Why Generic Adversaries?
I'm a fairly improvisational game master, and while I can guess where things might go, they can very easily head in a wholly different direction from what I've prepared.
I also hate carrying a stack of books so I can look up the right adversaries for any encounter that comes up. But a small stack of cards? I'd be okay with that.
So I made them.
In this print-and-cut pdf, you will find 11 tarot-sized cards:
- A cover card, with the appropriate legal text
- The "Building Balanced Encounters" table
- Cards for the Bruiser, Horde, Leader, Minion, Ranged, Skulk, Social, Standard, and Support Adversaries.
Each card has stats for all 4 tiers of play and common or broad features each adversary type would have. You can use them to make sure you've got everything you need, and then add your own flavor by renaming the weapons, or describing the abilities in ways more specific to the adversaries you're running.
Printing These
The PDFs are sized to US Letter paper (8.5" x 11"). But the margins have enough room you should be able to just print it at 100% on A4 and have no problems. Cut them so the dashed-lines are cut off the card, and they will fit in standard tarot-sized card sleeves, if you so desire.
I do intend to prepare these for printing through DriveThruRPG/DriveThruCards when they are in a finalized state (see "Further Developments" below).
There is also a zip archive containing a PNG version of each card, individually.
Are these Adversaries "Correct"?
Many reference RightKnight's Guide to Making Custom Adversaries, penned by Chris Davidson, one of the writers for Daggerheart, who wrote the "Custom Adversary" section of the core book. (Available here: https://heartofdaggers.com/products/making-custom-adversaries/), it it perhaps the most definitive understanding for creating Adversaries.
However, I took every adversary block in the Daggerheart core book, as well as Hope & Fear, and extrapolated my own graphs of adversary stats. Yes it would have been easier to just use RKGTMCA, but I started this project before I saw that document, and by then I was committed to this course of action.
On the plus side, while my results are slightly different from those Davidson wrote, they generally fall within the ranges he suggests, and are completely consistent with those presented in the official Daggerheart products.
Further Development
This is very much a "first pass" of these cards. And that is because I'd like to get your ideas on how to improve them, in several specific areas. Please leave a comment below and share your thoughts.
Solo Adversaries
As you can see, there are no cards for generic Solo-type adversaries. Solo adversaries are, inherently, a bit too specific to make a single generic solo adversary. But I think a small selection of solo adversaries that fit into some broad archetypes might work. I think a generic Dragon would be appropriate, but are there any other broad categories of solo adversary that could be genericized? Archwizard? Warlord? What are your thoughts?
Card Backs
As of now, the backs of the cards are left blank. I have two ideas.
- I could create a Daggerheart-style art back for them, so they would fit in well with the cards you already have (even though they're a different size). Or,
- I could list some other Adversary features or variations, to give you a little more variety in developing encounters.
What do you think about those? Is there a different idea I should consider?
Pre-Made Encounters
Would it be useful to have some pre-made encounters listed on a card of their own, with the specific mix of adversaries pre-written based on the Battle Points guide? Perhaps a "Woodland Ambush" or an "Army Scout Squad"? Would it be helpful to have those listed out, or is it easy enough to just build from Battle points?
Obligatory Legal Text
Darrington Press™ and the Darrington Press authorized work logo are trademarks of Critical Role, LLC and used with permission.
This product includes materials from the Daggerheart System Reference Document 2.0, © Critical Role, LLC. under the terms of the Darrington Press Community Gaming (DPCGL) License. More information can be found at https://www.daggerheart.com. There are no previous modifications by others.
