Tools OR a Grappling Hook

Rogue’s Hope

Spend three Hope to increase your Sneak Attack damage. Until your next short rest, you add 3d6 instead of 1d6 to each Sneak Attack damage roll.

Class Features

Hide

When you move into a location where no enemies can see you, you can use an action to become Hidden (any rolls against you have disadvantage). As a Rogue, when you are Hidden, targets also can’t see you, even if they move into line of sight. You are no longer Hidden after you move or attack.

Sneak Attack

Whenever you make an attack while you are Hidden or while an ally is in Melee with your target, add a d6 to your damage roll. When you use Sneak Attack, you can also spend any number of Hope before the attack roll, then if the attack is successful, also add a number of d6 equal to the Hope spent.

Rogue Subclasses

If you’re creating a rogue, choose either the Syndicate or Nightwalker subclass.

Syndicate

Play the Syndicate if you want to know somebody helpful everywhere you go.

Spellcast Trait: Finesse

Foundation Feature

When you arrive in a prominent town or environment, you know somebody that calls this place home. Give them a name, note how you think they could be useful, and choose one from the list below:

• They owe me a favor, but they will be hard to find.
• They’re going to ask for something in exchange.
• They’re always in a great deal of trouble.
• We used to be together. It’s a long story.
• We didn’t part on great terms.

Specialization Feature

Once per session, you can briefly call forth a shady contact. Immediately choose one of the benefits below and describe what brought them here to help you in this moment:

• They provide 1 handful of gold, a unique tool, or a mundane object that the situation requires.
• The next time you make an Action Roll, their help lets you increase either your Hope or Fear die result by 3.
• The next time you deal damage, they snipe from the shadows, adding 2d8 to your damage roll.

Mastery Feature

You can now use your Specialization Feature three times per session. You can also choose from the following options when you use it:

• When you mark at least 1 Hit Point, the contact rushes out to shield you, reducing the Hit Points marked by 1.
• When you make a Presence Roll in conversation, they back you up. Your Hope die becomes a d20 for the roll.

Nightwalker

Play the Nightwalker if you want to use the cover of shadow to navigate your environment.

Spellcast Trait: Finesse

Foundation Feature

Shadow Stepper: You can move from shadow to shadow. When you step into the shadow cast by another creature or object, or into an area of darkness, mark a Stress to disappear from where you are and reappear inside of any other shadow within Far range. When you do, you are Hidden.

Specialization Feature

Dark Cloud: Make a Spellcast Roll (15). On a success, create a temporary dark cloud that covers any area within Close range. Anyone in this cloud can’t see outside of it, and anyone outside of it can’t see in. You are considered Hidden from any enemy it blocks line of sight from.

Adrenaline: When you are Vulnerable, you always add your Level to your damage roll total..

Mastery Feature

Your Evasion permanently increases by +1, and you can now use Shadow Stepper to move within Very Far range.

Cloaked: At any time, you can mark a Stress to cloak yourself. While cloaked, you gain the benefits of the Hidden condition and automatically lose the Restrained condition if you have it. You stop being cloaked when you roll with Fear or start a short rest.

Background Questions

Answer the following background questions or make your own.

• What did you get caught doing that had you exile from your home community?
• You used to have a different life, but you’ve tried to leave it behind you. Who from that time is still chasing you?
• Who from that other life were you most sad to say goodbye to?

Connections

• What did I recently convince you to do that got us both in trouble?
• What have I discovered about your past that I hold secret from the others?
• Who do you know from my past, and how have they affected your feelings about me?

Level Up Options

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Seraph

Divine fighters and healers appointed by their god, seraphs are imbued with sacred purpose. A wide array of deities exist within the realms, and thus there are numerous different types of seraph. The ethos of each member of this class traditionally aligns with the domain of their god including such missions as: defending the weak, enacting vengeance, protecting a land or artifact, and upholding a faith. Some seraph ally themselves with an army or locale, much to the satisfaction of their rulers, but some of these crusaders fight in opposition to the follies of the Mortal Realm. It is better to be an ally to a seraph, as they are terrifying foes to those who defy their purpose.

Domains

Splendor & Valor

Starting Evasion Score

7

Damage Thresholds

Major 8, Severe 16

Class Items

A Bundle of Offerings OR a Sigil of Your God

Seraph’s Hope

Spend three Hope and either reroll a Prayer Die or refresh one of your used Prayer Dice.

Class Feature

Prayer Dice

At the beginning of each session, roll a number of d4 dice equal to your Spellcast trait and store them to the right. You can spend one or more of these dice at any time to aid yourself or an ally within Far range. You can use the spent die’s value to reduce any incoming damage, add to any roll result after the roll. Additionally, you can instead exchange the value for that many Hope you can give to any PC in range. Clear these dice at the end of each session.

Seraph Subclasses

If you’re creating a seraph, choose either the Winged Sentinel or Divine Wielder subclass:

Winged Sentinel

Play the Winged Sentinel if you want to take flight and strike hard from the sky.

Spellcast Trait: Strength

Foundation Feature

You can fly. While flying you may:

• Spend a Hope to pick up and carry another willing creature that is approximately your size or smaller.
• Mark a Stress to deal 1d8 additional damage on a successful attack.

Specialization Feature

Your supernatural visage strikes awe and fear. While in flight, you have advantage on Presence Rolls, and if that roll is a success with Hope, you can remove a Fear from the GM’s Fear Pool instead of gaining Hope.

Mastery Feature

When you take this mastery, increase your Severe Damage Threshold by +4.

While in flight, your Winged Sentinel Foundation feature deals an extra 1d12 damage instead of 1d8.

Divine Wielder

Play the Divine Wielder if you want to dominate the battlefield with a legendary weapon.

Spellcast Trait: Strength

Foundation Features

Spirit Weapon: When you have a Melee weapon equipped, it can fly from your hand to strike an enemy in Close range. You can mark a Stress to target an additional target in range with the same Attack Roll.

Sparing Touch: Once per long rest, use an action and touch a creature to clear 2 Hit Points or 2 Stress from them.

Specialization Feature

Devout: When you roll your prayer dice, you may roll an additional die and drop the lowest option. Additionally, your Sparing Touch feature can now be used one additional time per long rest.

Mastery Feature

When you roll damage for your Spirit Weapon, if any of your damage dice values match, you can roll an additional damage die for each match. These additional damage dice can’t be used to match and add more dice. For example, if you roll three 5s, add two damage dice to your roll.

Background Questions

Answer the following background questions or make your own.

• Who is the god you have devoted yourself to, and in your moment of desperation, what incredible feat did they perform for you that made you indebted to them?
• How did your own appearance change after taking your oath?
• In what strange or unique way do you communicate with your god?

Connections

• What promise did you make me agree to, should you die on the battlefield?
• Why do you ask me so many questions about my god?
• You’ve told me to protect one member of your party above all others, even yourself. Who is it and why?

Level Up Options

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Sorcerer

Not all innate magic users choose to hone their craft, but those who do can become powerful sorcerers. The gifts of these wielders is passed down through families, though not all families are aware of, much less choose to practice, their unique skills. A sorcerer’s abilities can range from the elemental, to the illusionary, and beyond, and many members of this class will band together into collectives based on their talents. The act of becoming a formidable sorcerer is not the practice of acquiring power, but learning to control and hone the power one already possesses. The magic within a misguided or uneducated sorcerer is a dangerous force indeed.

Domains

Arcana & Midnight

Starting Evasion Score

9

Damage Thresholds

Major 6, Severe 12

Class Items

A Whispering Orb OR a Family Heirloom

Sorcerer’s Hope

Spend three Hope after a Spellcast Roll to double the result of your Hope die.

Class Features

Arcane Sense

You can sense the presence of magical people and objects when you’re close to them.

Minor Illusion

Make a Spellcast Roll (10). On a success, you create a minor visual illusion no larger than yourself within close Range. This illusion is convincing to anyone in Far range or further.

Channel Raw Power

Once per long rest, you can place a Domain card from your Loadout into your Vault and choose to either:

• Gain Hope equal to the level of the card.
• Enhance a damage-dealing spell by dealing extra magic damage equal to twice the level of the card.

During your next short rest, you can return this card to your hand without paying its recall cost.

Sorcerer Subclasses

If you’re creating a sorcerer, choose either the Primal Origin or Elemental Origin subclass.

Primal Origin

Play the Primal Origin if you want to modify your spells in powerful ways.

Spellcast Trait: Instinct

Foundation Feature

Your primal origin allows you to modify the essence of magic itself. When you cast a spell or use a weapon that deals magic damage, you can mark a Stress to do one of the following:

• Extend its reach by one range.
• Add +2 to the action roll result.
• Reroll any number of Damage Dice.
• Hit an additional target within range.

Specialization Feature

You can enhance the magical practices of others with your essence. When you Help an Ally on a Spellcast Roll, the advantage die you roll is a d8 instead of a d6. After you help them make their Spellcast Roll, once per long rest, you can swap the values of their Duality dice.

Mastery Feature

You can gather magical energy to enhance your capability. You may become charge after taking magic damage, or when you spend 2 Hope to become charged. When you successfully cast a spell while charged, you can spend your charge to temporarily increase either that spell’s Damage Proficiency by +1 or its Reaction Roll Difficulty by +3.

You stop being charged when you finish a long rest.

Elemental Origin

Play the Elemental Origin if you want to use raw elemental magic in creative ways.

Spellcast Trait: Instinct

Foundation Feature

Your elemental origin lets you manipulate and shape a certain kind of element.

Choose one: WATER · FIRE · AIR · LIGHTNING · EARTH

You can channel this element into unique, harmless effects. Additionally, you can spend a Hope and describe how your control over this element helps an action roll you’re about to make, then add either +2 to the roll or +3 to the damage.

Specialization Feature

You can call forth your chosen element to protect you from harm. When an attack roll against you succeeds, you can spend a Stress and describe how you channel your element to defend you, then add 1d6 to your Evasion against the attack. If the new Evasion is high enough to avoid the attack, it does.

Mastery Feature

Once per long rest, you can transform into an elemental form of your chosen element. When you do, describe your transformation and gain two of the following features until you finish your next short rest:

• +4 to your Severe Threshold
• +1 to a character trait
• +1 Proficiency
• +2 to your Armor Score
• +2 Evasion

Background Questions

Answer the following background questions or make your own.

• What did you do that made the people in your community wary of you?
• What mentor taught you to control your untamed magic, and why are they no longer able to guide you?
• You have a deep fear you hide from everyone. What is it, and why does it scare you?

Connections

• Why do you trust me so deeply?
• What did I do that makes you cautious around me?
• Why do we keep our shared past a secret?

Level Up Options

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Warrior

Becoming a warrior requires years, often a lifetime, of training and dedication to the mastery of violence and weapons. While many who seek to fight only hone their strength, warriors understand the importance of an agile body and mind, making them some of the most sought after fighters across the realms. Many warriors will find employment within an army, band of mercenaries, or even within a royal guard, but their potential is wasted in any position where they cannot continue to hone and expand their skills. Warriors are known to have a favored weapon, and to come between one of this class and their blade would be a grievous mistake.

Domains

Blade & Bone

Starting Evasion Score

10

Damage Thresholds

Major 7, Severe 14

Class Items

The Drawing of a Lover OR a Sharpening Stone

Warrior’s Hope

Spend three Hope to reroll any number of your damage dice on an attack.

Class Features

Battle Strategist

After a successful attack roll, you can describe how you outmaneuver your target, then mark a Stress to deal them a Stress.

Attack of Opportunity

If an adversary attempts to leave your Melee range, make an Agility reaction roll against their difficulty. Choose one effect on a successful roll, or two on a critical success.

• Keep them from moving.
• Deal your primary weapon damage.
• Move with them.

Combat Training

Ignore burden when equipping weapons. Whenever you deal physical damage, add your level to its value.

Warrior Subclasses

If you’re creating a warrior, choose either the Call of the Slayer or Call of the Brave subclass.

Call of the Slayer

Play the Call of the Slayer if you want to ensure you strike down enemies with great power.

Foundation Feature

On a roll with Hope, you can place a d6 on this card instead of taking a Hope. These are known as your Slayer dice. You can store a number of Slayer dice equal to your Proficiency. When you make an attack roll or damage roll, you can spend any number of these Slayer dice, rolling them and adding their value to your total. At the end of a session, clear any remaining Slayer dice on this card and gain that many Hope.

Specialization Feature

You can wield multiple weapons with dangerous ease. When you make a successful Attack Roll, you can spend a Hope to add one weapon damage die from your secondary weapon to the damage.

In addition, once per long rest, when you roll your Slayer dice, you can reroll any 1s once, taking the new result.

Mastery Feature

Martial Preparation: You’ve become an inspirational warrior to all who travel with you. You gain access to the Martial Preparation downtime move. To use this during a rest, describe how you instruct and train with your party, then give yourself and each ally a Slayer die, which is a d6. Allies can spend your Slayer die to enhance their own weapon Attack or Damage rolls.

Call of the Brave

Play the Call of the Brave if you want to be adept at taking on both harrowing tasks and dangerous enemies.

Foundation Feature

When you fail a roll with Fear, you gain a Hope.

Once per long rest, before you attempt something incredibly dangerous or face off against a foe who clearly outmatches you, describe what ritual you perform or preparation you make, then clear 2 Stress and gain 2 Hope.

Specialization Feature

You are vigilant in the face of mounting danger.

While you have no more than 2 Hit Point slots unmarked, your Hope die becomes a d20.

Mastery Feature

Your unbending courage is a rallying point for your allies. You can initiate a Tag Team Roll one extra time per session. Additionally, when an ally wishes to initiate a Tag Team Roll with you, they only need to spend 2 Hope to do so.

Background Questions

Answer the following background questions or make your own.

• Who taught you to fight, and why did they stay behind when you left home?
• Somebody defeated you in battle years ago and left you to die. Who was it, and why did it feel like such a betrayal?
• What legendary place have you always wanted to visit and why is it so special?

Connections

• We knew each other long before this party came together. How?
• What mundane thing off the battlefield do you usually help me with?
• What fear am I helping you overcome?

Level Up Options

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Wizard

Those who acquire their magical power through years of study are known as wizards. Whether through an institution or individual study, wizards use a variety of tools—including books, scrolls, or ancient tablets—to hone their craft. Often, wizards will dedicate their life to the mastery of a particular school of magic, while others will attempt to learn from a wide variety of disciplines. Many wizards go on to become wise and powerful figures in their communities, advising rulers, providing medicines and healing, and even leading war councils. While all members of this class work toward the common goal of collecting magical knowledge, it is very often that wizards have the most conflict within their own ranks; as the acquisition, keeping, and sharing of powerful secrets is a topic of intense debate that has resulted in thousands upon thousands of deaths.

Domains

Codex & Splendor

Starting Evasion Score

10

Damage Thresholds

Major 5, Severe 10

Class Items

A Book You’re Trying to Translate OR a Tiny & Harmless Elemental Pet

Wizard’s Hope

Spend three Hope instead of marking your last Hit Point.

Class Features

Prestidigitation

You can perform harmless, subtle magical effects at will. For example, you might change an object’s color, create a smell, light a candle, cause a tiny object to float, illuminate a room, or repair a small object.

Strange Patterns

Choose a number between 1 and 12. Whenever you roll that number on a Duality die, gain a Hope or clear a Stress. You can change this number when you finish a long rest.

Wizard Subclasses

If you’re creating a wizard, choose either the School of Knowledge or School of War subclass:

School of Knowledge

Play the School of Knowledge if you want to have incredible knowledge of the magical world around you.

Spellcast Trait: Knowledge

Foundation Feature

You’ve gained priceless knowledge through great study. You have advantage on all Knowledge Rolls to recall information. If this roll is about the magical nature of a creature or enchantment, gain a Hope even on a roll with Fear.

Adept: You can mark a Stress instead of spending a Hope to use an Experience on a roll. If you do, double the Experience modifier for that roll.

Specialization Feature

When you take this Specialization, you may change an existing Experience you have, then add +1 to one of your Experiences.

Once per short rest, when recalling a Domain card in your vault, you can reduce its Recall Cost by 1.

Mastery Feature

When you take this Mastery, choose two Experiences and add +1 to each of them.

Whenever you wish to use an Experience, roll a d6. On a result of 5 or 6, you can do so without spending a Hope.

School of War

Play the School of War if you want to be trained to use magic as a means of violence.

Spellcast Trait: Knowledge

Foundation Feature

You’ve focused your studies on the shaping of magic in both dangerous and powerful ways. Gain an extra armor slot. When you succeed on an Attack Roll with Fear, you deal an extra 1d10 magic damage.

Specialization Feature

You can concentrate to maintain a protective barrier of magic. While you have at least 2 Hope, you can add your Spellcast trait to your Evasion.

Additionally, the extra magic damage from your School of War Foundation feature increases to 2d10.

Mastery Feature

When you succeed on an attack roll with Hope, you can choose to make it with Fear instead.

The extra magic damage from your School of War Foundation feature increases to 3d10.

Background Questions

Answer the following background questions or make your own.

• What did your community once count on you for? How did you let them down?
• You’ve spent your life searching for an object or book of great significance. What is it and why is it so important to you?
• You have a powerful rival. Who are they, and why are you so determined to be their end?

Connections

• What favor have I asked of you that you’re not sure you can fulfull?
• What weird hobby or strange fascination do we both share?
• What secret about yourself have you entrusted with only me?

Level Up Options

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Ancestry

Ancestries represent the lineage of a character that affects their physical appearance. That being said, any character might also possess characteristics that do not fall within what is “standard” or “average” within an ancestry. Each individual within an ancestry will also view the world from a different perspective. For example, one elf might believe they have quite large ears in relation to their siblings, but a Firbolg could find them proportionally small compared to their own.

We hope this provides you with a window into the various physicalities of the creatures that populate Daggerheart. As you continue to play and meet members of each ancestry, you’ll have the opportunity to learn about the nuances and unique qualities among them. You’ll also notice that within the world of Daggerheart, the term “people” is used to refer to all ancestries. They each possess unique characteristics and cultures, as well as personhood.

Each Ancestry has one or more Ancestry Features, a unique move or set of moves that are granted to them by their ancestry and can be utilized in play. Some are spells or abilities that can be activated during a session, while others are passive bonuses or unique downtime moves.

If you’d like to make a character that combines more than one ancestry, see “Mixed Ancestry” at the end of this section.

Clank

Clanks are sentient mechanical beings built from a variety of materials including metal and wood. Like organic beings, their bodies come in a wide array of sizes and may change and adapt based on time and need. Because of their custom construction, many clanks have highly specialized physical features. Examples include clawed hands for grasping, wheels for movement, or built-in weaponry. Many clanks are known to embrace an individual’s desires for body modifications—including those based in style as well as function—and members of other ancestries might turn to clank artisans to construct highly customized mobility aids and physical adornments. Other ancestries can create clanks, even using their own physical features as inspiration, but it’s also common for clanks to build one another. A clank’s lifespan extends as long as they’re able to acquire or craft new parts, making their physical form effectively immortal. That said, their minds are subject to the effects of time and will deteriorate as the magic that powers them loses potency.

Ancestry Feature

Purposeful Design: Decide who you were created by and for what purpose. Choose an experience you have that reflects this and increase it by +1.

Efficient: When you take a short rest, you can substitute a long rest move for one of your short rest moves.

Drakona

Drakona resemble wingless dragons in humanoid form and possess a powerful elemental breath. All drakona have thick scales that provide excellent natural armor against both the forces of nature and attacks. They are large in size (ranging from 5 feet to 7 feet on average) with equally large and naturally sharp teeth. Drakona perpetually grow their teeth throughout their approximately 350-year lifespan, so members of this ancestry are never in danger of permanently losing an incisor. Unlike their dragon ancestors, drakona do not have wings and cannot fly without magical aid. Members of this ancestry each possess elemental breath, the type of which is passed down through the generations of each drakona family.

Ancestry Feature

Scales: Your natural scales act as protection, increasing all damage thresholds by +1.

Elemental Breath: Choose an element for your breath (ice, fire, electricity, etc.). You can use this breath against a target or group of targets within Very Close range, treating it as an Instinct weapon that deals d8 magic damage using your Proficiency.

Dwarf

Dwarves are most easily recognized as short humanoids with square features, dense musculature, and thick hair. Their average height ranges from 4 feet to 5 ½ feet and they are often quite broad in proportion to their stature. Due to a higher amount of keratin in their skin and nails, both are very resilient, and dwarves are known to decorate their bodies with a number of tattoos, unique piercings, and embedded gemstones. Equally, their hair grows thickly, primarily on their head, but across other portions of their body as well, and dwarves of all genders are known to wear facial hair, which may be styled in many intricate patterns. Typically, dwarves live up to 250 years of age, maintaining their muscle mass well into later life.

Ancestry Feature

Increased Fortitude: You can spend 3 Hope to halve incoming physical damage.

Thick Skin: When taking minor damage, roll 1d6. On a 5+, you take no damage instead.

Elf

Elves are typically tall humanoids with pointed ears and acutely attuned senses. Their ears vary in size and pointed shape, and as elves age the tips will begin to droop. While elves come in a wide range of body types, they are all fairly tall, with the shortest among them standing about 5ft 8in and the tallest coming closer to 6½ft. Some elves possess what is known as a “Mystic Form,” which occurs when an individual has dedicated themselves to a portion of the natural world so deeply that their physical form has changed. These characteristics can include celestial freckles, the presence of leaves, vines, or flowers in their skin or hair, and more. Sometimes these traits are inherited from an elf’s parents, but if the individual chooses to move their focus away from that sphere of influence, portions of their appearance will adjust over time. Because elves live for about 350 years, these traits might change more than once throughout their lifespan.

Ancestry Feature

Quick Reactions: You can mark a Stress to take advantage on a Reaction Roll.

Celestial Trance: During a rest, you can drop into a trance and make an extra downtime move.

Faerie

Those of faerie ancestry are winged humanoid creatures with insect-like features. Faeries have close ties with the natural world and frequently possess characteristics that allow them to blend in with various plants. Based on their individual heritage, faerie’s features might more closely resemble either humanoids or bugs—they may possess additional arms, compound eyes, lantern organs, chitinous exoskeletons, or stingers. The average height of a faerie ranges from about 2 feet to 5 feet but some faeries grow up to 7 feet tall. All faeries possess membranous wings and go through a unique process of metamorphosis throughout their relatively short lifespan, of usually no more than 50 years.

Ancestry Feature

Wings: You can fly. While flying, mark a Stress before an adversary’s attack roll to increase your Evasion by +2 against that attack.

Luckbender: Once per session, after you or an ally in Close range make an Action Roll, you can spend 3 Hope to reroll the Duality Dice. You must take the new result.

Faun

Fauns resemble goats in humanoid form, with curving horns, square pupils, and cloven hooves. Like any ancestry, their appearances vary widely, but most fauns have a goat-like lower body with dense fur and a short tail, while their torso and hands are usually humanoid. Faun faces range from humanoid to goat-like and they can have varying ear shapes, horn shapes, and fur thickness. Faun horns range from short with minimal curvature, to much larger and curling. The average faun height ranges in height from 4 feet to 6 ½ feet, which can change dramatically based on the way they stand. The majority of fauns have proportionately long limbs no matter their individual size or shape. Fauns are known to live roughly 225 years.

Ancestry Feature

Leap: You can easily leap up to a Close range across gaps or chasms without making an Agility roll.

Kick: On a successful melee attack, you can mark a Stress to kick yourself off of the target, adding 2d6 to the damage and pushing either them or yourself out of Melee range.

Firbolg

Firbolgs resemble cows in humanoid form, typically recognized by their broad nose and long ears. Some have facial features that are a blend of humanoid and cow, but others, often referred to as “minotaurs,” have heads that entirely resemble cattle. All members of this ancestry have humanoid bodies covered in fur, and many possess horns that grow our widely from their skull. Firbolgs come in a range of colors from earth tones to pastel hues like pink and blue. They’re tall and muscular creatures, with heights ranging from around 5 feet to 7 feet, and possess remarkable strength for their size no matter their age. On average, firbolgs live for about 150 years of age.

Ancestry Feature

Natural Calm: Whenever you should mark a Stress, roll a d6. On a result of 6, don’t mark it.

Charge: When you succeed on an Agility roll to move from Far or Very Far range into Melee with one or more targets, mark a Stress to deal 1d12 physical damage to all targets.

Fungril

Fungrils resemble a mushroom in humanoid form. Because of this, their appearance can vary wildly: they may be anywhere from about 2 feet to 7 feet tall, and either more humanoid or more fungal in appearance. They come in an assortment of colors, from earth tones to bright reds, yellows, purples, and blues. Their physical forms are non-standardized, resulting in an incredible variety of bodies, faces, and limbs. While the common lifespan of a fungril is about 300 years, some are reported to live much longer. Though they can vocalize or communicate nonverbally, many members of this ancestry use a mycelial array to chemically exchange information with other fungrils across long distances.

Ancestry Feature

Fungril Network: You can make an Instinct Roll (12) to speak with others of your ancestry across any distance using your mycelial array.

Death Connection: While touching a corpse that died recently, you can mark a Stress to extract one memory related to a specific emotion or sensation.

Galapa

Those of galapa ancestry resemble anthropomorphic turtles, with a large, domed shell into which the head and limbs can retract. On average, they range from 4 feet to 6 feet in height and an individual’s overall shape is dictated by the type of turtle they resemble. Galapa come in a variety of earth tones, most often shades of green and brown, and they may possess several colorful and unique patterns, especially on their shells. No matter their other physicality, all galapa can draw in their head, arms, and legs to protect them within their shell, using it as a shield when defensive measures are needed. The majority of this ancestry move fairly slowly no matter their age, and will live for roughly 150 years.

Ancestry Feature

Shell of Protection: Your shell provides a natural shield. Add your Proficiency to your armor score.

Slow and Steady: During combat, you can make an attack roll with advantage by placing an additional token on the action tracker.

Giant

Giants are very tall humanoids with long arms, broad stature, and one to three eyes. The smallest adults among this ancestry are about 6½ feet, with the largest coming in around 8½ feet. In combination with their size, giants are most easily recognized by their long arms that grant them added reach. They tend toward dense musculature, no matter body type. While the majority among this ancestry have two eyes, it’s not uncommon for giants to have one or three eyes. This trait is passed from one or both parents and those with a single eye are often referred to as “cyclops.” The average giant lifespan is approximately 75 years.

Ancestry Feature

Endurance: Gain an additional Hit Point slot at character creation.

Reach: Treat any weapon, feature, ability, or spell that has Melee range as though it has Very Close range instead.

Goblin

Those of goblin ancestry are small humanoids typically recognized by their large eyes and massive, membranous ears. Because of these physical features, they tend to have keen hearing and eyesight that allows them to perceive details at a greater distance, in darkness, or in less optimal environments. Their skin and eye colors are incredibly varied with no one hue, either vibrant or subdued, more dominant than another. Their height ranges from 3 feet to 4 feet and each of their ears is about the size of the individual’s head. Goblins are known to use ear positions to very specific effect when communicating non-verbally. The goblin lifespan is roughly 100 years and many will maintain their keen hearing and sight well into advanced age.

Ancestry Feature

Danger Sense: Once per short rest, mark a Stress to make an adversary reroll an attack against you or an ally within Very Close range of you.

Surefooted: You ignore disadvantage on Agility rolls.

Halfling

Halflings are typically smaller humanoids, with large hairy feet and prominent, rounded ears. On average halflings are 3 feet to 4 feet in height, with ears, noses, and feet that are larger in proportion to the rest of their features. Generally, those of this ancestry live for around 150 years, and their appearance is likely to remain fairly youthful even as they progress from adulthood to old age. Halflings are naturally attuned to the magnetic fields of the Mortal Realm, granting them a strong internal compass. They also possess acute senses of hearing and smell and can often detect those who are familiar to them by the sound of their movements.

Ancestry Feature

Youthful Spirit: At the beginning of each session, give everyone in your party a Hope.

Little Lucky: When you roll a 1 on your Hope die, you can reroll it, and must take the new result.

Human

Those of human ancestry are most easily recognized by their dexterous hands, rounded ears, and bodies built for endurance. Their average height ranges from just under 5 feet to about 6 ½ feet. They have a wide variety in their build, with some being quite muscular, others lithe, and everything in between. Humans are incredibly physically adaptable and can adjust to harsh climates with relative ease. In general, humans live to an age of about 100, with their bodies changing dramatically between their youngest and oldest years.

Ancestry Feature

High Stamina: Take an additional Stress slot at character creation.

Adaptability: When you fail a roll that utilized one of your Experiences, you can mark a Stress to reroll. You must take the new result.

Inferis

Those of inferis ancestry are humanoids who possess sharp canines, pointed ears, and horns that come in a variety of styles. They are descendants of demons from the Circles Below. While some inferis horns resemble that of a goat or ram, others bear the shape of a piercing spike. There’s no standard number of horns for inferis—though two or four are common—and some will have crowns of many horns, or only one. They may also grow asymmetrically, forming unique shapes that inferis are known to enhance with carving and ornamentation. Their skin, hair, and horns come in an assortment of colors that can include soft pastels, stark tones, or vibrant hues—including rosy scarlet, deep purple, and pitch black. On average, inferis range in height from 5 feet to 7 feet and are known to have long fingers and pointed nails. Inferis posses a “dread visage” that can manifest both involuntarily or purposefully based on experiencing fear, attempting to intimidate an adversary, or a variety of other strong emotions or goals. They can briefly modify their appearance in a variety of ways including lengthening their teeth and nails, changing the colors of their eyes, twisting their horns, or enhancing their height. On average, inferis live up to 350 years, and some attribute this lifespan to their deific lineage.

Ancestry Feature

Fearless: When you roll with Fear, you can mark 2 Stress to make it a roll with Hope instead.

Dread Visage: You have advantage on rolls to a intimidate hostile target.

Katari

Those of katari ancestry are feline humanoids with soft fur and high, triangular ears. They also have vertically-slit pupils, small pointed canine teeth, retractable claws, and long whiskers that assist their perception and navigation. Their ears can swivel nearly 180° to detect sound, adding to their heightened senses. Depending on their lineage, Katari may more closely resemble their cat ancestors or humans, with an amount of hair and facial structure to match. Equally, they may or may not have tails and their skin and fur possess a wide range of hues, with solid colors, calico tones, tabby patterns, and an array of spots or stripes. Their height ranges widely from about 3 feet to 6½ feet, and they live for around 150 years.

Ancestry Feature

Feline Instincts: When you make an Agility roll, you can mark a Stress to reroll your Hope Die. You must take the new result.

Retracting Claws: You can make an Agility roll to scratch a target in Melee range. On a success, they become Vulnerable.

Orc

Orcs are most easily recognized as humanoids with square features and boar-like tusks. These tusks protrude from their lower jaw, and the size can vary between individuals. While they extend from their mouths, tusks are not used for consuming food, and thus many orcs choose to decorate them with significant ornamentation. Typically orcs live for roughly 125 years and, unless altered, their tusks continue to grow throughout the course of their life. Orcs have mid-sized, pointed ears and their skin is typically colored in green, blue, pink, and grey tones. Orcs tend towards a muscular stature, no matter their individual size or build, and their average height ranges from 5 feet to 6½ feet.

Ancestry Feature

Sturdy: When you have one hit point remaining, your armor score is doubled.

Tusks: After making a successful Melee attack, you can spend Hope to also gore the target with your tusks, adding +1d6 to the damage roll.

Ribbet

Those of ribbet ancestry resemble anthropomorphic frogs with protruding eyes and webbed hands and feet. They have smooth (though sometimes warty) and moist skin, eyes positioned on either side of the top of their head and, while some ribbets have hind legs more than twice the length of their torso, others have fairly small limbs. No matter their size (which ranges from about 3 feet to 4½ feet), ribbets primarily move by hopping. All ribbets have hands and feet that are webbed, allowing them to swim with ease. Some ribbets possess a natural green and brown camouflage, while others are quite vibrantly colored in an array of bold patterns. No matter their appearance, all ribbets are born from eggs laid in the water, hatch into tadpoles, and after about 6 to 7 years mature into amphibians that can move around on land. Ribbets live for approximately 100 years, and most will have full matured from their tadpole form by roughly age 13.

Ancestry Feature

Long Tongue: You can use your long tongue to grab onto things Close to you. You can also mark a Stress to unleash it as a Finesse Close weapon that does d12 physical damage using your Proficiency.

Amphibious: You can breathe and move underwater just as easily as on land.

Simiah

Simiah resemble anthropomorphic monkeys and apes, with long limbs and prehensile feet. Their appearance ranges from the largest gorilla to the smallest marmoset, and everything in between. Their size does not align directly with their animal counterparts, as they tend to range from 2 feet to 6 feet tall. Though the degree varies, all members of this ancestry have prehensile feet can utilize this dexterity in nonverbal communication, movement, work, and combat. This trait also grants them unique agility that can aid them in a variety of physical tasks. On average, Simiah live for close to 100 years.

Ancestry Feature

Nimble: Increase your Evasion by +1 at character creation.

Natural Climber: You have advantage on Agility Rolls that involve balancing and climbing.

Mixed Ancestry

Families within the world of Daggerheart are as unique as the peoples and cultures that inhabit it. The physical appearance and skill set of someone can be shaped by blood, by magic, by proximity, or a variety of other characteristics.

If you decide that your character is a descendant of multiple ancestries and you want to mechanically represent that in the game, you may use the option below:

• When you choose your Ancestry at character creation, write down how your character identifies themself in the Heritage section of your character sheet. For example, your Ancestry could be “Goblin-Orc”, or just “Goblin” (with Orc in their lineage), or a name you choose, like “Toothling.”

• Work with your GM to choose two features from the ancestries you are derived from. You must choose the top feature from one ancestry and the bottom from another. Write both down on a notecard you can keep with your other cards or next to your character sheet. For example, if you are making a Goblin-Orc, you might take Danger Sense and Tusks, or Sturdy and Surefooted. You could not take Danger Sense and Sturdy together.

Community

Your Community describes the culture or environment your character grew up in. Though it’s likely they were a member of numerous communities during their upbringing, this choice represents the one they feel influenced their personality and current skillset most. Like ancestry, describing the characteristics of a collective is nuanced, as people always view others through the lens of their own experience. For example, while a Seaborne sailor might feel their own community is particularly strict, a character from an Orderborne metropolis might find that group very changeable. An individual’s relationship with their community also creates a wide variety of experiences. If your character has fallen out with the place or people that defined their upbringing, they may continue to carry that influence but might be on a quest to live differently than they were taught.

As you explore the following communities, imagine the variety of ways they might manifest in your game. Some community cards reference locations, others an ethos, and still others a common goal. But no two places that fall under the same category are the same. If one Wanderborne caravan travels the world willingly and another was expelled from their home by force, both the material trappings and someone’s feelings about their lifestyle would be very different.

When you build your character, you may be inspired by the details from communities different from the one you’ve chosen to play. As always, this aspect of the game is meant to be utilized in the way that best serves your group’s game.

Each Community has a Community Feature, a unique move or set of moves that are granted to them by their community and can be utilized in play. Some are spells or abilities that can be activated during a session, while others are passive bonuses or unique downtime moves.

Each community entry suggests several adjectives, which you can use as inspiration when crafting a character. If you’d like to, choose one or more of these words (or roll a d6) to help develop your character’s personality, relationship with their upbringing or peers, or even the flavor with which they interact with the rest of their party.

Highborne

Being part of a Highborne community means you were born into a life of elegance, opulence, and prestige within the upper echelons of society. Traditionally, members of a Highborne community possess incredible material wealth. While this takes a variety of forms depending on the community: gold and other minerals, land, controlling the means of production, etc. it always comes with incredible power and influence. Highborne highly value titles and possessions, and there is very little social mobility within their ranks. It’s not uncommon for members of a Highborne community to control the political and economic status of the areas in which they live based on their ability to influence people and the economy with their substantial wealth. The health and safety of the less affluent people who live in these locations often hinges on the ability of this Highborne ruling class to prioritize the well-being of their subjects over profit.

Highborne individuals are often: amiable, candid, conniving, enterprising, ostentatious, unflappable.

Community Feature

Privilege: You have advantage on rolls you make to consort with nobles, negotiate prices, or leverage your reputation to get what you want.

Loreborne

Being part of a Loreborne community means you are from a society that favors strong academic or political prowess. Loreborne communities highly value knowledge, frequently in the form of the preservation of history, advancement of politics, study of science, honing of skill, or collecting of mythology. Because of this, many Loreborne communities are not closely tied to the landscape. Very often, this collective will construct and maintain structures designed to protect physical books and records, and they will only engage with nature and the physical world in a particularly intellectual way. While some Loreborne collectives are isolationist, others use their knowledge to make deft political maneuvers in a larger governmental landscape. Some Loreborne communities, such as those surrounding a college or attached to a guild, are smaller enclaves within wider societies and they may operate with a separate and unique ethos.

Loreborne individuals are often: direct, eloquent, inquisitive, patient, rhapsodic, witty.

Community Feature

Well-Read: You have advantage on any rolls regarding the history, culture, or politics of a prominent person or place.

Orderborne

Being part of an Orderborne community means you are from a collective that focuses on discipline or faith, and you uphold a set of principles that reflect your experience there. Orderborne are frequently some of the most powerful among the surrounding communities. By aligning the members of their society around a common value or goal, such as a god, doctrine, ethos, or even shared business or trade; the ruling bodies of these enclaves are able to mobilize larger populations with less effort. While Orderborne communities may take a variety of forms, some even profoundly pacifistic, perhaps the most feared are those that structure themselves around military prowess. In this case, it is not uncommon for Orderborne to provide soldiers for hire for other cities or countries.

Orderborne are often: ambitious, benevolent, pensive, sardonic, stoic.

Community Feature

Dedicated: Record three sayings or values your upbringing instilled in you. Once per short rest, when you describe how you’re embodying one of these principles through your current action, you can roll a d20 as your Hope Die instead of a d12.

Ridgeborne

Being part of a Ridgeborne community means you’ve called the rocky peaks and sharp cliffs of the mountainside home. Those who’ve lived in the mountains often consider themselves hardier than most because they’ve thrived among the most dangerous terrain many continents have to offer. These groups are adept at adaptation, developing unique technologies and equipment to move both people and products across the difficult terrain. As such, Ridgeborne grow up scrambling and climbing, making them particularly sure-footed and sure of will. Ridgeborne localities appear in a variety of forms, some cities carve out cliff faces, others construct castles of stone, and still more live in small homes on wind-blown peaks. Outside forces are likely to have a particularly hard time attacking Ridgeborne groups, as the small militias and large military forces of the mountain are adept at utilizing their high ground advantage.

Ridgeborne individuals are often: bold, curt, hardy, indomitable, loyal, reserved, stubborn.

Community Feature

Steady: You have advantage on rolls to traverse dangerous cliffs and ledges, navigate harsh environments, and use your survival knowledge. Additionally, gain an Armor Slot at character creation.

Seaborne

Being part of a Seaborne community means you lived on or near a large body of water. Seaborne communities are built, both physically and culturally, around the specific waters they call home—some of these groups live along the shore, constructing ports for locals and travelers alike. These harbors may function as both centers of commerce, tourist attractions, or even just a safe place to lay down one’s head after weeks of travel. Other Seaborne live on the water in small boats or large ships, with the idea of “home” comprising a ship and its crew, rather than any one landmass. No matter their exact location, Seaborne communities are closely tied to the ocean tides and the creatures that inhabit them. Seaborne learn to fish at a young age, and will train from birth to be able to hold their breath and swim in even the most tumultuous waters. Individuals from these groups are highly sought after for sailing abilities, and many will become captains of vessels, either within their own community, working for another, or even at the helm of a powerful naval operation.

Seaborne are often: candid, cooperative, exuberant, fierce, resolute, weathered.

Community Feature

Know the Tide: You can sense the ebb and flow of life. When you roll with Fear, put a token on this card. You can hold a number of tokens up to your level. Before you make an action roll, you can spend one or more of these tokens to add them as +1 modifiers to your roll. At the end of a session, clear all unused tokens

Slyborne

Being part of a Slyborne community means growing up in the underbelly of society, surrounded by criminals and con artists. Members of Slyborne communities are brought together by their position in society; they operate outside the law. Commonly, these communities are comprised of those with a array of skills: forging, thievery, smuggling, and violence. Among the Slyborne there are a variety of social classes, including those who have garnered vast wealth and influence to those without a coin to their name. To the outside eye, the Slyborne may seem like ruffians with no loyalty, but these communities possess some of the strictest codes of honor which, when broken, may result in a terrifying end for the perpetrator.

Slyborne individuals are often: clever, formidable, menacing, unflinching, shrewd, tenacious.

Community Feature

Scoundrel: You have advantage on any rolls to negotiate with criminals, detect lies, or find a safe place to hide.

Underborne

Being part of an Underborne community means that you’re from a subterranean society. Many Underborne live right beneath the cities and villages of other collectives, while some live much deeper. These communities range from small family groups in burrows, to massive metropolises in caverns of stone. In many locales, Underborne are recognized for their incredible boldness and skill that enable great feats of architecture and engineering. Underborne are regularly hired for their bravery, as even the least daring among them is likely to have encountered a number of belowground beasts in their daily lives, and learning to dispatch such creatures is common practice amongst these societies. Because of the danger of their environment, many Underborne communities develop unique non-verbal languages that may prove equally useful on the surface.

Underborne individuals are often: composed, elusive, indomitable, innocative, unpretentious, resourceful.

Community Feature

Low-Light Living: When you are in an area with low light or heavy shadow, you have advantage on rolls to hide, investigate, or perceive details within that area.

Wanderborne

Being part of a Wanderborne community means that you’ve lived as a nomad, not having a permanent home but experiencing a wide variety of cultures. Unlike many communities that are defined by their locale, Wanderborne are defined by their traveling lifestyle. Because of their frequent migration, Wanderborne are likely to put less value on the accumulation of material possessions in favor of acquiring information, skills and connections. While some Wanderborne are allied by a common ethos, such as a religion or set of political or economic values, others come together after shared tragedy, such as the loss of their home or lands. No matter the reason, the dangers posed by life on the road, and the choice to continue down the road together, mean that Wanderborne are known for their unwavering loyalty.

Wanderborne are often: magnanimous, mirthful, inscrutable, reliable, savvy, unorthodox.

Community Feature

Nomadic Pack: Add a Nomadic Pack to your inventory. Once per session, you can spend a Hope to reach into this pack and pull out a common item that is useful to the situation. Work with the GM to figure out what this item is.

Wildborne

Being part of a Wildborne community means you lived deep within the forest. Wildborne communities are defined by their dedication to the conservation of their homelands, and many have strong religious and cultural ties to the plants that they live among. This results in a unique architectural and technological advancements that favor sustainability rather than short-term, high-yield results. It is a hallmark of Wildborne societies integrate their villages and cities with the natural environment and avoid disturbing the lives of the plants and animals. While some construct their lodging high in the branches of trees themselves, still others establish their homes on the ground beneath the canopies. It’s not uncommon for Wildborne to remain fairly reclusive and hidden within their woodland homes.

Wildborne individuals are often: hardy, loyal, nurturing, reclusive, sagacious, vibrant.

Community Feature

Lightfoot: Your movement is naturally silent. You have advantage on rolls to move without being heard.

Additional Player Tools

Adjusting Abilities and Spells

There are spells and abilities in Daggerheart that designate the use of particular assets and senses including sight, sound, touch, and movement. Like players, characters may be blind, deaf or mute; they may have disabilities or limb differences; or any number of unique qualities that occur within individuals.

Just as there is no set style for weapons combat, there is no set style of casting within Daggerheart. No spell requires spoken language or specific motions. For example, sign language is equally viable for a Wordsmith Bard as any spoken language.

If you read a domain ability, spell, or other instructions in the game, and notice that the directions don’t apply to your character (such as a blind PC’s spell affecting “a target you can see”) work with your GM to adjust the requirements of that effect. For example, you might:

• Utilize another sense (“a target you can hear”).
• Specify the mechanical range (“within Close range”).
• Add narrative character details (the PC uses an aid or magical means to perceive the target).
• Address it through world-building (the Mortal Realm is constructed to be accessible for disabled characters).

Modifying spells, abilities, or other aspects of Daggerheart also extends to supporting the enjoyment of everyone at the table. We invite you to adjust the flavor of cards based on the “lines” and “veils” established by the group (see “Session Zero and Safety Tools” in chapter 3). For example, a player might want their Druid to use the Conjure Swarm spell, but either they or another player feel uncomfortable with bugs. In that case, they could conjure other objects such as flower petals, small birds, or even a specific bug (like a butterfly) that feels comfortable for them. All players, including the GM, should abide by the customizations made to accommodate one another.

Playing Physically Disabled Characters

Section in progress

[Combat Wheelchair coming soon!]

Playing Blind, Deaf, or Mute Characters

Section in progress

Chapter Two

Playing An Adventure

Playing an Adventure

In this chapter, we’ll cover what you need to know as a player in order to start your adventure. This includes the core mechanics, how combat works, some optional rules to consider adding to your game, and more.

The Flow of the Game

In a session of Daggerheart, the players go back and forth describing what their characters do in the fictional circumstances the GM lays out for them, building on each other’s ideas and working together to tell an exciting story. The mechanics of the game help to mediate this conversation, providing structure to the discussion and a way to resolve moments where it’s unclear what will happen next.

One of the most important aspects of this conversation is asking questions; in Daggerheart, this should go both ways. The players will often ask clarifying questions about the scene: “Are there any guards outside the door?” or “Do you think I can jump across the gap safely?” or “What kind of weapon are they holding?” The GM usually either provides the answer or tells the player to roll to determine the answer. But the GM should also ask questions of the players, and build upon those answers to create the fiction: “How do you sneak around this building so carefully?” or “What does the camp you’ve set up here look like?” or “You’ve found a way to scramble up the wall safely—what was here that made it easier than you anticipated?” This back and forth allows for a collaborative conversation where everyone has a chance to contribute to the fiction in a meaningful way.

For those familiar with roleplaying games, the flow of the game is probably something that comes second-nature by now, but for those new to this kind of experience, it may not. Below is a basic look at the procedure of play; the gameplay loop that drives every session.

• GM Narrates Details: The GM gives the players the details of a scene, describing the surroundings, dangers, and any important elements the characters would notice immediately here; what they see, smell, hear, feel, etc.
• Players and GM Ask Questions: The players ask questions to clarify the scene, gathering details to help them take appropriate action. The GM also asks questions of the players to provide added detail to the scene and open the world to be influenced by their perspectives.
• Players and GM Answer Questions: The players should respond to these questions by providing information about their characters and the world that the GM can build on. The GM should respond to these questions by giving the players any information they can obtain easily and without complication. If they want something more than what is readily available, the GM will inform them what they need to do to get it.
• Choose and Resolve Actions: The information the players receive will often spur them into taking action. If it does, the GM will help facilitate the resolution of these actions, and everyone will work together to evolve the fiction based on the outcome. If it doesn’t, the GM should provide more detailed information, action, or consequences until it does.
• Repeat Cycle: Because the scene has now changed in some way, this process repeats from the beginning.

Example Interaction

Here’s an example of how a GM and player might interact to progress a scene:

Emerson’s character has just been caught trying to pickpocket an important letter off of a noble in a busy market square in a medium-sized town.

“How many guards did you say this lordling had?” Emerson asks.

“Two right there with him, and you suspect that there’s another two out of uniform back a bit in the crowd.”

“Great. I’m by an alley, right? I want to back off and find a place to climb up to the rooftop before anyone can catch me.”

“Sure thing,” the GM says. Based on the situation, they decide the PC doesn’t need to roll to accomplish what they want to do: “You’re fast and the noble noticed you rather than the guards, so you can scramble up without a roll. The guards will be following you, though, and once you’re all up on the roof, they’re going to pull their crossbows and start shooting.”

Emerson asks, “How close are the buildings here? Could I run and leap across to the next building’s roof?”

“Not that far apart,” the GM says. “Certainly not any wider than what you’re used to from growing up in Downside. That’d be an Agility roll to escape across the rooftops. But heads up-if you don’t succeed here, you’ll probably take some serious damage from the fall. It’s a long way down.” the GM warns him. Emerson has a +2 in Agility, and also chooses to spend a Hope to use his +2 experience “Scoundrel” here to make the leap.

“I know it’s dangerous, but I can guarantee I’ve done this kind of jump before.” He gathers 4 of his Character Tokens to represent the “ Agility ” and “Scoundrel” bonuses, then rolls his Duality Dice and the tokens together. The Hope die lands on a 9 and the Fear die lands on 4. He combines those values together (13) and also adds his 4 Character Tokens for a total of 17. Because his Hope die rolled higher than Fear , Emerson tells the GM: “I rolled a 17 with Hope!”.

The GM nods. 17 is higher than the 15 difficulty they had in mind, and a success with Hope means no meaningful consequences for the action. “That’s more than enough to escape these guards. They’re armored and trying to take shots, but none of them get close to you—and they’re not good enough at jumping to risk a fall. By the time you’re two blocks away, you’ve completely lost them. Make sure to take Hope for that roll. But now you’re farther away from the noble and his letter you were trying to nab. What do you do?”

Core Mechanics

This section covers the core mechanics of Daggerheart and how to utilize them as a player at the table. dditionally, the “Equipment” section near the end of this chapter presents rules on weapons and armor, and the previous chapter contains rules for using your domain cards, class, subclass, ancestry, and community.

On Your Turn

The game has no “turns” in the traditional sense; players don’t have a set amount of actions they can take or things they can do before play passes to someone else. In most senses, everyone should follow the fiction to figure out what happens next, bouncing around the table to whoever it makes sense to spotlight in that moment.

Moves and Actions

Whenever you decide to do something in the story and the spotlight shifts to you, your PC makes a move, which you describe to the group. These moves can include talking to another character, interacting with your environment, using a class feature, and most anything else you can dream of.

Some moves automatically succeed (it’s easy to open an unlocked door), while others require a roll to determine the outcome (it’s hard to break down a barricaded door). Any move that requires a roll is an action; a few other moves also state they are actions, though they don’t require a roll. When you make an action, play pauses while you make an action roll to determine how things play out (see “Action Rolls”)—and if you’re in combat or otherwise using the action tracker, you’ll also place an action token on the tracker (see “Action Tracker”).

Tip: If a move says to use an action, but you’re not using the action tracker right now, you can still make that move! You only have to pay attention to which moves are actions when you’re using the tracker.

Moves in Combat

Since Daggerheart relies on a flexible back-and-forth conversation between the GM and players, combat has no initiative order, no rounds, and no distinct number of actions you can take on your “turn.” Instead, fights play out narratively moment-to-moment, just like non-combat scenes. This provides the players opportunities to team up together in their tactics, respond appropriately to narrative changes in the scene, and not be locked into violence once the first strike happens.

In combat scenarios that have the potential to last more than a few rolls, or in any scene where moment-to-moment gameplay becomes important to track, you can use the Action Tracker to track each PC action (see “Action Tracker”). This provides structure for these scenes without compromising flexibility.

GM Moves and Adversary Actions

PCs aren’t the only ones who make moves—the GM can make a GM move at nearly any time (see “Making Moves” in chapter 3), most commonly when a PC rolls with Fear or fails an action roll. GM moves typically escalate the scene in an exciting and dangerous way; a PC might take an attack from some enemies, become Vulnerable, or anything else that significantly changes the scene. This creates a back-and-forth conversation as the story evolves organically between the GM and players. Many GM moves don’t require spending any resources, but the GM spends action tokens to activate adversaries in battle (see “Using the Action Tracker” in chapter 3), and they spend Fear to make more powerful moves like using an adversary or environment’s Fear move (see “Spending Fear” in chapter 3).

Duality Dice

The core dice in Daggerheart are a pair of d12 dice called Duality dice. These d12s are different colors (or if you prefer, different sizes or patterns), one representing Hope and the other representing Fear. Each player chooses two colors of dice that embody these concepts for them, using them any time they make an action roll (see “Action Rolls”) during the game. Your Duality dice don’t need to be the same two colors as anyone else’s around the table, but they do need to be easily recognizable from each other at a glance.

Example: Kat looks at their choices of d12 dice and decides on a blue die to represent Hope and a red die to represent Fear. Rowan looks at her dice and instead chooses a yellow d12 die to represent Hope and a purple d12 die to represent Fear. Dani thinks about using a black d12 with red inking as the Fear die and a black d12 die with white inking as her Hope die, but decides to go with an orange d12 as her Hope die instead so that it’s easier to identify.

The Duality dice represent the way the world pushes the character back or guides them forward throughout the story. Regardless of whether you succeed or fail on an action roll, your Duality roll will influence how the scene evolves.

Rolling Hope and Fear

Hope and Fear represent the duality of the world beyond the characters, and how the world around them impacts the action they’re attempting. One of your Duality dice is your Hope die, and the other is your Fear die.

Hope. When you roll your Duality dice and the Hope die rolls higher than the Fear die, you “ roll with Hope.” When this happens on an action roll, mark one of the Hope slots on your character sheet, up to a maximum of five. You might also gain Hope from spells, abilities, or other things that happen in the game.

Fear. When you roll your Duality dice and the Fear die rolls higher than the Hope die, you “ roll with Fear.” When this happens on an action roll, even if you succeed on your action roll, there are consequences or complications that come from it.

Critical Successes

Whenever you make a Duality roll, if both dice roll the same number, you automatically roll a Critical Success, even if you would’ve otherwise failed because the total is lower than your roll’s difficulty (see “Roll Difficulty”). Not only does a critical success on an action roll count as a roll with Hope, but you also clear a Stress.

If you critically succeed on an attack roll, you also deal extra damage, as described in the “Damage Rolls” section.

Using Hope

Once you’ve gained Hope and recorded it on your character sheet, you can spend it to power special abilities (erasing it from your character sheet when you do). Your Hope carries over between sessions, but you can only hold up to six Hope at any given time, so you don’t want to save it for too long. Hope can be used in several ways: to Help an Ally, to Utilize an Experience, or to Activate a Hope Feature.

Help an Ally

You can spend one Hope to help an ally who is making an action roll that you could feasibly aid them in. When you do this, describe how you’re helping and roll a d6 advantage die (see “Advantage and Disadvantage”). They can add the result to their action roll. If more than one PC wants to help an ally, each spends a Hope to roll a d6 advantage die, and the highest result among all those advantage dice is added to the roll.

If the PC who is being helped already has advantage on the roll from another source, they can roll that d6 along with the other players’ advantage dice from Help an Ally, then pick the highest result among all of them.

Utilize an Experience

You can spend a Hope to utilize one of your relevant Experiences on an action roll, adding its modifier to the dice results. If more than one Experience could apply, you can spend an additional Hope for each Experience you want to add to your result.

Activate a Hope Feature

Spells and abilities may also allow (or require) you to spend Hope to activate certain effects. A Hope Feature is any effect that asks you to spend Hope to activate it. If the text instructs you to “spend Hope,” that means you must immediately spend the specified number of Hope, or you can’t trigger the Hope Feature.

When using a Hope Feature, if you already rolled with Hope as the higher Duality Die for that action, you can just spend the Hope from that die instead of erasing a Hope from your character sheet. Otherwise, you’ll need to spend Hope you’ve stored from earlier rolls to activate the effect.

Unless an effect states otherwise, you can’t spend Hope multiple times on the same feature to increase or repeat its effects. For example, if a feature says you can “spend a Hope to add 1d6 to the damage roll”, you can’t spend two Hope and add 2d6 instead.

Tip: Some effects only trigger “on a success with Hope”. This doesn’t mean you can spend Hope on a successful roll with Fear to get the effect; it instead means the effect only takes place when you roll with Hope and you succeed on your action roll. On this kind of effect, you don’t have to spend Hope to activate it—it just happens as long as the conditions of the roll are met.

Each class also has a unique Hope Feature, such as “Druid’s Hope” or “Guardian’s Hope.” These powerful abilities allow the character to spend all six Hope on a display of great power in keeping with their class’s theme, turning the tides in a combat or other scene. If you find yourself maxing out on Hope, using your Hope Special could allow you to get the upper hand—but don’t neglect other uses of Hope like helping an ally and utilizing experiences. Hope is a liquid resource, and it’s meant to be used frequently.

Using Fear

As a player, rolling with Fear doesn’t mean your action roll failed (see “Action Rolls”)—but you’ll face some type of complication. For example, you might only learn partial information, face a strike from the enemy you just attacked, or encounter an unexpected danger. If you also failed on the action roll where you rolled Fear, you’ll instead face major consequences or complications.

When you roll with Fear, you don’t record it on your character sheet. Instead, the GM makes a move to reflect the complications of your Fear roll. This move might immediately affect the scene, but the GM sometimes uses that move to instead collect a Fear token. The GM can later spend these stored Fear tokens on effects such as powering big adversary and environment moves (see “Spending Fear” in chapter 3).

Evasion Score

Your evasion score represents your ability to avoid attacks and other unwanted effects from adversaries. This score sets the difficulty for any roll another creature makes against you (see the upcoming “Action Rolls” section). Your base evasion score is determined by your class, but it can be modified by domain cards, gear, statuses, and more.

You get to describe what your evasion score represents—take this opportunity to be creative, evocative, and deepen your character. You might be good at acrobatic dodging or precise footwork, you might parry incoming blows, you might disrupt enemy attacks with well-timed counters, or you might have magical shields or enchanted objects that ward off blows. Similarly, when an adversary misses you with an attack or other effect, you can enrich the scene by describing how you avoid the hit.

While these descriptions add to your character and to the story your group is telling together, they don’t change the normal evasion rules or give you special bonuses. For example, you might describe how you use a powerful burst of magic to redirect an arrow headed your way, but this doesn’t mean you can redirect the arrow back at the enemy who fired it and deal them the damage instead.

Hit Points and Damage Thresholds

Hit Points represent the physical injuries and discomforts experienced by a character during your adventures. Your available Hit Points, sometimes called HP, are determined by your class. When you take damage—usually when an adversary succeeds on an attack roll against your evasion score—you mark between 1 and 3 HP, representing that you’ve lost that much health.

The number of HP you mark is determined by your class’s damage thresholds (as described in “Marking Hit Points” below). As a 1st-level character, you’ll usually mark at least 1 Hit Point on your character sheet each time you take damage; as you gain levels, you’ll become more resilient. The dark bars in the “Hit Points & Stress” section of your character sheet show the three tiers of damage you can take: Severe, Major, and Minor.

For example, a Level 1 Guardian starts with the following thresholds and Hit Points:

Marking Hit Points

When the GM tells you to take damage (see “Damage Rolls”), compare that number to your thresholds, and mark Hit Points depending on the tier:

• Severe Damage is equal to or above your Severe threshold; this marks 3 HP.
• Major Damage is below Severe but equal to or above your Major threshold; this marks 2 HP.
• Minor Damage is anything below your Major threshold; marks 1 HP.

If you ever mark your final available Hit Point, you must immediately make a death move (see “Death”).

Example: In the image above, a Guardian’s incoming damage is Severe if it’s 18 or higher, and they mark 3 Hit Points. If the damage is 8 or higher (but below 16), the damage is Major and they mark 2 Hit Points. If the damage is below their Major threshold of 8, the damage is Minor and they mark 1 Hit Point.

If you ever reduce incoming damage to 0 or less (through armor or any other means), you don’t mark any hit points. When you mark your final available Hit Point, you must immediately make a death move.

Clearing Hit Points

Any time you make downtime moves (see “Downtime”), you have the opportunity to clear some of your Hit Points.

Additionally, as you level up your character, you’ll be able to permanently increase both your Damage Thresholds and your number of Hit Point slots, making your character more resilient against incoming attacks.

Optional Rule: Massive Damage

To make the game more dangerous, the table may implement a Massive threshold that’s double your Severe threshold. If you ever take Massive Damage, you mark an additional Hit Point.

Using the example above in “Marking Hit Points,” if the Guardian is dealt 32 damage (or more), they take Massive Damage and mark 4 Hit Points.

Stress Points

Stress Points represents the mental and physical strain put on your character during their adventures. Some effects require you to mark a Stress Point. Additionally, you can somtimes choose to mark a Stress Point to affect the narrative; when you do, consider the burden your character knowingly accepts. Does your anxiety increase as you use a new tactic in a high-stakes negotiation? Do you accept the impact of witnessing horrors in order to dive back into danger and save an innocent? Are you willing to take minor abrasions to fatally wound your foe?

Marking Stress Points

When an effect requires you to mark a Stress Point, do so on your character sheet. Whenever you mark your last Stress, you become Vulnerable (see “Conditions”) until you either clear at least 1 Stress or clear the Vulnerable condition through other means (such as a spell, ability, or GM fiat).

If you’re ever forced to mark one or more Stress Points but your slots are already full, instead mark 1 Hit Point. For example, if you should take 3 Stress from an adversary but your stress slots are already filled, you instead mark a Hit Point.

As with Hit Points, when you take Downtime actions (see “Downtime”), you have the opportunity to clear some of your Stress. Additionally, when you gain levels, you’ll be able to increase the amount of Stress you can withstand.

Stress from Adversaries

Some adversary actions might require you to mark Stress. These actions represent the adversary’s ability to demoralize you, exhaust you, or similarly push your physical and mental limits.

Stress from Complications

Your GM can also inflict Stress as the complication or consequence of an action, especially when a roll doesn’t go as well as it could have. For example, you might mark Stress as a complication from having a difficult conversation, clashing swords with a worthy foe, or committing an act of incredible bravery.

The GM might also give you the option of marking Stress to avoid a different complication.

Stress from Moves

You might be able to mark Stress to perform certain moves that call for it. Unless an effect states otherwise, you can’t mark Stress multiple times on the same feature to increase or repeat its effects. For example, if an ability lets you mark Stress to add 1d8 to a damage roll, you can’t mark 3 Stress and add 3d8 instead.

You can’t use any move that requires you to mark Stressif you don’t have any slots to mark.

Action Rolls

In each scene, the GM and players go back and forth describing what happens. If you make a move where the outcome is in question, and the success and failure of that move is interesting to the story, your move is an action. In these cases, the GM usually calls for an action roll to determine how the moment unfolds. However, if an action would either be impossible to perform, or it’s easy enough to pull off without complication, there is no need to roll—you already know the outcome!

When the GM (or your spell, attack, or ability) asks you to make an action roll, you’ll do so by rolling your two Duality Dice. These 12-sided dice embody the way the world’s chance, luck, and fate play a part in the story. Each action roll follows four basic steps, which are detailed later in this section:

Step 1: Pick a Character Trait. Ask the GM what character trait best applies to the roll, and they will set a difficulty for the roll (either openly or privately, at their discretion) based on the details of the scene.

Step 2: Add Extra Dice and Modifiers. Decide if any Experience or other modifiers also apply, and grab any character tokens, advantage/disadvantage dice, or other dice as needed.

Step 3: Roll the Dice. Roll your Duality dice, any additional dice, and your character tokens. Total their result, telling the GM the total and which Duality die rolled higher. “I got a 15 with Fear!”

Step 4: Resolve the Situation. Work together to resolve the outcome of your actions.

Step 1: Pick a Character Trait

When the GM calls for an action roll, your character is usually already starting to perform your move. Depending on the situation and how you’ve described what you’re trying to do, the GM might tell you what character trait to use, or your move might require you to roll using a certain trait (see “Trait Rolls”). Other times, the GM might ask you for more information to help decide: “You want to convince this guard to let you through. How are you speaking to them? Are you trying to intimidate them? To trick them?”

Sometimes, more than one trait makes sense—in this case, the GM might ask you which trait fits best, give you a choice between two, or make a judgment call based on the situation at hand. “As you tell him about the important message you have for the king, I need you to make a roll here to determine whether he can tell you’re lying or not. I’d say Instinct is probably what best applies, does that sound right to you?”

Unless your action you’re making requires a certain trait, feel free to suggest one and describe why it’s a good match for what you’re doing. However, the GM always has final say over which trait applies.

Roll Difficulty

When you decide to make an action roll, the GM typically sets the roll’s difficulty—the number you need to reach when you roll. This number is based on the situation and how effective your approach might be. If you’re making an action roll against an adversary, the difficulty is usually defined by their stat block.

The GM can choose to share this number or keep it to themself. Even if they don’t tell you the difficulty, they should make any potential consequences of your actions clear (unless the consequences aren’t something your character would reasonably be aware of). For example, “You’re putting yourself in melee with this guy, you might take a hit in return,” or “If you fail this jump, you might not make it to the other side.”

Step 2: Add Extra Dice and Modifiers

Once you know which trait to use, it’s time to figure out if any other dice or modifiers apply to the roll. Set aside any dice you need, such as the following:

Duality Dice. You roll your Hope and Fear die with every action roll.

Advantage or Disadvantage. If you have advantage or disadvantage on the roll (see “Advantage and Disadvantage”), set aside that d6 for your roll. If you’re rolling with disadvantage, make sure your disadvantage die is a distinct color, so you can remember which die to subtract from the result.

Class Features, Subclass Cards, and Domain Cards. Some class features allow you to add extra dice to your roll (or allow another character to give you a die). For example, a Bard can give you a Rally die, which you can add to an action, reaction, or damage roll of your choice. Similarly, some of your subclass and domain cards might grant you a bonus die. Set these aside for your roll.

Other Dice. Occasionally, other effects might give you an extra die.

Then count the modifiers that apply to your action roll, setting aside that many character tokens to help you keep track (see “Counting Character Tokens” below). Modifiers can include the following:

Chosen Trait. Add the modifier for whichever trait you and your GM chose for this roll (and remember that some modifiers are negative).

Experience. If you have an Experience (or several) that you think applies to the situation, describe how your Experience helps your chance of success, then spend one Hope per Experience to add its modifier to your roll. The GM may ask you for more information to justify that Experience, but you have final say (within reason) over whether your Experience applies.

Class Features, Subclass Cards, and Domain Cards. Sometimes these grant you a modifier to your roll, so keep an eye out.

Other Bonuses or Penalties. Add any other bonuses or penalties, such as from the GM, the items you have equipped, and other sources.

Tip: If you consistently use the same Experience on every roll, it’s very likely the GM will require you to narrow the scope of your Experience or change it altogether. The purpose of Experience is to reflect the way your character has specialized in something important, not to give you a bonus to all your actions.

Counting Character Tokens

Once you declare what modifiers you’re applying to your action roll, grab that many character tokens (see “What Do You Need to Play” in the introduction).

Tokens are never rolled for a random value; they are simply +1 counters you add to your hand to aid in counting your results. Before adding them to a roll, figure out the sum of all of your modifiers, then take that many tokens. For example, if you have a -1 to Agility and a +2 modifier from an Experience you’re utilizing, you have a +1 total modifier to the roll, so set aside one token to represent that.

Tip: Occasionally, your total modifier on a roll might be negative; in this case, you can still use the tokens, but remember they’ll signify the number you need to subtract from the result, not add.

Step 3: Roll the Dice

Once you’ve gathered all your dice and tokens from step 2, roll them all at the same time. Counting each token as 1, add all your tokens and dice rolls together—but keep an eye out for numbers you need to subtract, such as your disadvantage die or tokens that represent a negative modifier.

Then tell the GM the total number you rolled, along with which Duality Die rolled higher—“I rolled a 15 with Fear!”

Tip: If you determined in the previous step that your roll has a negative modifier and/or disadvantage, be sure to subtract the tokens and/or die representing this, rather than add them.

Adding Bonuses to Rolls

Some features allow you (or another player) to add a bonus to your action rolls, damage rolls, or reaction rolls. Unless otherwise specified, all bonuses must be added before you make the roll. For example, if a Bard gives you a Rally die, you must choose to use it before you roll, rather than after you see the numbers on the other dice.

A few features let you affect a roll after the result has been totaled, either by applying a bonus (like the Seraph’s Prayer Dice feature) or by allowing for a reroll (like the Faerie’s Luckbender feature). At the GM’s discretion, you can generally use these after the GM has said whether a roll succeeded or failed, but you must do so before the narrative consequences unfold or another dice roll is made.

Step 4: Resolve the Situation

Each time you make an action roll, the scene changes in some way. The GM always describes how the world reacts to the action that’s been taken, but depending on what your action result is, the situation changes differently.

If your total meets or exceeds the difficulty set by the GM, the action succeeds—you get what you want. If the total is below the difficulty, the action fails—you don’t get what you want—but with one exception! As described in the “Duality Dice” section, if your Duality Dice both roll the same number, you’ve rolled a Critical Success (even if your total wasn’t enough to meet the difficulty).

Based on your roll total, the GM uses the following guide to decide how the narrative moves forward:

On a critical success, you get what you want and a little extra. Gain a Hope and clear a Stress. If you made an attack roll, you also deal extra damage equal to the maximum value of your damage dice (see “Calculating Damage”).

On a success with Hope, you pull it off well and get what you want. Gain a Hope.

On a success with Fear, you get what you want, but it comes with a cost or consequence.

On a failure with Hope, things don’t go to plan. You probably don’t get what you want and there are consequences, but you gain a Hope.

On a failure with Fear, things go very poorly. You probably don’t get what you want, and there is a major consequence or complication because of it.

After announcing your roll’s result, always look to the GM to find out what happens next. (“Making Moves” in chapter 3 guides the GM on resolving action rolls and making GM moves.)

Story Is Consequence

In Daggerheart, every time you roll the dice, the scene changes in some way. There is no such thing as a roll where “nothing happens,” because the fiction should constantly be evolving based on the successes and failures of the characters.

A “failure” doesn’t mean you simply don’t get what you want, especially if that would result in a moment of inaction. The game is more interesting when every action the players take yields an active outcome—something that changes the situation they’re in.

For example, if you fail a roll to pick a lock, it’s not just that the door doesn’t open. On a failure with Hope, it might mean you can hear the rumble of footsteps coming down the hall behind you—the enemies you previously escaped before are getting close, and you’re going to have to act quickly to hide, or take a different approach and find a way through. On a failure with Fear, the door might’ve been magically warded to keep thieves away, and its arcane alarm triggers. Meanwhile, on a success with Fear, you might succeed in unlocking the door, but you’re spotted by the enemies within. These consequences are what make the game interesting and drive forward the adventure you’re all on together.

Every GM and player has a different level of interest and comfort in this roll-by-roll improvisation. Some groups may prefer a largely predetermined world—for example, the GM could’ve previously decided there are two guards on patrol, and you roll simply to learn whether you unwittingly run into both of them, whether one rounds the corner but you catch them unawares, or whether you escape both guards without notice. In other groups, the GM might not have decided if any guards exist at all—but after you roll a failure with Fear, the GM weaves two guards into the story you’re creating together. Either approach is okay, and you’ll likely use a mix of both in each session! But Daggerheart shines when each player feels free to affect a story that doesn’t exist yet, rather than waiting for a predetermined story to unfold. Part of the game’s fun is discovering those unplanned moments together.

Example Action Roll

Sara’s Rogue, Isabella, is trying to run across a narrow parapet to stop the mage that is raining spellfire down on her party. The GM tells Sara to make an Agility roll with a difficulty of 15. Isabella’s Agility is 2, so Sara rolls the Duality Dice, adds them together, then adds two tokens (representing her +2 modifier from Agility) to get her total.

Here are examples of the five possible results of her roll:

Failure with Fear

Sara rolls 3 on the Hope die and 6 on the Fear die, plus 2 from Agility for a result of 11 with Fear. The GM describes the mage responding quickly to Isabella’s maneuver, making an attack roll. It is successful, so the mage knocks her off the parapet with a blast of magical fire and deals damage. Isabella crashes down to the level below and must find a way back up if she plans to face the mage head-on again.

Failure with Hope

Sara rolls 6 on the Hope die and 3 on the Fear die, plus 2 from Agility. That’s an 11 with Hope. 11 isn’t enough to make it across safely, so on a failure, the GM makes a move, narrating that the mage sees Isabella coming and makes an attack, which succeeds. The mage’s blast knocks Isabella off-balance, leaving her dangling from the parapet, her progress stalled and position precarious. Isabella gains a Hope, but her friends are still in the line of fire and may need to help Isabella reach safety.

Success with Fear

Sara rolls 5 on the Hope die and a 9 on the fear die, plus 2 from Agility. That’s a 16 with Fear, a success. The GM asks Sara to describe how she races across the parapet, dodging the mage’s blasts. After her description, the GM takes over, saying that once Isabella has crossed, she faces her foe head-on, blocking them from attacking the rest of the party. But then the mage reaches out with magic and crumbles the parapet behind Isabella, leaving her trapped and unable to move back to safety. At least the mage isn’t attacking her friends, right?

Success with Hope

Sara rolls 10 on the Hope die and 6 on the Fear die, plus 2 from Agility. That’s an 18 with Hope, a success. She immediately gains a Hope, then the GM asks her to describe what it looks like as Isabella races across the parapet and interrupts the mage’s assault on the party. Since Sara rolled a success with Hope, the GM asks what the players want to do next.

Critical Success

Sara rolls 8 on the Hope die and 8 on the Fear die. That’s a critical success! Isabella immediately gains a Hope and clears a Stress. The GM offers Sara a choice of two extras - she can deal damage to the mage or gain advantage on the next roll against the mage. Sara describes how Isabella races across the parapet and lands a telling blow on the mage, not just stopping their attacks on the party, but dealing her weapon damage as well. Since a critical success counts as a roll with Hope, the GM asks the players what they want to do next.

Special Action Rolls

Many action rolls just use the above rules. However, some situations require special types of action rolls—these use the following rules.

Trait Rolls

A trait roll is an action roll that specifically calls for a certain character trait to be used. These rolls often appear on Domain Cards, and say something like “Presence Roll” or “Agility Roll (12).” If there is a number in parentheses after the trait, that is the difficulty you must meet in order to succeed. If there is no number, the difficulty is up to the GM to decide.

Though a trait roll requires you to roll using that trait modifier, you can still add your Experience and other bonuses to the roll.

Attack Rolls

When you make an action roll with the intent to do harm to an enemy, you’re making an attack roll. Reference the weapon or spell you’re using for the attack to determine what trait it uses. We’ll talk more about spellcast rolls in the next section, but for a standard physical or magic weapon attack, use the character trait the weapon requires (see “Equipment”), as well as any Experience or other modifiers that are applicable, and resolve it as you would a normal action roll.

If you succeed, make a Damage Roll (see “Damage Rolls”) to determine how much harm you do to the target.

By default, each attack roll can only target one enemy. But if a spell or ability allows you to target multiple enemies, roll once and apply that result to all of the enemies the attack can hit. If the roll meets or exceeds the difficulty of any of those enemies, the attack is successful against that target (but not necessarily against other targets).

Unarmed Attack Rolls

When making an attack without a weapon—for example, a punch or kick—make an attack roll as usual. This attack often uses Strength or Finesse, but could be any trait depending on how you describe the attack. On a success, your damage dice are a number of d4s equal to half your proficiency (rounded up). All unarmed attacks deal physical damage.

Spellcast Rolls

Spellcast rolls are a type of action roll that’s used when you’re creating significant magical effects (often via a Domain Card). These are called for like this: “Spellcast Roll” or “Spellcast Roll (14)”. Instead of referring to a specific stat on the character sheet, these rolls use the Spellcast stat of your class (which you can find on the Subclass Foundation card).

As with Trait Rolls, if there is a number in parentheses, that is the difficulty they must pass in order for it to succeed.

If a spellcast roll is intended to damage a target, it’s also considered an attack roll.

You generally need to be using a specific spell to make a spellcast roll—you can’t just make up magic effects (like forming a bridge out of vines) that aren’t on your character sheet or cards. However, at the GM’s discretion, they might allow you to creatively apply an existing spell in an unusual way. And you can always flavor your magic to match the kind of character you’re playing, but that flavor shouldn’t give you access to effects you wouldn’t normally be able to perform with your spells.

Example 1: If a Sorcerer is trying to reach a cliff high above him and doesn’t have a spell or ability that lets him get there, he wouldn’t be able to just make a generic Spellcast roll to have magic lift him up into the air and fly him to the cliff. He would need a specific spell or ability that would provide him that kind of magic.

Example 2: If a Wizard wants their Rune Circle spell they just picked up at Level 3 to erupt from their wand in sparks, form into a galloping, flaming stallion that circles them– and this is the reason why the Rune Circle gives them protection from enemies, that’s awesome and should be highly encouraged. But if they wanted it to do extra damage to an enemy because of this narration, that wouldn’t normally be permitted.

Any time you cast a spell, the text tells you when the effect expires. It might be temporary (in which case the GM can spend their move to end the spell), at the next short or long rest, etc. If the spell doesn’t note an expiration, it stays up until you choose to end it. If you ever want to end a spell earlier than when it would normally expire, you can always choose to do so.

If you ever want to make a Spellcast roll, but you don’t have a Foundation that gives you the needed Spellcast ability, you won’t be able to make the roll.

Group Action Rolls

When multiple PCs are taking an action together—such as sneaking through the enemy camp as a group—the party nominates a leader of the action, then each player describes how they collaborate with the other PCs on the task. The action’s leader makes an action roll as usual, while the other PCs make a reaction roll using whichever traits they and the GM decide fit best (see “Reaction Rolls”).

The leader’s action roll gains a +1 bonus for each reaction roll that succeeds, and they gain a -1 penalty for each reaction roll that fails.

If the action tracker is in use, each PC who participates in a group roll adds a token to the tracker, even those who make a reaction roll instead of an action roll.

Tip: If you want to assist an ally with their own action, use Help an Ally instead (see “Using Hope ”),

Example: A party has just retrieved a stolen amulet from an ancient stronghold and are rushing out as it crashes down around them. The GM calls for a group action roll as they all try to escape. They elect the Ranger to be the leader, since that character would remember the path the best. The other party members explain how they work with the others to escape:

• The Guardian says they are going to use their size to shield the others from the falling debris, so the GM has them make a Strength reaction roll. They get a 14—a success—giving the Ranger a +1 modifier. The GM asks the Guardian to describe how they shield their friends.
• The Rogue says they are running alongside the Ranger to act as a second set of eyes in case there is a faster route. The GM has them make an Instinct reaction roll. It’s a 19—also a success—so they give the Ranger an additional +1 modifier. The GM asks the Rogue to describe what quicker path they notice that helps.
• The Wizard says that they noticed the stronghold begin to fall once the amulet was taken, so they try to understand what kind of magic caused the collapse and reverse it. The GM has them make a Knowledge reaction roll. It’s a 12—not quite enough—giving the Ranger a -1 Modifier. They ask the Wizard what happens as they are studying the amulet that causes them to drop behind for a moment.
• The Bard says that they notice the Wizard is looking like they’re not going to make it and turn back to reach out a hand in a moment of desperation, yelling “I’ve got you! We’re not leaving you behind!” The GM has them make a Presence reaction roll. It’s a 16, a success, giving the Ranger an additional +1 modifier. The GM asks the Bard and the Wizard to describe how this rescue happens successfully.

Now that everybody else has acted, the Ranger takes the total of the modifiers, in this case +2, and makes an Agility roll, hoping to lead the party to safety while dodging debris and pointing out hazards. It’s a 16 with Fear. The GM says they all take a point of Stress—but they also emerge from the stronghold just in the nick of time, the ancient stones collapsing around them.

Tag Team Rolls

Each player can choose one time per session to spend 3 Hope and initiate a Tag Team Roll with another PC. When you do, work with your chosen partner to describe how your two characters combine their actions in a unique and exciting way. Both you and your partner make separate action rolls, but before resolving the roll’s outcome, choose one of the rolls to apply for both of your results. If the chosen roll is with Hope, the PC whose action roll was chosen gains that Hope.

If the action tracker is active, Tag Team rolls only take one action token instead of two.

Tag Team rolls become especially powerful on attack rolls: on a successful Tag Team attack, you both roll damage as usual, then add it together to determine the damage dealt.

Damage Rolls

When you succeed on an attack roll against an enemy, you’ll then make a damage roll to determine how much damage—and thus what tier of Hit Points—your attack inflicts on that target.

The damage dice used to make a damage roll generally are determined by the weapon, spell, or ability you’re using to make the attack. If the attack is using a weapon, the weapon’s damage dice appear in the “Active Weapons” section of your character sheet. If the attack is coming from a spell on a domain card or class feature, it details the damage dice within the text of the move.

When striking with a weapon, you’ll generally roll a number of your weapon’s Damage Dice equal to your Proficiency at the top of your “Active Weapons” section (see “Using Weapons”). When striking with a move that does damage (such as a spell), the text of the move will tell you what kind of damage dice should be rolled instead.

Anytime a move tells you to deal damage using your proficiency, you roll a number of dice equal to your Damage Proficiency. Anytime it tells you to deal damage using your spellcast trait, you roll a number of dice equal to your Spellcast trait.

As with action rolls, if you want to add a bonus to your damage roll, you must decide to do so before you roll (see “Adding Bonuses to Rolls”)

Calculating Damage

After rolling your damage dice, add all their values together then add any modifiers to determine the result. The GM will mark the corresponding Hit Points based on that damage.

Tip: There’s a difference in this game between damage and hit points. Damage is the result of your damage roll, including your damage dice and modifiers. Hit Points reflect how hard that damage affects the creature who’s taking it; the number of Hit Points a creature marks depends on factors such as their Damage Threshold, armor, resistances, and immunities.

Damage without Modifiers

Some damage rolls just tell you to roll a certain number and type of die, without any modifiers (plus or minus signs) after it. For example, “1d8 physical damage.” In this case, simply roll the necessary number of dice and add the values together.

Example: Kat makes a successful longsword strike with their Guardian against a target using an attack roll of 16. They have a weapon proficiency of 2 and their longsword’s damage dice are d8’s, so they roll 2d8 and get a 3 and a 7, for 10 total damage.

Damage with Modifiers

Some damage rolls have modifiers on them, like 2d6+2 or 3d8+5. When this is the case, you roll the dice, add their values together, then add the modifier to that total. (This modifier is not affected by weapon proficiency.)

Example: Emerson makes a successful attack with their Improved Shortbow , which deals d6+6 damage. They have a weapon proficiency of 3, so they roll 3d6 damage dice. The results are 3, 5, and 6, totaling 14. They then add the damage dice modifier of +6, and deal 20 points of damage to the target.

