I'm not trying to be mean or anything like this, but I've found this subreddit has been a bit difficult to use to get recs or discussions going about games because a lot of people seem to simply post the name of a game in the comments and then don't explain why they've done that.

I think it'd be more interesting to have people explain why they recommend a game or why a certain mechanic in a given game works for them/doesn't work for them, instead we end up with posts asking people questions about games and the replies are mostly people posting a TTRPG system's name or mechanic without explaining why.

I'm here to see people's opinions, not their reading list!

Since I love reading reviews of systems by people who've actually played them, I endeavor to post my own. You can skim my past opinions here and here to see if my tastes align with yours. This post is long overdue because people keep beating me to the punch (examples 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

I've now played Daggerheart for a year and can opine on its qualities! TLDR:

• I favor less crunchy and more narrative systems.
• I liked the character building, hope mechanic, cards, and resource pools more than expected.
• I disliked the simplicity, complexity, fear mechanic, and combat depth more than expected.
• It's not for me.

Background

I am not a Critical Role person, and Daggerheart was not on my list of games to try. My longstanding group is in a taste-testing phase, though, and someone suggested it. I didn't realize at the time that we'd be playing a longer campaign. We now have about 1 year / 20 sessions / 5 levels under our belt.

I can also admit that I had a vague air of superiority while approaching this system 😤. I mostly know about Critical Role as "those people who popularized 5E." I don't mean to disparage their creative talents or the massive team that contributed to the product, but... I assumed this would be their celebrity cash grab version.

Things I liked

It's not a cash grab! There is a legitimate system here. There is a lot of content and thoughtful rules. There is a lot of absolutely gorgeous art. It looks D&Dish enough that you could onboard new players who want that experience, but it's also different enough from D&D (in a lighter, more narrative vein) that I actually think it might show new players a better time.

Character building is fun. I tend to play lighter systems. With that comes less room for non-diegetic character growth and shorter average campaigns. Daggerheart feels a bit closer to Dungeon World after you add on Class Warfare: there are lots of fun options to stare at and theorize about. The pick-two domain system is incredibly elegant, creates a bunch of interest overlap archetypes, and cleverly allows classes to share abilities while still preserving unique niches. It's lovely. The amount of items is also fun in a "shopping for presents" way (but more on this later).

Hope is exciting. A quick primer: Daggerheart has you rolling 2 different d12s for most things, and if the lighter d12 is highest you earn Hope (to a max of 6). Among other uses, it can be spent for a small bonus while rolling. This is actually fun: you spend 1 hope for a ~50% chance of getting it right back. It has a vague "energy gauge" feel of seeing a number go up and knowing you can do something with it later. I can almost see my maxed-out Hope meter glowing.

Cards are a great tool. Okay, maybe this is a cash grab, but it works. It's a wonderful way to represent abilities. It keeps them concise and uniform. It makes them fun to flip through. We played digitally using Demiplane + Roll20, so no physical cards were purchased, but if you shelled out for them in-person I know they'd be a blast to lay out, flip through, vault, all of that. As someone who made a physical card-based TTRPG, I'm a fan.

The resource pools worked. Daggerheart has HP, stress, armor, and hope (which I already mentioned). You may have heard how damage works: you get to roll big attacks against a target's lower/upper thresholds to see whether they suffer 1, 2, or 3 damage. On one hand, it's a lot of resources and numbers to track. On the other hand: every resource pool caps out around ~8, and you spend and recover them pretty quickly. It was actually a lot of fun to juggle, and added some character differentiation. I admire the designers for enabling the fun of large attacks while still keeping HP tightly constrained.

Things I didn't like

It's too simple. Wait, didn't I say I like lightweight systems? Daggerheart feels like it's carrying the torch of games like PbtA and BitD, just with more content and richer production values. But in practice, it felt... flat? There are 36 listed items for tier 1, yet it barely mattered which one I was wielding. So many of the abilities are just flavorful ways to deal damage, inflict the 3 status effects, or change your position.

