I haven't finished reading Daggerheart, nor do I particularly intend to, so by my own admission this is more of a vibes-based take than a factual review. I've slogged through a lot of really terrible media that gives me the willies to "earn" the right to hate on it, and most of the time all the effort only ends up confirming whatever core element gave me the ick. Forgive me if I lack the strength.
Reading Daggerheart is like encountering the zombie of a loved one. Ironically, the outsider underdogs have managed to create something that is more polished, frictionless, and utterly inhuman than the bland corporate art that they contend against. At least WotC's incompetence gives their products a humanizing patina of jank; I didn't see any of that here.
It's not really a surprise, though. WotC's job is to sell the materials needed to play D&D; the Critical Role group, and other commercial ventures orbiting around the high-production actual play scene, have to sell the actual moment-to-moment gameplay. Given the amount of experience they have at this point, it makes perfect sense that they've got a mastery over the perfectly smooth, perfectly homogenized Baldur's Gatecore style of neo-trad D&D that far exceeds that of the actual stewards of the franchise.
If this fails, it will be because of the sheer brute economic force that Hasbro can exert, that and the apathy to anything-but-5e amongst their audience-base that they've, intentionally or not, had some part in inculcating. If it succeeds, I predict that D&D 6th Edition will be a Daggerheart 2e ripoff, rather than the other way around.
The HP system is pretty cool.
