Chapter One: Preparing for Adventure¶

In this chapter, you'll prepare for your first game of Daggerheart. The upcoming sections describe Daggerheart's worldbuilding fundamentals, then walk you through creating a character while providing information on each of the classes, domains, ancestries, and communities.

World Overview¶

Daggerheart encourages the exploration of worlds filled with great magic, wondrous landscapes, mythical beasts, dynamic factions, rousing mysteries, and powerful foes. While the world your table collaboratively creates will be your own, Daggerheart has established ancestries, communities, classes, and spells—so some worldbuilding aspects will exist similarly across every campaign.

The following section describes the core realms, where these shared details derive from. These details can always be reflavoured or modified to match the style of game your group wants to play. When creating your table's unique world, you can use one of the following as a starting point: an existing location you're already familiar with, a supplemental setting book, the guide for creating your own world in the "Running a Campaign" section in chapter 3, or a campaign frame from chapter 5.

Core Realms¶

The core realms are the basis for the worldbuilding elements inherent to many of Daggerheart's mechanics, such as its ancestries and adversaries.

The Mortal Realm¶

Most adventures will likely take place in the Mortal Realm. This is the land, sea, and sky, where mortals live out the entirety of their lives—the plane where the majority of all material beings and objects exist. Stories say this realm was created by the Forgotten Gods during the Earliest Age and that these immortals travelled between the Hallows Above and this new plane as easily as waking from a dream. During this time, the gods were familiar to the mortals and acts of divinity were commonplace—be they wonderful or terrifying. When the Forgotten Gods were overthrown by the New Gods, many of these ancient deities were trapped within this plane eternally.

This realm is also occupied by the Faint Divinities, lesser deities created by both the Forgotten and the New Gods to oversee the Mortal Realm. Many are considered to be quite capricious, and though their spheres of influence are smaller than the gods who created them, they can greatly influence the lives of mortals.

The Hallows Above¶

The Hallows Above are the collection of deific territories that once belonged to the Forgotten Gods before the New Gods claimed it at the end of the Earliest Age. Because this place is closely connected with most other realms, the gods residing here can see and speak with the creatures of the Mortal Realm without leaving their domains, though those with whom the gods communicate may find their methods strange or obfuscated. There are ways by which the New Gods can leave the Hallows Above to occupy other realms, but in the current age they must always sacrifice something of personal importance to do so. It's rumoured that this burden was necessitated by their desire to protect the Hallows from the Forgotten Gods should they rise again, as the Forgotten Gods (or any being from the Mortal Realm) would also have to forfeit much to enter the Hallows Above. These sacrifices have caused some of the great calamities that have befallen the Mortal Realm in recent millennia.

The Circles Below¶

The Circles Below are the collection of lower realms where many of the Forgotten Gods, those who fought the most passionately during the uprising, were banished. Known as "the Fallen Gods," these deities lost the Divine War with the New Gods during the Earliest Age and have since been deemed "evil practitioners of tainted magic." Thus the Faint Divinities who were banished alongside them are now domitius, referred to as "demons," and those that descended from these creatures also bear the weight of that identifier.

The Circles Below are considered places of corruption, destruction, and violence. Stories say this dominion is home to some of the most dangerous creatures anywhere in the realms. Most other planes have safeguards against Fallen who wish to cross from the Circles Below. Within the Mortal Realm, the use of arcane magic in acts of great evil is said to open a temporary rift between the two planes, allowing Fallen to pass through.

The Realms Beyond¶

The cosmos holds many realms beyond these—the Elemental Lands, the Astral Realm, the Valley of Death, and countless others. Accessing and traversing these places from the Mortal Realm requires specialised knowledge and hard-learned skills. Still, some of the beings in the core realms guard these secrets closely and could be persuaded to share them—for a price.

Magic and Spells¶

Depending on the kind of character you play, they may or may not have the ability to use magic. Magic in Daggerheart is both very powerful and incredibly dangerous, permeating the land and manifesting within the people. It is both a force within you that can aid you throughout your journey and a force outside of you that affects the world.

If your character does have the power of spellcasting, you'll use magic through specific weapons, spells, and other means. As characters grow, the magic they can perform grows with them. Each level, you gain cards that describe the new, powerful magic they can wield and the specific parameters for using it.

Flavouring Your Game¶

If the default portrayal of your character's mechanical effects doesn't fit them and their style, you can always describe them in a way that does. This is often called "flavouring." However, unless your table agrees, that flavour shouldn't offer any mechanical effect beyond the effect's existing description.

For instance, you might say that your rogue's magic takes the form of gadgets and inventions; instead of magically creating a dark cloud, they drop a smoke grenade. Or perhaps your ranger's magic takes the form of ancestral spirits who draw forth the forces of nature. Perhaps magic works in an entirely different way in your lore, and you explain how every class's power emerges from a different source. As long as it abides by the mechanics of the game, you're encouraged to flavour your magic to suit your character.

You can reflavour items, as well. Your character might have a unique weapon from their heritage, but it uses the statistics of a longsword. Your wizard's armour might come in the form of a set of empowered runes instead of chainmail, but they still have Armour Slots you can spend to reduce damage. In this case, "repairing" your armour during a rest could mean replenishing the enchantment. The "Adjusting Abilities and Spells" section of this chapter suggests other ways you can tailor spells and abilities to fit your character and comfort level.