Welcome to the Faint Divinities! We're a small group of friends who will be play-testing the Open Beta of the new TTRPG: Daggerheart from Critical Role's Publishing House: Darrington Press!
We'll be live-streaming actual-play sessions of the system and table-talks to discuss the system on twitch and will be uploading to RU-vid: what we love, what we think could be tweaked, and more.
Your choice of Undead Queen has brought to mind one of the main cast of our Epic 1-20 D&D campaign: Lady Melancholia D'Orcusonne, Arch-Mage of Galdonead, Founder of the Devil's Advocates adventuring guild, and savior of the World of Amisis. Yes, She is both a Necromancer and a Lich. Interpreting these questions in light of my Second Generation Charcter Esper D'Orcusonne is a trip.
**Timestamps** 00:00:11 - *Pre-stream bonus content: Stephen almost got replaced with a sock puppet 00:00:38 - Channel Introduction: The Faint Divinities 00:01:12 - For the Queen - Storytelling Card Game Introduction & Product Showcase 00:03:26 - For the Queen online play: Roll20 Website Intro 00:04:18 - For the Queen Gameplay Structure & Our Story Background (The Blue Marshes, Campaign Details, etc.) 00:08:52 - Game Setup - Selecting our Queen and Discussing the Rules 00:19:04 - Start of Game - Question 1 00:58:42 - Brief Planning for EndGame - Storytelling Guidance 00:59:24 - Game Continues - Question 20 01:18:55 - The Queen is Under Attack - Game Conclusion Initiates 01:20:42 - Does Chris, the Royal Chef Defend the Queen? 01:22:48 - Does Kala, the Scullery Maid Defend the Queen? 01:23:58 - Does Rachel, the Captain of the Guard Defend the Queen? 01:26:04 - Does the Heir to Greenhaven, the Child Prince Defend the Queen? 01:29:50 - The Die is Cast (Alea iacta est) - the Thrilling Conclusion 01:35:36 - Post Game Cooldown 01:39:25 - For the Queen Final Product Showcase, Thank you and Goodbyes!
Hi back! I made it to the future - glad to see you here! :) Thanks so much - I was really trying to go edit-light this one but then I was like... man those cards really need to pop up to let people see what the questions being asked are haha I hope it was helpful for the viewing experience! <3
Hi Friend!!! Thank you so much for keeping up with all of our shenanigans... I've gotten to enjoy a little bit of a break since we took this week off from our usual game but I'm getting back into prep mode and figuring out where Gimbo will go from here! Ahhhhhhh!!! <3
Yay for cute kitty at the start. :D 25:00 Yeah it's kind of unclear on the Rogue hiding. I'd say though that since it's use leads to advantage on an attack, as you guys say it really seems like the cost is really a combat based thing to get advantage on attack. Because that'd just be silly to say Rogues are the only ones who could ever 'hide', and only at the cost of stress. 1:39:00 Duck board? Is that like a crime board, but where you put pictures of ducks? O.o
So many kitties!!! Yeah, I still think the hiding may need a little bit of a shift since it doesn't have a roleplay element included but I honestly didn't even think about it until we came across it...
***Timestamps*** 00:00:11 - *Pre-stream bonus content: Rachel’s Audio tries to RUIN EVERYTHING 00:01:37 - *Pre-stream bonus content: Cat Cams aka The Feline Divinities (credit: MandatoryFunTimeLLC) 00:01:56 - Channel Introduction - The Faint Divinities 00:03:15 - ANNOUNCEMENT: Artist Shoutout: Midnight Syndicate 00:03:56 - ANNOUNCEMENT: Next Week’s Programming Schedule: For the Queen - the new Storytelling Card Game from Darrington Press! 00:06:19 - ANNOUNCEMENT: Daggerheart Open Beta Version 1.4.1 - Minor Revision Quick Overview 00:08:47 - Quick Fun Note: Rachel almost killed Level 2 PCs with a Kinekozan Cockatrice. Thanks Spenser Starke for the Twitter (X) Clarification! 00:10:30 - Character Introductions 00:12:13 - Previously On The Faint Divinities (Last Episode Recap) ***SKIP HERE FOR EPISODE START*** 00:16:49 - Episode Begins: Blackgum Hollow Awaits 00:18:39 - GM Corner: Scaring the Fish 00:20:25 - Splitting the Party 00:21:41 - The Path to the East (***Gimbo***) 00:27:37 - A Brief Detour 00:36:10 - NPC Introduction: Bill, The Mining Coalition Contact (Syndicate Rogue Feature… Kinda) - A Love Letter from Rachel to Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us 00:47:55 - Where’s Frank? 00:49:55 - Gim knows how to handle his explosives… right? 00:52:24 - The Path to the South & The Town of Blackgum Hollow (***Anura, Tank, Bill & Ted***) 00:58:18 - The Almshouse 01:05:36 - NPC Introduction: Yvonne Blackrush 01:18:00 - A Mother’s Request 01:20:10 - The New Dawn 01:24:58 - Kiss, Kiss Kiss!! 01:28:39 - A well-deserved (short) rest (Book of Ava Bardic Spell, Nomadic Pack: Common Item/Consumable, Inspirational Words) 01:38:35 - Onward to the Warren Palace (***Gimbo***) 01:42:51 - NPC Introductions: Miss Loretta Lovegrass and Royal Vizier Percival Pampas (A Love Letter to ‘To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar) 01:46:44 - The Royal Herald 01:56:04 - A Man of Constant Sorrows 02:02:52 - An Explosive and a Jar of Fire walk into a Bar 02:08:20 - The Culprit must been Apprehended! 02:10:54 - A Badass Never Looks Back at the Explosion 02:11:50 - Closing Thoughts and Cool Down PLUS Episode Sponsorship: Philosodad! (jk) 02:13:12 - Thank you and Goodbye! 02:14:38 - Stream Ending Screen
I love how the system encourages interactive world building. The questions the gm asks about connections and for the players to name things they are looking for or know about the forest - it's a great way to create buy-in to the story.
