DAGGERHEART Character Options Revealed! | Critical Role RPG 

So which is your favorite so far?? 💥 More Dagger Heart details: www.patreon.com/bobworldbuilder

As for halfing ears, in a letter, Tolkein described Bilbo a having ears only slightly pointed and "elven".

Owlin used to be my favourite race, but now move aside for Ribbet As an aside, a crossover with Bob, Ginny, and Pointy Hat would be cool to see more of

As a native Spanish speaker, "Galápagos" does make me think of turtles (I have never heard it used as saddle). I actually love the name galapa and as South American, I appreciate the reference to my part of the world.

If they want to name the Galapa after an island, Tortuga would be the obvious choice.

Interestingly, in Campaign 3 Matt has already established that Tortles have been retconned to be called Galapa in Exandria. He's been doing this for quite a few ancestries recently so I feel like Campaign 4 will be played in Daggerheart instead of 5e DnD

I love how I was "ok I wanna play the frog guy... No wait they have turtle guys...NO WAIT THEY HAVE ROBOTS"

It just occured to me that one type of humanoid is missing: a sentient plantfolk similar to Pathfinder's leshy or Guildwars 2's sylvari.

This was so ribbeting. Keep it up Robert universe creator

I LOVE playing turtle-like characters. My first language is Spanish and I think Galapa is the most creative and exciting name I've ever heard for a turtle type race.

It's very interesting to see how much some of the things presented here are already in campaign 3 of critical role! FCG: stress, clank. Fearne: deer-like fawn. Additionally, we've seen Katari and Galapa in campaign 3!

"Traditional Hobbit feet, I like it." -Bob The World builder, 2024

I love that Mercer and team are developing a new TTRPG. There is a lot about D&D that could be improved and yet I still like 5E more than other TTRPGs that I've dabbled with thus far. A new challenger is very welcome!

Even if I never play this game, I love seeing different creators takes on ancestries. Like, how do you mechanically express the fiction of your fantasy creature? Furthermore, how do you mechanically express it for a player? And does the expression ever increase in power along with the character? Regardless of Daggerheart's answer, these are really interesting questions to ask as a game runner. Every GM makes rulings at the table, and homebrew is such a common way of expressing creativity, so what your frog person is capable of, solely based on being a frog person, is an excellent question and one that worth considering. Like whether it's written in or not, someone playing a frog person is going to most likely make some character play decisions where they jump a lot. They're going to be asking the GM things like, if they can survive on insects instead of rations, or how loud they can croak and can it scare people, or can they burrow quickly, or climb flat surfaces like a tree frog. I love fantastic creatures for player characters because you get to ask all these interesting questions!

As a TTRPG newbie I'm intrigued by the idea of getting in on the ground floor of a brand new game. (With the understanding that there aren't a lot of 'new' ideas, but I don't particularly care about that.) I'm hoping Daggerheart will offer some good support for new aspiring GMs.

I'm so glad the Ribbet has a stick and a leaf, to replicate what he's used to.

Calling it now, Drakona will be the name of the Dragonborn that will be introduced in TLoVM Season 3

ifanything, the Faun thing reminded me of Ferne. the actual Faun character in campain 3. she had antlers.

In my game the turtlefolk are called Honua, Honu is Hawaiian for "turtle", and Honua itself means "Earth." So I got these kinda Polynesian inspired earth-golem-turtlefolk. The frogfolk have a symbiotic slime-suit on them kinda like the Spiderman symbiote, and I just call them Boggarts, cause every time I hear that word it sounds like some kind of amphibious swamp goblin to me xD

@Bob World Builder A couple things about the Fawn. First thing is that Ashley is currently playing, basically, a Fawn in C3 with her character Fearne. And Fearne is, if I recall, a deer. So I'm guessing the Fawn's default design is a nod to Fearne. Secondly, I don't think a goat-themed-design would work because an anthropomorphic goat is a Satyr. And I don't think they're thinking "Satyr" with the "Fawn." Now that's not to say you shouldn't be able to flavor your Fawn as more of a Satyr like you did. Also, it occurs to me that the Half-Giant's default design is based off of Yasha from C2. Ashley getting the representation up in here! And Clank's design is clearly their nod to Sam with FCG and Scanlan. I do like the references and nods because they don't take away from the core of the races and classes. Great Vid! Ready for more!

