Hero Forge has rolled out its first ever Collaborator Collections, three Daggerheart ancestries pulled straight from Critical Role's hit fantasy RPG, and the long-running mini customiser is taking some heat for putting them behind a paywall. The Simiah (sleek primate folk), Ribbet (frog humanoids) and Fungril (fungus folk) collections are available now for $7.99 each, or $21.99 for the full set, before you even hit the print button.
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Start organising for freeDaggerheart, for the unfamiliar, is Critical Role's narrative-forward fantasy RPG built around a duality dice mechanic. You roll two d12s and the higher one tells you whether the moment swings towards Hope or Fear, which is the kind of evocative system gimmick that gets people building characters for tables they have not even joined yet. Demand for printable minis has followed.
The deal, struck with Critical Role's publishing arm Darrington Press, marks the first time Hero Forge has charged for character parts inside its creator tool. Pro and Pro+ subscribers get the new collections at no extra cost, but everyone else has to pay if they want to build a frog cleric or a mycelial bard. The community response has been spiky. Long-time Critters (Critical Role's fanbase) on Reddit have flagged that these three body types did not exist on Hero Forge before, so there is no obvious "generic primate" or "generic frog" coming along behind the paywall. One subscriber put it bluntly: "I've been a Critter since the beginning. As much love as I have for both companies, I cannot and will not support this." A few have said they are cancelling Pro subscriptions over the change.
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Find events near youThe appetite for printable Daggerheart minis is real, and the Hope and Fear expansion lands in August. Whether that is enough to override the principle of free customisation is now an open question. Darrington Press has not responded to the backlash.
Sources: TechRaptor | The Gamer | Hero Forge
