Critical Role’s upcomingDaggerheartTTRPG will be released soon and, if successful, could get itself more supplementary material down the line. With all the excitement around the project, Critical Role may already be thinking about what should come next for the game in order to compete withDungeons and Dragons.
Followingwhat happened withDungeons and Dragon’s OGLtwo years back, where Wizards of the Coast’s attempts to deauthorize its Open Game License threatened the very third-party industry that had propped up5e’s success, many indie companies began to pursue their own heroic fantasy TTRPG systems. Despite WOTC dropping these plans, theseD&Dcompetitors did not stop their development. This year will see the fruit of these labors, not only in the form of MCDM’sDraw Steel, but Critical Role’s much-hypedDaggerheart.
The Sourcebooks Critical Role’s Daggerheart Needs
The release date for Critical Role’sDaggerheartis May 20; players will finally get access to a finished 300-page core rulebook for the system. Given Critical Role’s reach, and the success the group has had releasing supplementary sourcebooks forD&D 5e,Daggerheartis set up for success. If the game is well-received by players, it’s likely that the developers will follow through with new official materials forDaggerheart, including new character options, new monsters, and new campaign settings. While it’s unclear what the exact contents ofDaggerheart’s core rulebook will be, there’s a lot that will likely be left up to future books.
Exandria Setting Guide
Fans of Critical Rolewill likely want to play adventures in the main campaign setting for the group’s live show, Exandria. Exandria is DM Matthew Mercer’s campaign setting, shaped by the show’s cast of players, and is where the 3 campaigns ofCritical Roletake place.Daggerheartwill be taking on elements of this setting, such as a playable Clank ancestry (the homebrew ancestry that Sam Riegel’s character Fresh Cut Grass belonged to in campaign 3), so the door is wide open for the group to go all-in on their creative legacy.
However, it’s clear thatCritical Role’s goal forDaggerheartis to have it stand on its own two feet. From what’s been released so far of the game’s art, references to the live show’s world and characters have been minimal; the covers for both editions of the core rulebook make no reference to the player characters ofCritical Role. This is a respectable way of going about the project, and will likely improveDaggerheart’s longevity. Nonetheless, a conversion of Critical Role’s5eTal’Dorei setting guide, or even a massive guide to the whole world of Exandria, would be a sensible first step for expansion.
New Character Options, Familiar Matt Mercer Classes
Character options are by far the best-selling expansions in fantasy TTRPGs, withDungeons and DragonssourcebookslikeTasha’s Cauldron of Everythinghitting the big numbers. More character options will be in high demand ifDaggerheartis successful, and there’s a lot that Critical Role could do to add to the core rules. For instance, the classes ofDaggerheartmore-or-less serve as analogs for core classes inD&D 5e—and the team working on the system could continue this trend (filling in for overlooked classes like the Monk and the Warlock), or add character options that go in completely original directions.
On the subject of classes, though it may not fit the tone ofDaggerheart,Matt Mercer’s Blood Hunterclass could finally see a revision through a conversion. Moreover, subclasses like the Gunslinger and the Chronurgy Wizard could also be used to bring in more fans of Mercer’s past character option offerings, while also revising elements that the community has since found outdated or overpowered.
