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GM resource

Pacing for Daggerheart

Keep scenes moving and spotlight balanced. Daggerheart pacing rides Hope and Fear. Spend Fear visibly to escalate, and treat the spotlight handoff (after a Fear-die-high roll) as a scene change, not a single move.

Checklist

  • Spend Fear in front of players — narrate the cost so it lands.
  • When the spotlight comes to you, take a real turn: hard move, scene shift, or NPC pressure.
  • Let Hope spends reshape scenes, not just buy successes.
  • End scenes on a question or a fork in the fiction.
Common pitfalls
  • Hoarding Fear like a budget
  • Single-Move GM turns
  • Treating Hope as bonus damage
Combat cheat sheet
Quick lookup during play.
Rules reference
Combat, skills, and conditions for quick lookup.

Keep sessions moving

Use quick pages, then get back to the scene.