Daggerheart Class Packs (coming to Kickstarter this September): Daggerheart has been selling out as fast as we can restock it, so to keep up with demand and offer another way to play, we’re exploring a play accessory we hope you’ll really love: Class Packs for Daggerheart. These packs of 76 cards will hold everything an individual player needs to play their class—from level 1 all the way to level 10—ancestry cards, community cards, subclass cards, and all the cards from the two domains each unique class uses. The Class Packs will come with a PDF excerpt with just what you need to build and learn to run your character, but Kickstarter backers will also get the full digital PDF of the Core Rulebook as a perk! All 9 classes from the Daggerheart Core Set will be available as Class Packs come September—sign up to be notified when it goes live!
Homebrew Kit (available for free now!): We’re thrilled to answer your requests for homebrew/design guidance with the Homebrew Kit, which unlocks a wealth of design insights and resources to make it easier to create classes, ancestries, communities, adventures, campaign frames, and more for Daggerheart. This kit will help gaming groups looking to customize their campaigns as well as third party publishers diving into making Daggerheart-compatible content using the Darrington Press Community Gaming License.
Romantasy Campaign Frame (coming 2026): Get your roses ready as we have a new campaign frame and it is all romantasy! With Love and Magic sets your game in a world of power and prospect deeply inspired by Tusk Love. Enemies and admirers alike are your rivals as you set out to take on this year’s matchmaking season in the shining empire of Lumisara, the city of Crowns.
Chris Perkins & Jeremy Crawford Designing for Daggerheart: These two acclaimed designers joined Darrington Press in June of this year, and their next projects will be for Daggerheart! 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—stay tuned for more on the horizon!
Age of Umbra Gets Season 2: Speaking of the spooky, new, and fearful, Age of Umbra will return for a season 2! Critical Role’s dark fantasy survival miniseries will continue on. If you missed this deadly season 1, you can watch it all now as it just wrapped last week! Matt has also uploaded the statblocks for the Adversaries he used in the campaign also available now for free.
Now moving on from everything we are doing, here is a look at some of the amazing partnerships coming for Daggerheart!
Actual Plays: We are so honored to be working with so many actual plays coming out with seasons soon. We’ve announced a mini-series by Legends of Avantris and a one-shot by Dungeons and Daddies! This follows the recent announcement that Bonus Action is partnering with Darrington Press and bringing Daggerheart as the new system of their third volume.
Products: We also announced some awesome new creations from our partners, including:
Insight Editions: An Art of Daggerheart book
Hero Forge: Daggerheart ancestries as buildable options in the Miniatures Creator
New Daggerheart Dice sets from Dispel Dice, Botch Dice and Misty Mountain Gaming
New Daggerheart World by Creators of Eberron and More: Finally, we have Keith Baker and Jenn Ellis’s new world in Daggerheart! From the minds of fan-favorite RPG worlds like Eberron and innovative tabletop games like Phoenix Dawn Command, Illimat, and the Adventure Zone Storytelling Game, Twogether Studio’s Keith Baker and Jenn Ellis are partnering with us to make their next grand world using Daggerheart. Expect thrilling worldbuilding and brilliant new player option designs from this powerhouse team.
I went to GenCon yesterday (I was cosplaying Helen the Distortion and my friend @anthonynotgreen was season 5 Archivist covered in eyes) and some notable interactions,
A guy working for Monte Cook Games saying he can always tell when people are there for TMA because they’re hyperventilating
finding another Jon the Archivist and them giving me a chainmail eye keychain which has been added to my car keys
the number of people who saw either me or my friend first and went “Is that?” And then saw the other one and went “It is!”
getting multiple peoples discords
buying A Guest for Mr Spider (and the TMA game props) and then someone from Monte Cook Games taking a photo of me and my friend to post
Running into a friend from another school that we knew through ballroom competitions
Regularly hearing someone freak out at Anthony’s eyes face paint
a middle aged man who walked up very timidly asking if my friend was Jonathan Sims and if he could take a picture of us for his daughter because she got him into TMA
my friend and I being asked for photos and him consistently going “Do you want me to look uncomfortable” and they always went yes
A lady asking to take a photo of my nail things for her son who’s a drag queen that doesn’t like having long nails (same)
So this year (2025) was my first time at GenCon. Overall it was absolutely incredible! I thought it'd be nice to do a writeup of my experience, from my perspective as an independent ttrpg game dev and first time attendee.
