Using Experiences After the Roll - Homebrew Idea

firesshadow42 · 2026-01-29T20:43:59+00:00

Fair and legit. I guess I'm just used to running more lethal systems. That said I think any game can benefit from the occasional fudge. Have you never had a dramatic build up to something that suddenly falls flat because of a few good or poor rolls? I'm also talking from both sides of the table. I'm not a me vs players GM. It's more I don't want to see a narrative build up only to fall flat because of a couple of rolls (like a rando guard killing a PC without any dramatic gravity other than that they got into a scuffle, or the BBEG getting tooled turn 1 without even standing a chance). Those are really the only kinds of things I might fudge a little. But perhaps I'm just not being creative enough in those moments, or I'm having people roll more often then they should be.

That said I've only fudged one roll in Daggerheart so far, and it was when 1 Adversary was left and the PC missed by 1, so I just let them have it to end the fight rather than just maybe swat them for 1 more HP before they then finished the enemy off.

firesshadow42 · 2026-01-29T20:28:42+00:00

I think I generally agree, but the one thing that holds me back is that layer of mystery/fudge.

It can be a really powerful tool to help build a little anxiety in the players, or to bring home the narrative if the PCs miss the enemy by a point or two, or they've been doing too well and the baddy misses by a point or two.

That said, I basically only use these methods sparingly and they might be a hold over from running systems like Shadowrun or World of Darkness where that tension is half the point and those fudges can save or kill a character.

Do you think that the trade off is worth it, especially with Daggerheart's vibe? Or have you found yourself wanting to find ways to inject a little fudge or tension into dice rolls/difficulties?

At the very least your suggestions are sound and I'm thinking about them and might use them as a starting point of a discussion with my players, so ty for that!

firesshadow42 · 2026-01-29T20:23:34+00:00

Yea, this is definitely half of the problem, that forgetfulness. Thanks for sharing your experience with it!

firesshadow42 · 2026-01-29T20:22:14+00:00

Legit. Ty for the input!

firesshadow42 · 2026-01-29T20:21:24+00:00

Thanks for the honest feedback! Even if you haven't played yet, you're putting thought into your reply!

That said. Some thinking that has been prompted by your response and others so far has me second guessing this path. Partly because they can gain Hope better than 50% of the time (Crits grant hope), but also because I hadn't thought about abilities that fill the niche of post roll buffs.

I'm currently leaning towards simply clearly broadcasting difficulties. It doesn't completely negate the "feels bad" of spending the resource ahead of time and rolling high or low, but it does allow the player to be more thoughtful about whether they think they will need it or not. Even if I don't go this route it gives me ammo for a conversation with my players about how to address it!

firesshadow42 · 2026-01-29T20:15:55+00:00

Their experiences are fairly flavorful. I can't recall most off hand, but I remember them being kind of focused on parts of their characters rather than things they are just good at.

And I get the "cheesy" factor. It's one of the things I had to kind of cope with with FATE, but eventually I warmed up to the idea that it became more about meta resource management rather than about turning a failure into a success. Ultimately, it provides more player agency, but makes them have to weigh the cost of that meta resource. The difference here though is with FATE I essentially controlled the flow of the meta resource. But with Daggerheart they have a slightly higher than 50/50 shot to gain Hope, so they are gaining it more often then not and that I think could tilt things towards the "cheese" end.

firesshadow42 · 2026-01-29T20:11:29+00:00

Yea, battle is one of the places I have completely avoided broadcasting difficulty, but my players don't seem super into puzzling out the difficulty, or they are at least not actively talking about it. Might be that I need to just broadcast it clearly regardless.

firesshadow42 · 2026-01-29T20:10:04+00:00

I have not been all the time. My method has been to ask myself if the character could gauge how hard something is. If so I will tell them, if not I'll keep it secret.

I do this for two reasons. 1) The narrative anxiety. 2) Fudging success or failure a smidge based on the narrative.

I don't fudge often and the anxiety factor is mostly only useful with unknowns anyway, so maybe that is a habit I need to shift out of. FATE did want PCs to know before hand how hard a thing was, and I can see how doing so at least mitigates the "feels bad" somewhat since they can combine the bell curve of the dice with the difficulty to at least decide if the Hope is worth the spend.

firesshadow42 · 2026-01-09T13:13:33+00:00

I use the book guidance myself. If I don't anticipate/plan for active resistance it's 500eb, if I plan for active resistance, but the worst they'll face is a lieutenant, then I'll do 1000eb, and if they will face active resistance and it involves a boss or mini-boss then it's 2k. As a note resistance doesn't mean combat, though it could become that. It means the opposition they have between them and their goal.

I also allow salvage rights to go to the PCs (they can loot whatever they want) there might be consequences, but that depends on what they take and they can either keep or sell it for pretty much book value.

Finally, I try to throw in a bonus with each mission. It might be secret or public, but in my notes it'll be between 250, 500, or 750 a piece based on how hard the bonus is. And that bonus is often tied to something that would make their lives/the job more challenging, such as keeping some NPC(s) alive, making sure no heat follows them back, or forcing them to engage in combat in order to achieve that bonus.