Critical Successes and Damage

If your attack roll is a Critical Success, it deals extra damage! Start with the full value of your damage dice, then make a damage roll (plus modifiers) as usual, adding it to that value.

Example: Rowan makes an attack roll against a target with her cutlass and gets two 7’s on the Duality Dice—a critical success. She has a proficiency of 2, and the cutlass does d8+1 damage. She rolls her blade’s damage dice of 2d8, and they land on a 3 and 6. She adds the +1 modifier for a total of 10 on the roll. Because it’s a critical success, she automatically does an extra 16 damage (the maximum potential roll on 2d8). The total of her roll, plus the added 16 brings her total to 26 points of damage.

Multiple Sources of Damage

If for any reason damage should be applied more than once to a creature during a PC’s move, that damage should always be totaled together before applying it to the damage thresholds.

Damage Types and Resistance

Sometimes, other circumstances affect how much damage a creature takes. Use the following rules to determine whether special circumstances affect a damage roll.

Damage Types

There are two damage types a weapon, spell, or ability can inflict: physical damage and magic damage. Damage types can affect how damage is dealt or received. For example, a spell might double any magic damage, a condition might make a character resistant to physical damage, or a type of enemy might be immune to a certain type of damage all together.

Physical damage represents a hit primarily through mundane physical contact, something that is usually done without the aid of magic. Most standard blades and bows do physical damage.

Magic damage represents a hit that is primarily delivered through magical means. Most spells that deal harm to a target do magic damage.

Direct Damage

Direct damage is physical or magic damage that automatically hits a target. When a PC or GM deals direct damage, they don’t have to make an attack roll to hit.

Resistance & Immunity

Some abilities, spells, items, or other effects in the game might limit the amount of damage being done to a player through resistance or immunity. The text will usually specify whether this effect applies to either Physical or Magic. If it does not specify, the effect applies to all types of incoming damage.

When a creature has resistance to an incoming type of damage, they divide the damage in half (rounding up) before applying it to their thresholds. For example, you deal 25 damage to them, they would instead only take 13 damage. If multiple features give you resistance, they only count as one source of resistance.

When a creature has immunity to an incoming type of damage, they do not take any damage from the attack.

If you have resistance or immunity plus another way to reduce damage (such as marking an Armor Slot), apply the resistance or immunity first; if you wish, you can then use other methods to reduce the damage further.

Reaction Rolls

Some moves will prompt a reaction roll. This is a roll in response to a threat or attack, representing the character’s effort to avoid or withstand the effect.

Reaction rolls generally very similar to action rolls, except they don’t generate Hope and Fear or additional GM moves, and they don’t contribute to the action tracker, if it is in play (see “Action Tracker”). Additionally, another character can’t help you on a reaction roll—everything is happening so quickly that you’ll have to handle this alone!

When you make a reaction roll, the GM will tell you what trait to use, then you’ll make a roll with the Duality Dice, as if it were an action roll. As with action rolls, if you want to add a bonus to your reaction roll, you must decide to do so before you roll (see “Adding Bonuses to Rolls”).

NPCs can make reaction rolls too, though they follow slightly different rules (see “Adversary Reaction Rolls” in chapter 3).

Example: The GM asks Sara to make a reaction roll using Agility in order for her rogue Isabella to avoid being hit by a mage’s explosive spell. Sara rolls her Duality dice, adding her Agility, and gets a 19 with Hope. It’s a success! The GM asks her to describe how she avoids the attack.

Advantage and Disadvantage

Some features let you roll with advantage or disadvantage on an action or reaction roll:

Advantage represents an opportunity, through either magical or mundane means, that you seize upon to increase your chances of success. When you roll with advantage, you add a d6 advantage die to your total.

Disadvantage represents an additional difficulty, hardship, or challenge you face when attempting an action. When you roll with disadvantage, you subtract a d6 disadvantage die from your total.

Some of your abilities may automatically grant you advantage or disadvantage, but the GM can also choose to give it to you for any roll where it fits the story.

The d6 you roll should be a special color so it’s not confused with any d6s you roll for other effects; this allows you to easily spot your disadvantage d6 and subtract it from the result. However, you only need one d6 for rolling both advantage and disadvantage, because you’ll never roll both at the same time: Advantage and disadvantage always cancel each other out when applying to the same roll. If, for example, the GM gives you disadvantage on a roll, but you gain advantage from a domain ability, the two cancel one another out. If you have two sources of advantage and one of disadvantage, you instead only have advantage.

NPCs can also roll with advantage (or disadvantage), but when they do, the GM uses rolls an extra d20 and picks the highest (or lwest) result (See “Giving Advantage and Disadvantage” in chapter 3).

Tip: Some moves or effects require you to add or subtract a d6 for reasons other than advantage or disadvantage. If you find yourself both adding and subtracting a d6 for any reason, you can simplify your roll by rolling neither, since they cancel each other out as if they were advantage and disadvantage.

Domain Cards

As introduced in the “Domains” section of Chapter 1, your active domain cards grant you special abilities. Unless a domain card states otherwise, you can use it as many times as you wish, for as long as it remains in your loadout.

Loadout and Vault

You can only have a maximum of five domain cards active at any one time, along with your subclass, ancestry, and community cards. At lower levels, you won’t have enough cards for this to be an issue, but once you reach level 5 and above, you’ll need to choose which domain cards to keep in your loadout and which to store in your vault.

Cards in your loadout can be held in your hand or placed on the table next to your character sheet; do whatever makes it easiest to access them. Any cards in your loadout are considered active and can be utilized or benefitted from during play.

Your vault holds any domain cards that are inactive and not currently in your loadout. Vault cards should be kept somewhere out of the way, but close enough that they’re available if they need to be accessed during a session.

Swapping Cards

When you begin a rest, you can swap cards between your loadout and your vault (see “Downtime” later in this chapter). You must do so before you use any downtime moves.

When you’re not resting, you can still swap cards into your loadout, but it’s stressful to do so without a chance to prepare! To immediately switch a card from your loadout, mark Stress equal to the vaulted card’s Recall Cost (see “Domains” in chapter 1 for a reminder of where to find this). When you do, switch it for another domain card, placing the previous loadout card into your vault.

Swapping During Combat

If you’re adjusting your loadout during combat or when the action tracker is in use, you must also use an action to switch cards (in addition to marking Stress). As a result, you can’t switch while a GM is making a move (see “Moves and Actions” earlier in this chapter).

Swapping When You Level Up

If your loadout is full when you level up and gain a new card, you can immediately move one of the previously active cards into your vault, and add the new card to your current loadout at no cost.

Usage Limits

Some domain cards have an exhaustion limit that restricts how often you can use that card (for example, once per long rest). If you use that card, you’ll need a way to remember that it’s temporarily unavailable; you might choose to take that card out of your hand and place it face down on the table, turn it around, or any other method to remind yourself that you’ve already used it. If a card allows for a certain number of uses, you could place a token on it each time it’s activated to remind yourself how many times you’ve done so.

A few effects require you to permanently place a card in your vault. When this happens, that card is essentially removed from play. You can’t move such a card back into your loadout by any means, nor can you choose it when you gain a level.

Conditions

Some moves may impose a condition on you (or your adversaries). These are effects or circumstances that change how you can function. This game has three primary conditions—Vulnerable, Hidden, and Restrained—which are explained below. Some moves may apply other unique conditions; their effects are detailed within the text of the move.

Vulnerable

When you gain the Vulnerable condition, this means you’re temporarily in a difficult position within the fiction. This might mean you’re knocked over, scrambling to keep your balance, caught off-guard, or anything else that makes sense in the scene. When a creature becomes Vulnerable, the players and GM should work together to describe narratively how that happened.

While you are Vulnerable, all rolls targeting you have advantage.

If you’re already Vulnerable, you ignore effects that would make you Vulnerable again.

Restrained

When you gain the Restrained condition, you can’t move until this condition is cleared, but you can still take actions from your current position.

Hidden

While you’re out of sight from all foes, you can mark a Stress to gain the Hidden condition. While Hidden, any rolls against you are at disadvantage. When you move or attack while Hidden, or when an enemy gains line of sight on you, you’re no longer Hidden.

Examples:

While scouting a temple to the Fallen Gods and investigating some large statues depicting ancient battles, Xerxes hears footsteps coming. He declares that he’s going to duck behind the statues, take an action to become Hidden, and then wait for the person to pass. The GM decides that the statues provide ample cover and doesn’t call for a roll. They describe snippets of dialogue as two cultists walk right by Xerxes as he sticks to the shadows, then ask Xerxes what he wants to do next. If Xerxes had wanted to attack the cultists as they passed, he’d lose the Hidden condition after doing so.

If instead cover was not readily available, the GM could call for a Finesse roll to hide nearby. Xerxes spends a Hope to utilize his experience of “Blending In” to clamber up into a windowsill and pull the drapes closed to give him some cover. Xerxes rolls his duality dice and adds +3 for his Finesse trait and +2 for his “Blending In” experience for a total of 15, with Fear. The GM compares that 15 to the adversaries’ difficulty and tells Xerxes he’s succeeded, but that the scramble to take cover and the discomfort of scrunching himself into a window means he’ll mark a Stress.

Ending Conditions

When an effect imposes a condition, it might state a specific trigger that will clear that condition, such as a unique action, item, or effect. Conditions with stated triggers are permanent conditions; usually, these can only be cleared via the specified trigger, but at the GM’s discretion, they might provide alternative ways to remove these conditions.

If no trigger is given, the condition is a temporary condition. You can usually make an action roll (difficulty determined by the GM) to clear a temporary condition, though the GM might have you end it in another way. As always, this action roll should be described and negotiated narratively. For example, if your character is Vulnerable, you might describe how you leap through the fire that’s trapped you, free your ally’s legs from the vines entangling them, or whatever fits the story.

If an adversary is affected by a condition, the GM can spend an action token to clear it; this doesn’t require a roll but does use that adversary’s action. When it fits the story, the GM might end the condition in other ways instead.

Ending Other Temporary Effects

Some effects aren’t a condition, but they state they’re temporary. These can be ended in the same way as conditions. If you initiate the effect (such as by using the Ranger’s Focus class feature), the GM can end it by spending an action token (or using a move). If the GM initiates the effect (such as an adversary creating a temporary cloud of poisonous gas), you can end it by making an action roll.

Countdowns

Sometimes a mechanic or the GM might introduce a countdown. Countdowns are a way for the table to keep track of a coming event, and usually utilize setting a die to a certain value, then ticking that number down until it reaches 0. A countdown might tick every time an action roll is made, every time a PC rolls with Fear, during downtime, or any other parameter (either set by the mechanics or by the GM to reflect the fiction). For more about countdowns, see “Countdowns” in the GM section of chapter 3.

Maps, Range, and Movement

Daggerheart is a game that can be played using both theater of the mind and maps with miniatures. The below section assumes you are using a map for combat; but if you aren’t, use whatever guidance works for your theater-of-the-mind play, and leave behind anything that doesn’t serve your table.

Maps

At any point, players or the GM may call for a map to be brought to the table. This might be to clarify positioning, showcase an environment, or simply because the table enjoys using maps and miniatures. When this happens, the GM should create (or reveal) a map of the area, and everyone should place their miniature figures or tokens within it appropriately. This can be as simple as a quick drawing on a piece of paper or as complicated as a fully-designed 3d map, as long as it presents the information players need to be able to navigate the space more clearly than in their minds. If you have the space for it, use the range measurements below as general reference when building out this map.

Some tables may almost never use maps, where others might utilize maps every session—there is not a right or wrong way to implement these in your game. Do whatever best serves the kind of play your group enjoys.

Range

In Daggerheart, rules don’t measure distance by feet, but by range. Each range includes an example of how you might quickly estimate distance on a physical map on which 1 inch represents roughly 5 feet; however, these ranges aren’t intended to be precisely measured during play. The suggested estimates are a quick guide for the GM to determine ranges during a scene, and they may adjust the map as needed to reflect whatever creates a satisfying story.

If the table decides not to implement a map, you still use range, but in a more abstract way. Distances are simply a part of the theater of the mind, and it’s up to the GM to decide roughly how far away everything is.

Melee: You are within touching distance of the target. As a PC, you can generally touch targets up to a few feet away from you, but Melee range may be greater for especially large NPCs.

Very Close: You’re very close to a target, allowing you to see its fine details—and to reach it within moments, if need be. This is generally about 5-10 feet away. While in danger, you can usually move into Melee with anything that’s Very Close as part of any other action you make. Anything on a battle map that is within the shortest length of a game card (~2-3 inches) can usually be considered Very Close.

Close You’re close enough to a target to see its prominent details, such as across a room or in a neighboring market stall. This is generally about 10-30 feet away. While in danger, you can generally move into Melee with anything that’s Close as part of any other action you make. Anything on a battle map that is within the length of a standard pen or pencil (~5-6 inches) can usually be considered Close.

Far You’re far enough away that you can see the appearance of a target, but probably not in detail, such as across a small battlefield or down a large corridor. This is generally about 30-100 feet away. While in danger, the GM will usually require you to make an Agility check if you want to safely move into Melee with something that’s Far from you. Anything on a battle map that is within the length of a standard piece of paper (~11-12 inches) can usually be considered Far.

Very Far You’re very far away, and while you might be able to see the shape of a person or object, you probably can’t make out any details, such as across a large battlefield or down a long street. This is generally about 100-300 feet away. While in danger, the GM will usually require you to make an Agility check if you want to safely move into Melee with something that’s Very Far from you. Anything on a battle map that is beyond Far distance, but still within the bounds of the conflict can usually be considered Very Far.

Out of Range: Anything beyond your Very Far range is out of your range and usually can’t be targeted.

Using Range

When a weapon, spell, ability, item, or other effect states a range, this refers to its maximum range. Unless otherwise noted, an effect can be used at closer ranges as well. For example, the Shortstaff starting weapon has Close range, so you can use it against a target within Close or Melee range, but not against a target that’s Far, Very Far, or Out of Range.

Some effects may also specify a certain area within their range, such as an effect that targets “all enemies in front of you”. In that example, you choose which direction you’re facing, then target each enemy in a 180-degree field in front of you. As with other rules in this game, use common sense when interpreting these effects—they’re there to support the story, not limit it.

Some effects can move you or a target from one range to another, such as an effect that lets you “push a target out of Melee range.” In that example, you would move them to the next range, from Melee to Very Close range.

You can always ask the GM which of your ranges a certain target is in, or you can ask which targets are within your desired range. The map is just an approximation of the scene playing out in everyone’s head, so scale, distance, and details don’t need to be perfectly accurate. The map and the miniatures on it should never limit the table’s imagination, only provide spatial context so that everyone is on the same page.

Optional Rule: Defined Ranges

If your table would rather operate with more precise range rules, you can use a 1-inch grid battle map during combat. If you do, use the following guides for play:

Melee: 1 square | Very Close: 3 squares | Close: 6 squares | Far: 12 squares | Very Far: 13+ squares

Movement

When you’re not in a dangerous, difficult, or time-sensitive situation, you don’t generally need to worry about how fast you move. However, when you’re under pressure (such as when you’re in danger or when the action tracker is in play), the following rules apply.

Moving Close During Actions

If you’re doing something that requires an action roll, you can also freely move to a location within your Close range (including Very Close and Melee), either before or after you use that action. This location must be somewhere your character could easily reach within the story. If you want to move Far or Very Far, or if you want to reach an area that’s not easily accessible (such as one that requires climbing, swimming, or jumping), follow the rules below.

Moving Far or Without an Action

If you’re not already making an action roll, or if you want to move farther than your Close range, you’ll typically need to succeed on an Agility roll to safely reposition yourself. The GM sets this difficulty depending on the situation. On a failure, you might only be able to move some of that distance, the adversaries might act before you can make it, or something might prevent you from moving at all. If there is no risk or potential complication in moving a certain distance, no roll is required.

Adversary Movement

When an adversary uses an action (such as making an attack or picking a lock), the GM can generally move them to a location within their Close range as part of that action. If the GM wants to move the adversary Far or Very Far, this uses an entire action on its own, but the adversary doesn’t have to succeed on an Agility roll like a PC would.

Targets & Groups

Often an effect asks you to choose a target within range. This means you choose a single creature to affect. When it makes sense in the story, you can ask the GM about instead targeting a single object in range, adjusting the effects as needed.

To affect a group of targets, these targets must be clumped together in an area within Very Close range of the others in that group. You can always ask the GM if something would be considered a “group of targets” before you make a move.

When you make an attack roll against more than one target or against a group, roll once and compare that total to each eligible target to determine which creatures you succeed against.

When your attack deals damage to more than one target, roll damage once and apply it to each target the attack succeeded against.

Cover, Line of Sight, and Darkness

Sometimes during a fight, you might seek cover, such as by diving behind a small barricade or ducking behind a tree. When you take cover behind something that makes attacking you more difficult (but not impossible), attack rolls against you are made at disadvantage.

You usually can’t be targeted if you’re entirely behind a substantial object like a wall, even if you’re technically in range of the attack. However, you might still be affected by nearby explosions or similar effects.

Some effects require the target be in your line of sight. You have line of sight if you can see the target (though in some situations, the GM might decide the effect can’t go through a glass window or similarly transparent object). This just denotes whether or not a target can be seen by the character. For alternatives to this rule for characters that are blind, see “Adjusting Abilities and Spells” in chapter 1.

Darkness can also make certain actions more challenging. The GM should reflect this in the difficulty of an action roll.

Gold

Gold tracks how much wealth you have with you on your journey. You can often spend it on things like items, consumables, and equipment. Some campaigns will be more or less focused on gold as a reward, so talk with your GM about how much your game will use gold. There are no set prices in this book for weapons, armor, and loot, so players aren’t locked out of adding exciting equipment to their characters simply because they aren’t playing a gold-focused campaign. The GM determines equipment prices based on the amount of gold given out during your sessions.

Gold is measured in handfuls, bags, and chests. Ten handfuls equal one bag, and ten bags equal one chest. Whenever you have marked off enough slots in a given category that you should reach the next category, instead mark one in that following category and erase all the slots in the current one. For example, if you have nine handfuls and gain another, you instead mark a bag and erase all handfuls. If you have nine bags and gain another, you mark a chest and erase all bags. If you should ever have more than one chest, you’ll need to store some of your gold elsewhere before you can take more.

These values are abstracted so that they do not need to be tracked as closely. If you want to tip a coin to a waiter or flip a coin into a well, you typically don’t need to worry about tracking it.

Optional Rule: Gold Coins

If your group wants to track gold more granularly, you can add coins as your lowest denomination. Following the pattern above, ten coins equal one handful.

Downtime

A party may choose to rest before they continue forward on their journey, and when they do, each PC has the chance to make a few downtime moves. Though downtime this is their time to recover from the dangers they’ve faced, it’s also an ideal opportunity for characters to have important, emotional scenes with each other—to learn more about one another, and have character-centric conversations that may not be as easy to find time for in big battles or high intensity moments. This is a chance for players to lean on their Connections to the party and explore the story that happens between them in their quiet moments together.

When the party decides they want to begin downtime, they will need to make a choice between a Short Rest and a Long Rest. They can take up to three Short Rests before their next rest has to be a Long Rest. If a Short Rest is interrupted (such as by an enemy attack), characters don’t gain its benefits. If a Long Rest is interrupted, characters instead gain the benefits of a Short Rest (even if they’ve already had three Short Rests).

The GM also takes actions during downtime. On a short rest, they take Fear and advance a long-term countdown. On a Long Rest, they take 2 Fear, and they can advance a long-term countdown twice, or advance two long-term countdowns once.

Short Rest

A short rest is when player characters are only able to stop and catch their breath, taking a break for about an hour. Each player can swap any domain cards in their loadout for any in their vault and then choose two moves below (or choose the same move twice).

Tend to Wounds

Describe how you temporarily patch yourself up and clear 1d4 Hit Points. You may do this on an ally instead.

Clear Stress

Describe how you blow off steam or pull yourself together, and clear 1d4 Stress.

Repair Armor

Describe how you spend time quickly repairing your armor and clear 1d4 Armor Slots. You may do this to an ally’s armor instead.

Prepare

Describe how you are preparing yourself for the path ahead and gain a Hope. If you choose to Prepare with one or more members of your party, you each gain two Hope.

Long Rest

A long rest is when player characters are able to make camp, relax for a few hours, and get some sleep. Each player may swap any domain cards in their loadout for any in their vault, then choose two moves below (or choose the same move twice).

Tend to All Wounds

Describe how you patch yourself up and remove all marked Hit Points. You may do this on an ally instead.

Clear All Stress

Describe how you blow off steam or pull yourself together, and clear all marked Stress.

Repair All Armor

Describe how you spend time repairing your armor and clear all of its Armor Slots. You may do this to an ally’s armor instead.

Prepare

Describe how you are preparing for the next day’s adventure, then gain a Hope. If you choose to Prepare with one or more members of your party, you each gain two Hope.

Work on a Project

Establish or continue work on a project (see “Working on a Project in Downtime”).

Working on a Project in Downtime

If a PC wants to pursue a project that would take a substantial amount of time but progress can be made during a long rest, they should first discuss it with the GM. This could involve deciphering an ancient text, crafting a new weapon, or something else. Projects will usually involve a Progress Countdown (see “Countdown” in chapter 3). Each time a PC takes the Work on a Project downtime move during a long rest, they might automatically tick down the countdown, or the GM might will tell them how much or ask them to make an action roll to gauge their progress.

For more information on projects, see “Using Downtime” in chapter 3.

Refreshing Features During Downtime

When you take a short or long rest, this can refresh your ability to use some of your features, and it can end some temporary effects:

• At the end of a short rest, you end any effects that last until a short rest, and you regain the use of any features that can be used a number of times per short rest.
• At the end of a long rest, you end any effects that last until a long rest, and you regain the use of any features that can be used a number of times per long rest. Additionally, a long rest counts as a short rest for these effects, so if a move lets you use it once per short rest, you can refresh it after a long rest.

“Once Per Session” Features

Some features might also say you can use them “once per session.” These do not refresh during rests, but instead are available again at the start of the next session. If your table decides to play a long session, the GM might decide that all “once per session” abilities are refreshed during a break instead.

Downtime Consequences

Downtime allows for quiet scenes between PCs, encouraging personal moments in the story—but the world doesn’t stop when you rest! As a reminder, be cautious of how many rests your party decides to take, since downtime also allows the GM to take Fear and progress events in the background.

Death

Facing death is an important part of being an adventurer, and having a character die can be an exciting end to a story and an opportunity for the player to transition into something new. In Daggerheart, when you mark your last hit point, you must make a death move.

Death Move

Choose one of the options below.

Blaze of Glory. You embrace death and go out in a blaze of glory. Take one action (at GM discretion), which becomes an automatic critical success, then cross through the veil of death.

Avoid Death. You avoid death and face the consequences. Roll your Hope die; if its value is equal to or under your level, you gain a Scar (see “Scars”). You also drop unconscious temporarily; work with the GM to describe how the situation gets much worse because of it. You may not move or act while unconscious. You return to consciousness when an ally clears one or more of your marked Hit Points or when your party finishes the next long rest.

Risk it All. Roll your Duality Dice. If Hope is higher, you stay on your feet and clear an amount of Hit Points and/or Stress equal to the value of the Hope die (divide the Hope die value up between these however you’d prefer). If your Fear die is higher, you cross through the veil of death. If the Duality Dice are tied, you stay on your feet and clear all Hit Points and Stress.

If a player makes a death move that results in their character dying or no longer being able to play, they should work with the GM before the next session to build a new character at the current level of the rest of the party (see “Building Higher Level Characters” in chapter 1).

Scars

If you choose to avoid death, you might take a scar. If you do, permanently cross out one of your Hope slots. You can’t use this slot to gain Hope anymore. The narrative impact of this scar is up to you; for example, you might now bear a physical scar, a painful memory, or a deep fear.

When you put a scar on your last Hope slot, it is time to end your character’s journey. Work with the GM to find a graceful and fitting way for the party to say goodbye to them at the end of the session, and prepare a new character for the next time you play.

Resurrection

It is possible to resurrect a dead character, though it will likely be a long, difficult, and costly process– and they likely won’t return the same as they died. If a party decides to take this path upon a character’s death, the GM will tell the players what it will take to make that happen. For more details on this, see the section for resurrection in the GM’s section on page here [section pendin g].

There is also a one-time Resurrection spell available at Level 10 for any class that includes the Splendor Domain. Once this spell is used, it will go into your vault permanently.

Action Tracker

When a combat scenario is likely to last more than a couple rolls, when play moves to maps and miniatures, or when seconds count in the narrative, the GM should place the action tracker card on the table within everyone’s reach. During this scene, PCs place action tokens on the tracker (see “Placing Action Tokens”), and the GM spends those tokens to activate adversaries (see “Adversary Actions”).

Placing Action Tokens

When the action tracker is in use, your character can still make moves at any time. However, whenever you use an action (including any move that says “Use an action” or requires an action roll), you must place a character token on the action tracker and resolve the action, ending your move. As a PC, your tokens aren’t limited—they’re just used to track how many times the GM can activate adversaries—so if you ever run out, you can grab more.

After you end your move by placing an action token, the GM or another PC might act, or you might decide to make another move. You and your fellow PCs can still act in any order you like, following the narrative—but remember to pass the spotlight around the table to ensure everybody has a chance to act. If another player hasn’t placed any tokens on the action tracker recently, consider letting them make a move before you do anything else.

Example: Emerson places a character token on the action tracker (bringing the total tokens on the tracker up to three), then makes a roll to strike an enemy he’s in melee with. When he gets a success with Fear , he describes how he swings his sword overhead and down, dealing 12 points of damage. However, because the roll was with Fear, play moves to the GM. They can make a move, either in response to Emerson’s character or elsewhere in the scene.

What Counts as an Action?

You only place a token on the action tracker when you’re either making an action roll or using another move that tells you to “use an action” (certain features, switching weapons, etc.). For example, unless your consumable says it uses an action, you can use it without a token. As always, the GM can decide certain moves require an action token when it keeps the spirit of the rules aligned with your unfolding story.

Adversary Actions

When the GM makes a move (usually after a player fails an action roll or rolls with Fear), they can spend one or more tokens from the action tracker to activate that many adversaries. When the GM spends a token, they remove it from the action tracker and return it to the token’s player.

An activated adversary can take most any action your PC could, but most of the time, they’ll do one of the following:

• Move within Close range and make a weapon attack.
• Move within Close range and use an adversary action.
• Clear a condition.
• Sprint Far or Very Far away on the battlefield.

Once the GM decides to stop spending action tokens, play returns to the PCs. The GM can spend a Fear to place two additional tokens on the action tracker (then spend one or both of them on adversary actions), or they can spend two tokens to gain a Fear. See “Using the Action Tracker” in chapter 3 for full rules on how the GM uses the action tracker.

Example: After Emerson’s attack roll with Fear in the example above (see “Placing Action Tokens”), play moves to the GM. The GM takes all three tokens off of the action tracker, spending the first to end the Vulnerable condition on a nearby adversary, who breaks free from the vines that were binding them. The GM spends the next token on the adversary Emerson just hit with his sword, describing the enemy’s warhammer being pulled out of the mud and swung at Emerson’s ribs. The enemy succeeds on the attack, then rolls for damage and totals it up for 9 physical damage. This falls above Emerson’s Major threshold, but he marks one armor slot and reduces the damage down to 5, which is below his Major threshold. Emerson takes Minor damage and only marks 1 hit point. With the last token, the GM describes an adversary sprinting all the way across the battlefield to get to the massive bell that would call in reinforcements. As the adversary prepares to ring it, the GM turns back to the players, asking, “What do you want to do?”

Optional Tool: Turn-Based Initiative

If your group prefers tactical play or structured player turns, you can limit the number of action tokens each PC can use on the action tracker at a time. It is recommended to start with 3, but you may decrease or increase the number as your table prefers.

When the action tracker is in use, every player places that number of action tokens on their character sheet, ready for use. Players then act as usual, and each time they make an action roll, they spend one available action token by moving it to the table’s action tracker. Collaborate with other players on passing play around the table, making moves and telling the story together; even if you have multiple action tokens, see if any other players want a turn before you spend more than one in a row.

Once every player has used their available tokens, players refill their character sheet with the same number of tokens as before, then continue playing.

The GM makes moves as usual (see ”Making Moves” and “Using the Action Tracker” in chapter 3). When the GM uses an action token, they give it back to the player it came from, but the player doesn’t place that token on their character sheet until it’s time for the table to replenish their tokens.

Tactics and Narrative

Even while using turns with the action tracker, consider how your character would act in the current situation and use their perspective to guide the story forward, rather than worrying too much about what “should” come next. Remember that your character doesn’t know their actions are dictated by an action tracker! Some groups might decide to temporarily use the turn-based initiative rules to reduce the learning curve for players who are used to tactical gameplay, while others will enjoy using them for the entire campaign; do whatever best supports your group in weaving a story together.

General Rules

The following rules apply to many aspects of the game.

Rounding Up

This game doesn’t use fractional numbers; if you need to round to a whole number, round up unless otherwise specified.

Simultaneous and Stacking Effects

If any two effects are happening simultaneously, and the rules don’t tell you which order to apply them in, the player (or GM) controlling the effects can do so in any order. For example, if one ability lets you spend a Hope to retaliate after an attack, and another ability lets you gain a Hope when you mark a Hit Point, you can decide to gain the Hope first, then spend it on the attack. Similarly, if you have multiple moves that can trigger in a situation (like two moves that occur “after a successful attack”), you can use them together, and choose which order to use them in. As always, if there’s any uncertainty, the GM arbitrates how effects apply.

At the GM’s discretion, most effects can stack; for example, if two Bards each give you a Rally die, you can spend both of them on the same roll if you wish. However, you can’t stack conditions (see “Conditions”), advantage/disadvantage (see “Advantage and Disadvantage”), or other effects that say you can’t (such as Tava’s Armor from the Book of Ava card).

Ongoing Effects

Once an effect is in play, it continues until a PC or the GM ends it, or until the fiction changes in a way that would naturally stop it. This means that if you cast a spell then switch out that domain card for another in your vault, that effect can remain active even though that card is no longer in your loadout.

Spending Resources

If a rule tells you to spend a resource, you lose that resource when you spend it. For example, when you spend a Hope on an ability, you erase a Hope that you’ve marked on your character sheet. Similarly, if a Bard gives you their Rally die, when you choose to spend it and add its result to your roll, you lose that die and return it to the other player.

End of the Scene

Sometimes certain effects, bonuses, or conditions state that they last until the end of the scene. At the GM’s discretion, a scene generally continues until the current narrative situation has played out. A chase scene might end when the PCs have caught their quarry or when they’ve escaped pursuit. A battle scene usually ends when one side has fled, surrendered, or been entirely dispatched. If there’s uncertainty about when a scene is considered to be over, throw it to the table and see what they think makes sense. You generally don’t have to linger in a scene after the most interesting actions and interactions have occurred -if you want to play out their implications or process the emotions but the heat of the moment has passed, that aftermath and processing can take place in its own scene.

Player Best Practices

This section provides guidance around player best practices and how to get the most out of Daggerheart! As always, take what works for you and your table from this section, and leave behind anything that doesn’t resonate with you. And when considering these best practices, remember the “Player Principles” section in this book’s introduction.

Embrace The Danger

The life of an adventurer is a dangerous one, often filled with treacherous paths, monstrous beasts, and powerful foes. Along the way, it’s almost certain that you will face difficult choices and life-threatening peril. It’s important as adventurers to embrace this danger as part of the game—playing it safe, not taking risks, and overthinking a plan can often slow the game to a halt.

So don’t be afraid to leap in head-first and think like a storyteller—what would the hero of a novel or a tv show do here? Think about not only what might be obvious, but what might also be most interesting or how your character might approach the situation differently because of their background. But no matter what you do, keep the story moving forward—the worst thing you can do as an adventurer is get so caught up in trying not to get hurt that you stop being adventurous at all. You have some control over whether you live or die, and you’ve got scars you can take if need be. It’s important to remember that you are not your character; it’s okay to put them into harm’s way, push them to their limits, and take big risks if it’s what is right for the story. Their trials and tribulations, their failures are not yours. We might always want to win, but we do that as players by driving a compelling narrative together, not by having successful dice rolls every time.

Use Your Resources

Player characters in Daggerheart have access to a number of resources that help them in their heroic journeys. Chief among them is Hope, the most liquid resource that will come and go frequently over the course of a session. You’ll gain a Hope roughly every other time you make an action roll, so you’re encouraged to spend it for Hope Features, to help your comrades, to utilize experiences, and more.

Stress, HP, and armor are chief among your other resources. They interact in varying ways that you can manipulate and optimize with domain abilities, Heritage traits, your Class Feature, and more. For players excited about the crunch of interacting mechanics, look to those resources and think about how managing them helps you get the most out of your character. This will help your character to contribute in conflicts and battles to the best of their potential to enhance the overall story.

Tell The Story

You are an equal partner in telling the story alongside everyone else at the table. The GM will present opportunities and challenges for the party along the way, but they are not the sole author of the narrative you’re all exploring. Daggerheart is a collaborative experience where everyone is responsible for bringing the kind of tone, feel, and themes they’re interested in to the table. If you have an idea for a description or a detail to add, feel free to offer it to the table. If you want a certain theme or emotional arc to be a part of your story, talk with your GM about finding those opportunities, and take it upon yourself to seize them when they show up. You might also choose to take moments within the scenes you are playing to showcase the driving force of that emotion and make actions that reflect that desire. Your role as a player in Daggerheart is to guide your character along the best story arc you can, not necessarily to always make the most tactical or strategic moves. Think about what you’re interested in saying thematically with the narrative, and let that be expressed through your character.

Discover Your Character

It’s okay to not know everything about your character when you sit down to play for the first time, or the tenth time, or the hundredth time. When the game begins, you only have a few pieces of information to go off of– what they might be good at, some backstory about their past, their relationships with a few other characters, what kind of weapon they carry, etc. But all of this doesn’t mean you have a firm grasp on who this person actually is yet, and that’s okay. Think of Character Creation as an ongoing process that continues through every session you play that character. The GM might turn to you to ask something about your past that you may not have worked out or thought of yet; you could take this opportunity to invent something on the spot, or ask them to talk through some ideas with you before you settle on one. Try to use the game’s fiction to discover things about your character, and let those discoveries flow into the kinds of decisions they make.

Leveling Up

When a party has accomplished something of significance in a campaign, the GM may tell them that it is time to Level Up. How often this happens is up to your GM and your group’s narrative preferences, but most groups play at least three sessions (or many more) in between each time they Level Up.

When you Level Up, all the members of the party will raise their Level by +1 and have the chance to upgrade their character’s traits and abilities. Generally, characters begin their journey at Level 1 and end their journey at Level 10, but if a party loses a character in the middle of a campaign, the GM may instead choose to have that player make a new character at the appropriate level of the party (if the player wishes).

When a party Levels Up, each player follows the steps outlined in the “Leveling Up” section of their Character Guide. This section is divided up into tier blocks; each tier offers a different set of options you can choose from when upgrading your character.

Tiers of Play

Levels in Daggerheart are divided into tiers. The first tier is only level one. The second tier contains Levels 2-4, the third tier contains Levels 5-7, and the fourth tier is for Levels 8-10. Each tier affects your damage thresholds, Level Achievements, and more, as described in the following sections.

Level Achievements

The first thing players do is take any Level Achievements their character has earned. These are given in bold at the top of the tier block. They include:

At Level 2 (when you reach second tier), everyone earns an additional Experience and adds it to their character sheet with a modifier of +2. They also increase their Proficiency by +1.

At Level 5 (when you reach third tier), everyone earns an additional Experience and adds it to their character sheet with a modifier of +2, as well as increases their Proficiency by +1. They also clear the marks on each Character Trait they’ve previously increased and marked (allowing them to later increase those traits further).

At Level 8 (when you reach fourth tier), everyone earns an additional Experience and adds it to their character sheet with a modifier of +2, as well as increases their Proficiency by +1. They also clear the marks on each Character Trait they’ve previously increased and marked.

For help with Experience, see “Step 7: Choose Your Experiences” in chapter 1.

Choosing Advancements

Next, players have a set list of options for upgrading their character. This can be found on their Character Guide or in the class section of this book. They choose two from the list that have an open box next to them (they may choose the same one twice if it has two open boxes), make the changes on their character sheet that reflect this upgrade, then on their Character Guide, mark one of the open boxes on the options they chose. Any options with all of their boxes marked can’t be used again.

When you choose to increase two unmarked Character Traits and mark them: Choose two Character Traits that don’t already have marks in them, and increase their values by +1. These stats won’t be able to be increased again until the next tier (when your Level Achievement allows you to clear those marks).

When you choose to increase an Experience: Choose one Experience on your character sheet and increase it by +1.

When you choose to increase your Evasion: Raise your evasion score by 1.

When you choose to permanently add one or more Hit Point Slots: Darken the outline of the next circle in the Hit Point section of your character sheet in permanent marker.

When you choose to permanently add an Armor Slot: Darken the outline of the next circle in the Armor section at the top of your character sheet in permanent marker.

When you choose to permanently add a Stress Slot: Darken the outline of the next circle in the Stress section of your character sheet in permanent marker.

When you choose to take another domain card at your level or lower: You can choose an additional domain card from your classes’ domains at your level or lower. If you have multiclassed, choose a card no higher than half your level, as usual.

When you choose to increase your Damage Proficiency: Fill in one of the open circles in the Damage Proficiency section, then increase your weapon’s number of damage dice by 1 (for example, increasing its damage from 2d6 to 3d6). You’ll see a black box around the level-up slots. That is because increasing your proficiency requires you to mark both level-up slots in order to take it as an option.

When you choose to increase a Damage Threshold: Add the amount indicated in the advancement to the appropriate threshold. For example, if your Major Damage threshold is 20 and you’re supposed to increase it by +2, inrease that threshold to 22.

When you choose to take an upgraded subclass card: Take the next card in the subclass arc. If you only have the foundation card, take a specialization. If you have a specialization already, take a mastery. You’ll also cross out the option to multiclass during that tier of level-ups.

When you choose to multiclass: You can take certain features and domain cards from another class. You’ll see a black box around the level-up slots. That is because multiclassing requires you to mark both level-up slots in order to take it as an option. See “Multiclassing” below for details.

Raising Damage Thresholds

After choosing advancements, players then raise their Damage Thresholds as designated by the tier. The amount varies depending on a PC’s class, and can be found on the Character Guide.

If the Major Threshold should ever be raised enough that it is equal or greater than the Severe Threshold during a level up or at any other time, the Severe Threshold also increases to be at least one point above the Major Threshold.

Taking Domain Cards

Finally, all players take a new Domain Deck card of their Level or lower, increasing the special abilities their character can use. They may choose one card from any domain deck available to their class. If they share a domain deck with another player at the table, they’ll want to have a discussion with each other to make sure they take each other’s preferences into consideration when choosing a card.

In addition, they may also choose to trade out one domain card they already have for a different domain card at a level equal to the chosen card or lower.

Since each player can’t have more than five Domain Cards active at a time, players at Level 5 and above will need to choose which Domain Cards to keep in their Loadout and which to store in their Vault, as described in “Loadout and Vault” in chapter 1.

Multiclassing

Starting at Level 5, you may choose multiclassing as an option when leveling up. When you multiclass, you will get to choose an additional class to take a domain from, and gain access to that class’ Class Feature.. Take the appropriate Multiclass Module and add it to the right side of your character sheet, then choose a Foundation card from a subclass of your choice. If that Foundation card has a Spellcast Trait on it, you can choose to use that trait when making a Spellcast roll.

When you multiclass, you also must cross out one available “take an upgraded subclass card” option on the level up sheet, meaning you won’t be able to gain the mastery card for any subclass. You will also cross out any other multiclass options, as you can only multiclass once during a campaign.

Choose a domain you don’t already have access to from the choices on the module. Whenever you get to choose domain cards, you may now always also look at cards that match your additional domain at half your current level (rounded up). This means a Level 5 Wizard who decides to multiclass into Druid and chooses the Sage Domain would also have the option of any Level 3 or below Sage Domain cards.

Any attacks, spells, or other moves you use while multiclassing are always performed at your current level. For example, a Level 7 Wizard that multiclasses into a Druid can use the Level 7 Beastform options. If any move you get by multiclassing asks you to use a number of dice equal to your Level, it is the Level on your character sheet. It is only the domain cards that are subject to the half-level restriction.

Example of Leveling Up

Kat’s party has just advanced to level 2 and the group is leveling up together. Kat slides up the Warrior character information sheet to bring Tabby up to level 2.

First, Kat adds a new Experience for Tabby. Because Tabby has been doing a lot of acrobatics and daring jumps, they decide to give her the Experience “Always Land on my Feet”. It’s a new Experience, so they set it at +2.

Next, they look at the advancement options for Levels 2-4. They know they want to increase Tabby’s Agility , since that’s her primary trait for combat. So first they mark “Increase two unmarked Character Traits by 1 and mark them.” Kat chooses Agility and Instinct , raising each by 1 (Tabby now has an Agility of +3 and an Instinct of +2), then marks the circle by each trait raised as a reminder that they can’t be raised again until Tabby hits level 5 and clears marks on all traits.

Next, because Tabby is the front line for her group, Kat marks “Permanently add one Armor Slot.” They look at the armor section of Tabby’s character sheet and permanently fill in the outline of one of the dotted squares to represent Tabby gaining a new permanent armor slot. That means she’ll be able to take more punishment in combat.

Then they go to Tabby’s Damage thresholds and increase Tabby’s Severe threshold by 2, from 16 to 18.

Lastly, Kat asks for the domain decks for Blade and Bone to pick a new domain card at level 2 or lower. At level 2, their options in the Blade deck are Reckless and A Soldier’s Bond . Their choices from the Bone are Strategic Approach and Ferocity . Kat really likes the option to gain and give hope with A Soldier’s Bond, and since Tabby’s Knowledge trait is only 0, they don’t think Strategic Approach is a good choice. They settle on Ferocity to give themselves an evasion boost when Tabby is in the middle of a number of foes and taking a lot of attacks.

New domain card in their loadout, Kat reviews the steps. They added their experience of “Always Land on My Feet” at +2, they picked two advancement options and applied them, they raised their Severe HP threshold, and they selected a new domain card - Ferocity. Kat goes back and writes in “2” for Tabby’s level and then updates the damage bonus from Combat Training to +2, since her level has increased.

Now Tabby is ready to continue her journey as a level 2 Warrior!

Equipment

This section details the rules for equipping and using weapons and armor, followed by lists of the weapons and armor in this game.

Equipping, Storing, and Switching Equipment

As a player, you can equip weapons and armor to your character by recording them on your character sheet in the “Active Weapon” and “Active Armor” sections. When equipped, you can attack with the weapons, benefit from the armor, and gain any other features of those items.

Inventory Weapons

As you acquire new gear throughout your journey, you can carry two additional weapons (either primary or secondary, or any combination of the two) in the “Inventory Weapon” slots; there’s only so much room in your pack. The inventory weapon slots hold gear you don’t have equipped, so you aren’t wielding these items and you don’t gain their benefits.

Switching Weapons

You can use an action to equip an Inventory Weapon, moving your previous Active Weapon into your Inventory Weapon section.

Switching Armor

You can’t equip armor while in danger or under pressure. At other times, you can equip armor freely, replacing your previous Active Armor with armor you’ve purchased or otherwise acquired. Each armor uses its own armor slots, as recorded in the boxes in that section; if you switch armor, be sure to keep track of how many armor slots you’ve marked on the old and new armor, especially if you are giving your old armor to a party member. You cannot carry additional armor in your inventory.

Using Weapons

Weapons are defined by several details: the trait they use, their range, damage dice, damage type, burden (how many hands it needs), and sometimes a feature. Each of these details are described in later in this section. Each weapon also has a tier, which indicates what level a character must be to unlock that weapon. See “Primary Weapon Tables” and “Secondary Weapon Tables” for the weapon options in this book (listed by tier).

Damage Proficiency

Your Damage Proficiency (shortened to “Proficiency” on cards and in the “Active Weapons” section of your character sheet) reflects how skilled you are at wielding a weapon. You start at 1 Damage Proficiency and, over the course of a campaign, increase this value up to a maximum of 6. Your Damage Proficiency generally determines how many damage dice you roll on a successful attack with a weapon, though other abilities or spells may use Damage Proficiency as well. This value is not weapon-specific, and does not change or reset when you equip a new weapon.

Your permanent proficiency has a maximum of 6. It can temporarily increase above that because of effects such as a spell or ability, but it can’t ever be permanently increased above 6.

Primary and Secondary Weapons

Weapons fall into two main categories: primary and secondary.

Primary weapons are the main weapons you’ll likely be fighting with during an encounter. You can only hold one of these at a time in your primary weapon slot. If you take a weapon with a burden of two hands (see “Burden”), this is typically the only weapon you can have active. To find the list of starting primary weapons, called Tier 1 Primary Weapons, see “Primary Weapon Tables.”

Secondary weapons are typically ancillary pieces of equipment that augment your fighting, like shields, daggers, small swords, etc. If your primary weapon has a burden of one hand, it is recommended you also take a secondary weapon (but you can’t hold a secondary weapon if your primary weapon requires two hands). You can only hold one secondary weapon at a time, which goes in your secondary weapon slot. To find the list of starting secondary weapons, called Tier 1 Secondary Weapons, see “Secondary Weapon Tables.”

You can make an attack roll with either a primary or secondary weapon you have equipped, allowing for flexibility in the types of attacks you can make. The secondary weapon often also has a feature that augments another aspect of your fighting style as well—a dagger might grant you extra damage to targets you attack with your primary weapon in melee, a shield might add to your armor score, etc. Most adventurers will choose to at least carry a primary weapon, but you’re not required to. For guidance on fighting without a weapon, see “Unarmed Combat Rolls.”

Throwing a Weapon

When you are using a weapon that could be theoretically thrown (like a daggeror an axe), you can throw it at a target within Very Close range, making a Finesseattack roll. On a success, deal damage as usual for that weapon. Once thrown, you lose that weapon; unless you retrieve it, you can’t attack with it or benefit from its features.

Weapon Statistics

Each weapon presented in this book includes its name, trait, range, damage dice, damage type, and burden, and (sometimes) a feature. For example, the Broadsword starting weapon has the following statistics:

Name	Trait	Range	Damage	Burden	Feature
Broadsword	Agility	Melee	d8 (Phy)	One-Handed	Reliable (+1 to attack rolls with this weapon)

Name

In your character’s early adventures, most weapon names are the same as their type—for starting weapons, this is often something straightforward like Battleaxe or Hand Runes. As characters level up and collect better equipment, this type could become more specific—something like a Flaming Dragonscale Blade, Valiant Bow, or even a named weapon like the Wand of Essek.

Trait

This tells you what trait is used when making an attack with this weapon. For example, a Strength weapon uses your StrengthCharacter Trait whenever you use it to make an attack on a target.

Range

Range signifies the maximum distance from which a weapon or effect can hit a target. Distance in Daggerheart is zone-based and relative to your location—you may be able to hit something in Melee, Very Close, Close, Far, or Very Far range with an effect or weapon (See the earlier “Maps, Range, and Movement” section).

Damage Dice

The damage dice represent how deadly your weapon is against the enemies you face. When a weapon’s damage lists a type of die—like “d8”—you roll one of those dice to determine the damage you deal.

As you gain levels, you’ll increase your Damage Proficiency (see “Proficiency”), which starts at 1. Unless otherwise specified, you roll a number of weapon dice equal to your Proficiency. When your Proficiency increases to 2, you’ll roll two weapon dice instead of one, adding their values together to determine damage, and so on. For example, if your Proficiency is 2 and your weapon die is a d8, you roll 2d8 and add their values together—so if you roll a 4 and an 8 on these dice, you do a total of 12 damage.

Damage dice sometimes list a modifier on the end, like +1 or +3. You add this number after all dice have been rolled. For example, if your Proficiency is 3 and you successfully hit with a weapon that deals d8+5 damage, you roll your three d8 dice, total them, and add +5 to the result.

Damage Type

A weapon’s damage type specifies what kind of damage it does to a target; either Physical (Phy) or Magic (Mag). Physical damage is usually damage from any wielded weapon that cuts, stabs, or bludgeons (swords, longbows, war hammers, etc.). Magic damage is usually damage caused or enhanced by magic (Conjure Swarm, Midnight Spirit, Smite, etc.)

Damage type is important because some creatures might have resistance or immunity to one of the two types (something like ghosts may not be as affected by physical damage as they are by magic damage, etc.) For more about resistance, see the earlier “Resistance and Immunity” section.

You typically can’t wield weapons that do magic damage unless you can Spellcast (a feature available on some Class Foundation cards).

Burden

The burden of a weapon is how many hands it takes to wield it. Weapons are either one or two-handed. When you take a weapon, you’ll also fill up a number of hands equal to its burden on your character sheet. If you can’t bear the burden of a particular weapon because your hands are already full, you can’t equip it.

You’re welcome to create a character with any number of hands you wish, or wield a weapon using something other than your hands; however, when tracking burden, each character mechanically has two (and only two) appendages capable of weapon-wielding.

Feature

Weapon features describe any special rules that apply only to that particular weapon. For example, some reduce or increase your statistics, while others give you special ways to deal damage.

Features only apply while the weapon is equipped, so if you put a weapon into your inventory or you don’t have that weapon anymore, you no longer gain the benefits of that feature.

Using Armor

Armor allows you to mark armor slots to reduce incoming damage. Whenever you equip armor on your character, record its details in the Active Armor section of your character sheet, then in the Armor box at the top left of your character sheet, record your Armor Score. Your Armor Score includes your armor’s base score (see “Armor Statistics” below) plus any permanent bonuses you have to your armor from other abilities.

See “Armor Tables” for the armor options in this book (listed by tier).

Armor Statistics

Armor is defined by three details: a name, a base value, and (sometimes) a feature. For example, the Chainmail starting armor has the following statistics:

Name	Base Score	Feature
Chainmail Armor	5	Heavy (-1 to Evasion)

Name

As with weapons, most early armor is simply named for its type, such as Chainmail Armor. As you level up, you might acquire special armor such as Veritas Opal Armor.

Base Score

Your armor’s base score determines how much each armor slot reduces damage by, before any bonuses from other abilities. For example, if your base score is 5, you reduce damage by 5 each time you mark an armor slot (see “Reducing Damage” below).

Feature

Armor features describe any special rules that apply only to that particular armor. For example, some reduce or increase your statistics, and others give you special ways to use your armor slots.

Reducing Damage

When you take damage, you can negate some (or all) of it by marking one of the open Armor Slots next to the Armor box, then reducing the damage by your Armor Score. You start with six Armor Slots, and can earn more over the course of a campaign.

Each time you take damage, you can mark as many armor slots as you’d like (up to the total you have remaining) when reducing damage. Once all Armor Slots are filled, your armor is considered broken and can’t be used again until you repair it, usually as a move during downtime.

If you have an armor score of 0, you can’t mark armor slots. If an effect gives you a temporary armor score (like the Earth elemental incarnation for the Warden of the Elements), you can mark armor slots while the temporary armor is up. Any used slots must still be cleared at downtime before they can be used again.

Unarmored

Going unarmored does not give you any bonuses or penalties, but while unarmored, you don’t have access to armor slots unless you have a way to increase your armor score (like the Bare Bones domain card).

Primary Weapon Tables

Players can choose one Tier 1 primary weapon during character creation. Other weapons will become available to them throughout a campaign as they level up.

Tier 1 (Level 1) - Starting Primary Weapons

Physical Weapons

Name	Trait	Range	Damage	Burden	Feature
Broadsword	Agility	Melee	d8 (Phy)	One-Handed	Reliable (+1 to attack rolls with this weapon)
Longsword	Agility	Melee	d8+3 (Phy)	Two-Handed	—
Mace	Strength	Melee	d8+1 (Phy)	One-Handed	—
Battleaxe	Strength	Melee	d10+3 (Phy)	Two-Handed	—
Greatsword	Strength	Melee	d10+3 (Phy)	Two-Handed	Massive (−1 Agility, roll one extra damage die and drop the lowest)
Warhammer	Strength	Melee	d12+3 (Phy)	Two-Handed	Heavy (−1 to Agility)
Dagger	Finesse	Melee	d8+1 (Phy)	One-Handed	—
Quarterstaff	Instinct	Melee	d10+3 (Phy)	Two-Handed	—
Cutlass	Presence	Melee	d8+1 (Phy)	One-Handed	—
Rapier	Presence	Melee	d8 (Phy)	One-Handed	Quick (When making an attack roll, mark a Stress to include an additional target in range.)
Halberd	Strength	Very Close	d8+2 (Phy)	Two-Handed	—
Spear	Finesse	Very Close	d8+2 (Phy)	Two-Handed	—
Shortbow	Agility	Far	d6+2 (Phy)	Two-Handed	—
Crossbow	Finesse	Far	d6+1 (Phy)	One-Handed	—
Longbow	Agility	Very Far	d6+3 (Phy)	Two-Handed	Cumbersome (−1 toEvasion)

Magic Weapons

Requires the Spellcast Ability

Name	Trait	Range	Damage	Burden	Feature
Hallowed Axe	Strength	Melee	d10+1 (Mag)	One-Handed	—
Arcane Gauntlets	Strength	Melee	d10+3 (Mag)	Two-Handed	—
Glowing Rings	Agility	Very Close	d10+2 (Mag)	Two-Handed	—
Hand Runes	Instinct	Very Close	d10 (Mag)	One-Handed	—
Returning Blade	Finesse	Close	d8+1 (Mag)	One-Handed	—
Shortstaff	Instinct	Close	d8+1 (Mag)	One-Handed	—
Dualstaff	Instinct	Far	d6+3 (Mag)	Two-Handed	—
Scepter	Presence	Far	d6 (Mag)	Two-Handed	Versatile (Presence Melee - d10)
Wand	Knowledge	Far	d6+1 (Mag)	One-Handed	—
Greatstaff	Knowledge	Very Far	d6 (Mag)	Two-Handed	Powerful (Roll one extra damage die and drop the lowest.)

Tier 2 (Levels 2-4)

Physical Weapons

Name	Trait	Range	Damage	Burden	Feature
Improved Broadsword	Agility	Melee	d8+3 (Phy)	One-Handed	Reliable (+1 to attack rolls with this weapon)
Improved Longsword	Agility	Melee	d8+6 (Phy)	Two-Handed	—
Improved Mace	Strength	Melee	d10+4 (Phy)	One-Handed	—
Improved Battleaxe	Strength	Melee	d10+6 (Phy)	Two-Handed	—
Improved Greatsword	Strength	Melee	d10+6 (Phy)	Two-Handed	Massive (−1 Agility, roll one extra damage die and drop the lowest)
Improved Warhammer	Strength	Melee	d12+6 (Phy)	Two-Handed	Heavy (−1 to Agility)
Improved Dagger	Finesse	Melee	d8+4 (Phy)	One-Handed	—
Improved Quarterstaff	Instinct	Melee	d10+6 (Phy)	Two-Handed	—
Improved Cutlass	Presence	Melee	d8+4 (Phy)	One-Handed	—
Improved Rapier	Presence	Melee	d8+3 (Phy)	One-Handed	Quick (When making an attack roll, mark a Stress to include an additional target in range.)
Improved Halberd	Strength	Very Close	d8+5 (Phy)	Two-Handed	—
Improved Spear	Finesse	Very Close	d8+5 (Phy)	Two-Handed	—
Improved Shortbow	Agility	Far	d6+6 (Phy)	Two-Handed	—
Improved Crossbow	Finesse	Far	d6+4 (Phy)	One-Handed	—
Improved Longbow	Agility	Very Far	d6+6 (Phy)	Two-Handed	Cumbersome (−1 toEvasion)
Gilded Falchion	Strength	Melee	d10+4 (Phy)	One-Handed	Powerful (Roll one extra damage die and drop the lowest.)
Knuckle Blades	Strength	Melee	d10+6 (Phy)	Two-Handed	Brutal (For every 10 rolled on a damage die, roll an extra d10 of damage.)
Urok Broadsword	Finesse	Melee	d8+3 (Phy)	One-Handed	Deadly (When you do Severe damage, deal one extra HP.)
Bladed Whip	Agility	Very Close	d8+3 (Phy)	One-Handed	Quick (When making an attack roll, mark a Stress to include an additional target in range.)
Steelforged Halberd	Strength	Very Close	d8+4 (Phy)	Two-Handed	Scary (Successful attacks also deal an extra Stress.)
War Scythe	Finesse	Very Close	d8+5 (Phy)	Two-Handed	Reliable (+1 on attack rolls with this weapon.)
Greatbow	Strength	Far	d6+6 (Phy)	Two-Handed	Powerful (Roll one extra damage die and drop the lowest.)
Blunderbuss	Finesse	Far	d6+6 (Phy)	One-Handed	Reloading (Roll 1d6 after the attack. On a 1, you must use an action to reload your weapon before you can fire it again.)
Finehair Bow	Agility	Very Far	d6+5 (Phy)	Two-Handed	Reliable (+1 on attack rolls with this weapon.)

Magic Weapons

Requires the Spellcast Ability

Name	Trait	Range	Damage	Burden	Feature
Improved Hallowed Axe	Strength	Melee	d10+4 (Mag)	One-Handed	—
Improved Arcane Gauntlets	Strength	Melee	d10+6 (Mag)	Two-Handed	—
Improved Glowing Rings	Agility	Very Close	d10+5 (Mag)	Two-Handed	—
Improved Hand Runes	Instinct	Very Close	d10+3 (Mag)	One-Handed	—
Improved Returning Blade	Finesse	Close	d8+4 (Mag)	One-Handed	—
Improved Shortstaff	Instinct	Close	d10+4 (Mag)	One-Handed	—
Improved Dualstaff	Instinct	Far	d6+6 (Mag)	Two-Handed	—
Improved Scepter	Presence	Far	d6+3 (Mag)	Two-Handed	Versatile (Presence Melee - d10+3)
Improved Wand	Knowledge	Far	d6+4 (Mag)	One-Handed	—
Improved Greatstaff	Knowledge	Very Far	d6+3 (Mag)	Two-Handed	Powerful (Roll one extra damage die and drop the lowest.)
Ego Blade	Agility	Melee	d12+4 (Mag)	One-Handed	Pompous (Must have a Presence score of 0 or less to use this weapon.)
Casting Sword	Strength	Melee	d10+4 (Mag)	Two-Handed	Versatile (Knowledge Far - d6+3)
Devouring Dagger	Finesse	Melee	d8+4 (Mag)	One-Handed	Scary (Successful attacks also deal +1 stress.)
Hammer of Exota	Instinct	Melee	d8+6 (Mag)	Two-Handed	Eruptive (When you hit a creature in Melee, each Very Close enemy must make a Reaction Roll (14) or take half damage as well.)
Yutari Bloodbow	Finesse	Far	d6+4 (Mag)	Two-Handed	Brutal (For every 6 rolled on a damage die, roll an additional d6 of damage.)
Elder Bow	Instinct	Far	d6+4 (Mag)	Two-Handed	Powerful (Roll one extra damage die and drop the lowest.)
Scepter of Elias	Presence	Far	d6+3 (Mag)	One-Handed	Invigorating (When you make a successful attack, roll a d4. On a 4, clear a stress.)
Wand of Enthrallment	Presence	Far	d6+4 (Mag)	One-Handed	Persuasive (Mark stress before rolling Presence to add +2 to the result.)
Bonded Staff	Knowledge	Far	d6+4 (Mag)	Two-Handed	Reliable (+1 on any attack rolls with this weapon.)

Tier 3 (Levels 5-7)

Physical Weapons

Name	Trait	Range	Damage	Burden	Feature
Advanced Broadsword	Agility	Melee	d8+6 (Phy)	One-Handed	Reliable (+1 to attack rolls with this weapon)
Advanced Longsword	Agility	Melee	d8+9 (Phy)	Two-Handed	—
Advanced Mace	Strength	Melee	d8+7 (Phy)	One-Handed	—
Advanced Battleaxe	Strength	Melee	d10+9 (Phy)	Two-Handed	—
Advanced Greatsword	Strength	Melee	d10+9 (Phy)	Two-Handed	Massive (−1 Agility, roll one extra damage die and drop the lowest)
Advanced Warhammer	Strength	Melee	d12+9 (Phy)	Two-Handed	Heavy (−1 to Agility)
Advanced Dagger	Finesse	Melee	d8+7 (Phy)	One-Handed	—
Advanced Quarterstaff	Instinct	Melee	d10+9 (Phy)	Two-Handed	—
Advanced Cutlass	Presence	Melee	d8+7 (Phy)	One-Handed	—
Advanced Rapier	Presence	Melee	d8+6 (Phy)	One-Handed	Quick (When making an attack roll, mark a Stress to include an additional target in range.)
Advanced Halberd	Strength	Very Close	d8+8 (Phy)	Two-Handed	—
Advanced Spear	Finesse	Very Close	d8+8 (Phy)	Two-Handed	—
Advanced Shortbow	Agility	Far	d6+9 (Phy)	Two-Handed	—
Advanced Crossbow	Finesse	Far	d6+7 (Phy)	One-Handed	—
Advanced Longbow	Agility	Very Far	d6+9 (Phy)	Two-Handed	Cumbersome (−1 to Evasion)
Flickerfly Blade	Agility	Melee	d8+5 (Phy)	One-Handed	Sharpwing (Add your Agility score to this weapon’s damage roll.)
Bravesword	Strength	Melee	d12+7 (Phy)	Two-Handed	Dense (−1 to Agility & +3 to Severe Hit Point Threshold)
Hell’s Hammer	Strength	Melee	d10+7 (Phy)	Two-Handed	Devastating (Mark stress before your attack roll to use d20s as your damage dice instead.)
Labrys Axe	Strength	Melee	d10+7 (Phy)	Two-Handed	Protective (Add +1 to your Armor score.)
Meridian Cutlass	Presence	Melee	d10+5 (Phy)	One-Handed	Dueling (Take advantage on attack rolls when there are no other adversaries or allies in Close range besides the current target.)
Retractable Saber	Presence	Melee	d10+7 (Phy)	One-Handed	Retractable (Blade can be hidden in hilt to avoid recognition as a weapon.)
Double Flail	Agility	Very Close	d10+8 (Phy)	Two-Handed	Powerful (Roll one extra damage die and drop the lowest.)
Talon Blades	Finesse	Close	d10+7 (Phy)	Two-Handed	Brutal (For every 10 rolled on a damage die, roll an additional d10 of damage.)
Spiked Bow	Agility	Very Far	d6+7 (Phy)	Two-Handed	Versatile (Agility Melee - d12+5)
Black Powder Revolver	Finesse	Very Far	d6+6 (Phy)	One-Handed	Reloading (Roll 1d6 after the attack. On a 1, you must use an action to reload your weapon before you can fire it again.)

Magic Weapons

Requires the Spellcast Ability

Name	Trait	Range	Damage	Burden	Feature
Advanced Hallowed Axe	Strength	Melee	d10+7 (Mag)	One-Handed	—
Advanced Arcane Gauntlets	Strength	Melee	d10+9 (Mag)	Two-Handed	—
Advanced Glowing Rings	Agility	Very Close	d10+8 (Mag)	Two-Handed	—
Advanced Hand Runes	Instinct	Very Close	d10+6 (Mag)	One-Handed	—
Advanced Returning Blade	Finesse	Close	d8+7 (Mag)	One-Handed	—
Advanced Shortstaff	Instinct	Close	d8+7 (Mag)	One-Handed	—
Advanced Dualstaff	Instinct	Far	d6+9 (Mag)	Two-Handed	—
Advanced Scepter	Presence	Far	d6+6 (Mag)	Two-Handed	Versatile (Presence Melee - d10+4)
Advanced Wand	Knowledge	Far	d6+7 (Mag)	One-Handed	—
Advanced Greatstaff	Knowledge	Very Far	d6+6 (Mag)	Two-Handed	Powerful (Roll one extra damage die and drop the lowest.)
Axe of Fortunis	Strength	Melee	d10+8 (Mag)	Two-Handed	Lucky (Spend a Stress on a failure to reroll your attack and take the new result.)
Blessed Anlace	Instinct	Melee	d10+6 (Mag)	One-Handed	Healing (During downtime, automatically heal 1 hit point.)
Ghostblade	Presence	Melee	d10+7 (Any)	One-Handed	Otherworldly (You can choose whether to do Physical or Magic damage.)
Runes of Ruination	Knowledge	Very Close	d20+4 (Mag)	One-Handed	Painful (Mark Stress every time you roll damage on an attack with this weapon.)
Widogast Pendant	Knowledge	Close	d10+5 (Mag)	One-Handed	Timebender (You may choose the target of your attack after making your attack roll.)
Gilded Bow	Finesse	Far	d6+7 (Mag)	Two-Handed	Self-Correcting (Any 1’s rolled on the damage dice may be treated as 8’s instead.)
Firestaff	Instinct	Far	d6+7 (Mag)	Two-Handed	Burn (For every damage dice that rolls an 6, deal Stress.)
Mage Orb	Knowledge	Far	d6+7 (Mag)	One-Handed	Powerful (Roll one extra damage die and drop the lowest.)
Ilmari’s Blunderbuss	Finesse	Very Far	d6+6 (Mag)	One-Handed	Reloading (Roll 1d6 after the attack. On a 1, you must use an action to reload your weapon before you can fire it again.)

Tier 4 (Levels 8-10)

Physical Weapons

Name	Trait	Range	Damage	Burden	Feature
Legendary Broadsword	Agility	Melee	d8+9 (Phy)	One-Handed	Reliable (+1 to attack rolls with this weapon)
Legendary Longsword	Agility	Melee	d8+12 (Phy)	Two-Handed	—
Legendary Mace	Strength	Melee	d8+10 (Phy)	One-Handed	—
Legendary Battleaxe	Strength	Melee	d10+12 (Phy)	Two-Handed	—
Legendary Greatsword	Strength	Melee	d10+12 (Phy)	Two-Handed	Massive (−1 Agility, roll one extra damage die and drop the lowest)
Legendary Warhammer	Strength	Melee	d12+12 (Phy)	Two-Handed	Heavy (−1 to Agility)
Legendary Dagger	Finesse	Melee	d8+10 (Phy)	One-Handed	—
Legendary Quarterstaff	Instinct	Melee	d10+12 (Phy)	Two-Handed	—
Legendary Cutlass	Presence	Melee	d8+10 (Phy)	One-Handed	—
Legendary Rapier	Presence	Melee	d8+9 (Phy)	One-Handed	Quick (When making an attack roll, mark a Stress to include an additional target in range.)
Legendary Halberd	Strength	Very Close	d8+11 (Phy)	Two-Handed	—
Legendary Spear	Finesse	Very Close	d8+11 (Phy)	Two-Handed	—
Legendary Shortbow	Agility	Far	d6+12 (Phy)	Two-Handed	—
Legendary Crossbow	Finesse	Far	d6+10 (Phy)	One-Handed	—
Legendary Longbow	Agility	Very Far	d6+12 (Phy)	Two-Handed	Cumbersome (−1 to Evasion)
Double-Sided Sword	Agility	Melee	d10+9 (Phy)	Two-Handed	Quick (When making an attack roll, mark a Stress to include an additional target in range.)
Impact Gauntlet	Strength	Melee	d10+11 (Phy)	One-Handed	Concussive (Spend Hope on a successful attack to launch the target into Far range.)
Sledge Axe	Strength	Melee	d12+13 (Phy)	Two-Handed	Destructive (−1 toAgility, all Very Close enemies mark Stress on a successful attack)
Curved Dagger	Finesse	Melee	d8+9 (Phy)	One-Handed	Serrated (Any 1’s rolled on the damage dice count as 10 points of damage.)
Extended Polearm	Finesse	Very Close	d8+10 (Phy)	Two-Handed	Long (Can target all enemies in a line within range with your attack)
Swinging Ropeblade	Presence	Close	d8+9 (Phy)	Two-Handed	Grappling (Spend Hope on a successful attack to temporarily make the target Restrained, or pull them into melee with you.)
Ricochet Axes	Agility	Far	d6+11 (Phy)	Two-Handed	Bouncing (Spend any amount of Stress to hit that many targets in range with the attack.)
Aantari Bow	Finesse	Far	d6+11 (Phy)	Two-Handed	Reliable (+1 on any attack rolls with this weapon.)
Hand Cannon	Finesse	Very Far	d6+12 (Phy)	One-Handed	Reloading (Roll 1d6 after the attack. On a 1, you must use an action to reload your weapon before you can fire it again.)

Magic Weapons

Requires the Spellcast Ability

Name	Trait	Range	Damage	Burden	Feature
Legendary Hallowed Axe	Strength	Melee	d10+10 (Mag)	One-Handed	—
Legendary Arcane Gauntlets	Strength	Melee	d10+12 (Mag)	Two-Handed	—
Legendary Glowing Rings	Agility	Very Close	d10+11 (Mag)	Two-Handed	—
Legendary Hand Runes	Instinct	Very Close	d10+9 (Mag)	One-Handed	—
Legendary Returning Blade	Finesse	Close	d8+10 (Mag)	One-Handed	—
Legendary Shortstaff	Instinct	Close	d8+10 (Mag)	One-Handed	—
Legendary Dualstaff	Instinct	Far	d8+12 (Mag)	Two-Handed	—
Legendary Scepter	Presence	Far	d6+9 (Mag)	Two-Handed	Versatile (Presence Melee - d10+6)
Legendary Wand	Knowledge	Far	d6+10 (Mag)	One-Handed	—
Legendary Greatstaff	Knowledge	Very Far	d6+9 (Mag)	Two-Handed	Powerful (Roll one extra damage die and drop the lowest.)
Sword of Light & Flame	Strength	Melee	d10+11 (Mag)	Two-Handed	Penetrating (Cuts through solid material.)
Siphoning Gauntlets	Presence	Melee	d10+9 (Mag)	Two-Handed	Lifestealing (On a successful attack, roll a d6. On a 6, heal a hit point or clear a Stress.)
Midas Scythe	Knowledge	Melee	d10+9 (Mag)	Two-Handed	Greedy (You may spend one handful of gold to increase your proficiency by +1 on a damage roll.)
Floating Bladeshards	Instinct	Close	d8+9 (Mag)	One-Handed	Powerful (Roll one extra damage die and drop the lowest.)
Bloodstaff	Instinct	Far	d20+7 (Mag)	Two-Handed	Painful (Mark a Stress every time you roll damage on an attack with this weapon.)
Thistlebow	Instinct	Far	d6+13 (Mag)	Two-Handed	Reliable (+1 on any attack rolls with this weapon.)
Wand of Essek	Knowledge	Far	d8+13 (Mag)	One-Handed	Timebender (−1 to Agility. You may choose the target of your attack after making your attack roll.)
Magus Revolver	Finesse	Very Far	d6+13 (Mag)	One-Handed	Reloading (Roll 1d6 after the attack. On a 1, you must use an action to reload your weapon before you can fire it again.)
Fusion Gloves	Knowledge	Very Far	d6+9 (Mag)	Two-Handed	Bonded (Add your Level to the damage result.)

Secondary Weapon Tables

Players can choose one Tier 1 secondary weapon during character creation. Other weapons will become available to them throughout a campaign as they level up.

Tier 1 (Level 1) - Starting Secondary Weapons

Name	Trait	Range	Damage	Burden	Feature
Shortsword	Agility	Melee	d8 (Phy)	One-Handed	Paired (+2 to Primary Weapon damage in Melee)
Round Shield	Strength	Melee	d4 (Phy)	One-Handed	Protective (Add +1 to your armor score.)
Tower Shield	Strength	Melee	d6 (Phy)	One-Handed	Barrier (Add +3 to your armor score, −2 to Evasion)
Small Dagger	Finesse	Melee	d8 (Phy)	One-Handed	Paired (+2 to Primary Weapon damage in Melee)
Whip	Presence	Very Close	d6 (Phy)	One-Handed	Whipcrack (Mark stress to scatter enemies in Melee into Close range)
Grappler	Finesse	Close	d6 (Phy)	One-Handed	Hook (On a successful attack, you may also pull the target into Melee with you)
Hand Crossbow	Finesse	Far	d6+1 (Phy)	One-Handed	—

Tier 2 (Levels 2-4)

Name	Trait	Range	Damage	Burden	Feature
Improved Shortsword	Agility	Melee	d8+2 (Phy)	One-Handed	Paired (+3 to Primary Weapon damage in Melee)
Improved Round Shield	Strength	Melee	d4+2 (Phy)	One-Handed	Protective (Add +2 to your armor score.)
Improved Tower Shield	Strength	Melee	d6+2 (Phy)	One-Handed	Barrier (Add +4 to your armor score, −2 to Evasion)
Improved Small Dagger	Finesse	Melee	d8+2 (Phy)	One-Handed	Paired (+3 to Primary Weapon damage in Melee)
Improved Whip	Presence	Very Close	d6+2 (Phy)	One-Handed	Whipcrack (Mark stress to scatter enemies in Melee into Close range)
Improved Grappler	Finesse	Close	d6+2 (Phy)	One-Handed	Hook (On a successful attack, you may also pull the target into Melee with you.)
Improved Hand Crossbow	Finesse	Far	d6+3 (Phy)	One-Handed	—
Spiked Shield	Strength	Melee	d6+2 (Phy)	One-Handed	Double Duty (+2 to Armor score, +1 to Primary Weapon damage in Melee)
Parrying Dagger	Finesse	Melee	d6+2 (Phy)	One-Handed	Parry (On an attack against you, roll this weapon’s damage dice. If any match the attacker’s, they are removed before damage is totalled.)
Returning Axe	Agility	Close	d6+4 (Phy)	One-Handed	—

Tier 3 (Levels 5-7)

Name	Trait	Range	Damage	Burden	Feature
Advanced Shortsword	Agility	Melee	d8+4 (Phy)	One-Handed	Paired (+4 to Primary Weapon damage in Melee)
Advanced Round Shield	Strength	Melee	d4+4 (Phy)	One-Handed	Protective (Add +3 to your armor score.)
Advanced Tower Shield	Strength	Melee	d6+4 (Phy)	One-Handed	Barrier (Add +5 to your armor score, −2 to Evasion)
Advanced Small Dagger	Finesse	Melee	d8+4 (Phy)	One-Handed	Paired (+4 to Primary Weapon damage in Melee)
Advanced Whip	Presence	Very Close	d6+4 (Phy)	One-Handed	Whipcrack (Mark stress to scatter enemies in Melee into Close range)
Advanced Grappler	Finesse	Close	d6+4 (Phy)	One-Handed	Hook (On a successful attack, you may also pull the target into Melee with you.)
Advanced Hand Crossbow	Finesse	Far	d6+4 (Phy)	One-Handed	—
Buckler	Agility	Melee	d4+4 (Phy)	One-Handed	Deflecting (On an incoming attack, you may spend an armor slot to boost your Evasion score by your Armor score.)
Powered Gauntlet	Knowledge	Close	d6+4 (Mag)	One-Handed	Charged Attack (Mark stress to increase proficiency by +1 on Primary Weapon attack)
Hand Sling	Finesse	Very Far	d6+4 (Phy)	One-Handed	Versatile (Finesse Close- d8+4)

Tier 4 (Levels 8-10)

Name	Trait	Range	Damage	Burden	Feature
Legendary Shortsword	Agility	Melee	d8+6 (Phy)	One-Handed	Paired (+5 to Primary Weapon damage in Melee)
Legendary Round Shield	Strength	Melee	d4+6 (Phy)	One-Handed	Protective (Add +4 to your armor score.)
Legendary Tower Shield	Strength	Melee	d4+6 (Phy)	One-Handed	Barrier (Add +6 to your armor score, −2 to Evasion)
Legendary Small Dagger	Finesse	Melee	d8+6 (Phy)	One-Handed	Paired (+5 to Primary Weapon damage in Melee)
Legendary Whip	Presence	Very Close	d6+6 (Phy)	One-Handed	Whipcrack (Mark stress to scatter enemies in Melee into Close range)
Legendary Grappler	Finesse	Close	d6+6 (Phy)	One-Handed	Hook (On a successful attack, you may also pull the target into Melee with you.)
Legendary Hand Crossbow	Finesse	Far	d6+7 (Phy)	One-Handed	—
Braveshield	Agility	Melee	d4+6 (Phy)	One-Handed	Sheltering (Using an armor slot reduces damage for you and all allies in Melee with you.)
Knuckle Claws	Strength	Melee	d6+6 (Mag)	One-Handed	Doubled Up (When you make an attack with your Primary Weapon, you may also deal damage with this weapon to another creature in melee.)
Primer Shard	Instinct	Very Close	none	One-Handed	Locked On (On a successful attack with this weapon against a target, the next hit with your Primary Weapon automatically hits that target.)

Armor Tables

Players may choose one Tier 1 piece of armor during character creation. Other armor will become available throughout a campaign as they level up.

Tier 1 (Level 1) - Starting Armor

Name	Base Score	Feature
Gambeson Armor	3	Flexible (+1 to Evasion)
Leather Armor	4	—
Chainmail Armor	5	Heavy (−1 to Evasion)
Full Plate Armor	6	Very Heavy (−2 to Evasion and −1 to Agility)

Tier 2 (Levels 2-4)

Name	Base Score	Feature
Improved Gambeson Armor	4	Flexible (+1 to Evasion)
Improved Leather Armor	5	—
Improved Chainmail Armor	6	Heavy (−1 to Evasion)
Improved Full Plate Armor	7	Very Heavy (−2 to Evasion and −1 to Agility)
Elundrian Chain Armor	2	Reinforced (Increase your armor score by the number of unmarked armor slots you have)
Harrowbone Armor	5	Resistant (Mark 2 armor slots to make yourself resistant to the incoming damage instead of reducing it by your armor score.)
Irontree Breastplate Armor	5	Sturdy (Before you mark your last armor slot, roll a d6. On a 6, you use the armor without marking the slot.)
Runetan Shield	5	Warded (Each armor slot is worth an extra 2d4 against magic damage.)
Tyris Soft Armor	5	Quiet (+2 to any rolls you make to move without being heard.)
Rosewild Armor	6	Hopeful (Anytime you need to spend Hope, you may mark an Armor Slot instead.)

Tier 3 (Levels 5-7)

Name	Base Score	Feature
Advanced Gambeson Armor	5	Flexible (+1 to Evasion)
Advanced Leather Armor	6	—
Advanced Chainmail Armor	7	Heavy (−1 to Evasion)
Advanced Full Plate Armor	8	Very Heavy (−2 to Evasion and −1 to Agility)
Bellamoi Fine Armor	6	Gilded (When you mark an armor slot, you may spend any amount of Hope to also reduce the incoming damage by an amount equal to your proficiency per Hope spent.)
Dragonscale Armor	6	Impenetrable (When you mark an armor slot, you cannot fill your last hit point as the result of physical damage.)
Spiked Armor Plating	6	Sharp (Add 1d4 to any damage rolls you make on a successful Melee attack.)
Bladefare Armor	8	Physical (You cannot use this armor against Magic damage.)
Monett’s Cloak	8	Magic (You cannot use this armor against Physical damage.)
Runes of Fortification	10	Painful (Mark stress every time you use one or more armor slots on an attack.)

Tier 4 (Levels 8-10)

Name	Base Score	Feature
Legendary Gambeson Armor	7	Flexible (+1 to Evasion)
Legendary Leather Armor	8	—
Legendary Chainmail Armor	9	Heavy (−1 to Evasion)
Legendary Full Plate Armor	10	Very Heavy (−2 to Evasion and −1 to Agility)
Dunamis Silkchain	5	Timeslowing (On any incoming attacks, roll 1d4 and add its value to your Evasion score.)
Channeling Armor	7	Channeling (While this armor is equipped, take +1 to all Spellcast rolls.)
Emberwoven Armor	8	Burning (When an enemy strikes you in Melee, they immediately mark a stress.)
Full Reinforced Armor	8	Variable (Add +1 to your armor score for every range beyond Melee the damage is coming from.)
Veritas Opal Armor	8	Truthseeking (This armor glows when anyone within Close range tells a lie.)
Savior Chainmail	15	Difficult (−1 to all Character Traits)

Loot

Loot in Daggerheart consists of the additional items and consumables you might find along your journey. Pull directly from the tables below, or use them as inspiration for your own loot.

Items

Items are loot that you carry in your inventory indefinitely. Unless you choose to get rid of them or something happens in the narrative that causes you to lose them, they remain with you.

Use the rolling guide below to generate items. Common might be for general items found at an abandoned camp or readily available at a local store. Uncommon might be an item that a shopkeep only has in limited supply, is kept in a protected place in camp, or could be offered as part of a reward for a job. Rare might be something kept under lock and key in a shop, the single item offered as a reward for a job, or found in the possession of a powerful NPC. Legendary might be something there is only one of in the world, an item you receive as the reward for an incredibly difficult or dangerous job, or the most precious of treasure being guarded by a powerful adversary.

