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.