Daggerheart's Campaign Frames

 One of the big challenges of a TTRPG is that, basically, if you're not D&D, you have to make a singular core rulebook. D&D's 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide includes a somewhat barebones version of Greyhawk primarily to serve as an example of how to build a campaign setting.

So, I think it's actually really impressive that Daggerheart, in its very first and currently only rulebook, has several settings.

These "Campaign Frames" are something quite unique. Each frame is a different setting, but more than just some lore about what that world is like, each frame presents first a significantly different vibe, but also special mechanics for that setting that make it distinct.

Looking at D&D, I've often felt a little ambivalent about the numerous medieval fantasy settings because I often feel like there's not a ton to distinguish a campaign set in Greyhawk versus the Forgotten Realms. There are different specifics to those worlds, naturally, and other settings start to branch out a little bit, like Dragonlance's focus on epic warfare. But the settings that always appealed to me far more were the ones that really took you pretty much into a different genre, my favorites being Planescape and Ravenloft, though I also appreciate Eberron's update to a sort of 1930s aesthetic and vibe (I've never run or played in an Eberron adventure, though).

Even still, those setting still, certainly in 5E, at least, maintain the same game mechanics. One setting that really seemed to call out for significant mechanical changes was Spelljammer - or, you could argue that the science-fantasy setting I wanted wasn't really represented by Spelljammer's more "fantasy that happens to take place in space" vibe.

Daggerheart's campaign frames often wear their influences quite proudly: there is one that centers on the clash of nature and industry in the style of Princess Mononoke, and Age of Umbra, within which they're doing a miniseries with most of the regular cast, channels the bleakness of Dark Souls in a dying world forsaken by the gods. There's also a setting that appears to be almost directly based on the manga/anime Delicious in Dungeon (or Dungeon Meshi, as I believe it's known in Japan,) where it's built around harvesting cooking ingredients from the monsters you fight.

The thing is, the rules adjustments aren't just throwaway things: in that latter one, players actually don't start with regular weapons, because the idea is that they're just hungry civilians trying to fill their bellies, and might fight with kitchen knives or pots and pans, which have different statistics from the ordinary tier 1 weapons.

The one currently sparking the most interest for me is called Colossus of the Drylands, which mixes a wild west setting with utterly massive colossi that serve as the primary monster challenges for the party to overcome, complete with several stat blocks, including a tier 1 (which is just level 1) colossus to fight. The colossi design is one of the main draws, including one that has the rough shape of a rhino, but its head is the engine of a steam train (reminding me of a boss from Expedition 33, actually).

It's a really interesting showcase for Daggerheart's versatility, or at least the versatility I assume it has (again, I haven't had a chance to play it). Already, I've got these character concepts brewing, like a Clank Rogue in the Drylands (Clanks being more or less like Warforged, conceptually) who's some kind of mysterious gunslinger, or a Fungril (mushroom folk) Druid in the Dungeon Meshi setting.