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Tabletop gaming is often a collaborative project, with players helping to weave their story into the world presented to them by the GM. However, most games like D&D expect the DM (or GM if you’re playing a different system) to do the bulk of the heavy lifting. As possibly the most famous GM in modern tabletop, Matt Mercer knew that Critical Role’s Daggerheart system needed to share that load between players and GM.

We spoke to Matt Mercer at PAX West 2026 and discussed what makes a great Daggerheart game. It isn’t just the usual things that make a tabletop game work, like everyone agreeing on what they want to play and how to handle the story.

“A good Daggerheart game is a very present table acknowledgement and understanding that everyone is building the story together,” Mercer explained. “There’s a very historical tendency to have the ‘GM providing story and the players are along for the ride’ sort of vibe, and I think that’s, thankfully, been changing over time.”

That shift in philosophy among the industry is also present in Daggerheart, which was developed and published through the Critical Role publishing arm of Darrington Press.

“Daggerheart as a ruleset is intended, in both how it’s built and how it’s presented in the book, to try and facilitate passing that torch more meaningfully, and so there’s a lot of built-in prompts that the GM can ask the player to take the baton for a moment and flesh out a bit of the story in the world from their perspective, both as a character and as a player. So, a good Daggerheart game starts with everyone being aware of that permission and a GM that is excited to find moments to pass that baton.”

As Daggerheart celebrates its first anniversary on May 20, 2026, remember that, no matter how great your GM is, it is always a good thing to lighten their loads a bit.

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 release schedule
• 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.