D&D Eberron Creator Keith Baker Joins Daggerheart Team

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Recently released in May 2025 from Darrington Press (the publishing arm of the popular Critical Role series), the new Daggerheart game has been hailed by many as being, if not a Dungeons & Dragons killer exactly, then a serious threat to the world’s most popular TTRPG. In fact, in June 2025, the Daggerheart team welcomed high-profile Wizards of the Coast designers Chris Perkins & Jeremy Crawford, both of whom were seen as being instrumental in the development of D&D over the past decade.

Now, another big name D&D designer is making a move. In a recent post on the Darrington Press website, it was revealed that prolific TTRPG designer Keith Baker would be joining the Daggerheart team along with his wife and fellow designer Jen Ellis. Baker is perhaps best known as the creator of the popular Eberron D&D campaign setting.

So just what does this mean for Daggerheart and D&D? Below, we take a look at what we know so far.

Who is Keith Baker?

Keith Baker is an American game designer, author and world‑builder who is best known for creating the Eberron setting for Dungeons & Dragons. Notably, Baker submitted the initial concept for Eberron to Wizards of the Coast for their “Fantasy Setting Search” contest in 2002, beating out over 11,000 other submissions. Eberron was officially launched for D&D 3rd edition in 2004, with Baker running point on the setting along with a number of other senior D&D designers. Baker also wrote several Eberron novels and continued to steer the setting well into the fourth edition of D&D.

Baker later parted ways with Wizards of the Coast (who owns the rights to Eberron) but has continued to publish new materials for the setting via DMsGuild, including popular titles such as Exploring Eberron and Chronicles of Eberron. In 2024, he also released Frontiers of Eberron: Quickstone under a third-party license, which he announced would be his last Eberron product.

In addition to his work on D&D, Baker has also contributed to several other TTRPG systems, including Pathfinder and 13th Age. In 2014, he co-founded Twogether Studios with his wife and fellow designer Jen Ellis, and developed a number of board and card games, including Gloom, Phoenix: Dawn Command, Illimat and TAZ: Bureau of Balance.

What Daggerheart content will Keith Baker and Jen Ellis be working on?

It’s not yet clear what projects Baker and Ellis will be working on when it comes to Daggerheart. According to the Darrington Press blog post the two designers 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.”

Notably, Daggerheart is a bit different than D&D in that rather than creating fully fleshed out campaign settings it presents what it refers to as “campaign frames.” In the same, Darrington press release they note that “Crawford is leading the design of a full setting that dives into a hellishly terrifying genre, while Perkins is building a series of adventures that will span multiple campaign frames and interconnect into a larger narrative arc.”

Final Thoughts

While Daggerheart remains a successful new TTRPG, much of its existence is owed to Dungeons & Dragons, and the influence of D&D is likely to be felt further with the addition of Keith Baker and Jen Ellis. It remains to be seen, however, just how much of an impact this will have on both D&D as we know it and the future of the TTRPG industry.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on this story in the days ahead and will be updating this page with new information as it’s made available.

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