Action Roll
If you make a move where the outcome is in question, and the success or failure of that move is interesting to the story, your move is an action and the GM calls for an action roll to determine the outcome.
Activate a Hope Feature
A Hope Feature is any effect that allows (or requires) you to spend Hope to activate its effects.
Adapting Environments
Sometimes you want to use an environment but itâs at the wrong tier for your party.
Adjusting Abilities and Spells
Just as there is no set style for weapons combat, there is no set style of spellcasting within Daggerheart.
Advantage and Disadvantage
When you roll with advantage, you add a d6 advantage die to your total. When you roll with disadvantage, you subtract a d6 disadvantage die from your total.
Adversary Attack Roll
When an adversary youâre controlling attacks a PC, youâll make a simplified version of the attack roll made by players.
Adversary Roll
Adversaries arenât limited to just the attacks and unique actions in their stat blocks
Adversary Tokens
Some adversaries require tokens to be placed on their stat blocks for certain features.
Agility
A high Agility means youâre fast on your feet, nimble on difficult terrain, and quick to react to danger.
Armor Score
Your Armor Score includes the armorâs base value plus any permanent bonuses your character has to their Armor Score from other abilities.
Arrows & Ammunition
We assume that if your character has a bow, theyâre well supplied with standard arrows.
Attack Roll
When you make an action roll with the intent to harm an adversary, youâre making an attack roll.
Background
The decisions you make about your characterâs background are purely narrative, but they deeply impact the character youâre playing and the story the GM is preparing for your adventures.
Base Threshold (Armor)
An armorâs base damage thresholds represent the long-term protection your armor provides, and determine your damage thresholds (before any bonuses from other features).
Battle Guide
This guide will help you roughly balance an encounter so you can determine how many and which adversaries to use.
Beastform
Mark a Stress to magically transform into a creature of your tier or lower from the Beastform list.
Calculating Damage
After rolling your damage dice, add their values together, then add any modifiers to determine the result. The GM marks Hit Points based on that damage.
Calling for Action Rolls
After a player describes a move they want to make during the game, you might decide an action roll is necessary to determine how the scene progresses.
Campaign Frame
Campaign frames provide inspiration, tools, and mechanics to support the story your table will tell.
Changing Experience
If you discover that your character has outgrown a previous Experience or it doesnât feel right anymore, youâre not stuck with the ones youâve already chosen.
Character Creation
Unless youâre the GM, the first step of Daggerheart is to create your character.
Character Death
Adjudicating and overseeing the death of a PC may be among the most difficult tasks for a GM.
Character Traits
These values reflect your natural or trained ability in each of the core six stats: Agility, Strength, Finesse, Instinct, Presence, and Knowledge.
Chase Countdown
You can use dynamic countdowns to track the progress of a chase scene, whether the PCs are pursuing an NPC or being pursued themselves.
Chest (Gold)
If you ever have more than 1 chest, youâll need to store some of your gold before you can take more.
Class Hope Feature
Each class has a Hope Feature that requires 3 Hope to use; whenever a PC uses this unique and powerful feature, ensure that it impacts the scene.
Clear Stress
Describe how you blow off steam or pull yourself together, then clear a number of Stress equal to 1d4 + your tier.
Clearing Conditions
You can make an action roll, with a Difficulty determined by the GM, to try clearing a temporary condition, though the GM might have you clear it in another way.
Clearing Hit Points
Any time you make a downtime move, you have the opportunity to clear some of your marked Hit Points.
Combat Wheelchair
The combat wheelchair is a ruleset designed to help you play a wheelchair user in Daggerheart.
Condition
Some features impose a condition on your character (or an adversary). These are effects that grant specific benefits or drawbacks to the target they are applied to.
Conflict Between PCs (Optional)
Sometimes a player might want their character to act against another PC in the scene.
Connection
Connections represent the relationships and personal history between your character and their fellow party members.
Core Realms
The core realms are the basis for the worldbuilding elements inherent to many of Daggerheartâs mechanics, such as its ancestries and adversaries.
Countdown
You can use a countdown to track progress toward an event, consequence, or adversary move.
Counting Character Tokens
Tokens are counters you add to your hand to help total your action roll results.
Cover
Sometimes during a fight, you might seek cover, such as by diving behind a small barricade or ducking behind a tree.
