Michael R. Underwood
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Friday Morning Musings on DH design
🕑 Added 2025-12-19 14:54:54 +0000 UTCThis morning I was thinking about a mechanic I've seen a little in Daggerheart but I want to investigate more:
Forcing PCs to vault domain cards. This might show up as a stun/stagger kind of feature or as a "magic binding", or even something like memory loss.
On a certain level, it could be interpreted as just a Stress tax/cost, but it has a distinct feeling and leaves the PC without the reactive/passive elements until they can take the spotlight and recall their cards.
It also creates an opportunity for the player to pivot in the scene by bringing in different cards to face the challenges before them.
I can see this working at different scales. A tier 2/3 adversary with a Fear feature that can force a PC to choose a card and vault it, A nastier variant that lets the GM choose which one to vault, or a more random feature that tells the player to randomly pick a card and vault it. Then a Tier 4 adversary with a higher-cost Fear move that could force a PC to vault 1d4+1 cards or maybe even their entire loadout.
And any of this could, of course, be implemented in an environment as well. A labyrinth that manipulates memory and strips you of your abilities, a cursed ruin that binds your powers, etc.
Now I'm going to have to find a place to fit this into one of my current games so I can test it out. If you're in one of those games, I apologize in advance. ;)
Comments
Michael R. Underwood
Glad to hear you're already working in this space! I think there's a ton of different applications that can accompany any number of narrative tropes or situations. Removing/vaulting the card until a specific trigger is another fun dimension. It reminds me a bit of what I'm doing with the Adept class and their ability to "imbue" domain cards.
Gethin Pearce
We actually have done this in a Wondrous Environments stat block. We've used it primarily to show a location "draining" a certain power. It's a fun mechanics becuase you can grade it. Some you just say "put it in the vault", the player can choose to then spend the Stress to get it back, presenting the player with a choice. Or you can specify till a rest, forcing them to have to adapt for the rest of the session.
Michael R. Underwood
I really like the psychic foe reaction idea! I have enough DH projects already but this is probably going to hijack my brain a bit anyway.
Austin Lance
This does open up a lot of possibilities. Antimagic environments features that force PCs to vault spell cards. Bbeg’s that target specific domains (a seraph who vaults dread). But i’m really inspired to write a psychic villain with a feature that when pcs fail with Fear they are psy-blasted into vaulting the ability the failed to use. Like they lost the memory of it or whatever.
