The week is almost over, and that means it's time for one last look at tabletop RPG news! Two big stories hit our feeds this week: Critical Role is opening a Beta playtest for its in-house TTRPG while Dungeons & Dragons previewed its big Vecna campaign. Meanwhile D&D Beyond invests more in third-party content while Pathfinder draws up a new card game.
Critical Role's Daggerheart Playtest Starts In March
Critical Role announced that the Open Beta Playtest of its upcoming fantasy TTRPG Daggerheart starts on March 12. Daggerheart will balance Hope and Fear as mechanics represented by their own 12-sided die, while character abilities will be tied to cards. Participants will be able to download playtest materials on the official Daggerheart site, get PDFs on DriveThruRPG, and access the compendium via Demiplane. The Critical Role YouTube channel will launch guide videos on March 12 to coincide with the Beta launch. The cast will also livestream their own playtest the same night.
D&D Vecna Eve Of Ruin Details: Big Bads, Secrets, And A Wish
A new video rom Wizards of the Coast brought more details about Vecna: Eve of Ruin. The adventure begins as Tasha, Mordenkainen, and Allustriel Silverhand sense Vecna’s attempt to take control of the multiverse. They cast a Wish spell that summons the level 10 player characters as they are fated to face Vecna. From there, it's a journey to visit the Nine Hells, Ravenloft, Krynn, Eberron, and other previous significant locations in a “love letter to D&D.” Strahd, Lord Soth, and other big bads will be involved. Players will also be able to wield Vecna's main domain, secrets, in combat through a new subsystem.
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D&D Beyond Forecasts More Maps, More Third-Party
D&D Beyond released a Dev Update video that largely focused on the Maps function. It was improvements all around as the platform showcased many essential basic features. Users get more freedom with a Draw Tool, Pointer, and more ways to edit tokens. One neat addition is a Spectator Mode that lets DMs open a player side version of the map on a second screen. This could be used to help with livestreaming, keeping big reveals secret from the audience. Maps is also confirmed to support the 2024 rulebooks update later this year. Finally, in light of the success of third-party products on D&D Beyond, more is on the way.
Pathfinder Builds New Cooperative Deckbuilding Game
Paizo is partnering with Catalyst Game Labs to release Runefine, a cooperative deckbuilding set in the Pathfinder world of Golarion. Catalyst Game Labs publishes Battletech and Shadowrun. It also publishes Dragonfire, a D&D-based deckbuilding game that will serve as the foundation for Runefire. The gameplay simulates going on an adventure, with players collecting gear and learning abilities as they go. Runefire will debut in a crowdfunding campaign later this year.
And that’s it for this week! Thanks for reading, hope you found something new, and may your dice be kind.
