The Super Powered Fancast

Critical Role’s gaming imprint Darrington Press has pulled off a coup that would make any Dungeon Master proud.

It’s been announced that after releasing their highly anticipated Table Top Role Playing Game system Daggerheart that Darrington Press has managed to secure the services of two giants in the world of TTRPG’s. According to the LA Times, former Wizards of the Coast (Dungeons and Dragons) veterans Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford have joined the creators of Critical Role at Darrington Press in huge roles that could speak to the future of the game publisher for years to come.

Perkins and Crawford have been on the design team of D&D for decades helping to write the books that have shaped the experiences of millions of gamers around the world. Perkins was the creative director for D&D tasked with the direction of the stories while Crawford was the game director with a focus on the rules. Both departed Wizards of the Coast earlier this year as the game was celebrating its 50th anniversary.

It was a huge surprise to fans of Critical Role to learn that these two powerhouses in the world of TTRPGs would be coming to Darrington Press, but the duo have had a history with the players at the table. Chris Perkins has worked with Critical Role as Managing Editor of the Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount where campaign 2 takes place as well as Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep as Project Co-Lead. He also joined the table as two memorable characters in two of the previous campaigns as Shale, an elderly Goliath fighter in campaign 1 and Spurt, an unlucky Kobold inventor in campaign 2.

Jeremy Crawford worked for WotC (Wizards of the Coast) starting in 2007 as Lead Rules Designer. He also worked on both Call of the Netherdeep and Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount. He was the lead designer or Managing Editor on both the 2014 and 2024 Player’s Handbooks as well Curse of Strahd, Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage and more.

Crawford and Perkins will develop new game concepts and expansions on existing Darrington Press titles according to a release from Critical Role’s website with Perkins acting as Creative Director and Crawford taking on the role of Game Director.

Personally, I’m excited to see what these two can do both with expanding the recently released Daggerheart system as well as what new games and world the team at Darrington Press and Critical Role are working on.

Let me know what you think of Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford joining the team at Darrington Press in the comments.