Critical Success
When you roll the Duality Dice and both dice roll the same number, that is a critical success.
Critical Success (GM)
PCs arenât the only characters who can roll a critical successâtheir adversaries can too!
Critical Successes and Damage
If your attack roll critically succeeds, your attack deals extra damage!
Damage Dice
The damage dice used to make a damage roll are determined by the weapon, spell, or ability youâre using to make the attack.
Damage Roll
When you succeed on an attack roll against an adversary, you then make a damage roll to determine how much damage your attack deals, and thus how many Hit Points your target must mark.
Damage Threshold
The number of Hit Points you mark when you take damage is determined by your damage thresholds.
Damage Type
Weapons, spells, and abilities deal one of two damage types: physical damage or magic damage. Some mechanics interact with damage types to affect how damage is dealt or received.
Death
Facing death is an important part of being an adventurer and having a character die can be an exciting end to a story, as well as an opportunity for the player to transition into something new.
Defeated Adversaries
When an adversary marks their last Hit Point, they are defeated (unless they have a feature that gives them a second chance!)
Defined Range (Optional)
If your table would rather operate with more precise range rules, you can use a 1-inch grid battle map during combat.
Degrees of Success and Failure
Often, instead of setting a single value for success, you might instead give a player different outcomes based on the relative success or failure of their roll.
Difficulty
When you make an action roll, the roll will have a Difficultyâthe number you need to reach or exceed when you roll.
Difficulty Roll
When a PC rolls against an adversary, the stat block provides a Difficulty for the roll.
Domain
Domains are the core themes of each class. The combination of two domains forms the basis for each classâs abilities and spells, which you gain from your domain cards.
Downtime
A party can choose to rest before they continue forward on their journey, and when they do, each PC has the chance to make two downtime moves.
Downtime Consequences
Downtime allows for quiet scenes between characters, encouraging personal moments in the storyâbut the world doesnât stop when you rest!
Dynamic Countdown
When a situation is being actively influenced by the players, you may choose to use a dynamic countdown to track it.
Economy of Your World
The following table provides examples of the average cost of basic goods and services.
End of the Scene
At the GMâs discretion, a scene continues until the current narrative situation has played out.
Ending Other Temporary Effects
Some effects arenât a condition, but state that they are temporary. They can be ended in the same way as temporary conditions.
Environment Impulse
Each environment has âimpulses,â or the narrative way they push and pull on those within them.
Environment Type
An environmentâs type represents the style of scene it most readily supports, but any kind of interaction can happen in any environment.
Experience
Your characterâs Experiences are one of the core ways you express their backstory and expertise through mechanics.
Extended Downtime
If youâre fast-forwarding the story across multiple days (or longer), you probably donât need a separate scene for each long rest during that time.
Falling and Collision Damage (Optional)
If a character falls to the ground, you can use the following as a guide to determine the damage they take
Fate Roll (Optional)
When narrating a moment outside the PCsâ influence, the GM might wish to leave the outcome up to chance.
Fear
Fear is a currency used by the GM to represent the way fate turns against the characters during the game.
Feature (NPC)
If you want an important NPC to mechanically interact with the system, you can give them one or more features that reflect how they move through the world.
Feature (Weapon)
A weapon feature describe any special rules that apply only to that particular weapon.
Finesse
A high Finesse means youâre skilled at tasks that require accuracy, stealth, or the utmost control.
Flow of the Game
In a session of Daggerheart, you and the other players go around the table describing what your characters do in the fictional circumstances that the GM sets up, building on each otherâs ideas and working together to tell an exciting story.
GM Best Practices
The GM Principles give you guidance on what to do; meanwhile, the GM Best Practices in this section help you know how to do it.
GM Die
The players use two d12 Duality Dice as their primary dice for action resolution, but as the GM, youâll use one d20.
GM Downtime
When players use downtime to rest and refresh, you gain Fear and can progress a countdown happening in the background
GM Move
Just like the players have moves they can make during the game, you also have GM moves that change the story in response to their actions.
GM Principles
Daggerheart stands on the shoulders of a decades-long tradition of fantasy adventure TTRPGs that traces back to the beginning of the form as we know it.
Gaining Fear
When you start a campaign, you begin with an amount of Fear equal to the number of PCs.
