Character Death

Adjudicating and overseeing the death of a PC may be among the most difficult tasks for a GM. In a game focused on character relationships, personal story arcs, and heroic adventure, the death of a PC should not happen casually. As the GM, you’re charged with honestly portraying the world, and death is more permanent in Daggerheart than in other games of the same genre. Use the following principles to help you navigate these moments fairly and empathetically.

Tip: Adversaries follow different rules for death than PCs; see “ Defeated Adversaries ” for details.

Choosing a Death Move

When a PC marks their last Hit Point, they must make a death move. Two of the three moves give the player full control over whether their PC lives or dies: with Blaze of Glory, the player is accepting the PC’s death, and with Avoid Death, the player is defying the PC’s death. Risk It All comes down to a dice roll—the PC has a nearly even chance of living or dying.

When a player is considering which death move to choose, make space for them to work and talk through their decision. You might give them a moment to think by shifting focus to another PC, or keep focus on the dying PC to let the player take the reins of the story.

Character death is not always satisfying in the moment, especially if the character’s cause of death isn’t directly tied to their personal story. But in a heroic fantasy adventure, death is always a possibility for characters trying to change the world. Death moves give a fatally injured PC a chance for a memorable moment, whether it’s going out in a Blaze of Glory or Risking It All on a roll of the dice.

Avoid Death

If a player is certain they aren’t ready to say goodbye to their PC, this death move ensures the PC’s survival—though they have a chance of taking a scar and permanently crossing out one of their Hope slots. If the character only has one Hope slot remaining when they make this move and they gain a scar, the player must retire the character. Even so, that ending may be preferable for players who would rather see their character give up the adventuring life than die.

Using this move, the PC stays unconscious until healed by an ally or until the party’s next long rest. Try to give the player chances to participate in play if the party isn’t able to heal their PC or finish a long rest in short order. You might invite them to temporarily control an NPC in the meantime or, for something more character focused, narrate a scene of their PC on the knife’s edge between life and death. On this precipice, they could be visited by the spirit of a departed loved one, receive a vision of a disaster they need to avert, or encounter something else that keeps them involved in the story.

Even without gaining a scar, this move still comes with a cost: the current situation worsens, no matter the PC’s fate. Work with the player to determine how that manifests. The situation might escalate as a new wave of enemies approaches or a countdown ticks down. Alternatively, the PC’s fall might be what turns the tide of battle in the enemy’s favor—they might seize an important item from the heroes or draw power from the character’s suffering.

Risk It All

This is the move that the GM has the least say in. The Duality Dice decide the character’s fate, and with the exception of the 10th-level Resurrection spell (which can only be used once), that roll is final unless you provide another means of resurrection in your story. If the player rolls with Hope, help them decide how to divide the value of the Hope Die between Hit Points and Stress to clear. You might remind the player that if they choose to clear only a small number of Hit Points, they may be forced to make another death move after just one further blow.

Though it is important to reward your player if they roll with Hope by spotlighting this moment when their PC defies death, it is just as important to reward your player if they roll with Fear and their character meets their end. Let them have some final words with a friend or a memory that plays as they fade from consciousness. This gives them a moment to say goodbye to their character in a way that feels important and satisfying.

Blaze of Glory

If the player decides that their character will go out in a Blaze of Glory, work with them to ensure that the one action they take is as meaningful as possible without breaking the integrity of the story. When the seraph goes out in a Blaze of Glory, you might rule that their final attack is fatal, even if the adversary had more HP left than a critical success could possibly deal. But it might be a bad idea to let that same seraph shatter the barrier between the Mortal Realm and the Hallows Above to allow their god to walk freely among mortals. Consider the group’s agreements about tone established in your session zero when deciding the scale of action the Blaze of Glory can accomplish.

When Disaster Looms

There are times when a fight goes poorly for the PCs and they’re bound for total disaster. When multiple PCs are making death moves and there’s a real risk that everyone will die, it’s important to check in with the players as the scene unfolds. How do they feel about the scene and the chance that the whole party will be left dead or incapacitated? Is this a good place for the campaign’s story to potentially end? Should the PCs cut their losses and flee? Since PCs that choose Avoid Death are helpless without assistance, the party is left at the mercy of their adversaries or fate (the GM) if every PC takes that option.

It’s also useful to consider the motivation of the adversaries present. Do the adversaries want to kill the PCs, or do they just want the party out of the way so they can pursue their motives? Would they be more likely to leave the PCs for dead, take them prisoner to gloat, or capture them to extract information?

If your players aren’t interested in a heroic tragedy at the moment, work with them to decide what makes sense in the scene. Death is a real threat in Daggerheart, but the game is always a collaboration. If the party is going to meet their end, it should be because everyone at the table wants to tell that story. If the players don’t want the party to die here but it’s difficult to come up with a way they survive, look to their background questions and their relationships with factions and prominent NPCs. Are they taken captive by the enemy? Does an old ally show up with reinforcements to drive off the enemies? Does an agent of the seraph’s god or a nature spirit friendly to the druid whisk the PCs away to safety? Does an associate of the Syndicate rogue provide cover for the PCs to withdraw?

If the group decides that their party’s story is done but they want to continue the overall campaign, hold a mid-campaign session zero to make new characters and figure out how to connect this new party to the existing story in a way that everyone is excited about. The following section provides additional guidance for introducing new characters, whether one or two new PCs join the party or a new party picks up where the previous one left off.

Introducing a New Character

If a PC dies or retires from adventuring, you should collaborate with the player between sessions to develop a new character for them to play at the current level of the party. If your player and group want to, they can answer the usual connection questions, giving them existing relationships to everyone in the party. You can also advance the party’s story by taking a more dramatic route—skip the normal connection questions and instead ask one or more of the following questions:

• You have vital information the party needs to continue on their journey. What is it, and how did you obtain it?
• You are in desperate need of help that only the party can provide. What danger follows you, and what do you have for the party in exchange?
• You know somebody in the party very well and have searched them out. What happened the last time you saw this person, and why are you seeking them out now?
• You lost your last adventuring party to something or someone terrible. What caused their downfall, and how is this new party connected to those previous adventurers?
• You are part of a faction that opposed the party, but now you want to align with them. What happened that made you seek them out, and how are you going to prove to the party that you can be trusted?
• You have been charged with delivering a lost item to a member of the party. What is it, and what personal quest is it tied to that requires working with the party?