Common: Roll 1d12 or 2d12 | Uncommon: Roll 2d12 or 3d12

Rare: Roll 3d12 or 4d12 | Legendary: Roll 4d12 or 5d12

01	Premium Bedroll - During any rests, you always automatically clear 1 stress.
02	Piper Whistle - A handcrafted whistle. Each that are made have a distinctive sound, and the piercing tone can be heard across a one mile radius.
03	Charging Quiver - When arrows for a bow are kept in the Charging Quiver, damage rolls using the bow deal +2 damage.
04	Alistair’s Torch - A magic torch that lights at will and spreads light much farther than it looks like it should. This could fill a cave with light bright enough to feel like its daytime.
05	Speaking Orbs - A pair of orbs that allow any creatures holding them to communicate with each other across any distance.
06	Manacles - A pair of locking cuffs with a key.
07	Chaos Cloak - A cloak whose color, texture, and size can be adjusted by any user with the spellcast ability at will.
08	Woven Net - A net that can be used to trap small creatures. To use it, make a Finesse roll. On a success, the difficulty to break free is 16.
09	Fire Jar - Pour out strange liquid within the contents of this jar to instantly produce fire. The contents regenerate on your next long rest.
10	Suspended Rod - A flat rod inscribed with runes. When it is activated, it is immediately suspended in place where it is. It cannot move, does not abide by the rules of gravity, and will remain in place until it is deactivated.
11	Glamor Stone - Activate this pebble-sized stone to memorize a look - hairdo, makeup, outfit. You may spend a Hope to instantly re-create this look at any time.
12	Empty Chest - A magical chest that will appear empty, even if there are items being kept inside. The owner can use a specific word, phrase, or other trigger when opening the chest to reveal these items.
13	Companion Case - A carrying case for a small animal companion. While they are inside, the case and the animal are immune to all harm.
14	Piercing Arrows - When firing a bow, you may use Piercing Arrows to add your proficiency to your damage roll. 3 uses per short rest. 〇 〇 〇
15	Valorstone - Attach to armor. Adds the following feature to armor that doesn’t already have a feature: Resilient (Before you mark your last armor slot, roll a d6. On a 6, you use the armor without marking the slot.)
16	Skeleton Key - Use this to make a Finesse roll at advantage when attempting to open a locked door.
17	Arcane Prism - Position this prism in a location of your choosing. Once activated, any allies that stand within close distance of this prism get +1 to their Spellcast rolls. Once it is deactivated, it can’t be activated again until your next long rest.
18	Minor Stamina Potion Recipe - During downtime, spend one of your downtime moves and a handful of gold to craft a Minor Stamina Potion.
19	Minor Health Potion Recipe - During downtime, spend one of your downtime moves and a handful of gold to craft a Minor Health Potion.
20	Homing Compasses - Two compasses that only point at each other no matter how far apart they are.
21	Corrector Sprite - A tiny sprite who sits in the curve of your ear canal and whispers helpful advice during combat. Once per short rest, you may take advantage on an attack roll. Do not give them your true name.
22	Gecko Gloves - You can climb up vertical surfaces and across ceilings.
23	Lorekeeper - Store the name of up to three hostile creatures. Next time you face them, take +1 on any action rolls against them.
24	Vial of Darksmoke Recipe - During downtime, spend one of your downtime moves and mark a stress to craft a Vial of Darksmoke.
25	Bloodstone - Attach to a weapon. Adds the following feature to a weapon that doesn’t already have a feature: Brutal (If any of your damage dice roll their maximum value, roll an additional damage die of that size.)
26	Greatstone - Attach to a weapon. Adds the following feature to a weapon that doesn’t already have a feature: Powerful (Roll one extra damage die and drop the lowest.)
27	Glider - A small parachute that can be deployed by marking Stress. It allows the user to glide down from a high place safely to the ground below.
28	Ring of Silence - Spend a Hope to activate this ring until your next short rest. Your footsteps are silent.
29	Calming Pendant - If you should ever have to mark your last stress slot, roll a d6. On a 5+, don’t mark it.
30	Dual Flask - A flask that can hold two different liquids. A small button on the side allows the drinker to switch between them.
31	Bag of Ficklesand - This is a small bag of sand that can be convinced to be much heavier or lighter than it should be with a Presence (10) roll. You can also blow sand in the face of an adversary with a Finesse roll to make them temporarily Vulnerable.
32	Ring of Resistance - Once per long rest, activate this ring to only take half damage on an incoming attack.
33	Phoenix Feather - While you have any quantity of Phoenix Feathers, when you drop unconscious and roll to see if you take a scar, always take +1 to the die result.
34	Box of Many Goods - A small box that can only be opened once per long rest. When it is, roll a d12. If you roll a 1-6, it is empty. If you roll a 7-10, it contains one random consumable. If you roll an 11-12, it contains two random consumables.
35	Airblade Charm - Attach to a melee weapon to make it able to attack at a Close distance. 3 uses per short rest.
36	Portal Seed - Plant this in the ground to grow a portal in this spot. The portal will be ready to use in 24 hours and you may travel to any other spot you’ve planted a portal seed. A portal may be destroyed by dealing any amount of magic damage to it.
37	Paragon’s Chain - Once per long rest, you may use a downtime move to meditate on an ideal or principle you hold dear and focus your will into the chain. Until your next long rest, you can spend a Hope to use a d20 as your Hope die for rolls that directly align with that principle.
38	Elusive Amulet - Once per long rest, activate this to go Hidden until you move from this location. Any enemies who move into line of sight with you while you’re Hidden don’t see you.
39	Hopekeeper Locket - During a long rest, if you have 5 Hope, you may spend 1 Hope and imbue the locket with your bountiful resolve. If you ever have 0 Hope, you may use the locket and gain 1 Hope. The locket must then be recharged during a long rest.
40	Infinite Bag - Items put into this bag are stored in a pocket dimension and can be retrieved at any time.
41	Stride Relic - Add +1 to your Agility. You cannot hold any other relics.
42	Bolster Relic - Add +1 to your Strength. You cannot hold any other relics.
43	Focus Relic - Add +1 to your Finesse. You cannot hold any other relics.
44	Charm Relic - Add +1 to your Presence. You cannot hold any other relics.
45	Sharp Relic - Add +1 to your Knowledge. You cannot hold any other relics.
46	Flickerfly Pendant - While wearing your melee weapons dealing physical damage extend with a gossamer sheen. You can hit creatures up to Very Close range.
47	Lakestrider Boots - You may walk along the surface of water as if it were soft ground.
48	Clay Companion - This ball of clay can be sculpted into various animal shapes and will then behave as that animal (a clay spider can spin clay webs, a clay bird can fly). This companion has continuity of memory and self across different shapes but may adopt some mannerisms with each form.
49	Attune Relic - Add +1 to your Instinct. You cannot hold any other relics.
50	Honing Relic - Add +1 to one of your Experiences. You cannot hold any other relics.
51	Mythic Dust Recipe - During downtime, use one of your moves and a bag of gold to craft Mythic Dust.
52	Shard of Memory- Once per long rest, spend 2 Hope to recall a Domain card from your vault instead of payings its Recall Cost.
53	Gem of Audacity - Attach to a weapon to allow you to roll with Presence when using it to attack.
54	Gem of Sagacity - Attach to a weapon to allow you to roll with Knowledge when using it to attack.
55	Gem of Insight - Attach to a weapon to allow you to roll withInstinct when using it to attack.
56	Gem of Might - Attach to a weapon to allow you to roll with Strength when using it to attack.
57	Gem of Alacrity - Attach to a weapon to allow you to roll with Agility when using it to attack.
58	Gem of Precision - Attach to a weapon to allow you to roll with Finesse when using it to attack.
59	Ring of Unbreakable Resolve - Once per session, when the GM spends 1 Fear, you can spend 4 Hope to cancel the effects of that spent Fear.
60	Belt of Unity - Once per session, you may spend 5 Hope to lead a Tag Team action with 3 PCs instead of 2.

Consumables

Consumables are loot that can only be used one time. You may only hold five of the same consumable at a time.

Use the rolling guide below to generate consumables. Common might be for general consumables found at an abandoned camp or readily available at a local store. Uncommon might be a consumable that a shopkeep only has in limited supply, is kept in a protected place in camp, or could be offered as part of a reward for a job. Rare might be something kept under lock and key in a shop, the single type of consumable offered as a reward for a job, or found in the possession of a powerful NPC. Legendary might be something there is only a few of in the world, a type of consumable you receive as the reward for an incredible difficult or dangerous job, or the most precious of treasure being guarded by a powerful adversary.

Common: Roll 1d12 or 2d12 | Uncommon: Roll 2d12 or 3d12

Rare: Roll 3d12 or 4d12 | Legendary: Roll 4d12 or 5d12

01	Stride Potion - Take a +1 to your next Agility roll.
02	Bolster Potion - Take a +1 to your next Strength roll.
03	Focus Potion - Take a +1 to your next Finesse roll.
04	Charm Potion - Take a +1 to your next Presence roll.
05	Sharp Potion - Take a +1 to your next Knowledge roll.
06	Attune Potion - Take a +1 to your next Instinct roll.
07	Minor Health Potion - Immediately clear 1d4hit points.
08	Minor Stamina Potion - Immediately clear 1d4 stress.
09	Grindletooth Venom - Apply to physical weapon to add +1d6 to its next damage roll.
10	Varik Leaves - Immediately gain 2 hope.
11	Vial of Moondrip - See in total darkness until your next short rest.
12	Unstable Arcane Shard. Use Finesse to throw at a group of enemies within far range. Any you succeed against take 1d20 magic damage.
13	Potion of Stability - On use, take one additional downtime move.
14	Improved Grindletooth Venom - Apply to physical weapon to add +1d8 to its next damage roll.
15	Morphing Clay - Spend one Hope. The person using this item can alter their face to change their facial features enough to make them unrecognizable until their next short rest.
16	Vial of Darksmoke - Use during an incoming attack to roll a number of d6 equal to your Agility score. Add the highest result to your Evasion score against the attack.
17	Jumping Root - You can leap to anywhere within Far range of you without needing to roll. This effect ends when you land there.
18	Snap Powder - Mark stress and clear a hit point.
19	Health Potion - Immediately clear 1+1d4 hit points.
20	Stamina Potion - Immediately clear 1+1d4 stress.
21	Counter Tonic - Has a chance to heal venom or poison. Roll a number of d6 equal to your Knowledge. If any roll a 6, it works.
22	Gill Salve - You can breathe underwater for a number of minutes equal to your level.
23	Replication Parchment - When you touch this piece of parchment to another, it will copy it exactly. Once it’s made into this copy, it is no longer Replication Parchment.
24	Improved Arcane Shard - Use Finesse to throw at a group of enemies within Far range. Any you succeed against take 2d20 magic damage.
25	Major Stride Potion - Take a +1 to Agility until your next short rest.
26	Major Bolster Potion - Take a +1 to Strength until your next short rest.
27	Major Focus Potion - Take a +1 to Finesse until your next short rest.
28	Major Umbra Potion - Take a +1 to Presence until your next short rest.
29	Major Sharp Potion - Take a +1 to Knowledge until your next short rest.
30	Major Attune Potion - Take a +1 to Instinct until your next short rest.
31	Blood of the Yorgi - Disappear from where you are and immediately reappear anywhere within very far distance.
32	Homet’s Secret Potion - After consuming, on the next successful attack you make that deals magic damage, treat the damage as you would on a critical success.
33	Redthorn Saliva - Apply to physical weapon to add +1d12 to its next damage roll.
34	Channelstone - Take a spell or grimoire from your vault and use it once, then return it to your vault.
35	Mythic Dust - Apply to a magic weapon to add +1d12 to its next damage roll.
36	Acidpaste - Eats away walls and other surfaces in bright flashes.
37	Hopehold Flare - On use, allies within close distance always rolls a d6 when they spend a Hope. On a 6, they get the effect of that Hope without spending it. This lasts until your next short rest.
38	Major Arcane Shard - Use Finesse to throw at a group of enemies within Far range. Any you succeed against take 4d20 magic damage.
39	Featherbone - Control your falling speed for a number of minutes equal to your level.
40	Circle of the Void - Mark stress. Magical spells are temporarily unable to be cast everywhere within far distance of this object. Everything within this range is immune to magic damage.
41	Sun Tree Sap - Roll 1d6. On a 5-6, clear two Hit Points. On a 2-5, clear three stress. On a 1, see the Veil of Death and return changed, taking one Scar.
42	Dripfang Poison - Does 8d10 direct magic damage to a creature who consumes it.
43	Major Health Potion - Immediately clear 2+1d4 hit points.
44	Major Stamina Potion - Immediately clear 2+1d4 stress.
45	Ogre Musk- Keep from anybody from tracking you by physical or magic means until your next short rest.
46	Wingsprout - You gain magic wings that allow you to fly for a number of minutes equal to your level.
47	Jar of Lost Voices - Release the voices to create a deafening echo of sound for a number of minutes equal to your Instinct score. Anyone within far distance unprepared for the sound automatically takes 6d8 magic damage.
48	Dragonbloom Tea - Make a fiery breath attack on all close enemies in front of you. Make an Instinct roll against the targets. On a success, deal d20 physical damage.
49	**Bridge Seed -**Thick vines grow slowly from where you are standing to somewhere else within far distance, allowing you to climb up or across safely. It dissipates at your next short rest.
50	Sleeping Sap - Puts a willing creature to sleep for a full night’s rest. When they awaken, they have all stress cleared.
51	Feast of Xuria - Provides a single meal for the party that clears all hit points and stress, and gives 1d4 of hope.
52	Bonding Honey - Glues two objects together permanently.
53	Shrinking Potion - Reduces the drinker’s size in half until they choose to drop this form or take their next short rest. Take +2 Agility.
54	Growing Potion - Makes the drinker twice as large until they choose to drop this form or take their next short rest. Take +2 Strength.
55	Knowledge Stone - If you die while holding this stone, one ally may take a card from your loadout to place in their own loadout or vault. When they take this knowledge, the stone crumbles.
56	Sweet Moss - Consume during a short rest to clear an additional 1d4 hit points or 1d4 stress.
57	Blinding Orb - Creates a flash of bright light that causes all creatures in Close range to be Vulnerable until they next take Hit Pointdamage.
58	Death Tea - Any critical successes on an attack roll automatically kill the creature you’re facing. If you don’t get any critical successes on an attack roll before your next long rest, you die.
59	Mirror of Marigold - Spend hope to negate all incoming damage, shattering the mirror. You may also mark a Stress before it shatters to attempt to reflect it back to the attacker. If you do, make an attack roll usingFinesse.
60	Stardrop - On use, it summons a hailstorm of comets that automatically deal 8d20 physical damage to all creatures within Very Far range of where it was triggered.

Full Example of Play

In this full example of play using the mechanics that have been introduced so far, we join a party as them embark on a journey to Whitecrest Tower, rumored to be the home of a powerful artifact from an ancient battle.

We join a party as they embark on a journey to Whitecrest Tower, rumored to be the home of a powerful artifact from an ancient battle.

The party:

Wildborne Clank Warden of Renewal Druid - Shepherd (they/she) - played by Jess (she/her)

Loreborne Drakona School of War Wizard - Krasz (she/her) - played by Shaun (he/him)

Underborne Katari Call of the Brave Warrior - Tabby (she/her) - played by Kat (they/them)

Seaborne Elf Syndicate Rogue - Lavelle (he/him) - played by Nick (he/him)

Their GM: Max (they/them)

Max says, “Whitecrest Tower is built into the side of a mountain, forcing attackers to make a dangerous climb to even approach from the valley below. So my first question is - how do you want to get up to the tower?”

Jess, playing Shepherd the Druid, says, “I want to use Nature’s Tongue and find a goat or ram or some other creature that lives in the mountains and ask them about the easiest way up to the tower.”

Max says, “Absolutely. It’s not hard to find some goats tromping around in seeming defiance of gravity. Give me that Instinct Roll, difficulty 12.”

Jess rolls the Duality dice and adds two modifier tokens to represent her Instinct trait of 2. She rolls 7 on the Hope die and 4 on the Fear die. With her two modifier tokens, that is a 13 with Hope.

“On a success with Hope , the goat is friendly enough and gives you clear information. She remembers the pathway that the last group of two-legs took and will lead you to it. Don’t forget to gain Hope.”

Jess adds a Hope on her sheet and says, “I respond, ‘Thank you, friend goat.’ Then I fish out some food from my pack and give it to her as she leads us up.”

“The food disappears in an instant, then the goat starts scaling the mountain, leading you to the path. We’re going to do the ascent as a Progress Countdown , but since you’re getting help, I’m going to set it at 3 instead of 5. What’s the next move you make in scaling the mountain?”

Kat says, “Tabby is going to take point and set pitons for the others to help make the ascent easier for everyone.”

“That sounds an Agility roll.” Max says.

Kat rolls a 3 on the Hope die, but a 7 on the Fear die. With Tabby’s Agility of 2, that would be a total of 12, with Fear.

“I’m going to use my Feline Instincts as a Katari to mark Stress and re-roll my Hope die,” Kat says.

They roll the Hope die again, getting an 8. “Nice! That’s a 17 with Hope.”

“On a success with Hope, you reduce the countdown by 2,“ Max says. “It’s down to 1, so at this point, even a success with Fear will get you to the tower. Take Hope. Tabby scales the mountain, neck and neck with the goat, setting pitons and throwing rope down behind to help the others. You’re making quick work, but there’s still another hundred feet between you and the foot of the tower. What do you do?”

Shaun says, “Oh, I want to try out my new grimoire. Krasz takes some rope and pitons and then she’s going to cast Arcane Door to teleport up to the front gate so she can throw down a rope.”

“Nice. That’s a Spellcast roll with difficulty 13, and you spend a Hope to cast it.”

Shaun spends Hope and rolls the Duality dice, adding 3 modifier tokens for his character’s spellcast trait ( Knowledge ). He gets a 5 on the Hope die and a 6 on the Fear die.

“That’s a 14, so a success…with Fear,” Shaun says, slightly nervous.

You all see Krasz disappear and then reappear halfway up the remaining distance, then she blinks out again and appears by the front gate. With a rope leading all the way up, it’s relatively simple for the rest of you to make your way up.”

“I give the helpful goat another nibble of food before I send her off to her own business,” Jess adds.

Max nods. “As Shepherd says farewell to the goat, Krasz, behind you something shifts, like the wooden floors of an old house. But this doesn’t feel like settling. It feels like something waking from slumber.” Max takes a Fear, adding it to their pool.

“I’m sure that’s fine,” Nick says, with an expression that says the opposite.

Max continues. “Once you’ve all made it up the rope, you stand at the shattered front gate of Whitecrest Tower, the mountainside wall collapsed and long since worn down by snow or rain or avalanche. The only sounds you hear are the whistling of wind through the ruins as you pass the outer wall of Whitecrest tower. Lavelle, your contact said that the surviving treasure hunter she met last month made it as far as the basement of the castle before her party were killed by a Skeleton Knight .”

“So we know to go down once we get inside,” Nick adds. “Let’s sneak in as far as we can before we catch the attention of whatever’s already here.”

“Okay, that’ll be a group Finesse roll.”

Jess says: “Lavelle, you lead?”

Nick agrees, so Jess, Shaun, and Kat make Finesse reaction rolls for their characters. Shaun and Jess succeed, and Kat fails.

“Shaun and Jess, you each add a +1 to the group roll, and Kat adds a -1 for that failure, which means you’re at a +1, Nick. Let’s see how you do in leading the group.”

Nick says, “I’m going to spend Hope to Utilize an Experience -this is definitely the kind of intrusion Lavelle has done as a Treasure Hunter.”

Nick rolls a 2 on the Hope die and a 4 on the Fear—that’s 6. He adds his Finesse of +3, +2 for the Treasure Hunter Experience, and +1 from the party’s contribution. (6+3+2+1 = 12). “That’s a total of 12, with Fear.”

Max grimaces. “Twelve is not going to do it. You make your way through the outer courtyard of the fortress. Rusted swords, decayed wooden emplacements, rubble from the collapsing stone structure. You take a turn into the inner courtyard, with the keep just ahead of you, when you hear rattling and the sounds of steel on stone.”

Max places the action tracker on the table. “All around you, once-still skeletons begin assembling, stacking themselves up into moving figures wielding rusted swords and bows that shouldn’t work, but do. Three of them now stand ready to fight. Since you rolled a failure with Fear, this opening move is going to be a big one..”

Max sets out the action tracker and adds four tokens due to four PCs participating in the group action, then spends two Fear to add four tokens to the action tracker, then spends two tokens to make a Group Attack using the skeleton dredges . “All three of the smaller skeletons surround Lavelle, hacking and stabbing with their rusted blades.“ Max makes one attack for the group of skeletons according to the text of the Group Attack action. They roll one twenty-sided die and one token for the skeleton dredges’ attack modifier of -1. The die comes up a 15, -1 for 14. “Lavelle, what is your evasion ?”

Shaun says, “It’s 13.”

Max nods. “Then that’s a hit. You’ll take 9 physical damage as the skeletons surround you, hacking and slashing with rusted blades.”

“Yikes,” Nick says. “I’ll mark one armor slot to try to bring that down.” Nick has an armor score of 3 from his gambeson armor , reducing the incoming damage by 3 points. “6 is under my Major threshold, so I just take Minor damage.“ Nick marks 1 Hit Point on Lavelle.

“Now for the archers,” Max says, removing two tokens from the action tracker. “They’re going to attack Shepherd and Krasz.” The archers are not using a group attack, so Max makes one attack roll for each of them.

Max rolls 1d20+2 twice (once for each skeleton archer ). They roll 3 and 8, for a total of 5 against Krasz and 10 against Shepherd. The attack against Krasz misses (9 is lower than 12), but the attack against Shepherd hits (if an attack total is equal to the target’s evasion, the attack hits).

Max rolls 2d8+3 for the archer’s damage. It’s a total of 7—but that gets doubled thanks to the Skeleton Archer’s Opportunist feature, which says “When more than one other friendly skeleton is very close to a target, all the damage Skeleton Archer deals to that target is doubled.” Since the skeleton dredges mobbed the group, the archers are able to fire in moments when the heroes are more open.

“That’s 14 physical damage for Shepherd,” Max says.

Max turns to Jess to see what she wants to do about the damage for Shepherd. “14 is Major damage, so I’ll mark armor.“ Shepherd’s armor score is 4, so the 14 damage is reduced by 4 to only 10. That’s still Major damage for the Druid, so she marks a second armor slot and reduces the damage by 4 again to just 6, which is just Minor damage. She marks one HP.

With adversaries yet to activate, Max spends another Fear to add two tokens to the action tracker , and says, “Once the other skeletons have engaged and the archers have loosed their arrows, the skeleton knight stomps forward and takes a big swing at Tabby.”

The skeleton knight has a +2 modifier, so Max adds two tokens to their hand with the d20. They roll a 14, +2 for 16. “I’m pretty sure a 16 hits Tabby?”

Kat says, “It does, alas.”

Max rolls 2d8+5 for damage, but gets a low roll of 10. “That’s 10 physical damage against Tabby as the knight comes in with an overhead blow.”

“That shouldn’t be too hard to deal with,” Kat says. They mark two armor slots, reducing the hit by 10 (twice for her armor rating of 5).“That takes it down to 0, so I don’t mark HP.”

There’s still one action token on the tracker, but every adversary has activated during this move, so Max yields play back to the PCs. While returning the action tokens to the PCs, they say, “The skeletons rushed you all at once like it was a practiced maneuver. I wonder how many other groups they’ve ambushed like this. What do you want to do?”

“This is going to be their last ambush,” Shaun says. “Magical flame ignites in Krasz’s hands and I hurl it at the skeletons I’m in melee with. I’m going to use Wild Flame, targeting two of the little ones and the big one with the sword.”

“Cool, roll Spellcast as your attack roll , and add your token to the action tracker.”

Shaun says, “This is exactly what my War College Prodigy Experience prepared me for.” He spends a Hope to add two modifier tokens alongside the three for his Knowledge. He rolls a 9 on the Hope die, 11 on the Fear die, plus 5 from his modifiers. “That’s a 25 with Fear,” he says as he adds one of his tokens to the action tracker.

“So you’ll get your bonus damage from School of War ,” Max says. “Let’s see that damage roll!”

Shaun rolls 2d6 for the Wild Flame , plus another 1d10 for his Foundation Subclass feature. He gets a total of 14 magic damage, which will be compared to each of the three targets’ damage thresholds. Since the dredges have the trait Minion 3, each 3 damage kills an additional dredge in range. 14 damage is enough to kill all four in one blow.

“Nice. With one graceful sweep of your hands, you burn all four of the skeleton dredges to ash and inert bone. Since they were minions, 14 damage was enough to kill all four of them.”

Next, Max looks at the Knight’s thresholds. 14 is just above the Severe threshold, so Max says, “You turn your fire on the skeleton knight . Its armor begins to melt and slag, melding to the bone. The knight’s still coming, but you dealt them a Severe blow,” Max says as they mark 3 HP on the knight. “Unfortunately, the archers were out of range, so there was no good third target for your attack. And since you rolled with Fear, I’ll spend tokens from the action tracker. As the minions collapse, the knight roars with an unearthly voice, eyes glowing yellow with malice. It raises the greatsword and hacks into the group with huge sweeping blows. I’m marking a Stress to attack all enemies within Very Close distance. So all four of you. But, now there aren’t any friendly skeletons within range, so the knight does less damage.”

Max rolls 1d20+2 for the attack, getting a 7+2 for a total of 9. That total is compared to each character’s evasion. A 9 hits Shepherd (who has an 8 evasion ) but misses Krasz (10), Tabby (12), and Lavelle (13).

Max rolls 2d8+5 for the knight’s standard damage against Shepherd. A 5 and a 2, plus 5 for 12. “Twelve damage.”

Jess looks at her armor slots and decides not to use armor. 12 is above her Major threshold, and she’d have to use two armor slots to bring it down to Minor damage, so she marks 2 HP.

There’s still one action token on the action tracker, so Max activates one of the archers to attack Shepherd. But this time Max rolls a 4, for a total of 6, below Shepherd’s evasion.

All their action tokens are gone, but Max could spend Fear to add two tokens to the tracker. They decide to save their Feat, since this encounter is just a warmup. Instead, Max asks the players, “The knight is rampaging while the archers pelt you with arrows, what do you do?”

“I’d love to get a whack at this jerk,” Kat says. The others nod. “I’m going to mark Stress to use Reckless and get advantage on an attack against the big boy. And I’ll spend a Hope to utilize my Pit Fighter Experience for +2.”

Kat rolls a 5 on the Hope die, 5 on the Fear die, 3 on the advantage die, plus 2 for Agility since Tabby’s using a broadsword, and another 2 for her Experience. “My total is 17 , but since the dice matched, it’s a critical success !

“Amazing,” Max says. “Give me that critical damage roll!”

“I just got my second point of proficiency, and the longsword has d10 damage dice. So that’s 20 plus a normal roll of 2d10, plus two for my level thanks to Combat Training.” Jess rolls a 1 and a 4, but re-rolls the 1 thanks to her Blade domain ability Not Good Enough , getting an 8. She adds 8 plus 4 plus 2 (because of Combat Training) for 14, and adds that to 20 because of the critical hit. An amazing 34 points of damage!

That’s a Severe hit for the Skeleton Knight , who only had 2 HP left. Max looks up and asks, “So Jess, how do you want to do this?”

The table bursts into cheers. Jess says, “The knight has a greatsword , right? I get right up in their face so it can’t bring the sword to bear. Then I hack itthemapart like I’m chopping wood. There goes the tibia, there goes the humorous, then I bring the Saber around and do a backflip, chopping off the knight’s head. I land with my shield bracing me as the Knight topples into a shattering pile of bones.”

Max adds, “Amazing. Make sure to clear a Stress and take a Hope from your crit. And as the Skeleton collapses, it has one final reaction that is triggered when it is killed—it lashes out with its last gasp of strength to try to bring you with it, clawing at you with a great skeletal hand.”

Max rolls 1d20+2 and gets a 16+2 for 18. They roll 2d8+5 for damage and get 12.

“The skeleton knight deals 12 physical damage back to you as unlife fades from its bones.”

“Oof. That’s what armor is for.” She marks one armor slot and reduces the 12 to 7, which is below her Major threshold. She marks one HP.

Max says, “As you all look up from the destroyed knight, you see that the archers have collapsed back into piles of bones. Krasz, you remember a passage about groups of skeletons where the spell used to animate them is focused on one of the group, usually the strongest.”

“So next time, we go straight for the big one,” Shaun says.

With the combat complete, Max looks at the one token on the action tracker. That’s not enough to convert to a Fear (it takes 2 tokens to convert to one Fear), so they just return the token to its player and set the action tracker aside.

“You’re alone in the inner courtyard, the destroyed remains of skeletons around you. What do you do?”

“‘I’m guessing that’s not the last surprise we’ll see today,’ Shepherd says.” Jess looks to the other players. “In we go?”

“Yes, but this time I want to be scanning for threats,” Nick says.

In some situations, Max might rule that Lavelle could just hear adversaries coming, but they want to emphasize the danger and uncertainty of this ruin. “That will be an Instinct roll,” Max replies.

“Krasz will help by listening for more of those strange building-waking-up sounds or anything else suspicious,” Shaun says, rolling an advantage die and getting a 3.

Nick makes an Instinct for Lavelle. He gets a 1 on the Hope die and a 5 on the Fear die. Nick adds his duality dice together for a value of 6, adds 1 for his Instinct, and 3 for Krasz’s help, for a total of 10 with Fear.

Max nods, thinking for a moment. They could take a Fear here if they wanted to—but they suddenly have a good idea about how to escalate the danger immediately instead. “You enter the keep with caution, looking for traps and listening for threats. The base of the tower is littered with the decayed remains of many different kinds of folk, galapa and katari , dwarf and inferis . But none of them stir. You go through a barracks and a kitchen, finding the stairwell that leads you down into the musty basement.

“There’s no light here, but you have torches. Here and there are some traps somehow still intact, or perhaps repaired. There are three somewhat-fresh corpses of adventurers that must have been the survivor’s companions. At this altitude, they’re pretty well preserved. Two are impaled on a wall of spikes that jutted out from one side. The third is wrapped in the embrace of another Skeleton Knight , but that one does not move.”

Max continues, “But what you don’t see, dear adventurers, is the wraith emerging from the wall behind you, looming over Shepherd and Tabby as Lavelle and Krasz take the lead. The wraith grows wide, its midnight eyes devouring the light behind you. The room grows cold as it reaches out toward you… And that’s where we’ll end for tonight,” they say, leaning back with a grin. The table erupts into excited chatter as they debrief from their session together.

Questions to Consider for GMs

In the example above, Jess’s roll with Hope to finish off the Skeleton Knight meant that the PCs would have been able to act again before the archers. Those archers hadn’t taken any damage, but Max described them falling apart after the knight died. Do you feel like that was a satisfying end to the combat, or would you have had the archers keep fighting? The explanation Max offered to Krasz could be taken as precedent, so if Max chooses to not end a fight early in the future when the party destroys the most powerful skeleton, they’ll want to have an idea in mind why it’s different that time to maintain the integrity of the story.

Max allowed Krasz to make two jumps using the Arcane Door spell rather than making him roll for each casting. When a character is using an ability like that, do you want to call for a roll for each use or let one roll represent chaining the ability a couple of times like Max ruled above?

Would you have had the Skeleton Knight deal its dying blow or skipped it to highlight Tabby’s critical success? You don’t always have to use every one of an adversary’s features. Since Kat rolled a critical, this might be a place where the ‘something extra’ the player gets could include Tabby destroying the Skeleton Knight so thoroughly they cannot use the Dig Two Graves reaction.

In the fight with the skeletons, would you have had them attack the group in the order and fashion that Max did? Picking which adversaries to activate when helps determine the shape of the fight and its rhythm - the ups and downs. How else could that fight have gone? Would you have waited to use the archers until after the Skeleton Knight?

Krasz destroyed all four skeleton minions in one good hit, which meant the attack on the other skeletons was wasted. Would you have allowed Krasz to use that other Wild Flame attack to attack the Skeleton twice, or maybe to hit one of the archers even though it was out of range? Or does losing the extra attack seem like a fair price for the certainty of being able to remove the minions?

What would you have done if Shepherd had rolled a success with Fear when using Nature’s Tongue to talk to the goat? What would have been an interesting consequence if Shepherd failed that roll entirely? Would the goat have run off, or would there be another complication during their ascent? Is there some complication that Max could use to help foreshadow the skeletons or the wraith? Or would it have been better to take Fear and let the players keep pressing forward without an immediate consequence?

Chapter Three

Running an Adventure

Running An Adventure

This chapter is only required reading if you plan to be the Game Master in a game of Daggerheart. If you’re simply reading the book to create and play a character, you’ve reached the end of all you need to know. But if you’re a Game Master, read on!

Being a Game Master means you are responsible for guiding the narrative and acting as the rest of the world that exists around your PCs. You might be the massive sandstorm that is hindering their journey, the innkeeper they make friends with once they reach shelter, the mysterious stranger in the corner who asks them for their help, or anything else that comes up during a session. Being a GM can be one of the most fun, exhilarating, and fulfilling experiences at the table—but it can also be intimidating, especially when learning a new system. This chapter is dedicated to giving you all you need to know about how to run Daggerheart: understanding the core mechanics; creating memorable encounters; planning exciting sessions; how to select, create, and use GM moves; crafting a full campaign; and more.

Parts of this chapter are much more conversational than the rest of the book. The previous chapters were primarily focused on delivering the mechanics of the game; while we’re going to cover mechanics here as well, but we’re also going to talk about things that lend themselves much better to a conversation; things like story structure and improv and world-building. Because, at the end of the day, the Big Secret™ about GMing is that you get to make it all up. Whether you made it up the week before, the day before, or in that moment at the table, you are always crafting an experience for your players through the decisions you make.

Core Guidance

In this section, you’ll find some core guidance for running Daggerheart: GM Principles, GM Best Practices, and Pitfalls To Avoid. These three sections go together to provide a foundation for how to get the most out of this game. The GM Principles are your guiding star - when in doubt, return to the principles. The Best Practices and Pitfalls sections that follow give you examples of approaches to take and traps to avoid when GMing Daggerheart. Meanwhile, chapters 4 through 6 contain resources for creating your world and filling it with dynamic adversaries, environments, and more.

As you read, don’t forget “The Golden Rule” from chapter 1: make the game your own. Whether you are a first-time GM, a veteran behind the screen, or anything in between, we encourage you to embrace the parts here that resonate with you and modify any that don’t.

GM Principles

Daggerheart stands on the shoulders of a decades-long tradition of fantasy adventure RPGs that traces back to the beginning of the form as we know it. This game has many things in common with its predecessors–an attention to dramatizing combat, familiar fantasy ancestries and archetypes, shared touchstones from popular culture and folklore, and more. In addition, as you can see in the “Touchstones” section, Daggerheart draws inspiration from a variety of RPGs inside and beyond the fantasy adventure genre.

Like each of the games that came before, Daggerheart has its priorities and tools for telling certain types of stories. Daggerheart is focused on collaboration in building a character-focused story full of emotion. Daggerheart’s combats come alive when the dramatic beats and rhythm of the battle highlight the conflicting motivations and combatants, along with the characters’ bonds with each other.

These GM Principles are the guiding stars for GMs running Daggerheart. Follow them as best you can to help the whole table have the best possible experiences playing this game.

• Begin and end with the fiction
• Fill the world with life, wonder, and danger
• Make every roll carry weight
• Collaborate at all times, especially in conflict
• Ask questions and incorporate the answers
• Hold on gently
• Play to find out what happens

Begin and End with the Fiction

“The fiction” refers to the world of the story and what’s happening within it. Use the fiction to decide when to call for rolls, what the impact of results will be, what GM moves to use, and so on. If you’re not sure whether a roll should have advantage or disadvantage, what the difficulty should be, etc., look at the fiction -think about the situation in the story and decide how that would manifest in the mechanics. The rules of Daggerheart exist to facilitate telling a story together with the players, and when a roll or use of the mechanics is complete, the GM connects those results back to the fiction and describes them in the story so that play may continue smoothly.

Fill The World with Life, Wonder, and Danger

Daggerheart is a game of action, adventure, and high fantasy. One of your biggest jobs as the GM is to present a world worthy of the heroic tales you’ve all set out to build together. When running a player-driven game, you can take the backgrounds and connection questions and other character details provided by your players and use those as a palette (along with any other palette discussed in Session Zero) to paint a picture of an exciting world that honors the motivations and personhood of everyone, from high nobility and demigods to everyday artisans and farmers and everyone in-between.

You should offer hooks of wondrous places, connections to the character’s background, and potential threats to see what catches your players’ interest, then tease out that interest and present challenges that make the dramatic crucible you’ll all use to shape the PCs into heroes of legend.

Make Every Roll Carry Weight

Action rolls in Daggerheart describe and resolve a moment within a story, which might be as short as a split-second dodge or an entire exchange of blows between combatants, all the way up to a montage of running down leads over the course of an entire evening at a gala.

Because the GM gets the choice to make a move in response whenever the players roll a result with Fear or a failure, and since every roll generates metacurrency used in play (Hope or Fear), only ask the players to roll in meaningful moments to make every roll count. Provide information freely and validate the characters’ skills by giving them information they’d easily know or letting them just succeed at tasks that don’t present a dramatic challenge. That way, when you do call for rolls in dangerous moments, it carries more weight for all involved. Daggerheart’s rolls are designed to create heartbreaking complications or unexpectedly challenging obstacles with failures and exciting triumphs with successes!

Collaborate at All Times, Especially in Conflict

When you’re the GM, the players are your collaborators and their characters are the protagonists of the campaign. You’re all working together to tell an exciting, memorable story where heroes face incredible odds and often win in the end. Antagonism between player and GM should exist only in the fiction of the game, through the actions of NPCs and the world.

Neither the PCs or the players are your ‘enemy’. They’re the opponents of the adversaries you play, but the GM and the Players are on the same side: the side invested in telling an amazing story together. When representing antagonists and challenges, the GM’s main job is to balance presenting credible threats with maintaining the trust of the players so that the collaborative process can succeed.

Part of collaboration is being a fan of the players and a fan of the characters. Being a fan of the players means consciously including story elements and themes they’ve expressed interest in. It also means giving them the benefit of the doubt when they forget something small–especially something that their character wouldn’t forget. Being a fan of the PCs means that while you’ll make their life challenging, up to and potentially including death, you’re never rooting for them to lose—you’re working with the players to ensure that the characters’ story is exciting and the world around them is behaving with internal consistency.

Ask Questions and Incorporate the Answers

In Daggerheart, the GM doesn’t have to do all the heavy lifting in terms of worldbuilding and narration. Daggerheart encourages the GM to share narrative authority with the players. Many players will be drawn more fully into the world when you empower them to add their own touches and details to the world of the story.

You might ask the player whose character is from this town to describe the market. Rather than describing the critical success of a character’s blow, you can ask the player to take the spotlight and narrate their triumph. In dramatic or even commonplace moments, you might ask questions about the character’s motivations, their emotions, and their history to see how the current moment relates. Some groups may want to go even farther, closing the gap in narrative authority between players and GM, with players taking authorship over entire regions or nations.

Do your best to respect the players’ contributions and fold them into the fabric of the story. Take those answers as an indication of the player’s interest and think about how to fold them into the story. As the GM, it’s your job to maintain the integrity of the world and make adjustments where needed, but ensuring that every players’ voice is included will mean that the story is truly representative of the creativity of the whole group.

Hold On Gently

Improvisational storytelling isn’t always perfect, and that’s okay. Hold on gently to the fiction, enough so that you don’t lose the pieces that matter, but not so tightly that the narrative has no room to breathe. Let yourself make mistakes and make changes. Smooth the edges and shape them to fit. You’ll be the final arbiter and editor, but don’t worry if you need to go back and revisit or retroactively change something that’s come before.

Play to Find Out What Happens

Daggerheart is a game about heroic adventures and the emotional journeys of the PCs. The group plays together to find out what these heroes will do and what kind of legends they will become. As a player-driven game, the overarching plot of a Daggerheart campaign should emerge from collaboration with the players, tying the characters’ stories together with one another and with the world and its major events.

Daggerheart thrives when the GM creates room to be surprised by what the players will do, the choices they’ll make, and the people they’ll become. It’s most useful to prepare situations without expectations about the solutions the players will find or create. Preparing adversaries and appropriate maps can help make for exciting scenes, but always know you can adjust or completely throw out plans to follow inspiration when it strikes at the table.

Lastly, remember that everything should flow from the fiction. Listen to the other players, and react to what they say and how they act. When someone rolls the dice, let the results lead you to what happens next and express that in the fiction.

GM Best Practices

• Cultivate a curious table.
• Gain your player’s trust.
• Treat the characters as competent.
• Cut to the action.
• Keep the story moving forward.
• Help the players use the game.
• Create a meta conversation.
• Ground the world in motive.
• Bring the game’s mechanics to life.
• Reframe rather than reject.
• Work in moments and montages.

Cultivate a Curious Table

Tantalize players with a suspiciously-coded line muttered under a character’s breath, illustrate the signs of a lingering magical threat, hint at future danger coming over the horizon. Throw out hooks and see what catches their interest. Fostering an environment of creative inquiry at the table and that curiosity can lead you to incredible places.

Another way to foster curiosity at the table is to practice it yourself - ask questions of the characters to prime the players to think about the world through their character’s interests.

Do you think Reyna has run across the Twilight God’s inquisitors before? What does she think of them as a Seraph of the Dawn?

Marris, have you been to this town before in your travels as a Bard? What do you remember about the audiences here?

The GM is part of the table, so this can extend to you as well. Follow your own curiosity and share it with the players. “Did you mean it when you said you’d never go home again?” “How is your character feeling after the confrontation with the inquisitor?” Asking these kinds of questions also gives the table insight into the PCs’ internal monologue, and helps you all to understand these characters on a deeper level.

Gain Your Players’ Trust

Trust is essential for a successful game of Daggerheart (or any TTRPG). The GM trusts the players to represent their character’s actions thoughtfully while keeping the shared goals of the table in mind. The players trust that the GM is acting in good faith—that when you’re introducing challenges and doling out consequences, you’re doing so with the interests of the whole table in mind.

Make promises and then follow through on them. Let players’ hunches be correct where you can, let them feel like their understanding of the world is correct even if it’s incomplete. In resolving an action, deliver on the expectations you set before the roll was made. This also means admitting when you mis-step or mis-speak, and checking in with your players when you’re unsure about something.

Strive to believe the players when they bring in their character’s Experiences. The bonus they gain is no guarantee of success, and validating a player’s vision of their character while still representing the difficulty of an obstacle honestly creates a healthy balance of dramatic uncertainty. The Rogue is a skilled climber from her years as a sailor, but will that be enough to scale up a siege tower while it’s careening down a bumpy hill…and on fire?

Treat the Characters as Competent

The characters in Daggerheart are skilled adventurers and heroes, even early in their journey. Don’t call for a roll when a task is simple and/or without danger. The Rogue probably doesn’t need to roll pick a standard lock, especially if they have the Burglar Experience—but if the lock is warded by a powerful wizard, that’s another story.

Because every action roll can cause consequences and complications, as well as generate Hope and Fear, asking for more rolls or letting players roll for tasks that wouldn’t require a roll can cause an imbalance of the system. Primarily call for rolls when the characters take bold, dangerous actions. If you don’t see an interesting result from either success or failure, you can skip the roll: “I don’t think Arielle needs to roll to cross the bridge, I’m not really interested in what a failure here would be like. What do you think?”

Cut to the Action

Heroic fantasy stories are generally comprised of dramatic scenes, travel montages, and downtempo moments around a camp as the heroes decompress and prepare for what’s ahead. If the travel between two places isn’t going to result in much danger or interesting challenges and everyone is excited to press forward, you can just cut to the action. You could instead say something like, “So you travel to Oldhome. Clear all your marked HP, Stress, and Armor Slots. We pick up on the edge of town. It’s only twilight, but you haven’t seen anyone in any of the outlying farms. And there’s no sound coming from the tavern just ahead on your right. What do you do?”

You might tell the players they can flash back to the details of the plan or get their story straight later. When a scene feels like it’s dragging or going in circles, you can always ask the players to trust you to cut away so that you can keep the story moving.

Note that action doesn’t always mean combat. Action can be a tense political drama as the party tries to maintain an alliance hanging by a thread. Action can be navigating an archmage’s warded and trapped hedge maze. Action here means anytime there is tension and uncertainty–it means situations that will challenge the characters.

If the PCs have an enemy on the ropes and the players’ interest seems to be wavering, go ahead and have the foe run off, surrender, or just ask the players how they finish out the fight. You should do your best to not let a scene become a grind where everyone feels obligated to see it through, but no one is having fun. Part of being the GM is picking which moments to focus on.

Keep the Story Moving Forward

Every time a player makes an action roll, the story should move forward, success or failure. On a failure, the GM says how the world responds and keeps the story moving. This is often referred to as ‘Failing Forward’. A character might not get what they want if the roll goes poorly, but the story advances through escalation, new information, or some other change in situation. If there aren’t any interesting consequences for failure on an action, you don’t need to call for a roll.

Help the Players Use the Game

If you’re the GM, there’s a good chance that you’re the person who has spent the most time learning the rules of this game. Regardless, work with players so that everyone understands the rules. If you have a question about something, another player might have the same question. Help players get to the point where they see the game’s rules as a toolkit to help tell the story together, not as an obstacle that stands between them and enjoying the experience of play.

The GM plays the opposition to the characters, but the GM is working with the players to tell the story. If they’re missing something obvious or seem to be forgetting a mechanic or ability, ask if they think that ability might apply here. If they seem stuck, you might outright state that you think they have an ability or item that would help.

Create a Meta Conversation

Ensure that players always feel comfortable utilizing the safety tools in-place for the game and know that it’s okay to shift out of character to ask something at the player level as creative collaborators or at the table level as people enjoying a game together.

Additionally, while the characters live in the world and have all their senses to experience it, the players only know what is established at the table together. Help the players by sharing details about their environments, giving them critical information, and offering facts and realities that their characters would easily know or have already discovered.

Ground the World in Motive

The characters in Daggerheart are driven by their motivations. An ambitious baroness wants to gain status and increase her sphere of influence, so she acts in ways that extend her power. A large swamp serpent is motivated by hunger and the desire for safety within its territory, so it hunts outsiders, but it might not chase them beyond its territory if it’s full.

Each adversary stat block suggests a couple general motives, but when you’re depicting important NPCs, consider both their short-term and long-term goals and desires. A renowned thief might be most immediately driven by a desire to steal crown jewels from a caravan traveling through the forest, but their ultimate goal is to avoid being caught by the king’s guard—if both of these impact their decisions, this helps create a multidimensional character.

The players might not always know a character’s true motives, but if you keep motivation in mind, you can depict the world with depth and consistency. When you hint at or reveal an NPC’s motives, this helps the players make moves to push and pull on those hopes and fears. Show how motivation leads the party’s allies to act in solidarity with them even at personal risk.

Action without motivation can feel like choreography. When a supposed ally betrays the party, your story will probably hit harder if the players understand those motivations, truly making the betrayal both sudden and (in retrospect) inevitable.

Bring the Game’s Mechanics to Life

The game’s rules are there to help facilitate the storytelling process. Set a good example of how fiction and mechanics work together to enhance the experience of the game for everyone involved. When there’s an oncoming storm that will bring disaster to the nearby port town, place a countdown on the table labeled “The storm ravages Port Emerald” to show that the threat is real.

Be clear about stating the risks of an action should something go wrong. When a PC rolls a failure with Fear, go hard with your description of the consequence to convey the gravity of the situation and the difference between a failure with Hope and one with Fear. Embody the enemy’s fatigue and desperation as they mark their last Stress but continue to goad the party on.

If the heroes are ambushed by a large band of raiders, lay out your battlemat and set out figures for all fourteen enemies to show how outnumbered the party is.

Reframe Rather than Reject

If a player’s suggestion or description is out-of-sync with what has been established in the game or is generally implausible, try to find a way to reframe the situation and work with them rather than rejecting their idea outright. You might ask the table what it would take for an implausible task to become doable, or call out a part of the suggestion that is more workable and encourage the player to build on that aspect.

“Well, you might not be able to fly up to the platform using the Telekinesis spell in your Grimoire, but there are plenty of large rocks here you could move around if you wanted.”

Work in Moments and Montages

When framing a scene or proposing a way to play a beat of the story, think about moments and montages. If the stakes are high and you want to zoom in on the flash of blades or the coded language of courtly flirtation, you’re working in moments. Give those powerful or climactic moments their due, linger on the emotion and give players time to savor the scene. However, not every part of the story needs to be told in moment-by-moment description or full scenes. In those cases, consider using montage, a sequence of short descriptions or a summary that establishes what happens without lingering on the individual moments. Montage is especially good for actions that take place over minutes, hours, or days.

“You spend the evening working the crowds to find leads on the Scorpion Society, but I don’t think we need to play it all out. Tell us a little about what that looks like and then roll with Presence.”

Pitfalls to Avoid

Like any game that relies heavily on collaboration, the tactics and behaviors of people at the table with have a large impact on the way the game runs. There are areas where hang-ups are more likely to occur than others. Here are a few things to look out for when running Daggerheart, and ways to help your games run more smoothly if you encounter them.

• Undermining the Heroes
• Always Telling the Players What to Roll
• Letting Scenes Drag
• Singular Solutions
• Overplanning
• Letting Fear Go Unused

Undermining the Heroes

Even at level 1, the heroes are accomplished adventurers with talent and experience. This is a heroic fantasy game, and so the characters are assumed to be skilled at the basics of adventuring.

On a failure, things go badly and the character doesn’t get what they want. But rather than describing the PCs being incompetent, it’s usually better to show how the failure comes from environmental factors or unexpected surprises. An easy way to make this work is to start by describing the cool or smart move the character was making, then saying “but…” and describing a surprise, complication, or escalation.

“Your blade slices through the air with grace, the cut coming in perfectly at the guard’s shoulder . But she reacts just fast enough to bring up the haft of her halberd to block your blow, then swings her weapon to try to pin you against the wall. She’s way faster than a random guard at an outpost like this should be. What’s a soldier with skill like that doing stuck all the way out here?”

If the group has decided on a more silly or goofy tone, this guidance may not apply, but the default for Daggerheart is to assume the PCs competence as adventurers and to make the story exciting by depicting capable heroes struggling with extraordinary challenges.

Always Telling the Players What To Roll

An important part of the creative collaboration in Daggerheart is allowing players to express their character’s personalities through creative problem solving. In some situations, there might really only be one trait that’s appropriate to roll (traversing a slippery bridge is almost always going to be an Agility roll). But in many situations, when a challenge or threat is presented to the characters and you know they’ll need to roll to address that threat, you can give them the freedom to decide how they’re going to handle the challenge and what trait they want to use to accomplish it.

GM: “The spellrider on the giant bat just broke the enchantment keeping your airship aloft. You’re all going to need to give me a roll to deal with the imminent fal l . What do you do?”

Player 1: “I’m going to jump over and grab a hold of the bat to climb over and wrestle the spellrider out of the saddle. Can I do that with Agility?”

Player 2: “I want to make a Finesse roll using my Pirate Experience to cut one of the smaller sails free and use it like a parachute.”

Letting Scenes Drag

Many tasks can be completed with a single roll, and every roll should aim to move the story forward and build or resolve tension. So if the Wizard gets a success on a Knowledge roll to search a library for a book that will provide answers to solve a specific problem, give them find a useful book, even if it’s not the perfect one. Especially if just finding an applicable book won’t automatically solve their next problem, but is required to attempt that solution.

If most obstacles take one successful action to address, major obstacles and threats will feel more significant when they take multiple steps to overcome. Many adversaries take several hits to defeat, but if a battle starts to lose its excitement, look for ways to shake things up or create a resolution.

Singular Solutions

If the GM has exactly one idea in mind of how the PCs can solve a given problem, it can become challenging if the players get excited about another idea or solution. You might have good reason for why the solution you have in mind is the best option, but if the players have a good idea, it’s often smart to adjust in the moment and think about how to make their approach work—not automatically, but something to work toward with daring actions.

Puzzles are a great example of a situation where a singular solution can cause problems. Everyone’s minds work in different ways, and a puzzle or riddle with only one “right” answer can shut down interesting alternatives. If the players get bogged down or frustrated with a puzzle or scene, it’s usually wise to find a way to move things along or adjust the situation to let the character’s actions advance the story. This might involve showing your hand to give the players more context or to check in to ask how they’re feeling about a scene.

Overplanning

Daggerheart is designed to be played with a great deal of improvisation to allow the players a large amount of creative agency - the group builds and discovers the world together. The game is also built to be player-driven, where the PC’s background and connections serve as the primary fuel for the game’s plot. For these reasons, it’s recommended to leave space for the story to breathe.

The game works better when more preparation time goes into situations for the characters to explore and engage with than in scripting entire scenes and a set progression of story beats. Every GM’s style is different, and you may find that you benefit with more time spent on certain forms of preparation while still enriching the game through player agency and creativity.

Another reason to be wary of overplanning is that Daggerheart is designed for player agency. Your players will often surprise you with great ideas or by taking daring or unwise actions in keeping with the characters’ motivation. When those surprises come up, try to read the energy of the table and see if they’re all excited to take that new direction. And it’s okay to tell your players, “That took me by surprise. How about a quick 10-minute break while I think about how this exciting change will play out?”

Always Taking Fear

Whenever the players roll with Fear, you have a choice between making a GM Move and taking a Fear. If a move doesn’t fit the story at the moment, or if you’re not sure which move to make, you can always take a Fear.

However, making moves is the main way you keep the story moving and raise the stakes. Taking Fear defers complications until later; sometimes that can bleed tension out of the current scene, and when you later use that Fear, it can feel disconnected and potentially punitive.

Try to find a balance between the two: make moves when they’re interesting or logical, and take Fear when you’d rather not interrupt the party’s flow of actions, then plan to make big dramatic moves later on. For example, you can use stored Fear to add tokens to the action tracker at the start of combat, creating tension because the players know a wave of adversary actions could hit at any moment.

Core GM Mechanics

The GM’s Die

The players use two d12 Duality dice as their primary dice for action resolution, but as GM, you’ll instead use one d20. This creates a less predictable outcome for your rolls than those of the players; you’re just as likely to roll abysmally high or low as you are to roll a middling number, whereas rolling two d12s creates a more stable bell curve of results. When you succeed, it creates a new and exciting challenge for the players, and when you fail, it is a relief and a boon for the players. The swingy nature of the d20’s results helps to facilitate both of these experiences throughout a session (but if you ever want to increase the chances an adversary will succeed or fail, you can increase or decrease their attack modifier).

Making GM Rolls

When an adversary attacks a PC, you roll the dice to determine the outcome. This follows a similar process to PC action rolls (see “Action Rolls” in chapter 2), except using your d20 instead of two d12s:

• Roll your d20 and add the adversary’s attack bonus (along with any other dice, such as advantage or disadvantage).
• If the roll result meets or beats the target PC’s evasion, it succeeds and hits the target. Otherwise, it fails and doesn’t hit.
• On a success, roll the appropriate damage dice to determine how much damage the attack deals.

Critical Success

PCs aren’t the only characters who can roll a critical success–their adversaries can too! Whenever you roll a 20 on the d20, your roll automatically succeeds regardless of the PC’s evasion score.

If you critically succeed on an attack roll, you also deal extra damage. Start with the full value of the damage dice, and then make a damage roll as normal to add to that value.

Calling for Action Rolls

When players make moves during the game, sometimes you’ll want to ask them for an action roll to determine how the scene progresses. After a player tells you what they want to do, use this guide to determine if you should call for a roll, choosing whichever option best fits the situation:

• Skip uninteresting rolls. If the consequences of failure won’t be interesting or significantly change the story, let the PC act without the need for a roll. Similarly, assume the PCs are competent in simple tasks—a PC generally doesn’t need to roll to climb a ladder or open an unlocked door, even if the consequences of failure would be interesting.
• Let the PC guarantee their success in exchange for a consequence. If there is an opportunity for an interesting consequence, offer them the consequences for performing the move without a need for a roll. If they decide they are okay with those consequences, let them perform the move without a roll and inflict the consequences as agreed. For example, rather than rolling to see if a PC can jump from one roof to another, you might allow them to automatically succeed in exchange for being noticed by bystanders on the street below.
• Establish the stakes. If a move is particularly difficult or dangerous and offers interesting consequences that depend on their success or failure, establish the stakes for the roll so that the player knows what to expect. Once everybody is aligned, ask them to make the roll to see how the fiction changes. For example, if a PC wants to jump from one roof to another and roll for it, you might inform them that on a success, they’d jump without anyone noticing, but on a failure, they’d likely fall to the street below.
• Make clear any guaranteed consequences. If a move is particularly difficult or dangerous, and if it will certainly have consequences regardless of whether the PC succeeds,, tell them the certain consequences that will come from their move and establish the stakes for the roll. Once everybody is aligned, ask them to make the roll to see how the fiction changes. For example, if a PC wants to jump from the roof of a burning building to safety, you might inform them that after they jump, the roof will be devoured in flames and they won’t be able to return to that building regardless of how well they roll.

Experiences Impact Fiction

When determining whether or not a roll is necessary, always consider a PC’s backstory, including both their chosen Experiences and their narrative history. For example, if a PC chose “Expert Climber” as an Experience, and they’re attempting to scale a wall with no other danger around, you might decide there is no need for a roll to be made–they can just do it. If the climb would be tricky due to weather, but you don’t want the story to focus on what happens if they fail, you might offer them the option of marking a Stress in exchange for climbing without a roll. If there are archers shooting down at them from a parapet above, or if they’re trying to avoid onlookers noticing their climb, establish this danger with them, then let them choose whether to roll or make a different move. If the wall is old and crumbling, and putting weight on it will make it unclimbable for anyone else behind them, establish this consequence with your table, then let them choose whether to roll.

Making Moves

Just like the players have moves they can make during the game, you also have GM moves that help drive forward the fiction in response to their actions. Unlike the PCs, you are not typically bound by rules of success and failure on die rolls or given only certain effects you can do—your job is to facilitate the fiction, whatever that requires. GM moves provide inspiration on how you might make that happen.

At its most simple, a GM move is anything you do that guides the story forward. These moves often introduce conflict, reveal new information, or put the PCs in further danger, but they don’t have to—they are simply your opportunity to change the scene in some way. The “Softer and Harder Moves” section offers guidance on when your move should introduce danger or difficulty, versus when your move should simply nudge the story along.

Moves are your chance to make things happen in the scene. So what should you do? The upcoming sections provide suggestions, but these decisions are hard to make in a vacuum. The best tool you have at your disposal is listening to your players as they add to the narrative, then weaving your moves into the shared story.

When to Make a Move

Knowing when to make moves (and what kind of moves to make) is almost certainly the biggest part of learning to GM Daggerheart. The frequency and severity of these moves depends a lot on the kind of story you’re telling, the kinds of actions your players take, and the tone of the session you’re running, but the general rule of thumb is: You can make a GM move whenever you want. That’s right! You’re the GM—your job is not to crush the PCs or always act adversarially; your job is to help tell a story, so you should be making moves whenever you see an opportunity to do that.

Always consider make a GM move when a PC:

• Rolls with Fear on an action roll.
• Fails an action roll.
• Does something that would have consequences.
• Gives you a golden opportunity.
• Looks to you for what happens next.

They roll with Fear on an action roll.

If a PC rolls with Fear, you always have the opportunity to make a GM move (see the upcoming “Fear” section). Whether their roll failed or succeeded, your move should usually build on the action the player just attempted.

Tip: We recommend you only choose to take a Fear when you can’t think of a GM move to use in the situation, or would prefer the narrative keep moving forward without interruption.

They fail an action roll.

If a PC fails an action roll (see “Action Rolls” in chapter 2), you have the chance to describe the failure and what comes next in the story because of it. If it’s a failure with Fear, consider choosing a more harsh consequence or complication than you would otherwise.

They do something that would have consequences.

Sometimes, a PC makes a move that would definitely have narrative consequences, regardless of whether they succeed or fail. In these situations, you can make a move to reflect that outcome. For example, if a PC wants to save someone from a building that’s engulfed in flames, the player might say they want to run inside the building. You could tell the player that if they do, no matter how high they roll, they’re going to take damage from the flames. If they move into the building anyway, you can deal them whatever damage makes sense for the story.

They give you a golden opportunity.

Sometimes, a PC’s decisions give you the perfect opportunity for a dramatic move—perhaps they move too close to a waiting predator or get distracted while keeping watch for intruders. In these cases, a roll doesn’t prompt your move, but you can seize the opportunity for a great dramatic beat. For example, if the PCs are hiding from bandits while discussing the bandit leader’s plans, a PC might say with dramatic irony, “But surely they won’t look in the eaves of every barn in the district!” In response, you might describe the barn door noisily swinging open as a bandit steps inside, a lit torch in one hand and a sword in the other.

They look to you for what happens next.

Your job is to keep the story moving, so when the players aren’t sure what to do, they’ll likely look to you for an idea of what happens next. This is usually a sign that you should make a move to forward the narrative. For example, if the PCs are conversing with each other during a dinner party then they reach a lull in the conversation, they might glance at you to see if it’s time for an NPC to speak or take action.

Similarly, make a move when the PCs seem to be stumped as to what course of action to take in a scene, or when the players seem frustrated about lack of information. When you need to get the scene moving again, a softer move usually does the trick (see “Softer and Harder Moves”), but sometimes a harder move is needed to provoke the PCs to action.

How to Choose a Move

When a player makes an action roll (see “Action Rolls” in chapter 2), the result influences how the scene changes—but those changes depend on your chosen GM move. Consider the following examples of what you might say to the player after an action roll, and what moves you might make:

“That’s a critical success! You get what you want and a little extra. Gain a Hope and clear a Stress . Tell me how this happens…” Let the player describe their success, then give the party an additional opportunity or advantage in the scene because of it.

“That’s a success with Hope, so you get what you want. Gain a Hope . Tell me how this happens…” Let the player describe their success, then show how the world reacts to it.

“That’s a success with Fear , so you get what you want, but it comes at a cost. Here’s what happens…” Work together to describe the PC’s success, then introduce a complication or cost—but don’t negate their success with this consequence. Maybe they face an attack or gain Stress from an enemy they’re engaged with, get new information that raises the stakes, or realize their ally is in imminent danger.

“That’s a failure with Hope, so things don’t go to plan, but you do gain a Hope . Here’s what happens…” Describe how the PC fails to get what they want, and how the situation goes wrong as a result, by introducing a minor complication or consequence. Maybe they spot a new danger they must now contend with, face an attack or take a Stress from an enemy they’re engaged with, or face collateral damage that puts them in a more difficult position.

“That’s a failure with Fear, so it doesn’t go well! Here’s what happens…” Describe how things go wrong by introducing a major complication or consequence. Maybe the information they get is not good news and also puts them in immediate danger, they become the focus of multiple adversaries, they are separated from their party, or an important opportunity is lost for good.

Tip: If you’re not sure how to resolve a roll, think about it like this:

***Success with Hope:*Yes, and… (You get what you want and take a Hope.)

Success with Fear: Yes, but… (You get what you want, but there’s a consequence.)

Failure with Hope: No, but… (Things don’t go as planned, but you take a Hope.)

***Failure with Fear:*No, and… (Things don’t go as planned and it gets worse.)

Obvious Moves

Sometimes, you’ll know without hesitation how to make a move in a scene. A PC just rolled a success with Fear on a melee attack against a powerful enemy? They get what they want, but it comes at a cost. In response, your move might have the enemy strike back or throw the PC across the battlefield. Maybe you’ve set up the scene so that they’re fighting on a precarious ledge, and the attack from the PC was successful, but momentum carries them dangerously close to the cliff’s edge and they now must make an Agility check to see if they can keep from slipping off.

Other times, the move might not be immediately obvious. In that case, you can draw inspiration from the following “Example GM Moves” section.

Player-Drive Moves

If you’re still not sure what to do, you might turn the decision over to the player, giving them an option of two different things or simply asking them what happens next. They will sometimes put themselves in a more interesting situation than you ever would have done on your own! As a last resort, if the scene should have a cost or consequence and you can’t come up with something, you can always simply have the player mark a Stress and move the scene forward.

Social Moves

Keep in mind, these moves can be used in any situation you find them useful. While the mechanics of combat naturally lends itself to tracking when enemies attack, how much damage they do, and so on, the concept of “making moves” applies across all scenarios within Daggerheart. A tense dinner between rivals, an important negotiation, an emotional confrontation—all of these scenes have a back-and-forth between the PCs and the GM. You can use moves to accomplish the single most important part of GMing: listening to your players and responding in a way that builds on the fiction you’re creating together.

Avoid Undermining Success

On a success with Fear, one pitfall GMs can run into is undermining their players’ success when making a GM move as the consequence. For example, if a PC makes a Finesse roll in an attempt to move stealthily through a hallway, and they succeed but roll with Fear, don’t use your move to sound an alarm bell or make someone bump into them. The PC succeeded on the roll, and that success should be honored, even if it comes with a consequence. Instead, you could consider options such as introducing a new obstacle at their target destination.

Example: The PC making the Finesse roll gets a success with Fear, so the GM invites the player to describe how they avoid notice. Then,the GM thinks about what move to make that will push the scene forward without invalidating the PC’s success. They could decide to add a patrol in the room ahead that the PC will have to contend with, they could make the PC mark Stress as their skill lets them make a quick move to avoid detection, or they could choose to simply take Fear and defer the consequence. The GM decides to introduce a new hurdle, telling the player that once they’ve made their way through the hallways, they come to their destination. But even before they approach the door, they hear the chatter and shuffling of armored figures inside as the GM reveals there is a guard patrol on break in the next room.

Similarly, if a PC does something cool—such as cleverly casting a spell—you may want to let them enjoy it instead of immediately foiling their schemes, and decide to let the scene play out for a while. Once you feel like the player is satisfied with the effect, you can use a GM move and explain how the scene changes to end the effect. If the players are used to you following this approach, then when a particularly dramatic moment or powerful adversary arrives, you can make a big impression by using your move to shut down an effect immediately—showing just how dire the scene is.

Keep this principle in mind as you consider which moves to make (see “Example GM Moves” below), and implement the harder actions with care (see “Softer and Harder Moves” below). Stealing a powerful artifact from the adventurers can spark an exciting story arc—or it can throw icy water on the party’s excitement and make them feel all their work to retrieve it was pointless. As always, communication and collaboration are key, and hard actions shouldn’t negate player agency or feel punitive.

Softer and Harder Moves

When play turns to you, you have many options for how to respond. Some are soft moves that are generally easier on the players—they give the party new information about the scene and offer them an opportunity to react to it. Others are hard moves that are usually harsher, bigger or more direct—the fiction happens without the ability to intercede.

The next section contains examples of softer and harder moves in approximate order of severity. Remember that your choice of move is a powerful way to set the tone for a challenge or threat. Before making a hard move, consider whether a softer move might be a better fit, but don’t shy away from hard moves when they further the story.

Example GM Moves

GM moves are your most important tool as a storyteller in Daggerheart. Everyone who picks up the game will interact with them in different ways, and that’s okay! The way you make moves truly defines the story you’re telling, so no GMs should feel like they have to use them the exact same way as anybody else. As long everyone is having fun, you’re staying true to the story, and you’re acting as a fan of your PCs, that’s what matters.

The following examples span the gradient from softer moves to harder moves. Rather than jumping straight to a hard move, it’s a good idea to look down the list until you find the move that seems appropriate. Don’t describe your move in the terms used in this section, however—instead of saying “I show the cost of collateral damage“, contextulaize it for the players, describing how to comes to be and why the scene changes because of it.

When you make a GM move, you might…

• Show how the world reacts.
• Ask a question and build on the answer.
• Make an NPC act in accordance with their motive.
• Lean on the character’s goals to drive them to action.
• Signal an imminent off-screen threat.
• Reveal an unwelcome truth or unexpected danger.
• Offer the PC what they want in exchange for marking a Stress.
• Make a move the characters don’t see.
• Force the group to split up.
• Show the cost of collateral damage.
• Make a character mark a Stress as a consequence for their actions.
• End a temporary condition or effect.
• Make an attack.
• Gain a Fear (on a roll with Fear).
• Spend Action Tokens.
• Capture someone or something important.
• Use a character’s backstory against them.
• Take away an opportunity permanently.

Show how the world reacts.

To show how the world reacts, simply think about the way the PC’s move has affected the world and narrate that change in a way that drives the story forward. At its softest, you might describe them successfully breaking down a door, then give them a description of the next room and what danger they find there. You could also make the person they are negotiating with present an option for compromise, or have an enemy they just hit attempt to retreat. This is your opportunity to make the world around the PCs feel real and alive. This option also includes ticking down a countdown (like a consequence countdown) to show the world reacting and/or time passing.

Ask a question and build on the answer.

This is perhaps the most collaborative move—presenting the player with a question, and using their answer as truth to build the scene. You might ask them something like, “What do you see here that reminds you of home?” or “What about this place tells you somebody else has been here before you?” Usually utilized when establishing information about a scene or when you’re interested in a specific character or player’s perspective on the current situation, this can be a great way to get the whole table involved in worldbuilding during the game.

Make an NPC act in accordance with their motive.

When a scene includes characters other than the PCs, you can spotlight what these NPCs are doing in response to the actions being taken. You might show a friendly NPC helping the party in a fight, a group of townsfolk taking cover, or an enemy moving positions. Make sure their actions always follow from their motive.

Lean on the character’s goals to drive them to action.

One of the most powerful things you can do as a GM in a scene is use something personal to the PCs to drive the fiction forward. If they have an NPC they care for, you might reveal something they desperately need or put them in danger. If they are seeking out a specific object or creature, you might reveal where it is and why it’s going to be so challenging to get there. Using a PC’s own desires to drive them forward is a great way to reinforce why this scene matters to them.

Signal an imminent off-screen threat.

The rustle in the trees, an alarm bell being sounded, the clanging armor of reinforcements headed their way—this move creates a ticking clock for your PCs in the scene. They need to get moving now.

Reveal an unwelcome truth or unexpected danger.

This is a very versatile move that’s usually applicable in any scene—you’re simply heightening the drama or tension in a narrative way. Maybe an unexpected person steps out of the shadows, or the characters receive is bad news or information that makes them rethink what they thought they knew. A soft version of this move might be to have a Guard Captain emerge to see what her guards are yelling about as you’re fighting them, or simply to move a group of dangerous foes into striking range of the party. A harder version of this move might be an enemy pinning a PC up against a wall or tackling them to the ground, making a PC Restrained until they make a roll to escape the adversary’s grasp.

Offer the PC what they want in exchange for marking stress.

The PC can can get it done, but it’s not going to be easy—this is usually used on a success with Fear when you’re not sure what other consequences apply. When you have a player mark a Stress, describe why it’s stressful in the narrative—or ask the player to do so. Is it physically taxing in some way? Does it bring up painful memories? Are they under significant pressure?

Make a move the characters don’t see.

This is usually most useful when you have something happening behind the scenes that you’re waiting to reveal. You might mark a GM clock, tick a current Countdown an additional time, add more damage dice to an enemy’s upcoming damage roll, adjust a narrative situation the PCs have yet to encounter, or anything else the players don’t see the result of immediately. When you do this, don’t tell them the move, but do create fun tension at the table by letting them know your machinations have changed: “Everything is fine… for now.”

Force the group to split up.

Usually used as either an environmental hazard or an enemy’s trap, splitting up the party can make your players have to think differently than they normally would about how to accomplish a task. It can also make for some fun cutting back and forth in the scene as the two groups work independently before finding a way back to each other.

Show the cost of collateral damage.

This is a great move to use when the player tries to do something powerful and there’s a consequence. That fireball that missed? Maybe it went wide, struck the side of the mountain, and now they hear rumbling from above. An avalanche is headed this way. Whenever the PC does something that could have a significant impact on the world around them, you can use this move to show them the natural ramifications of that event.

Make a PC mark a Stress as a consequence for their actions.

In a parallel move to “Offer a PC what they want in exchange for stress,” this is usually used when a player fails a roll and you’re not sure what consequence to offer—they don’t get what they want and they mark stress because of it. Again, it’s important to investigate the why here. What about that failure is particularly stressful for them?

End a temporary condition or effect.

You can clear a temporary condition or other effect. In combat, you can easily do this by spending an action token (see “Activating Adversaries”), but you can use a move to end an effect at any time. If a PC just started using an effect, however, think twice before ending it—you’ll likely want to wait until ending it would be narratively satisfying, giving it a chance to play out and affect the scene first.

When you make this move, lead with the narrative, describing who or what causes the effect to end, then how it changes the PC’s situation. For example, if an adversary is Vulnerable because they’re being held down by a tangle of vines, you might describe them using their blade to hack away at the vines to break free. Or if the effect is caused by a spell, you might describe the adversary unleashing a hail of arrows toward the caster, missing them but inhibiting their ability to focus on the spell any longer.

Make an attack.

This move raises the stakes of a scene very quickly. For example, maybe a discussion in a tavern escalates to violence, or a shady diplomat is tired of being questioned and tries to stab the PC with their hidden blade in an attempt to escape. When you choose to do this, you can have an adversary move anywhere within Close range, make an attack roll with your d20 (see “The GM’s Die” earlier in this chapter), then describe the attack and whether it succeeds or fails. If the PCs decide to fight back, that’s a good time to bring out the action tracker. Once the action tracker is active, you don’t need to use this move to attack—instead, you’ll use action tokens to make future attacks (see “Spend Action Tokens” below).

Gain a Fear (on a roll with Fear).

On a roll with Fear, you don’t have to introduce an immediate cost or complication—instead, you can gain a Fear token and save it for later. When you make this move, describe how the tone or mood of the scene shifts and tension mounts before passing play back to the PCs. See the “Fear” section below for details on how you can later spend this token to augment the scene, such as by using an adversary’s Fear action or adding additional tokens to the action tracker.

Tip: If you are struggling to come up with the consequences of a PC who rolls a success or failure with Fear, this move lets you just take a Fear and move the story forward. But try to avoid making this choice too often—immediate consequences help to drive the story in unexpected and engaging ways.

Spend action tokens.

If the action tracker is active, you can spend an action token to activate an adversary or the environment. This often means making an attack roll, but can be anything that spotlights the adversaries’ tactics and motives or changes the environment in interesting ways. Some adversary and environment moves allow you to spend Fear (along with an action token) on especially unique or dramatic actions. You may also spend these tokens to end temporary conditions or effects. Once you are done spending tokens, play should pass back to the PCs.

Capture someone or something important.

Taking away something the party desperately wants or needs can quickly ratchet up the tension in a scene. You might knock a weapon from a PC’s hand, capture a fellow party member or ally of the group, or steal an object of power right from under their noses. These moves are an exciting, fiction-forward way to advance the story.

Use their backstory against them.

Integrating a player’s backstory into your move you make can leave a huge impact on the PC and make the story much more personal to them. Maybe someone from their past shows up here, or a mistake they made long ago catches up with them, or the scene simply parallels something they’ve already been through before—giving them the chance to make a different choice. By grounding the move in a character’s own experiences, it makes the moments that happen next in the scene matter even more to them.

Take away an opportunity permanently.

When things get really dire, sometimes the PCs forever lose the opportunity or opening they once had. A softer version of this move might be collapsing the party’s straightforward pathway through a cave system, forcing them to find another, more treacherous way through. As a harder application of this move, you might instead kill a valuable NPC or destroy a desperately needed object of power. These moves can be used to great effect when you want to twist the trajectory of the story in a new direction.

Fear

While PCs have the opportunity to gain Hope as a metacurrency during the game, you have the opportunity to gain Fear.

Gaining Fear

When you first start a campaign, you begin with 2 Fear, just like each PC begins with 2 Hope. Whenever a PC rolls with Fear (see “Rolling Hope and Fear” in chapter 2), you have the opportunity to gain Fear as your GM move. You can also get Fear by converting tokens on the action tracker (see the upcoming “Using the Action Tracker” section), as well as from certain abilities or spells used by the PCs.

You can never have more than 6 Fear at a time, so don’t hesitate to spend it!

Tracking Fear

You can track Fear with tokens in a pool (the Fear pool), a die, or other counting methods. You’re encouraged to keep this pool visible to the players too. Between sessions, Fear carries over just like PCs carry over Hope, so at the end of each session, note how many Fear you have, then start with that many during your next session.

Spending Fear

Whenever you spend Fear, describe what changes in the world as Fear manifests. What interrupts the PCs? How does an adversary prepare for a powerful attack? What does it look/sound/smell like when an avalanche crashes down on the PCs?

When you spend fear, you can:

• Interrupt the players while the action tracker is out to make a move.
• Add two tokens to the action tracker.
• Use an adversary’s fear feature.
• Use an environment’s fear feature.

Tip: As with any GM move, spending Fear shouldn’t undermine the players’ fun. Fear is a tool for you to enhance the scene, create dramatic tension, and raise the stakes, not to outright shut down a PC’s heroic actions.

Interrupt the players while the action tracker is out to make a move.

You can spend a Fear to interrupt between PCs while the action tracker is out and make a GM move as if they had rolled a failure or with Fear. This is most useful when PCs have been rolling successfully with Hope for a significant number of actions and you want to act in response. For example, if the PCs have placed five tokens on the action tracker but you haven’t had a chance to spend them yet, you can convert two of those tokens into a Fear, spend that Fear to make a move immediately, and have three tokens left on the action tracker to activate adversaries during your move.

Add two tokens to the action tracker.

You can always spend a Fear to add two tokens to the action tracker. This is most useful if you have a large number of adversaries on the battlefield and a decent pile of Fear built up when play returns to you—you can spend a few Fear to put more tokens on the action tracker, and use them to activate those adversaries.

Use an Adversary’s Fear Feature.

In addition to each adversary’s standard features, some some adversaries have powerful Fear features (see “Using Adversaries” in chapter 4). You can use an adversary’s Fear features by spending an action token (as usual) along with the indicated number of Fear.

Even if an adversary has other Fear features, you can always spend a Fear to improvise a big adversary move that might otherwise feel overpowered or arbitrary.

Use an Environment’s Fear Feature.

Environments can have their own features that require spending Fear to activate (see “Using Environments” in chapter 4). You can use an environment’s Fear Feature by spending an action token (as usual) along with the indicated number of Fear.

Even if the environment has another Fear feature, you can always spend Fear to improvise a big environment move that might otherwise feel overpowered or arbitrary.

Improvising Fear Moves

When you’re improvising adversaries or environments or when you’re using existing ones, you might find a moment where you want to put your thumb on the scale to make something dramatic happen or to escalate the scene. You can always improve a GM move, whether it’s for an adversary, an environment, or otherwise, but there may be situations when you want to make an especially hard move. In those situations, you may want to treat it as a Fear move. You can spend Fear and declare the move, spending the resource to communicate and respect the scale of the action you’re taking.

A Fear move should redefine a scene, change the terms, raise the stakes, modify or change the location, etc.

Fear moves commonly include one or more of these elements:

• Introducing new adversaries to a scene.
• An adversary activating a powerful spell or transformation to deal massive damage or boost their capabilities.
• An environment taking strong action against the party.

For additional guidance on creating Fear Moves, check the existing Fear Moves included in the “Adversary Features” and “Environment Features” sections and stat blocks of chapter 4.

Examples of Improvised Fear Moves:

The party has confronted a corrupt noble who the GM had planned to be a recurring villain, but most of the noble’s HP are already marked and the party is close to dispatching them before their plans can be revealed. Deciding that they don’t want to change plans and let the PCs claim this unexpected victory, the GM improvises a Fear move to allow the noble to escape using some method that makes sense for the adversary but hasn’t been set up in the fiction. A noble not known to have magic might produce a token allowing them to teleport away even if it hasn’t been established in the story. In that case, the GM might decide to spend a Fear on an improvised “Take away an opportunity” move that lets the villain survive to fight another day.

In a battle with the party, a solo enemy whose damage output isn’t proving as much of a threat to the party as the GM would have liked. The GM might decide to adjust their damage dice on the fly, or they might decide to spend Fear and improvise an adversary feature where the enemy goes into a rage, increasing their damage for the remainder of the scene. The GM leads with the fiction, explaining why the adversary’s damage output is increasing and signaling the escalation to the PCs.

During a scene where the PCs are tracking a kidnapper, a PC rolls a success with Fear. The GM invites the player to describe how their action allows the PCs to gain ground, then spends a Fear and describes that just as the party spots the kidnapper on the horizon, a massive shadow passes over the group as a Wyvern decides that the party will be their next meal. The GM hadn’t mentioned anything about Wyverns being known to hunt in this area, so the GM decides it’s appropriate to spend a Fear rather than just introducing the new threat with a normal GM move.

While the party is exploring an ancient temple of a dead god of conquest, moving through a room with statues of long-gone heroes and their burial goods, the GM sees a way to enhance the scene. When given an opportunity by the Rogue cracking open one of the sarcophagi, the GM spends a Fear to improvise a Fear Move. They describe the stone walls of the temple lighting up as if shot through with veins of glowing gold light. A booming voice calls out, saying “I may be dead, but I will not tolerate the desecration of my temple” as the god’s vestige animates the statues of her champions to defend the temple against intruders. It doesn’t really matter that the GM didn’t prepare ‘animated statues of buried heroes’ as a Fear move before the session, only that it makes sense in the moment and adds to the scene based on the PC’s actions.

A PC rolls a Success with Fear on an action during a combat, and when considering what move to make, the GM realizes that the move they want to make is a very hard one, above and beyond just using action tokens to activate adversaries. They might decide to spend a Fear as they make the move to acknowledge that this is a much harder one than would normally come from a success with Fear.

Using The Action Tracker

The action tracker (see “Action Tracker” in chapter 2) should come into play whenever an encounter will likely last longer than a dice roll or two. The first couple times you use it in your campaign, ensure your players know that the game generally continues as usual. The action tracker’s presence doesn’t mean that violence is the only option left on the table–just that the narrative is shifting to a moment-by-moment focus. You can use the image provided in the game materials as your action tracker, or you can use something else like a bowl, a labeled notecard, etc. Just make sure everyone at the table knows what and where the action tracker is.

Whenever a player makes a move that tells them to “use an action” or makes an action roll, they add a character token to the action tracker. When you make a GM move (usually after an action roll that fails or is rolled with Fear), you can spend any number of these placed tokens to activate adversaries or the environment. It doesn’t matter which player’s tokens you spend—they all work the same—but after you spend one, return it to the player who placed it.

Activating Adversaries

You can spend tokens to activate adversaries on the battlefield (see “Adversary Features” in chapter 4). For each token you spend, one adversary can take an action of your choice, such as:

• Moving within Close range and making a weapon attack.
• Moving within Close range and using an adversary action.
• Ending a temporary condition or effect (as described in “Example GM Moves”).
• Sprinting somewhere else on the battlefield.

