Using Environments¶

Environments represent everything in a scene beyond the PCs and adversaries, such as the physical space, background NPCs, and natural forces.

Much like adversaries, each listed environment has a stat block that provides tools for affecting the PCs and the wider scene. These stat blocks aren't restricted to combat—you can use environment stat blocks to enhance any scene, from the intrigue of a festive gala to the danger of crumbling ruins.

Environments and adversaries are built to interact with and support one another, both mechanically and narratively. While the PCs and adversaries take focus, environments can represent hazards that originate from the world itself or the background characters who don't need entire stat blocks.

This section describes how to use each environment's stat block, and the upcoming "Environment Stat Blocks" section presents examples of environments, grouped by tier to represent their general threat level.

The environment framework is meant to be inspiring and practical, rather than unshakeable and prescriptive. It provides a way to organise and prepare ideas for important scenes. You can customise the environments to fit your game's characters and events—for example, you could change the Imperial Court environment into a Queen's Birthday Feast environment, or create a stat block for a Rebel Uprising based on the Pitched Battle environment features. And if you don't want to use this adversary-like system for environments, you can ignore these stat blocks entirely—Daggerheart is just as enjoyable without them.

Environment Breakdown¶

Each environment's stat block presents the statistics you need to utilise them in play. The following example illustrates this format. Each stat block contains the following elements:

Name¶

Each environment stat block has a unique name—in this case, a Raging River.

Tier¶

Each environment is designed to challenge PCs of a certain tier. If you use environment stat blocks from other tiers, you might want to adjust their statistics, such as their Difficulty and adversaries.

Type¶

The environment's type appears alongside its tier, representing the type of scene it most easily supports. The Raging River is a Traversal environment, meaning the threats and obstacles the PCs encounter there will most likely be physical in nature.

Description¶

An evocative one-line summary of the environment.

Impulses¶

Each environment has "impulses," or the narrative way they push and pull on those within them. Places don't have volition, but the people and forces that comprise an environment gravitate toward certain goals and actions (such as a river rushing to carry you away or drown you, or a casino disorientating and pushing people to gamble away their money).

Raging River has a Difficulty of 10, which provides a baseline for action rolls made to directly oppose the elements of the environment. Individual adversaries appearing in the environment may have their own Difficulty.

Potential Adversaries¶

Many environments suggest specific adversaries that commonly appear in scenes with that environment. Not every listed adversary needs to appear in an environment, and you're free to use others instead.

Features¶

Features provide inspiration for GM moves you can use that represent the dynamic landscape or situation.

Example Environment¶

Raging River¶

Tier 1 Traversal

A swift-moving river without a bridge crossing, deep enough to sweep away most people.

Impulses: Bat crossing, carry away the unwary, divide the land

Difficulty: 10

Potential Adversaries: Beasts (Bear, Glass Snake), Jagged Knife Bandits (Snare, Kneebreaker, Lackey, Lieutenant, Shadow, Sniper)

Features¶

• Dangerous Crossing - Passive: Crossing the river requires the party to complete a Progress Countdown (4). A PC who rolls a failure with Fear is immediately targeted by the "Undertow" action without requiring a Fear to be spent on the feature.

How many of the PCs fished rivers like this before? Are any of them afraid of drowning?

• Undertow - Action: Spend a Fear to catch a PC in the undertow. They must make an Agility Reaction Roll. On a failure, they take 1d8+1 physical damage and are moved a Close distance down the river, becoming Vulnerable until they get out of the river. On a success, they must mark a Stress.

What trinkets and baubles lie along the bottom of the riverbed? Do predators swim these rivers?

• Poison Hunter - Action: Spend a Fear to summon a Glass Snake within Close range of a chosen PC. The Snake appears in or near the river and immediately takes the spotlight to use their "Spinning Serpent" action.

What treasures does the beast have in their burrow? What travelers have already fallen victim to this predator?

Environment Types¶

An environment's type represents the style of scene it most readily supports, but any kind of interaction can happen in any environment. Exciting encounters in unexpected environments can provide contrast or round out the narrative. Don't be afraid to play a social encounter in a dangerous Traversal environment, or a duel to the death in a Social environment. Environment types include the following:

• Explorations are wondrous locations with mysteries and marvels to discover.
• Socials are locations that primarily present interpersonal challenges.
• Traversals are dangerous locations where moving around the space itself is a challenge.
• Events are defined less by the location than by the activity taking place in the space they take place in.

Environment Features¶

The bottom of each stat block lists that environment's features.

Feature Questions¶

Below each feature, you'll find italicised questions. These questions are there to inspire plot hooks, provide ideas to fuel the scene, and help connect the scene to other story elements.

For example, the Raging River's "Undertow" feature asks, "What trinkets and baubles lie along the bottom of the riverbed? Do predators swim these rivers?" These questions invite you to consider who or what has been here before, what their presence has left behind, as well as what predators might take advantage of the powerful undertow for their own benefit.

Using Features¶

When you make a GM move, you can use environment features like you would adversary features. Environment features can take the form of actions (which can be used as your GM move), reactions (which happen freely in response to a trigger), and passives (which automatically apply).

Fear Features¶

Like adversaries, environments can have Fear Features—powerful, scene-defining effects that require spending Fear to activate. Most environments' Fear Features take the form of actions, such as the following example:

Tunneling Terror - Action Spend a Fear to summon an Acid Burrower, who bursts up from the ground where they have been waiting for prey. The Acid Burrower takes the spotlight to use their "Earth Eruption" action.

Not every environment has a Fear Feature—we recommend reserving them for when they're most impactful.

Adapting Environments¶

Sometimes you want to use an environment but it's at the wrong tier for your party. Or you might want to replace a feature or two, then present it as an entirely different environment. Whether planning your session or even improvising an environment mid-session, you can adjust an existing environment's stat block to fit the needs of your scene or improvise elements as needed. The environments framework is there to help organise ideas, not to stifle creativity.

When you need to quickly adjust a stat block to a different tier, you can simply replace its existing statistics with those listed on the Environment Statistics by Tier table, using the column that corresponds to your party's tier.

Environment Statistics by Tier¶

Scaling Environments¶

Environments are easier to scale than adversaries, since they don't have Hit Points, damage thresholds, or Stress. You'll want to adjust the default Difficulty, any Difficulties listed in features, and the damage dealt by features. If the environment has a feature that involves summoning an adversary, consider replacing the listed adversaries with ones appropriate to the party's tier or scaling down the listed adversaries.

Adding or Changing Features¶

When scaling an environment to a higher tier, consider adding a Fear Feature if there isn't one already. Similarly, if scaling down to a lower tier, consider removing the most powerful or impactful feature.

Environment Stat Blocks¶

This section contains a list of environments by tier, followed by the environment stat blocks (see the earlier "Using Environments" section for environment rules).

Environments by Tier¶

This section contains the following stat blocks: