History Series / CriticalHit

[[redirect:WebOriginal/CriticalHit]]

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/criticalhitsmall_2542.jpg
[[caption-width:300:They get them sometimes.]]
-->''"Until next time, listeners, here's hoping all your dice rolls are... [[TitleDrop Critical Hits]]"''
--> -- ''Stephen Schleicher, at the end of each episode''

-->''"Uh... whut?"''
--> -- ''Torq''

If you came looking for the Game Mechanic which results in high damage, that's over [[CriticalHit here.]]

This page is for a SpinOff of the Major Spoilers {{Podcast}}, in which the hosts and a couple of their friends play in a 4th Edition DungeonsAndDragons campaign. The team is made up of gamers who are completely new to Dungeons and Dragons, those who have been playing since Third Edition, and even one guy who’s been playing since the AD&D days.

The plot of the campaign follows a RagtagBunchOfMisfits as they try to stop The Void, a group of [[EldritchAbomination Insane Gods]], from invading their plane of existence. The first and second seasons had them racing to keep the [[ColonyDrop smashing the Moon into the Earth]], and now, in the third season, they've been recruited by a [[CelestialBureaucracy Higher Power]] to help cleanse a part of the Astral Sea of the remaining Lunar Monsters. The group includes [[SquishyWizard Orem Rivendorn]] of the Eladrin, [[BigGuy Halston Thorkelson aka "Torq"]], [[GadgeteerGenius Randus du Thane]], and [[MysteriousPast Smith the Sorcerer]],[[spoiler:who has since been replaced by]] [[LoveableRogue Ket]] the Half-Elf Warlock.

It does take occasional breaks to answer listener questions, and Stephen and Rodrigo have created a set of podcasts which focus on Game Mastering 101, with its own set of characters. (Episodes 58-62).

The show itself is a delightful pastiche of learn-by-example play, nerd humor and old-time radio serials. It is a great way to introduce people to DungeonsAndDragons 4th Editions and [[TabletopRPG Role Playing Games]], enjoyable to both old and new players or people just interested in a good fantasy story.

You can find the episodes [[http://www.majorspoilers.com/media/criticalhit.xml here]], or download them from iTunes.
[[hardline]]

!!This Series Provides Examples Of:

* AGodAmI: Literally, The Thing That Shatters The Sky, plus all the other Gods of The Void.
* AWizardDidIt: Well, technically some Insane [[EldritchAbomination Gods]] did it - the moon is explained to be livable only due to the will of The Void.
* ActionGirl: 2 Examples, both of which are friendly [=NPCs=].
** The Queen's Rebellious Daughter is a scientist who uses resonance to zap things. She's pretty handy in a fight.
** Bao Belbina is a tiefling Avenger who serves Erathis.
* AdventureFriendlyWorld: The world is being attacked by insane extraterrestrial gods, who send their monstrous creations to attack, as well as having built towers on the Earth and the moon to draw them together.
* AdventureTowns: Moonhold, The Exilarchy of Cogs' city, and Diamond Throne.
* AlienSky: Two: One happens after The Void's first attempt to [[spoiler:smash the moon into the Earth]], described by Rodrigo as constantly red, filled with clouds and roiling lightning. The second is when the heroes are [[spoiler: transported to the moon,]] described as a bubble surrounding the planet with a blurry view of the planet itself.
* AllThereInTheManual: Rodrigo has posted a [[http://www.majorspoilers.com/smf/index.php/topic,1470.0.html handy timeline]] for the Critical Hit Universe, and was kind enough to do an [[http://www.majorspoilers.com/critical-hit-first-arc-exit-interview interview]] about the first story arc after it ended. He also answers questions about Critical Hit in the same forum.
* AnAdventurerIsYou: It's a D&D Game.
* AnAxeToGrind: Torq's WeaponOfChoice is a Great Axe.
* AppliedPhlebotinum: Thoney's Airship floats because its hull is coated in "Astral Brine".
* BadassNormal: Torq definitely counts, being nothing more than incredibly tough and strong in a party of magic users.
* BagOfHolding: Technically, the gang has a Handy Haversack, but it's basically a bag of holding in backpack form.
* BigDamnHeroes: When the Torqletones shut down the tower in Episode 7.
* BlondesAreEvil: The evil cultist the Torqletones fight twice is handsome and has long blonde hair.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: The Void are gods who see no problem with creating and destroying entire races at their will, and constantly vie for dominance over one another, not caring who gets in the way.
* BodyHorror: Plenty of examples, which is to be expected in a campaign full of Insane Gods.
** Some of the cultists who worship The Void allow themselves to become hosts to creatures from the moon that do this.
** There's also the little white creatures Orem and Smith fight - their eyes are misshapen, and their limbs are all different sizes, to the point where some walk on one hand and one leg because those are the two limbs who touch the ground.
*** D&D Brian namechecks this trope when the Torqletones fight the Candle Heads for the first time.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Torq is a half orc fighter with almost no skills... except killin' things. In this he excels.
* CantArgueWithElves: Stephen constantly plays Orem as disdainful of Elves and condescending towards all non-Eladrin. No one seems to be disturbed by this. This is explained early in the show as a hypertrophied version of the trope when Rodrigo describes the eladrin to Stephen for the first time: "Eladrin are to regular elves as elves are to humans."
* CatchPhrase: The main one is Torq's "Uh... whut?", but Randus' "Indeed" is a close second.
** In the third season we appear to have Ket's "I don't cheat; I very rarely bluff" as a new one.
* CelestialBureaucracy: Season 3 takes place in the goddess Erathis' City in the Astral Sea, which is definitely run by bureaucrats
* Combat Medic: Randus, who has a Magitek crossbow and some offensive spells.
* CoolAirship: Thony's Proud Baroness.
* CriticalHit: Torq scores these often, interestingly enough, Matthew is the only player playing by remote.
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: The End of Season 2 has our heroes [[spoiler: defeat He Who Shatters the Sky]]
* DumbMuscle: Torq.
* DungeonsAndDragons: They're playing it.
* EldritchAbomination: The Void are a group of insane, evil Gods who inhabit the Campaign World's moon, plus the countless number of creatures they create and destroy on a whim, often sending them to fight the heroes.
* ForScience: Evoked by Randus occasionally, and the Queen's Rebellious Daughter.
* GameMaster: Rodrigo, and now, for a short time, Stephen.
* GadgeteerGenius: Randus and Thony.
* GenreSavvy: The players, for sure. Not so much their characters.
* HalfHumanHybrid: Ket is a Half-Elf, and Torq is a 3/4 Orc (His parents were a full orc and half orc, respectively)
* HighAltitudeBattle: With the Lunar Dargon in Episodes 27 and 28.
* HitPoints: Since this is a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, absolutely.
* HouseRules: Rodrigo has his own house rules when it comes to Skill Challenges.
* InAndOutOfCharacter: There's a lot, especially when the guys go off on a tangent.
* IndyPloy: The Torqletones are really just making it up as they go along.
* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler: Smith at the end of season two.]]
* KissDiss: Orem shares one with a eladrin named simmy in episode 84.
* LargeHam: Matthew, Torq's player, is this 9/10ths of the time. Stephen also qualifies when playing Orem, and ESPECIALLY as a DM. GM Rodrigo has been known to Ham a little when playing [=NPCs=].
* LeeroyJenkins: Torq has pulled this once or twice.
* MacGuffin: The Four-Facet Key for the first story arc.
* {{Magitek}}: While not ubiquitous throughout the setting, there is definitely some of this stuff, from Randus' crossbow and familiar to The Exilarchy of Cogs.
* {{Malaproper}}: Torq malaprops multisyllabic words at LEAST once an episode.
* {{Mooks}}: The Lizard-Monkeys, our first introduction to lunar monsters.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: The names of some of the Lunar Gods: She Who Slumbers In Agony, He Who Shatters The Sky.
* OurMonstersAreDifferent: GM Rodrigo loves taking monsters from the books and changing what they look like in order to give them an EldritchAbomination feel.
* RunningGag: Torq jumping out windows.
** "Uhhhhh, funnelcake?"
* ShoutOut: Considering this is a show with 5 nerds, pretty much every episode contains a few references to movies, whether it's something one of the players say, or something within the campaign itself.
* TheRoleplayer: Matthew appears to to be a glorious mix of this and TheLoonie.
* TitleDrop - As the quote at the top of the page says, it's at least once an episode, plus whenever someone scores an actual CriticalHit.
* UnexpectedSuccessor: Orem becomes this in the eyes of Torq when [[spoiler: Moonhold's entire town guard with the exception of Torq die.]]

