Pokemon Daggerheart Battle Royale

Okay I see it. Let's see here. Vengeance Guardian Cubone. Two moves(solid) and Rock Head(I'll see what I can do 🤔) Two Domain cards(check), Traits look solid, got a weapon and armor(throwing in a Health Potion because I can). Looks good. I'll get around to doing the character sheet shortly(Dinner beckons).

@Fôxchild Whack the Cubone

Evasion: 8(9 -1) HP: 7; Stress: 7(6 +1)

8/16 Damage Thresholds with 4 Armor Score

Class: Guardian Subclass: Vengeance

Traits: S(+2), A(+1), F(-1), I(+0), P(+1) and K(+0)

Equipment: Battle-axe(D10+3; Melee; Strength); Chainmail Armor(7/15; 4 AS; Heavy*); Stamina Potion

*Heavy: -1 to Evasion

Guardian’s hope feature

Frontline Tank: Spend 3 Hope to clear 2 Armor Slots.

Class feature

Unstoppable: Once per long rest, you can become Unstoppable. You gain an Unstoppable Die. At level 1, your Unstoppable Die is a d4. Place it on your character sheet in the space provided, starting with the 1 value facing up. After you make a damage roll that deals 1 or more Hit Points to a target, increase the Unstoppable Die value by one. When the die’s value would exceed its maximum value or when the scene ends, remove the die and drop out of Unstoppable. At level 5, your Unstoppable Die increases to a d6. While Unstoppable, you gain the following benefits: - You reduce the severity of physical damage by one threshold (Severe to Major, Major to Minor, Minor to None). - You add the current value of the Unstoppable Die to your damage roll. - You can’t be Restrained or Vulnerable.

Foundation features

At Ease: Gain an additional Stress slot.

Revenge: When an adversary within Melee range succeeds on an attack against you, you can mark 2 Stress to force the attacker to mark a Hit Point.

Ancestry Perks:

Battle Armor: Prevents Critical Hits

Mournful Odyssey: Enemies who attack you within Melee range are inflicted with the Guilty condition until their next action.

Pokémon moves:

Headbutt: Range: Melee; Deals D6 +2 Physical(Normal) Damage. On successful attack, roll a D10. A result of 8 or higher flinches the target.

Growl: Range: Melee; Affected target has their damage reduced by 1(up to -6).

Domain cards:

Not Good Enough: When you roll your damage dice, you can reroll any 1s or 2s.

Forceful Push: Make an attack with your primary weapon against a target within Melee range. On a success, you deal damage and knock them back to Close range. On a success with Hope, add a d6 to your damage roll. Additionally, you can spend a Hope to make them temporarily Vulnerable.

Lmk if I missed anything and if you really want Rock Head(Battle Armor is sooo good in Daggerheart given what crits can do). Also if I missed anything LMK ASAP!

Okay Cracks Knuckles figuratively... Below are a couple videos worth watching. They're basically a general overview of how the game is played. Below the videos I'll be doing a wall of text basically regurgitating what's in the videos so if you don't want that but love to listen to a voice that is better than mine along with visual aids, then by all means do so. Matt Mercer is Ganondorf anyway so maybe you should? 🤔

So basically we are playing Daggerheart. Daggerheart is a TTRPG(Table Top Role Playing Game). Whenever you do an action of consequence, you make an action roll. In Daggerheart, this is a pair of 12-sided dice, represented by 2D12. One 12-sided dice represents Hope while the other represents Fear.

You roll these 2D12 and add their result together along with any applicable Traits or other modifiers like Experiences. Experiences were disabled for this Battle Royale because the vast majority of them don't have applications in combat(and were yet another thing I'd have to keep track of and that you have to declare using them before the roll yada yada bleh too much).

There are five roll results in Daggerheart: Success with Hope, Success with Fear, Failure with Hope, Failure with Fear and Critical success. Success/Failure is predicated on the result meeting or exceeding the target's Difficulty(Evasion). Rolling with Hope is when your Hope dice is bigger than your Fear dice. Rolling with Fear is the opposite and finally critical success is rolling doubles and is basically rolling with Hope but better since you not only gain a Hope but can clear a Stress. Crits have another perk with respect to damage but I'll get to that in a bit.

Roll outcomes determine spotlight. Hope keeps it rotating between the players(I'll determine who gets it) while Fear shifts it to me(if I desire to take it). Rolling with Hope generates Hope for you to use at any time(may have up to 6 Hope) while rolling with Fear generates Fear for me to use as I see fit.

Now since this is combat, every action in this Battle Royale will consist of two parts. The first part is moving. Each character in the game can move up to 30 feet. How we determine distance is by a square grid where 1 square = 5 feet. Meaning your character can move up to 6 squares(6 x 5 = 30) before you have to declare your action. Your action can be to sprint up to an additional 30 feet(6 squares) by making an Agility roll. An Agility roll is effectively 2D12 + Agility, so you roll your Duality Dice, add their result and tack on your Agility Trait modifier(which can be -1, +0 +1 or +2 depending on what you assigned it). Generally sprints have no complications but who knows what will happen based on the roll of the dice.

The other action you can take(mind you it's optional) after moving is to attack. What you attack with is up to you but the primary means is with your Equipment(aka Weapon). Your Weapon has a particular range. Melee weapons have a range of 1 square so that means you literally have to move right next to your opponent to attack them with it. If your Weapon has a range of Very Close, that range extends up to 3 squares. A range of Close is up to 6 squares, Far up to 12 squares and Very Far is up to a staggering 30 squares.

