Darrington Press

• 1. Introduction

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  Darrington Press shares its name with a fictional adventurer who once published a book about himself. Taryon Darrington was a character played by Sam Riegel in Critical Role's first campaign. Within that story's world, he had chronicled his time alongside the adventuring party Vox Machina. In October 2020, Critical Role Productions gave that same name to a real tabletop game publishing imprint.

  Critical Role had split from Geek & Sundry in 2018 to operate as an independent company. Trade coverage of the launch noted the parent brand had broadly influenced tabletop gaming in the years since. Ivan Van Norman was hired to lead the new label, with Matthew Mercer serving as creative advisor. The imprint would focus on board and card games alongside role-playing titles.

  Van Norman set one firm policy from the outset: no crowdfunding for any of the label's releases. A debut slate of four games was already announced, with the first title set to arrive the following spring.

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• 2. An Uneven Debut

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  Uk'otoa, a semi-cooperative card game, arrived on the 27th of May, 2021, as Darrington Press's first published title.

  Jonathon Dornbush of IGN praised the visual design. He called the card and box art 'a beautiful interpretation of the titular serpent and the nautical setting.' The game's centerpiece miniature, Dornbush wrote, was 'impressively detailed.'

  Charles Theel of Polygon reached a different verdict on the gameplay itself. He had hoped the design would capture the friction of board game classics like Lifeboats or Survive: Escape From Atlantis. What he found was 'a Critical Role bauble which can chew up a half hour of time.' Theel concluded that anyone seeking 'a truly noteworthy tabletop experience' should look elsewhere.

  Tommy Williams of GeekTyrant disagreed entirely. He called Uk'otoa 'a fun game' with 'very interesting' mechanics and named it 'a great start to Darrington Press' library.'

  Darrington Press's second major release was already in development; it would prove the label's most celebrated work to that point.

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• 3. Gold at the ENNIEs

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  Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn arrived on the 18th of January, 2022. It revised an earlier sourcebook that Green Ronin Publishing had originally produced for Critical Role. That first edition had gone out of print. The new version was written by Matthew Mercer, Hannah Rose, and James Haeck for Dungeons and Dragons fifth edition.

  At the 2022 ENNIE Awards, the sourcebook took the Gold prize for Best Setting. Darrington Press also won the Fan Award for Best Publisher that year. The double win gave the imprint its first major industry recognition.

  Chris King, writing for Polygon, called the book 'The Silmarillion of campaign settings.' King noted the new edition ran more than 150 pages longer than the original. It covered updated factions across Exandria and introduced new threats and organizations. Despite not being fully system-agnostic, King concluded it was well worth its $49.99 price tag.

  Benjamin Abbott of GamesRadar+ compared its production quality to the encyclopaedic companion books published for Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. He called it a step up from the team's earlier Exandria sourcebook, Explorer's Guide to Wildemount. Abbott predicted it would impress readers even without a strong attachment to Critical Role.

  In June 2022, Grant Howitt and Marisha Ray delivered A Familiar Problem for Free RPG Day. The one-page role-playing game was praised by Charlie Hall of Polygon as 'the perfect ice breaker' for a tabletop event.

  That dual ENNIE win helped establish the label's reputation among tabletop players who had never seen an episode of Critical Role.

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• 4. A Dramatic Standoff

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  Till the Last Gasp, the label's two-player dueling game, arrived on the 14th of March, 2023.

  Charles Theel of Polygon, who had criticized Uk'otoa's gameplay, found himself surprised by this one. He described the game as one that 'bleeds potential' and called it 'a singular design which offers a structured yet story-oriented tabletop experience.' He wrote that after Uk'otoa he was 'frankly shocked' at how effective this design turned out to be.

  Linda Codega of Io9 called it 'a well-designed, tightly focused two-person game' and a love letter to dramatic showdowns across media. Codega wrote that the roleplaying itself was 'arguably the far more important part of the game, even as it has no traditional mechanical value.' Andrew Stretch of TechRaptor named it both 'a completely unique game' and 'a fantastic game of short-form collaborative roleplay.'

  James van Tonningen of Gaming Trend reached the opposite conclusion. He called it 'an empty shell of a game' that 'fundamentally misunderstands why people enjoy roleplaying games.' Van Tonningen described it as 'a drama school assignment masquerading as a high-stakes duel.'

