With the release of Dungeons of Saltmarsh: Depths of the Dwarven Mine, our company, CritFail Press, has taken its first, nascent steps into the TTRPG design space.

It’s a crowded space for sure, but an exciting one, full of talented and creative people all looking to engage in one the greatest hobbies in the world. If you know where to look, and who to ask or listen to, there’s a wealth of knowledge out there on creating RPG products.

It can honestly be pretty daunting when you have an idea for something you would like to make and give away or sell though. What’s the right format? Where can I host it online? What if I can’t make my own art, or write that well? And the list of questions goes on.

At CritFail we had, and still have, a lot of these same questions. Granted, some of our team has experience in different aspects of the entire creation process, we hadn’t really pulled all the individual elements together until the release of Depths of the Dwarven Mine. We learned a lot from that process and we are still learning as we move forward with our next designs.

To that end, it is our intention to use this space, this Design Blog, to create a framework for the RPG design process. As we encounter challenges and develop solutions, you will see that documented here. So much of this hobby is built on the generosity of others and the free flow of ideas and information, and we aim to join in with that spirit.

It is our hope that over time this blog and it’s growing archive of articles can be a useful resource for anyone interested in RPG design. Our next post will talk about getting started in TTRPG writing and design, coming up with a concept and what steps we need to take once we have one nailed down.

Until then, good gaming!

– Mike