This tabletop RPG is shaping up to be a true D&D rival, and I can't wait to see where it goes next

Daggerheart’s big plans for the future prove that the game will have long legs, with years of content teased by the game’s makers… and that could well turn it into the biggest D&D rival around.

Earlier this month, Darrington Press pulled back the curtain on the future of Daggerheart, its recently released tabletop RPG during a panel at Gen Con 2025. While the panel was unsurprisingly light on concrete details (Daggerheart is only a few months’ old at this point), it’s clear that Darrington Press and its parent company Critical Role have big aspirations and want the game to serve as a true rival to Dungeons & Dragons. Seeing as D&D is unquestionably one of the best tabletop RPGs around (and certainly the most popular), that's no small task.

The largest announcement for Daggerheart was plans for a new Kickstarter, this time to produce Character card packs for the game. These card packs are meant as cheaper entry points for players, with each one containing every card possibly needed for a specific character class. Given that players currently need to purchase the complete Daggerheart Core Set to grab these cards, these new Character Classes should provide a cheaper option for a player who wants to play in a Daggerheart campaign but doesn’t want to spend $60 for the core ruleset.

The other concrete announcement was the first new official campaign frame for the new game, which also serves as a crossover of sorts with the wider Critical Role universe. Darrington Press plans to publish a campaign frame based on Tusk Love, the fictional romantasy book that became something of a running joke throughout Critical Role’s second campaign. Romantasy is hot right now, although there are few games that have crafted rulesets meant to specifically engage with this fantasy sub-genre. Not only is Darrington Press attempting to appeal to existing Critters with a Tusk Love campaign frame, it’s also tackling one of the great untapped fandoms in the TTRPG space.

Darrington Press also teased what their splashy new hires are up to, with both Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford hinting at their contributions to the new game. Darrington Press hired the pair of game designers after they both left D&D publisher Wizards of the Coast earlier this year, and it appears that the pair will be working on Daggerheart content that further expands the game. Perkins is working on a full campaign setting for Daggerheart, a first for the game, while Crawford is working on a series of campaign frames that join together for a full adventure.

Although Daggerheart is a setting-agnostic game, fleshing out the game with worldbuilding material is a necessary step to grow it. Campaign settings like Greyhawk, Ravenloft, and the Forgotten Realms helped to expand Dungeons & Dragons from a rules system to full game franchise. If Daggerheart can get its players to buy into a shared world, they’ll keep coming back to it as new content is released. Of course, the balance there will be supporting a mix of setting-agnostic material and new material made for specific worlds. Additionally, releasing new worlds for Daggerheart beyond Exandria and whatever world Brennan Lee Mulligan is crafting for Campaign 4 will help Daggerheart establish itself as more than Critical Role’s pet TTRPG.

I feel that the new adventures is where Daggerheart will see the most room for growth. While the core rulebook and Critical Role’s Daggerheart Actual Plays provide some examples as to how to play, new Daggerheart adventures provide a tangible example as to how the game is supposed to be played. Not only will these new adventures provide concrete examples into encounter building and adventure cadence, they’ll also provide more well-shaped looks into what a Daggerheart adventure is supposed to look like. Assumably, some of the freedom that Daggerheart provides will probably be lost with a pre-written adventure, but it comes with the trade-off of a story that’s easier to run for Daggerheart GMs.

Of course, Daggerheart is also planning its first full expansion as well. Several new classes and new mechanics are already out in playtesting, providing some insight as to what we’ll eventually see in terms of player-facing content. It appears that Daggerheart is opting for the Pathfinder route, with a focus on new character classes instead of D&D’s approach of building out new subclasses for its existing player options.

All in all, I’m very excited to see how Daggerheart grows over the next couple of years. The game has some momentum, with players crafting a whopping half-million player characters on its digital toolset. Darrington Press’s next challenge will be to feed that momentum with a steady drip of new content that expands the playerbase and keeps its current players satisfied. Based on their recent teases, it seems that Daggerheart has a long-term plan, and it’ll be interesting to see just how big the game grows over the next few years.

More fantasy RPGs to try

• The One Ring: $49.99 $46.39 at Amazon
• Pathfinder Beginner Box: $44.99 $40.49 at Amazon
• Mork Borg: £32.79 at Amazon

For more tabletop goodness, why not check out the best board games or the best card games?