  An April 2023 announcement would put all of those review-by-review debates in a new light.

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• 5. New Systems, New Stakes

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  April 2023's 'State of the Press' was Darrington Press's first formal public update on everything in the development pipeline.

  Two newly announced role-playing game systems dominated the attention. Illuminated Worlds, designed for shorter campaigns, and Daggerheart, designed for longer ones, were both scheduled for a public playtest at Gen Con in August 2023.

  Charlie Hall of Polygon characterized the label's track record to that point as 'mixed success so far with its creations.' He called Illuminated Worlds 'perhaps the most interesting' of the three new products. Hall cited co-designer Layla Adelman, a member of Off Guard Games, which had produced Band of Blades and Scum and Villainy.

  Christian Hoffer of ComicBook.com called the new fantasy role-playing system announcement 'notable.' He pointed to Critical Role's massive built-in audience of role-playing fans. Hoffer suggested a strong Daggerheart could make 'a major splash in the Dungeons and Dragons-dominated TTRPG market.' He also raised the question of whether Critical Role might one day replace Dungeons and Dragons with its own in-house system.

  The announcement also addressed the original four-game slate. Guardians of Matrimonia, now being redesigned by Banana Chan and Yeonsoo Julian Kim, remained in development alongside Syndicult. Critical Role Adventures was placed on indefinite hold.

  In May 2023, Critical Role Productions announced Candela Obscura, a monthly horror-themed actual play series built on the Illuminated Worlds system. Darrington Press released the Candela Obscura Quickstart Guide on the 25th of May, matching the show's premiere date. The label ran gameplay sessions at Gen Con that summer. The full Candela Obscura Core Rulebook followed in November 2023.

  Daggerheart's own public playtest remained months away; when it arrived in 2024, it would come with a dedicated digital platform and multiple ways to play.

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• 6. The Long Campaign

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  The open beta playtest for Daggerheart launched on the 12th of March, 2024. Players could access it at select game stores, as a PDF, or through the Daggerheart Nexus on the Demiplane platform. The Nexus edition included digital character creation tools.

  Hayley McCullough, writing for the American Journalism, speculated that Daggerheart might allow Critical Role to fully sever its connection to Dungeons and Dragons. She called the potential consequences of such a move 'worth keeping an eye on.'

  Daggerheart was released in May 2025. That same month, the limited series Age of Umbra began airing. It featured the Critical Role cast playing Daggerheart in the 'Age of Umbra' campaign frame, which Matthew Mercer had created for the system.

  In 2025, Darrington Press signed a sales and distribution agreement with Macmillan Publishers for U.S. and international markets. Lin Codega of Rascal noted the deal covered both Daggerheart and the label's existing backlist. The agreement brought Darrington Press's role-playing books into general book retail alongside the hobby channel.

  June 2025 would bring the two most significant hires in the label's history, both arriving from the company that had long dominated role-playing game publishing.

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• 7. A New Guard

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  In June 2025, Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins joined Darrington Press, taking roles that matched their longtime positions at Wizards of the Coast.

  Crawford became the company's Game Director. Perkins took the role of Creative Director, succeeding Travis Willingham, who also serves as CEO of Critical Role Productions. Company Director Ivan Van Norman also announced his departure.

  Benjamin Abbott of GamesRadar+ called the hire 'a significant coup for Critical Role.' He noted both designers had led D&D's Fourth and Fifth Editions at Wizards of the Coast. They had also been involved in the game's 2024 revamp.

  James Whitbrook of Gizmodo described the appointments as 'a wild changing of the guard.' Whitbrook wrote that Darrington Press would now take on Wizards of the Coast 'so directly' by hiring 'two of its most prominent contemporary architects.'

  Charles Harte of Game Informer called the moves 'an unexpected' choice for these designers but concluded that 'Darrington Press's pedigree increases significantly' by hiring them.

  At Gen Con in July 2025, Darrington Press announced multiple expansions for Daggerheart. These included a new setting by Crawford, an adventure supplement by Perkins, and a new world by Keith Baker and Jenn Ellis. The label also announced an upcoming Kickstarter for a Daggerheart play accessory, scheduled to launch in September 2025.

  A Familiar Find, a two-to-four player card game by Ian Zang, is scheduled for the 7th of April, 2026. That date falls roughly five and a half years after Darrington Press first announced itself to the tabletop world.

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