I agree SO hard!!! It's so fun!! I think I struggle it a bit more when we get into the weeds of serious story beats (can't have them describe a room without a window if I need baddies to fly in that window, ya know? But the collaborative nature is fun in that way of it forces me to improves more with my WORLD instead of just NPCs and events and I'm having so much fun with the challenge. Plus, it really shoe strings player engagement which is beautiful <3
The new adventure just dropped, and I'm going to shoe horn my family game into trying it. I'm looking forward to your version. Maybe a "free" ride back from the Grotto?
I KNOW!!!! I've read it and I'm obsessed!!! I'm looking forward how I interweave the new adventure too... Your brain is right where I am too! I love it when flights have discounts on travel ;)
lulz 39:00 was about to say how do you roll 15 on a d12? hehe. 1:54:00 Should there have been fear (or hope) on that? I think reaction rolls don't generate the things. 2:19:00 I would read it like this... Dwarf: "Increased Fortitude: You can spend 3 Hope to halve incoming physical damage." And then there is... "Calculating Damage After rolling your damage dice, add all their values together then add any modifiers to determine the result. The GM will mark the corresponding Hit Points based on that damage. Tip: There’s a difference in this game between damage and hit points. Damage is the result of your damage roll, including your damage dice and modifiers. Hit Points reflect how hard that damage affects the creature who’s taking it; the number of Hit Points a creature marks depends on factors such as their Damage Threshold, armor, resistances, and immunities." Thus the difference is terminology of "damage" vs. "hit points". So the "damage" is the rolled number, before figuring out the "hit point" threshold.
Can't hate the player, hate the game you know? XD 1:54:00 Ooooooh!!! Is that true?? For some reason in my brain I thought it still applied... I'm gonna need to take a look at the rulings. Thanks for letting me know! For the Dwarf function - that is some great feedback! I think that does make the most sense because like... how do you halve 3 hit points lol (I know, I know, round up or down but yours still makes better sense!) Damage vs. HP - You know I already reached out about this one in the discord but that's a beautiful way to explain it. I gotta add that to my common verbiage. So much easier when you have the right words to apply. Thanks Rabbit!!! <3
**Timestamps** ***AUDITORY SENSITIVTY WARNING - CHECK STAMP AT **01:03:21** BELOW*** 00:00:11 - *Pre-stream bonus content: Stephen's baby face 00:00:35 - Introduction - The Faint Divinities 00:02:08 - Artist Shoutout: Midnight Syndicate 00:03:18 - Character Inros & Version 1.4 PC Modifications 00:08:12 - "Previously On" - Recap 00:13:21 - Episode Begins: The Mists of Blue Marsh 00:22:09 - The Banks of Blackgum Hollow 00:29:54 - Crossing the Marsh 00:39:50 - Duality Dice Spellcast Roll for the Book of Vagras: Arcane Door and General Spell Mechanics 00:40:22 - Success with Fear: Anura’s Fear Token 00:42:40 - Home 00:44:13 - NPC Intro: Cato the Elder 00:45:25 - NPC Intro: Broussard Arrowfeather 00:54:40 - A Helping Hand 00:58:44 - The Shadows Deepen * PRIORITY VIEWING* 01:02:14 - Bear Witness to the Dawn - Blahago Delenda Est 01:03:21 - **AUDIO WARNING: Audio down for Auditory Sensitivities!** Skip to 01:03:43 if needed: (SPOILER: All you miss is the word: USURPER!) 01:04:10 - Combat Setup: Music, Action Tracker, Map Webcam, Discord Map Reminder, Map Description & Battle Map Position Reset 01:07:25 - Adversary Introductions 01:10:38 - Start of Combat 01:14:27 - Ted’s Fear Token and GM Turn Initiates 01:23:42 - Player Turns: Rogue Sneak Attack (Optional RULING: Massive Damage Enacted!), Bardic Troubadour Epic Song 01:27:58 - 1.4 Mechanic Reminder: Advantage/Disadvantage System (related to Vulnerability) 01:28:33 - FIRST BLOOD & CRITICAL ROLL and Warrior Domain Card: Ferocity 01:32:22 - Bardic Troubadour Heartbreaking Song, Ranger Spell: Conjure Swarm 01:36:00 - GM Turn Initiates 01:44:51 - Player Turns Resume: Bardic Troubadour Relaxing Song 01:46:22 - Mid-Battle Scene Setting, Rogue Sneak Attack 01:48:35 - Adversary Experience Usage 01:50:53 - GM Turn Initiates 01:53:09 - CRITICAL ROLL: Swamp Princess Anura’s Homecoming, Gimbo and Tank’s Fears - Tooth and Stone, Conjure Swarm Domain Card 01:56:24 - A Belly Full of Fear *PRIORITY VIEWING* 02:01:22 - Player Turns Resume: Tag Team Roll - SPINNING SIMIAERIE - CRITICAL ROLL! *Brief Aside: 02:02:23 - Countdown Die Nearing Critical Point 02:07:01 - GM Turn: The Glass Snake’s Final Stand 02:10:28 - Broussard Arrowfeather Defends his Princess 02:16:07 - The Princess Saves Herself 02:17:26 - A Fight Sorely Won 02:18:05 - 02:28:51 - Version 1.4 Combat Feedback: General Flow of Combat, Optional Massive Damage, GM Critical Hit Damage, Retconning Damage, Revised Advantage System, Action Economy, Movement Rules Discussion, Actions in DH vs. DnD 5e, Fear Stakes, Driving Engagement. Conclusion: 1.4 MAY BE THE SWEET SPOT! 02:28:51 - The Wreckage of Combat 02:33:28 - The Anatomy of Fear, CRITICAL ROLL on a Search Check 02:40:15 - The Path to Blackgum 02:47:19 - Don’t you know? You never split the party… 02:48:12 - Ending Stream
OMG this is so nice!!! Thank you, friend!! I've never liked the sound of my speaking voice so this was very appreciated - ASMRttRPG huh? I'll take it!! <3
Thank you!! I think we did really well - I almost just time skipped us to the Blue Marshes but... it's just not my style haha And at least this way we had some fun shopping - boring to watch (for most) but so fun to spend your gold in games!
