Free stuff alert! Daggerheart, the forthcoming high fantasy tabletop role-playing game from Critical Role’s publishing arm Darrington Press, will be available to download for free from March 12 as part of a public open beta playtest.
Playtesters over 18 years of age are invited to “dig into the game, have fun, pick it apart, and share honest and open feedback” with the developers, led by designer Spenser Starke. Daggerheart is set for a full, proper release in 2025. Starke says new versions of the game will be released throughout the development process as feedback is taken on board.
Playtest packets will be available to download from DriveThruRPG as well as the Daggerheart website from March 12. There’ll also be a digital playtest of a character creation tool on Demiplane, plus some in-person playtesting at some local game stores belonging to the Darrington Press Guild, if you’re lucky enough to live near one of those.
On the day of the beta’s release, the Critical Role cast will be playing Daggerheart live starting at 7 p.m. PDT / 10 p.m. EDT on the Critical Role Twitch and YouTube channels. There’ll also be helpful explainer videos uploaded to YouTube.
Daggerheart is a classical fantasy RPG; its standout features are a dice-roll system using twin 12-sided dice symbolizing “hope” and “fear,” and a card-based system for defining and developing your character through their Ancestry and Community as well as Subclass and Domain. After a demo at Gen Con, Polygon found the game cleverly designed for familiarity and accessibility to Dungeons & Dragons players, but perhaps lacking some of its own personality. Come March 12, you’ll have an opportunity to assess it for yourself.