First of all, I want to say that I really enjoyed going through the Daggerheart core book. There is a lot here that I genuinely like, and I can see a lot of love and creativity has gone into the game.
Artwork
The artwork throughout the book is beautiful and really helps give Daggerheart its own identity. I especially enjoyed the monsters and creatures.
One thing I would genuinely like to know is whether all the artwork was created by human artists and commissioned specifically for Daggerheart. I really hope it was, because the artwork is one of the strongest parts of the book for me, and I really appreciate original, human-created fantasy artwork.
The System
I found the systems in Daggerheart really fun and enjoyable. A lot of the mechanics were interesting without feeling overwhelmingly complicated.
There were a few things that confused me, though. For example, the way the Brawler is represented on the character sheet felt strange. Having that much of the character sheet devoted to it, while only having around half a page of space, felt awkward and didn't immediately make sense to me.
Overall, though, I really enjoyed the mechanics.
Adventures and GM Tools
One of my favourite parts of the book was the material towards the back explaining how to create and run smaller adventures. I really liked having tools that help GMs create their own adventures rather than simply being given rules and being left to figure everything out.
However, I sometimes found the way the scenarios and adventure-building material were laid out confusing. I'd love to see this presented in a more straightforward and accessible way, perhaps with clearer step-by-step examples.
Monsters and Creatures
I really enjoyed seeing all the monsters and creatures. There are some great ideas, and I'd love to see even more variety in future books.
One thing that didn't quite work for me visually was the goblins. They didn't immediately read as goblins to me. They felt much softer and cuter than the traditional goblins I've grown up with. Honestly, my first reaction was that they reminded me more of little Furbies than goblins!
I understand that Daggerheart has its own visual identity and doesn't need to make goblins look like every other fantasy game. However, I'd personally love to see some more traditional, rougher and nastier goblin designs alongside the more unusual interpretations.
More generally, quite a lot of the creatures have a very soft, friendly and almost child-oriented appearance. I understand the desire to make Daggerheart welcoming and accessible to a wide audience, which I think is great. However, sometimes the artwork made the game feel more "PG" or younger than I expected.
I'd love to see future books introduce some darker, stranger, scarier and more threatening creatures while still retaining Daggerheart's distinctive art style.
Character Options
I'd really like to see more character options in the future: more classes, ancestries, backgrounds, or whatever terminology Daggerheart eventually uses.
I'd also love to see a proper full campaign book. The core book gives GMs the tools to create adventures, which is great, but I'd love to see what a complete, professionally produced Daggerheart campaign looks like from beginning to end.
Playing the Villains
One thing I'd really love to see explored is the ability to play the bad guys.
Not simply evil player characters in a normal campaign, but an alternative style of Daggerheart where the players actually take on the roles of monsters or villains.
Instead of gaining Hope, perhaps the opposing side could have a resource based around Fear, Terror or Dread.
It could be fascinating to turn the normal structure on its head:
Instead of being the heroes fighting the monsters, you are the monsters and the heroes are coming for you.
That could create some really interesting campaign possibilities.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I really enjoyed reading through Daggerheart. There are definitely things I'd change, particularly the presentation of some adventure material, the visual direction of certain creatures, and the amount of character variety.
But these criticisms come from wanting to see the game grow, not from disliking it.
I'd love to see more character options, darker and more varied creatures, a full campaign book, clearer adventure-building guidance, and perhaps an entirely different way of playing villains and monsters.
There is a lot of potential here, and I'm genuinely looking forward to seeing where Daggerheart goes next.
