Summary
When you’re running a campaign ofDaggerheartas a GM, you’ll accumulate a resource called Fear every time the players make a roll, and the Fear Duality Dice is higher than their Hope one. While you’re able to hold up to a maximum of 12 Fear while playing, it’s highly encouraged that you spend Fear to keep the narrative of the game feeling fresh.
Of course, there are a handful of standard ways to use Fear, such as interrupting the players, making additional GM moves, or using adversary Fear features, but there are so many creative ways you can use Fear in Daggerheart. Here are a few unique ways to implement Fear.
10Set Up A Disadvantage
Keep ‘Em On Their Heels
Depending on theluck of the diceduring a particular session, you might find yourself inadvertently hoarding Fear as a GM in Daggerheart. If you find yourself with a full capacity of Fear at 12, you might want to consider spending a ton of it at once to set up an immediate disadvantage,particularly in combat.
For example, if the players are about to fight a group of bandits, you might want to spend anywhere from three to five Fear to take additional GM moves, thus allowing all of the bandits to attack the players immediately before they can even do anything. This creates a grander sense of stakes, and allows you to burn through some excess Fear.
9Change Up The Battlefield
Watch Out For Falling Towers
If players are midway through a battle, and the combat is growing stale, consider using Fear to shake things up. For example, if players are fighting in a large ruin, try spending a Fear to send a decaying structure suddenly toppling toward the party.
This will force the party to not only spend time and actions avoiding the collision, but also change the nature of the battle. Now, with destroyed ruins everywhere, rogues and other sneaky creatures can hide in ways they might not have been able to before.
8Introduce A Twist
Surprise, Surprise
Fear doesn’t just have to be used in combat. It can also be used in social encounters. While, as a GM, you can always make GM moves that help service the story, Fear is a great resource you can use to introduce a twist to a social encounter that feels fair, rather than it feeling like you’re pushing your thumb on the scale.
For example, say the party is interrogating an adversary, and the encounter is going extremely well for the party. You might’ve planned for the information they’re extracting to be hidden for longer. Try spending a Fear to have an ally of the adversary burst into the interrogation, thus breaking up the scene in an unexpected way.
7Add New Adversaries
A New Challenger Approaches
When you’re in combat, it’s easy to discover that you haven’t necessarily balanced an encounter all that well. That’s why, if the fight is going south in the player’s favor, you might want to consider spending Fear to have additional creatures join the battle.
Again, Fear is great for changing things up on the fly, as it feels fair and within the parameters of the game. By spending Fear, you negate a player’s negative reaction toward your decision to change up the fiction in unexpected ways. This is a resource you’re spending, and it signals the importance of what you’re doing and the gravity of the stakes.
6Change Adversary Damage
Fight To The Death
Sometimes, in combat, you might discover that a powerful adversary is not doing quite as much damage as you might’ve hoped, or their attacks are being easily avoidedby a warrior in the party. In Daggerheart, it’s important that the rules serve the story you’re trying to tell. After all, the campaign’s big bad shouldn’t go down in only a few hits.
So, consider spending Fear to add new abilities and features to your adversary’s stat block mid-fight, including their damage. You can justify this by saying that an adversary that can cast spells is getting more reckless with their magic the closer they get to death, thus making the magic more potent.
5Cast Unique Spells
Get Spellcastin’
Whether in combat or social situations, try using Fear to create unique magic effects and spells that you might not otherwise find on a Domain Card. For example, let’s say that the party is chasing a group of adversaries led by a malevolent mage. The adversaries cross a bridge. When they do so, you spend one Fear to have the mage destroy the bridge magically.
While there’s no ‘Destroy Bridge’ spell or Domain Card, you can use a Fear in this way to create bespoke magical effects that feel realistic within the fiction. Just make sure you’re not spending too much Fear in this way, as this can start to feel game-breaking when done back-to-back.
4Break Up Downtime
That’ll Teach You To Short Rest
While, technically speaking, you can interrupt players' downtime as much as you want as a GM, spending Fear is a good way to either plunge the party into an unexpected combat or social encounter during downtime activities. Again, spending Fear makes interruptions like this feel more fair and balanced.
If the party is taking too many rests, this is a great time to spend Fear to teach the party that they can’t stop too often. Otherwise, you’ll spend Fear and throw additional obstacles in their path, thus making their journey perhaps more perilous going forward.
3Take Group Actions
Just Like Players Can
Some adversaries have tag-team or group actions they can take as part of their stat block. However, not all adversaries function in this way. However, if you want to have a group of enemies take a move together all at once, spending Fear is a good way to do so.
Perhaps a group of cultists can cast a spell altogether that nerfs the entire party. They must all use their action to do this, and perhaps you may tell players you spend an amount of Fear equal to the cultists to do so. Either way, this is sure to keep players on their toes.
2Trigger Environmental Effects
Rain, Snow, And Sleet
In addition to physical obstacles in combat, you can also use Fear while the party is traveling to create environmental obstacles. For example, perhaps the party is climbing up the face of a cliff. When they do this, you spend a Fear to cause a torrential downpour, thus making the climb more difficult.
This Fear move is great as it’s highly versatile, and can be tailored to any number of situations. Consider using wind, rain, forest fires, or even thunderstorms to keep players engaged.
1Force An Escape
Catch Me If You Can
Lastly, sometimes, you might find an adversary of yours backed into a corner. If you plan to use an adversary for more than one game, you might not want their demise to come so soon. You can use Fear in this way to have the adversary escape from harm.
Again, the most important element of using Fear in Daggerheart is spending Fear in a way that makes twists in the narrative feel fair. Of course, having an antagonist escape mid-fight can feel unrewarding for players, but if you use Fear, at the very least, the players can relish in wearing down your resources.
