A Q&A With Dice Times!
We celebrated back-to-school season by sponsoring our friends at Dice Times to take us on a magical, madcap actual play in the Castle High campaign frame! You can watch it here now. This whimsical adventure is one of the four new campaign frames from Daggerheart: Hope & Fear, and if you choose to play, you’ll follow a group of students at a prestigious magical, floating school as they investigate the disappearance of several classmates.
We sat down with Dane Liberatore and Brooke Eyler (who is the GM for this one-shot) to talk about the experience of playing Castle High, and incorporating Hope & Fear elements into your games!
Tell us about Dice Times and the folks who are involved!
where Dane: Dice Times is an independent actual play channel ran by myself, where we play games and systems from all our favorite genres and media, dedicated to creating new TTRPG experiences in any universe imaginable. Anything where we get to work with full costumes, makeup, props, and production design – so doing a campaign frame is a perfect fit.
Tell us about your Castle High Actual Play in your own words.
Dane: Our story tells the story of Bow Tower, a group of misfit students who are tracking down clues of their friend Riley who has gone missing the last week, while overall the school is in panic over eight other missing students the previous year. So trying to stop the cycle, these seven students ditch class in order to save their friend.
What do you think people will enjoy about Castle High as a campaign frame in their own games?
Dane: Castle High has a very fun energy to play, you carry that sense of urgency to save the missing students, but also playing a student with everyday young problems, joking about, hanging around, and participating in school activities is always a blast. Plus the unique lighthearted nature of this campaign frame makes for some great laughs.
Do you have any advice to GMs about to start a new Castle High campaign?
Dane: My advice would be to prepare yourself to explore! Think of fun motives for your players to explore the vast campus and nearby Skyshards, and secret dungeons, tunnels, or ancient rooms beneath.
Brooke: Build a vibrant world with your players, not for your players. Castle High is so unique as a frame; find what balance of modern and magic works for your table, and take off running (or flying!)
Do you have a favorite new class, feature, or mechanic in Hope & Fear?
Dane: The Gnome ancestry being added! It is such a fun ancestry to play and represent.
Brooke: Transformations all the way! I’ve always loved how seamlessly Daggerheart ties narrative story telling and game mechanics together; transformations have to be one of my favorite examples of that. Transformations mark an indelible change on your character, and every transformation card reflects both the positive and negative facets of change. They’re a great way to explore how change isn’t inherently good or bad, it just is, and it’s up to you (and your table) to decide how change looks and feels to you in your story!
If you had to live in one of the Daggerheart campaign frames, which would it be, and why?
Dane: I think out of all the campaign frames, Castle High would be the most enjoyable to live in! I could imagine having a group of friends, flying around and exploring the mysteries of the Skyshards together, even after graduation.
Brooke: As much as I love gothic aesthetics and the macabre, I have to say I’d love to live in Castle High. Not only would I probably actually survive, I could feasibly have a magical tamagotchi. That is so important to me.
You can check out Castle High in Daggerheart: Hope & Fear which is available everywhere now! And check out Dice Times’ Castle High one-shot on their YouTube Channel!