Adversary actions work much like PC actions do, but instead of a PC adding a token to the tracker, adversary actions spend a token from the tracker. Think of this as the adversaries catching up to where the players are in the fiction. You can continue acting until you’ve exhausted all available tokens (or all you wish to utilize at this time). Once you’re done spending action tokens, play returns to the PCs.

Typically, you shouldn’t activate the same adversary twice between PC moves, no matter how many tokens you have available. If you’d like to activate that adversary again, wait until the next time you make a GM move.

Tip: When you begin a GM move, if there are many tokens on the action tracker and numerous adversaries in play, it can be hard to remember which adversaries you’ve already activated during your move. You can help track this by moving each action token you spend next to that adversary’s stat block (or next to their miniature on the map), so you know that they’ve already acted during this move. When you finish your move, you can then return those tokens to the players.

Activating the Environment

Scenes can become more exciting when the environment comes alive. Sometimes these changes are simply descriptions you give as the GM—“the ground begins to shake violently.” But if you’d like to include mechanical effects, feel free to use an Environment stat block to guide how the world changes (see “Using Environments” in chapter 4).

Exchanging Fear and Tokens

At any time, you can clear two tokens on the action tracker in exchange for storing one Fear; while this gives you an extra Fear to spend, it also reduces the number of tokens you can use to activate adversaries. Similarly, you can spend one Fear to place two tokens on the action tracker, allowing you to activate more adversaries during a GM move.

When combat ends or you decide the action tracker is no longer necessary for play, you gain a Fear for every two action tokens left on the tracker (rounding down). For example, if there are five action tokens at the end of combat, you gain two Fear.

Tip: If you’ve got some Fear built up when the action tracker comes out, consider immediately spending one to add two tokens to the tracker, increasing the tension. If it makes sense in the scene, you can also spend a Fear to cut into the action first and activate adversaries before the players. This is especially useful if you’re running an ambush or using a particularly powerful adversary.

What is the Purpose of the Action Tracker?

When roleplaying using theater of the mind, it’s easy to remember that things are happening “off camera” even though they’re not actively being described, and shift your focus between characters or scenes on the fly. However, when a battle ensues on a map with miniatures, it can feel odd to see portions of the battlefield change while others remain frozen. The action tracker can help to shift between different parts of the battlefield, reminding everyone of who has acted recently and who might want a chance in the spotlight. This helps focus the group’s attention on major events without worrying about the exact passage of time or turn order. For more on using the action tracker to spotlight players, see Sharing the Spotlight.

Additionally, the tokens on the action tracker help the players anticipate your GM moves. When the players take a large number of actions in a row, the tracker fills, raising the stakes by providing you more currency to spend.

Full Example of Combat

The party is facing off with a group of bandits trying to steal a chest of treasure the group is transporting for an ally. The Warrior just succeeded on an attack roll with Fear against one of their adversaries. After the Warrior has dealt their damage, because they rolled with Fear, play passes to the GM.

The GM has five tokens on the action tracker and decides to spend them as their GM move. On the battlefield, there are two ribbet bandits and a group of five bandit minions.

The GM spends one token to activate the first bandit. The GM describes her leaping down from a nearby tree to slide beneath the party’s traveling wagon and break off some of the wooden floorboards to get to the treasure inside.

The GM spends another token to activate the second bandit, a large bullfrog-like figure with heavy armor. They leap down to put themselves between a few members of the party and swing a massive hammer, using their “Better Surrounded” action that lets them hit all targets within range of their weapon. The GM rolls against the PCs’ evasion and succeeds. They then roll the adversary’s damage dice and deal 12 points of physical damage to each target. Some of the PCs use armor to reduce the damage and each marks their sheet accordingly.

The GM spends the third and fourth tokens to use the minions’ Group Attack action. This moves all five minions into Melee range of the warrior. The GM makes an attack, describing the scene and rolling against the warrior’s evasion. The GM succeeds, so the horde deals 3 damage each for a total of 15 points of damage to the warrior. The warrior has no armor slots left, so they take Major damage—marking 2 hit points.

There is one more token left to spend, but no more adversaries left to activate, so the GM returns play to the PCs. The GM can spend that token on a future GM move.

Setting Roll Difficulty

When a player makes an action roll, you’ll often have to set the difficulty of that challenge to know whether they’ve succeeded or failed. Setting a target number for difficulty can feel like it relies on a lot of factors, but it’s best not to overcomplicate the question—how hard is the thing they’re trying to accomplish in the scene? Use the rubric below as a general guideline when setting difficulty.

5 - Very Easy | 10 - Easy | 15 - Medium | 20 - Hard | 25 - Very Hard | 30 - Nearly Impossible

Difficulty needn’t be a multiple of 5, so feel free to choose numbers between two of the above options. Additionally, while most difficulties fall between 5 and 30, you can select numbers outside that range to fit the story. You may always choose to keep this difficulty secret, or tell the player what they’re aiming for up-front, whatever play style you might prefer.

Remember to only have players roll when the outcome matters. If the thing they’re doing is easy, the scene remains the same whether they accomplish what they want or not, and there’s no possible consequence to failure, then you can and should just let it happen.

Degrees of Success and Failure

Often, instead of setting a single value for success, you might instead give a player different outcomes based on the relative success or failure of their roll, especially on rolls to see what information someone spots in a scene or can remember from their past. Simply pick a target number and scale up or down the amount of information you give them based on the player’s relative roll result.

Difficulty Rolls

When a PC rolls against an adversary, the stat block provides a difficulty for the roll (see “Adversary Breakdown” in chapter 4). However, if an NPC doesn’t have a stat block—or if you like the unpredictability of rolling—you can have that NPC make a roll to determine that difficulty. Though this can add to the time it takes to resolve the scene, it can also be a useful tool in situations where you’re unsure what the difficulty should be. To make a Difficulty Roll, roll a d20 and add any relevant experience the NPC or Adversary has to its total.

Tip: Attack rolls against adversaries use that stat block’s assigned difficulty. For other PC action rolls, if an NPC already has an assigned difficulty and Experiences, it’s often easiest to add the relevant Experience to the current difficulty to get a value instead of rolling.

Example Difficulty

Included here are difficulty examples for each trait. Do not feel the need to refer to these during play—just to use them as a sense for how difficulty works so you can make a judgment call on the fly as your players take actions.

Agility

Sprint

5 = Sprint a Close distance across an open field with an enemy present.

10 = Sprint a Far distance across an open field with an enemy present.

15 = Sprint a Close distance across rough terrain with an enemy present.

20 = Sprint a Close distance through an active battle of multiple enemies.

25 = Sprint a Far distance through a thick battle in rough terrain.

30 = Sprint across the heads of your enemies in a thick battle.

Climb

5 = Scale a high ladder.

10 = Scale a stone castle wall or moderate incline.

15 = Scale a stone castle wall in the rain or a sharp mountain slope.

20 = Scale a siege tower during a battle. Clamber up a massive foe.

25 = Scale a sheer cliff or inverted wall with miniscule hand/foot-holds.

30 = Scale a sheer cliff in a hurricane. Climb the back of a hostile dragon diving through a thunderstorm.

Leap

5 = Running jump of half of your height (about 3 feet for a human)

10 = Running jump of your height (five and a half feet for a human)

15 = Running jump of double your height (about 10 feet for a human)

20 = Running jump of three times your height (about 20 feet for a human)

25 = Running jump of five times your height (about 30 ft. for a human)

30 = Running jump of ten times your height (about 55 ft. for a human)

Strength

Lift

5 = Lift a chair.

10 = Lift a table or small chest.

15 = Lift a grown person or large chest.

20 = Lift the side of a laden cart or carry a large chest up stairs.

25 = Lift a horse, an ox, or a large monster.

30 = Lift a falling portcullis gate.

Smash

5 = Destroy a glass cup.

10 = Destroy a small wooden table

15 = Break through a wooden door.

20 = Break through a stone wall.

25 = Break through a dragon’s teeth.

30 = Break a god’s grip.

Grapple

5 = Subdue a child.

10 = Subdue a weak adult.

15 = Subdue an average adult.

20 = Subdue a skilled wrestler.

25 = Subdue a large beast.

30 = Subdue a legendary beast.

Finesse

Control

5 = Ride an average horse through easy terrain.

10 = Drive an ox-pulled cart.

15 = Drive a horse through rough terrain.

20 = Drive a cart through rough terrain.

25 = Ride a wild horse through dangerous terrain.

30 = Drive an enraged beast through dangerous terrain.

Hide

5 = Evade notice in full cover on a moonless night.

10 = Evade notice in cover on a moonless night. Sneak through heavy cover.

15 = Evade notice in cover on an average night. Sneak through average cover.

20 = Evade notice in the shadows on an average night. Sneak through low cover or past many guards.

25 = Evade notice with minimal cover in ample light.

30 = Evade notice with no cover in full daylight.

Tinker

5 = Open a sticky lock with the appropriate key.

10 = Open a simple puzzle box.

15 = Disable a standard trap.

20 = Disable a complicated trap.

25 = Open a door locked by a sequence of elaborate locks.

30 = Disable an incredibly sensitive and deadly trap.

Instinct

Perceive

5 = Hear a loud noise twenty paces away.

10 = Hear a speaking voice fifty paces away.

15 = Hear someone walking in the woods fifty paces away.

20 = Hear someone sneaking through the woods fifty paces away.

25 = Hear a prowling animal fifty paces away.

30 = Hear a diving bird a hundred paces away.

Sense

5 = Detect an obvious ambush. Notice an obvious deception.

10 = Detect a looming threat. Notice an average person’s lies.

15 = Detect hostile intent from an average foe. See through a merchants’ lies.

20 = Detect veiled hostility from a courtier. Detect an assassin’s approach.

25 = Identify a spymaster’s plot. Read the true intentions of a master courtier.

30 = Sense a shred of doubt within a God’s pronouncement.

Navigate

5 = Follow a well-trod path in good lighting and weather.

10 = Follow an average path in good lighting and/or weather.

15 = Follow a subtle path through rough conditions. Find your way in a city.

20 = Follow a subtle path through harsh conditions. Find your way in a crowded city without signage.

25 = Find your way through a city, blindfolded. Find your way through a giant maze filled with hazards.

30 = Find your way through a Trickery god’s maze.

Presence

Charm

5 = Win the trust of a friendly neighbor.

10 = Win the trust of a friendly stranger.

15 = Win the trust of a cautious stranger. Talk your way into a noble’s party.

20 = Win the trust of a sympathetic foe. Talk your way into an enemy’s party.

25 = Turn an enemy against their liege. Talk your way into a fae court.

30 = Talk a hostile god into granting you a boon.

Perform

5 = Earn a meal from a friendly crowd.

10 = Earn room & board in a small town. Impress a small crowd.

15 = Earn room & board in a low-end tavern in a city. Impress a crowd.

20 = Earn room & board in a high-end tavern in a city. Impress a full theater.

25 = Earn your keep in a royal court. Impress a full colosseum.

30 = Save yourself from execution after intruding on the Winter Queen’s chambers.

Deceive

5 = Trick a trusting acquaintance.

10 = Trick an average stranger.

15 = Trick an average merchant.

20 = Trick a trained courtier.

25 = Trick a spymaster.

30 = Trick a leader of the Fallen.

Knowledge

Recall

5 = Uncommon facts about your community.

10 = Uncommon facts about a neighboring community.

15 = Uncommon facts about a distant community

20 = Specialized facts about a distant community.

25 = Specialized facts about a fallen kingdom.

30 = Secret information about an obscure historical group.

Analyze

5 = Unpack an obvious metaphor in a simple work.

10 = Identify obvious subtext in a standard work.

15 = Break a standard cipher in a coded message.

20 = Identify the weakness in a complicated battle plan.

25 = Predict the downfall of a nation based on concealed financial misdeeds.

30 = Identify the weakness in a divine champion’s fighting form.

Comprehend

5 = Learn simple skills from an excellent teacher.

10 = Learn simple skills from an average teacher.

15 = Learn complicated skills from an excellent teacher.

20 = Learn complicated skills under poor conditions.

25 = Learn complicated skills quickly under dangerous conditions.

30 = Learn complicated skills instantaneously from incomplete information.

Giving Advantage and Disadvantage

Whenever it seems appropriate in the narrative, you may give a PC advantage or disadvantage on a roll (see “Advantage and Disadvantage” in chapter 2). This is often a tool you can use to explicitly show a player that the situation is helpful or harmful to the action they are attempting. For example, if a player is attempting to sprint through deep mud or knee-high water, you might impose disadvantage on their agility check. If they say something clever to a guard or use knowledge they obtained about an NPC against them, you might impose advantage on their roll.

NPC Advantage and Disadvantage

Some PC abilities can add disadvantage to an NPC’s roll, or you might choose to give an NPC disadvantage due to the circumstances of the narrative. If an NPC has advantage, roll an extra d20 and take the highest result. Similarly, if an NPC has disadvantage, roll an extra d20 and use the lowest result.

Advantage vs Difficulty

Because you control both the difficulty and the addition of advantage (or disadvantage) on a roll, why not just lower (or raise) the difficulty instead? You certainly can, but the advantage/disadvantage system allows players to feel good about their advantage and the chance to roll extra dice. “For any standard adventurer, it would be a difficulty of 15 to sneak by the head guard without being noticed. But because you knocked out one of their lackeys and stole their attire, you’ll take advantage on a Presence roll to move by them without catching their eye.“ The world exists, and the characters’ actions and their current situation can modify how successful they are in interacting with it.

Adversary Action Rolls

Adversaries aren’t limited to just the attacks and unique actions in their stat blocks (presented in chapter 4); those represent their special abilities, but they can do most anything a PC would do (such as picking a lock or climbing a cliff). However, other than the attack rolls described in the next section, adversaries don’t typically make action rolls.

When you want an adversary’s action to have a chance of failure, you can offer the PCs a chance to make a reaction roll or otherwise respond to the situation. This highlights the agency of the PCs and keeps the story focused on them.

For dramatic or difficult tasks that the PCs can’t influence, you may occasionally want to roll to see if the adversary succeeds. To do so, roll a d20 and add any relevant Experience they have. These rolls are more interesting if you tell the players the difficulty and roll where they can see the result.

Adversary Attack Rolls

When an adversary you’re controlling attacks a PC, you’ll make a simplified version of the attack roll made by players. Every adversary can make normal attacks using the weapon in their stat block, and some adversaries can also use special moves to attack (see “Adversary Features” in chapter 4).

Step 1: Add Attack Modifier

Unlike PCs, adversaries don’t use traits or Experiences on their attacks; instead, the stat block’s Attack Modifier is usually the only number added to the adversary’s attack roll. Set aside a number of extra character tokens equal to the Attack Modifier to help you keep track (see “Counting Character Tokens” in chapter 2).

Step 2: Choose Dice

You make your attack roll with a d20 instead of Duality Dice. If the adversary has advantage or disadvantage on the attack, add an extra d20 to that roll (see “Giving Advantage and Disadvantage”).

Step 3: Roll the Dice

Once you’ve gathered your d20, any other dice, and tokens for the Attack Modifier, roll them all at the same time. Counting each token as 1, add the tokens and dice rolls together to determine the total. If you rolled with advantage (or disadvantage), don’t count both d20s, only the highest (or lowest) one, as described in “Giving Advantage and Disadvantage”.

Step 4: Resolve the Situation

Step 4: Resolve the Situation Share your roll total with the player (or players) who were attacked, and ask them to compare it against their Evasion score. iIf the attack meets or beats that score, it is successful and deals the damage indicated in the stat block for that weapon. If it rolls below their evasion score, the attack misses and no damage is dealt; invite the player to describe how they avoided the blow (blocking, parrying, full-body dodge, magical deflection, etc.)

Attacking Multiple Targets

By default, all adversaries can only hit one target with their standard attack. When an adversary’s action lets you make an attack against multiple targets with the same adversary, you make one Attack Roll and ask if it hits any of the targets. If you are making individual attacks with multiple adversaries during the same GM Move, make an attack roll for each.

Attack Rolls As Story

Whenever an attack roll is made, that is an opportunity for you to show the way that attack changes the scene. When your attack roll hits, you are taking away resources from the PCs (hit points, stress, armor, etc.) so ensure you are providing the context for that change in the fiction. When your attack roll is a failure, it’s an opportunity to celebrate the prowess of the PC—it’s often a great time to ask the player to describe how their character avoids the attack.

If a player isn’t sure how to describe their Evasion, remind them it’s not just about how quick a character is, it’s about how skilled they are at not getting hit. This could manifest as the sorcerer reaching out and stopping an arrow in its tracks mid-flight or the wizard throwing up a magical barrier at just the right moment. It could be the rogue transforming into a swirling mass of darkness for a moment and letting the axe pass straight through them, a ranger doing a backflip out of the way, or anything else that feels like it aligns with the kind of character they have built.

Adversary Reaction Rolls

Some PC moves can force an adversary or other NPC to make a reaction roll. When you need to do so, roll a d20 to determine whether they succeed or fail. If you meet or exceed the roll’s difficulty, the NPC succeeds on the reaction and avoids the consequences. If they roll below the target number, the NPC fails on the reaction and suffers the consequences.

Because NPCs don’t have character traits like PCs do, you can add any of the adversary’s relevant Experiences as a bonus to their reaction roll.

Example: Krasz is chasing a Katari Burglar and unleashes a Fireball to slow them down. The Katari Burglar has the very relevant Experience of Acrobatics +3, so the GM adds +3 to the Reaction roll.

On the other hand, if you feel like the adversary would be particularly weak against the PC’s move, you can instead impose a penalty on the adversary’s roll.

Example: Krasz the Wizard casts Fireball on a Zombie Horde and their commander, a Skeleton Knight . The difficulty on the Reaction Roll is 13. The GM rules that a Zombie Horde is particularly ill-prepared to avoid a Fireball, (being both weak against fire and unlikely to dodge given that they move slowly and are bunched up), so they impose a -3 penalty on the roll.

The GM rolls 1d20 for the Zombie Horde, getting a 13. That would have been enough except for the -3 penalty the GM declared, so they miss and take full damage. The GM rolls again for the Skeleton Knight, getting an 18, which passes the Reaction roll. The Skeleton Knight takes half damage, per the mechanics of the Fireball spell.“

Countdowns

You can use a countdown to track progress toward a certain event, adversary move, or consequence. Some stat blocks and adventures specifically call for a countdown, but feel free to use them in any scene you wish.

Countdown Die

When you want to track the passage of time or specific events leading to a dramatic moment—such as an impending adversary move or a significant narrative event—you can use your d20 or another die as a countdown die to track its progression. Choose a die that has the needed starting value available on it, and put it on the table with the desired number facing up (see “Using a Countdown” below for guidance on choosing this value). For example, if your starting value is 5, you can use a d6 set to 5 as your countdown die.

Each time the countdown ticks down, turn the die to reduce its value by one. When the countdown ticks down from 1 to 0 (which doesn’t appear on the die), the countdown ends and triggers whatever you were counting down to.

If you ever need to continue a countdown across sessions, make sure to record the current countdown value so you can continue counting at the beginning of the next session.

Using a Countdown

When you introduce a countdown, you can either directly tell the players you’ve done so (“I’m starting a countdown to when the army attacks—what do you want to do before then?”), or you can imply it through your narration (“the bridge is starting to crack, and it won’t last long”). It’s up to you whether you keep the countdown die visible to the players (increasing tension each time it ticks down) or secretly use it to track an event they can’t predict.

When you’re designing a countdown (or using one from an adversary stat block), consider three elements:

Activation: When does the countdown activate in the narrative, prompting you to set your countdown die on its starting value? For example, a countdown might activate when the PCs stealthily enter an enemy camp.

Advancement: When does the countdown advance, prompting you to tick down the die by 1? For example, a countdown might advance whenever a PC makes an action roll (see “Standard Countdowns”), or it might advance only on certain roll results (see “Dynamic Countdowns”).

Effect When Triggered: What happens when the countdown ends? For example, a countdown might trigger a powerful enemy attack or a wave of allies arriving to save the day.

Standard Countdown

Many enemies and events use standard countdowns, in which the die begins on a specific number (such as “Countdown 4”) and ticks down every time a player makes an action roll, regardless of the result. When the countdown die reaches 0, the countdown’s effect triggers immediately after the last action roll is resolved.

Short countdowns (2–4) work well when you want a move or event to quickly trigger in an encounter regardless of how the players roll (but if you want the countdown speed to vary with the players’ rolls, see “Dynamic Countdowns”). Longer countdowns (5+) are best used on powerful moves or events that you want to build up towards in the narrative.

When in combat, standard countdowns for adversary moves are usually reserved for the major antagonist of an encounter. Running more than one countdown at a time can be complex, so most encounters include no more than one adversary with countdowns.

Dynamic Countdown

When a certain situation is being actively influenced by the players, you may choose to use a dynamic countdown to track it. Unlike a standard countdown, this doesn’t tick down every time a player rolls—instead it’s influenced by the outcome of their rolls or choices. Dynamic countdowns are often used to track larger-scale events or situations happening in the background of a complex scene. Typically, these countdowns have a starting value of 5–10.

For example, if the PCs are trying to destroy a wall or other object that doesn’t have Hit Points, a dynamic countdown can track how close they are to destroying it. Similarly, if the party’s skyship is under attack, you could use a dynamic countdown to track their escape—or if the PCs are chasing or searching for an enemy, the countdown can track how close the PCs are to catching them. (See “Chase Countdowns” below for guidance on using these countdowns for chase scenes.)

Most dynamic countdowns can be categorized as either a Progress Countdown (if working toward a desired outcome) or Consequence Countdown (if trying to avoid a dreaded outcome). The Dynamic Countdown Advancement table suggests how much to tick down the countdown die each time a PC makes an action roll.

Dynamic Countdown Advancement

Roll Result	Progress Advancement	Consequence Advancement
Failure with Fear	No advancement	Tick down 2
Failure with Hope	No advancement	Tick down 1
Success with Fear	Tick down 1	Tick down 1
Success with Hope	Tick down 2	No advancement
Critical Success	Tick down 3	No advancement

Advanced Countdown Features

You can use additional features to make countdowns more complex or unique.

Randomized Starting Value

Instead of assigning a starting value, a countdown might instead use a randomized value, like “Countdown 1d6”. This means that you roll 1d6 and use the result as the countdown’s starting value. Randomized countdowns are most commonly used when you want timing to be unpredictable—usually to keep the PCs on their toes.

Loop

Some countdowns loop after they trigger; this is common with adversaries who can recharge an ability over time. After a countdown loop triggers and you apply its effects, the loop resets to its starting value and begins counting down again. For example, “Countdown (Loop 5)” resets after 5 ticks.

Increasing or Decreasing

Some countdowns repeat like loops, but the timing between them increases or decreases with each loop, reflecting an event that changes frequency in the story.

Each time an increasing countdown triggers and resets, its starting value increases by 1. For example, “Countdown (Increasing 8)” begins at 8, then after its effect triggers, the loop resets to 9, then 10, and so on.

Similarly, each time a decreasing countdown triggers, its starting value decreases by 1. For example, “Countdown (Decreasing 8)” begins at 8, then resets to 7, then 6, and so on. Once a decreasing countdown reaches 0, a major event triggers, such as the cave collapse in the example below.

The cave system the heroes are exploring is collapsing more and more over time, so the GM sets a Consequence Countdown called “Rubble Falling.” The GM decides to use a decreasing seven-step countdown: “Countdown (Decreasing 7).” After the first time the countdown triggers and rubble falls on the PCs, the starting value resets back to 6, then 5, and so on until the PCs accomplish their goal—or until the countdown resets to 0 and the caves collapse entirely.

Chase Countdowns

You can use dynamic countdowns to track the progress of a chase scene, whether the PCs are pursuing or being pursued. When the chase begins, set two countdowns: one for the pursuing party, and the other for the escaping party. First pick a die size for the pursuers’ countdown—the more time you want the chase to take, the larger the die should be—then set that die at its highest value. Then use another die of the same size for the escapee’s countdown, but set that die at a lower value to reflect how much of a lead they have.

For example, a chase through a town market could use d6 dice and each tick of the countdown could represent one range band (Very Close to Close, Close to Far, Far to Very Far, etc). For a chase playing out over a longer distance, such as the PCs pursuing a group of bandits across the countryside, each tick on the countdown might represent several kilometers or miles.

Regardless of whether the PCs are escaping or pursuing, their action rolls advance both countdowns, as shown on the earlier Dynamic Countdown Advancement table. When a PC succeeds on an action roll, it ticks down their countdown, which is a Progress Countdown. When they fail on an action roll—or roll a success with Fear—it ticks down the other party’s countdown, which is a Consequence Countdown. (Yes, this means that on a success with Fear, both countdowns advance by one!) When setting the difficulty of these rolls, consider the adversary’s difficulty plus any other narrative considerations.

Example Chase

A thief has stolen the Wizard’s spellbook and so the PCs are chasing them across a market square. The GM decides on a d6 for the thief’s countdown—a Consequence Countdown—and sets its value at 3 since the thief has a slight head start over the PCs.

The Rogue asks to go first, clambering up onto the market-stall tents to run over the top rather than pushing through the crowds. The GM calls for an Agility roll against the thief’s difficulty of 15, and the Rogue uses her Second Story Experience to get a bonus. The Sorcerer spends a Hope to Help an Ally, describing how he channels his affinity with air to boost the Rogue up. With the help of the sorcerer, the Rogue rolls a success with Hope, so the GM ticks the PC’s Progress Countdown from 6 to 4; this represents the Rogue gaining on the thief and helping the group catch up by providing a quicker route through the crowd.

Next, the Wizard wants to take things into his own hands. Using his Book of Sitil grimoire, he describes how he conjures an illusion of a runaway horse charging across the thief’s path, forcing them to slow down rather than get trampled. The Wizard makes a Spellcast roll against difficulty 15, but rolls a failure with Fear. The GM describes the thief seeing through the illusion at the last moment, moving through the crowd to force others to react to the horse and bar the party’s way. The GM ticks the thief’s Consequence Countdown down from 3 to 1 as the thief makes it a Far distance away from the party. They are losing sight of the thief and now in real danger of them getting away—if the Consequence Countdown ticks down one more time, the thief will be gone.

Long-Term Countdowns

Countdowns can also be used to track long-term events during a campaign; you could count down towards the overthrow of a nation, the death of a powerful mage, or anything else that might take more than a few sessions to come to bear.

While you can use a die for long-term countdowns, it’s often easier to make a countdown track to record progress across multiple sessions. To do so, decide how far out the event should be (usually between 4 and 12 ticks), and on a piece of paper, create small boxes for each tick. Then, starting from the first and working towards the last, write some events that may occur along the way that foreshadow the final event. These steps can alternate between softer and harder moves to give a sense of variety and growing tension.

[EXAMPLE IMAGE OF LONG TERM COUNTDOWN]

Advancing a Long-Term Countdown

During a short rest, you should generally tick a relevant long-term countdown once. During a long rest, you should generally tick down a relevant long-term countdown twice.

When you tick the countdown, let the consequences ripple down to the PCs, building tension as events unfold. Often, you can reveal this progression through something the PCs witness (such as the banner of a rival leader painted on the castle, or conversations overheard in the marketplace about the strange lights NPCs saw in the sky last night). Other times, you might cinematically cut away to a scene the PCs are unaware of, narrating the accelerating effects to the players. This is best done with countdowns where the characters already know about the events surrounding the countdown, so that players aren’t asked to completely ignore out-of-character knowledge.

Example Long-Term Countdown

Early in the campaign, the party crossed paths with Marius, a galapa mercenary captain. The group suspected Marius would cause trouble, but pressing matters drew them elsewhere in the kingdom. Meanwhile, Marius makes a deal with the expansionist theocracy to the east—an action the party’s Seraph will likely view with concern because of her past with the theocracy. In exchange for helping the theocrats invade, Marius will be appointed as governor of a prosperous county once the kingdom falls.

The GM wants this invasion to ramp up pretty quickly, so they set the countdown at 8, drawing eight checkboxes as a countdown tracker. Next to each checkbox, the GM plans out story beats that can represent the countdown’s advancement.

8 - The deal is struck and Marius’s company mobilizes.

7 - Marius’s company raids a border town.

6 - The theocracy’s troops begin gathering at the border.

5 - Marius’s company captures a different border town, having misdirected the nearby militias.

4 - The theocracy’s army marches into the kingdom, establishing a beachhead in the captured town.

3 - Refugees flee the region around the border town, bringing news of the invasion with them to the larger settlements.

2 - Marius moves to harry the kingdom’s army and give the theocracy time to establish supply lines.

1 - The theocracy rededicates a temple in the captured town to their god, magnifying their priests’ power in the kingdom.

0 - The invasion becomes an all-out war, with Marius’ and the theocracy’s army executing coordinated strikes to divide the kingdom’s defenders.

The GM identifies steps 6 and 3 as prime candidates for steps where news would reach the party. This gives them at least two clear prompts to get involved before the invasion escalates to a full-blown war. And depending on the party’s movements and location as the countdown progresses, the GM may be able to bring the edges of the invasion to the party’s horizon or even their doorstep.

Gold, Equipment, and Loot

Within your campaign, it’s up to you and your players how much importance you place on gold, equipment, and loot. Your players might operate as a band of thieves who rob all adversaries they face, they might be a group of spiritual devotees who abstain from acquiring new possessions as much as possible, or they might take an approach to wealth and possessions that land somewhere in the middle. You can also utilize wealth and equipment to adjust the dial between realism and fantasy. If you’d like to add a more survivalist tone to your game and players need gold to buy food, then they’ll likely interact with opportunities to acquire wealth very differently than if you choose to handwave a full pack of rations.

Distributing Gold

Using gold as a quest reward can give your players a fun way to procure new equipment for future adventures. This book leaves the price of items up to you, allowing you to decide how much importance you want to place on gold in your campaign.

If you don’t want to worry about gold in your campaign, you can always just let PCs go to a shop and talk with the merchant there, abstracting payment and letting each player choose an item or two. When you do this, rather than letting them choose from the whole tier list, you can encourage them to shop around by only offering a few that make sense for that location or fit your party’s interests.

If you’d rather gold play a larger role in your game, the following sections provide further guidance on pricing equipment.

Distributing Equipment

At character creation, players have access to all starting weapons and armor (see “Equipment” in chapter 2). The remainder of the equipment is organized by rarity and should be made available to players as the party moves through their campaign. Often, this looks like choosing a few options to make available at shops along their journey or providing a new weapon as part of an NPC’s reward.

If you choose to give gold as a reward, but don’t want your campaign to be particularly driven by it, you can make most weapons and armor worth two handfuls of gold per tier (so two handfuls for Tier 1, four handfuls for Tier 2, six handfuls for Tier 3, and eight handfuls of gold for Tier 4).

If you want gold to play a larger part in your campaign, you might instead make most weapons and armor worth two handfuls of gold per tier (so two bags for Tier 1, four bags for Tier 2, six bags for Tier 3, and eight bags for Tier 4).

Regardless of your approach to setting prices, keep in mind how common a weapon or armor might be in a particular city or region—and how generous or stingy a particular shopkeeper might be.

Distributing Loot

When giving out loot, the lower the item or consumable number is on the list, the less impactful it tends to be. Consumables are often less powerful just by their nature, so if you want to give something to every low-level player, consider common consumables (see “Consumables” in chapter 2). If you’re looking for something a little more permanent, consider common items (see “Items” in chapter 2). On the other hand, if players are reaching the pinnacle of their campaign and you want to give them something very powerful, consider a few rare or legendary consumables and items.

You are highly encouraged to make your own items and consumables as you see fit for your campaign, mix and match loot to make it personalized for your story, or make choices of what to have in your world from the list and what to make unavailable. As with equipment, loot has no set gold cost; instead, the cost should reflect how often you are giving gold as a reward as well as how commonplace that loot might be locally.

Economy of Your World

More guidance coming soon on how to use gold for other aspects of your world!

Class Hope Features

Every PC has a unique Hope Feature, a powerful class feature that costs three Hope to use. Whenever a PC uses their class’s Hope Feature, try to ensure their efforts make an impact on the scene. Draw attention to the way that the Druid’s empowered Beastform shrugs off powerful blows, encourage the Guardian to describe how their abundant hope allows them to weather even more punishment to represent clearing an armor slot, and so on. Give the player the stage to describe what the feature looks like or how the fiction changes as a result of the hero digging deep and tapping their heroic will to put Hope to use.

Optional GM Mechanics

There are a number of optional GM mechanics you can choose to implement if you or your table prefer them.

Fate Rolls

Sometimes the GM wants to use randomness when deciding something that is not dependent on a particular character’s capabilities or some other existing measurement. In these situations, you can use a fate roll, asking a player to roll their Hope or Fear die to decide the result. Your choice of die doesn’t affect the outcome, nor does the roll result grant Hope or Fear—the die type simply helps add flavor to the roll. You might roll the Hope die when determining whether fortune smiles upon the character or if there will be a lucky circumstance. You might roll the Fear die when determining if a potential hazard manifests or when deciding exactly how bad a dangerous situation becomes.

When making a fate roll, you can say that a particular result happens at a certain number or higher, or you might say that the higher the number, the more a particular thing has happened. For example:

“Roll the Fear die. On an 8 or higher, the fire spreads beyond this one house.”

“I think it’s really up to chance whether reinforcements will make it to you in time. Go ahead and roll the Fear die—that’ll determine the starting size of the countdown. When that triggers, reinforcements will arrive in your Far range.”

“Go ahead and roll the Hope die to see how big the crowd at the inn is tonight. The higher the roll, the bigger the crowd.”

Falling Damage

If a character falls a long way to the ground you can use the following as a guide:

• A fall from Very Close range deals 1d10 direct physical damage.
• A fall from Close range deals 1d20 direct physical damage.
• A fall from Far or Very Far Range deals 1d100 direct physical damage, or death at GM discretion.

You may always increase or decrease the dice rolled to fit the story.

Moving & Fighting Underwater

Attack rolls underwater are made at disadvantage, unless it makes sense for a character to fight easily underwater.

For any creatures that can’t breathe underwater, if you want to create tension around how long they can hold their breath, you can create a Breath Countdown die. Set the starting value at 3 or more, and tick down as follows:

• Tick down once whenever any PC takes an action underwater.
• If an action roll is a failure or with Fear, you can use your move to tick it down an additional time. (If the roll is both a failure and with Fear, you can tick it twice instead.)

Once the countdown ends, whenever any PC takes an action, the underwater PC must mark Stress. ( See “Countdown” for more on Countdown Dice.)

Conflict Between PCs

Sometimes a player might want their character to act against another PC in the scene. Daggerheart doesn’t have rules to support this, so before jumping to rolling dice, discuss the situation with both players to decide how to resolve the conflict. A roll might not be necessary to decide the outcome—but if rolling will be fun for everyone involved, come to a consensus on the terms of the roll, then after it’s made, facilitate the scene accordingly.

Running GM NPCs

When you run NPCs as the GM, you should always strive to follow your GM principles, make the NPCs act in line with their motives, and use them to bring the world to life. You can either describe the unique way they speak or act, or you can even use a new voice, posture, or mannerisms to act out the NPC yourself—use whatever approach you’re comfortable with that helps differentiate them from other NPCs the party has met.

Choosing NPC Statistics

Many NPCs don’t need formal backstories or statistics—if the PCs are simply interacting with a friendly bar patron to gather information, you probably just need a name, description, and motive. These three things give your PCs something to call the NPC, a way to recognize them, and a purpose behind their actions. If they’re somebody the PCs might try to make a roll against, consider also giving them a difficulty.

NPCs can sometimes become adversaries. If this occurs, give them statistics by choosing or customizing an adversary stat block from chapter 4.

Using NPC Allies

NPCs can also sometimes become allies in fights. If this is the case, you don’t need a stat block for them—instead, describe what they do during battle, putting the spotlight on them as the story demands and narrating how the fiction changes because of their involvement, but don’t worry about tracking their movements on the action tracker. Instead, when they act in a way that might help the PCs, if the party capitalizes on that help during their next action, give the PC advantage on the appropriate roll.

NPC allies can always get hurt or even die as the result of the narrative. Just because they don’t have Hit Points or Stress Points doesn’t mean they are immune to the ways of the world. During your GM move, don’t be afraid to capture the NPC and threaten their life to drive the PCs to action, trap the NPC somewhere and force the party to make a difficult choice, or push on the NPC’s motive so hard it makes them do something that puts everyone in danger. Hit the NPC hard when it feels justified, let them be beaten and broken as a result of a difficult fight, or have them die in the party’s arms if the narrative says they should. Because you are running both the adversaries and the NPCs, they are under your control to do with as you see fit for the story. Follow the fiction, embrace your GM principles, and make moves that drive interesting conflict for the party.

More to come for this section in a future draft, including potentially exploring more complex NPC ally options!

Session Zero and Safety Tools

When preparing to embark on a long campaign that will tell the story of a group across months or years, it’s important to get everyone on the same page and set expectations as early as possible. If you were creating an epic fantasy tv show, you’d do this preparation work via the pre-production process, with the creator and showrunner building the writers’ room, working with the producers and heads of departments to develop the look and feel and vision for the series, and so on. If you were writing an epic fantasy book series, you might do it by worldbuilding and developing characters, by outlining and making a mood board or whatever else helps you find and maintain your vision for the project.

Many tabletop roleplaying games do this via a session zero. This term means different things to different people, but for Daggerheart, it’s the way you plan for success in telling your fantasy epic together as a group. Before making characters, before deciding on your setting, the group talks about what you all want from this campaign and this experience.

The GM facilitates session zero, but all players in the game should be active participants, advocating for what they do and don’t want from the campaign.

There are many tools for structuring your session zero. If everyone in your group has played together before, you may already have a method for conducting your session zero. If you haven’t done session zero before or don’t have a method you prefer, here are some suggestions.

Laying the Groundwork

An essential part of session zero is choosing your game’s content calibration and safety tools. These tools ensure players know they can avoid material that would be hurtful or triggering—and beyond that, safety tools empower players to explore challenging material everyone has signed up to engage with to be what we’d call “comfortably uncomfortable”). In addition to deciding on content the group does and doesn’t want in the game, these tools assist players (including the GM) in communicating during play; for example, you might use a safety tool if something unexpectedly painful or troubling comes up, or if you want to help each other remember what elements the group decided to avoid or keep “off-screen”.

We recommend tools like the following, though you can use whatever works best for your group.

CATS

One of many frameworks for discussing content and safety is the CATS Method, created by Patrick O’Leary (See: CATS Framework). This framework presents four elements to discuss with your players to decide what the group wants from the game: Concept, Aim, Tone, and Subject.

Concept

Discuss the concept for the campaign - what’s the big picture pitch? If this campaign was a book series, how would you talk about it to a friend you know would love it? Getting yourself and the group excited about the concept for a campaign is a great way to set a guiding star for your creative discussions throughout Session Zero and beyond.

For example, you might pitch one of the following concepts:

Childhood friends reunite at the funeral of their village elder and uncover a secret that could break the world…or save it.

A science-fantasy romp across the realms with a party of misfits who tries to find their origins but ends up finding a family in one another.

In a world wracked by powerful disasters, a group of treasure hunters is hired to retrieve the five lost elemental shards sto restore the balance of nature .

However, you might not know the campaign’s concept at the beginning, and that’s okay. Feel free to return to this conversation at the end of session zero or throughout the first couple of sessions as necessary.

Aim

Aim is about what you want from and for your campaign - your creative, social, and other goals. Do you have a specific creative agenda you’re looking to pursue? Do you mostly want to spend a few hours with friends every week making things up together and blowing off steam? Aim is both about format and aesthetic agenda.

For example, an aim might center on one of the following:

We’re going to play a weekly campaign from level 1-10 with strong individual and group character arcs.

Our aim is mostly to hang out and chat while kicking butt and getting new powers and cool items.

We want to tell a story that explores the relationship between grief and community through an action-fantasy in a world recovering from a near-apocalypse.

Other ways to decide on or describe your game’s aim might be to reference touchstones for your campaign or for the kind of character you want to play, drawing from books, films, comics, music, etc. You might create a mood board to help define the aesthetic of your world or a soundtrack to form an aural soundscape for the vibe you want.

Tone

While playing Daggerheart, you and your group will build a world entirely your own. Even if you’re using an established setting, your version of that setting will be distinct and grow through your creativity. An important element of defining a world and a campaign is agreeing on tone - the emotional landscape and tendency of the campaign. Establishing the tone of your game helps align players’ expectations and ensure that everyone has a good time.

A quick way of picking a tone is to list the following tones on a piece of paper or note card, then circle tones everyone is excited to focus on, and cross out any tones someone wants to avoid:

Lighthearted | Adventurous | Gritty | Funny | Scary | Whimsical | Intimate | Dramatic | Romantic | Cozy | Goofy | Political

For example, a new group might want to use the provided list of tone options to discuss the following:

Josie nominates Dramatic to be highlighted and everyone agrees, so that option is circled to signal that it will be prominent in the campaign.

Kyle says he’s not interested in a Goofy tone, and nominates it to be crossed out. Dani is possibly interested in Goofy, but since Kyle’s not, Dani is willing to cross it out—but in exchange, she asks that the group consider circling Romantic.

Sita isn’t interested in Romantic being a central tone, but doesn’t want to cross it out. She nominates Adventurous for a major tone, and after discussion, it gets circled.

The group agrees that they don’t want a Gritty game, so it gets crossed out. They also cross out Whimsical. That leaves the group with the following list:

Lighthearted | Adventurous| Gritty | Funny | Scary | Whimsical | Intimate | Dramatic | Romantic | Cozy | Goofy | Political

In other words, they’re interested in a game that will be especially Dramatic and Adventurous, sometimes Funny, Intimate, Scary, Romantic, and Cozy but not Goofy, Gritty, or Whimsical.

Subject

Discuss things you and the players actively want in the game as well as subjects anyone wants to avoid. For subjects to avoid, this can be big, broad things like bigotry and torture, or very specific elements like avoiding spiders or a particular name that carries big emotional weight for a player.

When discussing challenging subjects, it’s important to center the desires and needs of marginalized players who are personally affected by those issues. In heroic fantasy games, some players find it empowering to face oppressive forces as part of the evils of the world—allowing those evils to be directly fought and overcome—but that should be a choice actively made by the players who are impacted by that oppression outside the game. Many marginalized people play TTRPGs to escape the everyday frustrations and pains of bigotry they experience in their daily lives, and they shouldn’t be forced to struggle with them in a game. Those choices should be made primarily by those most impacted by the subject matter. For instance, if your group includes LGBTQ players, prioritize their preferences on whether to include or exclude homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of oppression against queer people.

This is a good time to pick any specific safety tools you want to use during the campaign. We recommend choosing a tool for managing content to include and avoid; the following “Lines and Veils” section suggests one such option. Additionally, we recommend choosing a tool to support players in pausing or redirecting play during the session, such as the X-Card presented in the upcoming “X-Card” section.

For more information about various safety tools and how to use them, Kienna Shaw and Lauren Bryant-Monk have an award-winning collection available for free at ttrpgsafetytoolkit.com.

Lines & Veils

First developed by Ron Edwards, Lines and Veils are a safety tool designed to be first employed in a Session 0, and revisited as much as is needed throughout a campaign. When discussing the tones and goals for the game, the GM should make a list of player’s Lines and Veils.

Lines are topics that players do not want in the game. They should not appear in any form.

Tracey lines spiders. That means that, not only will the players never encounter spiders, spiders effectively do not exist in this world. There are no cobwebs or eight-legged monsters. The GM touches base with Tracey about how she feels about other bugs, so she explains that insects and other similar creatures are perfectly fine, her line is specific to spiders. This means, the party may encounter swarms of bees, follow a line of mysteriously colored ants, or fight off a giant beetle.

Veils are topics that players do not want to feature in the game, but can still exist in the world.

Tracey veils spiders. That means that spiders can exist in the world, but they will not be a feature of the game — they will not crawl on characters, and players will never battle a spider-monster. The GM checks in with Tracey and she explains that cobwebs are fine, as long as there are no spiders in them. This means ancient cobwebs could fill an old castle, but there will not be any bugs scurrying within them.

Though the GM is keeping the list and designing the encounters, they should also announce their own Lines and Veils. This will help set the culture of a safe table, take any stigma off players having topics they wish to avoid, and let other players know what they should not include in their roleplay. It’s important to remember that the GM is also a player and deserves the same care.

It’s important to remember that Lines & Veils are a “living document,” meaning the list can be updated at any point.

Tracey initially veiled spiders but just realized in the middle of this session that she would feel more comfortable if they were lined. The GM’s giant spider is making her very uncomfortable. She flags her change to lining spiders and the GM simply switches their giant spider out for a giant beetle and continues play.

Some players may wish to keep their Lines & Veils between them and the GM. To allow for this, a GM can suggest that anyone at the table write down additional topics on scrap paper to share later, send a text, or discuss in a one-on-one conversation.

X-Card

Created by John Stavropoulos, this is a tool that allows any player (including the GM) to remove content from the game. This traditionally appears in the form of a physical card, marked with a large letter X, and placed within reach of all players at the table. That said, your table could use a designated item, someone creating an x with their arms, or other symbol that feels best to the group.

To utilize the X-Card, a player only needs to tap the paper (or hold up crossed arms, etc.) and note the moment of play they wish to “rewind” to. It can be helpful to note the detail they’re flagging for removal, but this is not a requirement for using the tool. The group will simply go back to the designated moment and play forward, making a new choice.

There are a few important details about the X-Card worth flagging:

• When a player X-Cards a moment of play, they do not need to explain their reasoning, and the process of using this safety tool should not impose that on any player. If someone wishes to go into more detail, the table may break for group or private discussion as needed.
• The X-Card should not be designated as a tool of last resort. No player should feel they need to sit in discomfort until the stakes become too high. Using the X-Card is not an offense, and having the X-Card used during your moment of improv does not inherently mean you made a grievous mistake in play.
• Encouraging use of the X-Card in your game is often just as important as the X-Card itself. Setting up a table with safety tools establishes a culture of caring and helps make the game fun for everyone.

Open Door Policy

The Open Door Policy is a safety tool that is as simple as it sounds. Tell your players that they are welcome to leave the game at any time, for any reason, and reassure them that they will not be punished or judged. This can manifest as calling for a break from play, simply to take a few moments and grab a snack, or someone heading home early if they need to.

Example Discussion of Safety Tools

In their session zero conversation, the group agrees to use Lines & Veils, the X-Card, and the Open Door Policy.

Jo says they don’t want transphobia, homophobia, or any bigotry against queer people in the game. The GM writes those topics down on the group’s list of Lines—elements that won’t appear in the game at all. Olivia says that she’d like to put a veil on real-world current events for the campaign, so the game can feel like a break from the worries of everyday life. The game might include some unintended parallels with real-world events, but that comparison will never be in the spotlight, and the game’s table talk will avoid making those comparisons. George adds a line on tiny swarms of insects, with the caveat that he doesn’t mind having insects in the campaign, as long as they aren’t ever near his character.

Asking Questions

During the session zero discussions, it’s very useful to ask clarifying questions and dig deeper with suggestions and ideas. Regardless of whether you want to use an existing setting or build your own, one of the best ways to ensure that players are invested and excited to play is to let them bring their ideas and interests to the planning stages in session zero.

For example, you might ask questions like the following as part of your session zero conversation:

Can you talk a little more about what you mean by wanting to make a post-fantasy world?

When you said it’d be cool if elven clans worked like a beehive, did you mean physiology, or is it more about communication and hierarchy?

What aspect of that fantasy series you mentioned are you most excited to bring into the game? The plot, the setting, the vibes, or something else?

Fostering an atmosphere of constructive curiosity is also useful for interrogating your own assumptions in worldbuilding. To help yourself make conscious decisions about the world and game, instead of unspoken assumptions or just replicating what has come before. For example, your group might consider questions like:

Should all the major countries in our region be monarchies, or do we want them to have different forms of government? If they’re monarchies, are they feudal, bureaucratic, or some other structure?

How do people think about gender in this world? Do conceptions of gender vary by community, by region, or something else?

What, if anything, do we want to change in the existing setting we’re using to make it a better fit for the kind of story we’re telling?

Everyone at the table should be encouraged to ask questions to enrich the session zero discussion. The more collaborative the process, the more the setting and game will truly reflect the creative interests and ideas of everyone involved.

Finding Campaign Inspiration

Throughout session zero, look for hooks and nuggets of ideas to store and use as creative inspiration throughout the campaign. This can be things as small as a turn of phrase or the name of a creature to things as big as a player describing a climactic scene they want for their character at the end of the campaign.

You’ll especially want to take notes while players are creating their characters and what they give as their answers for the background and connections prompts. Those answers will form the bulk of the initial material for you to use to tie the story of the campaign to the characters, especially if you want the story to emerge from those characters’ worlds and lives.

You might also choose to frame your questions with additional narrative you think is interesting. If you do, leave space for that player to push back on your additions to their answers, and discuss as needed:

Guardian, how exactly did you get the last remnant of the Dawn Goddess’ battle standard? And what does it whisper to you at night before you drift off to sleep?

Wizard, the Warrior mentioned that her sister went off to study magic and was very much the kind who wasn’t in it to make friends. What do you think about having that sister be your rival?

Keep your GM principles in mind throughout this process (see the earlier “Core Guidance” section)—these apply to all stages of the campaign, not just in-scene play.

Example Session Zero Breakdown

Assuming a 4-hour time slot for session zero, here’s an example of how you might structure your session zero:

Beforehand

Ahead of the session, you’ll want to prepare materials for the game: print out/arrange character sheets, character reference sheets, play guides, any maps, a way to take notes, etc. Before the players arrive, prepare the play space (physical or VTT) for the session. Make the space comfortable for yourself and the players as best you can. If you’re playing online, you’ll want to prepare the virtual tabletop, whatever you’re using to track characters and roll dice, and any other digital play aids you need.

Player Introductions (5-10 min)

As the players arrive, if you haven’t all played together, facilitate introductions and make sure everyone knows what pronouns to use for one another. If all the players already know one another, you can spend this time catching up and settling in.

Session Overview (5-10 min)

Explain to the players what all will be involved in this session zero, point out the materials and when they’ll come into use. Many people find it useful to browse through materials before using them, but encourage people not to get too far ahead of the discussion.

CATS (40 min)

Discuss what the group wants from the game using CATS (see “Laying the Groundwork”) or another framework. This includes what the campaign should be about, what you want from the campaign socially and creatively, logistical details (how often, when, and where you’re going to play), the tone of the game, content to include and exclude, and anything else you need to cover before deciding the setting and then making characters.

Break (5-10 min)

It’s good to take breaks to let everyone move around, refresh themselves, and get a little bit of time to decompress from creative discussions that can demand a lot of energy and attention.

Worldbuilding (50 min)

Whether you’re using the guidance in the “Running a Campaign” section of this chapter or your own worldbuilding tools, facilitate the process of creating or fleshing out the setting you’ll be using for your campaign. During the process, think about the elements (tropes, settings, influences) that players are especially interested in, and do what you can to build those elements into the setting. Worldbuilding can engrossing, but remember that you don’t need to define or name every part of the map at this stage. Leave yourself blank spaces to fill in later, as you’ll continue building the setting together through play.

Break (5-10 min)

Since character creation is such an important part of preparing a campaign, it’s good to go in fresh, so consider taking another short break between worldbuilding and the next step.

Character Creation (70 min)

Walk the group through character creation using the “Character Creation” section of chapter 1 and the “Character Creation” PDF guide, helping players with their questions and facilitating discussion and coordination between players. This step may also include explaining some of the game’s rules (see the “Play Guide” PDF) so that players understand what the abilities from class, subclass, heritage, and domain cards can do.

Pay special attention to the group’s discussion of each character’s Background & Connections, as they will play a vital role in your preparations for the campaign. This is a great place to ask questions and encourage players to flesh out their answers. If time is limited or this process is taking longer than expected, try to at least complete the background questions and make one connection per player.

Break (5 min)

If you’ve got time left in your session, you can take a short break before doing wrap-up and feedback, or a longer break if you’ve got the time for a bit more play before finishing for the day.

Introductory Scene (optional; 30 min)

If you have the time, you can throw the characters into an initial scene to help the players get a handle on the rules and their characters. This scene can be non-canon or serve as a jump-start for the campaign. You might put the characters immediately into a dramatic scene or open with something more calm and slice-of-life.

Wrap-Up and Feedback (10 min)

Use the last few minutes of the session to check in with all the players, see how they felt about the session, if they have any questions, or if they want to revisit anything in terms of safety tools, content, etc.

Running A Session

This section guides you in preparing and running a session of Daggerheart for your table. If you’d like to start with a single-session adventure, the “Creating a One-Shot Together” section of chapter 5 also provides inspiration for your adventure’s setting and story. The remainder of chapter 5 includes examples of locations, factions, and more that you can use to populate your world.

Once you’re ready to dive into a longer campaign, see the “Running a Campaign” section at the end of this chapter.

Thinking In Beats

In storytelling, a beat is a moment that changes the trajectory of the narrative - it might be a shift in the world, actions and reactions, an emotional revelation or decision. Not every event in a story is a beat,

As the GM in a collaborative game, you’re going to be alternating with the players, narrating a beat and then letting them react and carry the scene forward with their own beats. It’s like a dance, a conversation, a game of tennis.

This focus on beats is very useful in preparation–rather than writing out every single thing that is going to happen, you can think in beats, the moments that give shape to the scene or sequence.

If you were preparing a session where a mercenary company seizes control of a border town in a narrow mountain pass to prepare a kingdom for invasion, and thinking in beats for a Countdown, you might do it like this:

8 - the mercenary company makes a partnership with the neighboring kingdom

7 - One of the mercenaries arrives in town and gets a job with the city guard.

6 - The undercover mercenary gets assigned to night duty, as expected for new hires in the guard.

5 - The undercover mercenary ambushes the other night guards and unlocks the town gate.

4 - The mercenaries rush through the opened gate and attack the guard barracks and the mayor’s house.

3 - The mercenaries kill or subdue the city guard and capture the mayor.

2 - Under threat of violence to the townspeople, the mayor pledges loyalty to the invading warlord.

1 - The warlord’s forces arrive to resupply as the mercenaries hold the town to protect the invaders’ supply lines.

0 - The invasion begins.

If the player characters are in the town, they can interrupt this sequence of events at any point. They might see the guard attacking his fellows, or might be in the tavern when the mercenaries stream down the main road, headed for the barracks and mayor’s house.

Knowing the major beats of the mercenaries’ plan makes it easier to maintain the integrity of the fiction while the PCs are acting. The PCs might stop the attack on the barracks but not the seizure of the mayor. This then leads to the mercenaries fortifying the mayor’s house with him as a hostage while the members of the town guard look to the PCs for assistance.

Thinking in beats is also useful for larger-scale planning and off-screen thinking. If the party is racing toward a city to prevent a coup, you can use a Progress Countdown for their progress toward the city and a Standard Countdown to represent the steps of that coup. Set the pace of when the PCs make action rolls to speed up their process based on how long the coup takes - once a day if it takes place over a week, once every few hours if it plays out over the matter of days, etc.

The countdown steps for the coup could look like this (starting at six):

6 - A band of assassins sneaks into the capital city.

5 - The assassins observe and infiltrate the homes of the prime minister and other majority party leaders.

4 - The assassins kill the prime minister and other party leaders. Meanwhile, a fifth ‘assassin’ stages a fake attempt on the minority party leader to throw off suspicion. The minority party leader is, in fact, the mastermind behind this whole plot.

3 - The minority party leader parades the ‘assassin’ through the streets and pledges justice for his fellow ministers.

2 - With the majority party leaderless, the minority party takes power in the legislative council and the captured assassin is replaced by a nameless prisoner before being executed.

1 - Under the guise of ‘security’, the new prime minister pushes a slate of legislation to increase executive power and ensure he retains power.

0 - The prime minister is now a de-facto emperor.

As the PCs take action to complete the Progress Countdown to get to the city, consequences from their rolls will progress the countdown for the coup attempt. The longer it takes the PCs to make it to the city, the farther along the coup will be. This format lets you know what’s happening as the PCs burst onto the scene rather than having to plan in the moment.

Preparing Combat Encounters

In Daggerheart, it’s important to approach each encounter from the perspective of, “What here best tells the story?” and build out the kinds of hurdles the PCs face around that question. Through this lens, we can start to think about enemies and damage as another tool in our GM toolbox for heightening tension, creating drama, and forwarding the narrative.

Balancing encounters and making appropriate enemies will become much easier as you run more sessions, and you won’t have to make as many guesses during prep—but in the beginning, you can’t expect to get it perfect, and that’s okay. Adjust on the fly as necessary to find the right balance as you play, and you’ll naturally figure out what will work best for your table. The most important thing is that the combat the players are in is being used to give them more information about the narrative that’s unfoldingIt’s informing something about the world or the plot or the characters.

That being said, there are some tools included here for you to use when prepping encounters that will make life easier. There is, of course, no way to provide exact directions, given every group will have different characters with different abilities and hit points and experiences, etc. But, using the guidelines below as a jumping off point should help, and making adjustments on the fly as needed will allow you to hone in what works best for your group.

Battles and Narratives

Battles play an important part in high fantasy adventure stories. Many challenges can be answered through cunning and charm, but often, battle serves as the primary vehicle by which obstacles are addressed. Dynamic battles create suspense—forcing players to choose between their various objectives, following their hopes and fears, and creating the crucible that the players use to forge their characters into legendary heroes.

Narrative Function

The first thing to consider when building a battle in Daggerheart is the narrative function the battle is playing. Is this battle an obstacle along the way to a larger objective, designed to show the breadth of a villain’s influence? Is an ambush the result of failed rolls to notice that the party is being tailed? Is this fight the culmination of a small or larger arc for a character as they confront a figure from their background? Whatever the answer, that narrative role should stay with you throughout the process of building and running a battle.

Adversary Motives

The next thing to think about is motive. What are the motives of the adversaries arrayed against the party? What would it take for the adversary to surrender? To flee? What objective does the adversary have beyond survival? If given the choice between capturing the artifact the PCs have with them and striking a downed character, which way would the adversary act?

Dynamic Environment

Battles become more memorable when you include compelling adversaries and dynamic environments the players (and the PCs) can interact with in interesting ways. If the enemies are on their own territory, think about how they’d manipulate their environment to stack the deck in their favor - have they built fortifications on the high ground? Have they blocked off flanking routes to force attackers into a frontal assault with exposed flanks? How can the battlefield and terrain reinforce the narrative goal of the battle and show the adversaries’ motives? Chapter 4 presents environment stat blocks you can use to bring your environment alive.

Flight and Other Features

When building your battles, consider the abilities and spells your PCs have. For example, if they can fly, consider adding enemies that can fly or make ranged attacks, ensuring the combat remains dynamic and challenging to all PCs. Remember that your players likely chose their features because they want use them! You have the chance to craft engaging opportunities for the players to show off those powers in exciting ways.

Example Battle Narrative

This example demonstrates how you might plan a battle that implements the above narrative considerations.

Narrative Function: Early in a campaign, the party is going to be traveling through a forest known to have especially strong nature spirits protecting it. The party includes a Warden of Renewal Druid who is being hunted by a corrupted High Elemental. So the party’s GM, looks to the Abandoned Grove environment (see “Environment Stat Blocks” in chapter 4) to provide inspiration for the next story arc. They have an idea of how to include an elemental threat and a conflict between dryads and druids and start working on how to get the party to the grove.

The GM decides that a retired ranger has returned to this town after months away in the capital answering the summons of his old party member, a Wizard turned royal advisor. This angle also lets the GM engage the Wildborne Ranger in the party, who might want to hear stories or get instruction from the ranger.

The GM knows it’ll be easy to hook the party’s Ranger into seeking out the retired ranger, who will ask the party to check on the druid grove, where his other companion hasn’t been heard from for most of a year. In exchange, the ranger offers a reward and instruction for the party’s Ranger. The fact that they’re going to investigate a druid circle is a hook for the Druid, so with two members of the party likely to be directly interested, the GM moves on to developing the first major scene of the arc, which will occur in the Abandoned Grove.

This scenario and potential battle give the GM the opportunity to introduce the habits and strictures of other druid circles, introduce an elemental threat that brings the Druid’s background into the active story, and allow both the Druid and Ranger to work within their element and have ample opportunity to use their Experiences and Sage domain cards.

Adversary Motives: The GM decides that the dryads and other forest spirits have been warped by the High Elemental and are taking over the forest—and they notice the Burning Heart of the Wood environment could be useful inspiration later in the arc. The Elemental has possessed the dryads of the wood and set upon the druids, eliminating the major faction that could stop the corruption of the forest. But the dryads don’t remember being possessed, only a violent conflict with the druids over a poorly remembered disagreement. Any substantial conversation with the dryads in the grove will expose that foggy memory and provide a thread to pull on.

Dynamic Environment: The GM plans to let the PCs arrive alone in the abandoned grove, so they can use the environment’s Overgrown Battlefield feature to investigate and begin piecing together clues. After that, the dryad and their forces can arrive to confront the PCs. The PCs will likely explain themselves, exposing the weirdness around the dryads’ memories. The GM also makes a note to describe some weirdness about the woods and dryads, helping signal to the PCs that something is wrong.

Next, the GM draws inspiration from the Burning Heart of the Woods environment (see “Environment Stat Blocks” in chapter 4). They utilize its Grasping Vines and Chaos Magic Locus features and adapt them to Tier 2. This can make the scene more perilous and memorable—the vines can restrain the PCs to escalate the stakes in a social or combat scene, and the Chaos Magic Locus feature could further signal to the PCs that something is magically wrong with these woods.

Alternatively, the GM could decide to skip the Chaos Magic Locus feature and develop another passive feature of their own. Maybe a certain species of curious animal is following them and can be befriended for more information, or a pack of dangerous creatures will find them if they rest for too long before reaching the grove.

Having considered the three major elements of designing a battle narrative, the GM fills out the details of their plan. They decide that the dryad encounter will be one Young Dryad (a Leader), two Sylvan Soldiers (Standard adversaries), and five Minor Treants (Minions) for the five players. They know they have the Minor Chaos Elemental (a Solo) on deck via the Defiler feature, and plan to use it at some point regardless of how things go with the dryads. The elemental can back up the dryads if the PCs come to blows with the grove guardians. Or, the elemental can bring the dryads to heel if the PCs get too close to helping them realize that they’ve been compromised.

Next, the GM returns to the background and connection questions for the PCs, thinking about what relationships and motivations might come to the fore in this story. The GM ponders how to add or adjust the ideas they’ve developed to more thoroughly engage the entire party. They note the characters’ domain abilities, making sure to prepare adversaries that will let the players use those powers. With all that finished, the GM is ready to send the party into the woods for adventure.

Session Rewards

[Section coming soon!]

Crafting Scenes

One of your main responsibilities as a game master in Daggerheart is to set the scene for your players. Whenever you start a session, arrive at a new place, or the current scene changes, the players are going to look to you for what they need to know. When you do this, think with all of your senses; not just what this place looks like, but what does it smell, feel, taste, and/or sound like here? What is something unique or unexpected about this place, and what does that say about it? Your players will use these details to interact with the world, so give them enough to not only enough to picture the scene, but make choices about what they do and where they go.

Sharing The Spotlight

It’s rare that every character will organically have the same amount of spotlight time during a given session. In any group, some players are more outgoing than others—and some player characters are likely to be instigators while others are more cautious. As the GM, you can help ensure that the story’s spotlight rotates between the characters, giving each player ample time to see their character as the focus of the story.

Tie Together Story Elements

If you know that a given character is going to be in the spotlight for a session or an arc, you can try to more fully involve other characters by thinking about those characters’ ties to the one in the spotlight, as well as other story elements you could include that appeal to the other players (and/or their characters).

For example, if the courtier Bard is invited to a debutante ball that ties into his backstory, you might decide that the ball will also be hosting a fencing tournament (which you hope will excite the swashbuckler Rogue) and social dancing (which should interest the noble-born Sorcerer). You’re confident that the Warrior will be excited about the scene already, as he’s sworn to protect the Bard and is not-so-secretly in love with him. Now you have ideas to involve every player.

Engage Quiet Players

In addition to spotlighting the PCs of quieter players through story elements, you might also directly engage them by inviting action from their character rather than broadly asking the whole table, “what do you do?” Alternatively, you might ask how their character feels about unfolding events.

Use Visual Aids

Another approach to balancing spotlight is to use visual aids. You can change your action tracker to have a space for each character instead of one for the group. When a player takes an action, they place one token on the tracker in their character’s space. Throughout a session, a quick look at the trackers will show you which players are taking more actions and help you remember to engage the players that haven’t acted as much. This visual reminder can also help players to know who could use an invitation into the spotlight.

Encourage Unguided Play

Sometimes you might realize your NPCs and the wider scene have received a lot of focus. As the GM, you too can share the spotlight by finding times to let the players and their characters speak among themselves. While you listen and observe, the players can carry out a downtime scene or interpersonal moment without your input—and meanwhile, you can take notes of story threads to weave into later scenes.

Using Conflict

Daggerheart is a game of perilous adventure, where conflict plays a key role in creating drama and provoking strong character choices.

Conflict in Daggerheart results from the characters’ hopes and actions being met by challenges and uncertainty. If the group’s Wizard seeks to become the world’s greatest spellcaster, her quest likely won’t be as satisfying if she’s never challenged along the way.

Conflicts can be external (where outside forces act against a character) or internal (where a character struggles against themself emotionally or intellectually). Our Wizard might face external conflict through tests of skill against other mages, solving magical puzzles using knowledge and cunning, and eventually squaring off against legendary beings who wield the most potent magics in the world. Meanwhile, her internal conflicts might include struggling with the ideology taught to her in her magical academy, or she might fear the destructive power of her magic.

The strongest character arcs in Daggerheart emerge from a combination of internal and external conflicts: external conflicts can bring up unresolved tensions from internal conflicts, while resolving internal conflicts can provide clarity for a character that allows them to overcome external conflict, and so on. External challenges to our Wizard can magnify the emotional impact of her internal conflicts. And external conflicts that push her limits will become all the more memorable by demanding the Wizard grapple with her fear as part of the challenge.

When designing conflicts for maximum emotional impact, challenge characters in a way that ties in their internal struggles if a character struggles with self-confidence, challenge them to excel. If a character struggles with the ethics of using power, put them in situations where the use of their power has big stakes for other people and not just themselves. Conflicts like these are the crucible which will forge your characters into unforgettable heroes.

Social Conflict

Battles and armed conflict will be common in games of Daggerheart, but your characters may also trade barbs with courtiers, talk their way past guards, seduce rivals, and plead their innocence to an uncaring monarch. Always keep motive in mind and think about how the characters’ request/demand aligns or conflicts with the NPCs’ motives.

For NPCs or creatures that aren’t hostile but aren’t inclined to do as the party asks, it may make sense to think about the scene less as a conflict and more as a collaborative process where both parties are trying to get what they want while maintaining or improving their existing relationship.

Influencing NPCs

For everyday social obstacles or foes, a single successful action may be sufficient to progress, such as haggling with a merchant or talking your way past a town guard. On a success with Fear, the foe might demand a bribe or set other special terms in order to do what the character asks or demands.

When dealing with more formidable NPCs, one action might not be enough to change their mind. A hostile countess probably couldn’t be convinced to send troops to help you fight a necromancer with a single roll. Since an adversary or PC becomes Vulnerable while their Stress slots are full, you can use an adversary’s Stress slots as the meter for tracking a higher-stakes or more extended social conflict. By default, one successful social action against an adversary (intimidation, deceit, bribery, etc.) will force them to mark 1 Stress. Some abilities (class, domain, etc.) also force adversaries to mark Stress, and are highly useful in social conflicts if fictionally applicable. (An ability that forces an adversary to mark Stress upon a successful attack may not be advisable in a noble’s court).

Example: A Petty Noble has taken a dislike to the party. The Petty Noble has 5 Stress, so if the PCs want to get back into the noble’s good graces or force them to back down, the GM could tell the party that if they can fill the Noble’s Stress track, they will have convinced the Noble to change their mind.

Countdowns in Social Conflict

If a social situation is especially high-stakes, you might set a Consequence Countdown representing the adversary’s patience or a time limitation, with consequences on rolls ticking down that clock (see p. XX). The PCs take actions to mark the adversary’s Stress, while trying to minimize consequences that tick down the clock. In such a situation, if the Countdown triggers, the PCs have lost the opportunity or end up with some other bad result from the conflict.

Example Social Conflict

The party is making an appeal to a petty noble to send troops to deal with a growing undead threat in the woods. The noble is disinclined to help even if they did believe that the undead threat was real. The GM tells the party that the noble has 5 Stress, and if they can force the Noble to mark the whole track, they’ll have convinced the noble to dispatch troops for the investigation.

The party’s Wizard goes first, producing the still-twitching tibia taken from one of the swamp skeletons. They describe the magical power needed to maintain a necromantic effect when a corpse is rendered into such small pieces. The GM calls that a Presence roll, but the Wizard asks to roll with Knowledge, focusing on the arcane display and demonstration of knowledge. The GM says that they’d normally give disadvantage on a Knowledge roll here since Presence is usually better for persuasion, but that the evidence would give advantage on that roll.

With advantage and disadvantage canceling out, the Wizard rolls a success with Hope, and the GM marks 1 Stress on the Noble. Since the Wizard rolled a success with Hope, the GM invites the players to continue.

Next, the Bard takes the stage, recalling the story of when the party entered the swamp and first battled the undead raised by this necromantic force. The Bard uses his domain ability Enrapture. The Bard makes a Presence roll, getting a success with Fear. The Bard chooses to mark Stress to force the Noble to mark 2 Stress, bringing them down to 2 remaining. The GM elects to take Fear rather than use a GM move to immediately end the captivating effect of Enrapture.

Since the Bard has the Noble enraptured, the GM asks the Bard’s player whether they want to continue. The Bard’s player suggests he’ll weave the words of any party member that speaks into the spell if that’s okay. The GM agrees, wanting to involve the whole party.

Next, the group’s Rogue takes the economic angle, telling the noble that if they don’t act, the noble’s subjects will die and therefore be unable to work and pay taxes. The Rouge makes a Presence roll and gets a critical! Since a normal social action would mark 1 Stress, the GM decides that on a critical, they’ll mark 2 Stress instead, which marks the Noble’s last Stress.

With the Noble’s Stress exhausted, the GM describes how the Noble finally agrees to dispatch a patrol.

Armed Conflict

Chapter 4 presents rules for using adversary and environment stat blocks in combat—but as you plan for combat, remember that the most resonant battle scenes aren’t about violence, they’re about people and motivation. The language of violence can inspire emotions and develop NPCs and the world they inhabit. When bandits raid a village, they’re not just looking to hurt people—their motive might be greed, or it might be desperation, but either way, violence is just a means to an end.

The drama of a battle should focus on something beyond whether the PCs will die, since most of the time, they won’t, and it’s likely the players assume that. The PCs are fighting for a reason, such as defending loved ones or subverting a villain’s schemes; if their battle relates to multiple goals or narrative threads, this adds uncertainty to the outcomes and increases dramatic tension.

Example: After the Blood Mage Caressa kidnapped the Governor’s husband Osten, the PCs tracked her across the Shattered Mountains. When they confront her in the Ruins of Nix, she’s conducting a ritual to seize Osten’s latent magical power. The PCs want to stop the ritual, save the Governor’s husband, and capture Caressa. But which of those goals is most important? If the PCs are winning the fight, what happens if you put Osten in danger and make the players choose between rescuing him and capturing Caressa?“

In the above example, the PCs could achieve a partial victory by capturing Caressa after Osten has been killed; they could rescue the governor’s husband but Caressa could get away; or they could stop Caressa in time to capture her and save Osten, accomplishing all of their goals.

Using Fear for Drama

During battles, spend Fear to keep the characters on their toes. Duality rolls cause momentum to dramatically ebb and flow in the fight as the PCs fail their rolls or succeed with Fear.

While a lucky streak of Hope rolls means you don’t automatically get a GM move, you can still interrupt the players’ momentum by converting two of their action tokens to a Fear, then spending it to make a GM move. Since you can do this every two Action Rolls, this prevents the fight from becoming a pushover for the PCs.

When spending Fear, think about what move will have the biggest impact on the scene, changing the energy or nature of the fight. This might mean activating a powerful foe’s ability, bringing reinforcements into the fight, changing the environment, or having the foes move boldly toward their objective.

Phased Battles

Battles become more memorable when the nature of the foes or the contours of the space shift mid-combat. Consider the following ways to introduce phases by creating a natural evolution and escalation of the scene:

1) Change the terms of engagement or the nature of the scene. Turn a fight into a chase (see “Chase Countdowns”), reveal information that turns the group’s allies against them, or give the party a reason to temporarily ally with one of the factions they’re battling.

Example: During a pitched battle with an infamous thief, you might use a GM move for them to steal an important artifact from the PCs, then attempt to flee. This will likely result in a chase, keeping the story dynamic and forcing the players to adapt.

2) Change the battlefield itself. During a battle, the environment might shift, either because of a natural phenomenon like an incoming blizzard, or because of an adversary’s actions. Some battlefield changes repeat themselves—for example, an earth dragon might occasionally crash into the walls of their lair, dropping huge rocks and changing the contours of the battlefield. In a case like this, you can set the move on a countdown loop. Other changes only happen once, in which case you might create an Environment move that is triggered by a specific narrative or mechanical event; for example, when fighting in a divine realm, the god’s champion marks their last point of Stress and smashes the floor, dropping everyone atop a pane of otherworldly stained glass, surrounded by the rich colors of the cosmos.

If you plan this type of move ahead of time, you might prepare two maps: one for the start of the fight, and another for when the space is fundamentally changed.

3) Change the foes. Video games often use the approach of changing the adversary at a certain point in the fight, such as when their HP is halved or they’re seemingly defeated. Taking a cue from those kinds of battles, you can always change the adversary in behavior, form, or both: A heavily-armored enemy throws off their armor and begins moving with blistering speed. A defeated foe courses with eldritch power, transforming their appearance and granting them new abilities.

In Daggerheart, you can create a phase change for an enemy in a few ways. You might give the foe a passive feature that triggers when half of their Hit Points are marked, or you might prepare two adversary stat blocks, one for each phase. This book presents several adversaries with the Phase Change feature, which you can use as inspiration for creating your own.

If you didn’t prepare a phase change in advance, but the party is defeating a major foe far more easily than expected, it’s okay to let the PCs have the easy win. But if that may feel anticlimactic, feel free to improvise a phase two. Describe how the adversary seems to be defeated, then have them stand back up or surge with new energy, clear some of their HP, change some of their statistics or base attack, and make up a new feature or two to represent how they’ve changed. An enemy that throws off their armor might lower their damage thresholds but gain Relentless and move about with blistering speed. You might even switch to a new stat block, transforming the foe into something entirely new.

When an enemy takes new form, try to draw upon the story to explain the second phase. If the enemy is a blood mage, then having them hold out a bloody hand and use a powerful spell to transform into a blood abomination is both surprising and inevitable. But if the players never learned that the enemy was a blood mage, that reveal won’t be as satisfying, so you might have to create connective tissue in the moment, as the transforming enemy boasts about not having revealed their full power.

Impromptu NPCs

There’s no way to prepare for every eventuality or possibility in a tabletop role-playing game, so it’s inevitable that you’ll have moments where you need to create an NPC on the fly. Depending on the situation and the character, all you might need is a name, a basic description, and the character’s motive, which you use to inform how they act and respond to the players and the events of the story.

If this NPC is directly opposing the characters, you’ll also need to pick a difficulty for that NPC, giving you a benchmark to decide whether the party succeeds on actions against them. You can use the examples in “Setting Roll Difficulty” or you can base it on similar NPCs you’ve already introduced.

If you’re improvising a creature who isn’t interacting with the party socially, it’s still important to think about motive, but you’ll want to focus more on the information needed to play them in battle. You can grab the writeup of a similar creature and make some changes—or if you prefer, improvise your own using the guidance in the “Improvising Adversaries” section of chapter 4, then decide their features when you have the chance to make a GM move. That allows you to decide something that will have the most interesting impact on the scene at that moment.

Using Downtime

Downtime lets the players recover resources during short and long rests (see “Downtime” in chapter 2), but it also provides an opportunity to zoom in on the relationships between characters and how they process the intense emotions of their adventures. You can use downtime scenes as a pressure release valve to vary the intensity of the story and give the PCs room to breathe.

Empower your players to frame their own downtime scenes—especially for their Prepare moves, which offer a strong opportunity for characterization. Ask the players what it looks like as they tend to their wounds or recover stress together, encouraging them to take the reins of the story for that scene and work together with other players whose characters are involved.

Projects During Downtime

The Work on a Project downtime move requires more GM input than the other downtime moves. If a PC wants to do something that’ll likely take a long time, rather than doing it during another scene, this is a good candidate for the Work on a Project downtime move.

These projects are typically tracked using a Progress Countdown (see “Countdowns”). When deciding the size of the countdown, consider the complexity of the project, the availability of relevant tools, and the impact of the project on the story. If completing the project will give the group essential information they need to move on, you may want to set the countdown at a low number to ensure that the group doesn’t have to spend much time waiting for the next clue or beat in the story. If the project isn’t tightly linked to other parts of the story and it simply requires time, you might set the countdown on a higher number.

Simple projects might tick down the countdown each time the player uses the Work on a Project move. However, if the project is skill-dependent, you can ask how they make progress and then call for a roll using a trait that matches their approach.

When a player rolls to progress their project, it doesn’t feel great if the roll simply ends in failure. If you use the standard Dynamic Countdown Advancement table in the earlier “Countdowns” section, consider letting a failure give the PC special insight into their project, which grants them advantage on their next roll for that project. Alternatively, instead of using that table’s advancement criteria, you can use the following criteria so they make some progress even on a failure:

Critical Success: 4 ticks

Success with Hope: 3 ticks

Success with Fear: 2 ticks

Any failure: 1 tick

GM Downtime

When players use downtime to rest and refresh, you can gain Fear and progress a countdown happening in the background (see “Long-Term Countdowns”):

• On a short rest, gain one Fear and advance a long-term countdown by one.
• On a long rest, gain two Fear and advance a long-term countdown by two.

This helps to make the world feel alive—and it reminds players that the more resting they do, the more the world moves along without them, so they might want to be careful how much they rest.

Extended Downtime

If you’re fast-forwarding the story across multiple days (or longer), you probably don’t need a separate scene for each long rest during that time. During these longer stretches, consider talking to your players about what their characters want to accomplish, then using montages to illustrate the passage of time.

Some PC goals might require a single roll (or none at all). Others might call for a series of Progress Countdown rolls to advance a project across several long rests. It’s trivial for a Bard to gather rumors during a week-long stay in the city, but you might ask them to make a Presence roll to see whether they learn some especially important information in the process. Similarly, you might ask your Warrior to make a Finesse roll if they’re trying to enhance their armor with rare materials obtained in their last adventure.

Character Death

Adjudicating and overseeing the death of a player character may be among the most difficult tasks for a GM. In a game focused on character relationships, personal story arcs, and heroic adventure, the death of a player character should not be done casually. As the GM, you’re charged with honestly portraying the world, and death is a greater threat in Daggerheart than in some other games working in the same genre.

Tip: Adversaries follow different rules for death than PCs; see “Defeated Adversaries ” in chapter 4 for details.

Choosing a Death Move

When a player character marks their last Hit Point, they must make a death move (see “Death” in chapter 2). Two of the three moves give the player full control over whether their character lives or dies: with Blaze of Glory, the player is accepting death for the character, and with Avoid Death, the player is defying death. Risk It All comes down to a dice roll, giving the character a nearly even chance of living or dying.

When a player is considering which death move to choose, make space for them to think and talk through their decision. You might give them a moment to think by shifting focus to another character, or keep focus on the character on the brink of death to let the player take the reins of the story.

Character death is not always satisfying in the moment, especially if the character’s cause of death isn’t directly tied to their personal story. But in a heroic fantasy adventure, death is always a possibility for characters trying to change the world. The death moves give the fatally injured character a chance for a memorable moment, whether it’s going out in a blaze of glory or risking it all on a roll of the dice.

Avoid Death

If a player is certain they aren’t ready to say goodbye to their character, this option ensures the character’s survival—though they have a chance of taking a Scar and permanently crossing out one of their Hope slots. If the character only has one Hope slot remaining when they make this move, there’s a chance the player will have to retire the character. Even so, that ending may be preferable for some players, if they’d rather see their character give up the adventuring life than die.

A lower-level character is much less likely to take a Scar than a higher level character, giving a chance for their story to play out more fully. But as characters gain levels, the chances of gaining Scars greatly increases, making Risk it All or Blaze of Glory more appealing.

Using this move, the character stays unconscious until healed by an ally or until the group’s long rest. Try to give the player chances to participate in play if the group isn’t able to heal their character or get to a long rest in short order. This might take the form of inviting them to temporarily control an NPC, or it might involve narrating a scene of the character at the knife’s edge between life and death, visited by the spirit of a departed loved one, receiving a vision of a disaster they need to survive to avert, or something else to keep them involved in the story.

Even without gaining a Scar, this move still comes with a cost, as it makes the situation much worse. That might be some kind of escalation due to the others in the party tending to the fallen character (like a new wave of enemies approaching), or the character’s misfortune might turn the tide against the heroes (like an important item being seized by an adversary).

Risk It All

This is the move that you as the GM have the least say in. The Duality dice decide the character’s fate, and with the exception of the 10th-level Resurrection spell (which can only be used once), that roll of the dice is final unless you provide other means of resurrection in your story. If the player rolls with Hope, help them decide how to divide the value of the Hope die between Hit Points and Stress to clear. You might remind the player that if they choose to clear only a small number of Hit Points, they may be forced to make another death move after just one further blow.

Though it is important to reward your player if they roll with Hope by giving them their moment to return in the spotlight, it is just as important to reward your player if they roll with Fear and their character meets their end. Let them have some final words with a friend or a memory that plays as they fade from consciousness. This gives them a moment to say goodbye to their character in a way that feels important and satisfying.

