Daggerheart’s free open beta is now available at DrivethruRPG

Daggerheart is officially in open beta. An early version of the anticipated TTRPG system from Critical Role’s Darrington Press is available for free via a downloadable packet of PDFs from DriveThruRPG and from the Daggerheart website. You can also try out an early version of the game’s character creation tool at Demiplane. Darrington Press is encouraging players to share feedback on the game’s systems throughout this process, and will be releasing improved versions ahead of the full release in 2025.

Announced in 2023, the fantasy RPG resolves player actions using a pair of 12-sided dice, while characters and their relationships with the world around them are defined through a clever card-based system. The cast of Critical Role will be playing the game live on March 11 starting at 7 p.m. PDT / 10 p.m. EDT on their Twitch and YouTube channels. An overview of Daggerheart’s rules and systems will also be available via YouTube, and the Daggerheart website.

During our time with a preview build at Gen Con last year, we were particularly impressed by Daggerheart’s intuitive character- and world-building systems, but weren’t entirely convinced by the early build that it would be able to set itself apart in an already crowded market. In the year since we last looked at it, the market has only gotten more crowded. But with this open beta period, Daggerheart still has plenty of time to find its place.