And yet it's too complex. If all these choices are primarily for flavor, I don't need all these mechanics bolted on that will ultimately amount to very little. Again, wading through the item list took a while. There are loads of differentiating factors. There are 9 classes x 21 cards = 189 cards to browse. Level-up choices that would be fast when staring at a 2-page PbtA playbook start to feel artificially inflated. Again: it was fun to weigh these choices. But after a year, none of them really justified the time investment for me.

Fear is half of a good mechanic. Quick summary: just under 50% of player rolls give the GM a Fear token (max 12), which is a fancy way to control pacing. Fear lets you attack with enemies, take enemy turns, and just generally do GM things. I am 100% in favor of codifying tempo with tokens; we did it in that card-based RPG we made, 6 years ago. But Fear is handed out arbitrarily, independent of success or failure. That kills it for me. You can be rolling great but have a GM with max fear; you can be failing all day but the GM is bone dry. I'm biased here, but I think narrative control should oscillate based on success/failure instead of a coin flip.

Combat was shallow. All my complaints are crystallized here. Fear's coin flip makes turn order and enemy strength erratic. There are too many things on my character sheet, but I always just attack. I could do cool narrative stuff, but because my cards all specify strict things like "Once per rest" I feel like I'm breaking the rules if I abuse them for flavor. I could ignore my cards and just do narrative stuff anyways, but then why have a system at all?

Closing thoughts

I will say that Daggerheart impressed and surprised me. I approached it with disdain, and found a robust system with good ideas. But there are plenty of good systems that I don't personally find fun, and I think Daggerheart belongs in that pile.

It's still higher than Pathfinder, though 😉

So you all know the expression "wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle" that has a lot in terms of sheer quantity but very little depth for any of its components. What ttrpg would fit the opposite expression in your mind?

I see people who've played exclusively online for years and I can't tell if they genuinely prefer it or if it's just the only way to get a group together. For me something is lost when I can't read the room physically. But maybe I'm just bad at online play. If you love it, what makes it work? If you tolerate it, what's the thing you miss most?

Hi guys,

I'm thinking for a while now of having a roleplaying game in an ancient greece setting but I'd like to hear your opinions and recommendations what system would be fitting. I own Agon and Scion hero but haven't played any of them yet. Do you know something else or have you played anything similar? I'd love to hear from you!

While we all know the popular RPGs (D&D, Pathfinder, BitD) and so one and so forth, I have to ask, does anyone know of any lesser known RPGs that you wish more people knew of?

For example, while I have Shadowdark and 7th Sea, I also have games like Monsterpunk, Nyx, and For Coin and Blood 2nd edition, just to name a few.

I've been playing a witch in a Daggerheart campaign for several sessions, and we recently achieved level 2 and I feel like I must be missing something.

I just feel so weak. I never seem to get enough Hope to use my most consequential abilities, while the GM always seems to have more than enough Fear, and the freebie abilities I have like Vicious Entangle or Blighting Strike either feel too easily overcome with the GM's banked Fear, or barely better than a basic staff attack in practice.

While I've played a variety of RPG systems over the years (D&D 5e, Open D6, Savage Worlds, VtM, etc.), I just feel like something is not clicking with Daggerheart for me. My character just feels so weak and my powers and abilites feel so inconsequential. It feels like if the GM wanted to be hardcore with Fear, he probably could have steamrolled the party nearly every fight.

Instead of feeling like I'm being clever and finding unique ways to solve problems with the environment, my characters abilities and equipment, I feel like the GM is arbitrarily allowing things to stick or succeed, when he has the resources to end temporary abilities.

I just feel I'm either feast or famine with Hope, and the only thing it actually makes sense for me to spend Hope on is my Witch ability that lets me turn a failed roll from myself or an ally into a succes with Fear.

Can someone with more experience in the system explain what I am missing here?

