Michael R. Underwood

Menagerie #1 proof preview

Menagerie of Mayhem #1 is in final proofing stages, and I hope to have the final PDF to post for backers very soon. As a reminder, all backers at the Bladecrafter level ($10 a month USD) or at a hi...

Building Modular Encounters

This week's stream will talk about my method for building modular encounters to use with the Daggerheart rules, which involves developing an environment and related adversaries to present a dramati...

Perilous Journey - illustrated Environment

Hi all,

Today I have the first piece of art from several commissions I've made for upcoming Daggerheart-compatible releases. From artist Ehud Kurzweil, we have an illustration for the 2026-01-05 15:00:15 +0000 UTC View Post

SOTYs (Stuff of the Year Stream) tomorrow 12/31!

Tomorrow, on the last day of the year, I'll be hosting my annual no-longer-just-a-bit Year-in-Review-Slash-Sorta-Awards show, the SOTYs. SOTYs stands for Stuff Of The Year stream, and is also the n...

Fear Moves for the Witherwild Campaign Frame

Earlier this week, I saw a cool one-shot prompt page from Jack Panic aka DNGN CLUB, which you sh...

Holiday downtime + Bastion of Hope art

I'm taking the last two weeks of the year 99% off from working, as I'll be spending time with family and recharging to prepare for 2026.

However, to tide folks over, I have recommendations o...

Friday Morning Musings on DH design

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 ...

Best of 2025 Daggerheart advice

As mentioned, I recorded a video with a very short overview of my 2025 from a career perspective as an introduction to an experiment where I tried to condense several of my most popular Daggerheart...

Best of 2025 in Daggerheart advice tomorrow

Hi all. Rather than a normal stream, tomorrow I'll be posting a video where I try to distill the best pieces of my advice for and perspectives on Daggerheart into a 2025 greatest hits video. Patron...

Voice of the Swarm - WIP adventure

A while ago, I talked about a adventure that I was working on for the Witherwild campaign frame. I've now run that adventure for two different groups and am feeling good about it, but my focus in a...

WIP Adventure tomorrow + gear/item stream on Wed

EDIT: The image above now links to the VoD!

Hi folks! This week I've got both a stream and a big WIP release.

Tomorrow (Tuesday), all paid members will get a work-in-progress draft of...

Inspiration Deck stream this Wednesday

UPDATE: The link above leads to the VoD for this stream!

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After a bit of time to recover from PAXU, this week I am going to launch a stream series titled The Design Lab...

Menagerie of Mayhem, Pt. 1 - Text-only

UPDATE: The PDF of Menagerie #1 is now available for Patrons at $10 and up. This text version here (not t...

2025-12-01 15:00:19 +0000 UTC View Post

PAX Unplugged Recap!

Hi all!

I've got a bonus for patrons today - an exclusive con recap about my time at Pax Unplugged last week. I talk about the big Daggerheart news coming out of the con, the events I attend...

36 hours left for the Dungeons of Drakkenheim: Daggerheart KS!

As I write this, there are just under 36 hours remaining in the 2025-11-27 14:05:31 +0000 UTC View Post

Designing Boss Encounters stream on Wed

Update: Here is the YouTube link: https://youtu.be/DDQuPHRW-UU

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I'm back from PAX Unplugged and delightfully exhau...

My take on a Masquerade Ball environment

A fun bit from the PAXU Daggerheart panel: the team mentioned a Masquerade Ball environment in Hope & Fear, which is fabulous.

Separately, I started writing a Masquerade Ball environment...

Designing Daggerheart Adventures (Interview)

Recently, I had a great chat with the Welsh DM for his YouTube channel, talking mostly about Designing Daggerheart Adventures - what goes into the process, what adventures for an improv-driven game...

Crowdfunding Roundup stream this week!

This week I am heading to PAX Unplugged up in Philadelphia - and there's a lot of work to be done in preparation - so I'm switching things up a bit for this Wednesday's stream. I've been very much ...

Introducing: the Menagerie of Mayhem

Art by Tania Herrero, additional art and cover design by Andrew Bauman.

Some life stuff has put Bastion of Hope on hold for a bit longer, so I've moved another project into ...

Bastion of Hope campaign frame - Text-only

Dear all,

Bastion of Hope is in final layout, so today I'm bringing you the finalized text for the campaign frame. Patrons at $10 and up will get the full PDF (with art and ...

Stream Schedule + Drakkenheart Week 1 Review

What an eventful week it's been!

Last Tuesday saw the launch of the 2025-11-10 18:27:42 +0000 UTC View Post

Dungeons of Drakkenheim: Daggerheart - campaign frame overview

ICYMI, the stream where I talk about the Dungeons of Drakkenheim: Daggerheart Campaign Frame Kickstarter is now ...

GM Classes - Early WIP

I'm keeping busy with Drakkenheim work, but have no worry, I am still making material for Patrons to enjoy before anyone else.

After reading through 2025-11-06 14:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post

Dungeons of Drakkenheim: Daggerheart is LIVE!

The Dungeons of Drakkenheim: Daggerheart campaign guide Kickstarter is live, and funded in just 13 minutes!

There are tons of stretch goals ahead, including many that will set me up to add e...

Drakkenheart Week!

This week is the launch of the Kickstarter for the Dungeons of Drakkenheim Daggerheart Campaign Guide!

UPDATE: the campaign is live and funded! There are plenty of exciting stretch goals a...