Daggerheart’s massive Gen Con announcements confirms Critical Role’s RPG is D&D’s true rival

If you’re someone who hasn’t been entirely sure whether to commit to Critical Role and Darrington Press’s fantasy tabletop role-playing game, Daggerheart, the news from the Daggerheart panel at Gen Con might be just the thing to pique your interest. After all, with everything new announced at Gen Con 2026, Daggerheart has finally stepped up to become a true Dungeons & Dragons rival.

The Daggerheart playtest open beta started on March 12, 2024, allowing players and Game Masters alike to push the boundaries of the TTRPG before its official release in May 2025. Since then, Darrington Press has revealed several upcoming expansions of the game, with Daggerheart: Hope & Fear — which adds new classes, subclasses, ancestries, and the like — scheduled for an early release in August, before a wider release in September.

While Critical Role still leans heavily on the 5.5 edition of D&D for its main campaign, the Daggerheart Next panel makes it clear that Critical Role and Darrington Press are thinking far ahead for Daggerheart’s future. Here is everything revealed at the panel.

The future of Daggerheart

The future of a new tabletop role-playing game is always precarious, especially when it’s going up against juggernauts like Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder. However, Darrington Press doesn’t seem all that concerned, revealing that the studio is working on projects for Daggerheart that span the next three years. The studio has even started ideation for titles to launch in 2030.

And if players were worried about the cadence of releases for the game, fear not: Darrington Press revealed that players should expect two major releases each year, which will either be settings, campaigns, expansions, adventures, and more. Releasing alongside will be accessories and digital releases, such as the Romantasy Campaign Frame coming sometime this fall, with free products landing on the official Daggerheart website. Daggerheart players can expect to see more of what those adventures will look like with the next content drop in August.

Daggerheart is headed to Foundry Virtual Tabletop

You read that right. Foundry VTT, best known as a vital tool for Game Masters and players, both in giving them a virtual interface to play whichever tabletop system they desire, is officially in partnership with Daggerheart. Premium content for both Daggerheart Core and the Hope & Fear Expansion will be available to purchase and download from the website’s public repository.

Daggerheart accessories are on the way

Image: Darrington Press

If you’ve been watching Age of Umbra: Sallowlands, you’ll know already that Matthew Mercer has a wonderfully intricate Game Master screen. Not only does it fit the gothic vibe, but it also has a wonderful little perch for putting your fear tokens on.

That said, it’s been a little over a year since Daggerheart first released, so it’s no wonder that players are wondering when they’ll be able to get official accessories for their games. The answer is soon: The long-awaited GM screen is on the way. It’ll be joined by Fear Trackers — perfect for GMs to take note of how much fear they can hash out on their unsuspecting players — as well as an adversary deck that will track what your enemies can and can’t do.

An exact release date hasn’t been confirmed, but these accessories will be landing sometime in November, in time for the Holidays — a great gift for the Daggerheart GM in your life. They’ll be available for purchase first at the Critical Role and Darrington Press Guild stores, but will also be available at your local game store shortly after.

Daggerheart and One-Shot Wonders collaboration

Even more collaborations are on the way for Daggerheart. One-Shot Wonders from Roll & Play Press is best known for delivering a variety of different adventures for D&D players to pick and play at random. It’s a great resource for new and returning players, as it doesn’t require the Dungeon Master to do everything themselves, and it’s short enough that Dungeon Masters aren’t committing themselves to a massive campaign either.

The same is now happening with Daggerheart, with One-Shot Wonder unveiling over 100 new adventures that work for both Daggerheart’s Core Set and the expansion, Hope and Fear. A lot of Daggerheart’s worlds rely on player creativity and collaboration between the GM and its players, so we’re intrigued by how this new collaboration will keep that in mind when the Kickstarter for the One-Shot Wonders: Daggerheart pack launches this fall. You can get a free sample one-shot by signing up here.

More Daggerheart actual plays are on the way from Critical Role, Acquisitions Inc. and more

Image: Darrington Press

If you’re enjoying Age of Umbra: Sallowlands, a creepy, Elden Ring-esque adventure across a tarnished, salt-caked land, then you’ll be happy to know there’s even more Daggerheart adventures on the way for Critical Role.

A new actual-play miniseries called Reign of the Weredragon invites Critters to step into an eerie world that, as you might have guessed from the name, feels like it came straight out of several classic fairy tales. While we don’t know who will be playing in the miniseries yet, Reign of the Weredragon will be led by none other than Chris Perkins, Darrington Press’s creative director and former D&D game designer and editor, who has designed this setting for Hope & Fear.

However, it isn’t just Critical Role that will be providing more Daggerheart adventures. A new actual-play miniseries, Voltaire’s Aces — set in the charted world of Regolus Prime and described as having the vibes of Oceans 11, Suicide Squad, and Dragon Age — will be arriving from podcasters Bards of New York.

Last but not least, the popular and long-running actual play Acquisitions Incorporated, created by Penny Arcade’s Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, confirms it has fully switched from Dungeons & Dragons to Daggerheart, as seen in the latest adventures of the chaotic corporation/adventuring party. The next installment of the show will be at PAX West with GM Chris Perkins, where fans in attendance will witness the wedding of Jim Darkmagic. Then, at PAX Unplugged, GM Jeremy Crawford will kick off a new season of Acquisitions Inc. Both shows will be available as VOD on Beacon, Critical Role’s streaming platform.

The future is looking brighter than ever for Darrington Press. Not only has it given tabletop players an interesting alternative to D&D with Daggerheart, but it now has plenty of projects to keep fans playing for a long time to come. Considering how fast Daggerheart sold out when it first debuted, we’re eager and curious to see what level of success will come Darrington Press’s way in the next three years, and whether it’ll be enough to surpass D&D.