Arriving Day 1 (Thursday)
My group didn't get the hotel lottery, so we were out by the airport. Honestly? Not that bad! This does mean you have to have a car (or pay for an Uber or Lyft) to get to and from the convention itself. It also means you need to find parking, which won't have "in and out" privileges. So you can't just pop back to your hotel in the middle of the day for a nap, unless you want to spend another 20+ bucks.
Arriving on the first day was pretty stressful for me as the driver. I'm from Chicago, I know a bit about driving around looking for parking. But doing that somewhere unfamiliar? I got a little anxious. I don't have much of a sense of direction, so it was hard to tell how far from the convention center we were. Luckily my conmates didn't have any panels that night, and mine wasn't until 7pm, so we did have plenty of time and eventually found parking.
I'm not sure if an app like SpotHero works in Indianapolis, we honestly didn't try it.
Panel 1 - DEI Designer Meetup
Magpie Games ran a few more casual "panels" in the rooms they had during the evenings. I got to meet some international designers as well as people in all levels of industry experience! Some people had tables in the exhibition hall, others were regular attendees like me. Special shoutout to @jaztice -- you rule and I'm so hype we met!
Day 2 (Friday)
On day 2 we found a parking garage that was "only" $20 (the cheapest parking you'll find during the event) and this became our go-to parking for the rest of the con. Hot tip: Provided there's an elevator, go straight to the top. Then you won't have to remember what level you're on when you're exhausted at the end of the day, and there's usually more spots available the higher you go.
Panel 2 - Breaking the Rules, and Writers' Panels in General
My second panel was, as I discovered when I got there, mostly a panel for fiction writers. I can absolutely see this still being helpful for game designers, since writing engaging rulebooks is part of our craft. I, however, have been writing for almost my entire life, I've taken classes, I know what I'm doing. So while it was interesting, I didn't get a ton out of it personally.
I did ask a question about what the panelists thought we designers should do when writing rules, like what rules of rule-writing (I'm so sorry) we should never break, and the unanimous response was: Short. Concise. Clear.
Be easy to understand. Get to the point, and don't bloat.
Panel 3 - The Interplay of Mechanics and Narrative
I'm just going to say right now that the most useful panels I went to, for me personally, were the panels about the industry and design specifically. You might get more out of different ones, obviously everyone's weak points and personal knowledge is individual, but for me? The industry-related panels were the way to go.
I didn't get too much new information from this one, but a huge takeaway for me was that as devs we need to ask ourselves at the outset: Is this game art or commerce? Both are completely valid paths to take, but they do have different considerations. Commerce isn't limited to "will this game sell well? is it marketable?", it also concerns things like page count; if your game has custom cards, how many cards will fit in a box; the very logistical part of production.
I think a lot of us indies don't really think about that in such stark terms. And if we do, we don't fully grasp the realities of making a game for commerce. I, personally, am more of an artistic dev, and that's fine! It just means I think about most of my games and their production differently than someone who's angling for the commercial market.
Day 3 (Saturday)
Saturday was the busiest day by far. So I think it's time to touch on how crowded GenCon is.
It's crowded! But it's not unmanageable. Yes, you have some people who just suddenly stop walking in the middle of the thoroughfare. Yes, there are some unwieldy board game backpacks being carried that you have to be aware of enough to maneuver around. But mostly? It's fine. The con is HUGE. Maybe between our group of three we made it to every building (maybe), but none of us managed that on our own. Because it's so spread out, there's plenty of room for the throng of people to disperse. There will always be a quiet place for you to go if you need it, whether that's the designated calm room or just an emptier hallway.
Skipping Panels
Saturday I left the hotel too late to arrive, find parking, and make it to my 10am panel on time, so I ended up skipping it. It was another writer's panel, and this is when I just accepted that those weren't going to be the highlight for me. Most of the seminars are completely free, so you're not going to be out any cash by not going to them. I don't think any panel I went to had absolutely everyone show up. You can actually purchase general admission tickets for $2 apiece that you can use to get into a panel that had no-shows, provided that panel costs $2 or less.
A Not-So-Quick Aside about Tickets
I've never been to a con that had GenCon's ticketing system before and I was totally unprepared.
