Hero forge, Daggerheart, and the #freetheforge Controversy

Hero Forge is probably the most well-known and well-loved custom miniature website on the market right now. Founded back in 2013, Hero Forge has become a major factor in how many hobbyists and professionals engage with their TTRPG tables. The character minis for the vast majority of Dropout's Dimension 20 campaigns were created using the web app; in the aftermath of the pandemic, Hero Forge released 3D digital minis that could be used on virtual tabletops, facilitating online play; I myself use Hero Forge religiously, both as a way of fleshing out the visual identity of my own RPG characters and also as a sort of dress up game, using the website's existing assets to generate characters and creatures that I find appealing.

Hero Forge and its parent company Sky Castle Studios have, however, recently landed itself in hot water following a partnership deal with Darrington Press, the "indie" publishers behind Matt Mercer's D&D spin-off Daggerheart. As part of the partnership deal, Hero Forge now offers a suite of assets for use in character creation, inspired by characters and playable ancestries within Daggerheart, including new equipment, facial features, clothing, and body parts.

Pictured: One of the Daggerheart playable ancestries - the Ribbet - offered as part of the Daggerheart/Hero Forge collaboration.

To understand why this is controversial, we have to look at Hero Forge's business model. Hero Forge's design suite is free to use, and very few Hero Forge customers actually use the service to print off new miniatures. As such, Hero Forge offers a premium membership programme where users can spend between $3.99 to $14.99 each month to receive certain benefits (such as access to kit-bashing, early-bird assets, an in-app photobooth, etc.). The Daggerheart collaboration, however, is not part of this premium programme, and users will have to pay around $8 on top of their existing subscription to access these assets.

A major criticism has been that the offered assets aren't that different from some of the assets already available to free users. Frog and primate ancestries are already offered by Hero Forge's design team, and many of the clothing and item assets are fairly similar to existing kit. Conversely, some elements offered by this collaboration have been hotly anticipated, such as fungal body parts and mushroom-themed equipment.

The main criticism, however, is that the whole business feels a bit "scummy". This is a market model we've seen countless times: Paying both for a subscription, as well as for individual purchases that are treated as "premium +". For fossils like myself, this is more than a little reminiscent of the legendary Elder Scrolls Oblivion Horse Armour scandal, in which Bethesda charged $2.50 for access to cosmetic skins for their noble in-game steeds. This (by modern stands) minor microtransaction kicked off a massive controversy that Bethesda still struggles to live down, and paved the way for wider changes in the digital gaming sector that are still felt today.

So why am I writing this article? Well, in truth, I find the whole thing a little silly.

Yes, it is scummy for Sky Castle Studios and Darrington Press to charge extra on top of an existing premium programme. But the backlash by fans and users of Hero Forge has been cataclysmic. There have been calls for mass petitions and boycotts, rallying cries of #FreeTheForge, and a general loss of good will in Hero Forge and its publishers. But on the face of it, it is all a bit silly, isn't it? All this controversy is ultimately about a dress up game involving frog people, after all.

The Root of the Issue

Look. You're a smart person. You've looked outside recently. Things are getting weird out there. Politically, people are angrier and more defensive than ever. Money is tight. There is a global recession that is only being worsened by corporate greed and a general disdain for the public.

That's what people are actually mad about.

Hero Forge, as a free programme, had built up years of consumer trust over the past decade. But it also exists in a wider market where increasing numbers of people are being laid off, exploited, and bled dry while a handful of people get richer and richer. As alluded to earlier with my comparison to the Oblivion Horse Armour debacle, this isn't even a new problem: DLC is the norm in digital gaming, and microtransactions comprise the entire business model of games like Fortnite and Roblox. This is all part of an ongoing online process known as "Enshittification", coined by the legendary writer and philosopher Cory Doctorow. Enshittification, Doctorow writes, is the process by which a service shifts its values away from the end users and towards its business customers, shareholders, and partners.

It's worth noting: I do think that Hero Forge, Sky Castle Studios, or Darrington Press are wrong to offer this service outside of their existing premium programme. However, these three companies are small fry compared to the multi-nationals that actually benefit from the suffering and misery of an increasingly impoverished public. Hell, even EA¹ - among the shadiest and scummiest companies in the modern gaming sector - is relatively tiny compared to the actual conglomerates that guide and dictate the incredibly hostile market.

People aren't mad at Hero Forge. Or maybe they are, I don't know.

But if you ask me, I'd say that people are mad in general.

People are angry that more and more is being demanded of them. People are angry that everything costs something, no matter how small and ephemeral the product. People are angry that companies they admired and respected are proving to be part of the same systems that otherwise make their lives difficult and unpleasant. People are angry that everything is attached to a subscription, that they own nothing.

To those people, I say: Sure. Vote with your wallets. Refuse to pay for this service. Boycott Sky Castle or Darrington Press or whoever you feel is deserving of your ire. But remember: These companies do not exist in a vacuum, and while Hero Forge may have let you down, the system let you down first.

Thank you for reading. If you want to read more of my stuff, consider signing up to our mailing list. You can help stop the spread of harmful business practices like those discussed in this blog post by joining and advocating for your industry union.

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¹Which I assume stands for "Evil Arseholes".