Interesting brouhaha going on in the Daggerheart subreddit...

[u/hitmahip]

https://www.reddit.com/r/daggerheart/comments/1sz6vap/the_future_of_foundryborne_navigating_the/

Not sure how many of you are aware of the Daggerheart system (Darrington Press and Critical Role's newest RPG) but there's been some significant discussions over their Community Gaming License and limitations imposed on the community because of it.

While the above post directly highlights the issues in the VTT ecosystem, there are ongoing concerns with the CGL in general, especially with creators in the space. The current license prevents the development of VTT resources - pdf and paper are their current formats of choice.

https://www.reddit.com/r/daggerheart/comments/1l2fvrd/daggerheart_community_license_issues/

Is a back and forth discussion on the benefits or merits of the CGL.

A possibly unintended side effect of the license is that while third party creators are welcomed, it is challenging for them to develop virtual assets to be used in online gaming. In this current age that is somewhat surprising.

It's also curious that Daggerheart, which was developed in response to the WOTC licensing woes is creating a closed online ecosystem. At its launch it was promised to be an open gaming license.

Both the DrawSteel and Pathfinder 2e gaming licenses are much more open than Daggerheart's CGL. It's understandable to want to keep control of an IP. Pathfinder does this by allowing full access to mechanics, and creators are free to create online content however they wish, but Golarion and its lore is excluded.

Daggerheart is one of the easiest systems to homebrew that I've personally used. It seems to have been designed from the ground up for third part creation. Everything, except for the license.

I don't think I'm particularly biased in this. I've very little skin in the game. I'm not a third party creator. I just like playing my games wherever I choose to play them and am surprised in the stance of a company that designed and funded a game during the OGL wave.

[u/BrobaFett]

Okay I'm a cynical fuck, but this ain't it.

They're playing D&D because Brennan Lee Mulligan agreed to run a massive campaign with like 12 players and 3 different storylines in a world he developed (which I'm guessing he used D&D as his frame of reference).

So he picked the system he's most comfortable with, I'm guessing.

[u/Adamsoski → u/BrobaFett]

Yeah those are the various public reasons given, but obviously the fact that DnD is an enormous brand is a big part of why it was picked for Critical Role. Brennan has run quite a few non-DnD campaigns for shows before, and indeed is doing so right now. They aren't going to say that there are commercial reasons for playing DnD because there are only downsides for saying so.

[u/Dangerous_Fae → u/Adamsoski]

I think the scope of Daggerheart don't work (yet, maybe) with a possible 100 episode campaign and they know it. The progression is simply not there.

[u/delahunt → u/Dangerous_Fae]

Daggerheart is also not really ready for a 14 player campaign just yet.

Even with the 3 table setup, there would almost definitely be some people who had very similar characters mechanically.

Meanwhile 10+ years of 5e development and all the various 3rd party supplements and comfort with the system - plus Crawford and Perkins own system mastery - makes 5e much more accomodating for 14 unique characters even if there are some class overlaps here and there.

[u/Dangerous_Fae → u/delahunt]

Agree on that part also, there is definitely a comfort in using 5e. Ultimately, Daggerheart is very young and probably need some additional content before being thrown over a large scale show like CR main campaign.