Daggerheart vs Troika!
Compare Daggerheart and Troika! side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Daggerheart | Troika! | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy, Scifi |
| Play Style | Narrative, Collaborative, Heroic, Roleplay-Heavy, Fiction-First, Theater of the Mind, Character Building, Drama, Beginner-Friendly, Character-Driven | Rules-Light, Weird, Random Character Creation, Low-Prep, Improvisation, Deadly, Random Tables |
| 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. | Three stats: Skill, Stamina, Luck. Roll 2d6 under Skill + Advanced Skill to succeed. Initiative uses a random token-draw stack: unpredictable turn order. Luck is a consumable resource that depletes with each test. |
| Dice | 2d12 | 2d6 |
| Complexity | Medium | Very Low |
| Accessibility | Very High | Very High |
| Runnability | Very High | Low |
| License | Darrington Press Community Gaming License (DPCGL) | Open (Troika! SRD) |
| Cost | $$$ | $ |
| Publisher | Darrington Press | Melsonian Arts Council |
| 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. | Fast, surreal science-fantasy adventures with minimal rules and random character generation. Ideal for one-shots and improvisational play. |
| 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. | Simple rules, creative backgrounds double as setting material, chaotic token-draw initiative creates unpredictable turn order, consumable Luck depletes with each test |
| 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. | Initiative stack can leave players unable to act for long stretches, mixed roll-under/roll-over mechanics confuse new players, setting is implied rather than described, minimal tactical depth |