So, You’re Thinking of Trying Daggerheart? (With the Creators of Dodoborne)

Isaac Allen Burns

Hey, it’s me! Your GM, your best friend, and your author of this segment. I’ve been a GM for nearly 10 years and have run a handful of systems, from the ubiquitous D&D, to one-page Laser Feelings, to modern horror Delta Green, and now to Daggerheart. I tend to lean story-first and narrative-heavy in my play style, so keep that context in mind when reading. I’ve got three tips for GM’s looking to run a game of Daggerheart.

So you’re coming from D&D…

Right from the beginning, let’s talk mechanics. I’ve played 5e for a long time, and D&D and Daggerheart have a few nuances that set the gameplay apart. There’s many guides that will go more in depth and talk about full blown conversions, but I want to give you three mechanical rules I repeat to myself before running Daggerheart to get me in the right mindset:

You only roll if an adversary attacks a player. Otherwise, make a player do a reaction roll. My instinct at times is to have an NPC make an opposed check to see if they notice something the players are doing (which you can hear in the first few episodes of the podcast!). That is no longer the case! Action is solely up to the player’s rolls beating the adversary’s difficulty. Which feeds into the next mechanic:

Rolls are a resource. There can’t be any flippant rolling in this game, as most rolls are now giving someone a resource to use. No more group rolls where everyone makes an attempt at something. No more calling for a perception check solely to give yourself more time to think. Due to the nature of each roll having four potential outcomes, anything the players have to roll for should generally have that level of variance in results. Something else to keep in mind is that a failure with fear is the worst possible outcome for them, as there is no such thing as a critical failure here. And finally:

Combat is not a separate form of play. How you GM the game does not change when combat starts. You still spend fear tokens to make things happen, but now you can add “Adversary attacks” onto the list of GM moves you can make. You still ask the party “What do you want to do?” You still keep track of who hasn’t gone in a while. You still give them the spotlight when appropriate. (Of course, the rules support more crunchy, 5ft-square combat).

Now these mechanics are all well and good for getting into the vibe of daggerheart, but I also want to discuss a few additional considerations for you as a GM on how to get the most out of this system. For starters:

Stay Loose and Actively Listen

Have you ever had a conversation with someone where it was obvious they weren’t really listening to you, and were just waiting for a break in your words to steer the conversation elsewhere? It doesn’t feel great. TTRPG’s are like a conversation, and you don’t want one person to dominate that conversation, even if they have the title of Game Master.

Daggerheart emphasizes cooperation and coordination. While the GM holds the levers of narrative control via the Fear mechanic, those levers should be pulled at the behest of the players’ decisions and interests. If the macguffin is at the abbey, but the players won’t stop asking about the love life of the fish monger, then put the macguffin at the fish market. If a player brings up a medallion their mother gave them that has a weird symbol on it, then the macguffin now has that symbol on it. Listen to what your players are bringing up, and react accordingly.

Now if the party stops talking to the fish monger after a while and goes to the abbey, then great! And if your medallion-clad player says “huh weird. Well whatever.” to the macguffin matching their medallion, then that is fine too! Back to Plan A. The point is, you gave them an offer, and whether they take it or not is up to them.

Daggerheart greatly emphasizes the player’s input into the story, and I understand that it may be overwhelming to be at the mercy of the whims of your players. What if they take it in a wild direction I had no plan for? What if one player is so creative that it makes other players not want to say anything for fear of looking dumb? These are such good questions, and I’m so glad you asked them, because this leads to my final and favorite tip:

Prep Leading Questions, not Proper Nouns

Locations, NPCs, treasure, tavern names, enemy types, etc. All of these details tend to wind up in some form or fashion of prep notes; written down in case the players head to town, step into an inn, and ask the barkeep what their name is. This is all well and good, and a perfectly acceptable way to prep.

However, to make the most of Daggerheart, I offer up a new idea: leading questions.

Let’s break this down and start with the questions. By asking questions to the players, we gain player input and build the world collaboratively. The players will care more about an idea if it came from them. This can be as simple as asking them to name an NPC or a tavern, or as complex as asking them what enemy springs from the bushes. Let them write the story along with you!

This will require abstracting your prepped details. Are there really “bandits at the pass” or is it “an obstacle in their way.” Is the macguffin a “rod with golden gems and a scarab on top” or is it a “powerful looking artifact.” You know the idea and direction of it, now let your players add in the rest.

Limitation breeds creativity. When given a prompt with very little direction or detail, it can be difficult to come up with a fun idea on the spot. Even worse, you’ll have an idea at 3 AM that was even better, and now you’re just kicking yourself.

This is where we get to the leading portion of this idea. As a GM, you know the direction that the table is going, and so you can provide blinders for the players to ground their creativity. Ask questions as though attempting to get a specific answer out of them.

Now what does this mean exactly? Are we now lawyers in a crime drama, skirting the lines of ethics to see justice? Let’s look at an example.

It’s a one-shot. You have 3 players who have never played with each other before. They have entered a town and you steer them to the tavern. They go inside, and you throw the spotlight to them and ask:

“What do you see inside of the tavern?”

Great first step! Now they have a chance to set the scene. Now let’s look at a few examples of leading questions:

“What does your character see inside this tavern that makes them feel excited?”

“Something in this tavern tells you that things aren’t as they seem. Somethin’ ain’t right. What is it?”

“What smell wafts through the air in here that reminds your character of their childhood?”

Now instead of just a blank canvas, we provide a few ideas for them to build on, and an extra bonus if the building blocks are based on their characters. Whatever their answer will be, there is a connection to their character and it will lead to potential follow up questions that can be answered in the roleplay. We wanted the tavern to feel fun, and now we can ask why they are excited to see bloody mary’s on the menu. Or we wanted an antagonist to be in the tavern, and now we can ask when they last saw a tattoo that looks like a snake eating itself?

If you want them to know a character is a bad guy, ask them why he looks sinister. If you want them to go to a certain location, ask them what makes that location stand out. If you want them to get cut off at the pass, ask them what cuts them off at the pass. Asking leading questions will keep us less strapped to players’ whims, and I guarantee that the players will surprise you with better ideas than you came up with originally.

Ultimately, think of madlibs: we ask questions that appeal to the PCs senses and backgrounds, and let the players fill in the rest. Whether they do it or not, you’ve still got your handy list of NPC names and enemy types to fall back on.