Daggerheart one-shots I have run

I keep a saucer of Fear tokens on the fridge now, and after that first kitchen night I started grabbing other published one-shots and running them. This is the pile, not a catalogue. I am rating each night out of five for how it played: ease, theme, the way the mechanics showed up, and whether I would hand it to you. That is one number, not four mystery scores.

The Sablewood Messengers

Spenser Starke wrote it, with Rowan Hall and Mike Underwood, and it is free. You already know the night if you read the other post, therefore I will not retell it. This one is a crate, a carriage, a village called Hush, and the Whitefire Arcanist at the other end of a map.

It plays like The Edge Chronicles sat down with Avatar: The Last Airbender, because you get a kind forest, hybrid animals, and a first sit that wants to teach you how to be at the table. There are two to five of you, five Level 1 pregens, and five acts. There is no clock printed, and you will not need one.

What I like is the same thing that still annoys me, because it does not close. The Arcanist points west at a spire and you want next week. People like it because you can cut the standees and go, and of course they do. It is the official first session.

4 / 5. It is the easiest thing I have put on a table, because the theme is gentle high fantasy and the mechanics are the tutorial. I am docking it one because a sealed one-shot would have let us go home finished.

The Wish Thief

Rob Hebert wrote it, and Sadie Lowry edited it. It is free. You get a royal birthday, a wish tied up in a tiara, a lockdown, a chase through a festival, and a fight. There are nine pregens, one of each core class, and it is Tier 1 and Level 1. It has a beginning, a thief, and a confrontation, which Sablewood refuses to give you.

I ran it on a night when we had three hours and no patience for a sequel hook, and I compressed the festival because if you let the carnival breathe, three hours will eat the thief. We still got there. The last fight is meaner than the cake.

Tables like the whodunit, and they like building the city together. Some of you will want firmer ground and fewer questions, and that is fair. I liked the lockdown because I spent Fear to make the castle actually close, and for once the token felt like a door.

4 / 5. It is easy to print, with a theme you can say in one sentence, and a chase that shows the game off. I am not giving it five because the clock is tight, and because that last solo wants tuning.

The Dying Spire

The booklet is a pain to get, because it is a Free RPG Day night at Level 2 and Tier 2, with pregens and standees. Carlos Cisco wrote it, and you can run it as a sequel to Sablewood, drop it into a campaign, or treat it as a night on its own.

I ran it as the sequel because we still wanted the spire, and Duality was already in our hands, therefore the night was cleaner than Sablewood, and meaner, because nobody was teaching us to sit. If you do not have the booklet, do not plan tonight around it.

3 / 5. The play was fine. Getting the booklet is not, therefore I cannot honestly put it next to the two free files you can print this afternoon.

300 Zombies Walk Into A Bar

Erik Smith wrote it. It is for three to five of you at first or second level, and it takes three to four hours. You survive until dawn, and there is a new Death move and a zombie virus. That is the whole pitch.

I ran it in that window. Horror is easier in this game than I expected, because Fear already wants the room to get worse, and a virus gives you somewhere to spend it. If you came for high fantasy courtesy, this is the wrong night, and if you came to sweat, print it. The theme is a bar at the end of the world, and the extra mechanics do real work.

4 / 5. It does the job it names. I am not putting it at five because it is not the Daggerheart most people sat down to play.

Phantom Peak

Louise wrote it, and you get a lodge, a mountain, a mining accident, and things in the snow that look like people you loved. There is no printed tier and no printed clock.

I ran it as a winter night, not a festival, because it plays modern, and some tables will reskin it toward fantasy. I left it modern. Guilt as a monster is a clean Fear spend, and we got a night out of it.

3 / 5. It is strong if your table will do grief, and it is fine once you accept the lodge, because the mechanics are ordinary Daggerheart used well, not a new minigame. I liked it more than the number, and the number is still three because I would not tell you this is the one to print first.

Vaultbreakers: Flight of Fortune

Arcadev wrote it, and the job is a heist on the Gilded Glider, the first fully operational airship, during the Gilded Gala. You steal the Floatstone and get out, and there is no printed clock.

I ran it as a heist night, because Hope is for the plan and Fear is for the gala noticing you, and therefore the table wanted the Floatstone more than they wanted a fair fight, which is the right mood.

4 / 5. That is a five for theme if you like a job, and a four for ease once you accept there is no printed clock. I would print this before the holiday-park ghost.

The Quest for the Crimson Lady

Gm Atari wrote it, and it is two to three hours for five of you at Tier 1, set as a preamble to Witherwild. You find Mar Dornov in Wildfar, keep harvesting the Crimson Lady, and stop Haven turning to stone.

I ran it in that window for a table that already knew they wanted Witherwild later, and the flower is a cleaner job than a sealed crate because you know what happens if you fail. The night was short, framed, and over before anyone asked for the next town.

4 / 5. It is easy, on-theme for Witherwild, with ordinary mechanics on a clock that is actually printed, and I am not giving it five because it is a preamble, not a closed world of its own.

Goat Herders Wanted

Erik Smith wrote this one too, and it is a complete Tier 2 night for three to five of you at Level 2 or 3, in three to four hours. Old Farm Woman Edna hires you to fetch her prize-winning goats from a jealous neighbour. If only it were that easy.

I ran it as the stupid job that is not the job, because Fear is for the neighbour and then for whatever is actually eating the goats. You can pitch it in one breath, and the night still turns. The joke has to land.

3 / 5. It is easy to run, and the mechanics are ordinary, therefore it is a good second or third night, and not the one I would hand a stranger.

What I would print tonight

If nobody has played, print Sablewood, and tell them the spire is next week.

If you need a closed night and a free file, print The Wish Thief, and cut the festival before it eats the thief.

If you already have the Free RPG Day booklet, print Dying Spire.

If the table is sick of courtesy, print zombies or Phantom Peak, depending on whether you want a virus or a ghost.

If they want a job, print Flight of Fortune, and if they already picked Witherwild, print Crimson Lady.

I am not calling any of these the best, because best is a table word. These are the ones I could actually get, and the nights I had with them.