Blaze of Glory

If the player decides that the character will go out in a Blaze of Glory, work with them to ensure that the one action they take is as meaningful as possible without breaking the integrity of the story. You might rule that when the Seraph goes out in a Blaze of Glory, leaping down the throat of the god-shark seeking to swallow the sun, the Guardian can deal a fatal blow to the foe, even if they had more HP left than a critical success could possibly deal. But it might be a bad idea to let that same Seraph shatter the barrier between the mortal realm and the Worlds Above to allow their god to walk freely among mortals. Again, think about the group’s agreements about tone when deciding the scale of action the Blaze of Glory can accomplish.

When Disaster Looms

There are times when a fight goes poorly for the PCs and they’re bound for total disaster. When multiple PCs are making death moves and there’s a real risk of a complete party wipeout, it’s important to check in with the players as the scene unfolds. How do they feel about the scene, and the chances that the whole party will be left dead or incapacitated? Is this a good place for the campaign’s story to potentially end? Should the PCs cut their losses and flee? PCs that choose the Avoid Death option in the death moves are left completely helpless, and if all of the PCs take that option in a scene, the party is left at the mercy of their adversaries or fate (aka the GM).

It’s also useful to consider the motivation of the adversaries present. Do they really want to kill the PCs, or do they just want the party out of the way so the adversaries can pursue their motives? Would they be more likely to leave the PCs for dead, to take them prisoner to gloat, or to extract information?

If your players aren’t interested in a heroic tragedy at the moment, work with them to decide what makes sense in the scene. Do you keep playing it out? Do you agree that the party is taken captive, living to fight another day? Death is a real threat in Daggerheart, but the game is always a collaboration, and if the whole party is going to meet their end, it should be because everyone at the table is interested in that story. If the players don’t want the party to get wiped out but it’s harder to come up with a way they survive, look to their background questions and their relationships with factions and prominent NPCs. Does an old ally show up with reinforcements to drive off the enemies? Does an agent of the Seraph’s god or a nature spirit friendly to the Druid whisk the PCs away to safety? Does an associate of the Syndicate Rogue provide cover for the PCs to withdraw?

If the group decides that their party’s story is done but they want to continue the overall campaign, hold a mid-campaign session zero to make new characters and figure out how to connect these new characters and their party to the existing story in a way that everyone is excited about. The next section provides additional guidance on introducing new characters, whether one or two new PCs join the party or a new party picks up where the previous party left off.

Introducing a New Character

If a PC dies or retires from adventuring, you should work with the player between sessions to develop a new character for them to play at the current level of the party (see “Building Higher-Level Characters” in chapter 1). If your player and group want to, they can answer the usual Connections questions, giving them existing connections to everyone in the party. However, it can be more dramatic to skip the normal Connections, and instead ask them one or more of the following questions that advance the party’s story:

You have vital information the party needs to continue forward on their journey. What is it, and how did you obtain it?

You are in desperate need of help that only the party can provide. What has you in such danger and what do you have for them in exchange?

You know somebody in the party very well and have searched them out. What connection question should you ask them before the next session, and what do you need them for?

You lost your last adventuring party to something or someone terrible. What caused their downfall, and how is this new party connected to them in some way?

You are part of a faction that has opposed the party, but now you need their help. What problem does your faction face, and how are you going to prove to the party that you can be trusted?

You have been charged to deliver a lost item to a member of the party. What is it, and what personal quest is it tied to that requires working with the party?

Leveling Up Your Party

You can level up your party any time you wish, though it’s often simplest to do so at the end of an important session—such as when your party reaches the end of a story arc (see “Planning a Story Arc” later in this chapter). All players should level up at the same time, following the Level Up guide specific to their class. Ask them to reflect on what their character has learned in the previous arc and how it might have changed who they are, then choose two options from the level up list. For more information about leveling up, see “Leveling Up” in chapter 2.

If you are running a short campaign, you may want to level up every other session, or whatever cadence feels appropriate for your campaign length. This will accelerate the power growth of your PCs, but also allow them to experience the full arc of their characters before the campaign ends.

When your PCs level up, they’ll gain new abilities, spells, damage thresholds, experience, and more, so be sure to review what has changed for them. This is a good time to plan some opportunities for them to use those new features over the next arc. For example, if a PC’s new ability helps them eavesdrop on conversations, you could begin the next session with an espionage mission where that skill comes in handy. Similarly, if a PC chooses the Experience of “Animal Whisperer,” they’d likely enjoy encountering some wild animals that can potentially be tamed during the upcoming arc.

Running a One-Shot

If you want to run a one-shot—a short adventure that only spans one or two sessions—you can use the guide below to build out a quick collaborative session with your players. First, begin to read the prologue aloud, and when you reach a blank, have a player fill in the answer using one of the available options. Move around the table having players make decisions until all of the blanks are filled. Then read the completed prologue to the table. Feel free to ask additional questions, clarify ideas, and expand upon the information until you all feel comfortable moving forward.

Prologue

Our story takes place within the kingdom of (1) ________________________. We are currently traveling through (2) ______________________, best known for (3) ________________________________ and the (4) ______________________ that surround it.

• Atheira | Willowfell | Ruumari | Winter’s Sun | Stonefire, Bellsong, Dathari
• Dawnhollow | Indigo’s Shadow | Rathmire | The Wonder | Mistrun | Atlas | Ta’al
• Its massive spires | The Great Tree | The shimmer hiding it | Its sacred wards | The mysterious powers that keep it afloat
• Dark Forests | Towering Mountains | Blistering Deserts | Dense Jungles

Now that you know where you’re beginning your story, follow the same process for the adventure.

Adventure

After last night’s (1) ___________________________________, many here have (2) ____________________________________. This morning, we found out that the events of the previous evening (3) _______________________________. We know to fix this, we’ll need to (4) ________________________________________. So our story begins as we all prepare to leave for the (5) ___________________________________, where we might find what we’re looking for.

• catastrophic fire | attack by the Horde | terrifying storm | assassination of the Queen
• been badly injured | decided to leave | been caught in a terrible curse | started an uprising
• left someone we care about here near death | destroyed the town’s protection rune | awoken a throng of spirits | angered an ancient beast
• search for a powerful Moonstone relic | retrieve Magister Kharix | bring an offering to the Grave of the Gods | enlist a tricksome fae
• Towers of Hyle| Broken Sea | Great Expanse | town of Wildfar | capital of the kingdom | Highland Peaks

Next, give your players a fifteen minute break and answer the questions below to prep your session. Use the answers in the next section as inspiration and build out any necessary details, including any adversaries you think your players might encounter during the session.

GM Prep

Once the party leaves town, they find:

remnants of last night’s events | something wild and dangerous | an ominous warning about their destination | they are being followed.

As the party journeys towards their destination:

they find something important that they missed before | an unlikely ally joins them | a dangerous portion of the landscape impedes their path | they unwittingly enter the home of a dangerous creature.

As the party reaches their objective, they discover:

the target is hidden or well-protected | somebody has come to intercept them | this place is unexpectedly dangerous | someone was expecting them.

When the party finally finds what they came for, they learn:

somebody else is looking for it too | it’s not quite what they expected | they need something else to succeed | accomplishing their goal will put others in danger.

After you’ve made these choices, think about the way a character’s background might tie into any of the options you and your players have chosen. Maybe the wild and dangerous creature they find outside town is the monster one of the player’s referenced in their backstory, perhaps the mysterious land they travel through is a character’s childhood home, or the person who is also looking for the target is an NPC one of the players has history with. The more you incorporate players’ backstories into the present adventure, the more you empower the members of your table to continue making bold choices. When players have more agency in story construction, not only does it lessen the responsibility of GMing, it welcomes everyone into a shared adventure.

Flesh out any further details as necessary, but don’t feel the need to overprep.

Now you’re ready to play!

Running a Campaign

You’ve got your players, you’ve made your characters, and maybe you’ve even played a session to get a feel for the game. What’s next? Most tables will start a campaign: a series of connected sessions often played weekly or monthly that let everyone explore their character’s stories over an extended period of time. When you decide to start a campaign together, you can kickstart your adventure using the guidance in this section, along with the inspiration presented in chapter 5, “Creating Your World.”

In Daggerheart, campaigns are intended to be personal, focused, and responsive. Very little should be planned until after character creation is complete, and the details players provide about these characters will be the primary scaffolding upon which you’ll craft the rest of the campaign. This means you’ll often be prepping just the material you need week after week, letting the story evolve naturally through play at the table.

Chapter 5—“Creating Your World”—provides some guidance and tools to help make this process easier. If you’re an experienced GM, you may have your own method of campaign prep that you use for other games. As always, feel free to utilize the pieces from this book that help and ignore the pieces that don’t.

Optional: Campaign Frame

Before your Session Zero, you may choose to implement a Campaign Frame to ground the players in the type of fantasy story you are interested in telling as a GM. Because the fantasy genre is so wide, this can give them a strong jumping off place to start brainstorming their characters.

Daggerheart provides several Campaign Frames to start you off, but these shouldn’t limit the kinds of stories you tell with this system. If you have a strong idea about the kind of campaign you want to run for your table, use the structure of this game’s frames to build out your own before your Session Zero.

You can find the following Campaign Frames in chapter 5:

The Witherwild

A quiet, peaceful land is overrun by a terrible scourge.

Touchstones: The Legend of Zelda,  The Dark Crystal, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Starts here

The Colossus of Avenridge

Battle massive colossi to save a land from destruction.

Touchstones: Shadow of the Colossus, Monster Hunter World, Godzilla

(Available in future updates)

Quantum Alchemy

In a place where technology is magic, a new invention threatens the lives of everyone who lives there.

Touchstones: Horizon Zero Dawn, Arcane, The Final Fantasy Series

(Available in future updates)

Beast Feast

Every monster you kill, you can eat–and your survival in this place will depend on it.

Touchstones: Delicious in Dungeon, Toriko, One Piece

(Available in future updates)

Five Banners Burning

Long-brewing tensions between rival nations boil over, threatening all-out war.

Touchstones: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Dragon Age: Inquisition, A Game of Thrones

Starts here

Souls of Devor

In the Wretched Lands, a great evil has been awakened once again.

Touchstones: Elden Ring, Kingdom Death Monster, Bloodborne

(Available in future updates)

Building A Map

At the start of a campaign, one of the most important questions to answer is “Where are we?” To do this, you’ll choose one of the maps in [section pending] (or create your own) and print a copy of it out for your table. If you’re utilizing a Campaign Frame, use the map detailed in that section. Digital copies of these maps are available on the Daggerheart website for download. Each of the available maps represent a region of the world you’ll be focusing on at the beginning of your campaign.

If you know at character creation that you’ll be running a campaign, you can bring the map you’ve chosen to fill out during your Session Zero (see “Session Zero and Safety Tools”). Otherwise, you may always just introduce it at the top of your next session to integrate into your game moving forward.

To start, place the map on the table and explain to the players that you’ll be using it to build the region you’re all playing in together. First, you’ll choose the name of the region from the options available (or make up your own) and write that name on the appropriate section on the sheet. If you’re using a Campaign Frame, the name of the Region is provided for you. Once this is done, take a minute to remind the table about any locations that were already invented by them during character creation, and pass the map to the players who generated those locations to label them wherever they’d like on the map. If you’ve created any locations during character creation or play, make sure to add those yourself as well. If you’re using a Campaign Frame, you may have specifics that need to be added from there as well.

Once all pre-existing locations have been added, take the map back from the players and choose one of the new locations from the pick list on the bottom of the sheet and add it to the map wherever you’d like. Then describe this place for the rest of the table—what is it? Why is it called this? What makes it so significant? Then pass the map to the player on your left and ask them to do the same. Encourage them to tie in their character’s backstory or history with this place if they wish. As they tell the table about the location they’ve chosen, record any important information about it in your notes.

The sheet should continue around the table like this until it feels like the map is populated with enough exciting locations and plot hooks for you to work with. With four players, twice around the table is usually enough. Remember, you can always do this again at the start of another session to fill out the map further, or even introduce a new region that connects to the current one.

After the table feels happy with the details they’ve added, take the map back and make a choice about where the players currently are in their adventure. Maybe it’s somewhere the players have already added, or maybe it’s a new place you draw in– whatever the case may be, this will help you as the GM orient yourself for their adventure moving forward.

Filling Space, Leaving Blanks

As part of the prep for your next session, you’ll want to review the map your table built together. Think about the way that the locations your players created might affect the region, and add anything you think might be important or relevant to the sheet. For example, if someone labeled a spot with “The Healing Fields”, you might consider adding a town nearby that specializes in creating health potions or curing ailments, or a mage’s tower that overlooks the fields to protect them. Pay special attention to the area where your players currently are in their journey—where might they consider going next?

It’s also important to leave blanks. Don’t feel the need to fill everything in, and don’t worry about planning out what every labeled landmark or town is like. Leaving some things vague gives you the freedom to adapt on the fly, and it also reduces the amount of worldbuilding work you have to do for places your players may never visit.

Incorporating Player Backstories

One of the most important tools in a GM’s arsenal is to ask questions of your players and incorporate their answers—they will tell you what they find exciting through the responses they give you. The most obvious and important of these in building a campaign are the answers to a character’s Background Questions.

The Background Questions are designed specifically to generate story hooks the players care about that can be leveraged for narrative fodder when doing prep for the campaign. You’ll want to ensure you not only take good notes about each of the characters during character creation but also ask important follow-up questions. Don’t be afraid to dig deeper into anything the player offers up during this process. If they make up a person, ask them for their name. If they make up a place, ask them what it’s called, and maybe what it’s like there if it’s unclear. You’ll want to make sure with each player, you’re recording at least one or two things about the world that are important to them. The more you are able to incorporate these things into the campaign, the more invested that player tends to become.

Backstory Notes

Marigold Seok ( Wildborne **** Faun Rogue)

• Born in the floating city of Bloomfare. Had to leave her mother behind to go on the run.
• She is being chased down by the leaders of the four elemental kin for stealing their stone of power during the last ceremony.

Barnabas (Loreborne **** Simiah Wizard)

• Obsessed with finding relics, treasures, and bones of legendary creatures. He thinks these should be used for their given purpose, not stashed away into museums. Wants to gather as much knowledge as he can in his lifetime. Uses bone runes to cast magic.
• Served as the advisor to King Guthril, but failed to protect the King’s daughter Nira from being killed by wild beasts during her first hunt with him, and left the kingdom in shame.
• Is chasing down the fang of the great dragon Krugthar, because it is said to contain knowledge of every creature it’s ever consumed.
• Is rivals with Maverick, a snobby gnome treasure hunter who is trying to collect all the bones of legendary creatures to put them in a museum.

Jasper Flores ( Highborne **** Halfling Bard)

• Grew up in The Sunbearer’s Crescent with the royal Galamore family of gnomes. Was in a secret relationship with the princess, Astrid Galamore. They had a secret place they would meet.
• Astrid and Jasper were supposed to run away together, but she never showed up. Jasper still wonders what happened. There are rumors that she was forced to marry someone else.
• Was trained by Mage Yaro within Illiat’s Tower. Yaro is the one who convinced them to travel the world and learn all they can.
• They look up to a fellow bard named Quill who plays at the Golden Goose in The Sunbearer’s Crescent. Jasper met Quill through Yaro.

Geffrin Hilldweller ( Wanderborne **** Fungril Druid)

• They use their fungril network to connect to others like them by digging their feet into the ground.
• Was chased out of the city of Branishar because they accidentally spent too much time there and decimated the environment around them. They’ve learned they have to keep moving, they can’t stay in one place for too long or bad things happen.

Tying Backstories Together

Once you’ve indentified key points in each PC’s story, start to identify which of these pieces of information could be related—how these stories could potentially cross paths—and draw some connections between them.

Maybe Maverick, the snobby gnome treasure collector that Barnabas is rivals with, could be the same person that Astrid Galamore, the gnome princess, was forced to marry? And if that’s the case, what if Maverick was now forcing Mage Yaro to use his magic to invade the fungril network in order to seize more great treasures around the world without having to leave the kingdom? This would create a cross-over between Astrid, Geffrin, and Barnabas, so it seems like a good place to start our campaign. But let’s keep thinking.

This type of conflict would likely eventually lead them to return to the Galamore Kingdom to stop him, where we could find out what actually happened to Astrid. And perhaps she convinced Quill, her and Jasper’s bard friend, to use shapeshifting magic to take her place right under Maverick’s nose, so she could leave the kingdom and search for Jasper? Could be a fun opportunity to flip the “princess in peril” trope on its head, and provide an unexpected reveal once they reach the kingdom. If this is the case, I’ll also want to start to brainstorm a clue Astrid could leave behind at the secret place her and Jasper used to meet, that way they can go after her. But that’s down the road, no need to flush that out immediately.

Marigold still needs some love– maybe we could put the floating city of Bloomfare in the path of destruction by the great dragon Krugthar? This would push Marigold to return to her home and face the consequences of her actions in order to save her mother’s life, while giving Barnabas an opportunity to chase down the dragon he wants so badly. But given they’ll have to face a dragon here, this should probably be later in the campaign. So perhaps in the interim, to keep Marigold’s backstory involved, we could put some elemental creatures on the party’s trail intermittently as they travel. This will keep the threat of her home and the reminder of what she did relevant until she must return there to confront them. Maybe we even make that our first encounter of the campaign, to set up that long-running danger from the very beginning and tie Marigold in at the start.

A few extra tendrils to tie up– Geffrin should probably have to deal with what he did in Branishar, whether that’s something he faces by showing signs of the same thing happening somewhere else, or we actually make him return here. Barnabas should probably discover something unexpected about Nira’s death– could she still be alive? If so, maybe she finds him to reveal that her father King Guthril secretly set up an ambush to have her killed. That it wasn’t his fault, and she wants revenge.

That’s more than enough for now! As the campaign plays out, there will be plenty more to work with and some of these plans may change drastically– but, for now, that’s a decent foundation to work from.

Planning a Story Arc

Now that we have some ideas of what could potentially happen in our campaign, it’s time to start talking about arcs. Arcs are a connected series of sessions within a campaign that focus on a specific objective, theme, character, or idea. We can perhaps best think about this like a season of a tv show– most of the time, characters want something in the first episode, work to get over the course of the episodes within the season, and either succeed or fail by the finale.

You want to think about your arc in a similar way. Though you won’t know for sure the path your players will take, by preparing the structure of the arc, you can ensure that you’re giving them the adequate narrative fodder for a satisfying story. Arcs are typically between 3-5 sessions in length, though they can be longer depending on how large of a campaign you’re running. It’s usually good to start small and build up to larger arcs as players get more invested in the story you’re all telling together. But no matter the length, building out an arc’s structure is generally pretty similar.

There are a few different structures that stories often take, but we’re going to use the Three Act Structure as our framework here, because it is the most common and is the easiest to identify in many of today’s movies and tv shows, so it’s not hard to find references. As always, feel free to experiment with your own style of storytelling and only use the things from this section that help you at your table!

The Three Act Structure is pretty straightforward– Act One is the introduction, Act Two is the trials and tribulations, and Act Three is the finale. If we were planning a four session arc, it would probably break down as:

[GRAPHIC]

Session One = ACT ONE

Session Two & Three = ACT TWO

Session Four = ACT THREE

This is something we see everywhere, in almost every popular movie or tv show– a character wants something, they work hard and face challenges to get that thing, and finally succeed or fail– but always change because of the journey they went through. Because of this, it’s often what players expect out of a good story, even if they don’t know it. It’s what feels satisfying to us, because it’s the way we’re used to seeing stories. We can utilize that expectation in our prep to make our work easier.

Let’s take the example from our conversation in the previous chapter about our players’ backstories to form our first arc. Given how much cross-over potential Maverick has between our players, he is going to be our focus here, since that will give almost everyone a chance to have their backstories interwoven into the story at the start. As a reminder from the example player’s backstories, Maverick is a snobby gnome treasure collector who is a rival to Barnabas, and we’ve made the decision that Maverick is the one who has stolen Astrid Galamore’s hand in marriage, even though she has been in love with our party’s bard Jasper since childhood. Because Maverick is now residing in the kingdom with her, we’ve also decided that he is forcing Jasper’s old mentor, Mage Yaro, to use his arcane powers to tap into the expansive fungril network and hunt for treasure remotely.

Act One: Collision

We’ll want to think through how to make this event collide with our party in a way they can’t ignore. It’s often best to go to the most obvious answers first, then complicate things from there. For this situation, the low-hanging fruit is Maverick going after an artifact that the party has been asked to protect. If he’s using the fungril network to do it, then perhaps he is having Yaro create plant-like creatures filled with the fungus that can be controlled by him! There’s our first act encounter– and the rest of the act can build out from there.

The most important thing to keep in mind about Act One is that you want to use it to introduce a bigger conflict the party will encounter down the road– give them a taste of what’s to come and draw them into the arc’s story in a fun way. Using the techniques in the Preparing A Session section, you might end up with something like the below:

Beat One: On their way to a new city, the party runs across the collateral damage left behind by elemental creatures– something that tells Marigold that the people searching for her are close by.

Beat Two: As they arrive in a new city, they notice that plants have overgrown everything. They also meet some kind townsfolk who tell them about the attacks on the city by plant creatures at night. Upon inquiry, they’ll be taken to the place where the attacks are the worst– the University.

Beat Three: At the University, the students all know who Barnabas is– they’re studying his work with bone runes. The headmistress, Amelia Rose, who is a big proponent of the work Barnabas is doing, takes the party in and shows them what the plant creatures have been after: The Eye of the Strix, a massive owl creature from the hidden island of Boga Tiren. Her parents disappeared searching for Boga Tiren when she was a kid, and she’s spent her life trying to find where they went. If she can extract the memory of its location from the Strix’s eye, then maybe she can figure out where they ended up.

Beat Four: Amelia preserved part of the plant creature that attacked. If they investigate it, Geffrin will notice it’s using the fungril network to function, and is full of tiny mushrooms. If they connect to it, they will notice flashes of a powerful mage controlling it.

Beat Five: The plant creatures descend on the University. They must hold them back and defend the Eye of the Strix. When Geffrin attacks the creatures or tries to tap into their fungril network, they get flashes of the mage that become more clear. He cries out for help, looks like he’s in pain. Another voice echoes through the connection, telling him to get to the eye. As the final creature goes down in battle, the party hears the mage’s voice seep through it– the voice calls out to Jasper by a nickname only Yaro used to call them.

Though the session may change from the prep you’ve done, and you may have to adapt some of this to a different context than what’s above depending on what your player’s decide to do, the important thing this first act does is that it sets up the rest of the arc. It creates questions for the PCs to search after– why is Yaro doing this? Why did he look scared? Who was that other person giving him orders? If it’s somebody looking for relics, could it be Maverick? And also– what is Boga Tiren? Where is it? Why is it hidden? These dramatic questions are all the things that drive PCs forward in a campaign. Finding out what questions they want to answer next will push you into Act Two.

Act Two: Complications

In act two, players are thrust forward into a journey to answer their big questions. Before the end of act one, you can’t plan too far ahead because you can’t be sure which direction they’re going to go– they almost certainly will want to figure out what’s happening with Mage Yaro, but what if they decide to instead escort Professor Rose to Boga Tiren? Or maybe something else entirely? It’s often best to lead from behind as you approach Act Two– let the players show you the questions they want to answer the most, and fill in the gaps as they move towards finding those answers.

Once they’re off on this quest, act two is all about the complications that get in the way. And as you prep for these next sessions, the complications should matter– they should be personal, and speak to the themes and tone of the campaign you’re building together. If, for example, the party decides to head north to the Gallamore Kingdom to find out what’s happening with Mage Yaro, we know they’ll be on the road for a few days to get up there. It might be tempting to throw in a few random encounters with wild animals, some people asking for help with unrelated issues, or some rolls to see how well they’re able to survive the distant travel– but Act Two is all about the build up to a climactic finale. So what can we do instead to make it feel like a story, rather than just time that’s passing before we get to the Gallamore Kingdom?

We know Barnabas is searching for the legendary dragon Krugthar, and we’re likely going to have a future arc (when the players are higher level) centered around it’s attack on Bloomfare (Marigold’s home), so one option is to foreshadow that event on the journey to show the dragon’s power. Maybe we put a village that has been absolutely decimated by fire, with massive claw marks dug into the ground, and the city’s powerful mage killed. Those alive talk about an attack by a massive flying beast that disappeared into the sun– something Barnabas will immediately recognize as Krugthar. But to give the players something to act on now, maybe the beast had small companions or minions that leapt down into the city and are creating havoc, or dragged somebody important into the forest, or have shapeshifted to look like normal citizens. Depending on what kind of challenge your table enjoys, you can change what kind of encounter this is.

We also know from Geffrin’s backstory that if they stay somewhere too long, they will rot away everything around them—perhaps we see the devastating effect that Maverick and Yaro have had on the environment by growing lots of these plant creatures filled with fungus. They could have difficulty traversing this broken land, and encounter the remnants of these twisted arcane creatures. This could serve as a reminder to Geffrin of the place he decimated and the destruction he left behind. He could have the chance at a bit of redemption here, or at least knowledge of this kind of blight that helps keep his friends safe.

Another option to drive players forward might be to encounter an additional place where an artifact of power has been successfully stolen by Maverick’s fungril creatures—but this relic is something that can be consumed to steal another’s arcane power. Perhaps we decide this was the plan along, for Maverick to use Yaro until he could absorb his magic himself. Even without knowing the full context here, this kind of powerful object being in the wrong hands will likely push the PCs to get to Gallamore Kingdom as fast as they can.

Whatever the journey may entail, once the PCs have reached the Kingdom to confront Yaro (and learn about Maverick), we’re now breaking into the final act of our arc.

Act Three: Climax

Act Three will see our PCs resolve some of the big questions they have, and often face off against the powerful force they’ve been preparing for through Act One and Act Two. It’s important here to identify what the players are most excited about finding answers to, and providing at least some of those answers in this act– even if that means the answers spur even more questions. Oftentimes, these answers are what launch the next arc of your campaign, so having an idea of what they are going into this act will help you prepare for what’s to come.

Though not absolutely mandatory, it’s also always a good idea to plan some sort of reveal, surprise, or twist in this act—something that isn’t quite what it seems. These kinds of plot twists keep the players on their toes and can make them excited to find out what will happen next. In the case of our current example, we have a few twists prepared—Yaro is acting against his will, under the control of Maverick, who has squirmed his way into the kingdom by marrying Astrid Gallamore, Jasper’s childhood love.

As we prepare this act, we should identify the questions we are going to answer—things like: “Who is forcing Yaro into doing this?” and “What happened to Astrid?” It’s important to think through what Maverick would do to keep himself safe and Yaro under his control. Perhaps he orders the King’s Guard to attack the party when they enter the city, putting Jasper in conflict with the very people she grew up with. Maybe the kingdom is locked down, the drawbridge pulled up, and the group has to find another way in. Think about how you can create a last set of complications that ramps up the tension until the final confrontation is inevitable.

At some point, there will be a showdown between Maverick and the party. Maybe he still has Yaro under his control and uses him as a weapon against them. Maybe he’s absorbed Yaro’s arcane power using the relic he stole, and is now attacking the party with magic himself. Maybe he’s turned coward and is attempting to flee with Astrid through a secret tunnel beneath the castle. Whatever it is, it should probably be a big, exciting, and dangerous ending to the arc in a way that ties up some of the loose ends, while creating an opportunity for more adventure in the next arc.

A Living World

One of the most exciting aspects of gameplay is having the world change as the PCs move through it. After you finish each session, think about how the world at large has been affected by the events that unfolded and what story beats in the future might reflect those changes. What NPCs have been the most impacted? What adversaries or allies might come into the story because of what happened? Letting the story unfold naturally based on what the PCs have done and showcasing how the world has changed because of their actions, both good and bad, can remind your players that what they do in the game truly matters.

Chapter Four

Adversaries and Environments

Adversaries and Environments

This chapter presents stat blocks for adversaries and environments, along with all the rules you need to use them.

Using Adversaries

Many NPC encounters don’t involve conflict, so you don’t need character statistics for everyone inhabiting your world. However, for the scenes where conflict or combat are likely, you can use the adversaries in this chapter. Adversaries don’t have as many statistics and abilities as player characters, which makes it easier for you to coordinate multiple adversaries in combat.

This section describes how to use each adversary’s stat block, while chapter 3 presents general rules on running combat and tying these scenes into the larger story. Finally, the “Adversary Stat Blocks” section later in this chapter presents statistics for each adversary, grouped by tier to represent their general threat level.

Adversary Breakdown

Each adversary’s stat block presents its statistics in a simplified format, as described in the example below.

Jagged Knife Bandit - Standard

Description: A cunning criminal in a heavy cloak bearing one of the gang’s iconic knives.

Motives & Tactics: Escape, Profit, Throw Smoke

Tier: 1

Type: Standard

Difficulty: 12

Attack Modifier: +1

Daggers: Melee | 2d6+3 phy

Major 8 | Severe 14

HP: 5

Stress: 3

Experience:

Bandit +2

Features

Climber - Passive

This adversary can climb just as easily as they can run. “They get to higher ground.”

From Above - Action

Make an attack from above a target. On a success, deal 3d4+10 physical damage. “They drop in from above and take no mercy.”

Each stat block contains the following elements:

Name: Each stat block has a unique name—in this case, the Jagged Knife Bandit. If an ability affects all adversaries with a certain name, this includes any adversary who uses that stat block (even if you’ve given those NPCs individual names in the story)

Tier: Each adversary is designed to oppose PCs of a certain tier. You can use stat blocks from other tiers, but you may want to adjust their statistics, as described in the later “Improvising Adversaries” section. Tier 1 adversaries are appropriate for level 1 characters, Tier 2 lines up with levels 2-4, Tier 3 is for levels 5-7, and Tier 4 is appropriate for levels 8-10.

Type: The adversary’s type appears below their tier. The Bandit is a Standard adversary, meaning they comprise the rank and file of their faction’s forces. The later “Adversary Types” section lists all adversary types.

Description: A one-line summary of the adversary’s appearance, weapons, and/or demeanor.

Motives & Tactics: Each stat block suggests some general motives and tactics the adversary uses in a confrontation. When in doubt, the Bandit will try to escape (caring more for their own life than victory), profit (by any means necessary, including lying and stealing), and throw smoke (possibly obscuring the battlefield and escape route). There aren’t special rules about these—improvise the outcome like you would for a player character.

Attack Modifier: When you attack with this adversary, apply this bonus or penalty to your attack roll (see “Adversary Attack Rolls”).

Weapon: Each adversary’s weapon lists its name (in this case, Daggers), its range (Melee), and its damage on a success (2d6+3 physical damage). You can use this weapon to make an attack as an action; many adversaries also have special attacks in their “Features” section.

Difficulty: Adversaries don’t use Evasion like PCs—instead, all rolls against them use their Difficulty. The Jagged Knife Bandit is Difficulty 12, so any PC attack or action roll of 12 or above succeeds against this adversary.

Damage Thresholds, Hit Points, & Stress: Major 8 / Severe 14 represents this adversary’s Damage thresholds. They have 5 Hit Points and 3 Stress. These all function the same as for PCs (see “Hit Points and Damage Thresholds” and “Stress Points” in chapter 2).

Experience: Like PCs, some adversaries have Experiences that make them especially capable in certain situations. This stat block’s Experience is Bandit +2, which can aid them in rolls related to such skulduggery. See “Adversary Experiences” below for details on using these Experiences.

Features: Features represent the Bandit’s capabilities in a conflict and are denoted as either an action, which means you must spend a token on the action tracker to use it, a passive, which means it always applies and doesn’t require a token to activate, or a reaction, which means you can respond to the specified trigger without requiring a GM move or action token. The Bandit has an action called “From Above” that deals more damage when they are attacking from above -the 3d10 damage replaces their standard damage of 2d8. They also have a passive called “Climber” that allows them to climb without difficulty. The upcoming “Adversary Features” section details how to use various features.

Adversary Types

An adversary’s type represents the role they play in a scene. When building encounters, utilizing a mix of types helps present a dynamic and engaging challenge. Adversary types include the following:

Bruiser: Tough with powerful attacks.

Horde: A group of identitical creatures acting together as a single unit (see “Using Minions and Hordes”).

Leader: Commands and summons other adversaries.

Minion: Easily dispatched but dangerous in numbers. (see “Using Minions and Hordes”).

Ranged: Fragile but usually attacks from a distance for high damage.

Skulk: Maneuvers and exploits opportunities to ambush opponents.

Social: Primarily offers interpersonal threats or similar social conflicts, rather than combat.

Solo: Presents a formidable challenge to a whole party, with or without support.

Standard: Rank-and-file adversaries representative of their fictional group.

Support: Enhances their allies and/or disrupts their opponents.

Adversary Experiences

Adversaries tend to have fewer and broader Experiences than the PCs. In situations where you think an adversary’s capabilities aren’t fully expressed by their assigned Difficulty, you can easily apply an Experience bonus to their Difficulty and reaction rolls, as follows:

Difficulty: When a PC makes an action roll against an adversary, if the adversary’s Experience is relevant to the situation, you can choose to increase the roll’s difficulty by that Experience modifier.

Reaction Rolls: When an adversary makes a reaction roll (see “Adversary Reaction Rolls”), you can automatically apply any particularly relevant Experience to the roll (without spending Fear or action tokens to do so).

Whenever you use an adversary’s Experience, describe how it improves their odds in that moment. Experiences feel more impactful if you save them for certain dramatic moments or situations, rather than applying them to most rolls.

While some adversaries specialize in combat, others do best in non-violent situations, and their Experiences reflect that. For example, the Tier 1 Merchant isn’t hard to best in a duel or arm-wrestling, but they’re much more formidable in a negotiation. The Merchant has a difficulty of 10 (two lower than the Jagged Knife Bandit discussed above), as they’re not especially skilled in combat. But the Merchant’s Experience of Shrewd Negotiator +5 could apply whenever a PC is trying to haggle with the Merchant or trick them into taking a bad deal, increasing the difficulty to 15. And if the Merchant makes a reaction roll related to savvy or social situations, you might decide to apply that Experience as a bonus to the roll.

Example Experiences

You can always adjust a stat block’s Experiences to fit your story. Here are some examples of Experiences you can use:

• Quick Reflexes
• Keen Senses
• Stealth
• Socialite
• Nature’s Friend
• Barter
• Intimidation
• Ambusher
• Nobility
• Tracking
• Navigation
• Bodyguard
• Cautious
• Intrusion Strict
• Magical Knowledge

Adversary Features

The right side of each stat block lists that adversary’s features. Below each feature, you’ll find a line of italicized flavor text. This line offers inspiration for how to tie that feature into the narrative and describe it to the players.

Features can take three forms—actions, reactions, and passives. The following sections describe how to use these features and provide a few examples. You can also find a complete list of adversary features in [section pending] of chapter 6.

Activating Features

All actions require spending an action token to use, while passives and reactions typically don’t. Some features require no resources to activate them, but those that do generally call for one of the following:

Marking Stress: Some moves call for the adversary to “mark a Stress.” Each adversary’s Stress is separate, so if they run out, they can’t mark Stress from a different adversary.

Spending Action Tokens: Some features require spending one or more additional action tokens to use. Actions cost a minimum of one action token, and if they cost more, that number will be listed in parentheses like so: Action (2) for an action that costs 2 action tokens.

Spending Fear: Some moves say to “spend a Fear.” To make this move, you must spend Fear as described, even if you already spent an action token to activate the adversary. (See the upcoming “Fear Features” section for examples of these moves.)

Adversary Actions

Adversary actions are features that always require you to spend an action token to use them. These actions can be divided into three categories:

Standard Attacks: Each adversary has a standard attack listed in the left column of their stat block. This includes their attack modifier, the name of the attack, its range, and its damage. When you spend an action token to activate an adversary, you can always use their standard attack as long as they are within range (or can move within range).

Unique Actions: Many adversaries have special actions listed in the right column of their stat block. These represent their skills, innate abilities, spells they can cast, etc. Unique actions might allow the adversary to make an attack, to force PCs to make a reaction roll, or even to change the landscape. When you activate an adversary, you can choose to use one of these instead of making a standard attack. See “Unique Actions” below for details on using these.

Other Actions: Adversaries can do nearly anything a PC can, so if you want to do something that’s not in the stat block, feel free! The “Adversary Action Rolls” section of chapter 3 provides guidance on resolving other actions an adversary might take.

Unique Actions

In addition to the action token required to use any action, some unique actions require also spending Fear or marking Stress, and others might require more than one action token to be spent (indicated by the number in parentheses after the action name). See the earlier “Activating Features” section for more details on spending these.

The following features are examples of actions. In these examples, “X” and “Y” represent numbers that are different for each stat block.

Group Attack - Action (X)

Activate all adversaries with this name within a certain range of a target, spending X action tokens for the group. This group can move and make one shared attack roll against that target. On a success, they deal the specified amount of damage per adversary, combine that damage together before applying it to their target’s damage thresholds.

Tip: While this feature is most common with minions, any adversary can use this feature. See “Using Minions and Hordes ” for more suggestions on using this in combat.

Haymaker - Action (X) | +Y attack modifier

The adversary winds up and takes a mighty swing. Make an attack with a +Y bonus. On a success, deal the specified amount of damage. Any armor used to reduce damage from this attack is only half as effective.

Shredding Strike - Action | +Y attack modifier

Make an attack with a +Y modifier against an enemy within Very Close range. If it hits, the target takes the specified amount of damage and must mark an armor slot without gaining its benefit (but they may still use other armor slots on the damage).

Adversary Reactions

Adversary reactions are features that don’t take effect until their specific trigger occurs (such as taking damage or marking a certain number of HP). When triggered, you can immediately use the reaction, and you don’t have to spend an action token or Fear to interrupt the PCs with this reaction (unless otherwise specified). The following features are examples of reaction

Shifting Amalgamation - Reaction

Spend a Fear to add X to the damage of any of the adversary’s attacks.

Team-Up - Reaction | +0 attack modifier

When another adversary within Very Close range of this adversary deals damage to a character, mark a Stress to make an attack against that same target. On a success, add the two damage rolls together.

Adversary Passives

Adversary passives don’t require activation, and always apply under the circumstances stated in that feature. Some are always in effect (such as the Arcane Form passive below, which makes the adversary permanently resistant to magic damage). Others automatically come into effect whenever the stated trigger occurs (such as the Horde passive below, which reduces the adversary’s damage once their hit points are halved).

The following features are examples of passives. In these examples, “X” represents a number that is different for each stat block.

Relentless (X) - Passive

This adversary can activate up to X times during a GM move, so long as there are enough action tokens. You still spend an action token each time you activate them in this way.

Tip: The Relentless feature is useful if you want an adversary who can act multiple times during your move. This is often best for exceedingly fast or dangerous foes, or for adversaries who are likely to battle the party on their own.

Slow (X) - Passive

This adversary costs X action tokens to activate, instead of just one token.

Tip: The Slow feature is useful if you want an adversary who narratively takes longer to act than others, like a giant slug or a lumbering ogre. This is usually most effective when that creature has powerful actions, increasing the party’s dread as the tokens stack up.

Minion (X) - Passive

This adversary is defeated if it takes any damage. For every X damage a PC deals to this adversary, defeat an additional minion in the attack’s range.

Tip: See the upcoming “Using Minions and Hordes ” section for guidance on using this feature.

Horde (X) - Passive

If the horde has marked at least half of their Hit Points, their attack only deals X damage.

Tip: See the upcoming “Using Minions and Hordes ” section for guidance on using this feature.

Arcane Form - Passive

This adversary is resistant to magic damage.

Armored Carapace - Passive

When this adversary takes physical damage, reduce that damage by X.

Fear Features

Fear features are rare and powerful adversary features that require spending Fear to activate. These most commonly appear on Leader and Solo adversaries, and can take the form of passives, actions, or reactions. Each Fear Feature is a scene-defining effect that justifies the expenditure of this valuable GM resource. For example:

Reinforcements - Action

Spend a Fear to add 1d4 additional adversaries to the scene as backup. They appear at a Far distance and may immediately activate without spending action tokens. Any attacks they make with these activations deal half damage.

Coup de Grace - Action

Spend a Fear to make an attack against a Vulnerable target within Close range. If successful, deal 4d8 phy damage and force the target to mark a Stress.

Choosing Adversaries

When choosing adversaries, the following guidance can help you create an interesting and challenging encounter:

• For an easy encounter, use fewer enemies or a larger number of enemies of a lower tier. Try using a number of Standard adversaries equal to the party size, potentially replacing one with a Bruiser, Skulk, or Support.
• For a standard encounter, try using a Solo adversary or number of minions equal to the size of the party plus 2-3 from the Bruiser, Skulk, Standard, and Support types.
• For a challenging encounter, try using minions equal to the size of your party and a Leader or Solo. If not using a Leader or Solo, use the minions plus a number of other adversaries equal to the party size.
• For a climactic, arc-ending battle, use a Leader, minions equal to one and a half times the party size, and a number of other adversaries equal to the party size.

[Playtesters: We specifically invite feedback on your experiences with encounter design during your playtests. Do these guidelines work for your table? If not, what have you found that does work for you and your group?]

Using Solos

When using a Solo adversary, it’s important to make sure they can take enough turns to challenge the party. If your Solo has the Relentless feature (allowing them to use multiple actions during your move), they can likely face the players alone. Solos without Relentless often have features that force the PCs to generate more action tokens and/or area-of-effect features to challenge multiple PCs at once. If you’re using a Solo without Relentless and you want to be sure that there are enough options for adversary actions, consider including a couple other adversaries to round out the fight, from types like Horde, Ranged, Standard, Support, or Skulk.

Since the action tracker limits how many adversaries you can activate at a time, it’s hard to accidentally overwhelm the players with sheer numbers. The above advice will help you avoid the opposite—not being able to use enough actions to challenge the PCs despite having many tokens on the tracker.

Example: Max is preparing a road encounter for their group of four to help introduce a new enemy faction. The fight is meant to be easy, so they choose three Standard adversaries and one Bruiser.

Later, the group has followed the faction’s trail and confronts a group on patrol near the faction’s outpost. This will be a standard encounter, so Max prepares four Minions, a Bruiser, a Support, and a Skulk.

And finally, when the group has fought through the outpost to confront the faction leader, the encounter will include six Minions, a Leader, two Snipers, a Bruiser, and a Support. The Leader also has an action that will bring in more minions as needed.

Using Minions and Hordes

Daggerheart has two adversary types that can represent foes that are a minor threat individually but dangerous in a group: minions and hordes. Both are useful for presenting a large group of foes to a party while planning for the combat to stay fast-paced. They help avoid a long drawn-out fight after the biggest threats have been eliminated, since you can more easily defeat these adversaries without making countless attacks. When you’re using Hordes or Minions, be sure to let the players know which ones are which—unless there’s a specific reason for the players to not know (such as a Leader hiding within their ranks).

Minions

A minion is an individual adversary who can group up with other minions for a big combined attack—but when they’re in these groups, the PCs can defeat them en masse with a single attack. Use minions when you want to put a lot of figures on the battlefield or when you need enemies to spread out and independently occupy several positions. A large group of minions creates urgency for the PCs to thin out their numbers before the minions can land devastating group attacks.

Every minion has 1 HP and both of the following features:

Minion (X) - Passive

This adversary is defeated if they take any damage. For every X damage a PC deals to this adversary, defeat an additional minion in the attack’s range.

Group Attack - Action (X)

Activate all adversaries with this name within a certain range of a target, spending X action tokens for the group. This group can move and make one shared attack roll against that target. On a success, they deal the specified amount of damage per adversary, combine that damage together before applying it to their target’s damage thresholds.

Each minion requires a different amount of damage to defeat additional minions, represented by X in the Minion feature; for example, the Rotted Zombie’s Minion feature says “Minion (4)”—so if a PC deals 4 damage to them, not only is the Rotted Zombie defeated, but the PC can choose an additional minion in range to immediately defeat. The additional minions don’t have to use the same stat block; if a PC deals 4 damage to a Rotted Zombie and there’s a Giant Rat minion nearby, the PC can choose that Giant Rat as the additional minion defeated.

Meanwhile, the Group Attack makes action tokens more efficient in battle, gives you a predictable damage output, and requires fewer rolls. When you use it to activate multiple adversaries at once, this helps make a battlefield full of enemies come alive. Remember that you only make one attack roll for the entire group of attackers, and then add their damage together before applying it to the target. Group Attack is often paired up with the Minion move because it gives groups of smaller foes a chance to attack before their inevitable defeat, but this move can appear on any stat block.

The Minion feature and Group Attack action help create the cinematic feeling of PCs being swarmed by waves of foes, then taking them out with a single attack roll. If a PC hits one minion and they do enough damage, they can defeat multiple others in range. Because of this, it’s often best to have several minions crowd a PC on your move, making the scene feel overwhelming and dangerous until the PC gets a chance to act. When making group attacks, minions deal consistent damage rather than rolling damage, making their damage output predictable.

Example: Tabby the Warrior is holding a castle gate against attacking zombies while her companions try to complete the cleansing ritual that will cut off the energy animating the undead. The GM places 5 Rotted Zombies on the board as a group of minions, describing the scattered group converging as they approach the Katari Warrior. Tabby decides to charge them, moving a Close distance and laying into the minions.

Making an attack roll against the nearest Rotted Zombie, Tabby easily hits and deals a total of 11 damage. The Zombies have the feature Minion 4, which means that for each 4 damage dealt to a Rotted Zombie, an additional minion within range marks 1 HP. Tabby’s 11 damage means that with that one attack roll, Tabby defeats 3 Rotted Zombies, as they each only have 1 HP. Tabby’s player describes hacking her way through the attackers, chopping limbs and heads.

If Tabby had rolled a failure, granting the Zombies a chance to attack before their numbers were reduced, the GM could use their Group Attack action (Group Attack - Melee - 2). The GM spends two action tokens and activates every Rotted Zombie within Melee range of Tabby (all 5) and makes a single attack roll. If the attack succeeds, the Rotted Zombies all five combine, dealing 3 damage for each Rotted Zombie activated and in range, which means the attack deals a brutal 15 damage to Tabby.

If Tabby had succeeded in her roll above and then taken a counter-attack, the 2 remaining Rotted Zombies would only deal 6 damage (2 Rotted Zombies dealing 3 damage each, adding up to 6). You’ve got to thin out those Minion groups before they can hit you!

Hordes

A horde is a large group of the same enemy that narratively moves and acts in unison—such as a mass of zombies or a swarm of deadly insects—without you having to manage each enemy individually. Use hordes when you want to concentrate danger in one space, giving the feeling of a moving group of foes that threatens to crash over a PC like a wave.

Each horde represents a certain number of creatures, which reduces as the horde marks HP. In parentheses next to each horde’s “Type” field, the stat block lists how many creatures the horde represents per HP remaining. For example, a Zombie Pack’s stat block might say “Type: Horde (2/HP)”—so if that horde has 6 HP, you would describe it as 12 zombies moving in a group together. If a PC deals 2 hit points to this horde, you would describe 8 zombies being taken out as a result.

Each horde also has the following feature:

Horde (X) - Passive

If the horde has marked at least half of their Hit Points, their attack only deals X damage.

Unlike minions who each act on their own, a horde simplifies combat; while the PCs are narratively fighting an enormous group, you only have to worry about one adversary’s actions. Also unlike minions, Hordes can hold a chokepoint, as they take several blows to dispatch. Their damage goes down when their HP is halved, giving players a reason to make a few attacks against the horde to reduce their threat, then shifting to a more dangerous target.

Example: If the GM used a Zombie Pack adversary (a Horde) instead of the previous Minions example, the group of undead would be represented as one adversary. The GM would use a miniature with several zombies on one base, moving the Horde as they act all as one unit. The Zombie Pack has the feature “Horde: 2d6+8,” and it represents two creatures per HP.

When Tabby charges the Zombie Horde, she makes her same attack. That 11 damage is compared to the Horde’s HP thresholds. 11 is above the Zombie Pack’s Major threshold of 6 but below their Severe threshold of 12. So the Zombie Pack marks 2 HP, leaving them with 4 HP remaining. The Zombie Pack’s Creatures Per Hit Point of 2 means that each HP marked represents eliminating 2 zombies, so Tabby describes carving through 4 members of the horde.

But with only 2 of 6 HP marked, their counter-attack against Tabby is made as normal, with their full damage value of 2d6+8 on a hit.

If Tabby dealt 13 damage instead, that would be a Severe blow to the Zombie Pack and they would mark 3 HP instead of 2. With 3 HP marked (one half of 6), their standard attack damage drops to 2d4+3 damage per their Horde trait.

Defeated Adversaries

When an adversary marks their last Hit Point, they are defeated (unless they have a feature that gives them a second chance!), but it’s up to you and your players what this means. For example, the PCs might knock the adversary unconscious, tie them up with ropes, or kill them.

If death is the goal, it’s generally safe to assume that the PCs successfully kill anyone they defeat—but if they don’t have time to clean up the battlefield, or if an important adversary has a means of cheating or faking death, it’s possible some might slip through the cracks.

Improvising Adversaries

When planning your session (or even in the middle of one), you can adjust an existing adversary’s stat block to fit the needs of your battle. Sometimes you want to use an adversary but they’re too powerful (or not powerful enough) for your party’s tier. Or you might want to replace a feature or two, then present them as an entirely different creature.

Chapter 5 presents in-depth information on adversary balance and how to scale existing adversaries or create new ones, but especially if you’re mid-session when you realize you need a new adversary, you don’t want to make lots of decisions. Don’t sweat the details; you can roughly adjust a stat block to a different tier by simply replacing its existing statistics with those listed on the Improvised Statistics by Tier table, using the column that corresponds to your party’s tier.

Improvised Statistics by Tier

Adversary Statistic	Tier 1	Tier 2	Tier 3	Tier 4
—	—	—	—	—
Attack Modifier	+1	+2	+3	+4
Damage Dice	2d4+3	2d6+3	2d10+5	2d6+15
Difficulty	11	14	17	20
Damage Thresholds	Major 7	Severe 12	Major 10	Severe 20

If you feel comfortable coming up with an adversary’s moves on the fly, you can even use the above table to improvise a completely new adversary using these statistics—see “Adding or Changing Features” below.

You can generally leave an adversary’s HP the same, but feel free to adjust if you want to drastically increase or decrease the time they last in battle. Also keep an eye out for features that deal a different amount of damage than the main weapon attack, as those might need some adjustment as well.

Using the above guidance won’t always make the adversary a perfect match for the PCs, but it’ll reduce the chances of you downing a PC in a single move (or having your Solo adversary defeated after just a couple rolls).

Adding or Changing Features

When scaling an adversary to a higher tier, consider adding a new feature to make them a greater threat, instead of just scaling up the damage and difficulty of their existing features. The earlier “Adversary Features” section contains a few examples of common adversary features; you can also find a complete list of adversary features in [section pending] of chapter 6. Adversaries’ HP and Stress do not generally need to change much between Tiers 1-2, but adversaries may need 1-2 more HP and Stress moving from Tiers 1 or 2 up to Tier 3 or 4, as PCs gain more abilities that deal extra HP and Stress.

Similarly, if scaling down to a lower tier, consider removing one of the most powerful or impactful features.

Improvising Hordes, Minions, and Solos

Horde, minion, and solo adversaries vary significantly in power from other adversaries. The following guidance can help you improvise these adversaries:

Horde: Their standard attack should deal high damage, then reduce (roughly by half) when the horde has been reduced to half HP.

Minion: Give them a flat damage value for their standard attack, and use that value for their Group Attack feature. You’ll also set the value of their Minion feature, determining how much damage is needed to defeat additional minions of that name in one attack.

Solo: Give them high damage, high HP, and features that let them act more frequently (like Relentless) and/or features that force the PCs to add extra action tokens to the action tracker.

Adversary Statblocks

Adversaries by Tier

This chapter contains the following stat blocks.

Tier 1 (Level 1)

• Jagged Knife Bandits (Bandit, Shadow , Hexer , Sniper, Lieutenant, Lackey, Kneebreaker )
• Beasts (Bear, Dire Wolf, Giant Rat, Swarm of Rats, Giant Scorpion, Glass Snake, Giant Mosquitos)
• Mercenaries (Sellsword, Harrier, Spellblade, Weaponmaster)
• Oozes (Green, Tiny Green, Red, Tiny Red)
• Tangle Brambles
• Grove Guardians (Minor Treant, Sylvan Soldier, Deeproot Defender, Young Dryad)
• Skeletons (Dredge , Warrior , Archer , Knight )
• Guards (Bladed Guards, Archers, Head Guard)
• Zombies (Shambling Zombie, Rotted, Horde, Brawny, Patchwork Zombie)
• Elementals (Minor Chaos, Minor Fire)
• Pirates (Raiders, Captain, Tough )
• Construct
• Acid Burrower
• Minor Demon
• Cave Ogre
• Socialites (Merchant, Courtier, Petty Noble)

Tier 2 (Levels 2-4)

• Assassins (Poisoner , Apprentice Assassin, Master Assassin )
• Battle Box
• Chaos Skull
• Giant Eagle
• Juvenile Flickerfly
• Giant Mercenaries (Brawler, Recruit, Beastmaster)
• Katari Burglar
• Ghosts (Spectral Guardian, Spectral Archer, Spectral Captain)
• Mortal Hunter
• Failed Experiment
• Gorgon
• Noble Forces (Elite Soldier, Archer Squadron, Conscript, Knight of the Realm)
• Minotaur
• Cult of the Fallen (Initiate, Fang, Adept, Secret-Keeper)
• Beasts (Electric Eels, Shark, Stonewraith, Demonic Hound Pack, Siren)
• War Wizard
• Socialites (Royal Advisor, Merchant Baron, Courtesan, Spy)

Tier 3 (Levels 5-7)

• Socialities (Monarch)
• Elementals (Greater Water, Elemental Spark, Greater Earth)
• Emotion Demons (Demon of Wrath, Despair, Jealousy, Avarice, Hubris)
• Huge Green Ooze
• Hydra
• Adult Flickerfly
• Vampires (Dire Bat, Vampire, Head Vampire)
• Vault Guardians (Sentinel , Gaoler, Turret )
• Verdant Defenders (Oak Treant, Dryad, Treant Sapling, Stag Knight)

Tier 4 (Levels 8-10)

• Arch-Necromancer’s Host (Arch-Necromancer, Zombie Legion, Perfected Zombie)
• Kraken
• Oracle of Doom
• Outer Realms Monstrosities (Abomination , Corruptor , Thrall )
• Volcanic Dragon (Obsidian Predator, Molten Scourge, Ashen Tyrant)
• Hallowed Forces (High Seraph, Soldier, Archer)
• Fallen Horde (Fallen Shock Troop, Fallen Sorcerer, Fallen Warlord: Realm-Breaker, Undefeated Champion)

[There will be narrative descriptions added to all of these adversaries in a future update.]

Using Environments

Environments represent everything in a scene that is not the PCs or the adversaries, from the physical elements of the space to background characters and forces of nature. Much like adversaries, each environment has a stat block that provides a framework for influencing the PCs and the wider scene. These aren’t restricted to combat—you can use adversary stat blocks to enhance any scene, from festive galas to crumbling ruins.

Environments and adversaries are built to interact and support one another, both mechanically and narratively. Environments can represent creatures, such as supporting cast and groups, who are present in the background of a scene but don’t need specific adversary stat blocks. Environments can also represent other aspects of the world, such as a dangerous landscape, a damp dungeon, or a noble’s court.

This section describes how to use each environment’s stat block, while chapter 3 presents general rules on running combat and tying these scenes into the larger story. Finally, the “Environment Stat Blocks” section at the end of this chapter presents examples of environments, grouped by tier to represent their general threat level.

Environments can be used with or without the action tracker. When not using the action tracker, any Environment action can be activated with a GM move, regardless of the number of action tokens it costs.

The environment framework is meant to be inspiring and practical, rather than unchangeable and prescriptive. Feel free to customize the environments to fit your game’s characters and events—perhaps changing the Baronial Court environment into a “Baron’s Birthday Feast,” or creating a stat block for a “Castle Siege” using environment features. These stat blocks provide a way of organizing and preparing ideas for important scenes, but perhaps you don’t want to use this adversary-like system for environments; in that case, you can ignore these stat blocks entirely, or adjust them to meet your needs. You might decide that your environments only require a couple sensory details, potential moves to improvise, and/or a default difficulty number.

Environment Breakdown

Each environment’s stat block presents its statistics in a simplified format, as described in the example below.

When the players visit the baron’s keep to expose a corrupt courtier, the Baronial Court itself is the environment. Expecting a big confrontation, Max prepares the following environment so they have options to easily draw from during the scene.

Baronial Court

Description: The bustling court of the baron, lavishly decorated with tapestries, crystal goblets, and attendees dressed in finery.

Tone & Feel: Playful yet tense; rich with the smell of food, perfume, and wine

Tier: 2

Type: Social

Difficulty: 12

Potential Adversaries:

Courtier, Merchant, Petty Noble, Bladed Guards

Features

You Scratch My Back — Passive

A PC may gain advantage on a Presence roll by offering or cashing in a favor. If the PC fails to deliver on repaying a favor from this feature, the GM takes 2 Fear.

What secrets are concealed within the favors requested? How long does the PC have to make good on their promise?

Gossip - Reaction

When a character fails a Presence roll with Fear, they must mark Stress as their failure becomes the hot gossip for the evening.

How is the story of what happened distorted in the process of becoming gossip? Who tries to take advantage of the PC’s social weakness?

We Meet Again - Action

An NPC (adversary or not) previously known to the party appears at court with an agenda.

What do they want from the PCs (assistance, companionship, revenge)?

Framed - Action

Spend a Fear to have a prominent member of the court frame a PC for a crime, real or imagined. Proving their innocence requires completing a Progress Countdown (6).

How do they sell the lie to make the court believe the PC is at fault? Who is really responsible for the crime? Did it even happen, is it a half-truth?

Each stat block contains the following elements:

Name: Each environment writeup has a unique name—in this case, a Baronial Court.

Type: The environment’s type appears immediately after its name, representing the type of scene it most easily supports. The Baronial Court is a Social environment, meaning that the most likely threats and obstacles there will be interpersonal in nature.

Tier: Each environment is designed to challenge PCs of a certain tier. You can use stat blocks from other tiers, but you may want to adjust their statistics.

Description: An evocative one-line summary of the environment.

Tone & Feel: Emotional notes the GM can highlight to enhance this environment’s impact, plus sensory details to share when describing the scene. The Baronial Court has a mood that is playful yet tense; it is rich with the smell of food, perfume, and wine.

Difficulty: Baronial Court is Difficulty 12, which provides a baseline for action rolls made to directly oppose the elements of this environment. Individual adversaries appearing in the environment may have other difficulties.

Potential Adversaries: Many environments suggest specific adversaries that commonly appear in scenes with that environment. Not every listed adversary needs to appear in an environment, and you’re free to use others instead.

Features: Features provide you inspiration for GM moves that represent the dynamic environment. Features are denoted as either an action, which means you must spend a token on the action tracker to use it if using the action tracker (any GM move can activate it if the action tracker is not out), a passive, which means it always applies and doesn’t require a token or GM move to activate, or a reaction, which means you can respond to the specified trigger without requiring a GM move or action token. Many environment features are unique to that stat block, but others are common across multiple stat blocks.

Environment Types

An environment’s type represents the style of scene they most readily support. But any kind of interaction can happen in any environment. Unexpected environments can provide exciting contrast or round out a scene, so don’t be afraid to plan a social encounter in a dangerous Traversal environment, or a duel to the death in a Social environment. Environment types include the following:

Exploration: Wondrous location with mysteries and marvels to discover.

Social: Location that primarily presents interpersonal challenges.

Traversal: Dangerous location where moving around the space itself is a challenge.

Event: A situation that offers certain parameters on the fiction for a limited amount of time.

Environment Features

The right side of each stat block lists that environment’s features.

Feature Questions

Below each feature, you’ll find an italicized question. If you wish, you can use these to inspire hooks to connect the scene to other story elements, prompts to fuel the scene, and more.

For example, the Baronial Court feature “We Meet Again” asks, “What do they want from the PCs (assistance, companionship, revenge)?” This question invites you to consider the NPC’s motive and how their appearance in the scene might reincorporate past events, develop relationships, or connect to other plot elements.

Using Features

Environmental features generally follow the same rules as adversary features. See “Adversary Features” for these full rules, but in summary: Whenever you make a GM move, you can activate environment features like you would adversaries. Environment features can take the form of actions (which require one or more action tokens if you’re using the action tracker), reactions (which happen freely in response to a trigger), and passives (which automatically apply). Like adversary features, some environment features also require marking Stress, spending additional action tokens, or spending Fear.

You can find a complete list of environment features in [section pending] of chapter 6.

Fear Features

Like adversaries, environments can have Fear Features—powerful, scene-defining effects that require spending Fear to activate. Not every environment has a fear move, and most environment Fear Features take the form of actions. For example:

Frame - Action - Fear

Spend a Fear to have a prominent member of the court frame a PC for a crime, real or imagined. Proving their innocence requires completing a Progress Countdown (6).

Patient Hunter - Action - Fear

Spend a Fear to summon an Acid Burrower, who bursts up from the ground where they have been waiting for prey. The Acid Burrower immediately takes the Earth Eruption action without spending action tokens.

What treasures do they have in their burrow? What travelers have already fallen victim to this beast?

Adapting Environments

When planning your session (or even in the middle of one), you can adjust an existing environment’s stat block to fit the needs of your scene or just improvise any elements as needed—the environments framework is there to help organize ideas, not to stifle a GM’s creativity.

Sometimes you want to use an environment but it’s not at the right Tier for your party. Or you might want to replace a feature or two, then present it as an entirely different environment.

Chapter 5 presents in-depth information on environment balance and how to scale existing environments or create new ones (section under construction), but especially if you’re mid-session when you realize you need a new environment, you don’t want to make lots of decisions. Don’t sweat the details; you can roughly adjust a stat block to a different tier by simply replacing its existing statistics with those listed on the Improvised Statistics by Tier table, using the column that corresponds to your party’s tier.

Environment Statistics by Tier

Damage Dice	2d4+5	2d6+3	2d10+5	2d6+15
Difficulty	11	14	17	20

If you feel comfortable coming up with an environment’s features on the fly, you can even use the above table to improvise a completely new environment using these statistics—see “Adding or Changing Features” below.

Using the above guidance won’t always make the environment a perfect match for the PCs, but it’ll reduce the chances of a drastic mismatch throwing off your scene.

Adding or Changing Features

When scaling an environment to a higher tier, consider adding a Fear action if there isn’t already one. Similarly, if scaling down to a lower tier, consider removing one of the most powerful or impactful features.

Scaling Environments

Environments are easier to scale than adversaries, since they don’t have Hit Point Thresholds, HP, or Stress. Mainly, you’ll want to adjust the default difficulty, any difficulties listed in features, and damage dealt by features. If the environment has a feature that involves summoning an adversary, you might replace the listed adversaries with ones appropriate to the party’s tier or you might scale down the listed adversaries.

Environment Stat Blocks

This section contains a list of environments by tier, followed by all environment stat blocks. (See “Using Environments” for environment rules.)

Environments by Tier

This chapter contains the following stat blocks.

[More to come!]

Tier 1 (Level 1)

• Abandoned Grove (Exploration)
• Baronial Court (Social)
• Bustling Marketplace (Social)
• Cliffside Ascent (Traversal)
• Local Tavern (Social)
• Raging River (Traversal)
• Underground Cave (Exploration)

Tier 2 (Levels 2-4)

• Cult Ritual (Event)
• Hallowed Temple (Social)
• Mountain Pass (Traversal)
• Ruined Tower (Traversal)

Tier 3 (Levels 5-7)

• The Burning Heart of the Wood (Exploration)

Tier 4 (Levels 8-10)

• Necromancer’s Ossuary (Exploration)

You can check the full list of environments here.

Chapter Five

Creating Your World

Creating Your World

This chapter offers tools to structure the world you are playing in. These can each be used as individual pieces, or all together in a nesting-doll approach:

Campaign Frames provide an overarching concept and special twists for your campaign.

Locations help flesh out the places you might go during your campaign.

Themes provide inspiration and common threads for your story.

Environments provide narrower narrative and mechanical grounding within a location.

Adversaries present people and other creatures to challenge your players within an environment.

Campaign Frames

When starting a campaign of Daggerheart, you might choose to begin with a campaign frame. These frames provide inspiration, tools, and mechanics to support the story your table will tell. You can choose one of the campaign frames from the following pages, or use their structure to inspire your own.

Each campaign frame includes the following elements:

• A pitch to present to players.
• An overview of the campaign’s background.
• Suggestions for the campaign’s tones and themes, plus cultural touchstones that shaped it.
• Guidance on how certain communities, ancestries, and classes fit into the setting.
• Principles for players and GMs to consider during the campaign.
• Unique setting distinctions.
• An inciting incident to launch the campaign.
• Special mechanics to use during the campaign.
• Questions to consider during session zero.
• A map for the players and GM to fill in together.

The Witherwild

A peaceful, quiet land faces a spreading corruption.

Designed by Carlos Cisco, Rowan Hall, & Spenser Starke

The Pitch

The Fanewick was once a place of great abundance and peace, dangerous to those unfamiliar with the land, but a cornucopia to those who respected its ways. When Haven came and forced the land into Eternal Spring, a dangerous bloom known as the Witherwild took hold and now threatens the lives of all who live there. In the Witherwild campaign, you’ll play unlikely heroes from humble beginnings who are reckoning with their newfound duty to save the people of this land from dangerous corruption.

Overview

Fanewick is a wild and untamed land, long avoided by outside forces. The woods are dark and twisting, filled with Faint Divinities that perform small miracles and services for its inhabitants, but are just as likely to lure travelers off narrow paths to their ruin. Seemingly harmless expanses of field hide bogs that will englut entire armies, consuming heavy artillery as quickly as it can cross the border. This wilderness fosters hardy people who are bold enough to raise families where others have not and strictly follow the unique rules that keep them safe. They remained insulated from the wars of their neighbors until plague forced the people of Haven to desperate acts.

Haven was once the most powerful force in the region; for centuries the high stone walls into the capital bore the phrase “The Godless Gate.” While the original meaning has been lost to common knowledge, some dusty tomes and ancient records state that the founders of Haven wished to be free of the influence of the Faint Divinities that dominated the surrounding regions. They hatched a plan to kill one of the mightiest of these deities, known as the Shun’Aush the Granite Ophid. While their exact method of deicide is forgotten, their victory ensured Haven’s dominance in the region for centuries to come. They made their home behind its remains, which became the mighty walls that Haven was known for. But the Shun’Aush would have his revenge. As the Havenites carved through its stone body, the fine dust left behind settled into the surrounding earth. There was a time of prosperity over many centuries while the scales of the god remained undisturbed. But progress is it’s own pressure and the increased productivity demanded by a growing population brought the ancient stone dust to the surface as farms tilled deeper soil, and mines hacked into hidden stone. The same walls that brought the city security, became the crucible that incubated a virulent plague.

Over the last two years, over half of Havenites fell to a disease known as the “Serpent’s Sickness.” First, victims’ cough up dust, soon after their skin breaks out in a scaling rash, then their body hardens beginning first with the flesh, bones, soft tissue, and finally their origins ossified. Once within the organs, “the serpent” moves so quickly, that victims petrify where they stand, leaving the city of Haven filled with statues of victims in their last moments of agony.

But, the High Magus of Haven, Archmage Phylax discovered a rare red flower that could cure the Serpent’s Sickness. Challengingly, these buds only grow prolifically across Fanewick in the spring, but for every 10,000 of the common white-petaled blossoms, there’s only one of the rare red blooms the cure requires.

Things got so desperate in Haven that they had no choice but to invade if there was to be any hope of saving their people from the plague. So it came to pass that Haven sent forces into Fanewick, to round up the scarce red buds. They plunged into the deep wood, and under the guidance of Archmage Phylax, stole the Reaping Eye from the most powerful Faint Divinity that protected the land, the Great Owl god Nikta, the Sheperd of the Seasons . Though few believed the wizard’s stories, he was correct: the Sheperd of the Seasons kept the Fanewick in balance by turning its eye first for ripening, then ruination, upon the land, maintaining the cycle of seasons, of growth and decay, of death and rebirth. With the Reaping Eye removed, Nikta can only watch over the Fanewick with the Eye of Renewal, forcing it into everlasting spring.

In the year since, Haven has conquered the bogs, turning them into fields to harvest red flowers. The endless growth that once seemed like a gift quickly evolved into a scourge known as the Witherwild–the flora and fauna of the Fanewick have flourished, unchecked and uncontrolled. Animals swell to massive size, trees warp, twist, and begin to hunt people, vines creep along the forest floor strangling all they touch. This explosive growth is unconquerable and unrelenting, with no force able to stop the metastasizing verdance for long.

Prior to the Serpent’s Sickness and the Owl God’s endless growth, your party lived a peaceful life in Fanewick or life of toil and conquest in Haven. But when the danger demands a response, even the unprepared (and perhaps unwilling) must make a stand.

Tone & Feel:

Dynamic, Whimsical, Cozy, Uncanny, Epic, Heroic, Adventurous, Thrilling

Themes:

Verdant, Ancient, Serene, Haunted

Inspirations

The Legend of Zelda, The Dark Crystal, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Communities

All communities are available, but some have unique aspects within the Witherwild campaign.

Loreborne and Highborne

In Fanewick, knowledge is the most valuable commodity and those who have expertise have the most power. This economy of information functions primarily on gifting and trading, and wisdom would be considered acceptable collateral for a weapon or warm meal. As such, Loreborne community members are the wealthiest in the Fanewick and might be smaller, distinct groups of hunters, historians, or artisans, within larger villages.

• What knowledge did your community teach you that you must now protect or share?
• What are you able to accomplish because of your upbringing that others outside your community do not understand?
• You once traded important knowledge for something terrible. What did you impart and what did you gain in return?

In Haven, the wealthiest members are Highborne, having inherited riches that were built in the walled city over generations. While the Highborne of Haven were more insulated from the Serpent’s Sickness, like any disease, none were immune.

• Who have you lost to the Serpent’s Sickness? How did it affect you?
• How did your family make their wealth? Have you rejected or embraced their core set of ethics?
• You grew up in a world of abundance but were kept from learning something about the world. What was this knowledge and when did you discover it?

Ridgeborne, Underborne, and Wildborne

While not exclusive, players who choose one of these communities (Ridgeborne, Underborne, and Wildborne) likely come from a portion of Fanewick. Members of these groups are most often raised in the deadly environment of Fanewick, which has only become more dangerous as the Witherwild progresses. Each has unique customs that allow them safe passage through dangerous terrain and the territory of Faint Divinities, which may be freely shared, or closely guarded secrets.

In exchange for protection from the Witherwild for themselves and their families, some Fanewick from these groups have been forced to take jobs as farmers in Haven’s flower fields. Though it is back-breaking work performed for a nation-destroying their land, the Haven fires burn back the ever-creeping Witherwild, offering safety.

• What faint divinities do you give tribute to and how have you been rewarded in kind?
• You displeased a god of the Fanewick. What did you do, and what misfortune befell you or a loved one?
• You fled the place of your birth. What were the circumstances that drove you to leave?

Orderborne

Players might choose to build Orderborne characters if they want to play current or former members of the Haven Army that invaded Fanewick. Though the army brings violence into this land, they also carry with them incredible grief for a homeland succumbing to disease and pain.

• What regrets do you carry with you from your conquest of foreign soil?
• What kindness did an enemy combatant bestow upon you in an hour of need? How did this change your view of the people of the Fanewick?
• You were charged with planting a rumor in a Fanewick community. What is it, and do you plan to carry out this mission?

Slybourne

As the Haven army represents the current martial power in Fanewick, those who wish to play Slyborne characters might come from rebel groups of Fanewick seeking to expel the invading forces from their lands. Depending on the nature of the tactics they employ, a character’s association with their Slyborne community might align with, or go against their upbringing.

• Who among the Haven army do you wish to exact revenge upon and why?
• You joined an insurgent group that’s working to free this land from Haven’s grasp. What has given you doubts about the leadership’s methods?
• Someone you love is a member of the Haven Army. How have you used your position in the rebellion to protect them?

Seaborne

Both Fanewick and Haven have a coastal border. The majority of Fanewick’s Seaborne communities focus on local travel to neighboring regions and seaside living in smaller groups, while Havenites tend to live in large ports that ship and receive goods from distant lands.

• You recently traveled by sea over a vast distance. What went terribly wrong on that passage and how has it changed you?
• Growing up on the sea taught you a skill few have. What did you learn and how when did it save your life?
• You used to sail with a companion. Who were they and how do you remain connected?

Wanderborne

Wanderborne communities can be found in both Fanewick and Haven, though safe travel has been severely restricted due to the military occupation and the expansion of the Witherwild. Players might choose to build characters that come from one or neither country, and they should make clear decisions on their personal views, and the views of their community, on the invasion of Fanewick.

• What do you do to keep your small community safe, independent, and hidden from Haven’s forces?
• Because of your communities’ transience, you have loved ones in both Fanewick and Haven. How has this affected your relationship with the invasion?
• Your community travels to protect something. What is it, and why does it keep you from settling down?

Ancestries

All ancestries are available, but some have unique aspects within the Witherwild campaign.

• Clanks from Haven are commonly made from iron and steel while Clanks from Fanewick are typically constructed from wood and stone.
• Some fungril that live in the Fanewick since the Witherwild are noticeably larger than members of this ancestry from other regions.
• Some Drakona, Fauns, Firbolgs, and Inferis that live in the Fanewick since the Witherwild have noticed their horns growing faster and longer.
• Many families of Galapa and Ribbets that lived in the bogs of Fanewick were displaced by Haven’s army when they invaded.
• Anyone, particularly those from Haven, may carry the Serpent’s Sickness, which stiffens their movements and gives them only a limited time to survive without a cure.

Classes

All classes are available, but some have unique aspects within the Witherwild campaign.

Sorcerers, Druids, and Rangers

Those with the abilities of Sorcerers, Druids and Rangers are most common throughout Fanewick. If you’re playing one of these classes, consider how you might your connection to the natural world might be impacted by the Witherwild.

Wizards and Warriors

Those with the abilities of Wizards and Warriors are very prevalent in Haven. There is a large Wizarding School in Haven that teaches fighters and healers. The Haven Army is primarily composed of Warriors and School of War Wizards. If you’re playing either of these classes, consider what your relationship to the Haven Army is.

Vengeance Guardian

Many Wicklings who seek revenge on, or the expulsion of, Haven from Fanewick have the abilities of Vengeance Guardians. If you’re playing this subclass, consider what ideals or institutions you might be protecting.

Syndicate Rogue

The Haven Army sends spies into Fanewick communities to gain information on planned attacks and to manipulate public perception. If you’re playing a Syndicate Rogue, consider how they might be connected or impacted by these covert operatives.

Player Principles

Draw from Humble Origins

You come from a place not built for war. Think about how your life before picking up arms to fight the Witherwild impacts the kind of hero you’ve become. What from your upbringing has proven useful? What do you need to leave behind?

Treat Death with Importance

Taking a life should not be done without consideration, desperation, and consequences. Remember those you’ve lost and those you’ve slain and allow it to affect your choices in the future. Is there

Embrace Vulnerability

Find your character’s humanity and showcase it whenever you can. Be as vulnerable during quiet moments as you are vicious during violent ones. Open yourself to your allies, even if you close yourself off to everyone else.

GM Principles

Paint the World in Contrast

Subvert expectations by giving space for the nightmarish to charm and the beautiful to terrify. Give the PCs visions of the natural beauty of the Fanewick that has run roughshod across the region, breaking the bounds of the bogs and forests, and devastating homes and communities. Show the grim and ordered life behind Haven’s walls, but also show the culture, art and progress that has come out of centuries of security and safety. In a place of long nights and days, dual seasons, and two nations in conflict, look for ways to highlight bold dualities.

Make the Details Whimsical

Inject humor and lightness into the inhabitants of this land. Allow the Faint Divinities to look and operate within the story in uncanny ways. Though they wield incredible power and influence, these gods may also spend their time wandering the Fanewick in search of a victim to prank or impart a harsh but humorous lesson to. Despite the trauma this land has endured, find room for joy, ritual, and celebration.

Show Them True Danger

Though it may be tragic, bodily harm is not the worst tragedy that can befall your players. To illustrate what’s truly at stake, use the PCs origins in the Fanewick or Haven to show them what they stand to lose. The events of this campaign may change or destroy their homes, family, friends, or even their core beliefs. Offering players ownership of their backstory gives them something to fight for.

Offer Alternatives to Violence

By illuminating non-violent approaches to problem solving, the PCs can actively become a part of breaking the brutal cycle that binds this world. Some corrupted beasts simply need to be shown compassion in order to free them. The conflict between Haven and the Fanewick shouldn’t only be solved with blood and blade. What threatens both could also unify them. Give the PCs opportunities to mend old wounds, right past wrongs, and heal the rift between Haven and Fanewick from within.

Create Multidimensional Allies and Adversaries

No adversary or ally is all good or all bad, and they each have multidimensional lives. Even the most congenial ally should be hiding darkness inside them, hoping their failings will go undiscovered. Those painted as evil should sometimes do the right thing, even if it’s for the wrong reason. Just because a player or NPC is from Haven does not make them a villain, and, conversely, not all the inhabitants of the Fanewick are virtuous. Finding the nuance, complications, and deeper motivations of the people of Haven and the Fanewick will lead to richer interactions, more complex moral choices, and a deeper sense of attachment to the world for the players.

Distinctions

The Weeks of Day and Night

The day and night cycle of the Witherwilds occurs weekly, meaning the sun rises for an entire week before setting into a nighttime of the same length. This has an impact on everything from agriculture to trade, as many merchants refuse to travel through the long, dark night. But this cycle doesn’t just affect the people of the Fanewick, it’s dictated how the wondrous ecology of the place has evolved. Days and nights are accompanied by entirely different natural soundscapes as the Fanewick’s nocturnal denizens sleep through the long days and stalk the woods in times of darkness while their diurnal counterparts sleep. The plants, similarly, live on this strange day/night loop, with many living out their entire life cycles in a week. Sun Rose vines make a thorny ascent to the top of the tree canopy over the course of the week, only to wilt under the light of the moon. Conversely, Night Bloom, a bioluminescent flower, that emits the smell of burnt sugar and decay, only blooms when evening falls, illuminating patches of forest; a godsend to anyone forced to travel in the dark.

The Serpent’s Sickness

The plague sweeping across Haven spares no one, and grants all a painful end. In the initial stages, victims are afflicted with a hacking cough laden with dust. Then a scaled rash errupts acros their skin, cracking their flesh in a unique and painful pattern. Since the initial outbreak, Haven officials have worked tirelessly to quarantine those in the early stages of the disease, but this effort has done little to stop the spread of the Serpent’s Sickness. Not long after, victim’s bodies will begin to harden, from their flesh, soft tissue, bones, and finally their organs will cease to function and solidify. The final stages of the serpent’s wrath is so quick, that many transform into statues where they stand, leaving all of Haven a cenotaph to a once great power.

Lady’s Veil

These small flowers grow in patches of sun throughout Fanewick. For every 10,000 blossoms of white petaled flowers, one will bloom a unique and vibrant red. These flowers have long been used in herbal teas across the region, with the crimson flowers holding a place in specific ceremonies. Even so, they were only foraged until the Havenites discovered Crimson Lady’s Veil is the only known cure for Serpent’s Sickness. Thus, they invaded Fanewick and began cultivating the flowers on massive farms in former bog territories. Though the theft of Reaping Eye has created an indefinite growing season, the red flowers remain just as rare, and Fanewick is permeated by a sickly sweet smell as the Haven Army races to mass-produce a cure for Serpent’s Sickness. Anyone outside the Haven Army or the farmworkers that’s caught with a Crimson Lady’s Veil will be killed on sight.

The Witherwild

This corruption, empowered by the endless spring, is spreading throughout Fanewick. Some believe the overgrowth began in the forest, others claim is sprang from the bogs, but this flourishing malignancy induces horrific changes and massive growth on anything it touches, transforming them into “Withered” beings. Plants sprint to life with a desire to consume all around them. Animals grow to immense proportions, with onerous dispositions to match their exaggerated teeth, tusks, and claws. Even harmless creatures that were once hunted for food have become dangerous and formiddable adversaries. When a person is corrupted by the Witherwild, either from a purposeful attack or accidental harm, they are transformed. They become a nightmarish hybrid of plant or beast, and their own changed body. The Witherwild will slowly replace the personality of victims with the same drive for consumption exhibited by the rest of the corrupt Fanewick. Though the Withered may manage to retain a semblance of who they are for a time, eventually they’ll face the final loss of their personhood. Some Wicklings believe the Withered are gifted with this power by the Nikta’s wrath and will thus drive the forces of Haven from the Fanewick and return his Reaping Eye.

The Gods of the Fanewick

Gods in the Witherwilds are not ethereal concepts that exist in another realm, but wander the land as incarnate beings, residing in both the natural world as well as within homes and small villages. As such, they are generally present in Wickling’s lives. Many communities, and even some larger families, even have their own small god, or tutelary spirit, that watches over them.

Belief and worship take on a different meaning here and there is a constant push and pull between the goals of both people and their dietific neighbors. The gods must curry worship from mortals, often by performing small miracles, acts of service, or by testing their resolve with tricks and curses. Mortals rely on the small blessings from the gods to keep them safe when traveling and working in the Fanewick. The most powerful and widely acknowledged of these Faint Divinities is the The Sheperd of Seasons, Nikta, as it’s had the most recent and visible impact on everyone in the Fanewick.

The various divinities of the Fanewick each have their own opinion on what is happening in regards to the Witherwild corruption. While some enjoy nature’s newfound dominance, many of the lesser dieties are wary of how out of balance the Fanewick has become. While their behavior and motives may be inscrutable, they are more accessible than gods that watch down from on high.

