Critical!: Go Westerly - Why You Should Want It? Part 1.

You may have heard that we're coming out with a game called Critical!: Go Westerly. I might have talked about it on this blog a few times. I might have talked about it on Voice of the Revolution and with the folks at Bacon Ice Cream. Geoff Bottone, who wrote the game with me, also had some things to say about the game with the Bacon Ice Cream crew.

Clearly, I like this game. I like this game a lot.

Why should you like this game? Well, I'm going to give you reasons why you should like this game. They're going to be in easy to digest snippets so that I don't overwhelm you with the awesome.

1. The game is funny.

Critical!: Go Westerly is funny. I know people might argue that funny is subjective but the game is actually funny, and it's funny not necessarily because of what we've done. Westerly is a pretty funny place, with all sorts of things that are just off kilter enough to make you crack a smile or laugh out loud. I mean, we've got a Punk Rock Anarcho-Primitive group of Faeries called the Anarcho-Fantasmagoria. That's pretty funny.

The System makes the game funny. Criticals! mean you get one really good thing, and one really bad thing. For GMs, or Bartenders as we like to call them, this gives you plenty of opportunity to create funny opportunities out of your player's successes. It's also a great moment for the players to see what they're going to get. Despite their ability to try to bribe their way to two successes rather than one success and one failure, most players I've found can't wait to see what problems they're going to have to deal with.

Ultimately, what makes Critical!: Go Westerly funny though is you, the player. What we've done is allow you the space to input what you think is funny rather than just try to smother you with what we think is funny. In character creation you get to name your skills whatever you want, so if you think having a skill called "Master Scum Sucker" is funny then do it. If you believe that having a Habit, what helps to define your character, called "Makes more sense in Rhyme" then go for it. Argue with your Bartender, but not too much, about why your "Good with small, fiddly bits" skill is useful in a scene where you have to help deliver a Dwarven baby. Push your funny agenda with your character, and enjoy the laughs all the more.

That's why you should pick up Critical!: Go Westerly.