Daggerheart To Release Official Hope & Fear Expansion

Darrington Press has announced the first expansion for Daggerheart, which adds four new subclasses, a new domain, and several other new character-building options. At the onset of PAX Unplugged, Darrington Press announced Daggerheart: Hope & Fear, the first expansion for the Daggerheart TTRPG. The new expansion, which will launch in Summer 2026, contains 4 new classes - the Witch, Warlock, Brawler, and Assassin, each of which comes with two subclasses. Also included is the brand new Dread Domain, which is tied to Witch and Warlock classes. There will also be over 130 adversaries and 28 new environments in the books, along with four new Campaign Frame.

A Standard Edition and a Deluxe Edition will be released for Daggerheart: Hope & Fear. Both versions come with the book and associated cards, with the deluxe edition featuring a gold foil box, dice, alternate art covers, and a rip pad with various sheets for the game. The Standard Edition (which runs about 200 pages) will retail for just $39.99, while the Deluxe Edition runs for $119.99.

A full description of the new expansion is below:

Daggerheart: Hope & Fear comes with a book (around 200 pages) and a box containing cards and a rip pad of blank adversary sheets!

Inside the book, you’ll find:

• New character options, including 4 new classes: the Witch, Warlock, Brawler, and Assassin, each with 2 unique subclasses!
• 130+ new adversaries and 28 environments, plus a rip pad of blank adversary sheets to help you easily create your own
• 100+ weapons, armor, item, and consumable options
• 4 new Campaign Frames introducing new worlds and settings for you to explore

The cards include:

• A completely new Dread Domain, unlocking ghastly, macabre magic core to the new Witch and Warlock classes.
• Subclass Cards for all 8 new subclasses
• 6 Transformation Cards: A completely new mechanic, transformations represent changes or augmentations to characters in Daggerheart. During a campaign or at character creation, transform into a Vampire, Werewolf, Reanimated, Shapeshifter, Ghost, or Demigod!
• 6 new Community Cards: Duneborne, Hearthborne, Frostborne, Warborne, Freeborne, and Reborne
• 6 new Ancestry Cards: Skykin, Tidekin, Earthkin, Emberkin, Gnome, and Aetheris

 

[definiteFreakyFishGuy]

Beadle & Grimm, I believe. Not saying it is a huge success, honestly doesn't seem like it was, but it [Candela Obscura] wasn't designed to be some big ongoing growing game. It's a light game, from what I have seen.

Maybe not Candela Obscura specifically, but when Candela was first released, DP made a big deal about how they developed a brand new game system called "Illuminated Worlds," which Candela Obscura supposedly runs on. The intent seemed to be to create more games using the system, but as far as I know, no one seems to remember IW. (And I'll be honest, I don't really know what makes IW different from FitD, so...).

 

[Parmandur]

Maybe not Candela Obscura specifically, but when Candela was first released, DP made a big deal about how they developed a brand new game system called "Illuminated Worlds," which Candela Obscura supposedly runs on. The intent seemed to be to create more games using the system, but as far as I know, no one seems to remember IW. (And I'll be honest, I don't really know what makes IW different from FitD, so...).

Yeah, it seems they still mention it on the page for Candela Obscura, but nope, nothing else has come of it at this point. I'm not familiar with the game, so I'm not sure what makes ot different, either, but the writers seem busy with Daggerheart at this point.

 

[Aldarc]

...but as far as I know, no one seems to remember IW. (And I'll be honest, I don't really know what makes IW different from FitD, so...).

My general impression, at least while reading through the QuickStart, was that it was trying to make FitD into a more GM-curated Trad game while also tonally wanting to be Vaesen and Invisible Sun. I wasn't initially all that impressed with the game.

Even though they fixed their mistake, I also seem to remember that CO not (at first) acknowledging either Blades in the Dark or Vaesen as crystal clear influences angered a lot of people, which also soured its reception.

 

[zakael19]

Even though they fixed their mistake, I also seem to remember that CO not (at first) acknowledging either Blades in the Dark or Vaesen as crystal clear influences angered a lot of people, which also soured its reception.

Huh, wonder if that led directly to their long list of inspirations page in DH.

 

[Imaro]

Huh, wonder if that led directly to their long list of inspirations page in DH.

The backlash for CO was pretty rough at the time so im pretty sure if not the main reason it was a gigantic contributing factor.

 

[Reynard]

The backlash for CO was pretty rough at the time so im pretty sure if not the main reason it was a gigantic contributing factor.

At the very least, that backlash surely contributed to Daggerheart wearing its inspirations on its sleeves and acknowledging all the elements it drew on from other games.

 

[Zarithar]

Tried it at PAX West last year - not my style of RPG, but others at the table seemed to be enjoying it, so there's that. I'm sure this will sell like hotcakes and sit on shelves for years to come.

 

[Reynard]

Tried it at PAX West last year - not my style of RPG, but others at the table seemed to be enjoying it, so there's that. I'm sure this will sell like hotcakes and sit on shelves for years to come.

At least as far as I can tell, DH is getting a lot of actual play. I don't think it is a shelf game.