• Hyacynis: They Who Spread Small Blossoms. A friend of bees and tiny flowers, who has embraced the Witherwild after seeing their influence and domain swell (literally) to immense proportions. They’re enjoying this metastasizing growth and do not see a reason to end it.
• Fulg: Stacker of Stones. A small god who favors tribute in the form of smooth, stacked river rocks. He grants an abundance of bivalve and limpet growth on the rocks where they can be easily harvested. He is largely uninformed about the problems Fanewick faces, and prefers it that way.
• Qui’Gar: Whispered Sweetness for a Thorny End. A quiet god who presides over the deaths of those who die in thorny bushes and briar patches. Traditionally she doesn’t receive many visitors, but the Witherwild’s corruptive growth has made her job harder and upended her quiet existence.
• Oove: Watcher of the Night Bloom. One of the few local gods that has never been seen, but is often heard in the wilds at night whispering directions to lost travelers pointing them to the nearest source of Night Bloom. Locals claim that he leads those who displease him, or harm the nocturnal creatures, into dangerous terrain. It’s rumored that he watches over the Fanewick nights from his home on the moon.
• Ikla: Sky Painter. Ikla’s artistic prowess and talent are unmatched, painting the skies of each weekly sunrise and sunset over the Fanewick in a myriad of scintillating colors. The rest of the week they could not be lazier and their demeanor is exceedingly unpleasant, offended that anyone would ask a favor of them during their time off.
• Rohkin: The Wandering Horn. Rohkin watches over the many herds of horned creatures that reside in the Fanewick. In happier times he preserved the balance of nature and civilization, preventing overhunting. But since the corruption of the Witherwild has taken hold he’s seen his herds change into unrecognizable, dangerous beasts.

These are but a small slice of the hundreds, if not thousands of Faint Divinities lurking, relaxing, hunting, and playing throughout Fanewick.

• What Faint Divinities do the PCs acknowledge and tribute, if any?
• How has the Witherwild changed the personalities and dispositions of the Faint Divintities player encounter?
• Which gods ally themselves with Haven to preserve the Endless Spring? Which align with the Fanewick?

The Inciting Incident

You can use the prompt below to start your campaign, or create your own.

With the Reaping Eye stowed in a secure vault beneath the central towner of Haven’s school for mages, seemingly impossible to recover, a secretive and dangerous rebel group, led by a mysterious figure known only as The Fanewraith (Wildborne Simiah, she/her), has hatched a plan to end the curse of the Witherwild: Find the The Great Owl, Nikta, and pluck out the Eye of Renewal. While this may solve the immediate problem… just as when Haven invaded, the long term consequences are not being considered.

Haven’s beleaguered spymaster, Kreil Dirn (Orderborne Drakona, he/they) is not a popular person in Haven. He is responsible for rooting out insurgents, stopping schemes before they have a chance to start, and keeping a close watch on Haven’s internal activities. Kriel has, openly, never agreed with High Magus Phylax’s (Highborne Human, he/him) decision to steal the Reaping Eye, and the consequences they’ve paid for that decision have been grimly vindicating.

Recently he uncovered the Fanewraith’s plot and is horrified by the possibilities of their success. Knowing he can’t send a troupe of Haven soldiers deep into the woods to hunt down the Fanewraith, stopping her before she enacts her desperate plan, Kreil uses their vast network of informants and spies to find a group of adventurers from within the Fanewick itself to bring the Fanewraith to swift justice.

The party is sent an invitation from Haven to meet with Kreil. But is his information correct? Does he have his own motivation or secret ambition? Whether they come from the Fanewick or Haven, the party will have to extend some trust to a person who is equally as dangerous and mercurial as the “enemy” they pursue. And what will they do when they find the Fanewraith? Bring her to justice? Side with her? Attempt to recover the Reaping Eye?

Kreil will advise the party to start their hunt for the Fanewraith in the treetop village of Alula, where he suspects she runs her operation.

Campaign Mechanics

Corruption from the Witherwild

Adversaries and Environments you use in this campaign can have the “Withered” tag added to their Type. When it does, also describe how the Witherwild has changed or impacted how it would normally operate or appear.

Anytime a PC takes Severe damage from an adversary or environment that is “Withered,” gain a Fear token and place it on a PC’s character sheet, now called a Wither token. When you do, the PC must roll their Fear die. If they roll at or below the number of Wither tokens on their sheet, they immediately take a scar and clear all tokens, describing how the Witherwild changes them permanently.

At the end of each session, clear all Wither tokens from the PC’s sheets and gain them as Fear. If a character ever dies with Wither tokens on their sheet, their body is instead taken over permanently by the Witherwild.

Session Zero Questions

• What dangerous animal comes out during the weeks of night that isn’t out during the week of day?
• What unique trait (appearance, smell, taste, etc.) does anything tainted by the Witherwild have?
• What superstitions do you or your community have about traveling the Fanewick during the long nights?
• What foraged food has become a staple of your community and how have they made it their own?
• If you are from Fanewick, what commodity do you secretly enjoy that comes from Haven? If you’re from Haven, what delicacy from Fanewick can you not get enough of?

Map

Pass this map around the table during Session Zero and fill it in together.

[Map Image]

Five Banners Burning

Long-brewing tensions between rival nations boil over, threatening all-out war.

Designed by Mike Underwood

The Pitch

Five years into an armistice that ended a decade of warfare, the threat of renewed conflict looms large in the continent of Althas. Five nations in a delicate web of alliance and rivalry seek to exploit the opportunities granted during a moment of rapid magical, political, and social change. All five nations deploy agents to strengthen alliances, sabotage foes, and tip the balance of power in their favor. In Five Banners Burning, you’ll play heroes caught up in the twisty and ever-escalating conflict between nations, contending with competing loyalties, generational grudges, and opportunistic villainy.

Overview

The five nations of Althas:

• Armada, a federation of city-states founded by pirates-turned-merchants. Uninterested in paying back the fortunes stolen by their forebears, they seek strength and recognition through naval superiority. Allies of Jesthaen, disliked by Voldaen and Hilltop.
• Hilltop, a rich theocracy that exerts a monopoly on access to the gods, giving them holdings in the other nations’ settlements from capitals down to villages. Old allies of Voldaen, unfriendly toward Armada and Jesthaen.
• Jesthaen, a young republic recently independent from Voldaen after a bloody but short war. Seeking to prove their strength through displays of military might. Allies of Armada, allies of convenience with Polaris.
• Polaris, a progress-focused magocracy at the beginning of a magical industrial revolution. Traditional rivals of Voldaen, allies of convenience with Jesthaen.
• Voldaen, a proud monarchy with traditional authority and riches, recently shaken by Jesthaen’s secession. Old allies of Hilltop, traditional rivals of Polaris.

Althas is a continent comprising five major nations which once flew under one banner. In the age of gods, the divinities clashed with primordial powers of chaos, protecting their mortal creations. When mortals and gods were victorious, a Dwarven Seraph named Arvold was crowned first queen of Althas, founding the nation of Voldaen. Meanwhile, the gods made their seat in what is now known as Hilltop, departing centuries later to fight otherworldly foes.

Over several centuries, factional differences within Voldaen grew untenable. With the gods absent, their priests asserted their authority as divine regents of the Hilltop. Later, a group of scholars and mages that wished to push the boundaries of what was known broke off and founded the nation of Polaris. Alliances of pirate navies began settling down in trade cities, forming the federation of Armada. And just fifteen years ago, groups of workers and anti-monarchists declared independence from Voldaen, fighting a bloody war that consumed the continent, with Hilltop coming to the aid of Voldaen and both Polaris and Armada aiding the Jesthaen rebels. Active combat ended five years ago with an armistice, but the peace remains tenous.

The emergence of Jesthaen as a nascent military powerhouse has re-drawn the lines of power, challenging Voldaen and Hilltop’s traditional authority. But the alliance between Polaris and the upstart nations of Armada and Jesthaen is tenuous. And there are many in both Voldaen and Jesthaen with unfinished business from the war. Minor border clashes and trade disputes threaten to boil over. Many believe that war is coming again, it is only a matter of when and how.

Tone & Feel

Adventurous, Dramatic, Intimate, Political, Serious, Sweeping

Five Banners Burning is an emotionally-intense campaign with a large cast and sweeping scope, where the PCs will find themselves in the crucible that forges the fate of nations. The campaign leans toward a nuanced moral landscape, with morality and ethics in tension with duty and allegiance. Heroes may do terrible things that weigh upon them, and most villains are motivated by love and loyalty as often as ambition or vengeance.

Themes

Innovative, Martial, Opulent, Urban

Inspirations

Avatar: The Last Airbender, Babylon 5, Born to the Blade, Court of Blades, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Eberron’s Dragonmarked Houses, A Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice & Fire, PARTIZAN.

Communities

The Highborne and Orderborne communities of Althas play an especially central role in this campaign, as they are the ones most strongly associated with the centers of power in the five nations. But every type of community can be found across Althas and serve as a background option for characters.

Playing a character from a Highborn community likely means you’re connected to the ruling class of the five major nations of Althas.

• Are you a member of the aristocracy or nobility, the scion of a prominent merchant or priest family?
• What expectations does your community have of you, and do you intend to live up to them?

Loreborne communities are especially prominent in Polaris, from magic academics to engineers, architects, and more. But Loreborne communities exist in every nation, maintaining religious histories and knowledge in Hilltop, advising families and maintaining continuity of knowledge in Voldaen, and more.

• What kind of knowledge does your community prioritize, and how are they connected to the levers of power in your home nation?
• What secrets does your community protect or control? What impact would they have on the burgeoning conflict?

If you come from an Orderborne community, your community’s ideals will be tested by the conflict between nations as those that live by a code will be called to die for it.

• How do you see the tenets you grew up with being changed or broken as tensions rise?
• What lines are you willing to cross to protect the people you love?

**** eaborne communities are the most common in Armada, but are present elsewhere, though they’re rare in landlocked Polaris.

• How is naval power being exercised in your community?
• What do you fear will happen if the conflict comes to your community by land?

Slyborne communities can be found in all the nations, but are especially prominent in Jesthaen and Armada, where criminal organizations have been instrumental in improving their nations’ fortunes, from smugglers supporting the Jesthaen revolutionary effort to the tight-knit pirate families that founded Armada with goods taken from Voldaen, Polaris, and Hilltop.

• What is your community’s relationship to the state? Are they using this instability to leverage their connections and resources and go “legit”?
• What communities from other nations does your community do business with? How are those connections straining?

If you come from a Wanderborne community, you may consider yourself outside the authority of the five nations. But it will be very difficult to avoid the conflict entirely.

• Are your people claimed as subjects of one of the nations?
• How has the growing conflict altered your community’s travels?

Ridgeborne, Underborne, Wildborne, and other communities exist across Althas.

• What resources or assets does your community have that other nations might want to take for themselves?
• Who from your community was conscripted in past conflicts, and what tales do they tell of their battles?

Ancestries

All ancestries are available in this campaign, and can be found throughout Althas.

Player Principles

Make your actions reflect or refute your allegiances.

You will be implicated in the actions of your superiors.

Stick to your principles or break them for good reasons.

Decide where you draw your lines and what it will take for you to cross them.

Take small actions that have big implications.

Find your moment to make a difference, to push back against overwhelming odds.

Grapple with the impact of your actions on everyday people.

Connect with people and foster hope in places where fear moves them toward wrath or despair.

GM Principles

Force them to choose between their loyalties.

Make it impossible to keep everyone happy, force them to pay the price of compromise.

Entangle them in a web of old grudges and new schemes.

Carry them away with the weight of history and the gravity of ambition.

Put the party in the crucible of history.

Put the party in a position to make an impact on big events in the conflict. Make the PCs’ actions reverberate.

Zoom in and out to show the far-reaching impact of decisions.

Show how individual motives and social systems interact to create movements, good and bad.

Distinctions

A World on the Edge

Five Banners Burning features a setting on the verge of open warfare. When that war will break out depends on you, but it is almost inevitable. But the conflict between nations will be fought in ballrooms and back-alleys as much as in castles and valleys, with people from all backgrounds caught up in the growing conflict despite their best efforts.

Your Actions Will Tip the Balance

The party will be in a unique position to have an outsized impact on the ultimate results of the conflict between these nations. Ensure that they are connected to the major players, factions, leaders, or other movers & shakers so that they’re always in the thick of the conflict.

Big Questions

To engage with the thematic elements of this campaign, keep these questions in mind throughout or create your own:

• Does power always corrupt? In what ways is the road to disaster paved with good intentions?
• What does just governance look like? How do you decide who to protect and uplift with limited resources?
• How do you manage divided loyalties without betraying someone, including yourself?

Collateral Damage

As conflict escalates, it will displace monsters from their ecosystems, drive people from their homes to become refugees (within their own nation or fleeing to another nation), and upset the natural and magical balance of Althas.

The Inciting Incident

You can use the prompt below to start your campaign, or create your own.

Clover of Towers (Orderborne Firbolg, he/they), the child of Jesthaen revolutionary hero Adamant Towers (Orderborne Firbolg she/her), was kidnapped/disappeared on the way to a political marriage to Enchanter Kalashae (Loreborne Orc, she/her), a rising star in Polaris’ High Circle of mages.

Polaris is wary of Jesthaen’s claim that Clover has been kidnapped, and demands that Jesthaen follow through with the political marriage. Voldaen denies all involvement, and sent a diplomatic/investigative party to Lightning Valley, a border town known for their giant lightning rods that protect the town from magical storms and for hosting the talks that ended official hostilities between Voldaen and the revolutionary faction. Voldaen offered to collaborate on the search for Clover. However, days later, reports tell of some kind of ‘disaster’ during the initial meetings of Voldaen and Jesthaen’s representatives.

The party is sent to the town of Lightning Valley to investigate what happened.

Campaign Mechanics

Faction Relationships

Use a campaign sheet to track the relationships between the nations as well as their major assets and problems. Each nation has a relationship rating with each other nation, ranging from Nemeses (-3) to Close Allies (+3). The more intense the relationship, the more the nation will act for or against the other nation even at risk to themselves. Nations that are Friendly (+1) will render help if it does not require much effort or risk, but nations that are Nemeses (-3) will go out on a limb just to see one another suffer.

Armada

Relationships: Enemies (-2) with Hilltop, Allies (+2) with Jesthaen, Friendly (+1) with Polaris, Unfriendly (-1) with Voldaen.

Assets: Large and powerful navy, superior maps of ocean & wind currents, allied water monsters

Problems: Small land area, no overland access to the main continent, lingering reputation as pirates/thieves.

Major Objectives: Build friendly port infrastructure in Voldaen/Polaris for trade

Minor Objectives: Acquire airship technology, deploy privateers against adversaries.

Hilltop

Relationships: Enemies (-2) with Armada, Enemies (-2) with Jesthaen, Nemeses (-3) with Polaris), Allies (+2) with Voldaen.

Assets: Wealth from tithes, a devout army, priests & seraphs, divine power & authority, influence & intelligence through temples & shrines.

Problems: Surrounded by adversaries, negligible navy, scarcity of domestically-produced food.

Major Objective: Bring the miscreants of Armada back into the fold & redeem them

Minor Objectives: Beseech the gods for a bountiful harvest, stamp out a Fallen cult in Armada territory.

Jesthaen

Relationships: Allies (+2) with Armada, Enemies (-2) with Hilltop, Friendly (+1) with Polaris, Nemeses (-3) with Voldaen

Assets: A strong land-based military, natural resources, large amounts of arable land.

Problems: Political instability as a new nation, remaining conservative elements loyal to Voldaen.

Major Objective: Take revenge on Voldaen for injustices across centuries.

Minor Objectives: Secure enduring trade partnerships with Armada and Polaris. Take control of local temples from Hilltop.

Polaris

Relationships: Friendly (+1) with Armada, Nemeses (-3) with Hilltop, Allies (+2) with Jesthaen, Enemies (-2) with Voldaen.

Assets: Skilled mages, magitech innovations, airships, magical creatures.

Problems: Lack of workers, poor quality and scarce raw materials.

Major Objective: Perfect magical servitor enchantments.

Minor Objectives: Secure new mines/quarries, foster immigration through job programs.

Voldaen

Relationships: Unfriendly (-1) with Armada, Allies (+2) with Hilltop, Nemeses (-3) with Jesthaen, Enemies (-2) with Polaris),

Assets: Traditional political and cultural authority, seemingly but not actually boundless wealth.

Problems: Strategic vulnerability due to major settlements close to large borders with Polaris and Jesthaen, political upheaval following Jesthaen’s separatist revolution.

Major Objective: Reclaim key resources from Jesthaen without starting another war.

Minor Objectives: Turn Armada against their allies, steal magical talent & technology from Polaris.

Objective Countdowns

Due to the large scale of this campaign, the GM is encouraged to use special long-term Countdowns to track the big picture actions of the nations of Althas. Each nation’s efforts toward exploiting their assets, addressing their problems, and pursuing their objectives (major and minor) are tracked with Countdowns.

Each in-game week, tick down one countdown per nation as they make progress on their goal. These countdowns can also change (up or down) as appropriate with the fiction.

A completed countdown represents a nation gaining access to a type of asset, removing a problem, developing new technology or initiatives, changes in political or social fortunes, etc. When a countdown is completed, pick a new objective based on the fiction and start a new countdown. Each nation can only have one major objective countdown at a time.

Completing major objectives requires a 10-step Countdown, while minor objectives and steps to address problems have 4 to 6 steps, depending on the scale of the endeavor. The GM should stagger the progression of these countdowns so that countdowns complete every couple or few weeks rather than three at a time and then nothing for a month.

The party may often be dispatched or mobilized to complete or block these objectives, and the countdowns that complete will generate major shifts in the narrative for the party to respond to.

Example: The party spends a week traveling by airship from Armada to Polaris to seek counsel from the scholars of the High Circle about ancient script discovered in an abandoned ruin. During that time, the GM ticks one countdown per nation to represent their progress as time passes. They also tick down Voldaen’s 10-step countdown to seize one of Armada’s shipping fleets from 7 to 6, representing the nation’s scouts and sailors observing Armada’s shipping schedule and the disposition of the escort ships traveling with the cargo freighters. Inspired by the scene where the PCs had to prove their magical prowess to earn the Polaris captain’s interest to secure passage, they choose to tick Armada’s 4-step countdown to acquire airship technology from Polaris, representing their diplomatic and trade efforts to access the carefully-guarded magitech. For Hilltop, the GM ticks down their 4-clock representing a massive ritual to bless this year’s harvest and increase their yield from 1 to 0, completing the countdown making a note to spread news of its success in addressing Hilltop’s lack of food. They’ll also need to think of a new countdown for Hilltop. Polaris has two projects at 3 ticks remaining, so the GM decides to tick down their major countdown to perfect their servitor technology to 2 as the magitechnicians scale up wider tests of the promising prototype. Lastly, the GM ticks down Jesthaen’s project to take religious authority in their nation from Hilltop to 4. This countdown had recently ticked up from 4 to 5 due to the PCs choosing to investigate the cult rumors in Armada lands rather than assist Jesthaen in convincing Hilltop priests to cede authority.

Session Zero Questions

• Should all the characters come from and/or have allegiance to the same nation? Why are they allied and traveling together?
• How big of a role will war play in this campaign compared to other elements like diplomacy, intrigue, mystery?
• How much conflict do we want between PCs? What safety tools will we use to negotiate those conflicts when they occur?

Campaign Map

Pass this map around the table during Session Zero and fill it in together.

[Map Image]

Locations

The upcoming sections offer locations for you to pull inspiration from, repurpose for your own game, or use whole cloth. Each location has the following elements: a number of themes that give you a high overview of what it will be like, and is designed at a certain tier so that you have a campaign path built in if you’d like one.

• Themes to emphasize throughout the location.
• Intended tier—while you can use each location at any tier, but following the recommendations can help you craft a full campaign that spans all levels. (Tier 1 is for Level 1, Tier 2 is for Levels 2-4, Tier 3 is for Levels 5-7, and Tier 4 is for levels 8-10.)
• Principles for the GM to consider.
• Important landmarks, settlements, and factions.
• Resources to add flavor; these include moments of Hope and Fear to inspire benefits and complications in the location, along with interesting rumors and thematic equipment, items, and consumables.
• Adversaries and environments to flesh out each location.

This book contains the following locations:

• Sablewood - Verdant, Serene, & Ancient - Tier 1 - A dense forest region known for its bustling economy and hybrid animals. Starts here.
• Rime of the Colossi - Frozen, Desolate, & Haunted - Tier 2 - A hostile stretch of frozen wastes where colossal metal limbs reach toward the sky while their bodies remain encased in the ice below. Starts here.
• Gindalia - Opulent, Urban, & Haunted - Tier 3 - A fabulously wealthy city whose obsession with debt haunts its citizens long after they’ve shuffled off this mortal coil. Starts here.
• The Solsunk Sea - Aquatic, Strange, & Ancient- Tier 3 - A vast expanse of open water where ancient secrets lie in wait in the fathomless depths. Starts here.
• The Kinekozan Jags - Mountainous, Underground, & Strange - Tier 4 - A moving mountain where the stone dances by day, slumbers by night, and the deep mines provide only questions. Starts here.

(More locations coming soon!)

Sablewood

Designed by Spenser Starke & Rowan Hall

Verdant, Serene & Ancient

Tier 1

A dense forest known for its bustling economy and hybrid animals.

Distinctions

The Sablewood is an ancient, expansive forest where the trees are rumored to be older than the Forgotten Gods, standing hundreds of feet tall. This dense wood is widely known throughout the Mortal Realm and many who visit are surprised to learn that the stories they believed were exaggerated legends are, in fact, stark truths.

Endless Verdance

As far as the eye can see in all directions, and farther still, there is an endless verdancy. The canopy is so thick that one often cannot tell if it is day or night, and those who travel through must be careful not to lose their path. Anyone that moves through the treetops could easily make it from one end of the Sablewood to the other without touching the forest floor. The soil of the Sablewood is notoriously dark and fertile, and though it is a dangerous place, it is the welcome home of a number of communities and creatures.

You might find:

• An entire village taken over by Hunting Trees in the night, now abandoned.
• The deafening whispers of a thousand leaves rustling in the wind.
• The scent of sweet honey-like nectar leaking from between the cracks of the sablewood.

Hybrid Fauna

The fauna of the Sablewood are never quite what unseasoned travelers expect. Always a blend of two familiar beasts, or even animals and elements, they operate in unfamiliar ways. These creatures range from docile and friendly to territorial and aggressive. Many are larger than might be expected, by virtue of their profoundly long lives. Some say the animals that live within the Sablewood are the emissaries of the Forgotten Gods.

You might find:

• Tiny cat-squirrels jumping from limb to limb as massive giraffe-deer move gingerly along the forest floor.
• The hooting-howl of strix-wolves calling in the night.
• The whoosh of air passing over you as a lemur-toad swings by in the darkness.

The Spires

Within the Sablewood there are a number of Spires with attendants that are granted the position any time the previous tower tender dies, causing their signal fire to extinguish. To become a Spire Keeper, one must run through the woods, entirely off of a known path, and make it to the unattended Spire to light the signal fire. No one knows the true job of these Keepers, only that someone must always reside in each tower within the forest.

You might find:

• Twisting towers of stone that reach beyond the canopy of the Sablewood.
• The soft clatter of Spire stones falling from great heights to toss among the trees.
• The ozone smell of powerful magic.

Well-Worn Pathways

The pathways of the Sablewood are worn so deep that they are sunken into the rich soil of the forest undergrowth. Those who live on the edge of the woods will warn travelers not to leave the path, as those who do never return and their bodies are never found. Maps leading through the Sablewood are handed down through generations and are quite costly to acquire.

You might find:

• New travelers walking with their heads and eyes down, while experienced merchants whistling common tunes.
• The creak of wooden cart wheels passing over packed dirt.
• The smell of campfire as strangers crowd to scare away the darkness.

Underroot

Because the surface of the uninhabited Sablewood is dangerous, many people choose to live in the network of subterranean tunnels carved in and among the roots of the Sablewood trees. Each community keeps the entrance to their underground home secret, and many maps leading to Underroot communities are coded.

You might find:

• The winding stairways and tunnels, lit only by faerie lights.
• Raucous laughter over meals shared with small communities.
• The acrid scent of roots and herbs brewing over a fire.

GM Principles

Make the world lush, vibrant, and awe-inspiring - The wood is full of life in all forms, every corner occupied by strange and unusual creatures. What is terrifying is also beautiful, and the risk for such a sight may offer incredible reward.

Show how the natural and the fabricated interact - Travelers must adapt to the wood, it does not adapt to them. Those who live in the Sablewood must learn the rhythms of the trees and animals. In the end, foresight and cleverness beat out brute force every time.

Put the power of nature on full display - Nature knows no good nor evil, only need. The Sablewood is too long established to bow to any power but that of the Forgotten Gods. There is neither guile nor guilt, no blow withheld, or storm corralled.

Landmarks

The Titan’s Steps

Height of the Highest Pillar: 1,189 vertical feet

Number of Bridges Built Between the Pillars: 562

Stories say that in the time of the Earliest Age, there was a fight between the Old and the New in the place where the Sablewood now grows. During this battle, numerous portions of the Mortal Realm were razed, and others were crafted afresh. One such craft is known as the Titans Steps, or the Pillars of the Sablewood, that stand within the forest at variety of incredible heights. Some say one of the Forgotten Gods was foiled in an attempt to craft a stairway leading to the Hallows Above.

The rocky cliffs of the formation stop neither plants nor creatures from climbing their height. Wooden structures old and new cling to the rock with nets strung between pilars like cobwebs, while flying creatures and massive beasts hunt within the reaches.

Duskwatch Outpost (Settlement)

One of the many encampments hanging from the edges of the Titans Steps. This outpost is known to be the largest and easiest to reach, due to a network of bridges and steps that are reasonably well maintained (if you know which planks to avoid.) Within the economy of the Steps, Duskwatch serves as the primary market for merchants willing to travel from the Sablewood below. There is a rumor that the Duskwatch Outpost is establishing a militia, though for what purpose, no one will say.

Mountain Crabs (Threat)

Many people who’ve climbed the pillars have been killed before they even knew what got them. Sometimes confused as rock fall when they awaken, the giant Mountain Crabs are a unique hybrid of crustacean and stone that camouflage themselves with their unique gray shells. They can be small enough to carry, or as large as a building, and will continue to grow until they are killed. These massive hunters move with incredible speed and adventurers must be wary of the clicking of their steps over rock.

Dilapidated Nets (Feature)

Many of the Step communities craft nets below their buildings and walkways as a last resort for those who misstep or fall through a rotten plank. Very few, if any, of these nets are intact, as rain and age causes rope to deteriorate and flying creatures will tear through the fibers when caught. Some communities string nets between the pillars specifically to trap birds and other animals to eat, and among those groups there is an entire economy built around the buying and selling of strongly crafted rope and the materials required to make it. Sablewood custom dictates that anyone who falls off a walkway into a net pay for its repair in order to pay forward the lifesaving presence of such a tool.

The Lucent River

Common Modes of Transportation: Riverboats, many of which employ chameleon-crayfish to pull their vessels by scurrying on shore or underneath the surface.

River’s Nickname: Lucy

The Lucent River cuts a luminous ribbon through the Sablewood, at parts deep and clear and other parts rocky and tumultuous. It is the primary source of fresh water in the region, and may be one of the key reasons the trees and plants grow so lushly. The common mythology of the Sablewood describes the river as the everflowing tears of the Forgotten Gods, and once their true names are remembered the river will run dry.

The waters of this river are famed for their healing ability, likely due to their moonglow. The alchemists of Root’s Hollow brave dangerous portions of the wood to access the regenerative waters. In distant regions Lucent Water sells for incredible sums.

Moonglow (Feature)

The Lucent River is so named for the soft blue glow it gives off when the moon rises, though the moon itself is barely visible through the canopy above. This feature allows travelers to navigate by night and is an excellent means for keeping time when the sun and the moon are not discernable through the trees. The water of the Lucent River keeps its moonglow, even when removed and placed in other containers.

Eeligators (Threat)

The largest predator in the Lucent River is the Eeligator. They sleep in the deepest portions of the river, but can travel both in the water and on the shore, making them a ferocious predator to combat. They have slick skin covered in a number of spots that can be used to dictate their age, if the swimmer could survive long enough to calculate. The large eggs of the eeligator are a delicacy in some portions of the Sablewood.

The High Falls (Feature)

In the mountains of the Sablewood, the Lucent River transforms from small stream into the cascade that creates the massive High Falls. This waterfall is formed of an incredible drop that, when examined, covers a large cave system that shows evidence of once having been a home to a large community, though no one knows why it was abandoned. Directly behind the High Falls there is a massive cavern with nothing but a carved stone throne. Moss covers an illegible series of symbols and and ancient blood stain decoates the cave floor.

Open Vale

Unique Flora: Sunfire Lily, a flower that only blooms once a year for eight days. It is harvested to make a powerful hallucinatory tea.

Memory: Everyone who has ever entered.

A perfect clearing within the middle of the Sablewood; no one knows why the trees will not grow here. It is covered in a layer of particularly lush grass and receives an incredible amount of sun in comparison to the rest of the thick forest. This meadow is resistant to farming efforts, and those crops that manage to thrive grow in their own seasonal patterns.

The Open Vale is the site of numerous spiritual rituals, performed by a variety of communities that live in and around the Sablewood. “The Meadow Demands Peace” is a common phrase, and fighting within the bounds of the Vale is punishable by banishment in the wood—off train and without a map.

The Miremist (Feature)

The Open Vale seems to contain its own weather system, resulting in a perpetual fog. This mist permeates the nearby portions of the Sablewood and adds to the confusion of any who lose their way nearby. The fog is so thick and wet that numerous creatures that live in the Lucent River will come ashore to hunt when otherwise they would not. “When the moon is low, they dance in the miremist and are neither seen nor heard, fully in the mortal realm, nor passed into the realms beyond…”— From the Song of the Vale

The Stones of the Vale (Feature)

The standing stones dedicated to the Forgotten Gods mark the edges of the Open Vale. They are carved with a variety of symbols that come from a wide range of languages. The secrets of their magic are lost to the Mortal Realm, but they are rumored to glow with soft blue light when the eyes of the ancient gods turn upon the Sablewood meadow. Travelers that find the clearing are warned to leave an offering at the base of one of the Stones of the Vale, lest the Forgotten Gods send their animals to find the mortal that ignored their power.

The Claravale Market (Festival)

Unlike the spiritual practices that take place within the Open Vale, there is one celebration with a focus on the material world. Once a year there is a market established within the meadow and all who know how to find their way are invited to come, trade, and celebrate. It takes place over three nights, during which time no gold or coin of any kind is permitted to change hands. Traders are expected to give one another a fair deal, and those who do not follow the tenets of the Claravale Market are removed from the premises. The merchant was thrown into the trees, the sound of coins clattering in her pockets. She attempted to return the next year, but her map was wrong, and she could never find the clearing again.

Settlements

Hush

Village Leaders: The Faceless Six

Known for: Welcoming travelers with food and drink.

The small village of Hush sits nestled into the heart of Sablewood. It’s quaint and quiet, renowned for its friendly residents who are accustomed to providing room, board, food, and drink for any travelers and merchants who need a place to stop off during their journey.

Wards maintained by the Whitefire Arcanist keep the most dangerous animals from disturbing anyone within the four dwarven-stone pillars assembled at the edge of town. This provides a haven for those who wish to get a good night’s rest and fill their bellies with delicious food.

The Sunless Farms (Location)

On the southern end of Hush is the community farm that grows fruits, vegetables, grain, and more without the need for direct sunlight. These unique crops have been adapted over centuries to grow in symbiosis with a dark blue-green moss that covers them. This moss must be cleaned off before the food can be consumed safely. When the Faceless Six arrive to meet with the Whitefire Arcanist, the sunless farms grow a three-month cycle in one day.

Guest Privileges (Feature)

There are no inns or traveler’s camps in town. The culture of Hush dictates that when any outsiders come to visit, they are taken in by a family and given shelter for three nights. During this time, the guests have priority over everyone else in the family for anything that belongs to them. After three nights, the visitors must trade families or leave Hush. Those who prey on the kindness and selflessness of the residents of Hush often find out the meaning of the town people’s common phrase “leave it to the trees”.

Clover’s Tavern (Location)

At the center of town is a massive six-story tavern built around the trunk of an ancient tree. Considered by most to be the oldest building in Sablewood, this is the hub of activity and socialization in the city. When newcomers arrive, they must take off their shoes and hang them over the clothing line that runs down the center of the bar. It is not uncommon for the shoes to be polished and for trinkets to be left in them by the residents of Hush. The sixth floor of the tavern requires a counterweight lift to access and is in the highest branches of the treetop, providing a glimpse of sunlight and a stunning view of the forest beyond. Regulars of Clover’s Tavern will sometimes take travelers they’ve made friends out of to the Inner Rings, a private drinking lounge in the center of the ancient tree.

The Refuge

Local Habit: On-duty guards watching the Sablewood will spit over the wall if they believe something in the forest is watching them in return.

Most Popular Drink: Fire Wine, a strong golden liquor that is not made from grapes.

The first stop before entering the Sablewood from the east, or the last (grateful) stop if you’ve made your way out after a journey from the west, this community considers itself to be the last bastion of “civilization” before one enters the wilds. The large town is walled on all sides, and the townsfolk are forbidden from entering the Sablewood.

In order to “stop the progression of the all-consuming trees” firewatchers burn the edges of the Sablewood to keep it from growing beyond its bounds. The most devoted among the firewatchers speak of their efforts like battles, and their lives like a war with the woods. Every so often, these arsonists do not return to the Refuge after a day of burning.

The Fire Walk (Festival)

There is a yearly festival to initiate new firewatchers that is welcome to all who wish to witness, but few to participate. Those invited to join the ranks of the Refuge “soldiers” must walk through a massive pyre of Sablewood and live to tell the tale. Many die from their excruciating burns, but those who survive are immediately invited to live and work in the enclave. After healing from the Fire Walk, initiates will have their burn scars read by the elder firewatcher to learn details about their fate.

Fly Fishing (Custom)

Off-duty guards and trusted townsfolk will climb to the watchtowers of the Refuge and cast long lines into the canopies of the Sablewood. In this way, they catch a wide variety of animals to eat including town favorites such as rabbits-gliders, moth-possums, and turtle-mice. Fishers must be wary of badger-hawks that will pull their catch from the line, or pull the fisher off the tower.

The Ash Quarry (Location)

Because of the number of trees burned, the Refuge sits adjacent to a vast field of charred Sablewood. The Refuge claims, cleans, and sells the Sablewood ash as a remedy for any ailment a person might want curing, though there is a general consensus among the residents of the forest that the ash does nothing when sold alone. The firewatchers of the Refuge struggle to protect the Ash Quarry, as the heat and nutrients from the burned trees attract spider-manders that enjoy coating their skin in the black soot. They use this as a reason to justify burning more of the forest, creating an endless cycle of retaliation. If a citizen of the Refuge comes upon a spider-mander dozing in the ash, they are likely to be snatched and consumed, with the beast moving little more than a single limb.

Root’s Hollow

Legendary Beast: Hellbender, an ancient spider-mander known for its impeccable ability to sense anything moving underground.

Combat Style: Citizens of Root’s Hollow are known to fight with sharpened shovels.

Although reclusive, there is a thriving Underroot community carved into the roots of the northern Sablewood trees. Root’s Hollow is one of the few known villages within the inhospitable forest, but though it is hard to get to, it is famed for its size. Few merchants know the locations of the hidden doors within the trees, but those that do make a fortune trafficking specialized potions and medicines from the Root’s Hollow apothecaries.

Those who live in the deepest levels of Root’s Hollow must contend with the giant bugs that make their homes deep in the ancient dirt of the Sablewood. Though Root’s Hollow is practiced at deterring the centi-beetles and spider-manders, occasionally these mammoth crawlers destroy entire portions of the underground village. Once they carve their way through the earth, people will use the giant tunnels to form new portions of the village.

The Latch (Location)

There is an elevator within Root’s Hollow that leads deeper underground than any level of the village currently reaches. Only members of the Village Council and their guests are allowed to enter this lift, and it is only utilized once a season. No one outside the council knows what lies at the bottom of the lift. There is a rumor that the Village Council sacrifices outsiders to a behemoth spider-mander that guards the community. Stories describe the ancient beast’s nest in a secret pit beneath the city.

The Sable Stills (Feature)

The apothecaries of Root’s Hollow are known across the Realms for their powerful potions and healing concoctions. They would never reveal any details of their process, but a key ingredient is the sable sap that is harvested and fermented in the large stills that lay beneath the earth. When improperly fermented, sable sap is highly toxic and imitators of this process are often revealed when they cause a client’s death.

Knock Wood (Custom)

When people venture into the far reaches of Root’s Hollow, or even into uncharted territory, they communicate via the tree roots that lace through the soil of the Sablewood. By knocking on roots in specific patterns, they’re able to relay complex messages to one another, in particular, signaling that they are safe and well. Outsiders have attempted to utilize this form of communication to no avail. Members of Root’s Hollow have come to believe that the Sablewood trees are helping their messages travel vast distances.

Factions

Thistlefolk

Most Commonly Sighted: In the underbrush and bramble, off-trail.

Misconception: They are a rogue band of anarchists and criminals.

The Thistlefolk take up residence in the place where nobody else dares—within the thickest, thorniest bramble of the Sablewood. They are known for wearing armored clothing made up of thousands of tiny polished stones that have been cut to fit together seamlessly, like scales. This attire allows them to move through the barbed thickets without being caught up in its tangle.

Because the only Thistlefolk who emerge from the seclusion of their hidden villages are often thieves coming out to steal goods from unwitting travelers or sleeping merchants, they have received a reputation for being a syndicate of criminals. In actuality, most of the Thistlefolk are quite docile and vulnerable, choosing to live within the safety of the bramble for their own protection from the large predator species who stalk the woods looking for an easy meal.

Eclectic Villages (Feature)

Though functionally invisible to outsiders, the villages within the bramble are vibrant, sprawling, and eclectic. The mudstone walls holding back the dangerous thorns are typically painted with abstract strokes of green to camouflage the villages from any passerbys who might noticing them. Within, the buildings and walkways are typically painted in bright hues and large murals and lit by bioluminescent moss. When not armored for traveling out into the open forest, most of the Thistlefolk dress in a similar artistic fashion, with self-dyed and sewn garments. An abandoned Thistlefolk village near Hush was discovered after a large fire cleared some of the thicket that it was hidden within. It has since been co-opted as a local hangout for the young people of Hush when they want to get away from their elders.

The Wandering Briar (Threat)

A living thicket of briars estimated to be more than fifty feet tall, one hundred feet thick, and about a mile long, it crawls its way through the endless forests of Sablewood, frequently blocking routes and forcing travelers to take a different pathway to their destination. This moving tangle also serves as a home for a group of traveling Thistlefolk who live within its ever-shifting walls, known as the Wanderers. The Wanderers have learned that when the Wandering Briar draws blood with its thorns, it can absorb the blood to move at a more rapid pace. Clever poisoners may grind the thorns of the Wandering Briar and feed the powder to a target. It inhibits the clotting of blood, turning minor wounds into major injuries.

Tumblers (Technology)

When approaching the tangles of thorny vines that grow along the shoreline of the Lucent River, it is not uncommon to hear an ominous rattling coming from within. Though this scares many inexperienced travelers who might think it’s a creature of some sort warning them to stay away, in fact, the sound derives from the stone tumblers built by the Thistlefolk. They utilize the water’s powerful current to tumble stones in the sentiment of the river’s edge until they are as smooth as glass. Thistlefolk must brave the less dense underbrush to retrieve the stones, which can be cut and placed into their specialized armor. The lapidary of each village is responsible for choosing and then cutting the stones that go into the tumblers. They are said to have hands so densely calloused that they could catch the edge of a sword in their palm without bleeding.

Principles

The Thistlefolk tend to be reserved and insular, focused on preserving the safety of their home above all. Those who leave the safety of the bramble are viewed by some members of their community as brave and others as foolish.

• The thorns only catch those who let them.
• “Look over your shoulder. You don’t know who you are leading home.”
• Combat the darkness of the world outside with the brightness of life within the bramble.

NPCs

Proven Navir of the Sixspire Tangle, Stone Retriever [ Wildborne **** Fungril , they/them]

Difficulty: 12

Quiet, Focused, Dedicated

Experience: Navigation +2, Engineering +1

Description: A small, rotund fungril with bulging eyes covered by goggles to keep them safe from the thorns. They carry a bag twice their size when retrieving stones from the river.

Motive: Open a trade route with the Ninespire Tangle across the river.

Xen, Lapidarian of the Highbrush [ Wildborne **** Dwarf , she/her]

Difficulty: 8

Cocky, Practical, Discerning

Experience: Rocks +10

Description: As wide as she is tall with a shaved head and fasceted nails, Xen has an assortment of finely polished and cut emerald stones embedded into her right arm.

Motive: Get her hands on a mountain crab’s shell to polish and use as armor.

Yikyik Trahll, Driftwood [ Wildborne **** Katari , he/him]

Difficulty: 14

Curious, Charismatic, Daring

Experience: Out of Sight +3, Dodge +2

Description: A humanoid cat covered in black fur, with a tail that’s shorter after a childhood fight and a mischievous glint in their eyes.

Motive: Visit every Thistlefolk village in the Sablewood.

Story Hooks

• A Thistlefolk stole something of importance from a merchant and they need help to get it back.
• The Wandering Briar has cut through a small village, decimating homes and causing them to relocate.
• Three kids have gone missing after sneaking off to the abandoned Thistlefolk village outside of Hush.

The Sable Sinecure

Highest Earning Settlement: The Refuge

Motivation: Gold

The Sable Sinecure got their name from years of joking by the fireside—for such a dangerous job, accomplishable by so few, to look easy? Well that’s just a walk in the woods! This merchant’s guild closely guards their territory, in that they will protect any traveler that walks the Sablewood paths, rather than try to run them out of town. In this way, they have an incredible number of members in proportion to the size and danger of the region they transport goods through.

The Sable Sinecure is home to the only merchants willing to transport their goods up the Titan’s Steps–as the guild will guard any goods left or lowered to the forest floor so that the merchant might reclaim them and go about their business.

Fire-Falcons (Feature)

Cousin to the phoenix, but by no means immortal, fire-falcons are the preferred companions of the most powerful merchants in the Sable Sinecure. They use the birds to fly the path ahead, both leading the way with their natural light and signaling danger approaching. Though small, they are violent adversaries. Fire-falcons will hatch only one clutch of eggs in their lifetime, and the locations of their nests are a closely guarded secret.

Secret Caches (Location)

To keep their packs and carts as light as possible, the Sable Sinecure utilizes a number of secret caches throughout the forest. These locations are not guarded by members of the guild but by a number of other hidden traps. Those who attempt to steal their wares will have their eyes removed and fed to the fire-falcons. Thieves come shopping with nothing to pay, so they pay with the poor sense that led them there.

Wood Wage (Feature)

Only within the bounds of the Sablewood, members of the merchant’s guild and surrounding communities will use a phrase known as “wood wage,” which is a way of asking the cost of something that quantifies the danger it took to acquire and transport the item. The higher the wood wage, the more costly the barter. “You earned your wood wage today,” is a phrase tossed at weary travelers when they come to a campfire worse for the ware.

Principles

The Sable Sinecure does not have a written code of conduct but rather operates by an unspoken code of ethics.

• “All goods to the highest bidder, even death pays our price.”
• One must make reasonable efforts to protect those around them. This does not extend to anyone who strays from the well-worn paths.
• Do not sell that which was not earned. Gifts must gifted anew.

NPCs

Helena Corain [ Ridgeborne **** Human , she/her]

Difficulty: 12

Straight-shooter, Affable, Brave

Experience: Climbing +3, Strike a Deal +2

Description: An elderly human that free climbs the Titan’s Steps to collect mountain crab eggs to sell. She’s not from around here but commands more respect than most locals of the wood. She can get free lunch just about anywhere she goes.

Motive: Reach the top of the Titan’s Steps.

Will Scild [ Wanderborne **** Galapa , he/him]

Difficulty: 15

Unphased, Dry, Fair

Experience: Merchant +2, Retaliation +7

Look: A Galapa of indeterminate age. Though he moves slowly through the Sablewood with goods of exceedingly high value, no one dares disturb his journey. He carries no weapon, but he is known to toss a small stone back and forth between his hands.

Motive: Find the lost treasure rumored to be in Cradle of the Forgotten Gods.

Simrith Luhaj [ Loreborne **** Giant , he/they]

Difficulty: 14

Coy, Intelligent, Flirtatious

Experience: Out of Sight +3, Dodge +2

Description: The premiere trainer of fire-falcons. He has an old burn scar covering one of his arms, and when asked, claims a “giant eeligator got me” with a smirk.

Motive: Find and train a Phoenix to join his ranks.

Story Hooks

• A traveler just ahead is attacked by raiders that come down from the trees. They scream for help.
• Members of the Sable Sincecure come to a party, asking for volunteers to join the guard of a particularly precious cargo they’re carting through the Sablewood.
• Claiming a nest of recently hatched fire-falcons perched high in the Titans Steps has become the only goal of every member of the Sable Sinecure, and they’ll kill anyone who stands in their way.

Resources

	MOMENTS OF HOPE		MOMENTS OF FEAR
1	A friendly merchant invites you to their fire and shares a story.	1	A merchant’s cart overturned, wheel spinning, only viscera left behind.
2	A map of the Briar, only slightly torn.	2	The snapping of twigs directly behind you.
3	A fox-bat takes refuge within your coat for the evening.	3	The wind roaring through the canopy, in its echoes reverberates your name.
4	A young hunter arrives back in town carrying her first kill.	4	A set of animalistic eyes watching from just off the path, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
5	The standing stones of the Forgotten Gods glowing many shades of blue.	5	Thistlefolk bandits cutting coin purses and disappearing into the underbrush.
6	A tree branch reaching down to catch you from falling.	6	A tiger-elk tearing its prey limb from limb.
7	A harvest of fresh twilight plums, ripe and pungent.	7	A wicked smile, then a hand snuffing out your lantern.
8	An ancient wooden chest buried beneath hundreds of years of overgrowth.	8	Skeletons skewered on tree limbs, old tatters of clothes blowing in the wind.
9	A Spire being ascended by its keeper, their nightly hunt over their shoulder.	9	A pit trap covered in leaves, hungry for its next victim.
10	A lively marketplace full of handcrafted goods and freshly baked pastries.	10	A tangle of thorns dripping with fresh blood slowly absorbed.
11	An ornately decorated carriage pulled by a fleet of goat-horses.	11	A shattered sword left behind in pieces, its hilt grown over in moss.
12	Endless drinks poured over merry music and hearty laughter.	12	Massive trees uprooted and thrown by something enormous.

Rumors

Every spring there is a part of the forest that expands six inches in radius, consuming the wider landscape. In one such expansion, a rare weapon known as the Sableblade grows from the ground.

An ancient faerie lives in a small cottage deep within the woods. It is said she will accept items of value in exchange for something the visitor is seeking. Her definition of “value” is unique.

While digging out their tunnels, Underroot communities found massive stone strongholds buried deep within the ground with no clear way to gain access inside.

If you fall asleep in the Sablewood without a campfire, you wake up in a different place than where you fell asleep.

Ember Lake, on the western side of the forest, is a hot spring lake heated by the still-burning forges of the Forgotten Gods.

If a creature you encounter has an extra eye on the back of its neck, it was captured and released by the Glimpse, a Faint Divinity covered in eyes who cares for injured animals in the Sablewood.

Equipment

Sableblade - Agility Melee - d10+1 (phy) - One-Handed

Feature: Ancient Power (Mark stress before a damage roll to increase your damage total by +3.)

Primary Weapon - Tier 1

Eeligator Scale Shield - Finesse Melee - d4 (phy) - One-Handed

Feature: Sharp (Add +2 to your armor score, add +2 to your damage rolls.)

Secondary Weapon - Tier 1

Thistlefolk Armor - Base Score: 3

Feature: Seamless (When you take minor damage, roll a d12. If it rolls your level or lower, you can mark a Stress instead.)

Armor - Tier 1

Items

Returning Stone: This small stone can be placed anywhere, and will teleport to your hand under one of the following conditions: somebody comes within close range, somebody within very close range is dealt damage, a certain amount of time passes, when you speak a keyword.

Ward of the Whitefire Arcanist: A carved figurine in the shape of a humanoid. While carrying this in the Sablewood, it gives you +1 to your Evasion.

Sableleaf Shoes: A set of shoes sewn out of the leaves of the Sablewood trees. They are light and flexible. Wearing them lets you spend Hope to take advantage on agility rolls while in Sablewood.

Consumables

Bugbane Berry: A delicacy among the residents here, this is a large, red-orange berry with a small insect floating in its center like a pit. When consumed, it provides resistance to magic damage until your next short rest.

Sable Sap: The sweet sap from the Sablewood trees can be drizzled over food or eaten by the spoonful. Once per long rest, when you have a calm moment to consume this, you may clear two stress.

Vial of Briarpowder: Made from shaving thorns of the Wandering Briar, when used on an enemy, it inhibits the clotting of blood. After coating a blade with this powder, the next successful attack you deal one additional hit point.

Adversaries

Bullfrog

Description: An amphibous bull-sized hybrid with springing legs.

Motives & Tactics: Leap Out of Danger, Spear with Horns, Strike with Tongue

Tier: 1

Type: Bruiser

Difficulty: 11

Attack Modifier: +1

Horns: Melee | 2d6+4 phy

Major 8 | Severe 13

HP: 4

Stress: 2

Experience:

Territorial +5

Features

Tongue Strike - Action

Make an attack against a target within Close range. On a success, deal 2d6 phy damage and pull the target into melee.

Powerful Gore - Action

Mark Stress to leap forward, making an attack with the bullfrog’s horns against all enemies in a straight line within close range. Any that are hit take 2d8+1 phy damage and must mark one armor slot. This does not reduce any damage.

Leaping Dodge - Reaction

Whenever an attack against this creature misses, the bullfrog may leap anywhere within Far range.

Strix-Wolf

Description: A wolf-owl pack hunter with wings and a rotating head.

Motives & Tactics: Stalk, Surround, Protect Pack

Tier: 1

Type: Skulk

Difficulty: 13

Attack Modifier: +2

Bite & Claw: Melee | 2d6+2 phy

Major 5 | Severe10

**HP:**4

Stress: 2

Experience:

Tracker +4

Features

Pack Tactics - Passive

When making a Bite & Claw attack, if another Strix-Wolf is also in melee range of the target, deal 2d8+2 phy damage instead. “When they work in packs, they’re more bold, more vicious.”

Powerful Senses - Passive

This creature ignores the Hidden condition on anyone within close range

Fly - Action

Mark Stress to make the Strix-Wolf take flight, increasing their Difficulty by +2 and making their attacks worth +2 damage until the Strix-Wolf lands.

Eeligator

Description: Reptile-fish hybrids that vary in length, armed with powerful jaws.

Motives & Tactics: Hide, Hunt, Subsume

Tier: 1

Type: Solo

Difficulty: 14

Attack Modifier: +3

Snapping Jaw: Very Close | 2d10 phy

Major 12 | Severe 25

**HP:**7

**Stress:**5

Experience:

Intrusion +3

Features

Healing Skin - Action

Mark Stress to heal 1 HP.

Pull Under - Action

If a target is within close range of a body of water, spend a Fear to make an attack against them. On a success, deal 2d8 phy damage, then move both the Eeligator and the target into the water that’s within close range. The Eeligator pulls the target under, making them Restrained and Drowning. While Drowning, every token that is added to the action tracker causes them to mark a Stress.

Death Grip - Action

Mark a Stress to make a Snapping Jaw attack. If successful, mark Stress to lock this creature’s jaw onto the target, dealing 1 additional hit point and making them Restrained until the Eeligator is dealt Major damage. When released, the target marks a Stress.

Environments

Bandit Hideout

Description: A shabby but well-defended hideout nestled among the brambles of the Sablewood.

Tone & Feel: Claustrophobic yet well-appointed, dark yet comfortable

Tier: 1

Type: Exploration

Difficulty: 12

Potential Adversaries:

Jagged Knife Bandits (Bandit, Shadow, Hexer, Sniper, Lieutenant, Lackey, Kneebreaker)

Features

Thorn Fence - Passive

The hideout is blocked by a wall of brambles as tall as a human. This wall can be passed in a few ways:

• Leap over (Agility 12).
• Carefully pick your way through (Finesse 12).
• Fly over with a flight feature.
• Cut your way through by dealing 10+ damage in one attack (roll to hit only to see if there are consequences on a result with fear) or by making two attacks (regardless of damage.

How would the bandits notice the brambles have been disturbed? How did the wall get there - do they have a druid or ranger among their number?

Patrols - Passive

The bandits post a constant watch, mostly directed outside the camp. Entrance will require stealth (Finesse 12), deception (Presence 12), or special knowledge (Instinct or Knowledge 12).

Fight Your Way Through - Passive

If the party decides to fight their way through but you want to abstract the battle to save time, call for a Group Action, asking each member of the party how they contribute to the fight, with one PC making the main roll for the group. On a success with Fear, each PC must mark Stress and 1 HP or 1 armor slot. On a failure, each PC must mark 2 Stress and some combination of 2 HP and/or armor slots.

What defenses do the bandits have to bring to bear? Does anyone notice the combat or is it over before other bandits take notice?

Alarm - Reaction

On a failure or success with fear, some of the bandits grow suspicious and more actively patrol. Attempts to pass through the hideout through stealth have disadvantage for the rest of the scene or until the actively patrolling bandits are defeated or distracted by something else.

On the Hunt - Action

Spend a Fear to have a pack of 1d4+2 hungry Strix-Wolves infiltrate the hideout, desperate for food.

Do the PCs avoid the animals? Do they try to use them as a distraction or backup? Do the PCs have food on them that would draw the animals’ attention?

Underroot Tunnels

Description: Fortified and well-kept tunnels leading to underborne communities within the great forest.

Tone & Feel: Musty yet breathable, alternatingly winding and steep.

Tier: 1

Type: Traversal

Difficulty: 10

Potential Adversaries:

Acid Burrower, Stonewraith, Jagged Knife Bandits

Features

Hidden Entrance - Passive

The first challenge of the Underrot Tunnels is finding them. PCs must complete a Progress Countdown (3) to find a viable entrance to the tunnels (Instinct and Knowledge are most applicable, though Finesse could be used to search manually for a seam or switch and Presence could be used to gain information from a denizen of the Sablewood).

A Series of Passageways, All Alike - Passive

Navigating to a particular location in the tunnels requires a Progress Countdown (4 for most known settlements, 6 for less-known or more-remote destinations).

Potential challenges:

• Identical passageways.
• Damaged stairwells leading to a lower level.
• Root blockage (see below).
• Flooded tunnel.

Root Blockage - Action

Reveal that the path ahead has been blocked by the shifting of a great Sablewood tree. The party can dig around the root (Finesse), try to cut through it (Strength), or double back to find another path (Instinct).

Toll-Keepers - Action

Spend a Fear to introduce a number of Jagged Knife Lackeys equal to the size of the party plus two Jagged Knife Bandits and a Jagged Knife Lieutenant seeking a ‘toll’ of two handfuls of gold per character for passing through their “protected territory”.

The Village of Hush

Description: A small but friendly village nestled into the heart of the Sablewood.

Tone & Feel: Musty yet breathable, alternatingly winding and steep.

Tier: 1

Type: Social

Difficulty: 11

Potential Adversaries:

Merchant, Bladed Guards, Strix-Wolves

Features

Guest Privileges - Passive

There are no inn’s or traveler’s camp, as the village has a tradition that any visitor will be taken in by a family and given shelter for three nights. During this time, the guests have priority over everyone else in the family for anything that belongs to them. After three nights, the visitors must trade families or leave the town.

Which family takes in the PCs? What visitor has been abusing guest privileges and what do they want here?

Clover’s Tavern - Passive

At the center of the town is a massive six-story tavern built around the trunk of an ancient tree. The tavern is where most of the village gathers in the evening, and PCs may learn rumors, meet the villagers, and relax. When they leave, the shoes they put up on the clothing line have minor trinkets inside that reflect how the forest sees them or that provide some minor portent of challenges to come.

What’s the talk of the tavern? What clues do the trinkets left in the PC’s shoes/boots provide?

Leave it to the Trees - Reaction

Spend a Fear when someone abuses guest privileges to summon a Deeproot Defender, 1d4 Sylvan Soldiers, and a Young Dryad. They kidnap the culprit and drag them off to face the justice of the Sablewoods.

Do the villagers notice when this happens? How do they alert the grove guardians to these abuses, or do the dryads just know? What is the origin of the guest privilege custom?

Arcanist’s Challenge - Action

The Whitefire Arcanist approaches the party with a request - investigate the nearby Spire, whose Keeper hasn’t been seen for a week. And now the eternal fire has gone out, suggesting misfortune.

What happened to the Spire Keeper? What will the PCs need to do to find them and put things right?

Rime of the Colossi

Designed by Carlos Cisco

Frozen, Desolate, & Haunted

Tier 2

A hostile stretch of frozen wastes where colossal metal limbs reach toward the sky while their bodies remain encased in the ice below.

Distinctions

The Rime is a vast stretch of frozen wastes, bordered by impassable mountains and accessible only by sea at certain times of year. It’s a place unwelcoming to most life, as resources are perpetually tight and weather conditions are rarely better than terrible. Still, life seems to have eked out a stubborn existence among frigid winds, ice-boring chaldworms, howling wraiths haunting the ice pack, and the limbs of the mysterious metal colossi encased in hundreds of feet of ice.

Infinite White

This is not a place of verdance and really only comes in three varieties: Rocks, thick ice covering rocks, and snow covering thick ice. It’s mostly flat, a great white plane extending to meet a gray-white sky, the horizon blurred. It’s often hard to orient without a compass due to the lack of topographical variance and visibility destroying blizzards that are more common than not. Travelers have described it as being not far off from the blasted, empty wastes of the Circles Below just much, much colder.

You might find:

• A churning snow storm miles away, moving slowly through the Chaldwastes.
• The crunch of snow under boots.
• The sharp pain of frigid air filling the lungs.

Dangerous Survivors

From the fauna native to the Rime, to the hardy folk who adopted it as their home, it takes a certain type to survive in this climate. Predators hunt for hundreds of miles to get their next meal, and won’t part with them easily. Similarly, settlements out here are hardscrabble and community-minded. Sickness and weather make no distinction between who lives or dies. Because of this, everyone and everything that lives here has hardened to acclimate. Most folk know how to jab a spear in the spot that hurts, and the animals are cunning and lethal hunters.

You might find:

• A chaldworm exploding out from underneath a mammoth, burning the pachyderm’s thick hide with its superheated headplate.
• Nightly howls of winter wolves on their nocturnal hunts.
• The hardened ice vibrates beneath, ominous and terrifying.

Colossal Limbs

The titular namesake of these frigid badlands. Throughout the Rime explorers and travelers will stumble upon pockets of warmth and calm. Places where the temperature is balmy and the weather is tolerable. The unifying quality is that they’re all near one of the myriad metal limbs, appendages, or heads poking out of the ice. All seeming to reach towards the heavens. Each belongs to a metal colossus that is hundreds of feet tall and buried in solid ice. Despite the warmth they radiate, the ice around them is no less solid or cold. No one knows their true origins, if they’re alive, or what they’re reaching for.

You might find:

• A small encampment has formed underneath the outstretched hand of the colossus.
• A stark transition, like walking through a membrane, between the bitter cold and the balmy warmth surrounding a protruding head.
• Five long shadows extend further and further as the sun rises behind metal fingers.

Cryomantic Beautification

Travelers braving the Chaldwastes have returned with reports of exquisitely sculpted statues of ice and snow that seem to defy the laws of nature. Often attributed to the same weirdness as the Colossi, the true artists are a sect of druids known as the Cryomantic Assemblage. Their ancient charge was protecting the beauty and sanctity of the Rime. With such a harsh and unforgiving climate, few despoilers find the risk worth the meager reward. So they took the beauty aspect to heart and began to dot the landscape with these Cryomantic Assemblages. Any who disturb or destroy these works of art will be met with swift, frigid justice.

You might find:

• A sculpture that defies logic. Four spears of ice, whose points are touching, are balanced on the corners of a cube of powder snow.
• The crunching of ice and snow as a sculpture springs to life, with limbs made of frozen shards.
• A broken statue. Nearby is a dead body, suspended in the air by whorling spirals of jagged red ice. The victim’s blood. A clear warning.

GM Principles

Embrace the beauty in desolation - Most think of lush forests or jungles when picturing nature’s majesty. But the stark emptiness of a seemingly lifeless ice field, or a remote glacier pushing into the ocean come with a special beauty all their own. It’s the beauty of the bleak and barren but also of tenacious endurance. Every animal that thrives here and every plant pushing through the tundra are miracles of their own making.

Make clear that survival is a struggle - The desolation is punctuated by the stark reality that most things that are living in this climate will soon be dead. The nights are colder than imagination can comprehend, and days are only marginally better. Food of any type comes at a premium in trade, or requires specialized skills to hunt or gather. Resources for building are scarce, so civilization’s hold here has been and will continue to be tenuous at best.

Define how nature’s harsh indifference has shaped life here - The people of these climes are a hardy and resourceful folk. No where else in the realm can you see rations stretched further, or more creative uses for traditional supplies. Travelers to these frigid climes will find folk are wary of outsiders, but should they make a true friend it will be one for life. Survival is paramount, and those not helping that cause are probably working against it.

Landmarks

Icecage Passage

Number of Unsuccessful Attempts to Chart Passage via Ship: 134

Number of Survivors That Have Returned from Unsuccessful Attempts: 3

Sailors and traders have looked at the frozen seas for years, hungering for a faster way around the continent. The Icecage Passage perpetually tempts them as they calculate costs and travel time, easily able to shave off weeks at sea. But it’s not without its pitfalls. To start, one needs a specialized icebreaker vessel to even hope to pass through. Second, no one has been able to properly chart it with as the topography changes with the whims of the sea ice.. Even if progress is made, it’s impossible to turn back as the ice seals the path behind them every night Running out of supplies is one of the more common ways crews have been lost… And there are things out in the ice floes worse than any natural danger.

Frozen Egress (Feature)

For three quarters of the year, this stretch of water just outside of Rimelock Bay is frozen solid and impossible to cross via ship and those foolish enough to cross it on foot deserve whatever is coming to them. In those few months where the ice pack is broken up, it’s not uncommon to see a number of ships docked at Rimelock Bay while they stock up on last minute supplies before attempting to push through the Icecage Passage. Locals in Rimelock Bay are happy to see the money roll in during the warm months, but it’s always with a tinge of guilt. It’s always a sad day when a regular merchant decides they want to cut corners and take the passage this year. They rarely see them the next.

Dorne Mike’los, Captain of the Shattersquall [Seaborne Inferis, they/them]

Difficulty: 15

Brave, dashing, loquacious

Experience: Commander +2, Navigation +2, Witty Repartee +

Look: A consummate explorer and ship captain who is too handsome for the amount of frostbite they’ve endured.

Motive: Chart the Icecage Passage. And be the first.

Haunted Ice Pack (Threat)

When the sea freezes over it creates walkable, albeit dangerous and chaotic, plates of jagged ice known as an ice pack. It can seal in ships, collapse randomly, and eventually crush anything held by it. It’s a place most locals warn would-be explorers away from. Do they listen? The menagerie of ghosts, shades, undead crews, and haunted ships evidences that they did not. Even for the most robust ships this isa danger filled trip through frozen waters, but the dead that stalk the floes of solid ice make it downright harrowing. Nightly attacks are common, and ships passing through these waters must be prepared for that inevitability as well. The cryomantic assemblers in the Rimegrove keep the worst of this place from crossing onto shore. Still, it’s always a nightmare to encounter a Graveship that has wandered into the Chaldwastes.

The Rimegrove (Settlement)

A small forest of trees made of ice, with a canopy of fresh snow, that skirts the borders of the Chaldwastes and the ice pack of the Icecage Passage. In the heart of this crystalline forest is a small walled enclosure full of huts, above a small network of tunnels that pop up throughout the forest. While they can be found all over the Rime, this place is the home of the druids of the Cryomantic Assemblage. They do not appreciate outsiders entering their grove, but have been known to entertain invited guests with shows featuring live sculpting and sweet delicacies made from flavored ice.

The Chaldwastes

Worm Runs: Local hunters can often be found partaking in fiercely competitive group hunts to take down roving clews of chaldworms.

Beautified Landscape: The Cryomantic Assemblage has used this flat, bleak landscape as a blank canvas and filled with icy wonders beyond compare.

What most folks picture when tales are told of the Rime. Flat, endless, white wastes cut through with frigid winds and blistering cold. Those stories are true, but they don’t paint the whole picture. Massive metallic heads, outstretched arms, hands, fingers belonging to the myriad of colossi dot the landscape and create pockets of warmth making travel conditions just a hair below unbearable. Pair this with the frozen statuary that peppers the ice and the right vista affords one of the most breathtaking views this realm has to offer… on the rare day a blizzard isn’t raging across it. Conversations between friends have been cut off mid sentence, only for the other to discover their traveling companion fell down a chaldworm hole.

Chaldworm Hunting Grounds (Threat)

With their huge bodies, superheated head plates, unerring tremor sense, and pack mentality travelers passing through the Chaldwastes are under constant threat from below. Moving in clews of three to six, these predators will attack anything smaller than them and regularly feed on mammoths… just to give a sense of scale. Still, their oil and armored plates, and delicious meat are in high demand, and hunters frequent these icy plains to get a cut of the action. Many make their livelihood hunting these worms, passing techniques from generation to generation. Young Wormhunters who have yet to earn their first burn scar from a worm are known as ‘Clew Chew.’

The Glass Gardens (Outpost)

One of the Cryomantic Assemblage’s outposts is surrounded by a wall of ice, polished clear, flanked on both ends by gates of solid snow that collapse into powder and reassemble when opening and closing. Inside is an impossible place. A fruit orchard and vegetable garden surrounding a small farmstead. All of it is ice but it’s extremely edible and is some of the most savory, succulent, and sweet produce if one can get past the universally crunchy texture and icy temperature. The druids who live here are happy to feed anyone seeking a meal, and are very proud of their unique culinary concoctions. It’s always delicious but sometimes unpleasant to eat when all one wants is a hot meal… but they do excel at cold soups.

The Cryoclast (Location)

Surrounding a large mining encampment, built over an exposed vein of platinum, are six humanoid skeletons clutching staves and made entirely of solid ice. The encampment is the size of a small village, complete with a clockwork mining rig, storage warehouses, company housing, store, infirmary, and the people who live and work there. To say it’s all frozen is an understatement. Everything has been changed, on a molecular level, into ice. There is no flesh or wood or iron. Nothing but solid ice. It’s haunting to pass through this place, doomed for their trespasses against the Assemblage. Every detail is preserved perfectly: the pores on someone’s nose, each individual beard hair, the slight warping of the wood on the side of a house, the intricate cog-work of the drill.

The Blood Glacier

Cult Activity: Many cults frequent this place, performing strange rites in the crimson waters

Feeling of Being Watched: Dark figures lurk at the borders of peripheral vision, disappearing when looked at.

The Blood Glacier is always a disturbing sight to come across when leaving the Chaldwastes, a crimson stain on a canvas of pure white. Situated at the edge of a mountain range at the far end of the Rime. This glacier is a craggy mix of black rock and red ice, as runoff from the glacier pools like blood in the snow. Because of its macabre appearance, most locals avoid the place, considering it cursed.

Sanguine Falls (Location)

A partially frozen waterfall that cascades down a cliff over 200 feet tall. The waters that flow from the top are tainted with a ferrous substance that turns the water a brilliant crimson color, and looks like flowing and frozen blood. It’s enough for most to get one look and turn away… in either fear or wisdom. This is a place where travelers always feel watched, where light moves in ways it shouldn’t, and where gravity behaves poorly. Explorers have returned with reports of strange cults performing rituals in the waters of the falls. The details of their tales are fuzzy and almost always end with them joining in the festivities somehow.

Ferrous Giant (Location)

Atop the falls are a series of massive, tiered hot spring pools and the source of the sanguine waters. Splayed over the springs are the bones of a colossal humanoid, pierced through with a spear three stories tall. The bones are solid iron, and the rust mingling with the spring water creates the flowing “blood” that is seen from below. This is the only colossus in the area that does not have a metal outer shell, leading some to speculate what is actually underneath the frozen colossi in the wastes.

Strange Happenings (Feature)

From the weird cults that flit about the crimson waters, to the odd occurrences of gravity reversal, to the giant bones that bleed rust into the water, to the piles of frozen bodies at the base of the falls dissuading climbers… this place is full of weird, eldritch energies. So much so that animals stay away from it, and even the biting wind seems to avoid the glacier. Some have claimed to feel like they are being watched the whole time, and they likely are. But by whom… that remains up for debate.

Awaken the Giant Countdown

A consequence for a miss can always be a mark against the countdown.

8 - Nine mysterious figures appear around the ferrous giant, chanting.

7 - Arcane runes and symbols light up the sky around the falls.

6 - Gravity begins to act strange around the falls as the figures bodies dissolve into liquid.

5 - A new star appears in the sky… no. A moon. The sun does not ascend that morning.

4 - The moon descends into low orbit, held aloft by thirteen wings.

3 - The moon warps, turning into a giant head from which it extrudes a proportionate body.

2 - The moon person pulls the spear from the giant, ascending back into space, disappearing.

1 - The iron skeleton awakens, its organs sprouting as sinewy flesh regrows over it. Skin callusing as the sun, rising again, passes over it.

0 - Fully reformed, the impossibly tall colossus pulls itself into the sun, curling into a fetal position inside its cosmic womb.

Settlements

Rimelock Bay

Severe Markups: Merchant’s and explorers wanting to cut through the Icecage Passage will find the price of goods soaring.

Worm Meat, Four Ways: Chaldworm hunters often return here to preserve, process, and sell the meat, oil, and carapace from the worms. When a successful worm hunt coincides with a provision shipment there’s always an impromptu town-wide cooking contest.

The biggest settlement in the region and really the only place with frequent visitors. Situated at the mouth of the Icecage Passage, a half-ring of basalt pillars, rising hundreds of feet tall juts out into the water, creating a large and welcoming bay free from rough waters and easy to keep clear of ice. It’s often called the last stop before the pole, as it’s the first and last spot anyone is able to reliably resupply in the Rime. It’s a safe community that watches out for its own and doesn’t have a watch. Criminals are dealt with swiftly, often bagged and left out in the Chaldwastes to fend for themselves with only a blanket, flint, and a handful of jerky. The locals here get on well with the nearby Assemblage, leaving them be and respecting their art by appreciating it from afar.

Rimelock Gateway Bazaar (Market)

A massive warehouse down by the docks, this is where all the moving and shaking happens. A boisterous place with its own meadhall, locals and visitors gather to eat and drink even if they have no trade to do. Worm headplates are competitively weighed at market, with the hunters taking home hefty purses from merchants eager to purchase the winning carapaces. Those looking for work can always find someone who needs an extra hand with a supply run or a rescue mission in the Bazaar.

Quentin ‘Qube’ Hubert, Frigid Wizard [Ice Elemental, he/him]

Difficulty: 16

Curious, unassuming, good-humored

Experience: Ancient History +1, Forbidden Knowledge +2 Magical Knowledge +2

Look: A block of solid, polished ice who can crush a portion of itself to form a face and limbs. He wears a bright yellow toga, wrapping around what would have been one of his shoulders if he had any.

Motive: Exploration. Qube was once a mortal man. But by discovering a powerful, frozen, and eldritch tome, managed to turn himself into an ice elemental permanently. Which suits him, honestly, as he uses his new form to explore the furthest reaches of the Rime.

Jaded Locals (Feature)

Locals have seen so many come and go through here, only to never return, that they don’t invest much in new faces. It’s not that the people of Rimelock don’t care, but they can’t afford to. If they start getting to know that fresh-faced adventurer they may come to realize they like them. If they like them they’re inevitably going to have to go find them when they fall down an ice chasm, get pinned down by worms, or frozen up to their necks by angry druids. It’s just not worth it. A true friend here is worth a thousand in a warmer climate. They are few and far between, so those that find them hold them close.

Cinthia Trin, Ice Runner [Ridgeborne Halfling, she/her]

Difficulty: 14

Tireless, indomitable, fierce

Experience: Athlete +1, Bloodhound +1, Quartermaster +2, Tracking +1

Look: Never without her snow hounds. Scarred, weary, and always draped in heavy pelts to ward off the cold.

Motive: The Loop. Take the package. Bring it to the destination. Take the next package. Bring it to the destination. Keep moving. Can’t stop. Too many rely on her.

Last Stop (Location)

While most inns have their own tavern below, the stewards of the Last Stop would just as soon send its tenants to the bazaar’s mead hall, or one of the many fine establishments around town if they need a meal. But if they need any last minute supplies… Some rope and pitons? No problem. A jar of worm oil? They probably have at least one. Some snow shoes? They’d love to offer some Friction Boots but sold their last pair to a sickly looking explorer just yesterday. If anyone happens to stumble onto those boots, they’d happily buy them back. All of their merchandise is branded so it’s easy to spot. Some people see the proprietors as shady and cold, but the truth is they are just incredibly practical. Out here it’s all finders keepers, they just make sure to let everyone know what a generous buyback policy they have.

Krulhatch

Fish Focused: Visitors to Krulhatch better have a taste for fish, because they aren’t likely eating much else around here.

Harder Partiers: Despite the harsh conditions, the folks who call Krulhatch home are a boisterous bunch who love an excuse to party.

A town situated at the outer reaches of the Chaldwastes, built on stilts atop a lake frozen all but two weeks out of the year. The lake below the small village is home to a unique fish that returns once a year to spawn in its unfrozen waters. The types of folks it attracts are those that loathe civilized society… or those that civilized society has summarily rejected. The families that rule the town are more like loose knit clans, composed of both blood kin and not. It’s hard living here, but those two weeks when the fish spawn make the rest of the year all worth it.

Krulfish (Feature)

A bullet shaped fish about three feet long with iridescent orange scales and knifelike spines on their tails. It gives off one of the worst smells ever smelled, but the gland can be removed making processing it much more tolerable. The Krulfish wine, smoked jerky, and pickle exports support the entire community. The oil from the fish is both flammable and pyrophobic, a valuable alchemical component. Foreign Krulfish orders are put in years in advance, in hopes of getting a delicious cut of the action. In such demand that even kings and queens have had their orders turned down.

The Spawnarch Festival (Festival)

The Spawnarch Festival takes place over the week leading up to the thaw of the lake and the two weeks after while the krulfish spawn in the waters below the town. It’s the most important time of year, and a bad festival portents a hard year to come. The whole town lays out nets on the ice, divided by family teams, and waits for the ice to crack. When the nets fall into the water the festival is in full swing. When the spawn finishes, the nets are drug up and the fish are sorted, counted, and processed. It all ends with an incredible feast where fish are prepared in more ways than could be imagined. The games at this feast are legendary. Competitors greased up with krulfish oil lit on fire and try to push one another out of the ring before the oil burns off. Families offer up fiercely competitive krulfish recipes for judgment with prizes awarded. Competitors flyt with one another, trading increasingly hilarious and personal barbs. The Trivig Family “Krul-Krunch Wafer” is the recipe to beat, remaining undefeated three years running. And don’t even try to go toe to toe, flyting, with anyone from the Gauso Family.

Spawnarch Festival Countdown

A consequence for a miss can always be a mark against the countdown.

8 - The town begins preparations. Colorful nets with weights and family markings are placed on the ice.

7 - Elaborate fish themed decorations are put out.

6 - The ice cracks, and the nets sink. The whole town gets really drunk that night.

5 - The falls at the end of the lake begin to flow again. The whole town gets really drunk that night.

4 - The first krulfish arrives to spawn. The whole town gets really drunk that night.

3 - The egg sacks float to the surface and begin to float down river, signaling the end of the spawn. Everyone… gets a good night’s rest.

2 - A brutal three day process of pulling the nets up before the krulfish are counted and weighed. The majority is packed in salt or put into fermentation barrels.

1 - A great fish feast where the town’s families and guests compete in cooking contests, feats of strength, and flyting.

0 - The Spawnarch is crowned! The whole town gets really drunk that night.

Family Champions (Feature)

Each family team is led by a champion. These champions are responsible for the performance of their team that year, and their decisions make or break their chances of victory. A mostly ceremonial win, but one that gives the winning family first press and pick on the krulfish goods they will sell. From where to position the nets, to leading the harvest pull, to choosing competitors (or participating themselves) in the feast games, it’s a position with a lot of inherent pressure. Families are very fierce about their internal selection process every year, as one bad champion can send their annual haul into a spiral they may not recover from.

Homer Noft, Noft Family Champion [Orderborne Dwarf, he/him]

Difficulty: 16

welcoming, cheerful, fiercely competitive

Experience: Animal Handling +1 , Athlete +1, Swimming +2, Wrestling +1

Look: Dresses for comfort and warmth, but always displays his family’s color (orange).

Motive: Sustainability. The krulfish count is lowering every year. They need to find a balance or their way of life will disappear. As long as he wins the Spawnarch crown the Nofts can can set the trade agenda for the year.

Yarla Boch, Trivig Family Champion [Orderborne Firbolg, she/her]

Difficulty: 15

ambitious, uncompromising, gutsy

Experience: Athlete +2, Keen Senses +1, Wrestling +2, Witty Repartee +1

Look: Unusually tall and sturdy, even for a firbolg. Either out of misplaced insecurity or genuine hardiness, she doesn’t dress for the cold.

Motive: Humiliate the Nofts. She doesn’t care if she wins the crown or not. The Nofts have looked down on the Trivig Family for years and it’s time they got their comeuppance.

Barit Gauso, Gauso Family Champion [Wildborne Human, she/they]

Difficulty: 17

cocky, amorous, dashing

Experience: Acrobat +2, Commander +1, Flirting +2, Witty Repartee +2, Wrestling +1

Look: More put together than they’ve any right to be out here. Great hair, especially. And shoulders. Gams too.

Motive: Spark joy. She just wants to have a good time and put on a good show for the village. Life is hard enough around here. She cares about Krulhatch so much and longs for a way to attract those who have left back to its way of life.

Klim Lanz, Stray House Champion [Slyborne Elf, he/him]

Difficulty: 14

Cunning, unscrupulous, nasty

Experience: Bandit +2, Feigned Incompetence +1, Intrusion +1, Spy +1, Witty Repartee +1

Look: Unkempt mountain of a man, with arms like tree trunks.

Motive: His house holding the crown means first tap on all fish oils and wines, which always go for the highest price. He doesn’t care what happens to Krulhatch, only what he can extract in the short term.

Silver Salvation (Excavation Site 2-A)

Silver Colossus: With just its fingertips poking out, encased in hundreds of feet of solid ice, is a humongous statue of a human cast in solid, untarnishable silver.

Faint Stirrings: On the rare night, when the howling wind prefers to whisper, some say they can hear a soft, slow beating in the giant’s chest.

While there is always a tent, or small cluster of shanties that form around the myriad limbs of the metal colossi, Silver Salvation is the only town that has managed to last. Situated in the middle of the Chaldwastes, the founders of Silver Salvation discovered a colossus that was surrounded by tunnels bored through the ice, all around its body and descending down to its waist. What’s not known to the folk who make this home is it was one of the first excavation sites, carved into the ice by the Ramiform Ecclesiarch Network, and where they found the first Prophetic Discs. Long abandoned, and for reasons the Network refuses to discuss, it has become a bustling community complete with a small underground ice farm, courtesy of the Assemblage, who keeps a watchful eye on this place.

Ice Tunnels (Feature)

When the folks who decided to make this a permanent home found it, they were surprised to find a network of tunnels snaking around the colossus. These tunnels are perfectly smooth and round, with a flat bottom. Some sort of tool and a LOT of worm oil were probably used to make them. Regardless, they connect all over the body, with larger chambers around the waist, left hand and arm, the chest, and the neck. Personal homes, shops, and even a little pub can be found tucked away, nestled in the comfortable warmth radiating off the colossus.

Wee Finger’s Pub (Location)

An open floorplan pub, built into a large chamber around the left hand, which is curled into a fist other than the little finger, which extends downward into the ice. The bar is built in a circle around the finger, which is stacked with shelves of spirits. Locals and visitors alike dine here, as it’s the only public house in the tiny settlement. There’s not really an owner, and the locals just take turns running the bar depending on who has the energy that day. Service ain’t great but what else is there?

Ice Farm (Location)

A gift from the nearby Cryomantic Assemblage. While the temperature makes it comfortable to live around the colossus, farming is still impossible and initially made for some months of empty stomachs. The Assemblage took pity on the small town and gifted them an Ice Farm, similar to the one in the Glass Garden. At least one assembler is always on hand to tend to the garden. In exchange, the populace has agreed to report any strange visitors seeking artifacts, cracks forming around the colossus, and not to dig any deeper around it. While the folks who call this place home are not inherently suspicious of visitors, their deal with the druids forces them to report on anyone entering and leaving.

Factions

Ramiform Ecclesiarch Network

Inscrutable Mythos: Depending on who is asked results in an entirely different answer as to “what it all means.”

Decentralized Network: This is not a group that gathers often, and it shows. Most don’t care for the others.

A loose knit group of powerful individuals who call themselves Ecclesiarchs, seek to quash the evils of this realm and bring about a new age. But their methodology is strange at best… and downright eldritch at worst. They base their beliefs around the writings from a disc made of a metal not found in the Mortal Realm. Through careful study of ancient texts and prophecy they created a translation cypher and extrapolated their core beliefs from there. They have fingers everywhere, seeking out powerful sources of magic and sites of ancient prophecy. Their search has become unified for the first time in many years, converging in these ice blasted plain to find… something.

Cure for Stagnation (Feature)

No one believes themselves to be the bad guy, and the Network is no exception. Where their goals converge is in the idea of a new genesis. Starting over from scratch with, presumably, themselves as the architects of a new era. This decision, of course, to reshape the realm is made while paying no mind to the people who actually live in it. What does this mean for this epoch? None of them care. This age is over, a decaying husk not fit to support life, progress, or meaning.

