Friday Morning Musings on DH design (Patreon)

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.

It also creates an opportunity for the player to pivot in the scene by bringing in different cards to face the challenges before them.

I can see this working at different scales. A tier 2/3 adversary with a Fear feature that can force a PC to choose a card and vault it, A nastier variant that lets the GM choose which one to vault, or a more random feature that tells the player to randomly pick a card and vault it. Then a Tier 4 adversary with a higher-cost Fear move that could force a PC to vault 1d4+1 cards or maybe even their entire loadout.

And any of this could, of course, be implemented in an environment as well. A labyrinth that manipulates memory and strips you of your abilities, a cursed ruin that binds your powers, etc.

Now I'm going to have to find a place to fit this into one of my current games so I can test it out. If you're in one of those games, I apologize in advance. ;)