Daggerheart vs Wyld
Compare Daggerheart and Wyld side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Daggerheart | Wyld | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Play Style | Narrative, Collaborative, Heroic, Roleplay-Heavy, Fiction-First, Theater of the Mind, Character Building, Drama, Beginner-Friendly, Character-Driven | Rules-Light, Classless, Dark Fantasy, One-Shot Friendly, Roll to Cast, Inventory Management, Open Source |
| 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 plus the relevant ability point (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, or Empathy, each rated 0–4) for any risky action: 10+ is a Success, 7–9 a Partial Success that lands with a complication, 6 or less a Failure. Double 6 is a Critical Success that grants the player a Fortune Point (spendable to boost any later roll, max 3); double 1 is a Critical Failure that hands the GM a Misfortune Point (spendable for out-of-turn foe actions, max 5). Physical attacks bypass the test: the attacker rolls the weapon's damage die, adds STR (melee) or DEX (ranged), subtracts the target's Armour Protection, and applies the remainder to Hit Points. Spellcasting reuses the 2d6 test against INT (Primordial utility) or EMP (Elemental damage), with a partial success triggering a d20 Wyld Flare table for unintended magical chaos. |
| Dice | 2d12 | 2d6 |
| Complexity | Medium | Low |
| Accessibility | Very High | Very High |
| Runnability | Very High | Very High |
| License | Darrington Press Community Gaming License (DPCGL) | CC BY 4.0 |
| Cost | $$$ | Free |
| Publisher | Darrington Press | Quest Giver Games |
| Year | 2025 | 2026 |
| 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. | Small groups who want a short, classless fantasy zine for anthropomorphic animal-folk in a pastoral world that gradually darkens: built for the tonal slide from cozy Wyld Folk daily life into encounters with corrupted Ravenous, Carrion undead, and ascending Mythics. |
| Highlights | Hope/Fear duality creates constant dramatic tension, fiction-first combat flows freely without rigid turns, card-based abilities add a tactile element, session zero and safety tools built in | Weapons strike without a roll: physical attacks resolve as damage die plus STR or DEX minus Armour Protection, removing the to-hit layer that slows similar 2d6 systems and reserving the test mechanic for risky non-attack actions, spellcasting, and contests. Magic splits into Elemental spells (EMP: damage with element-specific riders such as Air pushing the target, Earth knocking them prone, Fire bypassing armour, Light blinding, Dark dropping Strength) and Primordial spells (INT: non-damage utility from 25 paired opposites like Repel/Attract, Heat/Cool, Shrink/Grow, Slick/Friction), with a partial success on either rolling on a d20 Wyld Flare table for chaotic side-effects instead of a wasted turn. Hitting exactly 0 HP triggers the Scars table: rather than wound penalties, every entry pairs a permanent cosmetic mark (a limp, coloured-vein blood poisoning, lingering green spots, an inner-child episode) with a chance to raise an ability score or add to maximum HP, so near-death consistently bends toward leaving the Wyld Folk marked and more capable. |
| Considerations | Card-based system works best with physical or printed cards though character sheets alone suffice, asymmetric GM/player rules have a learning curve, tightly coupled to its own setting and lore | Combat is one-way damage (attackers roll, defenders don't, with no dodge, parry, or active defensive reaction beyond Armour Protection), so player agency in defense is limited to wearing or removing armour rather than mid-combat maneuvering. The world of Sunder is sketched in broad strokes: its history, factions, geography, and the nature of the encroaching darkness are conveyed across a few paragraphs and bestiary entries, leaving the GM to fill in most lore at the table. Character growth caps at level 10 with a hard ceiling of 4 in any ability score: numerical advancement runs out quickly, with later gains limited to extra Martial Foci or additional spells slotted within those existing caps. |