Artifact Caches (Feature)

They are nothing if not fastidious and efficient collectors. From auction houses to dungeon delves to secure vaults, the Network can always be found where the ancient and powerful surfaces. No one knows, even within the network, why they need such a robust collection of magical items. But they have them all the same. Stranger still, these same items are rarely utilized… even in instances that would further their goals. They are saving them for something. But what? The Ecclesiarchs exploring these wastes have been known to travel with massive sealed caches. Some of their expeditions have been less than successful, forcing them to abandon these treasure troves among the ice.

Excavation Sites (Locations)

The first prophecy disc was found at Excavation Site 2-A, clutched in the left hand. The second was found lodged in the eye of Surface Site 4-F. The Ecclesiarchs have been sourcing the colossi of the Chaldwastes and beyond, hoping to find more answers, context, or direction. They have enough collective wealth that when a site becomes too hostile or doesn’t turn up anything of value they have no problem leaving the entire operation behind and starting from scratch on the next one. The myriad of outposts and homes surrounding the colossi, along with Silver Salvation are all the results of abandoned Network excavation sites.

Principles

As the Ecclesiarchs are as varied as they are distant from one another, there are very few guiding principles, but below are a few of the translated lines of prophecy that seem to guide their hand and thoughts.

• “The New Age, birthed by the benevolence of the Ecclesiarch…”
• “ The fallen giant, sanguine and ferrous, holds the key. It must be made whole again…”
• “Call forth the moon above the land of unshed blood that always falls, only she can unpierce the cold heart of the realm…”

NPCs

Varlan Borillos, True Believing Ecclesiarch [ Slyborne **** Inferis , he/him]

Difficulty: 14

fanatical, compassionate, immovable

Experience: Wisdom of the Centuries +2, Divination +1

Look: Practically but impeccable, with everything showing the newness and quality of the material and make.

Motive: This realm holds so many evils… The prophecy states that by becoming the living vessel for change they can start the mortal realm anew, washing away the sins of the previous age. So why shouldn’t they?

Oskar Zahk, Wary Ecclesiarch [ Loreborne **** Katari , he/they]

Difficulty: 14

paranoid, brilliant, volatile

Experience: Magical Knowledge +3, Bloodhound +2

Look: Eccentric scholar chic. It’s clear he has great wealth so he chooses to look that way. Too many straps and buckles for books and scrolls.

Motive: Progress has stagnated. Innovation has died. We have failed as an age. Gods. Mortals. All of it. Starting over from scratch is the only way to make things right again.

Dara Mutte, Disillusioned Ecclesiarch [ Highborne **** Faun , she/her]

Difficulty: 15

Meticulous, hedonistic, assured

Experience: Experience: Socialite +3, Luxury +5

Look: A fashionable woman of luxury who looks delightfully out of place in this climate. She has gold and platinum facial tattoos that snake down from her chin to, presumably, her hooves.

Motive: There is nothing in this life left for her. She’s ready to move on, and doesn’t care if the rest of the realm isn’t, as long as whatever waits on the other end of it is something decadently different.

Story Hooks

A clade of crymantic assemblers guards an esoteric tablet he requires for one of his rituals but their ice fortress is seemingly impenetrable. Varlan needs a large supply of Worm Oil in order to get in.

Oskar needs assistance in breaking an ancient language cypher that may reveal key points of prophecy they’ve yet to unlock.

Dara has heard of a village at the far reaches of civilization reliant on a special kind of fish. She needs a champion so that she may assume the crown of the Spawnarch and, presumably, control the village’s trade.

Rimeblood Orphans

Genuine Heroes: It’s often hard to tell who the real “heroes” are. These folk are. Rarely staying in one place for too long, the Orphans wander the Rime searching for those in need.

Life of Service: Almost all of the Rimeblood Orphans began their training as children, but are not forced to continue as adults. Almost all of them choose to.

Settlements collapse, settlers go missing, travelers fall victim to chaldworm attacks… What unifies all of these is that the children traveling with these folk had no choice in this matter. Losing one’s parent to a misguided hunt, or a botched supply run is all too common. The Rimeblood Orphans are a group of wandering do-gooders who were all once victims of similar circumstances, childhood orphans who lost their parents for reasons beyond their control. No one knows how they started, but the Rimeblood Orphans continue their good work of rescuing lost, abandoned, and orphaned children in the wastes. If they have no kin to reconnect with, they are taken into their order and fed, housed, and trained in the ways of the Rime. They serve under a mentor until they come of age after which they are given a choice. They can leave and make a life of their own, or they can stay and continue their good work: serving and protecting the lost children of the frozen wastes.

Bear Sledges (Feature)

The Rimeblood Orphans are hard to mistake, and one of the main reasons is they have trained a large maul of snow bears to pull their heavy camp sledges. The bears are surprisingly docile and friendly, unless unleashed in a fight. The sledges they pull are laden with supplies, and even have places for several wee folk to sleep comfortably and warm while the sledge continues on its journey. It’s always cause for celebration when a bear sledge pulls into Rimelock Bay and five or six children come pouring out of every nook, cranny, and satchel on the sledge.

Peerless Guides (Feature)

If one needs a guide, travelers could do much worse and not much better, than employing a Rimeblood Orphan. They’ve learned how to read the path of blizzards, know where ice fishing is easiest, what parts of the ice pack to avoid entirely, and how to tell if a cryomantic assembler is friendly or not. Their services don’t come cheap, as these proud do-gooders need something to fund their mission. It’s not uncommon to see deals struck between adventurers and a Rimeblood Orphan where they will serve as guide, but should they need to rescue someone, their contracted mission will be put on hold at the orphans discretion.

Rimeblood Charity (Feature)

No Rimeblood Orphan pays for food or lodging anywhere in this area. The locals know who they are and what they do, and it’s become a long standing tradition to offer room and board to any who ride into town regardless of if they have children with them or not. In turn, the Rimeblood Orphans hold it sacred that they must be consummate guests. Even the gruffest and most misanthropic among them turn into charming guests, swapping stories, songs, and life lessons for their meals and board.

Principles

There is nothing written in stone, or ice, about the way a Rimeblood Orphan should or should not behave. Instead, these lessons are passed from mentor to initiate over multiple cycles, so much so that they may as well be permanently engraved somewhere.

• “Never forget that one guaranteed life saved is worth a dozen possible lives if it means you can still rescue someone tomorrow.”
• “Extend the same charity extended to us when hosted. Leave the bitter cold that surrounds your heart with the bears, and open yourself up to the warmth of companionship and friends.”
• “Every child deserves a choice. Arm them with the knowledge and skills to choose their life’s direction. Even if it diverges from ours.”

NPCs

Nicto Greel, Silent Savior [ Wanderborne **** Drakona , he/him]

Difficulty: 12

Stoic, Focused, Mute

Experience: Wrangle +2, Navigation +2, Quartermaster +1

Look: Ebony of scale, tall and wide of build. His face is covered with lacerations. He’s old, and been at this a long time.

Motive: Save whole families. Nicto doesn’t care to mentor anyone, and endeavors to rescue families along with their children.

Valah Sharpe, Wandering Songsmith [ Seaborne **** Dwarf , she/her]

Difficulty: 8

Boisterous, Talkative, Nurturing

Experience: Bloodhound +2, Witty Repartee +1

Look: Brightly dyed furs, easy to spot. Wildly dyed hair and styled beard. She definitely has a distinct and unmistakable flare, and stands out as a bright spot of warmth in the endless fields of white.

Motive: Give the kids a good time. Losing a parent is terrible. She would know. The least she can do is make them laugh.

Gunge Halfjaw, Worm Bait [ Wildborne **** Goblin , they/them]

Difficulty: 14

Thrill seeking, Brave, Selfless

Experience: Ambusher +2, Keen Senses +2, Tremor Sense +1

Look: Encased in worm carapace armor, his pale orange skin contrasting nicely with the gray-blue of the worm-shell. Half his jaw has been replaced by wormbone scrimshaw.

Motive: Keep the wormways safe. They’d rather prevent tragedy to begin with, so they focus their efforts in the Chaldwastes where chaldwormsare most frequent.

Story Hooks

A caravan, composed of four families, destined for Silver Salvation didn’t cross the third checkpoint and some fear the worst.

The runaway child of a monarch has gone missing out in the wastes, and a hefty reward will be bestowed on whoever can reunite him with his family.

In defiance of regional custom, a small outpost in the Chaldwastes is refusing to grant charity to passing Rimeblood Orphans. The Orphans seek no repudiation, just an outsider to figure out why and report back.

Resources

	MOMENTS OF HOPE		MOMENTS OF FEAR
1	A clear, crisp, blue morning.	1	A blizzard so thick it blots out the sun.
2	A warm fire after a cold day.	2	The ice rumbles and cracks beneath.
3	A huddle of penguins waddles past on the way to a fishing hole.	3	Unholy howls drift onto land from the icepack.
4	A swig of fine whiskey to warm the bones.	4	A body whose blood is drained and frozen in a macabre sculpture above it. A warning.
5	Sunrise glints off an outstretched, colossal hand.	5	Mysterious figures, chanting under an unscheduled lunar eclipse.
6	Fresh catch roasting on a nearby fire.	6	A maul of snow bears taking down a supply sledge.
7	A group of hunters bring down a massive ice worm in the distance.	7	A corpse, frozen and preserved for many years.
8	The sun sets, painting the white landscape in vivid pinks and oranges.	8	A Rimeblood Orphan gently explains to a child what happened to her parents. She weeps.
9	The howling wings abate, giving purchase to peaceful silence.	9	A roiling blizzard moves in quickly from the horizon.
10	A raucous mead hall, full of celebration and song.	10	A distant avalanche grows closer and closer still.
11	Ice sculptures, whose craftsmanship is beyond compare.	11	A group of frozen poachers, each in their own personal column of ice.
12	A lost child reuniting with their parents, their rescuer nearby.	12	In the distance, a ship is crushed into splinters by the shifting icepack.

Rumours

Someone is attempting to sabotage the nets during Krulhatch’s Spawnarch festival. The town elders need someone to investigate it quietly.

A mysterious group has been excavating a frozen colossi for unknown reasons. Some of the locals are scared of what could happen if the colossi gets fully uncovered.

The Rimeblood Orphans aim to take down an ice dragon that destroyed a small outpost in the Chaldwastes, and are seeking some extra hands.

Locals say that sleeping next to a colossi results in terrifying dreams. Some tell of a moon becoming a face. Others of a sun cracking open like an egg. Some even say they’ve seen metal giants wade through seas of blood and fire in their nightmares.

A merchant in Rimelock Bay was thrown in jail for selling tainted rations to an icebreaker frigate attempting the Icecage Passage. The Magistrate wants to make it right, and send a supply run of food to the ship… but it’s likely trapped deep in the Haunted Icepack.

Equipment

Rimeshot Crossbow - Agility Close - d6+4 (magic) - One-Handed

Feature: Iceburst Bolts (Mark a Stress before an attack roll to also attack any other creatures within melee range of the target.)

Primary Weapon

Worm Shield - Finesse Melee - d4+2 (phy) - One-Handed

Feature: Self Sealing Carapace (Add +3 to armor score. Repairs itself 1d4 armor slots during a long rest)

Secondary Weapon

Cryoclast Armor - Base Score: 4

Feature: Shattershard (When marking armor slots, deal 1d10 magic damage to the attacker per armor marked. This armor cannot be repaired.)

Armor

Items

Pocket Fire. The magic isn’t actually the fire, but rather the small square of magically treated cloth that it’s wrapped in. The flame can be removed from the cloth and placed on flammable material to instantly create a small campfire that lasts up to 8 hours unless doused. The cloth can be used to grab a handful of fire to be stored for future use.

Icesight Goggles. Many beasts of the frozen wastes use the ice and snow as camouflage. These goggles detect minute heat signatures in blood and breath while also sharpening focus and giving a more detailed view of the monochromatic landscape, giving advantage on instinct rolls when in icy climates.

Friction Boots. Heavy, warm boots with fantastic ankle support and magically attuned soles that adjust the friction to adapt to difficult surfaces of all kinds. The wearer is immune to slipping and falling on hazardous surfaces, and has advantage on rolls to keep themselves from being moved against their will.

Consumables

Hunter’s Ice. A small tab of black ice that, when placed under the tongue, lowers their body temperature to the same as the air around it, making detection by temperature impossible and renders them immune to the effects of extreme cold weather for the next 8 hours.

Ice Mansion. A tightly packed snowball that upon closer inspection is covered in complex creases and lines. When thrown it unfurls creating a large shelter made of ice. Inside is a bed, a cook pot, and some fur blankets. It can safely house up to 4 people for a long rest before it collapses into powdered snow.

Worm Oil. Excreted and distilled from the heat glands of the chaldworms, this oily substance can be used to coat an object or small area. Once applied, that object or surface is superheated, dealing 2d6 magic damage to any creature that touches it for the next hour. It will rapidly melt any ice it is pressed against, allowing creatures pushing or holding a superheated object to move at half speed through solid ice.

Adversaries

Chaldworm

Description: An armor-played worm traversing solid ice to strike prey from below.

Motives & Tactics: Separate, Ambush, Retreat

Tier: 2

Type: Skulk

Difficulty: 15

Attack Modifier: +3

Thrash: Close | 3d8 phy

Major 10 | Severe 20

HP: 5

Stress: 4

Experience:

Stealth +3

Tracking +1

Features

Frozen Delicacy - Passive

When killed, the worm can be harvested with a Finesse (14) roll for its succulent and highly nutritious meat, glandular oil, and armored plates. The glandular oil can be processed into Worm Oil, and the armored plates can be crafted into a Worm Shield.

Tunnel - Passive

While superheated, the Chaldworm can move through solid ice at a rapid speed, up to aFar distance per activation. It leaves a large tunnel in its wake.

Superheat - Action

Mark Stress to secrete oil from its glands and superheat its headplate for the next hour. It glows white hot, dealing an additional 1d8 magic when it uses Thrash. The Chaldworm can only use its other abilities superheated.

Ice Breach - Action

+6 Attack Modifier

While superheated, mark a Stress to accelerate rapidly while under a target, bursting out of the ice and launching them into the air. As the ground rumbles, the target must first make an Agility (14) reaction roll or be made Vulnerable. Then, as the worm bursts out of the ice, it makes a melee attack with a +6 attack modifier. On a success, the target takes 2d10 phy and 1d10 mag damage, and is thrown into far range.

Cryomantic Assembler

Description: A heavily-bundled druid crafting ice and snow.

Motives & Tactics: Summon, Surround, Observe

Tier: 2

Type: Standard

Difficulty: 14

Attack Modifier: +4

Cryomantic Blast: Close | 2d10+5 phy

Major 8 | Severe 15

HP: 5

Stress: 4

Experience:

Preservation +3

Navigation +2

Features

Living Ice - Action

Spend a Fear to bring nearby ice to life. Roll 1d6 and create a number of humanoid sized chunks of ice animate as constructs based on the result. They use the following stats:

Animated Ice

Tier: 1

Type: Minion

Difficulty: 10

Attack Modifier: +0

Ice Shards: Melee | 1d6 phy

HP: 1

Stress: 1

Whenever the Cryomanic Assembler activates, you may activate one Animated Ice as well.

Frigid Detonation - Action

Mark a Stress to choose up to 3 Animated Ice constructs to detonate. Each one does 2d6 direct magic damage to all targets in Close range and is removed from the battlefield.

Icepack - Action

When 3 or more living ice are in melee range of a target, mark a Stress to make an attack against the target. On a success, they take 2 Stress and are Restrained as the living ice grows over them.

Icepack Graveship

Description: A gestalt entity composed of ghosts and the ragged remains of a doomed ship.

Motives & Tactics: Bombard, Shed, Consume

Tier: 2

Type: Solo

Difficulty: 17

Attack Modifier: +4

Ice Hull: Melee | 3d12 phy

Major 16 | Severe 25

**HP:**7

**Stress:**5

Experience:

Sailor +5

Features

Skeleton Crew - Reaction

Whenever the graveship takes HP damage, a Skeleton Dredge emerges within Close range of the attacker and immediately activates.

Soul Shackle - Reaction

Creatures with a soul that are killed by the graveship or its crew are added to its roster. Each time a soul is added to the crew, Icepack Graveship clears 1 Stress.

Load Cannon- Action

Load the onboard cannon to prepare it for firing.

Fire Cannon - Action

+2 Attack Modifier

If the cannon is loaded, choose a target or group within Far range and make an attack. On a success, they take 3d20 phy damage. When fired, the cannon becomes unloaded.

Ship Shape - Action

When the graveship has 3 or less HP available it can mark a Stress to reform into a ship to quickly escape. It cannot attack but can move quickly across and through solid ice (a Far distance per activation), leaving a wake of broken ice chunks behind it. Difficult to follow, easy to track (Instinct 10).

Environments

Coming soon!

Gindalia, City of Obligation

Designed by Carlos Cisco

Opulent, Urban, Haunted

Tier 3

A fabulously wealthy city whose obsession with debt haunts its citizens long after they’ve shuffled off this mortal coil.

Distinctions

Gindalia’s rigid class system allows for little in the way of upward mobility. A sprawling and bustling city carved directly into the side of a sheer cliff overlooking a lush valley, rich in veins of unique metal that attracts spirits like a magnet. When refined, this metal can store souls indefinitely. This is not a place for people who adhere to more traditional moral frameworks. Excess and avarice are held up as prime virtues alongside fortitude and hard work. The class system is enforced very seriously by those with a vested interest in preserving power.

Power of Capital

Nowhere is the power of the coin more apparent than Gindalia. Between its influential banks, the immortal Debtguard that walk its walls and patrol its streets, and its vast disparity between the rich and poor, this is one of the best places to live for the wealthy. Magnates populate the highest levels of the city, and represent legacy wealth and wield unmatched power in Gindalia. Merchants, financiers, and wealthy entrepreneurs make up the Mercentalia. Below them are the Essentialia, which is just propaganda-speak for ‘laborers.’ Finally are the debtors, or insolvents as they are referred to, whose arrears follow them long after death.

You might find:

• The Debtguard patrolling the upper levels of the city, harassing anyone not dressed well enough.
• The jingle of a heavy coin purse
• Cloying, expensive perfume… and too much of it.

Political Parties

Lavish balls, treacherous masquerades, and decadent carnivals all serve to delight and intoxicate the senses, on the surface. It’s not in the halls of any senate but rather the drawing rooms and grand balls of the elite. Here politicians shake hands with bank owners, who are in turn whispering advice into the ears of military commanders, who can strong arm merchants, and the chain goes on and on and on. Appearances are paramount here, and fashion is as much a weapon as it is a statement.

You might find:

• A grand masquerade ball where each outfit is more exquisite and ostentatious than the last.
• The peaty smell of whiskey and cigar smoke.
• Low lights and lower whispers.

City of Splendors

Expensive furniture, exotic pets, and lavish decor are all commonplace in this nexus of wealth. Fine dining is easily accessible to those who can afford it. High fashion and art galleries can be found in ample supply. This city caters to the wealthiest of the wealthy, and anyone with substantial coin who’s willing to flaunt it will blend in quite nicely.

You might find:

• A luscious cocktail lounge full of beautiful servers and exquisite delicacies.
• Soft throw pillows and heavy velvet curtains.
• The dulcet notes of a string quartet drifting out from an open sunroom .

Debt Weight

Pneumatite, the spirit caging mineral this cliff face is known for, has birthed one of the most exploitative practices the city is known for: Death Relief When a person of any class dies with debt to the state remaining, they are bound to serve out their remaining payments in death. They work most commonly as a Debtguard, soul animated armor that acts as city watch and military. But personal debts are often fulfilled in much more humiliating ways, depending on the relationship between debtor and lender.

You might find:

• Empty shells of gleaming gold armor patrolling the streets
• The soft scratch of quill on parchment, a deal struck.
• The pale, white glow of pneumatite, as a spirit possesses it.

GM Principles

Make the world lavishly wealthy, exploitative, and treacherous - Gindalia is where coin is considered equally divine to the gods—may seem stable and orderly, but it harbors an undercurrent of exploitation and malfeasance that is hardly divine. Money can buy respect, but how one pursues that wealth is just as important.

Show how capital and class interact. - In order for the fabulously wealthy to exist, there must be those with nothing to their names. The wealthy live lives of luxury, power, and potential. Those without are subjected to exploitation, invisible to the ruling class, and seemingly powerless to change their station.

Wealth is power, and power is displayed openly - The latest dress styles from far-off lands, a coat cut with elemental threads that glow with power, and expensive body modifications that defy logic and reason. Fashion may seem frivolous to those who lack it, but for those lucky individuals who can burn money on luxuries, fashion becomes a form of political warfare and power.

Districts

Coinhalls

Financial District: Most of the city’s wealth ends up in the Coinhalls at some point along its journey… usually forever.

Designer Pets: One will run into all manner of exotic, strange, and hybrid pets both on sale and on walks with their owners..

The Coinhalls contain everything from luxury shopping, exclusive auctions, fine dining, and prestigious banks. All it needs to cater to the ultra-wealthy populace and keep them spending money. The buildings here are made of imported marble and gilded with gold. The cloying smell of expensive perfume hangs in the air. Every interaction is laced with a profit motive. The people further enrich themselves simply by moving numbers around on spreadsheets as opposed to actually working, deciding the fates of thousands with the thoughtless stroke of a pen. Banks and businesses alike are guarded by lockdown automata, each ornately designed to suit its owner’s taste.

Jewel Alley (Location)

Less an alley and more of a cascading thoroughfare featuring some of the most luxurious stores that cater to the bourgeoisie and ultrawealthy. Clothing made from rare wildlife. Galleries and museums filled with art stolen from far-off lands. Banks as large and exquisitely built as any god’s temple. Most impressive of these banks is the Arkvault, a bank with magically entangled vault that has interconnected branches across the Mortal Realm. A playground for the rich where those who work to make this place possible are invisible and the products sold result from suffering and exploitation.

Debtguard (Threat)

“In debt you serve. In death, relief.” A saying coined by one of the first Magnates, and a clever bit of wording that sounds relatively benign. If a debt is owed, it must be paid in full… but at least in death there is relief to be found… right? In truth, the relief means “relief of debt.” For those who pass while holding the shame of debt in their heart and over their accounts, will continue to serve until their debt is paid. The Debtguard is both the standing army and the city watch of Gindalia, composed of soul-animated armors made from pneumatite alloy that house the souls of debtors. It’s a sad existence, that of the Debtguard. Riding like a passenger in one’s own soul, granted agency but once a year.

Madame Ulia’s Auction House (Location)

One of the most notorious auction houses in the entire mortal realm. Renowned for the exquisite art, curios, and artifacts that go up for sale. Whispered rumors of illicit procurement tactics are brushed under the rug. The people who can afford to purchase these items care not how they were acquired. Just that they are now afforded the ability to acquire them. “I once saw a king’s crown go up for auction. And that king is still very much alive and quite unhappy about it.”

Precious, Objectively Beautiful [Highborne Clank, they/them]

Difficulty: 16

Curious, Extravagant, Naive

Experience: Aristocrat +2, Magical Knowledge +1, Socialite +1, Witty Repartee +1

Look: A luxurious and ancient clank composed entirely of thin strips of precious metals woven together around masterfully cut gems.

Motive: Self Improvement. Precious is determined to achieve perfection at all costs, but their view of what that means is skewed by the stratified, wealthy society that created them.

Gaol of the Insolvent

Working Dead: Laborers are often replaced by Debtbound spirits known as insolvents, whose cobbled together forms are a far cry from the ornately armored Debtguards. Kept out of sight, commonly working in foundries, mines, and warehouses.

Lifetimes of Servitude: Most will find their lives were not worth much and woefully discover upon death that they will serve as Debtguard much longer than they lived.

Sometimes called the Soulcage or Debtor’s Woe, the Gaol of the Insolvent is a brutalist testimony to the weight of debt. It’s where spirits in arrears are drawn and bound into pneumatite armors to serve among the Debtguard or as an insolvent. The massive structure is positioned at the base of the city so all who look down upon are reminded of how far they can fall, and how quickly debt can overtake them. Because of this, most prefer to keep their view fixed upward.

Pneumatite Gyre (Location)

Located deep within the Gaol, the Gyre is a two story obelisk of pure pneumatite, with meticulous necromantic rune carvings running its entire length. Surrounding the spire is a howling vortex of spirit energy. Spirits of the dead coalesce here, joining the vortex. Actuarians are assigned to read the debt of the deceased, allowing spirits free of obligation to pass on. Those burdened by debt will often attempt to flee Gindalia so as not to die within the gyre’s reach. The punishment for absconding on one’s debt is eternal servitude.

Insolvency Jubilee (Festival)

One of the most important local holidays in Gindalia. It’s a day when the dead, both Debtguard and insolvents, are granted a day of agency and freedom. It’s a day where they are released from service and may do with their time whatever they desire. While some use this agency to get as far as they can from Gindalia, only to be snapped back into service upon the day’s expiration… Most use their time to reconnect with their families. Some families are visited by indebted spirits from generations long past. On this day, and on this day only, the indebted can collect Arrear Tithes from family, friends, and descendents to help pay down their balances and shorten their terms of service. It’s a day of joyous grief. Visitors who sojourn to Gindalia during the jubilee are often taken aback or horrified by the casual relationship with the dead that many in the city have.

Pneumatilurgic Forge (Location)

Positioned near the Gyre, the Pneumatilurgic Forge is where Isolvents work day and night smelting pneumatite alloy ingots and pressing them into Debtguard armor molds. It’s a place of raging heat as pneumatite has a much higher melting point than iron or steel. The smoke that results is highly toxic and quickly kills any living creature that comes into contact with it. The insolvent laborers, constructed from mispoured armor cast-offs, do the dirty work of creating new armor, further entrenching the city’s status quo in an eternal cycle of debt and repayment. Living laborers used to do this dangerous work, in the early days of Gindalia, but so many of them died that it led to the city’s first uprising, known as the Three Days of Gold Tears.

The Lush Descent

Hedonistic Hotspot: A popular place to unwind after a hard day’s work… for those that want to lose themselves for a week diving into their basest pleasures and hidden desires.

Customers Served Daily: [Redacted]

This long and curvaceous stairway is somewhat of an anomaly in Gindalia. This is a place where class holds no sway and a purse only goes as far as the imagination of that who carries it. A place of art and music and pleasure. While coin is still king the true power sits with the queen, pleasure. Artists, sex workers, and musicians have carved out a life of freedom and fulfillment here. Folks from all walks of life ascend or descend this grand, spiraling staircase in hopes of finding sensations, the likes of which exist nowhere else in the realm. So come take a journey of pleasure beyond compare. Of pain beyond comprehension. An ecstatic exploration beyond the limits of rhapsody.

The Veiled Gaze (Location)

Housed in one of Gindalia’s first pneumatite mineshafts, now decommissioned, is a perpetual dance party. No matter the hour of the day patrons will find this naturally occurring cavern filled with pulsing music, undulating bodies, and the smell of old sweat. There is no charge for entering, but leaving can prove difficult. The lack of any natural lighting makes it hard to tell time underground and folk often lose themselves for a day or two, enchanted by the music and lost in a labyrinth of pulsing debauchery. The rich and poor alike rub shoulders in this cavern of abandon. It’s one of the few egalitarian businesses in the city.

Ferrous Giant (Location)

Atop the falls are a series of massive, tiered hot spring pools and the source of the sanguine waters. Splayed over the springs are the bones of a colossal humanoid, pierced through with a spear three stories tall. The bones are solid iron, and the rust mingling with the spring water creates the flowing “blood” that is seen from below. This is the only colossus in the area that does not have a metal outer shell, leading some to speculate what is actually underneath the frozen colossi in the wastes.

Palace of Enterprise (Location)

A palatial structure with no known owner whose interior changes and warps to suit the most secret, debaucherous, and violent desires of the elite. Rumors swirl about this place… whispers that some who enter do not leave. Some say they’ve seen bones littering the grounds around it. Despite any ugly gossip, it’s still a favorite location to host grand soirees and clandestine meetings. The Palace of Enterprise is well known but rarely accessible but for the privileged few. Some say the Palace is alive, but they’re often laughed out of polite company.

Unwelcome Guests Clock

An action roll’s consequence can always be a mark against the clock.

8 - Unregistered intruders are detected.

7 - Registered guest rooms are sealed.

6 - Entrances, exits, passages, and hallways are shuffled.

5 - Passageways narrow making traversal difficult.

4 - The trappings of opulence bleed away, revealing fleshy walls underneath.

3 - Digestive fluid floods the halls.

2 - Bone spears plunge through the fleshy walls, piercing intruders.

1 - Tooth-filled maws in the walls and floors swallow any remaining intruders.

0 - Intruders are digested.

Power of Pleasure (Feature)

The Lush Descent holds a fascinating grip on the people of this city. It’s as if everyone acknowledges that while coin makes the realm go round… The axis on which it spins is pleasure, play, and fun. Impossible to separate one from the other. For in Gindalia hedonism serves a dual purpose. For the wealthy, who have it all, it’s one of the few sources of exploration and novelty. For the poor, it’s bread and circuses, a means of release… and control. The Magnates understand that cutting the poor off from pleasures and distractions makes them grow angry. Then they organize. Then the whole thing falls apart.

The Goldband

Working Rich: The fierce competition and high rate of failure sees the business owners of this city working harder than most… should they want to keep their station.

Crab Bucket: If anyone starts to rise too fast and far, the rest of the Mercantalia will conspire to ruin them. No one rises, but plenty fall. As cutthroat as the Magnates designed it to be.

Making up a substantial portion of the central cliff face is the district known as The Goldband. Here the Mercentalia capitalize and innovate in order to rise above their station. It’s a place of fierce competition and hard work. Even those who would be wealthy anywhere else in the realm are beholden to their businesses and are caught up in the endless grind of achieving ever-increasing profitability.

The Counting House (Location)

A fine inn by any city’s standards, this retreat wouldn’t rate among the most luxurious domiciles in Gindalia. It’s a new establishment, and there’s still some construction going on as the owner is renovating his recently purchased gambling house next door. Currently, the dealers and games have been moved into the tavern, crowding it and cutting down on the available space. Horton insists that once the renovations are done this place will have the dead skipping the Jubilee to come gamble here instead.

Horton Grippe, Owner of The Counting House [Ridgeborne Galapa, he/they]

Difficulty: 18

Churlish, Hardworking, Scorned

Experience: Bureaucracy +1, Intimidation +1, Shrewd Negotiator +1, Temptation +1

Look: A heavy-set galapa who, in a citythat wholly embraces form, entirely embodies function. They’re unafraid of an apron stain or other indicators of hard work.

Motive: He’d see The Counting House become the premier inn and gambling house in the Goldband, but his rivals at the Hucked Bones and the Platinum Paten have been sabotaging his renovations.

Broker’s Row (Market)

One of the most famous merchant promenades in the realm. While the stores in Jewel Alley boast some of the most exquisite shopping, Broker’s Row is for the more practical consumer. Highly organized, and laid out in a tiered grid where all merchants of a certain type are clustered together. This has led to some customer windfalls when merchants begin competitive price drops. But price gouging and fixing in times of tragedy and hardship is just as common. Poorer locals prefer to wait until they hear whispers of cascading price drops before they do any shopping, sometimes waiting years to replace worn-out equipment or clothing.

Yorb Gameer, Owner of Yorb Logistics [Wanderborne Ribbet, she/her]

Difficulty: 17

Sly, tenacious, covetous

Experience: Animal Handling +1, Quartermaster +2, Shrewd Negotiator +3

Look: A new money ribbet, who’s dressed as if she’s trying a bit too hard to fit in with the old money crowd.

Motive: Driven by insecurity and a covetous nature, she wants to amass so much wealth with her shipping company that she’ll be accepted into the Magnates.

Unshackled Debt (Threat)

This place of business is often one of the unfinished. Merchants will spend their whole lives pushing to accrue more wealth, sacrificing their families, livelihoods, and souls in the process. Some become vaultgeists; hollow, angry shells that consume vast hordes of wealth in their grief. This city, obviously, is no stranger to or is afraid of the dead. Vaultgeists are disturbingly frequent here, as many of the Mercantalia tie their entire self-worth to their wealth. In death, they follow the same path. Unshackled misers are common here. Angry spirits so bound to their wealth that the pull of pneumatite can’t even drag them away from it, resulting in vaultgeists… or worse.

Platinum Point Vistas

2%: The percent of the population that resides in this district.

90%: The amount of the city’s wealth that the 2% of the population controls and hoards.

If the Coin Halls are where the ultra rich go to play and… work… presumably… Platinum Point Vistas is where they return to their palatial homes to lay their heads down on pillows filled with rare bird feathers, nestled into their ornate canopy beds. The top of the cliff, literally. It’s gated, obviously, and is as secure as some of the most well-guarded banks in the city. After all, they can’t have just anyone getting in. The Magnates all reside here, concentrating almost all of the power in the city into the top of the cliff. As always, this is by design.

Gilded Enclave (Location)

Guarded day and night by the Debtguard, this is the closest thing to a government building that Gindalia has. This stronghold is often where the most influential Magnates gather to discuss policy in a formalized setting before they disseminate to various parties, balls, and secret vaults where the wheeling, dealing, bribes, and even assassinations dictate how policy will be decided in Gindalia. Positioned on an outcropping that can be seen from below, it’s a constant reminder of what most wish they could achieve but likely never will.

Regimar Poss, Entrenched Magnate [Highborne Orc, he/him]

Difficulty: 15

Calculating, authoritarian, exploitative

Experience: Aristocrat +5, Religion + 2, Bureaucracy +4, Nobility +10, Veiled Threats +2

Look: Accentuates his albinism with a combination of exquisite makeup and gleaming facial tattoos inked with precious metals. His clothing boasts unassailable silhouettes and design, tailored to his broad form. He’s as striking as he is influential.

Motive: Maintaining the status quo. The top down arrangement of this city works for Gindalia. Or at least for him. Either way, he has no interest in change or upheaval and delegates effectively to keep it that way.

Camila Coruska, Leveraged Magnate [Slyborne Firbolg, she/her]

Difficulty: 16

Paranoid, miserly, bullying

Experience: Deception +3, Shrewd Negotiator +7, Spy +2

Look: Always a season behind the latest Gindalia fashion in looks that would kill anywhere else. Always one or two hairs out of place in an otherwise immaculate stylings.

Motive: Keep her place. She’s one of the few members of the Mercantalia who has risen to be among the Magnates. But it was the Radiant Obligation that got her there, and she knows full well the weight of that particular debt.

Restricted Access (Feature)

Those not among the Magnate class will find their entrance to this district barred by the elite Debtguard who serve as its watchmen. Laborers who work here r must undergo an extensive screening process, looking at their financials, personal ties, and political leanings. Solicitors are unheard of. It’s rumored that someone in the Goldband is selling forged passes. No one has yet discovered their identity.

Austentatious Opulence (Feature)

Something about extreme wealth rots the brain, especially when it comes to decor. It’s uncanny how quickly taste goes out the window in favor of gaudy and garish displays of prosperity. It’s as if each family is trying to outdo their neighbors. Statues, fountains, gates and hedgework surround homes plated in solid gold or encrusted with fine gems. It’s competitive maximalism and excessively wasteful. Those who have visited Platinum Point vistas joke that if the rest of the city ever saw those hideous houses, the Magnates would lose all credibility and be laughed out of the city.

Kaligrasto’flymmar’duk (Kaligra), Dithering Philanthropist [Highborne Dragon, she/her]

Difficulty: 20

Generous, indecisive, fabulous

Experience: Aerial Predator +2, Ancient History +2, Magical Knowledge +2, Spy +2, Wisdom of Centuries +3

Look (Dragon): A serpentine, wingless dragon with scales graduating from mother of pearl to a burnished gold. Every subtle shift or movement sheds coins that were trapped beneath her scales.

Look (Katari): When moving about the city she often dons the disguise of a gold-furred katari bearing the markings and ear tufts of a caracal cat.

Motive: Accumulation and redistribution. There is nothing that Kaligra loves more than the accumulation of wealth… other than redistributing it to those who need it. But she suffers from choice paralysis and cannot often decide who to help. So she helps no one.

Silvercrown Estates

Misleading Nomenclature: Sure, Silvercrown Estates sounds like a great place to live… It’s not.

Dreams of Delusion: Most who live here have bought into the twisted philosophies of Gindalia, believing themselves to be temporarily embarrassed members of the plutocracy instead of simply poor and easily exploited.

The base of the cliff and the foundation that keeps it standing. The name “Silvercrown Estates” is a clever piece of propaganda making a district that is packed with company housing, rife with crime, and with very few of the amenities the rest of the city enjoys. This is the neighborhood of the exploited. Of the labor class. Still, it’s not a place devoid of joy. The folk living under this authoritarian capitalist regime still create art, sing songs, and raise children. Their lives are ones of toil and hardship and many buy into the illusion that they could one day be among those at the top of the cliff. As many of their jobs are disappearing, and being handed over to the insolvent, more and more folks are getting desperate. Some turn to crime. But it’s here that a burgeoning labor movement threatens to upend the delicate social order the Magnates have so carefully constructed.

Pneumatite Mines (Location)

Once a bustling mine, where laborers could be seen entering and exiting at all hours of the day, now folks never see a living soul enter or exit. After a series of accidents, the Magnates have cut back on the number of laborers working in the mines, slashing their hours and laying off hundreds of folks only to be replaced by insolvent workers. Today, the mines are almost entirely devoid of living workers. While this is cited for safety reasons, the truth is that the Magnates no longer saw any reason to pay the living when the dead already owe a debt. Recently it’s been more and more common to see protests outside the mine. The picketers wave signs and sing songs about the power of living labor.

Company Housing (Feature)

The labor class of Gindalia resides in a state of perpetual precariousness. No one who lives in Silvercrown Estates owns their house. They are all leased to the worker as part of their job. Depending on what kind of job that is, that could mean anything from a comfortable single family home to an overstuffed dormitory. Because the laborers live under the threat of homelessness should they lose their job, they are often obedient and efficient workers. But the stress takes a toll, leaving most in poor health and with shorter lives. A business shuttering almost always leads to a cascading series of predatory loans, failed repayments, and an ocean of debt. Working exactly as the Magnates intended, this is how the Debtguard maintains such robust numbers.

Burgeoning Solidarity (Feature)

The people have had enough. There is a growing undercurrent of rage spreading through the Essentialia like wildfire. And it’s different than just the typical dissatisfied grumbling. People are waking up to the fact that it doesn’t have to be this way. This is a city of immense wealth and somehow it all ended up at the top, with the people who do the least. In secret places, hidden from the gaze of the Magnates and the cold grip of the Debtguard, meetings are taking place. The tavern workers compare pay stubs beneath Viridian Field’s Pub. The tailors and textile laborers discuss worker safety in the back room of the Trench Goat Tavern. The former miners, and their now adult children, discuss plans to seize the means of production. Unions are forming. Solidarity is growing. And the Magnates are oblivious. The Magnates have unintentionally set the kindling, and built the bonfire, of their own demise. All it needs is a powerful spark to ignite into a conflagration that will burn this system to the ground. Even ash is better than this.

Factions

Radiant Obligation

Infinite Growth: There is no peak high enough or sea deep enough that the Radiant Obligation would not have designs of exploiting it in some way.

Versatile Leverage: Money isn’t the only way to control someone, especially those who don’t need to worry about it. Reputation, scandal, blackmail, and forgery are all common tools in their kit.

A villainous organization with designs on soft domination of the entire mortal realm, through controlling the ebb and flow of currency. Their temples are banks. Their gospel is coin. Their priests… they’re accountants. They idolatrize and extoll those born into or who have achieved wealth while scorning and ignoring the struggles of those that have not. They spread throughout the realm like a malignant, capitalistic tumor by way of their Arkvaults. Some believe them to have founded Gindalia, though the Radiant Obligation would take no such credit, preferring their names to be left out of historical records. Numerous Magnates in the city fall among their ranks, and many more are pressed under the thumb of obligation, usually a scandalous debt weightier than gold. They prefer to exploit the debt of the living, rather than the dead, largely eschewing the service of the Debtguard unless absolutely necessary.

Entangled Arkvaults (Technology)

Boasting a security force that rivals that of the most powerful monarchs in the realm, and an arcane trap-laden approach to a locking mechanism designed by the greatest minds at Brightmark University. No one has ever robbed an Arkvault successfully. While some have made it inside, surviving the escape has, so far, proven impossible. Most of the realm’s wealth flows in and out of this bank and its subsidies, all of which are magically entangled and share the same enormous vault in an undisclosed location. The local branch is competitively placed in Jewel Alley among the Coinhalls. Should the Radiant Obligation need something to disappear it’s as easy as moving it through an Arkvault to another part of the realm.

Capital Control (Threat)

The Radiant Obligation prefers soft power and veiled threats over overt shows of violence and force. If you can pay someone to look the other way once, it’s a sure bet it can be done a second time. They understand that dominance requires patience, time, and investment. What most see as the long game is the short game for them. Where most are concerned with their day to day survival, they’re, reading the flow of the markets and making moves that will impact generations to come. But most folks will never realize the true source of their problems or misery. Bribes, blackmail, fabricated scandals, and forged claims of lineage or ownership are the bread and butter of the Radiant Obligation. Why get their hands dirty when just a few coins keeps those white gloves clean?

Boundless Coffers (Feature)

The Radiant Obligation has wormed its way into most major metropolises, and even some smaller but economically viable locations. Once they sign a new customer, they immediately begin using that money to grow their own coffers. Imagine this being done by Actuarians in every city across the realm to multiple wealthy clients. Through investment portfolios, real purchases, and hostile acquisitions they are in a constant state of growth. The Radiant Obligation requires its Actuarians to bring in increasing profit margins every quarter, lest they quickly lose station within the organization.

Principles

The Radiant Obligation is not a consortium with a strong moral foundation, but it is a place of conviction and staunchly held beliefs. Even if those beliefs lead to a near universal disdain towards those they see as lesser than them. And those lesser merely exist to be exploited.

• A life without expansion, growth, and prosperity is not a life worth living.
• Everyone has a price. Everyone.
• Those beneath you are merely rungs on the ladder to your own greatness. Do not hesitate to step on them.

NPCs

Fortinbras Le’Quain Relkist III, Grand Actuary of the Radiant Obligation [ Highborne Human , he/him]

Difficulty: 16

Calculating, Avaricious, Authoritarian

Experience: Aristocrat +3, Bureaucracy +3, Commander +2, Nobility +3, Shrewd Negotiator +2

Look: A rail thin man dressed like a cross between a high priest and a bank executive whose gaunt features betray expensive magical anti-aging treatments.

Motive: He seeks control of the realm’s purse strings so that he continues his agenda of “effective altruism” which is just him controlling where and what is funded, supported, and who holds power.

Oskar Zahk, Wary Ecclesiarch [ Loreborne **** Katari , he/they]

Difficulty: 14

paranoid, brilliant, volatile

Experience: Magical Knowledge +3, Bloodhound +2

Look: Eccentric scholar chic. It’s clear he has great wealth so he chooses to look that way. Too many straps and buckles for books and scrolls.

Motive: Progress has stagnated. Innovation has died. We have failed as an age. Gods. Mortals. All of it. Starting over from scratch is the only way to make things right again.

Nama Ho’o, High Vaultmaster [ Highborne **** Giant , she/they]

Difficulty: 18

stubborn, imposing, effective

Experience: Ambusher +2, Forbidden Knowledge +1, Military Scholar +2

Look: Conservatively lavish, favoring practically valuable items over gaudy opulence.

Motive: Forever tuning and improving the defenses of the Arkvault, she’ll never be satisfied.

Jun Yoo, Radiant Mouthpiece [ Highborne **** Faerie , he/they]

Difficulty: 17

Duplicitous, charming, haughty

Experience: Aristocrat +3, Nobility +2, Spy +2, Socialite +2, Veiled Threats +1

Look: Effervescent and effortlessly fashionable. Not one hair out of place, nor a stray thread.

Motive: Overseeing their network of blackmail, bribes, and political dominance to ensure their power never wavers.

Story Hooks

A regional Arkvault has gone dark, untangling itself from the central bank. They need to know why and how.

One of the Magnates the Radiant Obligation has leverage over has begun speaking out of turn and they need them silenced. Permanently.

A state Actuarian’s audit has determined that a recently deceased member of the Radiant Obligation will serve out their arrears as a Debtguard. Jek needs someone tofree the soul from its weighty dues.

The Bankskimmer Union

Banks Robbed: Said to be hundreds but actually ten. But they do nothing to dissuade the rumors. It’s great street cred.

Just Stumbled Into It: They, like most folks here, are motivated by gold. At least they were. They had no intention of becoming labor heroes… but here they are.

When a group of out of work friends and colleagues realized their particular set of skills would be a quite useful combination when it comes to robbing banks, they did just that. Starting small, at one of the lenders in the Goldband, they quickly moved up to the Coin Halls and gained a reputation as compassionate criminals. They rarely took lives unless they were forced to, and were generally convivial with any hostages. When escaping, they became known for using portions of the gold they stole to help throw off the Debtguard by dumping bags into the streets of Silvercrown Estates and slipping away through the crowds. They had no intention of becoming the nexus of communication and resources that is bankrolling the various burgeoning unions. What started as a group of friends trying to make a purse for themselves has become a tight-knit union working to better the lives of everyone in Gindalia. Even if it means burning the whole system to the ground.

Crack Team (Feature)

While their fingers and influence reach throughout the Essentalia, their membership consists of only five people. Exra and Pallas Finn are the masterminds behind the group and have been married a long time. Crem Golsimer is a former Magnate who fell into disgrace after they tried to make some labor-favoring public policy changes. Tula Garr is the prodigal daughter of one of the most influential merchants in the Goldband and a brilliant arcanotechologist. Nolo Finn is the great, great, grandfather of Exra and one of the few Debtguard that has managed to unburden himself of his debt. Unlike most, instead of moving on, he purchased his armor and stuck around in hopes of ending this barbaric practice. They are small but mighty, and any touched by their efforts are immensely grateful. A local bard wrote a song called “Bankskimmer’s Cut” that’s sung on picket lines and wildly popular in taverns throughout Silvercrown Estates.

Multiple Hideouts (Locations)

The advantage of only having five members is it’s easy to stay mobile. They have hideouts peppered throughout the Silvercrown Estates, along with hidden caches of equipment and supplies, and friendly faces that are willing to overlook things they shouldn’t see, or to open the right door at the right time. They don’t enjoy as much influence in the Goldband but the owner of the Counting House has let them stash tools and supplies among the renovations of their gambling hall. The Coin Halls have a single point of safety for them, inside a gallery on Jewel Alley owned by Crem’s cousin. These hideouts are little more than back rooms or tiny apartments. They aren’t elaborate or trap filled fortresses. Decentralization and ease of movement has been the key to their success and they have no intention of changing things.

Galvanizing Force (Feature)

With every success their power and influence grows, but so does the morale and spine of every laborer in the city. Being born into an exploitative and unjust system can make it hard to see what better life could lie outside of it. It’s not the fault of the oppressed that the systems that they prop up keep them down by design. When the people see someone standing up to the broken system and creating change, it empowers them to do it themselves. The Bankskimmer Union has become a mote of hope for those without… that things can be better.

Principles

The Bankskimmers union holds no formal code of conduct or ethics. They simply operate under the simple assumption that everyone who is wealthy is that way because they have exploited someone else. Thus, relieving them of their wealth is simply balancing the scales.

• Only take from those with too much and take as much as possible when doing so.
• Give the people their cut. It’s already their money to begin with anyway.
• Power belongs to the people, not the coin. But coin still feeds people.

NPCs

Exra Finn, The Organizer [ Slyborne **** Simiah , she/her]

Difficulty: 18

sneaky, driven, inexorable

Experience: Ambusher +2, Commander +2

Look: Similar to a Vervet monkey, with gray and white hair covering her body. Draped in loose fitting clothing, giving her a full range of movement with a dagger hidden in every fold.

Motive: Redistributing wealth from the rich to herself. If there’s time they can get to everyone else.

Pallas Finn, The Alchemist [ Slyborne **** Drakona , she/her]

Difficulty: 16

Unpredictable, volatile, loyal to a fault

Experience: Alchemist +2, Forbidden Knowledge +1, Intrusion +3

Look: A stout, violet scaled drakona wrapped in voluminous robes containing a seemingly endless supply of alchemical bits and bobs. Always smells of smoke and sulfur. Singe marks on the edges of her robes and a couple of missing fingers suggest somewhat unpredictable working conditions.

Motive: Break the class system that is holding everyone down and keeping Exra focused on the bigger picture.

Crem Golsimer, The Face [ Highborne **** Orc , they/them]

Difficulty: 17

sly, comforting, stoic

Experience: Aristocrat +1, Nobility +1, Intimidation +1

Look: An older silver tongued orc (literally) dressed in fineries that suggest a few stations above “petty criminal” —pretty criminal is closer to the mark.

Motive: A quiet life. But also revenge on Regimar Poss, the Magnate who destroyed their life.

Tula Garr, The Tech-Wiz [ Slyborne **** Halfling , she/her]

Difficulty: 15

brilliant, nimble, tenacious

Experience: Alchemist +2, Feigned Competence +2

Look: A teenage halfling, alchemical prodigy, saddled with a strange metallic rig that looks like it contains a multitude of attached tools.

Motive: Learn as much as she can from Pallas in order to build a better tomorrow. Even if that build results in some explosions today.

Nolo Finn, The Muscle [Unshackled Debtguard , he/him]

Difficulty: 19

gullible, fearsome, undeterred

Experience: Huge +4

Look: The hollow armor of a Debtguard, painted over with flowers, dragons, and a few too many dead tax men. He humors the children in Silvercrown Estate, letting them paint him regularly.

Motive: Free the Debtguard. He knows firsthand what it means to be bound into service after death. He wants that practice to end.

Story Hooks

The Union is planning a heist of the Arkvault, and looking for reliable help to fill the gaps in their team.

The Magnates have gotten wind of the Tavern Workers union’s meeting location and have sent the Debtguard to round them up. The Bankskimmers would see them protected.

Tula thinks she can reverse the flow of the Pneumatite Gyre, but needs some assistance testing her newest invention: the Deblifter.

Resources

	MOMENTS OF HOPE		MOMENTS OF FEAR
1	An aristocrat empties his coin purse on the street, attracting a crowd.	1	A passing merchant kicks a beggar. No one bats an eye.
2	A Debtguard knocks on the door of their family home, eager for a reunion.	2	The hard clink and heavy footfalls of Debtguard armors approaching.
3	A home cooked meal, surrounded by friends.	3	A family is forced out of company housing and onto the streets.
4	An unexpected, and rather large, Writ of Inheritance is delivered.	4	The Debtguard round up protestors, carting them off to prison.
5	The clinking of Debtguard armor falling to the ground, empty. Its occupant freed of obligation.	5	A Magnate sends down a tithing decree, forcing the already impoverished to scramble for any extra coin.
6	A robust wine of exquisite and rare vintage.	6	A lockdown automaton swivels its head ominously.
7	A stylish fur-lined coat that feels perfectly tailored.	7	A blaring alarm sounds as shadowy figures flee from a bank.
8	A merchant offers an excellent deal on scrolls and potions.	8	A man close to death tries in desperation to unload some of his debt.
9	The cliff glitters in the morning sun, glinting off all the precious metals that cut through the sheer face.	9	The staff of a tavern was just replaced by insolvent workers.
10	Songs of solidarity from protesters outside the mines.	10	A state Actuarian performing door-to-door, pre-death audits.
11	Children playing stickball in the streets offer an invitation to join.	11	An unhoused family is swept off the street by the Debtguard.
12	Bottle service at a swanky lounge, poured by an exquisitely beautiful server.	12	The acrid scent of the toxic fumes spewed out of the Pneumatilurgic Forge.

Rumours

A vaultgeist has overtaken one of the personal vaults of the wealthiest Magnate in the city.

A burgeoning union among tavern laborers is forming, but the Magnates would see it quashed.

As whispers of war drift in from a neighboring nation, one of the Magnate’s has been offering reduced arrears if citizens will join the Debtguard today. The poorest of Gindalia have been offering their lives too early in hopes of a shorter term of service.

A lockdown automaton has malfunctioned and trapped a bank full of customers and employees inside.

A member of the Mercentalia has petitioned for entry into the Magnate class, and must unload some incriminating debt before Actuarians discover it.

Equipment

Pneumetic Spear - Agility Melee - d10+6 (phy) - Two-Handed

Feature: Soulshear (For 24 hours after a person is killed with this spear, spend Hope to add an additional 1d10 magic damage to attacks)

Primary Weapon

Miser’s Bulwark - Finesse Melee - d4+4 (phy) - One-Handed

Feature: Avaricious Hunger (You may feed the shield up to 5 handfuls of gold per long rest. When you do, add +1 to your armor score for each you add until your next long rest.)

Secondary Weapon

Magnate’s Tunic - Base Score: Variable

Feature: Liquidity Bastion (Your base armor score is equal to the handfuls of gold you are currently carrying. This armor cannot be repaired.)

Armor

Items

Savings Pouch. A magically entangled set that includes a coin pouch and a gilded chest. When coins are deposited into the pouch they are instantly transferred to the chest, so long as the two objects share the same plane of existence. This effect is one way only and coins can only be recovered directly from the chest.

Fast Fashion. Enchanted threads woven through these garments allow the user to shift the color, structure, and silhouette of whatever they’re wearing on a whim. However, when removed the garments instantly revert to their original form.

Silver Tongue. A hollow metal tongue with attached molar bands. When worn over one’s own tongue they are granted the advantage on Presence checks to persuade or deceive.

Consumables

Propagator Coin. When this seemingly unremarkable coin is thrown at an object or creature it doubles itself, then both doubles again, and again, and again… This continues until a ten foot cube is filled with coins. Once thrown, the propagator coin and all resulting duplicates disappear after 1 hour.

Promissory Note. A devious enchantment created by the mortal realm’s greatest con artist. The holder can walk into any bank and hand this ensorcelled piece of parchment to a teller who will relinquish the contents of one random safety deposit box. Feel free to make up your own or use the following table of safety deposit boxes:

• 1-2: A box containing birthright papers and detailed lineage reports of what appears to be an illegitimate goblin royal heir.
• 3-4: An old thief’s forgotten stash containing detailed plans to crack the Arkvault.
• 5-6: A cursed necklace that emanates power and refuses to let go of the wearer.
• 7-8: A powerful magic weapon whose previous owner still seeks control of it.
• 9-10: A deed to a local manor that has lain empty for years and is presumed haunted.
• 11-12: A mysterious egg.
• 13-14: An invitation to an exclusive party at the Palace of Enterprise, addressed directly to the adventurers.
• 15-16: A dangerous prophecy that, once read, marks the party for death at the hands of a mysterious cult.
• 17-18: A forbidden scroll of magic contains a spell outlawed long ago.
• 19-20: A box of gold and gems worth 1 chest of gold.

Showstopper Elixir. Whoever drinks it will feel no direct effects, but to everyone around them, they will suddenly be stunning, terrifying, or awe inducing. Used most commonly by those who wish to make an entrance. Within one hour of drinking this potion, you can choose to make a Presence Roll at advantage against a close target whose attention you want to capture. On a success, you do it, narrowing their field of view and drowning out any sound but your voice.

Adversaries

Debtguard

Description: A soul fused to armor to continue service beyond death.

Motives & Tactics: Crush, Extract, Put their Might on Display

Tier: 3

Type: Standard

Difficulty: 15

Attack Modifier: +4

Warhammer: Melee | 3d8 phy

Major 12 | Severe 30

HP: 5

Stress: 4

Experience

Intimidation +1

Unveiled Threats + 1

Veiled Threats +2

Features

Magnetic Accounting - Reaction

When the Debtguard deals HP damage it may mark a Stress to cause the target to lose 1 handful of gold per HP dealt. The gold adheres to the head of the warhammer, increasing its damage by 1d8 for every 2 handful stuck to it.

Leverage Assets - Action

Mark a Stress to detonate the head of the warhammer, sending gold flying like shrapnel. For every handful of gold adhered to it, deal 1d8 damage to all targets within Close range. Targets may make an Agility Reaction Roll (15) to take half damage.

Lockdown Automaton

Description: Massive statues placed in precious metals, designed to prevent theft.

Motives & Tactics: Slow, Apprehend, Decimate

Tier: 3

Type: Bruiser

Difficulty: 17

Attack Modifier: +4

Massive Sword: Very Close | 4d10 phy

Major 22 | Severe 45

**HP:**7

**Stress:**5

Experience:

I See You +3

Features

Heavy Pockets - Action

Spend a Fear to weigh down their opponents by using their wealth against them. Choose a target within close range, for every bag of gold they are holding temporarily reduce their Agility score by 1. This condition ends when they reach Very Far range from the Lockdown Automaton or they drop all their gold.

Golden Arc - Action

+2 Attack Modifier

Mark Stress to make a Massive Sword attack against all enemies within close range. Any targets hit suffer 4d10 phy damage.

Conductive Metal - Reaction

When attacked with magic damage, mark 1 Stress to add 2d8 magic damage to Lockdown Automaton’s next attack.

Vaultgeist

Description: The covetous ghost of a rich person bound to their hoard.

Motives & Tactics: Decimate, Spread, Regenerate

Tier: 3

Type: Solo

Difficulty: 18

Attack Modifier: +6

Coin Spray: Far | 3d10+8 phy

Major 25 | Severe 50

HP: 6

Stress: 6

Experience:

Intimidation +1

Unveiled Threats + 1

Veiled Threats +2

Features

Loose Gold - Passive

During this encounter there may be preexisting piles of Loose Gold or ones created by the vaultgeist. Assign an HP value to these equal to the amount of handfuls of gold they are comprised of. The vaultgeist can absorb up to 5 HP beyond its maximum.

Hostile Acquisition - Action

Mark Stress to suck in the wealth around this adversary to heal it. All PCs within close range holding gold must make reaction roll with Strength (16) to hold onto their money. Failure results in the loss of up to 1 handful of gold. The vaultgeist heals 1 HP for every handful of gold stolen in this way. Vaultgeist also absorbs other gold as per the Loose Gold feature, gaining HP equivalent to its value.

Fiscal Irresponsibility - Action

+6 Attack Modifier

Spend 2 HP to shift this adversary’s form into a heavy orb of gold coins, making an attack roll to smash down on a target within very close range. On a success, deal 4d10+8 phy damage. This creates a pile of Loose Gold worth 1 handful on top of the target.

Covetous Howl - Action

Mark a Stress to emit a howl that causes all gold within close range to vibrate violently until the Vaultgeist is defeated. Each creature within range that has gold can take 1 damage for each handful they’re holding, or choose to cut their coin purses loose, creating a pile of Loose Gold at their feet (that the Vaultgeist can use for HP).

Miserly End - Reaction

Upon its death, the vast treasure hoard comprising the vaultgeist tarnishes to worthless tin, but any gold stolen during the encounter is available to take.

Environments

Radiant Obligation Bank

Description: Stronghold-temple of the worst among Gindlia’s plutocrats, a testament to cancerous greed.

Tone & Feel: Opulent but heartless, tidy yet soul-stained.

Tier: 3

Type: Exploration

Difficulty: 18

Potential Adversaries:

Debtguard, Lockdown Automaton, Vaultgeist, Banskimmer’s Union Thieves

Features

Temple of Greed - Passive

Access to any part of an Arkvault is tightly-controlled. Access is allowed only by specific invitation or through presenting yourself with impressive deception via forgery, lush garments, and more. (Presence 17). PCs that gain entry may get a tour of the Arkvault’s facilities and security features, but access to the vaults themselves are another matter.

Who can you trick or bribe into inviting you to visit? What persona do you adopt to bluff your way inside?

Undying Vigilance - Reaction

Any character noticed where they shouldn’t be is intercepted by 1d4 Debtguard who will take them back to ‘acceptable’ areas if they appear like they belong or arrest them if they don’t. If the PCs slip past the Debtguard, activate a Lockdown Automaton to intercept them at any major entrance or exit.

Who are these debtguard? What pointless ornamentation was actually a magical sensor?

Arkvault - Passive

Breaking into an Arkvault requires a Progress Countdown (8) to successfully align the entangling co-location runes. Characters with the unique vault key (held by the Bank Manager) may tick the clock down twice for free.

What does the vault door look like? Which of the entangled vaults are the PCs trying to access and how can you tell them apart?

Another One for the Hoard - Action

Spend a Fear to reveal that this vault has been possessed by a Vaultgeist, jealously guarding their hoard.

Who was this Vaultgeist in life? What remnants of their memory and personality remain, not yet consumed by avarice?

Pneumanite Mine

Description: A tightly-controlled mine, worked almost entirely populated by the insolvent dead.

Tone & Feel: Rich yet hollow, the boiling-over rage of the living

Tier: 3

Type: Traversal

Difficulty: 16

Potential Adversaries:

Debtguard, Stonewraith, Acid Burrower, Katari Burglar

Features

Do Not Cross - Passive

Protestors form a picket line outside the mine, decrying the exploitation of the dead and demanding a chance to earn a literal and figurative living.

Can they provide cover for your entrance? Do you join them and incite a riot?

The Dead Don’t Need to Breathe - Reaction

The tunnels and shafts of the mine are not safe for the living. When characters travel below the surface level, activate a Countdown (Loop 4) that ticks down any time a character rolls with Fear. When triggered, each character must mark Stress from smoke and fumes.

Tunnels & Shafts

The stairs and tunnels are barely safe enough for the debtguard, let alone the living. Moving up or down a level or navigating to a particular part of the mine requires an action roll (suggested: Finesse for moving safely through an unstable tunnel, Agility for climbing/descending, Instinct for navigation).

Cave-In - Action

Spend a Fear to trigger a cave-in caused by lax safety standards and rapacious mining. All characters within a Far distance must make an Agility Reaction Roll (16) or be pummeled by rocks, taking 2d8+20 phy damage and marking 2 Stress (half damage and 1 Stress on a success). Digging out or through a collapsed tunnel requires a Progress Countdown (8).

Madame Ulia’s Auction House

Description: Renowned for exquisite art, curios, and artifacts. Whispers of illegal procurement tactics are brushed under the rug.

Tone & Feel: Eclectic and covetous, refined yet excessive.

Tier: 3

Type: Social

Difficulty: 17

Potential Adversaries:

Bladed Guards, Merchant Baron, Monarch, Spy, Courtesan

Features

Unparalleled Selection - Passive

Madame Ulia’s offers the greatest treasures you’ve ever seen. Roll 5d12+12 on the loot tables (p.XX) three times to select the marquee items for the day (on a 61+, create a legendary item or enhance an item between 51-60). Anything below 20 on the Item and Consumable lists are also available.

Who is selling the items and what villainy was required to acquire them? Who else wants these items?

What Am I Bid? - Passive

During the auctions, PCs may bid on any item. They make a Presence roll (17) to see how well they handle the auction. On a success with Fear, it costs more than they’d imagined. On any failure, they have to bid more than they have or let someone else win.

Cut a Deal - Passive

Characters can attempt to convince other interested parties to not bid by promising favors, making other trades, coercion, or other methods. On any failure in those attempts, Madame Ulia’s people may ask to have a word with them about interfering in house business. Summon 1d6 Tier 3 Bladed Guards to ‘escort’ them to the auction manager’s office.

Information is the Greatest Treasure - Action

Reveal a Spy or other agent of an adversary in the scene, eavesdropping on the party. The PC with the highest Instinct or best chance to notice the Spy makes an Instinct Reaction Roll (17) to notice the observer. If they fail, they can mark Stress to know that they’re being observed but not where the observer is.

Who do they work for? Were they here for you, or was this a happy coincidence?

Solsunk Sea

Designed by Carlos Cisco

Aquatic, Ancient, & Strange

Tier 3

A vast expanse of open water where ancient secrets lie in wait in the fathomless depths.

Distinctions

Hundreds of miles of open sea, dotted with the occasional island, atoll, or even rarer settlement, where the bizarre is commonplace. Covering much of the seafloor are pieces of an immense and shattered city that, if local legend is to be believed, sunk beneath the waves when they called an ancient sun down upon themselves. Navigation here is challenging as the firmament never seems as firm as it does over other oceans.

Fathomless Seas

Foolish is the sailor who does not respect the sea. Calm waters can turn dangerous in moments and the currents can shift unfavorably at the most inopportune times. Most of the water here is so deep that drowned bodies and wrecked ships are rarely recovered. Whatever sunk this continent into the sea made sure it was deep enough that no one would be foolish to seek the secrets in its deepest reaches. The water is unusually warm, with the blisterstone buildings on the seafloor radiating an ambient heat.

You might find:

• What were once mountaintops now make up small island chains throughout this vast stretch of water. Most are deserted but are teeming with local wildlife.
• The crumple and creaking of a sail, fat with wind.
• Briny sea air fills the air while ocean spray kisses the sand.

Fickle Weather

Just as the water can change on a whim, so too can the wind and weather. Sunny skies can give way to shipbreaking storms in mere minutes. Bad weather takes on a different type of meaning here and there is no escaping it. Only by embracing the storm and riding it out would one have any chance for survival. So enjoy the calm when it comes, but do not grow complacent.

You might find:

• Thunderhead clouds as tall as mountains where giant birds ride on arcs of lightning.
• The boom of thunder and the howling of storm winds.
• A lightning strike leaves the scent of ozone lingering in the air.

Primordial Wildlife

The seas were here first. So too were the things that live there. While all manner of mundane wildlife thrives in these waters, ancient and powerful creatures lurk in the depths and hunt the surface waters. Compression symbionts, a cross between a trilobite and an octopus, cluster around settlements. They bond with swimmers, allowing them to breathe underwater while feeding off their breath. Marrowshank whales, massive sperm whales with bladed bone protrusions jutting off their skulls, are among the region’s apex predators. They are dwarfed only by the behemoth gapesharks, which could fit several whales inside its gulper eel-like maw.

You might find:

• A pod of marrowshank whales carving up a ship in hopes of devouring the crew.
• The sharp clicks and clacks of immortal crabs snapping their giant claws.
• The songs of seabirds that sound like crying infants.

Drowned Secrets

The seafloor is completely covered in the ruins of a drowned and ancient city. Mostly consisting of sundered structures and crumbling edifices, much of the city has survived and keeps its deepest secrets in the most extreme depths where the pressure is lethal. Overflowing treasure vaults, preserved ancient libraries, and temples to forgotten gods all await discovery by the brave and foolhardy. But some things were meant to stay buried and drowned, and if surfaced could threaten the entire region.

You might find:

• A six-story sealed library, whose stained glass windows are magically sealed against the pressure. It’s completely dry inside.
• The distant clicks, chirps, and bellows of the marrowshank whale song.
• Intense pressure crushing anything that sinks too deep without protection.

Uncanny Phenomena

The Solsunk Sea is an inherently weird place. Between the fallen celestial bodies, peculiar communities, and the primordial beasts that swim these waters, those seeking something strange could do a lot worse than some time spent here. Gravitational anomalies, a curiously shifting firmament, and islands that aren’t are all commonplace here, making it a sea that caters more to “advanced sailors” than those just starting their careers on the water.

You might find:

• An upside-down waterfall in the middle of the ocean where water falls upwards before hitting an unseen apex and cascading back down.
• Bioluminescent jellyfish whirl through the air, lifted up by intense storm winds.
• An unfamiliar and unsettling night sky filled with unrecognizable constellations.

GM Principles

Grip the world in nature’s hostile indifference - Whether charting these waters on the surface or below, it should be clear at all times that this is a hostile environment. The sea cares not whether mortals live, die, or if their grand quest is completed. The hope is for calm waters, smooth sailing, and safe passage. And it’s generally best not to imagine the worst outcomes.

Beauty belies danger - Why is that island, so heavy with fruit, deserted? What wretched poisons does that orange banded wrasse release when eaten? What lies beneath that mysterious halocline layer? What is the source of the hauntingly gorgeous singing just beyond the shoals? What is that beautiful light? Much of nature’s aquatic beauty is a warning. Do not be fooled. Do not be enchanted. And definitely do not touch.

Live with Abandon - Folk that make their life on the waves, on volcanic islands, or beneath the crushing depths all have one thing in common: They fear no disaster, natural or unnatural. Upheaval, unpredictability, and controlled chaos are all ways of life here. Between the fickle wind patterns, the roving bands of pirates, and the unfathomable whims of the currents, it’s easy to find oneself marooned out here. But the fruits are sweet, the fish is plentiful, and the weather is mostly agreeable. So make the best of it and get some sun while you still draw breath.

Landmarks

Solsunk Atoll

Trading Speed for Safety: The quickest trade routes take ships through the storm surrounding this atoll and the unlucky ones don’t make it out the other side.

Uncharted Waters: Few have made it into the atoll and survived, fewer have made it back out to tell what lies beyond the howling bale-winds and walls of lightning fog.

A site popular for mythologists and tale spinners, and would be the crowning jewel on the cap of any explorer who successfully navigates the storm to find what secrets lie beyond its wall of wind and fog. The gravesite of many a ship and its crew, who valued expediency over caution.

Eternal Hurricane (Feature)

Churning with bale-winds and where lightning arcs from both the sea and air. A typhoon crackling with arcane energy and fog that carries fatal currents of electricity through water vapor. Outside of the sea’s deepest trenches, this is the most hostile environment in the region. Ships skirting the edges of this storm end up limping back to port and take the gamble by cutting through these waters do so knowing they’ve likely consigned the crew to a watery grave. No conventional vessel can pass through the storm, but the shapers at Blisterstone Cove are designing new hull plating capable of withstanding it.

The Iris (Location)

Sandwiched between the first layer and a secondary storm structure that surrounds the eye of the hurricane, is a peculiar island. It’s halo-shaped, a perfect ring that fills the entire space between the two walls of raging winds and fog. Growing on this island is a unique biome filled with bizarre flora and fauna found nowhere else in the Mortal Realm Here, the air has a heavy quality to it, making it difficult to breathe. The plants are not safe for consumption, though some of the plants would consider interlopers safe for their consumption.

A Fallen Star (Wonder)

In the eye of the storm is a stretch of water that’s as calm as glass. Positioned at its center is a hole in the water about 30 feet around that goes all the way to the sea floor in a smooth column. No one truly knows what lies at the bottom but some have suggested it’s where an ancient sun fell and still remains. Some theorize a Forgotten God waits there to grant its favor to the first to discover it. Others believe it to be a cursed place and the source of the ancient city’s calamity. In truth… it could very well be all three or none of them. “Sail not into the sun’s eye, a good sailor. No fortune awaits you there.” - A common regional refrain about avoiding the storm.

Isles Of Rot

Decaying Titan: These islands are the remains of a long-dead kraken, whose decaying underbelly is a seemingly endless feast for the unique biome that has emerged underneath it.

Life Finds A Way: It takes a special type to survive in this place but the creatures carving out a life here have managed to thrive on this unconventional bit of dry land.

A small, shoal-filled archipelago of craggy, flesh-like islands. The water for a mile around the place is putrid, foul smelling, and kills most fish that come into contact with it. Immortal crabs that have grown to immense proportions, feasting on kraken flesh, dominate this place. A few folks have eked out a strange life here and even found a valuable trade commodity deep beneath the island’s rotten carapace.

Inside the brown lagoon is an island shaped like a shattered spine, jagged and gnarled white rock, thick and sludgy water surrounding it. Past that is a large, sloped and slick black island with crude signage hanging off it. At the center of all of it is an island pulsing and quivering with every movement, where footprints pool black blood in their wake. Something living remains on this dead thing.

Decaying Biome (Feature)

This is a dead place, where rot lingers in the air and entropy plays out in real time. But for the creatures that live here, it is home… and a delicious one at that. Like whale falls that create a feast for creatures of the deep, the perpetual cycle of decay and regeneration provides an endless gorging platter for those who can stomach it. Which is mostly the crabs. “When they say you should observe animals when determining if something is safe to eat, they didn’t mean these ones.”

Bulbous Growth (Location)

The island is a flesh-like, malignant growth bursting out of black chiton. Immortal crabs skitter all over the mass, consuming its ever-growing mound of flesh. Occasionally this foul growth erupts in a shower of rotten meat, expelled from a place that even gods dare not envision. The crabs do not like sharing and snap their claws threateningly at any who approach.

Feeding Frenzy Clock

A consequence for a miss can always be a mark against the clock.

8 - The island chain begin to rumble slightly, like an earthquake but with a squishier quality

7 - Immortal crabs swarm from underneath the islands and into waters surrounding the bulbous mass

6 - The island chain shakes again, this time more violently

5 - The crabs float to the surface, filling the space between the islands so tightly they could be walked across.

4 - The bulbous mass begins to unfurl a pulsing orifice at the top.

3 - The crabs all raise their claws, snapping them in anticipation.

2 - The bulbous mass erupts, spraying a foul fleshy substance into the air and raining down across the crab cast.

1 - A frenzied battle for the delicious rotmeat ensues, with immortal crabs fighting for dominance and severing limbs left and right.

0 - The crabs return to their hunting grounds while the limbs regenerate into a new cast of crabs.

The Butcher Of Headcave (Location/Merchant)

An island composed of black chitinous plates with few handholds where a plunge into the water reveals a terrifying truth: This island is the head of the kraken, the gigantic eye milky and dead as the rest of its decaying visage. Gaps in the plates lead to a cave system that snakes through its flesh leading into the hollowed-out brainpan where a unique butcher selling artisanal sweetmeats eagerly awaits customers who rarely come. She’s a bit too enthusiastic about the rotten kraken meat and… other delights. Adventurous eaters may find some delicious delicacies if they can overcome the smell.

Koma G’do, Eccentric Butcher [ Wanderborne **** Drakona , she/her]

Difficulty: 16

Fanatical, generous, quirky

Experience: Animal Handling +2, Forbidden Knowledge +2 Quartermaster +2, Shrewd Negotiator +1

Look: Always flecked with various ichors and bloods. A slick apron over his ivory-white scales does little to keep the fluids off him. A variety of homemade butcher’s tools, crafted from kraken bone, hang off his waist.

Motive: Delve Deeper. Find sweeter flesh. More flavor.

Drowned Megalopolis

Subocean Sprawl: Less a singular location and rather the entire seafloor. Covered in the half-buried ruins of an ancient city where treasures and terrors alike await discovery in equal measure.

Competitive Megafauna: Razor-headed marrowshank whales and colossal gapesharks devour almost anything weaker or smaller than them.

The nameless, ancient city that spans the entire sea floor is a place where every answer begs three more questions. What happened here? When did this continent fall? Why is there no evidence of the people who lived here—either in the form of fossilized bodies or even written records? Because there are no firm answers to easily find, the fantastical fills the void. Stories of old gods, ancient destroyers, and primordial beasts are as valid an explanation as any. Because of this, it’s a place defined by daring and adventure. Of treasure and discovery. A world where the foolhardy and the brave lock arms and leap into briny depths. But some secrets are best left buried, and there are dangers yet to unearth that those above dare not comprehend.

Sunken Citadel (Location)

Situated directly beneath the settlement of Plunger’s Trove, the sunken citadel was (presumably) the seat of power of the ancient species that once called this city home. The entire city is constructed from a red stone that radiates heat, once common, now only mined in a single location. This is where most of the exploration of the sunken city has taken place. Its halls and floors are well-plumbed, and any treasures here have long since been inherited by the folks living in Plunger’s Trove. Built atop one of the continent’s highest peaks, even after sinking the twisting spire at its pinnacle juts out of the water. The secrets of the citadel are well-kept, despite being thoroughly explored. Perhaps seekers just aren’t viewing this place through the correct lens.

Fast Travel Currents (Feature)

Snaking through the waters—from just below the surface to skirting the rooftops of the ancient city—there is a network of water columns, pumping currents through them at breakneck speeds. The wildlife utilize these as part of their migration and hunting patterns. Recently they’ve been mapped by the Deep Seekers, a group of intrepid underwater explorers. Utilizing compression symbionts, folk have begun to traverse these currents as a means of accessing previously undisturbed parts of the city. Inexperienced divers who aren’t mindful of predators are often devoured by marrowshank whales or gapesharks who feed along these currents.

The Pressure Oubliette (Threat)

Deep in the city is a being; powerful, forgotten, and sealed away. From the outside, it looks like a perfect sphere of liquid metal, held at four points by a massive ancient technological device that’s now crumpled and useless. Luckily the pressure of the water is exerting enough force to contain whatever is imprisoned in the sphere. If it were to be raised… no one knows what it might unleash. Sailors passing above can often hear a sweet song coming from below. The language is unknown but the words fill the listener with an ancient longing for freedom.

Settlements

Plunger’s Trove

Ancient Protector: An ancient leviathan has adopted this tight-knit community, keeping it safe from disaster, both natural and unnatural.

Known For: It’s position above the ancient city’s pinnacle, making it a popular destination for those who want to explore the sunken city with relative ease.

What started out as a couple of boats and some temporary wooden structures has metastasized into a combination of lashed-together ships, floating shanties, and other dubious constructions that would not be up to code… anywhere. All constructed around the crimson spire of the Sunken Citadel. It attracts all types, most seeking their fortunes in the ancient city beneath them. They have adopted some unique customs surrounding weddings, trials, and funerary rites. The former of which is tied to the city’s ancient guardian, and the latter is born out of the raucous spirit of the treasure seekers who call Plunger’s Trove home.

The aforementioned guardian is a primeval aquatic dragon, Naligros, who once protected the ancient city and has adopted Plunger’s Trove as his own these past three generations. After living many years without purpose or companionship, Naligros is grateful for the company, protects Plunger’s Trove from any outside threats, and keeps the locals from delving too deep into the secrets of the past.

Naligros the Jolly, Jovial Ancient Guardian [Dragon, he/him]

Difficulty: 17

Protective, Just, Patronizing

**Experience: **Ancient Knowledge +3, Divination +3, Forbidden Knowledge +3, Swimming +5, Wisdom of Centuries +5

Look: A dragon who has over his multi-millennia-long existence evolved to aquatic life. Long and serpentine, over time his wings moved and split, becoming dorsal and pectoral fins.

Motive: Protect Plunger’s Trove. These tiny treasure seekers were such a welcome amusement that he’ll be damned if he’d let anything threaten that. Including telling them what happened to the sunken city’s previous occupants.

Moonpool Plaza (Location)

Extending out from the spire is a ring of scuttled ships that form a series of homes, taverns, and shops surrounding a pool about 300 feet wide. The moonpool is a community space, the primary access point for divers, and the beating heart of Plunger’s Trove. Here tourists and locals alike trade stories and meals, arrange dive tours, and weigh their hauls. While most of Plunger’s Trove has dubiously safe architecture, the Moonpool is expertly crafted and keeps the worst wave conditions at bay. Compression Symbionts swim freely near the surface, allowing those who approach slowly to bond with them.

Rof Blibb, Crab Hunter [ Seaborne **** Goblin , he/him]

Difficulty: 14

Harty, Boisterous, Puerile

Experience: Athlete +2, Swimming +3, Tracking +1

Look: A green skinned goblin with a perpetual, leathery tan. Ever shirtless, with a tight swimmer’s build. He has one hand, and the other is fitted with a metal brace onto which a variety of crab hunting tools can be attached.

Motive: Hunt down Empress Crakshell, a particularly long-lived and vicious Immortal crab that took his hand. He wants to capture her live so he can take her claw and eat it in front of her, just as she did to him.

Geff Lysher, Divemaster [ Seaborne **** Fungril , he/they]

Difficulty: 12

Mischievous, knowledgeable, lucky

Experience: Ancient Knowledge +1, Feigned Competence +2, Keen Senses +1, Navigation +2, Swimming +3

Look: A wide set fungril with a morel-like head. Rarely seen without his desalination skin, begrudgingly putting a shirt over it only in formal settings.

Motive: Discovery. They’re one of the best Trove Divers in the community. He’s been tracking the final founder’s treasure since he arrived and thinks he getting close.

The Leviathan Presides (Rituals)

Naligros presides over criminal trials and civil disputes, as well as officiating weddings. Those found guilty of heinous crimes such as murder, or theft of a funerary cache are granted a choice of animal forms from which they will live out their remaining days in exile. Weddings, on the other hand, are a joyous community affair where the entire populace is lowered on colorful floats to the base of the sunken citadel. There, in a temple of the ancient ones, Naligros grants his blessing to those wishing to wed. A week of celebrations commences upon returning to the surface. Naligros is considered a fair and just judge and jury, though he is not without his biases. He will enact harsh punishments for those who violate the laws.

Funerary Caches (Rituals)

The founders of Plunger’s Trove enriched themselves, pulling up unreal hauls of treasure and selling them to whoever would buy them. Their children wanted for nothing. But as the community grew it forced the plungers to delve deeper and deeper to keep up with the population boom. It became clear that this way of life would soon disappear, birthing a peculiar funerary rite that embodies the spirit of adventure and exploration that the Plungers embrace. The deceased are affixed with weights and their three most precious possessions. Carried out in boats by family members in the dead of night, they’re sunk over the citadel. The items are marked with dates (50, 75, and 100 years) after death. Until those dates pass, looting or moving these treasures is strictly forbidden. Inheritance maps are treasured heirlooms, marking when and where discovered funerary caches lie, often leading to competitive races generations later.

The Golarza Merchant Flotilla

Mobile Market: The flotilla is always on the move, both for security and to avoid damning up the waters of commerce.

Anything You Need: The flotilla has been everywhere that touches the sea, and has extended its reach far beyond. If a buyer can imagine it, they can probably find it here… for a premium.

A flotilla of merchant ships lashed, strung, and built together to form a massive floating settlement the size of a small city. It might be one of the most well-defended ports in the region. Never staying in one place too long, the flotilla moves with the currents of commerce, taken wherever the winds of arbitrage direct them. Visitors be warned: come with a heavy purse or a hold fat with trade goods or be turned away from the docks. Flotilla ships, flying purple sails, often break off from the whole for smaller trade runs and can be encountered wherever there is something to trade.