* KissDiss: Orem shares one with simmy in episode 84.

The plot of the campaign follows a RagtagBunchOfMisfits as they try to stop The Void, a group of [[EldritchAbomination Insane Gods]], from invading their plane of existence. The first and second seasons had them racing to keep the [[ColonyDrop smashing the Moon into the Earth]], and now, in the third season, they've been recruited by a [[CelestialBureaucracy Higher Power]] to help cleanse a part of the Astral Sea of the remaining Lunar Monsters. The group includes [[SquishyWizard Orem Rivendorn]] of the Eladrin, [[BigGuy Hallston Thorqleston aka "Torq"]], [[GadgeteerGenius Randus du Thane]], and [[MysteriousPast Smith the Sorcerer]],[[spoiler:who has since been replaced by]] [[LoveableRogue Ket]] the Half-Elf Warlock.

* ArchiveBinge: With over 60 episodes at about 1-2 hours each, it's gonna take new listeners a little while to get up to speed. Enjoy!

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Lots of people love Thoney, the crazy artificer NPC.

* ParanoiaFuel: The moon is full of insane Gods who want to unmake everything that ever existed. THE MOON.

* UncannyValley: He Who Shatters The Sky takes human form, he looks like a black and white photograph of one of the adventurers, with red eyes.

* LargeHam: Matthew, Torq's player, is this 9/10ths of the time. Stephen also qualifies when playing Orem sometimes. GM Rodrigo has been known to Ham a little when playing NPCs.

* AppliedPhlebotinum: Thony's Airship floats because its hull is coated in "Astral Brine".

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Lots of people love Thoney, the crazy artificer NPC, and then there's the weasel pelt seller, who's beloved for his line, "Kindly stop loitering around my weasel stand!"

* ActionGirl: 2 Examples, both of which are friendly NPCs.

* AllThereInTheManual: Rodrigo has posted a [[http://www.majorspoilers.com/smf/index.php/topic,1470.0.html handy timeline]] for the Critical Hit Universe. He also answers questions about Critical Hit in the same forum.

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: The Void definitely don't have a morality like our own.
* BodyHorror: Lots of examples, as this is a campaign where the [[BigBad Big Bads]] are
* Some of the cultists who worship The Void allow themselves to become hosts to creatures from the moon that do this.
* There's also the little white creatures Orem and Smith fight - their eyes are misshapen, and their limbs are all different sizes, to the point where some walk on one hand and one leg because those are the two limbs who touch the ground.

* CantArgueWithElves: Stephen constantly plays Orem as disdainful of Elves and condescending towards all non-Eladrin. No one seems to be disturbed by this.

* ActionGirl: The Queen's Rebellious Daughter(a friendly NPC) is a scientist who uses resonance to zap things. She's pretty handy in a fight.

* BadassNormal: Torq definitely counts, being nothing more than incredibly tough and strong. Randus could also possibly count, though technically all the machines he creates are {{Magitek}}.

* BodyHorror: Some of the cultists who worship The Void allow themselves to become hosts to creatures from the moon that do this.
** There's also the little white creatures Orem and Smith fight - their eyes are misshapen, and their limbs are all different sizes, to the point where some walk on one hand and one leg because those are the two limbs who touch the ground.

* DumbMuscle: Torq, but he is perceptive.

* OurMonstersAreDifferent: GM Rodrigo loves taking monsters from the book and changing what they look like in order to give them an EldritchAbomination feel.

* {{Killed Off for Real}}: [[spoiler: Smith at the end of season two.]]

The plot of the campaign follows a RagtagBunchOfMisfits as they try to stop The Void, a group of [[EldritchAbomination Insane Gods]], from invading their plane of existence. The first and second seasons had them racing to keep the [[ColonyDrop smashing the Moon into the Earth]], and now, in the third season, they've been recruited by a [[CelestialBureaucracy Higher Power]] to help cleanse a part of the Astral Sea of the remaining Lunar Monsters. The group includes [[SquishyWizard Orem Rivendorn]] of the Eladrin, [[BigGuy Hallston Thorqleston aka "Torq"]], [[GadgeteerGenius Randus du Thane]], and [[MysteriousPast Smith the Sorcerer]], who has since [[spoiler:been replaced by]] [[LoveableRogue Ket]] the Half-Elf Warlock.

