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Does Daggerheart Handle Different Settings Better Than D&D? Daggerheart Demystified

SupergeekMike

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Daggerheart is versatile enough to handle multiple different campaign settings - how does this compare with D&D’s strengths and weaknesses?

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Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
02:05 - Very Few Core Assumptions
07:14 - Fairies, Fungril, and Frogs?
12:27 - Building the World Together in Session Zero
14:26 - Campaign Frames
19:22 - A Word From Our Sponsor
20:56 - A Game You Can Reskin
25:38 - Good Lore Provides a Solid Foundation
32:08 - Final Thoughts
36:51 - Outro

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Music from Epidemic Sound

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20 Comments

@SupergeekMike Creator 1 year ago Pinned

Ok, be honest… would ribbits make sense in your homebrew D&D world?
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@dann4044 1 year ago (edited)

Frog bois would 100% fit in a dark souls setting. Elden ring has a talking turtle in a pope hat. And also frog bois

@HalfUnicorn 1 year ago

Daggerheart is a BYOI game— Bring Your Own Inspiration. I think you can see it clearly in how each Frame lays out its touchstones. The designers are counting on you (GM and players collectively) to have been influenced by stuff you've already consumed to gather the tropes from those, and apply them to your game.

Some people will hate it, others will love it.

@SkeletalPhoenix 1 year ago (edited)

“...can choose magic weapons at level 1” - Daggerheart’s “magic weapons” are effectively cantrips and spellcasting focuses merged into one, not the equivalent of magical weapons in D&D. Without spellcasting having a system of components in Daggerheart, spellcasting focuses would have had no mechanical purpose, so the designers merged them with cantrips. Instead of learning a cantrip, a spellcaster wields a magic weapon (a wand, a greatstaff, a ritual dagger, etc.) and channels their personal magic through it (much like how a warrior wields a sword, a mace, a bow, etc. and channels their physical prowess through it). It makes the design space of basic attacks between martials and casters much more coherent and symmetrical than in it is in D&D.

@Anergyne 1 year ago

pushes fictional glasses up bridge of nose
Um, akshully, the Galapagos Islands are named after the giant tortoises that live there. 'Galapago' is Spanish for 'tortoise'. So 'Galapa' makes perfect sense as the name for a species of turtle/tortoise people.

@kmads3572 1 year ago

Mike i think your commentary on the Ribbet touches on an interesting phenomena where we let an image we see of something almost entirely define our perception of it. The artist who chose to draw that image of the Ribbet with its little backpack could have drawn it 100 different ways, I mean if you look at images of real frogs feom our world theyre definitely not all small and cute. But because the artist chose to illustrate it with a whimsical, almost children's storybook style, your mind latched onto that and said "well cute little frog bois don't belong in a grimdark campaign or a GoT style political campaign." I think the Artificer class from D&D suffers from a very similar problem. Early on in its existence an artist chose to draw the artificer with a steam punk style, and everyone latched on to that and it gave rise to the sentiment that artificers don't belong in high fantasy. An artificer could easily be depicted as a blacksmith, or carpenter, or jeweler, but everyone's mental image goes to Dr. Loveless from Wild Wild West. All that to say, don't let an image or a small group of images color your perception of something.

@GradualGhost 1 year ago

As a player in a Daggerheart campaign, I can confirm that most of us were drawn to the game by the idea of playing a cute little frog.

I am currently playing Wilhelm, a Ribbit war veteran who is now journeying with a team of Ribbits from his homeland and a Clank I met on some mission somewhere. We are a very chaotic group.

@skyhound7661 1 year ago

I'd definitely watch a deep dive video on all the campaign frames.

@dancovich 1 year ago

36:39 Apparently the Spanish name Galapagos is derived from an ancient word that means "giant tortoise".

@FattyMcFox 1 year ago

An example of a very good, and at times very serious story with a little frog dude in it, is ChronoTrigger.
Yeah, Glenn gets turned into a frog, but he maintains his nobility and literally goes to the end of time to fight a living apocalypse. A single offbeat character doesn't De-epic a story.

@stephendragonspawn6944 1 year ago

The Daggerheart pantheon sounds like Greek myth too. Titans and new gods.

@jacobwillis7596 1 year ago

7:10 making ancestries feel distinct is something i definitely want to try and get better at as a dm and player. They’re all people but they should have at least some things be it cultural, psychological or physical that makes them unique. On that journey someone described elves as what if cats where people and I loved it

@jonnyducker 1 year ago

Personally I don't play Daggerheart OR D&D, but I still find videos about either or both interesting.

1- Some lessons are universal, regardless of system
2-Some comparisons between systems can be instructive, even if you're not using either
3-Some ideas can be applicable outside TTRPG entirely. Things like good design, thinking about your user experience, being considerate of other peoples backgrounds and beliefs.
4-Sometimes it's just fun to analyze the things we're fans of. I watch a ton of woodworking channels, but I'm not a woodworker. I watch movie analysis, but I don't make movies. But I love hearing the thoughts of enthusiastic, informed people on the subjects they're passionate about.

@CaseyWilkesmusic 1 year ago (edited)

One of the most interesting sentences that I read in the dagger heart book is that Clanks can be built out of anything you can imagine. So you can have clanks that are built out of water or natural things like clay or wood. In our campaign frame clanks, hold the same spot as kobolds and were built by dragons out of their scales.

@Jimothy_uncool 1 year ago

I loooove Grungs and so want a little frog boy...
I've got a scorpion made out of coloured glass, and thing come grungs made out of that would be so cute

@VioletDuskblossom 1 year ago

Very happy to see you putting out Daggerheart videos ^w^

@justiceiro47 1 year ago (edited)

30:54
the double "WHAT??!!!" gives me so much life. amazing.

@ravenmast3r334 1 year ago

would love to see a similar video for Draw Steel and how you think it's default setting is good / bad for other settings!! great video !!!

@bjam89 1 year ago

Gotta say, i LOVE how Mike takes what his viewers say to heart, like Mike is one person and as such has a limited scope of life (like we all do) so when someone points out something from their pov with some people i would have been worried with how would they react, but with Mike nah that was never a worry

@merrilin1999 1 year ago

Hey Mike unrelated to this video in particular as I JUST started it but I just wanted to say I really love what you’re doing with your channel. I came to your channel originally the way I’m sure most people do, with your critical role videos, and I’ll admit I was a hold out on your other videos for a while but eventually started the other videos as well and have been flying through the backlog. It’s been fun watching the channel grow and evolve. I love the way you’re handling politics on the channel, I enjoy the video topics you’ve been picking, and I just really enjoy your presence on screen. It’s been a treat having this recent boom of videos. You’ve quickly grown to one of my favorite channels. Keep it up man but also don’t burn yourself out.