News Roundup: Daggerheart Makes Its Point

Welcome to the Saturday roundup of TTRPG news, from big releases to the small stories you should be aware of. We’ll release this every Saturday for your perusal.

This Week's News

• Daggerheart Hits the Stage

• World of Darkness Returns to Its White Wolf Roots

• PaizoCon Sends Starfinder to Space

• A New Book of Dragons

• Other News in TTRPG Space

Daggerheart Hits the Stage

Critical Role’s publisher, Darrington Press, made a lot of noise this week with the release of Daggerheart, its highly anticipated D&D alternative. The book is officially available for purchase, and most pre-orders have been fulfilled. I personally got my copy on Monday, and it is delightfully designed with cards covered with gold tint and a book that’s filled to the brim with fantastic art.

The game is a fantasy game like D&D, albeit with a playstyle that is less ‘crunchy’ aka less reliant on excessive dice rolls to determine how a game should be played. If you’re not a big fan of how much math D&D offers, this is a nice alternative that offers customization but simplifies the time you have to spend calculating whether or not your dice roll beats the monster’s armor class.

I’m not in a place to talk about whether it deserves your time, as there are plenty of reviews by way more intelligent people to note that. EN World, one of the more prominent TTRPG news websites, notes how the game explores the "duality of robust combat mechanics and freeform narrative,” which is an interesting concept when talking about the game.

When game designers make a game, they either lean heavily into having rules to regulate most aspects of what players do (Shadowrun, Pathfinder), or they lean into more flexible systems where narrative matters more (Monster of the Week, Vampire the Masquerade Fifth Edition). Each style typically appeals to a certain kind of player. Daggerheart is trying to bring a balance of the two that may give it more appeal than other games.

Other critics like Dave Thaumavore have been less fond of the game, noting how its diverse fantasy concept seems like a reflavoring of D&D rather than doing something unique.

The game arrives at a time when many people are trying to create their own alternatives to D&D. MCDM is publishing Draw Steel, Brotherwise Games is bringing Brandon Sanderson’s fantasy to the table through the Cosmere TTRPG, and there are still competitors like Tales of the Valiant out there.

What might help Daggerheart have a longer shelf life is that it is made by Critical Role, which means that fans of the product will be exposed to it regularly (assuming that its next long-term campaign uses that ruleset. This is unconfirmed.)

In the meantime, I’m very excited to try this game at my local table and see if it fits my needs.

World of Darkness Returns to Its White Wolf Roots

World of Darkness, the licensor behind Vampire the Masquerade, Hunter the Reckoning, and Werewolf the Apocalypse, announced on Friday that it was returning to its roots with a major name change.

The announcement was initially revealed at Darkness Emergent (WoD’s LARP event) then announced online.

For context, the WoD franchise started under White Wolf Publishing in 1990, but its license was sold to the Icelandic publisher CCP Games in 2006 and then to Paradox Interactive in 2015. Paradox currently oversees the modern versions of Vampire, Werewolf, and Hunter, selling the licensing rights to various publishers and companies on which they can base products. That’s why Paradox owns the license, but Renegade Game Studios publishes all of the current books in VTM.

The company claims in the press release that the new identity will allow WoD to reinforce its legacy, provide leadership, and maintain its current standards for inclusivity in storytelling.

So, what does this mean for players? White Wolf will now operate as an independent entity within its owner, Paradox, to oversee all WoD properties. These include the TTRPGs, board games, shows, etc. The TTRPG development is going to move in-house rather than be outsourced. What will that mean for Renegade Game Studio’s contract? I'm not sure. Renegade may not make future VTM games, but I must confirm this.

But it also means that White Wolf and Paradox are partnering up for the upcoming Bloodlines 2 release, which is both highly anticipated and in a position of risk due to the fraught development history it’s experienced.

In the meantime, World of Darkness fans can anticipate the release of In Memoriam, a new book designed to help VTM players explore how to play older vampires. Hunter fans, meanwhile, get Apostates, a book dedicated to exploring the federal-level monster-hunting organizations.

If you know anything about what this rebrand means or how it will affect the future of the World of Darkness, email me! I want to learn more. Also send me your thoughts.

PaizoCon Sends Starfinder to Space

The Pathfinder/Starfinder publisher had its annual event this weekend, where it’s hosting multiple panels going into detail about what’s coming for the two games. It’s a notably important event since both games are considered the most prominent competitors when it comes to providing alternatives to D&D, and it has maintained a regular player base.

You can watch the keynote below, or review over my notes on BlueSky. In short, they’ve got a lot of new releases prepped for Starfinder 2e, which is the big product update this year for fans of the sci-fi/fantasy game. There’s at least four new books planned to support the updated ruleset this year, as well as the first novel set in this particular world.

Pathfinder will continue to get adventure paths, new content for its Lost Omens series and the launch of a new “historic event” within the game’s world known as the “Hellfire Crisis.”

For Paizo fanboys, these are all very exciting but not news by itself. For people who respect Paizo but aren’t as heavily involved in playing the game, it just seems like more fodder for the system.

Want to stay on top of the TTRPG news of the week? I recommend subscribing to TTRPG Insider, where we’ve got exclusive interviews, objectively analytical reporting and weekly roundups to help you keep up with what’s going on at your table.

A New Book of Dragons

It looks like we will have a dragon-themed summer for D&D fans. Wizards of the Coast announced that it is releasing The Book of Dragons, a new compendium of dragon-related lore written from the perspectives of Tiamat and Bahamut, the two draconic gods of the Forgotten Realms. This will arrive months after Dragon Delves, a collection of short adventures featuring dragons designed for the 2024 version of D&D.

It’s continuing a tradition of supplemental material that isn’t great for gameplay, but makes great shelf content or opportunities to learn more about the lore.

Other News in TTRPG Space

Free League Publishing is releasing two new books on Kickstarter to supplement its fantasy-oriented-yet-grimdark imprint of the Euro-inspired Dragonbane. These include Arkand, a book about one of the major cities and all the crime struggles there. There’s also the Book of Magic, a collection of new spells for players in the setting.

No Quest for the Wicked, a Canada-based Let’s Play, canceled its Starfinder show at GenCon due to concerns about the risks of crossing the border during the Trump Administration.

The miniature printer WizKids refunded customers for their purchase of Baldur’s Gate 3 figures after people discovered they didn’t look like the box art.

Critical Role is coming to your local theatre! Or the live episodes will be rebroadcast there as part of a new deal with Fathom Events.

Owlcat Games, the people behind the Pathfinder and Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader CRPGs are adapting another 40k setting into a game. During the Warhammer Skulls event on Thursday, the company announced that Dark Heresy, a TTRPG set around the spy-like Inquisition, will get its own separate game. No date for the release was set, although I imagine we will not see anything until 2027 if we are lucky.

That’s all this week! Did we miss any stories? Anything you want to see more coverage for? Let us know!