FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

General

Daggerheart is a fantasy tabletop roleplaying game of brave heroics and vibrant worlds that are built together with your gaming group. Create a shared story with your adventuring party, and shape your world through rich, narrative-focused long-term campaign play.

When it’s time for the game mechanics to determine fate, players roll one Hope die and one Fear die (both 12-sided dice), which will ultimately impact the outcome for your characters. This duality between the forces of hope and fear in every hero drives the unique character-focused narratives in Daggerheart.

In addition to dice, Daggerheart’s card system makes it easy to get started and satisfying to grow your abilities by bringing your characters’ background and capabilities to your fingertips. Ancestry and Community cards describe the way your character’s physicality and culture shape their identity. Meanwhile, subclass and Domain cards grant your character plenty of exciting abilities and spells. and values. Meanwhile, your Subclass and Domain cards grant your character plenty of engaging abilities to choose from as your character evolves. Craft your unique character through the cards you choose and the story you tell, and become the hero you want to be!

Physical copies of the Daggerheart Core Set can be purchased at:

You can also find PDF versions and digital tools on our partner websites at DriveThruRPG and Demiplane.

For a full breakdown of where to buy Daggerheart, check out our Buy Now page.

Absolutely! Daggerheart was specifically designed to be easy to pick up for anybody, regardless of your experience level with tabletop games. You can build your characters and world together as a group, which also makes things a little less intimidating for first-timers!

3-6 players total—that’s 2-5 players plus a game master.

Thanks for your keen eyes! Please direct any of these to this feedback form.

About the Daggerheart Core Set

A PDF of Daggerheart Core comes with the physical game when purchased on Critical Role shops (US, CA, EU, UK, and AU), as well as through our Darrington Press Guild friendly local game stores.

Yes, on our Downloads page is a simplified printer-friendly version of all the cards, as well as character sheets, guides, and more.

You can purchase the Daggerheart Core Rulebook PDF with print and play cards through our partner DriveThruRPG!

All cards are 63.5mm x 88.9mm! Check your preferred sleeve brand to see if they’re compatible!

It sure is! We’ve announced a translation to Brazilian Portuguese coming, and we’ll have more news soon – stay tuned.

LEAD GAME DESIGNER: Spenser Starke

ADDITIONAL GAME DESIGNERS: Carlos Cisco, Rowan Hall, John Harper, Matthew Mercer, Alex Uboldi, Mike Underwood

ADDITIONAL WRITING: Layla Adelman, Meguey Baker, Banana Chan, Chris Davidson, Rue Dickey, Felix Isaacs, Erin Roberts, Deven Rue, Rogan Shannon, Mark Thompson, Eugenio Vargas, Chris Willett

DEVELOPMENTAL EDITORS: Laura Hirsbrunner, Amber Litke, Sadie Lowry

ADDITIONAL EDITORS: Ashley Michaela “Navigator” Lawson, Scott Gray, Sebastian Yūe

SENIOR RPG PRODUCER: Elise Rezendes

JUNIOR GAMES PRODUCERS: Madigan Hunt, Alex Teplitz

DEVELOPMENTAL COORDINATOR: Dani Gage

PRODUCTION TEAM: Robin Ekberg, Lexi McQueen

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: Tom Bloom, Daniel Delgado, Rue Dickey, Marty Elmer, Hank Finnin, Rob Hebert, James Mendez Hodes, David Iezzi, Pam Punzalan, Erin Roberts, Deven Rue, Rogan Shannon, Christine Sandquist, Mark Thompson

LEAD CONCEPT ARTIST: Shaun Ellis

CARTOGRAPHER: “MarcoMaps” Bernardini

CORE COVER: Mat Wilma

LIMITED EDITION COVER: Dominik Mayer

CARD BACKS: Simon Pape

ARTISTS: Nick Acuna, Juan Salvador Almencion, Mauro Alocci, Ana Amaral, Anthony Avon, Mike Azevedo, Zoe Badini, Diana Bakieva, Adam Barker, Eliot Baum, Paul Scott Canavan, Carlos Cardona, Edgar Cardona, Kristina Carroll, Stephanie Cost, Luísa Costa, Katya Cyan, Cybercatbug, Daarken, Nikki Dawes, Carlos C. Díaz, Benjamin Ee, Geoffrey Ernault, Letícia Freitas, Bear Frymire, Gaboleps, Laura Galli, Kristina Gehrmann, James Green, Grant Griffin, Arturo Gutiérrez González, Juan Gutierrez, Leesha Hannigan, Rick Hefner, Suzanne Helmigh, Hendry Iwanaga, Jessketchin, Anthony Jones, Jack Jones, KarrahE, Sam Key, Ivan Koltovich, Alex Konstad, Samantha Kung, Linda Lithén, Samantha B. Lucas, Danil Luzin, Dominik Mayer, Julia Metzger, Maxime Minard, Andrea Tentori Montalto, José Muñoz, Reiko Murakami, Laura Marie Neal, Irina Nordsol, Tamara Osborn, Mike Pape, Jen Estirdalin Pattison, Mila Pesic, Henry Peters, Rafater, Andreas Rocha, Ryan Christian Rodero, Joshua Rodriguez, Henrik Rosenburg, Ilya Royz, Allan Santos, Stanislav Sherbakov, Ernanda Souza, Fernanda Suarez, Jenny Tan, Mat Wilma, Maciej Wojtala