I love how simple this are. You can actually show this to a new player and they can actually check them all out and choose

Wooo let's go! I loved this so much! Thank you for taking the time to make this :3 I'm so excited for this system

Hi Bob! Great video, a couple of points- you suggest that "Fawn" is an ancestry option because Keyleth had an antler crown artifact- but their in current campaign Ashley Johnson's character Fearne is literally a horned faun. I can't imagine that's not a big part of what inspired them. Also- you describe the "Guardian" class as "like a cleric/fighter" but isn't that just a Paladin? If not, could you expand one how it is different? Thank You!

The difference between Warrior and Guardian really reminds me of the split between Slayer and Knight in 4e Essentials. I like it! 👍

I'm so glad that humanoid-dragons are in the game. D&D's dragonborn are really cool, and I missed them when our group moved to Pathfinder 2e. Also a BIG thumbs up for the Ribbet!

I'm very into the MCDM RPG development at the moment and I'm super stoked to hear about games like Daggerheart being designed and playtested. Thanks for covering this, Bob! Keep up the good work!

This has a lot of potential. Hopefully it becomes a big RPG.

Okay after seeing the Ribbet, I am officially interested.

I added my 'Like' to your count, and am commenting for good measure. I really like the vast majority of what I've seen from Daggerheart so far and am eager for more coverage.

Im so excited for this game! I love cards used in ttrpgs. Helps create a sheet and deck to make the game easier for me. Grab a class, ancestry, and cards to build your character can be so fast and your able to organize your character features the way you want. Reminds me of a dnd/gloomhaven mash-up.

Was hoping for more fantasy based options that are well known, like harpies or gremlins, and not just a lot of D&D reskins, but still looks very cool.

The faun gets to use its antlers as _antennae?_ That's hilarious, I love it.

I always like to see new RPGs enter the scene and Dagger Heart seems like it might be more accessible in how it presents itself to new players. Of all the features, I especially like how stress works. It has a lot of potential and I hope the game does well.

Thank you for the rundown Bob. Love the ribbit fellow.

I love this type of content. ❤ I'm always interested in how new systems work. Over the years I have played several different TTRPGs. AD&D was my first, back in the late 80s. Since then, I have tried close to a dozen different systems, including some Star Wars stuff, Shadowrun, Masks, and a few others. My favorites that I keep consistently going back to are D&D and the older White Wolf stuff (particularly 2nd edition VtM and WtA. Mage Changling and Hunter are fun also.) I enjoy the World of Darkness stuff alot because they made it so easy to cross over the individual themes into a single game. I have both run and played in WoD crossover campaigns in TTRPG and LARP. It was a blast.

I know for sure that my players would go feral for the ribbet if we played Daggerheart.

My German Class is getting us to play Das Schwarze Auge which is another TTRPG system that is popular in Germany. Have you thought about covering TTRPG's outside of the US?

Daggerheart sounds more and more interesting the more i hear about it. Cant wait to give it a try! Thanks for the video!

Can't wait to see more of the system and world they are building

"stubborn sense of self-preservation" that sounds like it was written by a villain scholar

It is so weird that they are scrapping a grid system. I think on this MCDM has it right, modern players are inclined towards grid play and integrating it into design will make a lot more sense as VTTs grow and as people use other digital playmat tools

These races are inspiring, nice illustrations

Before folks get all worked up about this, it's important to remember that Daggerheart is in early playtesting stage and everything could change by the time they get to final print.

