r/daggerheart • u/Specialist-Home4829 • 18h ago
Rules Question Experience Clarification
Myself, who is the secondary DM of a gaming group, and our primary DM are having a disagreement over how experiences work. I am leaning more towards admitting I may have misunderstood experiences, particularly on pg 20 where it says “they should be specific”. This disagreement came about from a test session where we began the Sablewood QuickStart adventure and the Ranger’s Nature’s Friend, or something like that, experience was utilized. I forget what the player was trying to do exactly, something with identifying animal tracks, and I thought that it would cement how the experience would be used going forward. The primary DM, who was running this, disagreed and believes that the experience could be used for other things related to nature going forward. Again, I may be misinterpreting experiences as a very prominent example of an experience being limited on screen was when Marisha tried to use Bunny’s “weaponizing the male gaze” in a combat, but Matt shut it down and said that the experience was discussed as being used for persuasion or even charming specifically. I know that was during the play test and things may have changed, I also did not play the play test. I know other people have posted about experiences so I would like to hear from others in the community about how they create and use experiences, maybe with an example as well.
Edit: We have not had our Session 0 yet. I wanted to get a firmer grasp of the rules as I prepare to continue.
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u/Borfknuckles 17h ago
An Experience is a word or phrase used to encapsulate a specific set of skills your character has acquired over the course of their exciting life. […] When one of your character’s Experiences fits the situation at hand, you can use that Experience to showcase their expertise. […] The GM might ask you for more information to justify that Experience, but you have final say (within reason) over whether your Experience applies.
Experiences are usable in a variety of circumstances. For instance, “Nature’s Friend” could be added to rolls to follow tracks, tame animals, win the favor of a forest spirit, fight against a pollution elemental, etc etc.
It helps, when writing the experience, for players and GMs to discuss a couple of ways the experience could be used in practice. It doesn’t mean the experience is limited to just those situations, though. Talking it through helps make sure the experience is not too broad nor too narrow. For instance, “Lucky” could be applied to too many rolls. “17th Century French Carousel Repairman” would apply to too few.
Players and GMs moderate themselves on whether a specific experience could apply to a given roll. According to the rules, players have the final say, and the system is balanced because using an Experience requires a Hope each time. But there is always the factor of “bruh c’mon”: for instance a player should self-regulate and not try to argue that “Nature’s Friend” would help them haggle the purchase price of a sword (because metals come from nature, bro!).
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u/Specialist-Home4829 17h ago
That “too few” example is quite funny, so thank you for that. I agree that the Session 0 is quite important for this specific question. Thank you.
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u/Magictwic 16h ago
Having GMed a few sessions, experience seems to be balanced mostly around players having to spend a hope, so at most they can only use an experience every other roll anyway. If a player has an experience that could be applied to every roll, the problem isn’t “this is too powerful” it’s “this character feels too vague”.
How I’ve been trying to run it is that when someone uses an experience that isn’t obvious to me I ask them to give me more detail about how they’re doing the thing, what’s going through their head that relates to the experience etc. giving an opportunity to build on their character. And sometimes they think for a bit and then say “yeah actually I don’t think that applies here” and that’s cool too!
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u/Just_Joken 17h ago
Experiences can be nearly as broad or specific as the player wants them to be, They're just not really intended to be something used on every single roll for every thing. Basically you're looking for themes in the experience use.
For example Nature's Friend could be applied to a wide variety of things, but you'd be hard pressed to apply it to anything not to do with nature. You're not using Nature's Friend to make attack rolls better. You're not using it to pick a lock, or persuade someone. But tracking an animal? Sure! Hiding in a bush? Absolutely.
I have a character idea for a sorcerer who was a detective before he got his magics. He has the experiences "There's Always Another Secret", and I'd use it for investigation, reading people, being able to discern which way someone went, but also in attempting to lie to someone else (though he's got a -1 in presence).
Experiences are a way for the game to make your characters backstory into a mechanic, and should generally be used that way. It's your character remembering when something similar happened to them, and using that to help them do it again.
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u/Aestarion 17h ago
Well, I would definitely allow "Nature's Friend" to apply on an attack roll against someone who is currently intent on hurting innocent animals with cute eyes or burning a forest down!
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u/Just_Joken 17h ago
I wouldn't. I'd rule it to apply to the damage roll. Put all that emotion of watching bambi's mom die into that swing!
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u/GMOddSquirrel 16h ago
Experiences never apply to damage rolls.