Pirate’s Folly (Threat)

The merchant fleet has access to some of the most advanced and exotic weaponry in the region. Hull-shattering giga-canons and aether-rocket ballistas line the outer perimeter ships. Even if they were to be boarded, they have some of the finest mercenaries and tamed monsters at their disposal. It’s even rumored they keep a pod of trained marrowshank whales beneath the flotilla. The only pirates brave, or stupid, enough to attack the flotilla have been the Marrowshank Raiders, having recently sunk a Holdship. Omiriel is living and wants revenge for the gold lost and employees killed.

Grand Matierum (Market)

The central hub of the entire flotilla, and where the vast majority of the open trading is done. A massive barge onto which a cascading tower of markets and billowing cloth is built upon. Any item the Mortal Realm offers is more than likely to be here in one of the many merchant stalls. But that doesn’t mean it’s affordable. The further it’s traveled the more valuable it becomes. If there’s something more exotic or illicit that one desires, that can also be arranged for a price. Along with merchants, it’s easy enough to find work here–both mercenary and arbitrage, depending on one’s mettle and taste.

Golarza Cutter (Location)

The fastest ship on the Solsunk Sea rarely gets to display this fact. This nimble vessel is often situated next to the Grand Materium, as it is the seat of power for the family dynasty that has commanded this fleet for many generations. The captain, Omiriel, comes from a long line of fleet commanders. She was born to do this. Raised to be perfect at it. And she’ll keep the sails full as long as she draws breath. There’s no savvier merchant than Omiriel. Even devils envy her meticulous contract language.

Omiriel Golarza, Merchant Princess [ Seaborne **** Elf , she/her]

Difficulty: 11

Dazzling, proud, fair

Experience: Acrobat +2, Bureaucracy +1, Navigator +1, Shrewd Negotiator +4, Swimming +2

Look: Draped in loose-fitting layers of canary yellow and royal purple, Miriel dresses to impress but also for freedom of movement. Lousy with gold bangles, rings, ear and nose rings.

Motive: Find places with too much of one commodity and not enough of what they need to a reciprocal destination, thus perpetuating the flow of coin, commerce, and exchange.

Blisterstone Cove

Hot Rocks: The only above water source of Blisterstone, the unique heat-radiating rock that the ancient city is constructed from.

Scarred Hands: It’s easy to tell if someone grew up in Blisterstone Cove due to their scarred and calloused hands.

Built into the ruins of a former quarry that was situated on a mountaintop that’s now an unusually warm island. In ages past this was one of the sources of what the locals now call Blisterstone, which was used to construct all the buildings of the ancient city. The mine is operational again, though now it’s used primarily to make a blasting agent for explosives. The large community that sprung up around it is one of innovation, competitive sports, and using the blisterstone in a myriad of creative ways. Most striking is how they blend ancient architecture with their own.

Blisterstone (Feature)

A smooth red stone that radiates heat. When the raw ore is pulled out of the ground it requires specialized tools to handle, and can melt the skin right off the hands. It’s a versatile stone that can be made into explosives, concrete, and added to metal alloys which are shipped off to colder climes to make insulated armor. Trade ships from Blisterstone Cove are a popular target for pirates and are often in need of mercenary protection.

Blisterbath Springs (Location)

If it sounds unappealing, then the locals who named it did their job. It’s a three hour trek from the docks but everyone who makes the journey insists it’s worth it. Dense jungle and switchback trails give way to an incredible view of the ocean from a series of tiered hot springs, warmed by the blisterstone beneath them. A small wooden deck with seating has been constructed above the pools, that cascade down about 7 tiers before dropping off a sheer cliff. One of the most beautiful and remote parts of the island, it’s a well kept secret from tourists. The locals would prefer to keep it that way.

Blisterball (Game)

A local game created by bored children that became a fiercely competitive sport. It’s a mix between water polo and Tlachtli, played in artificial tide pools, where raw Blisterstone is dropped in the water and the two teams of four compete to get it through a tiny hoop. It’s brutal, leaves burn scars, and draws out the whole island to watch league games. Local families comprise some of the most successful teams but loose groups of independent players have formed their own teams, as well as a couple from other settlements. The biggest rivalry in the league is between the local favorites, the Exploders, and the Leviathan’s from Plunger’s Trove.

Factions

Marrowshank Raiders

Undiscovered Hideaway: No one knows where they make port or unload their hauls.

Whale Tamers: Few encounter a wild marrowshank and live to tell about it. But these raiders have somehow learned to tame them.

The most feared pirate clan to terrorize these seas in some time, for good reason. Unlike most pirates in the Solsunk Sea, these attack from beneath the waves. Their bullet-shaped, hermetically sealed vessels are each pulled by a tamed marrowshank whale and launched into ship hulls at high speeds from below. They take what they can and disappear just as quickly as they appeared, making off with their ill-gotten gains and absconding to a place no authority has managed to locate.

Marrowfall’s Crown (Location)

A couple of miles off the cliffs of a craggy and cave-filled island is a strange geological formation. It would have been a plateau impossibly taller than it was wide, crowned by six pointed spires that now just poke out of the sea in the current age. No one knows why the marrowshank whales will travel hundreds of miles when their time is at an end, or if they are mortally wounded, to die above the crown. Their lifeless bodies fall atop this naturally formed altar, where they are summarily devoured by crustaceans and fish. Their bones eventually slide off the edges and into the depths. The Crown is considered a cursed place that most sailors avoid, making the nearby island’s network of caves an ideal hideaway for the raiders.

Pirate Pod (Feature)

It’s no easy task to tame a marrowshank whale, but these raiders discovered a unique method that remains a closely guarded secret. The whalefalls on the crown are more than just a feast for wildlife. They give the raiders an opportunity to harvest ambergris from the dead whales, which they use to create a salve that makes them smell like marrowshank calves. The whales form a protective bond with the pirates, adopting them as their own children. Once bonded it’s an easy enough process to train them but both sides of this relationship consider the other family. Once boarded, most crews will abandon their arms for fear of the marrowshank’s retribution if any raider should die.

Shankbreacher Pod (Technology)

Nothing fills a local sailor with more dread than the screaming breach of a marrowshank whale. Other than the snapping sound of their keel being penetrated by the shankbreachers. Relatively small, shaped like a barbed bullet, and are affixed with large, retractable blades made from marrowshank bones. These pods are designed to pierce and lodge themselves in a ship’s hull. From there a hatch opens, out of which the pirates emerge and attack… can hold six to twelve raiders, with a small area for loot. Each is pulled along by a marrowshank whale, and launched into the bottom of ships at high speeds as the marrowshank whale breaches next to it. The Raiders have little use for prisoners and only kill who they need to. Survivors of these attacks are found floating on the wreckage, clinging to the few valuables that were left behind.

Principles

The Marrowshank Raiders are not a particularly principled lot, but they are practical. And they share a special bond with the marrowshank whales, tamed or wild.

• Be mindful of weight and develop an eye for value. You only have so much space in a shankbreacher.
• Harm no whale. Slay those that do. Give deference to wild pod crossings.
• Just as the Raiders seek a life of freedom, they will keep no whale that yearns to join a pod with their kin.

NPCs

Sarna Hozzat, Whale Surfer [ Seaborne **** Human , she/her]

Difficulty: 14

Thrill-seeking, insensate, fearsome

Experience: Ambusher +2, Bandit +2, Intrusion +2, Navigation +2, Swimming +3

Look: Adorned in hydrodynamic crab shell armor, with a marrowshank bone trident and bladed net.

Motive: Strike fear into the hearts of her enemies. Instead of riding in a shankbreacher, she prefers to ride the whale itself. Leaping off its back when it breaches, and onto the decks of ships to terrify the crew.

Vigo Xis, Reluctant Monarch [ Seaborne **** Inferis , they/them]

Difficulty: 12

Weary, organized, practical

Experience: Bandit +3, Commander +2, Feigned Competence +2, Quartermaster +1, Swimming +3

Look: Skin of an orangish umber with thick curling horns crowning their head. Pretends to not care about their clothing, but has an effortless sense of style.

Motive: Keep this rowdy crew together, profitable, and paid on time. Vigo didn’t intend to be crowned monarch of the raiders but takes their responsibility very seriously… even if they desperately need a break.

Story Hooks

• Vigo is looking for a worthy successor, but none of their ideal candidates want the responsibility.
• The marrowshank whales used by the Golarza flotilla yearn for freedom and must be set loose.
• Privateers have discovered the location of the raider’s hideaway and are planning an assault. Both sides are seeking outside assistance.

Deep Seekers

Frequently Found: All over, but primarily Plunger’s Trove

Unearth, Uncover, Understand: They seek to unlock the secrets of the ancient city, with a focus on discovering the source of its calamity.

A group of explorers, thrill seekers, scholars, and cartographers unified under a singular banner of truth. They seek to understand the tragedy that befell this city-continent in order to protect their home from enduring a similar fate. This puts them in direct opposition to the dragon Naligros, who would see the secrets of the ancient city stay that way. They see him as patronizing and untrustworthy. Why would such a creature that purports to protect them bar them from the very knowledge that would accomplish that goal? They can be found all over the region but congregate most commonly in Plunger’s Trove where their headquarters is stationed.

Fearless Explorers (Feature)

There is no better guide to the ocean’s depths than a Seeker. They are well-funded, have access to topography maps, have knowledge of fast moving water columns and current charts for quick underwater traversal. Their Cog-Smiths are even attempting to build a submersible capable of diving into the deepest trenches but all attempts have met with crushing failure. However, setbacks only serve to galvanize them and failure is a necessary step towards success. “You ever ride the back of a gapeshark to an underwater door taller than a giant? No? Would you like to?”

Compression Symbionts (Creature/Feature)

Originally all exploration done was with a combination of magic and diving bells. But the discovery of a sealed chamber full of strange eggs changed everything. They hatched into a mucilaginous, tentacled arthropod that exists in symbiosis with surface dwellers. It painlessly affixes to the wearer’s spine, extending a transparent membrane over the eyes. Its fleshly limbs whip under the user, spreading like an insulated pressure suit over the entire body. Lastly, its long mouth curls around, extending down the user’s throat, expelling an oxygen-rich fluid into the lungs that allows them to breathe underwater and the creature to feed off of carbon dioxide. When bonded underwater the wearer can move at full speed, withstand intense pressure, has advantage on reaction rolls, and can breathe comfortably for 8 hours. These friendly arthropods have spread all over the region and can be found, most commonly, congregating around settlements.

Spirepoint Lodge (Location)

A kitschy mix of tavern, museum, and headquarters. Treasures from the deep are displayed proudly on every surface, and sections of the tavern with dedicated theming. It’s here that the Deep Seekers gather, trade intel, and drink off the “sinking feeling.” Colm Rulligan, the founder’s grandson and current leader of the group, is most commonly found here swapping stories and keeping an ear out for rumors. Looking over the map of the undersea travel network will make anyone’s head spin. It connects nearly the entire sea.

Principles

The Deep Seekers hold truth as a paramount virtue, knowing that only by uncovering the secrets of the past can we prevent repeated tragedies in the future.

• Hide no knowledge, especially from fellow seekers. Shared knowledge empowers the greater whole.
• Seek the Forbidden. There are those that would prevent this knowledge from being unearthed. Secret keepers cannot be trusted.
• History is a treasure far more valuable than gold.

NPCs

Colm Rulligan, Consummate Explorer [ Seaborne **** Galapa , he/him]

Difficulty: 15

Intense, tenacious, fearless

Experience: Ancient Knowledge +3, Intrusion +2, Navigation +1, Swimming +2

Look: A spiny shell painted with colorful patterns and a shark beak pierced with several rings. Mottled reddish brown skin covered in naval tattoos.

Motive: Find out what happened below so he can prevent it from ever happening again.

Ikthan Xobo, Star Scholar [ Wanderborne **** Ribbet , they/she]

Difficulty: 13

Crackpot, conspiratorial, zealous

Experience: Ancient Knowledge +2, Swimming +3

Look: A perpetually damp scholar who never seems to have an outfit that doesn’t clash with itself.

Motive: Discover the fate of the ancient race that disappeared entirely from the city below.

Story Hooks

• An ancient sealed library has been discovered, but the Seekers research team never reported back. They need some muscle to escort their investigator to determine what happened.
• Naligros has barred entry to a portion of the city and all attempts to circumnavigate him have all failed.
• A group of pirates made off with an ancient gold tablet, which held the first written record of the city discovered by the Seekers. The Seekerswant it back… and some want revenge.

Resources

	MOMENTS OF HOPE		MOMENTS OF FEAR
1	A message in a bottle suggests a bittersweet tale of lost love.	1	Storm clouds on the horizon portent a terrible storm.
2	A survivor of a shipwreck excitedly waves you down.	2	Your fishing line snaps and your catch escapes.
3	Dolphins ride the wake of your ship.	3	A dead body splayed out, the word mutineer carved into its skin.
4	Bioluminescent plankton illuminates the shore with every wave.	4	Shark fins circle in the water at dusk.
5	A sunrise over a cloudless sky.	5	The moaning cry of a marrowshank whale breach.
6	A tailwind fills your sails, speeding you along.	6	A leak in the lower decks threatens to sink your ship.
7	A huge haul of fish in your net.	7	A great shadow passes under you in the water, too deep to make out what it is.
8	A barrel of vintage wine floats by in the ocean.	8	Skeletons in gibbets hang off a rocky shoal.
9	A local fisher gives you a recipe for his homemade fish sauce.	9	A dead ship full of blighted corpses with sea birds circling ominously overhead.
10	Spinner dolphins leap out of the sea, twisting in the air before splashing back into the water.	10	Ghostly pirates dig up a spectral treasure on the beach.
11	A merchant ship arrives to lend you some much needed assistance.	11	A massive wave knocks you off your feet.
12	A sea shanty sung with friends lifts your spirit.	12	A colossal sea serpent is torn apart and dashed against the shore. But by what?

Rumours

• Something deep in the sunken city calls out to passing sailors, but the dragon Naligros has warned against curiosity.
• The forbiddance on the Founder’s Cache of Plunger’s Trove is set to expire any day now. The race to find it will be intense.
• A Plunger claims to have discovered a sealed library deep in the sunken city, and seeks the means to open it.
• A newly formed island settlement, positioned midway along a popular trade route, has been mysteriously abandoned. Reports of strange plants and animals appearing is cause for concern.
• A wealthy noble gave up his life of luxury for one of piracy and adventure, and seeks to commandeer a vessel… by killing the crew and taking it by force.
• Merfolk, not traditionally found in these waters, have been spotted migrating towards Plunger’s Trove for reasons unknown.

Equipment

Clamshucker Axe - Strength Melee - d10+4 (phy) - One-Handed

Feature: Shuck Armor (Mark stress to permanently reduce target’s damage thresholds by 1 before striking.)

Primary Weapon - Tier 3

Leviathan Scale Shield - Finesse Melee - d4+4 (phy) - One-Handed

Feature: Bladed Scale (When you use at least 3 armor slots to reduce damage of an incoming melee attack, also deal 1 hit point to the attacker.)

Secondary Weapon - Tier 3

Immortal Carapace - Base Score: 8

Feature: Chitinous Regeneration (Mark a Stress to repair 1 armor slot.)

Armor - Tier 3

Items

Desalination Skin

Made of a unique composite of ground up immortal crab shell and kelp that’s treated with a variety of rare fish and whale oils. The result is a skin tight, flexible suit that filters salt water and automatically hydrates the wearer. By spending one hour immersed in salt water the wearer gets a day’s worth of hydration and has no need to drink water.

Navigator’s Wheel

An enchanted ship wheel that gets the navigator where they need to go, storms be damned. When attached to a water vessel, this wheel allows for unerring navigation, despite rough waters or storm conditions. It grants the user +3 Navigation and advantage on all rolls to maintain a steady heading.

Consumables

Bottleship

Crack in case of emergency! An enchanted ship in a glass bottle often kept as a failsafe for pirates and merchants alike. When broken, the small frigate inside grows to normal size and can hold 20 people. It always has a tail wind and lasts for 48 hours before dissolving into sea foam.

Pirate’s Friend

Enchanted maps that guarantee paydirt! Appearing normally as a blank piece of leathery parchment. When unfurled, on an island at sunrise or sunset, a map with a marked X will appear on the vellum. Choose one of the following results below or roll a d20 to determine it randomly. Once the map is revealed it slowly burns to ash within 5 minutes.

• 1-2: A chest containing 5 handfuls of gold and gems.
• 3-4: A small box containing a skeleton key
• 5-6: A skeleton crew guarding a mysterious idol that holds an Arcane Prism
• 7-8: A corpse holding an ornately crafted casting sword
• 9-10: An IOU from one long-dead pirate to another.
• 11-12: An otherwise empty chest filled with dried blood and scratch marks that spell out the word “friends” over and over and over again.
• 13-14: An entire ship, intact in the middle of the jungle. The ship is filled with unstable explosives that could go off at the slightest disturbance.
• 15-16: A cave full of macabre symbols and runes written in an indecipherable script. Pictograms depict the moon falling from the sky over the northern seas.
• 17-18: The hat and coat of a notorious pirate queen of ages past. Worth something to the right buyer.
• 19-20: A chest containing 20 polished skulls with the words mutineer carved into each one.

Sailor’s Sanctuary

A fist sized golden anchor and foot long chain that, when flung from a ship creates a close range circle of perfectly calm, flat water and warm sunny skies around the ship. While within the circle, the ship is unable to move or reposition in any way and must remain anchored for at least 24 hours. The effect lasts up to 72 hours but may end earlier if the anchor is pulled up.

Adversaries

Immortal Crab

Description: A massive crab with incredible regenerative abilities.

Motives & Tactics: Sunder, Shuck, Devour

Tier: 3

Type: Bruiser

Difficulty: 14

Attack Modifier: +3

Pinch: Melee | 2d12+12 phy

Major 22 | Severe 35

HP: 6

Stress: 4

Experience

Strong +2

Features

Effectively Immortal - Passive

Whenever the Immortal Crab loses an HP, one of its limbs is severed. When it reaches 2 HP it can no longer attack or use Claw features. When it reaches 1 HP it can no longer move. If the crab is unprocessed for 1 hour after reaching 0 Hit Points, it will completely regenerate itself. If a severed limb is unprocessed for 1 hour it will begin to regrow an entire Immortal Crab over the course of the next 8 hours.

Sundering Claw - Action

Mark a Stress and make a Pinch attack. On a success, it also reduces the target’s Evasion by -1 until their next short rest.

Shucking Claw - Action

Spend a Fear and make a Pinch attack. On a success, it also reduces the target’s armor score by -3 until their next short rest.

Stormshear Albatross

Description: With a 20 foot wingspan, these creatures look like a cross between a crane and a giant falcon, with glimmering cerulean feathers that crackle with electricity.

Motives & Tactics: Divebomb, Snatch, Obliterate

Tier: 3

Type: Skulk

Difficulty: 15

Attack Modifier: +2

Arctalon: Melee | 4d6+5 phy

Major 16 | Severe 26

HP: 5

Stress: 6

Experience

Aerial Predator +3

Features

Airborne - Passive

Stormshear albatross live their entire lives in the sky, laying their eggs in portable nests of coiled lighting that they carry with them until the eggs hatch. Even in combat they will rarely touch the ground, hovering slightly above it. If the albatross is unable to fly it is considered Vulnerable.

Ride The Lightning - Action

Mark a Stress to catch a lightning bolt from a nearby stormcloud in this creature’s talons. If you make a successful Arctalon attack, you may expend the lightning bolt to deal an additional 2d10+5 damage.

Divebomb - Action

When Far above a target, spend a Fear to rapidly descend onto them. On a successful attack, deal them 2d8+20 phy damage. If the albatross is carrying a lightning bolt, you may expend it to also use the attack roll against all enemies within close range of the target. Any you’re successful against take 2d10+5 magic damage. Any flammable objects within close range of the target are lit on fire.

Discharge - Action

While holding a lightning bolt, mark a Stress to use it as an explosive discharge. Enemies in very close range of this creature must make an Agility Reaction Roll (15) or take 2d10+5 magic damage. The albatross may immediately move straight in any direction up to Very Far range.

Solsunk Siren

Description: The sirens of the Solsunk Sea fill the ocean air with a beautiful and mournful song. These deadly creatures resemble both human and fish, and will consume any creature that falls under their spell.

Motives & Tactics: Lure, Paralyse, Eviscerate

Tier: 3

Type: Solo

Difficulty: 16

Attack Modifier: +6

Trash Fling: Far | 2d12+15 phy

Major 27 | Severe 42

HP: 6

Stress: 9

Experience

Vortex +5

Features

Aquatic Creature - Passive

Sirens can breathe and move as easily in water as on land. They have been known to use this ability to drown their land-dwelling adversaries, holding them beneath the waves until they run out of air and drown.

Siren Song - Action

When you take this action, describe the strange song they sing. Any target within Far Range that can hear it must place a token on the action tracker and move within very close range of the Siren.

Rend the Flesh - Action

Mark a Stress to lash out and attack all targets in Very Close range at advantage. Any you are successful against take 2d12+12 phy damage and are Vulnerable until they heal at least one Hit Point.

Drown - Action

While in water, choose a target within Very Close range who is Vulnerable. Make an attack roll against them, and on a success, they are Drowning. While Drowning, for every token placed on the action tracker, the target must mark a Stress. Dealing Severe Damage to the Siren, or defeating them, will end the Drowning condition.

The Eye of the Beholder - Reaction

When a Siren is attacked, they can mark a Stress to take on the appearance of the person the attacker most loves. This immediately deals the attacker a Stress and they must make an Instinct Reaction Roll (16). On a failure, while the Siren holds this form, any additional attacks they make against them are at disadvantage.

Environments

Coming soon!

The Kinekozan Jags

Designed by Felix Isaacs

Mountainous, Underground, & Strange

Tier 4

A moving mountain where the stone dances by day, slumbers by night, and the deep mines provide only questions.

Distinctions

A living mountain of rough, hard-edged grandeur. The rocky slopes of the Kinekozan Jags spring to life with each sunrise, an outer shell of stone shards flowing and reshaping around a deeper lithic mind.

The Waltz of Stone

Though there’s much to be said of the mountain’s interior, it’s the mantle that first draws the eye—shards and slabs, boulders and scree, a ponderous avalanche of stone that coats the peaks in constant movement. The inhabitants of the jags refer to this as the mountain’s dance or, more properly, the waltz of stone—a dance that travelers would do well to learn the steps of if they want to survive. This monumental mobility only slows as the light fades, dusk bringing a geological calm that lasts until the first rays of the next day’s sun.

You might find:

• Chains of arcane power glimpsed deep in the space between stones, the mechanism behind the mountain’s restless nature.
• A cockatrice call, slowly fading into the distance as the beast’s nest is carried from base to summit.
• A feeling akin to seasickness, quelled only through familiarity with the mountain’s movements.

Patterns In The Flow

While the movement of an individual shard may at first seem random, the infrequency of collisions speaks to a broader pattern in the seething shale. Those who watch for long enough, or who make regular trips out across the slopes to fish, farm, or scavenge, come to understand the mountain’s whims and rhythms; one might identify a copse of pines that circles one of the greater cities twice a year, or a twisting spire of stone that always reaches one of the peaks at high noon. The most experienced dwellers of the Kinekozan Jags can scale an entire mountain in a handful of strides, stepping from piece to piece as they ascend.

You might find:

• A faded chart printed with mathematical equations and careful observations.
• A sudden jolt, evidence that the shard you’re riding has fallen out of sync with its fellows.
• A guild member of the Here-To-There’s, ascending the slopes with minimal effort by stepping from stone to rising stone.

Industries of Dusk & Dawn

As confusing as the slopes might be for newcomers, long-time denizens of the Jags have adapted to their environment admirably. Settlements are built on larger slabs that frequently pass shards containing fertile earth or pooling water, allowing farmers to hop from home to field and back again as the dance dictates. And, as the moon rises, heavier industry comes into its own—segmented rail lines snap into place as the mountain-skin settles, allowing passage between areas otherwise kept distant by the dance, and miners light their lanterns as they descend into the calmer heart of the mountain, eager to take what they can and return to the outer layers before the next day’s motion covers the mouths of their tunnels.

You might find:

• The hiss and creak of a funicular locomotive, racing toward the nearest summit before the dawn pulls the rails it travels on apart.
• Sweating labourers relaxing in the shade, hampers full of harvested produce balanced on the edge of a bridge that, for now, leads nowhere.
• Coded whistles, miners counting down the moments until nightfall opens up a valuable shaft.

A Mountain-Hewn Mind

The dancing slopes aren’t the only wonder of the Kinekozan Jags. The deepest mysteries, suitably enough, are found in the quiet stillness of the mountain’s interior. It’s there that miners’ tunnels and natural caves converge, leading to the dwelling place of an ancient intelligence, the Mesolith—a sculpted shepherd of questions and stone.

You might find:

• A brief, yawning gap between the moving slabs that beckons incautious visitors beneath the mountain’s skin.
• Miners carefully sawing calcified questions free from tunnel walls.
• A scrape of stone on stone, that might be a sigh. A grinding echo that sounds remarkably like a good-natured chuckle.

The Shatterwood

There was a time before the mountain moved. None remember it, but the signs are there—some structures so weathered by time that you can barely see the split in their walls, the occasional unsettlingly barren shard that still bears the mark of a long-dry riverbed. But there’s no other piece of evidence as singularly compelling as the shatterwood, a great forest that must once have covered the mountainside, now split into distant fragments doomed never again to touch.

You might find:

• Predatory birds making daily migrations, hunting in one copse and nesting in another tens of miles away.
• A whiff of toxic musk—the sure sign of Kinekozan hogs.
• Delicious fruit that can only be eaten within the shade of the tree it grows upon, withering to dust if carried across the gap between stones.

GM Principles

Use landmarks to aid groups as they traverse the shifting slopes - One jag of stone looks much like another, and sometimes it might even be difficult to tell which direction a piece flows in. But towers, farmlands, rail-lines, and the distant peaks? They’re all worth navigating by, points of the world you can anchor description to as well as direction.

Highlight the ingenuity and adaptability of the locals - It would be easy for those who dwell in such an unstable landscape to carve out their own niche and stay there, but the various communities of the jags develop new techniques that make their lives easier, share them without a second thought where they can, and stay in contact through even the toughest times. It’s a hard place to live, but not a barren one.

Respect the mountain as a living creature, one that permits passage by default but that can also choose to revoke it - The Mesolith dwelling in the mountain’s core has its own wants and needs, only rarely aligned with those of the folk that make a home for themselves on its flanks. It has moods too, and opinions—it can be bargained with, outsmarted, bribed, or offended, but it will almost always have the upper hand.

Landmarks

The Iron & Blue

The Jarbone Inversion: Considered bad luck to mention near an aqueduct.

Gallons of Water Shuttled Down From The Peaks Each Night: Too many to count.

A confusion of raised rail lines and staggered aqueducts built over centuries, each section anchored to (and looming over) one of the larger slabs of moving mountainside. Though these sections admittedly spend most of their time disconnected due to the waltz, every sundown brings a new opportunity; great gears turn, bridges spin, and elevated tracks snap together in drunken, temporary forms.

With each reconnection, the Iron & Blue opens for business. Sluices open as aqueducts are levered into place, sending a deluge of snowmelt and captured rain careening into the water storage towers of a hundred settlements. The air fills with the sound of train whistles and squealing brakes as passengers and produce are shuttled, sometimes almost vertically, from place to place. The network lights up the Kinekozan nights, a friendly reminder of connection and cooperation amid the geological whirl.

Sunpeak Station (Settlement)

Resting atop one of the mountain’s many peaks, on one of the few craggy stones too massive for even the mountain to move, Sunpeak Station is the domain of rapid-response repair crews and water-wise alchemists. Whenever there’s a problem on the lower sections of the Iron & Blue, you can bet the workers of Sunpeak will be on their way there in a heartbeat. While most Sunpeak Station employees work the night shift, where travel is at its easiest, a rare but venerated few brave the unconnected rails of the daily dance in order to help when they’re most needed—when nobody else can.

Tethered Balloons (Feature)

A convention created by a single lower settlement that has since spread throughout the range, most smaller stations run a tethered balloon of lighter-than-air gas from their rooftops, acting as an elevated watchtower. Actual stone towers were used in the past, but the lessons taught by the Jarbone Inversion have most definitely stuck. Rarely spoken of in the modern day, Jarbone was an oversized settlement that built one too many towers for holding stored water, eventually overbalancing and completely inverting the shard it was built upon, with catastrophic results.

Funicular Raiders (Threat)

Riding scrappy but cleverly-designed trains that can hop the spaces between disconnected rails, these piratical types race up and down the Kinekozan by day, hoping to ambush stranded trains and distracted farmers. The raiders rarely kill, but they have absolutely no problem with taking everything they can in a single swooping pass, then circling back around (sometimes even hours later) to do the same thing to any rescue crews that might have been called in the wake of their first assault. The most famed of these raiders, a Clank known as Mortuko the Swift, is said to have adapted her entire body into something that can run the rails faster than any scrap-built train.

Lake Ladenscree

Largest Stone in the Lake: Breaker’s Isle, the size of a small cart.

The Colours Beneath: Raw. Chameleonesque. Dissembling.

Another source of water perhaps, fed by some determined spring? If only the Kinekozans were so lucky. Lake Ladenscree is a miles-wide stretch of broken stones, each no bigger than a fist, tumbling endlessly up and down the range in a manner that defies expected patterns. It’s a place more dangerous than most—these unmoored rocks will barely take the weight of a smaller creature, let alone something as heavy as a giant—but also of outstanding beauty, with passing communities having painted as many of the rocks as they could reach with a variety of colours over the years. Lake Ladenscree is a stone rainbow, lit from below by skeins of arcane force.

Raw Magic (Feature)

Though never far underfoot, the thicket of magical energy that keeps the surface of the Kinekozan jags in motion is rarely visible. A traveler might catch the glow of it at night if they’re close to the gap between stones, and miners will carefully pick their way through it when digging to the mountain’s calmer heart, but it’s only on the shores of the Ladenscree that it can be seen with any real clarity from the surface. Scholars argue back and forth over the nature of the forces beneath them, some positing that they’re threads, others veins, others chains… And the taciturn nature of the Mesolith ensures debate will continue for decades to come.

The Ladenscree Swell (Threat)

Unlike with heavier sections of stone, the arcane forces that keep the mountain moving have less of a grip on the Swell—when they come into contact with a larger shard, the smaller stones are just as likely to move over and through this new obstacle as they are under it, shredding foliage, smashing trees, and hammering like horizontal hail against windows and walls. More than one settlement that drifted out of the pattern of the dance has been leveled by contact with the Swell.

Adding To The Lake (Festival)

A common pastime for local youths, settlements that pass close to the Lake will often find smaller objects going ‘missing’—pots, cups, silverware. This is all in aid of adding to the lake, a somewhat delinquent tradition of drinking too much, painting whatever you’ve stolen bright colors, and seeing if it stays near the surface when thrown in amongst the smaller stones. It’s rare that anything does, almost vanishingly rare, but every child seems to have a sister, brother, cousin, or best friend that managed it once. You wouldn’t have met them, though. But they definitely did it.

The Asking-Mines

Shortest Question Ever Mined: “Why Only Twelve?”

Number of Active Shafts: 32

There’s an old joke about the asking-mines, the kind that makes philosophical sorts wince and travelers furrow their brows, if they have them: “Why dig for an answer, when a question is worth its weight in stone?”

The miners of the jags realized long ago that the mountain’s ores and crystals were of secondary concern. The real bounty is the stone itself, not of the ever-moving outer layer but of the mountain’s heart, stone shot through with weighty curiosity, drenched in arcane thought.

Heavy With Questions (Feature)

The closer one draws to the Mesolith, the heavier with questions the stone around them becomes. Just under the surface of the slopes a hewn block may, if you run your hands over it, seem to ask why the clouds move so strangely, or how you got such a shine on the buttons of your lapel. Move further from the light and you might find a pebble asking how one might train a cockatrice to sing, or a lump of quartz laden with complex, unsolved equations. And, deeper still, the truly insightful—questions that open the mind to arcane potential, divine revelations, secrets of a lost age, or the truths behind myth. The issue is with the mining; the more potent a question, the weightier the stone. More than one group of miners have found themselves wrestling to drag a hyper-dense chunk up through their tunnels, convinced that the question it contains, when posed to the right wizard, might grant them the kind of rewards that only an adventurer could usually earn.

Day-Delvers (Threat)

There are some for whom profit outweighs the value of honesty. Day-delvers are mining scavengers, small bands equipped with pickaxe and drill who track the movement of tunnels through outer stone, risking their lives to enter the mountain’s heart while the waltz is in full progress. Many are crushed between stone walls, torn apart by unexpected contact with bands of raw magic or simply lost to the darkness of a poorly-chosen tunnel, but the activity offers bounty enough that there are always some willing to try. The Ancient Mind promises, in the Contract, that no citizen of the slopes shall ever be harmed on purpose. This may, or may not, be true.

Settlements

Hognito

Closest Dance To The Summit: Spitting distance, they swear.

First Settled By: An irate hog-herder on his way to Sunpeak Station, who put down roots and never left.

While settlements on the Jags are hardly a rarity, Hognito stands out due to its sheer size. An entire city, complete with multiple districts and its own overground rail system, taking up every available inch of the moving stone it’s built onto. The foundations run deep enough that basements thrum with the mountain’s magic, and blocky tenements shift their positions throughout the year, sliding and grinding their way through the city to carefully balance it no matter where the waltz takes it.

Directional Districts (Feature)

Smaller settlements don’t have to worry too much about weight distribution. The stones upon which they move are far heavier than a cluster of houses, and even the steepest slopes aren’t enough to tip them over. But the designers of Hognito learned from Jarbone’s catastrophic capsizing, and the local architectural guild have essentially created a city that moves much like the mountain does—as weight shifts and directions change, districts rearrange themselves like the segments of a sliding puzzle, ensuring the city stays upright. Districts are named after the compass point they’re closest to, but this might change several times a day thanks to the movement of the waltz and the counter-movements of Hognito’s foundational mechanisms.

The City That Chases The Sun (Festival)

The residents of Hognito are a diverse bunch, but they hold one thing in common—a desire to reach the summit of the Jags, to equal the heights of Sunpeak. The dance of Hognito’s stone takes it from the base of the mountains to so close to very highest points, but always turns them away in the very final moments. But still they hope—every time they draw close to the peaks the entire city is drawn into a raging festival, complete with chants and dancing, feasting and fireworks. The festival always ends on something of a whimper, but by that point most residents are too caught up in the celebrations to care.

Hogling Heights (Location)

With cramped streets and shifting architecture, Hognito doesn’t have much room for the greener side of life. Most farmers leave at dawn to tend orbiting shards of tilled soil and greenery, but a trusted few are elevated to work among the Hogling Heights—rooftops given over to barns and piggeries, where tamed hogs are fattened, milked, and butchered in a never-ending cycle. Their lives, though cut short by the necessity of an omnivorous society, are often seen as far more free than those of the average citizen. For while none among the citizenry have ever reached that fabled peak, the rooftop hogs gaze over the mountains and out to the world beyond with every failed ascent.

The Crawling Villages

Settlements That Have Passed Close to Hognito: Racketattle, Day-By-Day, Tortoiseholme, Steam Town

Most Famous Derailment Site: Track 187B, Spar 46 (which has claimed two villages in only twenty years)

The Kinekozen waltz is undeniably beautiful, but it’s also fickle—settlements may spin apart from their fellows for weeks, months, or even years at a time, thrust into the wilderness of the outer peaks and away from larger centers of habitation. For some, this is a fact of life on the slopes. For others, it was a problem to be solved.

The denizens of the Crawling Villages are firmly in that latter camp—rather than trust the dance, they put their faith in the engineering prowess of the Iron & Blue. Their homes are constructed around heavy-duty railcars, flatbeds carrying farmland and hog-pens, markets and village squares. And while their lives are no less movement-driven than any other Kinekozan, at least they choose where they travel… When the rails are willing, of course.

Life on the Rails (Feature)

Every Crawling Village has an oversized steam locomotive pulling it along, usually acting as a combination of town hall and courthouse. Many also have additional, smaller engines providing more torque, essential for when the Iron & Blue turns steep. The average railcar holds four to six houses, their fixtures bolted to the floor to absorb the constant rattling sway of the village’s movement. Hammocks are the preferred sleeping accoutrement for all but the most stubborn of villagers.

Lazy Days (Custom)

The Crawling Villages are named more for their speed than their mode of transport—as impressive as these trainback settlements are in terms of engineering, their uphill speed is rarely faster than an amble. Inhabitants tend toward the same sedate lifestyle, their rhythms set by the engines that pull them. There are definitely hours where a passing grove spurs apple-pickers into action, or a brace of wild hogs sets hunters swinging down from the elevated rails, but on the whole the villagers busy themselves only when they absolutely need to. Work fast or work slow, as the saying goes, we’ll always get where we’re going eventually.

Derailment (Threat)

‘Stable’ is a word few would use to describe the Iron & Blue. It’s a marvel of engineering, but it’s still an imprecise system. All it takes is for a set of tracks to not quite mesh after the nightfall adjustments, or a heavy train to push them out of alignment, and an entire village is at risk of toppling onto the drifting stone below. Instances of derailment are actually quite rare, thanks both to the attentions of the network’s engineers and the slow pace of most travel, but there’s more than one village left shattered and abandoned on the mountainside from an unfortunate choice of path.

Contract

Hands of the Mesolith: One fewer than there should be.

Attendants: With their eyes reverentially lowered at all times, their hands running across the scarred floors.

A huge, hollow space deep within the mountains, Contract is the dwelling-place of the Mesolith. While it started as a natural fault, generations of Hollowing Hands miners have expanded the space into an ordered settlement, rooms hewn straight into the stone walls and connected by twisting walkways. The floor is kept clear of habitation and machinery, reserved for the Mesolith’s dais, and those making pilgrimage to read the scrawls that surround it.

It’s these scrawls, as much as the presence of the mountain’s geological overseer, that draws visitors into the lamp-spoiled darkness. Contract is also home of the Kinekozan rules, spiraling text carved into the floor by the very first miners, under the direction of the unmoving Mesolith itself. These are the tenets by which the entity has chosen to operate, part contract, part declaration, part warning.

The Mesolith (Individual)

Though barely larger than the average giant, the physical form of the Mesolith is still an overwhelming presence—a reclining, faceless figure swaddled in carven robes, posed as if waking from an eternal dream. It’s not quite a statue, not quite a god, immobile save for the movements of a hundred flexing hands. And it’s these hands that hold the tethers of the mountain slopes, strands of raw magic leading up and out into the fissures of Contract’s carven ceiling. The steps of the dance follow the Mesolith’s whims, and some spend entire lifetimes trying to decrypt them. Close observers may notice that one of the arms ends in a rocky stump, the strand once held by that missing hand now hanging untouched.

Reading With Fingers (Custom)

With enough of a vantage point (such as could be gained from standing on one of the many walkways or bridges), one could read the carven rules of Contract by the light of lamps and magic alone. But that, the knowledgeable proclaim, would be to miss their intent. For a true understanding of the scrawled words that give this place its name, one must start at the outer edges of the room and work along the spiral, hands on the floor, reading each rune with fingers and palms. It takes hours of shuffling motion to do so, but each turn brings you closer to the dais of the Mesolith—and closer to understanding its wishes.

Hidden Histories (Feature)

Few working miners ever make it to Contract—there’s nothing to be taken here without the Mesolith’s direct permission, and communication is hit and miss when you’re working on a geological timescale. But some come anyway, eager to take in the history of the place or pay their respects—it’s here in Contract that the principle of trade was first established, that the entity first spoke with the head of the Hollowing Hand… And that the First Deep Theft, so shameful as to have been scrubbed from the history books, was committed.

Factions

The Hollowing Hand

Preferred Tools: Steel picks for the newcomers, diamond-edged fingersaws for the experts.

Current Leader: Flexile, technically, though it’s Dashan that makes all of the daily decisions

It doesn’t take much in the way of specialist equipment to tunnel down into the innards of the Kinekozan Jags, but it does take years of training to do so safely. The Hollowing Hand are more than an experienced group of miners—they’re cartographers of a shifting skin, delvers into stone and thought, merchants of the Mesolith’s bounty.

The Contract Fundamentals (Custom)

Anyone can steal a stone from near the surface, if they get lucky, but the Hand pride themselves on following the first fundamental rule of Contract with every stone they take: a question must be traded for an answer. Luckily for those of a less metaphysical bent, the Mesolith has made it clear that ‘an answer’ can really be anything from the outside world that it finds interesting. Groups of miners can often be seen approaching their tunnel entrances laden down with gifts to be left in the tunnels, anything from finely-crafted blades to rocking chairs, alchemical mixtures to books of poetry. Some members of the Hollowing Hand put a lot of thought into these items of barter, others tend to grab whatever’s lying around as they leave the house. One in particular, Utherin Glasbenit, takes great pride in boasting that he’s swapped over a hundred shoes for question-heavy stone.

Riddler’s Eve (Festival)

Once a month, at the start of a moonless night, the miners abandon their usual tasks and come together for a celebration of all they’ve acquired. Stone after stone is brought before local townsfolk, and their questions released into the world by the eldest of the Hand, read by their ungloved fingers and spoken through their ale-wetted lips. Stones containing simple questions that the crowd can answer are set aside, but those that pose queries fit to set a mind afire are cataloged and packaged up, ready to be sold onto wizards, tutors, and traveling philosophers of all stripes. Every sale is final, even if the eventual buyer answers their question before they leave the mountain’s slopes.

Flexile (Absent Leader)

A nearly skeletal figure dressed in the remnants of mining gear archaic by the standards of the modern day, immediately identifiable thanks to the stone hand that clutches his face, covering every one of his features save a single eye glimpsed between two fingers. Flexile spends his time in a converted balloon watchtower, unwilling to touch the stone of the mountain the Hollowing Hand spend their lives exploring. It is Flexile, or the person he once was, that committed the First Great Theft - the breaking and looting of one of the Mesolith’s own stone hands. It’s said that if the question it contains is ever answered, it may relax its grip—but Flexile refuses to let anybody other than him ever touch it.

Principles

The Hollowers are revered by the Kinekozan locals, their work bringing in the majority of outside funding for the building and maintenance of settlements. Along with their lofty position comes a certain level of arrogance—earned, perhaps, but sometimes representing an organizational weakness. The principles are there to keep newer Hollowers in check.

• No stone is yours - it merely passes through your hands.
• No shaft is yours - each exploration is shared with your fellows.
• No question is yours - and if the Mind wanted your answers, it would ask for them.

NPCs

Dashan, the Never-Exiled [ Underborne **** Ribbet , he/him]

Difficulty: 19

Cheerful, Exuberant, Meticulous

Experience: Storekeeping +3, Mining +2

Look: A squat ribbet with a ‘beard’ of floating stones, Dashan’s small stature doesn’t get in the way of him ordering larger miners around. He’s respected throughout the Hollowing Hand as having a cool head in a crisis, a propensity for catching small but important details, and a laugh that booms as if he were three times his size.

Motive: Ensure that miners aren’t just equipped for the journey down into the dark, but the path back up as well.

Quirrelus Kivian, Historian of Hollow Places [ Underborne **** Orc , she/her]

Difficulty: 12

Long-Suffering, Haunted, Quizzical

Experience: Patience +4

Look: Orc history speaks of the Stone Father, and the hands that brought the entire ancestry into being. Who better to answer questions on such matters than the Mesolith? If only it wasn’t so taciturn…

Motive: To have her questions about the Stone Father answered.

Story Hooks

The Flexile wishes to walk the Asking-Mines once more, but requires an escort to do so.

A powerful mage has summoned an answer of great import, but it struggles for freedom—she must match it to one of the mountain’s unmined questions before it tears free.

A band of errant locals have taken to stealing the barter-goods left by the Hollowing Hands, hoping that if there are any consequences they’ll fall on the miners themselves.

The Nomadic Guild of Here to There

Where is Here?: The place you have no love for now the sun has set.

Where is There?: The place you want the day to meet your brow.

Anyone that intends to put down roots on the moving mountains will, inevitably, come into contact with the Nomadic Guild of Here to There.

They’re cartographers of a sort, though some prefer to call them artists, or engineers, or mystics. No term quite encapsulates their totality, their skills at once so diverse and so specific. For it’s the Guild that chart the flow of the dance, and predict the next steps, entirely independent of the Mesolith. Who lick quartz and tell others which way the rains are going to come. Who decide where the newest extensions of the Iron & Blue are planted, and how those tracks are designed to swing.

The Guild see the mountain as few others can; as answers, rather than questions.

Absent a Mind (Feature)

Unlike the members of the Hollowing Hand, the Guild prefer to leave the Mesolith to its own devices. In fact, as a rule, they stay out of the interior tunnels of the Jags whenever they can help it. They’re there to interpret and discern, not to mine more questions that may never have an answer. The Guild and the Hand have forged an uneasy alliance over behavior and beliefs, meeting only to discuss the most effective spots to begin drilling a new shaft entrance.

Meat, Milk, & Paper (Custom)

With the mountain spurring a question-based economy, the Guild are perhaps alone in being paid purely for the answers they provide. When they can be found, that is; membership requires a huge amount of dedication, and acolytes are lost almost as often as they progress through the ranks. This results in a huge amount of respect and power commanded by a relatively small number of individuals, which would be a recipe for disaster if the Guild’s nomadic lifestyle didn’t prevent them from accepting gifts of material value or weight. Meat and milk are the two most common gifts for a member of the guild, though clothing, paper, and charcoal are also gratefully received.

A Stumble in the Waltz (Threat)

A nomadic lifestyle spent on the Jags comes with its own host of dangers. Stilt scorpions step delicately from shard to slab in search of warm prey, venomous hogs snuffle through flimsy tent flaps, and railway pirates are opportunistic enough to strike even the loneliest of figures. But the worst fate a member of the Guild can come to is with a stumble, a misstep that sends them sprawling through the gaps between stones and into the sizzling magic that moves them. And at that point, death is a kindness—there are tales of stumblers that manage to pull their way back up onto the outer slopes, changed in mind by what they’ve learned and in body by what they’ve endured.

Principles

The principles of the Here-To-There are never written down. Why waste paper on such banalities when there are other, more pressing answers that warrant the space?

• No puzzle is impossible to solve.
• Pose only questions, take only answers.
• Match the mountain’s rhythms with your own.

NPCs

Long-Strider Levine [ Ridgeborne **** Katari , they/them]

Difficulty: 15

Gentle, Precise, Focused

Experience: Navigation +4, Pathfinding +6

Look: Long of wooden limb and even longer of stride, Levine lost their first set of legs in an unfortunate jag-related collision. Their replacements, whittled from the boughs of the shatterwood, are made for sure purchase on even the least stable of surfaces.

Motive: Chart the mountain’s movements, learn the waltz of stone.

Evening Over Low Lakes, Hog-Hustler [ Seaborne **** Halfling , she/her]

Difficulty: 16

Belligerent, Brusque, Caring

Experience: Hogling Affairs +10

Look: Stones and rails? That’s the easy stuff. Evening Over Low Lakes has dedicated her life to the tracking and training of venomous hogs, and she’s quite happy with her progress, thank you very much!

Motive: Wrangle a kingly beast.

Story Hooks

A rare meeting of the Guild - they’re asking for visitors to attend as well, particularly those that have arcane potential or an eye for cartography.

A member of the Here-To-There’s has been tasked with tracking down a child, carried far from home on a flow of the mountain’s stone. They know where to go, but they’re not sure they can make it through the intervening territory alone.

An argument between the workers of the Iron & Blue and the miners of the Hollowing Hand has erupted over a proclamation by the Guild on where a new shaft should be sunk.

Resources

	MOMENTS OF HOPE		MOMENTS OF FEAR
1	A passing stone from the Shatterwood, laden with unique fruits.	1	The Ladenswell arrives without warning, a cascade of painted stones traveling at dangerous speeds
2	A shout of greeting from a passing train, followed by the thump of a bag of supplies hitting the ground nearby.	2	A jarbone spirits rising from the glow between stones.
3	A diminutive figure sits atop a distant rock, playing a delicate flute.	3	Two tracks of the Iron & Blue haven’t quite meshed together…
4	A scorpion-wrangler passes by, pack laden down with unusual venoms.	4	The soft clucking of a cockatrice as it hunts for fresh meat.
5	A stone-soaked question is read, one that sets your mind on the path of an answer.	5	A drawn-out crunch, of two moving islands grinding together.
6	A chance meeting with one of the Nomadic Guild, an elder with answers you sought without meaning to.	6	A question escaping from a split stone, a question about something you’d rather forget.
7	A nearby village is holding a festival. The smells of fresh milk and roasting meat are unmistakable.	7	Whistles blare in the distance. A train is under threat.
8	Rail workers share secrets from upslope.	8	The creak of beams overhead, and the miles of rock above them.
9	A Sunpeak train clatters overhead, toward the very threat you were facing.	9	The corpse of a Guild member, still aglow with raw power.
10	Tucked into a cairn of balanced stones, a detailed map of recent movements and careful predictions.	10	Movement without sunlight, a denial of the natural order.
11	A swift-moving shard passes close, on an unerring route to the peaks.	11	The stinger of stilt-scorpion glimpsed briefly through the trees.
12	An eclipse stills the waltz for precious moments.	12	A sudden loss of balance—the shard you’re on is sinking.

Rumours

While the citizens of Hognito desire more than anything else to catch that rising sun at its zenith, doing so would likely crash the entire city into Sunpeak Station.

The First Deep Theft may have been erased from the history of the region, but the Mesolith still remembers, and hasn’t yet forgiven the exiled head of the Hollowing Hand.

A painted glass jug is sometimes seen bobbing in the Ladenswell Lake - what are the limits of stone, one wonders?

An oracle of the Here to There, captured by funicular raiders, was close to discerning the greater pattern of the waltz.

A dissident group is working toward derailing one of the crawling villages over a crack beneath two plates of stone, sending the whole settlement tumbling into the raw magic running beneath them.

One building of Contract is off limits to all but the highest ranking members of the Hollowing Hand, the walls within scrawled with rules that have been unwittingly broken.

Each portion of the Shatterwood, though still divided by miles, is drawing closer - the wood yearns to reform, and to still the stone of the mountain once more.

Equipment

Asking-Stone Staff - Knowledge Far - d10+10 (phy) - One-Handed

Feature: Curious (During a rest, you must spend one of your downtime moves answering its questions, or every attack made with it until your next rest is at disadvantage.)

Primary Weapon

Diamond-Saw Glove - Strength Melee - d4+2 (phy) - One-Handed

Feature: Delicate Touch (Mark stress to add your Finesse to any damage rolls made with your Primary Weapon)

Secondary Weapon

Ladenscree Swarm - Base Score: 9

Feature: Coruscating (Your armor score is increased by your Proficiency against ranged attacks.)

Armor

Items

Strand of Raw Magic: This animates an object temporarily when wrapped around it, causing it to move erratically and (sometimes) take on sentience. Do not touch this with your bare hands. Ever.

Untethered Tent: A floating tent weighted down with stabilizing stones, the perfect place to rest for one that wants to stay just off the ground while they sleep. During a long rest, you always gain a Hope.

Jag-Striding Boots: Boots with soles of stolen stone. Heavy, but they remember the motion of the waltz. Mark stress to increase your Evasion by +2 until your next roll with Fear. When you avoid an attack, you can immediately move anywhere within close range.

Consumables

Hollower’s Folly - A hand made of quartz, shaped to resemble the one stolen from the Mesolith. On a successful Spellcast (16) roll, it will skitter along the ground and up onto a target’s face, latching on and making them temporarily Vulnerable and giving them disadvantage on any attack rolls until they are no longer Vulnerable.

Hogling Crunch - Sweet and savory, fatty and acidic - if you can get past the mild dose of toxins it contains, it’ll perk you right up. Mark 2 Stress when you consume. You can move anywhere within far range when taking an action (instead of within close range) until your next short rest.

Crushed Questions - These are less than fragments, sand-like stones containing the offcuts of larger questions. Sprinkling them into the wind provides questions on a topic you wouldn’t have thought to ask. Use this when making a Knowledge roll to make your Hope die a d20 instead of a d12.

Adversaries

Toxic Hog

Description: Poisonous beast bristling with hair and a bad attitude.

Motives & Tactics: Charge with Wild Abandon, Catch and Toss, Trample

Tier: 4

Type: Standard

Difficulty: 17

Attack Modifier: +5

Tusks: Melee | 4d12+6 phy

Major 35 | Severe 80

HP: 5

Stress: 2

Experience

Cliff Hopping +4

Features

Charges Like a Train

The charge of a Toxic Hog hits like a freight train. When charging a PC, spend a Fear to slam the player back into far range. When they land, they take 1d10+2 phy damage.

Bristles - Reaction

Mark a Stress when Toxic Hog is hit by an attack from within very close range. Immediately make a counterattack using their poisonous bristles. On a success, deal 3d8+4 phy damage. A PC hit by these bristles must also mark a Stress from the poison when they act until their next roll with Hope.

Stilt Scorpions

Description: Large scorpions that track and ambush their prey.

Motives & Tactics: Shadow, Surge, Use Terrain

Tier: 4

Type: Bruiser

Difficulty: 18

Attack Modifier: +5

Pincers: Melee | 3d8+12 phy

Major 50 | Severe 90

HP: 3

Stress: 2

Experience:

Tracker +5

Features

Out of the Shadows - Passive

On the first attack a Stilt Scorpion makes against a target, their attack modifier is increased by +3.

Stinger - Action

+3 attack modifier

Make an attack against a target within Very Close range. On a success, deal 5d10+5 phy.

Kinekozan Cockatrice

Description: Reptile-fish hybrids that vary in length, armed with powerful jaws.

Motives & Tactics: Hide, Hunt, Subsume

Tier: 4

Type: Skulk

Difficulty: 19

Attack Modifier: +7

Beak & Mandibles: Very Close | 6d10 phy

Major 25 | Severe 80

HP: 4

Stress: 4

Experience:

The Waltz +8

Features

Stone Snare - Action

Spend aFear to turn an area of stone within close range of the cockatrice in to a quicksand-like slurry, slowing anyone who moves through it. Any PCs who attempt to pass through must succeed on an Agility (19) roll or become Ensnared. While Ensnared, the PC is Restrained and Vulnerable.

Leech Moisture - Action

+5 Attack Modifier

Mark Stress to make an attack against an ensnared target in melee. On a success, deal 4d20 mag damage. The cockatrice sinks its mandibles into its victim and sucks all liquids from the flesh around the wound, turning affected areas to stone as it does so. Until their next long rest, they cannot heal Hit Points.

Keening Dive - Reaction

Once this adversary only has 1 HP left, you can mark a Stress to have it keen, discharging large amounts of raw magic and diving into the stone. From there it acts like an aquatic hazard, swimming through the stone. Its difficulty becomes 22.

Environments

Coming soon!

Themes

This section offers a palette of themes to utilize when crafting locations for your Daggerheart adventures. We recommend choosing 1-3 words to use as jumping-off points when you need to create a location, landmark, settlement, or faction.

When building a campaign, you might choose or create regions that have overlapping themes in order to preserve the verisimilitude of the world you’re playing in together. For example, the Locations in the next section suggest starting themes, which overlap in Ancient, Haunted, and Strange. Consider how these themes vary between each location:A city that is “verdant and serene” is very different from one that is “verdant and martial.” That difference is made even more pronounced when “devout” is added to the themes. How would a militarized community protect the forest home of their god vs. a quiet collection of worshippers that make a home in the remote woods with little outside disturbance?

Ancient - Artifactual, awe-inspiring, excavated, fossilized, hushed, irreplaceable, lost, preserved, primeval, risky, ruined, sacred.

Aquatic - Abyssal, bioluminescent, briny, calm, endless, enigmatic, monstrous, navigable, overpowering, peaceful, stormy, tumultuous.

Arid - Dry, golden, inhospitable, parched, remote, sunbaked, tranquil, unbroken, unforgiving, vast, waterless, windblown.

Desolate - Abandoned, conquered, desperate, expansive, hazardous, hopeless, lonely, polluted, ravaged, ravenous, remote, weary.

Devout - Ancestral, ascetic, blessed, fanatical, heartfelt, isolated, obedient, pristine, restrictive, sanctimonious, sincere, unyielding.

Frozen - Beautiful, bitter, bleak, breathtaking, brittle, crystalline, frigid, harsh, pristine, remote, stark, uninhabited.

Haunted - Alluring, captivating, covert, cryptic, cursed, eerie, gloomy, harrowing, lethal, nightmarish, terrifying, unfathomable.

Impoverished - Alienated, blighted, collaborative, disadvantaged, empathetic, enterprising, forsaken, hardened, resilient, restive, scrappy, tenacious.

Innovative - Accessible, advanced, balanced, efficient, exacting, experimentative, hierarchical, meticulous, orchestrated, revolutionary, sustainable, technological.

Martial - Austere, dutiful, fortified, honorable, lethal, overbearing, regimented, safe, stoic, strategic, trained, violent.

Mountainous - Alpine, barren, formidable, jagged, majestic, perilous, remote, rocky, scenic, towering, unexplored, valuable.

Opulent - Artistic, comfortable, elegant, exaggerated, insatiable, lavish, privileged, stratified, superficial, treacherous, vibrant.

Scholarly - Acquisitive, assiduous, curious, cultured, deliberate, dismal, obsessive, progressive, refined, serene, sinister, strict, unconventional.

Serene - Bucolic, communal, euphoric, harmonious, innocent, insincere, placid, quaint, quiet, riant, specious, welcoming.

Strange - Devouring, ethereal, illogical, imposing, monstrous, paradoxical, playful, spellbinding, surreal, uncanny, uncharted, weird.

Tropical - Balmy, bountiful, breezy, coastal, deceptive, flowering, infested, invigorating, teeming, tempestuous, tranquil, vivid.

Underground - Cavernous, claustrophobic, cooperative, dark, foreboding, hazardous, inaccessible, precision-engineered, resourceful, secretive, secured.

Urban - Bustling, efficient, industrial, innovative, labyrinthine, lively, loud, multicultural, political, rapacious, stratified, utopian, wrathful.

Verdant - Biodiverse, dense, feral, flourishing, fragrant, harmonious, hushed, picturesque, unrelenting, unspoiled, vulnerable, wild.

Chapter Six

A large portion of TTRPG play includes the act of customization based on the needs and desires of your table–personalization doesn’t stop after the act of character creation. Below you will see the beginnings of some recommendations for ways to modify Daggerheart based on your needs and desires.

You’ll notice portions of this section are currently unavailable. As our team continues to refine mechanics, we’ll update and expand upon this text.

Adversary Balance

As adversary/system balance is a work in progress, this section is under heavy development and might not fully reflect the current ruleset and math in the previous chapters. Use at your peril.

Scaling Attack Modifiers

When creating or scaling adversaries, you can default their attack modifier to the tier you’re creating them for and adjust up or down depending on how likely you want them to be to hit and the evasion scores of your party. An adversary’s attack modifier might be as much as 4 points lower or higher than their tier when the foe is meant to be especially likely or unlikely to land a blow. You might balance an adversary with an especially powerful attack by giving them a lower attack modifier (especially if they’re a Bruiser-type) or give an adversary that doesn’t do as much damage a higher attack modifier so that they wear the PCs down a bit at a time.

Baseline attack modifiers by tier:

Tier 1 (level 1): -4 to +5, averaging at +1

Tier 2 (levels 2-4): -3 to +6, averaging at +2

Tier 3 (levels 5-7): -2 to +7, averaging at +3

Tier 4 (levels 8-10): -1 to +8, averaging at +4

Minion adversaries often have a lower attack modifier than the average, with a Tier 1 minion often having a -3 or -2 modifier. Leader, Solo, and Skulk type adversaries often have a higher modifier than the average, with a Tier 1 leader having as much as a +4 or +5 modifier.

Scaling Damage

In Daggerheart, you’ll find yourself needing to create a dice pool for damage from a threat or foe that you hadn’t already prepared. In these situations, here are some guidelines to follow:

Tier 1 Damage

At level 1, most classes have damage thresholds of Major 7, Severe 14 or below.

Recommended damage pools to reliably deal Minor, Major, and Severe damage. For a quick choice, take the bolded option.

Minor Damage	Major Damage	Severe Damage
1d6+1	2d4+5	3d4+10
1d4+2	2d6+3	2d8+5
1d8+1	1d8+7	2d6+8

In a group of tougher characters (Guardian, Seraph, Warrior), the average damage needed for each threshold is higher. Add +1 to all values to get the same results in a group where the average threshold is 8/15.

Additionally, class, foundation, and heritage features can impact HP thresholds, so keep those in mind when tailoring adversaries to your game’s needs.

If you want an attack to have a high variance of damage and a high ceiling, consider using a smaller # of dice that have a higher number of sides (d10s, d12s, or d20s), and avoiding flat damage bonuses. Note that this higher range of results can reduce how consistently useful armor is.

If you want an attack to hit consistently within a certain range of damage, use a larger # of dice with a smaller number of sides (especially d4s, d6s, and d8s). Alternatively, adding a flat bonus to damage can help more consistently deal damage with a minimum result.

If you want to ensure that an attack cannot do Severe damage to any characters in your party, set the maximum damage value of that attack to be lower than the party’s lowest Severe threshold.

To ensure that an attack will always deal at least Major damage, set the minimum damage value of that attack to be equal to or greater than the party’s highest Major threshold.

In a party where the highest Major threshold is 8, you can ensure a hit will always deal Major damage with a dice pool of 2d4+6, since 8 is the lowest possible result.

In a group with a large spread of damage thresholds (a Stalwart Guardian in a group with a Wizard), the damage needed to cause Minor damage (1 HP) to the Guardian might cause a Major injury (2 HP) to the Wizard. You might want to use dice pools that will generate more reliable averages to avoid swingy results that could deal an unwanted Severe blow to one of the more fragile characters. However, in a group with this large range of thresholds, characters with protective instincts/abilities have the opportunity to shine by protecting their comrades.

Damage at Higher Tiers

As characters grow in level, their damage thresholds increase as well. Characters’ damage thresholds will diverge more over time through players choosing different advancement options as well as through special items and abilities. But here are some tips & benchmarks for scaling impromptu damage.

Find below a chart for Tiers 2, 3, and 4, with suggestions for damage pools that will usually deal Minor, Major, or Severe damage, respectively.

Example damage pool suggestion:

Major Damage
2d6+3 (5-15)

At Tier 2, the damage pool of 2d6+3 will generally deal Major damage. The (5-15) listing shows the full range of results for that damage pool, where the lowest roll on 2d6+3 will be 5, and the highest result will be 15.

Tier 2 (Levels 2-4)

Characters will have Damage Thresholds that rise to an average of Major 8 / Severe 19.

Minor Damage	Major Damage	Severe Damage
1d8+2 (3-10)	2d6+3 (5-15)	2d6+15 (17-27)
2d4+3 (5-11)	2d10+4 (6-24)	2d8+12 (14-28)
1d6+2 (3-8)	1d8+3 (4-11)	2d10+10 (12-30)

Tier 3 (Levels 5-7)

Characters will have damage thresholds that rise to an average of 10 or 11 Major and 26 Severe. Use the following chart for damage suggestions, with each column suggesting damage pools to deal Minor, Major, or Severe damage, respectively.

The numbers in the parentheses show the range of results for that damage pool.

Minor Damage	Major Damage	Severe Damage
2d4+3 (5-11)	2d4+7 (9-15)	2d8+20 (22-36)
1d8+4 (5-12)	2d10+5 (5-25)	2d10+18 (20-38)
2d6+2 (4-14)	4d6+5 (9-29)	2d12+15 (17-37)

Tier 4 (Levels 8-10)

Characters’ damage thresholds are likely to have diverged substantially, but the benchmark for this tier is 15 or 16 Major / 39 Severe.

Minor Damage	Major Damage	Severe Damage
1d8+6 (7-14)	2d6+10 (12-22)	2d8+30 (32-46)
2d6+4 (6-16)	2d8+8 (10-24)	2d10+25 (27-45)
2d10+3 (5-23)	2d10+6 (8-26)	2d20+12 (14-52)
2d8+3 (5-19)	4d6+8 (12-30)	4d6+20 (24-44)
-	-	4d8+20 (24-52)

Scaling Difficulty

An adversary’s difficulty sets the standard target PCs will need to meet to succeed in actions against them. If your party is level 4 (the top of Tier 2), you might use a higher difficulty and higher thresholds than if you were making the adversary for them at level 2. Most adversaries should have difficulty numbers that the party can consistently succeed against over 50% of the time.

Adversary Statistic	Tier 1	Tier 2	Tier 3	Tier 4
Difficulty	11	14	17	20

If the adversary has a passive feature that adds to their difficulty in certain situations, it’s usually best to give them a slightly lower default difficulty.

GM Difficulty vs PC Evasion

Difficulty for NPCs and Evasion for PCs have some cross-over, but their main difference is functionality. The PCs have an entire character sheet and hand of cards that define the scope and power of their characters, and Evasion is a way to measure how often they are hit by an attack. As a GM, you’re often creating (or improvising) many characters throughout the course of a session that interact with players in a multitude of ways. Therefore, NPCs have a simplified Difficulty as a catch-all for any rolls made against them, and you can add their relevant Experience for anything they are particularly adept at. So, in a way, Evasion is bundled into Difficulty for the GMs to help make your job running the game easier.

Scaling Damage Thresholds

Adversary damage thresholds represent how much damage is required to deal HP to them. The chart below gives some benchmarks per tier depending on whether you want an enemy to be more fragile (like a Skulk, Social, or Ranged adversary), average (like a Standard, Horde, or Support type), or tough (like a Leader, Bruiser, or Solo type).

Tier	Fragile	Standard	Tough	Extra Tough
1	Major 5	Severe 10	Major 7	Severe 12
2	Major 8	Severe 16	Major 10	Severe 20
3	Major 15	Severe 27	Major 20	Severe 32
4	Major 20	Severe 35	Major 25	Severe 45

Things to Keep in Mind

• If an adversary has a healing ability, consider dropping their damage thresholds to reduce the chance of the fight dragging.
• If your party does not have any abilities that grant temporary proficiency bonuses, they will have a hard time hitting the Severe thresholds of Extra Tough enemies without a critical success.

Example Adversary Scaling

Mike is preparing an encounter for their level 1 group but wants to use the Assassins writeups. Mike could just tweak the Tier 1 Bandits, but decides to scale down the assassins. They start with the Assassin Poisoner, planning on using a poisoner and some minions for this first encounter.

They start with the Tier 2 writeup:

Assassin Poisoner

Description: A cunning scoundrel skilled in both poisons and ambushing.

Motives & Tactics: Anticipate, Taint Food and Water, Disable, Get Paid

Tier: 2

Type: Skulk

Difficulty: 14

Attack modifier: +3

Poisoned Throwing Dagger Close | 2d8+12 phy

Major 10 | Severe 19

HP: 4

Stress: 4

Experience:

Intrusion +2

Features

Grindletooth Venom Blade - Passive

Targets that mark HP from a Poisoned Throwing Dagger attack are made Vulnerable until they clear one Hit Point.

Out of Nowhere - Passive

Assassin Poisoner has advantage on attacks if they are Hidden.

Fumigation - Action

Drop a smoke bomb that fills the area within Close range with smoke, making all targets Dizzied. Dizzied characters add two tokens to the action tracker when they act, then are no longer dizzied.

First, the difficulty of the Poisoner drops 14 to 12 so that level 1 characters can frequently succeed against them when using their stronger traits and closer to a 50/50 chance when using their other traits. The attack modifier drops by 1 since Tier 1 characters will have lower evasion.

Then, their damage drops from 2d8+12 to 2d8+5, still capable of dealing notable hits to a level 1 character.

The Poisoner’s damage thresholds drop from Major 8 / Severe 16 to Major 5 / Severe 10. The Poisoner is not meant to be tough, but it will still take a strong blow from a level 1 character to deal a Severe injury. Mike leaves the HP and Stress as-is.

Finally, Mike decides to drop the Grindletooth Venom Blade feature entirely for Tier 1, but leaves Fumigation as-is, since it does not deal damage or have a reaction roll with a difficulty.

The Tier 1 version of the Assassin Poisoner now looks like:

Assassin Poisoner

Description: A cunning scoundrel skilled in both poisons and ambushing.

Motives & Tactics: Anticipate, Taint Food and Water, Disable, Get Paid

Tier: 1

Type: Skulk

Difficulty: 12

Attack modifier: +2

Poisoned Throwing Dagger Close | 2d8+5 phy

Major 5 | Severe 10

HP: 4

Stress: 4

Experience:

Intrusion +2

Features

Out of Nowhere - Passive

Assassin Poisoner has advantage on attacks if they are Hidden.

Fumigation - Action

Drop a smoke bomb that fills the area within close range with smoke, making all targets Dizzied. Dizzied characters add two tokens to the action tracker when they act, then are no longer dizzied.

Tier 3

If instead Mike was scaling the Assassin Poisoner up to Tier 3, they would increase the attack bonus, damage, difficulty, and damage thresholds.

Assassin Poisoner

Description: A cunning scoundrel skilled in both poisons and ambushing.

Motives & Tactics: Anticipate, Taint Food and Water, Disable, Get Paid

Tier: 3

Type: Skulk

Difficulty: 16

Attack modifier: +4

Poisoned Throwing Dagger Close | 2d12+15 phy

Major 14 | Severe 27

HP: 4

Stress: 4

Experience:

Intrusion +2

Features

Grindletooth Venom Blade - Passive

Targets that mark HP from a Poisoned Throwing Dagger attack are made Vulnerable until they clear one Hit Point.

Out of Nowhere - Passive

Assassin Poisoner has advantage on attacks if they are Hidden.

Fumigation - Action

Drop a smoke bomb that fills the area within close range with smoke, making all targets Dizzied. Dizzied characters add two tokens to the action tracker when they act, then are no longer dizzied.

Tier 4

If adapting the Assassin Poisoner to Tier 4, Mike would substantially increase their damage, difficulty, experience, and their damage thresholds, raise the attack bonus, and add one or maybe two features.

Assassin Poisoner

Description: A cunning scoundrel skilled in both poisons and ambushing.

Motives & Tactics: Anticipate, Taint Food and Water, Disable, Get Paid

Tier: 4

Type: Skulk

Difficulty: 19

Attack modifier: +5

Poisoned Throwing Dagger Close | 2d8+30 phy

Major 21 | Severe 35

HP: 4

Stress: 4

Experience:

Intrusion +2

Features

Grindletooth Venom Blade - Passive

Targets that mark HP from a Poisoned Throwing Dagger attack are made Vulnerable until they clear one Hit Point.

Out of Nowhere - Passive

Assassin Poisoner has advantage on attacks if they are Hidden.

Fumigation - Action

Drop a smoke bomb that fills the area within close range with smoke, making all targets Dizzied. Dizzied characters add two tokens to the action tracker when they act, then are no longer dizzied.

Stinging Gas - Action

Toss a sachet up to a Close distance that erupts into stinging gas that grants disadvantage to all targets within Very Close of the eruption. The effect ends at the end of the scene or when the target clears HP.

[Playtesters: We invite your constructive feedback on how the adversaries included work at your table, as well as your experiences with this scaling framework. This extends to difficulty ratings, damage, damage thresholds, features, etc.]

List of Adversary Features

The adversaries in this book are written with various features, but when you’re creating adversaries, you may not have an existing writeup that makes sense to adapt and need to make your own. Here are some standard adversary features to use or modify as needed.

[coming soon]

Environment Balance

Creating Environments

If there isn’t an environment close enough to adapt, but you’d like to use a stat block, you can always make your own, much like you’d adapt an existing environment or create a new adversary.

First, consider the concept for the environment. For example, Mike is preparing a session where the party will be visiting a town with a marketplace. Mike wants a marketplace environment to organize their thoughts and prepare some surprises for the PCs to enrich that scene. The party is level 1 (Tier 1), so the marketplace environment should be Tier 1 to match. Mike then looks at the “Adapting Environments” section and decides on difficulty 10 -this is one lower than the 11 recommended in that section, but Mike doesn’t want the challenges from the market to be that taxing.

The next step is to consider the environment’s type -what role do you want the environment to play in the scene? What type of scene is this going to be and what challenges do you want to represent in the environment stat block? For the marketplace, Mike wants to focus on social play, so they choose the social type.

So far, the environment looks like:

Bustling Marketplace

Description:

Tone & Feel: **

Tier: 1

Type: Social

Difficulty: 10

With the tier, difficulty, and type decided, pick out some potential adversaries, create features, or take notes on description, tone, and feel. These can be done in any order depending on what makes sense for you.

Mike decides to detail some features next and trusts that those will then let them know what is needed for potential adversaries and the descriptive notes.

Mike decides to create one passive feature, one reaction, and one action, giving them the full spread of features to use as needed throughout the scene.

First, Mike decides to set the passive feature, asking themselves “What is a feature that represents how things operate in this environment and should always apply?”. They decide to lean in on the economic/mercantile element of a market and go for a passive that spotlights how the flow of money is fundamental to getting what you want in a marketplace. They call the feature “Tip the Scales” and decide that PCs can gain an advantage on any Presence rolls by offering a bribe or greater price of a handful of gold as part of their interaction.

That feature then reads:

Tip the Scales - Passive

Any PC may gain advantage on a Presence roll by offering a handful of gold as part of the interaction.

Mike decides to jot down some prompts to draw on during the session. Will any coin be accepted or only local currency? How overt are the PCs in offering this bribe?

The completed feature looks like so:

Tip the Scales - Passive

Any PC may gain advantage on a Presence roll by offering a bag of gold as part of the interaction.

Will any coin be accepted or only local currency? How overt are the PCs in offering this bribe?

Bustling Marketplace

Description: The economic heart of the settlement, with local artisans, traveling merchants, and patrons across social classes.

Tone & Feel: Crowded and vibrant, a cacophony of smells from food, herbs, spices, and textiles.

Tier: 1

Type: Social

Difficulty: 10

Features

Tip the Scales - Passive

Any PC may gain advantage on a Presence roll by offering a bag of gold as part of the interaction.

Will any coin be accepted or only local currency? How overt are the PCs in offering this bribe?

Next, Mike thinks about a good reaction feature to escalate or give shape to a scene. They think about the kinds of things that happen in crowded markets and decides on a reaction to separate the PCs, calling it “Crowd Closes In”. If and when a PCs splits off from the group momentarily, the flow of people will cut them off more thoroughly, presenting an opportunity to spotlight that one character and/or put them into danger. Then Mike comes up with some prompts for a completed feature that looks like:

Crowd Closes In - Reaction

When one of the PCs splits from the group, the crowds shift and cut them off from the party for a moment.

Where does the crowd’s movement carry them? How do they feel about being alone but surrounded?

Building on the idea from Crowd Closes In, Mike decides on an action to tempt a character with something from their background questions. They don’t know who it will be, so they spend some time thinking about an appropriate item for each PC so that they can decide in the moment:

Unexpected Find - Action

Reveal to the PCs that one of the merchants has something they want or need—food from home, a rare book, magical components, a dubious treasure map, a magical key.

What cost beyond gold will the merchant ask for in exchange for this rarity?

Mike considers adding another feature to initiate a chase scene, like a thief stealing something from a PC’s pack or maybe running off with the item from Unexpected Find. They like the idea of using these features in order to shape the scene, so they sketch out an action for that thief.

Mike looks at the Tier 1 adversaries and decides that the potential adversaries are Merchants, Bladed Guards and a Guard Captain, and a Katari Burglar for the thief (even though the thief is a higher tier. Mike makes a note to lower their difficulty if they come into play).

Finally, they write some descriptive text to keep on-hand to narrate to the players and some notes on tone & feel. With that, they have a full environment stat block:

Bustling Marketplace

Description: The economic heart of the settlement, with local artisans, traveling merchants, and patrons across social classes.

Tone & Feel: Crowded and vibrant, a cacophony of smells from food, herbs, spices, and textiles.

Tier: 0

Type: Social

Difficulty: 10

Potential Adversaries:

Merchant, Bladed Guards, Guard Captain, Katari Burglar

Features

Tip the Scales - Passive

Any PC may gain advantage on a Presence roll by offering a bag of gold as part of the interaction.

Will any coin be accepted or only local currency? How overt are the PCs in offering this bribe?

Crowd Closes In - Reaction

When one of the PCs splits from the group, the crowds shift and cut them off from the party for a moment.

Where does the crowd’s movement carry them? How do they feel about being alone but surrounded?

Unexpected Find - Action

Reveal to the PCs that one of the merchants has something they want or need—food from home, a rare book, magical components, a dubious treasure map, a magical key.

What cost beyond gold will the merchant ask for in exchange for this rarity?

Sticky Fingers - Action

A thief tries to steal something from a PC. The PC makes an Instinct Roll (10) to notice in time to stop the thief. If they roll a failure, the thief succeeds and runs away to a Close distance. Retrieving the stolen item is a Progress Countdown (6) that must be completed before the thief is able to reach their bolthole.

What drove this person to pickpocketing? Where is the thief’s bolthole and why has it avoided notice?

EVERYTHING BELOW IS NOT AVAILABLE IN THIS VERSION OF THE MANUSCRIPT

Homebrew Guide

Custom Classes & Subclasses

Custom Ancestries & Communities

Custom Domains

Custom Campaign Frames

Custom Adversaries & Environments

Custom Equipment & Loot

Card Templates

Appendix

EVERYTHING BELOW IS NOT AVAILABLE IN THIS VERSION OF THE MANUSCRIPT

Important Terms

Character Sheets

Character Guides

Ancestry Deck

Community Deck

Subclass Decks

Domain Decks

GM Guide (Cheat Sheet)

Index

Credits

Daggerheart Team

LEAD GAME DESIGNER: Spenser Starke

ADDITIONAL GAME DESIGNERS: Rowan Hall, John Harper, Matthew Mercer, Alex Teplitz, Aliex Uboldi, Michael Underwood

ADDITIONAL WRITING: Layla Adelman, Carlos Cisco, Felix Isaacs, Erin Roberts, Eugenio Vargas

COMBAT WHEELCHAIR DESIGN: Mark Thompson

DEVELOPMENTAL EDITOR: Laura Hirsbrunner

ARCHIVISTS: Dani Gage, Lexi McQueen

SENIOR RPG PRODUCER: Elise Rezendes

JUNIOR GAMES PRODUCERS: Madigan Hunt, Alex Teplitz

ADDITIONAL PRODUCTION: Alex Uboldi

ART DIRECTOR: Anthony Jones

ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR: Leesha Hannigan

PLAYTEST PROGRAM COORDINATOR: Brieger Creative

LEAD GRAPHIC DESIGN: Matt Paquette & Co.

ADDITIONAL GRAPHIC DESIGN: John Harper, Vee Hendro

CONSULTANTS: Daniel Delgado, Rue Dickey, Rob Herbert, James Mendez Hodes, David Lezzi, Erin Roberts, Christine Sandquist, Mark Thompson

LEAD CONCEPT ARTIST: Shaun Ellis

CARTOGRAPHER: Marco Bernardini

ARTISTS: Juan Salvador Almencion, Zoe Badini, Paul Scott Canavan, Kristina Carroll, Stephanie Cost, Daarken, Nikki Dawes, Benjamin Ee, Geoffrey Ernault, Laura Galli, Juan Gutierrez, Leesha Hannigan, Suzanne Helmigh, Hendry Iwanaga, Anthony Jones, Samantha Joanne Key, Priscilla Kim, Linda Lithén, Samantha B. Lucas, Julia Metzger, Reiko Murakami, Jess Nguyen, Irina Nordsol, Tamara Osborn, Mike Pape, Simon Pape, Jen Pattison, Marzena Piwowar, Andreas Rocha, Ernanda Souza, Jenny Tan, Rafa Teruel, Mateusz Wilma

Darrington Press Team

HEAD OF DARRINGTON PRESS:

Ivan Van Norman

CREATIVE DIRECTOR:

Travis Willingham

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER:

Ed Lopez

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT - MARKETING:

Rachel Romero

SENIOR MARKETING MANAGER:

Darcy Ross

SENIOR GAME DESIGNER:

Spenser Starke

GAME DESIGNER:

Rowan Hall

SENIOR RPG PRODUCER

Elise Rezendes

SENIOR GAMES PRODUCER

Alex Uboldi

DIRECTOR OF RETAIL PARTNERSHIP:

Katie Lowther

PROCUREMENT DIRECTOR:

Ally De Simone

CRITICAL ROLE EMPLOYEES:

Spencer Aitke, Efrain Alvarez, Sauol Ambriz, Brittney Austin, Leo Baltierrez, Taylor Burke, Diana Jeanne Calalo, Sarah Marie Campbell, Dani Carr, Niki Chi, Adrienne Cho, Shikina Collins, Ally De Simone, Jared Deiro, Shaunette DeTie, Nadia Dilbert, Steve Failows, Maria Flores, Christian Fox, Lana Gotlinskaya, Kyle Hafkey, Alex Hill, Bryn Hubbard, Maxwell James, Christopher Jansen, Megan Karnish, Annie Krueger, Will Lamborn, Tal Levitas, Chris Lott, Jonathan Lott, Sam Maggs, Britton McGrath, Ashley Middlebrook, Aaron Monroy, Khoa Nguyen, Eddie Ochoa, Chyanne Owen, Elia Palacios, Leo Rassool, Jerry Rivas, Rich Romasanta, Max Schapiro, Eli Schiff, Vinnie Singh, Gustin Smith, Dylan Steppeler, Gary Thomas, Jordyn Torrence, Ben van der Fluit, Jen Veloso, Brittany Walloch-Key, Kirby Winslow, Justin Wong, Nicole Yonan

The TTRPG Safety Toolkit referenced in chapter 3 of this book is a resource co-curated by Kienna Shaw and Lauren Bryant-Monk.

The TTRPG Safety Toolkit is a compilation of safety tools that have been designed by members of the tabletop roleplaying games community for use by players and GMs at the table. You can find it at ttrpgsafetytoolkit.com.

This is a game built by a diverse team of various ethnicities, genders, faiths, sexualities, and identities.

Credits will continue to be updated throughout the development of this project.