1:00:00 companion animal, so cute. :D 1:05:00 I'm surprised peeps got that reference. Ancient history. :( 1:29:00 pretty sure wood can be damp, especially mossy wood. Might be wrong, but it sounded odd. :) 1:35:00 creole, that's a toughie. Don't hear many trying that one. :) Pancho, epic drop for Star Wars Jedi Survivor. 2:18:00 Multipass
Animal friend: OMG the otter terriers??? Wow. 10/10 I love these babies Damp Wood: it definitely can, but it does have to be treated usually. Most of us in this group grew up in a VERY humid environment with a lot of lakes and... man can wood rot fast if it's always slightly damp. If you want wood to last, keep it dry, keep it treated or submerge it fully. That damp stuff? Killer. Accent work: Definitely tried to lean Cajun with it - a lot of my family are Cajun! But honestly even for me, who grew up in/around Louisiana, the accents get a little jumbled sometimes. Definitely a weird one to pull out of the hat!! LILOO DALLAS MULTIPASS (absolutely crying haha)
@@TheFaintDivinities Hum, didn't know that about wood. I'm west coast, so we barely get any rain out here. Though it can be super foggy sometimes. Yeah I think I heard there are something like 50 different dialects down there in Louisiana, so Cajun is often a mix of several?
Thank you so much!! It’s so amazing to have my games seen by the artists who have inspired me for so many years! @everyone - please go check Midnight Syndicate out!!!
**Timestamps** 00:00:16 - Announcement: System Version 1.3 00:00:55 - Artist Shoutout: Midnight Syndicate! 00:02:33 - Introduction - The Faint Divinities 00:03:49 - Level 2 Character Introductions - New Experiences! 00:07:26 - Recap 00:09:28 - Adventure Hook 00:10:25 - A Call from Home 00:13:57 - A Sister’s Promise 00:15:00 - A Wake Up Call 00:16:44 - GM Map Reminder & Journey Progression 00:19:05 - A Royal Message 00:26:36 - Setting a course for Adventure! (and also money) 00:27:16 - The Nursery 00:29:00 - A Firefly’s Farewell & The Portal Seed 00:37:40 - Should you need me… 00:39:40 - A Growing Reputation - Toys for Teeth 00:44:40 - CRITICAL ROLL 00:49:09 - The Tooth Faerie Leader Board 00:51:06 -All it takes is Faith and Trust, and a little bit of BONE DUST 00:56:57 - The Southern Road 01:00:06 - The Lucent Rill: Collaborative World Building 01:04:50 - A Royal Request - You guys I think Anura’s Famous… 01:12:10 - Boarding the Lucent Rill aka FROGGER 01:17:29 - Rolling 1s is bad. Unless you roll twice as many 1s and then it’s a CRITICAL SUCCESS 01:21:11 - The Watery Road to the Gara Falls 01:24:03 - The Leaning Inn of Gara Falls Crossing: Collaborative World Building 01:29:10 - NPC Introduction: Leo Fiske - Patron of the Lucent’s Leaning Inn 01:37:10 - A Reward Fit for Heroes: Gold, The Suspended Rod and Arcane Cloak 01:48:59 - Baby’s First Shopping Episode: Health and Stamina Potions, Flame Jar and Valor Stone 01:56:12 - Discount Check 02:08:08 - Goodbye to Gara Falls! 02:10:32 - The River West to the Shallow Gate Coast 02:14:15 - The Last Boat to the Blue Marshes & A Privileged Position 02:22:18 - The Ribbet Monarchy of Black Gum Hollow 02:27:29 - The Blue Marshes: Cattail Grotto, Blackg um Hollow and Greenhaven 02:30:54 - Rumors on the Rising Mist 02:33:57 - A Promise Broken 02:36:37 - The Captain of the Rising Mist (aka my players stress out a poor Ribbet who coincidentally is also me) **GM Favorite Moment** 02:43:15 - Into the Fog *I refuse to call this a Frog Fog, STEPHEN 02:44:15 - Cool Down and Long-Rest Housekeeping (Gimbo’s Sableleaf Shoes Project) 02:50:12 - Episode Close and Goodbyes
OMG me too!!! As a GM it always came up like... okay, so you want to do something clever in this combat, but we've established that you've gone so FERAL at this point that you can't even feel pain... how do we address this in the RP? I love that this game puts the RP first because I think (hope?) that it'll help GMs/Players avoid those weird issues where the mechanics don't make sense in the story. Ugh. Sorry for the vent. Also hi :)
I love how passionate you guys are for this game, especially Rachael 🙂 I also love how passionate Spenser and Matt are about it, and that they're letting us take part in the process.
Krister!!!! This is so KIND!!! I so agree - I think the whole Critical Role and Darrington Press groups fuel so much passion because of how much passion they put into what they do... and it makes it so easy to find a space to be. You're part of that too and I'm so glad you're here <3
HAHAHA omg thanks for stopping by Mandatory!! You were so good to have on, especially to give us the deets on the Guardian! And LISTEN - I'm just saying, I don't thing she would be very happy if our party ran into your Firbolg in a dark pasture, y'know?
OK... I'm not playing, and so this is not an informed theory, but the idea came to me. This is regarding the help advantage and its impact on Hope conflict. What if when giving advantage you used 1 Hope to add the D6, but had the option to use a 2nd Hope to spend that D6 on the Hope dice? That way you could still get the mechanic, but you had to spend 2 Hope, and could only make back 1. On the off chance you think it's a decent idea, could you pass it on?