Game Cards
Youâll need the cards that come with the core set: ancestry, community, subclass, and domain cards.
Game Master
If youâre taking on the role of the GM, youâll be playing the world as it responds to the PCsâ actions.
Giving Advantage and Disadvantage
Whenever it seems appropriate within the bounds of the narrative, you can give a PC advantage or disadvantage on a roll.
Gold
Gold tracks how much wealth you have collected on your journey. You can spend it on things such as items, consumables, and equipment.
Gold, Equipment, and Loot
Itâs up to you and your players how much importance you want to place on gold, equipment, and loot in your campaign.
Group Action Roll
When multiple characters take action togetherâsuch as sneaking through an adversaryâs camp as a groupâthe party nominates one character to lead the action.
Help an Ally
You can spend a Hope to Help an Ally who is making an action roll you could feasibly support.
Hit Points
Hit Points (sometimes called HP) are an abstract reflection of your physical fortitude and ability to take hits from both blade and magic.
Hope
Hope is a currency used by the players to represent the way fate turns for the characters during the game.
Immunity
When a creature has immunity to a damage type, they do not take any damage from an attack that deals damage of that type.
Improvising Adversaries
Sometimes you want to use an adversary but theyâre too powerful (or not powerful enough) for your partyâs tier.
Improvising Fear Moves
Whether youâre improvising adversaries and environments or using existing ones, you might find a moment where you want to put your thumb on the scale to make something dramatic happen or to escalate the scene.
Incoming Damage
When a feature refers to incoming damage, itâs describing the damage amount a target is currently receiving.
Initiate a Tag Team Roll
You can spend three Hope to initiate a Tag Team Roll between you and another PC in order to combine your efforts together in an exciting and scene-defining moment.
Inventory Weapon
The inventory section holds gear your character doesnât have equipped, so your character isnât wielding these items and they doesnât gain their benefits.
Items
Items are loot that can be kept and used repeatedly until you choose to get rid of them, or until something in the narrative causes you to lose them.
Knowledge
A high Knowledge means you know information others donât and understand how to apply your mind through deduction and inference.
Leader
A Leader can spotlight multiple allies in one move, buff them, or summon new combatants to the field, and they create dynamic combat by rallying and maneuvering their forces.
Legendary
Legendary loot might be the only item of their kind, a reward for an incredibly difficult or dangerous job, or a powerful adversaryâs most precious and guarded treasure.
Leveling Up
When your party reaches a milestone in a campaign, the GM will tell you that itâs time to level up.
Leveling Up Your Companion
When your character levels up, choose one available option for your companion from the following list and mark it on your sheet.
Lines and Veils
âLines and Veilsâ are a safety tool designed to be first employed in a session zero and revisited as needed throughout a campaign.
Loadout and Vault
You can have a maximum of five active domain cards in your loadout at any one time. Your vault holds any domain cards that are inactive and not currently in your loadout.
Loop (Countdown)
Some countdowns loop after they trigger; this is common with adversaries who can recharge a feature over time.
Magic (Damage Type)
Magic damage is dealt through magical means. Most harmful spells deal magic damage.
Major Damage
Major damage is equal to or above your Major threshold but below Severe; you mark 2 HP.
Making Moves
When you decide to do something in the story and the spotlight shifts to you, your PC makes a move, which you describe to the group.
Map
Your group might want to use maps to clarify positioning, showcase an environment, or simply because you enjoy maps and miniatures.
Marking Hit Points
When the GM tells you to take damage, compare the damage total to your thresholds and mark a number of Hit Points determined by the threshold.
Marking Stress
When an effect requires you to mark a Stress, do so on the slots on your character sheet.
Massive Damage (Optional)
To make the game more dangerous, your table can implement a Massive threshold.
Mixed Ancestry
Families within the world of Daggerheart are as unique as the peoples and cultures that inhabit it.
Movement
You donât need to worry about how fast you move, unless youâre under pressure or in danger.
Moving and Fighting Underwater (Optional)
Attack rolls underwater have disadvantage unless it makes sense for a character to easily fight underwater, like a Siren or Shark making an attack on a PC.
Multiple Sources of Damage
After rolling your damage dice, add their values together, then add any modifiers to determine the result.
