Darrington Press, in it’s first-ever State of the Press, announced multiple new projects and plans to attend GenCon 2023 via a YouTube video released today. Matthew Mercer, the longtime DM of Critical Role and chief creative officer, hosted the event alongside Mica Burton, an actress and actual play performer who has previously appeared on Critical Role. You can watch the full State of the Press below.
Three new games were shown during the video. The first is a board game, Queen by Midnight, a deck-builder battle royale where princesses fight for the throne. Utilising a clock mechanic, a rotating dice tower, and mix-and-match fighting decks, the game will be tactical game with just the right amount of luck, and is set to release this summer. Additionally, Guardians of Matrimonia, which was initially made for Mercer’s wedding to fellow actress and Critical Role performer Marisha Ray, has finally found its designers — Banana Chan and Yeonsoo Juilian Kim are going to be writing the final game, and it is set to release in early 2024.
Two of the new games announced are tabletop roleplaying games, and are based on new systems and ideas. Illuminated Worlds (created by Stras Ascimovic and Layla Alderman) will be designed using a D6 dice pool system, where players draw from a limited supply of dice to perform certain actions, adding a significant narrative weight to them. It is being developed for “shorter, arc-driven campaigns,” and will be setting-neutral. The second is Daggerheart, which has no writers or system announced. Mercer said in the State of the Press that it would be designed for “long-term campaign play and character progression.” No information about publication dates for either game was announced.
The final bit fo news was that the two art books–The Chronicles of Exandria I: The Tale of Vox Machina, and The Chronicles of Exandria II: The Legend of Vox Machina–would be reprinted by Darrington Press.