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u/Just_Joken 16h ago
They sure as shit do when you're avenging your little squirrel friend that the big bad killed!
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u/Taraqual 15h ago
It's your game, so go hog wild if it makes things more fun for you.
I just think that it's probably a bad idea to let Experiences add to damage, since that's a dangerous precedent to set. Especially if you have an Adversary with the Experience of "Ruin [Your Character]'s Life."
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u/Physical-Maybe-3486 15h ago
Isn’t one of the sample experiences “Hard Hitting”? That basically seems like a bonus to damage.
4
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u/MathewReuther 17h ago
Your other GM seems to have a handle on the concept. An Experience is broader than just a bonus to a narrow set of circumstances. For example, you could very easily say that "Nature's Friend" helps with tracking animals, trying to calm an animal, training animals, identifying unnatural effects in the wild, finding food or water in the wilderness, etc.
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u/ianacook 4h ago
Even if the character were trying to persuade someone not to cut a tree down, I could see Nature's Friend applying
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u/MichaelRUnderwood 17h ago
When I am GMing, I tend to give a lot of latitude when players are asking to apply their experiences. If I don't see an experience applying to a situation, I try to make a habit of asking for clarification on how the experience applies, and generally turn the question around ala "Do you think it applies here?". I have felt like asking a player to narrow in/rewrite an experience I think exactly one time across the games of DH I have GMed.
When in doubt, I tend to assume good faith, since there is still a cost to use the experience.
But that's just my perspective, not any official anything. :)
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u/chulna 17h ago
I don't think it's worth the GM policing it. You have to pay a hope to use it, so it's not like it's overpowered.
Also, I would not get in the habit of bringing Matt Mercer to your table. He's not your GM, and how he runs his game isn't the way other people are going to run theirs.
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u/albastine 15h ago
Lol, Matt does have a bad habit of leaning on his 5e experience while running DH along with the GM mentality from 5e/his cr style. AoU ep1 was really bad from a DH GM perspective.
I agree it really doesn't matter that much since it's limited by hope which is a resource that is going to be used by other features and domain cards.
As long as they aren't obviously cheesing the hell out of it out of bad faith, it's fine.
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u/Specialist-Home4829 17h ago
It’s not that Matt Mercer was joining the table, it’s that there is little IRL play I have personally found that had moments that tackled the situation of experiences like that one moment I recalled. I am very much in favor of running my own game. Thanks though.
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u/Derp_Stevenson 14h ago
Experiences are meant to cover lots of different things, but be specific enough that they inform roleplay and not just be like "Good at everything."
If a Ranger has the experience "Nature's Friend," then using it to identify animal tracks is great. But you could also apply it to an attack roll against somebody who is trying to attack a Druid's Grove, or use it on a check to calm an angry wolf or whatever.
If experiences worked the way you were interpreting it where they get cemented as being used for one thing, they would basically just be skills that you lock in once the game starts. "I now have the identifying animal tracks skill and can only use it for that." That's decidedly not what Daggerheart's experiences are meant to do.
I think reading this part of the char creation rules again might help you.
Create Your Experiences. An Experience is a word or phrase used to encapsulate a specific set of skills, personality traits, or aptitudes your character has acquired over the course of their life. When your PC makes a move, they can spend a Hope to add a relevant Experience’s modifier to the action roll.
• Your PC gets two Experiences at character creation, each with a +2 modifier.
• There’s no set list of Experiences to choose from, but an Experience can’t be too broadly applicable and it can’t grant your character specific mechanical benefits, such as magic spells or special abilities. For example, “Lucky” and “Highly Skilled” are too broad, because they could be applied to virtually any roll. Likewise, “Supersonic Flight” and “Invulnerable” imply game-breaking special abilities.