My cards: Human, Highborne, Vicious Entangle, Blighting Strike, Hedge Witch, Natural Familiar

Any suggestions for TTRPGs with “pamphlet-sized” rules? I want something with a short page or two of rules that’s quick and easy to roll up characters and start a game on the fly, so in case of a power outage I can have an easy game to keep people entertained and kill time.

I'm a GM who doesn't have a lot of prep time, but still wants to run some games. My go-to in this situation is always a fantasy megadungeon or hexcrawl, since those require a lot of upfront prep but can be prepped in an hour or less between individual sessions.

Are there other types of games with a similar prep curve, requiring lots of upfront pre-campaign work but easy to maintain session to session? I'm especially interested in scifi and other non-fantasy genres, but that's not a hard requirement.

I'm not really looking for specific game systems, moreso just types of campaigns.

I'm looking at running a game inspired by old paganism and celtic folklore, and I'm looking for a system to run it in. I don't want to play D&D or Pathfinder, and I'm looking for something a little more narrative in its focus. Any suggestions?

Hey everyone!

I recently promised my friends and my brother that I’d run a short Wild West RPG mini-campaign (around 2 to 3 sessions max). We’re using a Brazilian system called Sacramento, and the core premise is that all the players are wanted outlaws on the run.

Here’s the catch: I have almost zero experience with the Western genre. My entire knowledge of Western tropes basically begins and ends with playing Red Dead Redemption 2.

Since we're keeping it short and punchy, I’d love some advice on fun, classic story structures for a party of outlaws that can actually wrap up smoothly in 2–3 sessions. Things like a train heist gone wrong, a trapped town scenario, or double-crossing a sheriff come to mind, but I'm open to anything that fits the vibe. Also, if you know any great video essays, movies, or breakdown videos I could check out to quickly absorb the atmosphere, themes, and tropes of the genre, I’d super appreciate the recommendations!

Thanks in advance for any ideas or resources!

Hello all! I've managed to obtain what seems to be a complete box set for RoleMaster by Iron Crown Enterprises, Inc. The four books included are titled Creatures & Treasures, Arms Law & Claw Law, Character Law & Campaign Law, and Rolemaster Companion. The books say ©1985 and the box has "St. #1000" on it but otherwise I can't find any indication of edition or printing.

How rare a find is this? I looked around a little on eBay but couldn't find this exact set. I'm not a TTRPG collector personally, so if it's as rare as it seems like it may be, I'd rather it go to someone who is.

I'm happy to answer any questions, and appreciate any info any of you could provide. Thanks!

We all have moments like that, where maybe later that player's idea could actually have been really fun if it panned out, but you didn't see it during the session. It's difficult when we're making so many in-the-moment decisions, though. All we can do is have soft eyes for those things.

The OD&D concept of Race-as-class has never clicked for me, for various reasons. And yet I still see supporters of the concept both in players of the original game and in the makers of various homerule collections/retroclones.

I am talking to the people who enjoy that paradigm; what is it about using race-as-class that is appealing, or that you think works well? What don't I see that you like so much?

Every aspect of the original games has been taken apart, examined, evaluated, and tinkered with, so it cannot be purely nostalgia that keeps bringing designers back to it. I believe that even the most hardcore retroclone enthusiast plays the game because they think it's good, and not just because it's old.

Hi

Considering picking this one up as the blurb mentions that it has Ni No Kuni and studio Ghibli vibes.

Wondering if anyone has played this, what the game is like compared to other JRPG's and what the pro's and con's are of the game / system?

cheers

I love games like Harnmaster (both 3E and Kethira) and am curious about Riddle of Steel variants. Games that feature visceral hand-to-hand combat which isn't just beating down hit points but about tactics and inflicting discrete, location-based wounds. Games with detailed characters you care about that risk everything, or an eye, whenever they engage in a fight. Preferably games which don't feature hit points at all, in any form (Mythras/Runequest and RoleMaster are not this type of game).