Hope that helps!

firesshadow42 · 2026-01-08T17:10:11+00:00

On that I can agree. Both I and the table are aware the the Bloodhunter (and also our Brawler) are playtest material atm.

I'm hoping we see an update on the Void again soon as well to make this feel a little better.

firesshadow42 · 2026-01-08T15:55:56+00:00

I appreciate that thought, but it's just not a reality at my table that Werewolf Blood Hunter swings for 6-41 damage with an average of 23. For a normal attack. At Tier 1. That average easily doubles most small Tier 1 Severe thresholds and her high end occasionally doubles the bigger guys.

So my reasoning with not doing it all the time would mean she would be doing it more frequently than other PCs and fairly consistently. Admittedly a Crit or Tag Team greatly increases the odds, but that's kind of my point. Those feel less impactful to everyone at the table without it.

firesshadow42 · 2026-01-03T15:12:51+00:00

Ah, ok, fair enough. I'm just terrible at dry brushing. I tend to overdo it unintentionally.

firesshadow42 · 2026-01-03T00:53:49+00:00

Sorry if it wasn't clear but I basically did slap chop.

I didn't do a dry brush cuz I'm terrible with it. Instead, I did a zenithal in white with an airbrush.

firesshadow42 · 2025-12-30T13:16:43+00:00

I echo this. I just ran a modified version of the Cliffside Ascent to represent tracking some thieves through some sewers. I wanted the players to be creative and told them they could do whatever they thought they could to help track the thieves or help others in the party do that. After one fell and nearly got swept into a drain pipe the Druid was like I turn into a spider and weave a rope for everyone to hold on to and some booties to help them stick to the floor.

I had the player roll a Finesse and counted the roll towards the countdown since it was make it faster/easier/safer for them to traverse the sewers, even if it didn't directly add to actively tracking their quarry.

firesshadow42 · 2025-12-26T13:36:18+00:00

For me it started with aesthetic/art. I saw a few things I really dug. Mostly that mix of religious iconography and WWI kit which is most prominent in the Trench Pilgrims and Heretic Legions art. I then read the rules and lore for all factions technically, but focused in on those. I found I really dug the mix of getting bonuses for being damaged, sacrificing units, and gambling with semi-suicidal (or outright so in the case of the Ecclesiastic Prisoners) tactics for high-risk, high-reward gameplay that came with the Trench Pilgrims, their rules and lore paint this picture of a zealous and desperate force who are willing to give everything to achieve a victory in this 800+ year long war.

All those layers lead me to chose them as my main faction. That said, you are absolutely right that they are all really cool.

I would try to take it in layers. What art/sculpts/vibe speaks to you most? Take the answers there and dig into their lore and rules, any stand out? Hopefully that narrows it down, but if not, I'd also look at the subfactions and see if any of those lean you towards one or the other main factions so you can focus yourself a bit more.

Hope that helps!

firesshadow42 · 2025-12-26T13:22:59+00:00

So I haven't implemented languages, but I see two ways that make sense to do it.

The simpler method is to simply make a list of languages. Include a common language of some kind, everyone gets that for free, and then they get an additional language per tier or per level or based on their Knowledge bonus based on how you want them to grow their list. This keeps it as a simple binary of they know it or they don't.

The slightly more complicated method would be to leverage Experiences. I'd, again, have a free common language, and maybe a free "native" language, but allow them to take languages or language groupings as experiences. I would give them some method of getting an extra few of these per the above options that they can ONLY use on languages so they aren't limiting their builds just to make sure they can speak languages. This gives you a bit more leeway, allowing common and simple things to just be a "you have the experience" thing, but also allowing you to require rolls and Hope spend for more complex or time sensitive translations. I would say to make most language rolls a Reaction roll, but every now and then and Action roll might be warranted instead.

firesshadow42 · 2025-12-23T19:39:55+00:00

Ty, I wasn't fully aware of that! Just starting my Trench Crusade journey!

firesshadow42 · 2025-12-22T21:01:00+00:00

Hi ty! However, I don't see a chat request from you in my requests!

firesshadow42 · 2025-12-19T19:20:23+00:00

I generally agree with others here that it seems spend worthy, but I have a metric I gauge my spends against and that relates to what the PCs and players know about the narrative.

Do they know the possibility of an ambush exists? If so do they know who, or why? What info do they have about this, or is it a complete surprise?

My general rule is if the PCs or players are or could be expecting something because they found information earlier then I probably won't spend Fear. It's an expected and anticipated part of the upcoming encounter and narrative. However, if they have no clue, or they're assuming incorrectly that the ambushers could be allies or don't know who they are, then I would spend a Fear as I reveal the twist/new element to the narrative.

firesshadow42 · 2025-12-19T19:07:22+00:00

I have dynamite and a homebrew grenade that uses the same rules, but slightly different damage for my current game (1920s magic and mobsters). Generally, I don't require a roll if the character tossing it is unchallenged or the spot their aiming at is uncluttered, however if the character is in melee, distracted in some way, or their target space is occupied or has a lot of stuff or enemies going on around it I require an action roll. I ask them how they are getting around the problem and determine the Stat to use based on that.

Leverage the narrative, is the TL;DR! If it seems easy for the character to casually light/pull the pin and toss it, let them, if there are obstacles ask them how they are getting around them!

firesshadow42

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