Before the con begins, you add events to your "wish list." Then, when the event sales go live, you click the big yellow button as fast as humanly possible and your selections are queued. I was in the 5,000s in line; apparently this is considered good.
You may not get everything on your wish list because those events were filled up by people ahead of you in line (for instance, I didn't get entry to the ENNIEs cocktail hour). You can always add more events to your schedule if there's tickets still available, even during the convention.
And now here's the confusing part: Some events have physical tickets, and some are digital. You can have the physical tickets mailed to you at the same time as your badge, or you can pick them up at will call if you added them too late to have them shipped. (I would recommend getting as much as possible delivered; will call is a last resort because it can get very busy and that area of the building was extremely hot.)
There isn't any rhyme or reason to which tickets were digital vs which were virtual that my group could figure out. It's not a big deal, just a little quirk. If your tickets are virtual, they scan your badge to check you in.
Another quick note about will call: They take your ID to go and find your tickets. If your badge name doesn't match your legal name, they get a little confused. I am definitely not going to stop listing my badge name as Seren Briar, but this is something to be aware of.
Panel 4 - Lessons Learned: How to Get Started in the TTRPG Industry
Up to this point, this was the most informative panel I attended. John Godek has interviewed a ton of people in the industry (both full timers and freelancers) about their career paths, and he shared the results with us.
Did you know there are more professional astronauts than full-time TTRPG designers? The majority of the industry has a day job and freelances, including personal projects. This was honestly a major relief for me, a designer who has a day job and freelances and isn't angling to make games my full time job. That is normal, that is average, you are not a failure as a dev if games aren't your primary source of income. We all need to pay our bills.
Only 2% of freelancers get into the industry through a successful crowdfunding campaign. Social media has definitely skewed the perception of this!
The most reliable three steps to getting into the industry (very simplified) are:
Write
Network
Show off that writing
And now I think it's time to talk about...
Networking
I keep half-joking that GenCon was basically a four-day business trip for me. I talked to so many people. I traded contact information. In addition to this writeup, I spent my day sending follow up emails.
GenCon is a gold mine for meeting other people in the industry.
It feels like so much of networking these days is online. And something important to remember is that social media is a different skill from talking to people face to face. Like, look. I'm terrible at social media. If you follow me, you can probably tell. If you're friends with me, I've probably complained to you about how much I hate doing the social media schtick. I'm not good at posting, I'm not a hot take machine, I just don't vibe with people when I feel like I'm shouting into the void. But put me in a room with someone, and I can figure it out.
GenCon is a way to get into that room. I talked with every single panelist at the industry or business panels after it ended. I had contact information and a sample of my work to hand out. And, importantly, I talked to them about things that were not games.
Everyone wants to talk about games. Their games, the panelists' games, other games they like. It's a games convention. But (and I'm giving credit for this bit to John, he said it in the panel) you need to talk about something that is NOT games. This is what people will remember you by. They'll have something to scribble on your card so their memories will jog after they go home and the con fog has lifted. You, as a person, need to have something that will make you stand apart from the hundreds to possibly thousands of other people they've spoken with.
Panel 5 - Legal Considerations in the TTRPG Industry
This was probably my favorite panel.
Azora Law is an entertainment law firm that specializes in tabletop games. They work with clients all the way from big names to tiny indies. And they had a customized d20 to hand out as swag! (It's big, it's orange, the 20 is their logo. It's very cool.)
Lindsay Lundeen went over intellectual property, trademarks, copyright, contracts, NDAs, and entity formation.
TL;DR: Form an LLC.
You don't need to have a certain level of income from games to qualify to make one. It's very easy to do, but law firms can help you if you need it. It helps with taxes, and perhaps more importantly, it protects you. Say you mess up and use a font that's not licensed for commercial use. Just an honest mistake, but the owner of the font sues you. Having an LLC prevents your personal property (and potentially your spouse's property) from becoming pulled into the reparations of the suit. Registering an LLC is now on my short list of to-dos.
You also need to get contracts with every person you work with. Guest writers, illustrators, layout artists -- everyone who contributes. Just because you credit someone doesn't mean you own the rights. And if you've already worked with someone and published something without a contract, you can backfill a contract with them. Get a lawyer. It will potentially save you a suit and a headache down the line.
The Exhibition Hall
My friends. The hall is gigantic. I went every day for hours and still did not see everything. It's a treasure trove of art, games, dice, wearables, plushies, basically anything you can think of that would be at a convention.