SESSION ZERO TOOLS:

  • CATS: P.R. O’Leary
  • LINES AND VEILS: Ron Edwards
  • X-CARD: John Stavropoulos

Darrington Press Team

HEAD OF DARRINGTON PRESS: Ivan Van Norman

CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Travis Willingham

SENIOR GAME DESIGNER: Spenser Starke

GAME DESIGNER: Rowan Hall

SENIOR RPG PRODUCER: Elise Rezendes

SENIOR GAMES PRODUCER: Alex Uboldi

RETAIL PARTNERSHIP MANAGER: Katie Lowther

PROCUREMENT DIRECTOR: Ally De Simone

COMMUNITY MANAGER: Alex Hill

This is a game built by a diverse team of various races, ethnicities, genders, faiths, sexualities, and identities.

ART DIRECTOR: Anthony Jones

ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR: Leesha Hannigan

LEAD CONCEPT ARTIST: Shaun Ellis

CARTOGRAPHER: “MarcoMaps” Bernardini

CORE COVER: Mat Wilma

LIMITED EDITION COVER: Dominik Mayer

CARD BACKS: Simon Pape

ARTISTS:  Nick Acuna, Juan Salvador Almencion, Mauro Alocci, Ana Amaral, Anthony Avon, Mike Azevedo, Zoe Badini, Diana Bakieva, Adam Barker, Eliot Baum, Paul Scott Canavan, Carlos Cardona, Edgar Cardona, Kristina Carroll, Stephanie Cost, Luísa Costa, Katya Cyan, Cybercatbug, Daarken, Nikki Dawes, Carlos C. Díaz, Benjamin Ee, Geoffrey Ernault, Letícia Freitas, Bear Frymire, Gaboleps, Laura Galli, Kristina Gehrmann, James Green, Grant Griffin, Arturo Gutiérrez González, Juan Gutierrez, Leesha Hannigan, Rick Hefner, Suzanne Helmigh, Hendry Iwanaga, Jessketchin, Anthony Jones, Jack Jones, KarrahE, Sam Key, Ivan Koltovich, Alex Konstad, Samantha Kung, Linda Lithén, Samantha B. Lucas, Danil Luzin, Dominik Mayer, Julia Metzger, Maxime Minard, Andrea Tentori Montalto, José Muñoz, Reiko Murakami, Laura Marie Neal, Irina Nordsol, Tamara Osborn, Mike Pape, Jen Estirdalin Pattison, Mila Pesic, Henry Peters, Rafater, Andreas Rocha, Ryan Christian Rodero, Joshua Rodriguez, Henrik Rosenburg, Ilya Royz, Allan Santos, Stanislav Sherbakov, Ernanda Souza, Fernanda Suarez, Jenny Tan, Mat Wilma, Maciej Wojtala

We printed a select amount of Limited Editions as a celebration of our launch, and do not have any plans to do any subsequent reprints. Some Darrington Press Guild stores, other friendly local game stores, and some regional Critical Role shops (US, CA, EU, UK, and AU) may still have limited quantities available.

We’re thrilled that the reception to Daggerheart has been so strong! Restocks for currently sold-out Critical Role shops are expected in June, with more coming later in the summer. We recommend first checking with your friendly local game stores or bookstores for immediate stock, but after that you can go to the product pages on your local Critical Role shop (USCAEUUK, and AUand sign up to be notified when it’s back in stock!

Community

Yes! Per our Community Gaming License, you can Livestream and Podcast DPCGL-compliant content for the game as long as you provide the correct attribution and use the logo we provide on our website for use with the license rather than our official logo. To ensure you comply with the DPCGL, here is an example of the attribution and copyright you should display or read in its entirety on your stream before or after the stream (don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be up the entire time). Check out our Community Gaming License for more info.

 

This product includes materials from the Daggerheart System Reference Document 1.0, © Critical Role, LLC. under the terms of the Darrington Press Community Gaming (DPCGL) License. More information can be found at https://www.daggerheart.com. There are no previous modifications by others.

Yes! Under our Community Gaming License, we are extending a royalty free license to use our Public Game Content (the Daggerheart System Resource Document) in limited formats for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. If you’d like to learn more about the specifics, we recommend you check out our license page and FAQ for more information.

No, the Open Beta Playtest is now closed. We deeply appreciate all the time, love, and feedback our wonderful community has put into playtesting Daggerheart, and 1.5 is our last playtest version of the game. 

We did so much to take the game from its last public version in 1.5 to the game you see today. Below is a non-exhaustive list of updates!

  • Final balancing on all classes
  • All cards balanced and edited for clarity
  • Update to Hope/Fear mechanic
  • Update to armor mechanics
  • Update to damage thresholds
  • Removed the action tracker, added an optional rule for a spotlight tracker instead
  • Spelling and grammar check
  • Additional campaign frames added
  • Additional adversaries added
  • Adversaries and environments balanced 
  • Locations removed from the book
  • Homebrew chapter removed (will be coming in a homebrew kit soon!)
  • Added Running NPC guidance
  • Added a Battle Point system for encounter design
  • Added a section on building your own adversaries
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