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For the incredible scale of the worlds they create, TTRPGs can be shockingly simple. I mean, long before Chris Pine was ever a human bard, players the world over were crafting just that kind of creature with a pencil and character sheet. And for the folks behind the scenes of Daggerheart - that is, the recently-released high-fantasy RPG from Critical Role's Darrington Press, keeping things simple isn't just a way to remember where the industry came from: it's core to their creative process.

The folks in question are Daggerheart producer Elise Rezendes and designers Rowan Hall and Spenser Starke. Speaking with me at PAX Unplugged '25, the trio dove into a key aspect of Daggerheart's game design: the game's cards, which convey the same information longer TRPG campaign books might, but in a smaller package. And while Hall admits that "having cards as a very limited space to utilize" is a challenge, it's the right kind of challenge to have.

"If it doesn't fit on a card," she told me, "it's not Daggerheart. It's something that we say a lot when we're designing domain cards and subclasses and things like that."

"You're limited by the canvas," Rezendes followed-up, "And that is both limitation but also invitation. Yeah, you have to find out what is actually going to fit, compositionally. The fitting is what makes it beautiful. It forces you to design to the confines of what you have."

"It's the difference between design and art," Hall agreed, "Art is for art's sake, and design has to accomplish something. Like, if you're making a contemporary chair - you know the modern art period where everyone was making these crazy chairs? There were, like, lips and things like that. But if you couldn't sit in it, it wasn't a chair. So, if you can't play with it, it's not a game."

Daggerheart is available to play now.

From the lands of Exandria to your very own smartscreens, Popverse has everything you need to know about the TTRPG phenomenon that is Critical Role. Here you'll find:

• Popverse's Critical Role watch order
• An interview with GM Brennan Lee Mulligan
• The cast's appearance at C2E2 '25

...and more. Roll initiative, player. Adventure awaits.