Since I was also thinking about networking while in the hall, I've asked my dear conmates for their input on what it's like for an attendee not in the industry.
For my part, the trickiest thing was finding each other if we split up at any point, but the numbered aisle signs overhead and the large signs for the major booths helped our group chat tell each other where we should reconvene.
Jordan says:
My experience with exhibition halls at other cons has always been super hit-or-miss. C2E2 and Magfest were cute, but it was mostly just fan swag that I had no interest in buying. Adepticon was amazing. but it was laser-focused on miniature hobby stuff, which is my main jam, so I was pretty sucked in the whole time.
Some of the more board-game focused cons I've been to have mostly just been board game retailers and dice-horde shops, neither of which are necessarily what I'm looking for when I'm trying to dig for the cool stuff.
Gencon really exceeded my expectations. OF COURSE all of those things I mentioned above were there, but the variety and the scope just completely blew those other halls away. The sheer amount of zines and indie labels present alone was enough to fill basically a whole day of browsing, and I walked away with some incredibly cool stuff without emptying out my bank account.
I like to check out the big development houses as much as anyone, but I'm usually not going to spend a ton of time looking at what Asmodee decided to bring. The gravitational pull of Gencon brings everyone to the scene, and the "mid-level" stuff represented really gave the "room" (it was the size of a stadium) way more texture than just "Dungeons and Dragons over here, one-page indies over there."
I randomly ran into the writer of Mythic Bastionland, then immediately after found out that they were putting the book back on sale within the next few hours and he and the artist would be there signing copies. Side quest unlocked!
Overall, I found WAY more joy in exploring than I've ever had at other expo halls (Adepticon excluded, that one ruled so hard).
Claire says:
I love exhibition halls. I've attended conventions regularly for the past 12 years or so and they're always one of my favorite locations. There's always so much to do an see, and with a convention the size of GenCon, it's everything I love x10. Plus, something about the size of the hall and the people distribution means I don't get overwhelmed very fast (which is a bit of a rarity for me).
I love wandering around and getting lost in all of the booths. I love that no one is paying any attention to me so I can do as much people watching as I want. I love sticking my hand in big vats of dice, admiring minis, flipping through zines, and ooh-ing and ahh-ing at the artwork.
I especially love the GenCon exhibition hall because it's not just booth after booth of tired employees selling overpriced, mass produced anime merch. Every indie RPG is someone's baby. Every board game took hundreds of hours of work. And just about everyone wants to talk to you about something they made with love which is refreshing and engaging and fun. Like yes!! Tell me about the bio-horror board game you created all by yourself!! Tell me about your self-published novel series that has like 20 books in it!! Tell me about the niche indie RPG that you created for yourself and the like 10 other freaks on your wavelength!! Maybe I am one of those freaks!!!
For people that get more overwhelmed in crowds, I'd recommend looking through the (extremely comprehensive) list of vendors/artists on the website or app and choosing a few booths to make a priority. Luckily everything is pretty well labeled, so it's not hard to find the booths you're looking for.
Day 4 (Sunday)
By Sunday, my brain was pretty much soup. This was the day I ran out of things to hand out. I brought 48; I needed at least 5 more. I don't know what the ideal number will be for you to bring. I was pretty discerning about who I passed things out to, and I found that worked better for me personally than indiscriminately shoving papers into the hands of everyone I spoke with.
Panel 6 - Tax Considerations for Crowdfunding
I've been actually scared of crowdfunding for years. I tried to do the math once on how to figure out stretch goals for nicer books and just about had a panic attack. I am not a very business-minded individual. And this panel opened my eyes to even more considerations you need to take into account if you crowdfund a game. It might be even scarier now.
If you crowdfund, you not only should set up an LLC in advance, but you also should probably hire an accountant in your state, preferably a CPA or Enrolled Agent who has some amount of familiarity with the entertainment industry.
Since taxes vary from state to state, this workshop only covered federal laws. But there is still so much to consider. Federal income tax, sales tax, and self-employment tax. Did you know that was a thing? Because I sure didn't!
I'm not going to try and detail everything Night Goddess Games covered here; I'd do a subpar job and I don't want to spread any misinformation about something as complex as tax law. But in short, it's way more complicated than you're probably thinking and you should just budget for an accountant.
