Critical Role’s Darrington Press has revealed a first look at both the standard and limited edition covers for their new gameDaggerheart. Announced last year,Daggerheartis a new high-fantasy tabletop RPG that combines action-packed combat with collaborative storytelling and real stakes. The new TTRPG stands out in part because it’s being developed by Darrington Press, theCritical Role-founded game publisher.AsCritical Rolehelped popularizethe current Fifth Edition ruleset forDungeons & Dragons,Daggerheartcould emerge as a new dominant force in the world of tabletop games.
At PAX Unplugged, Darrington Press revealed both the standard covers and limited edition covers to theDaggerheartCore Set. The standard cover, illustrated by Mat Wilma, features several adventurers confronting a large monster. The alternate cover by Dominik Meyer also features several adventurers standing in heroic poses,with contrasting bright and dark colors representing the duality between hope and fear that’s at the heart of the new game.Daggerheartis set to be released in 2025, with pre-orders available now.
How Daggerheart Differs From Dungeons & Dragons
Daggerheart Uses Different Dice Mechanics And Different Styles Of Character-Building
While bothDaggerheartandDungeons & Dragonsexist as games to tell high-fantasy stories,they function very differently. For example,Daggerheartencourages a more collaborative approach to worldbuilding, with players asked to describe the setting, NPCs, and even the kinds of enemies that they face. The game also has several distinct mechanical differences. Unlike Dungeons & Dragons, which uses a twenty-sided die to make checks,Daggerheartfeatures a system that involves rolling two differently colored twelve-sided diceand adding them together. Each die is designated as either the “Hope” or “Fear” Die, and the higher result adds narrative effects.
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Character building also comes with some key differences.Daggerheartonly has 10 levels instead of 20, with players utilizing cards to help choose and keep track of certain abilities.Each character class has two domains with different abilities,with players adding abilities from those domains as they level up. Each player also chooses an ancestry, a community, and class abilities, granting them additional room for customizing their characters. The result is a game that feels and plays out very differently than other high-fantasy tabletop RPGs, even for longtime veterans.
Our Take: We Can’t Wait To Get Daggerheart On The Table
Daggerheart Is Our Most Anticipated TTRPG Of 2025
I’ve run numerousDaggerhearttest sessions over the past year and my players actually prefer its gameplay overDungeons & Dragons.My players loved the collaborative worldbuilding and enjoyed how dynamic combat felt compared to other games.
I’m very curious to see how Darrington Press’s designers changed the game based on feedback during the playtest, especially with the addition of narrative frames that add new rules to tell specific kinds of stories. More than any video game,Daggerheartis the game I’m most excited to play in 2025.
