Critical Failures

by Robert Bevan

Series: Caverns and Creatures (1)

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Mentions
196	12	140,274	(3.42)	2
After relentlessly mocking their strange new Game Master, Tim and his friends find themselves trapped in the bodies of their fantasy game characters, in a world where the swords, the magic, and the gastrointestinal issues are all too real. They learn hard lessons about tolerance and teamwork, and a new meaning for the term ?dump stat?. Just kidding. They don't learn shit. Never before have comedy and fantasy come together so much like a train wreck, in which each train was carrying a shipment of burning dumpsters. You just can't help but continue to stare.… (more)

all members

▾Members

Recently added by

kawika, BriansLibrary, KRMoloney, crankybookwyrm, Tom_Wright, kplamp, Isnyder, ShepyBooks

▾Tags

▾LibraryThing Recommendations

▾Member recommendations

00
NPCs by Drew Hayes (binarydude)

▾Lists

None

▾Will you like it?

▾Conversations (About links)

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 2 mentions

▾Member reviews

date ▼ | votes

Showing 1-5 of 12 (next | show all)

A group of D&D gamers (or C&C in the books) get transfered into the game world by their DM.
Unfortunately they just beheaded a town guard before in the game and now are in deep trouble.
I really like the setting - real pen and paper RPG player getting over into a fantasy world - like the classical first of this kind Guardians of the Flames by Joes Rosenberg.
What i didn't liked was the immature behaviour of the group of MCs. I really dislike people like this Cooper guys that think making somone feel bad is funny. Also "yo mama" jokes in the face of death is totally unlikely. The end has a nice twist to it.
It was a fast read so maybe i will read more of the series to see if the MCs grow up. (

)

Wolkenfels | Feb 25, 2023 |

I loved this book and will definitely be continuing the series. I was laughing in the car at the antics (

)

fellanta13 | Feb 14, 2022 |

This is the third in real life D&D players transferred to a fantasy game world series that I've read recently. My favorite series is Drew Hayes's "NPCs", this one would come in 2nd not as good a story as NPCs but it was funnier and still had a decent story and a great trick to keep Mordred from killing them in the end. . Rosenberg's "Guardians of the Flame" comes in last the story wasn't as good as NPCs and neither was the humor. Now onto book 2 Critical Failures II: Fail Harder. (

)

kevn57 | Dec 8, 2021 |

I listened to the audiobook. I don't recommend that. I think there's a lot of things about this book that could have been better enjoyed without the style the narrator used in the Audible recording. I think there are a lot of things that wouldn't be fixed even by reading it in print.

The story is generic litRPG fare with an overabundance of farting, vomiting, and homophobia. (

)

jamestomasino | Sep 11, 2021 |

This is the (by now) cliched story: a group of D&D players actually become their characters. There are a few better versions of this story, and while this wasn’t a horrible, there was essentially nothing worthwhile about it. Skip. (

)

octal | Jan 1, 2021 |

date ▼ | votes

Showing 1-5 of 12 (next | show all)

▾Published reviews

no reviews | add a review

▾Other authors

» Add other authors

▾Series and work relationships

Belongs to Series

Caverns and Creatures (1)

▾Awards and Honors

view history

▾Common Knowledge

You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.

For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.

Canonical title

Critical Failures

Original title

Alternative titles

Original publication date

2012-06-05

People/Characters

Important places

Important events

Related movies

Epigraph

Dedication

First words

Quotations

Last words

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Original language

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

▾Book descriptions

After relentlessly mocking their strange new Game Master, Tim and his friends find themselves trapped in the bodies of their fantasy game characters, in a world where the swords, the magic, and the gastrointestinal issues are all too real. They learn hard lessons about tolerance and teamwork, and a new meaning for the term ?dump stat?. Just kidding. They don't learn shit. Never before have comedy and fantasy come together so much like a train wreck, in which each train was carrying a shipment of burning dumpsters. You just can't help but continue to stare.

▾Library descriptions

No library descriptions found.

▾LibraryThing members' description

Book description

Tim and his friends find out the hard way that you shouldn't question the game master, and you shouldn't make fun of his cape.

One minute, they're drinking away the dreariness of their lives, escaping into a fantasy game and laughing their asses off. The next minute, they're in a horse-drawn cart surrounded by soldiers pointing crossbows at them.

Tim now has the voice and physique of a prepubescent girl. Dave finds that while he lost a foot or two in height, he somehow acquired a suit of armor and a badass beard. Julian's ears have grown ridiculously long and pointy. And Cooper... well Cooper has gotten himself a set of tusks, a pair of clawed hands, and a bad case of the shits. He also finds that he's carrying a bag with a human head in it - a head that he had chopped off when they were still just playing a game.

Shit just got real, and if they want to survive, these four friends are going to have to tap into some baser instincts they didn't even know existed in their fast-food and pizza delivery world.

It's fight, flight, or try to convince the people who are trying to kill them that they don't really exist.

Meanwhile, a sadistic game master sits back in the real world eating their fried chicken.

Haiku summary