Good breakdown! A lot of systems have open initiative, so I'm pretty used to it at my tables, but I think the most convoluted aspect to me has to be the armor point system. It's *essentially* an alternate HP system, even recovering by the same amount during downtime. Between making a roll, rolling damage, and then checking threshold, and then checking and maybe marking armor slot, and then subtracting and comparing to the threshold, and then marking damage, it feels like a system that could've been scrapped or dramatically reworked. Like, if they called them "Shield Points" to represent equipment durability and parrying then I can see them as more intuitive, or if they were marked and recovered differently I can see them having a lot of spice
In the final version Armour will always reduce damage straight to the next threshold. So If you took severe damage (3 HP), using an Armour slot, will always make it major damage (2 HP), and Minor damage (1 HP) would be reduced to no damage. This way there's no need to do annoying math. Hopefully the way you recover, will be somewhat different as well from the beta version, Bc I do agree it's too similar to HP. Otherwise it's kinda HP as items you can buy with gold, which is a fun element but not enough.
Good summary! I have a question about Daggerheart as a whole, though. I've played TTRPGs for 12 years. I am about to GM for a group of greenhorns but it will be my first time doing so (making me a greenhorn as well). Is Daggerheart newbie-friendly enough for us all to jump in or should I stick to what I'm used to?
@@ArcNatrix great question. The answer is YES if the group of players wants to get into the story and embodying their characters without having to constantly look at their character sheet. This is especially good for setting the precedent that players need to know what they want to do and say it during combat or they don’t get to do as much. This takes time to get good at though. I think it’s great for new players. Also because they don’t have a ton of class options to worry about at level 1. Additionally as the GM, the amount of rules here is much less than other RPGs which is great during the game because you don’t need to keep going back to the book to find what you need and play can continue. Now the counter point to this is: your players may need/want more structure which other rpgs have. It also depends on you as the GM if you feel prepared to handle new rules while handling new players. I think the main question is, as the GM, are you prepared and feel comfortable in the rules? Do you feel, from what you have seen and read of this system that it is right for your players? (In most cases yes but that depends on how well you know your players) If you have been doing this for 12 years I think this is the only thing that matters in the end: do you want to play something new and refreshing for you as the GM? Do you want to take away the restrictions your players will feel when they see their character sheets and realize they aren’t as good at the things they think their character should be with no real way to improve that? But try it and if it doesn’t work for the team, the. Go back to what you know. Hope that helps at least slightly lol - True
@@ShieldsRestTTRPG Thanks for the response, I'll take those points into consideration. The one solid takeaway I get is that Daggerheart streamlines a lot of the clunkiness of other tabletop games, not just with combat but all around. But I think I may give it a try. Subscribed.
@ArcNatrix that is my assessment as well. Streamlined with enough structure but not so much that you feel restricted. Let us know how your first session goes. I hope you and your team have a great time. Also check out the Daggerheart Reddit page, lot of great ideas and tons of people there to help with any questions you may have. Welcome to the Shield Wall! - True
Dude, great breakdown! I have been leaning away from the Daggerheart system because to the way the classes are and the strange combos of Domain Decks. However the combat system is what is keeping me interested.
@@bweber1226 For us its been about the class "features" and the way the Domain decks are. It feels like everyone is basically the same but with minor differences. My players feel like their class doesn't distinguish them enough from other players that use the same domain decks.
Kind of a good video. Nice tips and advice, but in combat the dm does not get FEAR with every action. They get an Action token. The can use those tokens to activate adversaries. The FEAR is gained when a player rolls with fear. FEAR is also used by the dm to take and action whenever they think the enemy has a good opportunity. Also you can give players a limited amount of actiontokens to give eveyone a chance to play. But good video
@@ShushimiGaming you are indeed correct. However I have moved on to the new rules Matt talked about during the close of the beta. The use of action tokens will go away. So I decided to make the switch because it’s way easier than using action tokens. Thank you for pointing that out, it is an important distinction to make. I found it clunky to hand out tokens as well. Limits my players and gets in the way of me being able to move the spotlight around as well when a player has a awesome action they want to take. Again though, you are correct, that is indeed something that the GM can do. I appreciate the thorough feedback. - True
@@ShieldsRestTTRPG so in the future the dm gets fear instead of the tokens. Do you know how much fear you can have if it is used for moving as well as attacking. 6 fear is not that much for the dm
@@ShushimiGaming Correct. Going forward you will have a limit of 12 fear. When activating an adversary you use 1 fear. With that activation your adversary gets to move within close range and use an action. To use a feature that will cost an additional fear token. Gaining fear comes from when your players role with fear and when they take an action. Fear should be a Simi plentiful resource for you with the new limit of 12 fear. I hope that clarifies things. I have been using these rules since Matt mentioned the changes and am loving it. Way more intuitive. - True
Good breakdown! A lot of systems have open initiative, so I'm pretty used to it at my tables, but I think the most convoluted aspect to me has to be the armor point system. It's *essentially* an alternate HP system, even recovering by the same amount during downtime.
