Daggerheart has been out for a while now, and I’ve had a chance to run a few one-shots of it, both online and face-to-face; it’s a great system for them, with its narrative focus bringing the epic experience you want from a high fantasy game. So, if you’re wanting to try it as a change for your group, or showcase it at a convention, here are my top tips for running Daggerheart!

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

Dices!

This might sound obvious – so obvious I forgot about it in my first draft – but if you’re running Daggerheart at a convention, buy a bunch of different coloured d12s – don’t rely on your players having more than one, or different coloured ones! There’s no need to get official Daggerheart dice (except that you always need more dice, don’t you?) – just go to a FLGS with a big jar of dice and pick out some colourful dodecahedrons!

Low Tier is Still Epic

You don’t need to go beyond Tier 2 – or even Tier 1 – to give your players an exciting high fantasy experience. Tier 1 PCs still have enough cool powers to get a run out in a one-shot adventure, and by sticking to lower tiers you avoid dealing with the card hands that can be a bit confusing at higher levels. Personally, I don’t even use the cards at the table (I know!) – it’s one more thing to cart to the convention – I just snip them from the .pdf onto a pregen character sheets.

While we’re talking pregens, I’d make sure that you have a range of roles and species available, with no duplicates – you may as well lean into Daggerheart’s kitchen sink fantasy aspect and let people play the talking cat people they want to (there’s always one)

Battles, Environments and NPCs

Daggerheart has encounter balance guidance that actually works to provide a nice challenge to your players. Don’t use this for the first fight. As the players are getting used to the rules, just give them a straightforward group of enemies – maybe a brute, and as many standards as there are PCs. This will give them a useful training level to work on before they get the hang of their system. 

For the second fight, use the “less powerful” version, then go for the full balanced encounter for the final fight, if you’re using a three fights structure (which works really well with Daggerheart). In the second and third fights, use a variety of opponents and be prepared to reskin and reuse stats if needed – Solos and Hordes are particularly tasty.

It’ll be tempting to use Environments as well – but I’ve found they can add a little bit too much complexity into combat, so don’t feel beholden to them. Something simple like a countdown clock that triggers e.g. falling boulders every 3 rounds or so is much easier to deal with. NPCs are also a simple addition – the support archers block on p showcases a really neat way to deal with allies that I’d recommend for the final fight.

Countdowns, countdowns

So, if you’re using a Three Fights structure, you want something for those interstitial scenes, right? The countdown is your friend. You can use them for exploration, negotiation, investigating – and they provide a really strong framework to base a looser, slower-paced scene around.

In Into the Witherwild, the PCs have to find a way into the city and do it by conquering a countdown. Just make sure you’ve got a trigger for if they don’t get there, or a cost attached to failure; the obvious one is to lose a Stress, but have a few other options up your sleeve as well. Similarly, you can use Countdowns (with a series of rolls in whatever order the PCs want) for journeys, climbs, any other encounters that you want.

While we’re on it, don’t sleep on Group Rolls as well if there’s a challenge you want the PCs to tackle as a group – everyone rolls, affecting the leader’s roll, and then you get to resolve it. I’ve also used 13th Age Montages liberally in Daggerheart – as you’d imagine, they’re great for the fantasy vibe Daggerheart works with.

Bonds and Questions

If you want to make your session really memorable, lean into the adaptability of the game. Ask each PC to cover just one of the Bonds and Questions on their character sheet at the start – make a note of these, and try to reincorporate during the game. That sea monster they’ve been hunting just might be the final enemy, after all – or if there’s an NPC hunting them make sure they’re behind one of the encounters. 

Don’t over-think this; it’s a bit like the 13th Age icon rolls where you can just re-colour some of your existing NPCs and encounters to match what they’ve given you; but if you can pull it off it’ll make the session awesome!

So, four things to make your Daggerheart one-shots pop! Have you run Daggerheart as a one-shot? Let me know in the comments!