NPC Advantage and Disadvantage
If an NPC has advantage, roll an extra d20 and take the highest result.
Once per Session Features
Some features donât refresh during rests, but instead are available again at the start of your next Daggerheart session.
Ongoing Spell Effects
Once a spellâs effect is in play, as long as it doesnât mention an expiration, it continues until a PC or the GM ends it, or until the fiction changes in a way that would naturally stop it.
Physical (Damage Type)
Physical damage is dealt through mundane physical blows, usually without the aid of magic. Most standard blades and bows deal physical damage.
Pitfalls to Avoid
Like any game that relies on collaboration, your Daggerheart campaign will be impacted by the tactics and behaviors of the people at the table.
Player
Daggerheart runs best with two to five players who are excited to collaborate and build a story together.
Player Principles
We recommend following these principles when engaging with Daggerheart as a player to get the most out of the system.
Playing Disability with Purpose and Respect
Portraying lived experiencesâsuch as disabilityâother than your own is a powerful way to broaden your perspective when done with respect.
Playing a Blind or Visually Impaired Character
Though every individual in the blind/VI community has their own experiences and preferences, here are a few tips on how to play a blind/VI character respectfully.
Playing a Deaf Character
When you play a Deaf character, consider the many factors that influence how they move through their life.
Prepare
Describe how you prepare yourself for the path ahead, then gain a Hope. If you choose to Prepare with one or more members of your party, you each gain 2 Hope.
Presence
A high Presence means you have a strong force of personality and a facility for social situations.
Primary Weapon
Primary weapons are the main weapons your character will likely be fighting with during an encounter.
Projects During Downtime
The Work on a Project downtime move requires more GM input than other downtime moves and is best suited for long-term endeavors the PCs wish to undertake.
Randomized Starting Value (Countdown)
Instead of assigning a starting value, a countdown might instead use a randomized value.
Ranged
A Ranged adversary could be a spellcaster firing necrotic bolts of energy or an archer on the battlement raining down arrows on an advancing army.
Rare
Rare loot might be kept under lock and key in a shop, offered as the sole reward for a job, or discovered among a powerful NPCâs possessions.
Reaction Roll
Some moves prompt a reaction roll. This is a roll in response to an attack or a hazard, representing your effort to avoid or withstand the effect.
Reading Domain Cards
During character creation and as your character levels up, youâll gain increasingly powerful domain cards, which provide features you can utilize during your adventures.
Reducing Damage
When your character takes damage, you can negate some (or all) of it by marking an available Armor Slot
Repair All Armor
Describe how you spend time repairing your armor, then clear all Armor Slots. You can do this to an allyâs armor instead.
Repair Armor
Describe how you quickly repair your armor, then clear a number of Armor Slots equal to 1d4 + your tier. You can do this to an allyâs armor instead.
Resistance
When a creature has resistance to a damage type, they halve damage of that type before comparing it to their damage thresholds.
Resolve the Situation
Based on the result of your action roll, the GM uses guidelines to decide how the narrative moves forward.
Restrained
When you gain the Restrained condition, you canât move until this condition is cleared, but you can still take actions from your current position.
Resurrection
It is possible to resurrect a dead character, though itâs often a long, difficult, and costly process.
Roll with Fear
When you roll your Duality Dice and the Fear Die rolls higher than the Hope Die, you roll with Fear.
Roll with Hope
When you roll your Duality Dice and the Hope Die rolls higher than the Fear Die, you roll with Hope.
Rounding Up
This game doesnât use fractions; if you need to round to a whole number, round up unless otherwise specified.
Running GM NPCs
When you run NPCs as the GM, you should always strive to follow your GM principles and use them to bring the world to life.
Secondary Weapon
Secondary weapons are typically ancillary pieces of equipment that augment your characterâs fighting, such as shields, daggers, or small swords.
Setting Roll Difficulty
When a player makes an action roll, youâll often have to set the Difficulty of that challenge to know whether theyâve succeeded or failed.
Short Rest
A short rest is when the characters stop to catch their breath, taking a break for about an hour.
Simultaneous and Stacking Effects
If two or more effects can apply to a situation, and the rules donât tell you which order to apply them in, the player controlling the effects (including the GM) can apply the effects in any order.
Skulks
A wide breadth of adversaries can fit into the Skulk category, typically those who use misdirection and movement during combat.