Ohhhhh wow! Hmmmmm.... I think it's interesting for sure! I think it's a little tricky sounding with the two-spend actions but I do still like the idea of having SOME way to trigger adding the d6 to the Hope as long as it's very expensive. Maybe even spending like 3 stress to do it would be impactful enough... Remember if you ever have ideas that you think are amazing, I love hearing them but you really gotta GET TO THOSE SURVEYS!!! You don't have to play to submit surveys!
LOL who am *I* to get in the way of people wanting to be big nakey babies???? and also hi!! Not sure if it's girlypop or Tortuga, but either way, I'm glad you dropped by!
@@WitherandBloomStudios Ahhhhhhh!!! Hi Tortuga!!! Thanks so much - I don't have to tell you how much our group loves yours I hope. You guys are fantastic! I'm glad you watched along and if you ever need some clarification on rulesy stuff before the next time you dive into DH you got a buddy over here!!
Stupid weird crash... lost comment in progress... It does feel like things are getting nailed down and pretty solid now. But, personally I'm guessing at this point they are targeting a GenCon 2025 release. So, with giving a few months for polish, to add in any missing lore, to actually physically print the physical copies, they probably are still a year off before they close beta and say 'ok we are done and getting ready to print.' I get why they did the change with advantage/disadvantage. I thought though with 1.3 it seemed like it would have been 'easier' to do roll 2 of whichever. So for advantage roll 2 hope dice, for disadvantage roll 2 fear. I had a mixed background character idea for D&D - half half elf, half halfling, so he's a "quarter elf quarterling" Yay for fun girls getting the network back. Yay for wanderborn pack. Having been in some near death things, I think there should be stress if you reduce damage to 0. Feels weird to be totally zero. 50:00 dirty boys dirty boys, what'chu gonna do... ? 59:00 The unstoppable change does make a lot of sense. In every stream I've watched that had feedback they were always saying they activated it and then effectively felt like they should do nothing because doing something ticked it down and removed the benefit. With this change it encourages them to stay active. 1:02:00 Good for adding a guaranteed proficiency increase. I watched a few theorycrafting videos and they said it was effectively a forced choice that you had to upgrade it several times. So now that issue should be removed. 1:06:00 Evasion tank is totally a thing in DH. Now, ranged evasion tank, not really. The Warrior and Guardian aren't really at all currently suited for ranged tanking. (I thought about trying to build one and it just did not work.) 1:10:00 (Armor) yeah, if I ever play a "wizard" idea I have for a character, by default whatever armor he uses would actually just be a rune marked metal wristband. When he'd be hit a magical barrier would shimmer and a number of runes would disappear. (Effectively the armor count.) So, in down time his "repairing" the armor is re-enchanting the band. With another character idea I have he's a re-skinned Clank guardian. He is a ghost in animated platemail. So, yeah, he's using that "Bare Bones" (Valor) ability, because he effectively is the armor. 1:11:00 It's funny you bring up scaring as armor layers. Scales giving a +1 to armor score is one of the new ancestry features of Drakona. 1:20:00 I could totally see a deck based around an idea of 'after you use this ability (once per session) replace it with the x card.' And it's like a magic domain that shifts what it does on use. They also effectively confirmed more classes (likely Gunslinger and Monk) were in the works during the answer of this question. 1:25:00 I'd say don't totally fastforward through the levels. Do like an extended session zero to get some highlights of what they did to inform your choices. Otherwise they might just go totally off the rails an not realllly be representative of a character of that level.
Rabbit, my friend!! I'm so glad to see you back in the YT comments <3 So sorry to hear you lost your initial comment - that's awful. I know you spend a lot of time being thoughtful with your feedback. Thanks for taking the time to draft it up again, I always appreciate it! Release: Agree, I think you're spot on for summer 2025, likely debuting at a convention, very possibly gencon Adv/Disadv: Because I've played a lot of it at this point I do get the complexity... even though it sounds like it makes good sense, it does actually feel a little wonky rerolling the hope. But I did think a good solution would just be reroll the duality dice in total which also leads to more complex choice like if failw/hope or success w/fear happens! Unstoppable: 59:00 GREAT point! I hadn't even thought that it might be demotivational to continue using actions after the first big hit(s) 1:06:00 Evasion Tank: Would you maybe consider giving some pointers for this? Chris (Tankerbell) was really trying to go for this originally and I'd like to see if he's on the right track because so far I'm still hitting SO often but I think that's because of Level 1 and Good Rolls (my dice are COOKING lately - they're so excited about DH) 1:10:00 (Armor) Absolutely fantastic. Yes, yes, yes. THIS is what I want from DH - flavor for the gods. Again, big nakey babies are totally acceptable haha Also, related - the Drakona scales you mentioned is So cool! I love that and I think it fits the whole concept - some people are just a big ol' callous lol 1:20:00 I NEED this deck. I want all the random, all the chaos, and I want to play a one to three shot series with everybody being absolutely mad. See how weird we get!! 1:25:00 Well for THIS game, we won't be doing that at all - I think at this point, we are going to try our best to level through as much as we can over the next year. It'll be hard, but we should JUST about be able to get there if we're really motivated lol BUT to get more level 4-8 stuff, we might consider building some characters together off stream and then running some combat on different days. We used to do that kind of stuff all the time at home with Stephen and I when I was learning GM ropes and it was so much fun to get to use combat mechanics with new classes. Thanks again dear friend <3
@@TheFaintDivinities I’ll have to check again when I get a chance maybe later today, but a big issue is that there aren’t a lot of options. I think he went guardian? From that I recall off the top of my head there is natural armor, so you can avoid any evasion loss, but it got nerfed so it may not be as good as before. There is the +1 evasion from simian background he could swipe now. The new Gambison armor is another +1. And somewhere, maybe in bone, there was something like ‘when targeted from range gain x evasion’. I’ll for sure check when I get a chance, but depending if I get a thing or not I may be busy today with some stuff.
