Greetings everyone!

Today I wanted to share the College of Requiems, a Bard subclass for players who want to wield sorrow, funeral hymns, and necromantic magic to protect allies and defy death itself.

Features of the Subclass

Requiem Melodies (3rd Level): You learn a Necromancy cantrip from any spell list and has the Gentle Repose spell always prepared. In addition, all Necromancy spells become Bard spells for you, greatly expanding your magical options.

Lamentation of the Fallen (3rd Level): Whenever an ally within 60 feet drops to 0 Hit Points, you can use your reaction and expend a Bardic Inspiration die to grant Temporary Hit Points to yourself or another ally nearby.

Melanchonic Songs (6th Level): Creatures who has one of your Bardic Inspiration die gain resistance to Necrotic damage. In addition, your inspiration becomes especially powerful against death, improving Death Saving Throws and Constitution saves even more.

Mourner’s Recall (14th Level): Your final requiem can briefly deny death itself. You can now use Lamentation of the Fallen directly on the ally that falls to 0 Hit Points while also immediately restore them to 1 Hit Point, even if the triggering effect would normally have killed them outright.

You can download the free PDF of the 2024 version of this subclass on my Patreon by clicking here.

Of course, feedback is always appreciated, especially regarding balance and wording clarity.

Happy gaming!

Inspired by the amazing initiative from Heart of Daggers to support creators and help grow the Daggerheart homebrew community, I wanted to give something back too; not only to fellow creators, but to the entire community that has shown so much excitement, support, feedback, and kindness.

Starting today, the price of Tales of Untold Paths will be reduced to $9.99 for a week if you buy it on Heart of Daggers, to celebrate the Daggerheart anniversary!

And there’s more: thanks to the support the project received during launch, I’ve also been able to commission a future update that will add fully illustrated versions of all the print-and-play reference cards included in the supplement, made by the cover artist Emma Banfi! So if you have purchased the book already, this is my way of saying thank you.

As always, may all your rolls be doubles!

Last week, after almost a year of design, playtesting, balancing, layout work, and art commissions (and tears), I published my first major TTRPG supplement for Daggerheart called Tales of Untold Paths. 

Since the whole experience taught me a lot about both RPG design and indie publishing and I love geeking about creative design, I thought it could be fun to do a small AMA about the content and the whole process behind it. I will start with some of the FAQ:

What is Tales of Untold Paths? It’s a player expansion for Daggerheart featuring 9 new subclasses and 18 new domain cards, two cards for each Core Domain, designed to give players more options to choose from, especially at character creation.

What was the hardest part of designing it? Surprisingly, not balance. Most of the real problems came from adjusting clarity, readability during play, action economy interactions, and making mechanics feel thematic and intuitive instead of merely functional.

What did the feedback process teach you the most? That players are often much better at noticing when something feels wrong, but struggle at explaining precisely why. Some mechanics were mathematically balanced but still created hesitation, confusion, or friction at the table. In my opinion, a good game designer must balance feelings and numbers in equal measure.

Who did the amazing artworks? The cover, backcover and layout of the document was made by Emma Banfi, a talented new artist. The interior artworks are instead made by veterans Daulet Karazhigitov (characters) and Konstantin Mashkarin (landscapes), which are both amazing!!!

What was the hardest thing to design? By far a new Arcana domain card called Carve Wounds (you can find the card as one of the attached images). Not because it was overpowered, but because every version created some kind of strange wording or understanding issues, which is why it ended up being the one with the most iterations before its final version.

What was the most rewarding part? Honestly, finally releasing something I had worked on for so long was a reward all by itself. It was kind of a weight out of my shoulders, and I'm proud to be able to say that I was able to publish something written and designed all by myself, even with its imperfections.

A few days ago, I finally released my first major TTRPG supplement that I designed and published since I started working by myself (a player expansion for Daggerheart). After almost a year of design, iteration, playtesting, rewriting, and polishing, I wanted to share my experience with you in the hope that it might help others going through the same process.

For me, the hardest parts of the design were almost never about raw balance. Most of the challenges came from:

• readability and clarity during play
• balancing cognitive load
• action economy interactions
• making mechanics feel intuitive and elegant at the table

I also realized just how much playtesters can struggle to explain why something feels wrong. Sometimes a mechanic was mathematically fine, but players still hesitated, forgot parts of it, or subconsciously avoided using it. And honestly? That kind of feedback ended up being far more valuable than pure balance analysis.

I also genuinely want to thank this subreddit. Seeing other designers openly talk about their struggles and experiences helped me push through moments where I honestly felt completely overwhelmed by the project.

And one last piece of advice for anyone here sitting on unfinished mechanics, half-written systems, or a project they are scared to release: publish it.

It will never feel completely perfect. You will always find something you want to improve later, or an error that slipped through. But finishing a project and putting it into the world is a reward all by itself. Even if nobody buys your product, you should still be proud of yourself and your work.

Edit 1: For those who are curious, the product is called "Tales of Untold Paths" and these are the links:
HeartOfDaggers
DriveThruRPG
itch.io

Edit 2: If you have specific questions about the design process or the difficulties of self-pubblication, feel free to ask in the comments. Glad to help if I can!

Hello everyone!

A little while ago I shared the announcement for Tales of Untold Paths, and the response honestly blew me away. The feedback, discussions, encouragement, and design conversations are a huge part of why I love this game and this community so much.

This project was born as a labor of love, and after months spent refining mechanics, stress-testing cards, reworking designs that didn’t feel satisfying, and polishing every detail I could... I’m incredibly happy (and honestly a little emotional) to say that it’s finally out!

You can grab it on [HeartOfDaggers], [itch.io], and [DriveThruRPG].

And last but definitely not least: thank you.

Whether you commented, gave feedback, discussed balance, or simply showed excitement for the project, it meant more than you probably realize.

 

May all your rolls be doubles!

Hello everyone!

Ever since Daggerheart was first announced, I was immediately drawn to its freshness and potential. As both a designer and a player, though, I always found myself wanting a few more options and playstyles to explore.

Over the past year, I’ve been working hard on a player expansion for Daggerheart, and today, with the anniversary of the game approaching, I’m finally ready to reveal it to the community!

The expansion is called Tales of Untold Paths, and its goal is to expand the game while also staying faithful to its spirit.

The PDF includes:

• 9 new subclasses (one for each core class)
• 18 new domain cards (two new 1st and 2nd level cards for each core domain)
• Print-and-play cards for all the new subclasses and domain cards

One important thing I want to mention: the print-and-play cards currently do not include unique artwork. This was a one-person passion project, and commissioning individual illustrations for every single card would have taken an enormous amount of time and resources. That said, if the project does well and people enjoy it, I would genuinely love to release a future update with fully illustrated cards.

I also want to give proper credit to the incredible artists who helped bring this project to life:

• Layout, cover, and back cover by Emma Banfi
• Character illustrations by Daulet Karazhigitov
• Environment and scenery illustrations by Konstantin Mashkarin

Their work added so much personality and atmosphere to the project, and I honestly couldn’t have asked for better collaborators.

The expansion is currently planned to be released next Wednesday, May 13th on DriveThruRPG, Itch, and Heart of Daggers.

Feel free to ask any questions you have about the project in the comments below!