How to run a Daggerheart scene

There is no initiative clock on my table. There is a scene, and then someone has the spotlight, and then the dice tell us who keeps it. If you can run one scene that way, you can run the rest of the night.

Set the scene, then ask

Name what is there, in present tense, and then hand the table a job. That is the whole start. I put them on the ferry landing.

Read this aloud.

If they talk, they talk. If they shove past, that is an action roll. You do not need a map yet.

Let the dice move the spotlight

When they roll, the Hope die and the Fear die decide more than pass or fail. Success with Hope, they keep the spotlight and the world says yes. Success with Fear, they still get what they came for, and I take a token and a small cost. Failure with Hope is a no with a crack in the door. Failure with Fear is a no, and I take the spotlight and make a real move.

I ran the landing that way. Someone tried to jump the gap to the skiff. It was Agility at 12. They made it with Fear, so they are on the boat, and the clerk has already shouted for the watch.

Do not pause to award a turn order. The fiction points at the next person, or at you.

Build on what they just did

The core loop is short on purpose. Set the scene, ask, build on the fiction, and do it again. A scene is over when the job on the landing is done, or when everyone is looking at you for what happens next, and you have spent the Fear or you have not.

If the watch arrives, that is a new beat, not a new initiative. Spotlight the clerk, or spotlight the first watch officer, and then give it back.

What I would print tonight

Write four lines for one room: what is there, the question, the first likely roll and its Difficulty, and one move you will make if the Fear die wins. Run only that. Stop when the landing is no longer the point.