Crit Fails Academy

Most people learn to Dungeon Master by reading forty Reddit threads, watching nine hours of YouTube and finding out at the table which parts were wrong. Crit Fails Academy is the same material assembled in order by people whose full-time job is running games, with somebody to ask when it does not work.

The video library covers running a game end to end: building adventures and story arcs, designing cities and kingdoms that feel lived in, balancing encounters that are actually dangerous, running roleplay-heavy scenes without losing the room, pacing a campaign so it does not sag at level 7, handling the difficult player and the table conflict, improvising when the party goes somewhere you did not prepare, and keeping people coming back every week for years. Most of it is system-agnostic — it applies to Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu or Shadowdark as readily as to D&D 5e.

The part that is harder to get anywhere else is the community. New lessons get added as questions come up in the Discord, so the library grows in the direction its members are actually stuck. There are weekly live office hours where you can ask a working professional DM about the specific thing that went wrong at your table on Saturday.

What is included

• The complete Dungeon Master video library, added to regularly.
• A private Discord of DMs at every level, from first campaign to full-time professional.
• Weekly live Q&A office hours with working professional Dungeon Masters.
• Campaign planning resources, map-making software recommendations, name and item generators.
• A curated list of the Patreon creators, artists and tools we actually use in our own games.
• The chance to apply to run paid games in our Discord, with us advertising them and filling your table.

Who it is for

Three kinds of people, mostly. The first-time DM who has agreed to run something and is now quietly terrified. The experienced home-game DM whose campaign is fine but keeps stalling around the same point every time. And the person who has worked out that people pay for this and wants to know how to be worth paying.

That last group has a specific route here: run at least one active table through our Discord and your Academy membership is free. We would rather have good DMs running games under our banner than collect $25 from them.

What it costs

$25 a month, cancel whenever. Free while you are running an active table through our community.

Full pricing →

Common questions

Does this only apply to Dungeons & Dragons?

No. Encounter design, pacing, improvisation, worldbuilding and table management carry across nearly every tabletop RPG. Examples lean on D&D 5e because that is what most members run, but our own DMs use this material for Pathfinder 2e, Call of Cthulhu, Shadowdark, Mothership and Blades in the Dark.

I have never run a game at all. Is this too advanced?

No — the library starts at the beginning, with how to prepare and run a first session. The weekly Q&A is where most brand-new DMs get the most value, because the question you have is usually not the one a video is about.

Can I really make money running games?

Some people can. It takes a genuinely good table, reliability, and a way to find players, which is the part most people underestimate. Members can apply to run paid games through our Discord, and we advertise those games and help fill the seats.

Is there a contract?

No. It is a monthly membership and you can cancel it. Run an active table through our community and it costs nothing at all.

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