Welcome to Daggerheart

Daggerheart is a collaborative fantasy roleplaying game: heroic, narrative-focused, and fiction-first, with combat, emotional character arcs, and asymmetrical design. A table is three to six people, one Game Master and two to five players. There is no winning or losing. When a character fails or dies, the story turns in a new direction.

The Golden Rule

The most important rule of Daggerheart is to make the game your own. Rules can be modified or ignored with table consent to serve the story. When the rules and the fiction disagree, choose rulings over rules: the GM makes the call that fits the world.

How Play Flows

Play is a conversation guided by the dice. Every scene runs through the same loop:

1. The GM narrates details. The scene, its dangers, its NPCs, and whatever stands out.
2. The players and GM ask questions. You ask what you need to know to act. The GM asks you to describe parts of the story.
3. The players and GM answer questions. The GM gives information you could readily get, or calls for a roll. You answer the GM's prompts.
4. Choose and resolve actions. You engage the obstacle. The mechanics resolve the outcome, and the GM introduces conflict or consequences as needed.
5. Repeat. The scene shifts, and the loop begins again.

The GM rolls a d20 for adversaries when a roll is needed. You roll 2d12, the Duality Dice, for your actions and attacks.

What You Need to Play

• Game dice: a standard polyhedral set (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, d100) and a pair of differently colored d12s per player, the Duality Dice.
• Tokens: about seven per player to start, up to fifteen at level 10. They count modifiers, track features that use tokens, and let the GM track Fear.
• Game cards: ancestry, community, subclass, and domain cards.
• Character sheets and notes.
• Optional maps and miniatures. They give spatial context. They should never limit the imagination.

Player Principles

• Be a fan of your character and their journey. Show off what they do best and worst.
• Spotlight your friends. Give the other characters openings, ask for help, and offer yours.
• Address the characters and address the players. Talk in the fiction to characters and outside it to players.
• Build the world together. Every participant is a storyteller, not just the GM.
• Play to find out what happens. Let the dice lead you, and embrace complications as vigorously as victories.
• Hold on gently. Keep the pieces that matter without squeezing the life out of the story.

Daggerheart is a game for players of every identity. Before you play, talk through the experience you want and any topics you want to avoid, and keep that agreement current.