For many people, Dungeons & Dragons is still the system to go when it comes to roleplaying. Maybe you remember the times when you came together with some friends with just a pen, some paper and some dice and lived through an adventure of epic proportions. Far more exciting than any book or movie ever could tell the tale. Or maybe you just started and can't wait to get back to the table again.
Over the years I have been playing with many, many systems and settings - all trying to optimize the experience of playing together. My most played system surely is D&D - in different editions, but I played Das Schwarze Auge & Shadowrun, too, and even more independent or lesser known systems: Beyond the Wall, Dungeon World, Avatar, Coriolis, The Sprawl, Symbaorum, Conan, Savage Worlds and more.
They all want to do the same: Let you experience different feelings of joy, tension, excitement and sometimes frustration and sadness while living through a story - usually with some friends. It is the most immersive experience I know of - except for running through it in real life, which for obvious reasons would not be possible. There are no evil dragons. Although I would try to slay one if there was :) At least once.
Next to the narrative each system comes with a set of rules, that try to build the frame of reality around the world you are playing in. These rules can vary widely, there are many different worlds and many different circumstances to cover. Do you play in an earth-like world? Or in space? Or in hell? Each system tries to give you an environment in which your story can realistically take place. In many situations in your story you will come to the point where random events occur - or where randomness plays its part in the outcome of something happening. Almost all of the systems then use a mechanic to simulate randomness. Could be dice, could be drawing random playing cards and even other methods.
The flow of the story you live through usually relies heavily on these random events. They create tension, uncertainty, ambiguity, complexity, chaos. They let you live through something that feels real, through something that you think you have no control over. These are often the most intense moments while playing, the ones you will remember. The ones that make you think you really, really lived through that.
Rolling dice
Rolling dice to generate different probabilities is pretty simple math. However, to mirror reality it can become quite complex: There are different kinds of randomness in the world and you have different ways of influencing them. Some things should be easy, because your character is experienced in something. Some things should be really hard and unlikely (such as me as a normal person slaying a huge, evil dragon). So your dice rolling system has to reflect this. Over the time different systems have been emerging. The most often cited system is the D20 system. You have a 20-sided day and you roll it, checking its result against a threshold. Are you over the threshold, most often the situation develops in your favour. Are you below the threshold? Most often something bad happens: You fail to do something, a tool you are using breaks, you run into a dead end.
d20: Flat distribution
If you roll a d20, you get a 5% chance of rolling a specific number. If you want to roll across a threshold, the numbers add up. Target 10+? 55% chance. Target 15+? Chance drops to 30%. But it stays pretty linear. Usually you may add some attributes to the roll. If you are proficient in doing something and you want to test whether you are able to do it, you may add +2 to your roll to match your proficiency.
3d6: The Bell Curve
If you want a system, where medium results are more likely (because you want to mirror a reality where average things happen more often than extremes) you may use a 3d6 system: You roll three 6-sided dice at the same time and add the numbers. 3d6 make these average results common and extreme results rare. And modifiers and attributes matter more when added to the results. It gives you a little bit of prediction (and safety) and let exceptional results really feel exceptional.
Multiple d6: The dice pool
If you go for quality levels, the dice pool can be your friend. You roll a number of d6, but only a certain number (for example only a 5 or a 6) is a success. The amount of d6 is determined by your proficiency or your equipment or your circumstances. Thus you have the chance to influence the probability of getting at least one result by simply adding a die. Rolling a 6 with 5d6 has a probability of 59.8%. Good for crafting and skills, when you want to check whether you are able to tend to a wound or craft your own sword.
The ladder: D4, D6, D8, D10
Very often, systems use the Die Ladder: To determine the damage you do to a blocked door as a beginner, you roll a D4. Each number has a 25% chance, but your maximum is 4. When you advance in your story and your experience, when you acquire a new weapon or tool, you may exchange the D4 with a D6. From then on, your maximum increases, your chance to roll higher numbers increases, but there is still a probability of rolling a low number. Later you replace D6 with D8, D8 with D10 and it creates the experience, that you become more capable of doing stuff - while still failure is possible.
There are many more variations on this. Sometimes, you roll a D20 and directly a D6 to determine the tendency of your results. There are endless possibilities to these mechanics to try to mirror randomness in reality.
Daggerheart
The Daggerheart system made some press recently. The main story was that it originated from the famous Critical Role cast, a group of voice actors broadcasting their roleplay sessions that achieved world stardom & fame. However, if you take a look at the credits, only Matthew Mercer - the former CR GM - is mentioned. If you take a look at the current player's handbook, Travis Willingham is listed as a Creative Director. There are several videos on YouTube, where Critical Role members endorse or explain the Daggerheart system. There is even a Let's Play Age of Umbra available, where some of CR members and others run a smaller campaign on Daggerheart. But for the official Critical Role campaign 4 (led by GM Brennan Lee Mulligan) the group dropped Daggerheart in favour of a return to Wizard of the Coasts D&D.
Back to Daggerheart. Daggerheart is definitely missing the lore of D&D, but it tries to make some things differently and maybe even more easy for new players. Instead of the D20 you throw 2 D12 which definitely changes the probabilities. Furthermore, each D12 has an additional effect: There is Hope and Fear. Hope advances the players and Fear advances the GM. One D12 is your hope die, the other your fear die. Regardless of your overall result (pass or fail), if your hope die has the higher number, the players have the upper hand. If the fear die has the higher number, the GM will have advantages. Hope and Fear become a currency to spend.
There is more: Damage has thresholds (which in part simplifies the hit points/damage system), there is an additional resource called stress, there is focus as a regulated mechanism, proficiency is more flexible (but also more ambiguous), armor works differently. The world building is pretty poor and open - it leaves you making your own decisions. There are many, many strange & new entities, which make the world more diverse and fantastic, there are a limited set of classes and the whole system makes use of cards to express your character's skills and abilities - based on domain, origin and community.
Ups and Downs
This produces a funny mix, some interesting mechanics and a good flow through a narrative. But it also limits you heavily in what is possible within this world. Hope and Fear take away a good GM by limiting her or him to a ruleset that determines the flow of a story. Having only gold as a currency makes it a rich world. If you want low or dark fantasy, you have to homerule the system. Using the cards for character abilities and traits makes the system lightweight and fun. Really easy for players. But the mental load on the GM rises due to all the rules about stress, damage, focus, countdowns, hope and fear.
I've rarely seen players having all the rules in mind and being able to manage the complexity on their own. I usually love systems, where the world gets being build together. But Daggerheart introduces so much governance & compliance, that it heavily outweighs more easy systems like Beyond The Wall, Dungeon World and almost all PBTA systems.
Hope and Fear: Light and Shadow
While Hope & Fear as a currency introduces a nice strategic/tactical consideration into fights and battles, it can cause havoc on an experienced GM and the story. Hope often lets players decide how to progress with the story. Furthermore, spending a hope may legitimate a player to demand to dominate a decision. This works great in an harmonised group, but it can cause conflict, too.
However, having no fear to spend leaves the GM at the mercy of the group - with no real way of getting the upper hand back. Yes, this rarely happens, but it does. Having a poor pre-set worldbuilding makes the GM even weaker, because everything needs to be invented - and it comes without authority (or just with the GMs authority). (Yes, some players don't except the GMs authority, only the rules)
Final thoughts
Daggerheart is a system that in many points almost sets no limits in the world. And that is maybe its biggest weakness. You have all the species, all the classes, a solid probability system, some mechanics that make it easier for new players. But then on the other hand you also have a governance underneath, that puts so strong, regulated limitations on a good story flow, that it can get boring pretty fast.
Let's play some more :)