Hello everyone! I will be GMing a charity one-shot of Daggerheart next Monday, January 19th, raising funds for Feeding America. I'm delighted to be joined by a great cast of performers, including Daniel/RiceKombo from BladeBoundSaga, Rowan from beloved Daggerheart actual play show DodoBorne, Mik from the Naturolls actual play, and Cai, a prolific actual play performer known for Transplanar and more!
Join us live a...
This Wednesday (Jan 14th), I'll be streaming with my thoughts and guidance on using player prompts in ttrpgs, especially but not limited to Daggerheart. This will include how I use prompts as prep and how I improvise prompts during play.
Join me Wed, Jan 14 at 1pm EST live at twitch.tv/turbotango or watch the VoD Thursday morning at youtube.com/@mikeunderwood .
Alongside the other work I've been doing, I commissioned some art for the Warden, my Daggerheart-compatible class using the Sage & Valor domains. There will be two subclasses for the Warden, and today I'm sharing the art and rough cards for one of them.
The final layout on the cards may be different, this version is just using the Card Creator at the Daggerheart website.
Art by ...
Hello Bladecrafters and Book Lovers!
Today I am delighted to bring you the final PDF for Menagerie of Mayhem, Volume 1, my first creator-owned larger Daggerheart-compatible supplement. It's very much a direct result of the support you and other patrons have provided, and I'm very grateful to be able to make time to produce these supplements due to the huge increase in support for the Patreon here.
Menagerie of Mayhem: Volume 1 i...
Menagerie of Mayhem #1 is in final proofing stages, and I hope to have the final PDF to post for backers very soon. As a reminder, all backers at the Bladecrafter level ($10 a month USD) or at a higher tier will receive the PDF as a backer reward, before the book goes on sale.
Today I've got a preview of the final layout, done by the amazing Luna P, and featuring art by Tania Herrero.
This week's stream will talk about my method for building modular encounters to use with the Daggerheart rules, which involves developing an environment and related adversaries to present a dramatic situation for the PCs to navigate.
In the stream I'll continue to develop this approach, which I've used in the Wish Glade encounter from Incredible Creatures. Watch ...
2026-01-05 18:00:17 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi all,
Today I have the first piece of art from several commissions I've made for upcoming Daggerheart-compatible releases. From artist Ehud Kurzweil, we have an illustration for the Perilous Journey environment, seen below (a simple PDF with the environment + art is attached to this post).
A dangerous trek across uncertain climes through a variety of threats.
Impulses: Exhaust resources, sap w...
Tomorrow, on the last day of the year, I'll be hosting my annual no-longer-just-a-bit Year-in-Review-Slash-Sorta-Awards show, the SOTYs. SOTYs stands for Stuff Of The Year stream, and is also the name for the awards. :)
What this all means is that I do a year-in-review stream and I talk about some media/games/things I loved, some important things in my year (bad and good), and reflect on the year.
So if you'd like to join me as I reflect on 2025, or to just hang out a bit on New Y...
2025-12-30 20:33:29 +0000 UTC View Post
Earlier this week, I saw a cool one-shot prompt page from Jack Panic aka DNGN CLUB, which you should check out for its own sake. You can pick it up along with two other short Daggerheart-compatible supplements here.
I mention it because one of the things it includes is a list of Improvised Fear Moves. I was de...
2025-12-30 14:08:02 +0000 UTC View PostI'm taking the last two weeks of the year 99% off from working, as I'll be spending time with family and recharging to prepare for 2026.
However, to tide folks over, I have recommendations of some of my best videos from the year plus a preview of some art from Bastion of Hope:
How I Do GM Prep for Daggerheart: https://youtu.be/hbOOYjHc-BM?si=cUy0MnGtrBtRo1KX
How to Run an Unforgettable On...
This morning I was thinking about a mechanic I've seen a little in Daggerheart but I want to investigate more:
Forcing PCs to vault domain cards. This might show up as a stun/stagger kind of feature or as a "magic binding", or even something like memory loss.
On a certain level, it could be interpreted as just a Stress tax/cost, but it has a distinct feeling and leaves the PC without the reactive/passive elements until they can take the spotlight and recall their cards.
I...
As mentioned, I recorded a video with a very short overview of my 2025 from a career perspective as an introduction to an experiment where I tried to condense several of my most popular Daggerheart advice videos into just a few minutes each.
This video in this form will be exclusive for patrons and YouTube subscribers, but I may chop it up in the future to use for Instagram/TikTok/YouTube shorts. Or, maybe I'll just take this as practice and re-shoot those later on. TBD!
The only...
2025-12-17 20:10:17 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi all. Rather than a normal stream, tomorrow I'll be posting a video where I try to distill the best pieces of my advice for and perspectives on Daggerheart into a 2025 greatest hits video. Patrons will have exclusive access to this until January, then I'll then use individual pieces for shorts on Instagram/TikTok/YouTube shorts.
Likely topics will include:
Using Fear outside of combat
Environment & adversary design
Running dynamic combat...
2025-12-16 14:00:17 +0000 UTC View PostA while ago, I talked about a adventure that I was working on for the Witherwild campaign frame. I've now run that adventure for two different groups and am feeling good about it, but my focus in adventure-writing has shifted over to the Dungeons of Drakkenheim Campaign Guide.
But I didn't want this work to go totally unused while I'm focusing on another project, and I know there's a lot of demand for Daggerheart adventures, so today I bring you my this in-progress Tie...
EDIT: The image above now links to the VoD!
Hi folks! This week I've got both a stream and a big WIP release.
