Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford, instrumental figures in shaping the 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons, have transitioned to Critical Role's publishing arm, Darrington Press, to contribute to the TTRPG Daggerheart. Both designers view this move not as a departure from their previous work, but as a natural progression and an exciting exploration of new design space.
Perkins and Crawford, known for their work on D&D core rulebooks and adventures like the best-selling Curse of Strahd, found the transition to Daggerheart, a system they did not initially design, to be a welcome challenge. "For me, it was super easy," Perkins stated in a video interview. "Even working on D&D, we were building on the work of previous editions and the labors of the people who made those additions. It's not like we were creating a game out of nothing."
Crawford echoed this sentiment, calling the experience a "delight." He elaborated that Daggerheart's system is flexible enough to build upon while remaining new enough to offer significant design potential for future products. "It has enough flexible parts to take and use to build new things, but it is also a new enough system that there's actually a lot of design space that we're exploring for future products," Crawford said.
Daggerheart draws inspiration from a wide array of TTRPGs, including D&D itself. Many of its mechanics are influenced by popular D&D house rules that have evolved organically over time. For instance, the Syndicate Rogue feature "Well-Connected" mirrors the common "I know a guy" house rule. Crawford noted that the Daggerheart design team successfully synthesized innovations explored by various design teams and communities into a cohesive game.
Collaborative Storytelling at the Forefront
Central to Daggerheart's design philosophy is collaborative storytelling, a concept where the Game Master and players work together to shape the narrative. While this approach is common in D&D, Daggerheart actively bakes it into its core mechanics. "That goes back to the philosophy of Daggerheart,” Crawford explained, “to take many of these things that groups have been doing for years, embracing them, and making them an official part of the game."
Perkins highlighted how this philosophy is integrated into Daggerheart's campaign frames and adventure design. "In the Daggerheart campaign frames, there are points where the player is addressed directly, or the GM is told to basically go to the players and have them add something to the setting,” Perkins said. “As we create more adventures for Daggerheart, we’re finding ways to bake that into the adventure design, so there are points in every adventure where the players are actually steering the ship. This is a fun shift for me as someone who has spent a literal lifetime working on adventure content. It's a fundamental shift."
Perkins is currently working on an extensive anthology of over 100 Daggerheart adventures, an undertaking he likens to the foundational work done for D&D in its early years. He expressed excitement about the opportunity to experiment and take risks with the Daggerheart adventure content, stating, "Here, we're starting right at the outset with carte blanche, and we are going to take some chances, experiment a little, and see what lands."
Meanwhile, Crawford is developing a new campaign setting described as a "spooky" but enticing realm of dark fantasy. He hinted that classes like the Blood Hunter and Summoner are part of this setting, with elements also teased during Matt Mercer's recent Age of Umbra: Sallowlands series.
With a planned release schedule of two major titles per year, Daggerheart is poised to become a significant contender in the TTRPG market. Both designers emphasize that their work contributes to the advancement of the role-playing game art form as a whole. "Sure, there are individual systems, but the older I get, the more I get concerned about just the art form as a whole," Crawford concluded. "The art form of role-playing games is so precious and such a unique way for people to connect with each other and entertain each other that I am excited when I see the art form moving forward in any way in any game."