@@TheFaintDivinities Ok as kind of expected, still no software license that I need to do stuff and things with, so I have funsie research time… If I recall he’s guardian, so I’ll go off of that base. Lv 0 Swipe “Nimble” from simiah for +1 Evasion. (Drop Luckbender. +1 Evasion all the time would likely be far more helpful than a once per session ability, especially since we are trying to max Evasion.) Recommend: Stalwart subclass. While they reduced your numbers here, any gain is good so we can get that ceiling of taking 0 damage. Also, this gives you the ability to mark Stress as an armor slot, so having lower armor isn’t as punishing as long as you can keep that clear. Lv 1 Bare Bones (Valor) - Got a bit of a nerf with 1.4 since it’s now a flat number of 3+Level, but that’s pretty solid since it starts at 4. Now, that will possibly be not as great at higher levels once special armor starts dropping, but technically I think a Shield does not count as “armor” since it is listed in the “secondary weapon” category and not “armor”. So definitely also grab the biggest shield you can manage. Lv 3 Scramble (Blade) - Once per short rest isn’t the best, but it does avoid damage entirely. It also states ‘when an enemy would deal damage to you’, so you can wait to hear that big number attack you know you won’t be able to reduce much and be like ‘yikes, now is the time to burn this.’ But don’t forget that base Stalwart subclass feature of marking a couple of stress in addition to a couple of armor if you really need to. You can mark all the things you want/need. Though if there ever is something hitting that hard you probably want to run away very quickly. The level 5 upgrade to Stalwart is great, so I don’t know I’d recommend a split, but… Ranger split taking the Bone domain… (Remember, any split class ability is at half, so double it's level for when you could take it.) Lv 1 Nimble - Add half your Agility score to your Evasion (rounded up). Not huge unless you’ve been increasing Agility, and this is something you keep in your loadout, so that might make things feel very tight since you are already holding Bare Bones. I See It Coming - When targeted from range mark a stress to add a d4 to Evasion. Not great to have another thing adding stress since you are doing that with Stalwart armor slots, but if you’ve bumped it up a bit it should be ok. Lv 2 Ferocity - When you do damage spend 2 hope to increase Evasion by the hp dealt to an enemy. Gotta keep booping enemies, but while you do you are more Evasive. Lv 3 Brace - Not sure it’s worth taking because you’re already blocking off 2 of your spots, but it could further reduce incoming damage. While not Evasion specifically, I’m kind of a fan of the support options of splitting into Seraph. (However I’m still not 100% certain you can “choose” to use your original spell casting trait on Seraph spells. It’s base one is Strength, which isn’t one a lot would naturally build into) Base ability would let you clear stress as needed or reduce damage. Subclass recommendation: Divine Wielder. Smash people in the face at range babieeeeee. Also you get that heal 2 points or 2 stress once per long rest. Lv 1 Mending touch - Again, a way to keep that stress down or hp up. Lv 2 Healing hands - Moar heals / stress recovery. Lv 3 Second wind - Lots of hp / stress recovery on hitting an enemy. Lv 4 Life ward - I mean, if you have the ability to do this it could be huge. It isn’t lost until it’s spent, you choose to move it, or a long rest, so just drop that on someone at the start of ‘the day’, then move it later if need be.
I woke up about 4 am, PST, to answer Nature's Call. Unable to fall back asleep, I scrolled through my RU-vid feed and found this. So, I had to watch/listen to it. I made oatmeal and steeped a pot of tea. Now it is after 6am. I am drowsy and going back to sleep. Thanks for covering the highlights of the changes for us. I like the retro changes to advantage/disadvantage! Will download and peruse 1.4 when I wake up.
I absolutely LOVED reading your comment - I feel like it'll sound silly but the imagery of you eating oatmeal with steeped tea and watching our video with your early morning made me really happy. Thank you for sharing it so much and I hope you have a wonderful day, friend. Good luck with the reading!
"Quest for the sweet spot" <- my cat's autobiography, coming soon. BTW THANK YOU FOR NOTICING, I am VERY tired and have not had a nap yet... but soon... soon <3
Really excited about the upcoming adventure they are dropping. It's insane that they are making the playtest this open without even having a kickstarter campaign or anything... I actually just want to throw all the money at them for the content! Thanks for the fantastic charisma and insight you both have brought so far in this analysis!
Apparently these days they have a pretty ridiculous amount of money from the merch sales. I don't know how accurate it was, but I think I heard something like only 5% of their total revenue these days are from subs?
OMG I am SO freaking excited about The Marauders of Windfall!!! Apparently they gave a few details that I guess I just somehow missed somewhere so I'm on the hunt today for more info about it because I *need* it. And I'm glad you mentioned the kickstarter piece - it's wild to me that they are doing this completely on their own with no crowdfunding at all when we KNOW they could have basically done it for free - it makes me think that they want to be responsible about what they ask for help with which I really appreciate so much. I love their group, but I also am in the throwing money camp so hiiii friend! Thank you so much for such a kind comment! You're so nice!