The plot of the campaign follows a RagtagBunchOfMisfits as they try to stop The Void, a group of [[EldritchAbomination Insane Gods]], from invading their plane of existence. The first and second seasons had them racing to keep the [[ColonyDrop smashing the Moon into the Earth]], and now, in the third season, they've been recruited by a [[CelestialBureaucracy Higher Power]] to help cleanse a part of the Astral Sea of the remaining Lunar Monsters. The group includes [[SquishyWizard Orem Rivendorn]] of the Eladrin, [[BigGuy Hallston Thorqleston aka "Torq"]], [[GadgeteerGenius Randus du Thane]], and [[MysteriousPast Smith the Sorcerer]], who has since [[spoiler:been replaced by]] [[LoveableRogue Ket]]the Half-Elf Warlock.

This page is for a SpinOff of the Major Spoilers {{Podcast}}, in which the hosts and a couple of their friends play in a 4th Edition DungeonsAndDragons campaign. The team is made up of gamers who are completely new to Dungeons and Dragons, those who have been playing since Third Edition, and even one really old guy who’s been playing since the AD&D days.

The plot of the campaign follows a RagtagBunchOfMisfits as they try to stop The Void, a group of [[EldritchAbomination Insane Gods]], from [[ColonyDrop smashing the Moon into the Earth]]. The group includes [[SquishyWizard Orem Rivendorn]] of the Eladrin, [[BigGuy Hallston Thorqleston aka "Torq"]], [[GadgeteerGenius Randus du Thane]], and [[MysteriousPast Smith the Sorcerer]]. It does take occasional breaks to answer listener questions, and Stephen and Rodrigo have created a set of podcasts which focus on Game Mastering 101 (Episodes 58-62).

* GameMaster: Rodrigo.

* OurMonstersAreDifferent: GM Rodrigo loves taking monsters from the book and changing what they look like in order to give them an EldritchAbomination feel, often with

The plot of the campaign follows a RagtagBunchOfMisfits as they try to stop The Void, a group of [[EldritchAbomination Insane Gods]], from [[ColonyDrop smashing the Moon into the Earth]]. The group includes [[SquishyWizard Orem Rivendorn]] of the Eladrin, [[BigGuy Hallston Thorqleston aka "Torq"]], [[GadgeteerGenius Randus du Thane]], and [[MysteriousPast Smith the Sorcerer]]. It does take occasional breaks to answer listener questions, and Stephen and Rodrigo have created a set of podcasts which focus on GameMastering 101 (Episodes 58-62).

The plot of the campaign follows a RagtagBunchOfMisfits as they try to stop The Void, a group of [[EldritchAbomination Insane Gods]], from [[ColonyDrop smashing the Moon into the Earth]]. The group includes [[SquishyWizard Orem Rivendorn]] of the Eladrin, [[BigGuy Hallston Thorqleston aka "Torq"]], [[GadgeteerGenius Randus du Thane]], and [[MysteriousPast Smith the Sorcerer]]. It does take occasional breaks to answer listener questions, and Stephen and Rodrigo have promised an upcoming set of the podcasts will focus on Dungeon Mastering 101.

You can find the episodes [[http://www.majorspoilers.com/archives/category/major-spoilers-podcast/critical-hit/ here]], or download them from iTunes.

* ArchiveBinge: With over 40 episodes at about 1-2 hours each, it's gonna take new listeners a little while to get up to speed. Enjoy!

* RunningGag: Torq jumping out windows

* DungeonsAndDragons: They're playing it. SoYeah...

The plot of the campaign follows a RagtagBunchOfMisfits as they try to stop The Void, a group of [[EldritchAbomination Insane Gods]], from [[ColonyDrop smashing the Moon into the Earth]]. The group includes [[SquishyWizard Orem Rivendorn]] of the Eladrin, [[BigGuy Hallston Thorqleston aka "Torq"]], [[GadgeteerGenius Randus du Thane]], and [[MysteriousPast Smith the Sorceror]]. It does take occasional breaks to answer listener questions, and Stephen and Rodrigo have promised an upcoming set of the podcasts will focus on Dungeon Mastering 101.