Tabletop studio Dream Realm Storytellers has launched a crowdfunding campaign for Demonheart: The Vile Codex, a massive 450-page expansion manual designed for Darrington Press’s upcoming Daggerheart system. Though the campaign lists its registered business address as Dudley, West Midlands, the core development team operates out of Turkey, building on their longstanding background in high-concept grimdark fantasy books. The new project serves as a comprehensive “codex of evil,” built to inject a darker tone into tactical roleplaying games.
Demonheart positions itself as an explicit, adult-oriented sandbox, centring its narrative around damned souls who have awakened in a brutal landscape constructed out of the corpses of fallen angels.
Navigating the Mechanics of Damnation
At its mechanical core, Demonheart introduces an entirely new character class forged in catastrophe, alongside 66 subclasses designed to fray standard character identities. Players must navigate seven distinct Sin Domains based on the seven deadly sins. The Pride domain, for example, allows upper-class characters to draw power from status and commanding presence, granting practitioners advanced tactical tools to dominate both enemies and social encounters.
The centrepiece of the volume’s mechanical changes is the Sin Die system, which layers a volatile element of risk over the standard duality dice mechanic. When rolled alongside traditional Hope and Fear dice, the Sin Die determines whether a character yields an “infernal success” or triggers a “vile outcome.” If matching results land on specific numbers, players draw unwanted attention from individual sins:
- Sloth: Restrains characters temporarily on repeating 1s.
- Lust: Suppresses characters with arousal on repeating 2s and 3s.
- Gluttony: Leaves characters insatiable on repeating 4s and 5s.
- Greed: Activates when characters roll repeating 6s and 7s.
- Wrath: Imposes a penalty on all rolls except direct attacks on 8s and 9s.
- Envy: Manifests when rolling repeating 10s and 11s.
- Pride: Reserved for the highest beings, succeeding only on repeating 12s.
An optional “Satan Dice Mechanic” updates this framework by removing the standard Greed rule for sixes, allowing the ruler of Hell to turn their attention directly to the party and leave characters completely stunned. The release also outlines over 200 items that grant power at a direct cost, as well as more than 150 new adversaries, including the lurking Snatcher Demon, the twisted Strican, and the brutal Ursusian. Due to these heavy elements of body horror, ritual sacrifice, and existential dread, the creators have released an explicit reader discretion warning.
No AI generated content is used in Demonheart, and we believe in supporting real artists. We also love to create and would never let AI steal that joy from us.”
Crowdfunding Tiers and Rewards
The funding structure handles its available rewards through clear, distinctly tiered options.
- Pledge $45 (approx. £33): Digital Hell. Receive PDF copies of the core trilogy and the supplement’s domain cards.
- Pledge $55 (approx. £41): Freshly Damned. Receive a copy of the Demonheart Supplement book for both physical and digital release.
- Pledge $165 (approx. £123): Hellforged Adventurer. Physical and digital copies of the full three-book collection: the setting, supplement, and adventure books.
- Pledge $275 (approx. £205): Chainbreaker of the Pit. Get all the essential items to play Demonheart, such as the Supplement book, Domain cards, The Coin of Fate, and other items to enhance gameplay.
- Pledge $375 (approx. £280): Supreme Tyrant of the Pit. Gives you all the books and player essentials such as the GM screen, dice tray and fear beads, plus additional pins and stickers.
- Pledge $525 (approx. £391): Lord of All That Burns. The collector’s edition offering leatherbound books with foil script and new items like the untranslated Infernal Bible prop book.
- Pledge $892 (approx. £666): CEO of Hell. You own everything offered in the Demonheart campaign, including all accessories and unlocked stretch goals like the 800x300mm desktop mousepad.
The crowdfunding campaign operates on an all-or-nothing model and must maintain its target by Thursday, 18 June 2026, at 7:00 PM BST. Dream Realm Storytellers expects to complete fulfilment and deliver the final materials to backers by June 2027.
Gamers looking to test the Sin Die system, preview the initial items, and sample the core rules can download the early Demonheart Demo Booklet directly from DriveThruRPG.
Quick Links
- Demo download
- Kickstarter
