Daggerheart, from Darrington Press and the team behind Critical Role, has impressed me at every turn so far. From their openness about the project, their desire to involve the community, through to the design choices shared so far; all have pleasantly surprised me. Experiencing the Character Creation, one of the most important aspects of a tabletop roleplaying game, has only lifted my excitement.
Everything has been designed to be accessible without sacrificing depth. In fact, on my first run-through, I thought I’d missed something. Surely a TTRPG character creation process couldn’t be this well crafted? The whole process is guided, step-by-step, and is clear throughout. At the core of it is the use of several decks of cards (that you choose from) that contain all the info on your class, background, and abilities. It’s something that just makes sense in practice. You really should try it yourself now the Public Beta is open.
The card system not only helps create your character but also is incredibly effective at creating diverse characters. If you use one set of cards for your party’s character creation session, for example, they won’t be able to select the same cards even if their characters share the same Domains (a title used to determine skill sets each class can draw from). This means you can have two druids, or any class, who run completely differently. Great for creating varied groups easily.
It should be noted the power of the easy-to-read visual nature of the card system. Being able to very quickly establish what each of my choices does, and refer back to it quickly, is a massive boon for Daggerheart. There is a real visual appeal to the character creation process, and going forward, as you keep the cards with your sheet. They make building a character enjoyable and not a chore that has to be done before you can start.
The cards give you info on any special traits or bonuses you need to alter your character sheet, which is also beautifully engineered to make everything run smoothly. The character sheets even clearly, and concisely, explain what to do as you level up. It’s all there in front of you without having to dive into another textbook or supplement. Everything is clear, visible, and quick to understand. There are only 6 statistics for you to deal with, though these can be altered by equipment, abilities, and character traits. These statistics are recorded as clean modifiers, +1 to a roll or -1, and not numbers that then need to be re-calculated for actual use. So simple, and so sensible, yet those 6 statistics work well in covering all of the categories you’d need in a game.
Perhaps the most interesting element though is the character sheet helping you to build the backstory of your avatar. The Daggerheart sheets have spaces to answer questions about your character’s history and how they are connected to the others in the adventuring party. It really helps guide the imagination without curtailing you. The answers to those questions can then also be used to build out your Experiences, which are concepts or drives from your character’s personal narrative that give bonuses to any dice rolls linked to those Experiences.
For my Goblin bard, with a Seaborne background, I decided my two starting Experiences (based on my answers to the questions on the sheet) were going to be ‘Sailor’ and ‘Easily overlooked’. So if there is ever a roll that I can link to my character’s Experiences, I will get a bonus for that roll. If I wanted to stealth through a crowded room, I could link that to their history of being ignored by others. If I needed to tie a knot, then my seafaring past would naturally give me an advantage in that instance. It just makes sense in practice.
In fact, Daggerheart seems to be built entirely around the idea of the tabletop roleplaying game evolved, rather than just reiterated. The character creation is so easy to complete, is so well-guided, and keeps things simple to follow without losing build complexity, because they have looked at the tabletop landscape around them but not just copied. The Daggerheart design team has asked, and answered, the important questions: What do players want? What works? What doesn’t work?
This is where the design masterclass really shows itself. Daggerheart‘s character creation, and the wider systems, feel like more than just a refinement of the best elements of tabletop gaming. You can give the character creation guide to somebody who has never done anything like this before and they would be able to create an interesting, playable, character with very little assistance. How many other TTRPG’s can you honestly say that for? Certainly not Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder.
When the onboarding experience, the character creation, is as enjoyable as playing the game then you are onto something special.
The truth of it all is that you simply should give Daggerheart a go and you’ll realise that it really does just make sense when it is in front of you. I am so excited to get into a gaming session of Daggerheart, and even more excited to see how it continues to develop before its proper release. When the onboarding experience, the character creation, is as enjoyable as playing the game then you are onto something special. Daggerheart could be something very special.
[GameOrNought was given access to the character creation materials through the closed beta program]
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