As communities emerge from generations in hiding, everyday heroes rediscover, reclaim, and rebuild a world haunted by cosmic horrors, corrupted wilds, and contested visions for what comes next.
The Pitch
During the centuries of the Scourge, the peoples of the world sealed themselves in underground enclaves while ravenous Horrors roamed the land, consuming or corrupting all they touched. Many shelters fell, and those that endured were transformed by the hard sacrifices they made to survive.
Now the worst has passed. Ancient vaults open, and a new generation steps into a world they know only through stories. Some work to rebuild and reconnect, while others fight over resources, relics, and the right to rule.
In a New Dawn campaign, you play people eager to make their mark by making a difference. You will root out lingering horrors and their corrupted allies, help communities rejoin and restore the wider world, uncover ancient artifacts and buried truths, and decide which factions and causes to support or oppose. Your discoveries and deeds will forge your reputation, as you help shape the fate of a fragile world threatened by old hungers and new ambitions.
Inspired by Earthdawn’s core ideas: sealed shelters, Horrors, True Elements, and principled Questors. Everything else is reimagined for Daggerheart; treat all lore here as new.
Tone & Feel
Adventurous, Heroic, Eerie, Post-Apocalyptic, Mysterious, Hopeful
Themes
Homegrown Heroes, Corruption vs. Conviction, The Price of Safety, The Nature of Trust, Promise and Perils of a New Frontier
Touchstones
Earthdawn, Fallout, The Last of Us, Station Eleven, A Canticle for Leibowitz, Princess Mononoke, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, The Expanse, Indiana Jones, Annihilation