Daggerheart vs Fellowship
Compare Daggerheart and Fellowship side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Daggerheart | Fellowship | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Play Style | Narrative, Collaborative, Heroic, Roleplay-Heavy, Fiction-First, Theater of the Mind, Character Building, Drama, Beginner-Friendly, Character-Driven | Fiction-First, Playbook-Driven, High-Fantasy, Heroic, Collaborative, Worldbuilding, Open Source, GM-Friendly |
| Core Mechanic | Roll 2d12 Duality Dice (Hope + Fear) and add modifiers vs. difficulty. Which die rolls higher determines whether the moment swings toward the players (Hope) or the GM gains Fear tokens to spend on complications. In combat, adversary attacks roll d20 + modifier against target's Evasion. | Roll 2d6 + stat (Blood, Courage, Sense, Grace, or Wisdom). 10+ full success, 7–9 success with a cost, 6− the Overlord makes a Cut against you. Playbook moves trigger from fictional actions. Hope (roll 3d6 keep best two) and Despair (roll 3d6 keep worst two) modify all rolls and cancel each other out when both are present. |
| Dice | 2d12 | 2d6 |
| Complexity | Medium | Medium |
| Accessibility | Very High | Medium |
| Runnability | Very High | Medium |
| License | Darrington Press Community Gaming License (DPCGL) | Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 |
| Cost | Free | $ |
| Publisher | Darrington Press | Liberi Gothica Games |
| Year | 2025 | 2019 |
| Best For | Groups who want heroic fantasy with emotionally driven storytelling, where every roll shifts momentum between hope and fear. Great for Critical Role fans and narrative-focused tables. | Groups who want LOTR-style co-operative epic fantasy where one player commits to playing the evil Overlord throughout the campaign and each hero treats themselves as the spokesperson for an entire fantasy people. |
| Highlights | Every action roll uses 2d12 Duality Dice, and whether Hope or Fear lands higher hands momentum to the player or the GM. Combat runs fiction-first with no fixed initiative, so the spotlight passes by the action rather than a turn order. Characters equip abilities as domain cards drawn from two domains, building a loadout the player can swap between. | Dedicated Overlord playbook lets one player run the villain throughout the campaign with structured threat, plan, and Cut mechanics. Each hero playbook grants full authority over their fantasy people's lore, history, and culture: players are the canonical voice for their species. Over a dozen Destiny playbooks unlock at level 5 to transform heroes into greater figures (Chosen One, Cyborg, Witch, Lord of Beasts, and others). CC BY-SA 4.0 license permits free modification and redistribution. |
| Considerations | The domain-card system runs best with printed cards, though it can be played from the character sheet alone. Players and the GM use asymmetric rules, so each side has its own procedures to learn. Mechanics are tied to the game's own setting and ancestries, which takes work to reskin for another world. | Requires one player to commit to running the villain full-time with no hero of their own. Hero playbooks are tightly themed around six fantasy archetypes (Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, Heir, Orc, Squire): groups wanting non-Tolkien-style species must reskin or hack the playbooks. Tracking Bonds, Companions, Hope, Despair, and tagged gear adds bookkeeping above the typical PbtA load. Whether a fictional Advantage exists for Finish Them often requires table interpretation. |