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Rulings Over Rules

While playing Daggerheart, the GM and players should always prioritize rulings over rules. This SRD offers answers for many questions your table may have about the game, but it won't answer all of them. When you're in doubt about how a rule...

While playing Daggerheart, the GM and players should always prioritize rulings over rules. This SRD offers answers for many questions your table may have about the game, but it won't answer all of them. When you're in doubt about how a rule applies, the GM should make a ruling that aligns with the narrative.

For example, Daggerheart has a weapon called a grappler that lets you pull a target close to you. If you try to use it to pull an entire castle, the weapon text doesn't forbid you from doing that—but it doesn't make sense within the narrative. Instead, the GM might rule that you pull a few bricks out, or pull yourself toward the wall instead.

Similarly, if your character does something that would logically result in immediate death—such as diving into an active volcano without protection—you might not get to make one of Daggerheart's death moves, which normally give you control of your character's fate in their final moments. This kind of consequence should be made clear before the action is completed, and it should always follow the logic of the world.

As a narrative-focused game, Daggerheart is not a place where technical, out-of-context interpretations of the rules are encouraged. Everything should flow back to the fiction, and the GM has the authority and responsibility to make rulings about how rules are applied to underscore that fiction.