**Timestamps** 00:00:11 - Welcome to the Faint Divinities and Daggerheart V1.4 00:02:30 - Will we be getting monthly installments? Kudos to Darrington Press! 00:03:33 - Brief Touchbase on Next Adventure: The Marauders of Windfall 00:04:42 - How to Access Daggerheart Materials and Change Logs - Downloads, Quick Links and Demiplane. *Note: there are some discrepancies between versions, ghost revisions and demiplane which we talk about in this section 00:08:35 - Universal Changes 00:09:34 - Advantage/Disadvantage: Help, it’s again (Reverted to v1.2 rulings) 00:12:43 - Reasoning behind Reverting the Adv/Dis (plus, Spenser and Matt made me rethink my whole life) 00:16:22 - Organization of Change Log (Chapters vs. priority) 00:18:04 - Love for the Game Masters - GM Guide Doc, GM Moves, Friendly NPCs 00:26:44 - Ancestries Updates: Reviewing Ancestries, Talking Mixed Ancestries, AND Two Features now available for every Ancestry! Dwarf, Faerie, Fungril, Katari, etc. 00:33:28 - Iterative Changes and Updates File Log 00:33:52 - Community Changes: quick Touchbase on Wanderborne, Ridgeborne, etc. 00:36:04 - Sneaky Rachel Wink 00:36:47 - Minor Adjustments Across the Board: Evasion, Armor, Weapons, Equipment 00:37:56 - Gambeson Armor apparently is a thing Rachel should have known about 00:39:25 - Minor Damage Thresholds - Matt & Spenser’s LOGIC wins YET AGAIN I GUESS (Stamina still decoupled from health, Minor Thresholds increased for v good reasons) 00:46:07 - Kala LORE drop (cows and consequences) 00:47:26 - Class Feature Shift: Bard Review 00:51:57 - Druid Discussions AND Call to Action: Darrington Needs More Druids 00:54:11 - Quick Aside: Changes to Gold - No More Coins! Baby we’re Back (to v1.2). Tipping is a Free Action! 00:56:15 - Class Feature Shift: Druid Feature Review 00:57:14 - Class Feature Shift: Guardian Review 01:01:40 - Proficiency Scaling: Leveling up your Characters! 01:04:57 - Unarmored Discussions *Trigger Warning: Rachel Rant*, Why I don’t care, Bare Bones, etc. 01:10:00 - Please talk to your GMs/Players 01:10:53 - One Shot Builder! Madlibs! Build your Own Adventure! Storytelling 01:12:37 - For the Queen! 01:13:10 - Open Forum and Miscellaneous: Downtime, Warrior: Opportunity Attack. Levels 2-4 Adventure: Marauders of Windfall, GenCon Darrington Presence, 01:16:11 - Chaos. Bring me the Chaos - a Matt Mercer Special! - Rachel’s Question got Picked for response during the 1.4 release stream from Matt and Spenser! 01:21:04 - Final Thoughts: Darrington ‘Thank you’ to Actual Play Folks, Rachel/Stephen Thank you back to Darrington and Thank you to other teams playing! 01:24:15 - New Version Release Feedback from Darrington Press 01:24:39 - Closing & Call to Action - One last Rally! 01:25:25 - Ayyyy Macarena, Stephen’s Marketing Corner and Goodbyes! 01:26:17 - Stream Ending Screen
@@williamwalton9154 OMG Thank you for saying that! It's a lot of work and sometimes I think I'll skip doing it so these comments are SO motivational to keep doing it! I appreciate you!
@TheFaintDivinities You're welcome. Is it possible to pin to the top of the comments (I honestly don't know how). The stamps are getting buried by other comments.
@@williamwalton9154 omg I didn't know that could happen! I tried again and hopefully it works now? But FYI - if you ever lose them, they're always in the description too! Not as clean but it's at least always there! <3
The info's in the description! Although we didn't have Jocelyn's full info at the time. But now we do! They're both in our discord if you want to join! But if you just want to go directly to them the following are the best ways to contact them: For Bugaloux, who did our PC art for the characters, she is @bugaloux on twitter! For Jocelyn, who did the Ribbit avatar, she is @jocedoodles on Instagram and Deviantart!
Yayyy!!! I'm so glad it was helpful!! The leveling system was wild when we first looked at it haha The maps are SO much fun. We really built it out - I can't wait to live in the world we made <3 Thanks for being here, always, Friend!
@@SanJacintoArtGuild OMG!!!! This is SO exciting!!!! Will you be the GM or a player?? Ahhhhhhhhh I get so excited when I hear about more people getting tables together!!!
@@SanJacintoArtGuild Ooooh!!! That's literally halfway to where you need to be!!! I believe in you and let me know once you get a chance to play! I love hearing that people have gotten started <3
Great news in version 1.4 that released today!! Now it automates at each tier of leveling! Sorry, players - but I think this was a very good move for the game to take! Yay survey feedback!!
Ooooooh this is good to know! Man... I hope folks are submitting survey feedback to make that function differently. Even if they debuff the attack, it's too cool to leave as something that disappates immediately. Thanks for being here btw friend!
Another great video! I'm curious as to how much will change tomorrow with 1.4. I expect Stress to be re-worked again. Advantage will hopefully remain the same. Also, I'm really looking forward to the level 2-5 scenario! But before I get to play that with my home group, I will run version 1.4 of The Sablewood Messenger at our nerd club on May 18th.
Just watched the stream and Stress was basically untouched, which I thought was wild! Advantage totally different too - I made a lot of totally wrong calls! I know you're in the discord now so we've touched base on some of this but it is insane to me how wrong I was!! Keep us updating on how 1.4 runs at home and how different it is!!
(Separated comment, because reasons.) Just remember, just because a class is traditionally X doesn't mean that's how you have to play it. I have a "bard" who specifically is NOT built like a traditional bard. The super short version of his backstory is he has no memories from before about age 40, and now he is in his late 70s/early 80s Drakona, old somewhat shakey/wandering voice, partly hunched over, scar on his head which oddly sometimes faintly glows. Since the ruins he's been a college professor of the arcane (so 30-40 years), and is now (forcefully) semi retired and just helps with magical research in the field. (His memory is going, thus why he can be level 1.) So, mechanically he's Bard Wordsmith. His starting 2 abilities would be Inspirational Words (Grace) and Book of Illiat (Codex.) So he thinks he's a wizard (and for funsies if a group insisted that I tell them my class that's what I'd say), because in his earliest memories he 'awoke' in a ruined city and the only thing that wasn't torn to shreds on him was a large spellbook hanging on a belt on his side. Consider a high Presence person who uses spells and has a history of encouraging people, that's effectively what he's doing. :)
True!!! Actually Gimbo is a very non-Rogue haha I LOVE the idea of the college professor bard! An orator is so cool! God you have the best ideas, Rabbit. I'm so glad to know you now <3
Friend... this comment healed my mental health. Childhood trauma who? Not me, I got a nice comment on a youTube video once. In all sincerity, thanks so much - this was a really kind comment <3
Remember, proficiency can also boost abilities. Anything that references a die without a number is actually proficiency. So “d6” is “proficiency x d6” as opposed to something like “1d6”. Honestly that was one of my feedbacks. When I heard that I was like wut? It should be noted as something like “Pd6”, so we know it’s proficiency based. Here is a super interesting weird thing on bubble vs mark. About 100 years ago as part of a Psychology/ Sociology degree I made a dating survey. People were given this individually with no instructions. ALL the female people bubbled in the bubbles. ALL the males crossed or Xed through it. (This was before non-binary.) More seriously in other countries’bubble’ may not translate as cleanly.
