Popverse's top stories

• San Diego Comic-Con quietly renewed its contract with the City through 2027, but even they are openly talking about 2028 being a turning point thanks to the LA Olympics
• What to Watch This Weekend: Jason Momoa as a Hawaiian war chief, Tom Brady invades real football, and reality romance veterans clash in Perfect Match
• Five Nights at Freddy 2 has a secret weapon for making the animatronics real: Muppets creator Jim Henson's Creature Shop

Fantasy TTRPGs and the Romantasy genre are cut form the same magical cloth, and so it only makes sense that, eventually, the two would blend together in a big way. Well, it appears as if that intertwining (of the minds, perverts) is already upon us, as Critical Role's Matthew Mercer has confirmed that a Romantasy-inspired campaign frame is heading to the fantasy TTRPG he helped design, Darrington Press's Daggerheart.

The subject came up in a recent interview Mercer did with Todd Kenreck, who, as a longtime TTRPG vet, was excited to chat about all the new additions coming to Daggerheart, which was released earlier this year.

"You got a little bit wild with the the campaign frames," Kenreck mentions to the frequent GM and Vox Machina voice actor, "Of which there is going to be a romantic one, a very Tusk Love-inspired frame coming out. "

For those that aren't following in-universe fantasy smut (why wouldn't you be, is my question), Tusk Love refers to an erotic novel that originally existed only in the fantasy world of Critical Role's Exandria. In July of this year, however, author Thea Guanzon brought Tusk Love into the real world - you can purchase your own copy now.

"We've had a lot of people talk about excitement for that sort of genre to be explored," responded Mercer, "And since a lot of the game system - you know, it has combat crunch, but there's also a lot of narrative-based focus to the character builds and abilities, there was inspiration, especially with Tusk Love's release, to really show what you can create within those genres that aren't often initially considered in the context of a fantasy tabletop RPG. So yeah, the romantasy-inspired campaign frame is something that's been in the works for a bit, and folks are really really excited about it."

One of those folks Mercer mentioned was Daggerheart codesigner Elise Rezendes, who was also taking part in the interview.

"I am a big romantasy fan," said Rezendes, "I also know a lot of folks in either the performance side or the writing side of romantasy. I know the industry is a big one, and I know that those people are the kinds of people who tell stories the way I tell stories. Because I'm one of 13:35 those people, right? So we are working on a version of a campaign frame that we are calling 'With Love and Magic.' And it is based on Tusk Love."

"I know," smiles Rezendes, "This was an actual play, that they made a fake book out of, that they made a real book out of, that now we're making a game back out of, that someone will then make an actual play out of. And they could reference Tusk Love inside of it, and it would be an ouroboros that just would consume the world, right?"

"It's enemies and admirers, it's rivals. You're taking on a matchmaking season during what we're calling a 'Gallivant.' It's set in The Shining Empire, the city of Lumisara, the City of Crowns. You are going to be teed up to 'Kiss me, kill me,' [during] the entire thing. It's just going to be delightful. I'm so excited."

We are too, Elise. We are too.

Daggerheart is available wherever TTRPGs are sold now.

You don't need to beat the game to prepare for the next one—here are all the major new and upcoming games coming our way.