Tomorrow (Tuesday), all paid members will get a work-in-progress draft of "Voice of the Swarm", a substantial adventure I've been developing for use with the Witherwild campaign frame and the Daggerheart rules.
On Wednesday, I am doing a stream with my thoughts about designing gear and items for Daggerheart, including making weapon...
2025-12-08 17:00:22 +0000 UTC View Post
UPDATE: The link above leads to the VoD for this stream!
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After a bit of time to recover from PAXU, this week I am going to launch a stream series titled The Design Lab, which features more out-there ideas for modifications or additions to the Daggerheart rules. I'll be kicking off the series by introducing my idea for a new deckbuilding sub-system called the Inspiration Deck, focused on making it easier and more fun for players t...
UPDATE: The PDF of Menagerie #1 is now available for Patrons at $10 and up. This text version here (not the PDF post) will contain all errata, including updates that haven't made it back into the PDF (as for that I need to pay a layout artist to make the revisions). If there are any questions about adversary text from this volume, refer to this post for the latest text.
2025-12-01 15:00:19 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi all!
I've got a bonus for patrons today - an exclusive con recap about my time at Pax Unplugged last week. I talk about the big Daggerheart news coming out of the con, the events I attended, the things I bought/acquired at the show, and some of my general thoughts about the experienced and how I engage with conventions.
As I write this, there are just under 36 hours remaining in the Dungeons of Drakkenheim: Daggerheart campaign! We're just about to unlock a Random Encounter Chart at $400k.
Can we make it to $500k USD and hit the extremely cool poll-driven Community stretch goal, where backers determine what ...
Update: Here is the YouTube link: https://youtu.be/DDQuPHRW-UU
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I'm back from PAX Unplugged and delightfully exhausted, but the streams must go on. Something that came up a lot over the weekend was Boss-type adversaries for Daggerheart and creating those epic, climactic fights.
It's a fun topic to consider, so I want to tackle it head-on this week. I'll share my thoughts about what tools Daggerheart alr...
A fun bit from the PAXU Daggerheart panel: the team mentioned a Masquerade Ball environment in Hope & Fear, which is fabulous.
Separately, I started writing a Masquerade Ball environment a month or two ago but hadn't completed or polished it. So the announcement inspired me to go back to what I had and polish it up to share with Patrons.
I'm excited to see how the two versions differ, but it'll be a bit of a wait. :)
Fortunately, you all don't have to wait long for my...
Recently, I had a great chat with the Welsh DM for his YouTube channel, talking mostly about Designing Daggerheart Adventures - what goes into the process, what adventures for an improv-driven game might even look like, and some of my experiences in designing Daggerheart adventures so far.
Check it out at the link above, and when you do, consider sticking around to check out another one of Gethin (The Welsh DM)'s videos!
This week I am heading to PAX Unplugged up in Philadelphia - and there's a lot of work to be done in preparation - so I'm switching things up a bit for this Wednesday's stream. I've been very much in crowdfunding mode this month, but there are a ton of other ttrpg projects that are currently, coming soon, or just finished crowdfunding, and I want to spend some time spotlighting those projects as well.
So this Wednesday at 1pm EST I'll be talking about some recent, current, and forthcom...
Art by Tania Herrero, additional art and cover design by Andrew Bauman.
Some life stuff has put Bastion of Hope on hold for a bit longer, so I've moved another project into pole position:
The Menagerie of Mayhem is a series of short adversary books for use with the Daggerheart rules, to eventually be combined into one larger collection (ideally with a print edition!). The books will include refined versions of some adversaries f...
Dear all,
Bastion of Hope is in final layout, so today I'm bringing you the finalized text for the campaign frame. Patrons at $10 and up will get the full PDF (with art and layout) before it goes on sale to the public. There have been some notable revisions, especially in the tegion writeups for the other nations around Bastion.
What an eventful week it's been!
Last Tuesday saw the launch of the Dungeons of Drakkenheim: Daggerheart Kickstarter, which funded in an amazing 13 minutes! The campaign is now over $270k USD, racking up several stretch goals already with 18 days left to go.
And if you missed it, last Friday, the 2025-11-10 18:27:42 +0000 UTC
View Post
ICYMI, the stream where I talk about the Dungeons of Drakkenheim: Daggerheart Campaign Frame Kickstarter is now on YouTube. I also walked through the beta campaign frame, which is available for FREE, and you don't even have to back the campaign to get it! (Though I hope you will back the campaign, as the project is going to be amazing.)
If you want to get that campaign frame first to read ...
I'm keeping busy with Drakkenheim work, but have no worry, I am still making material for Patrons to enjoy before anyone else.
After reading through Girl Frame by Isabelle M. Ruebsaat and Your Hand is Not Your Hand by Michelle Jones, I got to thinking about what it would ...
The Dungeons of Drakkenheim: Daggerheart campaign guide Kickstarter is live, and funded in just 13 minutes!
There are tons of stretch goals ahead, including many that will set me up to add even more cool elements to the project, like new monsters, more mutations, and so on!
You can also download the beta campaign frame for FREE now without needing to back the Kickstarter!
And as a reminder, I'll be streaming tomorrow at 1pm EDT at twitch.tv/turbotango, talking about the p...
UPDATE: the campaign is live and funded! There are plenty of exciting stretch goals ahead!
And now that the campaign is live, I can share that I'll be walking through the FREE beta campaign frame that folks can download (without needing to back the campaign, though I hope you back it if you're excited about the project and are in a financial place to afford it).
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Ghostfir...