Also, again, form an LLC.
Miscellaneous: Weather, Cosplay, Getting Around, and Food
I overheard people talking about how this was some of the best weather for GenCon in recent years. But because it was summer, it was still HOT. I do have some heat intolerance due to medications I'm on, but I definitely sweated every. single. day. I saw people walking around with those personal fans that sit around your neck and I boiled with envy. The A/C wasn't powerful enough in the main convention center to completely counteract the sheer volume of bodies. There were cooler spots, but the hotels and the smaller rooms fared far better.
With the heat in mind, the cosplayers walking around in full getup were braver than any US marine. There was a smaller percentage of cosplayers compared to something like an anime or comic con, but they were still definitely there! If you cosplay, you won't look out of place at GenCon, even though most people attend in plain clothes. I do think cosplayers were getting stopped for photos less often than other cons I've been to, but it was a consistent delight to see them. Special shoutout to the Enoch cosplayer (OTGW) on Sunday who gifted me a tiny pumpkin!
If you follow me on bsky or remember when I said at the top that I have the sense of direction of a wet paper bag, it's possible you're wondering how lost I got. The answer is: Not as lost as I feared! I did make a wrong turn a few times and went entirely in the wrong direction at least once, but my maps app was my best friend when it came to traversing from building to building. The GenCon app will show you where a particular event is if you click on the location from the event's page; that helped some, but would probably be more beneficial for people who generally have a stronger sense of where they're going. I followed my conmates' lead to and from the parking garage every time and never made it back and forth from the hotel without my trusty GPS. The signage is great and helped reorient me multiple times throughout the weekend.
The food offerings exceeded my expectations. Not everything was stellar (I was sadly disappointed by the noodles that smelled better than they tasted), but the sheer number of cuisines was incredible. There were more non-alcoholic drink options than alcoholic ones. I definitely had the best food from the food trucks rather than the tents, and as a bonus, those had shorter lines as well. I didn't pay much attention to the vegan and gluten-free options, but there were plenty of choices for vegetarians.
Final Thoughts
If GenCon is an option for you, go. I even met people who attended on grants. It's such a valuable experience for someone who's in or who wants to be in the industry, and is a blast if you just want to go for fun as well. The venues are physically accessible, it's less congested than the impressions I'd had, and both the events and the exhibition hall are more than worth the price of admission.
I will definitely continue to attend GenCon. I hope to see you there!
Reporting from gencon and guess what??? There was a demo station for the IMP board game!!
It wasn't for sale sadly just drumming up excitement for the kickstarter but I can confidently say this game actually exists and is pretty fun!! Or at least the two rounds I played were.
Gameplay!!
Bear in mind it's been an two days and I am very tired. But best I can remember!
This is a gain points/fuck things up for other people type game. The cool thing I haven't seen before in games is this lazy Susan wheel mechanism which you manipulate to try and get good cards in front of you and bad cards in front of your opponent.
There are two decks you use. The cards around the outside of the wheel are targets and you're trying to get them--or not get them depending on how many points they're worth. Some of them are worth negative points. They have flavor text in the box, and some of them have additional actions you take when you get them, like take another card or move the wheel or whatnot. Remember the promotional card from SDCC? That's one.
The other deck has the cards you play to try and get the targets. Some are things like "turn the wheel two places to the left" or "switch two cards". Some are things like "stop your opponent from doing whatever shit they're pulling." Once you play your card you draw from that deck, and there's one other type of card you can get: the ones with HB characters on them. When you draw one of those, you put it in the center and take whatever card is in the slot in front of you.
When all 13 character cards have been played, the game ends. Alternatively, in the target deck are summon cards that represent hell summoning you back. If a certain amount of those are pulled (I forget how many) that's the other way the game ends. Total your points, whoever has the most wins.
So that's the game! As it stands now, anyway, things definitely might change as they refine it. But I had fun! Definitely following the kickstarter launch page so that I can back it when it goes live. I want to play the actual whole thing!!
You bring a suitcase with your clothes, and an empty suitcase for all the crap you're gonna buy. This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, Stu sifts through the gigantic pile of stuff he bought at GenCon, including The Sutra of Pale Leaves for Call of Cthulhu, Age of Vikings, Bunny Borg, Kala Mandala and one zine that arrived while he was away, Tiger's Figure Folio.