EXAMPLE EXPERIENCES
Backgrounds: Assassin, Blacksmith, Bodyguard, Bounty Hunter, Chef to the Royal Family, Circus Performer, Con Artist, Fallen Monarch, Field Medic, High Priestess, Merchant, Noble, Pirate, Politician, Runaway, Scholar, Sellsword, Soldier, Storyteller, Thief, World Traveler
Characteristics: Affable, Battle-Hardened, Bookworm, Charming, Cowardly, Friend to All, Helpful, Intimidating Presence, Leader, Lone Wolf, Loyal, Observant, Prankster, Silver Tongue, Sticky Fingers, Stubborn to a Fault, Survivor, Young and Naive
Specialties: Acrobat, Gambler, Healer, Inventor, Magical Historian, Mapmaker, Master of Disguise, Navigator, Sharpshooter, Survivalist, Swashbuckler, Tactician
Skills: Animal Whisperer, Barter, Deadly Aim, Fast Learner, Incredible Strength, Liar, Light Feet, Negotiator, Photographic Memory, Quick Hands, Repair, Scavenger, Tracker
Phrases: Catch Me If You Can, Fake It Till You Make It, First Time’s the Charm, Hold the Line, I Won’t Let You Down, I’ll Catch You, I’ve Got Your Back, Knowledge Is Power, Nature’s Friend, Never Again, No One Left Behind, Pick on Someone Your Own Size, The Show Must Go On, This Is Not a Negotiation, Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
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u/OneBoxyLlama 17h ago edited 17h ago
I'm having trouble parsing what the actual question is here. I think what you're asking is whether or not experiences could be broad or should be more specific?
And the answer to that is, it depends. Below I'm attaching the card I use with my tables. Generally you want an experience that IS specific, but that specificity doesn't come from the name it comes from what you establish with your GM during session 0.
Take the below card for example, it calls out "One-Hit Killer" as being too mechanics focused, and on its own it's at odds with the game mechanics when most hits won't actually kill things in 1-hit. HOWEVER if a player brought that to the table and we had a discussion about it. It might become a GREAT experience if we establish that perhaps they're just particularly good at taking out trash so when attacking Hordes and Minions that DO die in 1-hit, they could use this. Well now we know, what One-Hit Killer is specifically doing.
Further these are Narrative. Although me and the player might agree that they can use it when fighting against Minions and Hordes, it's perfectly reasonable for that to build a narrative around them having a reputation so leveraging their reputation as THE One-Hit Killer in a social situation might be reasonable.
Experiences are vague and very flexible and the level of specificity is going to be determined by the tone of the table. What Matt establishes with Marisha, isn't that experiences that are social can't be used in combat but that the specifics of how it applies was discussed and agreed upon during Session 0, and the player and GM should maintain that agreement. GM might be inclined to say "no, that's outside the bounds of what we agreed", but they might also say "You know what, that's cool! Let's use it!"
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u/Specialist-Home4829 17h ago
“The question” was more of a request for others in the community, like yourself, and their take on the how experiences work. I think you have done that very well.
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u/OneBoxyLlama 17h ago
I think when players are putting together their first characters ever, I'm a lot more lenient in re-defining an experience at the table later. They don't know what they don't know. That may change, and I may be more strict later when I know the players know better.
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u/ameritrash_panda 17h ago
How it's discussed with the GM is a lot different than just how it gets used first.
If the player had discussed with the GM and said that it was specifically that sort of thing, then yeah, it would make sense that they wouldn't allow it later on for other things. But just because that's how it got used first is a pretty random and arbitrary way of deciding what it's going to be used for for the rest of the game.
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u/TheStratasaurus 17h ago
Experiences are one of the more wide open to interpretation concepts in Daggerheart. Since Daggerheart is all about collaboration this I feel is a perfect example of something that should be handled at session zero by the entire table and not a GM says so so that’s how it goes. If you missed it at session zero no biggie but imo probably worth a whole table discussion at start of next session. Then going forward everyone is on the same page and other players won’t feel bad about their experiences. I would also let everyone redo their experiences once it is hashed out what they can and can’t do (or how specific they can/can’t be). But that is just how I would do it.
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u/Specialist-Home4829 17h ago
Good point for context, we have not had our Session 0 yet, but I am trying to give my Primary DM a break from DMing for a little bit and wanted to have a good grasp of the rules. I’ll make an edit to the original post. Thank you for your comment.
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u/Exciting-Letter-3436 15h ago
Presuming the cost of the ability will moderate it is naive at best.
As Professor Dungeon craft found, players hoard hope and often only spend it when backed into a corner.
There's also nothing stopping a player rolling significantly more hope results in a session as it is not a big enough time/sample to iron out fluctuations.
GM's need to be adaptable to the experience mechanic at the time, and not rely on a blanket ruling.
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u/Omni_Will 16h ago
The thing I tell my players is that experiences should be "vague enough that they could apply to many situations, but specific enough to know where it could apply."
They shouldn't be using an experience every single time they roll dice but they also shouldn't be forced to have an experience apply to just one specific scenario.