Between making a roll, rolling damage, and then checking threshold, and then checking and maybe marking armor slot, and then subtracting and comparing to the threshold, and then marking damage, it feels like a system that could've been scrapped or dramatically reworked. Like, if they called them "Shield Points" to represent equipment durability and parrying then I can see them as more intuitive, or if they were marked and recovered differently I can see them having a lot of spice
I do have to say, I like your suggestion of calling them "Shield" points! - Brown
In the final version Armour will always reduce damage straight to the next threshold. So If you took severe damage (3 HP), using an Armour slot, will always make it major damage (2 HP), and Minor damage (1 HP) would be reduced to no damage. This way there's no need to do annoying math.
Hopefully the way you recover, will be somewhat different as well from the beta version, Bc I do agree it's too similar to HP. Otherwise it's kinda HP as items you can buy with gold, which is a fun element but not enough.
Good summary! I have a question about Daggerheart as a whole, though. I've played TTRPGs for 12 years. I am about to GM for a group of greenhorns but it will be my first time doing so (making me a greenhorn as well). Is Daggerheart newbie-friendly enough for us all to jump in or should I stick to what I'm used to?
@@ArcNatrix great question. The answer is YES if the group of players wants to get into the story and embodying their characters without having to constantly look at their character sheet. This is especially good for setting the precedent that players need to know what they want to do and say it during combat or they don’t get to do as much. This takes time to get good at though. I think it’s great for new players. Also because they don’t have a ton of class options to worry about at level 1. Additionally as the GM, the amount of rules here is much less than other RPGs which is great during the game because you don’t need to keep going back to the book to find what you need and play can continue.
Now the counter point to this is: your players may need/want more structure which other rpgs have. It also depends on you as the GM if you feel prepared to handle new rules while handling new players. I think the main question is, as the GM, are you prepared and feel comfortable in the rules? Do you feel, from what you have seen and read of this system that it is right for your players? (In most cases yes but that depends on how well you know your players)
If you have been doing this for 12 years I think this is the only thing that matters in the end: do you want to play something new and refreshing for you as the GM? Do you want to take away the restrictions your players will feel when they see their character sheets and realize they aren’t as good at the things they think their character should be with no real way to improve that?
But try it and if it doesn’t work for the team, the. Go back to what you know.
Hope that helps at least slightly lol - True
@@ShieldsRestTTRPG Thanks for the response, I'll take those points into consideration. The one solid takeaway I get is that Daggerheart streamlines a lot of the clunkiness of other tabletop games, not just with combat but all around. But I think I may give it a try. Subscribed.
@ArcNatrix that is my assessment as well. Streamlined with enough structure but not so much that you feel restricted. Let us know how your first session goes. I hope you and your team have a great time. Also check out the Daggerheart Reddit page, lot of great ideas and tons of people there to help with any questions you may have.
Welcome to the Shield Wall! - True
Dude, great breakdown! I have been leaning away from the Daggerheart system because to the way the classes are and the strange combos of Domain Decks. However the combat system is what is keeping me interested.
I have been having some reservations about characters for DH as well but can't quite pinpoint why. Can you elaborate on what has been bothering you?
@@bweber1226 For us its been about the class "features" and the way the Domain decks are. It feels like everyone is basically the same but with minor differences. My players feel like their class doesn't distinguish them enough from other players that use the same domain decks.
Kind of a good video. Nice tips and advice, but in combat the dm does not get FEAR with every action. They get an Action token. The can use those tokens to activate adversaries. The FEAR is gained when a player rolls with fear. FEAR is also used by the dm to take and action whenever they think the enemy has a good opportunity.
Also you can give players a limited amount of actiontokens to give eveyone a chance to play.
But good video
@@ShushimiGaming you are indeed correct. However I have moved on to the new rules Matt talked about during the close of the beta. The use of action tokens will go away. So I decided to make the switch because it’s way easier than using action tokens. Thank you for pointing that out, it is an important distinction to make.
I found it clunky to hand out tokens as well. Limits my players and gets in the way of me being able to move the spotlight around as well when a player has a awesome action they want to take. Again though, you are correct, that is indeed something that the GM can do.
I appreciate the thorough feedback. - True
@@ShieldsRestTTRPG so in the future the dm gets fear instead of the tokens. Do you know how much fear you can have if it is used for moving as well as attacking. 6 fear is not that much for the dm
@@ShushimiGaming Correct. Going forward you will have a limit of 12 fear. When activating an adversary you use 1 fear. With that activation your adversary gets to move within close range and use an action. To use a feature that will cost an additional fear token. Gaining fear comes from when your players role with fear and when they take an action. Fear should be a Simi plentiful resource for you with the new limit of 12 fear. I hope that clarifies things. I have been using these rules since Matt mentioned the changes and am loving it. Way more intuitive. - True
@@ShieldsRestTTRPGa looks a lot better. Thanks for the clarification