Solo
These powerful adversaries share little in common with each other, save for their purpose: to create an exciting encounter!
Spellcast Roll
Spellcast Rolls are a type of action roll used when youâre creating significant magical effects (typically with a domain card).
Spending Resources
If a rule tells you to spend a resource, you lose that resource once you spend it.
Spotlight Tracker
If your group prefers tactical play or structured player turns, you can limit the number of actions each PC has available to them at a time.
Standard
Standard adversaries represent the average of their peers and are the backbone of any encounter.
Standard Countdown
Many adversaries and events use a standard countdown, in which the die begins on a specific number (such as âCountdown 4â) and ticks down every time a player makes an action roll, regardless of the result.
Starting Equipment
During character creation, youâll choose starting weapons, armor, and other items for your character.
Stat Block (Adversary)
Each adversaryâs stat block presents the statistics, or mechanical information, you need to use them in combat.
Stat Block (Environment)
Each environmentâs stat block presents the statistics you need to utilize them in play.
Strength
A high Strength means youâre better at feats that test your physical prowess and stamina.
Stress
Stress reflects your ability to withstand the pressures of dangerous situations and mental strain.
Support
A Support adversary might be a druid who creates brambles and thorns that slow down pursuers or any other unit that buffs allies, inflicts conditions, or imposes unique status effects.
Switching Weapons
When your character is in a dangerous situation, you can mark a Stress to equip an Inventory Weapon, moving their previous Active Weapon into the Inventory Weapon section.
Tag Team Roll
Once per session, each player can initiate a Tag Team Roll between their character and another PC, working with the other characterâs player to describe how you combine your actions in a unique and exciting way.
Targets and Groups
An effect often asks you to choose a target within range. This means you choose a single creature to affect.
Tend to All Wounds
Describe how you patch yourself up, then clear all Hit Points. You can do this to an ally instead.
Tend to Wounds
Describe how you hastily patch yourself up, then clear a number of Hit Points equal to 1d4 + your tier. You can do this to an ally instead.
The Circles Below
The Circles Below are the collection of lower realms where many of the Forgotten Gods, those who fought the most passionately during the uprising, were banished.
The Hallows Above
The Hallows Above are the collection of deific territories that once belonged to the Forgotten Gods before the New Gods claimed it at the end of the Earliest Age.
The Realms Beyond
The cosmos holds many realms beyond theseâthe Elemental Lands, the Astral Realm, the Valley of Death, and countless others.
Throwing a Weapon
When youâre using a weapon that you could theoretically throw (such as a dagger or an axe), you can throw it at a target within Very Close range, making an attack roll using Finesse.
Tiers of Play
Levels in Daggerheart are divided into tiers. Your tier affects your damage thresholds, level achievements, and more.
Tracking Fear
You can track Fear with tokens, a die, or any other counting method, and you should keep this pool visible to players during the game.
Unarmed Attack Roll
When your character makes an attack without a weaponâ for example, a punch or a kickâyou make an attack roll using Strength or Finesse.
Uncommon
Uncommon loot might be found in limited supply in a shop, kept in a protected place in a camp, or offered as part of a reward for a job.
Using Armor
Each armor in this book includes its name, base damage thresholds, and base Armor Score.
Using Downtime
You can use downtime scenes as a pressure release valve to vary the intensity of the story and give the PCs room to breathe.
Using Experience
When one of your characterâs Experiences fits the situation at hand, you can use that Experience to showcase their expertise.
Using Hope
When youâve gained Hope and recorded it on your character sheet, you can spend it to power special abilities, clearing it from your character sheet when you do.
Using Range
When a weapon, spell, ability, item, or other effect states a range, this refers to its maximum range. Unless otherwise noted, an effect can also be used at closer ranges.
Utilize an Experience
You can spend a Hope to use one of your relevant Experiences on an action or reaction roll, adding its modifier to the result.
Vulnerable
When you gain the Vulnerable condition, youâre in a difficult position within the fiction.
Weapon Statistics
Each weapon in this book includes its name, trait, range, damage die, damage type, and burden.
Welcome to Daggerheart
Daggerheart is a collaborative fantasy roleplaying game of incredible magic and heroic adventure.
Social
When the party is faced with a Social adversary, they enter a battle of wits.