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In a recent interview with Business Insider, Critical Role brand executives Ed Lopez and Ben Van Der Fluit revealed some surprising details about how the Daggerheart RPG has been received by the community and what’s next for the game in 2026 and beyond.
One bit of news that raised eyebrows is that the initial print run for Daggerheart sold out in under two weeks, despite the team believing they had enough inventory to last a full year. It shows just how popular Critical Role has become and how the TTRPG landscape as a whole has begun to shift.
So just what can Daggerheart fans expect in the coming year? Below, we take a closer look at all the details.
Who are Ed Lopez and Ben Van Der Fluit?
Ed Lopez is the Chief Operating Officer of the Critical Role business, having been with the company for the past 8 years. He previously served as the Vice President of Strategy and Operations at Legendary Digital Networks where he oversaw the company’s video-on-demand services Alpha, which produced content for TTRPG brands including Nerdist and Geek and Sundry.
Ben Van Der Fluit is the Senior Vice President of Business and Content Development for Critical Role, and has also been with the company for almost 8 years. Prior to that he served as the Senior Director of Brand Management for Geek and Sundry, helping to get content on various online and streaming platforms.
What’s coming up next for Daggerheart?
According to Lopez, Critical Role already has a clear three-year roadmap for Daggerheart, something that wasn’t fully locked in before launch. The massive sales following launch, however, have dramatically changed how the team views the game’s scale and potential. New projects will include:
- Daggerheart: Hope & Fear: The game’s debut expansion is currently scheduled for a summer 2026 release and will introduces new classes, campaign frames, adversaries, magic items and physical cards.
- Chris Perkins & Jeremy Crawford, the former Wizards of the Coast senior designers left the D&D brand in June 2025 and will be working on new Daggerheart products. In fact, in a press release a month later, they noted: “Jeremy Crawford will take point on a full setting for Daggerheart inside a hellishly terrifying genre, while Chris Perkins will weave tales spanning campaign frames to a wider interconnected adventure supplement.”
- New partnerships: While the Critical Role brand will continue to be a focus for co-branding and partnerships, there’s also the potential for new Daggerheart collaborations in the near future, given that the team has also worked with entertainment brands including Amazon Prime Video and Dark Horse Comic Books.
- Video Games: The executives also noted that video games will be a focus going forward. And while they didn’t mention Daggerheart by name, it seems logical that we may see a port of the system as a video game.
- New streaming: While many fans were surprised that Critical Role stayed with D&D for Campaign 4, there are plans to expand with other actual play series, including an upcoming Acquisitions Inc. campaign.
Notably, the interview did not mention anything related to Keith Baker, the creator of the D&D Eberron campaign setting, who was hired in August 2025 to work on Daggerheart materials.
Final Thoughts
With a three-year roadmap, top-tier creative talent and a publisher willing to adapt quickly to fan demand, Daggerheart is shaping up to be more than just Critical Role’s answer to Dungeons & Dragons. Rather it’s quickly becoming a cornerstone of the company’s next phase, and a clear sign that Critical Role is thinking beyond the next release and instead focusing on its long-term legacy in tabletop gaming.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on this story in the days ahead and will update this page with new information as it’s made available.