Dragon Dowsers

Award-winning publisher Hatchlings Games are thrilled to reveal their first project for the Daggerheart tabletop roleplaying game!

The Dragon Dowsers campaign guide expands upon the science-fantasy setting of Praelar first detailed in our solo journaling game, Dragon Dowser. Exploring this kingdom, you'll encounter poisonous spore storms, long-buried machines of war, dragons and their magic, tyrannical rulers hellbent on stealing their precious eggs, and the rebel Dowsers striving to stop them!

Dragon Dowsers is inspired by the manga, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and the Studio Ghibli animation of the same name. Hayao Miyazaki's celebrated work explores ecological catastrophes, deadly machines, warring factions, and the fractured communities risking everything to ensure nature and humankind might coexist in peace.

Our other touchstones include Castle in the Sky, The Dragon Prince, Nier: Automata, Dragon Riders of Pern, and Panzer Dragoon Saga.

The Book

Dragon Dowsers will be a 150+ page A4 hardcover produced to the highest specifications by Standart Impressa, the printers behind our recent titles Cryptid Cities and Argo-0. Amongst their other clients are the Nordic powerhouse, Free League Publishing.

With beautiful, full-colour illustrations and maps throughout, if we unlock our first stretch goal, we'll elevate the book with a foil-stamped cover, patterned endpapers, and ribbon bookmarks. The digital PDFs will be produced with accessibility in mind, featuring alt text, chapter hyperlinks, and plain text versions.

INTERIOR PAGES

The Campaign

Our epic, sandbox campaign will feature four diverse biomes for players to explore, representing enough content to fill a dozen roleplaying sessions. While you track down stolen or abandoned dragon eggs, you'll encounter old-world mysteries, repurposed machines, destructive weather patterns, and aggressive wildlife altered over time by man-made poisons. 

Once you've discovered the highly coveted eggs, they'll need to be returned to their family (if they haven't already been slain!), or incubated at a sanctuary to ensure the hatchlings can be reared safely to adulthood. Whether rescued or raised, these majestic creatures will join your cause and, on occasion, take to the skies as your mount!

Resources

Alongside the epic adventure, we're adding a host of new resources for the system. Expect a new domain, classes, subclasses, ancestries, environments, equipment, NPCs, adversaries, unique downtime mechanics, and dozens of rolling tables to satisfy any GM!

Dragon Dowsers adds the TECH domain to Daggerheart and comes with a corresponding pool of 21 cards for your chosen subclass.

SPORE & MACHINE CARDS

We'll explore nine new subclasses, including Biomancer (Artificer), Spies Guild (Assassin), the Warden Of Rot (Druid), Bulwark (Guardian), Dowser (Ranger), Yolk Origin (Sorcerer), Deserter (Warrior), Diviner (Witch), Relic Scholar (Wizard).

TWO CHARACTERS

We'll adapt nine Daggerheart ancestries, including Praelarian (Human), Machine (Clank), Wyrmbitten (Drakona), Crystallin (Faerie), and Sporeborne (Fungril, Galapa, Katari, Ribbet, Simiah).

ANCESTRY SHEET

The landscape of Praelar will play a big part in Dragon Dowsers. We want to offer GMs a host of tools to help bring the kingdom to life. In one chapter of the guide, we'll explore the destructive spore storms, which can literally reshape the land as you play!

We'll have tables and illustrations for the equipment and items of Praelar, including repurposing machine parts to create mobility aids and prosthetics.

Crystal craft (dowsing & shielding)
Incubators
Machine attachments & weaponry
Cloaks and masks
Dragon riding tack
Relics (old world treasures & currency)

THREE ITEMS

The kingdom of Praelar may be a post-apocalyptic wasteland in parts, but it's still brimming with a menagerie of life. In the Inhabitants chapter, you'll discover NPCs, including your fellow Dowsers, the nefarious Mecharch rulers, their soldiers, and even machines with personalities! Off the beaten path, you'll frequently encounter dangerous wildlife, dragons fighting extinction, and some truly horrifying monstrosities!

We're introducing a unique new mechanic to the guide dubbed Hatchlings Hands, a way of communicating with infant dragons by way of real sign language (ASL & BSL available). These tutorials are adapted from our groundbreaking INSPIRISLES RPG and add an optional educational element to your roleplaying sessions. It might even encourage a few Daggerheart players to seek out a professional course!

• GM Screen
• Hope & Fear Tokens 
• Dice set with Duality
• Map Collection
• STL Minis
• Hatchlings Collection

• Hardcover Improvements
• Foldout World Map
• More Art
• Ambient Soundtrack
• StoryWeave AP Production
• Pay Raise

Every one of our RPGs contains an abundance of art and design by talented creatives. This is always what the bulk of our funding goes towards. We believe in human imagination and craftsmanship, and reject the use of Generative-AI in the tabletop industry.

• Bonus Reaction preview (£900!)
• Mike Underwood Interview!
• WelshDM interview???
• TTRPGKids interview
• Production streams
• StoryWeave playtest

Rich & Kathryn Oxenham
Kat the Lore Mistress
WillowsQuest
Luseals
Eldritch Smite
Crowva
Fernando Salvaterra
Odds & Ents

We aim to keep shipping rates as low as we can, but please be aware that charges will be subject to change as we head into 2027. Shipping and any applicable taxes will be added to pledges through BackerKit surveys following the campaign.

Fulfilment will be handled by Indie Press Revolution in the US and Critical Kit Ltd here in the UK.