Proficiency: absolutely! I wanted to explain it succinctly but it definitely has more things it powers. And I actually gave the same feedback in one of my surveys! same formula and everything! Pd6 haha that's so funny. I do think the verbiage now is clearer in most cases in the manuscript and guides but it was difficult in 1.2 The bubble thing is fascinating! Do you want to know something really interesting to me? I'm a female and I don't bubble! I put checks - so I don't fall into either category of bubbling OR marking with X's. But I think that's just from filling out so many character sheets - bubbling is so hard to erase completely lol Good point re: translations!
@@TheFaintDivinities :O (about the check.) I wonder if it's part of your upbringing or something. The weirder part is since these were college students I'd have assumed they were used to bubbling in circles from standardized tests. That's what really blew my mind. I wonder now if such an unexpected result would still happen. I'd expect not. (And of course I'd have way more options for all the preferences now. :) ) Yeah if I were to ever play DH (or I suppose Candella) I'd never bubble anything. I think it was about 3 days after the first test release I made a 'tracker sheet' (posted in the discord) so I could either put a die to represent the thing in a spot for the thing, or to just add some kind of tokens. (Like Amazon has 'colored gem' packs of like, I think the one I marked is 100, for like $15. I'd use red for HP, gray for stress, probably gold for armor, etc.) But then I've kind of been doing a token thing forever. A few years ago when I could do AL / had some games I was playing in I'd always make cards for my abilities. Things like spiritual weapon or bardic inspiration I'd just drop a card on the table to remind me they are active.
OMG I didn't know why you asked and then I looked at the title! That was a total mistake on my part - we're still leveling in 1.3. Thank you for bringing that to my attention!!! I think I just have been typing 1.4 so much in preparation that I messed it up. Whew. Fixed now!
FYI guys - the first minute and a half of this video is the same intro from our prior video since the session was split into two parts - feel free to jump to 00:01:25 if you have a need, a need for speed! **Timestamps** 00:00:12 - Welcome, Intro & Brief Disclaimer Text about Rachel’s Awful Migraines 00:01:14 - Reminder: this session was broken into two videos - this is the Leveling Up one! If you want the System Feedback one, it was published on May 3rd! 00:01:25 - First Things First - Long Rest Actions prior to Level Up 00:04:04 - Rest Mechanic Clarification: Repeating Actions (Shoutout Philosodad!) 00:04:38 - Brief Chats on Previous Sessions 00:07:10 - Chat Question: Whitefire Arcanist Sad Background & Rachel Shames her Players for being INCONSIDERATE GUESTS 00:08:55 - Experience Mechanic Clarification: Updating/Changing Experiences 00:10:54 - Level Up Option 1: Player Character New Experience Selections (Death’s Door, Tea Artisan, Courage of the Weak, Slippery) 00:14:00 - Level Up Lists: Mechanic Clarifications - General Leveling Guidance 00:15:05 - How to Increase Character Traits 00:16:08 - Clarification: The Leveling Lists are Static in their Tiers of Leveling 00:16:30 - Proficiency Increase - Damage Increases 00:17:02 - Optional Rule: Massive Damage (*can impact leveling choices if invoked) 00:19:00 - Massive Damage Functional Clarification 00:20:49 - Daggerheart and DnD Hard Mode: Massive Damage, MeatGrinder, CHULT 00:22:46 - Massive Damage Vote: Unanimous in Favor! 00:24:33 - Darrington Feedback: Leveling Language is Confusing 00:25:37 - Player Level up Selections 00:27:44 - Domain Cards at Level Up: Mechanic Clarification 00:36:09 - Player Domain Card Discussions/Selections (Showcase of the Decks for Bard, Ranger, Rogue and Warrior at Level 2) 00:50:46 - I’m gonna squash a bug. 00:58:35 - Chris Level Up Options (Neglected) 00:59:23 - SPOTLIGHT: Ranger Beast Companion Level Up Mechanics! crying 01:02:44 - Darrington Press Feedback: Praise for the Ranger: Beastbound Class Option 01:05:00 - Mechanic Goblins Justin and Stephen Think of How to Abuse the System 01:07:23 - Our Table Dichotomy: New Friends to TTRPG and Veteran Hoodlums 01:08:08 - Safety Tools: Player & Campaign Check In 01:12:58 - Building the Campaign Map! 01:23:10 - The Forest of the Faint Divinities 01:24:30 - Stephen wears his Marketing Hat 01:25:14 - Campaign Maps Images in the Ending Stream Screen!
