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Considering the passion that the Critical Role fanbase has, it is easy to think that they dominate every new endeavor the company touches. However, Daggerheart has already reached beyond the existing fanbase created by Critical Role. In fact, most of the people who have picked the game up in its first year aren’t already Critical Role fans, according to Darrington Press Creative Director Chris Perkins.

We chatted with Chris Perkins about his time at PAX East 2026 to catch up on everything happening with Daggerheart and Darrington Press, which is the tabletop imprint of Critical Role Productions. With key members of the Critical Role company involved in Daggerheart and Darrington Press, both creatively and as a business, it wouldn’t be surprising for the game’s popularity to hinge on the pre-existing players already engaged with the brand, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

“One of the most interesting things I discovered was that, and this might surprise you,” Perkins, who joined Darrington Press shortly after his brief retirement from Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast in 2025, explained to us. “It certainly surprised me, is that, currently, most of the people buying Daggerheart are not Critical Role fans. That was illuminating.”

“Critical Role has a huge audience, but there’s a hunger for this content outside of the Critical Role sphere,” he continued. “Daggerheart has an opportunity to introduce more people to Critical Role. Critical Role has an opportunity to introduce more people to Daggerheart, but then there’s this entire other subset of people who are just coming to the game because they’re looking for something fresh and something that’s going to spark their imagination, and there’s just something compelling about the game itself, whatever that is.”

After a successful first year, Daggerheart has already expanded beyond the Critical Role fanbase and is carving its own place within the tabletop RPG fandom.

With two animated series on Prime Video, Campaign 4 in full swing, and so much more Exandrian lore to come, Critical Role is showing no signs of slowing down. That's why the adventuring party at Popverse are here to bring you everything we can from those nerdy-ass voice actors & Bo., including:

• Critical Role's Campaign 4 characters ranked
• How to watch Critical Role in order
• Ways for you to relive the Critical Role panel from ECCC '26
• Taliesin Jaffe on playing Mollymauk Tealeaf for Campaign 2 vs. playing him for Prime Video
• Matt Mercer's homebrew warrior class (created originally for Vin Diesel)

...and much, much more. Roll initiative, player. Magic awaits.