I like everything I’ve seen about this game so far, all its little subsystems. I’m a freelance GM and I volunteer for my local library’s after school tabletop program, and Daggerheart looks super friendly and approachable for the episodic games I run most often, while still being usable if you want something a little more dedicated. Honestly the only thing that gives me pause is the duality dice system. I love rolling 2 dice (since it balances the results more toward the middle), and I always love degrees of success, but because it’s roll 2 and add, then add modifiers, but also still keep the two numbers separate in your mind, it feels a bit finicky and complex. This is exacerbated by having it set against a DC-there’s like… 3 different styles of rolling going on here. As I understand it, it’s possible to roll 23 plus mods on a DC 10 or 12 check, for example, but because the Hope die was the 11 and the Fear die was the 12, you get a mixed result. I don’t think that will feel intuitive, or more importantly, rewarding, to most players (picturing my kids and clients here). Either have the degree of success determined by how close it is to the DC, or just eschew the DC altogether and have a static range for each result. Sure, you lose the ability to set a DC in your GM toolkit, but your average PbtA game functions just fine without it, and usually has other ways to tweak knobs anyway. Narrative games benefit from taking some of the parsing and fiddling out of the rolling mechanics, since there’s more discussion of fictional positioning going on (like BitD’s position/effect-that sort of discussion, even if it’s not a codified rule, is good practice in a narrative game anyway). Not sure if you’ll read this, Bob, but if you do, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the duality dice. The concept seems too ingrained into the identity of the game to think they’ll remove it, so I wonder if I’m missing something.

I put in to do playtest for DH. I got chosen but I don't think I'll be in the first round. I wish I was but I am still happy to be a part of it.

We are already over 5k likes so looking forward to the sequel.

I’m gonna need a poster of that ribbet dude. Like now. K thanks!

the "once per session" thing reminded me of spire: the city must fall and heart: the city beneath, which also have this episodic vibe. i like it!

Subbed. Looking forward to more Daggerheart content.

I love the Dad Jokes style humor and puns. ❤

Dagger Hearth sounds really fun!

"Once per session" I love the design space that plays with. My hope dice are multiplying.

Im really excited for this system

Did they ask not to show to much of the play test material? I still apriciate you giving us this much.

The Ribbet is 100% due to the formative influence of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

Wow! Ribbets are cute and actually sound like an interesting species to play as. I'm so excited for Daggerheart.

Love the art style 10/10

Having once per session abilities are pretty cool. Reminds me of the Star Wars Fantasy Flight system which also had "once per session" abilities on careers (classes).

I always love seeing creative new race’s!

Honestly, this is the first video that got me excited for Dagger Heart.

Only missing xplvl3 to have the 4 horsemen of my dnd RU-vid page

Ahahahaha I can't wait to make Clink the Clank XD These are some interesting starting options, I wonder how they're all going to fit into the world. I like it when a character choice means I have to delve more into the lore but there's also biomes to think about. The Ribbit actually makes me think they took inspiration from Chrono Trigger, haven't seen too many froggies in ttrpgs.

Okay, you should play the story board game called "Familiar Tales." There is a frog character name Grebert that you would just love (especially since the game goes with an app that has all this character dialog). Thanks for the preview!

It seems like “Sorcerer” is the term for generic arcane spellcaster. I’d prefer the term “Mage” if that is the case as “Sorcerer” has been drilled into my head as something very specific due to playing 5e

The animals Darwin was most known for studying on the Galapagos islands were finches. They started as one species, but the birds on separate islands had evolved to eat different things that were most available there. Since evolution is the foundation of all modern biology and medicine, I enjoyed seeing a reference to it, even a few steps removed. "Ribbet" may be funny at first, but I can see that getting very old if you had one in a longer-term game.

I think the giant be might be a Hobbit reference. Beorn kept giant Bees. Also, I don't think halflings traditionally have pointed ears, but kender do?

I can't wait to homebrew some sort of bunny-people for Daggerheart :D

I would die for that little frog guy

I like the Katari Ancestry option I probably might end up playing that or Elf it's between those two with the information we know right now

"going deer route because of Keylith" Fearne is a literal humanoid deer Fawn...

I'm realy starting to like the concept

I'm sure I'm not the only one who had Frog's theme from Chrono Trigger playing in my head!

On the Fawn, Keyleth's antlers were part of the circlet she wore. However Fearne, another badass druid, is specifically a Fawn, which was basically a satyr reskinned.

I ran a game, a long time ago, using only lizardfolk, grungs , grippli and homebrew lizardfolk races of small and large sizes named skinks and saurons, respectively. I leaned more towards a Mayan/Polynesian feel to them. That Ribbet has too much of a Wind in the Willows feel to it for my taste, like hobbits with frog heads. I may have to dig that out and see if it is still as good as when I first put it down on paper.