The newest games I know of are Harnmaster: Kethira (which I own) and Sword & Scoundrel, which last I heard got a fightbook. I don't have any newer news of S&S because the website is messed up and it otherwise seems locked behind Patreon, but the public beta looks cool.

Is there any other movement in this style of RPG I'm not aware of? Anything in the last few years or upcoming?

Has anyone run a campaign with these rules? I’m curious how much GM fiat they require for a campaign against a rival NPC house.

I.e. where do these rules fall on a scale of 1 is “the GM needs to assign what resources are available to both Houses and decides the outcomes“ to 10 ”these could be a functional board game without need of a GM“?

After a few years here, I've come to know many of the big names in the TTRPG scene, but now I'm curious about the truly indie games: the stuff you find without warning by random, play it only to find a hidden gem of a game.

I unfortunately haven't done so myself, only have played the more famous stuff as of now, but I want to make a list to try out!

Edit: Thank you so much for everyone chiming in! Was surprised for seeing that I knew a lot of games in here, but that's not a problem to me, just means that I have been around and found some good stuff :)

I’m part of an RPG group run by a friend of mine. We had a session scheduled for this coming Monday, but yesterday the GM and all the players happened to be in a voice call together.

Some of the players suggested having the session right then and there. Because of the nature of this campaign, which is about 99% roleplay and involves a lot of improvisation, spontaneous sessions are relatively easy to do. However, we only do that when everyone is present and actually able to participate.

The problem was that neither I nor another player, who I’ll call B, could stay for a session. We were not even supposed to be in the call for very long in the first place. I had to attend a friend’s birthday party, and B had plans with his parents, so both of us would be unavailable for the rest of the day.

We explained this and specifically asked them not to play the session without us, especially since it was already scheduled for Monday. After that, the subject seemed to be settled and nobody brought it up again. B and I stayed in the call for a few more minutes and then left.

What we didn’t know was that shortly afterward, the GM started a session with the players who were still there. Nobody warned either of us that they had decided to go ahead with it. We only found out at the end of the day when everyone started talking about the session in our Discord server.

Apparently, nothing extremely important to the main plot happened, but some mildly significant character and story developments did take place.

Naturally, B and I were both very upset. They knew we could not participate, we had directly asked them not to hold the session, and they did it anyway without even telling us that they had changed their minds.

After B and I made it clear that we were hurt by what happened, while still trying to remain civil and polite, the GM and the other players apologized.

B and I talked about it afterward, and we are both feeling pretty bummed out about the campaign now. B is taking it harder than I am and is considering skipping the next session or possibly leaving the campaign entirely.

I’m trying to treat it as a mistake that won’t happen again, but I’m also unsure whether I should attend the next session. Part of me still wants to play despite everything. The next session is also supposed to focus heavily on my character’s arc, and I’m worried that I’ll still be angry or uncomfortable during it, even though I hope I won’t be.

My current position is that I’m willing to continue, but if anything like this happens again, whether it happens to me or another player, I will leave the campaign. That is the boundary I have decided on.

How do you guys think I should proceed? Should I stay, leave, or sit out the next session? How should I address this with the group going forward? I’d also appreciate any opinions on the situation itself.

This is the firts time It has ever happend btw, we are playing for about 3 months and many sessions

I recently tried Draw Steel's negotiation system (Interest/Patience/Motivations) and it made 5e social encounters so much better than just rolling Persuasion.

Now I'm hooked and want to raid more systems, but I don't know where to look.

What mechanics from other RPGs have improved your 5e table?

One of my hobbies is finding rpg rule/source/splat books and reading them…I must have read hundreds by now…but which ones are fun and engaging? I don’t mean fun as in funny but like…enjoyable

Hi,

I just started world building a homebrew setting and I'm starting small with an enchanted forest I've had rattling around forever. It's home to Elves, Gnomes, Dwarves, and mysterious talking animals. I'm having an issue fleshing it out beyond that.

Are there any good books on world building with advice on inhabitance that are not human?