Welcome to Episode 25 of ‘What Is Roleplay?’ This episode CM Lowry is joined by Steph Windross to discuss Crits To start the conversation CM Lowry asks Steph to define what the meaning of a Crit in roleplay games Crit is short for Critical Roll, either a Critical Success or a Critical Failure. In short that means you have a rolled either the highest (success) or lowest (failure) number on the dice. These usually have interesting results which impact on the game as you continue to play. CM reminds us that if your unsure about dice you can revisit Episode 1 of What Is Roleplay Most games and systems will require that the dice actually land on a natural 20 in order for that to be considered a Crit Success – so if you roll 18 and add some sort of bonus that makes your score 20 that would not count as a Crit. Steph shares some  about a brilliant Crit Success from her real life adventures in roleplay games such as DnD and Blades in the Dark. In Blades in the Dark Crits create narrative currency for collaborative story telling moments CM & Steph chat about some of the things that can happen when you roll a critical fail – a sort of doubling down on the things that go wrong. CM asks Steph to chat about some games that don’t use Crits. Steph mentions lots of the current batch of OSR (Old-School Renaissance) games CM chats about the exploding dice mechanic, in which a Crit Success means that you get to roll again and add further details to the game story. Steph brings up ICRPG (Index Card Roleplaying Game) as a game that has a set of really interesting mechanics for dice rolling and crits. CM & Steph totally nerd out on MOTHERSHIP and the Panic Engine System that it’s built on. CM asks Steph if there are any card games that use Crits They discuss The Wretched by Chris Bissette and it’s use of a Jenga Tower. If the tower falls that’s a huge Crit Fail and ends the game! CM and Steph agree that they enjoy the rolling dice and allowing chance to determine how the game processes and how the story unfolds. Listen as CM and Steph enjoy an actual play involving Crits, the city of Manchester and trying to park your car without getting a fine from a civil service demon!! Actual Play Quick-Map drawn by Jog Brogzin Steph chats about her latest project, CALPINI, which is based on the rules light A Dungeon Games by Chris Bissette, which is also compatible with MORK BORG Links to things we discussed: Games: Dragonbane Dungeons & Dragons Blades in the Dark OSR GURPS Cairn Mausritter Savage World ICRPG Mothership Call of Cthulhu The Wretched Bloody & Alone in Appalachia Dread The Sealed Library MORK ORG SOLO BORG More about Steph Fistful of Crits on ETSY Fistful of Crits on BlueSky Fistful of Crits on Instagram Fistful.ink for all your printing needs More about Us Beyond Cataclysm on Bluesky @beyondcataclysm.bsky.social CM Lowry’s website –  All About Chris Website – beyondcataclysm.co.uk Patreon – Patreon.com/beyondcataclysm Our most recent project is Mork Org Our upcoming project is Lucky for None in Space Actual Play Quick Map drawn by Jog Brogzin Jog on Social Media: Instagram – @jogbrogzin Bluesky – @jogbrogzin.bsky.social Patreon – patreon.com/jogbrogzin With music generously provided by: Powerplant & Imploders Actual Play Soundscape by Traveling LightThe post What is Roleplay #26 Crits with Steph Windross first appeared on Beyond Cataclysm.