Daggerheart, the fantasy tabletop role-playing game from Critical Role’s publishing arm Darrington Press, is set for its first major expansion on 25 August 2026. The release follows the game’s May 2025 launch and arrives three weeks after the company outlined its future plans at a Gen Con panel on 30 July.
Critical Role began as a Dungeons & Dragons actual-play series before Darrington Press developed Daggerheart as a competing fantasy role-playing system. Former lead D&D designers Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford were brought in to continue developing the game.
What does Hope & Fear add to Daggerheart?
Daggerheart: Hope & Fear expands both character creation and game-master tools. The book introduces four classes: witch, warlock, brawler and assassin. Each class has two subclasses, giving players more ways to shape a campaign character.
- A transformation system lets characters begin as, or later become, a vampire, werewolf or ghost.
- New species broaden the available character options.
- A new Dread domain represents the dark powers used by witches and warlocks.
- New cards cover the abilities and options introduced by the expansion.
The book also adds more than 100 items, including brass knuckles, caltrops, mage robes and invisibility potions. Game masters receive more than 130 adversaries across the game’s four tiers of play, ranging from mountain trolls and banshees to Lovecraftian horrors.
For larger encounters, an evolution feature supports multi-phase boss battles. Defeating an enemy can reveal a stronger final form, allowing a single confrontation to develop through several stages.
Four campaign frames cover very different settings
Hope & Fear includes four campaign frames intended to help game masters establish a distinct fantasy direction:
- Castle High: a magical-school setting.
- Reign of the Weredragon: a fairy-tale-inspired adventure drawing on stories such as Sleeping Beauty and The Little Mermaid.
- Dark Heart of Andaluria: a monster-hunting and political campaign with a tone inspired by The Witcher.
- Journey to Horizon: a post-apocalyptic epic-fantasy setting inspired by The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Release details and deluxe edition contents
Hope & Fear launches on 25 August 2026. Customers who preorder will receive access to a PDF two weeks before the physical edition is released.
A deluxe edition is also planned. It includes a game-master screen, tokens for tracking fear, dice, and pads containing character and adversary sheets. Fear is the resource used to activate adversary abilities. The deluxe edition is priced at $120.
More Daggerheart products are planned
Players who do not want to purchase the $120 deluxe edition will be able to buy its accessories separately ahead of the holiday season.
Roll & Play Press is also extending its One-Shot Wonders line beyond D&D with One Shot Wonders: Daggerheart. The book is scheduled for release in autumn and will contain 100 adventures requiring only 15 minutes of preparation. It will support every official Daggerheart campaign frame, including the four added in Hope & Fear.
Darrington Press is working with Foundry VTT on premium content for players who run remote campaigns. For readers exploring the wider gaming scene, RETROCADE’s arcade news and gaming coverage offers a separate look at interactive entertainment, while the arcade machine buying guide covers the practical side of choosing a cabinet.
Why the expansion matters
Hope & Fear is a substantial step for Daggerheart, combining new classes, supernatural character transformations, equipment, enemies and ready-made campaign concepts in one release. Its upcoming virtual-tabletop support and additional adventure content also point to a growing ecosystem around the game.
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