YES, We need more Daggerheart!!

I play as an Artificer FrogFolk (Grippli) called Pip in a D&D Campaign. He has a big dire wolf companion called Diego who is terrified of everything. They get the stick pads ability so you can climb walls and stuff. It's really fun

WHAT IT IS THIS GROUP, ARE YOU KIDDING ME, THE MOST STACKED PLAYTEST OF ALL TIME!

Seems interesting. I sort of wonder how it'll feel if like everybody wanted to be a RIbbet, nothing to really differentiate or combine. Maybe mega-tongue attack. How many different dice are used per character, usually?

Can't wait for you to get an alpha box set for Daggerheart

I don't think I would want to play as a little frog guy but look how cute he is. I might just die.

Wow. These abilities are neat and seem really useful. They really successfully avoided the noise that comes with "dank vision" "cast a spell loser" and "random resistance" in dnd 5e player race options.

So you're saying I could play Frog from Chrono Trigger?

Ribbet and Galapa!!!!! That's all I need!

Ok, they have Dwarves. I'm so in.

This system looks so cool! Can’t wait for it to drop

10:20 Ooh! I was thinking Ribbet or Drakona, but I HAVE to play a Galapa (turtle)! 🐢❤️❤️❤️ For my birthday last year, I GM'd an ICRPG one shot where players played canon TMNT characters, with Torton stats for the 4 turtles. Splinter had TWO hearts of HP, plus a multi attack. April O'Neil had a corded microphone whip. I used The Grey Hill Inferno tutorial (in free quick start), followed by Garden of Acid by Kane Driscol (affordable PDF on drivethrurpg!). After the tutorial, each player described one piece of loot they'd like, and took that on to the next part of the session, down in the sewers. The Dagger Heart ancestry cards look cool. I'm also excited about the upcoming system-neutral hardcover book by JP Coovert, "Flik Silverpen's Guide to Dragon Town and the Darkness Below," with a 12-part adventure. Announcement page is live on Kickstarter, and the Kickstarter will launch after the 2024 February Zine month is over.

I actually think that the faeries wing ability is vastly underpowered. If I play any kind of character that has the ability to fly, I want to to be able to fly, damn it! I also don't see it as a problem from a gm's perspective. My current ttrpg group is made up of four flying characters, with next to no restrictions on their flight ability. And I love it. I get to utilize a whole new dimension when crafting the story and I have a lot of opportunities to describe cinematic aerial views of the scenery. And the pcs are working on getting their own airship, taking the story completely airborne. I am so excited for that.

Not only is that an amazing offer, especially considering you were stuck outside the room. But to play with Ginni D as well, damn kinda jealous lol.

This looks really promising. Totally agree with you on the Galapa ancestry name. They are turtles that get extra AC from their shells, Ironback or something to that effect would be more fitting

Still feels pretty rough around the edges, but I really like the direction so far. I'm sure they can make this into something great.

I got to that line 50 minutes early, and it was already quite full.

That’s funny, for my game I’ve been working on I also called the Fighter the Warrior.

My friends tell me I need to develope some character all the time, so I'm happy there are options.

Which they went with something like a wooden puppet for the clanks, more of a Pinocchio like ancestory instead of a straight up robot. Or maybe porcelain?

Fun fact, hobbits do have pointed ears in lotr. You don’t see it often in the movies because of their hair, but they had the prosthetics on for the whole shoot.

I’m not sure about halflings having pointed ears but since they have similar feet to hobbits it makes sense their ears are also similar.

I get the impression that the armor change adds another layer of dice-throwing that might jam up the flow. Hard to tell without trying myself, but the elevator pitch for DH sounded appealing in part because there were far fewer individual orders of operation compared to D&D, so I hope I'm wrong.

The ribbet is so nice, a great Chrono Trigger Frog fantasy

More Daggerheart, please! Also, still waiting for an Elph race-pointy ears, trunk, thick skin, lives a long time, descended from wooly elphs.

The more I see, the more I'm worried daggerheart will be a mishmash rather than anything with a solid identity.