Distance in Combat is determined by the difference in coordinates. Coordinates are represented by your x-axis position(left to right) and your y-axis position(up and down). For example, say I was at position 1,1 and my target was at 6,5. His distance from me is 6-1(5) + 5-1(4) = 9. Meaning if I wasn't going to move, id need a weapon of a range of Far to hit them, otherwise I'd have to move to a point where I am. You'd also need line of sight so if there's an obstruction(say a pillar or another character), you may have to move to where they're not in the way, else you might hit them instead of your intended target 😇🙅

If the target is in range of your chosen weapon, you make an action roll using the Trait on your weapon. For example, a Dualstaff has a range of Far, uses the Instinct Trait and deals D6 + 3 Magic damage. So first you roll your 2D12 and then add your Trait(in this case Instinct). Again, if the result meets or beats the target's difficulty, then it succeeds(aka hits). When that happens, you make a Damage roll. What you roll for Damage is predicated on what weapon you used. In the example, I used a Dualstaff that deals D6 + 3. The number of damage dice you roll is predicated on your Proficiency but since we are all level 1(on purpose mind you), this is set to 1 so you only roll one damage dice. So you roll a D6(6-sided dice) and take it's result(say 4) and add +3 to it to get your total amount of damage(in this case 7).

If your roll was a Critical success, damage rolls are particularly nasty for the opponent. You roll for Damage normally(D6 +3 from my example) and then add the full value of your damage dice on top of that. So in the above example, I rolled 4 + 3 for 7 damage. A Crit would then add 6 to that because you add the maximum value of your damage dice to the outcome for a total of 13 damage. At higher levels where your Proficiency is higher, it really, really hurts. If you used a spell(like Unleashed Chaos in Arcana tree), you'd roll a number of D10's equal to your Spellcast Trait(which if you assigned +2 to your Trait it's 2D10). You'd roll 2D10 as normal and then add +20 or the max possible on a 2D10 to your result. TLDR: Crits really hurt. 😇🙅 That is unless the target has Battle Armor ability where they ignore the bonus Crit damage.

That damage is then applied towards the target's Damage Thresholds. This is predicated by the values you see on your given character sheet. An example is 8/16. The first number signifies your Major Threshold while the second number is your Severe Threshold. Incoming damage is applied to that in a meet it or beat it format so since I rolled 7 damage, the target would take Minor Damage and mark 1 HP. Had I rolled 8 damage, the target would have taken Major Damage and had to mark 2 HP. Consequently 16 Damage or more is Severe Damage(marking 3 HP).

Now each character has the means to mitigate incoming damage via Armor slots. The amount of Armor slots you have is determined by your Armor score. Each source of incoming damage can be reduced by one severity(Severe to Major, Major to Minor, or Minor to nothing) by marking one Armor slot. You may only mark one Armor slot per source of incoming damage. Once your Armor slots have been exhausted, you cannot mitigate incoming damage.

There are three other resources that you need to keep track of as a player. The first one is Hope. Each player starts with 2 Hope and Hope is a resource you can spend to activate certain spells, abilities or work with an Ally(never said you can't form temporary alliances 🤔😇🙅). Uses of Hope can be found here: Hope. You gain Hope by rolling with Hope or through certain class abilities.

The next resource is Stress. Stress represents the physical and mental strain your character has endured. Each character starts with 6 Stress slots(exception being Vengeance Guardian with 7). Marking stress isn't the end of the world but once you've marked your last Stress slot, two things occur. Firstly any additional stress you incur will be coming out of HP. Secondly, you will be in a state of vulnerability where all attacks against you have advantage(which I'll explain in a bit).

The final resource you have to keep track of is obviously your HP. The amount of HP you have is predicated by your class. In general this is 6 but some start with 5 while others start with 7. When you've marked your last HP, you have three options. Option#1, go out in a blaze of glory. Your final gambit is a critical success but then you die. Option#2, you faint. Option#3, you roll the dice and let fate decide the outcome. Success means you live to see another round with 1 HP while failure means you die. Let's just say the odds are not in your favor on #3 but who knows what will happen.

Now there are a few other things I have to discuss. When moving on the grid(which will be a 30x30 square grid), moving left or right shifts the x-coordinate(left decreases, right increases) while moving up or down affects the y-coordinate(up increases, down decreases). Knowing where you are in relation to others will be something I'll note for you to help you because we won't be using a battle simulator(I'm lazy so this is my penance).

There are instances where you may roll with advantage or disadvantage. When that occurs, a D6 is rolled by you or an Ally helping you(Help Ally action). The result is added to any action roll on advantage while it's subtracted when it's disadvantage. Meaning you want a 6 on advantage but a 1 when it's disadvantage.

Pokémon moves have a particular range but as you'll have likely figured out by now, they have no Trait associated with them. Therefore, you will use your +2 Trait when using them. They also cost two Hope to use but require an action roll, which is a change for those in the current Daggerheart campaign. However, while the cost is steep, you get the benefits of the Type chart so if you deal Water damage to a Fire type, that damage is amplified by x2.

To conclude, I will set the stage tomorrow. There will be chaos because every Daggerheart session is the embodiment of chaos and it's my job to bring order to that chaos to the best of my ability. The Royale starts at 17:00 UTC tomorrow and will last until there is only one person left standing.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask them now. Until then, may the odds be ever in your favor 😇🙅