Just seen half, maybe more comments later, but for what it's worth I'm very thankful I can say 'like Critical Role' now when describing what kind of game I'm looking for. I'm usually a DM, and have been DMing in that style for like 35+ years? *winces at old* Way more off than on, but still. That's been similar to my style as long as I've been gaming. I would agree the game might be in competition with D&D if it were seen on a shelf together. But I see this as more in competition with other narrative games, like Fate or Vampire the Masquerade than directly competing with D&D. I'd say, and sure I've done many systems over the past 40+ years gaming, that the only tough part of character creation for Daggerheart is the experiences. Which honestly can really just boil down to a better explanation. Say, 'think of a previous job the character has done', or, 'what special skill does the character have.' and I think that would be enough. I can come up with character concepts, stats, and experience off the top of my head. Sure, I own the 5e books and am fairly familiar with it, but there is zero chance I could come up with a D&D character in my head, sit down with the book and be ready in 5 minutes like I would with Daggerheart. A character is a minimum of a 1 hour investment even if I have a solid character idea. ~ 26:00 Why is the camera flipped? Adventure's League / Pathfinder Society are a HUGE undertaking. They would have to create an entire new division and put in a lot of work for that to happen. 44:00 I preferred the old stress system. It made sense that combat and failure stressed you out. I get positive uses like Rogue hide or Fairy flight, but only having it for a positive resource seems a bit odd. Also I still wonder if the low hp threshold being 1 makes the system too deadly. 53:00 The domain card swap feels odd to me. Haven't played, so can't speak on it from that perspective is, mechanically, it feels like every character of X class is effectively the same as every other one since they could just swap an ability at any given time. Effectively that means they always have all abilities and could adjust. I'd much prefer a system where there were 30% more abilities for all classes and you could only swap during a long rest. Even then though some of those just don't feel right to me someone could just 'forget or remember' how to do something. With spells, sure, preparing makes sense. But something like Rogue lv 3 chokehold... how would they suddenly forget how to do that? If they are going to let everyone do everything I'd rather see it like 4x the Stress pool and just make all card uses cost Stress and have them all the time or something. (Though for distinctness I'd probably still prefer a bigger pool where your character knows x and you don't swap the things.) For the surveys, yeah, you can just put "n/a" in a lot of those spots if you just want to submit feedback on a thing. Looking forward to the level up. :)
Hi hi friend!!! Cam flip: unfortunately, I think the default in Discord is to flip to what we usually see in mirrors and I am a haver-of-an-asymmetrical face so it unfortunately like really freaks me out to see my flipped face so I always leave it that way BUT I think this is beginning to push me to get comfy with the other flip haha AL/PS: I do know it would be SUCH an effort, but I really think it would be worth it! I think they could even subcontract it out to a group and plan to take low revenue for it for the sake of marketing the system. But of course, I trust their brains - they're the creative geniuses, I just know what I have loved in the past. Stress: 1.3 really did take a gamble w/stress and I just don't think it's quite right. I hope we get to see a big flip in this in 2 (!!!) days... even if it means learning a brand new thing lol Domain Cards: I have to stand by this one. But maybe it helps to clarify: the classes don't get every card in their domain - they have to pick them just like the spells in DnD 5e. So of the total idk 50-75 cards a class has access to, they will only end up with around 10ish I think? So I think the characters will still feel distinct. So then it just comes down to the prepared Hand vs. backup Vault and I LOVE that mechanic... though I haven't actually played with it... so we'll have to see. Level up coming tomorrow!!! It was wild... I can't wait for everyone to hear Gimbo's new experience addition!
@@TheFaintDivinities Ohhhhh. I think I misunderstood what the "vault" was then. So you are saying the "vault" is what they've picked and then replaced? If so I totally misunderstood that. I was thinking the vault was any card you didn't pick. So any level 1 Rogue could swap out to any other Rogue deck card (aka any Midnight or any Grace). Limited to what they've previously picked is totally different. I guess that makes more sense then. That is more of an 'I've been here before' kind of path. Though that then does beg the question of; if someone is happy with the 5 they've picked, are they then limited by NOT having something in the vault? I guess mechanically you could just vault a thing for later and 'not pick it today', but still. Though I still feel like there should be about 30% more cards for every existing deck. Though I suppose that could feel less so as more classes branch out, though that forces someone to split class. Like clearly Gunslinger and Monk are missing. And if there are guns, which there are, then we are also clearly missing a swashbuckler class. (I mean, sure, I can force my former Pirate Captain into Rogue / Seraph split, but it probably would never fit as correctly as an actual Swashbuckler class.)
Yes! So the way it works is that as you progress through levels, you accrue more and more Domain cards, but you only have access to those cards - all non-selected ones don't exist for your character in any way. Then, of the selected cards, at some point you will have more than 5 cards at which point you have to pick each day/rest which are 'active' (your hand) and which are 'inactive' (your vault). During play, you can pull items from your vault into your hand by paying the cost (in stress) and switching the cards between your hand and vault. I think the vault will probably end up being for heavy cards you rarely need such as the card that allows you once per the life of a character to perform the revive action and then is removed from the game FOREVER and is not replaced with another card. Crazy, right? I am excited for more cards at some point, but I also think that and the extended class lists will probably come out in future iterations! Gotta save some tricks up their sleeves, y'know?
Ok ok ok Yeah, I saw in someone's vid they mentioned slotting the dailies (things that buff and then can't be used again) and then immediately swapping out. Seemed kinda haxy to me.
Great discussion! Admittedly, I have only run one session so far. I felt combat was more dynamic than in most other games. The players focused a lot on helping each other out and doing stuff together. Yes, half of the players generated the majority of the Action tokens, but I wouldn't say they were hogging the spotlight. Other players did more stuff out of combat, so it evened out over the course of the session.
I mean realistically we've only run three! I keep forgetting this game has literally been out for less than 2 months! It feels like forever ago haha I totally agree about the dynamic nature of combat - and as a GM, I found it to be SO much fun. And those Tag Team Rolls really are good at getting people who haven't acted as much completely engaged in what's going on. I really am trying to be as critical (ha!) about the system as I can be, but realistically I just love it so much...
Thank you so much for watching! It really means a lot and I hope it was helpful at least to a few folks. Version 1.4 is coming out in just a few days so we'll be back at it with the next version very soon! (I'm not crying, you're crying haha)
Thank you!!! Best of luck getting a table together!! I don't know what routes you go about but depending on where you are, a lot of the time you can find Discord channels or Facebook groups for TTRPG or Board Games or Nerdy stuff in general that has people more likely to be interested! That's how I always end up making friends wherever I move that are willing to play board games with!
Hope you get a group together! I'm so happy my little home group agreed to try it out. Especially my teenager and their friend loved it (and me)! I'm going to run an open table on May 18, when our nerd club has its 5-year anniversary. It will be fun trying the game out on relative strangers.
