New Daggerheart Kickstarter Announced, Chris Perkins, Jeremy Crawford's Plans Revealed

Daggerheart has ambitious plans for the upcoming months, with several major partnerships announced and a new Kickstarter planned for later this year. Today, Darrington Press announced that it would be Kickstarting Class Packs for Daggerheart, a class-based product that contains everything you need to play a specific class. The 76-card packs contain ancestry cards, community cards, subclass cards, and all cards from each of a class's two domains. Also included for Kickstarter backers is a digital PDF of the Daggerheart Core Rulebook.

Also announced were several new collaborations and campaign expansions from the game. A campaign frame focused of romantasy will be released in 2026, focused on the Exandria in-world book Tusk Love. Also announced were collaborations with Legends of Avantris, Dungeons and Daddies, and Bonus Action, all of whom will produce Actual Plays using Daggerheart as a game system.

Darrington Press also announced that Jeremy Crawford, Chris Perkins, and Twogether Studios are all working on new campaign products for the game. Crawford is leading the design of a "devilishly scary" campaign setting (which will be fully fleshed out unlike a campaign frame), while Perkins is building a series of adventures that will span multiple campaign frames and connect into a larger arc. Details about Keith Baker and Jenn Ellis's world was not revealed, but it would feature new player options as part of the "brand-new world."

 

[Chromie]

Kind of gross of them to use a kickstarter. At this point, they're like Paizo and could self publish it feels like

 

[overgeeked]

Kind of gross of them to use a kickstarter. At this point, they're like Paizo and could self publish it feels like

They've just shown they're still getting a feel for the interest for Daggerheart with their inability to keep core sets in stock. Running a Kickstarter to know how much actual interest there is before going to print on this product seems like a basic smart business move.

 

[Arilyn]

Kind of gross of them to use a kickstarter. At this point, they're like Paizo and could self publish it feels like

Which is what they did for the game. As @overgeeked says, they'd like to know the interest levels, so they'll be able to get their print runs closer to customer needs. This isn't gross. It's actually good customer relations.

 

[Aldarc]

For comparison, Free League and Monte Cook Games are comparably sized TTRPG companies, though not with anything near Darrington's Press likely budget. They regularly also put out Kickstarters to gauge the interest of print runs for their various product lines. It's fairly normal practice, especially given the costs of printed materials.

 

[Sketchpad]

I love the idea of class card packs. Using Kickstarter to produce them? I just don't get it. With the book selling like it is, and already having the files for the cards, why is this a KS? Why not just go through the distro chain to do this? Or, alternatively, go POD with the cards.
I'll be honest, I was hoping for a bit more than vague teases. Like maybe news on a general release of the GM Screen, or maybe a Player's book for The Void content. Yeah, yeah... I'm being greedy and "want moar!!" but I think we all do.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Which is what they did for the game. As @overgeeked says, they'd like to know the interest levels, so they'll be able to get their print runs closer to customer needs. This isn't gross. It's actually good customer relations.

Yup. It's the opposite of gross. Just because you had one hit product doesn't mean you're FORBIDDEN FROM KICKSTARTER FOREVER, that's wiiiiiiiiiiiild. Any company that doesn't know how successful a product is likely to actually be, and isn't just huge seems okay to use it to me. Realistically it's not like they're taking money from the pockets of other, smaller companies - on the contrary, I think there's a bit of a drawing effect where bigger names using KS gets people to see smaller KSes.

And "they're like Paizo" doesn't seem to be a supportable claim to me. I know it's harder to say with US companies because they don't have to publish public records of their turnover (they do in the UK, on Companies House), but I would be pretty surprised they were in the same ballpark (certainly prior to Daggerheart blowing up).

Also the only time I did say someone using KS was gross their game was such a massive flop outside the KS that I was proven very wrong lol and indeed clearly they were smart to do so (Pillars of Eternity II).

 

[Zaukrie]

Kind of gross of them to use a kickstarter. At this point, they're like Paizo and could self publish it feels like

Wut? I have no idea what this even means. It's a great way to reduce risk, especially given all the uncertainty in our economy right now.

 

[TiQuinn]

Yup. It's the opposite of gross. Just because you had one hit product doesn't mean you're FORBIDDEN FROM KICKSTARTER FOREVER, that's wiiiiiiiiiiiild. Any company that doesn't know how successful a product is likely to actually be, and isn't just huge seems okay to use it to me. Realistically it's not like they're taking money from the pockets of other, smaller companies - on the contrary, I think there's a bit of a drawing effect where bigger names using KS gets people to see smaller KSes.

And "they're like Paizo" doesn't seem to be a supportable claim to me. I know it's harder to say with US companies because they don't have to publish public records of their turnover (they do in the UK, on Companies House), but I would be pretty surprised they were in the same ballpark (certainly prior to Daggerheart blowing up).

Also the only time I did say someone using KS was gross their game was such a massive flop outside the KS that I was proven very wrong lol and indeed clearly they were smart to do so (Pillars of Eternity II).

I understand the sentiment that Kickstarter is for small companies launching a product but I've largely had to give up on this mindset - it's a minuscule industry, and the platform is out there for companies to gauge interest and raise money to make those products happen. If they can make use of that platform, why wouldn't they?

 

[darjr]

Why is the kickstarter a problem for folks? I don’t understand.

 

[Nylanfs]

Why is the kickstarter a problem for folks? I don’t understand.

Because reasons.